My Sewing Space

I know I said that this space would be quiet for while I was working on window treatments, but I sneaked in some quick projects between one shade being done and the next ones being dropped off. For this top, I went back to my well-loved Kwik Sew 2918 .  This is for my five-year-old daughter and I think I've got it modified to a place where I really like it for her - a good, feminine fit. I started with size T3, took it in at the waist, added some length, and scooped out the neck. I've made puffed sleeves for this pattern before, but they were always too long.  This time I think they look much better. The ruffles are 3/4" strips of fabric gathered with a single line of stitching using a long stitch length and high tension down the center of the strip.  I just sewed them onto the shirt following the gathering stitches. It took me awhile to decide on the ruffles.  I was initially hoping for some fabric flowers for embellishment, but didn't really like any...

These are the pants that my son recently outgrew. These are the pants that I made to replace the pants that my son recently outgrew. This is the spot where my son colored with ink on the pants that I made to replace the pants that my son recently outgrew. This is how it looks after I scrubbed the spot where my son colored with ink on the pants that I made to replace the pants that my son recently outgrew. This is how optimistic I am about how long these pants will last because of how it looks after I scrubbed the spot where my son colored with ink on the pants that I made to replace the pants that my son recently outgrew.

When I made this quilt , I made it a little different than the pattern suggests.  Mine was four feet square and the pattern includes directions for one that is four feet by five feet. That was bigger than I wanted on the wall, but I still made the number of squares as directed in the pattern. That meant I had four leftover from where the bottom row would be, but there were four more also - just extras, I guess.  I took those eight leftover squares and made two small wall-hangings with them. Pardon the shadows in the picture, but I thought the blue sky in the background was too lovely not to capture. I'm not entirely sure that I like them on their own or if I just see them as a smaller variety of the larger one and like them because of that.  They'll go in the box of things for the art sale , I'll forget about them and then re-evaluate at a later date.  Maybe I'll try to sell them, maybe not but I knew for sure that if I didn't finish them now, I never would. ...

About 30 minutes after I finished the last closet clutch , S called to ask me to make more wine bags as she only had one left. I dropped these off on Friday: I wanted one of them to have the same sort of look as the notecard that I liked so much. Next up :  finishing two little quilts...not very exciting...but still must be done.

I've been referring to these various ways: hanger pouches, hanger pockets, hanger things, etc.  I dropped them off yesterday and M called today to say that she was calling them "Closet Clutches."  I thought that was a great name.  Naming something gives it (more) value. M had described these closet clutches to me as she had seen it somewhere else.  She thought they could be used for holding a sachet or jewelry or for hiding money or the family jewels.  (Ideally, none of my readers are into burglary, since I've just given away a big secret).  Honestly, this seems like a strange thing to me and like the angels , I wonder who will buy these?  But, as the wise Preacher said, I don't have to sell them - just make them.  M was really happy with them, so maybe she'll have no problem selling them. The construction is really pretty simple.  There is an outer piece with something decorative on the front, a lining/inside piece with a pocket att...

I said that I was going to be making some hanger pouch things next, and that's what I should be doing, but these notecards jumped rank and begged to be made. I'm quite excited about them!  I'm pretty sure I have seen this sort of thing on the internet before, but when searching for it, this is all I found and I know I had not seen it before.  Regardless, it's pretty simple - just sew on cardstock. With the exception of the cards with the 12 tiny squares, all of the fabric is adhered to the cardstock with fusible web.  For the 12 tiny square cards, I just used a glue stick.  This probably could work with the other shapes, too. However, I liked how the fusible web kept the edges from raveling and smearing the glue stick on the pieces did distort them a bit. The cards are 3.5" x 5" and came from Michael's.  I'm sure I'll be doing more of these.  It was a fun project. This one is my favorite: I used a zigzag stitch and off-white thread f...

Compared to the angels project , these were exceedingly simple and quick. These are also to sell in M's shop and just like the angels, someone else was sewing these and wasn't interested in continuing.  There was no pattern, but it was really simple to make up.  I just traced around the water bottle and then added 0.75".  Of that, 0.5" was for the seam allowance and 0.25" was for "ease."  The fleece is a little stretchy and it turned out to be a great fit. The band across the front is a 2" wide overlap to allow the cover to come off the bottle.  The buttons are decorative only. Next up: a  hanger pouch (still sewing for M's store...)