18" Doll Spring Clothes

Hum... I might have a problem...  

I LOVE to design and make these little doll clothes.  

They use very little fabric, the client never complains and they finish up in a snap!

(Above Photo) This outfit is a square-neck, empire waist tank top and Capri jeans. If you are blog follower/subscriber, you might recognize that fabric on her tank top.  Its from my NEW Modern Complements Line.  The jeans are made from a recycled pair of actual soft denim jeans.  I added pockets at the hip and was oh-so-proud until I realized 1/ You cannot see them because her shirt covers that area of the pants and 2/ She can never put her arm in them because her arms don't bend.  HA!  Both of those garments have a Velcro back closure.

This outfit is a top with a gathered hem and gathered sleeves with white shorts.  The picture below shows the back closure.  I used two bits of Velcro back there.  I had to Velcro where the elastic waist is, to keep the elastic stretched when in use.  You can click the photo to see it larger.

The fabric used in this outfit is Polka Dots- thrifted bed sheet, and the White is an IKEA bed sheet.

The dresses above were made with my daughter and her friend. (10yo)  I used the same IKEA bed sheet white fabric and let the girls draw whatever they wanted to on the dresses.  They got to plan the design, make it on paper, trace it on to the dress with Crayola Fabric Markers (which I LOVE.  They are sold on the crayon aisle not in the craft/fabric departments) and then I whipped up the dress by extending the tank top pattern.

I'm lovin this butterfly and I'd totally wear it on a t-shirt!

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The patterns used in the doll outfit are my original designs.

18" Doll Spring Clothes

Hancock's of Paducah Catalog

What good fortune!  I was tipped off by a friend of mine (Thanks Judy!) that my Military Mailbag and Express Mailbag pattern made it into the Hancock's of Paducah catalog!  Holy Smokes.  Page 134, if you were curious.  Yep, its right there.  Thank you Hancock's of Paducah!!!

Hancock's of Paducah Catalog

Recycled Sweaters

Welcome to the first post of the new year! Happy 2011 to you all! 

 

Over the holidays I made an ugly sweater dress from ugly sweaters, for an ugly sweater party. That got me hooked sewing thrift store sweaters. Eventually I started buying the "nice" thrift store sweaters, ala Betz White. I have 100% natural fibers in solid colors with a few fun knitted designs on there. That rockin' hat (below) was the crowning jewel on the ugliest dress, ugliest sweater, ugliest Christmas attire known to woman-kind.

I made scarflettes using the U-Create tutorial as a guide. (This scarflette is made a synthetic fiber sweater.) Instead of using the entire torso of a sweater, I made two narrower scraflettes from the sleeves. My sister-in-law has the matching cream colored scarflette. I'm sure she has some kind of fabulous felt flower or rolled rosette on there by now. My blue vintage brooch is also from a thrift store.

Well, I liked sewing with the sweaters. Its like thrift store linen, but in the winter. =)

The next thing I made were a couple plain pillows from the main torso of the sweater.

(The quilt on my couch is a pattern by Toby Lischko called Mosaic Magic.)

The creamy white one pillow is the torso from the scarflettes sweater. The red sweater pillow is felted cashmere. The cool thing about buying the 100% wool fiber sweaters at the thrift store is that the ones I seem to be finding are there because the original owners accidentally shrank/felted them. Thank you, Ms Original Owner; you have totally saved me a step!

Ooooh- what did I make next??!!?!? Inquiring minds want to know. Well, that red sweater had some leftovers. I couldn't possibly just have felty cashmere-y leftovers! I decided to make the "WHAT? REALLY!" Punctuation Pillow. I kinda have a quirky sense of humor. I'm sure we all do in some capacity.

This Punctuation Pillow, with a ? and !, is only one total pillow. The red cashmere used to be sleeves. The grey lamb's wool is from the torso of one sweater. It measures approximately 13" x 18" & is stitched shut. The two punctuations are raw-edge appliqued to the sweater using a straight stitch. I ended up stitching them on by hand because I wasn't sure if the sewing machine would stretch the sweater/shapes since I have no stablizer/interfacing in the project. Oh, one other thing- I custom made the pillow forms. Its more fun to have "any shape I feel like" on the couch, rather than the standard square or bolster shapes.


