10 cool sewn things

Isn’t this one of the loveliest restyles you’ve ever seen!? I adore the finished product. Made by Tick Tock Vintage.

There’s something about this patchwork skirt that I really, really, really love. I think it’d be so much fun to make and wear. And I particularly like that the sewer said she made it for dancing in.

 

This backpack is so adorable! I’d like to make a backpack for Grady each year – as long as she lets me. I assume around 6th grade it will become completely unacceptable.

I’m obsessed with the color story in these quilt blocks by eileen josephine.

Lately I’ve been using large ziplocks as project bags, but that needs to stop. I’m sick of my needles poking through the seams of the bags, and I’m sick of how ugly it all looks in my purse. A project bag like this one is in order.

Another idea for a backpack for Grady.

This idea for a toddler dress from a t-shirt is great; the braided collar is such a nice touch.

Pretty self-explanatory, pretty useful.

This idea for spray-dying a fabric before sewing is so awesome. It’d be a great way to DIY that outer-space imagery trend.

Another make-your-own-underwear tutorial! Someday I really am going to do this. I swear.

Release party: Those shorts.

Remember those shorts? The ones I made for Adam (under his supervision, with his choice of fabric)? Well here they are, ladies and gents. In all their wonky glory.

Why yes. Yes they are a little upstaged by Adam‘s amazing legs.

Anyway, like I said, they are mildly wear-able. Not too shabby for my first attempt at something with a crotch.

(All photos courtesy of Adam.)

Mother’s day flowers

For mother’s day, I made my mom a garland out of these sweet fabric flowers. She loves pink and is currently building a retirement home in the middle of nowhere, so I figured the place could use a little pink. I remember seeing a tutorial for these kinds of flowers somewhere, but I just made them from memory – you cut a bunch of circles, fold them in half twice, and sew around 7 of them together to get a sweet circular flower. I really enjoyed making these, and only used scraps I already had. Just looking at this picture makes me want to make more and more and more sweet little flowers; maybe I could cover a large frame in them, or make a wreath, or just cover a wooden square in them and hang that on the wall … the possibilities are pretty exciting.

10 cool sewn things

I have serious feelings for these Vintage Sheet Quilts from Pins and Thimbles. They are so, so, so gorgeous. I am currently (“current” meaning April 27, when I’m writing this post) trying really hard to finished that dagnabbed purple and green quilt so I can start another and machine-quilt it. I know, I’ve said wonderful things about hand-quilting. And I do genuinely like hand-quilting. But MAN. It takes so much time. I started this quilt last June and have finished hand-quilting three of fifteen squares.

Cathedral Window quilt blocks were the things that convinced me that I wanted to eventually get into quilting. They are just so beautiful and intricate. This Cathedral Window Tutorial from The Sometimes Crafter is great.

LOVE this Value Quilt tutorial from Willy Nilly.

These color-coded quilts from In Color Order are great. Naturally, I want to make one of them in each color and then fold them all neatly and make the most impressive blog post ever.

I really like the idea behind this simple quilt from Katie Did, and might utilize it for the next time someone I know has a baby shower.

Or perhaps this simple fat quarter quilt from Craft could work for a baby shower. Obviously, I’m in a quilty mood.

These leggings were made out of a t-shirt! Waaaaaaant! In lots of colors! From Andrea’s Garden.

I want so badly to make dozens of these skirts for myself, but we know my issues with shirring. From Instructables.

SERIOUSLY. THIS IS TOO BEAUTIFUL. From In Color Order.

AH! I’m not a huge fan of random pillows, but this pom-pom pillow is excellent. Want. Found via Craft.

10 cool sewn things

Gorgeous quilt block by Grumperina.

The lady at Grosgrain made this dress from a vintage blouse. Love it.

Found via Mr. X-Stitch.

Quilt block tutorial found via WhipUp.

TOO GODDAMN GORGEOUS. (Yup. It gets to be full-size with all-caps. It’s that gorgeous.) Found via Craft.

I’m not generally that into skulls as an aesthetic choice, but I dig these. Found via Craft.

WANT. Holybowie I love this quilt so much. Grey/yellow is one of my favorite color combinations, and I love traditional patterns in modern colors. From wise craft.

I will love Grady no matter what type of elementary-school-kid she grows up to be. But it would be particularly awesome if she became a kid who likes these lunch sacks. Because seriously, how awesome are they? Found via Craft.

This pillowcase pattern/post was made for the purpose of philanthropy, but, uh, it reminds me of how I need to make my own pillowcases. I think that would be the perfect way to extend the theme of my bed/living room (yup. 1-bedroom apartment means that my living room is where my bed is. It’s cool.) and simultaneously make a dent in my massive fabric stash. Found via Craft.

Little Birdie Plush tutorial from A Beautiful Mess. I want to make these not as toys for Grady, but as decor. Which means I won’t be able to make them until she’s quite a bit older, because using toys solely as decor would kill the poor girl.

Written April 22.

Ruching regrets

There are people out there in the great wide internet that say shirring is easy. The tutorials I found all said that it was incredibly easy, requiring very little fiddling and adjusting and sobbing. These people are lying.

