February month-in-review

Aside from the dress in my last post, I thought I'd just do a recap of what else I've been making this month, since it's a lot of works-in-progress and stuff that I wouldn't give individual posts to. Also, thanks for all of the lovely birthday wishes and compliments on that dress!

1. First off, the totals. I tend to only count stash as busted once the project is actually sewn up, so for this month, I used up a total of 9 1/2 yards of fabric. I did buy one pattern (The Sewaholic Granville blouse, since Tasia was having her big birthday sale and I actually didn't have a standard button-down shirt pattern in my stash) and a zipper, but overall, I did manage to stick with using things I had.

• The maternity dress was 3 yards. 
• I used half a yard of ugly quilt cotton plus some ugly quilted fabric that my mother-in-law dropped off to me the day before to make an ugly pillow to keep between my knees and help me sleep with reduced hip pain, because that's been an issue for the last couple of months and my OB suggested a thinner pillow than the one I'd been using. I didn't measure out that quilted fabric, I literally just folded it up into the size I wanted and sewed the ugly cotton into a pillowcase around it. So I'm not going to show that here, though I did post it in the Stashbusting Sewalong group on Facebook, since one category in this month's fabric contest was Ugly. (I literally don't even know how that fabric got into my stash. I didn't buy it.)
• As for the rest, I made this:
  
  

Doug and I almost have the nursery (aka the Hobbit Hole) set up, minus whatever we're given in the baby shower that my mom's been planning and a few minor projects. He had the idea to do a hammock for stuffed animals, since we need to keep those away from the dogs. Malkin in particular has a habit of tearing holes and ripping all of the stuffing out as soon as he gets his paws on them! I had a lot of tulle left over from making my wedding dress, because I seriously overestimated how much I would need. Good thing it's cheap. I didn't use it all up, since it was in two pieces, but I did manage to use up a 6-yard piece by cutting 4 layers and zig-zagging the edges to hold it all together, then binding the shorter edges/making tabs out of a scrap of thicker white cotton from my scrap bin. Not bad for an afternoon's work, I think, and I'm happy that I found a way to use up some tulle on a project for a boy!

For the record, a majority of the stuffed animals in there are actually ones I'd kept from my own childhood/teenage years that had some sentimental value. Though the Donald Duck and the little German shepherd puppy were gifts from the soon-to-be grandparents, and there's a bunch of Dr. Seuss-style fish that my mom made as well.

2. I'd mentioned earlier in the month that I had some pretty massive, time-consuming baby projects to make, so I thought I'd give the update on that.

First of all, I've been going to my parents' a couple of times a week to work on the cloth diapers that my mom and I are sewing. They live closer to my teaching than I currently do, so it makes sense on the days I have fewer lessons to drive up there for more than one thing. Most of her projects are packed away now, so she's using her sewing time to help me, which is so great of her. We still have a long way to go, since we're ultimately making 72 (2 dozen each of 3 different sizes), but everything is at least cut out and ready to sew, and we're making a pretty big dent on the smallest size of diaper. So this is one of those.


And this is what I've been working on instead of knitting for most evenings lately, using this pattern. It's taking awhile, since I've been having fabric glue issues and therefore have been basically hand-stitching the majority of this, with a little machine sewing thrown in to secure the edges of pages when backing them to hide all of the mess. Oh well...toys for boys need to be sturdy anyway, right?




And here's a little closeup of the Fellowship of the Finger Puppets so far--the imagery is based a little more on the movies, so I'm going with that. So this is Boromir, Pippin and Legolas. I probably would have finished all 9 puppets last night, except the fabric glue that I bought yesterday specifically to assemble these just isn't sticking to the felt very well! (My previous fabric glue had gotten too dried out to use, and these pieces are way too tiny for hot glue. So once again, I'm hand-stitching!) I've got 6 puppets in various stages of completion, and then 8 more pages on this book, I think. Some are much less intricate, so that will help. I also have a second book all cut out and ready to go that's Doctor Who-based. If nothing else, maybe I can have these done in time to give Hobbit for his first Christmas?

So my goals for March, aside from continuing to make as big a dent on these books and diapers as possible:

1. Sew my diaper bag, which I cut out earlier this week and that is therefore ready to go for my at-home sewing time. I'm planning to start that today.
2. If I have time, sew myself at least one more article of clothing to get me through the next couple of months. Probably a top, since hopefully the weather will start to warm up and I can at least graduate to 3/4 sleeves. Especially if I make it nursing-friendly so I can wear it in the fall, too. 
3. On the non-sewing front, I'll probably also have to start thinking about some cooking days, since one of my plans is to try to get our freezers filled with as many prepped meals as possible so I don't have to worry about food too much in the first month. (And by prepped, I mean either just defrost, or throw in the crockpot/oven and be done with it.) I have a list of recipes to make, including breakfast and lunch options that I can eat with one hand, plus a second list of ALL the ingredients, but I probably won't really start with this until closer to the end of the month/beginning of April. We still need to eat in the meantime, so I'm focusing on using up the older stuff that's in there first.

On a more personal note, since this still sounds like a lot, we've decided that I won't be resuming my retail job this spring as usual. Our plan was for me to stay at home with the baby anyway, though I'm still going to be doing my music and now sewing lessons, which I do have babysitting lined up for. (Thanks, Mom!) But since spring is the busiest season at that job and I'll be in my third trimester the whole time, and there's several factors at that job that would make it very physically difficult (having to bend down to lift plants for scanning, stools with no backs, 6-day workweeks, the owner smokes in his office often and cigarette smoke makes me sick even when I'm not pregnant, the nausea still hasn't fully gone away, etc.), we decided that it would be much better for me to use those last couple of months to just focus on final preparations instead of struggling through two part-time jobs plus all of that. Which is also why I'm planning to do cloth diapers and cook ahead, since in the long run that will save us money on diapers and avoiding takeout while we're first learning how this parenting thing works. I can't say I'm too broken-hearted over the thought of having more time in my day to cram in as many hours of sewing and music as I can before having to spend most of my time ensuring the survival of another human!

