Sewing

Small Sewing Projects

April 26, 2022April 25, 2022 LSieh1 Comment

Here’s some smaller sewing projects that I’ve made recently. I looked back and realized that I hadn’t been posting anything of sewing or food. Mostly because it’s been hard to make myself do either for some time. Having the monthly challenges is helping, but sewing hasn’t been as much of a draw for me lately. I’m having some struggles with low motivation and difficulty making decisions, so it’s been hard to pick what I want to sew and when. Our basement is still a mess. It got overwhelming very quickly. The upstairs public areas have stayed relatively tidy since we’ve started to have people over more. The basement however, is still in recovery mode from the repairs. Hopefully we can get that sorted soon as well.

I did sort and put away a bunch of woven fabrics the other day and have been boxing stuff up for my local Buy Nothing group. Some of the fabric and patterns that I haven’t been able to use for a while, or didn’t really care for any more went to a group that works with disabled individuals to teach sewing and a bunch of the other fabrics have gone to beginning sewists to help them make muslins and other things for practice. I sent a big box to a sewist friend of mine and have one started for K1 too, although it’s been long enough she may have forgotten it’s coming. 😉

Anyway, here are some projects. Some of them are gifts from Christmas!

Here’s some snuffle mats I’ve made for the dogs in my life. Piggy has one too, but we have to monitor pretty carefully, as she gets super excited and tries to rip the fabric thinking there’s food inside. Silly girl. I swear, we do feed her the vet recommended amount!

The blue and black one is for my sister in law’s dog. She also likes to inhale her food, so hopefully this will help her calm down too. You hide the food in between the fleece lines and on top of it and the dog has to snuffle her way through to find the food or treats. Piggy loves hers!

The second one is for K3. Her pup is on restricted movement right now due to an injury, so I thought maybe it would cheer him up. I tried a different folding technique on the ends and if it works, I may make another one for Piggy too. These are all completely washable, much better than the ones that are tied to a plastic mat. You can’t wash those and that seems unhygienic, considering how drooly dogs get.

I found some new doll clothes patterns and even though none of the kiddos have complained about the doll wardrobe lately, I was getting bored with it. I did have a request for a cheerleading outfit though and may have gone down the rabbit hole of really fancy doll clothes patterns on Etsy. It’s also possible that I now own patterns for a full doll size tutu with the Basque bodice… You know, the really fancy, stiff pancake tutu with the heavily embroidered bodice? And the Giselle flowy tulle tutu that can also be a ballgown. And maybe a Regency style doll gown (I would look terrible in the Regency style, but it’s so pretty, so the dolls get it instead.) And maybe also the following adorable patterns. This first skirt is the Tie Dye Diva Potato Chip Doll Skirt- Because you can’t just make one! I made this one super fast and it has the tiniest little pockets that are surprisingly easy to make. I also own the skirt in real kid and people sizes, so there’s that. Tie Dye Diva is one of the sponsors for the 52 Week Challenge.

These two are also from Tie Dye Diva- the pink shirt goes with the Potato Chip skirt (not these two obviously) and the dress is a reversible dress for a 14 inch doll of which I now have Anna and Elsa from Frozen. They came from my Buy Nothing Group as well and I had a mighty need to dress them in traditional Scandinavian clothes. What can I say, as tiny as they are, doll clothes are proving to be the thing that gets me out of my sewing slumps a lot. And I’m a grown-up, so get to decide to dress up the dolls. Plus, my American Girl doll, Kirstin is now retired and needs more clothes. I do have her sewing patterns too, but wanted a full Scandinavian costume. The 14 inch doll clothes are hard to find too, so who knows, if I can get them looking nice enough, I could sell them.

The last doll clothes item is this raglan shirt. I don’t remember who it’s by though so will have to tell you when I make the next one. This set of fabrics matches a hoodie I have and it makes me happy because they’re so cute together. I’ve wanted a doll raglan for a while because ragland style and dolman style (where the sleeve is part of the top piece) are the easiest styles to sew and I abhor sewing tiny little sleeves in flat. Now I can make all the cute baseball shirts!

Piggy also got a sweater when she was nervous about the windows being replaced. I had to keep her in the basement with me. We should have probably given her the stronger meds that make her calm, although the herbal ones worked too. Isn’t she adorable? When/if I make her more, I’ll extend the back and the belly coverage a little. The front fits fine, but the back and belly is slightly shorter than I’d like it to be. I have thought about making her a mesh shirt for hikes that has fabric on the belly to keep her from getting itchy, but mesh along the back so she doesn’t overheat, which bully breeds, especially bulldogs, are prone to have happen.

