A Bag for Siv

My friend Siv visited in the fall and saw this partially-sewn bag I was working on at the time and she "claimed" it. I warned her it was my very first run of it so that there might be some flaws, but she wanted it anyway. Yes, it has taken me months to finish it, just as it has taken me months to post again to my blog (sorry, guys - there are these complications called "school" and "work"). I've almost finished this bag. The only thing left is an official strap. I tied some recycled oxygen tubing on as a makeshift strap until I decide how I will make the real strap.

Here is a sneak preview of the almost-finished bag...

I finally have a little free time this Christmas break to work on the bag and finish it up. Next up will be to redo some curtains for my Dad (homemade curtains, of course, with vintage button trim). I used to have them hanging in our old house but when we moved they didn't fit any of the windows in our new house, plus our new house already had decent window treatments in most rooms. They're super-cute and I'm so glad that my Dad wants them!

Maybe I can find some time to sew a few more items to sell on my Etsy site before school starts back up. That would be so nice! I would love to sew more aprons, some placemats, napkins for all of you...

This is exciting!

I am so excited that I have made my third sale today off my Etsy.com site (http://tswhimsy.etsy.com/)! I think this is great, considering I have only posted a total of 5 things for sale. I have reached 60% of total sales today. Hee, hee!

I think it is the coolest thing to think that this person in Chicago, Illinois, whom I have never met, will be wearing my original design - my "relaxed sweatshirt dress" that I created for myself to throw on over my spandex after dance class. However, I ended up loving my sweatshirt dress so much that I actually wore it ALL THE TIME during the winter and spring months. It's just such an easy wardwrobe choice. I wore it often paired with a black tee, black Dansko leggings, my Frye boots, my favorite knit scarf, and the necklace my friend Atomic Owl made for me (you can find her on Etsy also: http://atomicowl.etsy.com/).

There are currently only two Relaxed Sweatshirt Dresses designed and sewn my yours truely out there in the world. Unfortunately, that is all I have had the time to sew and create these days. the cool thing is that both are "originals" because the one that my Etsy customer in Chicago, Illinois bought today is slightly different than the one I own. I put clear elastic in the neckline to give it a different look. My version that I own does not have that detail. Both are super-cute in my opinion, though.

Here is a photo of the dress that will be walking around Chicago, Illinois...

I apologize again for not taking the time to blog on a more regular basis. Between February and now I have been trying to maintain a class load of 3 very challenging classes and work full-time. How I love to blog, though!

I hope to find time to blog more during the summer months (I will only be taking two classes), but still working full-time. And I also hope to get some sewing time in as I haven't sewn anything new since January. I would really like to sew myself a t-shirt version of my Relaxed Sweatshirt Dress to enjoy during the summer months. I hope to sew a few extra to sell on Etsy, too. So please keep checking my Etsy site because I may just well surprise you with a few more new things!

My Favorite Little Model

Meet my favorite little model for a kiddie apron I made for my husband's best friend's little girl. This is Dedo (she was the smallest thing in our house that could model this apron so I could get a photo of it before I sent it off to the recipient who lives in Little Rock, Arkansas). Dedo is going on 15 years old this year - she's the "Old Lady" of the house. She may not look very thrilled to be modeling this very cute kiddie apron I made, but she was apparently loving it because she was purring up a storm at the time. I could barely hold her up straight because I was laughing so hard.

Note the very cute bunny buttons on the top of the apron. I scored those from a friend and ex-coworker who was a Katrina survivor. When she was able to get back to her house before making the permanent move to P-town, she found some of her sewing things still intact including some fabric and buttons (both of which she shared with me when she found out I also loved to sew - in return I made her a very cool apron which I will post some photos of hopefully in the near future).

I know, I have been very bad at blogging, but honestly, I looove to blog. I just have not had much time to blog or to spend in my sewing room because I recently made the decision to go back to school and have been busy trying to juggle three classes and a FT job since January this year (hence, the lack of blog posts since then). But I just made my first sale on Etsy from a very special customer and I am so excited about it that it has given me renewed energy to take some time out to blog some more!

Here is a close up photo of the cute bunny button detailing on the kiddie apron. Aren't they so cute?! Okay, please keep checking out my blog. I promise to be better about making regular posts!

Halloween Central, Yuma, AZ 2008

The Halloween Inspiration:

My husband & I went to Yuma, AZ this past October to help out my older sister and her family since she was due to give birth to her second child any day. The only thing on her mind, though, was making sure they all had costumes to wear for the upcoming Halloween! Their Halloween theme this year was to go as King Triton (my sister's husband), Ursula (my sister), Ariel (my 3-year old niece), and if & when baby came he/she would go as Sebastian (the crab, not featured in the photo above).

