Tara Miller Designs

Sun Hats from Christmas

We went on a beach vaction early in April with extended family including some of Devon's cousins. I gathered since she was gettting a cool new hat from my Oliver+S book gifted to me over Christmas, that I should put my rotary cutter to the test and cut out 4 (1 for D plus 3 for her cousins) and set to work. The cutting was the easy part and making Devon's was super easy too. Her medium size hat went together like pie (hmm, I could go for some pie!) but the 3 larges didn't. The hang up was stitching the top of the sides. The top of the hat was just too big. So I grabbed my medium pattern piece and it fit perfectly. Not sure how this mix up happened but in the future I marked the medium piece: "Med/Large". Once I had that figured out the rest of the hats fell into place. The results were amazing and an equally big hit.

The red and pink is one hat and the dark blue and light blue are another and the spider/octogon are the last of the cousin hats. The last is Devon's floral and sort of abstract in green and pink. She wears it all the time and I can honestly attest to that considering I made them over a month ago!

Drowning in Fabric Scraps

I have more scraps than I can handle, especially considering I just cleaned out the studio closet. I am marking fabric scrap grab bags in my shop 20% so stock up until they are gone! Use the coupon code: Springclean20

 

 

2011 Loose Ends

So I have a tendancy to say I am going to do things on the blog and then do them but forget to write about the turn out later. This post (a a few to follow) is an effort to tie up these loose ends from projects in 2011.

Tea dying (also coffee dying) This did not turn out well. I even left it to sit overnight and the color is only slightly different. I don't recommend it since it is messy with minimal results. I am going to work on bleaching in 2012 so stay tuned. 

Christmas projects round up:

From Mom!

For my SIL

For my mom, Devon's Lovey!

For my Brother

Camera Strap Covers for my Brother

For my Devon!

 

Cozy new friend

Remember that busted up blanket in my last post? Well, once I brushed her off and added the new bias trim the family is fighting over her. She is shining bright and loving the attention. Plus she really goes well with my new christmas pillow cover. Now I need to look around and see what else needs some bias trim...

Touching up an old friend

I purchased this good old blanket many years ago at a Home Good store and it has been through many a movie, sickness, quick runs out to get the paper and even a few diaper changes. I love this blanket since it is the perfect size. But it was starting to show it's age so I decided some TLC in the form of bias tape would do some wonders since the wear was concetrated on the edges. I opt for a red and white polka dot in 2 in. bias tape and within 30 minutes there was new life! keep your eyes open of oldies but goodies at your local thift stores and suit them up for yourself or a local charity!

Dyeing Fabric with Tea

 

During nap today, I dyed some muslin with tea. It was the least messy fabric dyeing I have ever dealt with and it smelled wonderful! I based it on some instructions I googled but in the end I eyeballed it all since I didn't have tea bags and I was working with 2 + yds of lightweight muslin. Teac dying will give your fabric an aged, vintage, antique look. I am planning on using the dyed fabric to make cafe curtains with a Greek Key trim as seen in Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts (love this book!)

I started by filling my sink with roughly a gallon of hot water and to that I added 9 tbsps of loose leaf tea (Mine of Ceylon Cherry which I hoped would add a bit of red but no dice). I then waited 5-7 min for the water to darken. I added the fabric to the tea and carfeully swished my fabric around until it was wet through. I let it soak for 30 min and then came back and swish and stired some more. I left the fabric for the rest of the afternoon until it was a good dark, antique color and then drained the water. I rinsed the tea leaves off a little and placed the wet fabric in the dryer (you can hang it outside as well) to dry.  As I type my fabric is still drying and I want to wait for the light of day to see the finished resulting color. Can't wait!

