Sewing With Nancy

What can you sew in 30 minutes? As examples, I can probably put in a zipper set-in a sleeve, maybe serge a few seams or stitch a few quilt blocks. If you ask my guest that same question she would say that in 30 minutes she could sew complete skirts, stitch a top or create a pair of pants, of doll clothes. Welcome back, Joan Hinds to our program on 30"-minute Doll Clothes" where designer doll clothes are easy with these fast techniques. Welcome, Joan. Thank you, Nancy, it's good to be back. Sewing doll clothes doesn't need to be so complicated at all. Let's start the show with a playtime ensemble. Playtime is imagination time. Your little girl and her doll will go on all sorts of adventures while you supply the wardrobe. "30-Minute Doll Clothes" that's what's coming up next on Sewing with Nancy. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman

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Baby Lock, a complete line of sewing, quilting, and embroidery machines and sergers. Baby Lock, for the love of sewing. Madeira, specializing in embroidery, quilting, and special effect threads because creativity is never black and white. Koala Studios fine sewing furniture custom-built in America. Clover making a difference in sewing, quilting, crafting, and needle arts for over 90 years. Fuller Brush Vacuums, dedicated to keeping homes clean. Fuller Brush Vacuums. Amazing Designs and Klass needles. We'll take a close-up look of the playtime outfit that Joan designed. It's a cross-over top with a little rick rack along the edges. Joan, these are easy to sew. Absolutely. The top is sleeveless. The top is also lined which makes it a lot easier than with a facing. It is, on such a small piece. Right. The little pants, shorts or leggings are all made the same way. Absolutely. You can lengthen them or shorten them to your liking to whatever wardrobe needs you have. The first thing you do is cut out two pants pieces. They're interchangeable, the front and the back. The next step is to stitch the center front seam. You'd use 1/4" seam allowances. Right, on all the sewing, correct. Then, the top and bottom edges are serged. We're going to make a casing by flipping the top edge to the wrong side and stitching. You pressed under about 3/4" and then stitched 1/2" from the edge. We used some darker thread so you can see that. I'll find the bodkin. Use a narrow elastic. We're working small scale. Right. It's about 11" of elastic that you need. If you like to have a longer piece to hang onto you can put a dot wherever you need to stop. We have a dot so you don't have such a small piece and losing the tail. Yes, that's happened many times. You start threading it through. When you get to the other side-- I'll get some pins ready. As we mentioned throughout the series these are cute outfits yet you don't have to spend hours creating the sewing. Exactly. You'd stitch, but we'll secure it with a pin. Do the same on the other end. Find that little dot and secure the elastic. The casing is finished. Everything is flat. It would be hemmed at this point. You also apply the trim. The trim here is put on about an inch above. You just cut lengths of rick rack and stitch them on. Then, when both sides are done you would fold the pieces together and stitch the center back seam. That should hold the elastic. This has that center back seam stitched. You just reposition it and do the final stitching. Right, all in one. That's the inseam, from leg to leg. You're not sewing in the round, these little pieces. Right. You have another outfit, Comfy Weekender you call it with shorts and a top. I'll show you knit top techniques in a little bit but these shorts are made in the same manner. Right, it's the same pattern piece. It's just cut shorter. If you use flannel fabric then it can be for sleeping. Okay, make believe sleeping! There you go. This little top, as we mentioned, was lined. Joan, if you would say to someone who is a beginner sewer that you're going to line this they may think, "I'm not going to make that." But this is easy to create and much easier than if you didn't have it lined. Yes, what it is is it's eight sections all together. You would have four for each half. You need four fronts and four backs. This is the cross-over section. We have the pairs stitched together at the shoulder. Then you meet right sides together. Then it's stitched around the front and the back and the center back edges, the armhole and the bottom edges, as well. Probably the thing that takes the longest is turning it right side out. I'm just going to use a turner to help with the process. Everything is turned through the shoulder seam. Correct. I'll just grab an end. This helps me invert one over the other. It's a funny looking notion but it really makes turning through that narrow shoulder seam a lot easier. Now you'll need a little pressing. Right, now you need to manipulate it a little bit and you'll get the flat pieces. Then you can start trimming it with rick rack. We've done some pressing on our next pattern pieces, our next fabric pieces. And presto, we have two pieces. Would you show us how this is assembled? You would cross it right over left just like that. I'll pin this for you. The fronts are completed. Then all you do is just turn the backs down to