The saga of the apron. And I do mean saga.

Is there an award for being the last one on Earth to finish a handmade Christmas present? If so, I win! I win!

This is the finished apron I finally gifted by mother-in-law today. Months and months ago, she mentioned that she'd like if I made her a holiday apron. We're always struggling to come up with good gifts to give her, so I was happy to have the inspiration handed to me. I knew from that point on -- maybe sometime in October -- that I'd make her her holiday apron for Christmas.

I started thinking about fabric and patterns. At Jo-Ann's one day, I put this in my cart, 40% off. McCalls 6177.

I thought that third look was it. Cute, right? Then I read the instructions and sort of freaked out. I began to worry that it was too difficult a pattern in the time I had. And then I noticed that I bought sizes 18 wide and larger. Rookie mistake. My mother-in-law is basically the same size as me. So I had to go another route.

At that point, I opened up the book One Yard Wonders for inspiration, and I decided to make the Cottage Apron.

Kind of cute, right? Kind of.... sexy? I liked this a lot, I just felt like.... Is a woman in her 60s really going to like this? It didn't seem like her. I also started questioning having straps made out of ribbons. Is that really going to hold up in the wash?

As you can see, I was second-guessing everything.

On Christmas Eve, at 10:30 p.m., my mind scrambled in a haze of last-minute present wrapping, I decided there was no way I could give her Apron A. So I set out to make another.

I had a yard of fabric in a festive print. I had red linen. I quickly cut out an apron, using another I had as a pattern. I cut straps, including one very wide and long strap to go across the middle. I hemmed all the sides, made some straps, and voila, before you could say Merry Christmas, I had a new apron!

But wait!

So I gave it to her. She said she loved it. It was all fine. Except I put the sash on way too low, so it hit around the hips, and so the sides of the back hung in a sad droopy manner. I had stitched the strap right to the top of the apron, so I told her it would be no biggie for me to take it home and move it up higher. I was disappointed that it wasn't perfect, but hey, I still think I made the right call and made an apron more suited to her. And I could fix it.

And then. And THEN.

Do you feel the drama building?

If you're squeamish... Maybe you will want to skip this next photo. Because I am sure I am about to break all sorts of blogger rules in posting this photo.

What happened AND THEN is that I brought the apron home, and when all the holiday fun cooled down, I un-stitched that baby. And then the next morning I laid it out on the floor to pin the sash back on. The clock was ticking. She was coming to babysit soon.

I walked upstairs to get more coffee. And when I came back.... I saw this.

I won't enlarge it more than that, because ew, gross! Ladies and gentlemen, that's what it looks like when your cat decides your unfinished sewing project -- a project for your mother-in-law --  looks like a great place to barf.

My husband was all: "Just wash that spot off!" Oh darling. No. That sucker had to go in the wash. Which meant it wasn't done by 11:30, when she came over to babysit. Which meant it was another week before I'd see her again to have a chance to give her her apron.

So finally finally this week, I finished her up. And presented a fully finished, non-barfy, non-teeny-bopper apron to my mother-in-law. On Jan. 10! Only 16 days after Christmas!

I had to make my husband model after his wipe-the-barf-off-the-corner comment.

 Hahaha.

Here it is on me, looking ladylike in my pajamas.

I

Moral of the story: don't leave your sewing projects near a barfy cat? Don't wait unitl 10:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve to attempt a sewing project that is actually a good fit for your recipient?

That's for you to decide. All I know is this: my mother-in-law seems pleased enough with her new apron (and yes, she knows about its sordid past) and bonus, my friend Evelyn was so taken with my first apron, she bought it from me! I am now contemplating what to make her to thank her. Irony! Whatever I decide, I'll try not to let my cat near it.

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Oliver + S Puppet Theatre help needed!

First off, it's Sew Mama Sew giveaway day! It's an event where tons of different sewing blogs host giveaways of handmade items and supplies. Go explore, find new blogs and enter to win prizes. I will be!

Now, I need your help.

I am trying like hell to get my Oliver + S puppet theatre done in time for Christmas. I've been slowed once again! This time because my machine is acting super weird. I'm applying the ribbon frames around the windows. It's such a darling effect. But it's driving me mad. My thread unthreads itself on basically each and every pass through a ribbon. It is slowing me down so much, and I can't figure out what's going on. Something with the tension? Wrong needle? Why would the thread unthread itself from the needle? How is that possible??

