Showing posts with label fabric. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fabric. Show all posts

Monday, October 10, 2011

I'm dragging

I haven't been up to much. Slowly working on a few things here and there. I'm almost done with the shirt I'm working on. My muse decided to skip town for a bit while Mother nature is visiting. My sinuses are killing me, after no rain for what seems an eternity we finally get some but I can't breathe now. My music selection lately consists of a few artists, Beats Antique and Azam Ali and her work with Niyaz and also a little bit of Enigma.


I did finish a throw pillow and I made a fabric pumpkin.






I hand cut out the leaves from the fabric scraps from the pillow and glued them to the top of the pumpkin.

One of the things I've been doing lately, washing new fabric I've acquired that i want to make a quilt from. One of the fabrics, the animal printish one, I'm not sure about yet, i'm kinda iffy on it. Here is the fabric, lots of green.




I've also been cutting out lots of squares from some 1/4 yard fabrics I have. I have lots of 1/4 to 1yd cuts of fabric for a quilt that had no real idea or color scheme so to speak. Since noone wants to buy the fabric as is, guess I'll cut it up and attempt to sell it as charm packs or whatever you call them, big giant group of hand cut squares out of cotton fabric. Yeah, think that is just a mouthfull there. I haven't fully decided what i'm going to do with them yet. Once they are sewn together they will equal 4", that's after 1/4 seam. In these 2 photos, I guesstimate about 200 squares give or take 50.


Friday, September 9, 2011

Fabric Squared

I'm so glad today is friday. I'm hoping to start a new project this weekend, quilting. I'm going to start off with simple, like a grocery bag and pillow. I found this awesome Celtic Quilt pattern that I really really wanna do for the hubby. They call it a stained glass effect, piecing. I still plan on working the shirt pattern as well. I plan on finishing that up this evening so I can cut another of the pattern. I plan on working on the quilting when i'm not feeling the love for working on the shirt.

I've always wanted to do a quilt. I've got lots of material that I accumulated over the years for doing a quilt. At one time I even culled the collection and tried to sell the material for someone else to use, no bites. So now once again I have this urge to make a quilt and i've pulled out the culled material I wan to start with, looks like it'll be reds. I have some other fabrics i've already started cutting into 4.5 inch squares.

So right now i'm kinda playing around with bits and pieces of fabrics and some scraps that were big enough to make what i'm calling Crazy Squares. I think somewhere in my fabric blackhole, there is a quilt square that is in serious need of restitching. Nothing lined up like it was supposed to, it was all off, especially right at the center. I think that actually put me off for a bit on quilting and then of course other interests decided to take precedence. So here it is probably close to 10-15yrs later and i'm ready to try again.

Crazy squares consist of bits and pieces of scrap fabric somewhat put together to eventually make a piece large enough to cut into a 5 inch square. I plan on taking these crazy squares(scraps) and stitching them to the center of a few canvas shopping bags I have planned. I'm practicing my stitching and finding out the pressure I need for feeding it through the machine as well as learning to use my iron more often than just sporadically. My iron has become my new best friend. I used to use the iron only for straightening out folded fabric or a much needed shirt to be smooth instead of the surface of a raging ocean. I have an applique iron and it works great for the smaller pieces of fabric and ironing their seams.

I took some of my smaller pieces of fabric and cut as many 4.5 inch squares as possible and with some light mauve colored gingham and a deep burgandy color solid fabric, I had enough squares to make a 9 patch square and still had 6 squares left over, mostly the gingham. I stitched my squares together and was so proud of how close all the seams matched up. One of the ideas I had was to make a piece from the 4.5 inch squares that was 6 squares across and 6-9 squares high, that's just a guesstimate. I had the idea of making a baby changing mat. Why? I have no idea why considering I don't even know anyone who is having a baby or anyone that has a young child that is still in diapers. I figured that would be simple and functional instead of some kind of wall hanging sampler. I could always sell it or donate it, depending on how the idea manifests. Sometimes I get an idea and it never makes it to reality, sometimes it evolves before manifesting to the physical realm.

