LaVerne

2011-12-14T21:12:00.001-06:00

Quickie ornament for the office tree. I had to make the felted balls because I find any pre-made red ones. It wasn't hard, come to find out. I was going to cover them in some sequins but it didn't look right.

Here's hoping I get a trophy!

finished quilts!

2011-12-04T17:51:00.001-06:00

Unfortunately it's been too rainy to take photos outside and my apartment is too small!

2011-11-27T11:26:00.001-06:00

Did someone say, "giant cathedral window?"

2011-11-23T18:33:00.001-06:00

I haven't sewn or done much crafting in ages, several weeks, because I was adjusting to a new job and all that comes with that. I get twitchy when I don't craft! Two weeks ago I sat down and made a skirt. Last weekend I cut out fabric for two skirts and a dress, bought some fun printed embroidery panels at a Mexican flea market in south Texas, and buckled down to finish the commission quilts I didn't get done before the new job started.

Doing the hand-stitching on the binding is both boring and soothing. Also, I have the most amazing callouses on my fingers.

yellows and greens

2011-08-26T18:37:00.001-05:00

The beginnings of the second men's shirt quilt.

1930s orange DWRs

2011-08-24T13:58:00.004-05:00

Inspiration for a project that feels almost (but not quite) impossible.

From: http://www.lasm.org/exhibits/art2008.shtml

From: http://www.mqumag.com/gallery/photo/48/

daisies

2011-08-24T10:36:00.004-05:00

I always have too many projects going at once. It's nice sometimes though to have something quick and little so that you feel like you're accomplishing something.

These are for a new little baby friend by the name of Daisy. I didn't make a daisy out of lazy daisy stitches on the booties because of that, but it all makes for something ridiculously cute.

These are made from Simplicity 2867, a reproduction pattern. It's two pieces of felt with two stitches--one up the back seam of the upper and then a big oval to join the upper and the sole. Easy as pie.

red and white-ish quilt top

2011-08-09T09:32:00.003-05:00

I got asked by a friend of my sister's boyfriend's parents (follow that?) to make some custom quilts for her. Her husband passed away not too long ago and she wanted small quilts made from some of his shirts--one for herself and one for each of her two daughters for Christmas gifts.

The project is a challenge to me because of the colors of the shirts. I gravitate personally towards bright colors or punchy pastels. I'm not big on muted colors--ask anyone who knows me in person and sees my outfits regularly! When I initially spoke with the woman she described the shirts as being Hawaiian shirts, so I thought they'd be bright colors. I had an idea to make each quilt one super-sized traditional block--one four foot square quilt block. I thought the bright colors would make that really fun.

When I picked up the shirts and talked more in person with the woman, who said that she really wanted something "funky" (especially to give to her daughters) I had to change my approach. These colors make anything other than traditional a challenge.

As you see above, the first thing I did was sort the shirts by color. Then I stared at the piles for awhile waiting for some inspiration.

Then I did this:

That's the first completed top. It's approximately 52" square. There's a lot of woven interfacing and piecing happening there, with knit fabrics and fabrics with a loose weave and bias seams. The red shirt in the middle was cut to include the chest logo, which is the logo for the local yacht club that the family was a member of. The black t-shirt patch with the writing is from the gentleman's business t-shirts. Each quilt will have the same black patch and logos from other shirts in them somewhere, though I want to keep those more subtle than a t-shirt quilt or the like.

I am rather pleased with the end result. Two more quilt tops to go (though I only know what I'm doing for one of them) and then the quilting.

new vintage skirt

2011-08-02T11:14:00.002-05:00

I have more free time on my hands lately, so I want to update on some old projects and try and build more here. Blogging shouldn't involve blogging about blogging, but when you can't manage to do it often, that's what it becomes.

Here's a skirt instead!

I got this fabric for free--a woman in my quilt guild was helping a friend of hers that had worked at a fabric store in the 1970s clean out her house. There were BAGS of fabric. Most of it was godawful polyester double knits. I took some of those in funky prints, but a lot of it was in bad shape from having been poorly stored for so long.

I got this swath of unknown content fabric. There was just enough to make a skirt, and I figured out pretty quickly that I'd use it to finally get around to making the skirt from Simplicity 4044, one of Simplicity's re-release of their old patterns. I've had pants cut out of this pattern for years that I've never finished! Someday...

The fabric is a bizarre color that should be ugly, but somehow manages not to.

I have a yellow vintage styled sweater that goes perfectly with it.

The pattern of course, was super easy. It's 7 pieces of fabric and a zipper. It is super long. I turned up a really deep hem and it's still just below the knee on me. I kept the extra fabric in hopes that the weight would help give the fabric a bit more pull and drape. It took a lot of steam to shrink out all the excess for the hem!

2011-07-31T12:55:00.001-05:00

The beginnings of a custom quilt project.