Please help! I have two windows left to finish, and I'd love to solve this problem and fly through them. Any ideas what might be wrong?

Random bits of sewing updates

Made this gift set for a friend who had a baby three weeks ago! I did the ornament for Sew Woodsy's Christmas ornament event, but wanted to use up more of this pretty Erin McMorris fabric on baby Sophia. So I made an over-sized burp cloth and bib, a taggy wash cloth and a little pacifier pouch. Fun, easy sewing that was completed in one morning/afternoon. I just kept going and going. I know there are a million people selling their handmade goods out there, but there is a piece of me that wants to sell these sets. I hold myself back though out of I don't know what. Fear of failure? Lack of focus? Desire to only sew for myself and not turn my hobby into an obligation? Maybe a little of all of it. We'll see what 2012 holds in store.

Also, the green and white striped fabric is my latest vintage sheet find! I already have a plan for this one, too.

I snagged this McCall's pattern at 40% off at Jo-Anns yesterday. My mother-in-law wants a holiday apron for Christmas, and I really want her to love it so I thought it might be smart to go with a pattern. I'm planning to make view D, the one with the contrast top (yellow in the photo). I'm already anxious after reading through the instructions. They're a bit mystifying. But I already had my first question answered promptly when I took it to Twitter. Don't you love social media for this purpose? I asked how to do a narrow hem and within minutes, two different people were walking me through it. The internet rules!



Last night my sewing output was disappointing. The reason? Like an idiot, I ironed directly on a piece of fusible web. I had never used this kind of web before. I was thinking of it like interfacing. So when I placed it on the fabric, all I need to do to make it stick was press it down with my fingers. But I ran my iron over it. The result was a huge mess. I had to wait for the iron to cool and then pick little nubs of fried web off it. Then I broke out the Motsenbockers. Have you heard of it? It worked like a charm!

My progress on my Oliver + S Little Things to Sew Puppet Theatre wasn't as much as I wanted because of the iron debacle. I wanted to have the windows all done. But here's a progress picture anyway. Coming along! This is a Christmas present from both boys. I hope they love it.

 

Finally, aren't these pillows cute? Made of felt. Ripe for a knock-off, wouldn't you say?

Have a great weekend everyone!

Skirt update and a fabric question

 What do you think of this fabric? It was in the remnant bin at Haberman's and I snatched it up for less than $10 for a 1 2/3 yards. I thought at the store that it might also make a good Simplicity 2666 skirt.  Now that I have the fabric home, I'm not so sure. I'm even thinking.... is this fugly and I'm just really tired? I keep squinting and cocking my head. I don't know. What do you think? Cute skirt? Or would be better as maybe some sort of scarf?

I fought my way through the zipper today. Well, actually first I undid some stitching from yesterday where I'd made a mistake. Then I bumbled my way through the zipper instructions. This photo above is actually when I thought I was done. I was not. I stitched up the wrong side, on the right of the zipper. I figured this out later and re-did it. Now it's looking better. It's a zipper -- that zips! Magical! Can't wait to finish the skirt up tomorrow! My only worry: thinking it's just a tad too big. Bummer, right?

Easy taggy blanket carry-along

Continuing with my theme of making JJ items that he's really too old to care about, I whipped him up a simple mini taggy "blanket" last weekend.

 

 Oh sure, it looks like he's loving life with his taggy blanket in that first photo. Lies! I mean, he might be loving life but it has little to do with his taggy blanket. I guess he is beyond the age of caring about tags sticking out of things. They grow up so fast! Sniff!

He spent most of the photo shoot like this, ignoring the taggy friend and trying desperately to inch himself to the edge of the blanket, where he could shove fistfuls of grass into his mouth.

Babies. What can you do?

I appliqued it with his initials, since that's what we call him. You could do one initial or something else. (I really want to make a moustache version. Wouldn't it be awesome?) I sized mine like this so it's something the baby can play with in a car seat, and it's easily thrown into a diaper bag. Usually, you see full-sized blankets, and those are great, too. I just thought it'd be nice to have something small and portable.

If you'd like to make your own, I didn't take photos for a full tutorial, but I can walk you through. It's really easy. Takes about 30 minutes and is great for a beginner. And I think it'd make a nice baby gift.

You need: 

      2 large scraps of fabric. I used cotton on one side and minky on the other.       8-10 pieces of ribbon or other trim cut into 4-5 inch pieces
      General sewing stuff: thread, sewing machine, scissors, pins, etc.
       If you want to applique like I did, you'll also need a scrap of fabric for that and some iron-on interfacing.