meet the side seams and stitch. Sew through all of these layers. Right. Quite a few, you're going to stitch. As we look at the finished little top Joan serged this edge and clean finished it. You can see how, really, it's perfect for doll clothes. In the last episode of "30-Minute Doll Clothes" we showed this little dress. It had a Bolero jacket with it. This Bolero jacket is made with the same concept. This will be another pattern piece. Absolutely, the same way. This one is much simpler because the pieces are much smaller. There is just a shoulder seam and underarm seam. You mentioned that if you had used black thread this could almost be reversible. Right, just stitch the seam down. It probably could be reversible the way it is now! So with our Playtime outfit and our little Bolero jacket whichever way you'd like to wear it for the little girl in your life dressing her doll these are cute, fast and very durable. A little girl can get her doll dressed for the first day of school in a coordinating red, white and blue outfit. The vest, top, and skirt each take 30 minutes or less to stitch. The sewing is made simple with flat construction tips. Nancy will show you how to use your serger to simplify the sewing steps. If you have a serger and you haven't used it creating doll clothes is the perfect time to introduce yourself to the wonders of working with a serger. When working with doll clothes, it is very secure. It also clean finishes the edge. As in this little jacket Joan made for the School Days outfit it's perfect, and can almost be serged completely. For the t-shirts there are many different styles of t-shirts that you can create with puffed sleeves, short sleeves, long sleeves. It really doesn't matter the sewing is all the same. These are just some of the little outfits. A little bit of fabric, a little time and a lot of fun for a special little girl in your life. Through this two-part series we've been referring to finishing the edges with a serger. Don't hesitate to do that because it will save a lot of time just by running it through a three- or four-thread and clean finishing the edges. You could also use it for construction. I'm going to review how to use it when working with these little t-shirts. Knits and sergers are a perfect pair. You do have much smaller pattern pieces than you would, of course when working with an adult size. The neckline is what I'm going to work with first. The neckline pattern piece for the ribbing is just a little bit over an inch. You're going to sew or serge, it doesn't matter, sew the ends together. Sew the short ends together, turn it right side out and meet the cut edges. The neckline-- You've serged or stitched the shoulder seam of the front to the back. Turn under the edges at the back. Remember, all of our backs have those easy hook and loop tape closures. You align the edge finish of the neckline and the center back of the garment. Quarter the area or half it, it doesn't matter. The neckline piece is smaller than the neck of the top. Stretch one to meet the other. I'm using contrasting thread. Of course, you would use thread that matches the fabric. Using this technique, you serge it all at once. Notice where I have my pins. I like to have my pins parallel to the cut edge rather than perpendicular so you don't have any chance of serging over those pins. Serge around the edge, just keep on serging. You're not having to sew it into a circle because you're sewing this with all flat construction. Then as you end it you can secure those edges, of course. But when you have matching thread you simply bring it up to the fullest position. Another option is to put the sleeves in again, in the flat construction. The sleeves in this particular style are gathered or ruffled. The edge has a little gathering. We just simply stitched through the elastic but you can use your serger to gather the top. If you would like to tighten your needle tension-- My needle tensions are automatic I'm going to tighten the differential feed so the fabric is biting a little bit more than normal and it will gather it. I'm going to start to sew without the differential feed change then as you can see, I'm going to change it and it will gather it. I'm using a different color fabric but you will soon see that this will gather it. You attach the sleeve to the shirt meeting right sides together in the flat area. I'm just going to pin this for you. You can see you have this little gathered sleeve. You'd meet the center to the center and you'd just serge it flat. When you do that, the last step is to sew or serge, in this instance, the side seam. You can hem it first, or you can hem it last it really doesn't matter. But with your serger, your doll clothes can be made durable and quickly. There are three criteria for doll clothes in my book. Cute, easy to make and durable. This Jiffy Jumper fits all the benchmarks with ease. Flat construction, fusing and serging are components for success. When you look at a close-up of Joan's little jumper and knit top Joan, I just showed how to make a knit top and this one follows the same process. When you made this jumper, you have the traditional hook and loop tape closure in the back. You didn't do a lot of stitching on the decorative trim. No, I did not. There's no reason with doll