Adventures in Sewing Part 3--At Least Two More Dresses

Per babygirls request, I have been slaving away at the sewing machine!  I'm really starting to get the hang of this particular pattern, which is handy since she doesn't want to wear any of her other dresses anymore!

I still think zippers are a major pain, and they both were semi-botched in one way or another, but I'm ok with it!  I keep reminding myself that these are dresses for a four year old to jump around in, no need to be perfect!

This one was made in record time, just over 2 1/2 hours.  Not bad!  Also, I only used the seam ripper once!  Woohoo!

New Adventures coming soon!  I have several projects in the works, one of which I'm drafting my own "pattern" for!

Adventures In Sewing Part 2--Gardening Apron For Mom

Time to share another successful sewing project!  This one comes from the awesome book One Yard Wonders and was made for my lovely Mommy.  Mom is an avid gardener and I always get her something related to playing in the dirt for Mother's Day, so this seemed a perfect gift and a perfect challenge for my beginning sewing skills!

A whole lot of "firsts" with this project....first pockets, first loop-y things and first time using bias tape!  I confess I almost chickened out on the "loopy things" but then talked myself down with the realization that it isn't really a gardening apron if you you don't have a place to hang your tools!

Action shot of me trying it on, you can see the loopy things better in this photo.

This project was a blast, and for those of us keeping score--I only used the seam ripper twice!

Adventures in Sewing Part 1--Toddler A-line Dress

Upon bringing home my new sewing machine, Babygirl immediately insisted that I make her a dress.  Definitely an intimidating request for a beginner that is just now getting over the fear of sewing through my finger!  I set out to find the most simple dress pattern I could find, and after looking through tons I was too chicken to attempt (ruffles, darts, gathering, etc) found Kwik Sew Pattern 3862.  Can't get more simple than an A-line dress!

I'm proud to announce that I only used the seam ripper 3 times for this project!  But I will also publicly confess that the inside is an absolute mess and I am afraid to see what happens to it once its gone through the wash!

This was my first attempt at putting a zipper in anything, come to find out it really wasn't as difficult as I had invisioned.  (action shot of the back--ah the fun of photographing a moving target!)

During the process I kept reminding myself that it doesn't have to be perfect, this is a learning process and hey, its a play dress for a four year old!  Turns out she loves it and it took me a full 24 hours to peel it off of her!  She's now requesting "at least two" more dresses just like it!

Sewing up a storm these last few days so more projects to follow soon!

On Learning to Sew...

Pretty much sums up my experience thus far in learning to machine sew!

After successfully completing a few envelope back cushion covers, I decided to venture out and try something a little more difficult for dear friend and (biggest cheerleader) as her birthday was coming up.  I came across this lovely, seemingly easy to follow for a beginner, tea wallet tutorial and set to work.  Amazingly, it came out right on the first try!

The stitches aren't even all that crooked! ;)  Must have a few more photos because I'm so proud of it!

This was the first time I sewed something without lanikins looking over my shoulder for support.

Not bad for a newbie eh?  Feeling very confident, I set to make another using some lovely fat quarters I bought a while back.  Breezing along, thinking how wonderful I am I can do this no problem.....

This is how it ended up.

Sigh.  Swear.  Throw things.

Fortunately for me, I have two amazing seamstresses as mentors, the lovely Ruby Murray and dear sister lanikins.  Both have been awesomely encouraging, reminding me that EVERYBODY has to use a seam ripper now and then.  I'm not going to give up!

Working on a "simple" (sarcastically worded, since everything seems complicated to me right now!) a-line dress for Babygirl, hope to share successful results with you soon!

Have you seen this beautiful machine??

Drool worthy, isn't it?  Pricey too!  Here's the details, if you're interested.  This gorgeous beast does tons of awesome things and will very soon be delivered to dear sister lanikins' house.  Jealous!  However, it means that I will be getting her old machine!

The last few Crafty Friday's have been spent practicing on the machine, with lanikins patiently answering my stupid questions and telling me to stop being a chicken.  One of the projects was this neck pillow for NinjaBoy out of a fabric remnant I picked up super cheap that has been sitting in a drawer for the last six months or so.  (compulsive buying much?).  I have enough fabric left over to make a removable cushion cover for a pillow form that was also purchased on impulse because of its drastically reduced price.  See?  Hoarded things get used eventually!