Think you might need a Punctuation Pillow?!?! I added the hand-drawn (then scanned and traced in Illustrator) original characters to a little printable pdf for you. Click the image above or click HERE to get the template. The seam allowances are included, so you can use any applique method and any fabric type you prefer.

So now I have a mood couch. A snuggly-winter-sweater-mood-couch. Feeling inquisitive? Feeling assertive! Indecisive? Thrilled!

*If you make a Punctuation Pillow, I'd love to see it over in the ReannaLily Designs Flickr Pool.


If you've been following along this far and doing the mental math in your head, you'll know I have 1/2 a grey sweater left. Ooooh.... what will be next? Who knows. Time will tell.

Recycled Sweaters

McCall's Quick Quilts Feb/Mar

Guess who is going to be in McCall's Quick Quilts Feb/Mar 2011?

ME!

I have a great little snuggle quilt pattern in there. In fact, its called Home Front Snuggler. Its a fast pattern, fat quarter compatible, and finishes at 60" square. Its the perfect size for the couch- specifically, for the kids cuddling up to you this winter on the couch. Kids don't necessarily understand deployment, but hopefully this will bring them a little closer to their loved one while they are apart. Thank you for serving!

"This soft lap quilt provides a bit of comfort while a parent's deployed." McCall's Quick Quilts Feb/Mar 2011.


I'm so thrilled that its also a recycled military uniform pattern. One lovely BDU has a new life in this family pass-down quilt.

(Image above from McCall's Quick Quilting website)

You'll see this in the article- The quilt is quilted with the free motion flowers. Its really an easy technique and great alternative to meandering. Give it a try.

*Fabrics in the quilt are Nicey Jane by Heather Bailey + US Gov't

And that's not all...

McCall's Quick Quilts is the first publication to break the biggest business related secret I've ever kept. Are you sitting down? In fact, we've only scratched the surface of the secret but check out this Designer Information section (from the magazine)

"Jen Eskridge is a quilt designer, author, and teacher. Look for her upcoming book from C&T Publishing at your local quilt store or visit her website, reannalilydesigns.com."

Yep- you read that right!!! That's all I can tell you for now. And yes, I'm so happy I might explode. More details will emerge as we get closer to the release date. You totally have to subscribe to the blog or sign up for the newsletter (on the right side bar over there) so you don't miss a bit of the journey.

McCall's Quick Quilts Feb/Mar

Air Force Hexagons

It was really only a matter of time...
Not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but I am pretty sure I need a few recycled military uniform hexagons.

Air Force Hexagons

T-Shirt Quilt

My friend wanted to make a t-shirt quilt from her decade of Old Navy Flag Tee's. What a great idea right?! She has 1999 all the way to 2009. There are a total of 12 blocks, with one blank one for her to write/embroider names of her family members. She and I got together every Wednesday with the help of her cute little 14 mos old daughter to make this little beauty. We interfaced all the logo areas with lightweight fusible interfacing. The blocks are all cut to 12 1/2" with a 2" (finished) sashing. We'll be building the back very soon from extra border + sashing fabrics. This is the second quilt she's ever made and I think its turning out awesome.

T-Shirt Quilt

Wonky Hex Quilt ala Log Cabin Style

And we're officially back to the regular sewing and quilting posts. I hope you enjoyed the market/festival {Houston 2010} recaps.
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I was dreaming up this HEX-based quilt block using the Wonky Log Cabin construction method on Tall Grass Prairie's blog. I suppose it only loosely follows the Wonky Log Cabin tutorial, but in my mind it totally works.
And as you know, I sew a bit with military uniforms. This USAF block/design goes out to my sweet hubbs, who recently washed his uniforms with a PEN in the shirt pocket. This particular block isn't made from his, but its only a matter of time.

I made the small quilt out of blue + white fabric scraps, United States Air Force military uniform (ABU) and an IKEA white cotton sheet. The whole thing, as its pictured, measures about 24" square. The military fabric center hexagon is 3" on one side. I then improvise-pieced the fabric around the center hex so that they'd measure 3 1/2" from the first hex seam. {{see the picture below}} The large pieced hexagon is about 12" tall from one parallel side to the other. And about 7" long on each side.

