July and August 2012 Sewing Socials

Happy summer everyone. Sewing Socials will resume in September 2012.

Summer Totem Pencil Skirt

I've been saving this Anna Maria Horner fabric for a while. It's one of my favorite fabrics ever. I used a bit of it from another colorway to house my iPad. This is Summer Totem in Strudel from the LouLouThi collection. I used a bit of Mixed Signals stripe from the Innocent Crush collection as the hem and ruffle fabric. I love how all my AMH fabric plays so nicely together. 

 

This skirt came together today during the girl's nap time.  They do a great job of abiding by the first number on their digital clocks (wait for the three before you call Mommy). It gives me the opportunity to start and finish a project if I use my time wisely (and by wisely I don't mean laying on the couch eating candy and watching Mad Men on Netflix).

 You can make a skirt like this yourself is you are a confident beginner. The front and back panel of fabric are just an inch shy of a selvage edge to selvage edge; rectangles basically. The hem is a rectangle folded in half right sides together and hemmed to the bottom edge, then topstitched. The ruffle is the same size as the hem fabric, sewn into a tube then gathered and stitched on with one topstitch down the middle. The waist is gathered across the back half only by 1" elastic. I used a serger to finish my side and bottom hems. Easy peasy.

Banded Tank Tops As Birthday Gifts

Birthday gifts made for my nieces in Arizona. These are Banded Tank Tops from the pattern in Sewing MODKID Style by Patty Young. I liked the pattern so much  I made one for Mommy too. The pattern in Patty's book suggests you use all knit fabric, but I've liked throwing a quilting cotton into the middle section because a) I have sooo much quilting cotton and b) it is cuter than the knit fabric I have.I have learned a lot about sewing knits lately so much so that I am going to be doing a knit dress for myself. Stay tuned.

But back to these cute creations... For the top on the far right, I did use all knits. The ruffle fabric is a knit. I didn't sew a bottom band on this one. I think that style will work better on a 2-yr-old. You can buy your own ruffle fabric at (you guessed it!) rufflefabric.com, but you can also find some colors on fabric.com at a better price. I picked this up at my local quilt shop using a Groupon. This project is also a nice way to use up my  button stash.

Not Your Average Tote Bag

 After 4 years I am a little bit over my old, rectangle tote bag. It is still my favorite thing to simply throw my wallet, phone and keys into when we venture out of our house on foot to enjoy our neighborhood. But the style is super boring and one side has a small hole in it where the lining is showing through. So I endeavored to make a new bag that suits the same purpose, but has more style.

Thanks to the wonderful Memorial Day sales, I was able to add a few new fabrics to my collection, including 4 new prints from Peackock Lane by Victoria Craft for Michael Miller. I got these for $4.99 a yard at The Quilted Castle. And you haven't missed anything; they are still having a "Blowout Sale"...and what fabric hoarder doesn't like the sound of that?!

But back to the bag. I found a nice pattern in One Yard Wonders called the Flouncy Bag. I used the fabric measurements but the instructions totally lost me, so I set the book aside and simply did it my way. Everything worked out as I had hoped as I constructed the bag. The flouncy body of the bag is really cute. The lining is not flouncy however, so nothing will get lost inside. I sewed a simple button onto the band so I can tell which side is the front (not that it matters). The strap is attached on both sides through a D ring. This adds some hardware to the bag, but the straps isn't adjustable. It's sewn to the rings on each side with a pleat in the middle because I wanted the strap to be wide for comfort over the shoulder and to show off the elephants and peacocks on the fabric. You can't see the elephants in the pictures above because I folded up the strap for the pictures (my dress form is a size 2 toddler). At this point, you should click through using the Peacock Lane link above to see how really beautiful this fabric is and to get your own before it's gone!

And the bag just happens to match my favorite Pumas!

June 2012 Sewing Socials

Monday Nights, 7:30pm - whenever:

Below are the June Sewing Social Dates. Not meeting on June 11th!

June 4: Open project night: bring what you've wanted to work on.

June 18: Fabric cuffs.  Bring any special ribbons or lace you want for embellishments, I have scrap fabric to use and interfacing.

June 25: Glue Gun night. Fire up some hot glue to make fabric flowers and hairbows, etc. - OR - Sewing open project night: bring what you've wanted to work on.

The Details..
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.
Please RSVP.
Please enter through my side/basement door so as not to ring the doorbell and wake up sleeping kids.