Tag Archives: flowers

Current projects

May 24, 2011Bits Of Life, sewingbaby, Baby portraits, Burda, Burda Plus, Burda Plus Spring 2011 Dress 411, clothes, fields, flower print, flowers, gift, Graduation, green, house buying, mojo, pink, purple, quiltingHenrietta

Let me be honest, I’m super unmotivated to create anything lately.

My sewing room is a disaster and I’ve been sewing in the dining room, which is half full of boxes. Blue Hippo Arts is in the process of buying a house, which has been rather arduous for us. Everything feels very up in the air, and that is a difficult place for me to live for very long.

I decided to not take class this summer, so I have a ton of time I could be sewing right now, but I’m not. I feel like its not even worth talking about. So for now, I’m going to give you some pictures and tell you about the stuff that’s on tap to sew soon.

1. Dress for a graduation next weekend

(If you click on the line drawing, it will take you to the downloadable pattern at the Burda website.)

I wish I could find my Burda Plus Spring/Summer 2011 to show you the picture from the magazine. It looks lovely, much lovelier than the line drawing. Alas, I am ALWAYS misplacing my darned Burdas. Oh well. I’m sure it will turn up sooner rather than later.

Its going to be in this lovely fabric:

I’ve also begun a set just for whatever I make out of this issue of Burda. You can see it here.

So far I have altered the pattern, and sewn the muslin for the skirt. The altered muslin for the bodice is cut, partially pinned, and ready to be sewn.

2. Presents for graduation. Ok, I can’t actually talk about these because I hear that at least one of the recipients has read or reads my blog. Sorry. Lame, I know, but here are some of the fabrics I’ll be using.

Hopefully I’ll be back sooner rather than later, with completed projects to show you!

What I’ve been up to lately:

May 10, 2011Photography, sewingApril, Capris, Fisheye Lens, flowers, Pond, refashion, Short Pants, Summer, Wild MustardHenrietta

I’ve been busy. In between finals and whatnot, it became summer all of a sudden. I have this week off and plan to do a lot of sewing/blogging, so hopefully I’ll get back in the groove of this!

Like I said, it is all of a sudden hot and summery. So I “refashioned” some jeans into capri pants today. Took approximately 5 minutes. Very challenging stuff I’m into these days.

Sorry the picture is horrible. I really need to figure out a better way to take pictures of clothes I’m wearing.

One of my best girlfriends and I used to be devoted capri wearers around our sophomore year in college. Our friend Brandon asked her one time why we would ever wear short pants, and not just regular long pants. We thought the fact that he called them short pants was a riot, and here I am years and years later still calling them short pants. Old habits die hard I suppose.

Wild mustard is everywhere in Indiana at this time of year. I know it’s “just a weed” but it covers the fields and especially at sunset is just stunning. There’s a particular field on the way to my In Laws that always is filled with it. Its got a lovely creek on one side, and this beautiful saturated yellow on the other. Love it.

I had a chance last Thursday to go sit by a pond I used to spend a lot of time at when I was younger. It was so peaceful & a great way to celebrate being done with my first final.

Some of my momma’s flowers @ her greenhouse

Flowers the Husband bought me in April 🙂

One of my husband’s friends loaned me a fisheye lens, so I’ve been playing around with it.

Well friends and neighbors, thats all for now. I have a bunch of cleaning I want to get done before a going away dinner for a friend tonight. I have about 3 hours, so we’ll see how far I can get!

Have a good evening!

Instant Gratification!

January 2, 2011sewingbalance, cream, flowers, Fold Over Clutch, Keyka Lou, nephew, New Years, niece, relax, retro, tradition, turquoiseHenrietta

Well perhaps not instant, it took me a few hours from start to finish, but close enough!

I’m really happy with how it turned out! Especially for a first run of a bag with lots of curves!

I made a few changes after I finished it. When attaching pattern piece B, the half circle piece with the snap on it, I had used the recommended seam allowance. After taking it around for a night, the focus fabric was already starting to come out and ravel. ¡No es bueno!

Today I unpicked the seam, took the whole top apart, and turned it back inside out. I used a zig zag stitch over the edge to basically overcast it on piece B, and then noticed the whole thing was fraying like crazy! So I overcast all those edges as well, even though they are on the inside and no one will ever see them. If I spend time and money to create something, I want it to last!

I also didn’t care for the top stitching method on the flap. I would rather have done it all at once, from one side, around the semicircle, and down the next side. She has you do the semicircle when you make it, then to the rest last. I’m just not skilled enough with curves to match the top stitching exactly.

And the last change I made is that I stitched in the ditch in addition to slip stitching at the end. I’m not kind to fabric bags, so it really needed the extra reinforcement.

Very relaxing yet a little challenging. The pattern comes in three sizes, and I wish I had enough of two coordinating fabrics to make the large sized one. This medium one is pretty nice, and the focus fabric is from a fat quarter. I think that one a little larger would be fabulous though. With the medium, I had to do quite a bit of rearranging to get my essentials tucked away safely.

Bonus: my 5 month old nephew, little Jack, apparently thinks the fabric looks particularly tasty. A little baby drool never hurt quilting cotton, and it kept him happy for a while.

I’m tired of being a scrooge, but I’m glad the holidays are over! Last night we went out to hang with family, ate, played with nieces & nephews, and played cranium. Getting to sleep at 4am is way too late for me these days! Today we had the traditional corned beef and cabbage with my parents & granddad. Last year my dad also made his own version of Hoppin’ John (called Hoppin’ Kevin) and it was amazing. Sadly we didn’t have repeat appearance of Hoppin’ Kevin this year. Maybe next year!! Or maybe I could step out on a limb and learn to make it myself… ha! Then it was off to celebrate one of my brothers-in-law’s birthday, and a cracked but delicious chocolate layer cake my mother-in-law made.

I’m just really looking forward to getting back into a routine. I like structure. Breaks are always hard for me to know what to do while balancing relaxation & productivity. At least we didn’t waste our week off together! We got so much done and had a really good time just enjoying each other’s company.

Now its time for a late late dinner of my homemade hummos leftover from last night! (See what I mean about structure?! I don’t even know when its dinner time anymore!!)