Oliver and S Popover Sundress

Recently I have joined creativebug.com. Micheal's is offering 2 month free trial. I grabbed on to that opportunity. I'm just beginer in sewing and there are many videos from Liesl. I loved her videos. There is a video to make this Popover Sundress and I just tried it.

Its amazing. I was able to sew yoke and sew rick rack and dress looked gorgeous on my girl. Popover sundress is free pattern.

 Fabric I have bought from Fabric Mart. I just loved this dress it is so easy. I had trouble initially to sew yoke and then watched her video and made it. Now I'm planning to make few more. It doesn't even take much time.

Best Online Shops for Knit Fabrics

I have been attacked by fabric bug recently and I'm constantly looking for finding best places to shop online for fabrics. I'm in love with Knit fabrics after watching craftsy sewing with knits class.Instructor Meg McElwee is very good. I'm learning on my own to sew and this class helped me to start sewing. I can confidently say this class is a must for a beginner like me.

I will start with the shops I have shopped and how their fabrics are ......I'm not associated with any of these websites :)

1. Joann I had purchased couple of knit fabrics at my local Joann's shop. I liked couple of them and some are not holding their shape properly. The average cost of fabric is more than $6 even after using coupons and finding them in clearance bins. I'm not going to purchase knit fabrics here again.
2. Fabric Mart Fabrics : I have shopped here many times. I love this shop because it is more affordable and you can get designer fabrics for far less than market price. This place has lot of different varieties of fabrics. Knit fabrics are so good even the ones which are priced $1.99 . The quality is so good and I have made many leggings for my 6 year old and they still are holding its shape and stretch. Warning : Very Addictive :)  If you are shopping here for first time, use "Welcome" coupon code and get 20% off.
3. Fabric.com I have shopped here couple of times. Quality of Knit fabric is good. They are holding their shape even after many washes.
   
4. Hawthorne Threads
   This is my favorite shop. I have shopped here and found good deals on designer knit fabrics for a steal price :) But looking for knit fabrics here is a pain. They don't have a dedicated category for knits. You have to use search for knits. They have only designer knits. I often find good prices for these designer knits on sale from $4.99 to $9.99 . The regular price for these designer knits will be more then $14. 
   This shop offers Tiered pricing . Utilize this and their shipping is very good compared with other online shops. You can find good cotton fabrics for low prices too. I don't know their fabric sale timings but I see the quilting cotton fabrics will be on sale all the times.
5. Girl Charlee
   I have purchased here. I like the fabric. But may be I should more careful instead of just picking whatever is on sale. I had few fabrics which are just like new even after many months but some of the fabrics pilled after couple of washes. But I like the prices and prints.
6. Chezami: I have purchased knit fabrics here. These fabrics are very good but shop is closed forever now.
7. The Fabric Fairy
   I'm dreaming of these knit fabrics. I love these knit fabrics and want to sew something for my kids.But I'm waiting to finish my fabric stash first before jumping into buying spree again :) Fabrics are looking very good.
8. Fabricworm This is another wonderful website for knit fabrics and children fabrics. Shopped here couple of times and never been disappointed. They often have sales.
9. Gorgeous Fabrics  The name says about their fabrics, Gorgeous.This website makes me drool for knit fabrics. I love their fabrics . But prices are way above my budget. Heard wonderful reviews of their fabrics. If you want quality fabrics and if you don't care about spending more check this gorgeous fabrics. 
10. SewBaby
    These are baby or kid knit fabrics. They have wonderful baby ,girl and boy knit fabrics. I haven't shopped here.I do receive emails about their sales. Subscribe to their newsletter and hop on when they have sales. I have seen $5 any fabric sale so far.. 
11. Very Baby   Very baby has nice baby fabric collections. Their knit fabric prices are $3 only but has very limited collections.
12. Sawyerbrook This is another wonderful website for knit fabrics. Their quality and selections looks good. I haven't shopped here, but my friends say fabric quality is amazing.
13. Online Fabric Store This Online fabric store has wonder fabric collections. The prices and shipping rates seem very reasonable. My friends told they have good experiences with this website for online fabrics.
14. Koshtex This is another wonderful website for online fabric shops. They have ebay store as well in case if you like to hear feedback or reviews. 
15. Zoelees  I came across this website while I was hunting for some discount designer knit fabrics. They have nice collection of fabrics at reasonable prices. I'm planning to buy fabrics here in future. I have found many designer fabric prices are far less than high end fabric shops. 
16. Natures fabrics  This website has only natural and organic fabrics for kids. They have good collections for kids. Quality looks very good.
17. Organic Cotton Plus  I have heard about this website from my Craftsy class "Sewing with Knits". Also many of the pattern designers do mention about this site while sewing for kids. They have high quality fabrics and they do have sales often. I'm planning to buy here soon.
18. Britex Fabrics   Britex fabrics are Brick and Motor store in SFO since 1952. Their fabrics are very good and are pricey for me. But I love visiting their website to check if they have any sale. Right now they are having 20% off sale till 5/4.
19. Fashion Fabrics Club  The fabric prices looks very reasonable and they do have sales regularly. Reviews suggest their fabrics have been a hit or miss.
20. Superbuzzy This has wonderful Japanese fabrics and many knit fabrics as well. My friends has good experiences with this website.
21. Elliott Berman Textiles High end designer knit fabric shop online. They have very good reviews everywhere.
22. Emma One Sock This fabric shop is high end and has very good quality fabrics. My friends say their fabrics is the best and customer service is awesome. They do have clearance and deal of the week.It is very pricey.
23. Marcy Tilton This is another high end fabric shop. Their fabric quality is very good. Often in clearance section we can find very good fabrics at reasonable prices.
24. Smugglers Daughter This is another wonderful website for knit fabrics.
25. Harts Fabric This is another brick and mortar store since 1969. Their fabric quality and customer service is good.
26. Michael levine Low Price Fabric
    I haven't purchased knit fabrics here. But heard lot of good reviews. But the prints are not for my taste. 
27. Mood Fabrics  This is one of the biggies in fabric shops. I will wait for sale and then buy. They have quality designer knit fabrics.
28. Vogue fabrics   The fabric shopping here is old school. Thats what i have heard. hit or miss.
29. NY Fashion Center Fabrics These knit fabrics are very good. But prices are way above my budget. 
30. Print Knit Fabrics
    I have heard about this website from one of the sites I follow. The prices are comparably good and they even mention the fabric weight.

