Deconstructing one project to make another...

Years ago I started taking a class at the old Country Sew store in Elk Grove by the wonderful quilter and wearables artist Connie Horne. Basically it was to make a jacket over a sweatshirt (there are a zillion examples online if you Google it). Anyway part way through I realized I would never wear something that heavy and I quit making it. It languished in my craft/sewing room closet for many years until recently when I did another reclean up of the room. I pulled out the project bag and took another look at what I had done. BAM! The realization came that if I took the basted fabric pieces off the sweatshirt I could actually make a whole other (just cotton) shirt that I would love to wear.

So, according to my word for the year, explore, I decided to explore what I could do.

It was all done with Marcia Derse fabrics which I totally love and was happy to see I had put together more than I had remembered.

It turns out I had the front (above), the back (just that center fabric) and 2 sleeves (below) ready to go.

So now I just have to iron it all out and then figure out what pattern I will use to make a nice blousy top. Excited to finally get working on something with this fabric!

Enough already! Sit down and sew...

Let's face it. I have a ton of fabric! Quilting fabric, garment sewing fabric, weird "what can I do with this?" fabric... I got fabric!! And I have been lazy in this summer hear (well ok, I'm always lazy, just using summer heat as my excuse) and haven't been keeping to the #MakeNine plan. I have only made 2 pieces of clothing and 5 other (computer bags for my sister and BIL and 2 vinyl front bags for my niece and nephew, shopping bag for my cousin) this year. Not sure if I ever posted pics of the bags so here they are...

So I woke up this morning with renewed sewing energy. Cleared off my desk first so I could type this and now will go clear off my rather messy cutting table and get to picking out a pattern! Oy! I do have a fair number of patterns to choose from but I want to make a light summery top I think first. Off to brave the mess...

Trying to find a pattern...

Years ago it was easy to find a camp shirt pattern, you know, the easy to make comfy short sleeve shirt that is great for summers. Now, for women's patterns anyway, so hard to find -- must be out of fashion! Like I care! So I will have to go to JoAnn's and scour the pattern books to find one so I can make an aloha shirt out of the purple fabric for the CCC Ukulele group when we do a gig.

Ok that sounds way too professional -- we just play around at residential homes and a few other shows, like last week's ACC Big Day of Giving performance. There are some seriously good musicians and singers in the group then there are a few of us (me for sure) who just like to hang out in the back and strum. I am a total uke newbie -- just started it last year, but it is so much fun! You can see me hiding in the back by the window! LOL

Down to the wire...

Remember how I was going to make one garment for me each month in the #MakeNine2018 challenge?

Well I finally made it!

Decided to copy a tshirt I really liked, dolman (as opposed to set-in sleeves), loose fitting. So I had found this jersey at the little fabric shop near me (Hi-Fashion, link in the tab above) and decided to try using it. This was the first jersey I had sewn in a garment for myself (or at least in recent memory) so it was a little bit of a learning curve.

But I got to use both the serger and my regular machine for it (although it wasn't til I was done that I remembered I hadn't put in a stretch needle! Yikes!).

And it turned out pretty well I think for a first try:

All the hems are folded over hems, no neck facing so it was pretty easy. So now I have 2 tops, one a month in my new #MakeNine2018 challenge for myself!

If any of my old sewing pals are reading, feel free to post a photo of what you have been sewing in the comments below!

So here is the #MakeNine2018 tally so far:

1.             Scout Tee -- MADE. March 2018.

2.             Purple fabric Hawaiian top (for the CCC Ukulele group)

3.             Knit tee shirt -- MADE. April 2018.

4.             Sun Dress

5.             Shorts

6.             Long pants lounge wear (for around the house)

7.             Knit Top with ruched sides or sleeves

8.             Vest with separating zipper

9.             Woven fabric Shirt with buttonholes and buttons.

Added to pages (above)...

For reference, added the following info to the tab LOCAL FABRIC STORES:

Stores near me that have apparel fabrics:

Mihn Phat   M-Sa 9-6, Su 10-6   (916) 391-2288

6428 Stockton Blvd. at 47th Ave.

Sacramento, CA 95823

Hi-Fashion Fabrics  M-Sa 9:30-6, closed Su.   (916) 451-5648

4106 Franklin Blvd  (couple blocks south of Sutterville)

Sacramento, CA 95820

World Class Textiles  Su-F 10 - 7, Sat 10 - 5   (916) 455-4040

4701 Franklin Blvd.

Sacramento, CA 95820

Stores near me that are primarily quilt shops:

• Country Sewing Center (Elk Grove)
• Fabric Garden (Sacramento)
• Quilter's Corner (Sacramento)
• Runs With Scissors (Citrus Heights)
• Thistle Dew (Fair Oaks)

Other fabric/craft stores near me:

• JoAnn's 

Getting organized and sewing...

