Category: Crafty

Sew What’s Up?
Crafty · Life Posts · Sewing · Uncategorized

Sew What’s Up?

LSiehLeave a comment

Having an injury that prevents me from sewing is really showing me how much I actually need to sew to keep myself on an even keel. I have other hobbies, like reading, marathoning Star Trek episodes, dancing, or finding all the book sales, but sewing is still one of my top three stress relievers. And believe me, I needed the stress relief!

Also, look, the book sale wasn’t my fault. It was to support a Catholic School! Don’t you want those kids to have a good education?! The Husband graciously drove me and found some good books as well.

I found a couple of psychology books, including a Brene Brown book. She’s fantastic and I still haven’t read most of her books, so I was excited to find it.

This book jumped into my bag when I wasn’t looking! Sneaky book!

Amazingly, I have put the books away already! I know, it’s super weird for me too, but we had a game night and needed the table space. Pictures for proof!

Here are a couple of quilts from one of the books. It has only a few blocks, but gives you at least two options for putting them together. The basic block and then a secondary setting option. It’s pretty cool.

We also went to a quilt show and although I was too shy to ask to take pictures of the quilts, there were lots of fabulous ones. It was one of those weird situations where it was all much older ladies and they seemed very confused by why us young whippersnappers were interested. There was a really cool music quilt that someone had made in high school to take to band camp, a really detailed landscape type quilt, fairy houses, and an amazing sewing themed quilt. That one had tons of appliqué and the Husband pointed out that several of the machines pictured on the quilt were “plugged in” across the quilt! It was so cool! I hope that one won first place. I did see a couple of scraps of fabrics that I have in my stash too, so that was fun.

I found a cool book too and some fun fabrics. They had a scrap table where you could stuff a bag for $5! Here’s my scrap haul and the book.

While we were there, I finally found the weighted rotary cutter that I have been looking for. I thought it would be easier on my thumb and wrist for cutting. You barely have to push at all because of the weight of the blade. Now I just have to get better at cutting clothes patterns out with a rotary cutter and I should be all set.

Speaking of which, I have used it already. I made a comment to a friend about working through my mending pile, since most of those things need less cutting and she replied with something a long the lines of “mending your clothes while mending your body.” I really liked that image and am trying to remind myself of it when I get frustrated with the slow pace.

Today, I cut off the elastic waistbands of two pairs of leggings to cut them down a little, and to replace the elastic with a yoga style band instead. They both hit at a weird place and would gradually be up around my ribs throughout the day. Since they are navy blue and grey, I didn’t want to just replace them. I need plain leggings, as well as plain dresses and shirts. So I added navy blue dpb to both for the new waistbands. I didn’t have any grey and it should be covered anyway.

These tea wallets were in my “to be finished” pile, so I sewed and turned them at least, but will have to figure out how much I can hand sew before I can do the buttons. I think I can probably do them one at a time.

Aren’t they adorable? I think I might try to sell them as a teacher set or something. They look so cute together.

I have also made blanket! It’s a very special sewing blanket and it’s surprisingly heavy. The Husband said I accidentally made a weighted blanket after I dropped it folded up on his arm. The pieces were 2 yards each, so it ends up being about a 100 inch square?

It is made with blue background dpb for the sewing machines and a strawberry red french terry on the back. I serged the edges together and am very happy with it. I was originally going to make something to wear, but the pattern is really big comparatively and a couple of other people made blankets with it on the sewing boards. It’s a little too warm still to use it now, but I think I will love it in the winter, as I am always cold.

I made these dog themed pictures for the September celebration of Fancy’s “Gotcha Day” and still need to put paw prints on one and a picture of Fancy on the other. I think they look cute even without the finishing touches though too. The Husband likes them as well.

So there is my recent sewing update! I’m relearning how to work around things and have also been reorganizing the basement, so it’s been a process. A good process that I will be glad to be done with at some point! I have to get back to that part though. There’s fabric in the wash I just remembered that I forgot about!

Serging Forward!
Crafty · Sewing

Serging Forward!

LSieh4 Comments

No, that’s not a typo! I bought a serger a little bit ago and I have been having a lot of fun learning how to make it do all sorts of things. It is a “previously loved” Babylock Enlighten.

My mother-in- law is partially to blame, when I asked her about pricing, she said she would just come with me to the sale. 🙂 My sewing friend K was also there, so we both picked her brain about sergers and what features to buy. This model automatically adjusts tension and threads itself when you push a button. It solves the worst problems with sergers in general. 🥰

A serger, by the way, is the machine that makes fancy hems on t-shirts and other items. The stitches look like this:

They are more flexible and secure than a zig zag stitch on knits and make everything look a little more professional. My MIL said it would be “a game changer” for me and it seems to be that way. I have sewist guilt though, about not using my machine. I don’t know that I will use the serger on quilt seams, as that feels a bit weird.

