Wednesday, January 2, 2013

playing catch up

long time no see! i am back at the office today and back at the computer. i have been keeping tabs on your blog posts via my little ipod while on vacation and i loved reading everyone's 2012 wrap up posts. now i feel like i need to catch up!

i'm going to start by complaining, but then i'll move on to some more positive news, promise! not sewing related, but this is how my new year started: we rented a car to drive to florida to visit some of my family because we didn't want to put all of the miles on our cars. and when we got home on sunday night, we found out that both of our cars had been broken into. so my vacation ended with talks with the police, the insurance, taking my car the to shop, and picking up a new rental car. what fun! they didn't really take anything. the only thing of value in my car is the stereo and they didn't take that. but now i have to get a new car door. the insurance covers it, but i do have to pay my $500 deductible. and we found out that they hit the entire street because some of our neighbors were also vandalized. at least they didn't break into our house.

anyway. so. i haven't bought my new laptop yet. i was hoping for an after christmas sale, but the price looks the same. (i was looking to get a macbook pro.) i did get a threads magazine for christmas! yay! but i didn't get any gift cards for fabric like i had hoped. i guess for my birthday i need to not be so subtle with my requests =)

but, completely out of the blue my sweet husband bought me this… (drum roll)



a serger!!!! yayyyyyyy!!! i didn't even ask for it! so i signed up for a class on serging. i've used one several times before, but i still need to learn more. very exciting =) and i need to go buy some white and black thread cones because it comes loaded with rainbow colored thread. i wanted to whip up a top right away, but i don't really want rainbow seams inside. i'm sure the colors help with figuring out how to rethread…


now it's time for a wrap up of the rest of the christmas gifts i made:

the robot pot holders!



those were a lot of work. i re-did the bias tape several times to get it to look good on both sides. the problem was with all the layers. it was pretty thick. i was happy with how they turned out and my husband wanted to keep them for us. but i gave them to my brother anyway. not sure if he really liked them. he's hard to impress. ah well. i tried. i probably won't be sewing gifts for others anymore unless someone actually asks for something. except baby aprons! those were easier and well received. so i might still make those. my cousin is expecting in june, so i'll make her some =)


not sewing, but i did make earrings for my sis-in-law, brother's fiance, and mother-in-law. the colors in the photo just didn't come out well. the top left pair are magnesite (?), the middle pair are jade, so they're actually a dark green color, and the top right pair are amethyst, so they're really purple.



back to sewing. i made 2 clutches for my best girl friends. i haven't had a chance to give them to them yet. so i'm only hoping that they'll like them. i picked the fabric when i noticed one of my friend's iphone case was grey chevron patterned. but then the next time i saw her she had changed it to something else, so i hope she still likes grey chevrons! ha ha! and my other friend likes yellow and i thought the teal zippers were a nice contrast.


i got the idea from the pattern runway tutorial, but then i didn't use their tutorial at all because the size of theirs wasn't exactly what i wanted, so i just made my own, and then i just finished it the way i wanted based on doing another zip pouch.


i used the same fabric for the insides. i was going to use a teal to match the zipper, but i didn't want it to show through to the white on the outside. i did line it with heavyweight interfacing (or maybe it was medium weight?) but i had enough chevron fabric (just enough) that i did the insides the same as the outsides.


check out my first magnet snaps! they were easy-peasy. just be sure to attach them before you finish sewing in the lining. and on the website for the snaps it says to push the back prongs inward, but another book said to push the prongs outward, and i think outward it more stable.


and check out my stripe matching on the sides. yeahhhh! i don't think my friends will even notice, but whatev


and here's some close up zipper action. i thought it looked pretty sweet. =)

in other news, i received a really awesome package from Abby at Sew Get Dressed! i'll be doing a separate post on it. it really was a bright spot on that day because my neighbors were checking our mail and they brought the package over to me when we got home, which was after i had just found out that my car was vandalized. anyway, be sure to check out her blog, but you probably already do!

andddd, the lovely Sabs at Tybalt: King of Cats nominated me for a blog award, so i'll be posting on that soon too. i just need to think up answers and everything! she has a really cute blog, so be sure to check her out, but again, you probably already do!

hope you all had a great holiday and a wonderful new year! i'm looking forward to seeing all of your 2013 projects! what are you working on this month?


