Mermaid Tail Blankets

I've been able to squeeze a little more sewing in lately, and here's what I've been up to:

Fleece Mermaid Tail Blankets!  They are so much fun to make.  I've been shopping sales since fleece can be pricey.  My favorite is when JoAnn's has extra-wide fleece on 50% off, you get a lot more bang for your buck that way.  Better yet if you have an additional coupon to top it all off.

The dark green mermaid tail blanket pictured above is an adult size, and the others are smaller.  I've been experimenting with patterned fleece too, which I think is a fun twist.

I've been crocheting a bit too, but will probably switch over to making jewelry again soon.  Need to stock up on necklaces to sell at our booth.

Spring! & updates

It's finally starting to feel like spring!  Love it.  I've had a little more time lately to enjoy the weather and think about crafting (my schedule will pick up big time again soon so I'm loving it while it lasts!).  Last weekend I caught a 50% off sale at JoAnns on fleece so I stocked up for blankets and other sewing projects for our booth. 

I'm trying to brainstorm ideas for new booth items that are fresh for spring and summer.  I have a few ideas to try but am still on the lookout for a few more things to make.

Speaking of our booth, we've been at it for almost a year!  It's gone by pretty fast.  I'm still on the wait list for a 2nd booth, which I plan to do completely different things with, but I'm guessing won't come to the top of the list for quite some time yet.  Still thinking ahead though since I'd need to make a lot of product to fill up a new booth.

I've got another Stitch Fix scheduled to come in June & will be posting about that then.  I'm also working on making an ebook of refashioned t-shirt tutorials.  I'll keep you posted when I'm finished.

Also, still working on my other blog Sunset Scribbles where I share travel stories, pictures, and tips about different destinations as well as articles etc. about places that look fun :)

Sea themed Fabric Book! (pg 5 & 6)

Check out pages 1 & 2 of the cloth book, pages 3 & 4 of the cloth book
**update: pages 7 & 8 of the book here, pages 9 & 10 of the book**

 

Page 5 - the Crab

 

fabric texture book - crab

 

Does the red fabric look familiar?  It's a scrap piece from Hubby's Prince William costume from Halloween a couple years ago!

 

 

 Page 6 - the Octopus!

fabric texture book - octopus

Fabric scraps from a dress I made way back when

 

It's so much fun actually getting to use scrap fabric for a project, I love going through and remembering all the projects I've worked on in the past :)

 

Pages 6 & 7 will be posted soon!



Sea themed Fabric book! (pg 3 & 4)

Check out last weeks post to see page 1 & 2 of this fabric texture book! (and pages 5 & 6 of the cloth book!)

 

 **update: pages 7 & 8 of the book & pages 9 & 10 of the fabric book here**

 

 

Page 3 - Turtle

 

The turtles shell fabric was cut from a scrap of fabric that I made a baby blanket out of for my niece.  The ric-rac is leftover from a quiet book page

 

The turtle was attached to the page with iron on adhesive, and the ric-rac is sewn on. 

fabric texture book - turtle

 

Page 4 - Oyster

This orange & white material was leftover from a tank top type shirt that I made back in college.  The pearl is a layer of pearly white puffy paint, and then a layer of sparkly puffy paint, to give a slightly different texture.

 

The oyster shell & eyes were attached with iron on adhesive.

fabric texture book - oyster

 

Come back next week to see pages 5 & 6!

Sea themed Fabric book! (pg 1 & 2)

Do you have a bunch of little pieces of fabric from old projects that are too big to throw out, but too little to do much with?  Yeah, that big ol' scrap fabric stash that you know you'd have use for in the future...  Well here's a great scrap busting project!  It's so much fun reminiscing on the projects all your scraps are from too :)

 

I made a sea themed fabric texture book for my sweet little niece, and will be sharing 2 pages at a time for the next couple of weeks, so be sure to stop on by again in the next weeks to check it out!

 

I made the cover from fabric leftover from a cut chenille blanket.  The main pages are also made from leftover fabric from that blanket - all the layers of flannel!  Basically the size of the book was determined by the size of those scraps.  I left the edges raw to add more texture.

 

Fabric texture book

 

I've also been super into making Quiet Book pages, so I have tons of pieces of ric-rac, which I thought would add a little pizazz

Page 1: Whale

 

I cut out the shapes of the whale and used iron on adhesive to attach it to the flannel.  The netting is just sewn on in a few places to secure it.

 

The light blue fabric was from this dress that oops... I never finished!  All the pieces are cut...