It follows the tutorial in that you add a piece or two of fabric, then trim. Then add some more and trim. The main thing that, I think, keeps this looking like a Wonky Log Cabin style Hexagon, rather than a traditional crazy quilt is (1) color (2) setting and (3) keeping the outer edges parallel to the original starting hex.

Once the hex block was "big enough" (read: running out of blue scraps) I pressed all the edges 1/4" folded towards the wrong side. Then I machine appliqued the hex to a 15 1/2" plain white block.
Sure, I still need to quilt it, but I was so excited to share it with you, I just couldn't wait.

As the wheels are turning, I'm thinking it'd be super fun to do a whole rainbow block quilt where each Wonky Hex was from one color family... but I'm already low on blue scraps, so who knows how this will shake down. =)

Thank goodness for Photoshop (or EQ7) to test the ideas, right.

If you like little hexies projects, stay tuned because after Thanksgiving, I've got a fun QUICK 3-pack of tutorials for you.

If you make it, feel free to share it in the ReannaLily Designs Flickr pool.

Wonky Hex Quilt ala Log Cabin Style

New Pattern: Military Mailbag & Express Mailbag RD2-029

Tis the season to tell blog land all about the seasonal pattern releases. I'm releasing 5 for the October International Quilt Market and this is the last one of the 5. Whooooh-

...of course, if you subscribe to the ReannaLily Designs newsletter, you've already seen the sneak peek of all 5 titles...

This pattern is called the Military Mailbag & Express Mailbag RD2-029. The pattern has two sizes and two strap options (spaghetti straps OR cotton webbing). You can mix and match both elements to create a one-of-a-kind bag, just for you.


It started out as one bag, to feature the Capri line of fabrics by Northcott (also used in the Diamond In the Rough Pattern RD2-208) The fabric line has this amazing 22" wide stripe in the collection. I really wanted to showcase that stripe on the flap of the messenger bag. In fact, the flap on the larger bag, 10" x 16" would be great for any piece of fabric that you've purchased, but you just cannot cut it apart because its so beautiful. I think we've all done that...

The larger bag is made with fabric yardage, but if you like, the large bag pieces can actually fit 2 per fat quarter- giving you the option for a fun scrappy bag.

...speaking of scrappy...

As my tester (Mom!) was working on her sample, she mentioned that it might be super easy and fun to make the bag in a different size- possible a size that features LAYER CAKES! So, with her permission, I added in a second bag size to include 10" squares. The smaller bag is called the Express Mailbag.

(bag construction and photos by Karen Morello)

Now, you can showcase fabric on the flap, quilt on the flap OR show your support for our troops on the flap. As with my bag patterns, this pattern includes details for sewing with military uniforms. You can recycle the camouflage BDU or (as pictured) an ABU or ACU to let the world know that you support our troops! You can add name tapes, unit patches or any other embellishment to the bag.

This will truly be an original creation once you are done mixing the elements. I think you will enjoy the customizing.

Oooh- and I almost forgot to tell you, the bag has a ton of pockets! The larger bag, 10" tall, x 16" long, x 6" wide has 2 exterior drop-in pockets, 3 interior drop-in pockets AND a secret zipper pocket. Its a large bag and a GREAT DIAPER BAG.

This bag pattern is up on the website and available through QuiltWoman.com. AND AND AND- you can pick this title up as an instant download, e-pattern!

Boy with a post this long to ultimately say "Look new bag pattern." I guess you can kinda tell I'm loving this bag. Look for me carrying it at Market!

*Fabric samples in this post (in order of appearance) are Capri by Northcott, Wonderland by Momo for Moda, Denyse Schmidt + Digital USAF camouflage (ABU) and Treetop Fancy by Free Spirit + Digital Army camo (ACU).

New Pattern: Military Mailbag & Express Mailbag RD2-029

Quilter's World Article

Oh my goodness. I'm pingin' off the walls! I submitted a Circle Purse design, which you have seen on the blog sometime a while back, to Quilter's World Magazine. I made a few adjustments and changes to the original clutch design and now that beautiful little bag is IN Quilter's World, October 2010- for the first-ever In The Bag feature for the magazine. I bought my copy at the local quilt shop already, but I think its officially on the shelves Sept 1st.