2011-04-18T18:11:00.001-05:00

I haven't really crafted in a couple of weeks while I've had a houseguest and no room to use the sewing machine, plus lots of time spent out and about. After putting the air mattress away, and feeling a bit depressed with a lonely apartment, I decided I'd pull out fabric and a pattern for a dress that I've had lying around waiting for sewing for a couple of years. I don't have many easy party dresses in my wardrobe and decided I needed one to wear to an event next month. I got all the fabric cut out and then decided that I also really needed a gift for that event.

The overall size is about 15" not quite square. It took about 5 hours to sew and of course it seemed like half that time was the time it took to hand stitch the back of the binding. I couldn't find the clothespins, so the vines came in handy there.

This is a gift for a college professor of mine. He's stepping down from leading the program he created at my university, which is the program that has led me down my career path. He's the kid of professor that inspires just about everyone who crosses his path.

The gorgeous historic home he shared with his long-time partner, who recently passed away, is named Sun Oak. It's an old, old New Orleans house painted in bright fun colors, with a lush garden on the outside and an amazing collection of art and antiques on the inside. Some of the collection are drawings and paintings of suns that were gifted to Gene and Lloyd by many of the people they inspired with their work and their wonderfulness.

During a phone conversation with a friend about my upcoming visit to attend one of the celebrations for Gene, I decided I should sew something up. I used fabrics and threads I already had so the colors aren't exactly what I might have chosen had I started from scratch, but I'm pretty well pleased with a project that I conceived of and completed in half a Sunday. And which I hope will lovingly received and appreciated as a token of appreciation for someone who helped chart the path of my future.

2011-04-17T12:18:00.001-05:00

I haven't crafted much in a couple of weeks and I'm starting back with a bowl of sun rays!

2011-03-15T22:42:00.001-05:00

A historic line camp from the old ranching days at what is now Padre Island National Seashore.

2011-03-13T23:09:00.001-05:00

Today I:

-finished sewing up a pair of baby booties
-went to a crafting group to sew up dolls for kids in the children's hospital to learn about medical procedures
-sewed together a bunch of pieces of fabric for one quilt in the making in order to get that off my design board, where it's been hanging around for months
-ironed out the 60 pairs of triangles I sewed into squares yesterday and laid those out on the design board.

I need to sew more triangles up, but that will be a project quickly accomplished. At least the top, anyway.

2011-03-13T17:48:00.001-05:00

2011-03-12T14:14:00.001-06:00

Cutting squares is boring.

things other than craftiness

2011-03-11T17:13:00.004-06:00

I figure that in order to keep myself more entertained here, I need to write about more things that are going on in my world. I keep a private online journal, which is why writing in a public blog happens only sporadically*. I feel further restrained trying to keep it to one topic like sewing. So I won't.

Here's what I else do:

I did not single-handedly save this building from demolition, but (to toot my own horn) without a few well-placed phone calls from my office, a certain major bank, the bank of this country as they call themselves, would likely have torn down this amazing 1950 theater building. I helped make sure they knew they were not exempt from some laws and so they decided to find another site for a new building.

This is a rare occasion where I can stand up and say that I helped save a building and made a difference for a community. It's an amazing feeling.

I can't wait to see the interior restored.

I don't know anything about this site other than that it's right off the interstate and it's damn cool. I love industrial and agricultural architecture.

On a future trip, I might actually risk getting out of the car and walking around.

*I always think of Clueless when I type out sporadically.

2011-03-09T20:42:00.001-06:00

2011-03-06T10:56:00.001-06:00

Things I've found interesting today:

This post linked through Sociological Images on Japanese Internment Camp photos

New-old Marikemekko prints!

2011-03-05T10:10:00.001-06:00

In search of a solid fabric to go with all these...

long time no see

2011-03-04T14:31:00.001-06:00

Oh look, I have problems maintaining a blog. Go figure. I'm trying again, with a personal decision to not put too much time into composing posts, thereby putting less pressure on myself to keep it interesting.

In that vein, here's a quick peak at an almost completed project.

work in progress

2010-02-01T14:11:00.002-06:00

I spent the weekend in a quilting class all about using photographs to create quilts.

The woman who taught the class is genius and so inspiring. I have a lot of work ahead of me to finish this quilt, but I'll be excited to share it with her when I get there.

The photo: a view up through the workings to the ceiling of a historic carousel outside of Washington DC. I took this photo on a class trip in college, some 11 or so years ago.

The quilt so far: a bunch of cut out and Wonder-Under-ed fabric pinned to tracing paper.

I've got to do some experimenting to get the background, the underside of the roof, looking right, so I concentrated on the layers above that one over the weekend. I'm liking where it's going even if it does look vaguely like Japanese propoganda art work.

2010-01-05T17:27:00.002-06:00

I've been lazy about posting, though not with the sewing. Most of that comes from a neglect to take decent photos of projects, or photos during the course of sewing. I'll learn eventually.

Here is the Christmas present I made for my parents.

