Sleepy Saturday Sewing

In one week, the weather here has gone from nice to rainy to flooding to nice to super nice to hot.  Today it is cool and very windy.  While E and my husband went out this morning I sneaked upstairs and made a pot holder to coordinate with a hand towel I had made a while back.  

The weather has nothing to do with the sewing.  I just can't hear anything else right now except the wind whipping against the roof in this attic room.

For the towel, I just used a strip of fabric from a jelly roll I've had for a while.  The towel was an extra from the Christmas towels I made.

For the potholder, I loosely followed a tutorial from Craftzine.com.  The only obvious difference is that I did a diagonal quilting stitch, rather than horizontal or vertical.  The fabric was left over from an apron I made for myself.

If you would like to see better details, just click on the pictures to make them larger.

I got done just in time to eat lunch and take a nap.  :)

Happy Saturday! 

Pattern Testing

Warning: This post may (read: will) include a large number of links. I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself.


Hmm...who is that hiding under my new slipcover??

Several months ago, I was asked to do a pattern testing for Jona at Stop Staring and Start Sewing. (Actually...I volunteered myself, and she graciously accepted.)

The pattern was for a folding chair slipcover. The pattern printed out great, the instructions were easy to follow, and I was SO happy with the final product I knew I needed to share. I must also mention that Jona is so sweet and put up with my never ending questions like a pro!

You can see my complete product over on Jona's blog post (I think you'll recognize the fabric from the picture above). I must have deleted my copy of those pictures when I backed up my pictures last week. The pattern is available for sale in her Fabritopia shop (that link will take you right to the pattern, but PLEASE browse her store. She has wonderful fabrics!).

I've been reading her blog since the beginning of my sewing/craft blog obsession almost a year ago. This is the post (an apron in an hour?? why didn't I think of that?!?) that got me hooked. I should confess that I have not made this apron yet, but I knew that anyone with the smarts to do a tutorial for such a thing should be in my Google Reader!

I loved being a pattern tester. I wish I could find a job as a full time pattern tester. How much fun would that be?? My only complaint about pattern testing was that my 2 year-old was underfoot the whole time. I must consider hiring a nanny when I get my pattern-tester job.

Buttercup Bag

I finished my Buttercup Bag!

(the fabric I found at Hobby Lobby, by the way. Of course...)

It was super easy, super quick, and (if I do say so myself) super cute.

The only change I made to the original pattern was adding a sew-in interfacing to the lining.

It is quite small, but I think it will be a great bag for a date night or girls' night out. You know, when I don't have to carry around diapers, wipes, or other baby paraphernalia. ;)

All my thanks to Made By Rae for making this great pattern available!

Wrist Pin Cushion

In my Post Christmas To Do List, I mentioned that I wanted to make a ruffled scarf. My first, second, and third attempts were all FAILS. Miserable. I am putting away the elastic thread for a while until I can look at it without wanting to curse.

Blah. That's how I feel about elastic thread right now.

On to happier news--the wrist pincushion was a huge success. I love it. It's cute. Etc, etc.
(Bring on the pictures!!)















(Don't you love my multipurpose IKEA task light/picture prop? You know you want one.)
















I embroidered a little "C" so no one will steal it. (See that tomato pin cushion in the background of the first picture? I'm going to save the strawberry off of it and THROW IT AWAY! That is how much I love this.)















I cut a small square out of a box (incidentally, a ThermaCare box) to put in it so I wouldn't stick myself. I bent the corners just a bit to make it easier to stuff inside. It made the hand-sewing very easy when I stitched the opening closed.

I got this fabric out of the remnant bin at Hobby Lobby (the remnant bin and I have a love-love relationship). It probably cost around $1.50. I have enough left to make my whole family 3 of these apiece. (Not that they would want one. Or need one for that matter...)



Moving on...

I downloaded the Buttercup pattern off the Made By Rae site a few days ago. Here's a sneak peak as to what I'm going to do with that...

