Last night, Mom and I had a little outing to the Not-So-Stinky-Thrift and I found these lovely and completely necessary books.  I've only spent a few minutes browsing through the Singer book, but I can tell already it will be a valuable reference book to have on hand.  The other book is just so much fun, and it is the oldest craft book I've ever found at a thrift store, published in 1966.  I will definitely be giving some of these old projects a try, especially since it is full of groovy sewing and embroidery patterns, as well as lovely recycling projects to do with the kids.

Also found at the thrift, a lovely assortment of vintage thread for a mere $3.49!  Pretty nice selection of colors for a grab bag too.  These will definitely be used in the very near future as I gain confidence and read up on sewing.

And once they're used up, most of them are on wooden spools that I can't wait to re-purpose!

Anybody else have an inspiring crafty find this week?

Lady Crafts

I finally succumbed to peer pressure and read The Hunger Games.  I remember two years ago when Shorty was raving about it, and as she told me about it, I kept thinking how it may not be appropriate subject matter for a sixth grader--sounded so violent!  I also have a tendency to avoid teen fiction (don't get me started about Twilight!) because, while I still don't quite feel like a grown up, I am a realist and have a hard time relating to 16 year old girls.

Anyway, while it is quite the gory read, I am so glad I finally sat down and gave it a chance.  Katniss is not your typical teen age girl and after I spent two nights with my nose buried in a book for the first time in ages, I had a lot to think about.  Like fear and control and oppression and strength and survival and love in the most horrible of places.  For some reason it kept bringing me back to thinking about a conversation I had with ERL after watching a Twilight Zone (or was it Outer Limits?).  Either way, it was about a post-apocalyptic future and he turned to me and said, "You know, you ladies with your needles and hooks are really going to save us all."

He's so right!  I've read a few things about the feminist movement and that many woman dropped crafts, not only to go into the workforce, but because they felt knitting, crocheting, embroidery and things of that nature were anti-feminist.  Things have shifted back the other way and woman are learning to do those things once again, learning the skills from their mothers, friends, books and the wonderful world wide web.  I for one intend to pass down what I've learned (and am still learning) to my daughters so that they too can learn that there is nothing more feminist then women sharing valuable skills with one another and the world.  I know that I can mend torn clothing and crochet a basket out of anything rope-like, and for that, I feel empowered.

Maybe these skills aren't the most important on the survival skills ladder, but since I know I will likely struggle to kill something for food, the least I can do is make a pretty pillow.

Oh yeah, I made a pretty pillow!

Yet another gorgeous design from Doodle Stitching :)

Get out there and make something pretty (or useful) ladies!  I think I might just find a stick and a blade and whittle myself a crochet hook...

X Stitchin

Productive week here at home!  Not only have I been spring cleaning/organizing, but I have also checked an item off of my WIP list (huge granny square blanket for the couch, started, oh I dunno, a year ago???) and completed a swap over on Craftster!

This was for the Hoopla swap (check out the gallery!).  The theme was Negative Space or Silhouette, which was a great opportunity to make one of the patterns from A Rainbow of Stitches that I've just been itching to do.   It pales in comparison to some of the amazingly creative hoops made for this swap, but I'm very happy with it and it was really fun to try!

I have a nice running list of more projects from that book, which has both embroidery and cross stitch designs in it, so I'm all set to stitch up a storm.

I've also discovered that I LOVE cross stitch magazines from the UK.  A little steep in price for a magazine at $9.99 a piece, but when I looked into getting a subscription it was going to be around 150 USD yikes!  I'll stitck to buying them when I can find them at Jo-Ann!  They are packed full of charts though, so worth the price if you plan on doing a lot of stitching!

This little one was from Cross Stitch Crazy magazine, Issue 155, which was packed full of really cute small, Asian themed charts.  I'm definitely making more of these, there are 5 different Geisha and tons of cherry blossoms and koi fish designs.

Two more needlework swaps in the work so I'll get to stitchin!  Hope y'all have a fabulous weekend!