There are 282 pieces of fabric within the black border. The whole thing is about 2 feet wide.

It's a kit from England Designs, a technique she calls picture piecing. It was not difficult, in terms of technical ability, just time consuming and tedious. I love the finished result though!

Here's the back, pieced from leftovers and a fat quarter that was given to me for helping hold quilts during a guild meeting. It just happened to fit in perfectly.

The stitching is all in the ditch, and I mostly stayed in the ditch. It was good practice and fun. Very fun. I may like the actual quilting part of quilting more than I thought.

Ironically, on Christmas Eve, I was telling Dad about taking a class on making a quilt from a photo and he said it would be neat to do a West Texas landscape. I was very excited for my parents to open this and see my handy work. Mom actually immediately started figuring out where to hang it up, which says a lot because there is other artwork around the house that has never been hung after years of being gifted or purchased. All in all, a rather successful project.

2009-11-30T12:54:00.002-06:00

I realized, that despite my initial intentions, I haven't posted anything here in awhile. That's only because I haven't actually finished anything in awhile.

I finished my polka-dotted dress this weekend, though of course, it's a lightweight rayon dress and we just had a cold front come through. I can wear it with tights and a sweater and it will look okay, but it's still a bit chilly for that here. So photos of that will be forthcoming.

Here are a couple of blocks completed for a quilt block swap in the last couple of months.

My woven ribbon star.

And an Arkansas Crossroads.

I've got one project in the making right now, a Christmas gift, that is exciting, but leaves my entire sewing area a mess with fabric and little pattern pieces. Here's a very poor preview photo.

vampire bats and evil woopie cushions

2009-10-26T17:16:00.004-05:00

Auntie Caroline was responsible for Halloween this year. My first time!

My oldest nephew wanted to reuse the costume I purchased for my dad last year. My dad, my now 57 year old father, laughingly wore the Woopie Cushion costume I bought for him last year. All the people at the Fall Fest at the community center in teen-einsy town, TX loved it. My nephew decided that he didn't want to be just a Woopie Cushion, but an evil one.

So we took the store bought costume and added cut outs of bats and jack-o-lanterns and tombstones.

All you get are action shots of this one because he's 8. One of the jack-o-lanterns has what he called "hippie teeth." He meant "hillbilly" which made for a fun conversation.

The younger nephew went for Vampire Bat.

A hooded sweatshirt, some cheap satin and fuzzy material, some bias tape, dowels and Peltex. Voila! Vampire bats have very big ears.

The 6 year old is only slightly more compliant about having his photo taken.

Except when there are Hulk hands.

ikea bag

2009-10-13T16:05:00.002-05:00

So I bought this awesome fabric at IKEA on the trip to buy organizational supplies for the sewing area. Yeah, you go to buy things to organize your fabric stash and you buy things to increase the stash itself. I know it's a common tale.

Anyway, I had a couple of yards of this amazing fabric and wasn't sure what to do with it. One day, browsing through some other websites, it hit me. A giant bag!

I was inspired by some Amy Butler patterns for giant tote bags, namely the Betty Shopper. But I've heard about Amy Butler patterns and was a little afraid. That, and I read some reviews that had issues with the fact that such a giant bag had such a small opening. I decided that I would take some of the things I loved about that bag and find another shape.

I browsed through patterns from the Big 4 and came upon one of Vogue's that I liked. I blew the pattern up, changed the height to width proportions a bit, added in some piping and some grommets, and voila!

an unveiling

2009-10-07T11:06:00.008-05:00

So I've been undertaking a bunch of projects around the apartment lately, sprucing up the place, making it look nicer and function better. It's some sort of metaphor for the rest of my life. Or something like that.

I finished the 7 year old upholstery project, I've done some minor organization, I've made a commitment to keeping things cleaner. I've done a lot of purging.

One big project that I've been wanting to tackle for awhile was making my sewing area less of a mess.

This was the before. You can see my issues. Those blue bins are great--tough and stackable and they were free. But, they were big and cumbersome and not terribly attractive. I was bad about putting things away and even purging, because it was such a hassle to get into them. Trust me that not even having them on a shelf helped. I tried that for awhile.

I've also been expanding my fabric collection a lot lately and was tapped out of space--hence the cardboard boxes and bags stuffed with stuff.

Living in a small apartment really made all this worse too, it's not like I have a separate sewing room. This is right in front of my front door. It's my living/dining/crafting/reading room, with a view into the kitchen.

So it became a big thing for me to undertake a project to not only organize the stuff more efficiently, but also make it more attractive.

I got Heather roped into helping me and we spent several hours on the project one day--assessing the situation, spending a bunch of money at IKEA and then assembling and organizing. My dad came over this weekend and helped me hang some wall shelves and get the whole thing finished.

I'm totally in love with the result.

Look at the big expanse of empty flat surfaces!