Guess I better go practice some more and do more research on quilting techniques for that Celtic quilt I really wanna do for my hubby.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Productive weekend


Wow, I think I'm on a role here. I finished 1 of the pillowcases that I have planned. I think it's a little long and my hubby said it was flashback to late 70's early 80's. LOL! I'll let you judge for yourself. hehe




I think it's a wee bit to long but that's okay. The fabric was a clearance fabric and I felt like having some fun with it. It's not like i'm really going to be looking at it all that much, I'll be asleep. Once again another fabric that I would normally stay far away from. I think the fabric is kinda kitchy. I'm so proud of myself over such a simple project. I have to say my favorite part of the pillowcase is the lovely rust colored band. I was going to put a line of piping between the main pillow case and the band but scrapped that idea for this pillowcase, I may try it on another one. I'm out of the rust colored satin, but have some black satin so i'll need a division line so to speak. My husband think's i'm nuts.

I was so excited to finish that pillowcase that I was itching to make something else, something quick cause it was really late in the evening. I think I was excited that my pillowcase came out so neat and pretty, I was going to get to sleep on it that night that I needed to sew something else for that instant gratification high. In comes the fat quarter, hello baby! I bought this FQ (fat quarter) because it had musical notes all over it and my daughter is a musician. I was going to make a throw pillow but she already has one of those and I still have the fuzzy green/orange monster fabric from hell to make a pillow for her from. That stuff is going to be a nightmare when I finally cut into it. I had fuzzies for days after bringing it home. I think I need to be just alot insane when I get to that material. LOL! Back to the music fabric. It was sitting there telling me it didn't want to be a pillow, honestly. The more I looked at it the more it said make me into something else, PLEASE! I love freezer paper. This stuff is becoming a sewing staple. Here's the stuffed musical note.







First, I pulled a sheet of freezer paper that was big enough to cover my FQ and ironed it on there so it wouldn't move and then traced the edges of the fabric. After that was done I peeled away the freezer paper and started drawing directly into my square a musical note that I could easily turn and stuff. When I was happy with my design I cut it out and then placed it on the fabric, ironed it in place and used that as my stitching guide. After I got done stitching I just pulled the freezer paper off and still have a pattern for use later. Whenever the freezer paper stops sticking, I can just transfer the design to another piece. So it's not really a pillow, it's more like a stuffed doll without a face. OH CRAP! Now I have an idea for a beaded doll. Like I need more freaking ideas. Hold on, need to make some notes real quick like before this idea completely escapes.. COME BACK HERE!

Ok, it's been captured and documented, idea down. I'm happily stitching away thinking that my daughter is going to be so excited and I wanted to get it done before she went to bed, not realizing that the light I see under her door is actually the fish aquarium light. DOH! Luckily by the time I got done, she'd only just laid down and was not yet asleep. She was like all teenager and unsure kind of Thanks and then called me a dork. I guess I am. I even have enough musical not fabric left over to make a small pouch that she can put some of her personals in. I think I'll do simple and just line it with some left over muslin I have from my shirt drafting project.

I have this favorite sleeveless shirt that has seen better days. I wanted to capture that shirt and style and continue wearing it cause it looks decent on me. I had already traced the shirt but couldn't find any of my pre washed muslin. I know I have several yards of that stuff somewhere. I found the heavier muslin but not the lighter and semi-stretchy muslin I know I have. Why is it that when you need something for a project you can never find it? You know it's in there and you dig and you dig and still don't find it, yet you find it when your not looking for it. Lucky for me I had some that hadn't been washed yet that I got a steal on- 4 1/2 yards almost 5yds for about 3 bucks less than if i'd bought it at the fabric store. I washed it on sunday along with some other fabric I'd purchased. I think my husband is gonna kill me when he realizes that this month i've spent close to $150 or so on fabric. Maybe that's why i'm in the make stuff frenzy. Okay so it's not a frenzy to you but for me it is. My creative slump is so bad that making a few things is a frenzy.

I got the washing done, then vaccumed so i'd have atleast a clean floor to look at while standing over the ironin board. I did not iron all that yardage, just the couple I needed for the shirt. I really don't iron anything unless it's fabric to be made into something or I desperately need something to not look like it just came out of the basket. The muslin is unbleached and I like the way it looks and thinking if I didn't butcher this mock up to bad, I might play tye-dye with it and have another new shirt. Got it all ironed, temp pattern all pinned and sewing lines marked for cutting. It was pretty late when I got done with all of that. Cleaning and sewing they both take time. While I was ironing, cleaning, pinning, and marking it crossed my mind how tedious sewing can be. I might save that thought for further exploration as I continue to progress with my sewing and learning. I consider myself an Intermediate beginner.

