… and I owe it all to Jaime, a friend of mine from high school!  Thanks to the wonders of facebook we have reconnected and she put out an open invitation to join her for an afternoon of sewing in which she would help us with a girls pillowcase dress or a Woman’s Cotton Top!  How fantastic, right!?  I was IN!

I have had a couple vintage pillowcases that MY grandmother embroidered for me when I was a babe that I have been itching to turn into a dress for ms. e!  The only thing is, I have been chicken!  Mostly b/c I have never made ANYTHING to wear OR anything from a pattern–  you know those intimidating things that come in those envelopes with all the complicated directions on tissue paper– yea, those.  Anyway, the class was a couple weeks ago and this is what I made!  I think she should have called the class “patterns demystified,” because it did just the trick to give me the confidence to try something else on my own… you know, with maybe only a half dozen phone calls for advice!

This is Simplicity 2391 if you wanna know, complete with bias binding and casing, OH YEA!  It fits her perfectly, could be a bit longer, should have made a size 4 rather than 3, BUT It will look great with jeans and fit her next year as a shirt so no harm done.

And, no I did NOT tell ms. e how to pose for ANY of these pictures, only that I wanted to take pictures of her in the dress and I also insisted that her hair be done first. The rest is completely her, crazy girl!

I was the only one at the sewing day that made the pillowcase dress, the other girls made crazy things like shirts for themselves!

Before you click through the rest of the pics I have to point out something.  See that cute little machine in the bottom left?  That’s Jamie’s featherweight, AND what sparked my memory that I had one of those in my garage too!

Thank you SO much Jaime for providing this AWESOME opportunity for all of us to learn something new with your expert guidance!  I had a great time!

Just thought you would like to know!

…. and because, you know, pot holders belong in trees….

Pat was the “lucky” recipient of mine!  She is the oldest member of our crew, I think, and I love her to pieces!  I think I will just bypass the formality next time and move right into calling her “Grandma Pat.”  She seemed pretty happy about her new treasure and says she is hanging it up in her kitchen, wow wee! that is quiet the honor coming from such talent as Grandma Pat!

I received this fab oven-mit that I am pretty smitten over, but I can’t remember who made it, ooops!  But I have already used it, and I LOVE it, so hopefully that makes up for my flakyness.

You can check out all our surprised faces and potholder yummyness over at the LAMQG flickr group.

The second are for my gramma’s birthday earlier this month, it turns out she has been using the same corky-wooden ones since the 70′s, a gift from my uncle, so it seems they are not only useful but appreciated!

These are made from Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts, the same as the last set and the same modification of using different fabrics on each side instead of the same.  The instructions say to use a high-loft quilt batting for the interfacing, which I did for the first set, but as mentioned I thought that a layer of cotton flannel would have the same effect after being quilted.  I didn’t go that far this time around, but on Lori’s I used a single layer of some bamboo/cotton quilt batting that I had instead which was FAR from being high-loft.  Additionally, on gramma’s I used two layers of that same batting.  The verdict?  I like the two layers my low-loft bamboo/cotton in this project far more than the other two variations.  Gramma’s coasters turned out to be just the perfect stiffness, and I think they are going to turn out to have better absorption too, bonus!

This is an easy easy project with almost instant result, my favorite part is the quilting, probably because of the OCD in me making sure all those lines are straight and spaced perfectly.

PROBLEM:  How do I EFFICIENTLY carry little as possible with me on short outings while still meeting the basic needs of a messy one year old?

Obvious solution:  Throw a few diapers and some wipes along with a snack in a bit of an over sized purse and woosh, I am out the door.  Nope, here lies the problem for you childless people, or even you dads who have not had to face such an embarrassment as crunched & mangled diapers falling out of your purse a THE MOST inopportune times!  Diapers don’t stay in their vacuumed packed state, they get mushed and mangled, quickly!  Who wants crumpled diapers floating around freely in their purse or anywhere else for that matter?

REAL SOLUTION:  A pouch to hold your most valuable of wipe holders and two or three diapers!

While searching high and low the closets solution I could find was Skip Hop’s Pronto, and even it, after I saw it in person was HUGE– for my needs at least, and heavy for an on-the-go quick solution.  So here you have it, the result of a months worth of searching, plus I got to stitch a bit which I have been missing since I finishing this.

This super simple pouch is made from 100% linen, and the lining is a print from Free Spirit that Lori used on Ella’s quilt, we used on her window treatment, and these.  It is coming out of my ears, and I cannot stand it any longer as a prominent fabric in my projects, so it has been demoted to lining fabric only, which I actually really like.  PLUS I wasn’t really sure if this project was going to turn out since it was a bag with a flap that I had never done before.  I always seem to get mixed up with all the right-sides, wrong-sides, and the turning, I was sure I was going to end up with something backwards.  Must be beginners luck!

Since this wasn’t suppose to turn out on my first try I didn’t document every step, but here is the gist.  First I made a template out of some muslin then remembered I needed a 1/4 inch seam allowance, so I cut one, and then laid it on one piece of lining fabric and one piece of linen and cut.

Next I did the same thing again, but did not cut the flap out and left a 1/4 seam allowance at the top.  The result was two pieces of each fabric, one with a flap piece and the other without.  With right-sides together I sewed the two flap-less pieces across the top only, turned, pressed, and finished with a nice top stitch.  Then came the fun part, stitching.

Keeping in step with my recent bird obsession, I had this little guy begging to join the world of technicolor.  At first I tried to stitch it by tracing the transfer onto tear away stabilizer, like above, to save my transfers, but that didn’t work out so well and I ended up doing the ol’ taping it to the window and tracing it “technique.”  I think he turned out alright, my satin stitch is stinky, but I figure the only way to make it better is to keep trying.  I sorta think that I should have done him in brown so he would pop a little more on the linen, but hey, live an learn. I am sure I will be stitching him again anyway!