Ignore the messy kitchen in the background--I've got to work on keeping those counters cleared. My apartment is, well, not minimally decorated. It's busy. It's cozy and charming and I like it. But it gets overwhelming sometimes and this re-do helped immensely to calm down this little corner of my world.

Plus, it's nice and functional. The red drawer unit holds smaller cross-stitch and embroidery supplies and smaller sewing supplies and notions. The orange bins hold the larger cuts of fabric. So far, I've been good about putting everything back where it goes too. Who knew? Judging by the saucepan on the bar, I've still got to practice. I don't know why that got put there. I'm better with my sewing equipment, I promise.

The smaller white bins on the wall hold ribbons and other notions. The medium bins hold smaller cuts of fabrics and the big white bins on top of the bookcase hold bigger cross-stitch supplies and some fabrics dedicated to a couple of specific quilting projects.

I haven't had a chance to sit down and sew since the shelves got finished, though I hope to finish up my giant piped tote bag this evening. There's a teaser for you!

2009-10-06T15:08:00.002-05:00

Note to self:

Find/Devise pattern for top like this

Great 1920s style. I think I have the perfect vintage silk now that I think about it. Hmm.

This reminds me that I keep meaning to try some pattern, any pattern, from Decades of Style.

Too many ideas, too little time.

work in progress

2009-10-01T13:36:00.003-05:00

The bodice of my polka-dot shirt dress. The fabric, as predicted, is a pain in the butt. It's very slippery and it doesn't care that it's supposed to have a grain. There are lots of imperfections in the construction. But, it's also very forgiving, and I'll be the only one that knows what those are! I love how it's turning out!

pin cushion!

2009-09-30T10:34:00.005-05:00

You saw the block in its state post machine work, here's how the rest of the project went.

After sewing down all the triangles.

You can't see it in this view, but I left one edge of the cube open, for stuffing and for ease of manuevering with the hand-sewing.

This is what it looked like once I started pinning and stitching down the window panes.

Ready for stuffing!

Stuffed and ready for stitching.

I closed up that opening with a running stitch and then put the last window pane in. Through the process, I realized that it might have not been too difficult to have done all the initial machine joins but one, stuffed the cube, and then machine-stitched the last opening closed. Doing the hand stitching on the stuffed cube wouldn't have been quite as easy as on the unstuffed cube, but it wouldn't have been that much extra effort.

The finished product!

So it's actually quite big for a pincushion. And I do worry that going through so many layers of fabric will dull the straight pins. I might end up using it as a 'thing' purely for decoration rather than as a pincushion, but we'll see. Mainly, I wanted to see how a cathedral window cube would go. I like it. Sometimes success is easy!

excuse the cat butt

2009-09-28T14:00:00.002-05:00

I spend many a Saturday in the spring and fall months helping my parents set up shop at small town festivals. They have a nursery, of the plant variety, and though plants are not often when you find at fests, it's a good way to not only make money, but advertise. They always insist on paying me for my time, though I always tell them they don't need to and that I would do it out of the goodness of my heart. I not only love my parents, I like them and I enjoy the time I get to spend hanging out with them.

This past weekend, I had joked that for the first time, I would not only accept pay without arguing, but that I would request it in quarters, for laundry. As it turns out, I took my pay in fat quarters. Ha! I just thought of that just now and am exceedingly proud of the corny joke. I'll share it with my dad later as he's the one that taught me the art of the corny joke.

In any case, Dad took a look around after we got all the plants arranged and came back telling me about a booth that had quilting stuff for sale. He actually described it as, "You know, material, like this folded (hand gesture of size), you know, uh, fabric. Fabric!" I surmised that he meant fat quarters from his hand gestures, but assumed that the fabric wouldn't be anything much interesting--there is occasionally someone selling fabric alongside their crafts at these things and it's generally cheap cotton of non-interesting designs. I said I'd go look but wasn't too hopeful.

So, imagine my surprise when I did walk over later and noticed quite a few Aunt Grace patterns laying on the table. When the woman behind the table told me that the fat quarters were only $1 each, I told her I'd be right back. I also told Dad that $20 would be more than enough money when I asked for some cash. Only one of those statements was true. I could have spent $40.

So much pretty!

(And yes, excuse the cat butt, Sissie was intent on 'helping' me sew yesterday. She makes a great paperweight.)

a thing in process

2009-09-24T10:19:00.002-05:00

So I have this habit wherein I get into the middle of a sewing project and feel like I can't work on anything else until that one is done. I have all the pieces cut out for that wacky polka-dotted shirt dress but didn't feel like actually sewing it last night--the fabric is a slippery rayon which will no fun. It will be worth it in the end, but it will be a pain in the butt to get to the end. Since I have those pieces ready to go though, I feel like that's what I should be working on and so I generally don't allow myself any other projects. It's a habit that I need to get out of judging by the number of projects on my to-do list. It wouldn't be the best idea to start another piece of clothing, but why not smaller things?

So, after washing dishes and doing some vacuuming and sweeping last night, I threw this together.

