It followed me home and I’m keeping it.

Went to Grandparents house this weekend. We were talking through a project that Glitter Glue Princess wants to do with Grandma when she visits next month, and she pulls this little gem out of the closet.

I open it up and know EXACTLY what it is -this thing will sew through anything! I ask her if she has the cams (the funnest part - just call me a sucker for an old sewing machine). Better yet, she has ALL the guides to go with it too.

Then, the best part of all, she says I can take it if I want (!!), since it came with the house when they bought it and she doesn’t have a clue how to use it.

It promptly got packed in the trunk and came home with me. Glitter Glue Princess wants to try out all the cams and make her quilt squares for sewing with Grandma. We’re going to have a fine time with this little beauty. The other four machines will just have to move over for a few days while we play…

Bwahahaha - she who dies with the most sewing machines wins, right?  Or…. Is it fabric?

Surf’s Up!

Sewing is my therapy - when I’m stressed it is cheaper than a therapist, and someone gets something nice to boot… I hadn’t done nearly enough sewing of late, and this was long overdue.

This week it is a swim wardrobe for the Glitter Glue Princess. I used two patterns for this from Kwiksew - #’s 2889, the ever present scuba top, and the new 3605. This is the most mature swimsuit I’ve ever made for her, and at least she let me make it - she is at an age where my sewing isn’t nearly as cool as it used to be.  But, if she selects the pattern and the fabric it is alright, right?

I used size 10 for all pieces but the tankini top - it is a size 8, but lengthened to a 12. If making this pattern be warned of the sizing and gathering on the chest. Going down 1 size did help, else it would have been a gaping mess.

Another tip - use the triple zigzag on your regular sewing machine to do the edge on the triangles - there is just too much stretch and too much bulk at the top where the strap is for it to come out cleanly using a cover stitch, and I had to remake these as I got a hole in the fabric when pulling out the stitching.

She was mildly offput by me wanting to put this on the blog, so I left off her head per her request (as IF it will really make a difference ).

When they say the skirt is short, they meant it! I added an edge with trim to make it longer, but seriously, it could use a wee bit more on the pattern. Just extend the curve of the hem down a few inches as needed, but keep the curve of the hem in the same shape.

I fully lined the front of the scuba shirt - can you think of a sentence that has light blue and see through in it?  :)   The other two pieces are lined in all the right places as well.

And of course, the requisite hula pose if forced to model swimwear in public:

After this, I’ve got to make Mr. S another Gandalf Murphy shirt for Blissfest next month.

So exciting!

Well, I’ve finally gone and done it. I decided to open up an etsy shop and sell dyed fabrics/bags/shirts. I couldn’t keep it a secret any longer!

http://dyeabolical.etsy.com

See the lovely header? I did it all by myself (I am soooo proud!), and it was quite a challenge, as paint shop pro doesn’t play well with vista on my computer, and kept crashing when I wanted to add the text. I really need to get a different program…. I used one of my favorite shirts for the background.

Of course, it is not populated. I haven’t even had a chance to get out and dye yet. I will definitely post when it comes up and show you some of the lovelies I’m working on for it. Hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks, I’ll have some wonderful goodies to show you all… I’m currently in the process of sewing up a slew of fabric shopping bags for the first dye round. Also bought a bunch of 60″ white kona cotton to dye as yardage and sell.

I also joined the Mad Scientist team on etsy, where we make items with a science twist for challenges, etc. This is going to be fun!

Dressy Pants for Skinny Kids - a sewing challenge

Glitter Glue Princess had a county-wide recorder concert that she had to play in for school. Every Fourth Grader in the county played the same song with the City Symphony. Of course, every Fourth Grader (at least the ones in MY house) had to dress up for the event too.

She already had a lovely dressy silky shirt that she felt would be “sooo grown up” for the event. Being that it is still chilly, we didn’t find skirts to be quite warm enough, so we went on a hunt for some dress pants. She is reaching that age where she thinks she needs to fit in to the crowd, and that means store bought clothes. I knew that she’d need an adjustable waist, and so we tried on what we could find, which was very little in the dressy category. After she tried a bunch on, she finally relented, and allowed me to sew her something.

I made her a pair of black stretch woven boot cut pants over the weekend. The issue is that she is about a size 7 in the waist and a size 12 in the length. I used Kwiksew 2666 for the pattern. They have an invisible flat waistband, yet have elastic to be comfortable while she is sitting in the auditorium for the concert. Here are pictures of the final outfit.

Happy girl, happy smile, off to have a recorder concert.

Thank you…

The absolutely divine miss Gorgeous Things bestowed a gift on me that I wanted to share… an italian sewing magazine from her collection. (correction - “an italian fashion magazine” as noted on the cover, but written in German on the cover (the magazine IS from Italy though)- thanks Kim) I remembered her rum punch recipe and her parties from an earlier entry. Before this, I only had topkids and ottobre sewing magazines. This opens my eyes to a whole new perspective. Now if I only knew italian…. But hey, that is what the internet is for, right?

