Long Sleeves.

Here are some of the shirts I’ve been sewing for the girls this Fall.  I’ve been hoarding this purple campan stripe since I bought it this spring, just waiting for long sleeve weather.  The pattern is from the latest issue of Ottobre.  I used knits for the butterfly applique, leaving the edges raw to roll a bit when they’re washed.  The rhinestone antennae add a bit of bling, and I used a reverse coverstitch with woooly nylon for the hems (you can just see  it on the sleeve in this picture).  The two shirts are identical (no wonder people think my girls are twins) except for the tags; one has pink striped ribbon for a tag, the other has pink polka dot ribbon.  Wouldn’t you know, the girls both wanted the one with the polka dot ribbon tag.

I love the stripe/dot combination on these tunics.  I used another Ottobre pattern for these, the “strawberry tunic” from Otto 3/08.  I lengthened the sleeves since I’m sewing for Fall.  I also had to alter the back to have a yoke, since I was working with half-yard lengths of fabric.  The girls had to flip a coin over these shirts, since they both wanted the pink/blue one.  Me, I prefer the red/pink version as I had both coordinating solids for the yoke/binding.

Look What Came in Yesterday’s Mail

Isn’t this the prettiest, springiest fabric ever!

My mail carrier brought it to the door yesterday (along with Hubby’s latest order from REI, a jumper and top I bought for the girls and the rest of our mail).  I immediately opened the package that I knew contained the fabric, and spread it out on the table to admire it.  It is now nicely ruler-folded, and residing on my shelf for the moment inspiration strikes me to sew something out of it.

A Fabric-licious Post.

I got the organizing bug today, and folded all my fabrics to make them fit on my shelves.  Previously, there had been a bunch of fabrics on the shelves, and a big pile of fabrics on the floor in front of the shelves that didn’t fit in.  It was fun to touch all the fabrics and remind myself of the beautiful things I plan to make out of them.  I really don’t have that much fabric here, no matter what Hubby says about it.

 The top shelf is quilting cottons, next shelf is apparel wovens (the basket has ribbing in it) and the last shelf is knits.  The big basket on the bottom has a bunch of stuff the was too small/odd cut to be ruler folded.  There’s some good stuff in there, though…japanese wovens, etc.

Notice that you can’t see the top of the shelving unit in the picture.  Yeah, that’s by design, since my organizing bug hasn’t quite reached there yet.  And some of the previous tenants on the shelves are now scattered over the ironing board.  But the shelves look nice!

Gearing up for the Holidays.

I know it’s only Halloween today, but my mind has been in Holiday mode for the last week or so.  When you sew, you need to plan well ahead in purchasing fabrics, designing patterns and allowing plenty of time to create.  Therefore, I have a pile of freshly prewashed Christmas knits on the couch which will become some fabulous holiday casualwear, and a lovely princess style Christmas dress hanging in my sewing room.

If you’re going to be wearing and/or giving homemade gifts this year, I’m sure you’re gearing up for the Holidays as well.  If so, you may be interested to check out Sew, Mama, Sew this November.  Beth and Kristin will be featuring over 100 great sewing tutorials that will give you inspiration and ideas for Holiday gifts.  They have been so kind as to include my little wallet tutorial in the list.

Quilted Fabric Wallet Tutorial

In an attempt to make the pages a little more user-friendly, I have moved my tutorials to separate pages accessible by the tabs at the top of the blog.  Hopefully, this will enable each page to load more quickly.  Thanks, and happy stitching!

My Fabulous Bargain!

I was just *browsing* in a fabric store while out of town this week when I happened upon a little bin of scraps with a sign that said “all you can fit in the bag for $5.00″ next to a box of sandwich sized ziplocks. Being the bargain hunting seamstress that I am, I started to caress the scraps in the box thinking about what I could sew out of them when my hand fell upon the most marveluos discovery…Amy Butler Nigella twills! All my restraint flew out the window, and soon I was turning the scrap bin up-side-down searching out the pieces. All in all, I found four different (coordinating) prints in scraps big enough to sew with. Then, I fondled and folded them gently to make the most of the room in my sandwich bag, and stretched the plastic (just a little) to make the zipper shut. Then, off I set with my little bag of treasure to the register to pay. We just got home, and guess what I’ll be sewing tonight? Yup, a little strippy purse with my new AB prints.