It's not done yet, I hope you realize that. When it is done, it will be a block/pin cushion made out of cathedral window squares. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out--the window panes, in a dark brown, will wrap the edges of the squares, which I think would seem unexpected to most people.

7 years in the making

2009-09-21T09:59:00.005-05:00

This project literally took me nearly 7 years. It's one of those things where you're afraid to try it, but then once you do, you want to smack yourself upside the head because it was ridiculously easy, you just had to sit down and do it.

When I first moved to Atlanta in August of 2002, I had a very post-college hodge-podge of furniture. I had two chairs in the living room, one of which was something I inherited from a friend who got it in her post-college years from another friend. I wanted a sofa but needed something cheap and flexible for small apartments. I felt lucky when I found this cute little rattan set.

Except that the cushions were covered in an ugly 1960s print barkcloth. I don't have a photo--it wasn't even worth documenting. There wasn't even a bit of kitchsy cuteness, they were just ugly. I thought to myself, oh, I can make new cushions, no problem! Foam and nice fabric are expensive of course, so I figured I would just cover the ugly cushions in something cheap until I could afford to do the real project. So I bought some clearance sheets.

The sofas sat in this state for 6 years, including through a move from Atlanta to Austin. 6 years. I could never decide on fabric, I was too intimidated by the whole thing, etc.

Finally, I told myself I just needed to do it. I did the bottom cushion about a year ago. I discovered that, since I cut out things like piping (which would be nice but perhaps a bigger challenge than necessary on a $60 sofa), it was really pretty easy and didn't take much time at all to do. But it still took me a year to get around to doing the back cushions.

I finally finished those this weekend, along with new throw pillows*, and even hand repair work to my vintage throw pillows!

*The throw pillows are a garage sale find velvet on one side and the same satin finish home dec polyester on the reverse. I only had enough velvet to do one side for each of 4 pillows. Sewing together velvet and a heavy satin finish fabric is not fun, let me tell you that. Pain in the rear. But it's great to have the project finally done. Now I can move onto another of those things that I've been procrastinating on.

inspired by heather

2009-09-08T11:52:00.008-05:00

Some oldies, but goodies that I was inspired to post after reading Heather's post about a ring-bearer pillow.

It was interesting that in a fairly short period of time after moving back to Austin, I got asked to do two projects that involved cutting apart a wedding dress. I admit it, there's something satisfying in that for the perpetually single gal. But they were great challenges too.

The wedding dress dated to the early 1980s and wasn't made out of the nicest of polyester satins. We worked up a plan that consisted of purchasing new silk satin for the base fabric of the pillow, and layering that with the sheer overlay fabric from the dress and artfully arranging lace details from the train.

The lace, of course, was all hand-stitched down, with the addition of the decorative ribbons to make the tie ribbons not stick out quite so much.

This lace was the edging off the train and incorporated just into the holder of the pillow. I was pretty touched to be asked to work on this project and was very pleased with the outcome.

Sometime after that, one of my college roommates asked me about making a Christening Gown for her using her wedding dress. This gown was another with a satin base under a lace overlayer. The idea behind the basic design was to have a satin dress that wasn't too frilly, with a lace coat that could be worn over it. Their first child is a girl, but anticipating possible future boys in the family, she wanted something that could be used for all the children without being overly gender-oriented either way.

My friend shared with me links for newly made gowns that she liked and so between those, a Simplicity pattern and my mom's Martha Pullen book (we used to watch her PBS show religiously and drool over the antique laces), I cobbled together this pattern.

It was a challenge. As big as a wedding dress skirt may seem, it's not that big when you're trying to make a long, very full skirt for a Christening gown. I went through a very experimental muslin process to ensure that I had enough satin to get some fullness. I opted for the pleats rather than the gathering to meet that gender-neutral feel, but also because the satin was thick and wouldn't have cooperated that well with gathering.

I added the small touch of lace, sans beading to the dress to make it tie together nicely. The edging on the lace jacket was from the lace overlay of the dress, but had to be all reattached by hand as part of the process.

The buttons on the jacket were from the dress as well. Rather than sew in buttonholes on the lace, I used ribbon for loops. The back of the dress buttons as well, but with new, flat buttons, for comfort.

The horizontal tucking was a detail straight from a ready-made dress that my friend liked. It didn't turn out as neat as I wished it had, but that fabric was a pain, and I'm the only one who notices the flaws, I'm sure. It doesn't show up that well in the photo, but there are vertical inserts of the lace to either side of the tucks for another little touch.

This was another project that I was very proud to have accomplished. It's not as fine as many handmade Christening gowns, but it's a lot more special than something store bought. And it gave me the opportunity to try some things that I'd never attempted before.

2009-08-17T16:37:00.002-05:00

No crafting photos to share as I spent most of my weekend reorganizing my closet. I'm doing all this in preparation, gearing up for, re-organization of my crafting corner. That's a scary prospect really.