Looks like my list might get completed after all! (with exception of the ruffle scarf...which we don't need to talk about.)

Happy Days!

Christmas Sewing Marathon 2009

How should I start this post?

I've been sooo busy this holiday season! (No, everyone has been busy this holiday season, silly)

I don't know what to say except that I've been busy busy at my sewing machine. And cutting table (a.k.a. the kitchen table). AND the ironing board. A few boxes of ThermaCare self-heating pads later, I was pleased (relieved, ecstatic, etc.) to be finished.

I made these:
One apron each (fully lined, I might add!) for my mom, 2 sisters, 2 nieces, and my daughter (because she loves aprons and would feel left out if I didn't make her one to open with the rest of the girls). I truly enjoyed the monotonous procedures of making so many things of one kind (weird, right?), but I wish I had started them earlier. I gave myself about a month to make all of these. It almost proved to be impossible.






I also made these:




One monogrammed dishtowel for each household in my husband's family. Nine all together. I tied them to the top of a Christmas tin filled with sweets we made together. (Please ignore my sad, hand-me-down table we were wrapping gift on. We have been gifted one from my mother-in-law whenever we find time to pick it out.)

I love making things for other people, especially my family. It never feels like a chore, and it allows me to focus on doing things I love, for the people I love. Win win I believe.

Handing it WAY down

This sweater has been hanging in my closet for years. Probably 3 years to be more precise. I liked it when I bought it (really, I did!), but it seemed so trendy and preppy at the time that I could never bring myself to wear it. So it hung there.

I had an itch to sew the other night, and about 45 minutes to do it in, so I went on a scavenger hunt in the house. I found the sweater and decided to make it into a sleeveless tunic that E could wear over leggings and a long sleeve shirt.

I ripped the stitches that were holding the fake button up collar on, then cut a shape I thought might work (can you tell I didn't really have a plan??). The v-neck and the ribbed bottom stayed the same. All I had to sew were the side seams, armhole seams, and the back of the neck seam.

Easy.

Quick.

Instant gratification.

And besides a bit of altering to the shape (so I can get rid of the bubble butt I gave her when I sewed this), this is totally wearable.

And it freed up some room in my closet :).

Happy Birthday Baby

Well, I suppose she's not my baby anymore, now that she's 2... but she still likes to pretend she's a baby, so that's good enough for me!



I worked on this birthday banner for a couple of months, an hour or two at a time. It was a project that I wanted to last for a long time, so I ripped, cut, sewed, ripped again, cut some more, and sewed again before I officially decided on a design.





In the end, it is almost exactly as I pictured. I may go back in the future and add actual fabric paint for the letters (I used fabric markers because of time constraints). I dunno... but I do have an entire year to figure it out!



I used good old quilting cotton from JoAnn's, some cotton twine, Crayola fabric markers, and wooden beads from Hobby Lobby. There were just enough beads of the colors I didn't use for the banner to make a necklace for "the baby" (which I believe, made her day when I gave it to her).

The Owl Dress

I found this remnant at JoAnn's last time I was there. I rarely even go there because it is so far away (Hobby Lobby is much closer), but I was so excited to find this corduroy covered in sweet little owls. The pinks, greens, and oranges offset the blue and brown in such a cute way that I just couldn't resist.

I finally decided to make E a dress out of this fabric. My first thought was to make a purse/bag for myself, but figured I would tire of the trendy owl pattern too soon to make it worth the work. Toddlers can get away with wearing anything!

The other fabulous thing about this remnant is that the bottom was already hemmed. Less work for me!

This is the very first garment I've ever done without a pattern, so I was extra nervous about that. After reading some fabulous blogs in the last few months, I finally felt confident enough to tackle this project.

I took a dress that E wore this summer (brand rhymes with Barter's ;P) and laid it out on the wrong side of the fabric and traced the front and back, respectively. I'm doing the top of the dress, the pockets, and the straps in a coordinating pink fabric.