Monday, August 22, 2011

I FINISHED!

Over the weekend, I finished the sewing machine cover and I made a pattern from a shirt I have and I'm tweeking it for other ideas. I bought more fabric over the weekend to make shirts from my new pattern. I picked up this silky animal print material that I'm going to make pillow cases with a wide satin band. My daughter wants me to make her some pillow cases that have the overlapped back cause she says the regular pillow cases just slide off. I might make her a couple of those overlapped back pillow cases but I think I'll just grab some needle and thread and sew on a few snaps and she can snap the pillowcases closed or I could do a velcro closure.

Here is the finished cover.



Here is a little fabric art card with sequins glued on.


I loooooooooove this fabric and today I need to buy the 3yds I have on hold for me. Guess that means I need to stop by the bank and add some money in there.


I'm so happy that I have another project done and out of the way. Now I just need to get to the other gazillion in the process projects and the other bazillion that bombard me on any given day. Tonight however, i'm making pillowcases. I might even think about laying out the pattern I made from my favorite shirt and do it in muslin to check the fitting and make sure the arm holes are correct. I did a half arse pinning of the pattern and the arm holes seemed a bit tight. I have 5 different fabrics, mostly cotton and a few knits to make from my new pattern. From the basic pattern I have 3 different variation idea's dancing around in my head. I'm going to go basic first so I can make sure I have the right ease in the shoulders and stuff. I hope it works out, it seems it will with just a few slight adjustments.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Happiness is FABRIC!

Okay in my previous post I wrote about the sewing machine cover i'm working on with this fabric.



The fabric is 2009 Brother Sister Studio Design from Hobby Lobby. I found the fabric remnant in the clearance bin and fell in love. This is so not fabric that I would normally buy. I just can't seem to explain why I love this fabric or what it is that appeals to me sew much. hehe So the hunt began to find more of this fabric and I found it here Maddiebeesewingroom. She seems to be the only person that has any of this fabric left and i wish I had the money to buy all that she has but I don't and I only really need like 2yds to be happy with. I plan to finish up with a few accessories to go with my sewing machine cover like a chair cover for my chair and other little things. I even plan on doing a picture frame of this fabric to hang over my sewing area.

Topping this off, my local WAL-MART brought back their fabric section, yes, you heard me they brought it back. I actually had to stop some floor manager and ask the guy if I was seeing things, nope, said they heard the customers loud and clear and brought it back,WOOHOO! ! ! ! ! SEW HAPPY! It's still hard to believe and I found this out just a couple days ago and kept forgetting to tell anyone. I guess I wanted to keep it secret, NAH, I got used to it not being there is the problem. I picked up some fabric and a shirt and a pants pattern while I was there. yeah!

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Making progress- Finishing projects

I'M DONE! Yes, I finished the apron, completely. I gave it a wash and dry and noticed that the flannel fabric enlarged itself. How does it get bigger instead of smaller? Oh well, I'm not going to fuss over it. I know my sewing skills stink but my defense is lack of consistent sewing over the years. I've had my sewing machine for about 15yrs and I've probably used it the equivalent of 1yr or less of consistant sewing. Shame on me, letting my sewing machine sit and be neglected which is probably why it doesn't want to sew a straight line. I really need to take my lovely in and have a tuneup.

So I finished the apron and here it is. close up of adjustable neck strap and the pockets in place. WOO! 1 project down a gazillion to go.







I started sewing on my sewing machine cover last night. I already had the pieces somewhat cut out. I made the rough pattern on graph paper then cut the pattern out from freezer paper. I then ironed the freezer paper to one side of my fabric sandwich and used it as a sewing guidline. I used a quilted fabric and a 2009 Brother Sister design studio fabric called Swirly floral or something like that. I probably should have used a stiff stabilizer to have it stand up better but I don't care, I like it just the way it is though I thought about sewing in a few cuts of lightweight boning to help it stand better. The floral fabric was a clearance fabric and I only found one person that had it when searching for some more of it. I love this fabric and I am by no means a very "FLORAL OR RETRO" person. I look at this fabric and it makes me happy, just like my sewing machine. I expect to have this finished tonight or no later than thursday. After I finish this project i'm gonna start on the kitty bed for my brood.

