The importance of finishing seams. ……

Tags

finishing, scrubs, seams, sewing

When I started sewing for myself on a regular basis I was so excited to finish garments. But seam finishing wasn’t really taken into consideration.  I regret this now. Some of the first things I made for myself were scrub tops. I had just started working full time in my chosen field and surprisingly scrubs are expensive. (IMO) I couldn’t afford to buy fun scrubs,  but what I could do was go to the local Walmart fabric section.  I would buy fun clearance fabric and spend an afternoon making work scrubs. I could have a top for 5 bucks or less!  

However,  using cotton fabric and not finishing off my cut edges is coming back to haunt me.

Everything is fraying! 

Little strings everywhere! 

I did not have a serger back then,  so I should have taken the time to zig zag stitch all my edges,captured them in bias tap, or have done french seams. 

The only thing I have going for me is that I left large seam allowances.  So with a few small seam rips I was able to run my fraying tops through the serger. I finished the seams I opened and my pokemon top will live to see another work day. 

Me Made Christmas

Tags

baby lock, bike, Christmas, cotton, Fabric stash, interfacing, kids, messenger bag, sewing, stash, stash busting, velcro

Merry Christmas! I have been a busy little elf this year hand making presents. I have been sick for most of December and haven’t quite finished everything I need to. Thankfully we will be celebrating Christmas pretty much through New Years this year.  So I thought I would share something I made for a few of my favorite little humans last Christmas.  They are getting big fast and their first tricycles were on there way. They live were the local bike trail is right over the hill so having the kids in tow on the trail happens regularly. Now with them having their own bikes I thought it would be nice for them to be able to carry their own water and snacks with them as well.

Workout wardrobe revamp using family cast offs!

I have needed some new gym clothes for awhile now. But I was pretty appalled by the prices. Considering I am going to sweat and be stinky in these garments why do I want to spend a mint on them?  Being the oldest of my siblings you might not expect me getting bags of unwanted clothing from my brother and sister,  but I happily do and often with little or no work I have a new to me wardrobe.

I recently left a family get together with a stack of unwanted t-shirts. I excitedly accepted them as I knew they would quickly become my work out clothes. I will show you a few ways to alter a t-shirt with little to no sewing involved.

Pattern Matching and failing at adulting.

Tags

b5748, butterick, fabric, full skirt, muslin, pattern matching, serger, sewing, stripes, vintage

Have you ever felt like you were  failing at being an adult? I opened my e-mail today for the first time in about two weeks to find over 5000 waiting for me. 5000!!! How does that happen? After mass deleting advertisements and spam for over an hour I think I found 10 emails I actually needed/wanted to read. I recently failed to pay a bill. I never do that. I didn’t put it where my bills go and completely forgot about it. My house is in a constant state of disarray and there are more started projects waiting for me then finished ones it feels like. I didn’t plant my vegetable garden this year. I couldn’t get my schedule and the weather to cooperate to get the tiller out. My freezer is going to be mighty bare this winter. I haven’t weeded my flower beds once this summer! How long has it been since I shared any fun projects??

Best laid plans….

Tags

adjustments, fit, modifications, pants, vintage fabric, vintage pattern

This year for me had started off really rough.  Nothing much has really gone according to plan.  I have been wondering what the hell I did to piss Murphy of royally. Needless to say,  due to all the drama in my life crafting,  sewing and blogging has suffered.  I really wanted to make myself a dress for Easter.  Unless I pull a all day sewing Saturday adventure,  it’s not going to happen.  My
family will understand that making a new dress is more important than being prepared for Easter,  right?

Scrapbook pages. A great excuse to put off cleaning!

Tags

12x12, brads, Christmas, corner punch, Cricut, dcwv, embellishments, glitter, hole punch, letters, me & my big ldeas, Paper, ribbon, scrapbook, Scrapbooking, soft spoken, stickers, xyron

I am very good at organizing my scrapbooking projects, a little too good. I think I have more pages organized than completed.  I get excited about some photos and gather the paper I want to use, a collection of embellishments, stickers, memorabilia, etc. I then use clear scrapbooking files or clear plastic boxes to keep it all together until I actually do the page I had in mind. And there my pages sit waiting until I get the gumption or inspiration to actually put them together.

