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1.29.2010

Fancy Pants!!

Yesterday was a great day for sewing. I'll show you why in a second. First I want to show off this bundle of ribbon I got for $4 at Hobby Lobby. It's 60 yards of assorted ribbon!!
Okay, now for why yesterday was a great day for sewing. I found a contest to enter to win an awesome serger. The contest was to take one of the selected projects and teach someone how to sew it. I picked the Pajama Pants project to teach. Can you guess who I taught to sew?? First here's a picture of the fabric all cut out and partially stitched:
It's my awesome husband, Ricky!!
I think he did a great job. What do you think?
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I have to say that yesterday was an awesome day. I had a lot of fun teaching Rick how to sew and appreciate him for going along with it. And, yes, the pants are quite cozy. :-)


1.26.2010

Fancy Dress, Dice Bag and more!!

Today's Ricky's birthday! It was a good, relaxing day. And now he's playing a bit WoW while I blog a bit. Yesterday I had promised to post something cute I had just finished. Well, I made some spaghetti! No...not pasta...spaghetti straps for a cute dress I made for my niece, Cecilia. I found some pre-shirred fabric in the remnant bin at Joann's and I had to have it and I had to make it into a cute dress for Cece. I took it over to measure it on her and she called me the next day to see if it was done because her mommy was home now. She was so excited, it was very cute. I gave it to her today. Okay, time for some pictures!

Here's the yummy spaghetti:
And here's the dress!:
I found instructions on how to shir fabric. I am determined that I will make something shirred by summer. It looks easy enough, I just have to be brave and hope my machine doesn't eat the elastic thread! I also made a little something for Ricky to match his WoW playing cushion. It's a DICE bag...haha that's right...a bag to put his D&D dice in!!
When I was looking for the bit of dice fabric that I knew I had left, I found a purse I made earlier this month that I didn't post. The pattern comes from Amy Karol's Bend-the-Rules Sewing: The Essential Guide to a Whole New Way to Sew book. It's called the Charming Handbag. It's cute and pretty simple.


The flower I made comes from the Rolled Rose tutorial I found of at Portabellopixie's blog. It didn't roll exactly how I wanted it to, but I like how it turned out.
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1.25.2010

Fancy Spring Top

Yay!! I am finally caught up! I have posted all of my old projects since I began this journey. I feel like I have learned lots, and am getting better. And more confident. I branched out and tried my hand at an item of clothing. This is the second wearable thing I have ever made. The first being a pair of pajama pants I made when I took a costuming class in college.

This project is my first top, and I am quite proud of it. It's Made By Rae's Spring Ruffle Top (minus the ruffles) that can be found over at Sew Mama Sew. Can you tell I love Made By Rae's stuff? She makes the neatest things, I especially love all the tops she makes, I just wish she had patterns for more of them. I posted this top a few days ago on Facebook, but here it is again. I commented that I was ready for Spring so that I could wear it. I need to be brave and make something with sleeves.

Okay, here it is!! What do you think?


Cute, huh? I will probably have a new post tomorrow as I just finished making something cute for a cute girl.
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Fancy Dice

We found this awesome fabric in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby. It's camo dice!!! We had to get it. Wondering what I made with it?
Here's a zippered corner...still wondering??
It's a cushion for Rick's WoW playing chair!!
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Fancy Lickety-Split bag

Here it is!! My first buttonhole!! I used my buttonhole foot for the first time and I think it turned out pretty good!
A buttonhole needs a button. Well, this one got 2! The bag I made is reversible!
These awesome buttons are attached to my new bag. I got the pattern from Made By Rae. It's called the Lickety Split Bag. I think it is one of my favorites. I added the flap and the buttons myself. It has 2 pockets on each side. I love the pockets, they're big enough to hold a bottle of water. I have never been a big purse girl, but I love this one!

Here's one side:
and here's the other:

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1.24.2010

Fancy Accessories!

