Stop staring and start sewing!

Taking a swat at that bee in my bonnet

I've had this bee in my bonnet (well, that and folks have been nagging me) to get this dress pattern produced.  So this has been consuming my life this past week.  The actual pattern is finally done and in an Illustrator file, the fittings have been flawless, and the paper scraps are piling up everywhere.  (True confession:  I tried one of the dresses on Skate who kept saying "I not a girl".  The fit was great but I think that's the last time I'll get away with it).  I have to print it out on regular paper (using the "tile" printer setting) and tape it together.  The actual pattern will be on regular pattern paper.  I'm thrilled because this one is going up to a size 9 (or narrow 10), and the grading looks great.

I'm very happy with the progress I'm making because I've been in a bit of a funk and there's something about being creative that just pulls you out of it and puts you in a happy humming-about-the-house place.  I'm having fun mixing fabrics together too (more Poppy coming on Tuesday!).  Next up is the instruction writing which is fun but does make my brain hurt a little.

This weekend I'm going to try to find time to sew Carla Crim's new pattern for the Tommy Boxers.  I bought the pattern the second I saw she had it ready to go!  I love wearing Joey's boxers in the summer and now I can have non-plaid boxers just for me.  I might even follow her instructions for sewing a word on the back (her sample boxers has "Sis Boom" on the back and darn they're cute).

Which gives me an idea for this weeks give-away (yeah, it's supposed to be on Friday but I don't think anyone will complain).  The goody is the extra bits and pieces from my two recent sample dresses and it weighs more than two yards (yes,that's how my fabric math works...weight = yards).  It's odd shapes but definitely great for smaller projects.  Just leave a comment with a great phrase for the back of my new boxers.  The one that makes me laugh the hardest will be the winner.  If your idea consists of a whole paragraph you will risk disqualification (unless, of course, you're recommending teeny tiny fonts).

Be sure to run over to Beki's (Artsy Crafty Babe) blog and make plans to join her summer sew along.  It looks like a lot of fun.  Between that and my skirt sew along (coming right up) you could have a great new outfit in no time!  And I've posted links to some great projects using Bari J's new Art Journal project on her page in my store.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!  Our flag holder was removed when we had gutters installed a couple of years ago so I'm going to see if I can add that project to Joey's honey-do list today!   Don't forget to take some time to remember all the men and women who have given their lives in service to our beautiful country. 

A book that you probably need to have

Okay, the winner of the bodacious bag o'scraps is Mike Hanson (who only left me an email address and might actually be Mrs. Mike Hanson?).  Yay for scraps!

Thanks for all the nice comments on my skirt!  I even got my own blog post over at Jennifer's blog!  Such a thrill and honor! 

A lot of folks commented here that they've never made skirts and felt that maybe they didn't have the "right type of figure" for it.  Not true!  The problem is not you, it's the pattern!  Patterns almost always need to be adjusted to fit the figure of the person sewing it.  Most of us have lumps and bumps and they're in different places on different folks.  Fit for Real People is one of the best books (maybe it is the best) for getting the perfect fit from your pattern.  They have models in every shape and size in this book and all of them got terrific results.

They have a great section on how to fit a skirt to your tummy or booty.  I have to make longer darts in the back because my rear compartment is flat (thanks Mom!) but other gals have more perk back there so they might need shorter, deeper darts.  This book address it all (plus all the other body parts that need pattern adjustments).  So if you've been putting off sewing clothes for yourself, this book might be what you need.

And here are some great links for invisible zipper installation.  Kay Whitt did a great post here.  There's a wonderful video here.  And you can print this out here (I've had it printed and taped above my sewing table for about 4 years now).   You can get an invisible zipper foot at Walmart for about 2 bucks.  It's a cheap plastic one but you'll at least get the hang of it and decide whether you want to invest in a metal one (I think you will!).  Once you realize how easy an invisible zipper is to install you will probably kick yourself for ever being afraid of it. 

Have a great rest of the week!  Tomorrow is the last day of school here so summer vacation is right around the corner!  Yay!

It's a cute cute summer...the mini series

At least it will be a cute cute summer if I keep making these skirts.  Joey and I were lucky enough to be invited to a fun wine tasting party with some friends (and strangers who might just become new friends) and I decided it was an event worthy of a new skirt.  So I put this one together in about 2 hours (with the lining!).

Last year I converted a simple a-line skirt pattern into a super simple a-line skirt pattern by removing the seam in the back and putting the zipper on the side so it's now just a 2 piece pattern instead of 3 pieces. It's my go-to pattern and can be embellished so many ways.   This one got a ruffle (with a serged rolled hem so it couldn't have been easier).