This project is even giving me a chance to try out my button hole stitch for the very first time!! I am such a geek.

I'll have to update with a final picture when I finish it. I still need to do the straps, button holes :), buttons, and pockets. E has done multiple fittings for me and she loves it already!

Restyle Fail

I love the concept of restyling old clothes into new ones. It's incredibly eco-friendly, but even better than that--it's budget friendly. Heaven knows budget friendly is exactly what I need right now!

So I set out to try this t-shirt to ruffle cardigan first. How hard could it be? It went pretty smoothly until I tried to attache my ruffles to the cardigan. Here were my problems:

1. I couldn't get my ruffles evenly dispersed. No big deal, I thought, because they're ruffles. And it's a t-shirt. Doesn't have to look perfect. I moved on.

2. Once I got the ruffles attached and did the top stitching, I realized that the ruffles were still...moving around (for lack of a better term). I guess I should have used a stretch stitch.. I dunno.

3. I think the biggest issue was the kind of shirt I used. Too stretchy. Too little (should have just goodwilled it!).

There will be no pictures of this project. I'm adding it to the "do better next time" pile, and will cut the shirt up for cleaning rags. We live and learn!

Lunch Bag

School lunches went up to 3 bucks this year. THREE BUCKS! I'm pretty sure that I could drive all the way to town, buy lunch, drive back to school, and still pay less than 3 dollars.

Contributing to this decision is the fact that I lost 10 lbs once school ended. It may only be a coincidence that I ate in the lunchroom everyday, but... It was proof enough for me.

So...I have vowed to not buy any school lunches except for holiday meals. And I might buy a corndog on corndog day. I love corndogs...

Anyway...since I've made this vow I thought it would only be appropriate to make myself a lunch bag. I mean, I've got this new sewing machine. Why not use it?!?

Besides that, I got some real deals in the Hobby Lobby remnant basket a couple of weeks ago. Included in that was cream-colored canvas.

I spent pretty much all day (off and on) yesterday working on it. I didn't have a pattern and I've never made any kind of bag before, so it was a bit tricky until I figured out what I was doing.

I will post a picture when I finish it. It still needs a handle and some kind of closure. If I can figure out the button hole function on my sewing machine, there will be a button. Otherwise I'll just sew some velcro on it.

In any case, it doesn't look much like a lunch bag right now. When it does, I will post a picture :)

A project for next summer!

I have been reading this blog for the last 30 minutes (which, believe me is a feat--I have NO attention span!).

I am afraid I will forget about this project come next summer, so I'll write about it here.

This is perfect for a frugal Mom like myself. I figure I can find some t-shirts at my local kid's consignment sale in the spring to complete this project. Or, like the blog author of Happy Together writes, I can just get them at the dollar store.

I 'm not sure which I love more: the roses on the first dress or the ruffles on the second! I've always wondered how those types of ruffles were done and now I see that it's not that complicated *insert blushing smiley here*.

I'll save this for next year only because I have a lot of projects that are staring me in the face right now. This will be a huge money saver next year!

The First Project

The first project to come out of The Attic Studio was selfishishly done for myself. I have a habit of expending my creative energies for others, but I wanted this one project to be for me. All me.

I had just purchased a new sewing machine to replace the 50's era machine my granny gave me a few years ago. I had no idea that all my frustrations with sewing could be attributed to the sewing machine...I thought it was me!

I headed off to the fabric store, in search of a pattern that didn't seem too daunting. I finally decided on an apron. It came together fairly quickly over the course of a week. I only worked on it about an hour at a time--during my dear toddler's naptime, bedtime, and my husband's weekly trips to the stockyards with his grandfather.

In the end, I'm so proud! I finished sewing something that I love, while only ripping one seam! It is sure to be something I wear often. I'm even thinking about making some more as Christmas gifts for some of the women in my family.