Here's a few random small things I have made. These are in no particular order. Most of them live inside my purse.
First a shot of some ric-rac because it is awesome:

Somewhere between making the messenger bag and all of those Buttercup bags, I attempted make a wallet. it's is far from perfect, but it works for me. I hammered on the top snap piece before I was supposed to, but it turned out ok. I burnt it a little bit when I ironed it. Hey, it's a learning process. :-) You can tell it has been well used, it has started to take on the shape of the stuff it was holding. I do have to say pounding on the snap was quite fun!!
Here's some more recent things I made. A little zipper pouch and a Garmin cozy!!

Here they are open:
Look, the garmin cozy is reversible!!



And here's another Buttercup Bag. This is one I made for me from some fat quarters I got at Wal*mart for $1 each. In fact, all of these projects were made from fat quarters from Wal*mart.
I am almost caught up with posting everything I have made since I started this adventure a few months ago. Thanks for looking!!
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1.23.2010

Last of the Fancy Christmas/Birthday Presents

Okay, I'm trying to get all of these Buttercup Bags on here just so I can keep a record of things that I have made. I hope that my *millions* of readers aren't getting bored of them. I promise that I'll start posting different projects soon. I have one other Buttercup Bag to post, but I have to take a picture of it first. I also have a bag that I made for myself that has my first machine made buttonhole!! (hey, I was excited!)

The fist bag here is the one that I made for my sister-in-law Cherie for her birthday. The tote bags I made were for her kids. Oh, I feel I should mentions that Rick helped picked out the fabric for both bags in this post! I had wanted to make the top piece blue, but I learned that blues are hard to match... there are so many of them. I'm happy with how the brown turned out.

First, here's the pretty zipper, complete with a matching pull tab!


And here's the whole bag:I made one for my bro-in-law Mikey to take back to his wife Aya in Japan. I really liked how it turned out.

Here's the cute button I made for it:
Here's the inside:
And here's the whole bag!
Thanks for looking!!


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Fancy Mom and Grandma Buttercup Bags

Here's the purses I made for my mom and Grandma. I had intended to design purses for everyone. I started with my mom, but the purse ended up too small and it took forever. I didn't like how stiff the iron on stabilizer was or how it kinda wrinkled the fabric. it was at this point I decided I was going to make Buttercup Bags for everyone. And they turned out great, if I do say so myself! I decided to make one for my mom too, even though I already made a purse for her. I decided to make hers 2 inches longer and experiment with an outer pocket with snaps. I like how it turned out.

Here's Mom's Buttercup Bag:
And here it is with the first purse. You can see the outer pocket on the Buttercup Bag:
Here's the purse I made for my grandma. I made hers 2 inches narrower. Here's the inside with pockets:
And here's the whole purse. She also got an outer pocket. I handmade the piping for both this purse and my mom's above.
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Fancy Tote Bags

Okay, here's a little break from the buttercup bags. I made tote bags for my niece and nephews that live in New York. I figured out the patterns myself.

We celebrated Christmas on Thanksgiving when they came down to visit for a few days. We bought books from the bookstore I work at and put them in the bags. Connor, the youngest, loved the bag so much. He wasn't sure if the bag was his to keep...he knew that the books were...he just wasn't quite sure about the bag. He kept asking if he could take it home...he even asked me to take it to his mommy so she would remember to bring it home!

Here's Connor's bag. He loves Thomas the Tank!
Here's Rachael's bag, very girly. (And yes, it's the same fabric from the Mommy & Me Buttercup Bags from the previous post)
And here's Adam's. He loves army stuff, so it's camouflage fabric.


I'm told that they love using them to tote around their books and toys when they go on trips.
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Fancy matching Buttercup Bags

You guessed it, more buttercup bags!! First, I have a Mommy & Me set that I made for my sister-in-law Katie and her daughter/my cute sweet niece, Cecilia. Katie's purse has 2 straps and my first attempt at handmade piping. Cecilia's has store bought piping. They both feature fabric covered buttons. I love the large paisley one on the small on.

Here's one view:


Here's a second view of them:


Here's some close up shots of the Mommy & Me purses:


Next, here's the purses I made for my older sister Stephanie and my mother-in-law Joy. The brown and blue paisley worked for both of them, so I figured it would be okay if they matched. It's not likely that the purses will ever be seen together, except for here. :-)

Here's a detail shot of Joy's purse:

I made little birdies for Stephanie's. She love birds.
Here's a full shot of both of them:

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