Tag: Shirt

Sewing

Still Here!

LSiehLeave a comment

Hello! I promise we’re still here. Just resting and kind of in a whirlwind of emotions, work, and not a lot of gumption. It’s been super hard since Fancy passed away. Both of us have had bad days and things that still make us upset. But we took a big leap of faith and signed up to foster a tiny chonker of a dog in desperate need of a safe place to heal. Her name is Diamond and your guess is as good as mine as to what breed she is. 🙂

She’s so adorable! She was a mama, so is a little.. um.. dangly? Has some excess glandage? She also waddles and while we were walking today, refused to go anywhere because the neighbors were out and she wanted to see all of them. She makes piggy snorts in her sleep and while sniffing in the yard. She’s quite short and sturdy. We hope she will like living with us for as long as we have her.

Because I was nervous last night about taking her, I made a pillow, using a quilted wall hanging kit and the backing and zipper from a bed cover that Fancy had partially shredded.

It is stuffed with a folded, mostly shredded sheet and has fabric scraps in a bag of sorts made of ripstop material for waterproof needs. It works pretty well! It looks small, but she is pretty tiny and fits well. Here she was being pouty about not sitting on the couch during dinner.

I had originally bought the fabric for a pillow for Fancy, but she was so sick that I wasn’t able to concentrate enough to figure it out. Now it will be a comfy spot for any dog in our home to use. I have managed to convince the Husband that we need a dog, even only a foster dog, so we both are enjoying having this little chonker around.

I have sewn a few more things as well. This week’s challenge was Random Acts of Kindness and I have made two shirts for my friends’ boys- no pics because I haven’t sent them, the dog pillow, and a baby dino set for another friend’s baby girl.

How adorable is that? I used the Patterns for Pirates Petite Pegs and the Wee Lap Shirt, both free patterns.

I have made two skorts from the Shenanigans Skort pattern from 5 Out of 4 patterns. One in this cute purple and pirate fabric combo, amd another in a beautiful blue bird fabric and anti-macrobial athletic fabric. They are super comfy to wear and I can even wear the purple one to work. The blue birds is a little short for work.

I used the skort leftovers from both to make tank tops. The purple brushed athletic fabric has sewing machine french terry on the back. I only had enough to make one side of the tank of each fabric, so it worked out perfectly. The tank is the Lago, from Itch to Stitch.

I made those mash up pants/skirt combo I had mentioned a few weeks ago for the challenge. They are super comfy and I love them. I did purposely make them longer, as they are dance pants.

I needed some more sleep and lounging shorts, so I made these Linen Loungers out of lady scientist quilting cotton. I think they’re pretty fun! They’re also comfy.

I also used this pink fabric to make a pair of Solar Flares and a pair of capri leggings.

I can’t find a picture of the flares, but they are really fun! My coworker has a pair of pink plaid pants that I covet, so I saw this dbp and made my own!

I have some other things, but will have to take pictures later. Right now there’s a dog to pet and breakfast to eat! Have a great day!

Sewing

Just Keep Sewing! Just Keep Sewing!

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!

Monthly Review · Sewing

Sewing Review

LSiehLeave a comment

I’m back! This time with my sewing projects for the month. I have been sewing lots of wintery things. I need some more, longer sleep shirts. I do not enjoy the random cold spot in the middle of my back on cold winter nights. Brrr…

This cozy shirt is one of the warmer shirts I have made. It is. Relaxed Raglan pattern from Patterns for Pirates. I ordered the fabric after getting a sample of a different color in an order. It was not entirely wht I expected, but it’s still soft and warm. 

It grew a little as I was making it, so it’s pretty oversized, but perfect for sleeping in. The sleeves are deliberately long, which really meant I didn’t shorten them. 🙂 

I know you’re probably completely sick of seeing this pattern, considering I have made a bunch of them. It’s interesting to see just how much it changes with each new fabric. I intend to make many more. These are the other two I’ve made.

This one is a black sweatshirt material fleece. I did something funny with the neckline, so it got really wide. I’m considering adding a comtrast band under the first. It’s definitely an “at home” sweatshirt. I was wearing it before the picture, so that’s why the sleeves look wrinkly and weird. 