Here's the whole skirt (time to dust the mirror again!) and I'm so in love with it.  I chose this gorgeous and uncomplicated print from Jennifer Paganelli's So St Croix collection and I think it makes a fun but classic skirt.

So I'm going to start a "mini-series" for the month of June to show you how to convert an a-line skirt pattern into 2 easy pieces and then you'll be set for the summer too.  Once you have your pattern ready we'll start playing with different variations.  I'm using this pattern (Butterick 4461) so if you want to join along you can keep your eyes peeled for a pattern sale at Joann's.  If you can't find this one just find a basic a-line skirt pattern with darts in the front and back and we'll make it work.  This will be lots of fun and this style of skirt looks great on every type of figure so don't be shy (because I want everyone to share their pictures in my flickr group)!

And yesterday's Friday Freeday has been delayed until today.  The winner of last weeks goodies is Anita who left a comment at 8:05 on 5/15.  Yay Anita!!

Here's this weeks bag 'o fun!  Yes!  It's a bag with over 2 yards of scraps from your favorite designers in mostly pinks and greens (and a few cute brown colors).  Just say hi (or pour out your soul, whatever) and have a wonderful weekend!

Oh, and all Moda fabrics are marked down 25% (yes!) through June 5th!  Don't wait too long or your favorites will be snapped up by some fabric crazy stash building type of person!

Every party needs a pooper (so I went and got a pedicure)

I'm not going to Quilt Market in Minneapolis even though all my cool, hip fabric friends are there right now.  It was a hard decision to make but once it was made I was actually quite relieved.  We have a big family vacation planned for July and didn't want to have to shorten it because of time or money considerations.  Our children are growing into adulthood and we want to grab all the opportunities to travel with them that we can. 

So anyway, here I sit at home giving away tons of fabric.....Yes!  We have a winner!  Melanie over at Texas Freckles (a very cute blog) is the winner of the mondo-mucho-grande prize!  Yay Melanie!  You are set for summer!

And I decided to drown my quilt market sorrows in coffee and a pedicure with my favorite fabric pal Jamie.  We left with cute toes and plans to take over the fabric world one bolt at a time.  Good times.

On Saturday I drowned my sorrows at the GLEE concert (Yes!!  Can you believe it??  Don't stop believing!).  They are only touring 4 cities and Phoenix was lucky enough to be one of them (and they didn't boycott us, ha!).  It was squeal-worthy and most of the attendees were my age and older (take that you young whipper snappers).  I went with my mom (her early birthday gift to me) and we had a great time.  This picture is from my iPhone and unfortunately it's the best shot I got. 

Then last night I drowned my sorrows at a James Taylor / Carole King concert.  Oh my goodness.  They are both just as amazing as they were 40 years ago when they first worked together.  It was a very touching concert and a real treat to enjoy these two legends together.

So I think I'll survive missing Quilt Market but I'll try to find some awesome blog coverage from the attendees like Bari, and Monica, and Pam (awesome logo below, but you can get your own button on Pam's blog), and pass the links onto you.  I hope you're having a great week!

Now go sew something!

A chair is just a chair unless a giveaway is sitting there....

Happy Monday!  I almost forgot about Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway day which is one of the funnest day's of the year (if you love fabric, and who doesn't?).  Not to be confused with the giveaway's I do on my blog every Friday (I will draw last Friday's winner on Friday since this is gearing up to be a crazy week already). 

This time I'm giving away something super awesome!  No, not this cool chair that we just grabbed off of the neighbors lawn (it's bulk garbage pick up day and this is pretty much how we furnish our house!).  I'm giving away this MASSIVE fat quarter stack of the entire Woodland Delight collection by one of my favorite designers, Paula Prass.  It's 25 prints, 6 1/4 yards total, and has a retail value of 75.00.  But wait!  That's not all!  I'm also giving away 4 patterns!  A Stella Apron pattern by Tanya Whelan, Ruthie Clutch by Anna Maria Horner, Mischievous Gnome Messenger Bag by Sew Liberated and a Foreign Currency Quilt pattern by Cherry House Quilts. Yay!!  This should keep you busy all summer long!

Just leave a nice comment (although mean comments will be considered).  And be sure to visit my store Fabritopia (click on the logo below too) because I'm always getting great stuff in (Lizzy House's Castle Peeps is coming in 2 weeks!!!!) and I usually have some pretty nice sales.


And be sure to join Fabritopia's mailing list to get the latest newsletter on sales and new arrivals.  I rarely send out more than 1 each week so you won't get inundated with emails from me.