Oh and that dark blue fabric sure looks familiar.... from Hubby's Prince William Halloween costume

The blue netting was leftover from fixing up an old butterfly net that had holes in it & also made a tutu with I believe (apparently I'm more behind on blogging than I realized!)

Fabric book - whale page

 

I wrote the words and did accents with puffy paint, thinking the texture would be cool.  But, I'm not so crazy about how the lettering came out & next time would use stencils.

 

 

Page 2 - Jellyfish

 

I used iron on adhesive for the purple part of the jellyfish and the eyes.  I stitched a line at the bottom of the purple fabric for added security that the ribbons would stay in place.

fabric book - jellyfish page

 

The purple fabric was leftover from a pair of pajama pants I made on my travel sewing machine while in college (many years ago)!  One day I'll post about that too... it was kind of funny :) 

 

The ribbon sewn on the bottom of the jelly fish was ribbon used for favors at my wedding!

 

**Pages 3 & 4 of this cloth book**
**Pages 5 & 6 of this cloth book**
**Pages 7 & 8 of the book here**
**Pages 9 & 10 of the fabric book **

Fabric labels

I made fabric labels to sew onto my luggage tags using an amazing tutorial from Dolls and Daydreams. 

 

Here's how the labels turned out:

(this was after I used some of the labels)

 

I had a little trouble feeding the fabric/freezer paper through my printer.  It took a few printer jams and lots of grinding noises before I got it to work...  I may not have cut the paper just right.  Eventually it worked though, and I'm happy with the outcome.  (and my printer survived... this round at least!)

 

 

 

 

Braided pet bed

Look what I found while sorting through boxes of junk from my childhood bedroom....

A big ball of braided fabric.  This was meant to be sewn into a rug a few years ago, but I was sewing it by hand which took forever, and other things came up.

So, I figured I might as well finish what I started... and threw the braided fabric on my sewing machine (much quicker) and used a zig-zag stitch to sew it together.

Instead of making a rug, I decided to make a cat bed or cat basket.  (since one of my dogs chewed a hole in the fleece cat bed I made for them before, it was time for another)

One of the cats is always occupying the new bed...

To make this, it's the same idea as making a braided rug (which if you google search it, there are several great tutorials).  Except, you braid a little tighter, and let it coil up while sewing.  (every now and then I'd do a slight overlap of the connecting braids)

Update:  Apparently my cats prefer the basket a little shorter on the sides than it was... they folded the edges over on the pet bed and use it that way now.

Halloween 2011 - Royal Wedding - skirt

You've now seen how I made the petticoat and satin layer of the bodice for my Kate Middleton Halloween costume.


Now, lets take a look at the skirt.




First off, I bought 8 yards of extra wide ivory satin, a whopping 118" wide (it was on a big sale). The fabric is SUPER SHINY, which I'm not in love with. So, I used the "wrong side" of the fabric as my "right side", problem solved.


Since my fabric was so wide, I just had a front and a back panel to my skirt. I made measurements a few inches above the waist to the floor (accounting for the petticoat filling out the dress) and left an extra 10-12" for a wide hem.

With the measured length at hand, I cut 2 rectangles. Then, I cut those so the waist wasn't as wide, but still had plenty of extra fabric for pleats (as shown below).

I measured what the new width of the fabric at the waist was, and my actual waist measurement plus a couple of inches for seam allowance.

Next, I decided how many pleats to make and figured out how far apart (and how deep) they needed to be to end up making the waistline fit my actual measurement plus the seam allowance.

*If you want to add pockets, do so before sewing the sides of the skirt together* (I forgot to, and will probably go back and add them in)

Using a fabric pencil, I marked my fabric where all the box pleats should go. Then I sewed the sides of the skirt together, and finally sewed in the pleats.

For ideas on how to accessorize the Royal wedding day look, click here.

Halloween 2011 - William & Kate, Royal wedding style

I've loved Prince William for as long as I can remember. When he and Kate Middleton announced their engagement last year, I was extremely excited (only slightly jealous), for the Royal wedding. They're such a cute couple.

Another thing I love besides the Royal couple is Halloween. So, it only seemed natural to try to replicate William and Kate's wedding attire for the festivities. Luckily, I have a Hubby who (slightly resembles the prince... coincidence?) puts up with me and agreed to go as Prince William for Halloween if I made his costume.

My version of Kate Middleton's wedding dress has been an interesting process. I'll start from the beginning and will have multiple blog posts to show it (posts on the process of the Prince William costume will be in the future too).

First off I made a Bridal petticoat (with tutorial) for super cheap. This was important to have ready when determining how many yards of satin to buy.

