Back on-line again. Yay!

First I forgot my camera in Seattle 2 weekends ago. So my BFF drove up the next weekend and brought my camera to me (and my cell phone and the magazine I was reading). That was last weekend.
She and L'il Miss C left around 4 pm on Sunday and when I went to check email and blogs etc....I had no internet! Still no posting!

I also had fuzzy TV and no Vonage phone. :-( Fortunately I had spent the early part of Sunday dropping the girls off at camp so there was no one at home to listen to whine about no TV. >grin< Monday I phoned the cable company and after almost 1/2 hour on hold they agreed, there was a problem in the area.
Turns out that problem, wasn't *my* problem. I finally got through again on Thursday when they told me the problem in my area had been fixed and said they'd send a tech out to look at my problem on Saturday. Oh yippee.

But, it's over it's fixed and we only had one night and the early part of a morning with kids at home (whining about the TV) before it was dealt with. Now if they'd only change their 20 note on hold song, I'd love my cable company again. lol

In the meantime I know what people want and it's not to listen to my excuses it's to see pictures!

First off we have L'il Miss C in her new apron. She was thrilled with it and now can cook with Momma! She'll also wear it to eat strawberries and keep her clothes clean! LOL

Next is C in her new re-done dress. We bought this a little while ago but knew we'd have to shorten it because it was too long on her. So, as part of my Make and Mend July, here you have a newly wearable dress - 4 inches shorter and much more appropriate for a typical teen.

I also finished C's apron while I was computer less. This covers 2 things from Make and Mend July; the patterned material is from the stash (use fabric you already own) AND (obviously) it's for someone else.

I love two-fers!




Here's the back of it, where you can see the covered buttons there.

I added 8 covered buttons (2 large, 6 small) for some visual interest. C loved the idea and I had fun making the buttons. I can see more of those in my future!

I managed to sneak in my last Make and Mend July this week too.

It's just for a simple t-shirt but it's one of the first things (beside and apron!) that I have made for myself in a while and it's not straight out of the package....which never really fits and I wonder why i do it? But that's for another post I think. This is enough for today.

Ta!

Bias Binding is not my friend

Not that I don't like bias binding, I do! I just can't seem to ever get it on easily and this apron in the works is all bound with bias binding.

Which basically is all I've done today. Well, that and watch The Aviator and drive kids around. LOL

For me, sewing bias binding goes like this; pin the heck out of it, sew it on, then look for all the spots where I didn't catch the material in the binding, unpick a whole bunch of sewing so I can go back and sew all that back in, tie a whole mess of knots, do the sewing, tie more notes. Whew! No wonder I'm tired, LOL

It's done now though and all I need to do is the button and snap for the back closure and some more embellishment we decided on (after I get some more supplies tomorrow) and the apron will be done! Just in time for my camera to come back home.

So hopefully, pictures tomorrow.

And if anyone has any hints on how to sew bias binding on without driving yourself bonkers...I'm all ears! 


Ta!

Big C's apron progress

I love nice coolish summer days, where it's sunny and nice to walk the dog but still cool enough to sew.

It was so nice today that even around my appointments and dog walking etc I managed to get C's apron to the point that I need to head back to the fabric store! All the pieces are sewn together and we've decided we don't like the wider bias binding that I bought, so I'm off to the store tomorrow.

I also discovered that I *could* have made the apron the smaller size like I suspected so instead of ties, the back (which overlaps closed), is going to have a snap closure and (hopefully) a big button covered in the print fabric. I just have to find some make your own button things or figure something out. With any luck the apron will be finished before the weekend when my BFF and L'il Miss C are coming up here to visit and will be bringing my camera with them!

The bonus is that this will count to my Make and Mend July as my "make something for someone else". Yay!

On that same topic; before we left last weekend I shortened C's new dress so it's more "her" and got it hemmed (including some done while waiting in line at the border, LOL) in time for the b'day party on Saturday. That's another one off my M&M July list! Wohoo!!!

Ta!

Weekend Away

Well, we just got home from a quick weekend away where L'il Miss C got her little apron but sadly I have no pictures.

Why, you ask?

Oh, it's not that I forgot the camera, or that I was too busy to take pictures, oh no, it's because I left the camera in Seattle! Dang it.
It's already been found though (not hard since I left it on BFFs dining-room table) so now we're just trying to figure out how to get it back home to me.

Nurtz!

Once upon a time

There was a pretty Marshall's bag that came home with me from Seattle.
I didn't really need another bag but I kind of collect them and this one had such a pretty design on the front and back; black and white flowers. The bag also had lovely pale green sides, almost the colour of my bedroom walls. How could I resist such a pretty bag.