Step 1: First, cut everything out. For the circle, I traced a large bowl with an air-erasing marker onto the wrong sides of the fabric. Cut one circle for the front and one for the back.

Step. 2: Iron your iron-on backing to your scrap fabric. Then draw your applique shape right onto it. For letters, print a letter in the font and size you like from a word processing system, then cut it out and flip it over to trace backward. Once you've got it iron on and traced, cut your shape out. Then iron it onto the middle of the right side of your circle. I then secured around the edges by sewing with a zig-zag stitch. The key to a zig-zag stitch is to play with your width and length on a piece of scrap fabric to get the size you want. I used a fairly big and long zig-zag.

Step 3: Pin all the ribbons into place. First fold them in half, then pin on the right side pointing toward the middle of the circle with the ends sticking over the end of the fabric. Once all the ribbons are pinned into place, pin the second circle, right sides facing, on top.

Step 4: Sew around the edge with a 3/8 inch seam. Leave a three inch hole for turning. Trim seam allowance, notching so the curve lays nicely. Leave the turning hole untrimmed.

Step. 5. Turn rightside out. Remove pins. Iron well, folding the fabric where you turned under. Then top stitch around the outside close to the edge.

Donzo!

Behold baby, you are mesmerized by the wonderful, portable taggy goodness! Or maybe not. But it's still cute.

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Catching up on things

I have been severely lacking in sewing time and inspiration in the last two weeks. And so I've had little to blog about! I really want to do something about that, but I am stuck for several reasons. Let's unravel them, shall we?

First off, I know compared to some people, my fabric stash is miniscule. But right now, I own more fabric than I ever had before. For my birthday, I received four fat quarter bundles, some linen, and two bolts of IKEA fabric. It's a lot. What's more, a lot of it is "designer" fabric, and for some reason, that makes it tougher. Can't just use the designer fabric on any old thing, right? I just don't know what to make with all this fabric, where to start, how to just cut into it already.

And so I am thisclose to changing the name of the blog from "Thar She Sews!" to "Thar She Collects Way Too Much Fabric and Then Does Absolutely Nothing With It!"

Not as catchy, right?

Does this happen to you? How do you get unstuck?

Then there is the other stuff taking my time, the family schtuff. Like... this guy.

When he isn't adorably eating his own hand, he eats my time. Not that I mind. It's not his fault. I have been a wee bit nostalgic, finding myself just wanting to do nothing but sit, hold him and kiss him. My maternity leave  is coming to an end next week.I am just the tiniest bit distracted about the fact that it is over. Almost over, anyway. Wanting to suck up all the last few moments of carefree lady-of-leisure time with my kiddos.

Adding to the getting-ready-to-go-back-to-work distractions, I also have been reorganizing and rearranging a few rooms. I'll be working almost entirely from home when I go back Monday, which means I needed a place in this house free of toys and screaming toddlers yelling MAMA every three seconds. Our laptop desk had been in our basement, along with a bazillion toys, my sewing area, all our storage crap, the laundry room, and a TV hang-outy area. It was too much.

My first plan was to curtain off the sewing area and use part of it as an office. I even went to IKEA and bought curtains and various hanging devices. Then common sense sunk in and I realized perhaps spending nearly 20 hours a week working behind a curtain in my basement was just not going to make me happy. And would I really get anything done when my sewing stuff was right there, staring at me? I needed a new plan.

So one day last week, I sat in my bedroom -- the entire second floor of our bungalow is one room, our bedroom -- and tried to envision a way all the bedroom stuff could fit on one side of the space, leaving a working zone on the other side. Girls, I am a friggin genius. Or more like an idiot for not doing this five years ago. There SO is room for both "zones" up there! On Sunday, we moved every piece of furniture in the room and brought the desk up from downstairs. It's really lovely now. How I wish the Nate Berkus fairy could have dropped that bit of inspiration on me sooner!

With that done, today I started readjusting the basement, where the office was. I've been working on the sewing nook, too -- another reason for my lack of actual sewing. Wanna see my progress?

Yes, that's where the magic happens. I know it doesn't look like much, but hey, it's mine. I know it is hard to explain, since I have no good "before" picture, but this is truly progress.

This post is long and outta control, but I think I needed to get all this stuff off my mind. Hopefully it will make way for creative inspiration to slip in!

Please, tell me, when you lose your sewing mojo, or are just too scared to hack up some pretty fabric, what do you do? I would love your advice!