Two last projects for 2013

Now that Christmas is over, I can show one of my more recent secret projects! And even though most of my "craft" time since then has been "completely reorganize the craft room" time, I did take a break from it on Saturday night to knock out another project. So I thought I'd share.

First up are these placemats, which I (partially) made for my mother-in-law. I can't take credit for too much on here--making them in the first place was Doug's idea, and I honestly would not have been able to get these done even remotely on time without some greatly appreciated help from my own mom. I did the quilting and cutting, but she cut and sewed on all of the binding strips and also did the majority of the hand-sewing for that. Thanks, Mom!













A close-up of the fabrics. The penguins are because my mother-in-law is pretty much obsessed with them--seriously, she loves anything with a penguin on it! And Doug thought this would be more practical than another figurine. The flip side with the Christmas puppies are because the lighter one in particular strongly resembles the older of our two dogs, which she also loves a lot. It's really hard to find penguin fabric that isn't blatantly Christmas, but I'm glad I succeeded, because then she can use them more often.

The other project I finished over the weekend was for the #SewGreenDecember sewalong that the Sewcialists on Twitter have been doing. It's another Renfrew, my third one now, so there's not too terribly much to say, other than this:

1. This was my first time doing the V-neck. It's not quite as crisp of a V as I would have preferred, due to the fabric, but I'm proud of how it turned out nonetheless.

2. The fabric itself is a very drape-y, more or less a textured slinky knit. Thus the not-crisp V. The other effect that this had was that this one seems to have ended up a little longer than my other ones. The sleeves in particular do bunch around my wrists a bit, and pull down to handwarmer length. I don't mind this, actually, since my hands do get cold frequently. My only regret is that I didn't think to add thumb holes until after I tried it on! As for the print, all I can think when I look at it is that it's like a closeup of Impressionist shrubbery. Which is probably what this shirt will end up being called on the sidebar, because I'm not-clever like that.

3. Since it was already cut out, this was super-quick. It's really nice to have a TNT pattern that I can knock out in a few hours while watching tv. It's also nice that I was able to use up a piece of fabric that has been sitting in the stash since before I started this blog!

So now I've done all 3 neckline options, and two of the three sleeve lengths on this pattern. I'm sure there will be more, though I don't have any more planned for the semi-immediate future.

I do have one more end-of-year post I'll need to do, since I did get some fun crafty/handmade things for Christmas that I wanted to show off. I'm also in the middle of inventorying my fabric (on a spreadsheet) and my yarn (on Ravelry), to give me something tangible to track in my stashbusting efforts. I do have to say that the numbers on my fabric are embarrassing at the moment--I haven't quite finished due to finding some things in unexpected places (and another fabric purchase that Gillian and Heather completely enabled me on, when I commented on Twitter that I had an Archer pattern and literally nothing to use for it), but at last count, I was over 320 yards! And that's not even counting scraps! Yikes!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

My most recently finished sewing project is a secret, but I do have some holiday decor to share!

I've been trying to keep a smaller craft project at my parents' house, for when I need to kill some time between my garden center job and my flute teaching. They're generously letting me continue to do the majority of my teaching out of their house, since I live just over the next county line now. That, and our dogs are insane when they can't get to where the people are, and I can't teach with them around until we move to a different house where I can shut them in a room where they won't destroy everything in it. Maybe. Anyway. Mom is also letting me use the spare sewing machine in her sewing room as needed (yes, she has two set up all the time!), and a pattern that she had, so I made some Christmas stockings!

Hey, look, I'm pattern mixing! I wanted something cheery and fun, since December around here is often dark and blah weather-wise, and this funky black ornament fabric really stood out to me. The green stripey stuff is more for my husband, since green is his favorite color and he's not afraid of the brighter shades of it.  I normally don't go for rick-rack, but it needed something between the heel/toe and the main fabric, and decorative stitching was just eating the fabric like crazy. So this was a cute solution. And I'm ok with it making these stockings look more "homemade". (I still refuse to say that other phrase with my name in it. So there.)

I had originally planned to make the lettering red, but I couldn't find red embroidery floss in my pile of things. I did, however, find black pearl cotton. So, in the spirit of stashbusting, that's what I used to embroider the names. It only took a couple of hours one night while watching tv, and some disappearing marker. I'm pretty proud of how legible it turned out, actually!

I'd also originally planned to make a couple of smaller stockings for the dogs, but time is running short. So that can wait. It's not like we can leave treats or toys lying out like that, anyway. Knowing them, they'd eat the stocking!

I also made this wreath last year, but never blogged it. It's pretty simple, just ornaments wired to an artificial wreath that I bought at work on clearance. The ornaments have a bit of a story, actually--a couple that I'm friends with has an (almost) annual party around this time of year with an ornament exchange. Last year, when all of the dust from the white elephant-style stealing had settled, I was left with two boxes of cheap baubles in lime and hot pink--another friend had them leftover from decorating his boss's office as a joke. I didn't end up keeping the pink one, but I was able to use up most of the green ones on this wreath. So, all in all, a pretty decent holiday decoration for about $2-- not bad! Hopefully next year, we can find somewhere better to hang it than from the wall lamp...

another wedding shower gift

The shower was over the weekend, so I can finally show the related sewing projects!

As I said before, these were for my friend Nicole--she's the one real life friend I have who occasionally sews, so I knew she'd appreciate it! Though we probably won't be sewing together again, since she moved to Boston to be closer to her fiance and will be staying there after her wedding. I'll miss her, but I am happy for her!

I like to run with a small theme for wedding gifts, even when I'm buying straight off the registry, and this one was no exception. She'd asked for Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and the cover was so pretty, I couldn't resist! And I already knew I wanted to make her an apron, since one of our last fun sewing adventures together was making Anthropologie-inspired aprons. The apron she made for that was actually a wedding gift for one of her friends, and I thought she should have one herself. So I went with the same apron inspiration she'd chosen, the Tea & Crumpets apron. (Since this one's on sale, I doubt I saved any money--but I've always felt that white is very impractical for an apron that one wears while actually cooking, unless you're a professional chef who isn't as sloppy with the tomato sauce! Plus I was guessing at what colors she might actually have in her kitchen, based on her registry and Pinterest boards.) This cute bee fabric jumped out at me immediately, but it was really hard to find something that matches it! I'm really grateful that my quilter mom went along to help me out.