So far I have made some pants, leggings, tank tops, and a woven skirt with the serger. I haven’t had problems with seams, except with the neck and armbands, which are generally tiny and obnoxious to get the spacing just right.

Here are the tanks I have made:

The red one was the first one I made.

I noodled around on scrap fabric for a while and then just jumped right in. It was very exciting! I haven’t worn it yet, mostly because I need to trim the end threads.

This one was made as a subtle Shark Week outfit. It’s a thinner tshirt knit with low recovery from Seweird Fabrics. I had just enough to make it work.

I had three intakes at work during Shark Week and while I think most of them probably wouldn’t have even registered that I was wearing sharks, I figured I should attempt to be professional. Hence the subtle shark tooth motif. I wore a red cardigan (because, hello! Shark Teeth!) red and black jewelry, and my black jean leggings. I definitely giggled to myself all day, but have worn the tank a couple more times after. I still haven’t figured out hemming where it won’t be seen on the shirt. Excuse the thread. I was using up what I had.

I also made a casual or workout tank out of teal cotton lycra. This was out of a remnant from my friend’s leggings, so I was excited to see I had enough. I’m really working on using up scrap pieces to test patterns and be more conscious of my fabric collecting (hoarding) habits. It is currently in the wash, but imagine a teal version of the red tank.

The tanks are all the Lago tank pattern, as it is my favorite.

I also made this shark skirt out of woven fabric, but it didn’t quite hold up as well as I had hoped. I hemmed it using a special stitch called the “wave stitch” that was one of the primary reasons for buying this particular serger. You can sort of see the black/grey waves on the edge.

There’s a hilarious story involving a luckily no show appointment, binder clips, and the absence of a TJ Maxx to explain what happened, but I might not have blog space for it. You’ll be happy to know that Rite Aid carries sewing supplies and I made it through the rest of the night with a hastily sewn shut skirt. The intern was very amused and pretty impressed that I fixed it as quickly as I did. I’m still debating if I need to just make another version of it, or just assume it wouldn’t be good for a skirt. It’s a very thin cotton batik.

I almost forgot that I made these little yoga shorts too. They are a little see through to wear to actual yoga. (Knowing me, I would forget that and wear the most wildly printed underwear I had…) They work really well for sleep shorts or under skirts or dresses though.

They are double brushed poly, so super soft and comfy.

I made these shark leggings ankle length so that I could wear them all year. Sharks need love year round, after all. I used the Patterns for Pirates Peg Legs patterns for both the yoga shorts and the leggings. They are cotton lycra for both fabrics. I quite enjoy them.

I did try to make this shirt for Shark Week too, but it went horribly wrong and has been put in the naughty bin for now.

It sticks out weird at the lower back portion. I think I need a sway back adjustment to help control extra fabric. The lighter blue is also a very thin knit and I think I need one that is a little thicker to help control the pull. The water fabric is a quilting cotton and as much as I want to wear it, I think it might not be destined to be.

I did also make a tank out of a remnant from a fabric that K found before me at the discount store. It’s super soft and I used black cotton lycra for the bands, as the fabric wasn’t quite stretchy enough.

In other sewing news, I had a bit of an unexpected trip to the UP for our family friend’s funeral and although that was a sad part of the trip, I did remember to take pictures of the quilts that are at my parents’ house that I made, but forgot to document. Two of the three of them are my Dad’s and despite him actually receiving three total (one shredded from too many bias cut strips,) he still strongly hints that he should receive another one. I think maybe he should be grateful and let Mom have a turn. 😉

These are several years old, but they look like they are holding up well.

This is the second one he received after a year or so of hiding the old one so I wouldn’t take it to throw away when it started ripping. I believe it is from Bonnie Hunter’s Quiltville. I think it is the Maverick Star quilt.

https://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/06/maverick-stars.html

It’s backed with flannel, with no batting. I’d forgotten how much fun it was and now am itching to make another one. I just can’t stay away from the scrap quilts!

This one is a 9 patch from one of my books, I think. It’s a fairly common pattern. 9 patch with a plain alternating block. I used this cool gun fabric for it after seeing it in a quilt shop and needing to get it for him. This one is backed in cotton, no batting, after the flannel one was said to be too hot.

I’m pretty proud of the color scheme. I used up a lot of oddball fabrics for this one and I believe it uses pre-cut 2.5 inch squares for the 9 patch, so it’s pretty easy.

This one I did make for my Mom, wonky hand-stitching and all!