Aside from being in a teeny tiny room to sew, I have way too much stuff underfoot which makes it difficult to move around. We recently put in a wider ironing board too which narrows the space to come into the room. I have been pouring over Instagram and Pinterest for ideas on how to reorganize my small space. Slowly but surely...

On another note, a couple of weeks ago I finally started making the pillows for the new grey sofa we got. We had gone to Berkeley to Stonemountain and Daughter and Bay Quilts where I found some delicious Japanese fabrics, some for clothing and some for making pillows. Then at IKEA we found pillow inserts so I just had to start sewing!

More to come with those!

Then last week I went to one of the small Asian fabric shops near me, Mihn Phat Fabrics, and found these lovelies! The middle one is jersey and the other 2 are a cotton/poly that feels and drapes like rayon. Cheap too! $4 or $5 a yard for 54-60 inch widths!

I have started making that same Scout Tee top (from last post) in the right hand fabric. This time I am making the sleeves more open/flouncy and the whole top a little longer.

Then yesterday we had to go to the Roseville Costco so I could get glasses frames for my new prescription. The Costco near me didn't have any small enough. Apparently I have a small head with eyes closer together so I need a size 49 frame. Anyway, since we were going to Roseville anyway, we also went to a Wearable Art pop-up shop that was being held in the Lincoln Public Library. I found this cute bag which had been a class sample for one of the talented women in the group (Mary Boalt). Picked it up for $7. The style is awkward so I won't probably use it much but since I had been wanting to paint and mark on cloth more, it gives me a lot of ideas on ways to paint on canvas then make it into something. Next week I will be at my art friend Leslie's house and we are going to play with painting on canvas. Nice inspiration!

If any of my old artsy readers are still around, I would love to hear what projects you have been working on lately! Feel free to leave a comment/photo in the comments section below!

Hashtags and sewing...

Talk about Full Circle... when I was very young I used to make doll clothes at my grandmother's house (I think I grew out of that one quickly), and then in junior high and high school made a lot of my own clothes. A purple mini-shirt and a brown velvet maxi-shirt come to mind immediately although I know there was other stuff I sewed back then as well. Just cannot remember anymore!

Then, a few years ago, and I decided to start making my own clothes.

 

I posted about the washi top HERE. I have worn that top several times and am happy when people compliment me on it. But then time passed and I didn't sew much else (aside from a little quilting and home stuff like placemats).

Flash forward to now and I have rediscovered not only my excitement about wanting to sew but also how motivating a few YouTube and Blog challenges can be! Enter the hashtag! While watching some random YouTube video about sewing, the idea of #2018MakeNine (also labeled as #MakeNine2018 in some blogs or videos so I am just using both) came up. Again. Then again. So I looked into it and discovered a whole world of people determined to make their own clothes this year.

I searched YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram... all with those hashtags and found all sorts of ideas, explanations, and some cool clothes people were making. I decided to jump onto the not too fast moving train and just start in, even though at the time it was mid-March. But luckily, making 9 items within a year's time was still easily do-able.

One of the things people were doing however that I had not done was to plan ahead. What were they going to make in their Make Nine? So I spent some time this weekend thinking about it and came up with two ways to think about it. I have a list of the 9 items I want to make and along the way, came up with Ten Techniques that I want to re-learn or learn for the first time. A lot of sewing for me is review because way back when (teens and 20s) I learned how to do most things, but then just let it all go. So I am finding once I review a technique it comes back to me easily.

I still do not have specific patterns attached to my list of Make Nine but at least I know what I want to make. Here is my list of #2018MakeNine more or less in the order I want to make them:

1. Scout Tee -- MADE, photo below!
2. Purple fabric Hawaiian top (no specific pattern, just what I want -- for the CCC Ukulele group)
3. Knit tee shirt
4. Sun Dress
5. Shorts
6. Long pants lounge wear (for around the house)
7. Knit Top with ruched sides or sleeves
8. Vest with separating zipper
9. Woven fabric Shirt with buttonholes and buttons.

