In Progress...

Just to show how my crazy head works, I thought I'd do an in progress post.

Currently I'm working on the front panel of next years' Renaissance dress.  Its a 'little' bit of embroidery ;)
I also sewed together the undershirt for this dress, I just need a ribbon to do the lacing in it and to hem the bottom edge. (I used a pattern but tried to make it a little more historically accurate by putting lacing in it instead of elastic).

Also there is the Nighthawks painting.  It's partially sketched out on my hand stretched canvas and ready to be painted (as soon as I get off my lazy butt and get the easel out of garage storage).

I've bought a base pattern (that was out of stock) for my dress and researched lace. Yes, I decided to change the design and am much much happier with it so far.  Let's see if that holds on when I try the muslin copy.

Quite a while ago I bought the pattern for a bath robe for my mom.  Just waiting on her to go to the store and get/pick out fabric.

Planning out my family's Halloween costumes. (Lets see if any of my friend's and family actually read my posts.  hehehehe)  My daughter will be Alice from Alice in Wonderland.  As for me and my husband.... I'm still deciding. I was thinking steampunk for me and got that all planned out (even bought some leather). But I may change it to a family theme and do Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter. Oh decisions....how I hate decisions....

So yeah. I have a 'few' projects in the works.  If only I had the money to buy all the sewing stuff then I could work on a few sewing projects instead of embroidering next years Ren Fair dress.

Last Dino Bonanza (Part 3)

Last but not least of the dino bonanza is a girls dinosaur blanket.  For a toddler its a bit larger than the last but made with the same types of pieces. The corners are done differently as I was trying to find a better way to make them and I thinkbit worked out well. Another thing I learned was that my walking foot doesnt agree with satin.  It pulled a lot of the strings and I had to smooth it back in and change feet.  Also I got the fabric from fabric.com and plan to use them again as thw prices were good, shipping was quick and the selection was way better than my joann store.  I do still love joann for it being local so I can browse and such.

Funeral Dress

Unfortunately we have a funeral to attend but fortunately this meant making a new dress for my daughter.  While she still fits it it I ran right to McCalls 6015.  I thought mostly black for the occasion but since it's on her it can be cute too so I did variation D. This was my first time doing the bow and the knot instructions weren't very clear but I think I figured them out pretty well. I made some mistakes that were fixable (like sewing the top on inside out to the skirt) but it still looks great! I'm also pretty proud of the sweet little bow. Now to get her some cute mary janes to go with it!

Dino Bonanza Part 2

A blanket and another dino makes up part 2 of this dino bonanza! This time they're made for an infant boy. 

First lets talk stuffed dino.  Made the same as the pink one from my last post except for a few changes that made a huge difference. First off I used a softer fabric for the little guy to cuddle with. Then before sewing the two halves of the body together I sewed the foot pads on.  Then I left a small hole near the tail to flip and stuff him.  Im happy with the outcome with the exception of my overstuffing him.

Secondly, the blanket. The blanket went very smoothly.  I cut all pieces to size (30" x 36") and sandwiched and stitched. The hardest part was the satin edging corners. First off they are soo slippery it was hard to get them to fold right. Then I needed to sew them down. It kinda looks messy because of this.

Comming Soon: Dino Bonanza Part 3! (A blanket to match the dino from part 1)

Dress Issues

So Im trying to create a dress for myself to wear to numerous events this fall.  Unfortunately,  this seems to be a tough order.  Not due to lacking abilities but my own self views. 
After deciding on a style (and boy did that take time!) I found a pattern to use as a base for the vest part and draped the rest.  Then I stitched together my muslin and tried it on.  All I could think was yuck! I have a bit of a belly from having a baby but Im ok with that. Well the dress wasn't.   Sure I can fix that but Im not sure I want to.  I just didn't care for the way it looked on me.  Too business-y? Too stiff? Maybe its the muslin.  I just dont know.  What I do know is that I need to stop and decide later. Hopefully time can help me figure out if I should go back to this dress or try something different.
Oh yeah...the picture shows it in progress of being draped.  It's been more refined since then and sewn.

Dino bonanza Part 1

This is a little guy I made in a few nights for a friends' little girl. After finding a tutorial online I got out some scrap fabric and got to work. Although he's cute I'm not very happy with the construction. His feet were sewn on post stuffing and he needed to be reinforced in several areas. Also the embroidered eyes are a bit misshapen. To prevent the ugliness from reoccurring to the feet I plan on sewing them on much earlier in the assembly process. Hopefully that'll help. So yes, I do plan on making another one for her little brother and hopefully I can improve upon my techniques.

Blog Catchup

It's been a while since my last post and I need to catch you up on my projects.

First off, I have been learning how to embroider. Specifically crewel embroidery as it will be used on some RenFest garb.  These are the three samplers Ive completed.

I have already started stitching the front panel of next years RenFest dress. I hope I actually finish it in time. There's a lot to work on.
Next projects were some bags for me and my daughter. These I created my own patterns for. They were "quick sews" for me and if closely studied one can tell. But oh well theyll serve their purpose. The kitty one is for my daughter and the blue one is for holding my embroidery.

I also made a little card holder wallet from leftover fabric. I used this tutorial but made some adjustments to give me more card slots.

Then I FINALLY got myself to finish a height chart for my daughter. It uses the characters from her bedding set and goes with the other paintings I did for her room.

I also did some work to finish this years RenFest dress (I'll post pictures later).

Phew. I guess I did more than I thought! 

Currently I'm working on:
-A dress for myself
-A reproduction of "Nighthawk" by Edward Hopper in Oil paints for a friend.
-A wet bag for wet swimsuits and towels

Of course there are more things planned after that too but I need to prioritize.