Her new collar says “Don’t go bacon my heart.” with hearts and bacon. I couldn’t resist although it made the Husband sigh and shake his head. He loves me and my punny heart though, so it’s all good. 🙂

I made this bag to hold my dowel rods for my dolls at work. It’s a set of hanging racks that you can use for display if you’re selling at craft fairs and such, or in my case, when the office dolls need to go shopping at the clothes store. It gets set up in very elaborate ways, but I kept having dowels roll under my couch and it was very annoying. Now they’re all safe and together and my office doesn’t look quite as much like a toy store exploded in it.

I made us chopstick curtains for the kitchen too! We just had the windows done finally so now can have pretty things. Unfortunately, the curtain rod that was up there needs to be changed out, as the hanger bits in the wall just fell out when we took it down. Whenever we try to do house projects, we always find stuff that makes us either very annoyed or very confused. Things just weren’t done or not done correctly which makes more work for us. But my curtains will look super cute once we get a new rod for them!

I made this adorable gnome shirt too for K1’s kids, but I don’t know if it will fit any of them now, as it’s been a while. If she thinks it will, I’ll send it, otherwise I’ll find someone else to give it too. I don’t want the cuteness to go to waste in my basement!

I thought I had talked about this apron on here, but looking back, I don’t see it. So this was one of my Mom’s Christmas presents. The pattern is called “Pickle Dish” so she obviously needed to have it! I used pickle fabric for the backing and canned pickled veggie fabric for the contrast. I think this picture was taken quickly right before wrapping it for the trip there, so I don’t have any detailed pictures, unfortunately. It was my first time making the block and it was a doozy! I used the Accuquilt block die for it, otherwise it wouldn’t look as good. I will try it again because I need a pickle dish apron too, but I’m still recovering. 😉

So that’s the non-clothes or not for me items I’ve made lately. I’m going to post the clothes for me in a separate post to not clutter things up. I really haven’t posted about sewing since January, but I promise I’m still stitching along. I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my sewing room!

Sewing

New Year, New Patterns!

February 2, 2021March 15, 2021 LSiehLeave a comment

At the very beginning of my blog, I had a pair of slippers that I gave up on because they were too small and I couldn’t figure out the bottom. Well guess what?! I figured it out! They look a little funny still and I didn’t add the elastic on the back yet, but I have made slippers! They are from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross.

I still have not quite figured out the bottom, but I managed to make slippers that are cute and actually fit. They will be perfect for my at home sessions where my feet get cold, but I don’t want to wear shoes in the house.

Speaking of home sessions, I made a lovely therapist cardigan. It’s out of ponte, which is a new material for me. Ponte is structured, with a little less stretch than some knit fabrics. It’s thicker, smooth, and feels a bit squishy, but not unpleasantly so.

It’s a therapist cardigan because it’s an unspoken rule that you must wear a cardi if you’re a female therapist. 😁 This one is a Grandpa Cardigan by Patterns for Pirates. It’s structured and looks professional, but it’s so soft and comfy that it feels like secret pjs. It also wasn’t overly warm. It held body heat nicely, but also breathed. I think I’ll be looking into some dresses or pants to make with it. This was a new pattern, but it was very easy to follow and sew.

I made a tiny doll cardi too, because why not? I think this is the Fleece Fun pattern.

It’s been cold again, so I made some more sweatshirts and hoodies. The fabric below was made into a black Ellie and Mac Fall In Love sweatshirt with purple dbp cuffs, neck and waistband. I look ridiculous in the picture because it came out way too big and I don’t have a picture of after I resized it. It’s a cotton french terry, so more like a bath towel than drapey, so it doesn’t have a lot of stretch or recovery. It’s a super comfy lounging sweatshirt though.

Probably my favorite hoodie I have made lately is this Lotte Hoodie by Sinclair Patterns. I used two sponsors from the challenge in it. The panel is fan art of Kaylee from Firefly. She is one of my favorite characters.

The panel is from 5 Ocean’s Fabric and is stretchy cotton lycra. The pink and yellow are thinner, drapey french terry from Girl Charlee. I lined it with more of the french terry, since it was thinner fabric. It has thumbhole cuffs, which I adore. The hood is navy dbp.

