WiP #26

 Not much time today, however, I have a few WiP's to report, despite a crazy busy weekend!


#1 - I have cut out most of the fabric for my nieces baby doll bibs and diapers.  Most of it comes from my scrap bin, and I wanted to give a little variety for the little hands to feel and play with, so I have plain cotton, flannel and even a denim one.  I am going to embroider their names on the denim bib.  I will be lining all the diapers in white fleece.

#2 - Since I cut into a pair of jeans for the bibs and diapers, I finished cutting the rest into squares for my denim rag quilt.  I thought I might cut a few squares with a seam in them, just to give a little visual interest and see if I like it.  I also saved the denim scraps and cut them into strings to possible throw a few string squares into the mix, too.  We will see.

#3 - I made a pieced strip for the backing of my baby quilt with my leftovers from the top, and finally found some perfect fabric for the binding.  Now I just need to piece the backing and get quilting!

 



 

 

Linking up to WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

This Is How Nerdy Quilters Get Excited

I was driving back from taking my kids to the pediatrician this morning when I remembered that a new quilt shop was opening in town not too far from the doctors office.  So I swung around, intending to just check and see where exactly it was, and if they had an opening date on the door. 

 

O. M. G., they were OPEN!!

 

So I riled all my boys up until they were squealing with delight about how excited they were to go to the new fabric store! 

 

Now, while it is still nothing like the quilt shops in my beloved Utah, compared to the selection I have here in northern-central Virginia, this place seems almost like an oasis!

 

I managed to pick up two charm packs.  One I need (really, I promise, I NEED it!) to use in my sisters Christmas gift but haven't been able to find locally, and one I just bought on a whim at checkout.

 

 

 

Actually, I have been looking for a Vintage Modern charm pack (which nobody in northern-central VA has, even though it has got to be one of the most popular fabric lines out there), but Marmalade will do for what I need it for.  And they had it in a mini charm pack, which is actually perfect.  I was going to chop the regular charm pack into quarters anyway!

 

The Joy charm pack I bought on a whim because A) it was too cute when I actually saw it in real life, and B) because I bought a Flurry layer cake last year for a tree skirt for my brother's Christmas gift, and then decided against it and went with something else.  So I've got this lonely old Layer Cake that needs to be used, and I though I could add to it from this charm pack once I decide what to do with it all.  (Currently I am thinking either a wall hanging, table runner or pillows.  We will see.)

 

So to recap, I am a nerdy quilter who gets way too excited when a new shop opens in town.

 

The End

 

Costumes of Halloween Past (and Present!)

In honor of a fun Halloween yesterday, I thought I would do a post of the costumes I have made in the past.

I have always loved dressing up for Halloween.  I have been making my own costumes since I was a teenager. 

I remember one year I was a cat and made my own cat ears out of poster board and crepe paper and a tail out of an old pair of black nylons.  I used lipstick to make my nose pink, and it didn't come all the way off.  I had a pink nose for the whole weekend.

Another year, I altered a long, (really lovely) hippy dress of my moms from the 70's into a Shakespearean gown.  One year a was a Greek Goddess with a handmade laurel wreath in my hair made from a wire coat hanger and tin-foil leaves that I hand cut and glued on, one at a time.

I made a Princess Leia costume one year out of an old bed sheet, cardboard (for the belt) and some cheap silver lame fabric.  That as the first time I ever covered buttons in fabric. I even dyed my blonde hair brown with some "wash-out" hair dye that didn't fully wash out for quite a few days.

And one time, I made a super girl costume with no sewing machine!  I was at college and didn't have access to a sewing machine.  I made the costume out of a long sleeved white t-shirt dyed blue, some felt Superman emblems that I cut out and glued together by hand, and some red costume satin that I made the skirt and cape out of with only a needle and thread and some stitch witchery.

Unfortunately, and don't ask me why, but I have almost no pictures from my Halloween Past!

Then I went through a phase where I didn't really have a reason to dress up.  So I didn't.

Once I had kids however, that changed, and I could embrace my love for dress-up once more!  And this time, I took pictures.

 

Here are a few of the Halloween costumes I have made in more recent years:

 

Angel and her Devils -2009

 

This was the twins first Halloween (2009).  I bought the red shirts and sweat pants, and made the devil hats and tails out of red cotton and black satin. 

 

I also made my angel costume, but unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of it, so you can;t see the whole thing.  It was a semi-sheer white fabric top with flowing sleeves, and a white, silver glittered satin skirt underneath.  I made the ties out of a star-patterned, silver lame-type fabric.

