2009 Wrap Up

Well I had planned to put this up yesterday, but had trouble with my computer and then we lost power at 6:15 last night so it had to wait until this morning.

I was inspired by a few graphs I saw so I did a little tally of what I sewed in 2009. I have been keeping track of what I sew for a little over three years in a spiral notebook. It has come in handy so many times and it's also fun to look back and see what I've made.

In 2009, here is a breakdown of "who" I sewed for. As you can see, I wasn't in first place, instead it was all about the kids (go figure). The gifts were things I made for extended family members (ie not my own kiddos), mostly for Christmas gifts but some where birthday gifts and baby gifts too.

Here is the breakdown of pattern brand used. There are repeat patterns on here and KS is dominating because that is my go to PJ pattern. Also the "That Darn Kat" is the undies pattern I use for my youngest ~ you can see which ones in this post.

Another thing I notice is that I need to suck it up with my BWOF and Ottobre - seriously those magazines are expensive and if I'm not using them, then why the heck am I buying them? I have 5 years worth of BWOFs and 10 years worth of Ottobres - I should never be sewing anything else (or buying anything for that matter!). My Ottobre is up for renewal and I'm considering dropping it, but breaking up is so hard to do. I really look forward to getting the magazine, but with 10 years worth, can there really be something different and new making it worth the price each year? I still have a few weeks to ponder it. Have you had this struggle? If so, how did you decide?

Now on to my Christmas sewing. I sewed like crazy for the entire month of December and am so glad that is over. It was fun and a great idea, but it was so time consuming and overwhelming at times. A few of my favorite things I made are pictured below.

This is a pillow I made my sister. Why I like it so much is that she and my BIL acquired a business in 2008 called Acorn Uniforms in the Seattle area so it's rather fitting for them. It's a free pattern at YCMT if you want to make your own.


I also made three of these door hanging pillows to give as gifts. I wanted to make myself one, but ran out of time. I'm sure I'll make more of these, they are super easy and so cute. You can get this pattern free at YCMT too (can you see I have been using this site lately - it's really great!).

I always make the kids special pjs for Christmas Eve and really liked the prior year's matching snowman pjs. When I looked for matching fabric online this year, I didn't find anything that jumped out at me plus a lot of the Christmas knits were too girly. I really wanted to use fabric I had stashed and then it came to me - M&M pjs! My MIL collects all things M&M and all the kids have their "own" color so I decided to make them pjs in their M&M color! They were a hit and looked so cute IMO. I used this freezer paper stencil technique for the M's.

Up for 2010, not sure. I am not really a resolutions girl. I don't like making goals that I don't know if I'll keep. Heck, I have "to do" lists in my head each morning and most of the time I don't even get those all the way completed. I do know I really want to make myself a nice coat. I purchased some gorgeous wool coatings from Fabric.com in the fall so I have the supplies. I also want to make a trench with the Burberry fabric I purchased at PRW. Another pair or two of Jalie jeans are in order too. Lots of "wants" so I'll just keep plugging away and do my best while still enjoying my hobby. Oh and definitely using those BWOF (it will always be BWOF to me by the way) and Ottobre mags!

Wishing all my readers a healthy and happy 2010!

Learning something new.

It's easy to get in a rut of doing things the same way. A creature of habit. My middle son was in desperate need of new undies (TMI I know). What started out as a fun way to use up scraps might have created a monster. My boys have been spoiled with mama made undies and they like them so much better than RTW - so much in fact that there are no RTW undies in the house for any of them. I do hope I haven't ruined them forever and they will expect their mom to make their undies when they are 50! ;-)

Back in August (gasp!), I cut out seven pairs and finally got around to sewing them up over the weekend. I used my trusty Ottobre Boxer Brief pattern and started sewing them how I had before (wrong sides together serged so the seams are on the outside, then zigzag the seams down from the outside so they lay flat). After doing two pair, it occurred to me that there has got to be a better way. Then a split second later I had my serger manual opened up to a flatlock stitch and knew that was just the ticket!

My serger rarely does anything but a four thread overlock. Occasionally it will do a rolled hem, but that is it. I even bought myself the book Serger Secrets years ago so I knew how to do all kinds of things with my serger. Unfortunately I feel like I don't have time to learn something new so I haven't made time to practice anything the book shows. I will say that I highly recommend it tho, it's jammed full of wonderful information (information I must store in my brain so I can use when the need arises).

