Cargo Pocket Pants

A new addition to a favorite old style. I have been making ruffle pants since I made my first pair of pants. Boy, that seems like ages ago. But it's still my favorite kind of pants to make. This pair for my older daughter features a lovely Sandi Henderson fabric from her Meadowsweet collection. This print has very unique colors. I decided to play up the orange and fushia combo by adding cargo pockets.

I used a pocket pattern designed by Patty Young for her Chloe Dress. I added the ribbon ruffle to the top edges to give a cargo pocket the girly treatment. This pockets look really cute on because of Patty's round design... they have their own volume and sit out just enough to draw the eye and give an otherwise straight leg some personality. Not that the fabric I chose needed any help in the personality department. My daughter (who also needs no help in the personality department) wore them today with a grey long sleeve tee and she got compliments right away.

Ruffled Nursing Cover

 A friend of mine ordered some gift items for a new mom including this nursing cover. Per her request, I updated the classic look with a ruffle at the bottom. As if the bright pink and orange fabric wasn't lovely enough! This fabric is from Patty Young's new Lush collection from Michael Miller.

Below is another ruffled nursing cover. This one features Heather Bailey fabric.

Fabric Scraps

Today the little girls helped me "sort" the fabric scraps.

Jumbo Crocheted Circle Scarves

 I'm not sure how many people are like me out there in the crafting community, but often it just takes one look at something and I'm struck with the "I can make that!" realization... and then I'm down in my sewing studio the first chance I can get and I'm making it. There might be a quick run to JoAnns first, but then I'm on it. Pinterest makes me giddy.

At the last Monday night sewing social, a friend pulls out a crochet project and we all came to a complete stop to admire a big chunky scarf in the prettiest grey yarn. How do you make that, we all had to know. She had been out to lunch with her mom and she saw another woman wearing a big chunky scarf in pretty yarn and her chatty mom found out from this stylish random stranger that the scarf had been purchased from Etsy, so said friend hunted up the Etsy store, looked closely at the pictures and decided she could manage it herself. Which she did beautifully.

 So I fondled her scarf for an appropriate period of time and inspected the size of the crochet hook she used and the next morning I was off to buy my own giant crochet hook and super bulky yarn. The results are 2 scarves in 2 days. The first one pictured is with Lion Brand Yarn in Cape Cod Tweed and a random mustard colored yarn I got at Big Lots last year. The second one pictured is Sensations Sumptuous Yarn in Teal. As a side note, when you can't decide what color yarn to buy, it helps to have a 2 year old in your shopping cart because they just want to hold them all like the skeins are stuffed animals and the result is that you simply must buy all the colors because there's no crying in baseball JoAnns. If there is crying you simply give out candy loving discipline.

The adventure of these crochet projects for me was the new hook sizes (also at JoAnns). This teal one was done with a jumbo plastic crochet hook (comically large, maybe an S size?) It only took 2 hours to make a circle scarf with 4 rows of double crochet (and I'm slow people). I simply wove the two ends together to make the circle when I was done. The gray and yellow one was done on a smaller but still large hook (I'm gonna guess it's about a P in size). I made it longer for a triple wrap. I've been wearing these around non-stop, inside the house and out. This is Chicago and it's winter people.

If you see something you love, go make it!

Sewing Dresses for Africa Event on January 21, 2012

Another Sewing Dresses for Africa event is coming up.

Saturday, January 21 from 9am - 3pm

We'll squeeze as many volunteers as we can fit into my sewing studio in Chicago, IL.

Join in on the fun as we cut and sew dresses for our partner church in Nairobi to distribute to little girls in the Kibera slum as well as in schools with which they partner. Help bring a sweet smile to a young girl’s face and enhance the ministry of Nairobi Baptist Church at the same time. No sewing experience? There’s still plenty you can do!Donations of various sorts are welcome and the list of needs can be found online. Grab some supplies, a friend. You can come for all or just part of the time.

Click Here to Register

February 2012 Sewing Social Dates

Here's the February dates for Monday night sewing socials. I'm going to put down some potential projects but I'm always open to a change in plans based on who can attend. Please note the nights we won't be meeting.

Monday Nights, 7:30pm - whenever:

Feb 6: Clothing refashions - bring some of your old clothing and we can turn it into something new! Get ideas ahead of time on Pinterest. You can also find items to use at thrift stores.

Feb 13 and 20 - No sewing socials.

Feb 27: Baby Gifts - how to make nursing covers, ribbon lovies, burp cloths and diaper clutches. 

The Details..
Come as you are, beginners and experts alike.
You can pitch a few bucks in the tip jar to cover the cost of any of my fabric you use or you can bring your own.
Feel free to invite a friend.
Bring your own machine or use my guest machine.
Please RSVP.
Please enter through my side/basement door so as not to ring the doorbell and wake up sleeping kids.

Build a Fort Kit

Thanks to a friend and social media (Facebook and Pinterest) I was turned onto a great gift idea. This year I made a Build A Fort kit for my nieces in Tucson. I hope they love it. They are creative girls and I bet this will be a great solution for when the weather gets too hot to go outdoors.

The kit includes two sheets that I made from cutting apart a queen size duvet cover from Ikea. The price per yard was way cheaper than buying raw yardage. I love the black and white print with graffiti style alphabet. The fabric is light weight so it will be perfect for draping over tables and chairs and will let natural light into the fort. I sewed two ties into each corner, plus two more into the middle of each side of the sheets. That's 16 pieces of tie per sheet. I made the ties from bias tape. I had lots of scrap pieces of bias tape from past projects so I ended up with lots of different colors = fun!!

All packed away in a drawstring bag.

I found some pink and white rope and the clamps at Home Depot. The rope is nylon, so hopefully it will hold up to many years of use. The clamps are in the paint tools aisle. They are also magnetic and cost a bit more than I wanted to pay, but they were the best solution at the time and it was critical that they opened wide enough and could be used by a 4 yr old. The clothes pins came from JoAnns. The duvet cover from Ikea came with 2 pillow shams so I cut one down and sewed a storage bag from it so they girls can clean up easily and always have their Build A Fort supplies ready to go.