Handmade for Clara

Rebecca sewed an outfit for Clara when I was pregnant. Clara wore the outfit for the first time today and it is absolutely adorable. There's nothing like hand-sewn clothes. I took some pictures in the lovely winter afternoon sun that flooded our living room today both to show off the cute baby (about the only "creative" thing I've had time for lately) and to celebrate Rebecca's handiwork.















Thank you so much, Becca. It's good to have friends like you.

Peace, Love, Joy & A Crappy Quilt

For all of my good intentions, I did manage to do 2 of my many ideas for Christmas projects this year. The pillows were all made from toweling from the French General Lumiere de Noel line by Moda. I embroidered the words on with my Janome embroidery skills.

What was not so skillful is the quilt. It was fun designing it and making the Christmas Tree squares, but if you look closely there are all kinds of mistakes. We cuddled underneath it with a cup of coco anyway. :)

100% Italian Cotton Boxer Shorts

I am the lucky beneficiary of these beautiful fabrics.



I have a friend who works at a factory where they make dress shirts out of the finest fabrics from Italy. They are custom made and cost $200 a pop. The leftovers are usually sent to the garbage can but Jessi has been taking them home & sometimes gives them to me. They are generally small pieces, about 1/2 a yard or so. Very rarely I will get over 2 yards in one cut. This makes me really happy. And I have even more than are pictured here.

I love how they come in these perfect bundles in an array of colors!

I do have a problem knowing exactly what to do with them all. I donated a lot to making aprons and bonnets for the upcoming Trek trip for the youth. But, Adam and I have been walking around in some pretty savvy underwear! Boxers!

This is a pair I made for myself. I had a lot of fun picking neon thread and purple fabric for the tie.

These are some really comfortable threads. Any ideas on what else I can make with these???

Diaper Bag

This pattern came from Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones. I also use some of her Love fabric.

I love all the space and pockets. I use it for a temple bag.

Ghastlies Reversible Place Mats

I had a little time this weekend to work on a project and so I went for these. They are incredibly easy to make and useful. So, they are a good project when you are short on time. I had been wanting to use this adorable fabric, The Ghastlies by Alexander Henrey. It came out last year, but you can still find it online in a few shops.

I made these reversible so that I could use these all year (per Adam's recommendation. He doesn't like to have a lot of stuff in a box that you only get out once a year. A good point.)

The Stuff
1 yard fabric for front or 4 fat quarters
1 yard fabric for back or 4 fat quarters
2 yards Peltex #70 by Pellon
any embelishments you like (I used Ric Rac, 1 pkg for each mat, 4 total)

The How-To:
Cut fabric for the front and back of mats 19"x14" (or 1" squared larger than you want the finished product to be).
Cut #70 into 4 pieces 18"x13"

Make sure you wash the fabric before you begin. This is important for place mats because you will almost definitely need to wash them later and the fabric will shrink and make the place mats wonky.
Place a front and back piece right sides together and sew around with a 1/2" seam allowance, leaving an 8" opening for inserting the Peltex pieces. Turn right sides out. To insert Peltex, roll up and insert, then flatten and work into corners. Sew the opening closed. Because the Peltex will roll a bit from being bound in a bolt, iron the mats with a steam iron and they flatten out in seconds.
To give the finishing touch, sew a 1/4" seam allowance around the mats. If you are using Ric Rac, attach it at this point.

this is based on a pattern from Amy Butler's In Stitches

Getting ready for baby!

My new niece is almost here!

Thanks to the infant dress pattern and the onesie idea from rebecca, I was able to make my own little dresses and onesies for baby emma. I just had to post them because they all came out so cute.



















Look how cute the hearts and stitching is on this onesie that my mom did. Such a cute idea.

Picnic Blanket

For a while I have been keeping my eyes open for a good use for some oilcloth. There are always lunch bags, etc. but I don't really need one and I wanted to make something useful. I found a free pattern by Amy Butler called, Laminated Picnic Blanket with Carrying Case, and it struck a chord with me. I hate bringing out even our old blankets and getting them full of sticker burs and other roughage. And where I am from it rains a lot, so there is always a chance that the dampness will seep through and wet our little bums. So, for me this pattern was a bit of inspiration.

I found this lovely Japanese oilcloth at the local Sew Crafty. It is from the line Echino by Etsuko Furuya.

It matched perfectly with this fabric I already had from the same line called Border Print Grassy Plain that I got at the International Quilt Festival last year. It has been sitting in my "must find something good for this fabric soon" pile for almost a year.

Anyway, I did not really follow the instructions, just saw her idea and jumped right in. But this is not one of those projects I am going to say is "so easy" or "you could whip this up in no time." I hated working on this project. Oil cloth was so not easy to work with! I even bought a special pressure foot and everything. But, it is done. It works. And it is as cute as I hoped it would be, even though I was pulling out my hair the whole time.

I even made my own little carrying case. I cut a strip 2 inches longer than the circumference of the rolled up blanket and sewed Velcro at each end. Then, I made some bias tape for the handle and attached it to one end. I added a button hole to the other end. When the case is wrapped around the bundle and velcroed shut, the handle slips through the button hole, making it nice and secure. I think the picture gives better detail than my explanation.