Back to my discovery. So I set my machine up for a 2 thread wide flatlock (hmm, that is what they meant by 2 thread, another discovery for me!) and proceeded to make some samples. I am happy to say, that flatlocking the pieces for the undies together worked like a charm and was so much faster than my original method. I was so excited that I called my BFF Kim to share the news and she said, well you are going to blog about it aren't you? - so here I am blogging about it and hoping to inspire someone to try out this great stitch. Here are some samples I stitched-

1) This shows the front and back side after you initially stitch it together.2) After you stitch the two pieces together, open the fabric up so you have one piece in each and and gently pull - voila, you have now pulled the seam allowances inside your flatlock. This is the view from the "looper" side (what I chose for my top side).3) And this is the view from the "ladder" side (what I chose as the backside for my project).
4) And here are the finished undies! :-)
I hope if you haven't played around with your serger, that you will now. I had fun trying this new stitch and am going to start trying some other techniques in the Serger Secrets book.

Up next? Just trying to make my Christmas sewing plans. I feel like I'm already leaving things to the last minute and I still have 5.5 weeks left. I have lots of pj's cut out so that is one thing I'll be sewing. Also I would like to make the two older boys sweatshirts. Then there is sewing I'd like to do for me - another pair of Jalie jeans (yes I know I didn't share that I made a pair back in Sept - love them!!!!), a coat/jacket or three...so many patterns, so little time.

More sewing

I feel like I've been making good headway getting things cranked out lately. I'm using up fabric I have and getting different gifts made.

First up is a garment for me. It's one of my favorite patterns, BWOF 10-2005-114. I actually purchased the fabric in November when I was taking my pants fitting class. I can't remember the blend, but it's a sweater-y knit of sorts. Not that stretchy, I guess more like a fancier fleece. It has a nice texture to it and the colors are berry. The photo is a bit dark, I think it's prettier in person. So cozy and a welcome addition to my wardrobe.

I also made one for my sister out of a sweater knit I got from Joann's a long time ago. It too is prettier in person (Is this a good enough reason for a new camera since I have such crappy shots??? If so, please email my hubby and tell him! lol). I was going to get rid of the fabric, but when my sister saw it in the pile she really liked it so I decided I'd make her a sweater too for a Christmas gift. We're the same size and she'd tried on another one I made so I'm sure it will fit her. The fabric is definitely her colors and not mine. This is a "what was I thinking" purchase.

And a few box bags from this tutorial ~ thanks to Stacy for pointing out the tutorial on her blog. I will post a review on PR of this pattern very soon. The directions are a little confusing, but the pictures help. I also found a helpful post on this blog about how to do the corners in an easier manner. Below are the fruits of my labor. I made the black one larger for my SIL - you can see it matches the Weekender Bag she'll get for graduation in March.

More baby bibs! I just love the Valentine one.

And another throw pillow for my couch from some leftover fabric (ivory chenille on the back side). I got smart this time and put a zipper in it. This is soooo much better than hand sewing the pillow shut because it's faster, plus I can take the pillow out and wash the cover. I might go back and redo the other pillows I did earlier in the year.

So that my friends, is what I've been sewing. Actually I also made two more aprons from my Grandma's apron pattern to put in my "ready to gift" box. I forgot to take pictures of those, but I surely don't need another apron right now since I already have three in rotation plus a Christmas one. Oh and I made my youngest a pair of pants from Ottobre too, but they are set aside for Christmas. Nothing exciting, just blue twill, very cute nonetheless.

Today the kids are home for a snow day. The Pacific NW is getting hammered with Arctic air and now snow. In the Portland area the kids have been out all week, but we didn't get the snow they did over the weekend. Now we're all getting it and it's just beautiful out! It rarely snows here anyway and when it does, it's here for a minute and then gone. The extended weather report is snow off and on and below freezing temps through Tuesday (as far as the weather forecast goes). We might be in for a white Christmas afterall!!!!

First Prize

The little pilot jacket I made my son took first place in the Sewing for Babies/Kids contest on Pattern Review! The voting ended Saturday night and so Sunday when I checked my email, I had a wonderful surprise waiting in my inbox. :-)

The voting really was hard and the final tally was so close. There is such great talent on PR and so many gorgeous things were created - over 60 entries and each member is only allowed to vote for one item!

