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Thursday, May 29, 2014

KAM Snaps Winner and Projects Preview

I know we're all dying to hear who won the KAM Snaps pliers and snaps giveaway so I'll get right to it!  


Congratulations to Amanda Olvera Hall!!!  You are the winner! Wahoo!  Please email us to claim your prize and provide your mailing info: ckckristen@gmail.com  

A huge thank you to KAM Snaps for donating the prize and of course for making such a great product! 

Thank you also to all of our fans who entered the giveaway. I wish you all could have won! But the good news is that you can still get the pliers and combo set on the the KAM Snaps website for less than $30. If you want just the pliers or just the snaps it's even less.  Be sure to browse their website for the variety of snap colors and shapes. You can also use the "kamsnaps" coupon code to get 5% off your first order! 

I LOVE my KAM Snaps and it is definitely a superior product in my opinion. We have some really fun projects coming up on the blog using snaps, including these for starters: 

Snap-on baby bib
Snap-on Superhero cape
Snap-on fabric paper towels 

And of course our much requested tutorial for adding a snap crotch to Jeffrey's Jumper and other baby outfits. 

Doesn't it sound like fun? I can't wait to get started.  

Let's Create! ~ Kristen 

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Tween, Women, and Women Plus Paisley's with Sweet as Honey Fabric

There is something extra sweet about patchwork. Just a glimpse of it makes me nostalgic. Maybe it's the memory of wrapping up in my grandma's handmade quilts. And have you noticed how eye-catching patchwork skirts and dresses always are? Maybe it's the fact that we get to see so many pretty fabrics all at once! I am absolutely in love with Tiffany's Patchwork Dress that was just released in Women's sizes: 


Did you see the amazing fabric?!  Nikki used the Sweet as Honey fabric line for her dress and I think it turned out absolutely stunning.  Not only that, but she loved the fabric so much that she ordered more to make matching patchwork for her daughters! We'll show you more of that in a minute. 


The designer of the Sweet as Honey fabric is Bonnie Christine of the Going Home to Roost Blog.  She invited us to be a guest on her blog and we would LOVE for you to go read the post and become a follower of her blog!  Bonnie has a wealth of creative ideas on a wide variety of topics and her photos are absolutely gorgeous. Not only that, but we also have a surprise for you on her blog! 


You may be familiar with our free pattern for Paisley's Patchwork Skirt for Girls and Dolls.  Well guess what!  We have now made Paisley's Patchwork Skirt available in Tweens, Women, and Women Plus sizes too! The link to those patterns is on the Going Home to Roost blog where we did our guest post. Be sure to download them today - you know you're going to want them!  (We will be adding the link to our Tutorials page here as well.) 



Nikki does such a great job with our women's and tweens patterns at CKC. (This is her pictured above.) And doesn't she have a beautiful family? Nikki likes to stay out of the limelight so I need to brag for her a little bit because she is absolutely amazing.  If you have not yet tried our women's, women's plus, or tweens' patterns yet, you are definitely missing out and I encourage you to make something for yourself! I can honestly say that some of my favorite clothes come from our CKC line -- from skirts to tops, to the best-fitting swimsuit I've ever owned! Nikki is my hero and I still test patterns for her even though I already have my hands full of sewing projects. My daughter and I can't resist! 

Alright, now don't forget to go visit the Going Home to Roost Blog and check out Bonnie's offerings, more up close photos of this fabric, and of course our new FREE patterns for the up-sized Paisley's. 

Let's Create! ~ Kristen  

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

How To Tuesday: Fabric Key Fob


If you have ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes with the CKC staff, I can tell you right now that it's not all about patterns and release dates. The majority is business of course, but we also spend a good deal of time joking about important stuff... like chicken shawls and off-the-wall keychains. I'm not going to tell you how the keychain joke started but I will say that everyone blames ME and it wasn't me at all. They probably do owe me about a hundred keychains by now -- they keep saying they're going to send wacky ones to me but they don't really mean it. I'm a little grouchy about that. Anyway, I think it's perfectly fitting that Morgan chose to do this Fabric Key Fob as our free tutorial this week! Now you and I can both make these cute keychains and be matchers together! 


Time to get down to business. Here's Morgan: 

To start you will need a scrap of fabric this 4" x 12" and a 1" D-ring. In the photos below I used a recycled keychain. If you choose to go the same route, make sure the width is 1". 



First we will take our fabric, fold it in half length wise, and iron so we have a nice crease. Open the strip back up so the crease is going down the center. Now we will fold both of the long sides in so that they meet at the crease in the center, and iron. Once ironed, fold it in half again lengthwise like we did in the beginning. The original center crease we made will be along the bottom and the two folds will be lined up at the top, like a bias tape as shown below. Do not sew the edges. 



