Sunday, December 26, 2010

The boys Christmas presents

The boys Christmas presents

Dh and ds1 got Jalie 2918 long sleeve shirts done in yellow interlock with kelly green ribbing. Ds2 got Ottobre baby shirt from issue 3/2004. DS1's pants are sewn from New look pattern 6641 and ds 2 copied from an existing pair of pants. Don't they all look so handsome.

Taggy Blanket





Made for ds2 who is 8 months old. Done in minky with a Christmas teddy embroidery design. Ds loves this as there's so many different satin edges to play with.

Niece's Christmas present





Made using Ottobre's Baby Skirt from issue 3/2003. The changes I made were to leave off the slits on the side. I also did 4 rows of topstitching on both top and bottom and instead of doing the fabric choice listed I used stretch denim. I love this skirt. I also paired it with ottobre's baby's shirt from issue 3/2004 done in jersey knit and cotton rib knit binding.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Sewing links

Below are my sewing links. If there are any problems (ie broken links etc) please let me know. (There shouldn't be any right now as I have gone through them all)

Baby / kids
http://babypatterns.atspace.com/overview.html - shirts and pants etc from 0 thru 1st year
http://www.molendrix.com/strihy1.html free barbie doll clothes patterns

Clothes
Around the kitchen / home - how to make a crinoline
http://underwear.sew-ing.com/ - underwear sewing women and children
http://www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/braconvert.html - converting regular bra to nursing bra
http://leko-mail.net/mod-e.php?t=4&a=0&n=0 Lekala patterns - some are free for download and other only certain sizes are available for free. clothing for women, children and men

Around the house

purses
purse tutorial

Cloth Pads Mama cloth
http://labyrinth.net.au/~obsidian/clothpads/DIYpads/Patterns.html - All the different styles with printable pattern

Links to various sewing links
http://www.oneprettything.com/ - hand made gifts (not really sewing but could be useful)
http://thelongthread.com/?p=2021 - top 100 tutorials of 2008
http://vintagesewing.info/category.html#general - overview of sewing from textbook etc

techniques
http://www.fabrics.net/fabricsr.asp - burn test how to determine your fabric
http://duhbe.com/blog/?p=632 - how to make labels
http://cyatutorials.blogspot.com/ various sewing tutorials * great site

tea

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Jalie pattern 2918


jalie 2918
Originally uploaded by angeleyes_88
Oh how I love this pattern. This will definitely be my go to shirt pattern for all the boys including dh. It's also nice to be able to match all of boys in the same shirt although dh rolls his eyes when I say that. There is a size range from size 2T (approximately) all the way up to size 22 men's. I only wish it came in some smaller sizes for ds2 who's 8 months but the size range is amazing (as with all of Jalie's patterns). It also has 3 varying styles to choose from in both rounded and vneck including tshirt, long sleeve, and tshirt with a contrasting long sleeve underneath. Although I have a ton of patterns now because I was able to get back issues of Ottobre design magazine at a substantial discount (30% off) plus free shipping, I desperately needed a Men's pattern for DH as I think that he's starting to feel left out because I don't really make him anything. I tried a simplicity shirt pattern a while back but didn't like the result as it was just to big in the neckline.

To be perfectly honest, I love sewing but the one of the reasons I started sewing was because I can make things for cheaper than I can buy them (usually, lol). The others are that since my mother past away I feel closer to her when I sew because it was something that she loved so much (although she never had the time to teach me much about the craft). The bonus of sewing, is that it has given me so much pride. I just love seeing things that I make.

I used navy interlock on this shirt and cotton ribbing. I absolutely love interlock. It definitely has more substance than Jersey does and will hold up to the abuse that the boys (including dh) will show it.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Mini Superman

Here's ds2's halloween costume. How come last minute ideas seem to turn out the best? I used ottobre design magazine, issue 6/2009 Naava coverall. The only difficulty that I had was the crotch gusset but it turned out nicely. The only advise that I have is go slow here. The bootees and cape are also from ottobre, issue 4/2004. I also added snaps to it (not pictured) in blue post and yellow sockets and studs. Pardon the enormous diaper bum, thats what you get when you put 6 doublers in one (cloth) diaper :). I had all the material here left over from previous projects so it cost me nothing! Yay for free!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Old Ironing board makeover