19 comments:

  1. so sorry to hear about your cars. Ugh - that sucks. Good thing the damage was minimal.
    On the serger - AWESOME!! You're going to love it - I do love mine :)
    And the pouches and the pot holders are just all too cute. Great job on those zippers ~ those stitches are perfect!

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  2. Thanks! I wish I had more time in Florida, I would've asked you for fabric store suggestions! But we didn't do any shopping. I so want to go to NYC for fabric shopping, some day...

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    1. oooh me too! Can you believe - I lived most of my life there and I never thought about sewing?! lol and to think the Garment District was RIGHT there - oh well, sigh. Time to plan a visit lol

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  3. Wow, what gorgeous gifts! I hope your friends like their clutches, the pattern matching is perfect!

    I'm making my 201 the year of sewing for the gap. I'm looking for what's missing and then sewing to fill it. As I type I am procrastinating from unpicking a project...

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  4. Nooooo, your cars! I'm so sorry!

    But look at all that stuff you've made! AND a SERGER? You lucky woman. Why the heck does it come loaded with rainbow thread??? Do you know the trick of just cutting the old thread, tying a knot to the new thread, and pulling it through so you don't have to completely rethread it? Sergers can be super complicated to thread.

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    1. Very smart! I think I heard that before but I completely forgot! There are some pictures with numbers to help, but I still have to figure out adjusting the tension and all that jazz

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    2. FYI - I haven't messed with the tension on mine since it came out of the box and it's been fine. I did what Sara suggested - tied a knot to new thread and stepped on the foot presser - went right through.

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    3. Sometimes things will still get messed up and I'll have to re-thread. (ugh) Usually takes a couple attempts. Mine serger is older though, so maybe the newer ones are easier and have better diagrams.

      Also sometimes people call these Overlock machines. My boss at the costume shop called them Merrow machines because that was the brand of hers.

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  5. Lovely gifts! Doesn't teal make a nice contrast to just about every color?? Congrats on the serger - that looks like the model I have and you will have so much fun with it!

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    1. i know! i really love teal at the moment! i looked through all the other zipper colors but kept coming back to the teal and there wasn't a grey or yellow zip that matched exactly, so i hope they like the teal! I'll have to pick your brain for serger tips if i run into any issues!

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  6. Wow - what a start the the New Year. Sorry to hear about the vehicle damage - what a nightmare to return home to.

    Congrats on the serger - I have a Janome and it is fab-u-lous! I look forward to seeing what you are going to make with it!

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    1. Thanks! I can't wait til i can start cranking out projects on the serger! And i also can't wait til i get my car back, but at least the rental is nice.

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  7. Poor you with the cars. Bad vandals. Hope they get caught and punished.

    But yay about the serger (or as we Brits call it, overlocker) - I think you should def do rainbow seams inside ALL your clothes from now on, it'll be well cool!

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    1. haha, yes! i should just make rainbow seams my trademark. kinda like red soles on louboutins, right?

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  8. Oh yay! New serger! I have that same one and I love it! It's really not hard to thread at all. Oh, and all your homemade gifts look amazing! You're so thoughtful!

    I'm so sorry about your car, though. What a bummer... :(

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    1. Thanks! Glad you love the serger! I'm looking forward to getting a lot of use out of it!

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  9. Wow! What a fabulous gift from your husband! I'm still trying to decide if I really want a serger myself.

    Your handmade gifts look wonderful, I hope everyone loved them.

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    1. I probably wouldn't have bought it for myself (trying to be frugal) but as a gift, who can say "no"! I think it will make finishing seams a lot faster and it should help a lot when sewing with knits.

      Thanks! I liked how the handmade gifts turned out, but it became pretty time consuming and i wasn't really enjoying it toward the end! he he he

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Thanks for reading! I welcome any advice, insights, witty remarks, snarky comebacks, commiserations or just a quick hello. I'd love to check out your blog as well, so let me know where you're posting. Happy sewing!