Now slide our D-ring or in my case recycled keychain hardware, to the center of the strip as shown below. 



On each end of our fabric we will now unfold the edges and line the two ends up right sides together. Pin and sew, creating one continuous loop.


Fold the fabric back into place and then top stitch 1/8" in from the edge along both sides, moving the D-ring/hardware out of our way as we go. 


Now take the D-ring and fold the lanyard strip flat around it, as shown in the picture below. Sew across the strip 1/2" from the D-ring.


And you're done!  It's that simple. Thanks Morgan! 

Now we can use our favorite fabric scraps to make a unique key fob for ourselves, and maybe even our friends.  

Speaking of which, my daughter just walked in and saw the picture and now she wants one for her backpack, made out of the My Little Pony scraps. Why not -- key chains make everybody happy, right ladies? 

Let's Create! ~ Kristen

Thursday, May 22, 2014

KAM Snaps Tutorial

We have been talking a lot about how to sew buttons and buttonholes. Now we're going to talk about snaps!  Snaps are a great option for sewing kids' outfits because they are quick to install and stay a little more secure than buttons.  I personally love buttons but there are also times that call for snaps! Plus they're just so darn cute. 


So today I'm going to do a quick intro on how to install snaps and then we have a video! Woo! 


First of all, we strongly recommend that you get a KAM Snaps setter. We find it much easier to use than any other brand of setter and it has much better results. (My other brand of setter ended up in the donate pile.) Let's get started on how to install your snaps! 


First we will mark where we want our snaps to be.  Then we will use the awl to poke a hole through each of the marks.  


Next we will lay out the snap pieces we want to use.  Each hole will use a pronged cap underneath. Then on one hole we will use a socket and on the other hole we will use a stud. The socket and the stud are what will be snapping together so we need to make sure they are facing each other when we're done. 


Place the cap underneath the fabric and poke its prong up through the hole that we made. 


Place the socket on top of the prong so that it goes through.  


Place the stacked pieces onto the rubber base of the pliers. The cap should easily rest in it. 


Firmly squeeze the pliers, being sure to keep it centered. We don't have to press hard - just nice and firm. 


When we're done, the prong should be flattened into a little disk that holds the snap in place. 


Repeat the previous steps with the other cap and the stud.  When we're done with both they should look like this. 


And just like that, they snap together!  If it seemed like a long process, it's not at all. It goes very quickly and usually when I'm done I wish that I could do ten more because it was so fun! 


What I love about snaps is that they come in a wide variety of colors, shapes and sizes. These Batman ones above are a big favorite our our houseful of boys! Have some fun browsing the KAMSnaps website.  They also have a bunch of free tutorials for snaps.  Of course we have a lot coming up on our blog as well, including a superhero cape, a snap-crotch tutorial, and a few more secrets that we have up our sleeves! If you've been thinking about getting into snaps, this is the perfect time to do it! 

And now, here's a video where we introduce KAMsnaps and show how to do it in real time. Enjoy! 





Let's Create! ~ Kristen

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Let's Have a Frozen Party!


Last week we had a Frozen party for Nicole's 7th birthday. Her main request for the party was that "we get to make stuff."  I'm sure you can imagine how excited I was about that. Making stuff is right up my alley! So from the invitations to the activities to the cake, we made everything that there was to make.  I'm certainly not a professional party planner but we made it all work and had a great time together! Today I'm excited to share some of our Frozen Birthday Party ideas with you!


First up is the invitations. Since Nicole wanted to make them we searched out some free clipart and put this one together using Word. It was quick to print and she was delighted to help cut them out and stuff the envelopes. If you like our format you can download the file here and customize it with your own information. There are four to a page. Enjoy! 



Fast forward to party day! The first activity Nicole wanted to do was "Pin the Nose on Olaf."  She invented this game (kind of, right?) and originally had big plans for us to draw a poster of him, but when we saw this one in the store we didn't hesitate to throw it in the cart. Each of the girls did get to cut out their own carrot nose for Olaf and write their name on it. We used a simple white dish towel for a blind fold and they had a blast.  

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

How To Tuesday: Cord Keeper

Who doesn't love a useful scrap buster? Today on the blog we have the perfect tutorial for you! 


This is a super cute solution to the tangled cords and wires that most of us normally end up with. And our cord keeper is so easy to make! 

To get started you will need 2 pieces of scrap fabric and 1 piece of fusible fleece that all measure 2.75" x 5".  And then you'll need a closure of your choice, such as a button, magnets, or snaps. 


