Valentine items finished on time

A coworker asked me to embroider something he could frame for his girlfriend.  After some searching we came of with  "The measure of love"  found through embroiderylibrary.com.  The fabric he picked was a unbleached muslin so I used Floriani's Fusable Mesh to give some support to the fabric and then I added 2 layers of light tear away.  The embroidery stitched out nicely with no problems except for the length of time it took as there were several color changes.

Last year I started a Valentine pillow for my daughter,  I used a base of muslin and added various red scraps.  I decided that I should actually get it done for her this year.   I cut the back out and debated on if I should embroider on it but I wanted to experiment with the sizzex so I ironed some Stitch Wichery on the back of some scrap fabric and ran it through the sizzex with the Be Mine die.  I then ironed this on to the black heart shaped fabric.  Since the letters were narrow and there really wasn't much fusible on each letter I   quickly appliqued them with a zig zag stitch and then sewed the pillow front and back together.    I think the heart shape looked better before I sewed this together because the cut is too deep to allow both halves and the middle of the pillow to look completely smooth.  This is not noticeable in the front because there is an extra layer of fabric due to the foundation for the stripes.  All in all she was happy with her pillow, it looked cute on her bed and this is now a finished project!

From Bird seed bag to Grocery bag

Today  I did a bunch of boring sewing,  home repairs such as fixing a hole in a towel, securing stitching on a couple of my husbands shirts, resewing a handle on a straw basket and shortening an extra long pillow case.  While being able to fix these things makes me glad I can sew and keeps the items useful longer, it was not very exciting work.  I did manage to make another grocery bag from a bird seed bag.  I really like using these bags better than the plastic ones from the grocery store.  The bird seed bags are made of a sort of fabric that has lots of nylon threads running through it.  This makes the bags very strong and able to hold a lot of weight.  Unlike plastic bags they will also stand upright when filled making them much easier to transport in the car.  The nylon handles also make these easier to carry than either a plastic bag or a paper sack, and they don't rip spilling everything onto the ground.  Both of these bags originally held 20 lbs of bird food and being able to keep these out of the landfill and give them a new useful purpose makes me really happy I can sew.

McCalls 6516 Easy to Sew & Wear Jacket

Easy to sew and wear jacket pattern

    
I made the blue jacket below this past summer and I made the grey jacket a couple of weeks ago.


Per the back of the pattern:  Loose fittingVest A and Jacket  B,C, D have front extending into drape and narrow hem.  I made views B and D in size Medium


  The instructions were clearly written. You might want to be sure that you use a medium weight drapey fabric for best results.

 I used cotton blend lace fabric for the blue jacket and added the collar from views A&D

Due to fabric restrictions my ruffle was about 4 inches shorter than the pattern called for but it is unnoticable in the finished jacket.  Due to the length of fabric to ruffle  I zig zaged over some string rather than using 2 lines of basting thread.  This method makes it less likley that you will break the basting threads during the gathering.

 For the grey jacket,   I used a cotton blend that has a silver metallic thread going through it,  The drape was working out fine for the jacket until I added the bottom faced section,  Then the whole jacket felt stiff and did not drape at all.  I finished the jacket and threw it into the washer and dryer which softened the fabric helping the drape.  I think this will   get even better after another wash or two.  The instructions called for the cuffs and hem facings to be slip stiched on the inside but I happily used a machine blind hem instead. 

  Due to late night sewing, I made a mistake on the cuffs.  I cut out the fabric for the cuff and the facing but ended up folding my cuff in half and did not use the facing at all.  This made the sleeves about 2 inches shorter than the pattern called for but, the finished length works better for me. 


I may sew this comfortable jacket again in the future with a drapy wool fabric

Easy to sew and wear jacket pattern

PJ's for a friend

I didn't realize that it had been so long since I last posted but it has.  Now I will need to catch up. 

 

Today was a coworkers 50th birthday and so I decided to make her some PJ's.  She is about 5'9" so she likes when I make her PJ's because I make them plenty long.   I had actually decided to make them a couple of months ago but hadn't started them until last night.   I cut them out around 10 pm and finished them and went to bed at midnight.  I think this was probably the first time in about 5 years that I actually had her gift ready on her birthday.  I was in such a hurry to finish and get to bed that I forgot to take a picture so here is a picture of the well used McCalls Pattern 2476 and the fabric.  I actually have enough to make a pair for myself. 

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth an African Grey

Here is one of my pets,  she is the messiest pet of all.  Her name is Elizabeth and she is a African Grey parrot.  She was born in Indiana and is around 10 years old.  She  talks some and says things like water, hello, what cha doing, cracker, want it, Checkers, our names and she can ask and respond to phrases like what does a pig say, what does a cat say  etc.  She laughs  coughs and has several versions of hello.  What makes her really fun is that she seems to know when to insert an ok or a no or a what as if she is really part of the conversation.  She can eat most things that people do but is especially fond of pizza, french fries and ice cream (aren't we all!).


If you consider one of these birds as a pet you might note that you must have a large cage but they will also need to be out of that cage for a while every day.  They are very loud AND VERY MESSY.   Having a good cage helps the mess problem as does having a garter around the bottom of the cage.  I made matching garters for both Elizabeth and Esther's  cages (more about Esther later). 

Some birds are not friendly  and unlike dogs they don't usually take up with strangers easily.  I also would be careful about mixing toddlers and young children with large birds because without close supervision one or the other could get hurt. 

McCalls 8574 cute baby dress

I made this dress and hat  for a co-workers grand baby.  Of course the baby was born a couple of months ago but I will use the excuse that I didn't know about the baby until she was born.  I had this cute cat knit in my stash for quite a long time and even though I had used some of  this fabric earlier this year for the same pattern I still had some left.  I think it is perfect for a baby girl.

The pattern is basically easy to put together but I think the sizing is off, it seems rather large and I am sure the dress is too long.  I told the parents that if they didn't want a maxi dress I would be happy to shorten the dress for them.  I am not totally happy with the shoulders, the instructions say to either turn the hem under or use a decorative elastic.  I didn't have the elastic so I turned the hem under.  Next time I will try the elastic or make a knit bias binding.  The hat works up very quickly and I really like it.  All in all the dress is cute and the parents are happy.

ASG meeting

Tonight was sewing guild night and Robin gave the presentation, explaining each of the classes she took at the annual ASG conference this past summer.   She gave us a hand out with the information and tips from each of the teachers.  It  is surprising when you realize how much information you forget.  Exactly why you should continue reading magazines, books, blogs and taking classes otherwise you could end up losing some of those hard won skills.

Our group is very talented and generous.  It seems that every month one of the sewers has either fabric or even finished products to share.  Anita brought some home dec fabric that we will be using for a challenge and Margie had enough bible covers 90% done to share with all 12 of us.

Spending a couple of hours with friends that also like to sew is a great way to spend the evening.