I drafted most of the pattern myself, based on an apron that I'd been given at my own shower. But I did borrow the pocket from the Cake Pavlova skirt, because it looked like a perfect match!  And since I have one or two of these skirts in mind for some stashbusting, it was good to have a chance to practice the pattern a bit.



The other thing I made was this set of placemats. To continue the French theme, we found this fabric with French lettering on it. But the one I really fell in love with was the bicycle fabric, because it just seemed so perfect for her. And it really did end up being perfect, because her grand entrance to her shower, which we held outside, was riding in on her bicycle! I will admit that my mom did help me finish these up, since I was running out of time and needed to do one side of the binding by hand. I will also admit that the corners are not nearly as nice as the ones that my mom usually makes, because I completely forgot her instructions for them. I guess I'll have to consult with her on that later, because I'm sure I'll be making some more placemats at some point, if only so we have another set. (Mom made me some for my own bridal shower.)

She was really excited about it, as were most of the people at the shower--I got a lot of compliments on my sewing skills! (Especially once someone asked me if I'd made the dress I was wearing, too.) I'm not quite done sewing for her yet, as this week's project is altering her wedding dress! Which, thankfully, will be a relatively easy job. The dress fits her perfectly in the bodice, so all I have to do is hem it. Of course, it's also 3 layers, the inner lining is silk charmeuse, and the outer layer is silk chiffon! My plan is to just do a narrow machine hem on the charmeuse and the outer lining. I may hand-stitch the chiffon, though, since it's a little crinkly and I don't want it to go all lettuce-y on me.

I'm also pretty close to finishing my Sewcial Bee dress. I'd like to reinforce the midriff, since the serged stitches were pulling a bit when I put it on Donna to let the hem hang. I also need to figure out exactly how I want to hem it--I don't want to just leave it raw, because it's a pretty thin jersey and I suspect it might develop some runs if I do that. But if all goes well, I'll have both of these dresses done in time for Pantsapalooza!

Hmm....

After last Saturday's thrift store run, my sis-in-law/friends and I did some paper crafting. One of the girls had the idea sometime last year to make some paper wreaths out of recycled books. I just got it hung up today, but I finished my wreath on Sunday.

Or so I thought.

This was the look I was going for...

And this is kind of what I ended up with. I didn't realize it was so lopsided until I hung it up....I'm trying to decide if it looks more like a demented bird or an aerial view of a hurricane.

Yeah, I think I'll need to go back and add some more leaves (or feathers, or whatever) on that one side. Good thing I got a thick book!

There has been sewing. And knitting. Just no visual updates on that yet.

Not sew interesting, but...

Based on other blogs I've read, I know I'm not the only one who feels this way: Sewing is a hobby. Mending is a chore. But I guess sometimes it's necessary to actually fix the stuff I have rather than sew something entirely new.

See this? This is my mending pile. And it's not even quite accurate anymore, because I discovered while I was out today that the jacket I was wearing had a button in the pocket, which had apparently fallen off the front months ago and I never bothered to sew it back on.

Actually, this wasn't entirely accurate to begin with. One of the things I did over the weekend was to go through all of my clothes that are actually out to see what needed to be fixed, and how. So this is actually just all of my colder weather stuff that needs mending. Which means there's probably a bunch of other stuff under my bed that needs it, too.

So this is going to be my project for the next week and a half or so. I'm quasi-unemployed right now-- every November, the retail job I have basically shuts down for a couple of weeks, just like it does over the winter. So I'm trying to use the extra time wisely and knock some things off of my to-do list that have been here for awhile. Some of these fixes are really small, like a little tear in the side seam. And some of these are going to take a little longer-- like this shirt that I drafted a little too big to begin with, and all of the interfacing washed out of the diagonal seams and it sags a lot, so it basically needs to be entirely reconstructed. Or this skirt (plus another me-made that predates the blog, so I don't think I have a pic on here) that is bias-cut and so the waist just seems to grow every single year. I want to get it stabilized once and for all! I have a thrifted jacket (that pretty green thing on top) where I have to replace 13 buttons, because one of them is broken and there were no spares in there, and the buttons are a little weird looking with it anyway. (Oh, and I have to fabric-coat my own buttons, because Joann's didn't have 13 of anything that was large enough, let alone remotely went with it!) And so on. I don't know if I'll share everything, but since some of these will involve some extent of reconstruction, I'll probably at least share those.

Also, in the spirit of getting things done, I made these yesterday:

Just some very simple sachets, cut from old test muslins and stuffed with herbs, for things like the bottom of my laundry bin and the little bins that hold my socks and sweaters and such. They're certainly not quality craftsmanship. The fabric is off-grain, the stitching is totally wonky, and you know what? I don't care. Because these are buried underneath my clothes and no one will see them, except for me and anyone who's actually reading this post. Once they stop smelling nice, I'm probably just going to toss them in the compost bin. And I've had those bags of herbs sitting in my room for a year, waiting for me to actually sit down and do it. I just wanted it off the list. So there!

One last thing-- thanks for all of the encouragement on the sweater in the last post! And for the comments on the shirt, too. I don't know if this necessarily means that red and mustard is going to be something I start incorporating into my wardrobe more...after all, my hair has a tendency to go red, and I like to encourage that, and wearing red makes it look brown. The update on the sweater is that I knocked a few more rows out last night, and may do a few tonight. It's all knit all the time right now, so theoretically, I should be pretty much good to go until I get to where the sleeves need to split off. (At least, once I got past the first row-- between that lifeline I added and how tightly I knit, getting that first row knit was sooooooo hard! The needle would hardly even go into the stitches!)

