Friends!  I cannot even tell you how excited I am to share these Chemistry Scrubs with you.  You’re probably thinking, “Umm..okay.  They are just scrubs.”  Yes, they are plain ordinary scrubs, this is true.  The most totally awesome thing about them is they are sewn with fabric I designed for Riley Blake Designs!  (Insert annoying high-pitched squeal…and some tears).

The idea for this fabric came about from my love for all things science! I didn’t understand how cool science was until I was an adult.… In my 30s!

This is my blogger bio that is normally at the end of posts and tutorials.  Do you see that part that I circled?  I have dreamed of designing fabric for about 5 years now.  A dream that I had no idea how to achieve, but I “put it out there” and EVERYTHING lined up to make it happen…more on that another day.  For now, I am just enjoying making things with my very own fabric.

To make these awesome scrubs, I decided to follow a pattern.  SHOCKER, right?  I normally just “wing it” and try to figure it out as I go.  I have learned this method might not be the most effective way to sew, so I bought Simplicity S0816 at Joann Crafts and then I modified it a bit.

I bought this particular pattern because of the pockets. I have NEVER sewn pockets before and wanted to learn…the right way; no guessing.

So I followed the instructions on the pattern and made my very first set of pockets.  Yeah!  I decided to leave off the pockets on the legs as well as the draw string.  They were super easy-to-sew and now sciency son and his sciency mom have coordinating scrubs…in fabric I DESIGNED!

Also, check out the Composition Notebook Cover I made at Riley Blake Designs.

The post Chemistry Scrubs Pattern appeared first on U Create.

Hello everyone!  I’m Cheri from I Am Momma Hear Me Roar.  I was already really excited to be guest posting here on UCreate and then I actually got to meet Kari last week which made me even more excited to be here.  Most of you out there have probably only seen her profile picture and maybe heard little bits from her sister.  Well, let me tell you that Kari is a party!  She is hilarious, extremely kind, and she has some great stories to tell.


Anyhow, I’ll try not to get too sidetracked.  Over at my blog I love to decorate, photograph, sew, refashion, paint.  I am the mother of two boys, so I definitely favor boy crafts whenever possible.  If you have boys then you’ll have to stop by for sure.  My two little guys are my inspiration.  Here they are to introduce today’s tutorial to you…

Can’t you feel the brotherly love?  Poor little guy.  Anyhow, I’m going to show you how to make these cute brimmed beanie hats from old sweaters.  I want you to think of it like making a sunday.  First I’ll show you the basics of making the actual hat (like scooping up the icecream) and then I’ll give you a buffet of topping choices…carmel, sprinkles, whipped cream, or whatever you like.  (Yes, I just might be hungry right now.)  I just love to embellish boy stuff.


Alright, let’s get started now.  To make the actual hat you need to measure your child’s noggin.  Once you’ve got the measurement you can get out your old sweater.  Cut two rectangles out, utilizing the bottom finished edge of the sweater.  If your sweater stretches a LOT, then make the length of the rectangle an inch or two less then your child’s measurement.  If it stretches normally then use the actual measurement (the circumference of his or her head).  As for the height of the rectangle here are some estimates.  My one year old’s I cut to be 6.5 inches tall and my three year old’s was about 7.5 inches tall.  (Sidenote:  They both have very large noggins for their age.  Yeah, they’re advanced

Now it’s time to sew on the brim.  (You will actually want to do all your embellishing before you sew on the brim and the lining, but I just want to show you all the sewing first.)  You’ll sandwich it in between the outer hat and the lining.  I like to start in the middle of the brim and sew one side and then the other so it stays centered.  Take your time and make sure you have all three layers lined up as you go.  You want to sew as close as possible to the the plastic or cardboard insert.

After the brim is on you can sew along the bottom of the hat to join the lining and the outer hat.  Here I recommend using a zigzag stitch so the fabric will still stretch well.  Now that’s all the major hat construction, but let me show you some things I did differently on the second hat.

The brim was smaller, which I liked better.  You can use my brim if you’d like.  Click HERE to download a free PDF file of it.  Because these types of hats usually have smaller brims I think this brim would work from age 1-10.  The sweater I used for this hat was a lot more stretchy and loosely woven.  When I made the brim I cut the pieces to be much larger than needed so that I could sew the edge and zigzag it so nothing would unweave. 