It’s composer fabric and hangs in her studio, doing double duty, protecting the harpsichord from drafts and being decorative. Yes, my Mom is the cool Mom with the unusual instruments. 🙂

I have sewn a few more things, but some of them I cannot show you yet. I have to learn to alternate things I can show, with those I can’t. It makes posting a little difficulty occasionally. I have also been doing some organizing. I now have enough bins to put everything away and as my Mom gleefully reminded me this past weekend, should probably be on another fabric buying ban until I sew some more of them down.

I should really go plan out some more projects, or maybe clean off the table. We’re having our Big Summer Blowout this weekend and the table is currently covered with tracing paper, fabrics, and serger accoutrements. Wish me luck and maybe call the Husband if you haven’t heard from me in a few days. 😉

Sew Many Things!
Crafty · Sewing

Sew Many Things!

LSiehLeave a comment

I have been sewing a lot lately and can finally share a couple of my super secret sewing projects! I have been finding it very soothing, especially since taking a knit break and finishing a scrap quilt to go to a friend.

This one started life as a baby quilt for my step-cousin’s second baby, but my Mom sent me cuter fabric, so I had to switch it over. My friend works in a hospital setting and I sent her two quilts to use for sensory issues/cool down times previously. The next couple will be going to their collection for kids with emergency situations.

I needed to expand the quilt past baby quilt size, so now it’s a rough square. I found the coolest pastel tie dye backing for it too, so I think it should be really cute. I finished it the week I was on steroids for a cold/asthma issue and I think it was one of the things saving me from full on ‘roid rage. Ugh. They mess with me so much, but it definitely almost completely got rid of the asthma flare. As a consequence though, I didn’t really sleep much and this was mindless enough to be able to sew it on little to no sleep. It was really fun to do too, of course. I just need to bat, quilt, and bind it and then send it off. I will probably add a tie to the middle of the white squares. I don’t have colorful enough buttons, I don’t think. It’s so cheerful and bright that I hope it will bring some joy to someone who needs it.

So for the super secret part of sewing, I made two little matching outfits for my friends’ boys and a cardigan and leggings set for my friend. I didn’t have matching fabric for a shirt, so I owe her one at some point. Somehow the leggings never got photographed, but they were a pretty teal color with a watercolor decorative part as a cuff. The watercolor part had purple, white, and teal colors in it. Her cardigan is a Cocoon Cardigan from Patterns for Pirates and has pockets! I used a fancy double brushed poly in a dark grey so it looks a bit more lux than a regular grey, I think. These are my favorite cardis to wear, so I knew it would be lovely for a new Mum. I have heard from reliable sources that it is extremely cozy, so I’m happy with it. 🙂

The boys got an outfit each and they happened to be free patterns! I used Ellie and Mac’s Grow With Me PJs for the older boy’s outfit, and Patterns for Pirates Wee Lap Tee and Petite Pegs for the baby’s outfit.

I was super nervous about making them and about fit, but my friend told me they fit very well with a little room to grow. The Husband reminded me that the boys are still tiny, so clothes would need to match. 🙂

Here’s a picture of the outfits themselves:

And a picture of the two cutest boys wearing them! (Posted with my friend’s permission.)

A note, I didn’t show this picture to my friend before she sent me her pictures of the boys, so it’s kind of funny that they ended up in the same places! Also, how cute are they?! I have some more things planned, some with a Lego theme, that I can now work on, since the sizes are right. I’m glad she liked them all, I was super nervous! They were such tiny clothes!

I had to laugh while cutting the Cardigan out. My pattern weights are “somewhere safe” in the messy basement, so I just grabbed the things closest to me, which happened to be the Firefly decor pieces. 🙂 Whatever works, I guess. I have occasionally used the dog as a pattern weight when she wouldn’t get off my fabric.

I made yet another Cocoon for me too. I just can’t stop, but should maybe branch out pattern wise. I don’t have a picture of the full cardi, but it is the grey from my friend’s cardi as bands and this fabric as the main piece.

It’s so pretty and drapey! Originally it was going to be a dress, but it is way too thin and I thought I would get more use out of a cardi than having to line the whole dress. It is a cotton jersey spandex, I think, so lighter and looser than the grey cardis.

Another new material has been fun to work with lately has been vegan leather. I bought it to try out for this next vendor/bellydance show and it’s been interesting. It’s super slippery and slightly stretchy, but only in one direction. The fancy craft glue I bought for it doesn’t actually work with the felt backing that I wanted to use, so I may end up using hot glue for the rest of the flowers.