Two things:

1. These are the potholders I made to go along with Kristy's apron. Pretty easy, although the quilting made it a bit more time-consuming. I'm going to need to try to think of a better way to apply the bias binding next time I make something like this--the back side is a bit messier than I'd like, but I didn't have time to hand-sew it down.  She seemed to like them-- I think she was amused at how closely they match her current kitchen theme! (Which was the point, since she owns and he rents and so he'll be moving into her place after the wedding.)

2. I need a little advice....one of my friends asked me if I could hem her bridesmaid dress for the same wedding. She offered to pay me (and frankly, given how badly my day job hours have been cut back this summer, I need the money), and asked what I'd charge. I told her it would partially depend on how involved it would be--you know, lining, overlayers, that sort of thing--so I'd need to see it first. That aside....what would be a reasonable rate to charge for something like that? (You'd think that, given that I've been setting prices for my flute lessons ever since I finished college, I'd be better at this sort of thing....but I tend to err on the side of undercharging, I think.)

Read like an Egyptian

First of all, thanks for all of the compliments on my dress so far! I finished it last night, but I'm not going to show it yet. I've found that I still have some work to do in order to get my dummy tweaked to my measurements--it seems to be a bit broader in the back than I am at the moment, and the dress doesn't really fit it as well as me so it's hard to get good pictures. And it's way too dark to get a decent picture on myself-- the lighting in here is just awful for that sort of thing. So I'm going to show my somewhat spontaneous afternoon/evening project instead.

Years ago, I saw a pillow similar to this in one of my mom's catalogs, and thought it was such a clever idea--a pillow to prop one's book up at the perfect angle! I've had the picture clipped in my inspiration notebook that I occasionally consult for years, since I was having a serious case of both DIY snobbery (i.e. "I can totally make that") and my usual cheapskate ways ("You want me to pay $30 for a pillow? That's ___ movie tickets/books/yards of fabric that I can get on sale/albums/etc.") But I never quite got to it.

It was actually knitting that brought it to mind again-- I've gotten to the point of the wrap where I'm getting bored with the repetitive nature of it and just want to get it done so I can move on to something else. So in order to keep my brain busy, I was experimenting the other day with reading at the same time. Slowed me down on both, but it worked--albeit rather awkwardly, since I was sitting here in my computer chair using my knee to keep my book pinned between my leg and the little pull-out board that my keyboard sits on. (Yes, I know that this would have been a lot easier if I'd been using my Kindle at the time, but I was already reading the paperback.) So attempting to copy this book pillow, finally, seemed like a good solution.

And here's the results!

 I didn't entirely make this up-- I got the idea for the base from this tutorial on Instructables. But I didn't really care for the more domed top that just using two squares made, so I went for cutting four triangles for the top instead. (Projects like this make it great to have a quilter mother, because she had a perfectly-sized equilateral triangle-shaped ruler!) And then I had to do some improvising with the base because my math was off and I had to add strips, and then figure out how to get the corners to work from there...so it's not as neat a job as I could have done, but I'm still pretty proud of it.

Isn't this fabric just so fun? I got it as a stocking stuffer a few Christmases ago-- kind of an inside joke from my mom, because we both enjoy the now-defunct show Stargate SG-1, in which the race of evil aliens is based largely on Egyptian mythology.  I know it's kind of geeky of me, but I just couldn't resist using it for a pyramid! (Plus then it helps my stashbusting efforts-- I used nearly the entire yard, and just have a rather oddly-shaped smallish piece left. So into the scrap bin it goes.)

I did make one small modification to the original design--I added a piece of elastic that goes around 3 sides of the pyramid to help hold the book open. It's not working quite as well as I'd hoped with my current read-- I've been re-reading all of my Tolkien books to follow along with this podcasted college class, which has been a lot of fun. Of course, all of my Lord of the Rings books have been read through and carried around in my bookbag and/or purse quite a few times, so the spines are all creased up (to the point where I may start losing pages, in some cases!)

Works like a charm on my less-battered books, though. What a relief.

It seems like it will support the Kindle quite nicely, too. (This fabric print seems to be the perfect camouflage for the skin I have on it!)

I don't know if I'll actually use it, but the original design had a bookmark attached from the top. So I went ahead and did the same. To weigh it down some, I added a few beads to the end. (The lower two are recycled from an earring I never wore, and the glass one was a random one from the stash.) The bookmark is a little impractical at the moment, honestly, because it's way too long. So I may shorten it up at some point, either by removing and then re-attaching the beads further up, or just taking the lazy way out and tying a loop in the ribbon at the top.

The timing of this was probably very good, actually. I doubt I'll be able to do much, if any, sewing this week.It seems that everything decided to pile on this one week-- between my two additional jobs that I have to supplement my flute teaching, I have to work the next 6 days, including nearly the entire day on Saturday and a band competition on Friday. Plus a family wedding. Plus all of my usual flute teaching. Plus I'm running out of food in the freezer to eat--the only way I can snag relatively healthy food between lessons, generally--so I'm actually skipping my usual Monday night rock climbing in order to cook a meal and get other necessary things done around here. Like put away the three loads of laundry that I washed today. (Including the one that I just remembered while typing this that I forgot to put in the dryer. Drat.) So yeah--I don't have anything new cut out yet, so unless I can fit a reconstruction in there, sewing's not happening.

Long story short, I may be quiet here for awhile, since any craftiness that's going to happen will most likely be knitting that wrap. Or distracting myself from knitting the wrap via books. Gotta test this pillow out somehow, right?

LBD progress (mostly)

As of yesterday, I think I have the bodice done, other than installing the zipper. I'm not entirely certain...I'm having a bit of paranoia that with all of the layering from the 2 layers of outer fabric, the underlining and the lining, it's not going to fit once I put the zipper in. So I think my next step is going to be to baste that in before I sew the skirt on, just to double-check the fit. Hopefully it'll be fine, but I'd rather know if I have to let it out now while it's relatively easier to fix.

Anyway, here's where it stands:

As it turns out, since I was a bit worried about the ruching in the front, it lays better when the back is closed up. So I didn't have to redo that. (Though I still wish it would work a little better at the top there....)

