Tuesday, March 24, 2015

I think I jinxed us

After a long, horrible winter, we finally started to get some sunshine and warm weather in Chicago last week (the high got up to 75!). Since I was in both a spring and a stashbusting spirit, I decided to whip up a flowery circle skirt in which to enjoy the goodness.


Unfortunately, by the time I got around to taking these pictures late last week, the weather had already started to turn, eventually terminating in 4-5 inches of snow yesterday! 

I picked up 1.5 yards of this fabric from Hancock (I think) a while back, and it's some sort of stretchy denim-looking cotton. It was really easy to work with and I managed to get really clean lines at the hem (bias bound, of course), waist, and zip. 



Seriously, this is probably my best zip insertion to-date! Although you can see in this picture that the skirt is probably just a little too big...I'd like to think I'll go back and take it in a little, but in all likelihood too many other things will get pushed to the forefront.


Since this print (coupled with a circle skirt) could easily border on too saccharine, I tried to "tough" it up a bit with some grey and a moto jacket. (Alas, a black moto jacket really would have come in handy here! Add it to the to-do list...)



One last swirly pic, because circle skirts are just too fun! 

Side note - hopefully I'm back on track with my posting schedule this week. I've got some general goals for this year, but my biggest one is that I'm trying to post once a week. With this one exception, I've been doing pretty well this year, no? 

Like everyone in North America, I'm over this winter. What are your spring sewing plans while you dream of warmer weather?

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Unselfish Sewing (mostly)

Hi everyone, hope all is well! I know I'm certainly feeling a lot better now that warmer weather and some sunshine has arrived, how about you?

To be quite honest, I've been lacking sewjo lately. I think part of it had to do with my latest business trip, part of it has to do with being desperate to finish my knit sweater (though it will probably be way too warm by the time I'm done), and part of it had to do with my disaster of a sewing room. (However, the girls in the Stashbusting 2015 group are definitely keeping me motivated!)

Seriously, my sewing room was out of control. But I took some time last week to get my guest room/cat room (what? I'm not the only one who has one, right?) in order, and it felt so good that my sewing room soon followed. It's not quite good enough yet for a tour, but it's SO much nicer. Seriously, every time I walk in there I comment about it (sometimes it's out loud, and yes, I do live alone). 

Since I was finally feeling it last Sunday, I decided to whip up an apron and oven mitt for my cousin's upcoming nuptuals. She had one on her registry, but of course I saw it and thought "I could make that! And with a matching oven mitt to boot!" I used M5825, one of the first patterns I ever bought, with which I made some of the first things I ever sewed!



With the aprons I made for myself, I didn't take much care to check the directionality of the print, and as a result they're a little...unique, ha. I made sure to pay more attention this time, and tried to include some nice finishing touches on both the apron and the mitt - I hope she likes them! 



The mitts were actually ugly freebies from Menards that I just recovered, which made for much faster sewing! And because these came together so easily, I decided to make her another set. The fabric for these was repurposed from some curtains I made for my apartment a couple of years ago. I've moved several times since then and know they wouldn't fit any of my windows anymore, but I still love the print (though maybe not for curtains). I hope she feels the same way, and hey, you can never have too many aprons or oven mitts, right?
 


Then, since I still wasn't quite sewed out, I threw together (literally, the finishing is crap) a case for my knitting needles from the same repurposed curtains. 


 

This has been on my to-do list for 3 or 4 years, and I'm so glad to have finally gotten it done! I don't have to use this sad bag of messiness anymore.



I feel so much more productive when things are neat and organized, so I'm hoping they'll stay that way. Do you have any tips for keeping yourself on track?

Friday, March 6, 2015

Love You More

Quick post today, and a change from our usual sewing fare. My mom and I have this little game we play whenever we talk. When we're ending the conversation, one of us says "Love you," the other responds with "Love you more," and the first person comes back with "Love you the most." Considering how often we talk, this gets said a lot. For Christmas she even surprised me with a "Love you more" pillow!


So I decided to strike back!


Not too shabby, huh? I bought some cheap (but surprisingly nice) watercolors from Michael's...and then realized that these canvases aren't really meant for watercolors. Oops. Still turned out pretty neat, though!


I'm really not very artsy, but I'd love to learn - anything you can recommend?