There is a downside to this method. I find that I tend to over buy materials. Or since I have them all organized away, I forget that I have them. Recently I discovered that I purchased the same sticker set three times, for three different projects, that I completely forgot that I had in the first place. I guess I really like the stickers. (PS still have yet to work on any of those three projects.)

So the other day I was picking up my crafting space a bit and picked up one of my organized clear boxes when inspiration struck. Or it might possibly be that scrapping is much more fun than cleaning.

Out of the box I pulled some Christmas photos I scanned and had reprinted a bit ago. Also tucked away I had a Christmas paper stack (So that’s where that went to!), some embellishments, stickers, and letters. I guess since the weather is finally cold here, working on Christmas pages seems an appropriate subject matter.

Me…somewhere in between 1982 and 1984…before siblings

My mom and Aunt. Probably late 50’s

Below I will break down what I used, what I like about these pages, and of course what I don’t like.

New patterns that I am excited about…adding to the stash.

Tags

Fabric stash, pattern stash, sewing pattern, simplicity, stash

New spring patterns are out and I took a peek online at a few. I was really excited for some of the Simplicity patterns that came out. It just so happened that I had to pick up a few supplies for three aerial costumes I am working on and I had a few minutes to spare at Jo-ann Fabric’s to see the envelopes in person. They were also on sale for $1.00. I picked these three up. I love all the details in the steampunk pattern that is kinda hidden. The vintage wrap dress I found intriguing and beautiful. And I loved the center red costume on the third pattern and that neck line.

No I don’t have any plans to sew these at the moment. I do have a vintage pattern I am interested in making out of vintage fabric for Easter. But more about that later, right now I need to focus on these costumes.

Anyone have a new pattern they are excited about making?

Quick skirt and the blind hem stitch

Tags

an hour or less, blind hem stitch, elastic, hem clips, measured hem clips, no pattern, quick, sewing, stash, stash busting, zig-zag

If you are like me, your sewing machine has a plethora of fabulous stitches and fancy feet, and you use maybe 5 of the stitches and two of the feet.  I have decided that I really should at least try out all the options my machine has. So I decided it was time to try out the blind hem stitch. I decided a skirt with an elastic waist band was a quick and easy project to accomplish in an afternoon and I could try out this stitch. To my fabric stash I went and because I was felling a little festive this weekend, I pulled out the red fabric with velvet polka dots for the project.

Materials used

Foxy Lady – finishing up my shorts pattern.

Tags

baby lock, bodkin, diy, fabric, fox, measured hem clips, online pattern, pattern making, serger, sewing, shorts, stash, valentine's day

I have been hibernating lately as the temperature has dropped into the negatives. Great time to sew and clean up the crafting space. So I completed my fox sleep shorts.

Finished shorts!

After basically remaking the free “save me time” pattern from online, I cut out the pieces from the fox cotton fabric I purchased a bit ago. (see previous post on fixing this pattern)This is a super easy project for beginners as it only has four pieces.

Force Friday

Tags

baby lock, bodkin, bouffant, cap, elastic, fabric, force friday, Grace, joann fabric, material, serger, sewing, singer, Star Wars, surgery cap

The Doctor I am teamed up with at work is a HUGE Star Wars fan! He just loves everything about the Universe of Star Wars. His fandom is rubbing off on me. I was not old enough to really get into the franchise when the first three movies came out. Ewok’s were just new, interesting teddy bears to me. I didn’t even see the three prequels in completion until last year over my Christmas stay-cation I watched all six of the movies in order to be caught up for the newest movie release. His excitement over this newest release was contagious and I am really excited to see it. Yes, it has been out for weeks now. No, I haven’t seen it yet. (I hate sitting in crowded movie theaters. Someone always spills something on me!)

Anyways, the movie was released on a Friday, (which is our surgery day) and we had to sport some Star Wars gear in celebration! So I came prepared to work with new surgery caps for us and some Boba Fett creamer for my morning coffee.

Ready for Work!