....and the back. The straps connecting the back to the halter lay better on me than the dummy. This is just pinned closed for now, obviously. But at least now I have some visible progress! And I suspect that adding the skirt will go fairly quickly, although I may need to work on the lining a bit. Since I ended up having to use some of that to underline the skirt as well, the lining is probably going to be several inches shorter than the actual skirt, and so I think I'm going to have to find a creative way to extend that. I'll probably be going to Joann's tomorrow to see if they have some kind of wide trim I can use.

In other news, I finished my second knitting project last night! This is one of the "Dirty Girl Washcloths" from The Chicks With Sticks Guide To Knitting. So I think I've got the purl thing down decently, as well as switching from knit to purl--a lot easier now that I know that you have to flip the yarn over the needle a different way to switch it! (I was trying to figure it out on my own one night and kept ending up with two stitches instead of one.)

I'm playing around with learning how to do a basic increase now, because the next thing I want to tackle is these handwarmers. But not with their yarn, because, you know, wool and I don't get along. So I'm going to be using this Serenity Chunky Weight yarn in Forest. Hopefully it'll turn out ok-- I actually have to figure out gauge for this one. And how to knit in the round on double-pointed needles. Oh yeah, this will be interesting.

Now why didn't I do this a year ago?

As it turns out, I had a rather crafty Thanksgiving weekend. My family has the same routine every year--on Thursday, we go to my dad's parents, and on Saturday we go to my mom's parents. My dad's side is a lot smaller/quieter, so I brought a box of beads and such with me and spent most of the non-eating time making earrings for the craft fair. My original plan was to do the same yesterday, but we also have a yearly tradition of decorating gingerbread houses (though now that the cousins are basically all adults, it's just the girls that do it) and my gingerbread house was, shall we say, a little involved. So I did that the whole time instead. As for Friday, my friend Nicole came over and we had a pillow-making party! She's making some as gifts for her nieces and nephew, and I've had some stuff sitting around for well over a year to make some for my ongoing room decorating project. We both had a rather productive afternoon...and I have to say that after that jacket, it was SO good to have a quick project!

So here's my finished results. The green is a kind of faux silk-looking weave, and the velvet is my salvage from that total fail of a wrap that I was planning on wearing to my brother's wedding last fall. After all, hand-dyed silk velvet is way too yummy to just throw out. (Even if it did turn out to be a huge pain to cut out, since it kept shifting every which way.)

I'm happy with the trim on it, too--that was leftover from a minor shirt embellishment/refashion from a couple of years ago. Adds a little more interest to the fabric. (And just ignore the lumpy look of the bolster pillow-- I was having trouble getting it to stuff evenly.)

I know the velvet in particular is not going to stay this pristine-looking--but I don't believe in pillows for decoration only, and fully plan on using them to shove under my head while I'm reading and such. And I think it'll be cool to see how it changes as it crushes.


I also ended up getting an early Christmas present from my parents...

Meet Donna 2.0! The old one served me well, but it did have its limits. And fell over a lot, since the base was rather unstable. And was constantly tilting to one side. So since a big overall goal for my sewing these days is improving my fitting skills, having one that stays still is a plus. And I think this one will be a little nicer to pin into than duct tape! I'm just getting started on figuring out the measurements-- I know I'm going to have to do some padding for sure, because Donna's a good bit flatter in certain areas than I am! But hopefully I can have all that sorted by the end of the month.

In the meantime, I started the new jeans muslin tonight. And I have the backs of play capes embroidered and ready to go. And craft fair jewelry, of course. So hopefully, despite having a much fuller workload this week than last, I'll find some time for crafting!

Friday Favorites, Episode 45: The End

It was a tough decision to make, but this is going to be the last Friday Favorites that I post up here. At least, for now. It's just getting to be too much-- I'm barely able to keep up with reading blogs, let alone compiling this post every week. Especially over the last month or so, where I've often had to skip weeks and then do two at once, and even more especially now that I'm back at my part-time garden center job and therefore lose a big chunk of Friday. So #45 seemed to be a good place to leave it. And since I have a tendency to mostly link tutorials, and have been saving them all to my Wists account anyway, anyone who wants to can see what tutorials people have been putting up that I like from the sidebar on here. Maybe one day I'll go through there and clean up the tags for easier access, but not today. And since I'm on a time crunch (my whole weekend is flute rehearsals and performances, and I only have about an hour and a half before I have to leave!), I'm going to do this list-style. So here's what I liked this week...

1. Stamped Tile Coasters from Dollar Store Crafts
2. The mum pillow at Assorted Notions
3. Missle Command circle skirt at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
   
4. Magazine Reed Box at CraftStylish
5. Millifiori and Organza Pendant at Polymer Clay Central
6. Minibooks with faux fabric book tape at The Small Object
7. Cardboard tube hurricane lamp cover at A Little Hut
8. Glitzy Garden Globe at Diary of A Crafty Chica
9. Soda Can Star Lights, also at Diary of a Crafty Chica
   
10. How to Scrapbook with Busy Patterned Paper at Creativity Prompt (since I'm a sucker for those busy patterns)
11. Pleated Hem Sleeve at rostitchery
12. handmade flower embellishments at the Creating Keepsakes blog

Got a lot of other stuff on my mind-- been doing more pondering sewing than actual sewing over the last day or so, since I got the pattern for the dress I'll be wearing to my brother's wedding. But I think I'm going to make that a separate post... maybe I'll go ahead and write that now anyway.

Friday Favorites, Episode 43

I really need to get back to doing these on a weekly basis. The stack from the last 2 weeks is a bit overwhelming! So best to just dive right in...