I received a bonus entry in the challenge the week I made it because Sinclair was one of the sponsors that week. 5 Oceans is a sponsor again, so I bought another panel to use for that week.

I have a few more things that I’ve made, but I’m keeping them for a separate post. I thought it would be fun to do a comparison post with the same pattern and different fabrics. I’ll leave you with a picture I sent to K2 to make her jealous that I got to snuggle Piggy on Monday before work. Wearing my new therapist cardi, of course! I hope your night is as snuggly as she is!

My Year Of Sewing- 2020

January 11, 2021January 11, 2021 LSiehLeave a comment

How has it been a year already? I sometimes feel like I’m still stuck in March when the world shut down and then all of a sudden, it’s 2021! I have had my blog for four years! There’s been a lot of changes. (My auto correct tried to change that the chocolate, btw. It’s not wrong.) Some of them were not my favorite, but a lot of them were for the better.

Looking over my completed projects this year, I was very pleased to see that I had completed around 110 projects. That’s not counting the tea wallets, masks, doll clothes, and bowl cozies separately! Little thing like that are much too annoying to count individually, since I tend to make them in batches.

I’m very proud that I was able to make so many things, especially with all the current stressors going on in the world. A lot of my clothes projects this year were very practical too. I filled some wardrobe gaps, faced a couple fears, and made some pretty cool things. Of course, there were things that didn’t go so well and some that have ended up in the naughty bin or even got tossed in the scrap pile. I’ll start with the positive projects.

My most used patterns for the year were the RAD Patterns Solar Flares, the Itch to Stitch Lago tank, the Panel Undies. Here’s a collage of most of my Solar Flares.

I think there are a couple other pairs around that I don’t have pictures of.

Here’s the Lagos- again, not all, I’ve lost track of how many I actually made.

Runners up were the Be Creative Hoodie (A very recent pattern!) and the Shenanigans Skort. Here’s my three Be Creatives- two work appropriate cowl, one casual hoodie.

The Shenanigans Skorts were lovely, but I’m going to have to take two of them apart and add some other shorts in a different material. They tend to slip down a bit. My first one was by far the best. I wore it every chance I got in the summer.

The Solar Flares, the Shenanigans and the Be Creative were three of the new patterns I tried this year. Overall, I tried 30 new patterns! That’s quite a lot for me. A lot of them were intimidating at first, but when I finished them, most of them turned to be easy!

I completed all the weeks for the 52 Week Sewing Challenge and will be participating again this year. It was a very good motivator to keep sewing. I didn’t follow all the challenges, but did choose some new patterns because of the challenge. I found a few new pattern and fabric companies too. I plan to try to get bonus entries when I can bynusing a sponsor’s pattern. Here are my quarterly collages for 2020. Mostly clothes, but there are some other things scattered in there.

The things I’ve learned this year are:

-To keep my pattern cutting table clean

– Getting my patterns printed in large format is definitely worth the money

– Wardrobe basics don’t have to be boring or uncomfortable.

– Elastic isn’t scary

– Sewing for other people can be fun too!

– Tendinitis hurts and is super annoying. If I wear my brace when cutting fabric, like I’m supposed to, it doesn’t hurt as much.

The skills I want to work on this year are learning how to do flat locked stitches on my serger, button holes on my sewing machine, using the Accuquilt (this is a pretty darn cool quilting machine, so there’s going to be a post on it once I can play a bit,) darts, and grading patterns.

Patterns I want to make this year are the SOS pants and the Penelope Dress from Patterns for Pirates, the Valley Skater Dress and Lotte hoodie from Sinclair Patterns, a couple of tshirt patterns to compare, boxers for the Husband, tshirts for the Husband, and the Mix It Up by George and Ginger. There are more, of course, but I’ll start with those.

I’d also like to restart my monthly reviews. It makes it a lot easier to keep track of everything if I do that. It also might help keep me motivated to continue to try new things. I really do think my sewing confidence has grown and I’m proud of myself for being able to continue to blog and sew during what has been a really rough year, both physically and mentally. Hopefully this year will bring more determination and drive, as well as a positive outlook.

I hope this year you’re inspired by whatever makes you feel brave and creative! I’m looking forward to finding new projects and favorites!

