Friday, October 19, 2012

Christmas Ornaments

Aren't these cute??? I found them over at Stoney Creek.

















I really like these! I am fighting the urge to order them RIGHT NOW so maybe, MAYBE I can get them done before Christmas. Ugh! I already added another project to the jar which I technically haven't even started.

I'm just going to be thankful for what I have and resist temptation.

But maybe lust after them for a little bit longer!





Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Procrastination At Its Finest

Right. So there is a reason why I have 60+ projects just waiting to be completed. Well, a couple of reasons. 
First, here in the Pacific Northwest when the weather is awesome, you go outside and spend as much time as possible outside. We have had a gorgeous Fall and I spent a lot of time working on my garden. But now the rain is starting to creep back into our lives so there will be lots more sewing. 

Second, when I'm working on a huge project (like the map) I get bored and if I make a little mistake that requires me to take out a huge portion (fine, it was a big mistake) of what I have already completed then I get discouraged and any other project out there looks a whole lot more interesting. Like this project!

So my friend, Angela, is pretty awesome. She has a little girl a few years older than mine and she has gifted me time and again with hand-me-downs. It's fantastic! Lately my daughter has taken to jumping off of....well, everything. Which means a lot of skid knees. And ripped jeans. And I hate waste. HATE IT. So, she ripped open her jeans last week and was pretty upset about it until I told her I would make a patch in whatever shape and color she wanted. She chose a yellow heart and I obliged. 

My goal here was to whip this out in like 30 minutes doing a pretty blanket stitch using my sewing machine. It didn't turn out so well since the jeans aren't big enough to slip around the machine, so I had to handstitch the border which took about 30 minutes. So, it probably took me an hour. And that's an hour I could have spent on the map, but.....this was more fun! I'll get back to it. 

So, here in pictures, is what I did. Questions? Post a comment and let's talk about it!
The jeans in all their ripped g

Steam-A-Seam 2. Seriously, the easiest stuff to use. 
Used a cookie cutter as my template
Tracing the heart on the Steam-A-Seam
You can barely see it but I also traced the heart onto a piece of thin plastic to use in the future
Tracing
Cutting. Those are my "nice" scissors. For sewing purposes only!
The patch
Making sure it covers the hole
Ironing that bad boy on
Ironed and ready to go
I hand-sewed it on the edges to give a little bit more strength
All done!

You can't tell but I also got the denim patches you can buy in the sewing section at the super market and put that on the inside for more strength and durability.

Well, I get to do this again pretty soon. Another pair of jeans was ripped this morning and a blue elephant was requested.

Happy sewing!







Tuesday, October 9, 2012

A bit of a delay

Right. So I had family in town last week and did not pick up a needle. We went all over the place here in Seattle and I was too tired at night to post anything. A bright note, I went to one of my mom's favorite quilt stores, Carriage Country Quilts, and walked away with NOTHING. Well, almost nothing. I got some great ideas for some curtains for my kitchen. Side note: I change the curtains in my kitchen about every two months. Just do. I love it. What's even more amazing is she and I were in there for more than an hour without  either one of us picking anything up. It did help that we both didn't have a wallet. We think it was a sign.

Anyway, I'm trying to catch up on some sewing (as well as cleaning around the house and planting fall vegetables/bulbs out front) and I will post again this week.

Plus I have to fix this:

In the midst of a huge temper tantrum, a certain three-year-old ripped an 18" hole at the top. Thankfully it was on a seam but I'm still not pleased. So that has to get done; although, I don't think this said three-year-old will be getting the tent back any time soon.

Happy Sewing!