DIY FABRIC BABY SANDALS

I’ve made all kinds of projects with my Silhouette and I figured it was time I tried out some shoes.  There is an adorable pattern for some little Mary Jane shoes for babies that I bought a while ago from the online store.  But since its summer I thought…why not try making a pair of sandals!  It did require a little bit of editing but it wasn’t too crazy.  Here’s what I did…..

• Open the shape and delete everything but the soles.
• These are made with a seam allowance so you need to remove it.  I did an internal offset of .25″ and used that new shape and deleted the original sole.
• I made a line that was .5″ long and duplicated it so I had 6.
• I decided where I wanted the straps and the ribbon to go through and placed the .5″ lines in those positions about 1/4″ away from the edge on just one of the soles.
• Group these lines with the sole.
• Select the pattern or color that you want for that sole.
• Now do a mirror duplicate of the sole and you will have two soles that are identical.  This is way easier than trying to do the adjustments to both soles and trying to get them to match.
• With the other sole that you have you will cut this out without the lines for the straps (it is the bottom of the shoe.) Make sure to mirror duplicate it as well.
• I made a rectangle for the straps that is  .5″x 4.75″.  You will need to cut 8 of these.
• Using the sole that doesn’t have the strap lines on it, make one more internal offset that is about .125″ in.  I cut this out of adhesive cardstock and put it between the two sole pieces to make it a little sturdier.  Mirror duplicate this shape too.  We need a left and right for all of the sole pieces.

• Cut the souls and the straps out of the printable cotton canvas.  Cut the inner sole out of adhesive cardstock.  You can use regular cardstock also, I just figured the more adhesive the better!
• I stuck 2 straps sticky sides together and top stitched the edges.  This leaves you with 4 straps.
• Poke the straps and ribbon through the cut lines on the top sole and hot glue them in place on the back.

• Cover the ribbon pieces with the inner sole.
• Stick the bottom sole on that and top stitch around the edge.
• I added some puff paint for traction to the bottom, but really these sandals are more ideal for babies that don’t know how to walk yet.

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Shapes used:

• baby shoes 6-12 months
• fourth (pattern)

PANTS REFASHION

Happy summer!  By now most of the schools are out and there are happy little kids running through the neighborhoods.  I love summer time and this project is perfect for the beginning of summer!  My niece had a pair of pants that she had loved and worn out during the school year.  Her mother was about ready to throw them out when I asked if I could create some Silhouette magic with them.

• I cut off the pants and hemmed them for shorts.
• I wanted to try out the stamp material on fabric with fabric ink.  I was going for a grunge/faded look and it worked perfectly!
• I also had to add rhinestones to dress it up a bit so the shorts didn’t look too old and worn.

Here are the before and after pictures…

Here is a product shot so you can see the stamp block I used and the rhinestone template. (I always cut several designs on the rhinestone fabric to save on materials.)

How will you recreate your kids old school clothes into fun new summer clothes?  I’d love to see it!

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Shapes used:

• flourish swirls (rhinestone)
• chevron (it was a free shape that came with the Portrait)

SIDEKICK SHIRT

Father's day is coming up!  This is my husband's first year as a dad so I wanted to make him a fun gift that I knew he would love.  He likes superhero shirts, so I thought it would be fun to make him a custom shirt.  He has shirts for quite a few superhero's but no sidekicks.  As parents I feel like we are both superhero's and also each others sidekicks.  So yep, that's how I tied it all together.

• I cut the black shadow using a dull satin.  I was interested to see how well the Silhouette CAMEO would cut satin.  With the sewable fabric interfacing it did great!  I did a double cut just to be safe.  Even though it was a dull satin I didn't want it to look too feminine so I used the wrong side as the right side of the fabric.  I was afraid that it would fray a bit after it went through the wash so I used a lighter to slightly melt the fraying edge.  (Be safe when melting edges!  I always do it over a sink full of water.)
• I used the silver heat transfer material for the R.  Remember to mirror the image for heat transfer material.

My husband and I have never been good at waiting for the actual holiday to give gifts.  So I asked him to model the shirt for me.  He loves it!