After this little guy was complete I sewed all the layers together as follows starting with the bottom most fabric.  Lining w/ flap right-side up, sewn together flap-less pieces with embroidery side up, and Linen flap wrong side facing up.  Stitch the entire perimeter leaving the entire top open and un-stitched.  Turn, press, and finger press the top of the flap so you can sew it up with a finishing top stitch.  There you have it.  It does need a bit of velcro or something, but I haven’t gotten that far and I haven’t really decided if it needs it, the contents make it a pretty tight fit.

If, and when I decide to do one of these again, I will be sure to give a bit more explanation, some measurements, and better pictures.  If you have questions please ask, I will answer if I can.

You see, I received my sewing machine a year ago this week for my birthday, Ella was just four months old!  Not the best time to start a new hobby as involved as sewing with nobody to teach me except my trusty book from Lori!  Well, I didn’t get around to sewing until October, at which time I thought I would commit myself to the loony bin and MAKE everybody Christmas and Birthday presents!  Somewhere in there I also thought I would hit myself over the head and commit myself all together and make Ella this perfect little Olive by Hillary Lang at Wee Wonderfuls.  Needless to say, I didn’t actually start until a couple days AFTER Christmas… after all, 6 month ella won’t know any different, right?  Well, Ms. Olive here turned out to be much more difficult than this inexperienced sewist expected, and after the holiday marathon I wasn’t exactly committed to hanging in there with it.  Somewhere along the way a few months into procrastinating I regained my confidence and popped it out in a night, but then her rear remained un-sewn for a good month until I figured that out too– again, not too committed to the project.  And here we are August, Ella is nine months older, Olive is finally getting photographed, and technically still has no face…

There is a bit of an explanation behind her facelessness too.

Since she sat so long on my mantle in various stages of being complete, visitors started to comment how much they liked her NOT having a face.  It seemed a bit crazy at first, and honestly I had every intention of giving her a cute little face, but the idea started to grow on me and here we are.  That does not mean that she will never have a face, just that right now Ella is enjoying her quite a bit without one.  I made sure to give her the big floppy bow she was suppose to have but I made it out of satin because I knew it was sure to be her favorite part.  Turns out I was right.

I thought it fitting to also attach a little something so she doesn’t get lost in the shuffle through the years, I think it turned out pretty nifty.  I just used 100% cotton fabric made to be printed on, like this, and viola instant tag.

In hindsight this project wasn’t all that difficult, there were just a couple sticky spots that I think I gave up on too easily.  I learned a lot, I would totally do it again, and I think I am better equipped to do other tricky softies in future.

Hopefully it won’t take me this long next Christmas, cross your fingers!

]]> http://seventeenandem.com/blog/2008/08/12/to-ella-on-your-first-christmas-heart-mom/feed/ 1 http://seventeenandem.com/blog/2008/05/19/long-awaited-coasters/ http://seventeenandem.com/blog/2008/05/19/long-awaited-coasters/#comments Mon, 19 May 2008 15:10:42 +0000 Emily http://sardofamily.com/blog/?p=20 Since we have been married (4 years!) we have never owned coasters– despite having many nice wood surfaces that tremble at the thought of careless condensation! Pretty lame, I will admit! There is always a scramble for a paper towel, unused place mat, sock, plate, burp-cloth, you name it. It has gone on long enough! But before you jump to conclusions about the many reasons why it has taken SO long, let me tell you about a chronic condition I came down with many years ago called “I can make that.”

Here’s how it usually goes: “oooo, this is GREAT! Honey do you like it!?” “Yea, that is great, lets get it, how much is it?” I turn it over to reveal the price and then tell Honey with disappointment. “That’s not bad, seems worth it,” he says. “WHAT? That is awful… I can make that.” I say as I put it back on the shelf and longingly step away. As we get ready to leave the store Honey says “Aren’t you going to get that?” “What?” “The thing.” “No, I can make that.” “But you don’t!” “Shut up!” And so my list grows, more ideas clog my brain and our lack of coasters continued.

These little quilted gems are from Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, which I am in love with by the way. I decide to do these coasters over something much more simple because I learned to use my fancy quilting foot, it worked like a charm. Instead of one rectangle to make the folded square that resulted in the same pattern on both sides, I created the rectangle with two different fabrics from Joel Dewberry’s Aviary collection, and then continued the directions by the book. The pattern calls for a high loft quilt batting as the facing which I used, but I am not all the impressed with the idea. They turned out much more flat and non-cushy than I was hoping, I think they would have much better absorption and probably even look loftier if two or three pieced of cotton flannel were used in place of the batting. I am sure that I will be making at least a couple more sets of these as I have proved to be pretty repetitive with new projects, meaning my current obsession with totes and bags, so when I try it I will let you know.

Currently there are eight of these floating around the house, but we often cannot find three or four of them, turns out they moonlight as 12 month old teething-toys! So in the pics there are only six, the ones I could find today.

I bought this wonderfully 100% cotton flannel print a while back ago on the cheap with just this in mind. The backside is plain white flannel and there is an extra piece inside for additional absorption. If baby Rocki is anything like Ella was she is going to need it for sure! I used whatever rickrack I could find at Joanns, since we don’t have a proper fabric store here. The rickrack its polyester, which I had reservations about at first, but turns out it was great to use on a project like this because I was able to melt the ends instead of worrying about how to finish them. Super simple. I made these burp clothes a bit wider than anything I had and longer. More width and length is a necessity when volumes of yuck come out! Final measurements are 9.25”x15.25”, perfect for any accident baby or toddler.