So here's my old ironing board. Dull and lifeless. Not at all theinspirational motivation that I need when sewing inthe wee hours of the morning. I also wanted to make a tailor's ham and seam roll as they want like $10+ in the stores for them. I read that you have to use saw dust or hamster shavings to stuff into your tailor's ham, as it needs to be really compact. I preferred the saw dust, only didn't really know anyone that has any/enough to make a tailor's ham. So low and behold I asked at home depot if they carried anything like that. The gentleman asked me how much I needed and then proceeded to walk me to the cutting table. I got a big bag of it for free. Hum, I'll have to keep that in mind for future projects. So the total cost of this project was.....free because I had all of the supplies already. It took about 8 cups of saw dust to stuff my ham but I could have stuffed it more if I had more patience today.
Ironing board cover

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Ottobre Orava Sweatpants

Orava Sweatpants w/ Raglan tshirt

These are made from the 4/2010 issue of ottobre. The design changes I made were adding the strips of fabric on the front of the pants and leaving off the back pockets. They are made from orange and brown organic bamboo valour that I had left over from ds2 diapers I made. Brown organic cotton ribbing accents the top and bottom legs. I can't seem to explain how muchI hate sewing with this fabric but the results are beyond my expectations. It's a very light weight fabric and you need to give yourself an generous seam allowance especially when serging it as it likes to curl. Given that this is a valour you can't iron it too much without distorting the pile of the fabric.
I also teamed this up with the Raglan tshirt from 2/2005 with
the same materials.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Fabric.com purchase

I decided to finally order some cotton ribbing from fabric.com as it's very difficult to find it locally. I was more than thrilled when it arrived on Friday. I ordered most organic cotton ribbing only because that's what they had. It's so soft. I also ordered some of their interlock and was hesitant as it said that it was lightweight but I was very satisfied when it arrived. I definitely will order again from them.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Simplicity 9499


Men's shirt
Originally uploaded by angeleyes_88
This is the shirt that I made for dh. He said it's too big in the neck but otherwise nice. Which means he won't wear it. I wish that he would have lied and wore it at least once. I do agree it is a bit to big but it still looks nice. I made it in size large as he has a unique frame (not that I'm complaining at all :) I wanted to make sure that it would fit his arms. He was in between the medium and the large size so I thought that the large couldn't hurt. I guess this shirt will become a few new shirts for the boys. Next time I will attempt a medium maybe even a small and lengthen the arms and length of the shirt. Today I purchased a kwik sew pattern for men and a Jalie sewing pattern for men. We will see how they compare to the Simplicity.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

spiderman pants

I whipped up these pants for my ds1 from New Look's 6641 pattern. It's a size 3T. I did like the way that these pants turned out. However next time I would have shortened the length of the pants as they were super long (this time I just double folded and stitched them for room to grow). I also would have put non-roll elastic in them. Ds loves them!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Sewing Room Spool

Here is another storage solution for all of my laces, elastics etc. Currently they are all in a drawer and I can't seem to find anything that I need when I need it. I had left over wallpaper that I inlaid into the centre of my upper cabinets. So I decided to use old cds and pvc piping and cover them in the wallpaper. Looks like what I had in mind. Now, not only it is decorative it is also green and useful. I could have also use left over rolls of parchment paper instead of pvc pipe, however I needed a lot of them, and I only had one roll left over from the parchment paper.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Spiderman - hooded sweater




Here's the completed spiderman sweater from ottobre 4/2007. I loved how it turned out.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Sewing Room Completed

Sewing Room machine table
Sewing Room Work table
Embroidery stabilizer rolls
wrapping paper center

My sewing room is finally completed. I absolutely love it. I owe it all to my wonderful hubby. Thanks hun!. All I have left to do is tidy up a bit and get some rubber mats for under the heat press.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Sewing Room update

Tonight was a long night and we got everything done. We sand and touched up the trim, bolted the machine table to the wall, installed holes for the wires in the machine table and applied covers, finished installing the embroidery stabilizer holders, painted all the kick plates, tidy up a bit did the first over vacuum. Now all that is left is to secure the entangled lights wires and to organize. My hubby made a joke about how it should be finished in about another month with the way that I like to organize. Seriously, this is the best part for me. I am the most ocd person I have met when it comes to organization. Finally a little part of my home can be as ocd as I am. Where to start? I have a lot of left over wallpaper, so I was thinking of using it to cover over some tin cans for storage and put them on my ample pegboard board that my hubby so graciously installed. Maybe I'll use some empty cereal boxes for magazine holders or maybe sew some up. Oh, how the possibilities are endless now.