WIP/Sewing machine cover






I also played around, well i'm still dabbling with it, making a fabric embellished ATC (artist traiding card) with some of the scraps from the floral fabric. I want to make a bigger wall hanging of it for my sewing area but I only have a little bit left, maybe a 1/2 yard give or take some inches. I didn't get a picture of the card, not done yet.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Strawberries

My grandmother has a love for strawberries. Her kitchen theme is strawberries. I was asked a few years ago to make a strawberry apron with a protective layer to keep water from soaking through and getting on your clothes. Okay, no problem, atleast that is what I thought. It is not easy finding strawberry fabric. I finally found some in a flannel. I have all my materials handy and even purchase some strawberry buttons from Etsy and Hobby Lobby to decorate with on the pockets and straps or whereever.

I go through my stash of fabrics and find a nice mauve gingham to use as a backing and I even had a bit of red cotton fabric. I use the red to accent the strawberry flannel fabric in the ruffle and decide the gingham would look good too. I'm almost done. Here are some pictures. The only thing left to do is, sew on the ruffle and the straps, make the pocket and sew it on, add buttons and give it a wash and done.





see the pocket pattern


ruffle:


buttons:


I'm pretty close to finishing this. It shouldn't have taken me almost 2yrs to do this but depression has been a horrible roommate. While working on this, despite the flaws I know it has, I like it and I think I just might make me something like it for my own kitchen.

Here are a few more pics showing my furry helper while I was pinning the ruffle on. My furry helper is our rescue kitty Gwen. She's such a sweetie and always looks like she's smiling.




Friday, January 7, 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND NEW IDEAS!

It's a new year and i'm hoping this one will be filled with more creative persuits than last year or the years before. Crossing fingers that I can make that happen. I'm trying, might take me a little bit to get going but I think this year will be good.

Here are some pics of the gifts I made for family and friends for Christmas. I call these Scoodies (scarf with a hood). I looked them up on the internet and they are really a very basic pattern. I did modify it a little bit in the back behind the neck so that there wouldn't be a lot of bunching up. So far so good.

My scoodie: Black fleece with faux animal print trim on hood.




This is the one I had originally made for my grandmother but ended up giving it to my Uncle's girlfriend after my grandmother said she couldn't stand things on her head because it would mess up her hair when she saw me wearing mine. Glad I was able to change it out before I gave it to her and it never got used. It's made from fleece. I had just a plain black bias tape on the hood edge but it really felt like it needed a bit extra so I added the black lace. I also added small black looped fringe to the ends.






I made this one for my mom. It's just like the pink one except it doesn't have the bias tape edge, just lace.






Just recently I came across a tutorial on dying glass pearls over on Martha Stewart and just had to try it out.

I'm still on the fence with this one. Yellow and Tan seem to take better to the pearls than the other colors I tried, black, wine, dark green. Here are some pics of the results.

1st experiment:

2nd experiment



Other than those things, nothing new. Hopefully I will have new things to show more often this year instead of once every few months.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Down to the Wire

Thanksgiving is the week and Christmas is just around the corner. No lack of ideas but still in the energy slump. I have one present done, one I'm thinking about doing but not sure yet and no real idea for any others. My 15yr old daughter wants to make some tube scarves and we just bought a knitting ring to do that. No lack of yarn that's for sure. LOL!

Yesterday I sat down and was doodling with a skirt design for belly dance stuff. The design is fairly simple using a stretch fabric. I have some fabric I bought some time ago, just for that and didn't get around to it then. I seriously need to make myself a duct tape dummy or buy a dress dummy and soon. I have ideas busting out of my ears for sewing and plenty of fabric and even new attachments to make my sewing eaiser.

I think other than not really having the room, I don't want to upset the SO. I just need to tell them to kiss my butt, I'm going to do what makes me happy. I'm so worried about causing friction at home in our cramped apartment that i'm not helping myself and my current blues. I think that will all change this weekend because i'm going to get some durn sewing in or something. I need to get out of this slump. I keep buying material for the ideas but not doing anything with them.