 

 

Below are the boys "official" Halloween pics from that year.  You can see the devil tail in the second one:

 

 

The following year (2010) I had just given birth to my third son, so I didn't make any costumes, although I did have to alter their store-bought ones, since they were a little too big.

 

2011 my boys were obsessed with pirates.  I decided to make their pirate costumes, rather than buy them.  Then I got the brilliant idea to make my youngest son a parrot:

 

 

 Pirate A & Baby Parrot - 2011

(This is the best photo I have of a pirate and the parrot together.  My boys were barely one and not-quite three at the time, so rounding them up for a group photo was pretty much impossible!)

THIS year (2012), my boys all wanted to be Superheroes.  Bummer.  I'm not even going to bother making Superhero costumes when you can get cool(cheap!) ones at the store.  However, that didn't stop me from some Halloween sewing!

 

My boys decided I was going to be a witch.  I figured, I will probably be a witch more than once more in my life, as it is a pretty great go-to costume, however uninspired it may seem.  So I decided to make a good, sturdy basic costume that will last me forever.

 

(You can read about the actual construction of the dress HERE )

 

 

The (Not-So) Wicked Witch - 2012

 

I hope everyone had a great Halloween.  We did!

 

As for me, it is now time to get serious about my Christmas projects. 



Witchy Woman

I finished my Halloween costume last night.  And here she is, my son-requested witch dress!

 

 

 It might not look like much yet, but I am wearing a black vinyl corset over it, which makes a big difference in the look.  This piece is just the under-dress.

I was inspired by this pin, which is actually a SCA costume piece.  I figured for a witch, I could make it all raggedy, like it had once been a nice dress, but has been worn waaaay too long.  In a swamp.  With all kinds of yucky witch-brew ingredients spilled on it.

I used Butterick pattern 3906.

Here are a few detail pictures:



I ragged up the bottoms of the sleeves.  I'm debating whether I should do the same thing to the very bottom of the dress.




I sewed the ruffle onto the outside of the skirt to give it more visual interest.

 

I put the black bias tape elastic casings on the outside of the sleeve, again, just to add a little more interest.  The casings were the most time consuming part of this really simple project!

 

I am pretty happy with how it has turned out so far.  I'll be honest though, I initially wanted to do a lot more with this costume, mainly adding a tie-on bustle.  I still might, but I have a lot of other projects I want/need to get to, so I'm thinking I am going to call this one done.  For now.

I made this dress with the idea of being able to use it for years and years.  And I have plenty of fabric left in case I decide to add to it next year, or whenever I decide to wear it again.

The fun part is that I can continue adding to this costume as much, and for as long as I want.

And of course, I will post pictures of the full costume all put together after Halloween!

WiP #25 - Groundhog Day

I feel like I am repeating the same post from last week, since it is about the same two projects.  However, I did finish one (or the top at least!) and made good progress on the second.  Next week I will definitely have moved on to some new projects, I promise!


I did finish my quilt top last week (and you get an awesome instagram photo of it):
 

 

On a side note, I really need to figure out a better set up for my photos.  I've been taking them on my back porch, cause it just seems to get the best light (sometimes).  But I have nothing out there to hang my quilts on to show the full tops.  I just hang them over the side of the rail.  Maybe I will have to have my husband rig up some kind of a line to pin them to when he gets home.

 

But anyway, back to the quilt, I did go out and get some backing fabric for it, but I am kindof stuck on what to use for binding.  I am thinking the darkest purple color that is in the quilt, but I don't want to do a solid.  Hmmm....decisions!

 

Of course, once the quilt top was done, I moved on to my Halloween costume.  It is coming together fairly quickly, especially now that I have the sleeves done!

 

 

Maybe you can't tell from this photo, but this is one of the finished sleeves.  The rest of the costume is still a hot mess!


This costume has been really easy since I am using knit (don't have to finish any of the raw edges).  And since it is supposed to be a raggy witch dress, I don't even have to hem it!

The hardest part so far as been sewing the casings onto the sleeves to run the elastic through.  And I shouldn't even say that was hard, just more time consuming than anything else, because of having to measure and pin the casing around the outside of the sleeve.

It has also been great practice for sewing on knits!  I've watched/read a couple of tutorials for sewing on knits and have been happy to practice on my costume, since I do want to try a few knit projects for my boys in the future.

Anyway, I have so little left to do, I am pretty sure I will have my costume finished tonight.

And I have added one new project to my Christmas WiP list.  But it is officially the last new item I am adding to the list for the rest of the year!

