Tag Archives: Sew

So, You Think You Can Sew?

I am so excited!

Monday I took an introductory sewing class with my sister-in-law at one of my most favorite stores here in Denver, FABRIC BLISS! We made the cutest tote bags!

Little tote bags we made in class. Yah to my sister-in-law, this was her FIRST sewing project! Photo from Fabric Bliss Denver, Facebook page.

I LOVED, LOVED the sewing machines we used that I got one the next day. I am anxiously waiting for Amazon to ship it out!

This will be my latest baby, next to my KitchenAide mixer (from Costco at $149!)

from Amazon.com the Brother CS 6000i

This machine comes with EVERYTHING! I am so excited for it. No more 1969 Singer Touch and Sew Zig Zag machine. That heavy sucker is going back to my mom.

I will be computerized! So exciting. Check it out here.

What’s In that Market Tote?

I have completed three sewing components for my sister-in-laws birthday gift.

The gifts are: A rice therapy pack (tutorial here from Sewmamasew), cold therapy pack (same tutorial as the rice therapy pack), and an eye pillow (tutorial found here).

I got an email on Monday that my latest purchase from Brambleberry.com is on its way. I hope I get it today or tomorrow. It has all the goodies to make bath/shower bomb/fizzies that I will post under the home beauty tutorial. I also will put a body oil recipe on there as well. I need to find a cool glass jar/bottle to put it in. I think she will be pleasantly surprised!

My mother-in-law wants me to sew THREE more Market totes for her in May for her sisters and she wants some of my bath products!

For the sake of putting this post under TUTORIALS, I am going to add my photos and the instructions from Sewmamasew with this post:

  • Rice Therapy Bag with washable cover:
  • Materials needed:
  • Fabric scraps
  • 1/4 yard of linen or other fabric (I used white linen from Joann)
  • 1/4 yard muslin
  • 2 # of medium grain or short grain rice
  • essential oil
  • 4″ of 3/4″ wide velcro
  •  Cut Fabric
  • 2 colored strips 2″ x 7.75″
  • 1 colored strip 3″ x 7.75″
  • Short linen piece 9.875″ x 7.75″
  • Long Linen Piece 14.625″ x 7.75″ for back
  • – 2 Muslin pieces 12.75″ x 7.75″

 

 

 

  • Sew front strips together using a narrow 3/8″ seam allowance. Press the seams how you like to the side or open, to set them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Fold over 1/4″ of one end of both the back and the front pieces. Press well with an iron.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  •  Now fold the same edge over 1″ and press well. Make sure the front and the back are even.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  •  I didn’t show however – Turn the pieces right side up. Open up the 1″ crease. Center and pin the velcro to the right side of the fabric, above the crease but slightly below the top, folded edge. Pin the hook piece to one fabric piece and the loop piece to the other and carfefull sew the perimeter of the velcro. Use a short stitch to do so, so it can withstand the pulling while being opened.

 

 

 

 

  •  Pin the pieces right sides together, the velcro will help hold close, however, you can add pins if you would like to. sew around the sides and the bottom, starting at the top of one side.  (Don’t let your seams get sloppy like mine. I was lazy and didn’t go back and correct)

Trim the seam allowance.

 

 

 

 

  •  Fold the velcro edge to WRONG side using the 1″ crease mark you made earlier.
  • Sew around the top edge of the bad just below the velcro.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  •  Turn you bag right side our and press to set the stitch/seams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  •  This is my completed rice therapy pack and my coldpack. (Follow the same instructions for the cold pack. I just altered my fabric sizes and velcro.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

  •  Sew muslin pieces, with right sides together, leaving a 3″ opening at the top to fill with rice.

Turn it right side out and fill with rice.

Stitch the bag closed.

Place the muslin in the velcro bag.

 

 

 

I am still waiting for my essential oil blends to mix with the rice for the heat pack. I will use Flaxseed and lavendar buds (I buy them at Vitamin Cottage here in Colorado) for the eye pillow, and buckwheat for the cold pack.

 

  •  This is the fabric I chose for my eye pillow with white linen at the back. It matches the tote to tie it all together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The package may be a little late; however, I am okay with that.

If you make this please share your results or if you have made something like this please share!

Happy relaxing!

Check out the loot….

This weekend Joann was having a HUGE sale. I could not believe it.

