A skirt
I made a skirt and I love it! I do. I love how it turned out so much. I used 100 Acts of Sewing Skirt No. 1 and it was so very easy. Definitely designed for a beginner sewist.
Next time I will add pockets. I love the fabric.
Quilting, Scrapbooking, Gardening and whatever else catches my fancy
Category Archives: sewing
Mask making
Mask
04/2020
I made masks. But I’m not thrilled with the end result. I tried again and again and I do not want to make any more. I salute all of the mask makers. It’s not easy work.
LAFS: The Megan Dress – Update
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I was able to get the top and bottom sewn together for the Megan dress:
The Megan Dress The Front 1/14/2020
It looks super big and it’s not pressed. But the back is not yet sewn together so it’s falling open.
The Megan Dress
The Back
1/14/2020
Here’s what it will grow up to be.
I think I want to put pockets on it. But I can do that when the dress is done. I’m ready for my next class…
~happy sewing!
Melanie
LAFS: The Megan Dress
I got this book eons ago. I can’t remember when. One of my favorite podcasts at that time mentioned it and I jumped on Amazon and bought it. One of my goals some year(s) ago was to work my way through this book. I got through the first few patterns up to the skirt featured in the above picture and learned how to put in an invisible zipper. The skirt ended up a bit too big and I should have gone down a size but I didn’t ever do it again. I really should because it turned out super cute.
I stalled out because the next pattern was the Megan Dress:
And it was a bit overwhelming for me. At my sewing class last Sunday, I already had traced the pattern onto fabric, cut all the pieces, and transferred all the registration marks. I learned at the class how to sew darts and I started putting the pieces together. I got all the way to the point where I pinned the top to the bottom but didn’t actually have time to sew it all. I hope to do that some time in the next two weeks before the next class. And, I hope I’m able to take a picture for you.
~happy sewing!
Melanie
Crafting with friends
It’s so nice to craft with other crafters once in a while. Yesterday, I went to a UFO party and took a number of older projects with me.
First, I tackled this …
untitled
2/3/2018
I don’t even have a name for this project. When I still had my mid-arm I was practicing on this. I simply slapped two pieces of one yard fabric that I liked (with batting in the middle) and quilted it with the mid-arm. I can’t remember exactly but I think it was this piece that told me I had a problem with the frame and the machine. Anyway, I don’t have the mid-arm anymore and this piece was just laying around waiting for me to trim and bind it. At the UFO party last night, I trimmed it and got the binding on one side of the quilt. I plan on getting the other side done pretty soon. I don’t know what I’ll be doing with this quilt yet but I think it will be waiting for the right recipient.
The second project I tackled was this:
an old pillowcase
2/3/18
Many years ago, (around 10), I made and gave away pillowcases for Christmas. I had a handful at the end of it that I never finished. I probably had 2-3 cut and ready to be pieced. Those have since made their way into other projects or into my scrap stash. This particular piece was all pieced together except for the final french seam. I just never got back to it and it sat around since then. I pulled it out one of the times I organized my stash recently and it was in my UFO bag. Today it is finished! woohoo!
And finally, my third project:
The Maxwell Bag handle
2/3/18
This is one handle for my Maxwell Bag. I finally finished sewing the fabric together on the handle. Here’s how the Maxwell Bag currently looks:
Now that the handles are done, I can continue with the finishing steps.
It was a fun and productive night. I hope to do it again and in the meantime, I will go through and pull out some old UFOs to work on at the next party.
~Happy Crafting
~Melanie
Getting my sewjo back… fixing the space where it all happens
Earlier this year, we got rid of our office space (outside of the home) and opted to save money and move everyone virtual. For me, that meant my sewing room/office became my full-time office. And part time sewing room. While I love working from home, every time the weekend and evenings came, I would stay out of this space. That meant that my happy place was no longer my happy place and I stayed away from that room whenever I was not working. I decided things weren’t working. I want to sew again but I was cramped and I had no room to pull things out and craft. I needed a change and I needed to revamp my space so it would once again be a place of joy.