 

Then I trimmed off the excess and inserted the brim.

 

I did not make a lining for this hat, since it was a heavier sweater and because it was for my youngest son who is constantly sweaty.  When sewing on the brim, I obviously didn’t have two layers to sandwich it in between, so I flipped up the brim and sewed it on the outside of the hat as shown.  I let it climb up the hat a bit, which worked out really well.  That way the brim sits a little higher and doesn’t cover his eyes too much.  I followed up with a zigzag stitch and trimmed off the extra.

Now here comes the fun part.  And, if you don’t sew you can buy a hat and add some fun stuff to it.  Here are your toppings:


1) Freezer paper stenciling.  I love doing this.  If you’ve never tried it you can go HERE to watch my in depth video tutorial.  While I usually create a stencil and then paint it, this time I filled it in with fabric markers instead.  (I thought it would be funny to put established followed by his birth year.)

2) Premade stencils.  I used this Tulip Graffiti stencil up the side of the hat for a fun, tough look.  (It comes in a pack with other great stencils.)

 

3) Make your own patch.  I stenciled a number or letter on fabric, cut it out and sewed it on.

 

 

4) Use existing graphics from old clothing.  I cut out these cute little motorcycles from an old shirt and sewed them on.

 

 

5) Don’t forget to floss.  I love to use embroidery floss to do some random, messy stitiching here and there.  (Like on the red hat.)

 

Well, that’s it.  I think that’s all you need to know to whip up your own upcycled sweater hats.  It’s time for me to head out.  Oh, and if you’d like to see another style of an upcycled boy hat to try out I made some from t-shirts HERE. 

 

Thank you so much for having me, Kari.  You are all welcome to stop by my place anytime.  Have a fabulous day!   -Cheri

The post Brimmed Beanie Hat Tutorial appeared first on U Create.

So the idea for these Jersey Style T-Shirts came as I was thinking about how to create teams for our Kids Olympics Party.  I finally decided against teams, but wanted to differentiate between families {like countries at the Olympics}.  The idea was born to just make t-shirts with each child’s name. In order to create the “jersey look” the shirt needed a number, so I chose to use their grandchild birth order number…that way no one could argue about their number. 

Supply List:

• dollar store white t-shirts
• fabric spray paint
• freezer paper as a stencil for the “jersery”
• cereal box
• cardstock
• small fan {or patience}
• optional: Silhouette Cameo Craft Cutter

Instructions:

I purchased 16 shirts from my local dollar store.  They are usually imperfect shirts being sold there, but I didn’t care because it wasn’t meant to be used for anything beside the party.

I found this incredible Simply Spray Soft Fabric Spray Paint at Wal-mart for about $4.  It was perfect for the purpose of creating these shirts.  The end result is not crusty and uncomfortable.  The paint actually dries soft!

With a digital craft cutter {I used my Silhouette Cameo} or an x-acto knife create the “jersey’” stencil design with the freezer paper and iron it on the back of the shirt.

Create a paint guard to catch the overspray of the fabric paint by disassembling a cereal box and cutting out a rectangle.  Use painters tape to secure it to the freezer paper you have already ironed on. I used my paint guard on every shirt…that’s 16 times and it held up very well.

With your freezer paper stencil and paint guard securely attached, slide a piece of cardstock or cardboard between the shirt.  This just ensures the paint doesn’t soak into the front of the shirt.  Now you are ready to shake the paint can and spray on the paint.  With the Simply Spray product, I found it best to get plenty of distance between the can and the shirt or the paint would go on too thick. After spraying the paint, dab the excess off with a paper towel then remove the paint guard followed by the freezer paper stencil.

Then I hung the shirt on a hanger and pointed my little fan at it while I worked on the next shirt.  When the next shirt was done usually the one in front of the fan was already dry!

After about 2 hours, I was done with all the shirts and left them hanging on the blinds until the end of the day…just to ensure they were 100% dry.  A couple days later I added a personal touch to the front of each shirt…you can find that tutorial here.

The day of the party, I arrange the shirts on a table and the kids ran to get them.  They were a huge hit!

I even made Grandma a shirt!  Instead of spraying hers with a color I used bleach.  I still used the exact same technique with the freezer paper and paint guard.