Organizing my vintage handbag collection, however, was quite fun.

my new obsession

2009-08-11T10:41:00.003-05:00

My most recently finished project:

There are something like 140 French knots in this thing--the coals, the flowers, all the upholstery details. I hate French knots, but I have a good technique going now. I just need to work on my camera settings for better shots of my projects...

This is from a crewel work kit dating to 1981. I bought off the used books/supplies table at the Waco Quilt Guild's quilt show. I believe I paid all of a dime. It was untouched and took me only a few weeks of work to stitch it up. I don't do a lot of embroidery of this type, but now am a total convert--big thread and big stitches means that the project goes quick, quick, quick!

I have been on a bit of a rampage buying vintage kits on ebay and etsy. I probably have enough now to last me til 2011. But I might still buy more.

Here's the next one that I'm tackling:

I started it just hours after finishing the old man and his cats. This one uses typical embroidery floss rather than wool yarn, but I think it will still be quick.

It's an older kit though, dating to the 1940s rather than the 70s or 80s. It's so old that even the photo of the finished project is in black and white. The final appearance of everything will be a surprise!

It came in its original box, with a frame complete with glass and matboard and all. It was missing one color of floss, but that's easily fixed. All that for $10 on ebay.

I don't know just what I'll do with all these when I get them finished.

And because I know you're wondering what that wacky bit of background you see in the above photos is...

My next sewing project! A crazy polka-dot shirt dress (knee length, short sleeves). The fabric is a rayon that I got from Fashion Fabric Club. It's not a nice smooth soft rayon, but it's still got a wonderful drape to it and should make for a fun dress. I've done this pattern once before and had the dress pretty much finished in a weekend, so it will be a quick project once I get around to cutting it out.

2009-07-27T11:07:00.002-05:00

I've made a couple of skirts lately. It's starting small, but after months of not being able to finish a garment, it's a good start. And satisfying, because it's all cute!

However, one of the plights of the single seamtress is being able to take photos to show off new work.

Hence, my stop-light photo in the puddingmobile this morning.

Behold the hot-pink woodgrain skirt in all of its glory!

It's a simple a-line, with center front and back seams and pockets. Cause a modern gal needs pockets. It's the woodgrain print from Joel Dewberry, purchased on etsy a few weeks ago because I never bought it when it first came out.

I didn't take any photos during the process--I should start that--so you'll have to listen to get the goods. The fabric is a nice lightweight quilting cotton. I like light and flowy skirts sometimes, but I think prefer them to have a bit of weight to them, for structure. So I underlined this one with plain Kona cotton muslin. I should really share a photo of the back because I managed to throw in an invisible zipper on the first try with no problems through the two layers of fabric. I'm pretty damn proud of myself for that one (tip for other sewists--I actually think that invisible zippers are a LOT easier to put in than a regular zipper).

So that's the wacky hot-pink woodgrain skirt that I've been dreaming about for months.

I'll try to capture the pretty minty green skirt next. That one is even better because it has pockets and NO zipper!

some oldies but goodies

2009-06-26T17:15:00.007-05:00

One thing that I would like to do here, as I sporadically post, is document some older projects.

These are my first two "quilts," made for each of my nephews when they were born. I actually realized that I had never really documented either of these anywhere and really wanted to do that for posterity's sake. I call them "quilts" because the quilting techniques here are minimal.

I've been a cross-stitcher since elementary school and that has been my primary means of gift-giving for a long time. I started to look for something for my older nephew, Reece, well, before he was actually born. I found the pattern book for Winnie the Pooh themed cross-stitch and it led to the idea of making a quilt out of the cross-stitched blocks.

You can see what I mean by minimal quilting techniques--solid blocks pieced together, sewn right-sides together and turned, and then tied. But all that cross-stitching sure took awhile.

So when I began to work on Mitchell's quilt, I had problems finding some cross-stitch patterns that really excited me. I finally happened upon this lovely boat themed book, but I felt bad because I wasn't going to be doing as much actual cross-stitching on his as on Mitchell's. But I loved the alphabet boat sail SO much.

So I said to heck with it. I actually did some hand-quilting on this one, just in the large solid blocks, to kind of liven it up. And I assembled in a more traditional manner with a binding.

I made sure when I gave them, to tell my sister that they were to be used. You can see the stains and know that they are. And they're loved. Mitchell actually asked me a couple of weeks ago if I would make him another blanket--this time with Spiderman on it. I said that I have lots of other people to make blankets for first because they never got one from me. Plus, I don't know how to make Spiderman. I think that will hold him off for awhile.

2009-06-17T10:04:00.002-05:00

I love Dress a Day. I would wear a dress a day (or at least a skirt) if I didn't have a quickly growing forest on my legs. And I'll never be one of those women that can't shave. Unfortunately I inherited my dad's hair genes rather than my mom's. Well, hopefully not all his hair genes, because I would not look attractive with a giant gleaming forehead...

