My Sewing Space

For the top, I used Kwik Sew 2918 (heavily modified). I was inspired by this top . Or was it this one ? Hard to remember... The jersey fabric was dirt cheap when I picked it up a couple of years ago. I intended to use it for muslins because I wasn't so sure I liked the color. It did serve the muslin purpose well a couple of times, but I recently noticed that it matched this quilting cotton that I had in my stash and an outfit possibility was born. The shorts are New Look 6884 , again lengthened to meet school dress code approval. Next Up:  Simple Summer Stuff, Part 3 (of 3. For now...)

I'm going to resist the urge to use my sewing blog to whine about not sewing. Let's just say that I'd have more to say on a yard work blog than a sewing blog these days. Driven out of necessity, I have made a few very simple things for my daughter. She needed tops and shorts and even though I tried to get it taken care of quickly by buying things, RTW (ready-to-wear) clothes just doesn't fit her well. Shorts that fit in the waist are way too short to wear to school. Stash fabrics and TNT (tried-and-true) patterns to the rescue! I used Burda 9549 for the top and New Look 6884 (with added length to meet school dress code) for the shorts. I do love seersucker in the summer! The ice cream cone applique came from a clip art search. Pretty easy to do, but adds some interest. Next up:  Part 2 of Simple Summer Stuff

The Ottobre adventures continue! It has been fun to have a few issues at hand when planning warm weather wardrobes for my kids. This latest project comes from the spring 2011 issue - a flippy, ruffled skirt. The plan was to use the remainder of the striped fabric from these dresses to make the ruffles on the skirt. I made a very valid attempt, but those stripes drove me absolutely batty. First I cut the pieces out without placing them on the fold, so they weren't long enough. Then, I tried to cut out two more, figuring I would just have seams at center front and back. But, I cut them the wrong direction and no matter how I turned those rectangles, I could not get them to work together. Since I wanted them to match all along one tier, but be the opposite of the other tier, it made it more complicated than my brain could handle. In the end, I bought more fabric and still have a seam at CF of the top tier and CB of the bottom one. They don't really show up in the pictures, bu...

S asked me to make some owl pillows for her shop. She gave me some suggestion pictures and I did a bit of looking online, but didn't feel very inspired until I saw this scrap of fabric in my stash. The larger owl is about 1" tall and I basically just enlarged it, keeping the proportions the same, up to 12" for the pillows. I like how the feet are perched on a branch in the printed fabric, and I really wanted to make some sort of feet that dangled from the bottom of the owl. But, after three different attempts, I was still unsatisfied with how they looked and I didn't have any more ideas. Instead, the feet look like this: The wings have a pleat in the middle so that they sit away from the owl body a bit. The underside of the wing matches the owl belly. I was quite determined to make these using only materials that I already had and I was successful. I think I would prefer the look of regular button (as opposed to these covered button) eyes, but I didn...

Just like last year at this time , I was asked to donate something for a charity auction at the school my children attend. I used this pattern to make a set of placemats. The background fabric is a sand-colored linen. I bought five yards of it a few years ago when I happened upon a fabric store that was going out of business while on vacation. I've been using pieces of it here and there - never really a big chunk at a time - and now I've got about a half of a yard left. I'll be sad when it's all gone. The backside is a clamshell printed quilting cotton. The binding is finished by hand (took a long time, but looks really nice) and the vertical quilting lines are about  3/8" apart - pretty dense. These two factors multiplied over six placemats meant that they weren't finished as quickly as the "so simple and easy" endorsement on the pattern had me expecting. But, I'm really happy with how they turned out. The extra effort was worth it. I...

Lately I find myself in a bit of a philosophical quandary regarding my daughters and their clothing. Who should decide what they wear - me or them? If it's them, should anything they choose be okay (within the bounds of modesty, safety, etc)? Do they need to be taught some guidelines about matching or should they go with whatever they think is beautiful? If they need guidelines, how do I teach that without squashing their own style? And how do I know if my guidelines are the best for them? My definitions of matching or coordinating are different from others. Maybe they resonate with someone else's personal style much more than mine. It seems pointless to try to instill "rules" about what to wear based on social norms now and then try to encourage dressing for self without regard for what others think later in life. Hmmm. I realize that in the grand scheme of things, clothing choice isn't a huge issue, but all these questions were on my mind while making these East...

After the buttonholes were finished, I spent the rest of the day in the trim, button and notions shops. I also went to the more expensive fabric shops (where I would be broadening my fabric horizons more than acquiring). On the second day, I would return and do the rest of the fabric stores. My reasoning for this plan was that I was meeting the Preacher for a play on Broadway that evening and didn't want to be loaded down with bulky bags of fabric. Buttons and trim are easier to stash away. So, let's get to the good stuff... Clockwise from top left: striped ribbons in two different colorways, likely will become hairbows for my girls; flower printed webbing for a tote bag for older daughter; D-rings and latches for tote bags, wristlets, or purses; brown ribbon, likely for me but I have no specific intention for it right now (it looks like denim up close). Picot-edged and fold-over elastics I find the elastic selection at my local fabric store very bleak. I was tempted to...