The post Jersey Style T-Shirt Tutorial appeared first on U Create.

{The colors are more vibrant when you iron them on the t-shirt.}

 Hang the shirts on hangers and spray the area you plan to iron with the Ink Effects spray for cotton fabric.  Let it dry and begin the ironing on process.

The kids loved seeing their creation on their t-shirts.  We had such a great time making these shirts.  These Ink Effects would be a great craft for the kids.  I totally recommend making this a summer project!

The post DecoArt Ink Effects {tshirt tutorial} appeared first on U Create.

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A little about me and my blog…I am mama to three little punks and wife to the biggest punk of them all.  Just kidding… hubby is actually very creative and handy, so needless to say, our household is one big project after another.  I love to blog about anything creative.  My posts mostly involve sewing, but I might throw in a few posts where I use some glue and may or may not include some bling.  Oh, and I love food, so I sprinkle in some recipes too.   I have alot of obsessions…We call them “my problems”.  Right now, I have a scarf problem.  You can see my most recent mania here, here and here  So, when Kari asked me to guest post, I knew what I was making, and I’m sure by now, you can make a wild guess too.  A Scarf!

Materials for one scarf: 1/2 yard fleece (you will have leftovers) Old Tshirts (I used 5) or use fabric scraps.  For my second scarf, I used scrap corduroy too! Contrasting thread Coordinating Thread Basic Sewing Supplies

1.  Begin by opening up your fabric out and lay flat.  From selvedge end to selvedge end (usually 60 inches), cut a 10 inch strip

2.  Take your Tshirts and begin cutting them.  Make some straight cuts and diagonal cuts.  Make one side straight, the other side diagonal!   Make sure the diagonal cuts are longer than the 10 inch width to account for the angle.  I made my diagonals about 14 inches long because we will trim them later anyway.  You can always cut all your scraps extra wide so you don’t have a problem with cutting later

4.  Once you have your design chosen, begin sewing the patchwork together.  Working from one side, start with the second piece

5.  Place it RST on the end piece

6.  Sew with a 1/4″ seam allowance

     First seam sewn!  (betcha can’t say that 7 times real fast)

7.  Continue with the next piece, and keep it up until you have completed the design

8.  Here is what it will look like.  Be careful that your 10″ length scraps (if any) are all lined up so when you trim, they match up

9.  Now the fun part:  Create a free form pattern with a zig zag stitch in the solid colored Tshirt areas

Add a zig zag stitch in between seams too, for a bit of a rough look

Have fun with it and be creative.  Use different colored thread too!

11.  Trim the excess of the Tshirt patchwork so all the edges are even

12.  Pin in place, making sure to mark a spot to leave un-sewn for turning later

13.  Using a 1/4″ seam, sew around the entire scarf except for the marked opening

14.  Clip all four corners

15.  Turn the scarf right side out, pushing out corners to make them nice and straight

Thanks for having me Kari!  Stop by Living with Punks anytime 

The post Knit Patchwork Scarf Tutorial appeared first on U Create.

Thank you, Kari, for inviting me today.  It pretty much made my month!

My name is Sabra.  I’ve been married for ten years and have three little boys: 7, 4, and 2.  My family totally inspires my creativity, and I share my crafting adventures over at Sew a Straight Line.    A main section of my blog is sharing lessons I go through in my attempts to really learn how to sew.  I throw my other crafty stuff up there, too, when and as it happens.  I’d love to have you stop by and say hi.

One of my favorite things to make, even as a kid with just cardboard and glue, are costumes.  I love Halloween, but I think kids in costumes are adorable year-round.  Our costumes see nearly daily use by my kids and their friends.  For today, Kari asked me to share one of my tricks in creating a unique and fun costume.

First, a little history: Two years ago my then five-year-old announced that for Halloween he wanted to be He-Man.  His favorite bedtime book at the time was Masters of the Universe: The Sword of Skeletor, circa 1983, inherited from his father.  A total sucker for matching my children, I decided we’d do a whole Masters of the Universe theme.  But when it came time to make the costumes, I realized that He-Man is really just a naked guy in a pair of wooly briefs and a ton of muscles.  And though I’m sure my kid could have rocked the wooly briefs in what nature gave him, he was severely lacking in the muscle department.  After Googling and searching for ways to make muscles, and not finding anything not involving mixing my own latex, I just sucked it up and came up with my own way.
So here’s what I came up with for Halloween ’08:

5 Yr Old He-Man

Trace your muscles onto the Nu-Foam

Trim down as needed to acquire the desired shape

Take your washable glue stick and, one at a time, remove a muscle, apply glue where it will go, replace muscle on top of the glued area.