Having Christmas just around the corner isn't helping any cause i'm broke and have made so many thing over the years for my family that i'm kinda lost as in what to make now. I have a few ideas but i'm limited because of space, time and money. So very frustrating.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Spring Cleaning

PHEW! I think I'm done with my Spring Cleaning. Okay, probably not.. LOL! I did just recently come across some more stuff, AHHHHH! I think I'm just about ready to start taking pictures for posting. I had planned on doing that this past weekend but I never got around to it. Just thinking about all that photo taking, editing, descriptions, listing, my head started hurting. I think it's my allergies and not so much the huge task before me. HeHe!

Right now the only thing I seem to have on my mind creatively is sewing projects. I have a pair of wrap pants to sew and hem. I also have a pair of arm warmers I'm making and I have an apron to make. I should have made that apron like a few years ago. It's supposed to be for my grandmother. I know shame on me, no really SHAME ON ME! I have several projects I need to do for my grandmother.

The urge to create is there, just still not much UMPH! to get the projects done, much less written down. I've been in this funk now for about 5-6yrs, the last 2-3yrs being the worst. Le' Sigh! I'll get back to my creating sooner or later. I just think I really need this purging of materials to get things back into a better perspective. I have so much stuff in such a small place that it literally becomes overwhelming trying to find or create something.

Hopefully by next week, i'll be at a point to either sit down and make something and show pictures or atleast being able to sit down and make something.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Hang around Creativity!

I know I haven't posted in a bit and I haven't been keeping this up to date as well as I should but I haven't been doing much, so I haven't posted. Well, the past few days have been interesting though. I have had a few ideas, started a few new pieces last night and i'm almost done with one of them. I've been seriously procrastinating on taking some pictures for Etsy. It's jewelry I've made but previous pictures just didn't do them justice and I really need to relist them, just with better pictures. I'm really hoping that my creative spark hangs around a little longer this time. Usually about this time of year, even in my dry spells, I get a little bit of a creative boost to make stuff so that I have gifts to give at Christmas.

I have 1 belly dancing necklace that is almost finished.
I have 1 pair of belly dancing earrings to finish, just need a few supplies.
I started a red knitted scarf for my grandmother, which I'm planning on starting over.
I need to finish 1 helm maille bracelet, need to add clasp and beads.
I need to cut rings to make my mom a helm maille jewelry set for christmas.
I need to finish stringing the beads for my grandmothers gambling bracelet.
I need to attach lobster clasp to my grandmothers gambling zipper pull.
Try out the fleece hat pattern I came across.

I have a few ideas swirling around for some polymer clay christmas ornaments. These ornaments will not be covered ornaments though. I guess I'll see how that turns out. I also have a few ideas for some scrap material that I'd like to make into either hippie bags or some grocery bags. This idea will take some doing, because the pieces are just strips of different sizes and designs.

I have a 5 day weekend, WOOHOO! I'm crossing fingers that I get to atleast half of the stuff I want to do. I'm hoping to do a bit of spring cleaning and dispensing with some creative supplies. I really need to pair down my collection and at the same time I need to come up with some extra cash to get some car repairs done before Christmas, hence the pairing down of supplies.

Just the thought of having to get rid of something makes me feel sick to my stomach. It seems like I have a lot of stuff and compaired to the amount of space I have to work with, I do. In reality however, I have a moderate selection of supplies, it's just unorganized. I think the biggest part of my whole collection is fabric, then yarn, then magazine/books and then so on. My hubby just doesn't seem to understand and it is really frustrating. He thinks if I haven't used it in 5yrs then it needs to go, except that the right idea just hasn't come along yet or I just haven't had the time to really spend on it. Sewing, my biggest collection of stuff and the least amount worked on. I have the patterns, the ideas just not the time or space as of yet. I need the space to cut out patterns, which I don't have. I'd do a lot more sewing then.

My carpel tunnel is acting up so I can't really do any crocheting or knitting for long or short periods for that matter. My hands, especially my fingers start going numb. In fact my middle and ring finger on my right hand are tingling as I type this. I just have to work through it I guess. I'm hoping soon that things will start to turn around and I can have it taken care of and ease things up so I can really sit down and work on stuff. I think that is also part of the problem lately with my creative slump. Why start something if my hands are just going to go numb. I use my hands to see what I'm making or working on.

I should have some stuff to post about next week.