Tag Archives: pink

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!

Knitting Needle Roll Up

January 2, 2011sewinggift, green, knitting needles, pink, yellowHenrietta

I mentioned here that I was making something out of this pretty sherbet-esque fabric. I wanted to make this last year for my mother-in-law’s birthday, but a whole lotta life got in the way last spring, and it didn’t get done. So I made it for Christmas! She has a ton of knitting needles, and really liked the present. Yay!

Please excuse the background of the pictures. We arrived at the in-law’s and I realized that I hadn’t taken a picture yet. So I took it out of the gift bag and laid it out in the back of the car on top of all the presents and coats and luggage to take the pictures. It took about 10 times longer than I expected to make it, and I want some photographic evidence of all that hard work!

Sewing Mojo

December 22, 2010sewing, Uncategorizedblack, bule, Christmas, deadline sewing, gift, green, mojo, pink, yellowHenrietta

Why is it that it’s never around when you need it?

I have a boat load of sewing to get done between now and tomorrow evening at 6. Have I sewn anything at all since I got done with school on Saturday evening? Nope!

I organized my sewing area though! That’s something.

Since I haven’t accomplished much, I thought I’d show you what I’m working on. In the off chance any of the recipients are reading this, I’ll have to be vague. 🙂
Present One:

Present two:

inside present two:

Present three:

There are more presents that need to be made. But they either aren’t photographed or can’t be put online just yet.

Here’s hoping my mojo returns!

Happy Holidays!

Failure!

October 12, 2010functional sewingepic fail, pink, quilting, zippersHenrietta

Well the little ID holder key chain did not turn out as hoped. All was well until it was time to turn it out.

My zipper, a “metal all purpose zipper” that claimed to be “strong, durable, locking slider” was stuck. You assemble the thing with the zipper half open. Apparently with a locking slider zipper, it need to be pretty much open all the way. Even with the slider in the up & able to open position, it wouldn’t budge. And then all of a sudden, it did! And broke 3 or 4 teeth off in the process! Yippeee…

After spending several hours working on this, I was a little bummed. I went ahead and turned it out though, thinking, well there’s probably some way to undo the zipper and swap it out. (I always TRY to be optimistic about my sewing mistakes.)

Then I realized there is just too much bulk in the corners with all that binding. Oh the frustration! Also, I’m not dissing that tutorial at all. This was the first time I’ve done a binding like that and it completely could be my mistake.

After deciding there really isn’t a lot to be salvaged, I decided I would just modify the original design a bit, and make another.
I’m taking some inspiration from Keyka Lou’s pocket clutch pattern.

My first Keyka Lou pocket clutch
(Side note, that is a SUPER fun pattern. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Great directions, complete with pictures, make it a breeze to whip up. I made an enlarged one from the same pattern, and added a wrist strap. Its just a great little clutch to take to a wedding, or graduation, or anything when you don’t need to carry everything but the kitchen sink. The kitchen sink will definitely not fit. )

So I’m off to draw up some pattern pieces for this. The tutorial uses rectangular pieces, so I cut everything with a rotary cutter and straight edge. This is going to be a bit curvier. And without a locking slider zipper. lol. Chalk it up to experience I guess. I learned that I can in fact quilt something, sew in a zipper, and bind something today, so I can’t really complain!

Not-So-Short-Shorts

August 11, 2010clothes, sewingblue, McCalls M5976, pink, plaid, shortsHenrietta

Tonight I’m beginning to make my very first pair of shorts!

(Actually, that isn’t true. When I was in home ec in junior high we made very lame boxer shorts that were exactly the same front/back made of two pieces of fabric. They certainly did not fit most of the 8th grade girls in my class. I suppose they may have fit the boys. I don’t know.)

I’m calling these my first pair! They’re nothing spectacular, just the shorts from this pattern. Its one I have in my stash from when Joann’s has their $1/pattern sale. I’ve been meaning to make a shirt and a dress from this pattern. I’m sort of excited, this pattern goes up pretty big so I shouldn’t need to grade it up at all. But I’m still going to make a muslin first. It seems to be a great practice run thing in addition to helping with fitting issues.

This will be what the final pair is made of!

Hopefully it will be cute and not strange looking. I’m not sure what I think about the fabric yet. I bought it on a whim and its been sitting in my stash for sometime now.

I’m going to try to post my progress as it comes. Toodle-oooh!