Newsboy Hats for the Girls

The girls have been asking for their own newsboy hats since I made one for N.  It was only a week ago, but I figured I'd better make them while the pattern was fresh in my mind.  Besides, these would look cute with their Easter outfits.

Here's the infant-sized one I made for N.

For his Easter outfit, he will wear the corduroy-side out, but the farm print is cute, too.  I love that these are completely reversible.

I chose a striped fabric for one side of the girls' hats and let them choose a fun print that they wanted for the other side.

I figure that I can have them wear the matching side for Easter with their outfits, and the other side they can wear whenever they want.

As you can see, I added a nice, big, purple bow on the front of the more neutral side of the hat.  I used a safety pin to attach it so that it can be removed when the girls wear the hat on the print side.

Unbelievably, it was E who chose that purple fabric.  Wonder of all wonders.  I can't believe she didn't choose PINK!!

Especially because for her other side she chose...wait for it...PINK! :)

H has just decided that her favorite color is orange.  So she searched through the fabric until she found something bright with lots of orange.

 This is my first time making hats, so I'm excited with how they turned out!  The only thing left for the kiddos' Easter outfits is pants for N.  Whew!

Then it's on to my dress.  I'm a little doubtful it will get done, but we shall see!

Easy Fabric Flower Tutorial

I decided to make my girls shirts to go along with their twirly skirts for Easter.

Fortunately, my husband had 2 shirts the exact same blue color that he was getting rid of.

 So...much like their Christmas dresses, I made Easter blouses from some old dress shirts.

I used the same pattern, but kept it short for shirt length instead dress length.  I also had the girls choose fabric that had been used in their skirts so that they would coordinate.

I thought the shirt by itself was cute, but missing something.  So I made a flower to add to it.

It was exactly what I was looking for as a finishing touch.

The flower was super easy.  

Here's how I made it:

Materials:

Scraps of fabric

Scissors

coordinating thread

Button (larger in size)

Step 1: Cutting

You will need 10 half circles in order to make this flower.

Mine have a diameter of 3" and a radius of 1.5".  I cut out each half circle individually, but it probably would have been easier to cut 5 circles (each 3" in diameter) and then cut them in half.  You can make your flower smaller or larger by decreasing or increasing your diameter.

However you do it - make sure you end up with 10.

Step 2: Sewing

Put 2 half-circles with right sides together and sew around the curved edge.

Repeat for remaining petals.

Clip the curve of each petal every 1/4" or so.

Turn petals right-side out.

Press.

Step 3: Attaching and Gathering Petals

Set your machine to sew a gathering stitch.

Sew across the bottom, straight edge of a petal.  Without breaking thread, continue to sew a gathering stitch across the bottom of the remaining 4 petals.

Now all of your petals should be connected.

Pull on the ends of the thread to start gathering the fabric.

Pull until the petals are bunched nice and tightly and form a circle.

Step 4 - Attaching the flower to the shirt

Place the flower where you want it on your shirt.

Tack it in place by hand.

Take a button.  I used one of these.

  You will want a larger-sized button in order to cover all of the raw edges in the middle of the flower.

Sew through all layers and through the button.  Make sure the button and flower are on nice and tightly.

And there you have it!  A beautiful flower to embellish any shirt or dress. 

I think it adds just the right touch.

And here is the other shirt.

Now to work on something for their brother. :)