Thursday, December 04, 2008

Childbirth

If you any children, you know the pains of labor fade into the sunset once the baby is delivered. Well the same is true with making the Amy Butler Weekender Bag. In my quest to give more handmade gifts this year for Christmas, I decided to make my SIL and daughter each a Weekender Bag. Well what the heck was I thinking???? Apparently I don't vividly remember all the blood, sweat, and tears it caused me when I made myself one in January. I need to be declared insane!

Now after starting the bag, I'm not fully committed to finishing it in time for Christmas. I'm reconsidering this might be a good graduation gift for when she graduates nursing school in March (that gives me a little more time). I think I suck at big projects. I like more instant gratification projects. Possibly I'm longing for a few new things for me, so I will set this aside for a bit and bring it back to the machine soon. I will finish it, the question is whether it will be in time for Christmas - that is still to be determined.

Here is the bag in it's sad state~

Now onto my other sewing projects that I promised to share in my last post. First up is the outfit I made to wear to DH's work Christmas party. Of course you can just call me "Last Minute Lucy" on this one. I seem to have this theme every year. I want something new to wear and don't start it until the day of the party. I had purchased a black knit with subtle silver sparkles in it when my local indy store went out of business in January. I never knew what I'd do with it. It's a pretty stable knit with not a lot of give, but something kept drawing me back to it so I got 2 yds to toss in my stash. Well here is the end result, a Jalie Crossover top and a little A-line skirt I quickly drafted out of the scraps. I lightened the picture to help see the details better, but it's still hard since it's black. What I liked about the outfit was that I wasn't freezing. They always have the air cranked up and if I had any sort of sleeveless dress or top on I'd freeze.

I also recently made myself two black skirts. One I still need to photograph, but here is the other one. Forgive the lack of a full body shot; the ones my daughter took were horrible and there was no way I could post them. The skirt is from Simplicity 3631. I had Marta fit this pattern on my at my class in October because I really wanted to have a flattering straight skirt. She seemed to think the size 12 was perfect, however once I had the fabric cut and got started, I found this skirt too big. I ended up shaving it down to about a 10. I still wasn't happy with the result so I pegged the hem in about 2" and I like the look better. I'm happy I have a basic black skirt, tho I'm not sure if I'll sew this again. Quite frankly I think that A-line skirts look much better on my shape than straight skirts. The other one I made is too straight too, oops!

So here is the front view (btw, my knees are even tho the picture looks like one knee cap is way higher than the other, must have been how I was standing)~


And the back view (nice bruises on my leg, huh?)~


Here is my middle son in his new Kwik Sew 2894~


And pj's galore~




And finally I have a few bibs for my son's teacher. All my children have had the pleasure of having this wonderful lady be their teacher and she's finally bringing home her baby from Vietnam! The little girl is almost 11 months old and figured a few chenille bibs would be a welcome gift. As a mom, I know you can never have too many bibs. It was a good way to give my embroidery machine some love too.

Up next? Good question. I should be working on that darn bag, but I think I'll set it aside. I have a pillow that needs a cover and I am in desperate need of some tops.

12 comments:

Bonnie O. said...

Great dress! And I love all the jammies!

Birgitte said...

Beautiful dress and skirt- I could never whip up anything in a day so I'm thoroughly impressed.

Fab jammies, and how cool that you have an Etsy shop!

Anonymous said...

I'm with you, I love instant gratification projects! Most of my WIPS are the ones that take forever to work on!

Love the outfit, you look great - forget that spa in Cali, you don't need it! ROFL.

Anonymous said...

Wow Melissa. Great little projects you have been getting done. Love that dress and skirt. You look great in both. Can I please borrow your skinny little body? What pattern did you use for the PJ's? Of course, my son is a size 92/98. Was it a Kwik Sew pattern too?

Lori said...

Wonderful party dress, you look spectacular. The skirt is very nice, too. I am love all the jammies, there are some great fabrics there.

katherine h said...

I can sympathise about the bag. I made my daughter a doll a few months ago, and silly me, thought I would whip up a few for all my nieces this Christmas...hmmm, not so quick when there's more than one. I couldne't wait to wrap them and have them gone from my view forever. I think I'm just a one-off kind a gal.

cidell said...

I've been thinking about this bag too. I think you've just talked me out of it for a Christmas gift! Love the dress!

Vonnevo said...

Melissa, you are looking gorgeous in the party outfit ! Your machines have been smokin'....all those fabulous jim jams !!! bet the kiddos are happy too :)

Jacqui said...

Your Holiday party dress is hot! I love sparkly fabrics, too, just no where to wear them. You sure have been busy, I can understand why the bag seems to have stopped the roll you were on. I think it will make a better grad gift. =)For your daughter, you can make her the messenger bag featured in Stitch magazine. Mine has been wanting a messenger bag so I got cool pink zebra home decor fabric to make her one (after the holidays, of course!)

laura said...

I made Amy Butler's Messenger Bag for myself last year and it was one loooong project but I did just what you did; I forgot how time consuming it was and decided to make one for my daughter. Luckily it's done and will be wrapped up for Christmas. Your dress turned out so nice, perfect for a party. Believe me as a waitress I've seen some pretty 'interesting' holiday dresses and yours is very classy.

Anonymous said...

OK...all you had to do was call me and I would have reminded you how much you enjoyed making that bag, can you say whine?????? I can't believe you are putting yourself through that again, then again you do have 4 kids so must be able to block out pain memories, lol!

You looked smokin' hot at the Christmas party in you new get up. I was completely impressed, to bad we sat by a door and we had to keep our coats on to keep from freezin'!

Cindy May said...

CANNOT stop laughing at the weekender bag. yes what were you thinking. this is the best post i have read in a while!!!