Necessary Sewing

My most recent work has been a long way from exciting. I really don’t like home decorating sewing very much. I find it is usually a lot of long, straight and really boring seams put in a lot of fabric with a lot of pressing. Handling all that fabric gets cumbersome. This type of sewing feels like a chore to me. The fact that I don’t think I have much of a gift for decorating probably adds to my lack of enthusiasm. However, sometimes it is necessary. And now is one of those times.

I made a valence for the girls’ bedroom out of this fabric:

And a curtain for a bathroom out of this (cream-y colored cotton gause):

Pictures of them up and in place would probably be more exciting, but they won’t go up until we move back in.

So, it wasn’t so bad once I did it, but I’ve had this fabric since November and have just been putting it off since then. I do have a couple more curtains to do, but I don’t have that fabric with me.

I also did some sewing for the girls’ group at our church. They need these “flags” for a liturgical dance sometime in the fall. Thankfully, serging around the edges is sufficient because there are about 40 of them and the fabric is not at all nice to work with. I have a lot more of these to do.

Now I likely won’t be sewing again until the end of March. There just won’t be time with cleaning, moving, and unpacking. And then I’ll be in NYC for a few days. Have I mentioned that I’m excited about that?!? So, there won’t be any posting here for awhile, but I will be back!

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The Burda Skirt Again

I'm not sure what prompted it, but awhile ago I decided that I needed a green skirt. The last time I was at Fabricland I saw this green wide-wale corduroy. I wasn't really looking for the skirt to be corduroy and the color was a little different than I was hoping for, but since I had my eyes peeled for awhile and hadn't seen anything better, I thought I'd try the corduroy. After looking for a suitable pattern, I settled on the Burda 2/2010 skirt that I've already used three times . Because of the weight and bulk of the corduroy, I didn't want to try to mess with too many details. I'll use another skirt pattern soon. Really, I will. One of the things I really like about this pattern is the pockets. This time I made the pocket facings and part of the pocket bag out of a cotton woven solid to reduce bulk. Since I'll be wearing this skirt with tights I added a lining. Adding the lining was really simple except that I cut the lining exactly the sam...

Simplicity 2508 - Orange Coat

I have more fabric than will fit in my fabric closet. It seems that a purge and reorganizing effort is on the horizon. But, before I get to that, I've queued up projects for some of the bulkier fabrics. I need the space that they take up. The first of these projects is a new coat for me! The fabric... I purchased this orange coating fabric over a year ago when all the clearance fabrics at Fabricland were $1.00/meter. However, this is not a high-quality piece of fabric. It is mostly polyester and I don't expect it to wear well. I suspect it will pill. For that reason, I didn't invest a lot of time in the construction. Also, I'm thinking that I might get tired of an orange coat more quickly than something neutral, so I didn't see the need to use lots of elaborate techniques on this project. The lining fabric was given to me by a destashing acquaintance. It isn't particularly fabulous, but it was on hand and perfectly serviceable. The entire coat is und...

Grocery Bags

More gifts! These are just like the still-all-too-ubiquitous plastic grocery bags, but they're fabric. I followed this tutorial and you actually use a plastic bag as a pattern. The instructions are very good and include a pocket so that the bag can be folded up and is easy to keep in a purse or a car's glove box. Mostly for the sake of the gift recipients, here's how to fold up the bag.... 1. Lay the bag pocket side down and fold it length-wise using the edges of the pocket as a guide. 2. Fold it in half, aligning the top of the handles with the bottom of the bag. 3. Fold in half again and then reach into pocket with your hand and turn the whole thing (pocket included) inside out. Happy shopping!

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