One Stray Pea

For quite awhile the Simplicity 3835 Built By Wendy pattern has been quite popular. If you don’t believe me, check out Flickr. Just search Built By Wendy 3835. After two unsuccessful attempts at the shirt pattern (due to my attempts at altering the pattern without any forethought), I decided to follow the directions this time and make the dress. Lesson learned: Just follow the directions next time. The dress turned out a million times better than either of the shirts, which means it didn’t go directly into the garbage before it was finished.

I used a linen/rayon blend from Jo-Ann’s. Basically, I chose a linen blend so it didn’t have to be dry cleaned. No since in that. I added a contrast band to the bottom out of Amy Butler’s lime full moon dot from the Lotus collection. I cut out view B of the pattern from my main fabric, traced the bottom (view A) for the contrast band and it worked perfectly. Originally I was going to put a trim of the lime polka dot on the sleeves, but that turned out to be a less than fun idea. Thus, I have boring sleeves. I know, the horror!

The upsides, this pattern is pretty simple to follow. The only difficult part comes with the gathering, as I had problems with my thread breaking. Thank heavens for the internet. I used this tutorial from The Digital Thermos, and I found that her suggestion of gathering at each seam worked better for me. Also, I didn’t like the overlapping zipper idea, and went for an invisible zipper instead. I used this handy tutorial from Etsy Labs for inserting an invisible zipper, as this was only my third zipper and my first attempt at an invisible zipper.

Overall I’m very pleased with this dress. I read numerous reviews about the tightness of the sleeves in this pattern, so I chose to go with a size up from what I thought I needed. Well, I think the dress fits well through the shoulders but needs to be a bit smaller through the body. If I make this again, I’ll probably make it a bit more fitted through the sides so it looks more dress-like and less potato sack like.

I’m still amazed that I’ve had this much time to sew with my Wee One here.

Filed under: Crafts on August 26th, 2008 | No Comments »

With the new baby here let’s face it, the Weekender Bag requires too much attention and it might be awhile before it makes it’s way back to my sewing table. However, Favorite Things Annie’s Tote was a nice fit for my current free time. I had cut this pattern out a couple of months ago, and then hung it in the closet with the intention of using it as a diaper bag if the Weekender didn’t turn out well. Here’s what really happened: I finished neither the Weekender bag nor Annie’s Tote and ended up using the Nappy bag. You know, the bag I said would be a horrible diaper bag? It’s really not that bad. However I did want a bag with a zipper. This bag overall only took a few hours, spread out over 3 days.

The fabric I used for the exterior was a green heather floral by Waverly, which I purchased at Hancock’s during a sale for about $5 a yard. The only other place I’ve seen it is at Warm Biscuit, where you can purchase your own for $30 a yard. *Warning* I don’t recall seeing “dry clean only” on the fabric bolt, however this fabric faded a bit when I washed it. Who knows. For the lining I used more of the leftover slipcover in beige canvas. Reusing fabric items is my version of recycling. This pattern calls for an 18″ zipper, however I could only find a 22″ zipper in the color I needed. I ended up thinking that even 18″ was too long, and cut my zipper down to 16″ when it was all said and done. This pattern calls for only 1/4″ seam allowance, as opposed to the general 5/8″ standard seam allowance. This tends to annoy some people, I don’t really care. I chose not to use the interlining for this bag, and it turned out just fine. Also, the directions call for leaving a hole on the side of the lining and turning, I chose to leave my hole at the top of the bag since the directions call for topstitching at the end anyways.

The only difficult things in this pattern involved the vague instructions for sewing in the zipper. Basically there’s a diagram, and if you’re like me and have only put in one zipper before in your life, you might find this step difficult. Usually a pattern calls for basting and then inserting the zipper under the basting. NOT HERE! You just line it up and sew it down. I chose to baste the zipper down, then sew. Also, sewing the bottom of the bag to the two side pieces was not as easy as I had hoped it would be, so I ended up basting the bottom to the sides to hold it together, then sewing. It worked for me.

Filed under: Crafts on August 23rd, 2008 | No Comments »

This is quite image hefty, I would apologize but let’s be honest, if I was really sorry I wouldn’t have included so many pictures. Quite frankly, I add the pictures in to show you how awesome I really am. That being said, I spent a few hours this morning making more blankets for this baby. Again, I make blankets because they are easy and I like the near instant gratification. Unless my fabric grain is off, and then I roll my eyes and remember that A) I’m not a perfectionist and B) it’s a blanket for a child who really doesn’t care about said blanket as long as the diaper is clean and the tummy is full.

Here’s blanket #1 - Made from the Michael Miller Disco Dot - Citrus, purchased on Ebay and some yellow minkee fabric purchased locally. Allow me to reiterate this fact, if you are going to fall in love with a fabric, do so before it is discontinued. Unlike other items, when fabric is discontinued the price goes up exponentially. I just happened to get lucky and be the only person who bid on said fabric and actually got it for less than it was retail. YAY! Specs on this blanket are approximately 42 x 42. The Pimpo (aka George from the “George & Martha” series) enjoys this blankets larger size.