A fellow PR member pointed out to me how cool it was that a boy item came out on top. She said it's so much easier to make cute girl things with all the great patterns available (ahh, how I wish I could still make cute girl things), but when you have a boy, it's truly hard to find cute boy patterns. What a compliment, I hadn't thought of it that way. Tho in all honesty, I really owe Ottobre the thanks because they were the mastermind behind the pattern I chose. I adore the wonderful boy patterns they produce so my sons can look stylish in their mama made garments.

A big thank you to Deepika (the owner and founder of Pattern Review) for the fun contest and Sew Baby for their generous prize. Last, but definitely not least, thank you to my readers, your comments encourage me to continue to sew.

Holey Hoodie

I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all your lovely comments here and on PR about the jacket I made my son. You have no idea what a smile they put on my face.

On Saturday I worked on another little number for my baby. I made him a "holey hoodie" last fall and he loved it, but sadly it's too small now. Since he loved that sweatshirt so much, I decided to surprise him with another one. The pattern is from Ottobre 4-2007-11. It's really generously wide, so I can see getting a few more years out of this pattern by just adding some length even tho I made it in size 110 (the biggest size) .


Up close of the pockets. I used the reverse side of my cover stitch to make to stitch the pocket down.



I think the pictures show how much he likes he new hoodie! :-) I wish I could keep him little, he's so darn much fun.

A Pilot Jacket (Img Heavy)

I finished my son's pilot jacket earlier in the week and was finally able to get outside and get some photos to share. I know I'm going overboard on pictures, but it's a mom's duty to gloat, so here I am fulfilling my *mommy duty*. :-)

From the pictures you can see all the details of the jacket. I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out. I posted a detailed review of the jacket on PR. I highly recommend the jacket and plan to enter the jacket in the sewing for children contest that is currently running.

Pilot Jacket

The first time I saw this jacket, I just knew I had to make it. It's from Ottobre 3/2003, #17. As mentioned in my last post, I was headed to Fabric Depot to get the fabric. I got the fabric, zipper, and am happy to report I only came home with one other piece of fabric. :-) Yes, I'm on a fabric diet - defininitely a diet and not a fast. By the way, I really apprecaite all the comments on my last post. It's good to know I'm in good company with my love for fabric.

Here is the coat I'm making (click the picture to enlarge).

Yesterday I traced off the embroidery motif from the pattern sheet. I traced it onto clear water soluble stabilizer with a extra fine point Sharpie.

Here is the image on the stabilizer. Ottobre instructs you to pin the stabilizer on the wrong side of the fabric, stitch the lines with a straight stitch, then flip the garment over to the right side and follow the straight stitch lines with a satin/zig zag stitch to produce the embroidery. The nature of my fabric didn't allow me to pin, so I used some temporary spray adhesive to attach my stabilizer.

Here is part of the embroidery done with the satin stitch. You can also see where the ouline is for me to follow. Please excuse the lint. My fabric is bonded faux leather with a fluffy shearling on the other side (very messy!).

The embroidery all finished. It's supposed to be a dog. I'm not 100% mine looks like a dog. I like it okay, DH wasn't too enthusiastic about it tho.

I got the two back side panels sewed and topstitched tonight. I decided to topstitch in black thread and am happy with how it looks (tho no picture of that quite yet).

I will try to work some more on the jacket tomorrow, however I'm on my Auntie "M" babysitting duty now and with 6 kids in the house, it's rather wild! So far so good ~ no replay of last time yet (and there better not be!). Only smiles, laughter, and a lot of fun!

I need a fabric diet!

Today I traced off a jacket from Ottobre for my youngest. My plan is to enter it in the Children's Clothing contest on PR. I wanted to make sure I purchased the adequate amount of fabric, because what I want to get is rather spendy and a smidge leftover always feels like such a waste. It's regularly $30/yd, but on sale today at Fabric Depot for $18/yd. Still a little spendy in my book, especially for a child, but I only need 1 yard plus a zipper. And really it's going to be a *cute* winter jacket and I can't buy one at the store for that price.

