The Winter Sewing Blues

Not blues as in "depressed, wanna curl up with a vat of ice cream and cry myself to sleep" (what? isn't that what everyone does when they are down?). No, I just mean I've got blue in my serger and I'm too lazy to change colors.

I switched to blue for the sole purpose of sewing this:

Pattern: Simplicity 2603

Fabric: Navy and Steel Gray Stripe Rayon Jersey from Bamblue Fabrics

This is a very popular pattern, and for good reason. It is ridiculously easy to sew, has only 3 pattern pieces, and is very much on trend. And what luck! I have the absolute PERFECT fabric to use with it. This rayon jersey, from LA designer Ella Moss, is TDF. It is very lightweight and ephemeral, which is just what you need with this pattern. I rolled the entire hem of this cardigan, which gives it a bit of a lettuce edge...makes it more romantic and feminine, in my opinion. Love it.

My 6 year old daughter lives in dresses. I've made her countless shirts and tunics and hoodies that she never wears. All she wants are dresses, and I'm absolutely sick of seeing her wear her favorite: a pink velour Henrika that I made her two years ago and miraculously still fits her. I decided a new Henrika was in order. I pulled out one of my cherished fabrics, light blue polka dots on periwinkle cotton lycra. I know, I know, polka dots are not exactly HTF - but just try to find this colorway anywhere. Impossible!

Anyway, I'm beyond thrilled that I didn't mess this up. This is now my favorite knit dress that I've ever made for her (and I love how it looks with her adorable Beeko boots, too).

Pattern: Farbenmix Henrika

Embroidery: Huups

Freakin' Adorable Boots That I Wish They Made in My Size: Beeko

And more blue! I've had this fabric for ages, thinking I would make a dress for me out of it, but couldn't decide on which pattern. I gradually came to the conclusion that the print looks a little juvenile for a 40 year old woman like myself, so I decided maybe just a top, rather than a dress. 

Pattern: Jalie 2805

I had enough of the fabric left over to make my daughter a dress too, although she flat out refused to model it. So, we have to make do with this horrible picture. Believe me, the dress is WAY cuter in person.

Pattern: Onion 20026

As I said before, my daughter is firmly in the dress-wearing, girly girl camp. I told her I was going to make her a dress out of a thrift store Tigger t-shirt, and she took one look at the navy blue fabric and turned her nose up. "It looks too boyish!" I did it anyway. I think it's cute, although my lack of a willing model is really working against me here. You'll have to take my word for it. 

And, finally, I've been dying to use my Silhouette Cameo again for sewing purposes. I finally decided to do this long-planned but much put off doggie shirt for my youngest. I was so fixated on careful Silhouette cutting (so as not not to waste my $4/sheet vinyl) that I did not pay much attention to what SIZE I was cutting out for the shirt itself. I accidentally cut out one size too small. !@$%!! I didn't realize this until it was half-way sewn up. Dangit! I briefly debated sucking it up and cutting out another one, but then I had the brilliant idea to just add a hem band and some extra length to the sleeves. The extra doggies along the bottom looked cute as I envisioned it, but in real life? Not so much. Did I mention.....!@%!!!? Well, I'm not doing it over. I'm just not.

Pattern: Farbenmix Antonia (which runs one size too small! I can't believe, given the number of times I've made this pattern, that I forgot this little nugget)

Finally! Some time to sew

I found myself in a wonderful, yet entirely too rare situation yesterday: I actually had time to sew. It was marvelous. I had anticipated this event and cut out a few things the night before. I dropped my kids off at school and then luxuriated in the fact that I had THREE WHOLE HOURS of uninterrupted sewing time. Bliss!

Here is what I accomplished.

First, an Onion 2017 done in some of the new J Crew rayon jersey that I just listed on Bamblue Fabrics. The pictures are really not doing this justice. I love this dress, and the pattern is fanatastic. It's hard to see all the details, but it has gathering near the shoulder seams, pleats at the front waist, cuffed sleeves and it ties at the back. I made a short sleeved version of this a long time ago, which you can see here.

Pattern: Onion 2017

Fabric: Purple Floral Stripe Rayon Jersey from Bamblue Fabrics

My next project was a Jalie 2804 in some J Crew ITY fabric that I also listed recently. I was a little torn about stocking ITY, as there is just so much of it to choose from - where to begin? But it is relatively inexpensive, and the variety of prints is endless. I will probably be stocking much more of this type of fabric in the future.

