made my day

this package made my day. it had been a really crappy day actually, because that was the day my car got vandalized. (it's still in the shop, getting 2 new doors on the driver's side and i should get it back on wednesday. i have a rental right now. anyway.) so this was definitely a bright spot.

i big thank you to Abby at Sew Get Dressed for her fabric giveaway and all of the bonuses she threw in!

look at all the goodies! first off is the fabric! it's blue plaid seersucker. (i'm a girl who loves blue!  read abby's last post about gender expectations. i think when i was a little girl my favorite color was red. never pink. although by definition pink is just a tint of red… but i always loved blue as well. and now blue is one of my go-to colors.) now if you had to pick one fabric that represented your city, seersucker would represent the city where i live. it's so hot here in the summer and seersucker is very popular. it's even common for men to get married wearing a striped seersucker suit with matching suits for his groomsmen. and bow ties. and flip flops. and sunglasses. no joke. (we didn't go that route though. my husband wanted a traditional black tux.)

anyway, so this blue seersucker is going to make a really cute sundress! haven't decided on the pattern yet. any ideas? maybe one by colette?

and the bias tape is from her grandma's stash - how awesome is that? and maybe i can make a button up sundress. the pearly white buttons are too cute. also from her grandma's stash is a point turner and i think it doubles as a "jean-a-ma-jig" with 2 different heights (see where the 2 notches are). it can raise the back of your presser foot to help sew over thick seams. it kind of works like a shim. correct me if i'm wrong.

and lastly, check out what she crocheted! how amazing is that! it's so tiny and intricate!

ich liebe dich!

i'm blushing! thank you sabs for the Liebster Blog Award! Sabs blogs at Tybalt: King of Cats and we found out that we share a few things in common, including getting married in 2012, getting a sewing machine as a gift after our weddings and our new found love of sewing!

i'm going to just copy her here:

"The award was set up way back when and has undergone a few changes from what I can see from my research. Its purpose is to bring blogs that have less than 200 followers into the limelight and increase their readership. It has definitely morphed since it first started (as has the logo in fact!) and the most current rules are:

• Post 11 random facts about yourself
• Answer 11 questions that your nominator (is that a word or have I just made it up?) asked you
• Nominate up to 5 other blogs for the award and ask them 11 questions of your own"

and yes, nominator is a word! i looked it up because i'm nerdy like that…

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so, without further ado, 11 random facts about me (this is going to be super tough to decide what to write):

1. i began sewing last year and it's starting to take over all of my free time, but i love it

2. i have always lived in the same state in the US

3. i used to have a pet rabbit named oreo. she was black and white and adorable

4. my favorite ice cream flavor is lemon custard from baskin robbins (they only have it in the summer and yes it sounds weird, but it's amazing)

5. i work as a graphic designer 10am-6pm M-F

6. i have never been to the west coast, but i've been to europe

7. i love tomatoes but hate mushrooms

8. i have never broken any bones and i have never had any cavities

9. i graduated from an honors college summa cum laude 

10. i have a very hard time thinking of random facts about myself (this is taking forever)

11. i took german in high school and college, but now it's fading due to lack of use

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and my answers to the 11 questions from my nominator:

1. If you could be any animal, what would you be and why? being a bird would be interesting because of the flying, of course. but i'm not down with eating worms, and seeds would get boring. maybe i could be a dog for a wealthy family that feeds me human food. i wouldn't want to be any animal that has predators, that's just too much stress - worrying about something else eating me, geezzzz

2. What colour are your eyes? blue

3. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up and have you become that? i wanted to become a cake decorator when i was in elementary school. it combined 2 things i liked: art and cake, so what's not to like? i had seen a news clip about an old man who was a cake decorator and he said he never worked a day in his life because his work was his passion, so it never felt like work at all. that's what i wanted. i am not a cake decorator. sadly.

4. What was your favourite childhood toy? when i was little i had a stuffed bunny rabbit named bun-bun and i used to hand sew her little outfits including felt shoes and hats

5. Dresses or trousers? i would love to say dresses, but i end up wearing pants more often

6. How many hours a day or week do you spend looking at other peoples' blogs? my blog list on bloglovin.com is out of control. i try to keep up and i love seeing what other people are sewing (i only follow sewing-related blogs), so i'll read blogs during commercials if i'm watching something on tv or during breaks at the office or right before bed

7. If you could timetravel back to the past and change one thing, what would it be? i'd start sewing sooner! think how amazing i could be by now if i had started 10 years ago!

8. What have you always wanted to do but were too afraid to try? any drastic career change or move somewhere far away

9. What crafting experience (ie something you've made) are you most proud of? hmm, i really loved that first baby bib/apron i made because it looks store bought (i think) and i'm proud i conquered the cuffs and buttons on my last alma blouse, and it had all french seams, which i love

10. Which day of the week do you hate the most? monday

11. Daddy or chips? i think i don't get this one because i'm not from the UK. my favorite type of chips are kettle cooked chips, the ones from lays or from krunchers

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and my 11 questions for the new blogs that i'm nominating (this is a lot to write!):

1. what's your day job when you're not sewing?

2. what's your birthday (you don't have to include the year if you don't want to)?

3. what's your favorite fabric to sew with?

4. what's the best sewing tip that you could give me?

5. what's your favorite notion?

6. what's your favorite project you've sewn (and include a link if you posted about it)?

7. what's a pet peeve of yours?

8. what are your favorite tv shows or movies?

9. what's your favorite type of music (name specific bands if you'd like)?

10. why did you decide to start blogging?

11. why did you decide to start sewing?

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and, i would like to pass this Liebster Award on to the following 5 blogs:

Jenny Sews 2

Dinosaur Girl

Made By Trisha

Road To The Heart

Sewing Through The Motions

ich lese gern so viel blogs! nur fünf ist wirklich nicht genug. ich liebe dich! (i apologize if my german spelling/grammar is poor. it's been awhile.) check out those 5 blogs if you don't already follow them! and let me know in the comments if there are other blogs you love reading that i should be reading! thank you Sabs for the award!

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?

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