Join the Mailing List

Enter your name and email address below:

Name:
Email:
Subscribe  Unsubscribe 

Get your Free Mailing List
by Bravenet.com

Join me on Twitter!

And Fabritopia's Flickr group!

New Flickr Group! Join and share!!

Be a friend on Facebook too!

The big drawing day is on Thursday! Have a great week and sew something fun!!

Friday Sigh-day (and give away day too!)

Whew.  What a week.  The last week of school for my 3 girls and so much to do.  Today was Olivia's last day of highschool.  I started homeschooling her 13 years ago.  Our last one will finish highschool in 14 years (you do the math while I sit here wiping the tears away).  Anyway, Asher will be done with 3rd grade in 2 weeks and then summer can officially begin.

I made a dress with one of Kay Whitt's new patterns yesterday.  I started in the morning (by washing the fabric) and finished in the evening.  It went together pretty quickly given all of the interruptions I had throughout the day.  This is the Claire Cami dress and I'm giving it two thumbs way up.  It's so uncomplicated that I would highly recommend it to a beginner.  I love a pattern that just gets the point across and doesn't add a bunch of unnecessary steps just to look impressive.  There are no zippers (and everyone said "yippy!") and the only complicated(?) part is making 2 buttonholes and they're located in a place where it won't even show if you make them too long like I did.

I cut off my head because I had Joey take the picture this morning and I looked like I had just rolled out of my crypt.  Look at our holly hocks!

Kay adds all the right details to her patterns like these two lines of top stitching.  I love top stitching because it makes a garment look professional (as opposed to "homemade") and it makes it so much easier to care for (ironing is so nice and easy when you've top stitched something).

And this simple strip of fabric between the skirt and ruffle is just a nice touch that keeps the skirt from being ordinary (and more top stitching!).  Oh, this fabric is Laura Gunn's new Poppy collection by the way. 

And I decided to use a spokes model for this weeks give-away (the speaking part is when he says "let me see it!  let me see it!" and runs to the other side of the camera every time I take a picture).  Mr. Cheesy McCheese-grin is showing you the Rachel Cross Body Bag pattern and all the fabric needed to make one of the bags.  It's 1 3/4 yards total fabric (cute stuff too!).  You'll still need to get the hardware but this will get you mostly there.

Here's a picture of the bag (I switched out the dots with Ta Dots Moss because I didn't have this exact dot fabric but they're darn close).   Isn't it gorgeous?  That's Jessica Levitt's Timber fabric on the top and straps.  Super cute!

Just leave a comment and share your big summer plans once school's out.  We're taking a two week road trip to Oregon (including 2 separate family reunions).  I hope it rains (it usually does)!

Monday (it's the new Tuesday)

Okay, the winner of Friday's Plume bundle is Rachelle who said, regarding her first sewing project "I think mine was either a stuffed doll made out of an old orange terry cloth towel or when I cut apart a pair of old flowered jeans and made a pencil bag"  Yay Rachelle!

Those comments were so much fun!  I sat here giggling and nodding my head while reading them all.  So many Barbie clothes!   And lots of 4H projects too.  It was so great to see that some folks made their first project over 50 years ago and others started just a couple of months ago.  Sewing just never goes out of style does it?

Here is an updated quilt picture (with a cute kitty bathing herself).  I'm nearly done with the top (just two more big sashing strips on the ends) and I'm actually almost done with the back of it too.  I think I'll name this one "Sea Breeze" (See, I'm naming my quilts already.  This is getting serious).

Joey is working on some more socks.  He found some patterned yarn and is having way too much fun with it.  He says these are for him but if you'd be willing to comment on how "pretty" and "darling" they're turning out I might be able to snag these for myself.

And Bari's fabric arrived about 2 hours ago!  I've already found a nice home for it and have spent some time oohing and aahing and touching and dreaming.  I knew it was pretty but I don't remember the colors being so gorgeous when I first saw it.  I'm under the impression that the manufacturers don't always have the colors perfected when the give the designers fabric to make their quilt market samples. 

And yes, I ordered Kay Whitt's new patterns!!  They should be here this week!  I was gushing to Kay about how gorgeous they were (and yes, sort of begging) before I knew they were available and she kindly popped the dress patterns in the mail just for me (she's nice that way!).  So they arrived today and I'm working on one tonight.  Yay!

Friday! (now means free stuff)

Okay, so here's the storage bin my guys have been working on.  They all took part in the effort and it was cute to see the boys' enthusiasm even though they really had no idea what they were building.  Asher is working while Skate gives instructions apparently.