I have one tiny one done too, but it’s drying. I have black vegan leather as well, so am planning fancy hair flowers, pouches, and a couple of slouchy bags. We’ll see if they sell. I might end up with a fancy new purse! I do plan to make some of the hair flowers, both of this material and cotton fancier with beaded tassels. Bling in a hair garden is always pretty!

Here are a couple more pictures of some of the things made with it. It doesn’t like topstitching, so I won’t be doing that probably for the other pouches. Both my tester ones ended up looking weird.

This bag is going to my Marvel loving friend. It ended up not quite the shape I was going for, but is still cute. I did topstitch this one because it works better when the machine isn’t directly touching the leather. I plan to make a couple more bags with some accents for fun.

I have a couple more things in progress, but will share them next time. Next weekend is the vending event, so I have given myself until Wednesday to finish the sewing stuff. I have sorted and organized my bins a little, so that should be plenty of time.

I was the lucky recipient of these fun sewing books too, from a family friend. My Mom brought them down when she came to visit and I have projects planned from both of them already.

You can never have too many bags! My bicycling friend may be getting panniers from the first book. You know, because I have no additional projects waiting in line… 😉

I definitely have lots of sewing to do in the next couple of days, so wish me luck keeping everything together. 🙂 We’re planning to attack the yard some more after my aerial yoga class tomorrow, hopefully after that, I’ll still be able to use my arms! Wish us luck and maybe check in, if you don’t hear from me… The yard is still kind of jungly, so who knows what’s lurking near the garage!

Book Sale Haul
Crafty · Life Posts · Sewing

Book Sale Haul

LSiehLeave a comment

I thought you all might enjoy seeing the cool books I found at the book sale this past weekend. We went on one of the days when we got another 10 books for every 10 books we bought. 🙂 Side note, I need more bookshelves.

I also picked up a couple of new cookbooks lately, but couldn’t remember if I had shared them yet. I’ll start with those. I blame Eric for two of them. We were at this weird bargain store called Ollie’s which has everything you can think of piled haphazardly on shelves. Right as you walk in, there’s a huge section of discount books. You know I can’t walk by piles of books. There are a lot of cookbooks there. I found this one which I’m hoping will help with dinner prep. (I did not pay $12.88!)

The Husband found these two and decided we needed to add them to the collection. I didn’t need too much arm twisting, as you can imagine.

This one needed to be ours for an obvious reason. The dork factor is strong with this one. 🙂 I was excited to see that there were both indoor and outdoor recipes. Not that I think we’ll have time to camp this year, but it’s good to know for the future.

He also requested we get this one. We have a lot of Asian cookbooks now. He may be trying to hint to something…

At least we’ll be set for the Lunar New Year!

We also found this cookbook at the used book part of the library a few weeks ago. I may be able to replicate some of these decorations.

I tried a walrus cupcake from one of the other cookbooks from this series and it was a total failure. A hilarious failure, but failure none the less. These might be a little less complicated.

I haven’t used these cookbooks yet, but will try to use them soon. I’m also going through my cookbooks to try to figure out which ones we are done with and can pass along. I have a couple specific themed ones I will be on the lookout for and the other book sales. I need a gluten free/dairy free cookbook for my friends who need both.

Speaking of book sales, here is the Husband’s pile.

He found some good music potentially for his next play, a couple of Dilbert comic books, and some Asimov books.

It’s possible I’m addicted to collecting books. Reading them too, of course, but mostly just having them surrounding me. I get nervous if go to someone’s house and I don’t see books around.

This is the semi-trashy romance and fantasy pile.

Note the Redwall mixed in there. I did find a couple of new authors to try and some new books from my regular authors. The black one on the bottom right has all three of the “Queen’s Own” trilogy by Mercedes Lackey. I found two of the trilogy at one of last year’s book sales and I never ended up getting or reading the third one. So now I will be able to find out how it ends and can give away the other two.

These are the fiction books that aren’t trashy romance or fantasty.

The bottom one is “A Child Analysis with Anna Freud,” which I thought was pretty cool! It will probably come to work with me, but I should probably read it first. This sale had a lot of older child therapy books, but they were mostly texts and I didn’t know if they would still be relevant or not.

Kate Jacobs writes easy reads about women and relationships and this one is all about food. I’ve read her knitting series and it was lovely, so I thought I’d pick it up.

“The Lace Reader” is a book that I read a couple of years ago and it has haunted me ever since. I picked it up on a whim at the library and promptly forgot the author. I had to read it twice though, because it was such a good and twisty book. I’m excited to re-read it and see if it is as good as I remembered. The Herriot stories are always lovely and Carl Hiaasen is hilarious. Wacky, but hilarious. The “D is for Dahl” book is a Rolad Dahl alphabet. It looked really cute.

