Summer Sewing Socials 2013

Hi Everyone,

During the months of June, July and August we won't have any scheduled Sewing Socials, but contact me in person if you want to get together and we'll find a time! See you back in September. We'll do a Handmade For Africa sew along in the fall, so stay tuned. Have a great summer!

Best,
Liz

May 2013 Sewing Social Dates

Monday nights, 8pm until whenever. 

May 6th and 20th

The Details..
NEW detail: all nights are open project. If you need an idea of what to sew let me know when you RSVP, otherwise, come with the project you want to sew.
Come as you are, beginners and experts alike.
Bring your own machine.
You can bring a few bucks to cover the cost of any of my fabric you use or you can bring your own fabric.
Please RSVP.
Please enter through my side/basement door so as not to ring the doorbell and wake up sleeping kids.

April 2013 Sewing Social Dates

Monday nights, 8pm until whenever. 

April 29th

The Details..
NEW detail: all nights are open project. If you need an idea of what to sew let me know when you RSVP, otherwise, come with the project you want to sew.
Come as you are, beginners and experts alike.
Bring your own machine.
You can bring a few bucks to cover the cost of any of my fabric you use or you can bring your own fabric.
Please RSVP.
Please enter through my side/basement door so as not to ring the doorbell and wake up sleeping kids.

Pink Skirt for Girls in Out To Sea Mermaids

Been in love with this fabric since Sarah Jane posted a preview on her blog. I sewed this cute little skirt for a 3 year old's birthday.

The waist is elastic all the way around. The sash is stitched down just on both sides. It has the contrast fabric on one side and the pink mermaid fabric on the other. So if you flip it to the other side of the skirt you can have it with the other fabric showing. Two looks in one!

This darling mermaid is catching a ride on a whale tale. There are schools of fish and even octopi. I have lots more fabric from The Out to Sea collection so stay tuned for it to show up on more projects for spring and summer.

March 2013 Sewing Social Date

Monday nights, 8pm until whenever. 

March 11th

The Details..
NEW detail: all nights are open project. If you need an idea of what to sew let me know when you RSVP, otherwise, come with the project you want to sew.
Come as you are, beginners and experts alike.
Bring your own machine.
You can bring a few bucks to cover the cost of any of my fabric you use or you can bring your own fabric.
Please RSVP.
Please enter through my side/basement door so as not to ring the doorbell and wake up sleeping kids.

My First Big Girl Quilt

I can't believe it but it finally happened! I pieced the top for a real quilt. A friend did the long arm quilting and binding. It's a real quilt - 100%. I feel really good about it but strange because it's not going to stay in my home. Neither is it going to a family member. Also probably not going to a good friend. It's going to a good cause!

 

My daughter's kindergarten class has been studying fabric in their science unit. I know! Fabric! It's cute to hear 5 yr olds try to say "warp and weft." Heck, most of the time I can't say those words correctly. The school is perpetually having fundraisers and finally they came up with one I could really get behind (although who doesn't love a walk-a-thon or a book sale)?!

Those cute kids each smacked a hand into fabric paint and then gingerly applied it to a primary colored fabric square. After they dried, each kid hand sewed their initials onto the square. Impressed? I was. 5 yr old's hand sewing, who knew.

Once the square were done, I took them to my lair and decided they needed some designer quilting cotton to play with them. I couldn't limit myself to one print so I picked 2 black and white prints and 2 color ones. I haven't pieced quilt squares before, I figured I could manage some half triangle squares.

Turns out I loved chopping up fabric and then sewing it together in short repetitive bursts wasn't so bad. The ironing was even tolerable because I knew it was for a good reason. In the end, my cutting and/or sewing wasn't as precise as it could have been but in such a busy quilt it isn't noticeable that every intended intersection of seams doesn't line up perfectly.

 

In the end, the quilt is beautiful. The class is on love with it. The other moms who helped and the teacher seem honestly impressed. I'm even impressed. Now the lovely thing is going up on the auction block to raise as many dollars as it can. I hope the parents of those kindergarteners really get into a bidding war!

February 2013 Sewing Socials

Monday nights, 8pm until whenever. 

February 18 & 25

The Details..
NEW detail: all nights are open project. If you need an idea of what to sew let me know when you RSVP, otherwise, come with the project you want to sew.
Come as you are, beginners and experts alike.
Bring your own machine.
You can bring a few bucks to cover the cost of any of my fabric you use or you can bring your own fabric.
Please RSVP.
Please enter through my side/basement door so as not to ring the doorbell and wake up sleeping kids.

Updated Sewing Room

Cutting table in the foreground. Sewing table in the background.

