Sew Grateful Giveaway Winners

Sorry for the delay in putting this up. We had an unexpected snow day yesterday due to a state of emergency that was called, and though I fully intended to get to the drawing, it just didn't happen. But I managed to catch Doug just before his hockey game started, and he graciously agreed to help me with this one.

I decided to take a break from the random number generator system, because I had two names to draw. Also, because it meant I could use this:

 Admit it....it's much cooler to say that he picked a name out of the TARDIS than a hat, right?












The winner of the red cotton is....

Ashley! Who says she would use it to make a Beignet.













The winner of the taupe suiting is...

Annie! Who wasn't  sure yet what she'd make, but said it looked cozy.













Congratulations to both of you! If you could contact me at sunnyb64 at yahoo dot com with your addresses, I'll get those out in the mail to you asap.

I also wanted to thank Nic at The Somnolent Dachshund--I won her giveaway for a $10 voucher to Disparate Disciplines! So I got an Avocado Hoodie pattern. It looks nice and cozy, and I love that there's built-in handwarmers!

Sew Grateful Week, days 3 & 4

I'm lumping these together again-- partially because I had to really think about the resources, and partially because I was a little more focused on having a solid sewing day yesterday-- my birthday gift to myself! :) (It was yesterday, and yes, I got spoiled-- I got lots of lovely messages on various social media from friends and family, two gift cards to Joann's that should cover notions for my fabric stashbusting endeavors for awhile, a set of pretty interchangeable knitting needles, and Doug gave me an appointment for a massage at a local spa. My shoulders are almost always tense, probably mostly due to my choice of musical instrument, so I'm really looking forward to that!)

Day 3: Sharing Resources Day

Since I don't have any new tutorials or groundbreaking technique tips at the moment, I thought I'd share two resources I've found for places to get sewing supplies that you wouldn't necessarily think of. I'm highly reliant on internet shopping for my crafty needs, so I've had to get creative sometimes!

#1: Dharma Trading Company. They're probably most commonly known as a one-stop shop for all of your dye needs. So obviously, if you want to play with dyeing some fabric, this is a great place to get your colors! But they also have a really nice selection of natural fiber fabrics by the yard, including cotton, hemp blends, bamboo, and silk. Most of it is in a natural color, obviously, since it's meant to be dyed. What I've most often bought from here is the silk, because the prices are really good compared to places like Fabric.com and Mood--all of my lining and underlining fabrics for my wedding dress were purchased from here, except the nude organza to underlay the lace on the sheer part of the bodice, and this is the first place I'd look to get silk organza for tailoring-type projects and interfacings.

#2: KnitPicks. Yes, the place I already linked to for those knitting needles. You might already know about this if you're one of those sewcialists who also knits, but I was surprised to learn recently that they sell buttons! I shouldn't be... I mean, cardigans. But I was recently looking for a larger quantity of buttons for my current project, Joann's didn't have enough of anything in stock, I did some poking around on Etsy, fell in love with a certain style of button that the seller only had one of, and then the Google rabbit hole led me to here. They're not necessarily an inexpensive source, and the majority was a brand that's pretty common at Joann's, but it's probably fairly comparable to paying full price at a fabric store. More importantly, I was able to get 16 buttons that matched. (I'm super-excited about the ones I found, but am going to wait for the finished project post to show those off.)

Day 4: Sewing Project Day
I'll have to go with an in-progress post here. As you know from recent posts, my current project is the Sewaholic Robson Coat. I'm grateful to Tasia for coming up with such a cute jacket design, and to the Sewcialists for the #bluefebruary sewalong--even though it's highly unlikely at this point that I'll finish this one while it's still February, given that it ends, um, tomorrow, it was great incentive to get this started at a time where I'm likely to be done by the time it actually gets to spring jacket weather!

I did some very minor tweaks to my muslin that worked out really nicely, so I got the whole thing cut out on Tuesday and started sewing the real thing yesterday. I don't have a lot to show for it yet, mostly because I'm trying to take my time and do a really nice job.So this picture pretty much encompasses what I did get done so far, aside from already needing to iron that sewn piece again! I underlined the sleeve pieces with a silky print from my stash, leftover from this jacket, basting it together by hand. I already had the strips cut and sewn together, but I had to buy a bias tape maker and it didn't come in until Tuesday, so I had to press about 12 yards of bias tape. I also spent some time fiddling with the idea of a bound buttonhole, and I'm glad I tested this first, because I don't think it will work for this particular project. (The buttons are on the small side, so I don't have much room to maneuver.) So I really only have one seam and two pocket flaps done, and the inside pocket pieces basted onto the front pieces.


