Category: Sewing

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Heroes of March – Day 31, Finally the Dresses

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Super dresses!

We are the champions of the universe!

I actually had these dresses done last weekend, and the Pixie and I were able to wear them to Easter Sunday service. Then spring break started up and I suddenly became very busy with digging up my yard. Yesterday, my best friend and her husband came over and helped me build garden boxes for my side yard. I’ve got seedlings growing in one window sill. Okay, four seedlings and plenty of mildew, but something is growing! The plan is after April 15th, to plant either seedlings that I grew or seedlings I end up having to buy, and then see if I can get some vegetables to grow. However, in addition to being a super seamstress, I’m also a villainous black thumb, so I am my own worst enemy in this venture.

Anywho, the dresses got done! I made the Pixie’s dress with some of the same fabric I used for mine. Her’s is more straight up red, white, and blue, so we bought Captain America socks to go with it. You can’t see it in this picture, but I’m wearing Wonder Woman socks with my Wonder Woman high-top Converse. We both got a lot of complements on our outfits, so I’m very happy with how this all turned out!

But now I’m going to bed, because gardening is hard work and I’m tired. See you later on tomorrow, hopefully!

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Heroes of March – Days 03-24, Rising from the Ashes

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I HAVE SURVIVED GIRL SCOUT COOKIE SEASON!!!!!!!!!!

Although at points, I wasn’t sure that I would.

I did a little bit of work here and there on the dress. Remember the dress? The one I wanted to make for myself so I would have something cool to wear on Easter Sunday? The dress made with the “Femme Power” superheroes on it?

Yeah, that dress.

So I managed to buy some fabric for the bodice, a lovely light blue with white stars all over it. And once I bought that, I realized that the bright red fabric I had originally picked out for the waistband was too overpowering for the other fabrics. So I spent a couple days searching through fabric stores to see what I could find. And eventually I discovered a red-striped seer-sucker that looked perfect for the job!

The next issue was the star patch that I wanted for the waistband. I wanted a big yellow star to put mid-center in the waistband, because the shape of the waistband reminded me of Wonder Woman’s headband (which has a star!). But for whatever reason, every craft and fabric store in this area seems to have quit carrying embroidered patches of any kind except for letters and numbers. And because I was so busy with cookie sales this month, I didn’t get around to ordering a star patch.

However, I did some digging through my sewing supplies, and I found a small yellow star patch. So I put all of these things together yesterday and today, and I got…  

Dress bodice

Ta-daaaaaah!

 

What do you think? The softer colors for the waistband and the bodice work very well with the colors of the super hero fabric. And I think the smaller star works pretty well.

I plan to finish the dress tomorrow morning. I have enough of the star and stripes fabric to make a dress for Pixie as well, so as soon as I finish one dress, I’m getting started on that dress!

Any way, I’m going to bed now. More super hero work tomorrow 🙂

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Heroes of March – Day 02, Fantastic Fabric

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I spent today pinning the pattern and cutting out the skirt for the AMAZING DRESS OF DESTINY!!! (That’s what I’m calling it today, anyway.) 

Pattern and pieces!

Pinning and cutting is the hardest part of sewing.

 

The skirt is extremely full, so I only had enough Femme Power fabric for that. I plan to use the red fabric for the waistband. That just leaves the top, and I haven’t decided what I’m going to use for that yet. I plan to check my local craft store tomorrow to see what they have. I want something that works with the colors of the Femme Power fabric without overwhelming it. But I don’t want just a plain white fabric top. I’ll find something.

Anyhoo, that’s what got done today! I’ll see what I can get done tomorrow!

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Heroes of March – Day 01, Super Dress

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Super Dress stuff!

Behold, I shall make myself a super dress!

So I need to make myself a dress for Easter, and it needs to be an AWESOME DRESS. A SUUUUUUUPER DRESS!!!!

Because if I have to sit through Mass yet again this year, I want to look good.

So you can see the fabric I chose. The main body of the dress will be the “Femme Power” fabric, with the red used for the waist band. The shape of the waist band matches the shape of Wonder Woman’s belt perfectly. I want to put a big yellow star on the waistband, so I’ll have to hunt that down.

I also want to crochet a red bolero jacket to go with this dress. As for shoes, I already have the perfect shoes – Wonder Woman Converse sneakers. This will be the ultimate perfect outfit for Easter Sunday.

