Sew Along for Japan - Complete!

Finished! It only took 5 days instead of the 3 that were actually planned, but the important part is that it is done. I'm quite pleased with the way the shirt came out; it's almost like I'm not the one who did it. I was worried the entire time I was sewing the appliques on the shirt that I would sew the shirt together, or that somehow the sleeves would end up attached to the hem. Luckily, I didn't have a single issue!

This was the first time I've ever appliqued a shirt, or anything, without using my embroidery machine. I have to say, I have a much greater admiration of those crafters out there who applique with a regular sewing machine all the time. I'd gotten spoiled by just loading an applique pattern on to my trust embroidery machine, and letting it do all the work. My poor little sewing machine has been lonely for far too long.

So, this lovely little shirt will be on the way to Japan via California very soon. I'm working on another shirt exactly like this one for my 4-year old (Pookie), and she's very excited about it. I've been talking to her about how the Japanese people have had a terrible tragedy, and that I made this shirt to hopefully make a little Japanese girl smile. I want Pookie to understand that we have to do what we can to help people in such situations...I want her to have a giving heart.

Anyway, I wanted to give yet another shout-out to Susan over at Living with Punks for putting this Sew Along together, and to Chelsea from Pink Fig Boutique for creating such a cute shirt! Be sure to check out all of the awesome shirts the many participants have made. There's even a boy version!

And now, a few more pics of my most awesome applique t-shirt ever:

Sew Along Update - Slacker City and Toulose-Lautrec

So, now I'm even further behind on the Sew Along for Japan; I didn't finish my t-shirts last night as I had intended. But, I do have a good excuse: the hubs and I went to the High Museum of Art to see the Toulose-Lautrec exhibit (loved it!). My plan now is to work on the shirts tonight and hopefully get good pics and link up with the rest of the super-cool shirts tomorrow. All of the participants have done such a geat job, go check them out!

I've also made another possibly crazy decision: I've joined the Ultimate Blog Challenge for the month of April. The goal is to write 30 posts for the month of April. I'm hoping to drive more traffic to this blog, my Facebook page, and Twitter. So we'll see what happens. This really is going to be a challenge for me, especially on weekends. Weekends are my time for relaxation; some Saturdays I don't even get out of my pajamas. But with working a full time job and managing a family of four, I feel like I deserve those Pajama Saturdays.

So, stay tuned and check back with me over the next month, and we'll see what I can get into. My goal is to write about my crafting, but other things may slip in from time to time. You just never know!

Sew Along - For Japan

The other day I stumbled across what has turned out to be my new favorite blog: Living with Punks. There are so many crafty tutorials and projects and fun things posted, I'm still reading through it. Love it!

Most recently, Susan at Living with Punks (blogger, mom, crafter, sewing maven-extraordinaire) posted an Applique T-Shirt Sew Along to benefit the children of Japan. I thought this was a super idea as I've been trying to come up with a good way to help the country that is reeling from that terrible Tsunami. The patterns for the appliques are provided at no cost by Chelsea from Pink Fig, you just have to supply the materials

We see so many terrible images of the devastation, but what we see isn't even the half of it. These people have lost everything. I mean, everything. Can you imagine?

So, I decided to join in on this Sew Along and make a few of the super-cute t-shirts that will be sent to the children of Japan. We may not speak the same language, but at least maybe they'll be able to smile at the thoughtfulness of others around the world.

Go here for the details on how to join the Sew Along and to download the pattern.