Recycled goodness...
I tend to post a lot of this type of stuff anyway, I know, but even more appropriate now that it's April, with Earth Day coming up and all. The music lover in me enjoyed this Threadbanger roundup of things to do with old vinyl records (I was particularly a fan of the iPod case!) Hippyshopper had a second roundup of recycled jewelry ideas. I don't really care for the necklace made from recycled nylons, I'll admit, but I did think the one with the pen caps has some serious potential! Cut Out + Keep had a clever tutorial for making a shrug from an oversized t-shirt-- I love the Grecian drapiness of the final look. Dollar Store Crafts showed how to dye Easter eggs using recycled silk ties to put designs on them. Also found tutorials for envelopes done two ways-- turning envelopes into gift bags (via Whip Up), and making other paper into padded envelopes (via Craftzine). Craftstylish showed how to make easy earrings out of beach glass (not that it takes much to inspire me to go beachcombing!) and also things you can do with old VHS tapes (the flowers on the straw purse were my favorite.) Finally, going back to Craftzine, there was a table lamp with a shade made from soda can tabs. It reminds me of chainmaille!

And the geek shall inherit the earth...
It was a good week for my not-so-inner geek. Lots of things that made me smile-- like Dollar Store Craft's Alien Abduction Lamp, and Whip Up's Star Wars mice. Craftzine linked to an April Fool's joke featuring a Tauntaun sleeping bag (for all those young Jedi wannabe's, a la The Empire Strikes Back). But my absolute favorite (also via Craftzine) was this Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-inspired Kindle case. I have to admit that the Kindle also reminded me of the Guide, so I absolutely love this! And if I ever decide to get a Kindle (which I don't think will be happening any time soon because I still love the tangibility of turning the pages in an old-fashioned paper book), I am SO stealing this. Everybody needs something with "Don't Panic" written on it in large, friendly letters.

Random Tutorial Goodness
First up, I liked Sewl Sister's "scrapbook in a box". Seems like it would be a really good gift for someone, and nice and compact! (I also like her pregnancy calendar bar at the top-- especially the snarky commentary!) Little Birdie Secrets posted a recipe for DIY Thin Mints (the only Girl Scout cookie I truly like). I'm somewhat skeptical due to what the crunchy inside actually is, but also quite curious. My fellow Sew Craft Blog groupie Corvus Tristis posted a neat tutorial for how to make an inexpensive weaving loom (and then later updated it with an additional improvement that she says makes it much better. Plus it involves playing with power tools.) Craftynest showed how to make some hemp pendant lamps that would be great for any nature-inspired decor (or Asian, for that matter...), and the Crafty Chica shared some instructions for some simple wooden jewelry using precut shapes and rubber stamp embossing. Craft Leftovers showed how to make your own drawing charcoal (hint: there's grilling involved). Craft Stylish had instructions for making a reusable sandwich wrap (bye-bye, Ziploc bags!), and Sew Take A Hike had a fun-looking tutorial for embellishing with roses made from scraps of knit fabric. Going back to the food, Thimble shared a recipe for some yummy looking spinach olive pasta (usually I don't like cooked spinach at all, but I might have to give this one a try.) And even though it's obviously passed by this point, One Pretty Thing posted two tutorial roundups for April Fool's Day. Mostly in the form of food that looks like something it's not. But it was still fun.

And now for something completely random...
I couldn't help laughing at this post from Craft Stylish. Any post entitled "Crafts I Want To Punch In The Face" has to get a mention. (And besides, I'm sure that everyone who reads this who's ever sewn by machine will agree with #5!)

And finally...
Finished projects I liked! From Wardrobe Refashion, I thought this little girl's violin dress was adorable, this octupus sweater was funky and clever, and this hippie-looking shirt is something I just want to steal. And I also really liked Angry Chicken's corset belt (complete with matching purse and earrings!)

Friday Favorites, Episode 42

Going to be a long one this time, since I have stuff saved from the last two weeks. So in no particular order...

• Over at Goodworks1's Notes, she has a denim quilt that she and her sister are making. Same concept as mine, using the recycled jeans and letting the edges fray, but I like the twist of using circles instead of squares!
• Wardrobe Refashion favorites from the last two weeks: theclosetseamstress's pillowcase top, Gwen's versatile skirt/dress for a beach vacation, and Carrie's cute sheet sundress.
• Speaking of refashioning, I also enjoyed Karen's blouse from a tie-dyed skirt, over at Sewing by the Seat of my Pants.
• A couple inspirational projects-- Craft: featured a cd cover in which the artist hand-stitched the artwork for it--and with my addiction to new music, that's enough to make me want to try and hunt it down! And Whip Up showed an art installation of some delicate-looking trees cut from, of all things, toilet paper rolls. And then over at Crafting a Green World, remember that selvedge dress? Well, the same woman decided to use the same technique to reupholster a chair. I think this is even cooler than the dress, actually!
• Back over at Craft:, they shared a link to an older article of theirs on how to make summer sandals from a recycled sole. With my oddly extra-wide feet, it's always hard for me to find shoes, so the thought of trying this one is exciting!! Now if I can just find a pair at the thrift store to cannabilize...
• Some home decor-type stuff: CraftyNest featured a tutorial for how to make some very simple Ikea tables much, much cooler with the help of some bamboo veneer. thelongthread.com had some simple pintucked pillows, and Dollar Store Crafts shared a link to some really cute flower vases made from plastic bottles. They look like they'd be great for a bridal shower, so I'll have to keep that in mind for the next time I'm a bridesmaid... (Incidentally, while looking there just now for the main link, I also found stuffed animals for the grown-up music lover. Heehee.)
• Back to Whip Up for tips on spring cleaning your sewing machine. I know that both my Bernina and my serger probably need it badly...
• The gift bags from thrifted sheets at Sewtakeahike are pretty and practical, but the real reason I'm linking to it is that I am 99% sure I had those yellow sheets as a kid, and so this makes me laugh.
• Margot at The Impatient Crafter shared a link to a free beading project she designed for Beadalon. I like the design but would have to find beads that aren't pearls to use (because, to quote my friend who got married last summer whose jewelry I made, "pearls make me cringe". A little too old-fashioned for me. Maybe some glass crystal-like beads for a Renaissance look?)
• And finally, some food stuff. Cheap Healthy Good shared a list of ideas for last-minute dinners for one. Which is great for nights I just don't feel like defrosting something from the freezer. And Craft:g33k shared a recipe for real chai made with whole spices. Yum.

