Monday, September 26, 2011

De-Stash 4 Malawi at LilypadQuilting




Please help out in sponsoring this wonderful cause!!!!!!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

I enjoyed payday......

Well Friday was the first payday of this school year so after school I booked a place for my son's 5th birthday party and then I went to Hancock's Fabrics. They are having a SUPER sale for their 54th anniversary so a ton of stuff is 54% off. I only had a few things on my list but I walked away with 2 big bags full of stuff. Here is a rundown of what I got and what the plan is for them!!! And I will prolly go back for more!!

The ribbon I got to make my fall wreath (already cut up into strips)


 This is the button I got for the back of the dress I am TRYING to make......no promises on this one!!

 This is the softest fleece ever!!! For a nice warm wrap this winter

I promise this is red- my camera just sux- more fleece for a wrap

 This is a remnant and it is sooo soft that I will use it to line something!!

 This is some fabric that will be the lining of a purse I am making for someone!


This fabric was $2 a yard and will make a nice warm comfy skirt!!!

I couldn't believe how cheap this fab was and I can just see it as a nice warm skirt with leggings and boots. It is warm and wooly!!!

I was in heaven when I saw this. They have a whole coordinating section for home decor with these colors and I love them.....just soooo stinking expensive.....hopefully I find more like this in the remnant section!

 These apples didn't want to show their real red color but it is cordorey like fabric with apples embroidered on it. Very cute and schooly!!!!


Well thats what I got and I am super excited to get started!! Not sure when that will be since we have 2 busy weekends coming up but it will happen soon!!!


Friday, September 23, 2011

The results are in......


So I mentioned that I was a finalist in the Sewsweetness contest. Well the results are in and I didn't win the big prize but I was randomly picked for 2 beautiful Amy Butler patterns!!!!
I can't wait to try these pillows out!! They are TOTALLY not me but I know some people that would like them. When this is the case and I want to try something out and let a friend have it, we go shopping and they buy the fabric and I do all the work free and we both win!!!
Since I am a librarian, I am always toting things to and fro and the 2nd pattern is a big bag I can't wait to try! Not sure what colors I will go with but I have learned from the previous ones that dark patterns hide dirt better!!!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Is anyone reading this??

So I entered a contest over at Sew Sweetness and I am one of the finalists!!!!!
Head on over there and check out the contestants and vote for your fav (which is hopefully mine)!!!!!!

As a Side note......

Just wanted to mention that over the weekend I finished another of the green bags, a knit skirt I have been wanting to try and I started on a dress for myself that I found here.
I know it is for a little girl but I thought I could make it work for me.......nice thought......the biggest problem is getting a good fit for my "girls". I am rather blessed in that area and this is the first time I have made something for the top of myself......worse case, I end up with a kool skirt!!!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

So once I made my first Amy Butler bag, my mother-in-law just HAD to have one! So I came across an awesome sale at Hancock Fabrics with duck fabric for $3.99 a yard instead of $9.99 a yard. She picked out an awesome starburt fruit fabric. Her daughter also asked if I could make a backpack for her to take to school to keep her Ipad and Ipod in. I got the general idea here and then made it my own.







I am also in an Amy Butler contest with my 2 Amy Butler bags so sent me lucky thoughts this weekend so that I win something!!!

Have a great weekend!!

Skirts for me.

I finally made more skirts for myself. The first one was from some fabric from Hobby Lobby that I have had for awhile and didn't know how to finish it. I looked things up online and came across this and this. They are also what helped me with the little girl skirts.

I didn't have enough of the fabric to make a full circle skirt but I was lucky enough to find that they were still making it so I was able to get more. Then I made the wrap skirt out of it!

I will apologize now for the pics- hubby took them and he isn't a very good photographer. I tried to get him to put them on so I could take pics and he wouldn't do it!!! LOL

 (And ignore the pink tanktop!!)





The second skirt is a little different. Walmart had a series of fabric that I just loved so I got half a yard of all 6 patterns. I cut them into 8ths and sewed them back together. I did 3 rows. The 1st and 2nd have then going long up and down and the middle is longer going across. I sewed everything together and put elastic in it and I think it looks pretty good.




The only thing is that I have extra squares of fabric so not I am trying to figure out what to do with them.

I did come across this and might just use the fabric to make a quilt lol.....

Monday, September 12, 2011

In the previous post I mentioned that a friend wanted me to make some bags. Well she sent them to me and after what felt like forever seam ripping them and working with patterns, I finished the first of the three for her and I am totally happy with them. Once I learned the basics of making bags it isn't hard to do at all. I posted pics for her and she is extremely happy with them which makes it all worth while!!!
Here are some pics!!!

The front is the slanted pockets from the suit- they originally had a zipper between them. I repositioned the velcro to the middle to attach the name to.


Adjustable straps


For the outer ends I used the bottom of the legs where there was a zipper to let them fit over shoes. I removed the zipper but kept the pleating to make some details......I am still working on removing those dang little threads!!!


All the inner pockets were on the legs and sleeves of the jumper. I added a snap to close it. I put stiff innerfacing on the fronts and back to make it stand up.




Did I mention that I LOVE these bags and can't wait to make the other ones????
Well its true!!!

Friday, September 9, 2011

The Next step

Once a few people saw that I was making bags someone asked me if I would be willing to try making a bag out of an army uniform. I knew that I had a couple uniforms from my brother in law in the closet so I gave it a shot. I didn't do all the innerfacing but hubby has been using it for work. I made one for a girl and now another friend has sent me some flight suits to use for some kool zippered bags!!



It wasn't too difficult and now hubby has a list of things he wants included in a new computer bag for him!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Bag #2

So as I was looking at bags to try, I came across this awesome blog which is where I found the first bag I made. Then I saw that she was having a contest. I decided it looked like fun and decided to make this. (This is also an awesome blog!)
Here are the fabrics I decided to use.
I was super proud once I got the fancy work done on the main panels of the bag!!



After a few days it came out looking like this:


I love it and once I posted it on Facebook everyone wanted to know where to get one!!So now I am working on one for my mother in law!!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

A gift

So yesterday I realized that next weekend is a birthday party for a little girl turning 1. She is the first granddaughter on both side so I know she will have plenty of toys and things coming her way, so I decided to make her a couple skirts. I looked for some tutorials online but couldn't find exactly what I wanted to I decided to wing it. She is wearing 18mths clothes so when I went to Target I measured the waist and length of a skirt in her size.

Since my next step was the fabric store, I decided to check out the fat quarter to get 2 sets of pairs that would coordinate together.

For the ladybugs, I ironed them and then folded them in half a couple times and cut on the folds to make strips. Then I sewed the strips together alternating white and black. When I was done, I hemmed the bottom and made the casing for the elastic and sewed it together!!



For the red and white I cut the fabric so that there were 2 strips 22 inches wide and sewed them together. I did the same for the white fabric and sewed it onto the red to let it show out the bottom.


I really enjoyed making them and I see more to be made for gifts in the future!!

Saturday, September 3, 2011

What's been going on....

So I had anticipated blogging about my old stuff before starting on the newer stuff but now I realize that it prolly won't happen. So I will start back up here....

At Christmas time my mother in law gave me another sewing machine. It is a Husquavarna Viking and it is a beast! I has a digital and program display and she had all the different feet for it and lots of other cool stuff. It has helped me do stuff I never thought I would do!!

Heres some pics....














So this is what I am playing with and using now and I have had lots of broken needles but I have learned alot and I made this bag.
And then came the next one.....