gators and bots!

ohmygosh hand crafting christmas presents is so time consuming. seriously. i spent sooo many hours on saturday on this and then more on sunday. didn't help that i had to rip out and re-sew the first one 3 times! perfectionism sucks. butttttt it's a gift. butttttt no one will be as critical as i am. so i need to get over it.

front

Gator pot holders!!! yeahhhhh!  isn't this fabric totes adorable! (okay i've secretly been waiting for "totes" to seep into my vocab, thanks amanda!) i mean really - there are little blue birds chillin on the gators!

how lucky is my cousin? because she's getting these for christmas!

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and here's what happens when i stick my hand in a swamp full o' gators…

ahhhh, they've got my hand!!!

i modified this pattern. mine are cuter, right? and i used insul-bright lining. hopefully they are heat-resistant, but i didn't test it! 

some things i learned: 

•  don't get all cocky about your bias tape sewing skills. that's when it will bite you in the rear (kinda like a gator would).

•  baste everything. yes, everything. it's a lot of layers. baste e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.

•  walking foot. use it. thinks andrea for the reminder. it made a world of difference.

•  the iron does not work unless you Turn. It. On. that's right, press and press with all your might. but it won't do a darn thing cept make your arm ache unless you Turn. It. On.

whew. so you can see from that how much fun i had. and i'm going to make another set!!! whatttt? hopefully this time it will be smooth sailing. my brother's getting robots.

why robots? because look how stinkin cute they are. who can resist? and i'm using the fabric with gears for the insides!

P.S. would one company just sell bias tape with matching thread all in one package? kay thanks!

and one last thing: my favorite robot has something to say…

friday fabric finds

happy friday everyone!

after a few setbacks, i'm finally getting to work on christmas sewing projects. i picked up some fabrics last night which are totally adorable and then i got home and realized, UH OH, i completely spaced out and only measured for 1 pot holder each! of course, i want to make matching sets of 2 potholders. sooo i really needed double the fabric. through some crafty placement, i managed to squeeze it all in! how about that! i wasn't able to be as concerned about the placement of the fabric design, but i think it will work out just fine. whew. i'll post photos of the fabrics and hopefully the finished products soon!

so that reminded me, i picked up some fabric when there was a 50% off sale recently and i thought i'd let you see. these will not be used for pot holders!! got any ideas what i should make with each of these?

i think i got around 2 yards of each. they're all very drapey, too. this one might be polyester or some type of blend, but it ended up being only about $6 for 2 yards, so yay! it has several purple colors in it with kind of a medallion print…

and this one was also around $6 for 2 yards. i love the colors (navy, light blue, light green, and little orange dots) and it's a really interesting pattern. hmm a dress maybe?

this next one was a bit of a splurge. i justified the purchase because it was half off, buttttt even at half off it was a lot more than the others. but it's soo pretty. is it silk or maybe a blend with silk? it feels like it. and i think for the price i hope it's some type of silk. maybe another long sleeved alma top?

hopefully i'll get a lot of work done this weekend! then i have 2 days of real work next week and then it's officially vacation for me! oh and my super awesome husband ordered me something super awesome for christmas! any guesses?

baby bloomers

ok well this is just a tad delayed. i already gave this as a gift over a week ago!

i made a matching diaper cover!! it goes with the cute little lilly-esque "Bapron" that i made. at the end of that post, i was contemplating adding a little bow. well i wanted to, but i didn't. i ended up needing that last little piece of pink bias tape for the leg holes of this diaper cover. i didn't feel like running back to the store just for bias tape. my husband offered to grab some, but he probably would be looking for something by Scotch® brand. tee hee. anyway, it was juuuuuust enough. almost not enough. i kinda wanted to do either the waistband or the edge of the ruffle in pink bias tape too (or both! pink overload!!), but again, i ran out.

i used the tutorial over at See Kate Sew. find it here. but i made it a little larger because she listed that the pattern is only for 0-3 mos. babys grow so fast - from what i hear. i made bias tape out of my fabric to cover the waistband edges because i didn't want serged seams around a sweet little baby tummy. and i did french seams for everything else. next time i would try the pattern over at Dana Made It. find it here. it has multiple sizes and you could easily attached the ruffle, which is just a super long rectangle of fabric. i would also omit the crotch seam by joining the front and back pattern pieces into one piece. and i would sew the bias tape on the leg holes flat, then insert the elastic and then sew up the side seams, because sewing the tiny leg holes in the round was a pain in the baby butt.

all in all, they turned out cute. i didn't have an actual baby to test the fit, so we can only hope. here's the cute little set in all its hot pink and lime green glory…

they were well received. yay!

andddd, i haven't touched my sewing machine since. ahhhh. i had plans, but getting sick got in the way. stomach flu. stayed home from work for 2 days (last thurs and fri). so i had a ton of time i could have spent working on projects, but i felt like crap and had zero energy, so nothing got done. that also meant that i missed 2 christmas parties =(  i barely left the house for 4 days. i had been upset that i wouldn't have time to whip up a dress for the fancier christmas party, so then earlier in the week i ran out and bought a new dress. which i loved. and then i didn't even get to wear it! grrr. it'll get out some other time i guess. so now i'm glad i didn't sew a dress, because then i would've been super p.o.'d to not get to wear it. right? right.

i need to get some fabric because i have plans for sewing little christmas presents and i need to hop on it! 2 weeks!!! ahhhhh. luckily i have a bunch of vacation time coming up.

anyone else still sewing christmas presents?

woahhh burda

ok i just had to share this…

on burdastyle today: "Adding A Sheer Insert"

yes, that is a Sheer insert on a dress. um. wow. maybe people are just really modest where i live…

hehehe