What I sewed mom for Christmas

Thanks for all your comments on my Christmas post. I love that cat fabric too!  Hope you all had a great holiday!

So I did a little last-minute Christmas sewing for my mom: two aprons and a zipper pouch.


Here are the supplies:


Turquoise upholstery fabric: from stash.  I love this fabric as it has great texture and color and weight.
Heart lining fabric: remnant from Joann's, rediscovered during the stash clean out.
Interfacing: medium weight iron-on from Fashion Sewing Supply
9" zipper: SIL Thread in NYC
Iron on heart patches: Pacific Trimming.  As soon as I saw those heart patches I knew they were destined to be on a zipper pouch.
Pattern: McCall's 6256, which I made a few times this year.

I started cutting out this pouch at 8pm on Monday night and had it finished ~2 hours later.   I impressed myself as I am such a slow sewist and the first time I made it (with laminated fabric, in the larger size) took about 7 hours.  I loved all the little notes I wrote to myself in the pattern instructions, in particular the one about sewing on the fabric tabs to the zipper:  "Remember, you can't sew over a metal zipper".  Bwah ha ha!


I love the interior.  It's like a heart explosion.  Mom loves hearts and turquoise, so this was a great match.

Zipper tab

The back

The view from the top


Makin' the tabs. Wonder tape is definitely my friend when making zipper tabs.

I think it's totes adorbs.

I originally wanted the two hearts to overlap so I did a test sample (I had purchased a few of those heart iron-on patches) but you could see the heart in the background through the heart in the foreground so I just put them side by side.

Here are the aprons.  Mom likes her aprons to be a big rectangle with two ties.  It's a very simple thing to sew.


This particular piece of cat fabric (left) was the original 3/4 yd piece I bought in Hawaii that was intended for this very apron!  The one on the right is fabric from the City Quilter, bought in either May or June, in their clearance section.

Here is how mom wears her aprons:

and
 
I *love* this particular cat on the Christmas apron:


A cat wearing Santa slippers! Love it!
Mom wore both aprons on Christmas Day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, so I think they were a hit.

I realize in my last post, the pix all had my apron with the ties tied in front (which is how I like to wear them) but here is one with the ties tied in the back to show maximum streamlined cat cuteness.



So, what have I learned from making 3 aprons and 1 zipper pouch in 2 days?  It is really, really nice to be able to sew tried and true items and not worry about fit!

In my next post, I will write about what I got for Christmas from my parents (spoiler alert: it's an Elna Press!)

Be well!

From My Stash to Yours, Merry Christmas

From my stash to yours, Merry Christmas!

Thanks everyone for your comments on my last post.  Two great things happened:  I found a fellow sewist to trade fabric (Andrea of Needle Nose Apparel--she makes dog collars and dog pajamas for greyhounds!) AND the donation service came and took away 12 bags of clothes and fabric. 

And a third great thing happened:  I am now off for a week--my first week off at Christmas since 1998--and it is pretty fabulous!

I bought myself two things for Christmas:


I had been wanting a sewing machine necklace for a while now.  Elizabeth had one and I coveted it.  I bought mine on etsy from this seller.  I used the $50 gift card from the McCall's focus group (plus a little bit of my cash) to buy it.  I promise to write about the focus group soon.

I saw the labels on Lladybird's blog a while back, but they were out of stock at the time.  Now they are back at the Sublime Stitching shop.  I got them 25% off with a holiday sale.

I made myself an apron as a Christmas present to myself.  There was much fretting about placement of cats for maximum cuteness.  See the hot pink cats on the straps?  See how symmetrical they are?  See how the hot pink cat is in the middle?  Yes, yes, yes!


Yes!

I learned how to get this curve to come out flat instead of puckery:

 I have always had trouble with that curve which is a narrow, double turned, 5/8" seam. This time I serged the edge first, then turned it once and ironed it flat.





And then I turned it under again and ironed again.

And then I stitched from the right side.


Hurrah! No puckers!
Who knew the iron could be such a friend?

I did that for finishing the other edges as well.

The fabric is Kobayashi Quiet Cats in the pink/green colorway (it comes in three colorways).

I bought my first length of it in Hawaii in May with MushyWear and bought more on Maigo Cute.


The reflection of the chair in the window makes it look like there's still snow outside.  After an unusual weekend of temps in the upper 60's F, the snow is all gone.  Now it's 40-something.

So, Merry Christmas y'all.  Have a great holiday!!
Be well!

All sorts of sewing

Thanks everyone for your comments on my PR weekend NYC post!  I really appreciate everyone who commented to let me know they enjoyed the post. Fellow attendees have been posting their recaps and it's been fun to read what others did too. 

Here's what I've been up to since PR weekend.  I had 3 blissful days off after PR weekend which I enjoyed SO much.

I made a new apron.  I also made cookies from scratch.
 
The fabric is Melody Miller, Ruby Star Shining for Kokka fabric, purchased at WhipStitch in Atlanta last month. The pattern is my TNT apron pattern, McCalls 7391, circa 1995. 
I caution you to be careful with the placement of this fabric, though....you know what I mean...just sayin'.

Twitter is great. I tweeted @whipstitch with a picture of my apron, and @whipstitch tweeted @missletterM, who is the designer Melody Miller herself!
She then replied with "Super cute!". Awwwwwww!


I sewed up some underwear.

patch: 25 cent joann's clearance.
hot pink elastic: daytona from last weekend, PR weekend NYC.
brown knit fabric: jomar from PR weekend Philly. I had made it into a disaster shirt which is now wonderful UW.


Hey, what is the scalloped edge of the elastic on the left side of the picture called?  The elastic on the right side is picot for sure.  Are they both picot?  Different styles of picot?  Or does the elastic on the left have its own name?  I *need* to know.




Tonight I sewed a pillowcase for an unusual size pillow.
It's Alexander Henry Bird Seed fabric from Stitch Lab Austin circa 2010.

I like it! I piped it with purchased black piping in stash.  This was my creative solution to make the pillowcase wide enough, since I had cut up the fabric for something else....

I wanted to make a dress I saw on Kathy's blog, but the pattern range is too big. So, instead I played with my new rolled hem foot for about an hour or so this afternoon. I was inspired to buy one after seeing it on Noile's blog.  I think I have the hang of it now for straight hems, which is great because it means I can make a very nice rolled hem for the ruffle on B5638, which I'm planning on starting tmw.
I mean, it's pretty awesome.

I'm so excited!

All my attempts (earliest on top, latest on bottom):

I also put paper over the pattern boxes and labeled with stickers:

I think it looks cleaner and tidier that way.
I also organized my thread better. Navy is in the box on the left and black is in the box on the right, so I can distinguish them better!

Oh, and I've got something brewing with a dressform, but that's next weekend!
Be well!