Once I got the jacket traced off I was looking through my fabric cupboard trying to find some inspiration. I was pulling things down and realized I really need to curb my appetite for fabric. It's hard. They are all so pretty. I want to bring them home to my lovely sewing studio. It's not a crime, right? Well it should be a crime so I will stop buying. Some may laugh at this statement and think there is no such thing as too much fabric. Well for me there is. It makes me get tense and nervous. I don't like clutter and to me this is clutter. Yes I like to be able to pick something I want to make and shop what I already have, however it still makes me uneasy to have as much as I do. So I'm going to give it the ol' college try and refrain from buying. Now stop taking bets, this will surely last longer than a day!

Yesterday I snapped this picture of my "baby" in his new shirt I made him. I used my trusty KS 2894 and love the way the top turned out. Inspiration began with a shirt I saw in the spring/summer Mini Boden catalog. I made the top back in July, but it was too big and too hot to wear it. I lined the hood in knit jersey and the applique is done in orange twill - tires complete with button hubcaps. He is beyond thrilled as you can see by the picture. I will cherish this. My kids loving mommy making something just for them. A one-of-a-kind creation that no one else has. That is why I sew.

Off to shop for the coat fabric. I'm bringing home coat fabric and a zipper, nothing else. You can shop laughing now....

What I've been up to (pretty much a book!)

Wow, it's already September (well almost mid September) and life is just flying by. The kids went back to school on the 2nd and I panicked on Labor Day because the two boys didn't have any new tops to wear on the first day. Yep, I'm one of those moms that want them to have new clothes for their first day back. Ottobre to the rescue and I had two top finished by bed time. The green one shown in the picture below is one and the other was for my older son, but it was a smidge too big so he opted to wear a RTW shirt I had bought him. Here are the kids right before we left for the first day back.

Then we celebrated our daughter turning eleven-teen! I can't believe she's 11 - where did the time go? She really wanted a Hannah Montana cake from the bakery, but after learning it was $25 (yikes), she said it was fine to make a homemade cake with sprinkles on top. What a gem, it looks like she might be coming around to the value of a dollar. Hey a mom can hope!

During the last week of August I worked on pants for the three boys. I got four pairs done total. All from Ottobre, but I have to go dig for the pattern numbers (I should do reviews and maybe when time allows I will). Here is a pair on my youngest. He was very pleased with them and loves the side pockets.

Side view~

Close up of pocket (there is one on each side)~

Here are one pair of my middle son's pants. I lightened the picture since they are black. This is one of the pairs I did the reinforced knee on. You can see it a little in the picture, but it looks way better than holes in the knees!

Back side~
My nice neighbor up the road asked if I wanted some apples and I jumped on the opportunity. I love home made applesauce, so last weekend the birthday girl and I made two batches. Here is a little work in progress. We ended up with 3 quart jars and 11 pints. I still have some apples leftover and plan to make some apple pie filling.

Here is she washing apples~

A box and bag of apples~

On the stove ready to cook~

Running them through the food mill~

And a bonus treat, apple crisp ready to pop in the oven. Boy was it tasty!!!

I finally have a picture of the top I made from BWOF 4-2008-116. As mentioned in my earlier post, I used the leftover fabric from the NL twist dress I made. The top was too big since the smallest size was a 38 and I usually wear a 36, but after taking a drastic 1" alteration on each side seam, it seems to fit. I have worn it a few times already and really like it. When I make it again, I will size the pattern down, that should surely work a lot better. It's a bit plunging too, so I will raise the neckline as well.

Another time consuming project I've been up to is redecorating the kids' bathroom. It is actually the main bathroom and is used by guests as well as the kids. It has always been the "ducky" bathroom because it was decorated with rubber ducks. After 7.5 years, I'm was more than sick of it. I decided I was going to find a lovely shower curtain and that would be the base for my new decor. While shopping with birthday girl and my mom last weekend at Kohls, I found *it*! The picture honestly doesn't do it justice. It's WAY more beautiful in person, I promise. So on Sunday, my daughter and I set out to find fabric to make a coordinating window valance and curtain to cover the linen area in the bathroom.