I stocked up on some patterns. I have not made any clothes yet and I am still not very confident in all of my sewing. With that being said, I will probably have my mom come over and help me sew.

The sale consited of all Simplicity, Lisette, Burda Style and possibly one or two other patterns at 5 for $5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Limit 10.

I got the patterns below along with the material to make two of them for $41.88! Super cool. I also got a Project Runway pattern # 0345 that I couldn’t find a photo of.
I don’t plan to make every item. Definitely will start with a skirt as I have read that is a good place to start. I plan to do the blue Lisette dress (I bought the fabric for it that was on the pattern) and the shirt dress in a nice olive green sateen. Should be interesting.

The “Market Tote”

So for my birthday my mother-in-law got me:

1, 2, 3 Sew: Build Your Skills with 33 Simple Sewing Projects  by Ellen Luckett Baker. So nice of her!

I sewed my first project from the book for my sister-in-law who has a birthday coming up next weekend. This project can be found on her website: The Long Thread. It is the “Market Tote.”

It really tested my ability to do a zig-zag. I have an old Singer Touch and Sew Zig Zag 758. We are talking 1969-70.

My mom's sewing machine. So far she has been good to me!

It was my mom’s sewing machine that I have adopted and used religiously since the beginning of the year.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

I plan to pack some “me time” goodies in this tote. I am sending her Bath/Shower fizzies, lip balm, Body oil, eye pillow, cold pack, and a heat pack. All these were made by me. I think it will be the gift for all the ladies in my family and a good friend. I plan to put the lip balm, body oil, and bath/shower fizzie recipe on here along with links to the tutorials I followed to make my other projects in the next few days.

It will be great fun making them. They are all pretty quick projects!

Here’s the tote:

Market tote from 1,2,3 Sew

The List that keeps GROWING…..

Yesterday I had a lot of time on my hands, don’t tell my boss, to look around the web for more inspiration and tutorial sites that have really piqued my interest and I will definitely go back to.

So far there are way too many sites! Nice…. (thanks to nanaCompany and Design Crush for their lists and links to other sites whether in their blog or on their side bars)

1. A little sweetness

2. A Subtle Revelry – a DIY/craft blog, she has great photos of her projects

3.  Bee in my bonnet

4. Charlaanne

5. Cluck Cluck Sew

6. Comfortstitching

7. Crafting with Love

8. Design Crush blog

9. Diary of a Quilter

10. Dottie Angel

11. Eat Drink Chic

12. Emma Lamb

13. Fabric Worm – fabric site

14. Fat Quarters Shop – fabric site

15. Himiko No Sekkai

16. Katie Daisy – she has a blog as well.

17. KWernerdesign – great color inspirations

18. Littleladybugdesign; second site for them as well: Little Lady Bug Designs

19. Lovely little handmades

20. Mandylynne

21. nanaCompany

22. Nest Pretty Things

23. One More Moore

24. Pamkittymorning

25. Pinkchalkfabrics – fabric site

26. Pink Penguin

27. Posie Gets Cozy

28. Pretty by hand

29. Sewmamasew

30. Simply Hue

31. Skip to my lou

32. The Coffeeshop blog – great photography tips

33. The Long Thread ***** added 2/22

34. Townmouse – deals with children clothing

35. You are my fave

36. 4 Men 1 Lady

37. A bit of sunshine

38. A Bowl full of lemons

39. All my heart blog

40. Centsational girl

41. Country living

42. Craft passion

43. Craftzine

44. Defrump me

45. Epherielle Designs

46. Fabric

47. Feather & Branch

48. Handmadeology

49. How about orange

50. Jbs Mercantile

51. Just Another hang up

52. Just something I made

53. Living Locurto

54. Pizzazzerie

55. Positively Splendid

56. Sane simplicity

57. Sew sweetness

58. Sweet Sugar Belle

59. The Creative Mama

60. The DIY Showoff

61. Very purple person

62. Thetomkatstudio

This list will continue to grow, more or less as a resource for me, and others who happen to catch this post.

*** Feature image from Laurazam.com

The Beginning of a List

Last night I was looking around on my Nook Color, ever so hopeful that I got my “invite” to join Pinterest. First off I feel like a child on the school ground waiting to be picked so I can play with the others. I am not so sure I understand the needing to be invited part yet. However, I so want to jump on there. There are some great things on there. Oh, the digital world!

