New link

I added a link on the side bar called "bags for Darfur". I don't know who this person is but I'm in love with this idea! It's amazing. Anyway, just thought I'd mention it, it's definitely worth checking out.

Sewing fun with Jaimee and Isaac

Today my friend Jaimee and I went to the fabric store, fed children, washed, cut and sewed fabric to make a pouch sling for Isaac, and laughed a lot (mostly at how ridiculous it was to try to sew with two babies and Luke around). It was a good day. Here's the result of our labours: (Jaimee was the sewer today, for the record, but we were both quite involved in the process so I figured I could post this here).

Isaac wasn't the most impressed with the photo shoot but we trust he will come to love his kangaroo life. You can wear this sling a few ways but this works the best for his stage. I have one that I use quite a bit with Samuel and I'm off to sew an identical one to this right now!

Embarrassment and Pride are closely linked, aka Clothing Attempts

I have ventured into the realm of making my own clothes. I may regret this, but I still have a bit of determination and annoyance with Chinese-made clothing and nothing quite fitting me right in the stores to perservere. We'll see what next month brings. I may be embracing the $5 Chinese-made shirts with gusto. Anyway, here's a couple of pictures of recent projects. I cringe as I post these...so embarrassing somehow...!

A shirt:

And a skirt:

I didn't have a pattern for either of them and just kind of hacked away at them both. I'm semi-pleased with the shirt, although I feel like it adds about 10 lbs to me, and am even a bit more happy with the skirt, mostly due to the fact that I love the fabric.

Rag quilt explanation

A couple of people asked for a rag quilt explanation so here you are. This is probably the easiest quilt in the world to make and yet I still love the look of it. Here's a bit of a tutorial in case you're serious about trying it out. http://www.knitandtonic.typepad.com/SimpleRagQuilt.pdf Basically, what I do, is cut a bunch of squares, sew two together (wrong sides together) with Xs going diagonally across the square and then sew squares to squares with the seams all sticking out on the same side. Oh my, that's a horrible explanation. Maybe check out the tutorial. After it's all sewn together you just snip the sticking out seams about 1/2 cm apart and wash it a couple of times to get a nice frayed look. They are such cozy blankets - such a fave for us! And...super easy!

Miscellaneous

Here are a few miscellaneous projects I've done. These cushions have helped re-vamp our eclectic (that makes it sound better than it was) living room. Our cushions weren't matching our area rug which didn't match our wall art...so, I found this fabric which definitely helped tie things together a bit. I still don't claim to be an expert in feng shui (or whatever that's called) and colour coordination, but this was a slight improvement.
I don't even know if this can be classified as a sewing project as all I did was cut and zigzag a bit. But I got this fabulous material from friends from Switzerland, at their IKEA, and just happened to have bought matching stuff at a Canadian IKEA for Luke's room so I had to use it in there. I have more of both the stripey and animal fabric, so if anyone has any good ideas for how to use it in a kid's room, I'm open to suggestions. Pillows, bean bag chair...hmmm...



These two pillows I made for our boys. The first one is Luke's, the second one is Samuel's. I made a matching one to Luke's for our little friend, Belen, and she has loved it well which I'm so glad for! These were both first Christmas gifts for our boys...at least I think so for Luke, for sure for Samuel. What does a four-month-old kid really need anyway?! Samuel uses his in the bike trailer to support his head and it's made a huge difference! He seems much more content. The stitching says "We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Psalm 100:3". I got my inspiration from a sheep in a fabric book that Luke has. I loved the sticking out ears and hooves in the book and thought it would make a very fun pillow.

blanket addition

This is the rag quilt I made for my sister. Her family is a big fan of it, from what I'm told, as it serves as the couch cozy-ing blanket.

toddler dresses

My friend found this link to the cutest (and EASY!) toddler dress. I had attempted to make two shirts for myself a few years ago and after both projects ending in sizing catastrophes I told myself never to try sewing clothes again. Well, after seeing this little dress I felt hopeful that my clothes sewing future was brightening. Toddler girls clothing is also a lot more forgiving then crazy post-partum woman's body so that helps.

This is the first one I did, for the friend that shared the link and her little girl. Little Norah is just the cutest ever and I love how she accessorized. I can't take credit for anything but the dress though :) Actually, I made a little head band as well, as shown in the first picture.

And after feeling somewhat encouraged by the first toddler dress, I attempted another for friends in Africa who now have two little girls. I still don't know if it fits, but I was quite happy with the end result. Not bad for a shirt I found for 50 cents at a garage sale!

bags bags bags!