Anyway, here is the top I made with the lace damask ITY. I just love this top! I'm wearing it right now, in fact. The fabric itself is very smooth and buttery; really quite a tactile fabric, even though it is polyester.

Pattern: Jalie 2804

Fabric: Black and Silver Lace Damask ITY from Bamblue Fabrics

Finally, I also made this upcycled Lego shirt for my oldest. I love the color of those stripes! I got that fabric from usvisalaw on eBay. They have the best selection of stripes. It's a bit rumpled because I laid it out on the couch prior to taking pictures ....I got delayed....and then came back to find people had been sitting on it. Sigh.



Pattern: Ottobre 4/08

I was thrilled to have completed THREE sewing projects while my son was at preschool. It felt so....decadent, almost as if I was lying around in bed all day eating choclate ice cream. But the problem with sewing is that I just always find myself wanting more and more time. It truly is a terrible addiction. This morning I carved out some more time and made myself another dress. This is Simplicity 3503, which gets rave reviews from everybody, but I had not yet attempted it - it's been sitting in my pattern stash for about 2 years. I thought it would be perfect for the patchwork rayon jersey that I listed the other day.

The facing was sort of a PITA, but otherwise, I really love the pattern and the dress. I also think it was a good choice for this fabric, which is definitely on the busy side.

Pattern: Simplicity 3503

Fabric: Patchwork Print Rayon Knit from Bamblue Fabrics

I've got another couple weeks before my workload skyrockets again, but until then, I am going to enjoy becoming reaquainted with my machines!

Sewing with my Cricut and Silhouette Cameo

A few months ago, I was checking out Willow and Moo's flickr page (if you have not seen Sara's blog, you need to check that out too. Her sewing is TDF). I noticed she had made some really cool velours, which you can iron onto clothing. Instantly intrigued, I asked Sara how she did it, and she nicely explained that she has a Silhouette cutter. I had never heard of it and she told me it was like a Cricut (I had a vague idea what that was). I immediately sensed a new obsession coming on, but I didn't have time to do any research into the matter.

And then it was proven, once again, that I have the greatest husband in the world. I mentioned in passing that I would really love a Cricut so I, too, could cut out cool velours like that and he surprised me with one for Christmas! I was overjoyed! I played around with it a bit, and realized fairly quickly that it doesn't do what I thought it could. My impression was that you could get software that would allow you to cut out ANY image. Turns out that used to be true, but then the makers of Cricut sued those software companies, and now you can only cut out images from their cartridges. Well, rats. It is still a cool machine, and I do love the images that comes on the cartridges, but the VAST majority of those images are really cutesy stuff and totally not appropriate for boys, especially almost 9 year olds like the one in my house.

So, what to do? I did some research and found out that the Silhouette will cut out anything, as it uses software instead of cartridges. Now, normally I'm a pretty frugal person but in this instance, I completely lost my senses and did something extremely frivolous. I bought a Silhouette so that I could have the best of both worlds. My husband briefly tried to convince me to take the Cricut back, but I'd already grown attached to it. He knows better than to get me to part with one of my crafty machines!

Anyway, I've done a lot of experimenting with how to work these machines into my sewing. This was much harder than it sounds, as I've been absolutely slammed with work lately (I work part time - which often feels like time and a half - reading applications for a graduate program at UC Berkeley). It is just tortuous having so much work to do while I've got not one but two gleaming, super cool new toys to play with. ARGH! But by strategically re-aligning my priorities (ie, I stopped doing housework for 3 weeks) I managed to get some playtime in.

My first attempt was this shirt. I cut out the flowers and heart on my Cricut using fabric. This was a bit trial and error. I used Heat N Bond to stabilize the fabric, then cut it out with the paper side up. It didn't cut it them out perfectly, but good enough. I was going for a Boden-esque look here, obviously.

Pattern: Farbenmix Antonia

My next attempt was using some heat transfer flock, which I got from expressionsvinyl.com. As an aside, I do like that company, as they have nice video tutorials about how to use these machines with vinyl/flock and they ship fast too. The video tutorial says that you are supposed to adjust the blade depth so that it does not cut all the way through the transfer sheet. I tried cutting out these stars on my Cricut twice, and both times it went right through the transfer sheet. It really wasn't an issue though - I was able to use them just fine. With a more intricate design, that might be a problem - clearly, I will need to experiment some more.

I used the stars to decorate the sleeve and back of this Buzz Lightyear upcycled shirt for my little guy.