In any case, Erin at Dress a Day posted a link one day to this gorgeous vintage number on Ebay.
Out of my price range, and too small anyway.

But it brings to mind this Vogue pattern:

I bought this pattern when I first saw it, perhaps on Dress a Day... and have been hoping to magically one day find a 1" stripe fabric to use on it. Gingham is the obvious choice here, but I already have a dress in a large gingham--the Butterick walk-away dress--and I really don't know that I need two gingham dresses in my wardrobe. That idea may get the better of me one day when I get tired of waiting for the 1" stripe though.

an exercise in spinsterdom

2009-06-16T12:02:00.005-05:00

So sometime in the last few months I joined the local quilt guild with my crafty friend Heather. The timing of that was quite serendipitous as it was just in time for their biannual weekend of quilting classes.

There's nothing quite like adopting a cat and joining a quilt guild to make a single 30 year old feel so spinstery, but here I am. And even better, I decided I'd combine the two and make my first ever machine quilted project for my cat.

This was done following the basic pattern that our (fabulous) teacher gave us. It's interesting actually to see how different such a basic piecing pattern can turn out based on the use of fabrics. 15 quilts in the same class, made following the same directions and they're all totally different.

My inspiration for the birds came from the IKEA fabric that I used for the back. I bought this fabric to hang on a canvas on the wall in my apartment--a project that has yet to be completed--and had enough leftovers for the quilt. On my trip through the local quilting shop, I got a little bird happy, but I was pleased with the composition on the front.

The actual quilting was another story. I was using my new-to-me Morse machine for pretty much the first time without really giving it much of a test run. Tension problems galore! Oh, and the presser foot pressure issues, even with the walking foot... notice how some of my squares turned into diamonds, rhombuses (rhombi?)? The stitching in the ditch was an exercise in frusteration. I need to work more on that and figure out the quirks of the machine.

The free-motion quilting was still frusterating, but also quite humourous. This was my first time ever trying free-motion quilting. Ever! And it shows. My circles are all not-quite circular. And my curves aren't quite smooth. I did the first bit in class on the Morse which actually, despite the walking-foot challenges, worked quite well. I finished it at home on my old Singer, which did not work so well. It's a much faster machine and my shapes got even wonkier and my stitches way too small.

I tried the feathering, as our teacher had encouraged in class and it turned out okay, though I clearly need practice there. The stitches don't look so bad in photo here, but up-close it just makes me laugh. I suppose that's the best I could ask for.

Oh, and the cat likes it.

not entirely a sewing project

2009-06-15T11:21:00.006-05:00

My friend's daughter is turning 2 this week. My friend, V, has been looking for a play kitchen for this occasion--but not just any play kitchen, an old school wooden one. When you're dealing with a budget, I guess those are not easy to come across. What she found however, were instructions for an IKEA hack to turn a little side table thingy into a sink/stove combo piece.

So we spent Saturday honing our woodworking skills.

Or really, V honed her woodworking skills, while I honed my wood holding skills. I'm afraid of power saws.

So what you see on the left, is the end table, with a hole cut in it for the stainless steel bowl 'sink', fabric circles glued down for the 'burners', cabinet handles for the 'knobs', and some 1/4" plywood for the 'oven' door. The feet are wall/shelf brackets and all that is attached to the thicker plywood backing with a dishdrainer for a shelf.

The 'fridge' is a toy chest that we painted, put some hinges on and put on brackets of its own. There are a couple of shelves inside as well, just more thin plywood on glued on wood cleats.

We decided we were done with woodworking when it got to the decision about making a door for the under-sink cabinet. I offered to whip-up a quick curtain.

(I'll share a photo once it's actually in place.)

I had already decided to make an apron for my individual contribution for the birthday girl. I started that with pieces from a Moda charm pack that I picked up a quilt show a few weeks ago.

I took the charm squares and just cut them on the diagonal and started playing around, arranging them into something pleasing to the eye--my eye anyway. I used some wrapping paper to trace out a pattern for the apron shape and cut two of those out of muslin, making one side shorter than the other. I sewed the charm square patch to the bottom of the short muslin piece, sandwiched the two together, did some basic stitcing-in-the-ditch over the patched part and edged the whole thing with bias tape. I think it's going to fit funny for now, but it will be something that the 2 year old can grow into too.

When it came time to do the curtain, I cut some of the other charm squares in half and patched them together. Some quick seams, some leftover bias tape and that was about a 30 minute project.

sewing machine, part deux

2009-06-09T12:19:00.001-05:00

I feel special to have two machines now!

What brand and model do you have?

This is a Morse Apollo 6200. A 1960s Japanese Singer knock-off made in a Toyota factory of all places.

How long have you had it?

a couple of months

How much does that machine cost (approximately)?

I got it for $25 off of Craigslist. Plus gas to get to the suburbs. It may need a tune-up yet, we'll see.

How much do you sew? How much wear and tear does the machine get?