Of course, there were some crafty books too. The top one has a ton of resources from websites, to books, to places, techniques, and all sorts of other info. The Singer books are always good resources. I found “Sewing Specialty Fabrics” and “Sewing Activewear” this time. There’s also a Rit Dye book called “To Dye For” and a Log Cabin idea books. The bottom book is definitely the coolest book I found.

It’s actually a binder to organize a subscription magazine called “Stitch by Stitch” that has crocheting, knitting, sewing, and needlework lessons. It’s from the 70’s, I think. It has original, never used sewing patterns, plus instructions for all sorts of knitted and crocheted things! I’m super excited to play around with it.

Have a peek inside!

There’s a pattern for the pictured wrap skirt. I plan to try it with my drapey woven black fabric from the discount store.

There’s always a mini project on the back cover.

Sadly the pants pictured here are from a separate pattern pack that I don’t have.

Here’s one of the knitting lessons.

And crochet.

Heirloom sewing!

Needlepoint!

It’s the coolest set! I’m sure you’ll see more as I use it.

So far, I’m quite pleased with my new books! Fancy is cuddled next to me while I make plans for what to make next.

I can’t see how this is comfortable, but she has to be touching me. Have a nice night!

Monthly Review- November
Crafty · Monthly Review · Sewing

Monthly Review- November

LSiehLeave a comment

Here I am! With puppers in tow, of course. She’s stealing my blankets and giving me sad eyes when I stop petting to type. Silly dog. 

I have been a busy girl this month, but some of it, I can’t show you yet, as it’s super secret Christmas business. You’ll see it next month though. I have been focusing on presents and sewing warm things for our Christmas trip to the snowy North. Which, by the way, is next week already! Crazy talk! 

This sweater was one that I was originally going to make for a gift, however, it turned out to be meant for someone who doesn’t lift (so not my brother’s lovely girlfriend,) so I kept it. Oh darn… I had to keep this lovely cardigan… The Husband claims I planned it that way, but don’t listen to him!

French Terry for the main body with lace lined front panels.

It’s a Cocoon Cardigan from Patterns from Pirates. I love this pattern and it looks pretty flattering on everyone, I think. 

I made another one this month.

To be fair, this grey one only needed the band, but I was undecided on that and it got put away until it got cold out and I suddenly needed ALL THE SWEATERS! Don’t worry, I have some additional ones now, but I think I’m destined to be cold all winter again. It does seem to happen.  Dad will say my blood thinned when I moved downstate, but I distinctly remember being super cold when I lived in the snowy North as well.  

Speaking of warm clothes, I made a sweat suit, which is currently in the wash, as I wear it as much as possible. It’s not terribly glamorous and I don’t have pictures, but it’s a lovely warm blue sweatshirt material. The pants have grey flannel pockets and the top is made from the grey ribbed material of one of my other new sleep shirts. 

These are the flannel pants that lead to using scraps for the sweatpants. 

I used the Linen Lounger pattern and accidentally flared them. 🙂 I think they are cute though and the flannel is so soft! 

I have two more flannel pants planned. I think they will have slimmed down cuffs with cotton lycra to make them stay on my ankles. My blue and grey ones slide up my legs and then I have terribly cold ankles. Fancy doesn’t always sleep on them like she should. 🙂

One of my pretty consistent goals is to use new patterns and I have made three dresses from the CKC Amy pattern, which is a knit dress with a v neck and a gathered skirt. I use pleats because gathering and I are not friends. 

I love them! It’s nice to have dresses that I can count on not to wrinkle and look adorable, if I do say so myself. This dress is made from Liverpool Fabric, which is textured on one side with a pebbly feel and is very smooth on the other. I think technically it’s a double knit, meaning two sides are knit together. It’s a very stable knit and makes excellent pencil skirts and lovely dresses. I bought the last three yards of this fabric because it needed to be a dress and I still have enough for at least one shirt too. 🙂

This Cotton Lycra version has pockets! It also makes me feel a bit gothy, especially when I wear black jewelry, a black cardi, leggings, and boots.

I wore it with my owl cardigan to work and every time I went into the lobby, someone new would compliment me on it. I must have not been wearing my hair up for people to see the owl, because I have worn it lots of times before and it hasn’t been that big of a thing. I was very careful with my pattern placement and think I lined things up pretty well. Both of these were heavier fabrics, but I have some planned with lighter weight fabrics too. I’m interested to see the differences between them. 

This raglan was made out of some of the scraps from the red and a grey french terry material. The french terry isn’t as soft as some other of the same fabrics I have, but it’s still a cozy sweatshirt. Here’s a detail shot of the pattern and the cuffs.

