I chose Waverly Essence in Quartz. Originally I wanted the Essence in orange, but I was able to find the Quartz color for half price. Also, the quartz matches the couch cover that I made awhile back, also at the husbands request. See, I told you, needy! I used a cheap lining fabric I found at Hancocks for $2.98/yard. I should have splurged for a more expensive lining fabric, as this was a total pain to work with. I was trying to save money as I needed 14 yards, but still..another dollar or two a yard would’ve saved me a lot of headache with the lining. However, I didn’t learn my lesson and bought the cheap lining from Fabric.com for the next curtains I plan on making. I will never learn.

These are just basic tab top curtains, nothing fancy, although after I finished them I wish that I hadn’t made another set of tab top curtains. Next time I’ll do something different, you know, like I wasn’t going to buy cheap lining fabric again?

I chose to use Alexander Henry’s de Granville fabric, with a medium floral print along with Moda Bella in Ivory. I know everyone likes Kona cotton, but true to form I am always different and much prefer Moda solids. I just think they feel like a higher quality. I purchased the Alexander Henry on Etsy awhile ago, as soon as I saw it, I thought of this pattern.  The red piping came from my mom’s sewing cabinet, which means it’s at least as old, if not older than I am. There are also red, flower shaped buttons purchased from Etsy used on the front and for the back button. They match perfectly, and couldn’t be any cuter.

Much like the first time, I had trouble with the bibbing. Instead of throwing it away and starting over, I just showed it to my mom who reminded me (again) that if I would read the directions I would have an easier time sewing. I had trouble with the piping as well, for some reason the first time was not the charm, but the second time it was easy peasy. This pattern went together quickly the second time, which is fortunate for me because I have a list about 3 years long worth of sewing projects, including quilts for both my bedroom and Elise’s. Do you think I can keep her in a toddler bed until she’s 10? I also have some Moda dobby that I think would make a cute Playdate dress. Can you have too many of these? I think not!

I promise, it looks better on me than on this hanger!

Please do not find your way into the parking garage at Children’s Hospital and sit on my car. My husband will never believe that a lion scratched the paint on my car.

Sincerely,
the pea

Then, thanks to the whole green movement, I found that there is a whole crafty world of women making washable menstrual pads. Yep, use, wash, re-use. Don’t believe me? Google it. Look, if there’s a landfill full of disposable diapers and feminine hygiene products, I’m OK with that. The world won’t end over a pack of Pampers and a tampon, and they certainly aren’t hurting the environment anymore than these handmade Kotex makers are by driving to the store for fabric and supplies. Face it, it’s just 6 of 1 and a half dozen of the other.

I’ve been looking into getting more solid fabrics for my stash lately and although Kona cottons seem to be quite popular, I’m a fan of Moda Bella. I find Bella to be softer and there are enough colors that I don’t feel I’m lacking in selection even though there are about a billion Kona colors. I’ve also read from others online that people feel the quality of Kona has gone down recently. Hancocks-Paducah has the Moda Bella color charts and I must admit, it’s wonderful. I’ve already picked out several solids I need, colors I wouldn’t have otherwise chosen.

Finally, a new hobby…hand embroidery. What took me so long to jump on the Sublime Stitching bandwagon? It’s fast, it’s easy, and super cute. I think my house is going to be taken over by hand embroidered items in the near future. I used a butterfly pattern from Sublime Stitching as a practice, and used my current favorite color combination red and blue. This  only took about and hour and in the crafting world that’s pretty much instant gratification.

]]> http://www.onestraypea.com/wide-leg-lounge-pants-color-cards-and-a-new-crafty-hobby/feed 0 http://www.onestraypea.com/handmade-santa-strikes-again http://www.onestraypea.com/handmade-santa-strikes-again#comments Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:48:12 +0000 Nikki http://www.onestraypea.com/?p=562 I’m finding that fighting my sewing machine is much easier than fighting traffic and crowds of people. I’m thinking it might be entirely possible for me to actually become a hermit. That being said, the Handmade Santa strikes again with an adorable fleece blanket. I wanted to do something more creative than the new sew, tie edges that a lot of people do with fleece. I also wanted to get much more creative with my binding than matching green, pre-made quilt binding but again, we’ve already discussed my schedule. So using some Sweet Pea fleece I purchase from Jo-Ann’s last year and 3 packages of quilt binding I made a blanket.