So Kev & I took my niece's Little Mermaid book and drove around downtown Yuma to find the supplies I needed to get their Halloween costumes together. I had actually worked on the Ariel mermaid costume a month prior at home & I mailed it to my sister - one down, two to go. I only had to come up with King Triton's fishtail/fins, cuffs, triton (the pitchfork-like staff), & his crown, and Ursula's dress/tentacles, and nautilus shell necklace - in like, two days. At least my sister had found a crab costume for a dog that she bought for baby to wear!

I sewed like a "maniac" (my brother-in-laws exact word to describe me) for like 12 hours straight for the last few days we were in Yuma to get these costumes done. The harder part was getting my brother-in-law and my sister to show up for the fittings between the way he works 10-12 hours a day 6-days a week (military) and her running around witht he energy of a 20-yr old even though she's about to pop any day! Sheesh!

Halloween Central at my sister's house. Matt created the triton, I created the crown. We used an old technique I learned in a high school art class (see high school was good for something!). We cut out cardboard then used wadded up masking tape to bulk up/build up the shape to make the triton & crown more 3D. Finished with flat pieces of masking tape then spray painted it gold. I sewed those cuffs for King Triton's costume and lined them with poly-batting to give it some body.

Close up view of the finished product (King Triton's crown). This technique worked well, better than something like paper mache, since there was no drying time!

Yay, I got my brother-in-law to stay still long enough for the first fitting of King Triton's fins (pants) before I put in the elastic waistband & hemmed them. I got lucky & found this really cheesy 1970's men's skin-tight pants pattern at Goodwill to use as a template. My brother-in-law is 6' 4" so there was a lot of inches I needed to add to the pattern to make it fit him.

Ursula's tentacles were the most time-consuming part, of course. I sewed them, stuffed them with poly-batting, then stuck straightened metal clothes hangers in each one to allow them to be bent into shape. I sewed them all on to a little pull-on skirt with an elastic wasitband for ease of getting them on & off.

I created this cute little strapless number for the upper half of Ursula's costume. Obviously it's not my sister modeling it - it fit her body better since she was able to fill out the bust & belly area. Elastic above & below the bust area to hold the dress up, a little elastic down the front/middle of the bust for a flattering look/shape (my sister was very pleased with that detailing), and lots of velcro in the back to keep it shut.

Kev & I scoured Joanne's beads. We were just hoping to find one that looked like a shell, and as luck would have it, we found a nautilus one! It was glass with funky colors so my brother-in-law spray painted it gold & it was perfect!

For my 3-year old niece: Ariel's purple top - the serger came in very handy for this!


Ariel's fish fin bottoms made for a 3-year old, being modeled my yours truely because I made it at my house & didn't have a 3-year old model to try it on.

However, I did have (my) teddy to model it before I packaged it up & sent it to my sister's. Remember, I made this a month in advance. Originally I had only signed up to do Ariel's costume. I thought my sister had already gotten Ursula's & King Triton's together. Apparently she was waiting till I arrived to let me know they hadn't been created... how convenient! There's now a sewer in the house!

Here they all are on Halloween night. Hmmm...where's that Ariel costume I slaved over??? My niece decided she wanted to go as PRINCESS Ariel instead that night! (Arrg! 3-year olds!) Isn't the muscle suit great for the King Triton costume? (Sorry the photo is so small. My sister doesn't understand how to set the photos to be larger on her camera so all photos she takes are postage-sized ones.)

A Christmas Scarf for Kev

I took up knitting a while before I took up sewing. But once I got into sewing, that's all I wanted to do - sew. So I had no more time to knit. Sure, I can knit your basic few stitches, but I'm not very quick (and my problem is I'm a perfectionist, i.e. very AR). And I made the mistake of knitting my husband a scarf with tiny needles and thin yarn so it was taking me FOREVER. I wanted it to be really cool so I was making a blue scarf with red edges on all 4 sides. Next thing you know I'm still working on that same darn scarf one year later. One year becomes two, and then fast-foward like 4 years later... I'm still not done with it. The funny thing is I only have one last side to knit on it (the red edging) and I haven't picked it up to finish it. So now it's this running joke between me and my husband.

I found this really cute cotton flannel remnant at my favorite fabric and knitting thrift store and immediately thought of Kev. I thought it would make a really cute scarf for him. If I wasn't going to ever finish that knit scarf for him, at least I could sew him a scarf. I can't believe I was able to get it together before Christmas! Not only that, I was also able to finish two scarves, one to sell on Etsy.

Kev is so cute! He said this scarf was his favorite Christmas present. It rules over the Magnum P.I. complete Season One DVDs that my sister got him and the Marvel Chronicle book that my mom and aunt got him. ;) Kev has been wearing his scarf every day! So I know it's his new favorite thing because Kev actually rarely ever wears a scarf even though he owns three others.