Then one day the bag went to school with C to carry wet swim things in (the reusable bags are *great* for that, especially ones with plastic type coatings) and got shoved into her tiny locker.
There the poor bag got ripped :-(

When the bag came home I discovered the damage and thought "well darn, there goes a pretty bag".
For a moment I thought about repairing the damage but frankly the material is a little flimsy and I didn't then the repair would hold well. But....I didn't really want to throw it out, the pattern was too pretty. So it sat.

Until the past weekend when we went on a bit of a cleaning splurge (not my favorite thing to do. Not even in the top 100!) and I found it again. On the way to the garbage with it I noticed that S had not only cleaned off the dining room table, she had set it too, with my place mats from Korea. (Okay, I admit it, I was cleaning because we were going to have guests) The table looked lovely but there were only 3 place mats (the 4th is already in use on my silverware chest) and we needed 5.

As I stood there looking at the table and holding the poor Marshall's bag I got an idea!

Today 2 beautiful  place mats were born and a large percentage of a ruined Marshall's bag will not become garbage! YAY!!!

I'm even thinking of making some matching coasters from the scraps.

To end today; a picture of Zoe sleeping in the loft bed. I spotted her because she was snoring!

Ta!

So many projects...

... and so little initiative.
I have a ton of stuff to sew and all I got done today was one mending job. :-(

I'm not feeling the best today and I'm a little sad so I guess it showed in my sewing. My BFF was supposed to come visit from Seattle yesterday and instead I got a phone call explaining that she'd been sick all week and just released from the hospital. ACK!

So, she really needed to spend some time at home with her daughter who missed her terribly and rest. If you can do that with a 4yo around. LOL On the other hand how much rest do you get in the hospital?!?

We're going to see if we can get a dog-sitter and maybe go down there to visit next week. If that doesn't work...who knows, we still have the rest of summer to figure this out. But I miss her, and so do my girls.

So, no sewing, but I did get to accomplish one of my list of things to do. See, I've joined New Vintage Lady in her Make and Mend July project. It kind of works with my usual philosphy anyway but I thought it would be nice to have a plan.
Here's her lovely image that explains it all.

Now, I'm not sure if I'm tweaking the rules a bit because a lot of my planned sewing already fits into the plan....but I think she'll let me off on it. At least I hope so.
For today when I wasn't really feeling well enough to do anything major, I decided to grab one of my mends and get it done. As of today C has her pink tank top back and she no longer has to wear it with a safety pin holding the strap on! Yay for New Vintage Lady prodding me! Trust me, she'll get all the credit.
Tomorrow maybe I'll dig out one of my mends...or is it a remake? The weather man says it's going to be hot here later this week so I was thinking I should *finally* fix a sleeveless T I bought....well, let's just say a while ago. It fits me generally but it's too big under the arms.

In the meantime I did get up enough energy to get S into her 1909 skirt and take some pictures. She was already wearing the top and it wasn't raining so it seemed like the perfect time.
This is the skirt that I made when she told me she needed something "1900's" for her school celebration. She told me this Tuesday and she needed it by Friday!
Well, some quick shopping and some quicker sewing and this is what she got.

Here's a side picture and you can see the fullness effect in the back and how the back is a little longer than the front.

A back shot so you can see the fullness. In a skirt where I had a little more time the fullness would have been gathered or pleated and there would have been a back closure. On this one it's gathered by elastic and is pulled over. Not period correct but good enough for the project.

And a lovely front shot to show the nice flat front that was typical of the time...I guess - not really my time frame but hey, not bad for a couple of evenings work!

And now for two silly picture of our furry terror; Zoe! This is what S did with her the other day when Zoe wouldn't leave her alone. That's S's laundry basket Zoe is in.



Ta!

Li'l Miss C's apron

I am happy to announce that the apron is done! And they're not even here yet! LOL
Yeah, I'm a bit of a procrastinator so I'm often finishing gifts at the last minute but not this time.
Here's a pic of the finished apron with both the pockets on.

Perfect for a little girly girl don't you think?
Here's a close up of the bottom pocket. I chose to only do lace around the three edges. Around all four looked odd to me (and my girls - 3 sides got 3/3 votes).

The pocket is split down the middle with a line of stitching. In a larger apron I would splint the pocket into 3 but that made the spaces too small in this size.
I used some of my machines fancy stitches for the edges of the ties, the top of the big pocket and the line in the middle of the pocket.

I thought it added a nice touch.
All of the material for this came out of my stash. The lace has been in my stash so long I don't even remember when/where I got it. The kitties were bought for my eldest daughter (who is now 13!) and the back ground fabric came from my favorite source - it's a sheet from a thrift store. Yay for thrifting.
Now to go finish cleaning the house for visiters. Oh! Maybe I should wrap the apron first.

Ta!