Pattern: Farbenmix Antonia

Then, I got my Silhouette. I figured out how to use the Print and Cut feature, which is just extraordinary. I found some images on the Internet that my boys would go crazy for. I downloaded them and then imported them into my Silhouette software. There were a few more steps in here that I can detail if anybody is interested, but basically, I printed them out on heat transfer sheets and cut them out with the Silhouette.

Of course, you don't need a cutter to do this, but the Silhouette is far quicker and more accurate than me with my little scissors!

Another thing I like about the Silhouette is that you can use any font on your computer to cut out letters. I used fabric and Heat N Bond to do the words on this shirt, for my oldest:

Pattern: Ottobre 4/08

Of course, my little guy took one look at this and lost his marbles. He could not WAIT for me to make him one too. This shirt is little boy bliss, let me tell you.

Pattern: Ottobre 4/08

Just when I thought my days of sewing for my almost 9 year old were numbered, the Silhouette has opened up whole new worlds to explore. I just finished this shirt this morning:

Pattern: Ottobre 4/08

Cutting this one out was a little more difficult. Even though I had traced the outline and told the Silhouette to just cut that out, it kept trying to cut all the little shadings inside the image (like around the eyeballs, for example). By doing a Low Pass Filter and setting the threshold on the trace almost down to zero, I was able to get it to just cut around the image. Sounds tricky, but it really isn't. 

The other thing these machines have done is introduced me into the world of scrapbooking. I had been trying really, really hard to avoid that whole scene, because I just don't have time for another hobby. My sewing machines sit neglected for far too long as it is! But now that I've got both the Silhouette and the Cricut, not to mention a stack of pictures from our trip to Disney World sitting around - well, there was no avoiding it any longer. I've started on the Disney scrapbook, and now have a new obsession. Where I'm going to store my scrapbooking stuff is a mystery. My house is not big enough for two hobbies!

Next year, I'm starting in June

Because I started a new part-time job in October (in addition to my fabric store), I didn't get around to starting Christmas gifts until late. Really late. Compounding the problem was that my machine went into the shop after Thanksgiving. So, basically, all of December I was a frantic mess trying to get Christmas gifts made and shipped. It was not a pretty sight. All thoughts of keeping the household clean were totally abandoned, and I became so far behind in email that I'm surprised my friends and family did not send the police to my door asking if I was ok.

Anyway, I managed to somehow get it all done (not without a few major meltdowns on my part) and most everything arrived before Christmas. Here are the fruits of my labor.

My niece casually mentioned a few months ago that she loved peace signs. I instantly knew exactly what I was going to make for her. This is the Farbenmix Bandito pattern, which I've been dying to try for some time. Great pattern, but I do feel the arms are rather gorilla-ish. I wish I had taken off a few inches in the arm length.

 

Pattern: Farbenmix Bandito

Embroidery: Huups

Fabric: Turquoise Bamboo French Terry from Bamblue Fabrics

While we were in Disney World, my oldest son and his 7 year old cousin bonded over endless games of Mario played on the Nintendo DS. When I asked Shane what he thought his cousin would like, the obvious answer was, "Something with Mario on it." This is an Ottobre sweatshirt, also made from bamboo french terry. The actual sweatshirt is about 1000X better in person than it is in the picture. For some reason, I cannot for the life of me get a good picture of a sweatshirt. Anyway, it is so wonderfully soft and cozy. When I talked to him on Christmas day, he very diplomatically said it was one of his favorite presents.

 

Pattern: Ottobre 1/07

Fabric: Periwinkle Bamboo French Terry from Bamblue Fabrics

 Mario fabric is from Ixat on Etsy

And finally, during our Disney World trip the eldest of the three innocently asked if I could make her a Vera Bradley-type backpack. I stammered out a positive reply even though I was not at all sure I could manage it. First, we're talking about woven fabric here, something I usually don't do. Second, the zippers! Lots of zippers! And god only knows what else. I was petrified of this project. But I don't get the opportunity to do very much for these kids since they live across the country from us, so I bravely decided to give it a try. 

The only backpack pattern review I could find was from Cindy Taylor Oates. Luckily, it was a positive review, and since I've used her patterns before with much success, I decided to go with it. Despite all my massive trepidation about making a backpack, it really came together very easily. Time consuming, perhaps, but the instructions are very clear (at least in most parts. I think she kind of leaves you hanging a bit on the last part, the interior binding). I was totally ecstatic when I finished it (only had to use my seam ripper once!). It seemed to go over pretty well with the recipient, too, so everyone is happy.