If anyone has tips on working with this beastly fabric, I'd love to hear them.

Japanese Dress Making, a,b: Part 1

I fell in love with this fabric and finally decided on a dress pattern I thought would compliment the beautiful design - something not too busy so that the focus is more on the print than the pattern. The pattern came from the Japanese dress book: Stylish Dress Book, most likely found on etsy.com

I really like the selvage edges of fabric and think it is a shame they are so often trimmed off and thrown out. I thought it would be fun to include it in my dress. It adds a token of who made the fabric and I thought it added an appropriate modern look to the neckline. I added a slightly raised boat neck to the dress as well, which is done with a really thick binding. I thought this also helped to bring in an element of elegance. This way the dress is swanky enough for a date, elegant enough for church and casual enough to go shopping in.

Japanese Dress Making a,b: Part 2

I added my favorite grosgrain to accent the skirt of the dress as well as on the sleeves.

The dress pattern came from dress a which is a simple a-line pattern. I added a drop waist by sewing swimsuit elastic to the inside, to help give the shape we westerners appreciate.

The sleeves were from dress, or top, b which are my favorite sleeves in the whole book. They are made of 2 parts: a top form-fitting piece attached to the lower piece which bubbles out a bit with a gathering. It is an elegant 3/4 sleeve length which can easily be lengthened if desired.

Guest-Room Slippers

Taking a break from Amy Butler's In Stitches I finally completed these little house shoes. The pattern is found in Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. I started these about a month ago, intending them to be the project that would ease me back into sewing upon returning from our trip. They took no time at all, I was nearly done when I got to the soles. The soles, as pictured below, are made from felted wool for durability. It is a great idea. I really was all for having a sole on my slippers, until I read the how-to. I was supposed to attach it with a nice attractive and decorative blanket-stitch. I had never done it before, thought, "how hard could it be," and made my first attempt at it on my precious shoes. Disaster. It was horrendous! In the end I ditched the idea of having a thick sole; "Who needs a decent protective sole on their shoes," I questioned to no one in particular. I set the shoes on my nightstand, and there they remained for a hole month. They tried on a new hat and became my personal coasters for a while. And one day last week, clearing away a few papers, I noticed my sad little slippers doing a job that just wasn't in their hearts. They were born to shod my feet and i knew right then and there that I needed to restore them to their rightful place. Disregarding the rules, I abandoned the blanket-stitch (it is not a very attractive stitch, after all), and used a tried-and-true straight stitch, recalling a method used once before. Perfect. These two were made for each other.

Amy Butler's Wide-Leg Lounge Pants

Right now I am loving pairing pastels, especially soft purples, with black and I wanted an excuse to use this combination. I decided to make these super comfy lounge pants from Amy Butler's In Stitches. Adam looooves them! I am not sure why, they look kind of dorky on me, but he thinks they are the bees knees. :)

These are perfectly cozy & roomy. They are breezy while still keeping you warm; the perfect combination for hot weather outside, and the a/c going inside.

The pattern comes together pretty quickly and easily. However, I did make one change. The pattern says to make a drawstring out of the fabric, insert it into the two buttonholes in the front of the pants - and then you're done. Well, being a connosieur of comfy pants, I knew exactly what I wanted. For me, comfy lounge pants means one thing: an elastic waist. So, first I left about a 1 1/2" opening at the seam where the drawstring would go (the seam at the waist). Then I took a piece of no-roll 1" elastic and placed it around my waist and measured it. I added one inch to that length, cut it off, attached a safety pin to one end and fed the piece into the opening, threaded it around the waist and back out the same opening. I stitched the 2 ends together with a 1/2" seam allowance. Then I stitched the opening closed. Next, I inserted purple ribbon through one button hole and out the other, using a safety pin. This finishes the look with a cute accent!

French Seam

This is a seam I learned recently and I have found it very useful. It is not appropriate for all projects, however, when you can use it, I highly recommend it. It adds a great finished and professional look to your projects.

The French Seam is comprised of only two straight stitches and creates a finished seam. It is ideal to use especially if you do not have a serger or an over-locking stitch, or similar, on your sewing machine. It also uses far less thread than serging or over-locking and is much quicker.

To begin, take your two pieces of fabric and place them WRONG sides together. Sew the edges together with a seam allowance of half of what the pattern allows. For example, if your pattern has a seam allowance of 1/2", then sew 1/4". Pictured below is an example. I sewed these 2 pieces of fabric Wrong sides together at a 1/4" seam.



Next, iron the seam open, pictured below. It may seam like a good step to skip, but it really helps to create a smooth finished seam.

Now fold the two pieces at the seam with RIGHT sides facing. You can iron at this point, if you wish:

Finally, sew along the seam 1/4" from the edge (a 1/4" seam allowance). This gives you a total of 1/2" seam allowance used. The finished seam has all raw edges tucked nicely inside the two pieces and out of sight. I really love this new technique. It is not always the most appropriate "serging" option, so I recommend reading through all the instructions first to make sure that it will not get in the way before using it. For example, I just made some drawstring bags and because of a few steps where you actually go in and open the seam at 2 points, and insert the drawstring, this type of seam would have really been a nuisance to deal with.

Anyway, if this stitch is new for you, I hope you find it useful!