My Sister-in-Law, who requested doll quilts for my niece last year, requested some more dolly items this year.  I am more than happy to oblige, because I know the items I make for Lizzy (my niece) are used and well-loved!  So I bought some flannel and fleece to make some baby bibs (my Sister-in-Law's request), but that is just not enough, so I am also going to make some baby doll diapers.  And since I am making them for Lizzy, I think I will make some for my other niece, as well. 

WiP's Finished: 0

WiP's Worked on: 2

Christmas Projects:

 

4 Embroidered Key Fobs (Various gifts)

 

 

2 sets of Baby Doll bibs and diapers

 

Embroidered Tote (Mom's gift)

 

"Vintage Modern" gift (For my sister, referred to as "Vintage Modern", since she picked out the fabric. The rest, however, is a surprise!)

Secret Gift #2

 

Possible gifts, if I have time:

 

Capes for all my boys

 

Fleece Blankets for all my boys and husband

 

***

 

Linking up to WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced:

 

Halloween Barn Star

I finished a non-sewing project this week.  Say hello to my newest piece of Halloween decor!

 

 

I would explain how I did it, but there are so many tutorials online (just google "paper covered barn star tutorial"), I felt that would just be redundant.  These really are so simple to make, you almost don't even need a tutorial!

 

I found some papier mache barn stars online for cheap, so I ordered a couple.  Then I got the paper for 50% off at Hobby Lobby.  So in other words, this project is really budget friendly!

 

This is my first attempt at embellishing a barn star, and it was a good learning experience, as far as working with a papier mache base, rather than a metal one. 

 

I used Mod Podge for the entire project here, but I think next time, I will either spray it with a matte clear coat to finish it, or use a spray adhesive to stick the papers on, or both. 

 

I think the two layers of Mod Podge (one layer to stick the papers on, and one layer to seal it) was a little too much for the paper base, because I noticed after the top coat dried, the arms of the star started bowing out a little bit.  It is not noticeable looking at it, but I could definitely feel it.

 

I had initially thought I would add some sort of ribbon or other embellishment, but in the end, I didn't like the way it looked.  I felt like it made the star way too "cutesy" for Halloween decor.  So I left it plain, and I like it.

 

Next I am going to make a Christmas one.

 

 

For those who don't know, I actually worked at a Scrapbook store for a year while my husband was gone on a 15-month deployment, so I have a little bit of history in paper crafting.  (In fact, my former boss at the scrapbook store, Rita, has a darling website, Pink Polka Dot Creations.  You really should go check her out!) 

 

 And I have to say, I actually loved working with paper again! It's been awhile since I have, and it made me happy to play with it again.  So don't be surprised if you see some more paper crafting pop up on my blog a bit more, cause I have a few more things I'd like to try in the near future!

 

But until then, happy crafting!

 

(Linking to these parties:)
 

  

WiP #24 - And Some Randomness

I wish I had gotten more done this past week. 

 

I wish I had at least gotten my quilt top done. 

 

My husband was on a scout camp out Friday night, so I was able to piece all my coin stacks together.  And that was as far as I got until last night, when I squared (rectangled?) up all my stacks so I could sew the sashing on.  And that is what I am doing right now. 

 

 

It will be done by tonight, which is perfect, actually, cause I can't do any more on it until I get something to back it with.

 

Which means I can move onto my Halloween costume, which has seen no progress since last week.

 

And I can also start on some embroidery.  My mom requested a tote with some embroidery on it for her Christmas gift, so I am going to do a few practice items before I commit to her project.

 

I have a plain black dishtowel that I am going to add a Halloween pumpkin to, and an old apron that I am going to try to revive with a little embroidery for practice.

 

JoAnn's had their thread 50% off this week, so I thought it was the perfect time to go and stock up.

 

 

 

I also worked on my non-sewing project this week, a Halloween barn star.  It's not totally finished, but almost.  I will post a picture when it is done.

 

I also had a little craft time with my twins and made this:

 

 

And, speaking of my twins, they came home from preschool with these for me:

 

 

 

One of the advantages of having twins is that you get double the love when they make stuff for you at school!

 

Anyway, here are the stats for this week:

 

WiP's Finished: 0

 

WiP's Worked on: 1

 

Christmas Projects:

4 Embroidered Key Fobs (Various gifts)

Embroidered Tote (Mom's gift)

"Vintage Modern" gift (For my sister, referred to as "Vintage Modern", since she picked out the fabric. The rest, however, is a surprise!)

 Secret Gift #2

 

Possible gifts, if I have time:

Capes for all my boys

A "Minnie Mouse" dress for my niece

Fleece Blankets for all my boys and husband

 

Linking to Lee @ Freshly Pieced