As for lights. Like I said in a previous post we installed a plug-in style from ikea, hiding it behind the pegboard. To assess the lights on and off switch, I will be using our x10 system which we bought for our halloween display before we had children. It plugs into the wall and then you can plug in a device (such as a light) then you use the remote control (wirelessly) to turn it off and on with. I have seen these types of things at the hardware store under different names, however the x10 you can set up to operate using computer software from say your work. It really is neat but I have to admit that the website makes you think that it's a scam as it's really cheesy looking. I'll post pictures once I get everything where I like it. I wish that there was more time tonight to finish everything but ds1 peed the bed and I had to wash his security blanky and the world was coming to an end for him, plus ds2 decided that he wanted to stay up and watch mommy. I finally realized that he wanted to play the pick me up and hold me game for the last hour. Our first son played that game for the first 6months, finally my hubby and I were so tired that we started to let him cry it out (which broke our hearts) but eventually after 15mins of (light) crying (not the screaming kind of crying) he would fall asleep. Within a week of doing this he would fall asleep as soon as he was put into bed. But tonight was the first time I have ever let my ds2 ever cry it out and it broke my heart. I knew that he was playing with me but it doesn't make it easier. Some may disagree with this (I did too) but sometimes kids and babies toy with our need to baby them and sometimes they take it too far. We all have limits. Sleep deprivation is definitely one of them.

Friday, September 17, 2010

hooded sweater binding

This is the pocket binding to the hooded sweater that I'm in the midst of completing for my 2 year old son. It has a "spiderman" theme. I applied the binding by sewing (already sewn and turned circle) to the shirt with right sides facing. I used the overedge stitch on my sewing machine to have a nice finished edge on the underside (not that anyone would know or not). Then (after this photo) I turned it inwards, and topstitched it down. It turned out nicely.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Ottobre / Coverstitch Machine

I have recently purchased a long awaited subscription to Ottobre design (sewing) magazine. It's main focus is on children's fashions, however they have added a woman's magazine too. Each issue has 40 designs with patterns. I also added a few back issues as well. I love the results of these patterns. Given it's a pain in the a** to trace them out but the results are beyond stunning. These magazines have come in handy when I have needed a Birthday present for someone's b-day but don't have the money to buy one. My current project, (along with finishing the sewing room) is the above issue 4/2007. I am doing the hooded sweater picture to the right of the issue. If there is one thing I hate doing in sewing it would have to be applying binding. It took me a while to figure out how apply the binding to the circular pocket opening so that it didn't look amateur (despite reading ottobre's directions, I didn't like the result). {Yes I really am that anal that I will rip and tear it out until I'm satisfied with the results. I feel that it's the only way to do something!}