I mentioned it during the birthday give-away, since I knew it'd be in the October issue- but its never really REAL until the paper is in your hands. Oh man, paper copy of Quilter's World!

a.w.e.s.o.m.e.

Now here's a bit that was a total surprise to me, though- ReannaLily Designs blog was mentioned in the Editor's Web Connections "what I'm reading" section! Super exciting. I'm listed right above True-Up. TRUE-UP PEOPLE!

I should get a web cam picture of myself, so I can tell the E.R. this is what I looked like right before I exploded. =)

You'll have to go pick up a copy and make your own purse, recycling a vinyl record and possibly an orphan block or strip-pieced block (pictured). The article for the purse has plenty of diagrams and has the purse photographed from a couple different angles, so you know you're on-track while you are stitching.

Goodness. I think I should go out for cake to celebrate!

*Fabrics in this project are by Laura Gunn for Michael Miller

Quilter's World Article

Sewing with Uniforms

Goodness, it's been a short while since my last blog post. Sorry about that. Its summer, you know. I did squeeze in another little road trip down to the family homestead in Texas. Its only 9 hours by car, with 3 wonderful kids. No seriously, they do travel surprisingly well, even if that is WAY too long to be in a car on one day.


And when I wasn't driving around the middle of the United States, I was working on two bags and fighting a head cold. Boy, I know how to have fun! Actually, the purses are going very well, its the head cold that is a total bummer. Our town is about 104*F (40*C) this week, so I cannot even eat chicken soup for my cold. :( Way too hot for that.

The two bags are coming along nicely and I hope I can give you a whole reveal very soon. They both feature instructions for sewing with recycled military uniforms OR traditional fabric. LOVE IT. Stay tuned!

Sewing with Uniforms

Recycled Altered Container Tutorial

Those crazy marketing people put so much thought and effort into their packaging shapes, it just seems like a waste to throw out a perfectly good container! So I'm here to enable you to save more things around the house and jazz it up a bit with this little recycling how-to.

Supplies:
Aileens Craft Glue
Measuring Tape
Scrap Fabric Rectangle
Old Container
Rotary Cutter
Ruler + Self Healing Mat
Sewing machine + Thread
Trim (optional)

First you'll need to find a container. Anything plastic or tin will pretty much work. Then take off its original packaging.

Head into the sewing room and measure the exact distance of the body of the container. Do not worry about adding any amount for hems or folds. This is a CRAFTY tutorial so we'll be using good ole glue.

Cut a piece of scrap fabric to the measured length. The fabric will need to be long enough to go around the container, but I generally err on the side of "larger" and cut down. I wrap the fabric around the container and generally, give myself about 1/4'' to create the vertical seam. *Remember the fabric will stretch a tiny bit when you put it on the container.

Now take it over to the sewing machine. Use your Seamingly Accurate Seam Guide to help you control that 1/4'' seam. Mine is a scant 1/4'' for this particular container. (Y'all, the scrap was only so big.)


Turn your stitched "tube" right side out and put it on the container. You may need to adjust the fit at this time, in the event your fabric stretched more or the actual length of fabric doesn't allow room for the container lid.

Grab that glue! Add a small bead of glue around the top and bottom edge to secure the raw edges. After you add the bead of glue, you'll want to smash it down with your finger. This will keep the ends from unraveling.

I have a little bit of trim... from many garage sales and thrift store grab bags. I decided this little container CERTAINLY needs some kind of trim.

Yellow rickrack wins!

Again with the glue. I added a line of glue about 1'' from the bottom edge of the container. I then decided to add a second row of trim, about 1'' above the first.

Now just sit back and wait for it to dry.

Containers pictured above are: Crystal Light, Hersheys Cocoa Powder (Markers), Flogers Decaf Coffee (Scissors), and General Foods Internat'l Instant Coffee (Military buttons snipped off recycled uniforms).

If you make it, feel free to share it in the ReannaLily Designs Flickr pool.

Recycled Altered Container Tutorial