My First Soap Experiment

Last year I was pregnant and had so many mood swings.To cope up with that I started my favorite crafty experiments. Accidentally I came to know about making soaps. Found this wonderful tutorial for making soap for beginners. Later I bumped into soapqueen.com and found many recipes.

Unfortunately I didn't have Palm oil at home. I was in no mood to give up or wait till I order some palm oil. So I started searching for soap recipes without palm oil and found wonderful blogger Amanda at LovinSoap.com . She has many soap recipes without palm oil. I became excited at and tried this soap recipe without palm oil. I didn't have any special equipment for this.

I had purchased Avocado oil at Homegoods and Lye from http://www.essentialdepot.com. I hadn't calculated anything just gone with what was written on that blog. Oh boy I made so many soaps. I have used some food coloring to color the soap. I was scared to mix in the colors and to make the soap ,but soap making is fun and exciting. You can't believe how the liquid ingredients turns into soap in front of your eyes like a magic. I haven't used any fragrance so soap was fragrance free.I had used muffin molds and milk carton to fill in the soap.

 

You can see the soap are not shaped properly as I didn't had any prior experience. But these soaps even after one year still lather so good and they don't dry your skin.

Lessons Learned : Don't go by the quantities mentioned in the recipe unless your family is big, scale down or up accordingly. 

Legging Drafting Tutorials

I started my sewing journey with leggings. My girl likes leggings and most of her wardrobe has leggings. Since I don't want to mess fabrics, I have started sewing leggings first. These are the following websites I have followed to sew leggings. After sewing more than 10 leggings, now I can say I love to draft leggings and sew them instead of tracing the existing leggings.

1. I have started my sewing journey with this tutorial from dana : Ruched Leggings I had made leggings using my T shirt and it ended up as a mess. Struggled what to do and how to do :)



2. Here is another legging tutorial and pattern form Scattered Thoughts of Crafty Mom : Flounce Bottom Leggings Tutorial with free pattern . I love this website, it has great tutorials and it is very easy to follow.

The problem with drafting leggings from readymade leggings is there is too much show in back. My girl is not conscious yet and when she bends we can have sneak peak at her innerwear. I don't want that so I started looking for drafting the leggings and came across these wonderful tutorials...

1. This is drafting legging patterns from Stretch Yourself : Drafting and Sewing Leggings I have drafted this legging pattern. But I made some mistake while taking measurements and ended in wrong drafting. But I'm sure this is very good drafting pattern. I will update after re drafting my girls legging pattern.



2. I have tried so sew easy leggings drafting tutorial and it works. But I need some more changes to fit.



3. I have bookmarked this leggings drafting tutorial on etsy and have yet to try. When I get some time will draft legging pattern using this. This looks so promising as she is an sewing instructor.

Crochet Baby Blanket

This is my second crochet baby blanket. I'm not expert in crocheting, though i know crochet for ages.

Here is the original baby crochet baby blanket pattern.

This baby blanket seemed simple even I can make it. I tried it and looks ok. I did perfect crocheting for inner layers,followed exactly as in the pattern but added few additional rows.  I crocheted too tightly in borders and it ended up curly and it won't lay flat...

Overall it is ok.

Update: After few washes yarn is loosened a bit and looks good now. Thank god.

Body Butter Bar without Beeswax

II have been making my own body butter and body lotion for more than a year. My skin looks so good after these products.

I have tried to search for body butter bars without beeswax but couldn't find one I liked. So did some experiments wild guess and substituted cocoa butter instead of beeswax. These body butter bars without beeswax are not firm as the ones which has beeswax. But they are ok. These body butter bars need refregiration or they will be soft not hard bars. They starts to melt when you take them in hand. 

Here are the Ingredients

1) Cocoa Butter 5 oz

2) Almond Oil 5 oz  ( I have infused with chamolie ( thats what I had)) . You can use any oil you like. I will try coconut oil next time. 

3) Shea Butter 2.5 oz

4) Mango Butter 2.5 oz

5) Essential oil ( I have used Lavender and rose ) I have used about 30 drops.

Procedure for making Body Butter Bar without beeswax.

Melt oils and butters on low heat. Please use double boiling. I was in rush so melted directly on low flame. It took about 2-3 minutes to melt.

I then poured them into molds. I have used silicon ice cube yray and cupcake liners. Also used egg molds , purchased recently.

Then added essential oils into each barsand stirred them using chopstick.

I placed in fridge and body bars are ready in 2 hrs. I had left on countertop but it didn't solidify after 24 hrs.

They are melting in hands for easy application, but not greasy :)

Sewing Pleated Plaid Skirt

I have sewed pleated plaid skirt for my daughter, inspired and based on this wonderful pleated plaid skirt tutorial on Ikatblog.

Though I'm beginner in sewing, I'm pretty impressed by the way it turned out. It can be done more beautifully. I struggled for pleating uniformly and sticking elastic on side. I got used with inserting elastic with safety pin ;) and also correcting initial pattern.

I have used Girl Charlee Fabric.

Thanks Lier for such a wonderful tutorial.