I rounded the edges of the scarf I sewed him just to see how well I could do with curves on my serger. Not bad at all! (There's room to improve, as always.) I only made 2 scarves in this fabric since that's all I had enough fabric for. Kev's scarf is narrower and has the rounded edges. The scarf I posted on Etsy is wider and has squared edges. So even though they're two-of-a-kind in fabric, they're actually one-of-a-kind in design.

Since It's a reversible scarf you can wear it a few different ways - with either just mainly the plaid side showing, or the white/gray diagonal box side showing, or mix it up with a little bit of each side showing like in this photo. If you want to score the only other scarf like it go to my Etsy page to buy it before someone beats you to it! http://tswhimsy.etsy.com

Maybe later I'll post some photos of some of the scarves I've knit when I was really into knitting. They're kinda cool.

Happy New Year, everyone!!!

Lounge Pants for Lori

One of the recent sewing projects I've finished are "Lounge Pants for Lori," a birthday present for my friend. She has a degree in Graphic Design so she really appreciates color. I would have to say that this fabric selection is not necessarily my taste, but when I saw it at my favorite fabric & knitting thrift store (yes, there is a thrift store dedicated just to fabric & knitting in P-town) I knew it was definitely Lori. I scored 3 yards of this fuchia cotton flannel for $5 TOTAL. It was in great shape with no imperfections! When I showed my husband the fabric when I got home his reaction was funny. He made a face and said it was "kind of ugy." But I assured him it would look super-cute when I was done making the lounge pants. He didn't really believe me.

I call these "Lounge Pants" (instead of "pajama pants") because I don't sleep in them - I just love to wear pants like this just to hang out around the house. They're sooo comfy! I sew small pockets on the front to hold an iPod and cell phone (this one has 2 small pockets but it's hard to see them in the photo). I love to wear my lounge pants especially when I'm sewing late at night. When I'm sewing I also catch up on phone calls to family and friends or listen to my iPod and those nifty little pockets on the front are so perfect to hold these gadgets. There's an elastic waistband & drawstring waistband as well - helps to hold the pants up when there's something heavier in the pocket (say, like a BlackBerry). Once my husband saw the finished product he thought it was "totally cute." He thought the constrasting fabric on the cuff and drawstring really pulled it together - so did I. Even though I didn't love the fabric (it's not quite my taste either), once it was done I thought, "I might like to keep the lounge pants for myself!" Here is a close-up of the lounge pant fabric & the constrasting fabric I used on the cuff and drawstring:

I can't wait to make myself a pair of lounge pants of this design. I do own another pair I made that's similar but doesn't have the contrasting fabric drawstring casing or cuff (previously I used thick twill tape for the drawstring casing), plus the pair I already own has a different shape to the leg (a little more tapered leg - which I don't care for). I like this new shape better (straight-leg), I think. I'm very excited about the fabric I picked out for my own lounge pants. It's Heather Ross' mermaid-octapai-fish fabric with a contrasting fabric for the drawstring & cuffs in pale-peach polk-a-dot. I think it's going to look so cute! I promise to post photos of the finished product in a future blog. Maybe I will get down to business soon and make a few extra to sell on Etsy. Lori brought her lounge pants to her parents house for Christmas and her sister saw them. She wants to know if I'll make a pair for her. ;)

I Love My New Drink Coasters

Here is a recent item I've sewn for myself. I love my new drink coasters I made for myself to keep in my sewing room. Previously I was using some handmade/handwoven ones that are also very cool. They look like little "mini rugs" complete with fringe on the end - too cute! Kev & I picked them up as a souviner when we traveled to New Mexico one summer. We bought them to use on our living room coffee table but I stole 2 out of the set of four to keep in my sewing room. I finally found some cute fabric recently that inspired me to make some drink coasters of my own. I could finally put those 2 woven coasters back in the living room where they belonged with the others!

After I was done sewing my new coasters I was so excited to use them! I got a glass of water, a mini Pepsi, and some hot soup in a mug and put three of the coasters to use right away! They're useful and cute, AND they look so cute in my sewing room!

I made 4 sets of coasters: 2 sets of six that I am selling on Etsy, 1 set of four for my friend's X-mas present, and 1 set of five for my sewing room (I didn't have enough fabric to make a set of 6 for myself but that's okay because I really only wanted/needed 4 for my sewing room). All the coaster sets are different in their designs/print on one side. I have the animal-themed coasters. My friend has the ones that have a people-cat-things theme. One set I posted for sale on Etsy is a matching vine theme and the other set I posted for sale is a fruit and flower theme. They're all reversible with a yellow and dark red polk-a-dot print on the reverse. Then I ran out of this particular fabric, so I guess you can say these are my "limited edition December drink coasters." They are all one-of-a-kind!





Visit my Etsy storefront to purchase some of these cute coasters for yourself or a friend (http://tswhimsy.etsy.com/). They're great for both hot and cold drinks, or hot soup - yum! I love hot soup in the winter! Don't you?!