Life Posts · Sewing

Thready Tuesday

February 18, 2020February 23, 2020 LSiehLeave a comment

I had a wonderful, relaxing day last Tuesday! I took the day off work to go to a Jellyroll Serger Quilt class with my MIL.

A jellyroll, in quilter terms, is not a cake, but a roll of 40-42 pre-cut strips of fabric, typically measuring 42 inches long by 2 1/2 inches wide. I would show you a picture, but I made my own! My MIL has a die cut machine that chops all your strips to the correct width. (I’m pretty sure it’s actually tiny gnomes because it’s so magical.) We were both determined to use what we had at home, at least for the blocks. I think we both ended up getting additional border fabric and she got some additional sashing fabric.

Here’s one of her blocks in a very pretty blue colorway. Her quilt turned out much more scrappy than mine, as she had more variety of strips. Mine is more planned, which is weird for me, but I like where it is going.

My blocks were based of a stack of fabrics I got a few months ago at the same place we took the class. You can see all three of the original fabrics in this stack- the dotted pink at the far left, the watercolor looking birds three in from the left, and the leaves next to it.

Here is one of my finished blocks.

I’m super excited to see what it looks like all put together. I’m using a light grey for the frames around the squares. I have a different colorway of the birds for possible borders, but I have to see if they look okay or not. It’s more green than blue. If not, I’ll find something else lovely to use, I’m sure. All of the block fabrics are from my stash!

The quilt pattern looks super complicated, but it’s actually really easy. Just a lot of sewing strips, cutting, and turning them. For the record, I was using my travel iron, so it’s not as powerful as a big iron and didn’t get all the wrinkles. I still have to buy a new regular iron after the tragic demise of my current one. 🙁

It was actually a big sewing weekend for me, as I vended at Detroit Raqs- a local bellydance fundraiser. I made my table extra fancy this time.

I did sell a few things, but sadly, none of the leggings I made specifically for this show sold. Here’s a close up of most of them in the baskets. Those polka dotted ones may end up in my drawer. They are sooooo pretty! They are all the Patterns for Pirates Peg Leg pattern.

The leggings fulfilled two weeks of the 52 Week Sewing Challenge for me. I made the olive and rust ones last week, along with a pair for my friend. I don’t have a picture of her leggings up, but they are a black background with white grid lines and hot pink roses. They are really fun! I didn’t follow the challenge of doing something for the kitchen last week. This week, I made stripes match on a pair of leggings, which is one of my sewing fears, so accidentally fulfilled the theme.

It looks like they don’t because the net is see through in between the stripes. They are super fun though. Since I now have a serger, I’m more confident in making things for other people. There’s much less of a chance that these will split along the seams!

I have finished a couple of projects that I had in my UFO bin. These two shirts just needed a couple of extra touches to be done. The purple one needed sleeves, so I added this mesh type fabric and I think it looks cute. I can wear it as a work out shirt or as a regular shirt. It is the Fall In Love Sweater pattern from Ellie and Mac, with modified sleeves.

This one is a Sweet Tee from Patterns for Pirates. I have a long sleeved shirt in this fabric as well and like it so much that I used the remnants for a short sleeved one as well. It’s triblend, I think, so soft and cozy. It’s a mix of rayon, cotton, and spandex.

I just serged the bottom hem and it looks good. I did grade out at the hips for both of these shirts. I’m shorter and hippier than the models/pattern blocks for this pattern.

I also dove into sewing my own underwear! I know! I was shocked at how easy it is and how much I like them. Every time I try to wear store bought underwear now, I just have to take them off. They are so uncomfortable.

I used a whole bunch of different patterns to find ones that I liked. Here’s the links, in order of how much I liked them. Fair warning, there’s butts ahead. Not mine, but butts in the pattern links. 🙂 Feel free to skip ahead if you’d like!

1. Ellie and Mac Feeling Frisky Panties https://www.ellieandmac.com/products/feel-frisky-panties-pattern?_pos=1&_sid=f15442949&_ss=r

1A. RAD Panel Undies https://www.radpatterns.com/product/panel-undies/

These two were my favorite patterns. They are pretty true to size, although they look alarmingly big when you make them, but trust me and try them on first. The panel undies allow you to use smaller pieces of fabric, but are a little confusing to put together at first. I also changed how I added the liner because I hate extra steps and don’t care if my edges are exposed. Honestly, if someone is examining my underwear that closely, they will shortly have some other, potentially lead coated things to worry about coming their way. Or a barky thing with teeth, depending on who’s home.