Mmm… pink.. The floral fabric is a triblend with cotton, spandex, and rayon. The pink is a lovely cotton spandex. Both fabrics are from Girl Charlee and were on sale! That makes these even better! 

I still have a bunch of the floral fabric and am debating what else to make. It’s so soft! 

I had one disappointment when sewing this month. I made these cool foil lightening leggings.

They seemed stretchy enoug, but then when I went to put them on, they wouldn’t stretch past my derrière! Boo! I will just cut down the side and add a strip of plain black. The pattern actually comes with a pocket feature, which I might just try out. 

I also made my purple harem pants and this lovely vest for Kalamazo. I seem to have only uploaded a close up of the vest. I’ll have to post the full costume one day. It has a green background with a gold crackle overlay. Those flowers are iron on pieces and it’s accented with gold dance coins.

I wore a green tank top, gold jewelry, a fairy headband, and a fairy skirt. 

Last Friday, I attended a tree skirt workshop with my MIL, but it isn’t finished yet. It still needs some bias tape, which I need to make. Sadly, no little elves have appeared to do it for me, so it’s taking a little bit extra time. It was a fun class though and a pretty easy pattern with the special curvy ruler. I would definitely take a class at the store again. I’ll write more about it when I have finished it. 

I didn’t really make many new things for my vending event, but I did make these three Star Trek tea wallets. 


“Tea, Earl Grey. Hot.”- Picard

I think there are a couple more things that I have finished or made, but haven’t taken pictures of. I’ve been finding myself reaching for more handmade items lately. It’s fun to wear them and have people try to figure out if it’s one I’ve made or not. One of my kid clients didn’t believe me that I made my dress today and said I must have bought it in the store. I must be making some professional looking items!  

My goals for this month are to finish up the Christmas gifts, sew up enough items that my fabric fits in bins again, and to make up my cozy jammies and sweaters. I would like to try some of my other patterns too.

To send you off to dreamland sweetly, here are pictures of Fancy utilizing her holey sheet to perfection…

Fancy Sewing
Life Posts · Sewing

Fancy Sewing

LSiehLeave a comment

Fancy is shocked that this is not a post about sewing things for her!

I do have a dog costume book, but she is not so fond of things on her head. She is going to come with us to Renaissance Fest next year, so we may rig up a cape or something to attach to her harness. 🙂  

I did sew my fabulous costume and am quite proud of it. We went with K and J again and she made their costumes as well. Here’s a picture of K and I all pretty!

We had a lot of fun! We got to see some fun bellydance and a really cool African drum group. And shopped, of course! 

I had originally planned to go as a pirate, but got this crazy idea to make a vest and had started the shirt already. The skirt I had from my first bellydance at the Ren Fest. It was cold that day, so I was glad to wear my handmade purple leggings underneath. 

Here’s the details of the vest and shirt. Fancy was super interested while I was taking pictures. It probably smelled like turkey legs and all sorts of other things. 

I made it from a linen table cloth, given to me by a friend and her mom for experimentation purposes. It’s currently unhemmed, because I couldn’t decide how to finish it off. It’s pretty short, but I didn’t realize it when I made it that it would be that way and didn’t have a huge amount of fabric. The sleeves are made from a lace piece I had in my stash. The elastic twisted, but it isn’t really noticeable when it’s on. Despite the chill in the air when we got there, the linen was quite comfortable.

I wasn’t going to make something, but then my harem pants went wonky and I didn’t have a vest to match. Then, on Thursday, while driving to work, I thought “I should just make a vest with the peacock brocade!” For once my rational brain and emotional brain were in full agreement and when I texted the Husband and K, they both were very enthusiastic. My fate was sealed. I needed a new vest! In a day and a half!

The vest was actually the pattern I was supposed to make last year, so I had cut the pattern pieces already. I had this peacock brocade from a while ago and still have enough for at least a set of panels for a dance costume for my October dance. 