Happy birthday! Have a drink on... your new coaster!

One of my best friends celebrated her birthday last week. She also sews. I knew I wanted to make her something, but aren't other people who sew just the toughest people to sew for? I knew on one hand that she'd appreciate the time and thought that went into it. But she'll also know if I totally goofed it up. Plus I kept thinking of things I wanted to make her, and then I'd think, no, she's probably already made that for herself. So what to make, what to make?

After looking through too many tutorials to count, I decided on something practical but pretty. A set of coasters from the Retro Mama tutorial. I picked a green and yellow palette that I thought was summery and fun. Something to put a cold beer on. Or a smoothie.

Cute and functional, Jen's favorite kind of item! I cranked them out in a couple of hours while my mom played with my kids. (Well, at one point I was playing with one, nursing the other and sewing at the same time. But mostly my mom watched them.) They were easy to make assembly line style. My only wish is that I'd remembered to bring my trusty chopstick to my Mom's. She didn't have anything really long and pointy to use to pop the corners out. I tried her meat thermometer and the results were just OK. I wouldn't point it out, but since they're for Jen, I figure she's already wondered. :)

Thanks, Mom! And Happy Birthday, Jen!

Cutting, why so difficult?

I love almost everything about sewing. Except one thing. One thing, I really strongly dislike.

I hate cutting into my fabric. Not because I am messing up a beautiful thing by cutting it. No, it's because I am so terribly awful at measuring and cutting accurately. 

Why is it so dang hard? Do you have issues with this step, too? Or just me?

Little projects aren't so bad. And I can, for the most part, trace a pattern. It's when I have to cut a large piece of fabric and am given dimensions that I run into trouble. Like this weekend, when I needed to cut something 24 inches by 24.25 inches. That is when I wanted to stomp around my house in a dizzy and throw my cutting board on the roof. 

Let's take a looksie at some photos so you can see what I mean.

Here you can see my fabric on my dining room table. Ready for cutting. But wait. What are all those lines? Oh, let's take a closer look. 

 Ah, I see. Those are the lines I drew after measuring 24.25 inches wide. That's right, six different lines for the six times I measured. As you can see, there is about an inch difference from one far line to the other far line. Which one is right? Who knows! I obviously didn't. I measured six times and couldn't figure it out. So what to do? In my case, I just swore a few times, picked a line that looked good and said what the hell. Then I cut.

At this point, I'm thinking... maybe it's OK? I mean, this is for a shirt, does it need to be exact? Then I remember that, oh yes, I'm attaching this piece, the main body of the shirt, to a contrasting band on the bottom. So yes, it does matter. They will need to line up and be the same size. I needed to be relatively sure that this was indeed 24 inches by 24.24 inches. So I inspected. And what did I find?

 Oh yes! It's a good inch wider at one end.

Why so hard??? Why?????

To give you a sense of my process, here are all the things I've read you're supposed to do to try and get a nice accurate cut. All rules I typically follow.
-- Prewash and iron my fabric
-- Use one of those big clear rulers with my rotary cutter and cutting board.
-- Draw a faint line when I measure to make it easier to see where I should cut
-- Stand while I'm cutting and use a "spider" type grip on my ruler.
-- Pray a lot and also curse a lot

None of that seems to really work for me. Not when it comes to cutting a big piece.

Any idea how I can make it easier on myself?

I'm actually done with the shirt I made from the above yellow poppy fabric. This story does have a happy ending. But that's not always been true for my badly-measured projects.

This is the no-sew Roman shade I made myself last fall. It is functional enough and a huge improvement over the ugly curtains I lived with for four years. But as you can see, my measuring and cutting accuracy failed me there, too. My curtain is a good two inches too short.

So please, give me some advice! How do you cut a large piece of fabric accurately without wanting to strangle an innocent member of your family?

Linking up... 

End of the sun hat saga

Thanks so much for those who read my post last week about my sun hat issues and tried to help. (And to my mother, who found my tale of sun hat woe inexplicably hilarious and then told everyone on Facebook how "hilarious" I am.) Especially to Kathy from Merriment Design, which is where I found my tutorial. Your advice did help, and thanks to you, I finished the hat up in time to take it to Texas. And somehow, this slumped-over photo is the only one I came back with! The hat really did fit better than this.