I started to write a list of sites, projects, food, books, blah, blah that I have been obsessing over lately. So far I have come up with:

Websites/Blogs I check daily or quite often (stalkerish?):

Sewmamasew(sewing and fabrics)

Howdoesshe (a great creative site for things that moms are interested in with a very cool spin)

Sweetopia (not everyday on this one) yet she makes awesome cookies and has great recipes

tatertots and jello (a great site like Howdoesshe)

chickabug (great paper craft ideas) She also has an etsy shop worth looking into as well.

Sewdaily (great patterns and instructions and tips for better sewing)

Soap Queen and Brambleberry (great soap making tutorials and supplies for really competitive pricing)

Books I have and want:

The Haves:

Fabric-by-Fabric One-Yard Wonders: 101 Sewing Projects Using Cottons, Knits, Voiles, Corduroy, Fleece, Flannel, Home Dec, Oilcloth, Wool, and Beyond [Hardcover-spiral] by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins. Great projects. My son will be a Knight for Halloween this year!

Sewing Basics: All You Need to Know About Machine and Hand Sewing by Sandra Bardwell. This is a great reference book to have around in order to learn or polish a newly acquired skill. Always good to have a “bible” of some sort around for things we are beginning to get into.

Sewing Machine Basics: A Step-by-step Course for First-time Stichers, Includes 7 Full-size Pull-out Patterns by Jane Bolsover. I love this book! I have made a couple of the projects so far. I am really loving the Lined tote and hope to make a few (with my own adjustments to the interiors and fabric choices) and possibly sell them on my etsy shop later this month or the beginning of March.

Quilting 101: Master Basic Skills and Techniques Easily through Step-by-Step Instruction [Spiral-bound]. It comes with a great DVD to explain the book. It makes me want to make a quilt. I plan to do a heart theme quilt for my neice for August. She had a full heart transplant at the age of two and it is coming up on the fourth birthday for the new heart. AMAZING! She is a firecracker and loves pink so it will be perfect!

The Wants:

1, 2, 3 Sew: Build Your Skills with 33 Simple Sewing Projects  by Ellen Luckett Baker. My birthday is tomorrow (the 11th) and my mother in law asked me if I wanted anything. This is what I told her I wanted! Fingers crossed. Of course she was  and is not obligated to get me anything! So nice of her!

Shape Shape: Sewing Clothing Patterns to Wear Multiple Ways by Natsuno Hiraiwa. I just saw this one in my email from Sewdaily. The pants really caught my eye. Not to mention the fact that I just visited a local fabric store DENVER FABRICS yesterday because they were having a HUGE sale on their sample cut fabrics (sale prices usually are $2.97 to $3.97 a yard and they were 50% off!) and got a bunch of lovely dark denim and great cotton floral prints!

Modern Mix: 16 Sewing Projects that Combine Designer Prints & Solid Fabrics, 7 Quilts + Pillows, Bags & More by Jessica Levitt. This would be a great reference for color combinations and a modern spin on an old art.

 

 

 

My other want right now or at least before my son’s fifth birthday:

A CRICUT Expressions machine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love the capabilities and the possibilities of this machine! Check out the site for Cricut machines, it is fun to watch the videos.

 

 

 

Local vendors I love to go to:

I go to my local Joann’s at least three times a week. They have excellent sales time to time. Just last week they had the Cricut Expression for $149! It is normally $249! AMAZING. I couldn’t justify the purchase right now. Plus, I have gotten back into InDesign and Photoshop a lot lately, and have some great digital elements to use so I can create my own “Cricut-like” projects. I just don’t have the automatic cutter, wait that would be ME! :p

Denver Fabrics. They sold their website years ago (still called Denver Fabrics), so I cannot link to them. I am on the emailing list and thank goodness I am. They have a HUGE selection of fabrics ranging from Home Decor to wedding to fancy fashion to good ol’ cotton prints. LOVE LOVE LOVE!

Fabric Bliss. Oh my! A new local store in what we call the “Art District” here in Denver. It is on Santa Fe Drive (I think). She is a sewing enthusiast, young, upbeat, and super friendly. I am taking her beginners sewing class on the 25th. Even though I have been sewing, I still think continuing to learn is a great thing and I will get some great and useful tips and one on one help. She has a great selection of contemporary fabrics too!