It came out so pretty and elegant! I used a cotton batik for a lining. The trim was from a Knitpop sale. I knew it would come in handy for something. I did have to buy the buttons and elastic cord. One side came out notched and one straight and I, of course, didn’t notice until I had sewn it all together. Brocade also frays like there’s no tomorrow, so unpicking it is not an option. Grr… 

Here’s a closeup of the details. This was before it was sewn, I was just checking to make sure it would match.

I had pretty flowers in my hair and a very large coin necklace to go with it. It was fun to get all dressed up again and I may use the vest in my October dance. Here’s a detail shot of everything. 

I’ve sewn regular things as well. I made this bicycle cardigan and it’s very cozy, but light enough for the weird transition point between summer and fall. I am making weird faces in all my full pics, so will post a shot later. 

In other craft news, my friend K made us these fun pictures for the Harry Potter party and I didn’t post them with the wands like I should have. I love the light/dark quote. 

I love them and am excited to display them. She did a great job! 

Hailing from my childhood, I decided to make use of my scraps from my clothes and quilts to make some American Girl doll clothes for my Etsy store and couldn’t resist buying this set of official doll patterns for my American Girl, Kirsten. I even had pretty close to matching fabric. This should be a fun experiment, I think. Maybe I can talk my Dad into a making a little spoon for her spoon bag. 🙂  I also bought a doll size treadle sewing machine online because it was the cutest thing ever and can you imagine the photo opportunities?

I haven’t been making too many new things for vending in October because I have so much! I’m hoping to make some things out of the vegan leather I bought, but I haven’t figured out what to do with it, or how to sew it. I need to find out what needle to use. It’s very thin, so I don’t know if a leather needle is needed. It’s also slightly stretchy. Hmmm…. I’ll let you know how it goes.

In garden news, the squirrels have declared war and I have accepted their challenge. Fancy has been showing more interest in chasing them, so I’m hoping they will stop stealing all my tomatoes! Terrible squirrels! The young jalepenos have also been targeted, but not eaten. They are super spicy this year, so I hope the peppers burn their furry little butts! 

I’m late at work this week, for most days, so that might limit my sewing time, but I have plans! Fall is sweater weather, so I want to replace the ones that don’t quite work with more comfy ones. Secret pajamas make the winter bearable! 

Right now though, it’s off to bed for me! Have a lovely, cozy night! 

Fabric Mail and Planning
Sewing

Fabric Mail and Planning

LSiehLeave a comment

Fabric mail is one of the best kinds of mail. It falls somewhere in between letters from my Mum and new books. 🙂 That’s saying a lot, considering how much I love both of those things.

I had a bunch of fabric come in lately and started organizing it into pictures based on what each piece would be. I thought about adding to my written list, but it now spans several pages in my notebook, which are all mixed in with reviews and book lists. It makes it a little hard to be organized. Sometimes my brain doesn’t want to be organized at all, so I’m working on creating a system that will actually work.

So far I have a lot of fabrics that I bought knowing exactly what it would be. There are some that are waiting for the right pattern or inspiration, but here are the ones I have so far.

These will be shirts. The owls, waves, and stars will probably be Perfect T’s from Pamela’s Patterns. The middle two will be Brunch Blouses from Patterns for Pirates. They are all woven, except the stars. For the top two wovens, I plan to have a knit back on the shirt, like my hot air balloon shirt.

These will be dresses. I’ve started on the pink and black on the top. It just needs a black lace hem and it will be all set. It’s an Agnes from Halla Patterns.

The blue floral will be a Kimono dress from Halla Patterns. It’s ITY, which stands for Interlock Twist Yarn. It’s very slippery, smooth, and cool to the touch. It has tiny darker blue stripes all over it. The black is all ruffles, which I didn’t realize when I ordered it. I kind of want to make either a ruffle dress or ruffle pants. The hearts want to be a dress pattern I haven’t found yet.

This next set is all skirts. The top two, the black and the mint, are going to go together just as they are. They will make a beautiful Maxi dress or skirt.

I really need to make a skirt soon from the ice creams. It’ll be fall before we know it and then it won’t be fashionable if I’m wearing summer things for fall. The bottom one is a table dressing from Ikea. It has the border on both sides that I think might possibly be a dress, if I can find a pattern I can work with.