I love bags. Quite addicted really. I've started to look at bags in stores to see how they were sewn and have realized that it isn't as hard as it looks. Not that all of mine have been wow, but I'm learning. I found a great link to a bag tutorial and I've used and modified it for a few bags I've made. Here's what I've done so far:

Christmas bags - I made a bunch of these for the nieces and nephews one year on Julio's side which were filled with little gifts, as our main gift was some farm animals for World Vision. I had a lot of fun choosing this fabric and designing these!

This is a diaper bag I made out of leftover material from my big picnic blanket. I've used it a lot, but in the end it just always looks like a picnic blanket to me. It's very sturdy and useful though.

This is a diaper bag I made for a good friend of mine who had a baby a few months ago. I was all set to make her little one a blanket until I heard that her mother-in-law had sewn a ton of blankets already for her. So that inspired me to be a bit more creative and I'm so glad! It was fun to pick out this fabric too, although in hindsight I think I could've left out the peach and made the front and back look the same.

(front)

(front with small bag for diapers and wipes)(back)

This is a little shoulder bag, mostly done according to the bag in the link above but I tried something a little different...in the end, well, let's just say it was an experiment and I learned from it! There's something about it that doesn't quite work in my mind, but I had leftover's from the above diaper bag and just had to use it somehow.

After making the diaper bag for my friend, I wanted a new one too, to replace the jean squares one and this is what I came up with. I've been really happy with it.

And this is my current diaper bag. It was originally just going to be a beach bag but I love how functional it is, complete with a little cell phone pocket so I always know where to look when the phone rings, so this is my top pick for now!

(larger pocket with flower cell phone pocket - if you look closely on the inside you can see where Luke drew with blue chalk...)

This is a little bag I made one time out of leftover material. It was really easy to make and I've used it quite a bit as well. As you can tell, with my current family situation though, the diaper type bags are getting priority!

blankets

Straight seams, that's what I'm all about. Blankets were my big debut into sewing, mostly baby blankets which are double thick flannel with a blanket stitch border. I love picking the fabrics and thinking of the families receiving them! I haven't taken many pictures of the baby blankets I've made, but I've probably made a dozen or two. My blankets have become much straighter and more even over time, and I've learned a thing or two in the process! Here are a few pictures of my baby blankets...(This is my most recent baby blanket, for a sweet little girl named Josephine all the way out in Africa.) (This blanket and matching bag I had in mind for my friend's little "girl" who ended up being a boy! I was so convinced...they had found out what they were having and somehow I thought I was a super sleuth and had figured it all out. Well...baby JACK ended up getting a different blanket which was quickly made after he was born. So here's a girl blanket waiting for a cutie girl to be born.)
(Sammy is modeling this one...so great for swaddling! I've started making them a little bigger for extra swaddling fun)(One of the first ones I did for friends in England)

I also got ambitious when Luke was a baby and made him a quilt. My mom is a quilt genius and she led me along. He sleeps with it every night which is very rewarding! I purposely bought extra material from baby blankets I was making to do this quilt. So all these colours and patterns are in baby blankets elsewhere as well... (Julio modeling Luke's quilt)

Rag quilts have been another one of my favorites. Easy, functional, cozy and a fun look. Julio absolutely loves the one I made for us and we use it often to cozy up while watching a movie or reading a book. I made another one with similar colours for my sister, without the red in it, and I have to say, I like it better without the red.

This is a little baby rag quilt I made for a sweet little girl born about a month ago. I hesitated on the baby blue, but just loved the way it all looked together. The butterfly material is one of my favorites.This rag quilt has yet to find a home. I'm saving it for a baby boy, and seeing as many of my friends are pregnant, I think finding a home won't be a problem! I cut out all the material while Sammy was in the hospital a while back which was a relaxing way of spending my evening there and a good way to get to know some of the teenagers on the ward. I really like the patterned material in this one.
This is a picnic blanket I made for my mom for Mother's Day, last year I think. She had a big bag of old jeans she was saving for this exact purpose, but she had never gotten around to doing it. In hindsight I wish I would've just made a border with the red checked material or left it out as it's a bit too bold, but all in all I'm happy with it.

Here's a picnic blanket I made for our family. It's big and functional and we use it a lot, even just for backyard picnics!

New blog for my obsession

Stay tuned...I was about to post some pictures but Sammy is waking up. This is going to be a place to post pictures and thoughts and ideas about sewing! I love to sew. Or, I think more accurately, I love the satisfaction of having sewn something. I got a sewing machine for Christmas the year we had Luke and Julio said at the time, "I hope you use this thing and it doesn't just sit here!" Well, he has taken those words back many times...