Besides the grey cardigan, my UFO bin also got some love. I finished my tree skirt! My MIL finished her tree skirt too, but I don’t have a picture of it, as there were presents all over it! It is, of course, displayed with the flamingo side up. 🙂 

My other UFO is a wall hanging that’s been sitting in the box for several years. I attempted to do some hand embroidery, but it looked terrible. I finally pulled the stitching and machine stitched around the middle. 

It has watch gears on it, for a slightly steampunk vibe. The squares are the tiniest scraps from my box. I enjoy it a lot and might have to make some more tiny squares. 

Another recent scrap buster project I discovered was these little gnomes or tomte that were presented in one of my sewing groups- So Sew English Craftalong on Facebook. These little guys (and the one beardless lady gnome) are made from only stash materials. They are made with scrap fabrics, stuffed with scrap fabrics, and I used stash yarn. 

This one is a wizard!
This is the lady gnome!

Aren’t they cute? I want to make some specifically Christmas ones for decor. Tomte are good luck, according to Scandinavian folklore, as long as you keep them supplied with porridge. 

These ornaments are also made with stash things. I bought these glass balls last year, I think, or the year before on clearance and have started to love the mercury glass look. Since I now know how to make them, I kind of want to mercury glass everything! 

Two of the Christmas presents I’ve made so far can be shared, as they were for the Husband’s sister and she has already seen them. She was happily wearing them today after making sure they fit. 🙂 

The leggings are Peg Legs from Patterns for Pirates and the shirt is the Relaxed Raglan. Be warned, the shirt has some rude language on it, so don’t look too close if you might be offended. 

The white fabric was originally intended to be leggings as well, but it wasn’t going to look good. She loved it as a shirt, so I’m happy with it too. I might actually make clothes for other people soon! 

My goals for the month include making my own snow pants, assuming tje fabric comes in on time, a few more warm shirts, including some layering ones, and finishing my warm pants as well.

Obviously, in the next week, finishing my Christmas presents is a priority and making Fancy a nice sweater.

This post got super long, so I’ll post the food review in a few days. For now, I’ll leave you with this silly meme about buying fabric. 

Have a wonderful night!

A Fishy Tale
Crafty · Life Posts · Sewing

A Fishy Tale

LSiehLeave a comment

I was super excited to find out that I accidentally uploaded all my pictures from the last 30 days to the Cloud. While I didn’t have all of them back, I ended up with the quilt show pictures at least and a ridiculous number of adorable Fancy pictures. 🙂 

If you’re not sick of them, you might see some more quilt pictures after all! There are some pretty cute baking themed ones that would go perfectly with some recipes from my 25 recipe list. 

One of the coolest things we saw at the quilt show was a demo on fish leather. I had absolutely no idea this was even a material that you could get! 

The presenter, Pam Manthei and her husband Joe, import the leather from a tannery in Iceland. Their company is called Fiskur Leather and all the skins are made from fish that were caught for food in the wild and are not farmed fish or caught for their skins. They are dyed with environmentally friendly dyes and the water is heated by geothermal energy. How cool is that?! Apparently the fish skin is fairly neutral in color and takes dye really well. 

How amazing are these colors?

The leathers are made from cod, wolf fish, salmon, and perch. There were so many different textures and colors! The perch had this lovely large textured scale pattern and the wolf fish had these cool spots on it. The salmon has a very small scale pattern. K bought some black salmon leather to make a wallet for her Dad, who is an avid salmon fisherman. I believe he black piece in this photo might be a salmon leather. 

The vendor, Pam, was very nice and extremely knowledgeable about her craft. She was so excited to hear that K and I were sewists! That was actually a pretty common dynamic we heard a lot there. Apparently we’re part of a new trend for younger people to get back into sewing. It’s fun to be trendy sometimes (although I was sewing before it was cool.)

Pam makes lovely things, most of which you wouldn’t even know were made from fish skin! Some of her purses really embrace the natural fish shape and other things completely catch you unawares.

These pictures all have elements of fish leather in them. See if you can tell where they are. I’ll tell you in the captions/

The bright silver strips in this picture are the fish skin.
This one is a little easier! All of it is fish leather, except the blue background square, which was felt, I think.
The hills in the windmill picture are fish leather and I think all or most of the birds.

If you’re interested in knowing more about the fish leather, especially since K and I only heard part of the demo, please visit the Fiskur Leather website. http://www.fiskurleather.com/about-us.html

The whole expo, but especially this interesting material, reminded me how much I don’t know. I’m excited to learn and discover more!