In other news, I’m still working through Girl Scout cookie season. It’s a long, slow, slog, and I find that the best way for me to relax during this time is to… Play the ukulele.

I don’t know why, but the longer cookie season lasts, the more I want to play the ukulele. I have a seafoam green soprano ukulele, and I can play some simple songs with it. And since we’ve been watching a lot of Steven Universe and Adventure Time here, Princess and I have been looking up chord tabs for songs from those shows. And now Princess has ordered a ukulele for herself, another soprano but in turquoise blue.

Anyway, I plan to spend tomorrow cutting out pattern pieces and pinning them to fabric, then playing ukulele and delivering more cookies. Because that’s the life I live during this crazy season of Girl Scout cookies. Yay.

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February Cats – Days 26-29, Of Cookies and Cats

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I had really hoped to post more during this month, but given that we had a couple bouts of stomach flu and cookie sales going on, I think I did the best I could.

I did NOT finish Catbug, and that’s okay. I will schedule a catch-up month, probably April, to finish off him and a few other projects I have lying around the house. I did, however, finish the cat bolster pillow for Princess, and I finished this little gem for myself…

 

Cat Hat!

The cat IS the hat…

 
I picked up this pattern back in October. It’s a Simplicity pattern and it includes a fox, wolf and bear hat in addition to the cat version. It also has very simple patterns for wrist and leg warmers. I really just wanted the hat though, especially once I found the blue leopard-print fleece. I knew that with cookie season coming up, I’d be spending a lot of time standing outside in the freezing cold, and this year I wanted something stylish that would keep my ears plenty warm. This hat pattern fit the bill perfectly. It not only covers my ears, but it also extends into a couple of scarf tails that have pockets at the ends. And the pockets have paw-print appliques! So I got to practice the satin stitch with my ancient Singer sewing machine again, and this time it cme out pretty good 🙂

And I just realized that I never posted ANYTHING about the cat bolster I made for Princess’ birthday, so here’s a picture of that as well!

 

Cat Bolsters!

The black one is Lucky, the green one is Clover!

 
You may recognize the black cat bolster from the “Creature Comforts” theme back in January. He’s mine. Princess wanted a green cat, so we named hers Clover.

I have spent the last couple days thinking about what I want to do for March. I need to make myself a dress for Easter Sunday, and I have a couple of other projects that I’ve been thinking about that I’d like to do. The fabric for the dress is printed with DC heroes on it, including Wonder Woman, and the other projects I’m thinking of are also related to heroes from comics, TV, and the movies, so I’m thinking the theme should be “Heroes” or “Girl Power.” I’ll ask Pixie and Princess tonight which theme title they prefer.

But that’s it for this month’s “Cats” theme. Here’s hoping I’ll get back to regular posts soon (We still have a couple weeks of cookie sales left to go, so bear with me).

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Cats Theme – Day 01, Let’s Start with a Plan

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Kitty nap time!

Her Majesty Queen Marmalade is too busy napping to bother with a plan.

 
I started doing creative themes back in October, and none of them have had a plan yet beyond “make something related to a theme!” This month, I want to see what happens if I have a plan. I have a few projects in mind that I would like to make for the “Cats” theme, and they are…

  • A crochet Catbug pillow
  • Another cat bolster, this one for Princess’ birthday
  • A cat hat with built-in scarf and pockets
  • Crochet a Franken-kitty for Pixie
  • Maybe make a needle-felted Mitchiri Neko

That’s four projects for the next four weeks. The Catbug pillow is actually already started. I’ve finished two big parts, but need to get the rest done. So I’m thinking that tomorrow I will clean up my yarn stash and unfinished projects and pull that project out and get back to it!

Beyond that, I’m keeping expectations low. February is a busy month for Girl Scouts, with cookies being delivered this month.  So we’ll see how I do.

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Creature Comforts – Day 24, A Woman and her Couch

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Pillows and Blanket!

I am creating the coziest place on Earth!

 
This is my couch. I have had this couch since grad school, which was almost 25 years ago. We replaced the couch cushions on it last summer, but little else has changed until now. The pillows I had originally made for the couch all fell apart. The various afghans my mother made for me have all been stolen by my children. But the couch abides. It is my couch, and I love it.