I also add the leg elastics with the pieces laid flat. It’s so much easier than trying to stretch them with everything sewn together already. I have used picot/lingerie elastic, fold over elastic (which I left flat, not folded,) stretch lace, and made fabric bands for waistband and leg bands. I may have ordered enough fold over elastic to last until doomsday, so I have been mainly using that. I found elastic with all sorts of fun prints including planets, pitbulls, narwals, piano keys, printed lace, and a ridiculous amount of other cute things. Several Etsy sellers are super happy with me right now. 😉 Mary Supplies, Once Upon a Stitch, and Fluerisy are all the sellers I used. I have been quite pleased with the quality and pricing. My underwear drawer will never be boring again!

2. Made for Mermaids Mama Vicki Hipsters https://www.madeformermaids.com/product/mamavicki/

The Vicki was a surprise hit and is self lined, so is sometimes easier. It does require a longer length of fabric.

The ones I really didn’t like, which I was sure that I would like, were the Stitch Upon A Time Bunzies. They fit all wrong and I was not happy with them at all. I might try going up a size, but in all honesty, I will probably just stick to the patterns I actually like. I have a couple more to try too. It has been super fun to pair up fabrics and elastics into new combinations. I used a bunch of the legging scraps too, so I have a whole drawer of silly and pretty undies.

Okay, I know I said I wouldn’t post pictures of my underwear, but I never said I wouldn’t post detail pictures for the ladies. 🙂 So here goes!

Thanks for sticking with me this far! I haven’t really been sewing much outside of vending and underwear, but am hoping to branch out again soon. Have a great week!

Sewing

Just Keep Sewing! Just Keep Sewing!

July 2, 2019July 16, 2019 LSiehLeave a comment

I feel slightly like Dory lately, from “Finding Nemo” and “Finding Dory,” in that I seem to have a short attention span for sewing projects lately and lots of indecisiveness for what to actually make.

I do need to get my shark themed outfits done for Shark Week, which starts on July 28th! I have three more things to make, I think, and then will be able to wear shark or ocean themed outfits all week! Oddly enough, I don’t think anyone will actually notice. My teen clients last year mostly just rolled their eyes at me when I told them they should be watching it, but I have hope this year, as I have some younger kids who do like sharks. I have to have someone to talk to about it after all! The Husband can only take so much. 🙂

I didn’t sew any shark themed items this week. I was focused on tank tops for part of it and workout gear. I did make a sleep tank top out of the scrap material from my SIL’s sweary panda shirt, but out of deference to my Mom, I won’t show it.. 😉 It’s got a cute panel on the front with the pandas and pink cotton lycra along the sides and back. It was really cute for my first time color blocking a pattern.

I hacked the Bonus Tank from George and Ginger to make it. I have used this pattern four times now, as it is a free pattern and has only three pieces. It includes actual pieces for the neck and armbands and it’s been nicer than having to measure them out. I’ll show you two other versions, but the third one isn’t done yet. It still needs bands and adjustments.

This one is from a remnant from Joann’s. It was actually the smaller of two cuts that I bought. The bigger one will be a skirt, I think. I believe it is rayon spandex, but I keep forgetting to take a picture of the end of the bolt with the info. It’s lovely, soft, and very light, even in the heat. It also goes perfectly with my blue chambray shorts I made last year.

This one is from a performance fabric, I believe nylon and spandex, also from Joann’s. All the performance and printed knits were on sale for $7.99 a few weeks ago and I stocked up. They are normally $13-20 a yard. I also had coupons!

It’s a bit of a different fabric that I normally use, but is supposed to be moisture wicking and all that fancy stuff. It’s soft and comfy. This was the first one I made and I have since narrowed the shoulders a bit as they were a tiny bit too big.

I also made these leggings with cutouts that I think are super trendy and cute.

They are just black cotton lycra with these panels and I don’t have a good picture of them on. I still have to take about two inches off the bottom of the leggings, but it won’t affect the panel at all. I am short, so the Capri length are actually somewhat closer to ankle. Chances are good I won’t want air conditioning in my leggings in the winter! The Husband thought they were cool too.