First you will iron your fusible fleece to the wrong side of one of the scraps. 


Then place your fabrics right sides together and sew along all 4 sides, making sure to leave a one inch gap at one end. 


Clip corners, turn right side out, and top stitch all along four edges. 


Lastly, use your favorite closure method for the two shorter edges: 


 In our case we used a button and button hole. Snaps are an easy option too and tomorrow on the blog we'll be doing a video demonstration on how to add snaps to a project! 

I hope you all enjoyed the quick how to and find it as useful as I do! 

Happy sewing y'all, 
Morgan 

Monday, May 19, 2014

Welcome to CKC Patterns!

So you're new to Create Kids Couture, or PDF patterns in general, and have a bunch of questions on how to get started? Great! We would love to help!  We will start right at the beginning with the basics.



CHOOSE:  You will begin by purchasing a PDF pattern here, or choosing one of our free patterns here

DOWNLOAD:  You will then download the pattern to your computer and/or other storage. To make sure you never lose your files, we recommend saving to Dropbox (it's free) and you can read more about that here

OPEN:  When you're ready, you will open the pattern on your computer or other device. It is okay to print the entire pattern but many of us only print the pieces. You can read more on that here if you didn't already above.  

PRINT: The pattern pieces should be printed on standard paper (8.5x11) and if there are multiple pages you will tape them together along the labeled lines. There are some important tips for making sure your pieces print correctly, so please read our quick blog post on how to print your PDF patterns. If you follow the guidelines and find that your 1" square does not print correctly the first time, you may need to switch to Adobe Reader using our instructions here. It's not hard at all, just very important.

CUT: The pattern pieces, after being printed and taped, will work the same way as paper patterns that you buy at the store. Pin the pieces to your fabric and cut. If there are special instructions, they will be written in the pattern. 

To conserve your ink and paper, any time there is a square or rectangular shape that is needed for your outfit, we use a cutting chart to tell you those dimensions so you can cut it without having to print the pieces. Simply use a rotary cutter and mat to quickly cut those rectangles. This saves a LOT of time too! If you'd like, you can find our step-by-step photo instructions for using a rotary cutter here

SEW: Now you just follow the instructions in the pattern! We recommend reading the pattern all the way through before beginning. We know you're going to love our step-by-step photos and clear instructions!

That's all you need to know to get started!

Here is a recap of the links above, along with a few more references that may be helpful to you down the road: 


 If you ever have any questions on any of these steps, please ask in our CKC Patterns Group on Facebook! We are always happy to help. We would also love to see your finished creations, so please come share with us when you're done! 

We love our newbies to CKC.  In fact this month we are highlighting a first-time fan as our Fan of the Month for May! Congratulations to Karen Diann! 


 Can you believe that this is the very first time that Karen has used a CKC pattern?!  Her Little Miss Muffett and Little Bo Peep are simply adorable!  Karen tells us, "I tried a boutique outfit with a [name brand] paper pattern a few weeks ago. It was time consuming, confusing, and not that cute. After the Poppy's I am addicted to CKC."  Well said, Karen!  She used our Poppy's Peekaboo Dress pattern, as well as two of our free patterns (Carrie's and Barbara's), to make these outfits. So creative! And we know you can do amazing things too.

Let's Create! ~ Kristen

Friday, May 16, 2014

Serging 101: Threading for a Roll Hem

Who's ready for the next installment of our Serging 101 series? I know I am! If you're new to the series, you may want to read up on our first two mini episodes so you're all caught up:


And now today we're going to show you how to thread your serger to do a rolled hem! This is the first skill I wanted to learn on my new serger because of how often I do rolled hems with CKC patterns. I've always done it the slow way on a sewing machine and I'm ready to move onto the serger method. 


And I did it!  Here's my very first skirt I made using a serger. I guarantee you can do it too! Today I will walk you through a few important steps using pictures, and then we will show you a couple videos that will show how smooth it is to do. 


The first thing you need to know about rolled hemming is that we only need one of our two needles. We need to remove the left needle so that we're only using our right. 


The second change we need to make will depend on which serger you have.  If you have a Juki, you pull a little switch (the video will show this in a minute).  But if you have a Brother like mine you will open up your machine and remove the "stitch finger".  -- The what?! -- Well, just look where I circled above in red. The stitch finger is that tall skinny thing in there. Do you see the orange arrow about halfway down? You will hold the metal there, and then push the little lever where I drew a green arrow.  This will pop the stitch finger out. 


This is what the stitch finger looks like.  We will need it later, but not for rolled hems. 