 All I did was take each of the seams on the lining crown piece in a bit. And then a bit more. And then a bit more. I was astounded at how far in they needed to go. Maybe when you added it all up it was a half-inch on each side of each seam? How is that possible?! I don't know, but it appeared to be.

The blind stitching went OK for my first time. I needed to pass back over one area three times because I kept missing. Is there a trick to blind stitching? Using one thousand pins maybe? I am a chronic under-pinner.

In the end, the hat looks somewhat sloppy but still kind of cute. And it's functional. Those who saw it in Texas appeared impressed. I never know what to say when someone is impressed with a sewing project that I know to be very flawed. Part of me wants to go, Oh yeah, you think this is cute? Well, come here and take a gander at this botched seam/unplanned pleat/weird rumply part!! Whatta ya think about it NOW?!

I guess I need to work on taking a compliment, eh?

Anyway, I'll be giving this tute another try, perhaps, for Luke's hat (with my new Joel Dewberry fabric, swoon!). Although I'd need to size it up -- and see sad sun hat No. 1 if you want to see what happens when I start playing with the proportions of a pattern. So maybe not.

Edit to add: Forgot I had one other photo on my phone. Thought I'd share it... cause it's cute, right?

Baby sun hats, two ways

Not bad. But not finished.

We're going to Dallas, Texas on Thursday. I've heard it is hot and sunny there. On our agenda -- an afternoon trip to the ballpark, an outdoor wedding and some time by the pool. Which means, my little guy, who is coming with us, needs a sun hat. 

I have spent parts of the last two days trying to make him one. I don't know that I've succeeded. 

Exhibit A and exhibit B. Two sun hats. Two different ways. Perhaps two different sewing fails. 

 

 Let's start with this sad little fellow. 

 

The tutorial for this one came from one of my favorite crafty Web sites, Prudent Baby. The tutorial doesn't include sizes for a wee little 3-month-old like Jack. It was originally made for a toddler. So I decided to shrink the free downloadable pattern. But not too much. Some people in the comment section complained that their hats turned out doll-sized because they printed the pattern much too small. I tried to compromise and printed it at the intended size and then drew a line about a half-inch in around each pattern piece, to create a new, smaller pattern piece. 

Scientific? Hardly. And perhaps the beginning of my problems. 

The hat wound up... not right. Too flat and boxy around the dome with a droopy brim. It doesn't stay on his head because it's just too shallow.

See? Here's me trying to get it to sit there. Nope. Not gonna work.

 

 I also had some confusion with the final step. Someone, quick, explain "sewing in the ditch" to me. What I did: folded the lining of the brim over the seam on the inside of the hat, and then sewed through that flap of fabric. This created a sandwich with the lining on the outside and the seam in the middle. See?

I did not sew through the top layer of the hat. Was that wrong? 

In any case, the whole thing was wrong. And I was sad. 

But I did rally to try again. This time, I used the tutorial at Merriment Design. It calls for a girly version with a ruffle. Easy enough to make it boy-worthy -- just skip the ruffly bit. 

This seemed more promising from the get-go. The crown of the hat was a nice bowl shape. The brim pattern was constructed differently and seemed to make more sense. Things were going well. 

Until I attached the brim to the hat. And found that somehow, despite doing what seemed like a very fine job of cutting accurate pieces out of my fabric, my crown was much larger in circumference than the brim. I tried to pin and pin and pin and get it to all line up. It wouldn't. No matter what I did, I'd have some unintentional pleats. 

I sewed it on anyway. I didn't know what else to do at this point. And result isn't as bad as I thought it would be. See the pleats?

 

They're noticeable. But I don't think they ruin the hat. But there are two more problems. One: unlike the first hat, this one might be too large. 

Hello?! Is there a cute baby under there?

 

 Problem two: this one is also not finished correctly. It is supposed to have a lining. But since I sewed the too-big crown onto the too-small rim, sewing the lining in would just be an even bigger mess. It's too big for the rim, too. And you have to sew it in blind. And I'm just not gonna deal with that, and don't know what else to do. So here is the inside of my hat. 

 

 From the outside, honestly, it is pretty cute. Just big. 

 

 Doesn't seem like such a big deal to me. But I think Jack is worried. 

 

He is if it is on his head, anyway. If it is just sitting nearby, lookin' kinda cute, he's cool with that. 

He would love it if someone out there could help me! Any ideas what I can do to finish this thing? Get my lining in without it all being a mess? As it is, I will still take it with us. But I'd love to hear some advice from you other sewers out there!

What am I supposed to do with this, Mom?