“Say Hello to My Lee-tle Freend”

When Glitter Glue Princess goes away to Grandma’s house, I work on fun stuff…

This is my little friend, my version of a sock monkey. He was created using Little MissMatched knee socks. Now, knee socks are just a wee bit big for making little sock monkeys, so we had a bit extra to make the hat… I used the standard sock monkey directions from red heel, but left off the tail - it wasn’t aesthetically pleasing. I also left off the embroidered mouth line - he is so much more mysterious without it.

Of course, as soon as she saw him, she wanted him immediately… She wasn’t feeling good after her trip to Grandma’s, so I relented and shared.

I will *allow* her to borrow him for a day or two, but then he is coming back to reside on my computer table with me…

Sewing, sewing, and more sewing

The sewing studio has been humming a bit lately, now that we have conquered a few after school activities.

Glitter Glue Princess sewed a lovely bag from some double faced fabric…

I made her up a fleece shrug of her own, since she kept stealing mine… I made this in an XS womans size, considering that she will grow into it. I left the sleeves longer for the same reason…

Umm, yes the cat is really, really angry…

Glitter Glue Princess and I share a nintendo and needed a nice Girly case for it - the ones at the store are so uninspiring… You either get pink or something very boyish. A note to manufacturers - putting a case in pink is not enough - BOR-ING. What about us girls who are not the pinkish sort? Hmmm?

I saw this little number on Craftster and tried to make my own version… I plotted it out on graph paper one night and by the next night had this:

For a bit of perspective on its size, keep in mind that it is sitting on a 1″ grid. It looks like a child’s purse when carried around, which is fine for the Glitter Glue Princess, but not so much for me.

I don’t think the pattern is refined enough to share with anyone as a tutorial yet - I’m thinking about making the card section a separate zippered compartment on the back. More on this later.

As the ground begins to warm, I’m clamoring at the bit to get out and do some tie dye. I… Can’t… Wait!

A miniaturized fleece fest - literally.

This sew and tell is a bit overdue, as I took the pictures a while back, but later is better than never…

The Glitter Glue Princess wanted a fleece vest. But not just any old vest - she wanted a sleek sophisticated vest, “like skiers wear”. No vest pattern in the girls section was acceptable - too fluffy in the belly, why is there elastic around the bottom, etc, etc. Exasperated, I sat her down at a pattern book, and told her to find one that would work, be it a boys pattern or a girls pattern. Well… She found one in the women’s patterns instead. She picked Kwiksew 3453 as the very vest she absolutely had to have - the pockets were perfect and she loved the shape.

Umm… o.k…  I believe I have created a fit snob…. 

She’s a few inches short of fitting in an extra small women’s pattern, no matter how big her feet are. (See that post below.)

After major modifications and miniaturizations, like taking a total of 4 inches out of the torso, taking in the center back, reducing the bust, and reshaping the armholes (!!!), I finished with this:

After all the redrafting, I’d have been better off trying it in my computerized pattern drafting software to start.

She just informed me she wants another, so I think I will try that next time…

I guess this makes me a groupie, right?

I promised S a while back I would embroider him a shirt for wearing to gandalf murphy concerts.

It turns out there is a concert this coming weekend in Philadelphia we are attending.

Well, I finally got not one, but 3 completed…  The top one and the red one are for S and the other black one is for me…

The derby-bowler hat is one I drew out.  I needed an icon for the band, and decided that this joaziah’s hat was the best thing to use (that, and I couldn’t draw an accordian!).

Only groupies would do their crafts in order to wear to concerts right?

Baby Gift Sewing

Our friend Joann had a little boy a month ago. I am known for giving an embroidered baby blanket to my friends for their babies, and thusly made one for Jo.

While searching for the fabric for this blanket, I came to the realization that my locally owned fabric store doesn’t seem to have much flannel that would appeal to the masculine side - nearly every printed flannel had some bit of pink in it, that is, but this one… You can’t see it here, but the white stars have a bit of glitter printed on them.

This is a square of flannel, 49″ square (the print was a weird size width). I did a pretty embroidery to accompany the print on the solid side of the blanket, as seen above. I serged it right sides together, leaving an opening for turning. After turning and pressing, I put a heavy decorative edge on it - my experience when the glitter glue princess told me that this type of edge lasted better than the dainty stuff. Also helped you find the edge of the blanket quicker on those bleary-eyed nights after a diaper change.

Glitter Glue Princess also made a bitty gift by cutting out a teddy bear outline and sewing him a little stuffed bear:

Jo really liked the gift…