In an effort to be slightly more creative I did use a different thread for my bobbin, so there’s green on the top and pink on the bottom. I’m pleased with this giant blanket and it’s even mommy sized at approximately 60″ x 72″. I’m planning ahead, I assume my child will grow. Now if I can just get motivated to finish the rest of the Christmas items I’m trying to make….

First, I had to choose my fabrics. When I originally decided to make this pattern I wanted to use the MoMo Wonderland Twill but..ha! good luck finding it. So I opted for my second choice, Robert Kaufman corduroy as I’ve read it’s super soft. The internet doesn’t lie, it is indeed very soft. I also went for the pink/brown medallions from Flea Market Fancy. I know, crafting world, I can’t believe I cut into my FMF stash either.

I made the skirt first, and it went together fast and easy. The pattern was very simple, and I love the front pockets and back elastic waist. The skirt took about 2 hours, which includes cutting time and time to stop and watch TV as I’m prone to distractions. Also since I work nights, I’m often up late sewing and I had to wait for my daughter to wake up so I could determine the hem and if I had enough elastic.

Then it was jacket time. Note to self and everyone else, pay attention to your pattern pieces. Even if there aren’t pictures on the pattern, pay attention to the pieces themselves. Also, don’t try to sew this pattern when you’re dead tired. You’ll confuse yourself and end up becoming very close friends with your seam ripper. However, in the end I was very pleased with the incredible cuteness of this jacket. I can’t wait to put it on Elise!

I purchased some very cute fabric covered buttons from Please Eloise, even though they were slightly larger than I needed. The pattern calls for four 5/8″ buttons, but since when do I follow the rules? I used two 7/8″ buttons instead and love them just the same. Even better, I still have 3 fabric covered buttons to use on another project!

After a few headaches, a million seams ripped, one episode of NFL Red Zone and a few George Lopez’s I have a finished project which I love. For the record, my husband loathes the competing patterns and keeps saying things like, “the jacket would look better with a solid skirt”. He wears jeans with either black, gray or navy blue shirts every day because he’s fashion retarded. Elise can totally rock this.

The Flea Market Fancy Freaks is offering a sweet giveaway. I’d give my right arm to win some fabric, ok..I’m lying, I would just start offering better stuff on the fabric swap. But it would be pretty sweet to win!

This is what I started with when a co-worker asked me if I could make purses for her bridesmaids based off of a purse she saw on Etsy. My plain, black, mock up purse seemed easy enough and I had more than enough time to complete the task I agreed. Currently I might throw up if I see another clutch purse. Okay, I’m completely exaggerating, it was not that bad. The outsides of the bridesmaids purses were a champagne satin and the insides were eggplant, chocolate brown or navy blue to match the color of each girl’s dress. The bride chose an eggplant satin with a champagne lining. I found it easiest to do things in steps. For instance, one evening I cut out each piece for all 13 purses. That was 2 pieces of outer fabric, 2 pieces of lining and 2 pieces of batting…if you’re counting that was  78 pieces of fabric I had stacked up in my sewing room! Next I attached the outer piece to the inner batting. I found it easiest to do the 12 bridesmaids purses and wait until I changed my thread and bobbin thread to the eggplant to sew the bride’s purse together. I tried to minimize the amount of times I had to change my thread and bobbin because…well, it’s annoying!

This is where I started kicking myself for agreeing to do this. I didn’t want to mess things up since the bride was paying me to do this, but seriously…..I’m a little sloppy with the glue. AND she wanted these very beautiful peacock feathers on each purse. After a lot of procrastinating I finally took a deep breath and glued on each feather..carefully. I mean, I painted this glue on with a tiny paintbrush! Then came the really unfun task of putting each purse into the purse frame. In my attempt to avoid getting glue everywhere on the purses I quickly saw that the glue on those feathers wasn’t going to hold. I fixed that with a few small stitches, and ended up picking glue off the insides of purses with tweezers!

I was really pleased with how they turned out, and the bride was as well, which was most important right? Oh yeah, and here is her purse..stunning huh?

]]> http://www.onestraypea.com/13-purses/feed 0