A closer-up view of that seam. I'm basically having to sew all of these seams five times-- once for the actual seam, twice more to enclose the edges with that bias binding, and twice more for topstitching. I think the double topstitching will look really nice, though. The reason I'm doing the two rows close together like that is because I probably should have bought a wider bias tape maker, because I'm just barely getting the raw edge caught with the edgestitching, and the topstitching row further from the seam will help to further secure the binding.

If I can keep the topstitching this neat, and get the wrinkles pressed out a little better--I have a feeling my bottle of Best Press is going to be my best friend here--I think this will look really nice when it's all together!

One more Sew Grateful note-- there's still plenty of time to enter the fabric giveaway! 

Sew Grateful Week!

Day 1- Giveaway!
Better late than never, right? I didn't find out until right before I needed to leave for teaching and a rehearsal that Sew Grateful week was happening this week. I've been blogging for awhile, but never really got to fully participate in this before. And the sewing community is such a fun place that I'd love to have a chance to give something back! (I was thinking it would be fun to do a little giveaway soon anyway, since my birthday is tomorrow, so the timing couldn't be more perfect!)

I have two pieces of fabric to offer. Unfortunately, due to the weight/size, I can only ship within the US. (Sorry!) But hopefully they'll find good homes with one of you lovely ladies!

The first piece is a taupeish suiting. It's 58" wide, and I have 3 yards of it. People sometimes give my quilter mom fabrics, and if they're more suited to clothes, she passes them on to me--this was one of those. I don't know the fiber content, and haven't done a burn test to know for sure, but I strongly suspect that there's wool in it, based on how my hands reacted to folding this up! Which means that I can't use this, but it could be great for someone else.



The second piece is a red organic cotton twill, 58" wide, 2 yards. I bought this one online from Mood a few years ago, thinking that I needed to branch out into some warmer colors and I should make it into a Beignet skirt. I haven't gotten to that pattern yet, and it's just as well, because red isn't really a color that I wear much at all. But I know a lot of you love red, so I'd love to see it get into the hands of someone who will use it! The red is a little less orange than the picture shows-- if I remember correctly, it's listed as "tomato" and they still have it.

The red has been prewashed--I don't think I washed the suiting. You may want to wash them again, if dog hair is an issue for you. (I've tried to keep them clean, but Golden Retriever hair gets everywhere!) If you're interested in one or both of these fabrics, just leave a comment saying which one(s) and what you might make it into. I'll leave the giveaway open until Sunday night.

Day 2- Reflections Day 
I've talked before about why I sew and how I got started and all of that, so I'm going to focus on the online sewing community. Aside from my mom and grandmother, who are both a lot more into quilting than anything else, I don't really have local people in my life who sew. Sewing really isn't a big thing at all where I live, so my local resources are quite limited, and if you check the map, I'm still the only one in my little state!

I've been blogging longer than many of the people that I've come to think of as sewing friends, and started it more to have an easily accessible record of the things I make and learn about sewing than anything else. It's really been more in the last two or so years that I've really started to feel like I'm part of a sewing community. I love how the internet makes it so easy to find people all over my country and internationally who enjoy the same things I do. I've enjoyed getting to know people from places that I've never visited, like Europe and Australia, in this small way, and seeing what life and culture is like in these other countries.

Since I grew up sewing the "Big 4" patterns, which was all that was available in the one Joann's store that I have around here, it's been really fun to watch the beginnings and growth of smaller companies like Colette and Sewaholic and Cake Patterns. It's also great to feel like I'm supporting people who really care about sewing and work so hard to put out quality products that are great for all levels of sewists.

I love that I can use things like Twitter and Instagram to get sewing advice in real time now. I also love how seemingly random comments on there can turn into fun sewalong ideas! (Hellooooo, March of the Shieldmaidens!) I'm enjoying having the group encouragement to use what I have this year through the Stash Diet and the Stashbusting Sewalong. I love seeing all of the creativity that different bloggers have with different patterns, and how generous everyone is in sharing their ideas, encouragement, and general excitement in seeing what gets made.

Mostly, since sewing has been such a big part of my life and identity for so long, I love "knowing" people that get it.