My Sewing Showcase Part 2

 For my Sewing Showcase part 2, I have quite a variety of selections. I decided to put all of them in just one post. The list is as follows:  

• Maternity Skirt made from some "too small" maternity pants and print fabric.
• Jean skirt made from jean flared Bermuda shorts and some left over denim fabric.
• A tiered skirt made from some pretty green fabric. 
• A rag quilt.
• A nursing cover I made from one of my previous posts. 

I have posted photos for each piece. I will give very short instructions, if any, but if any one wants a more detailed version, just comment and let me know. For the rag quilt I have given pretty good instructions, but if you are confused about anything just comment and let me know. In my previous post on the nursing cover, I gave the link for the instructions. I followed those same instructions and it turned out great!

Front of maternity tiered skirt

Here is a maternity tiered skirt I made from some pretty khaki with light green flowers fabric and the waist/ top part of some khaki maternity pants that were too small. I basically just did a gather stitch on two tiers of fabric and sewed one to the waist/ top and the second to the other tier.  (Below and right)

Back of maternity tiered skirt

This jean skirt I made from a pair of jean Bermuda shorts that had a bit of a flare to them. The flare is excellent for making skirts!! I made this skirt the same way I did the long jean skirts in my last showcase post. (Below)

Back of Jean skirt

Front of Jean skirt

Tiered skirt

This is a tiered skirt I made from some pretty cotton fabric. (Left)  I had been wanting to make one of these for quite a while now. They just looked so comfortable and pretty simple to make. I would say that they are rather simple to make, but do take some practice. I measured myself completely and didn't use a pattern. I liked that a lot! Although, it did take a little extra thinking on my part. :o)
I got the idea from the West Ladies at Homestead Blessings. I have the sewing DVD from their DVD set.
In the DVD they show you how to measure yourself and how to make a ladies small tiered skirt. I of course being pregnant am not a size small. I was hoping to wear this now, but I think it will come in handy more after I have our baby. Even though it has an elastic waist, I had to roll the waist down a bit in the front to fit under my belly. I could probably make the waist "dip" down in the front some.... but that sounds like too much work to me. Maybe one day I will try. :o) 

Next is a rag quilt that I made as a sort of trial run. I was just too excited about trying it out! I took some old flannel receiving blankets from both of my kids and used them to make a nice sized baby blanket. I would really like to make a big one for my own bed for this next winter. :o) But I will see how things go with three little ones to take care of.

You will need: 

1. Flannel or cotton fabric. Cut into 5' x 7" squares. These fabrics fray best.
2. Batting. Cut into 5" x 5" squares. (I didn't have any batting, so I just used 2 layers of my flannel fabric. Of course my quilt wasn't as thick, but it still works. 3 layers would have made it even thicker or you could use fleece.)
3. Sewing machine
4. Thread color of your choice.
5. Scissors. 
   

   

   Step 2: Sew an X across each layered square .

   

   Step 1: Layer the fabric squares and batting.

 Layer the fabric in this order (as shown above in Step 1): 

• 1 5" x 7" square of fabric face down
• 1 5" x 5" square of batting (or 2-3 of fabric)
• 1 5" x 7" square of fabric face up

In step two (shown above at right), sew an X on how ever many squares you will need. I made mine with 5 squares in height and 4 squares in width. Sew your squares in rows and then sew the rows together. Give about an inch of seam allowance so you have fabric to fray. Make sure all the "edges" are on one side when you sew your squares together. That will be the front side and the one you will cut to make the edges fray. As you can see below, one side is a clean seam and the other has all the frayed edges. After you have sewn all the squares together, snip the edges with scissors so that the cut comes just before the seam. You can see in the photo below at the top edge of my quilt that I gave about an inch of seam allowance. I did this for every seam. Then I snipped the edges until the cut came close to the seam but not too close to cut the seam. (I hope that made sense!) Mine of course doesn't look as nice as the one in the DVD, but I was kind of in a hurry and did it with little ones stealing my attention away. I cut out the squares the night before and that next morning made the rag quilt. Pretty quick if you ask me. And I am by far no experienced seamstress. I have always loved quilts but knew that most of them took a lot of work and were time consuming. After seeing this rag quilt, I knew it was the one for me! :o)

Finished Rag Quilt

Nursing cover laid out.

Last, but not least, is the nursing cover. I found this to be easy as well. The instructions were pretty good to follow. Hope some of you are able to try it out. I like the fact that you can make this however big or small you want it to be. I followed the measurements given and the size is perfect. For boning I used the handle from a sand bucket, and the d-rings I got from a child's size cargo belt. That is the thrifty version. :o) 

Make your own here! 

I hope you have enjoyed this Sewing Showcase!  Til' next time!

Nursing cover folded up.