Repeat for all muscles, then let dry for about an hour

Lay the second, matching pattern piece on top

Using your zipper foot, butting up as close as you can to the muscles, sew around the entire outside area of the chest/torso muscle area



Stretch the top fabric as you go, making sure that the pattern pieces continue to match up  
     


This next picture is a bit risqué, but you need sew down the center of the pectorals, and then around each and all of the rest of the muscles    

At this point, I switched to a free motion foot because it’s my narrowest foot, and I had one. 
When I made the He-Man costumes, I didn’t have anything so fancy, and my zipper foot worked just fine.           



After you’ve gone around each of the muscles, you’ll have this beauty of the human-ish form      
 


And you haven’t even broken a sweat. 

    
      Next year he wants to be a hamster.  Awesome.

But let’s say you have an already made shirt you want to use…

Flip the shirt wrong side out and glue the muscles down on the wrong side front (because of the size of the shirt I used, I had to go with some impromptu baby muscles)	Take a piece of knit, or other stretchy material, roughly the same size, and drape that over the muscles
Being careful not to catch the back of the shirt, and not to let the shirt bunch as you go, use your zipper foot to get as close as you can to the muscle area.	Sew all around the outside of the entire area
Trim the excess, being careful not to cut the shirt itself.	Then go back and define each muscle by sewing around each in turn.

 Flip right side out and strut your stuff.

 

 I hope this helps one or two of you with your costume-making this year. 

You can check out “Costumes” on my blog for other ideas from my kids’ Halloween and dress-up past (or click the running bat below).

The post Homemade Muscle Suit Tutorial appeared first on U Create.

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1/4 yd main fabric

1/4 yd co-ordinating fabric for reverse side of hat
optional: 1/2 yd fusible interfacing if your fabric is lightweight or you want extra stiffness in your hat (1/4 yd needed if interfacing only one side of hat)
Heat n Bond scraps
Pattern pieces – ensure that your printer is not set to scale the document larger or smaller before you print :).
Click here to download the pattern pieces for the hat.

Directions:

Note: All seam allowances are 1/2″.

1. Cut out fabrics and interfacing (optional) as marked on pattern pieces. When cutting interfacing, cut pieces 1/2″ smaller on all sides of pattern pieces.

2. If using interfacing, iron to wrong side of corresponding fabric pieces. For the hat pictured, I chose to interface only one side of the reversible hat (which means I only cut 2 of each piece out of interfacing instead of 4 as marked on the pattern pieces).

5. Clip top of hat band every 3/4″. Make sure that your cuts are less than 1/2″ long.

6. Right sides together, pin top edge of band to main fabric crown piece, matching raw edges. To mark the crown piece into quarters before pinning, I like to “finger press” it by folding it in half and then in half again and giving it a good pinch. It saves time and my home-ec teacher in high school even taught me it so it’s totally legit :).

7. Stitch pinned band to crown, stretching the clipped edge to match the curved crown edge as you go. Press seam toward center of crown and turn hat right side out.

8. Right sides together, pin and stitch brim pieces of main fabric together at sides, matching raw edges. Press seams open.

9. Clip top edge of brim every 1″. Make sure that your cuts are less than 1/2″ long.

9. Right sides together, pin and stitch top of brim to bottom of band, matching raw edges. Press seam open.

10. Assemble reverse side of hat by repeating steps 3-9 with co-ordinating fabric.

11. Right sides together, pin two sides of hat together at bottom rim, matching side seams and raw edges. Stitch pieces together at pinned edge, leaving a 4″ gap for turning the hat right side out.

12. Turn hat right side out, placing one side of hat inside the other. Press bottom edge of brim flat, pressing raw edge of opening under 1/2″. Topstitch near bottom pressed edge around entire brim and again 1/4″ from edge. If you like, you can continue topstitching parallel rows 1/4″ apart to the top of the brim.

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