Then, I bought 10 yards of muslin to make my pattern for the dress. (I ended up using less)

Armed with my favorite magazines featuring the Royal wedding, and my sewing scissors that I hide from Hubby, I got to work.

Here's where the dress is now (it still needs trim and other touches):

Kate Middleton's wedding dress for Halloween costume

More posts to come on how the dress was made, in case you want to be Kate Middleton for Halloween too!

Here are some key accessories to consider when dressing as the Duchess of Cambridge

Look into the future... here is how I made the satin part of the bodice, the skirt, and how it was sewn together

McCall's pattern M5538 View C

Way back in May I posted about the stages of sewing McCall's pattern M5538 view A the fleece top for Hubby. That post included my moment of clueless-ness about the pattern and how it worked out :) Then, I posted the middle and end stages of M5538 view A.

I made mention that I would be sewing view C (a full zip jacket) for myself... Well, here it is:



Huge as ever. Hubby has another new jacket :) I knew that this pattern ran large (from reading reviews) so tried cutting it a little smaller. Clearly not small enough haha. I suppose since the pattern is unisex, my vision of a tightly fitted, small fleece jacket was a little off base.

On the plus side, it was a quick and easy sew (especially the second time around) and even though I probably won't wear it, someone else will!

You may also recall another family member benefited from all the fleece I bought to make the jacket and top... as I used the leftover fleece to make a cat bed for Gator.

Yuck! Washing fabric...

I hate pre-washing fabric. I feel so wasteful putting such a small amount into the wash and running a cycle (even if it's an express load) so I generally mix things I know that I shouldn't...

Somehow I have never had a problem in the past... until this one recent incident shown below (click on the pictures below for a larger view)


Hello blue sock monkey feet and blue bird background that was supposed to be tangerine!

When I purchased the blue fabric for Hubby's robe, I was expecting an order from fabric.com to come in the mail any day. So, I actually waited to throw the whole load together.... yeah, I know, dumb! The blue fabric absolutely should have been done separately.

I think I've finally learned my lesson. I ended up washing the two flannels again on their own after they turned colors hoping some of the dye would come out. Looks like I didn't save any water in the long run.

The flannels are still usable... but much less cute than before. (the before pictures were taken from fabric.com)

Too bad this didn't get me out of laundry duty!

Fabric for awhile...

My most recent order from fabric.com arrived the other day, here's what's in store for my future projects:

The charcoal fleece in the middle is first in line. I ordered 4 1/2 yards of it to make both a top for Hubby and a jacket for me. Here's a previous post I did showing the pattern pictures of the top/jacket.

The other fabrics are all meant to become tops of some sort for me. I have a McCalls pattern that I want to try on at least one of those fabrics, but we'll see about the rest. (I kind of want to wing it on the others)

Finally, the green fabric on the right side of the picture... it's not at all what I was expecting. I'm torn if I like it or not, but I think that will be dependent of the style of top it becomes (?)

Early stages of Butterick B5335 Jacket (view A)

The fabric I picked out to sew Butterick B5335 View A, arrived in the mail the other day. (check out this post) As you can see (which I knew was going to happen) it is pretty hard to figure out exactly what you're getting when ordering on-line. The threads are much more vibrant than the fabric, and aren't a match.


Luckily, I had a little bit (hopefully enough) of thread in my stash already that is the perfect shade of purple, and tan thread blends in well with the pale yellow lining.


I think items are returnable on fabric.com where I ordered this stuff from, but I figure I'll have a use for it sooner or later anyways :)

I'm about a third of the way through making the jacket and don't have the highest of hopes for its outcome at the moment. My first thoughts (before pleating or adding any shape to it) were that the jacket looked a bit institutional (glad I didn't go with white fabric!) But it might turn around in the upcoming steps.

I left off by putting the pleats on one of the sleeves. Things may start looking better... (?)

This is one of those patterns I've been so curious about for so long... I just had to try sewing it. It doesn't really look like something I'd wear, but I still couldn't resist, maybe it is?!

Here's a secret

At first hubby wasn't so sure how he felt about the potential of cloth diapering in the future (if we ever have kids). Then, I showed him some fabric I picked out to make some, and he quickly changed his mind. (Here's my first post about cloth diapers)

I'm not sure he saw anything but the football fabric in this bunch. He was instantly listing off specific teams he likes too that might be cool for fabric, hehehe. (the fabric above was all from Walmart)

So, the secret in getting my husband to go along with the idea of cloth diapering was... sports fabric!