Since it has been so hot lately, of course, the best thing to do is to make a sweater, right? 🙂 I actually pulled this out to make because I knew exactly what I wanted to make with it, so it was something I could do quickly. I think it looks cute on me and this pattern has some magic that makes me feel cute, even in a slimmer cut. The fabric is a double knit and was from the Discount Fabric Outlet, which sadly, has closed. 🙁 I had just enough to make it work. The neckband is navy cotton lycra, as the blue floral doesn’t have enough stretch to work for that.

It’s the Fall In Love Sweater from Ellie and Mac. I love it! I have made a black and rose sweater in this pattern too and probably will end up with a couple more for fall and winter. It’s the perfect professional sweater pattern.

In a more seasonally appropriate direction is this dress, which is the Brunch Blouse from Patterns for Pirates extended to my actual dress length with a slight High/Low hem.

If you remember, this is a pattern I have made before, but forgot to add more to the skirt portion when I shortened the torso and ended up with a lovely tunic instead. Joann’s came to the rescue as they had almost perfectly matching bias tape and thread to finish the edges. It is made from rayon voile, which I bought after seeing the fabric on clearance online. I have not worked with this fabric before, but it is so smooth and floaty that I want all of it now. It works perfectly for a little summer dress! I have worn it belted to a friend’s birthday party and with a cropped jean jacket for work (which I thank the same friend for making me buy it every time I pull it out.) It looked lovely both ways and makes me feel super stylish and cute. I plan to make more of this pattern as well.

I have been finding a couple of stash busting hashtags on Instagram that I’m hoping will help inspire me to keep evaluating and adjusting my wardrobe. I’m finding that my style is really emerging and I’d like to keep up that momentum.

This weekend I have fun plans to try tie dying some white cotton lycra to see how it works and I will have some cute things to make after that. For the summer, all the online fabric places have really cool tie dye fabrics and my friend and I decided to try to make some on our own. And of course, my list of projects grows ever longer. For example, how cute are these patterns I found at the bag sale at my local quilt store?

I blame my MIL for part of them. It’s okay though, she got similar fabric (the water color looking ones) to me and blames me for that.

It’s dangerous when we shop together. Also, she has the ruler I need for the Twister Gnomes, so how could I not get it? And and iron pattern called “The Irony?” I mean.. I’m their target market on that one. (By the way, everyone may get a gnome themed table runner this year. Hope you don’t mind… 😉

To distract from more fabric purchases (although they do have a purpose- a quilt with the watercolors/batiks and a skirt or shirt with the floral,) I’ll leave you with this derptastic picture of Fancy on a car ride.

I hope it makes you smile as much as it did for me!

Crafty · Sewing

Haunted By Past Projects

April 24, 2018May 5, 2018 LSiehLeave a comment

I hope you are all doing well. We finally have some nice weather and I took my lovely gift card to spend it all! I was very restrained.

The featured post is a knit that will be a simple dress. I also got some peacock fabric to make a bellydance costume, a piece of shirting to fix a too small project, and a cotton fabric that mimics wool for a jumper. I told one of my coworkers that I would show off the dress they had bought me after I made it. 🙂 The jumper fabric is one I’ve wanted for a while. I also snuck in some crazy flamingo fabric to make an apron. It was too much for a 50’s style poufy dress, I thought.

I also cleared off my sewing table downstairs and sorted some more boxes and unearthed projects from the past. I was disappointed with most of them. They all are too small! Yesterday was a super frustrating sewing adventure trying to fix them.

Take this dress for example:

Super cute, made from a vintage sheet. This was one of my first efforts and I misread the pattern and didn’t add a zipper. I took it to my MIL and said “Is there supposed to be a zipper?” She very kindly didn’t laugh at me, just told me yes. I then promptly put it in a bin and forgot about it. The skirt part fits, but after I cut the back for the zipper, it doesn’t work. The Husband says I should keep intact for motivation, but it might get chopped for a skirt.

This was supposed to be pants, but I was silly, and didn’t wash the fabric, so it will shrink like crazy. Also, why in the world did I choose brown linen?!

I wouldn’t have worn these, even if they were the right size. Geez… Anyone want some linen remnants? I might make some tote bags for Etsy with them or something.

This dress is still in the muslin stage. I despise making muslins. Ick. You have to make two dresses, one of them unwearable, if you don’t use good fabric. I understand why you would want to make a muslin, I just haven’t.

I may try to dye this after I’m done. It has some complicated techniques that I wanted to try before using my fancy (not brown) linen. Maybe I can actually use this muslin!

