Little Changes - Big Outcomes: How to change your patterns for different looks

After reading all of your responses to my "One Pattern - Three Shirts" series, it got me thinking. I often start out with an already made pattern, but I almost never make it exactly the way the instructions tell you to. I love to add simple extras here and there to get different effects. In this post I want to show you how you can make a few very simple changes to your patterns, and get completely different outcomes.

I have summarized the different methods I use to change patterns. For each method I have linked to a good tutorial, showing you how to do it (some of which are mine, but not all). Give them a try and you will be amazed at how far your patterns can stretch.

Decorative Wall Protector for little Squirters

Or as we call it the "Pish Wall"...

All of you mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, grandmothers, grandfathers etc are familiar with the little boy squirting problem. Littleheart is a girl, so even though it does squirt a little, I never realised how much a little baby boy can squirt. When my nephew was born, my sister would go crazy, because whenever she would change her baby's diaper, he would squirt all over the place, especially onto the freshly painted wall! One day we were discussing the issue and thought, wouldn't it be great to have something washable to protect the wall from all the squirting....

And this is what we came up with:

A Decorative Wall Protector made out of a towel for easy washing!

Pop-up Greeting Card

The Jewish new year is tonight, and we were asked at Littleheart's day care to write her a new years card. They put up a little mail box and all the parents dropped their cards in. Then before the holiday they opened all the cards and read them to the kids.

Yet another opportunity to get crafty! 

Mom's Perfect Fit Shirt

My mom came to visit us in August, since Littleheart's daycare went on a two week break. It was great, we had such a nice time, and of course it went by way too fast. My dad also came for a long weekend, here is a picture we all took at the port in Tel Aviv.

(by the way the dress Littleheart is wearing is from this lovely tutorial).

When my mom arrived, she showed me some of the things she bought in the States when she went to visit my grandfather. She pointed out one of the shirts, and said it was the perfect fit for her, she just loves it! So I said, hey, let's make you a couple more!

I traced the shirt to make the pattern, and I have made it available for you here (seam allowance not included). It is size large/extra large. (Make sure when you print your page scaling is set to "none". Otherwise your printer will shrink the pattern.)

In the end it was actually a really easy shirt to sew. I made my mom two, and she was really happy.

Here is how you can make the perfect fit shirt!

Cardboard Kitchen

A little while back I realised that Littleheart loved to play with the play kitchen at daycare. Every day when I picked her up from daycare she would be "cooking". The cook would always say: "I cook in the morning and Littleheart cooks in the afternoon".

I started looking around for play kitchens, and realized they are very expensive. And most of them are very chintzy looking. I had saved the big box from Littleheart's highchair thinking I would use it for something, and decided this was my chance.

Pleats, pin-tucking and smocking - all in one outfit!

I am very new to the sewing blog world, and I was always wondering how you get to meet the other sewing blog ladies. When Rikka from Ricochet and Away! announced her sewing challenge, I thought, hey here is a great opportunity!

As I mentioned here the theme of the challenge is pleats, pin-tucking, and smocking. Since my real passion is sewing clothes, and I need to work on Littleheart's winter wardrobe, I chose to make Littleheart an outfit for the challenge. My personal challenge was to try to incorporate all three techniques (pleats, pin-tucking, and smocking) into one outfit and I did!

See where they all are?

Sewing Challenge

I have decided to participate in a sewing challenge. Ricochet from Ricochet and Away! is hosting what she calls the Fab Folds Sewing Challenge. The theme of the challenge is pleats, pin-tucking, and smocking. This is what Ricochet writes about it:

"I am very interested in techniques that add texture and dimension to my sewing projects.  I love ruffles and quilting and mixing prints and fabric types.  I also totally geek out on math and geometric shapes.  You'd think I'd be totally into pleats, pin-tucking, and smocking.  The sad truth is that besides a bit of canadian smocking and a few pleated handbags, I've never really explored any of those techniques to my satisfaction.  I came up with this challenge to remedy that."

I have had this idea for an outfit for Littleheart for a while, that incorporates pintucks and pleats, so I think I will go ahead and realize the idea in time for this challenge. Hey, maybe I will be able to incorporate smocking too, which I haven't tried yet. Ever since I saw Melly's project on project run and play, I have wanted to try smocking. Well, we will see what I come up with. If the smocking part doesn't fit into this project, I can always try it out on a different one...

Wish me luck!

Circle Skirt with some Extras

A few weeks ago I was telling my cousin about the clothes I have sewn in the last few months, and she mentioned she needed some new skirts, so I offered to make her one. She seemed excited about it, so I went home and started searching for the perfect material. She has similar taste to me – she likes girly colors, and so when I stumbled across this pink, flowery material in my closet I thought it would be perfect. I imagined something light, lacey and swingy, and remembered Dana's pattern from MADE . She gives great instructions on how to make a basic Circle skirt. I started out using her tutorial and put in a few extra touches.