clothes why you can't just fuse on trims. Quarter-inch ribbon works perfectly well with paperbacked fusible web. What I chose to do are two strips in the center and a long one across the middle. I would start placing these, just a little bit off-center. Peel this piece off. Fusible web, if it's pressed properly, will stay. That's right. And even if it doesn't, if you feel insecure you can stitch it if you want. But this works so much faster. That little corduroy fabric that you're working with is real sweet. Then you would just take the third piece here and make sure it's straight. We can go ahead and fuse that one on as well. That's the fusing part of making this outfit. If you want to, certainly feel free to stitch it. Then on the next sample it shows some of the following steps. Right, after the trim has been fused then I just serged around. I did the shoulder seams first then I serged around the armholes and the neckline. Then I got one side here where I have turned that edge under. Just take your iron and press it under. Then just stitch around it under the sewing machine. The serged edge really makes it easy to do the turning. You just turn it along that 1/4" seam allowance. That's the facing that you would normally have in adult-sized clothes. You'd finish the neckline with that serge technique the armhole, then you finish it. Then I would need to do the center back seam. I would stitch it up to a point that's marked on the pattern piece. It's about right here. Then I press the seam allowances open and finish them separately. Here we have the finished garment. Some of your garments have been open all the way to the hem. This one, you decided to have a little closure. Because there's more room you were able to turn under with a serger and then topstitch the hem. I can see why you can make a jumper in 30 minutes or less, even from cutting it out. That's right, it goes really fast. The knit shirt that I just showed you did not have long sleeves so we have variations in the patterns. Yes, the sleeves are just a little bit longer. They're made the same way as the lighter pink one. All you do is finish this edge. Presto, it's done! Two ensembles can be made in a very short period of time. Your little girl can dress her doll for Sweet Dreams after you make a simple nightshirt out of inches of fabric. We have a few helpful hints to assist you in streamlining the sewing process. So far, we've worked with knit fabrics and a lot of cotton fabrics but you may have some leftovers in your sewing stash that are a littler slippery. Right, this one is a flannel-backed satin. The flannel back does give it a little more stability. Perfect for a nightshirt, but it's a little slippery so we have some sewing hints. Joan has some sewing hints that she can pass along to you. The first thing you do is cut out the front and the back pattern pieces. Then you stitch the shoulder seams here. Because this fabric does ravel I do suggest finishing the edges. I've serged around all the edges for the front and back. You could use a zigzag stitch, if you didn't have a serger. Exactly. You have a curved hem. It seemed to resemble the nightgowns that girls wear so I wanted to create that as well. What I've started doing on this side is after the serging to take some paperbacked fusible web and placed that along the edge here. You've pressed that on already. Yes, I pressed that. I'm peeling off the paper to here. There's a little extra so I'm just going to break that off. What you need to notice from the pattern piece is there is a dot marked here because there will be a side seam. But the hem is free. Starting at that point, you would turn it over and start pressing. It takes a little manipulating here around the curve. I'll just go a little bit slower. But with the fusible web, it makes it a lot easier. Absolutely, it will stay. I would recommend stitching this one. You continue shaping the curve in that same fusible web technique. Because this is such a slippery fabric you may want to add a more secure binding around the neckline. This is simply pre-purchased bias tape. The very narrow width. Right. We added the paperbacked fusible web to that area. We fused it to that spot in the middle of the bias tape. Then you just need to get your fabric lined up. We'll turn it this direction. Then, once it's folded over the neckline you would take this and fuse it. Then you would go around and stitch it. So you can pre-"pin" it without using any pins. Definitely. One other little trim addition. You could turn under the armhole area but Joan, you chose to use some extra little frills in that area. Right, this is a pre-gathered trim. It is stitched on the sleeves. We've got one finished here. This one is simply about 4-1/2" of pre-gathered trim. I just centered it along the armhole. I tapered the ends so that they extend beyond. Your unfinished edges will be trimmed off. Then on this side, you turned it to the inside. You could stitch it and topstitch from the right side. The last step is to make it a whole unit. Exactly, so now you're going to fold it in half. You've got your little markings this one here, and you would just stitch the side seams just like that. Finally, we always have a little hook and loop tape at the end to overlap and do the closure. Yes. When we were