Ok, that's it for today... my big project for today, since my time of not working on Fridays is probably over (starting back at the garden center tomorrow), was experimenting with henna to dye my hair. And my time for letting it sit is getting close to done, so I have to go wash mud out of my hair. And then maybe I can go sew!

Friday Favorites, Episode 41 (the late edition)

Technically, it IS still Friday, so...

Since it's getting late, just going to run these off quickly. On myLifetime.com (found via another site, but I can't remember if it was One Pretty Thing or Whip Up), I liked this laminated paper chandelier. They used an old book, which I thought was fun. Creativity Prompt had a video tutorial for a fabric covered hardbound book. Sigrid shared some hints and tips for using Burda World of Fashion patterns and what they don't tell you to do-- quite good timing, since I just cut out my very first BWOF pattern today! ThreadBanger shared some ideas for a dress pattern similar to the famous black dress that Audrey Hepburn wore in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Craft Tutorials shared some tips for finishing craft projects in general, some of which I knew, but others I wouldn't have thought of (like using a hairdryer to get rid of those pesky hot glue strands!) Antoinette made a great Flickr slideshow tutorial on turning a men's shirt into a shirtdress (and I love her men's shirt refashions, so I was happy to see this!) And at ScrapHappy, she did part 2 of her "Scrapbooking on the Road" miniseries.

3 Wardrobe Refashion picks this week: Ellsea's Susan Pevensie costume (from Prince Caspian) that she made for her daughter completely out of thrift-store stuff, some appliqued jeans from the same person, and Meghan's tunicy-dress thing.

Hopefully I'll get some time to post again tomorrow... the time just got away from me today. The good news is, I was very productive. Finished my new spring/summer purse, got the aforementioned BWOF cut out (that drawstring blouse I was raving about in one of the more recent posts--ended up just using a piece of stash fabric because the men's shirt didn't have enough fabric), and starting a reconstruction (not the men's shirt) that was inspired by a song and this book. More details on that to come. Plus I have an award (thanks to Sharon) that I need to post about. But now I need to get off the computer and get some sleep!

Friday Favorites, Episode 40

Ah, the big 4-0! Does this mean the series is getting old, I wonder?

Favorite Tutorials of the Week:
The Crafty Chica had a fun how-to for making a stitched paper dot lantern. I also really liked that she posted some alternate ideas for how to use the stitched paper dot technique! Craft: had a link to a tutorial for some lovely beaded flowers. The Long Thread featured a tutorial for some cute, simple fabric "crooked coasters"-- they just look fun to make, since sewing in crooked lines is the entire point! And Dollar Store Crafts had a tutorial for a handbag made from a miniature rag rug! Crafting a Green World had two that I liked-- one for a t-shirt covered corkboard, and one for upcycling boring greeting cards with fabric scraps. (It always makes me happy to find tutorials for fabric scrap projects that aren't cutsey or kid-oriented, since I'm neither at this point in my life!) And last but certainly not least, Sharon over at Adventures from the Sewing Studio had a great tutorial for attaching collars to button-down shirts without getting a bump between the collar band and the main part of the shirt.

Favorite Projects:
I'm thinking I need to stop being so tutorial-oriented with this, and bring in a few more projects I see around the blogs that just deserve to be seen by more people! So with that in mind, I have two this week. The first is my favorite from Wardrobe Refashion for this week. Despite having been born in them, I hate the 80s and think it was one of the worst decades for music and (especially) fashion, ever. So I love it when people can take 80s ugliness like this stripey maternity muumuu thing, and turn it into something fun in a much better vintage sort of way (in this case, using a bodice pattern from the 60s, which was an exponentially better decade in both aforementioned categories.) Speaking of 60s music (maybe, anyway), I really loved Eileen's concert journal--she took a thrifted vinyl 45 and an old music book and turned it into a scrapbook to fill with concert memorabilia and such.

Favorite Miscellaney:
This doesn't really fit under tutorials. And this isn't really something I've ever tried, beyond purposely saving stuff to throw in a scrapbook and writing out stuff for journaling while on vacation. But over at ScrapHappy, she's started a mini-series about scrapbooking while traveling. Only one post so far, but I'm enjoying it. And who knows, at some point I might want to try the whole assembly-as-I-go thing!

Ok, that's it for today. May end up with another post depending on how things go today, since the weekends seem to be my blog catch-up time!

Friday Favorites, Episode 39

...which will hopefully be the first of a couple posts today. I have some catching up to do!!! So on with the show.

Everything in its place....

Got two from Whip Up today... the first is a tutorial for a quick & easy shoe bag, which I think they're using for travel packing purposes. If my closet wasn't the size of a shoebox, I think I'd try to find a way to tack them to the walls so I can get some floor space back! (I might try anyway.) The second is a tutorial for a reusable snack bag, for those tired of tossing out plastic ziploc bags every time they want to bring something crunchy with their lunches. (And more fun, too!) And from Crafting a Green World, they showed this laptop pillow that looks like it would be pretty easy to replicate with some tube-style pillows velcroed together. Of course, around here, it would probably get used as a temporary holding pen for the cat!!

Around the house...

Lots of fun decorating ideas this time. For those without on-demand cable to turn it onto the virtual aquarium, Apartment Therapy Unplugged shows how to turn an old tv into an actual aquarium. Heehee. I'm absolutely loving this faux capiz shell lampshade from Craftynest, which is made from laminated rice paper, and if I could actually manage to clear a spot big enough to set it on, would so make this for my bedroom. It would fit in perfectly. On ReadyMade, there's a tutorial for this funky bubble light fixture. And on a completely random note, if anyone ever wanted an 8-foot pillow shaped like a giant squid, PW Style is the place to find directions for that (found courtesy of One Pretty Thing's Daily DIY roundup.)

Things to Wear and Do...