Blanket #2 is essentially a baby shower gift. After receiving the greatest gift of a fabric store gift card, I headed to the store for something involving hippos. Indeed there was a flannel with baby jungle animals, including hippos. I fought the overwhelming urge to back this with green flannel and chose yellow instead. I believe you’ll approve. This is only about 36 x 45, still slightly larger than the average receiving blanket and wonderfully soft.

An up close and personal shot of the baby animals….awwwwww

Finally, blanket #3, made from Heather Ross Lightening Bugs blue and yellow polka dots (again, discontinued…see rant above), and blue minkee with a star pattern purchased with the aforementioned gift card. Now a new fabric rant, minkee fabric is wonderfully soft but is sometimes a nightmare to work with. More of a nightmare than my constant need to end a sentence with a preposition! (Like you even noticed). I’m not sure if it’s the nap of the fabric or what, but I had the hardest time getting these to line up..eventually giving up and embracing imperfection. That’s one of my more attractive qualities anyways. Specs: about 36 x 45 again, I hadn’t intended to use the Heather Ross as a blanket, but it is honestly the softest cotton I’ve ever felt and I couldn’t resist. Off grain or not, I love this blanket. I think the bear approves too.

An up close picture of the details.

Filed under: Crafts on June 26th, 2008 | No Comments »

After weeks of staring at a gigantic piece of fabric and thinking, “how on earth am I going to do this”..and then finally cutting, and thinking I really messed it up..and then calling my mom for back-up….(sigh)..my baby’s room finally has curtains! I believe them to be the greatest curtains ever, but I suppose you are free to judge for yourself. Made with Modern Basics Hippo fabric I bought about a month ago, it matches the room nicely and will at least keep the morning sun out of baby’s eyes. This is because I assume my child will be sleeping in the wee morning hours, presumably after being awake all night. We’ll see about that.

Maybe someday I’ll finish that weekender bag….

Filed under: Crafts on June 24th, 2008 | No Comments »

Honestly, I just don’t sleep very well anymore. I’m not particularly uncomfortable or anything, I just wake up at random..or to go potty and then I can’t get back to sleep. So after 30 minutes of looking at the ceiling this morning I decided to get up and make a receiving blanket. I had pinned and prepared my fabric yesterday, in a way of procrastinating making baby room curtains. I’m terrified to cut the hippo fabric!

So anyways, I made a receiving blanket out of some Happy Hippo fabric I bought at Jo-ann’s probably about the same time I found out I was pregnant. It’s been waiting for the perfect match fabric to come along. I backed it with a polka dot print flannel I bought online at the Fabric Shack. Finished dimensions are 34 x 40, which is a little smaller than I would have preferred, but the blanket turned out really well anyways. I chose to use only a 1/4 inch seam allowance and finished with a 1/8 inch top stitch. I actually like the blanket more than I thought I would, and it’s nice to feel I did something productive with my time.

Filed under: Crafts on June 12th, 2008 | No Comments »

Since I’m taking the weekend off from the Weekender Bag, I’ll show you what I have been up to with my sewing machine. After wearing the same black skirt to church for the last 8 weeks I decided that my maternity wardrobe needed something new. Also, I find maternity shorts to be a foolish purchase considering that while I might be pregnant again someday, it might not be in the summer. Therefore, I’m not spending money on shorts I’m only going to wear for a couple of months. A couple of cute summer skirts will do the trick, and cost much less in the long run. Yesterday I was able to pick up some of the new Amy Butler Midwest Modern fabric for 1/2 price due to an anniversary sale at the Stitching Post. Mom told me a skirt out of polka dots would look terrible, but then admitted to me this morning at church that it looked a lot better than she imagined.

I promise, this hangs much better on me than it does the hanger. I would like to get this same pattern in the moss/martini colors and make curtains, but that’ll have to wait until I have $50 laying around to spend on fabric…..which will have to wait until I have a job….which has to wait until I pass my state boards and have this baby….yeah, it’s going to be a while.

Here are some baby projects I am working on, and hope to have completed before the baby is actually born! Again, I’m kind of a disaster and I firmly believe I’ll be finishing up the baby’s room while having my first contractions.

First, curtains. Curtains are kind of a priority to me right now because of where the crib sits in the room, it gets a lot of sunlight in the morning and I don’t want my child being blinded or baked because mommy didn’t care enough to at least re-hang the blinds she took down when she painted the room. I bought this fabric from Modern Basics, it’s rather expensive..but it is 110 inches wide, so you get a lot of fabric. Really, that’s my lame excuse for justifying spending that much on fabric. But it is REALLY cute.