This one has not gotten much. I need to play it with some more and figure out the tension and some other things, but my thought was that it would be my secondary machine, for use in traveling. If I do get more into quilting though, I think this will be the one I go to for the fancier stuff as it's not as fast as the Singer and therefore easier to control in some ways.

Do you like/love/hate your machine? Are you ambivalent? Passionate? Does she have a name?

No name yet. Unless I just want to go with Raul--who, as the sticker on the neck says, serviced the machine at sometime. I don't love it yet. Well I do in a way, it's growing on me. It has funky little features that I love--the giant reverse push button, the light in the end of the arm

I hated it in a quilting class as the tension was wacky, but I'm figuring that out. It's actually built to handle double-needles so there are two tensions discs on the front and the bobbin case tension is all screwy too.

Is there anything that drives you nuts about your machine?

See above, re: tension.

Do you have a great story to share about your machine (i.e., Found it under the Christmas tree? Dropped it on the kitchen floor? Sewed your fingernail to your zipper?, Got it from your Great Grandma?, etc.!)? We want to hear it!

No great story. Saw it on Craigslist, did a bit of research, decided to take a chance. The machine had obviously been stored for awhile as the plastic case was dirty and nasty, but the machine was clean as a whistle and looked like it had been used very recently.

I love my old Singer, she's very dear to me, and she sews great. But I've been wanting something that was more portable and had a built-in zig-zag stitch.

sewing machine

2009-06-08T13:37:00.001-05:00

What brand and model do you have?

Singer 15-91 in a model 42 "writing desk" cabinet. Serial number issued in 1946.

How long have you had it?

It officially came to live with me in September of 2001, when I moved into my first post-college apartment.

How much does that machine cost (approximately)?

It cost me nothing but a $75 tune-up. If you want one, it all depends on how much you're willing to pay. A great resource for vintage Singers for anyone interested is www.needlebar.org

I have some accessories that came with the machine, but have had to purchase others. Attachments like button-holers can run $10 to $20.

What types of things do you sew (i.e. quilting, clothing, handbags, home dec projects, etc.)?

Mostly clothing. But I have done some craft-show purses, some home-dec and some quilting. I'm working on maybe getting more into quilting. We're seeing how that goes.

How much do you sew? How much wear and tear does the machine get?

It depends on my mood. Sometimes I go for weeks at a time without sewing, sometimes I make a dress in a weekend. Sewing is something that is therapeutic for me, but also something that I don't do in moods when I might most need it.

These machines are so sturdy though that there's not much wear and tear happening unless you're doing something hardcore.

Do you like/love/hate your machine? Are you ambivalent? Passionate? Does she have a name?

I love the machine! It's one of my most prized possessions. She doesn't really have a name though I occasionally call her Pearl for my great-grandmother.

What features does your machine have that work well for you?

It pretty much as one feature--straight stitch. Ha. No, but really, it goes forwards and backwards. It runs fast and hard. The bobbin winder is great! I finally experimented with lowering the feed dogs for the first time. That's about the extent of the machine itself.

I have a zig-zag attachment that doesn't produce a very good zig-zag, but the old button-holer attachment is great. I have a number of the old feet--the bias tape foot, the edging foot, etc--and have played around with them though frankly I've never really needed to use any of them. I do not have the scary ruffler foot but wouldn't mind one day.

I love the cabinet. Mine is not in the best shape, but it's got several drawers, it's nice and sturdy and it's purty. Because it was a model meant to double as a writing desk when the machine was not being used, it's got a drawer with a pen/pencil tray and an old inkpot! Apparently it's rare to still have those.

Is there anything that drives you nuts about your machine?

I do wish that I had more options for stitches sometimes and that it were portable.

Do you have a great story to share about your machine (i.e., Found it under the Christmas tree? Dropped it on the kitchen floor? Sewed your fingernail to your zipper?, Got it from your Great Grandma?, etc.!)? We want to hear it!

I did inherit it from my Great-Grandma. She never really sewed that much, but she was a woman back in the 1940s and therefore needed a sewing machine--this was supposedly a 'gift' from my great-grandfather. My great aunt used it a lot though before Grandma died and it got passed to me.

It's not really related because it was another Great-Grandma, but one of them did lose part of a finger in an industrial sewing machine incident.

Would you recommend the machine to others? Why?

Old Singers are great machines. The 15-91 was one of the most mass-produced because it was so solid, but so easy to use. They're pretty easy to find in good shape still and because they're a standard straight, low-shank machine, you can still buy all the accessories that you need, including brand-new feet and even vintage attachments.

What factors do you think are important to consider when looking for a new machine?

I've never bought a new machine, so I don't know!

Actually, the criteria for the second old machine I bought was that it be more portable and have a built-in zig-zag and button hole and that it also be a straight, low shank machine that uses the same bobbins so I didn't have to buy anything else.

Do you have a dream machine?

I think I'm happy with what I have.