At The Impatient Crafter (also found courtesy of One Pretty Thing), there's a free project from a new bead book of some really fun-looking cascade earrings. I definitely have some of those little cone things to use up, so I'm excited to try these sometime! (I'm also liking yesterday's "Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright" Choker, and think I'm going to have to start following this blog.) And while not actually something to wear, this CraftStylish tutorial for how to do 4 different seam finishes will definitely help with things to wear. I especially want to try that Hong Kong seam finish, because I've never used that one and I think it'll be perfect for one of my (hopefully) upcoming projects.

Random but Awesome

A bunch of non-tutorialish crafty goodness this week. First of all, this tissue box at Disdressed just made me laugh. Especially since I've been quasi-sick all week. Confessions of a Craft Addict used one of those giant cupcake cake pans to make a ginormous rice krispy treat. Craft Tutorials had a knitted dress that cracked me up-- I wouldn't want to dress like a cheeseburger, but if I did, this would be the way to go. I have to give a shoutout to Lydia, who posted this week to say she finished sewing together her baby bag-- believe it or not, other than a few baby bibs, this was her first major sewing project, and I think it looks great! And I also have to give a shoutout to my friend Nicole--she's an amazingly talented artist and a good friend of mine, and she just started a blog for her artwork this week. So go check it out!

Ok, gotta get some stuff done so I can post again... I'm hoping I can get stuff up today both for those scrapbook layouts I promised, and my long-overdue embroidered shirt. And then I also started a new skirt yesterday and I'd like to work on that some more too!

EDIT: I almost forgot!! I've been following Cake Wrecks since a friend sent me a link to their V-day disaster cakes (which I posted about in FF last week.) Apparently once a week they do a feature devoted to cakes that are actually good, and this week's was by the Ace of Cakes crew. Their stuff is always amazing anyway (yes, I admit I watch the show when I can catch it), but this one was just made of awesome. It was made for the crew of Lost to celebrate their hundredth episode. And has tons of fun little tributes to the show-- the computer with The Numbers, the Dharma beer, little figures of the cast (mmm, Sawyer...)

Friday Favorites, Episode 35

Almost didn't get to this today... got sidetracked by a clothing reconstruction that's taking longer than I thought it would. But I'm taking a dinner break now, so here goes...

First up is Dollar Store Crafts, featuring this shoji screen made from bamboo and shower curtains, and an easy how-to for customizing an iPod with a clear plastic cover and scrapbook paper. ( I think I'll definitely have to give the latter a try, as the silicon cover I've been using since I got it is leaving it kind of grungy.)

Second is Whip Up, which had a tutorial for a Viking-style shoe and a tree stump trivet (that's really made from felt.)

The newest site I've found is Craft:G33k. Loved this Tardis tissue box cover! And she also posted a link to this "teh yarn bukkit". (For the uninitiated, it's a takeoff of the LOLCats.)

It's been awhile since I've posted anything from Crafting a Green World.... mainly because, for some reason, the feed's stopped working on my Bloglines and I missed a bunch of stuff, thinking that it was just quiet due to the holidays. :-P But I did enjoy this article about digital vs. traditional scrapbooking. And, though it's not from this week, this was a good reference post on all of their eco-friendly fabric finds from 2008.

Two other random favorites, since everything else came in pairs. I really liked Antoinette's most recent men's shirt refashion--think I'm going to have to borrow this idea sometime! And this rather stunning wrap skirt was originally featured on Weekend Designer, but there were some copyright issues so it got removed. But you can still drool over it at Assemblage.

Ok, back to the sewing room-- I'm determined to finish that shirt recon today, since I absolutely have to do muslins for bridesmaid stuff tomorrow morning!

Christmas craftiness

Warning: VERY pic-heavy post ahead! (Which will make this interesting to read, because I can NEVER get the formatting right on these!)

I know this is probably an unusual time to be posting! But my family tends to keep Christmas rather low-key. My immediate family (my parents, brother and I) have this annual tradition of going to my church's Christmas Eve service, and then coming home, having sparkling cider and cookies, and opening our gifts. We go to my mom's parents and celebrate with her side of the family during the afternoon on Christmas day, and then the same thing with my dad's side of the family usually the weekend after. (Saturday this year.) So now that all my crafty Christmas presents have been distributed, I can post about them.
The first one is a recipe box I made for my friend Cassie. She's been saying for months now that she needed one, and I'm just glad she didn't go out and buy one first! It's just a plain wooden recipe box that I got at the craft store and covered with scrapbook paper, then painted the "Recipes" on top and did a little decoupage coffee/teacup on the bottom (she loves both) with some of my paper scraps.
She loves literature and collecting quotes, so I was quite happy to find an appropriate one to paint inside the lid!

And then I found these recipe cards that matched perfectly at AC Moore, so I got her several packs of those. She was thrilled to have a recipe box at last, and told me today that she's managed to get 4 in there so far.



Next up: the rest of the stocking stuffer necklaces I made for my mom, all out of stuff from her stash minus one pendant. These first two are ones that I'm pretty sure I did the Sunday before last...
Several of the beads from this one came in a little pre-packaged set (including that lovely Celtic pendant), so I was quite happy she had stuff to fill it out the rest of the way!
This next one with the leaf was made last Saturday (this was the pendant that was new)...

And then the next five were made on Sunday...

From sew and so

From sew and so

And the last one was made on Monday.























Finally, five sets of earrings that I made for my friend Julie.
She said I was cheating-- we'd agreed among my group of friends that we're just going to do the gift card exchange at our Christmas party (to be held in January.) But I told her it was all stuff from my stash and she was helping me use it up, so she was really doing me a favor. So I don't think she minded too terribly much.
And then this is how I packaged them-- just some cardstock folded accordion-style with holes punched for the earwires. Hard to see past the floss, but it says "earrings for special occasions"-- stuff like "cheering on the NY Jets" (the teal/silver pair--that's her favorite NFL team), "showing school spirit" (the blue and gold pair, which is the colors of the college we both graduated from, and her family gets season tickets to the football games every year) or "fooling people into thinking you're Irish" (the green pair--she's a redhead, but not Irish.)

Next post-- some of the handmade/crafty related presesnts I got!