Luckily, (and to my surprise) my dear hubby already told me that he is going to buy me a long awaited coverstitch machine with his overtime check, for Christmas. I really wanted to get the Janome coverstitch machine but my cheapness was leaning to the brother coverstitch machine for at the time $299 us dollars now it's gone up to $350. For those of you who are wondering what the heck is a coverstitch machine, it's a machine that is designed to finish knit fabrics. If you look at a ready-to-wear tshirt, for example, it is the bottom hem of the shirt where there are two or three rows of stitching on the top. It is also added on a lot of rtw tops now for decorative stitching in place of topstitching. Coverstitch machines also do chain stitches which are used as a decorative or basting stitch. They aren't cheap by any means but they give you great results, and if you're like me perfection is what I strive for in everything I make (although it might not be perfect, it's my goal). The coverstitch can be copied by using a double needle but it will never be a true coverstitch and thus the stitches can break. With a coverstitch machine you can apply binding and elastic, in one easy step. Which is just what I wanted as I would like to make underware and tshirts etc. I do have a coverstitch option on my pfaff serger, however it's driving me nuts to change from a 4thread stitch to a coverstitch back to a 4thread stitch. Plus the bed size of my serger is tight not to mention that there isn't too many options for binders (to apply the binding). My machine only will do a 2 needle narrow coverstitch and I would really like a 3 thread coverstitch. Both the brother and janome where on my top picks. I found a place on ebay that sells generic binder attachments. These generics attachments are compatible on both machines but the brother requires (in my opinion) a mickey mouse way of attaching it to the machine and that is by using mack tack to stick it to the machine. After hearing me hum and haw for over a year now (not that I really had the money anyways), my hubby said I was driving him insane and that he was just going to go out and buy me the Janome. I already own a Janome embroidery machine and sewing machine, both are excellent machines and well worth every penny. I know I have a lot of money tied up in a "hobby" but sewing means a lot to me, and I know that my hubby knows that. Plus I don't smoke and I don't drink or party. My dear hubby works shift work and with shift work comes a lot of time by myself, and when he's at work I like to sew.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Sewing Room (before reno)

above: before sewing room reno

(left: purchased used cabinets right: emptied sewing room space)
I haven't been sewing much lately because for the past month I have been busy working on my new sewing room. I have enlisted the help of my dear hubby to complete this huge project. (Everything is a huge undertaking when caring for a 2 year old and 5 month old) I have longed for a sewing room for a few years now but never did I think I would actually get a personalized space just for me to sew and craft in. I knew what I wanted. Storage, storage and more storage.
I really like the storage solutions from ikea. But every time I found something I really liked, it proved to be too much money for me to do (once you add it all up ikea stuff costs a fortunate).
Cabinets:
After deciding to become a stay-at-home, my hubby and I have been buying used, so for over a year now I have been searching the classifieds for used kitchen cabinets. I don't know exactly what inspired me to look for used kitchen cupboards for my craft room but I'm sure glad I did. I was able to get all the cabinets that were in the picture above for $75 which is about the cost of one of those cheap Canadian tire cabinets on sale. Okay I know they are fugly beyond words. But they had amazing potential. I wanted to painted them. wow was that a challenge! I first attempted to paint one with a brush and it turned out horrid. Then I realized that we had a paint sprayer for my hubby's air compressor. So we tried it and it didn't go that great at first. (Not only did we have our 2 little ones, are neighbour was driving us nuts to being all nosy and crap! I wanted to tell him to leave us alone! I was embarrassed enough that we were yelling at each other (as we were so stressed with the little ones and trying to get the stupid thing to work on one of the hottest days of the year). It took us a while to figure out the correct pressure to put the sprayer at so that it wasn't coming out all clumpy but once we did it was easy sailing, and we all calmed down. I'm so glad that we spray painted it instead of using a brush, not only would it have taken hours to do it by hand it would have left those unsightly brush strokes that I despise!
Hardware:
I removed all the hardware before painting and patched the holes from the hardware. As I suspected, the patch was visible after painting was complete. So I wanted to wallpaper the centre of them in a modern black and white wallpaper. The new hardware I picked out is stainless steel which is a great contrast to the cabinets that we painted black.
Countertops:
I wanted to do some type of painting effect to the countertop but realized that it just would have cost too much for the supplies to do it, plus there wasn't enough countertop for what I needed. So I purchased white countertops from ikea. They were each $60. I used 1.5 of them for the countertops of the base cupboards, one is for all of my machines to sit. and the left over piece is just big enough to make into a cutting table. I haven't yet decided on whether or not to put legs (from ikea) on the cutting table or to purchase a used piece of furniture for more added storage. The cost is proving to be about the same.
Lighting:
It was very dark downstairs, especially at 11pm ! I found some pot lights "grundtal" that we purchased from ikea a few years ago, but never bugged dear hubby to put them up (sometimes you have to pick and chose when to bug them! LOL) So I purchased two more packages of them. My hubby was really skeptical about putting them up because they have all these wires running everywhere. But we solved that with more added Pegboard.
Pegboard:
A couple of months ago I purchased some pegboard which I found on kijiji. It was $8 per sheet which a steal when you compare it to $20 + a sheet at home depot and lowes. We bought 4 of them. My hubby put up a huge wall of pegboard. It looked so pretty as he even trimmed it all in and painted it white. So with the left over pegboard he installed it under the cabinets for more hooks and also to hide the lighting wires underneath. All that is left is to trim it all in!
Embroidery wall and wrapping paper center:
I have rolls of embroidery that take up a ton of room so dear hubby attached a left over piece of mdf to the wall (because we only have 24" centres for studs not the usual 12" or 16" centres.) so that I could attached something for my embroidery rolls to hang on. The problem with rolls of embroidery stabilizers is that they're depths are bigger than paper towels holders. So I found that the brackets used for plant hangers would be not only stylish but also would protrude far enough for my stabilizer rolls to hang off of. A few months back, I came across a wrapping paper centre (I think it was lowes that had a how -to) I loved the idea of having all of my wrapping paper in one place, as too many times I have had crushed/torn/mangled rolls of wrapping paper. The tutorial called for cafe rods which are used for curtains. Well, the cheapest cafe rods that I found were $10 a pop. So I found some curtain rods at ikea for $1.97 each. The diameter of the rod is prefect size for not only wrapping paper but also rolls of ribbon. They are steel so they will also hold the weight of rolls of ribbon too! I will get dear hubby to cut some of them as the dowels for the embroidery stabilizers.