This next set is all about sweaters. Nice, cozy, favorite part of fall, sweaters!

The top is french terry, the middle is an open weave lace, and the bottom is a single brushed poly. I got the stripes in a mystery box and am excited to see how to use it.

‘

In between organizing, I made some pillowcases for the Husband and I out of Star Trek fabric. I suddenly have a lot of friends who watch Star Trek and it makes me think I should actually sit down and watch it from the beginning. I haven’t seen or don’t remember a lot of the episodes. These fabrics were on sale at Joann’s and I had to text the Husband to see if he wanted them. His dad will be getting potholders to match the ginormous Spock oven mitt we gave him last Christmas. (Seriously, it was bigger than my head!)

I keep screwing up the first one and getting the second one right. I have terrible spatial reasoning skills sometimes and keep cutting them not wide enough.

Here’s the second one that actually turned out.

I also made one just for me!

Because who doesn’t want a bright flamingo pillowcase?  I don’t know if I want to know that person. 😉 My friend gave me this fabric for Christmas and I wanted to keep it whole.

I failed at making this fabric into a large pillowcase, so cut it down in size and made a mini knee pillow. I just have to get a form for it. It’s paired with the yellow from the flamingo pillow. It’s super bright and cheerful!

I didn’t ignore Fancy. She doesn’t get a lot of fabric things, as she likes to tear them apart, but she will be getting her own stocking this year out of these two fabrics.

Aren’t they adorable? The clerk asked me if anyone had said anything to me about buying Christmas fabric in August, but I just laughed and said there was no guarantee it would actually get made before Christmas. 🙂

It’s been a pretty good couple of days. I hosted Craft Night tonight and got to see my craft ladies and gentleman. Fancy was very good and got extra excited when she had her party harness on. She ran to the edge of the couch and sat staring out the window. 🙂

I’ll leave you with a picture of the chalk artist at the Toledo Zoo this past weekend. We didn’t see too many of his works, but this one was pretty neat.

Have a great night!

 

Sew Much Fun!
Crafty · Gardening · Sewing

Sew Much Fun!

LSiehLeave a comment

Ha! Sewing puns…. They go well with my sewing machine leggings!

I was so excited to finally get these made. I now want all the leggings fabric though… It’s cool to have leggings just the right size for me. 🙂

We went to our good friends’ house for J’s birthday party over the weekend and while the Husband played Halo 2, I sewed along with his wife. 🙂 I was super productive and ended up making 2 pairs of leggings, one regular and one capri length, and a new woven shirt.

The shirt is a flamingo shirt. Printed cotton front, black cotton back.

I’m going to wear it to my teen group on Monday. I don’t think they quite believe me on how much I like flamingos. I modified my regular shirt pattern for it. It’s the same as the Castle shirt. I’m trying to convince my friend to try wovens and I think this might have helped win her over a little. 🙂

Here are the leggings:

They don’t look terribly different, but I assure you, they are different sizes. 🙂 They are made with performance fabric/ athletic knit from Joann’s. I’m still working on my waistbands. The measurements on my pattern seem off. The pants part don’t stretch as much and I haven’t quite figured out the correct length yet for it.

They are very smooth and nice to wear. They aren’t see through at all and stay up. I wore the capri ones to do a spot of yard work on Sunday and they were nice and cool. We, of course, did a bunch of yard work and then couldn’t leave it alone even after cleaning up. I took down a tree wearing my lace trimmed tunic and flip flops.

I was super proud. 🙂 Fancy was very excited to help us take care of the rest of the tree.

She broke that branch off by herself after peeling all the bark off and snapping all the dry branches off. She was quite excited.

It rained a bunch on Saturday, so I did some more work on UFO’s. The rainbow railroad quilt is done! I don’t have a picture, but it’s backed with a brown doggy print fleece that was hiding in our guest room where I promptly forgot about it. Darn safe places!

I do have a sneak peek picture of a present for a friend that was finished on Sunday.  I saw the fabric and couldn’t resist. I hope she likes it too!