I cut out a new pattern this weekend, despite Fancy not wanting me to do anything but pet her. 🙂

I pulled a couple of fabric possibilities for it. This red batik has a very light floral pattern.

This fabric was originally grey; however I washed it with a large piece of purple batik and now it’s light purple… It still looks pretty.

I want to make the red in the first version and the purple one in the second, without a high low hem.

Now, I did end up with one successful project at least.

I had tried serging the edges of the white fabric and it was not a pretty sight. Now it has pretty edges and strawberries on the back!

I realized I make pretty aprons for my Mom, but forget to make them for me! How silly!

Well, that’s my UFO update for now. I’m hoping to have some more to report next week. The Husband has started asking me “What do you need to finish?” when I say I don’t know what to sew.

Wish me good seams! And less frustration!

Crafty · Monthly Review · Sewing

This Is The Quilt That Never Ends…

February 14, 2018February 14, 2018 LSiehLeave a comment

Sometimes quilts get away from me. This one is doing that right now. The book says 24 rows of 18, but I took two off the ends. We’ll pretend I was smart in the beginning and meant to make 16 across in each row, since I had 8 colors and that makes two of each… That sounds good, right? Obviously it had to be a rainbow. 🙂

There are a few mistakes, I had one square sewn the wrong way and need to see if I have to pick out the whole row, or if I can just switch one around. I can always hide it at the bottom and call it my “humble square” if needed.

I’m trying to decide to reduce the columns too, so that they are proportional, but am also trying not to end up with random extra squares. The extra squares are winning. I made a bunch of extra strips last night, but made too many of the wrong colors! Now I have to decide if I need to continue to make more of the strips, or go with the 19 rows. I have 12 made already. I have these piles complete with all the colors. I’m leaning toward just dealing with the extra squares and using only the ones I have completed.

This one I picked specifically to use a project from my books. The book is called Relax and Quilt and it has very nice projects, mostly traditional piecing.

I checked my original notebook and I have 6 potential quilts picked out from this book. I tried to pick at least a few from each book, so I would have options. I must have gotten it from a rummage sale, it has a $1 sticker on it!

Fancy decided to “help” me lay out the quilt.

She’s been attached to me since I got home from work and is currently keeping my feet warm. 🙂 I like snuggles from her.

I’ve really only worked on the quilt this weekend. It was fun going through my scrap stash to find pieces that would work. I even cut into a few pieces of my fabrics I’ve had forever with no actual plan for them! I used a mix of older and newer fabrics, including some from my Christmas fabric box from my Mom. It’s a big step!

I realized that I’ve never done a review of the books I’ve used. I’ve gone through my cookbooks, but not the sewing stuff. Since I only worked on the quilt, I thought it might be a good chance to go through them.

I’ve finished a bunch of projects from my UFO box and a couple from online. I typically use Bonnie Hunter’s Quiltville quilt plans. http://quiltville.blogspot.com/

Her tutorials are quite easy and I use her scrap saving system, so I have the right pieces already cut. The Rainbow Chevron is one of her quilts, the “Friendship Braid” border.

Another book I’ve used is Quilts From The Quiltmaker’s Gift, by Joanne Larsen Line and Nancy Loving Tubesing. This is one of my favorite kids’ books. The illustrations are beautiful and the quilts are the quilts from the book. The book tells the story of a quilter who gives away quilts to those in need, but refuses to give one to the greedy king. He gets mad and tries all sorts of ways to get one, but there’s a surprise ending that I won’t spoil.

I loaned my copy out and it sadly, never returned, but my Mother in law gave me her copy for Christmas a few years later, so I was so excited! I used the Flying Birds pattern and put it in the “Streak of Lightning set. It still needs borders and backing.

The Rainbow Snowball quilt was from Making Scrap Quilts To Use It Up by Lynne Edwards.

That was another quilt that wouldn’t end. It’s still hanging out in my house. I may need to find a backup home for it soon.

The kudsudama flowers were from Button and Stitch by Kristen Rask.

It’s kind of weird to think that in 67 projects, I only used about 6 books. I used some patterns too, but didn’t want to get them all out. I also don’t think of them as books per say. I know I have a few more that I’ve used, but one of them was a total dud and the other has been lost somewhere in a pile..