The new craft room is coming along nicely. Never in my wildest dream did I think that this was attainable for a modest budget. This weekend we hope to complete the sewing room. I can't wait as I have so many projects I have to start.




Sunday, September 12, 2010

Hand Drafted Wallet for Grandma



Here's the wallet that I drafted for my mother-in-law for her birthday, after purchasing a pattern, that I really didn't like at all. It features a outside zipper, monogramed exterior, 2 photo slots, money holder and card holder. I loved how it turned out.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Baby gift for friends


This is what I whipped up for friends of our for their 3rd child. I had only a little bit of minky left that I had to piece together and the rest was what was left over from another project. I also whipped up 3 burp cloths with embroidery on them as well.

cosmetic bag - fully lined

This is the gift that I came up with for my cousin's daughter who is turning 10. It even has her name embroidered on the front. The front is black satin and the interior is I believe a Michael Miller print (but don't hold me to that) :) I plan on putting some nail care related supplies in it for the event.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Bed Caddy

(bed caddy)
I sewed up this bed caddy for my father-in-law's birthday present using the Sew4Home tutorial found here. He's always loosing his glasses and such so I thought that this would be a great idea. They also have a tutorial for a sofa caddy too! It's a great tutorial and sews up pretty quick. My only complaint is that I hate attaching binding, ummmm maybe I should buy a binding foot. A great present for that hard to buy for person

Nursing cover / sun shade

(full view of nursing cover)
(decorative topstitching)
(view of boning so cover sticks out)
I whipped up this beautiful nursing cover that resembles the hooter's hider. I got the tutorial here. I made a few changes as I also wanted to use this as a sun cover for ds2 as he is only 3months old and not yet allowed to use sunscreen. I have used blankets but ds2 is so long that his feet sick out of the carrier. So I lengthen it to 32". I also did a rolled hem for the bottom hem and added a decorative topstitch. The directions also failed to included a stitching line so that the boning doesn't go beyond the straps. I loved the tutorial and love the cover. Similar covers retail for $40.00 but this only cost approximately $9.00 to make as I recall the fabric was about $8.00 a meter but you can find cheaper fabric. Well actually all the materials I had laying around from other projects and I acquired some boning from my mother-in-law so really it was free. The d-rings are not really necessary as you could just do a pretty tied bow in the back. It would be a great sewing project for a novice sewer too!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

I sewed up these tinkle time trainers in about 1 hour. I made them more like underware. They fit great. They are the tinkle time trainer from ladder hill design. I like how it uses up scrap knit fabric to make them. I love the pattern. It's easy to use and they turned out great.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Tea wallet for Grandma!


