{Repurpose} Little Dolly Dress from Daddy's Tee

Big Guy cleared up a big bag of old shirts from his closet and said its up to me what I want to do with them. I would like to "do something" indeed, but I just could not find time to work on it. There seems to be endless work and chores and things to do. If only I have 48 hours in a day, if only I can have a day all to myself, if only I am not so greedy to want to try so many things. If only.

Anyway, enough dreaming. Since the duo fell asleep early last night, I grabbed that chance to take a look into the bag, and found one of his Microsoft Tech Ed tee that he got in 2003. Haha it is old alright! But as that shirt was probably only wore once and very well kept, it looks good as new.

Inspiration strike, and I made this.

The Little Dolly dress.

My sweetie pie was extremely happy when she saw her new dress.

Would not stop dancing.

I added a pair of fluffy sleeves, these sleeves looks good on any girl's dress, like a little fairy who camouflages as little girl to bring us tons of happiness. 

I also added a butterfly appliqué in front to cover up the Tech Ed sign. It was an impromptu addition  but I thought it looks perfect, especially nowadays she is so fond of butterfly after we brought her to the Penang butterfly farm.

And this is the original shirt. Oh-so Booooring. :P

I folded it in half, traced according to her existing dress and I then bid good bye to the old Tech Ed shirt. You may noticed I traced the dress upside down as I thought It looks nicer with the leafy print at the bottom than on the chest.

Thanks Micorosoft for sponsoring this dolly dress for my sweetie pie. :)

So do you have any old T waiting to be re-discovered too? Hope this post give you some inspirations too. 

Stay calm and sew on.

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

{Christmas Special} Little Pony Minky Blanket for my Little Guy, withTutorial!

I have been making Christmas presents for my little ones since I've picked up sewing as my secret hobby (although it is no longer a secret now..), I often started without an idea of what to make, until inspiration hit. Such as the  little matryoshka doll dress, the Christmas pajamas, the diy felt Christmas tree that works as sensory toy as well as decoration, or this convertible christmas felt playhouse that caused me weeks of sleepless nights.

This year, I got my inspiration when I saw the Minky fabric on sale. I have been searching for them with no luck but this time since they are within reach, I grabbed both red and blue Minky without second thought.

So for this year's Christmas, I have a new addition to the list of handmade gift for my kiddos.... Present to you, the Little Pony Minky Blanket in Blue.

I know it's meant for Christmas, but he could not resist when I showed it to my little fella. He loves hugging the ultra soft dotted blanket to bed, wraps it all around himself and rubs the dotted Minky like its his favorite soft toy. 

The little pony fabric embroidery sticker is a gift from my dear collegue Yuky, who brought it all the way home from her oversea trip. I have been keeping it in my craft treasury basket, you know, something this cute should pair with something special, and I finally found the right match.

The size is just perfect fitting for a single bed. I used 2 yards fabric each for the snowman and Minky fabrics. It costs a bit but after all this is one special handmade that money can't buy. I won't complain :)

See how perfectly it fits?

Interested to make one too? Here's the how-to!

Tutorial - Minky Blanket

1. Find 2 yards of the top and backing fabric of your choice. Believe it or not, this took me the longest compare to the rest of the steps, before I finally settled with my selection here.

2. Iron the cotton fabric to ensure its all smoothed out.

3. Cut the fabric to the desired size. Leave extra 1cm on all 4 edges of the backing fabric as it will be double folded for the sides. 

4. Using fabric pins, pin the wrong sides of the fabric together. This will helps to hold the fabric in place as you sew.

5. Now, time to start sewing. Best part of using Minky is that the dots on the fabric serve as guidelines to sew without needing to make marking. I counted 7 dots apart for each lines. 

However, Minky can be a bit hard to control as it is very smooth hence slippery, so I would suggest you to use medium speed instead of your normal sewing speed.

To make it more manageable when sewing (as you get to the last half yard you will find it is getting increasingly difficult to control due to the sheer volume...), I rolled up the completed parts inch by inch as I progressed.

6. Now that you are done with sewing all the straight lines, time to work on the edges. Double fold all 4 sides to about 1cm width and hold them in place with fabric pins, then start sewing. 

7. That's it, you are done! Now feel free to make yourself a cup of hot coffee and admire your newly made blanket, or invite your kiddo to roll out it.

If there is any part of this tutorial that is not clear to you, feel free to pop a question or two in the comment box below. I will respond soonest I can.

Next is the red minky blanket for my little girl, that shall take awhile as I am planning to make patchwork again, the last  Autumn Love Baby quilt I made for her a year ago is way too small now, she is growing like a sprouting magic bean.

So, stay tuned.. Or you may add yourself as the Facebook fan or followed by email if you do not wish to miss out the update. ;)

I am so in the mood for Christmas! ⛄️

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

{Book Review} Adventures in Cartooning by the Center for Cartoon Studies

This has got to be my captain E's favourtie book of the year. In fact, it's probably one of the best books you can get for little ones who love to draw, doodle or cartooning. 

Adventures in Cartooning: How to Turn Your Doodles into Comics!

Written and illustrated by James Strum, the founder of the Cartoon Studies center and his 2 former students, Andrew Arnold and Alexis Frederick-Frost, this paper bag book with 112 full colored pages is a real worthy buy. Dragon, knight, Princess, elf, magic.... It has all the ingredients to make it an award wining comic book. 

The story started with a princess who wanted to slay a dragon and to learn cartooning too. She met the magical drawing elf who taught her how and she ended up rescuing a bunch of Knights and defeating the dragon in the most hillarious way (or so it seemed to my E who laughed so loud when we were at page 90!)

It's one super fun book with interesting story lines and dialogs that makes you laugh-out-loud (literally LOL). It teaches you the essential techniques on comic or cartooning such as creating panels, using balloons, making story board, step-by-step guide on drawing a knight / horse / carrot etc. My little captain was so captivated by this book that he just read and re-read and re-read it every night. It seemed he will not grow bored of it for a long long time. He attempted his first comic drawing after reading it one afternoon but unfortunately I misplaced the drawing. Arrggg.. How careless. I promise I shall update this post with his drawing later.

Some sneak peak of the book..

How to make use of panels

Useful tips are everywhere..

Did I mentioned this book is too fun and cool not to own one? I did? Well, well...  check out the reviews, don't just take my words for it.

You can read the review or purchase the book online via...

Amazon

Good Reads

MPH online (currently out of print, but you can request over the counter if you are seriously interested)

You can also find out more on James Strum's creative work by visiting his website at http://www.cartoonstudies.org/ now!

Enjoy!

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.