I found the absolute perfect fabric at Joann's, but they only had 1 yard and I needed 3. The guy looked on his computer and said the Vancouver store (about 30 minutes from my home) had 64 yards in stock. Great, I'll go after it once the kids go to school on Monday. Long story short, I went on Monday morning and couldn't find any - the nice cutting counter lady told me because it's remnants they get in from home decor manufacturers and they all have the same SKU number!!!!!! OMGosh, I was so annoyed that I'd drove all that way for nothing. Plus the paint I bought at Home Depot went with that and the shower curtain perfectly. All was not lost tho, I found a solid and went back to my local Joann's and got the 1 yard of stripe and will make a band at the bottom of the linen closet curtain. I am on the fence as to if the valance will be solid, stripe, or both with a band on the bottom.

I did get the painting all done over Monday evening and Tuesday. Now I'm waiting on Mr. Homemaker to help me hang the mirror back up and do some other "handy work" that I need help with. As soon as it's ready for a showing, I'll post pictures.

I guess that is all the news for now. As you can see, I've been busy, just not blogging about it. I've also been doing some fall cleaning trying to weed out clothes and such the kids have outgrown so I can eBay, Craig's List, or Goodwill stuff - ugg I hate clutter, it makes me batty!!!

P.S. I almost forgot to mention Hubby & I celebrated our 12th Anniversary since I posted last too! We actually didn't have a babysitter since it was over Labor Day weekend, so we took the kids bowling instead. It was a lot of fun and really we can go out to dinner any old time. And yes, do the math, our daughter was born three days after our first anniversary. Apparently we didn't know what caused that back then - young and dumb, you know how it goes! ;-) The great news is we will still be so young when the kids are grown and gone. :-)

A little less talk, a lot more action.

I'm a country girl (yes I really live in the country) and love country music. Last weekend while my hubby was away on business, the kids were up late listening to a Toby Keith CD while playing Legos. On a whim I thought it sure would be fun to see him in concert (I've only been to two concerts at the fair and then one when I was little with my dad which I don't really remember) so I decided to hop online and see what his tour schedule was. Low and behold he was coming to the local Amphitheatre in a week. So I decided to look and see if I could find tickets so I could surprise my hubby with a special date night. Lucky me, I ended up getting tickets in the center section 14 rows from the front!!! I was so pumped and kept it a secret until yesterday afternoon divulging clues to him via email. Once he guessed the "who" I told him what we were doing - needless to say, he was very impressed with the surprise and my creativity (can you say "awesome wife" points for me??? lol).

So with an upcoming date night upon us, I had to make something new to wear (of course!). Flipping through my BWOF mags this past week I found the perfect little top to wear to the concert. It is from the June 2008 issue - #123. It was actually super simple to make thanks to some tutorials that have been posted. I ended up following the one posted by Christina of Assorted Notions, but both Dawn of Two On, Two Off and Angie of Quality Time both had helpful info on their blogs too. Thanks ladies, I'm so appreciative of you taking the time to share how to do something, especially when the directions are pretty murky! I posted a full review Pattern Review if you'd like to know more about the top. The verdict: DH loved the top and we had a B.L.A.S.T. at the concert last night. I think that was actually more fun than I've had in a very long time. The group Montgomery Gentry opened for Toby Keith and they were wonderful to see live as well - it was just a night of pure fun!!!

Next up is a dress I made a few weeks ago - New Look 6802. I love this dress. I loved it the minute I saw it in the pattern catalog, but I'm a sucker for twist tops and wrap tops/dresses. Well I was not at all disappointed by this little number and have already worn it twice. I have another one cut and ready to sew up. I highly recommend this pattern, the instructions were super easy and the results are fabulous! Review on PR

This last top is one I whipped up because I realized I really needed more solid colored pieces in my wardrobe. It's from Ottobre Woman 2-2007 #4. Super easy and a TNT (tried and true) pattern for me. I also made four tank tops from the same issue this week too, pattern #1. I love the tank top pattern as well and it's very quick to make since I use my coverstitch machine and binding attachment. I don't have a picture of the tank tops, but I made one in turquoise, hot pink, plum, and red.

Currently I'm working on a jacket in turquoise linen. It's the Project Runway Simplicity 3538. I'm not sure if I'm in love with it or if it's looks too Becky HomeEc-y. It's almost done, so I think I will put it away for a week or two and bring it back out and see if I'm liking it a little better. I hate it when I'm not in love with something right away. I'm a jacket novice so I'm sure there is lots of room for improvement. DH doesn't know if he likes it either, so maybe that is swaying my feelings right now. He said he's not sure about the color and the color is definitely what I love so I don't know.