Tada!  We need one more bin (that's on the toy side) and the world will be in order.  Their room has been a huge mess since the dresser wasn't enough for all of their stuff together.  This holds their clothes and their toys, and really that's all they have (besides beds). 

But it only took one nap session for Skate to undo so much.  I knew he was being a little noisy but I assumed he was being a good boy all alone in his room.  We all know what happens when you assume.  I love the fact that he bothered to stack the bins in a nice orderly fashion there on the floor.  We made him help clean it up and had a stern discussion about not doing that again.  It did the trick because now he's become kind of anal about the closet.  Works for me.

And I'm zipping through my next quilt very quickly!  I put my fabrics, all organized, next to my sewing machine so they all went together much faster than last time.  This is fun.  I love all these prints together.  So soothing.

And here's this week's give-away!  Four 1/2 yard pieces from Tula Pink's Plume collection.  2 yards total!  Plus a yard of the beautiful olive and lavender french trim from Renaissance Ribbons.  Just leave a comment and share what your very first sewing project was (if you can remember!).  Mine was a hot pink taffeta dress that I never finished, but I caught the sewing bug so it was worth it.

And I've marked all Free Spirit/Westminster fabrics wayyyy down through May 21st (some as low as 3.00 yd).  And Laura Gunn's Poppy just showed up and it's beautiful!  Bari J's Art Journal is coming on Monday and all pre-orders are marked down 10% through Monday (when we'll start shipping it).  And more great stuff coming!  Have a wonderful weekend!!

Wednesday workings

I'm scrambling here to get all this Michael Miller sale fabric out.  Thank you!  In the meantime I've gotten a few things done in the evenings when I've caught a few moments of down time. 

Here are my quilt pieces ready to go.  I'm going to use the same pattern as last time since I really love it and want to try it in a different color scheme.  I'm really excited to get going on this since I'm thrilled with the idea of putting all these fabrics together.

I finally finished another skirt for my pattern cover.  This is my Evelyn Apron Skirt (I shortened the apron by 1 inch) in Heather's Nicey Jane fabric and I think she's darling.  I'll be getting more Nicey Jane for the store soon since this pink colorway keeps selling out.

I'm going in a different direction with the next skirt.  Don't these look cute together?  I've been wanting to play with this Renaissance chicken ribbon and I think it will be the perfect icing on this skirt.  Kind of country but sophisticated (I think the dot print is the sophisticated part).

The wonderful folks at Sew4Home have done a few Mother's Day projects using the Renaissance Ribbons from Fabritopia (here, here, and here).  They have wonderful tutorials on that site (it's crazy how much stuff they make every week!).  It was a real treat to work with them on this (actually the work part was all their's, I just sent the ribbon!).

Have a great rest-of-the-week and keep sewing!  I'm planning another give-away on Friday (because it's fun!) so don't go too far!

A few of my favorite books

The winner of the cute pink Whimsy stack is comment #78, April who left a nice comment at 9:28 pm on 4/30.  Congratulations April! 

I really love nice sewing books but honestly, my favorite ones are the ones I've had forever.  And the ones I spend the most time looking through are my books written by Katrin Cargill.  I only have 4 but I'm ready to start snapping up the rest (she has about 15 books now).  Katrin has a beautiful, fresh, clean style that might be described as "country" but leans more toward Scandinavian country I guess.  My absolute favorite of all time is Fabrications.  I scrimped and saved to buy this book for 35.00 back when Joey was a student and we had 3 small girls and were barely getting by.  I treasure it for that reason and because it's absolutely everything I could ask for in a decorating book.

I dug up some old photos (from film) of things I made from this book.  I still remember the chair cover I made because I found a gorgeous home dec fabric with big roses on it for 1.00 yard at Joann's and they had just enough (8 yards) for me to cover the chair with (check out Joey's glasses).  Man, I loved that chair.  Looking back I think I made some of my favorite things when I had the least amount of money. 

The scalloped shelf cover was wonderful because I used it to cover some ugly Gorilla Shelves and it became a nice piece of furniture instead of an eyesore (that's Enzo, the best cat ever. Rest his soul).  Anyway, Katrin's books are just stuffed with great projects and the books are so timeless that the projects are just as pretty today as they were when her books were released.

And I've picked some fabrics for my next quilt!  What do you think?  Warm and Icy together in one quilt.  Trust me here, I know what I'm doing (ha!).

Oh, Laura Gunn's Poppy collection is shipping now and Bari J Ackerman's  Art Journal is shipping tomorrow (I'll load them both in the store for pre-order tonight).  It's about to get very crazy around here.