I found this great tutorial online for making a tea wallet and immediately thought of my mother-in-law as she is an avid tea drinker like myself. I only did a minor change as I embroidered a merged design on the front, I didn't want the button in the way so I added ribbon instead by sewing all the way around leaving a small hole for turning and then once turned I decided where I wanted the ribbon and seam ripped out a small opening on both sides where I inserted my ribbon. Then I topstitched all the way around, re-enforcing the ribbon spots.

ottobre knee pants

Here are two pairs of knee shorts from 2/2005 ottobre. I love the way that they turned out!

Thursday, April 29, 2010

More raglan tshirts (ottobre) for sons!

Made from ottobre design magazine issue 2/2005. Made sizes 92cm and 62cm for dear sons ages 2 and 3months. I used the same jersey to binding the neckline and the stitch in the ditch technique with the satin stitch foot for getting a consistent 1/4" topstitching. They turned out amazing! I do love ottobre magazine. I have also requested a burda magazine to see if this is something that I might like as well although at the current time I really don't need to make myself anything as I still have clothes with the tags on them from prior to getting pregnant.



Tuesday, April 20, 2010

raglan tshirt ottobre


Made from issue 2/2005 in size 62cm (3months). Coverstitched the sleeves instead of applying binding. Used the same jersey for binding the neckline and applied with right sides together using a 4 thread serge then topstitched.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Ottobre Three-way dress

I made this using the 3/2009 issue. I used quilter's cotton(green) and a lightweight linen (orange). The only thing I didn't like was the instructions for the armholes which told you to fold over and stretch to make them lay nicely but no matter how many times I did it, it just wouldn't lay nicely. So I decided to just do a rolled hem on the armholes. If I would have had more time I would have made my own binding in the green fabric and added that but due to lack of time (I have a newborn baby and I only had 3 nights to complete it) I just used a rolled hem. Now the linen was very lightweight so I used a tearaway stabilizer for the hem panels (bottom of dress in orange) to serge through the seams without any problems, as well as using the tearaway for the rolled hems of the sleeves and hemline. The pattern is very nice. I just hope that it fits as I was guessing based on my ds1's measurements.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Ottobre sewing


This was my first ottobre sewing pattern that I have ever done. It's from the 3/2009 edition called "ahoy" baby shorts. I did omit the belt loops and elastic topstitching just because I want to first sew how they fit (so I can rip it out if I have to adjust the size) . I really love this pattern and hope to do a few more of them soon for dear son. I had to learn how to thread a double need (which broke before I figured it out) and also I had to learn how to use the bartacking stitch on my sewing machine which I still need to practice. I am really happy with the pattern and will definitely be sewing more of the ottobre patterns.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Nursing bra !

So I decided to try and make a few nursing bras, as ds2 is fast approaching. They cost $26.99 in the store and I figured that I could make them fairly cheap. The way I did it was just a test and I will get all the right materials for it soon. I just used what I had on hand.
First of all, I deconstructed my favorite nursing bra (yes I'm silly that way). Then I cut out all of the pieces in scrap jersey. I used 2 layers for each cup, a peek-a-boo hole layer and then the side panel layers. I then serged the peek-a-boo holes using a 3 thread rolled serge. I used 1/4" elastic at the sides which now I understand that fold over elastic would have been so much easier to use (but I didn't want to spend the money if it wasn't going to work out as this was just a test). I should have used a seam allowance of at least 1/4" more so the I could have folded it over and covered the elastic. Then I serged on the bottom, the two layers of each cup to the 1 layer of the peek-a-boo hole. Then sewed up the middle between the cups and then using a zig-zag stitch, on the front of the cups I zig-zaged over the middle reinforcing the top of the bra. I then sewed the side panels to the cups. After which, I sewed the band elastic into place, although I probably should have pulled on the elastic a bit to give it a gather as I am petite in the circumference but top heavy. Because I didn't so this it was very loose in the circumference, so I then sewed a seam in the back (which I shouldn't have done!) as now the shoulder straps will be all wonky. But hey it turned out better than I imagined it would. all that is left is to put on the nursing clasps, some small rings and volia. And next time it will be even more amazing amazing!