little girls we didn't have that kind of easy closure. This is really great. It's a very quick technique. During our last Nancy's Corner segment Enchanted Makeovers founder, Terry Grahl shared with us how volunteers transform often sterile shelters and rescue missions into very inviting surroundings and then how we can help by creating pillowcases for the residents. Terry is back with us today to encourage us to sew for the kids who are staying in shelters creating capes, capes that give superpowers the ability to tap their imaginations. Welcome back to Sewing with Nancy, Terry. You started a great thing in what year was it? 2007. Transforming women's and children's shelters and making them homelike and giving them new pillowcases, quilts, bedding. Handmade curtains, the whole thing. Handmade is your mantra. Yeah. You had a great analogy-- Not analogy, but explanation why you stress handmade. Well, I just believe that with handmade that creator that is making that pillowcase or the doll, that their love and the positive energy is going into that item and that's part of the healing process for the women and children. Many women and children in shelters have not had the opportunity of having something handmade and given to them. No, they haven't. What a positive thing you're allowing. I think it's full circle for everyone for the giver, too. I often say the gift is in the giving. Yes. Very much so. The gifts that are talking about during this segment are toys, specifically dolls for the girls that are in the shelters. And boys, too. There's a boy pattern doll. It can be any doll. Anything that the crafter, sewer wants to make. This cute little one, you pointed out is especially important for little girls because it doesn't have any button eyes. Yes, embroidered or painted faces are safer. This makes you smile when you see this little doll, doesn't it? Yes. Then we talked earlier in the opening about capes. Here's a photo of the capes that you have taken. Why did you start talking about and asking for capes? Well, it actually was a segment I saw on "Oprah" about a gentleman that said how his mother said that "no Superman was going to come save you." I knew that the children needed to have a cape to say that you can do it, to give them a positive outlook. When my boys were little they often had capes for Halloween or dress up. They're fun. Imagination, creativity. Yes, the power of the imagination. If you're not in your home you're in a home away from home this definitely could give you some positive energy some positive thinking. Yes, you say, "I can do it." "I can get through this." You have cape instructions on the Enchanted Makeovers website. It's not very difficult stitching. No, not at all. We like the Velcro, just for safety reasons. It's sure fun. Then we have another one for a little girl. There we go, cute. This one has a star on it. You don't have to place an "S" if you don't like it. You told a story of a little girl who was given a cape. Yes, we did a special event at the shelter. It was in Detroit. One of the girls received a cape. She made sure she wore it to bed every night. And the pillowcase, she didn't want to put on her pillow. She wanted it on the wall for a piece of artwork. This tells you how important this is for the women and the children, to receive handmade. You know, probably a cape like this takes maybe two yards of fabric at most and maybe an evening of sewing, or less. You could certainly make one of these very simple. But it looks fun. I mean, if I were little again, it would be great to wear. Oh, yes. When the kids put them on, it's amazing the confidence and how good they feel about themselves. What some fabric can do what some stitching, and some volunteering it's an amazing thing. You can transform lives. Transform lives just giving encouragement through fabric. I think that's an important thing. We encourage you, as Sewing with Nancy viewers to make a cape.

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NancyZieman.com It has everything Sewing with Nancy. You can click on Nancy's Corner, and under the 2500 series you'll find the link to Enchanted Makeovers. Also at NancyZieman.com you can watch current Sewing with Nancy programs online. You can re-watch this episode, if you'd like. Then you can read my blog for updates on sewing, quilting and embroidery. This concludes our two-part series on "30-Minute Doll Clothes." We thank our guest, Joan Hinds for being with us during this two-part series. Also, Terry, thank you for joining us. and for telling us your encouraging stories. We always thank you for watching. Bye for now. Nancy and Joan Hinds have written a fully-illustrated book entitled "30-Minute Doll Clothes" that includes all the information and patterns from this two-part series. It's $14.99 plus shipping and handling. To order the book, call 1-800-336-8373

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sewingwithnancy.com/2512 Order item number BK2512, "30-Minute Doll Clothes." Credit card orders only. To pay by check or money order call the number on the screen for details. Visit Nancy's website at NancyZieman.com to see additional episodes, Nancy's blog, and more. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program

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