Summer fun

Remember that great giveaway sponsored by CSN Stores a few weeks back?  Well, I’ve been working with them again.  With over 200 stores, and thousands and thousands of products to choose from, CSN Stores is your go-to source for anything and everything, whether you need a new serger, fabric storage solutions, some LED lighting for your craft room, or even some adorable shoes to compliment your latest creation.  Check them out and check back here soon for my review of one of their great products and how you can use it in your sewing.

And I know, I know, I have this blog here and I should probably make something and write about it sometime, huh?  But that would require me actually sitting down by myself, with no small children crawling on me, requesting things of me, and/or wiping various bodily fluids on me for at least a semi-extended period of time.  I swear to you, SWEAR IT!, that I do have some fun sewing stuff coming.  I may even have the next installment of lessons up and going soon.  I hope I hope I hope. 

In the meantime, I have been having fun making stuff with my boys, so I’ll show you that.  My oldest is totally into science and experiments right now.  The other day, we, along with a neighbor boy, decided to try out these bouncy balls from Scribbit.  We talked about how different chemicals and materials combine to form completely different things.

They were super easy and fast to make.  And nice and messy, but very easy to clean up.  And not nearly as disgusting as the chicken-bone-in-vinegar calcium experiment from last week. bleck.

   

They didn’t really turn out as bouncy bally as the kids were expecting, but they did have some bounce to them.  

      

And the kids had tons of fun throwing them around and remolding them. They were so fun, my kids want to make them again.   Next week's scheduled experiment is ice cream in ZipLock baggies.  I’m super excited for that one. 

So I’ll try a little harder to work in some sewing and blogging along with all our scientific summer fun around here.  But just know that if I'm not around much, it means I’m hanging out with these monkeys instead.

And I kind of like them, so I hope you're okay with that.

Sewing cures what ails you. Or me, anyway.

So, remember I said I was going to finally sew this week?  Yeah, well, first I had family stuff Tuesday and Wednesday.  Then Wednesday night my youngest started puking.  Thursday he ran a fever all day and insisted on being held.  The cuddling was adorable, but every single time I attempted to put him down, I was met with this:

and this

I did manage to work out a sketch of an idea that I had bouncing around in my head, loosely based on skirts from the 1940’s, as inspired by A Lemon Squeezy Home’s Sewing Through the Decades challenge.  But it veered slightly.

(Lisa Marie-please note how messy this sketch is. xoxo)

I also got the fabric all washed and ready to go.  And that’s where it ended because Thursday night whatever my toddler had, hit me.  So Friday, the day set aside for me to finally sew this week, my kids were all healthy but I woke up too sick to do anything but watch Backyardigans and Phineas&Ferb with my three kids cuddled up next to me. 

Thankfully, that prescription was just what I needed, though, as by this afternoon I was feeling well enough to get up and throw this little number together just in time to enter it in Crafterhours Skirt Week.

Though my little one still insisted on my attention.

And yes, I got dressed, put on makeup and even brushed my teeth at 7:00 p.m. just for this awesome photo shoot.

It’s a basic straight skirt, with a button front opening down the length, just off center to the left. 

Two darts in the back help with the fit in the waist and give it some shape.
Also, there is a little kick pleat.

I did a wide placket/hem that goes all the way down the length of the skirt, and across the back hem.  I cut it on the bias to add some detail and to insure that it curved nicely at the knee, as I wanted the opening there to have a fun shape to it

The waist band was also cut on the bias, and closes with another button

Not too bad for a sick day.
      
Here is where I noticed my next door neighbor watching me.  Awkward.

Linking to some of these parties.

I didn’t do a full tutorial, as something like this probably isn’t much help without an actual pattern.  One day I’ll learn how to do those.  Maybe.  Anyway, give me a bit and I'll briefly go over the construction process in another post.  ETA: meh, I just added it to this post, after the jump ("read more").  enjoy.

Home again, home again

We’re home.  It was an amazing week of relaxing

adventuring

sightseeing

and eating so much I may never need to eat again.

So after I get ten tons of laundry done, the refrigerator restocked, and my kids nice and cuddled,

I have some sewing  fun planned for later this week.   And I’ll even try to answer some emails.

  Until then, please enjoy this beautiful picture of a giant scorpion crawling on my face. 

     

Wild and crazy times.  It’s good to be back.

Good capris gone bad

Right now, as you are reading this, I’m mostly likely on a beach in Cabo San Lucas, reading, relaxing, and not wearing the Gathered Pocket Pants I made a couple of months ago.  Right now, as I’m actually typing this, I’m at home, bags packed around me, and also NOT wearing the Gathered Pocket Pants. 

I wore them once.  And that is the only time they will ever be worn. There’s a reason I needed a shirt that covered the top of these pants, a reason why my hand is lightly in my pocket, a reason for that awesome puckering in such an appropriate area.  Though the shirt could do nothing to cover that crazy-flattering leg length.

            

I have needed to post these for quite some time, but I was just so ashamed.  However, since I won’t actually be around when anyone is looking at this, you can all laugh and marvel at the wrong turn these fabulous pants took without me having to be here with you.  I’m hiding out in another country.  So gawk away…

Here are the capris I was basing my pair on, originally discussed here:

Here is my completed version:

 

They bare a slight resemblance to the original, kinda.