This is the Scout Tee top I made for my first #2018MakeNine.

Here are the sewing techniques I want to work on this year:

1. Sewing in a knit facing (round collar)
2. Sewing a knit V-neck
3. Sewing a woven fabric V-neck
4. Fancy seams: French seams, Hong Kong seams, Flat fell seams
5. Using the twin needle for top-stitching
6. Sewing darts
7. Ruching (gathering)
8. Making buttonholes
9. Sewing a blind hem on both sewing machine and serger
10. Using zippers in clothing: separating, invisible, pants closures.

I am sure more will be added to that list as I stumble upon something new!

Hamentaschen and some sewing...

I did these last week but am finally catching up on the blogging side of things... 

Ok they are pretty lopsided but they were still yummy. I love this time of year because the spring makes me think of hamentaschen, the 3 cornered treats that come out around Purim. I haven't made them for a few years because for a while Solo apricot filling had high fructose corn syrup and I don't want to eat that. Now they don't but the formula is changed. It is no longer that thick rich with apricots filling, but more of a gelatinous pie filling. Still it was what I had so I made them. I morphed a couple of recipes from online but mostly went from THIS one but they needed a little more flour and some baking powder.

And not only cooking... I did some sewing!

I took this WASHI dress class at Country Sew and here is the tunic version I made:

I took the class because there were some dressmaking skills in it I wanted to learn/relearn:  shirring, including hand rolling the bobbin with elastic thread, fitting darts (which I hate), and finishing the inside for a more professional look. I used her online sleeve addition too because I didn't like the little sleeve that came with it. I serged most of the seams and understitched the neckline as well as topstitched it. I forgot to serge the sleeves and when I look at it I can see the difference between nicely finished seams and those seams. Learning curve!

Time to get going on this...

Been wasting time with computer games and avoiding all the projects I have in front of me for the last few weeks... just wanted to get some reminders down for myself here so I would have to make more of a commitment to myself to do them!

But here is what is going on -- 

1. The purple and green lilacs fabrics will now be a table runner per my sister's request rather than a lap quilt. 

2. I have decided to move my sewing area back into my art/crafts room. I have not been doing a lot of paper arts lately and I am tired of not having a table to eat dinner on (it is covered with sewing stuff). So I will start this project this weekend  -- step one is to clear off the messy table in my art room!

3. I want to make some lavender eye pillows for yoga class. I have one but to me it is too heavy, so I wanted to make a lighter one. 

4. I bought a new sewing machine! It's a Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 960Q. But I don't have it yet! I got it right before a big Viking trade show and the order just went in last Friday so maybe another week or so. Photos when I get it! It is a top of the line machine (for me) and has twice as large of a neck/throat than my little Baby Lock Grace. This should help a lot when free-motion quilting. Which leads me to my next item...

5. I am going to start on what I have been calling my Japanese taupe quilt. I am not sure it really follows the ideas of that style, but it is various shades of taupe and has some Japanese fabrics so, good enough for me! I may even try a few of the more complicated blocks from my Japanese taupe quilt designs books.

One finished and a new one started!

I am pleased with myself for FINISHING a project I started! I am notorious for starting a gazillion projects (from taking classes or just on my own) and then never finishing them. Various reasons excuses, but mostly I lose interest and get started on something else that is more fun. This time I was determined to finish the little table runner we started in LisAnn's class at Country Sew (starting photos last entry -- learning how to machine quilt and add applique). I jsut needed to review a little how to do the binding and then how to finish the binding (thanks You Tube for those videos!)...

Had to remember how to add the binding strips together. THIS is a great Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial video about binding that I use!

 Here is the finished table runner laid out on my bed because at the moment I don't have a cleared off table to put it on!

And this shows the back -- some bright green with sort of yellowish-tan dots fabric I happened to have that went well with all the front colors. I think next time I would make a skinnier binding. I used 2.5 inch strips for the binding but since it is so thin, I think just a 2" binding strip (or at most 2.25 strip) would do so the binding isn't so large in the back. But since I don't really plan on using the back I suppose in the end it doesn't really matter!

So now that one project is done I can start on another one:  making something with a lovely 10" squares "layer cake" (all fabrics from a particular line) that I loved: Fresh Lilacs. I got the layer cake when I was in Oregon last year and never used it. I love greens and purples together so got it for "whenever"... and apparently whenever is now!  I am going to make a small quilt throw -- smallish for a quilt, something to just toss over when it is a little chilly. I think the finished quilt will be around 45" x 73". 