  

 

Pattern: Cindy Taylor Oats Backpacks
Fabric: Amy Butler Love Bliss Double Sided Quilted

Having made something for the kids, naturally I had to make something for their mother, too (my husband's sister). I eventually settled on an infinity scarf and a zippered pouch; the latter is made entirely in the embroidery machine. Once I got the hang of those pouches (which took a lot of trial and error), I became addicted and made a ton of them. Actually, the same can be said for the infinity scarves. And with those, I finally had to get over my abject horror of hand sewing; once you turn them out, they really need to be hand-stitched closed. I hunkered down over YouTube to figure out how to do a simple slipstitch. This is pretty embarassing to admit, really, as your average 10 year old can probably hand sew better than I can, but in the end I think I made it past a huge mental hurdle.

Here are my zippered pouches. As you can see, I made several. The top row (for my nieces and nephew) are filled with Target gift cards; the bottom row (for my sister, my SIL, my mom and my nephew's wife) are filled with yummy scented soap.

Pattern: Zippy Bags In The Hoop by www.stickbaer.com

And here are the infinity scarves. I actually got the idea for these from Suzanne of Sewzanne's Fabric, who had posted on her Facebook page a YouTube tutorial. Once I got past the handsewing part, these are soooo simple. I made myself one of the zig zag ones, and got a million compliments when I wore it. I made the zig zag ones for my sister and my SIL, and the bamboo jersey ones for my nephew's wife and my other sister.

Fabric: Zig Zag Crochet Knit, Sunset from Bamblue Fabrics

Pattern: Infinity Scarf from SecretLifeOfaBionerd

Fabric: Ocean Blue Bamboo Jersey from Bamblue Fabrics

My middle sister taught me how to sew, so I always feel a little weird giving her sewn gifts. But many months ago, she commented on a top I'd made for myself out of this fabric, saying how much she loved the design. I very quickly de-listed my remaining bit of it and saved it for her. I decided to use Simplicity 3918 because it was cute and seemed pretty fool proof. My sister is much bigger in the, ahem, bosom than I am, so that's why it looks rather large on me. Overall, I'm happy how this turned out and will be making many more versions of this pattern in the future.

 

Fabric: Floral Rayon Jersey from Bamblue Fabrics (now sold out)

Pattern: Simplicity 3918

Here is a baby set I made for my cousin's first baby. I'm a little embarassed that the child was born in June but I hadn't gotten around to making an outfit until now. I've made a dozen of these baby sets, but none gave me the trouble that this one did. Absolutely everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I won't bore you with the details; sufficeth to say that the binding reduced me to tears (I learned the hard way that neither bamboo jersey nor bamboo french terry can be put through the binder on my CS machine. A very sad discovery, I assure you). Anyway, it turned out ok in the end. 

Pattern: Ottobre 5/06 (hat is NCBE)

Fabric: Turquoise and Pumpkin Bamboo French Terry from Bamblue Fabrics

I needed something handmade for my MIL, but it is so hard. What to make for the woman who has everything? After consulting my husband, we settled on this, a little wallet done in the embroidery machine. These are pretty easy, and I had envisioned making more of these as gifts but ran out of time.

Embroidery Design: Purses in the hoop from www.stickbaer.com



My mother also falls into the category of a woman who has everything. But I began giving her journals about a dozen years ago, and now it has become a tradition. Not seeing anything spectacular during my journal shopping trips this year, it finally occurred to me that I could just buy a cheap journal and embroider a cover. If you ignore my lousy stabilizing job, it turned out pretty nicely. I love this embroidery design.

Embroidery Design: Emblibrary

Journal Cover Tutorial: Urban Threads

Am I finally on the last gift? Well, you see why I was so crazed for the last few weeks. My nephew's adorable little girl is now 2, so therefore is finally able to fit into Farbenmix patterns. Had to make her an Olivia.

Pattern: Farbenmix Olivia

Fabric: Turquoise velour + Stenzo print

Embroidery: Janea's World

Actually, after looking at all this and having nasty flashbacks, I think I'm going to begin sewing gifts for Christmas 2012 next week.

More Missoni and more recycling

As I said, I'm slowly but surely making myself a new Missoni wardrobe. I decided my wardrobe was incomplete without a zig zag hooded cardigan (I mean, of course, right?). The odd thing is that there really aren't many hooded sweater coat/cardigan patterns to be found anywhere. I did try a vintage-ish juniors pattern last year that was so enormous that I use it as a bathrobe. I finally found a vintage Kwik Sew pattern that generally fit the bill. That pattern coupled with this fabric give it a funky 70's vibe, which I happen to love but realize it may not be for everybody.