Here’s what it looked like before:
It’s so cluttered and full of stuff. A couple of weekends ago the hubby promised to help move out the big entertainment center and move another piece of heavy furniture in its place. Since he agreed to do that I didn’t see any harm in just changing the whole room around. To help with the change, I moved everything out.
And here’s my room rearranged:
It’s still a work in progress. There is a bunch of stuff cluttered around that I need to organize better and I’ve still got a lot of stuff waiting to be put away in my living room. But I also got rid of a lot of stuff (thrown away, to be sold, or to be donated). But I’m much happier now with it the way it is. And I hope as I continue to craft and work in here I will find other ways to make it better.
~happy crafting!
~Melanie
LAFS: Margot Pyjamas
Margot Pajamas
Still not done…
I’m still working on my pajama pants. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with the next steps and was unsure as to how to proceed. I just followed what was written even if I didn’t truly understand what it meant and whether I was doing it right. ;0
And I didn’t take the best pictures. I sewed the pant legs together. First I sewed each back piece to the front pieces to get 2 separate single pant legs. Once you’ve pieced them together, you’re supposed to do a zig zag stitch. I don’t have a serger so I did the zig zag stitch. I don’t know if I did them correctly. 
The instructions said we could press to the back side or press open. I’m not sure how I could press this open so I just pressed it to the back side.
Then I sewed the right leg to the left leg by sewing the crotch part together. I left an opening for the drawstring but for some reason in my head I needed two openings so in the end I had one in the front and one in the back. I realized what I had done and then sewed the opening in the back closed.
The last thing I had energy for was to sew a rectangle around the drawstring hole to reinforce it. It’s not the best work but this is just practice so it is what it is. 🙂
I have to sew the top, put the drawstring together and then sew the bottom. Then it will be done. I hope I get this done before I head out to my parents house in a couple of weeks.
Happy stitching!
~Melanie
LAFS: Margot Pyjamas
Here’s my learning lesson this weekend – look at next week’s project when I’m done with this week’s project. That way I can gather my materials before the day I actually want to work on the project. Again, I needed 2.5 yards of fabric for the pyjamas and again I didn’t want to dive into my stash to find 2.5 yards of something. This time, I actually trekked it to my LQS. I considered going to the big box store since I didn’t want to spend the money on quality quilty cotton but I decided to spend the money. I love my LQS and while I don’t have a lot of money, I was feeling generous and have a bit more burning a hole in my pocket. I look at it as donating the funds to keep my LQS open. Obviously, I can’t do this all the time. But when I can I will.
I wash my fabric before I use it. I’m not going to into whether I should or not. I know a lot of people don’t and it probably doesn’t matter one way or another. But I choose to wash my fabric so before I can use it I have to put it through the wash. So I spent my sew day this weekend looking for fabric at my LQS, washing and prepping it. On Sunday, I was able to get some things prepped but I didn’t actually get to any sewing –
Of course, I forgot to take pictures until the very end when I packed everything up for my next sew day. Which I hope will be this upcoming weekend!
I fell in love with this owl as soon as I saw him peeking at me at my LQS. The pattern called for 2.5 yards but I wanted to make sure I was able to fussy cut the owls and foxes perfectly so I purchased a bit over 3 yards. Here’s where I diverged from the instructions detailed in LAFS (Love at First Stitch). The pattern wanted me to cut on the grain which would have been had the length of the pajama leg parallel to the selvage. If I followed this, my owls would be sideways on my legs. Not the image I wanted. So I cut it from selvage to selvage. Since I’m short – just about 5′ – this was fine.
I had big post it poster paper that I used to trace over the pattern. This time around I cut with scissors on the line and the fabric. There were three options listed in the book. The second option was to use the pattern to trace on the fabric and the third option was to use tailor’s chalk or something on the fabric and then cut with that. I think I’ll choose the third option next time.
Here are the front of the legs. I have the back cut too.
I’ve got a bunch of bits to add to my stash and use in quilts and other projects.
Very important – I labeled the front legs and the back legs before I put them away. If I didn’t do that I would totally forget which was which and I would spend time trying to figure it out.
~ Happy sewing!
~Melanie