It is likely my machine – a Brother VX-1435 that I got three years ago at a Kohl’s mega-clearance – is the problem. But man alive, I cannot shirr to save my life. The example above is seriously the tidiest, least disastrous of my attempts to shirr.

And the fact that I cannot shirr brings me so much torment. (Well, perhaps torment is the wrong word. But it feels something similar to torment.) Last year I blithely read through shirring tutorials and patterns that required shirring, confident that when I got around to it, shirring would so enhance my sewing skillset.

Let’s be honest: This picture was taken on February 2. Soon after, the pre-thread serger I bought ran out of thread. The combination of this disaster and the threat of learning how to thread a serger has kept me from sewing anything at all since February. It’s putting a serious damper in my Etsy-shop plans.

Anyway, as far as I can tell from various forums, Brother machines often have trouble shirring. It is something to do with the bobbin tension. However: most experts recommend never messing with the bobbin tension, as you’ll never get it back to factory accuracy. Also, every tutorial I can find for messing with bobbin tension is for top-loading machines, whereas mine is a front-loader.

UGH. FRUSTRATING. Anyway, I just found this tutorial, which seems much more helpful than others. Maybe after reading through all the comments I’ll give shirring another go. Right after I clean off the two months of accumulated junk from my sewing table.

10 cool sewn things

The cutest toys on the web can be found here. I swear.

Someday I will be able to accomplish this. I will. (Did I ever mention that I once tried to piece little triangles to create letters that said “Vote for Granato”? No I did not because it was a HUGE failure. The piecing, not the election. Well, now that I think about it, the election was much much much much much more of a failure than the piecing. Anyway, the point is this: I suck at piecing little bitty things.) From Craftapalooza.

ARG. TOO LOVELY. From Posie Gets Cosy.

This isn’t my style, but … I dunno. I love it. I think it would be cool on the bottom of a lampshade.

Yup. Grady needs this. It’s made from a t-shirt!

Tile quilting. YARG. Via Wee Wonderfuls.

Obsessed with the color choices in this quilt by Stephanie Japel.

How to “easily” hand-sew a quilt binding. I have my doubts about this “easiness,” but I suppose we’ll see once I finish quilting that purple and green beast.

TOO PERFECT.

I love this. The colors are great, but I also think it would be amazing in a random smorgasbord of ridiculous colors.

Written Feb. 12.

10 cool things for babies

Homemade treasure chests. I don’t dig how gender normative these particular ones are, but that’s the beauty of tutorials – you can always adjust it to your desires.

Easy quilted playmat.

Adorable sailor dress for toddlers.

This homemade Belle dress is pretty amazing.

Sundress/romper for girls.

Babies can make anything cute.

Make your own skirt with built-in shorts.

No tutorial for this, it is just super cute. And it looks like it would be easy enough to make, or to add the doily yoke to another dress pattern.

Tipnut has about a billion tutorials listed for baby stuff in this post.

Felted earflap hat tutorial from Martha Stewart.

Written Nov. 13.

10 cool sewn things

Usually I’m not that into decorative pillows, but this one’s adorable. And bonus points for making anything out of a t-shirt.

Tutorial for an adorable smocked gingham dress. Smocking scares the hell out of me.

Easy kids pants from a t-shirt from Rookie Moms. Why don’t I sew more? I should just be sewing all the time.

Cloth shoe pattern. I’ve come to the conclusion that there are no shoes that fit Grady. Every shoe we’ve tried is too big, too small, or just impossible to put on. Her feet live outside the constraints of physical proportions.

Make a clothespin bag out of a curtain. I didn’t do much air-drying this summer, but am so excited to get back to it next year.

Make a reusable lunch bag out of a shower curtain. There are a lot of lunch bag tutorials out there, and this is by far my favorite. The others use waxcloth, which is just rediculously expensive.

Pattern for a strapless summer top. Love it.

Pouf! This is another exception to my no-decorative-pillows rule.

Craftzine made this great lesson about hems, which I really need to look into more closely. I have about 10 dresses waiting to be hemmed, and I’m too lazy and scared to start.

Amazing idea for a tote bag. And making log cabin squares is so much fun.

Written Nov. 13.

Clarification

This is a follow-up on this post about what Grady and I want for Christmas.

Just to reiterate, I will be making a few Christmas presents. But if I give you something, please don’t feel obligated to give me anything in return. Seriously.

The picture is a sneak peak of something I’m working on from this book. I’m making a bunch of the same project in different fabrics, and have learned a few things about sewing/quilting so far:

• Thinking you can freehand geometric machine quilting is stupid. Don’t think that.
• If a pattern doesn’t provide you with all the pieces in pattern paper, but says to cut out various rectangles of various specified sizes, don’t be scared. It’s not that hard.
• I’ve made about 60 miles of handmade bias tape, and I promise it’s not that hard. You can do it. Granted, this particular pattern says that the bias tape need not be cut on the bias, and I don’t know if bias-cut bias tape is more difficult to make. Bias bias bias.

Also, if you haven’t yet noticed, I’m totally cheating on this NaBloPoMo thing. I’m writing this on Nov. 29 and scheduling it retroactively for Nov. 24. But meh. I think I’ll still be able to post 30 times in a 30-day month, so who cares.