Even if we never have kids, these diapers are kind of fun to pick out material for and make. Plus, they can always be donated :)

Fabric.com

I placed my first order the other day through fabric.com... and hubby is in trouble because this site is addicting! I've gotten more into the diaper making process so I ordered some PUL fabric (which is waterproof) to layer inside them so they don't need a cover. Most local stores don't carry this fabric, and if they do... I've heard the quality is pretty poor. Anyways, while I was at it, I also ordered some cute flannel. I love this site because (unlike many other fabric sites I've nearly ordered from) you can order in half yard increments and my order came really quickly (2 days?). Now I feel less secluded in my small town which lacks any decent craft/fabric stores. Plus, I always forget to look at the fabric content and care when I go to the store so this site is nice in that I can find that information whenever needed.

Christmas craft with fabric, for kids

My Little and I work on a lot of craft projects. This is what we did this past week, for Christmas:



We cut felt, and Christmas fabric (leftover from the tree skirt I made) to make winter/Christmas themed pictures. Then, we decorated them with beads, ribbon, and puffy paint. The one above is mine... lol.

I was a little disappointed because the fabric glue I had didn't work! So when we were trying to glue our fabric together it was a no go. But that's when my trusty puffy paint came in handy! We used puffy paint to decoratively glue things onto the fabric (and fabric onto itself)

I guess I'll need to get some tacky glue to solve this dilemma in the future. Next week we're making ginger bread houses... (more accurately: eating all the candy and saying we made houses :) )

Christmas tree skirt

Hubby and I cut a Christmas tree this year, which meant the stall in our search for tree skirts soon had to end. Since hubby thought it would be more special if I made one, we switched directions of our search, and I busted out my trusty pattern stash. I found McCalls craft pattern 3777 which includes a pattern for a Christmas tree skirt (view K).

McCalls craft pattern 3777

We made a trip to Hobby Lobby to pick out some fabric and even happened upon a sale. I think all the clerks recognize hubby at the store now... poor guy. But, he has a knack for picking out and matching fabrics etc. so I love it when he comes along.

Anyways, here is the fabric we chose:

McCalls craft pattern 3777 view K cut fabric

Here we are at the tree farm before finding the one to bring home. It was a little cold, but very fun!



After cutting the tree and bringing it home, I started sewing the tree skirt. It was a pretty quick and easy sew. The pattern also has beaded snowflake designs you can add to the skirt, but I skipped that because of my fabric choice. We also bought some green trim that I was going to sew where the two fabrics change, but hubby thought that wouldn't look as nice, so I skipped that too. (I was indifferent about that... but it saved me some time!)

top of tree skirt McCalls 3777

underside of tree skirt McCalls 3777

McCalls 3777 tree skirt

Notice the kennel on the left of the picture above... it's blocking the beagle from getting into the living room. He is not to be trusted with the tree unsupervised!

Organizing!

My sewing room is pretty cluttered and it finally got some of the attention it deserved!  I got around to organizing my fabric and scraps, and have them hidden away in an armoire.  My other crafting supplies still needs some work, but this is a start.

Small pieces of fabric, thread, machine accessories, etc. on the top shelf.
Large pieces of fabric, patterns (in larger envelopes) and a binder cataloging my patterns on the bottom shelf.


Originally I put a small, old school TV inside the armoire, thinking I could watch while I sew (which I prefer) but it was too heavy and sagging the shelf a bit.  Rather than bothering with reinforcement, I figured it'd be a good place to store supplies.  So far, I'm happy with the storage space... I imagine my opinion would change if we got cable TV :)

Fabric for chairs

I'm still waiting for tack strips and a foam cutter to come in the mail before I can continue on the chairs, but hubby and I did find fabric! 

The fabric we'll be using on the chairs is on the back of the couch.  This couch, pillow, wall color, and grey carpet was what we were trying to blend with. 

Before adding the batting and new fabric, I used wood filler to fill in the old nail and staple holes.

We're going to use the batting for the back rest of the chairs, and the foam cushions for the seat.  The foam is pretty close to the right size, but it needs to have a curved front.  We also got burlap, which will replace the old stuff to protect the cushions from the springs.  (there is another layer of something that protected the old cushion from the springs, which we will re-use) 

the start of a teal dress

The teal fabric from this post is getting put to use.  I'm attempting to make a dress, and here is the start of it:

The start of the bodice.  I'm thinking a one shouldered, sleeveless dress right now.

The plan for the back of the dress right now... (I'm kind of thinking of another horizontal band, to cut up some of the open space on the right side)

My attempt at making a back panel for the dress, with a continuous edging for the front, angled part of the dress.

Chair upholstery update:  I ended up having to order a couple of things for the chairs, and am just waiting for the supplies to get here!  Hopefully I can get back to those soon.... our living room is completely taken  over by the project :)