See how cute that is?! I couldn’t possibly deny my child’s hippo nursery something this adorable. What I did deny my child’s nursery was the $270 hippo bedding that matches this fabric. Honestly, expensive crib bedding is another purchase I can’t justify. What’s the point? $270 for sheets your child will pee on? Gross.

Finally, a baby blanket. Perhaps this one won’t turn out as wonky as the last one. It’s Michael Miller Disco Dot - Citrus (which I had to hunt down on Ebay…and Ebay terrifies me, so if I’m shopping there I’m desperate) and some yellow minkee fabric I picked up locally. Truthfully, the minkee is so soft I would like to make myself a blanket and forget about the baby. Other people are going to buy me blankets anyways….

I love this fabric and it’s probably both a blessing and a shame that I didn’t discover it until after it had been discontinued. A blessing to my wallet but a shame to my fabric stash.

Filed under: Crafts on June 8th, 2008 | No Comments »

After a month, I don’t know that I should even call this progress. It’s more like “Amy Butler Weekender Bag - I’m pacing myself…”. After spending two days doing the cutting I took a long hiatus from anything related to sewing in general, with the exception of looking at fabric online. I’ve also decided to start an Etsy store, but that’s equally as slow going as the Weekender Bag. Perhaps my life motto is, “I’m pacing myself”.

So here’s the update: I’ve managed to put together to the two front pockets. I’m dreading assembling the handles and decided to take the weekend off from this project and work on other things that I find more amusing.

That was all the cut out pieces of the exterior fabric only. There was also cutting of the inside lining, heavy weight stabilizer as well as Timtex. No, I did NOT try to line up my patterns as many people have suggested. I am not an anal crafter for one thing, and I also don’t believe everything in life has to be so matchy matchy. I’m sort of a disaster anyways. After cutting a million pieces from this pattern I had to start cutting a million strips of brown fake suede for the prepared cording and handles. Have I mentioned that I am completely incapable of cutting in a straight line, even with a ruler? It looked as if I let my 2 year old niece run wild with scissors (which I wouldn’t do because she’s precious and my scissors are sharp..I like her with all 10 fingers and both of her eyes).

Speaking of the prepared cording, that’s another reason that the bag was put on hiatus. I hated making the cording. I’ve read online that several people have just used regular bias tape to cover their cording. No, not me…why do something to make my life easier? In the end I just sewed the fabric in straight lines and so far it’s worked out for me. If it stops working out for me, I’ll let you know.

Here’s the front pockets..if you are interested.

Filed under: Crafts on June 8th, 2008 | No Comments »

After reading approximately 23.5 reviews of this pattern online I was prepared to spend hours cutting. What I wasn’t prepared for was spending days cutting. No joke, this is a pattern that requires so much cutting you’re going to start and stop…and start and stop…and by the way, I’m still not done cutting.

*EDIT*
Here is the fabric I will be using: Spinach Tiles from Amy Butler’s Nigella Line and some cheap fake suede I picked up on sale at Hancock. The inside lining is just plain canvas, which I got from re-using an old loveseat slipcover we had lying around the house.

Filed under: Crafts on May 2nd, 2008 | No Comments »

About three months ago (probably longer, I’m trying to make myself look good) Aaron decided that we needed to do something to keep the doggy dirt off of our gigantor couch. The solution: for me to make some sort of cover for the bottom of the couch where the dogs like to lay. So I made and eyeball measurement (and was off by less than 6 inches..yes, I’m magical), and decided we needed 5 feet of 45 inch wide fabric. I forgot to include the fact that home decorator fabric is 54 inches wide and therefore I needed less than 5 feet. I believe I stated this fact in the store and my husband told me I was wrong. If anyone needs about 12 feet of burnt orange heavy weight home decorator fabric, I know where you can get a great deal!

I am actually quite pleased with the way the sienna color looks against all of the beige in the room. I finally managed to complete these today. Aaron will be so pleased.

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Filed under: Crafts on February 21st, 2008 | No Comments »

I’m not kidding, Amy Butler makes the easiest, straight-forward patterns I have ever seen. I love wide leg pants. I find nothing more comfortable. In fact, the only reason I bought the In Stitches book is because there was a pattern for wide leg lounge pants in them. You’ll have to draft the pattern yourself based on her template, and they have a 29 inch inseam. There’s your warning. I ended up cutting 5 inches off and putting a 2 inch hem in them. Yes, I do have short legs, thanks for noticing.

Overall, these pants took about 2 and a half hours to complete. About a half hour was spent completing my own alteration to the pattern. The pattern calls for a draw string. I chose to put in an elastic wasitband instead. Both are pregnancy friendly, and I prefer elastic. I also chose to omit the trim embellishment at the bottom, although I reserve the right to change my mind about that decision later.

Yes, when they say wide leg they mean WIDE leg. STOP! HAMMER TIME!  but oh so comfy.

Filed under: Crafts on February 21st, 2008 | 1 Comment »