 The girls from my Sewing Socials and I were starting to outgrow the space at our sewing table. Ok. It's my fault. I got a new sewing machine for Christmas. But anyway, we needed to get access to 100% of the table and one side of it was against the wall in a bay window, so the slanting walls weren't helping us feel any less cramped. 

New Janome machine for Christmas!

 I didn't want to give up the chaise lounge either since it's such a nice place to sit if you need to look through a pattern book, crochet a scarf or rip out an entire seam (not that we ever make mistakes around here).

The chaise lounge in it's new home next too the display screen.

 So first things first was to move the chaise lounge out of way and position the sewing table in the middle of the room. After that feat, we decided the chaise had to lose its arm since it was going into the bay window and its arm was on the wrong side. Bring out the tool box. Ok. Arm is gone. Thinking about re-using it as a toddler headboard, but that's for another day. Now the chaise is still comfy thanks to my Patty Young pillows.

The antique hoops are holding my girls custom fabric.

 Now we have room for at least 6 machines to be set up. Bring out the power strips and extension cords. I also will be needing more task lighting. My fabric continues to have a happy home in the Ikea Expedit shelving. No chance in heck that could be moved.

Special spots for my AMH collection and my voile.

So now it's time to get busy sewing things. We've got pajama pants for mommy in the works using voile fabric and this tutorial.The girls are getting some pink skirts (stay tuned) and it's time to put another date on the calendar to sew dresses for Handmade For Africa.

And on last time... there's my fabric! Love you fabric. See you soon.

New Ribbons to Fall in Love With

More Anna Maria Horner Ribbon  - love the feathers!

Just wanted to share some ribbon I've fallen in love with. I've always been a huge fan of woven jacquard ribbon. It is so rich in detail that it really makes a high quality addition to sewn projects. I like to put a strip down the bodice of a knot dress or run a strip all the way around a hem. It would do amazing things in a strip down the front of a zipper pouch or as trim above an outside pocket on a tote bag.

A few of my favorite fabric designers have great collections of ribbon out right now.

Tula Pink

Anna Maria Horner

Amy Butler

Patty Young

You can get an eye full of each collection on the Renaissance Ribbon website, but then you'll have to buy it at a retailer like Quilt Home, fabric.com or Pink Chalk Fabrics. Because the ribbon is woven, the back side is not finished, so these ribbons have to be sewn down onto something. They can be sewn with a backing of fabric (with the raw edges folded inside) to make straps or sashes too!

Amy Butler Ribbon

Crafty Chloe Heather Ross Character Fabric

Crafty Chloe Book, Illustrated by Heather Ross

One of my top 5 favorite fabric designers is Heather Ross. Her Mendocino collection reached cult fame when those darling mermaids went out of print. If I had just bought a few bolts of them, I could retire on the profits. 

Presentation Mermaids from Heather Ross' Mendocino

Since then, Heather Ross has designed some darling fairy tale prints. Recently I bough some Town Mouse Country Mouse prints.

She's lent her illustrative powers to a book about a crafty girl determined to make a birthday present for a friend. Crafty Chloe is a great read and it's also spawned a line of fabric. Again, hard to find, but this time I have bought ample yardage and have some of it for sale in my Etsy store.

My stash of Crafty Chloe Fabric

I've made the girls a few skirts so far from the Crafty Chloe fabrics, but my little one spied the Unicorns on pink and asked for a whole dress. her wish is my command!

January 2013 Sewing Socials

Monday nights, 8pm until whenever. 

January 14 and 28

The Details..
NEW detail: all nights are open project. If you need an idea of what to sew let me know when you RSVP, otherwise, come with the project you want to sew.
Come as you are, beginners and experts alike.
Bring your own machine.
You can bring a few bucks to cover the cost of any of my fabric you use or you can bring your own fabric.
Please RSVP.
Please enter through my side/basement door so as not to ring the doorbell and wake up sleeping kids.

Custom Spoonflower Fabric... THE. BEST. GIFT.

 One of my sewing buddies from Sewing Socials gave me hands down the most thoughtful gift this year. She designed illustrations of my daughters and added their names and had them printed onto fabric through Spoonflower. I have a yard each of my little ones to turn into all manner of sewn projects.

 Here is Lauren in all her five year old glory. Her long hair pulled up into side buns and her big bangs.

 This is Grace my three year old with her blonde hair sporting a little pony tail on top that we call her whale spout.

 The first projects that I made today (Christmas Day) during their nap time were two little zipper clutches that showcase each of them. The back of the pouches are a sturdy canvas in pumpkin colored chevron. I'm using up a few scrap pieces from the Teepee project.

The inside of the pouches is two colorways of Tula Pink Parisville fabric...fun colors that seem to match everything! There's also a tiny bit of Lizzy House Pearl Bracelet fabric making up the little straps.