The Brother machine gives us this neat little storage place right inside the cover where we can snap the stitch finger in place until we need it later. Now that we removed our left needle and our stitch finger, we are ready to thread our machine as we did before and then set the tension dials to where we need them. 


Notice the picture above. We will not be threading the yellow at all because we removed the left needle.  The remaining three dials can be set in a variety of ways but we have found that for doing rolled hems on the Brother serger, this is the best combination for us:  4 - 5 - 7.  It may be different for your machine. After playing around with it if you find a better setting for yours, be sure to write it down or take a picture so you can save yourself time in the future. 


On the side of the Brother machine there are dials for stitch width and length.  We want to set both of them to R for rolled hem, as you can see in the picture above.  

Now all of our settings are exactly where they need to be.  It sounds like a lot but after one or two times it will become an easy habit. 


Two more little tips: Since this was my first time serging I didn't realize that we need to "chain off" before and after everything we serge.  When we're done we can't just lift the presser foot and remove our work like we do with a sewing machine.  We have to drive our stitching off the back and then clip the tail, leaving some for the next one to start with.  It's not hard at all, just a new concept to me!  (I'm a beginner remember. The experts are probably chuckling at me, but I bet I just saved you some time!)  


It is also very important that we have our threads pointing straight backward, away from us, and not to the side. It took me a few minutes to figure out why, so I'm showing you in the picture above.  As we're serging we are stitching around two needles that are pointing toward the back of our machine.In the photo above there is a green arrow pointing at them.  These needles have the threads chained on them, so if we try to pull threads to the side they won't go anywhere!  Everything has to move toward the back, sliding off those needles. It's not a huge issue, but definitely something I didn't know before today. 


Alright those are all my tips. I'm so happy with how my first rolled hems turned out!  I did practice on a bunch of scraps before starting on my actual skirt.  But honestly, the machine does all the work and I wish I would have tried this out months ago!!!  

Now if you actually read through all that, congratulations!  And if you didn't, you can now catch all the same stuff in our videos.  First up is my video where I show how to get my Brother machine ready to make rolled hems: 



See, it's really not hard!  You'll be doing this in no time!  

For those of you who own a Juki serger instead, you get to learn from the fabulous Shannon!  She also shares some helpful tips that I didn't know about until after I made my own video. Don't you love that you get the beginner and the expert side of things? 




So now -- Are you ready to start making some rolled hems?!  We certainly hope so! Pull out some scraps and start playing around with it today.  If you have any questions, please ask in our patterns group where there are a lot of experienced women ready to help!  And we'll see you next time in our Serging 101 series. 

Let's Create! ~ Kristen 

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Tips for Choosing Fabric Combos

We see it every day in our patterns group:  

"Which pink looks better with this?"  "What color should I use for the ruffle?"  "Are these fabrics too busy together?"  

And I'm right there with you! When I'm planning out a special outfit I always love to get a second or third -- or fiftieth -- opinion as well.  Because, let's face it, fabric choice makes all the difference in the outfits we make! 

While there are no absolute rules or official guidelines as far as choosing fabrics for our projects (we all have different tastes too) I have found some techniques that help make it easier to get great results every time. 


TIP 1: The easiest way to have your fabric match perfectly is to buy coordinating fabric from a collection, such as the outfit above. The three fabrics all came from the same collection. I could have rearranged them different ways and they still would have looked great! 

When shopping in stores, keep your eye out for the word "collections" or any type of category where you see the same color scheme. There is often a main pattern with other complementary designs. This means they've done all the work for us and we just get to enjoy! The same goes for shopping online. Whenever I see I print that I can't live without, I check to see if there are coordinating ones to go with it. 



TIP 2: The next technique is the one I use most often. I will demonstrate it using this adorable fabric from Katie's Quilt Shop.  Basically what I do is choose one main print with multiple colors/designs in it and then look at how to duplicate the parts that I want to have stand out. In the fabric above I really like the pinks, grays and yellows. And I don't want just any pinks, grays, or yellows. I want them to match as perfectly as possible, even if it gets tricky. 


After browsing Katie's shop, I found these dots. See how the pinks and grays are right on with the the doll fabric? I also love that they add a new dimension to the overall look. I have to grab this one for sure.  Now I want a third fabric for the Amanda's skirt I'm making. Looking back at the first fabric, I think it could use some yellow for balance.  I sent Katie a message and asked her which yellow in her shop she would recommend to go with these two. 


Just my luck, she had this one in stock and she assured me that they matched well in person, not just on the computer. (That is important - I seek out shops that will answer my questions!) 

I went ahead and ordered from Katie, and it all arrived just as perfectly as I'd hoped!