A restrained trip to Fabricland

(Sorry for the picture quality! Not my best work and the light is terrible for re-shooting right now)

I nipped over to Fabricland today to take advantage of their big members sale. Wasn't intending on buying any fabric, but ended up coming home with 2 pieces...which at $3/m and $4/m wasn't remotely a budget-breaker.

My haul (clock-wise from Henry's nose)
- Steam-a-Seam 2, 1/2" width
- glass headed pins (I learned that you can't drop a textbook on a pincushion and expect your pins to stay straight)
- 4/$1 handful of zippers for a mod I want to do to some of my running pants
- quilting foot (ok, not from Fabricland, it was a birthday gift I forgot to blog about)

And of course the two pieces of fabric.

The blue is a cotton stretch mesh that I'm envisioning made into a drape-y pullover to wear over a cream camisole.

The orange print isn't nearly so violently orange irl....more of of a muted rust colour. It's a lovely soft stretch fabric with some spandex in it that has a wonderful drape and feels amazing to the touch. In theory it will be made up into New Look 6648.

Photography was hampered by Henry's absolute fascination with the orange fabric. He kept snuffling it, licking it and growling at me whenever I tried to shoo him away. Little bugger.

If you can't beat 'em, use 'em for scale:

Digital Sewing Date follow-up

Behold the most psychedelic, seizure-inducing
pajamas ever!

So Heather and I's sewing date last night was a huge help. Finally motivated me to get the collar sewn on these pajamas. Even did some hand-sewing along the neckline.

The to do list for the rest of the project looks like this:

- attach sleeves
- sew up sides
- add sleeve cuffs
- hem
- buttons!!!!

All things I'm comfortable doing, so fear shouldn't be getting in the way of finishing (anymore).

P.S. Yes, I'm aware the pajamas look totally crazy. I didn't have enough fabric to cut out all the pieces from the main print (45" wide fabric with a 7" border print and cutting an XL size from the pattern doesn't leave much to work with), so I cut the collar, facings and pocket from the extra-psychedelic border print. Very cheerful, possibly nauseating. Best. Pajamas. Ever. Or so I keep trying to convince myself.

Wednesday Night Digital Sewing Date

Heather and I were chatting this aft about the cleaning (and sewing) we want to get done. As it turns out we both have the evening free (after some thesis-ing on my part)...so spawned a Wednesday Night Digital Sewing Date.

We are both beginning our evenings by tidying up our sewing spaced, and then moving on to finishing up projects that have been hanging around our necks for ages. And trying not to distract each other *too* much :P


My task list for the night is small but important:

1. clear off my sewing table, thus unburying the pieces of the pajama top.
2. nuts up and get the collar sewn on the top. Me = giant chicken.

Anything else I accomplish tonight is gravy.


If I can get this freaking collar on, maybe I'll even let myself splurge a bit at the big Fabricland sale tomorrow <evil grin>

No one around but me? Check!
Gmail chat open? Check!
Mug of hot tea? Check!
Bunnies sleeping right where I need to walk? Check!

All the ingredients for a productive sewing night are present!

A newbie's pattern stash

Tanit-Isis' post a few weeks ago got me thinking about stash storage and also left me feeling a tiny bit grateful that I'm not faced with her problem (yet! When we buy a house all bets are off!).

I love seeing pictures and reading posts about other people's stashes, am grateful for them even. THV only muttered once about the size of my cross stitch stash - I promptly showed him some pictures online of other ladies' hoards and he hasn't uttered a peep since. Smart man.

So while it is still adorable and tiny I thought I'd share my pattern stash with you guys:

Yup, thats it for individual patterns! I can fit the entire stack in my purse if I really needed to for some bizarre reason (Armageddon?). Not pictured are some Burda magazines and 2 books have some patterns in them. That subject might be fodder for another quick blog post :)

Lets see whats in the stack...

The "good patterns" aka. the ones I'm seriously interested in making (well aside from that tote bag, it just needed to go somewhere).

The aprons! I went through a phase apparently. Although in my defense two of those were gifts. Number of aprons I've made? 1!

The WTF patterns. Top two were scrounged from my mom's long unused stash. The best of a pile of 1980s patterns. The dog bed pattern I bought right when I started sewing and was terrified to sew a straight line without a pattern holding my hand. Hmmm, well I'm really not much better now, but I can at least figure out how to make pet beds without a pattern!

Randoms. Top two my grandmother bought me at craft shows. The Amy Butler Heather and I bought together at a quilting store with the idea of time-sharing it and I seem to have held it hostage ever since. Ooops. Sorry Heather!

Bottom left is actually one of my favorite patterns of all time. My awesome sewing aunt has made me two muumuus from this pattern. Never to be worn in public, perfect for super hot summer days at the cottage or an un-airconditioned apartment. After the last muumuu she just gave me the pattern to make my own :)

And finally, my newest pattern! A birthday present even! Can't wait to make it, assuming I can ever find 60" wide knit fabric that I: 1. like and 2. can afford

Thats it! All of my patterns. Not many now, but it's a slippery slope I've started down....

Do you collect patterns like candy or slowly and carefully add to your stash? Anyone else have a "wtf was I thinking?" pile?

Hearts for Heather's mom

Last Friday Heather's mom went in for surgery for breast cancer. Her family made and sent heart pins out for everyone to wear on that day in support and love. They are an amazing family! Some were headed to me, but Heather warned me that due to a Canada Post "issue" they wouldn't arrive on time.

Well that just wouldn't do. A heart pin was needed!

Then I remembered a crochet pattern I was noodling about with around Valentine's Day:

Just needed safety pin:

A bit lopsided, certainly not the official "breast cancer pink" but it's a heart worn with love and pride and support for the woman who brought one of my best friends into this world.

Project notes:

Pattern: Mini crochet hearts (free!)
Yarn: Bernat Handicrafter cotton in a pinkish-red. I learned I am not a fan of using cotton yarn with my metal crochet hooks.
Hook size: various. Try a few and see what works best with your yarn and unique tension abilities.
Comments: super, super quick pattern to do (its less than 20 stitches, including the starting chain), but tension really really matters if you want it to look like a heart. Hence why mine aren't close to the perfect hearts seen in the pattern.

I've made 5 so far, the progression is kinda amusing. My first attempt looks more like a real heart than a symbolic one:

Birthday bracelet

Spent a lovely day with my longtime friend Bug. She patiently read a magazine while I got my teeth cleaned (living in the boonies + snowstorm = you have to be efficient about your trips into town). We hit up a yarn store where she picked up some Estelle Frill Seeker to knit her very first scarf. Yay Bug! Visited a tea store. Ate an unhealthy lunch. And then back home to sip some new tea, chat and knit. Now that's friendship.

And she gave my an (early) birthday present. A gorgeous Swarovski crystal bracelet she made for me. You can probably tell by the colour :) Beading is one hobby I've managed to not pick up (so far), but Bug does amazing things with it.

Such a delight to be gifted with a beautiful piece of her work.

Check out a closeup:

Of course it had to travel home with her for some adjustments. Totally my fault. When she asked for my wrist measurement I used my second-best measuring tape (my good one appears to have disappeared with those blasted pattern instructions)....and thought my wrist measurement was 8". I thought it seemed rather large, but trusted the tape. Then the made-to-size bracelet turned out to be far too large:

Apparently the 6 and the 8 look very similar on my now-deemed-evil measuring tape.

Doh.

Sorry for the extra work Bug!