Sewing Expo- Things Bought and Learned
Crafty · Life Posts · Sewing

Sewing Expo- Things Bought and Learned

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I thought I should share what I learned from the Sewing Expo, now that my brain has had a chance to absorb it all. I hadn’t been to an expo like this before, so it was a bit overwhelming. The classes were all over the expo center an occasionally difficult to find, but I did manage with some help from other attendees. The featured picture is this fantastic little stand that had all batik jersey and rayon fabrics. I really wanted to just roll up in them and nap, but I thought it might be frowned upon. Sadly, they were a little too pricey for my budget. 

This next picture was taken in the exhibit hall. Such a dangerous place with all the pretties! There were also multiple quilt exhibits with different themes. Those are the pictures I’ve been posting. 

I took two classses and attended a fashion show. I had a free class for bringing a friend, but my brain was too tired, somI skipped it to shop instead. 😄

The first class K and I took together and it was a pants fitting class with Cynthia Guffey.  She was an excellent instructor,  but a little terrifying. She had several tips for us, including how to readjust waists- basically rip off the existing waist and make a yoke that fit instead. She adjusted a participant’s in front of the class and it was amazing to see how it fit much better. 

She also told us that the smiles or frown lines in pants points to the parts that needs to be adjusted and how to adjust those parts as needed. We covered a ton of material in an hour. I’m glad there were two of us in the class because I’m sure I would have never gotten all the material on my own. 

The second class was a notions class and I now have an even bigger list of helpful things to use that would help with sewing. A couple of the neatest ones were a heat safe ruler, scallop maler, and prarie point maker. There were also some glue pens and this fantasitc glue you can iron. I had learned about that previously at a vendor stall and almost fell over when she stuck her iron right down over the wet glue. That might actually make me want to appliqué! 

Here are some of the notions I picked up. 

The famous glue, a washable tracing pen, and a glue pen for thin lines. I didn’t see the heat proof ruler at the notions stall because I got distracted by the next picture. 

There were two baskets of wide lace on the counter for $4 and $6 a yard! Since this type of lace would normally be around $15 (at the cheapest) a yard at Joann’s, I snapped up a bunch of two yard pieces. I may get brave enough to try undergarments! (Don’t worry, those won’t get posted on the blog!) I stuck to stretch lace as it will be more useful, but really I wanted all of them! 

I also found a lovely set of batiks and some Christmas fabrics. The batiks were from a shop that is close to my work. The ladies were very nice! 

The Christmas ones were from a variety of places. 

And these hearts were 25% off and too cute to pass up. The white has triangles and other geometric shapes. 

These were also from a mix of stalls. I’m going to use some of the dinos to make dino tea wallets. The white tone on tones are music and checkers. It can be hard to find whote fabrics that aren’t floral, so I’m always on the hunt for them. 

K and I made people crack up wherever we went, as we kept finding the “perfect” fabrics for each other that we absolutely had to have. And then blaming each other for our totals. 🙂 These were from Vogue fabrics. There was so much fabrkc there I think my brain simply shut down at one point. 

We also planned out what patterns we were going to use for each fabric and it made a lot of the vendors very happy to see “nice youg ladies” sewing. These adorable owl buttons are going to go on a cowl neck sweater, hopefully soon. 

The snowman is coming with me on our Christmas trip for something to do in the car, or on a quiet evening. 

There were a lot of interesting things there and I’m very glad we went. Next year, if it’s back, I might plan to just take two classes. 

We did see a fashion show featuring Kentaro from Project Runway, but alas, I am short and all my pictures had another lady’s poofy hair in them. It was pretty neat to see the details up close though. 

We saw a really cool new technique for quilting sith chenille yarn and learned about a very interesting new kind of leather, which I’m going to do a full post on later. 

Here’s a picture of the chenille quilting. 

I have to head out to work, but I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into the Sewing Expo! Have a great day! 

Sewing And Other Pretties
Crafty · Sewing · Uncategorized

Sewing And Other Pretties

LSiehLeave a comment

I think it’s safe to say that Fancy enjoyed her Gotcha Day celebration! The Husband got this good picture of her before she got to enjoy her treat.

I have been sewing up a storm because there was a contest and I had to make all the patterns! So the following pictures are all from Patterns for Pirates, just to save time and my fingers all the typing. 

I made four pairs of Peg Leg Leggings. 

The plain black ones are capri length and are cotton lycra and the rest are regular length in double brushed polyester. The space ones are my favorite, but were also less stretchy than I wanted them to be, so they are a little problematic, but wearable. The bat fabric is from Purple Seamstress, the black fabric is from Knitpop, trucks are from So Sew English, and the space is from Sincerely Riley. I may have too many fabric shops on my ipad…. 