We've Moved

Hooray! After having our house on the market since April we have finally found a renter and have moved across town. Our new place is 10 min from Garrett's work and 20 min from my parents house. Perfectly situated. We moved just 2 weeks ago so creative production has been at a slow crawl but I am getting back up to speed. Of course I have still been doing my regular posting for Fabric.com's blog but I have some of my own things in the works. A few new knitting patterns are almost ready and I am in Home Decorating Mode (Red level). Our new place is zero property line so some of our windows look into our neighbor's back yard. While they do have a fine yard, I think we will be better neighbors with a few curtains up. I have sewn up some super cool Cafe Curtains for the mud room and am only waiting on the hardware to hang them. Then I am planning som cafe curtains/roman shade for the master bath and closet. It will be amazing and of course I will post pictures as they come. Now here a some links to some of mmy free projects over at blog.fabric.com

Halloween Dish Towels (pictured above)

Pumpkin Bucket Cover

Ellis Square Square Crochet Cowl & Hat Pattern

Tybee Coverup Knitting Pattern

Make your own Toggle Buttons

 
I recently completed the Cardigan Bay Jacket by Carol Fellers (Love her designs BTW) and needed some sizable buttons to complete the jacket. I purchased some 1 in. buttons from a local store just the fill the bill until I found some GREAT buttons. However, the 1 in. were just too small. So Devon and I journeyed to another store to look for toggle buttons. There was a small selection of toggles but they were all weird asymetrical shapes and the cost was sky high: $3.50 for 1 button and I needed 8). So I purchased a 3/4 in. square dowel, 36 in. long and planned to make my own. Here's how I made my own toggle buttons. 

1) Measure and cut your dowel into eight 2.5 in. long pieces. I used a hand saw and miter board. Don't saw on your picnic table, I set up on the grass.

                                               Sanded on Right, unsanded on Left


2) Sand the ends of your dowel until smooth (NO SNAGS) and lightly sand the remaining edges (I rounded the corners of all my sides)

3) Using a small drill bit (try a 5/32 or smaller) and drill 2 holes near the center and equally spaced. You can measure and mark the holes but I just used my eye. I didn't want perfection and like things that are a little off. Again becareful where you drill, I used the grass as my foundation

4) Lightly sand your holes. You can now paint, stain or varnish your buttons or leave them as is like mine. I had intended to stain them a dark cherry but found that after I had sanded I really liked the light wood tone. 

5) Sew on your buttons and check out your fast, easy and fun new buttons. My dowel cost $2, I made 8 buttons and I have 16 in. left over for more buttons versus $28 for 8 store bought buttons. Throw in a pint of stain or paint for $10 and you still save $16. 

Feel free to sell any button creations from this tutorial, just give me a link back. Enjoy!

 

Kid Tents- a double take

A recent birthday party got me back into the tent making game and I created a few shortcuts to make it painless to make these great kid toys!

1) get your self a 6 ft straightedge. I use a 1x4 that was used for a valance but now is reserved for an extra long straightedge. This will make it really easy to draw your cut lines. 

2) do not turn your raw edges under to make the rod pockets. This was too much ironing and too much hassle when sewing. I cut my tent with pinking shears and then leave the edges exposed. It looks great and is so much easier.

3) Because I cut with pinking shears, I also don't hem the top. This just shaves a little bit more time off and makes it that much easier. 

4) I use 1/2 in. PVC pipe because it is more bendy and thus fits into my car. The home improvements stores sell them in 10 ft lengths and don't cut them anymore so I had to bump it down from 3/4 in. to 1/2 in. but I have not noticed a difference in strength. This makes the rod pocket at 1 1/4 in. 

5) I use a strip of blue painters tape to mark my seam allowance for the rod pockets. The bright color makes it very easy for me to notice and keep my seams lined up. 

Round 3: Simplicity 2443

On more Simplicity 2443. I love this dress. I love the pockets (which are big enough to carry a sippy on walks with my little one, or my phone and keys to the store). I love that it is knit and super comfy. I love that it is still a bit sexy. I love how simple it is too. Also, I love how it works with some many fabrics. My latest is for Fabric.com's blog and it in Michael Miller Interlock. This is a thicker fabric so I recommend trying on as you go and then wearing. I found that I needed to take out the zipper, cut a smaller size and deepen my darts. I am in the process of ripping out the zipper and reducing the size a bit and refitting the the darts. I hope to have pictures next week. The fabric is awesome but fits like jeans- it stretches a bit with wear so I recommend cutting a smaller size than you wear in lighter weight jerseys. It will stretch to fit you better. 

You can find all the info you need for my darts, modifications and the ruffle on Fabric.com's blog.