Three years ago, I tore my right ACL and meniscus cartilidge, and as a result, I spent almost 6 months straight on my couch, first recovering from the injury, then the surgery, and then the physical therapy. I realized then that I never wanted to be parted from my couch, and that my couch deserved the best of everything I could ever give it. I’m just sorry it’s taken me so long to make my couch such nice pillows and a blanket. The blanket should be done by the end of the week. The Jake pillow was just finished today. Next month, I may add another pillow, a cat bolster, perhaps. I spend a lot of time on my couch, and so it deserves every luxury I can give it.

Yes, I love my couch. Of course, I also love my bed, and it’s late, so I think I’m going to go there now. Good night, couch!

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Creature Comforts – Day 21, Appliques Are DONE, Dude!

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Jake Pillow Appliques!

Yay! Appliques are done! Now what?

 
Well, they aren’t perfect, but the appliques are done. Once again, I had issues with the satin stitching. Sometimes I couldn’t get the needle to go through, sometimes the bobbin thread would snarl up. A couple times the thread going through the needle just frayed and split during stitching. Honestly, I don’t know if the problem is my needle (I put a brand new heavy-duty needle in before starting this!), or if the problem is the thread (one brand seems to fray more than the other), or if the problem is just my ancient sewing machine.

Actually, I can test that last theory. Princess wants a cat bolster like the one I made for myself at the beginning of the month, and Pixie has a brand new Singer sewing maching. It’s a basic model, nothing fancy, but it’s brand new and it has a drop-in bobbin, unlike my machine. I may try doing this on her machine the next time around.

And that time will probably come next month. Thinking ahead, I want February’s theme to be “Cats.” We have 3 cats in our household, and I have been thinking about making stuff for them. Then there’s the cat bolster that Princess wants, and Pixie probably wants one too. And I have some paintings of cats in progress, so I have plenty of things to work on this coming month.

Fair warning though. Next month Girl Scout cookie orders come. In, so I will be spending lots of time delivering cookies, as well as working at cookie booths. February is the most brutal month of the year for me. Add to it the fact that it’s also the month of Princess’ birthday and things get very crazy very quickly. I’m already having problems posting every night. Next month may get even worse, but I promise, I will do my best, because you know what? These creative challenges matter to me! I don’t know if anybody else really cares, but I do, so there.

Good night!

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Creature Comforts – Day 19 & 20, Satin Stitch Takes FOREVER!

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Jake Pillow!

These eyes take forEVAR to stitch!

 
I finally managed to sneak in some sewing time today. I know it doesn’t look like I got very far, but I’ve gotten one eye completely appliqued and the other is half-way done. Doing the satin-stitching on these appliques takes a lot of time. I am getting better at it, but this is not a quick thing to do. I finally got a larger needle (a 110/18) and switched to what seems to be a sturdier brand of thread. I also spent some time this afternoon doing some maintenance on my old Singer sewing machine. That sewing machine was given to me when I was about twelve years old, I think. It used to be set into a table that could be folded up to a small side table when the sewing machine wasn’t being used, but the table fell apart a couple years ago and now I just keep the sewing maching on a folding table I bought from Wally World.

I plan to finish the appliques tomorrow. I don’t know if I’ll get any further than that until this weekend. It’s shaping up to be a very busy week, and next week will be just as bad, so I’m working on projects a little bit at a time now.

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Creature Comforts – Day 16 & 17, Blanket and Jake

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Once again, I have to stuff two days into one post. January and February are brutally busy times for me, thanks to Girl Scout Cookie sales and Scout Sunday activities. I can get the daily challenge work done, but sometimes I get it done so late at night that I’m too tired to write up even a short blog post. So here are the efforts from today and yesterday!

First, an update on the giant, monstrous granny square blanket…

Granny squares!

Granny is looking good!

 
That’s two rows of granny squares stitched together. The hardest part of this project is weaving in all the ends. Each square has ends to be woven in, and then when I stitch individual squares together to make a strip, I have to weave in those ends as well. That’s a lot of work. However, I spent most of yesterday at a science fiction convention with the kids, and that actually gave me plenty of time to get these two rows all stitched up.

Now here’s today’s work…

Jake the Dog in progress!

I love Jake the Dog!

 
This is the second pillow I’m making for my couch. I love Adventure Time, and I especially love Jake, so I had to make a pillow of him, because you just KNOW he could be a pillow if he wanted to.

I’m going back to work on the granny square blanket. Hopefully I’ll have more of that and of the Jake pillow to show you tomorrow.