This Cocoon Cardi is made of the softest, comfiest French Terry ever. Side note, how cool is it that I now know all of these knit fabric terms? A year ago, I had no idea what these even meant! Now I’m buying them all online and confusing the heck out of anyone who hears me talk about it. 🙂 Anyway, back to the sweater.

Fancy was scared of the dog in the mirror and hid behind me. I’m excited to wear it once it gets cool enough. I made a second pair of linen pants, this one in blue. 

They are comfy and look spiffy for work. I went out on a limb and tried a new pattern. I don’t think it works for me, but it might be cute for someone else. Also, I really need a new cutting mat.

One last picture of Fancy destroying her little present. She loved it!

I’ve got to go think about dinner. I’ve been told that Husbands like dinner. 🙂

Crafty · Monthly Review · Sewing

Monthly Review

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We have had a busy weekend, although it did involve sleeping in a lot. Apparently Fancy was very upset this morning when I was still sleeping and she couldn’t cuddle with me. 

She probably hasn’t had as good of a weekend as we have. Her weekend involved lots of baths. This was her before one of these baths. She’s probably wondering why her treats were going into the bathroom. 

She’s normally pretty good with baths. We have given her lots and lots of treats during them, but this is probably too much for her. Luckily, the smell is going down so we should be able to cut down on the baths for now. Hopefully she’s learned that the stripey kitties are no good!

The Husband and I had separate fun things to do on Saturday. He went to a friend’s house for video games and I had some ladies over for crafting fun. K brought her sewing machine and B brought scrapbooking. S helped me make Harry Potter wands for our party in October. They turned out so cool. It was definitely a group effort, as K brought the chopsticks we used, and B helped pick the end stones. Here’s some pictures! 

The bottoms of the wands. It was fun to use up bits and bobs from my bead box. 

A fancy styled shot. This banner turned out to be a very tiny banner, perfect for a little space, or a dollhouse. I got it online and it’s a reminder to check my sizes before I buy it. I was expecting it to be bigger. We made the wands with hot glue, paint, chopsticks, and beads. 

I also made faux Mercury glass vases for a multi use decoration. 

Sewing wise, I have also made a few things that haven’t been blogged about. I made a pair of white cotton lycra shorts to go under dresses. Specifically this dress:

The fabric is from Girl Charlee and I think is a rayon spandex. It’s very light and silky. I haven’t worn it yet because all my shorts are too dark to wear with it. I’m excited to finally be able to wear it. This was one of my floral fabrics that was on a massive sale a few months ago. It’s hard to resist fabric that is $3.00 a yard!

I made this floral dress too. This one is out of DBP- double brushed poly- from So Sew English. I quite enjoy this one too, although it can be a little hot sometimes. 

I can’t stop making these shorts! I think I’m up to 10 pairs? I have a maroon pair. I don’t have good pictures of them though and they are currently wrinkly from being worn. My latest pair is made from lightweight denim, with both front and back pockets.

I got brave and tried a pair of pants from this pattern and I adore them. They look spiffy and are super comfy. They are a black rayon linen blend from Fabric.com. 

I used a yoga waistband, because why would I use anything else? They are super comfy. I will probably get some other neutral colors of linen. I like these pants. 

Speaking of pants, this fabric was running through all my sewing groups and I finally succumbed. Who doesn’t need Marauder’s Map leggings?

I enjoy wearing them and will have them for the Harry Potter Party. I have enough scrap fabric left to make a cute tank or shirt from them. 

In non clothes items, I made a little progress sewing on the star quilt. Fancy likes to cuddle with me while I’m quilting, so I haven’t worked on it in a little bit. 

I made some pattern weights, but seem to have lost the picture. I used a bunch of scraps and they have been very useful. Much better than using random things like cups, canned goods, and dog toys. 

Foodwise, I thought it had been a bad month, since I had several weeks where I didn’t make anything new, but it turned out to be a pretty good month. The party and canning recipes helped. 

My favorite recipes this month were the cardamom plum jam, chocolate bundt cake, Dilled green beans, margarita shrimp. 

Misses were the Basil Pecan Pesto, which we had with a chicken leg over pasta. I don’t think I ever had a picture of it up, it was kind of a greyish looking paste. I used a recipe from Southern Living Small Jars, Big Flavors. 

Everything else was pretty good. My numbers overall were 36 recipes with 23 new recipes. I have a lot of things canned for the winter, which is nice. Yesterday I canned a Chunky Tomato Salsa and a Roasted Garlic Pizza Sauce both from Better Homes and Gardens Canning. 

I am running out of time before work, so will have to report my goals for the month later. I’m not sure what to do with my food side of things, especially if I am still in a food rut. Please bear with me as I experiement with different food ideas. 

Have a great week!