Here are the squares sorted into the lighter colorways.

And then the darker ones...

And now I have but and sewn them together (forgot to take a photo of this step) and now on to mixing and matching them up...

It is the same basic idea that I used when I made the Ajay's quilt a few years ago and was featured on another of the Missouri Star Quilt tutorial videos called the Double Slice quilt.

Then all the blocks will be mixed and matched to make the quilt, like I did for Ajay's quilt before. HERE is that one all spread out while I wonder what to do next!

Where I am now with this lilacs quilt:  sewing the blocks together (2 sets of slices) then will start rearranging and placing. More photos to follow!

A bit of sewing...

and a present I bought for myself...

First off, I needed to make a name tag for the quilt guild meetings so I took a quilted scrap piece, folded it over wonky style, stamped my name, and left threads dangling since I often have a thread or two on me these days.

Then I wanted to practice machine quilting with my walking foot so I made a little mug rug out of colors from a charm pack (5" squares) I had.  The waviness on top went away after I pressed it more. I decided to serge the outer borders to keep with the more modern feel of it.

And I had totally forgotten my new polka dot cup so when I went to get a cup for tea, realized I had made that mug rug exactly for this cup! It worked!

And then since I had been so good about cleaning the kitchen while the house was being painted last week AND since they were on sale for 60% off or some crazy thing from Craftsy that day, I bought myself 2 Kaffe Fassett shot cotton fat pack (1/4 yard) bundles.  I love the shot cottons -- they are solids but the warp and weft threads are different colors (from nearly the same to wildly different) and that gives them a wonderful sheen and woven quality. Not 100% sure what I will use these for yet but it was such a deal I couldn't pass it up!  62 lovely quarter yard pieces... I am sure I will think of something!

In a sewing mood...

Lately I have been in a sewing mood, so I started rearranging my sewing space in the kitchen, bringing in some bins to live closer to the machine and adding a new Costco table for a cutting area. This is all makeshift until I can do more living room decluttering and rearranging to have my sewing area take over, I mean... be in there.

I had out my Day of the Dead quilt blocks for the Circle of Nine quilt in that photo. HERE is where I described that quilt.  I finished those and now have 5 out of the 9 blocks. The bigger one with the black border is the center one. The other 2 have 2 of the same block and are for around the sides.

And then I made some curtains for the window above the sink...

and yesterday starting gathering fabrics for the next Modern Block of the Month club class on Wednesday over at Country Sewing Center:

These are for the larger block. Each month we make 2 blocks. The smaller one fabrics are cut and bagged for class. I still need to cut the fabrics to size for this block. I had to see them together for a while to be sure they went how I wanted together. I think they will work, so now to just cut them and I will be ready for class!

What a fun week it has been!

And a busy one!

First I want to welcome new followers to the blog who found me though the Grow Your Blog Party from last week! It has been a pleasure reading your comments and finding more new blog friends with similar interests. I really can feel the "web-ness" of the WWW when we do things like the blog party, which connects people from all over through a desire to share all the fun things we do.

Then, last week was a week of a lot of sewing! The week before I finally bought myself a Baby Lock Eclipse serger (after thinking about one for at least 6 months)...

I had one serger lesson before I took LisAnn's Serger Club Tiered Skirt class at Country Sew and now I can very quickly and easily make skirts...

What I love about the serger (also called an overlock machine) is that it does several things at the same time in the sewing process. It is essentially a finishing machine (all those weird stitches you see at the edges of your clothing seams, those are overlocked -- keeps fabric from fraying), but it also can gather and of course it cuts the edges of your stitches so instead of 5 or 6 steps with a regular sewing machine to make gathers (pin, baste, gather, stitch, take out basting, trim seams), it does all that in one step. In the class we learned how to make the casing for elastic (like a blind hem for you sewers out there), how to figure out the fabric for the tiers, and for the hem, a nice rolled hem stitch. 

And then yesterday, I went to Oakland for an all day workshop at the lovely A Verb For Keeping Warm yarn and fabric shop. The workshop was to learn the basics of the Alabama Chanin  hand-sewn method of stenciling, stitching, and cutting a garment. We made a simple bandana sampler as a beginner project. 

Here is a section of three ways of stitching around the cut or stenciled areas...