I lined it with the slate gray bamboo jersey that I have in the store, making this super-luxurious!

Pattern: Vintage Kwik Sew 619

Fabric: Zig Zag Crochet Knit in Jade

Still trying to decide what to do with the rest of my Missoni fabric, but you will probably see a Missoni Parts 3, 4, and 5 in future posts!

As my embroidery machine was still in the shop, I decided to continue recycling old t-shirts. I had forgotten how much fun it is, but of course using up more vintage shirts meant I had to restock my supplies. Skoober and I have spent the last few days perusing thrift stores looking for more. In the process, we found a Mario Kart robe in just his size, which I think has now become his most prized possession.

But anyway, I digress. Here are a few more recycled shirts for my older kiddos. This first one is actually a man's shirt made into a dress for my daughter, using a Jalie t-shirt pattern as a base:

And this one is a Farbenmix Antonia Scooby Doo shirt. The original shirt was enormous. It is really hard to imagine a grown man (and an awfully large one at that) wearing a Scooby Doo shirt, but that's probably why it was in Goodwill to begin with:

My new Missoni wardrobe

Well, it's a work in process, anyway. So far, I just have one piece, but I adore it!

I've always loved Missoni. Those bright, bold zig zags really appeal to that part of my nature that wants to make a statement with my wardrobe choices. Of course affording Missoni is quite another story. So when I saw the Missoni for Target line, I was overjoyed....until I tried to get on Target.com (along with everyone else in the world) to stock up on Missoni treasure. By the time I was able to get on the site, almost everything was gone. Sob!

But all was not lost. A few months ago, one of my suppliers announced the arrival of some beautiful zig zag crochet fabric, and I hopped on board quickly. The colors are just divine! Before I even got the any of it listed on Bamblue Fabrics, I had cut out several yards for myself and started planning my new wardrobe.

Because it is crochet knit fabric, it has to be lined or worn over something. I decided Burda's double layer top would be the perfect pattern, although I didn't do the weird twist at the hem. I thought that would make it look like I messed up, not a particularly desirable feature. The under layer is bamboo jersey.

Closer up:

Pattern: Burda 8/10

Fabric: Coral Stripe Zig Zag from Bamblue Fabrics

In other sewing related news, I got a new serger! It was Black Friday, and I was scanning the lightning deals on Amazon religiously, and was quite surprised to see a Juki serger sitting there. I've wanted a new serger for quite awhile, so when this popped up, I sprang into action! Which wasn't that difficult because I have Amazon's one-click ordering and a Prime membership, so all in all, it was a little too easy.

My new toy arrived yesterday, and I decided to try it out with something easy, yet serger-intensive. Farbenmix Antonia fits that bill exactly. I decided to do a recycled Antonia, also known as a total, blatant knock-off of my sewing friend Katie's wonderful shirts (be sure to check out her Etsy store, Little Overcoat.)

So, here's a Speed Racer shirt for my little guy.

Love the new serger. It works like a dream.

The annual Christmas card photo shoot debacle

Every year we go through this torture. Sometimes I just want to go back to the days before photo cards, when all you needed to do was decide between a picture of a partridge in a pear tree or the three wise men. Trying to wrangle three kids into a single frame, and then somehow make them all look at the camera at the same time and - heaven forfend! - smile nicely is really just too much to ask.

When all was said and done today, we had taken 350 pictures. Exactly zero were good enough for the Christmas cards. Skoober just refused to stay in one place, and didn't make it into 97% of the pictures. My oldest was in a foul mood and just decided to complain, whine and grimace the entire time. I didn't realize until we came home that my hair was a disaster. My husband didn't set the camera's timer correctly, so we got a good shot of his butt as he hurried to get into the picture.

This is pretty representative of the shots we took today:

My daughter, despite the fact that she is running away screaming in this picture, was the only one who came close to cooperating today. This is a good thing, because I had made her a top and skirt to wear for the occasion, so luckily I was able to get some good shots of her outfit.

Pattern: Farbenmix Antonia and Insa

Embroidery: www.stickbaer.de

I have no idea what is going to end up on the Christmas card. We may have to do another photo shoot, but for obvious reasons that idea appeals about as much as a fork in the eye. I wish I were a Photoshop whiz, and then I could just surgically replace the scowling, screaming faces of my children with some more angelic-looking little ones. Or maybe I should just find the worst of the bunch and use that. I'll get my payback when I bring out that picture to show their prom dates.