I should probably start weeding these books out too. I just like to have options. I might be a dragon in disguise actually, with a hoard of sewing books and fabrics. I like that better than admitting to possible hoarding tendencies…;)

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed touring a few of my books. I’ll share some that I haven’t used yet in another post!

Crafty · Life Posts · Sewing

Sewing Confessions

January 29, 2018 LSiehLeave a comment

I have no one to blame but myself for this spree. I had told Kayla about the magical discount fabric store where everything is $2.99 a yard and we finally managed to go on Friday. It coincided neatly with a pattern sale at Joann’s and the rest is history.

Here are the patterns I bought:

L to R top: Dress with shawl collar, sweetheart neckline with button accents, tunic and cardigan

L to R bottom: Peter Pan collar for my dragon dress (fabric is the featured pic,) Wrap dress that wraps from the back to the side. It looked so interesting, I had to get it. Plus, the Simplicity patterns were all .99.

The good news is that I have plans for the fabrics I got from the discount store and it will hopefully help me get more comfortable with knits. I have an irrational fear of them, but also several different knits waiting for projects already.

Kayla was very excited once we got there. She and I both had projects in mind. I want some more tunics and she wanted some raglan shirts. It was fun to introduce her to the store. They had moved recently into an even bigger place.

The Husband knew I was going and when I came home with black fabric with tiny beach umbrellas on it, he said “Well, of course, you needed that. You can make a sundress with it.” Oddly enough, that’s exactly what it is going to be.

How cute is that?! I tried to resist, but it lured me in. I sort of have a style in mind for it, just have to find the pattern.

This lace for $2.99? I probably should have gotten more of it. I got 3 yards to make an overlay on a dress. I got grey material, which I thought would work underneath, but I think I accidentally got rain poncho fabric, which is fine. I need a rain poncho.

I think this is the back of the lace, but I like the grey part showing.

This is apparently double knit. I have no idea what that means, except that it has another knit on the back. The owner was excited by it while she was cutting it. I’ll have to do some research. It was going to be a casual, kind of slouchy tunic.

Navy polka dot knit. I resisted buying a $42 dollar maxi skirt from a semi-famous fancy clothing company last summer and have been on the hunt for a polka dotted fabric ever since. This will be a $4 maxi skirt, which I’d say is a win.

Tunic! It’s hard to see, but it has little shadows of the colors in it. I like it and it will be a very nice tunic.

This will be a dress like the strawberry dress. It’s actually a deep Kelly green and a deep navy. They are both very vibrant colors, but got washed out when I took the picture. I think it’s a cotton rayon blend. It’s got nice body and drape and is slightly heavier.

We will be going back, I’m sure, but not for me at least, until I get some more projects done. I have probably three or four more knit fabrics downstairs waiting to be made into something useful.

Lest you think I frittered my time away unwisely in a grand shopping spree, I’ll show you the projects I have finished lately.

Christmas Lily zippered Pouch for Etsy/Twinflower Fancies.

Two tea wallets because I had black thread loaded.

These were from a random Halloween batch that didn’t get finished. I have a couple more too, but am waiting to see what I get back from what I had at Hawthorne and Vine. Obviously, I still need to get the threads cut and a button added to the cats.

I self-drafted this curved hem on the tunic. I used a familiar shirt pattern and extended it. The sides are split and turned under. The neck and sleeves are finished with a thick black bias tape. I’ll add a tiny bit more room if I use cotton again. Knits would be fine with the same dimensions. It’s got a cute silver sun or starburst pattern.

Here is an in process shot of the fabric:

I also finished my castle shirt!

This is the fabric I ordered with the dragon fabric. I made the sides flare a little and added some more pleats to the neckline and back. The original line is too wide for me, but I need it that size elsewhere. I gathered the sleeves, so they look a little better. I kept thinking I had put them in upside down, but they just needed to be poufier.

I’ve also been organizing up a storm. We got a nightstand for my side of the bed yesterday and I was able to clear out some of my dresser. I was pretty ruthless with my closet stuff too. I put several things in the giveaway pile. My winter sweaters are now hanging in the closet in a sweater hanger thing. I’ve still got a bunch to do, but at least it’s a start.

Fancy is giving me this look and whining. We are 15 minutes past her bedtime and she is terribly unhappy. I’d better go put her to bed.

Hope you enjoyed seeing all the sewing! I’ve got a pretty good momentum going that I would like to keep up. I’ve got to beat my 67 project record, after all. 🙂

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