All of Alabama Chanin clothing is made on jersey knit (think t-shirt material). I had never actually worked with jersey before so I discovered how difficult it is to cut when I was making the squares to bring to the workshop. I guess it takes a little getting used to. And lest you think oh, t-shirt material, how plain can that be, check out her collection. Keep in mind these are all hand-sewn and take weeks to make... and cost thousands of dollars if you want the full embroidered beaded clothing! 

Coming back to quilting...

Maybe it is the colder months but I find myself drawn to working with fabric more in the winter. And now that I have more time, I happened to look at the class schedule at Country Sew and found a couple of quilting classes I wanted to take. I am not a very proficient quilter, having only made a few quilted things before.

This is the first quilt I made for one of my teacher friend's new baby about 2 years ago:



Now I am working on some separate blocks mostly to learn various techniques, such as this one from this month's Modern Quilting Block Party:

Each month we learn a different block (with a slightly more modern quilting edge, not your grandmother's quilt blocks) and I guess eventually put them all together in one quilt. Except this one is going to become a table mat once I quilt it and put a binding on it. It is about 12 inches square. Turns out I happened to have some dinner candles in these colors and I thought it would make a nice addition to the table for those rare occasions I put my sewing stuff away and we eat at the table!

And the one I am having fun with now that will make up a whole quilt is called Circle of Nine and is from a 3 week class at Country Sew.  This is the original pattern of the quilt (from the book):

Last week we learned how to make the wonky squares for the middle.  This week I think we are learning how to do the background and next week, who knows? Probably how to put it all together and finish it. But... it is the "homework" that is killing me! It is taking a lot more time than I thought to cut the strips and sew 8 more of these funky blocks! I like the modern "wonkiness" of the blocks -- you don't have to worry about measuring or making perfect seams!  The nice thing is that the blocks are huge -- nearly 13" square, so it only takes the 9 to make up most of the quilt.

My theme is for a Day of the Dead quilt. I have had this fabric for a long while and thought it would be fun to use it in a quilt. The centers are fussy cut from the fabric, then the large border (grey print in the book pattern) will all be the Day of the Dead fabric. The colorful squares in the pattern are going to all be black for my quilt, so it will be a lot of black and white. I am hoping the reality looks as good as the one in my imagination!


Linked to: Can I Get a Whoop Whoop!

Making a sweatshirt jacket...

And finally using some of the gorgeous Marcia Derse fabrics I bought a couple of years ago on an Oregon trip. Marcia Derse fabrics have such wonderful colors and designs. I thought maybe I would make a quilt with these fabrics so I was holding on to them in my stash, but then I decided I wanted to wear them. When a class came along at my local quilt store I decided to use them for that. The premise is you start with a larger than normal sized sweatshirt then piece fabrics to it to make up a jacket.

This will be the front. I am a little behind the others in the class (which just ended today after 3 sessions) so I have yet to actually finish it. I thought I would post the fabrics now then show the finished jacket when it finally happens.

I am not sure why sewing is so difficult for me. I take too much time when others are just zooming away. I guess the more I do it the faster and better I will get, but I have always been a little hesitant about what I do when sewing. Something else to work on in the coming time I have now that I am retired!

It needed some Day of the Dead ornaments...

So I started with this...

and made a couple of prototype ornaments...

Basic idea ok, sewn and stuffed with batting. Now for some tweaking...

Sari Ribbon...

First I saw some on someone else's craft blog... Then I found some on Etsy... next thing I know I am the proud owner of a bunch of gorgeous sari ribbons...

Dreaming of ways to use it in my fabric art...

Apparently I am a year behind the curve. Already found a Sari Ribbon Blog Hop online from last year and a whole lot of Pinterest links and even You Tube videos and online shops with projects and so much more! I had never even heard of sari ribbon until a couple of weeks ago when I saw a small package of it in a rubber stamp store of all places! When I got home I Googled it and found some on Etsy and here we are, me and my sari ribbon!

Out of the Box Circles...

On Thursday I went to the Country Sewing Center for the "Out of the Box" art quilting/sewing class. This time we made cut up circles:

Here is a close-up of the green background one:

I really enjoyed making these and got a lot of ideas for what to do with them... mostly thinking of a fabric bookcover. I will be playing with these ideas and will post what happens!
UPDATE: Found out where these come from! Check out Sandi Cummings and her Thinking Outside the Blocks book!