We’re seeing our friend soon, so I’ll show you the full picture after that. 🙂

Staying up late to sew had a lovely ending this morning, although I was very sleepy. This fabric really wanted to be a flirty, twirly dress, and now it is!

It has a pocket! Just one because I wanted to get it done. It’s big enough for my phone and keys. I will be fixing the sleeves, they are tight. It makes me feel super cute though and I love how it looks on me. There are more twirly dresses in my future!

I’m going to try to get some more of the in progress projects done. It’s lots of fun to make new things, but I’m kind of forgetting about the things waiting to be finished, which is a bad habit of mine.

The basement work area desperately needs to be organized again. Perhaps I will have an organizing day on Friday. If you don’t hear from me over the weekend, I’ve been eaten by a fabric monster. Send a search party!

With that said, I hope you have a great night!

Wordy Wednesday
Crafty · Life Posts · Sewing

Wordy Wednesday

LSiehLeave a comment

My Tuesday was busier than expected. I was at the tire place getting a bulging tire replaced, Fancy demanded walks when I got home, and I hosted craft night. Somewhere in there, I took an accidental nap. I had to go back on the stronger allergy meds and they are kicking my butt. I will be so glad when the weather figures out what it’s trying to do here. So instead of “Wordless Wednesday,” you’ll get a quick sewing related post.

I put the borders on the rainbow railroad quilt a few days ago. Somehow I ended up sewing one of the strips on the wrong side, so it’s two rows shorter than it was going to be because I was super frustrated. I had a bunch of squares left over anyway, so maybe I’ll make a bonus one or something.

(Please excuse the dog toys. Someone decided I couldn’t put them away and kept taking them out of her basket.) The quilt has a red and white polka dot border. It was going to have a red flannel backing, but I don’t have enough of it. Batting and backing quilts will be the death of me. I had to run out to get more batting. The backing will be whatever cotton or flannel I have enough of that matches. I have a red batik that might work.

I also made a shirt. I stayed up way to late to finish it, but I’m pretty happy with it. It’s a double gauze jersey material, I think.

It’s less wrinkly on and feels like I’m wearing jammies. 🙂 I used a zig zag stitch and made my own neckband! The neckband fixed the problem of gaping at the neckline and I may go back and add one to other shirts I’ve made.

Because it was midnight, I accidentally had the selvage edge out, but I actually like it, so won’t be changing it. The sleeves are snug. I had made them longer, but didn’t quite get the bottom edge right. They feel good though. I’ll just widen them next time.

This was a woven pattern originally, so I was glad that it worked out. I have at least one knit t-shirt pattern that I’ll try soon, but I needed a quick and easy pattern. I made it after getting frustrated by not having everything for the quilt.

Here’s the bottom hem. It’s a little wavey, but I choose to think of it as a design feature. I may add a band at some point. It’s super soft and cuddly.

I picked up a couple of new sewing books (I know, I know!) from the book sale on Sunday. Two were Singer books, one was about different types of fabrics, and one was a sewing book for dog cots and accessories.

The “Creative Ideas” is so 80’s, but the techniques are still relevant. It has beading, different pocket shapes, seam finishes, and different trim options. The “Timesaving” book has very good instructions for sewing collars, seams, home decor, and talks about tools, machine feet, and other equipment.

The dog book has coats, costumes, dog beds, and accessories. Some of them we may not use, but there are some super cute things in it, like a princess costume. 🙂

I was excited to find the fabric book because I know very little about fabric types, which mens I generally stick to quilting cotton. If I want to grow as a sewer though, I need to branch out and get comfortable with other kinds too.

This book has everything from African mudcloth to about 5 types of wool. Each fabric has its own page with what type of needle, an example of a garment, weight, markings, thread type to use, and even how to lay it out. There’s so much info! I know it will be very helpful.

I was pretty well restrained in the craft section of this book sale. We’re going to another, bigger one on Sunday, which will be crazy town. That one is in a mall, lined up in the hallways. 🙂 We’ve gone before and they have a little bit of everything. I’m hoping for some good reads.

Now though, it’s off to work, where I will only be able to dream about fabrics and sewing. Have a great day!