Year in review

"Another fresh new year is here...
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest...
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!"
~William Arthur Ward

I've seen a few people post their sewing accomplishments for the year, so I thought I would do the same. Here are my sewing highlights for 2008:

August

• began my sewing adventure and started a sewing blog
• made butterick 3772 for my nieces
  
• finished the Christmas stocking that I started years and years and years ago
  

September

• made Simplicity pj pattern 9292 for my nieces that sadly didn't fit
  

• made a tiger bag for my mom's birthday
  
• went to the New York garment district for the first time

October

• made penguin costumes for the twins
  

November

• finished the muslin of simplicity 4193 skirt and jacket for my mom
  
• made fabric bird Christmas ornaments for a blogger's ornament exchange

December

• no sewing to report. Spent the month taking part in other Christmas crafts.

Hopfully the new year will bring more sewing. Goodness knows I have several projects I need to get to / finish.

Penguin Progress Finale (lots of pics)!

Riddle: Who's the penguins' favorite aunt?

Trick-or-treat!

And the winner of Floyd the Florida penguin is Wendi! Congratulations Wendi!

Answer: Aunt-arctica Christine! :D

Penguin progress Part 9 and penguin giveaway!

Riddle: What do you get when you cross a penguin with an alligator?

They're done! 2 Penguin costumes are in the mail on their way to Alabama to two twin two-year olds for halloween. I sure hope they, and their parents like them, and that they fit. I think they're cute. Here's a picture of one finished. I should have pictures of the girls in them this weekend.

(and I know I've already posted these pictures of the hood but I wanted to post the whole costume together.)



Since I had a bit more penguin scrap leftover I decided to make a postcard as a giveaway! This is Floyd the Florida penguin. He's come out to play because it's been in the 40s this week at night... in Florida...in October...


...but it won't stay that way for long so Floyd is looking for a new home, maybe yours! Leave a comment to this post and on Monday I will randomly pick a new home for Floyd from those who entered. Make sure to leave an email or link so that I can contact you in case you're the winner! Good luck!

Answer: I don't know, but don't try to fix its bowtie!

Past Project Wednesday

"Methinks it is a token of healthy and gentle characteristics, when women of high thoughts and accomplishments love to sew; especially as they are never more at home with their own hearts than while so occupied."
~Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun, 1859


I needed a gift for a friend who sews - actually my friend from after the dress who started *me* sewing. So, I felt like it had to be a good sewing kind of gift, and since I really enjoy making gifts, I made this pincushion

side 1


side 2



following this tutorial . It was actually pretty easy. I made a couple of them, and lo and behold decided I liked this first one I made. Why did I make a couple you might ask? Well first of all after I finished the first I learned how to do invisible stitches. Since the first one had my own version of a closing stitch and I wasn't real happy with it, I felt I needed to make another. Also, the first version was pink (her favorite color) and white on one side and green and white on the other
so I thought I'd try to make an all pink and white one. Ultimately though, I liked the contrast of the pink and green, so I decided to fix the closing stitch, and give the first one.

Finally, I made shrinky dink pins from this tutorial using the graphic of Gwen's designer label to put in the pin cushion. For the pins I used inkjet shrinky dink plastic.

This is the final product.

Past project Wednesday (one day late)

"Christmas, in its final essence, is for grown people who have forgotten what children know. Christmas is for whoever is old enough to have denied the unquenchable spirit of man."
~ Margaret Cousins

One of my other hobbies (besides sewing) is counted cross-stitching. I've been cross stitching since I was a teen. I typically take on huge intricate projects and since my time and motivation for it comes in spurts, it usually takes years and years for a project to finally be finished.

I started a Christmas stocking for myself around 8 years ago. I finally finished the cross-stitching on it this past spring and I got around to sewing it all together tonight. Here's the finished product.





By the way, I don't usually like making things for myself. It gives me more joy to make things for others, and this is one of the only things I've ever made for myself.

Project picture post

My sister decided to put the girls in the pjs and take a picture even though they're, as she put it, a TAD too big.





They'll have to wait till next year to wear them I think. :)

Past project Wednesday

My most recently finished project was two cute pajama sets for my twin nieces. Again I was able to find fabric that was similar (giraffes and elephants) but different colors. I'm afraid they're actually going to be too big on them right now, so it may be a while before I can post a picture of them wearing it, but I promise (assuming my sister sends me one) to do so when I can. In the meantime here's the finished sets.




You can read more about it here

Tiger bag complete

"Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier 'n puttin' it back in." ~Will Rogers

I finished the bag I was making for my mom for her birthday.

My mom teaches at a high school where the mascot is the tiger and their colors are orange and brown. I think it will make a cute school bag for her.

The inside has a big pocket and a divided pocket.

The details:
This bag was quite a project and I only got it done in a weekend because I pretty much did nothing else the entire weekend. Next time I think I'll give myself a little more time for gift making.

The bag is formed by the patchwork layer (cotton fabric), a layer of buckram, 2 layers of fusible fleece, and another cotton fabric for the lining. Sewing all of that together was a bit difficult for my machine. I broke the needle 3 times. One time because the lining had bunched up so it was extra thick. Once I realized what had happened I had to take the stitches out and redo it which was a HUGE pain considering I was using a small stitch length. Also, getting all of those layers under the foot was a feat in itself. I think my machine is a bit grumpy after all that.

I hand stitched the binding on the top, and that was quite a chore, though I eventually got the hang of making the slip stitch and it got much easier. Overall I'm pretty satisfied with it despite the fact that more swear words were used in the making of this project than all of the others combined. :) I don't think I'd make it again necessarily, but I'm glad I tried it once.

Well my quote works two-fold. There's a slight chance (very slight) that my mom might read this and the cat will be out of the bag, and also one of the kittens decided to take a nap in it and I managed to snap a picture before she hopped out.

Past project Wednesday

So I was going to transfer all of my posts from my old blog website http://andsewitbegins.livejournal.com/ to here, but I finally decided it just wasn't worth it, and that instead I would just post my finished projects and add a link to the post from the old website. So here's the first.

My very first solo project:

Butterick 3772.

For and as modeled by my twin nieces.

As you can see, I made 2 using a denim fabric for one and a corduroy fabric for the other that both had the same embroidery on it. I really loved this because it allows them to be dressed similarly but not exactly the same seeing as they are, a bit obviously, not identical twins.

I have to say, this was a very good first project. It was fairly simple, but had some elements that were a bit challenging for a first-timer.

It really allowed me to practice basic techniques like adding buttons with my machine, using my one-step button hole function, adding bias tape and interfacing, and practicing rounded stitching. I would definitely recommend this pattern for a first-timer.

You can read more about it here