Let’s go over them in more detail, the good and the bad.

I’m crazy in love with this style of pockets.  The gathering, the piping, the wide band across the opening.  If I ever get the guts up to attempt pants again, these pockets will be making a repeat showing. 

Except next time I think I’ll actually make them functional.  I can’t really get my hand into these, just my fingers.  Oops.

The square buttons were perfect, and they were found in a huge box of bulk buttons I got for, like, $2.50, so a great deal.  

Unfortunately, they are attached to some butt-ugly bound button hole pockets that really accentuate my mother-of-three bum so nicely.

The waistband is pretty cool, I like it’s width and the piping.  And the wide belt loops are pretty sweet.

Except that they were supposed to line up with the wide band on the pockets in the front.  And, well, they didn’t.  Or rather, one did and the other didn’t.  And then I got all crazy and the piping went wonky.

But the best?  The very best?  Check out the amazing rise I somehow managed to not even begin to notice until I put them on and discovered things were horribly, horribly wrong.

 

And there’s more, but you can most likely find other issues all on your own.  Like a fun little “what’s wrong” puzzle for you!

  Irreplaceable vintage linen, hours and hours of my time, and this is what I get for thinking I’m ready to make pants for myself sans pattern.

Lesson learned.

Off to find my pineapple under the sea

I’ve pretty much purged all the star-pattern-stuff-making out of my system.  There were a few more ideas I came up with, but I’ll save them for another time when I actually am interested in them again. 

I did manage to make one more thing,  a coin-purse(not really)-tiny-makeup-little-bag thing.   Or something.

I made it basically the same as the pin cushion, with the pieced star method for the outside. 

I lined it with a basic star lining. 

 

I added a grommet and loop, so it hooks right onto the fob in my bag. 

 

It’s too small to hold my cell phone or iPod, not sealed tight enough to hold change, BUT it does hold the few personal essentials I like to keep with me.  So hey!

Though I really like the idea, and will use it, I’m not really thrilled with how it turned out.   I took pictures planning on doing a tutorial, but we’re just going to skip it today.  It’s the snaps, I think.  I should have done a zipper.  And maybe bigger.  And, well, dang it.

Also, I totally love the vintage dusty rose corduroy I used for the outside, but yeah, the small pink star very quickly started to look like this to me

source

And then that’s all I could see.  Every single time I look at it, this: 

and let’s not worry about how long I spent making that incredible piece of Photoshop mastery right there. 

So with that, my friends, I’m out.  The hubs and I are dropping off the kids with Grandma and running away to Mexico for a week-long cruise in celebration of ten years of wedded awesomeness.

  I may have a phantom post for you all next week, assuming I get my [bikini] bottom in gear and put one together in the next hour or so, but it will just be a Blogger illusion.  I plan to be nowhere near a computer or sewing machine for the next ten days or so. 

See you when I have a tan!

Tagged Star

You know those little teething blanket things that have ribbons and tags all over them for babies to do as babies do with such things? 

(HINT:  Suck, babies suck. And drool, a lot.)

  Well, if you use the pieced star pattern, you can add all sorts of textures and prints, since each side has five pieces. 

Materials needed:

Scraps of various materials.  Each needs to be about 6*4 inches for an individual section.

Batting/stuffing

A whole slew of ribbons, ric rac and the like

Star pattern foundation piece, printed at 50-75%

Begin by tracing and cutting out ten of the star foundation piece from the pattern here

Separate the diamonds into two stacks of five each.

Take two of the diamonds, stack, wrong sides together.  **Note that there is a longer side and a shorter side.  We’ll be sewing the diamonds together at the shorter sides.**

Sew one short side from middle point to short end point.

Layer another diamond on one of the sewn diamonds.  Sew along the short side again

Continue to do this for all five pieces of one stack of diamonds: sewing ONLY along the short sides 

Finish by matching up the last two unsewn short sides, folding right sides together, and sewing 

 

Repeat for with the other five diamonds.  You should now have two stars

Cut strips of ribbon and ric rac, about 3-4 inches long.  You’re going to need a lot, so just cut away.

Loop the ribbon and ric rac, and pin in place on one of the star pieces, with the raw edges of the ribbons/ric rac off the edge of the star and the loops pointing toward the center/inside

Or if you feel like pinning one more ribbon loop is going to drive you insane, just skip the pinning and sew them in place

After you’ve covered the outside of the one star with the trim, place the other star on top of the first, right sides together.  The ribbon loops should all face in, with the raw ends poking out.

 

Begin about 1 inch down from the top of one of the points, sew all the way around the entire star, and leave about a 3-4 inch gap for turning.  Back stitch at both beginning and end.

 

  Trim off all the sticky-outy trim parts and clip the corners of the star

Turn through the gap, using a narrow blunt something to push the points out

 

At the gap, fold under 1/4 inch

 

And top stitch all the way around the entire star, sealing the gap as you do so.

I used a decorative stitch because it seemed the right thing to do.

 

And that’s it. 

Hand it to a baby near you and let them go at it.

Or just plop it on the counter and admire it, if there are no babies near you at the moment.

It’s very versatile.

        

Linking to some of these parties