A Simple Skirt - Finally!

I've been meaning for a few weeks to make A Simple Skirt for my daughter, but I kept forgetting to buy the 1-inch elastic that the tutorial calls for. Well, this weekend my sister-in-law and her family were in town for Easter, and since she also loves to sew, she brought her sewing goodies with her.

Last night we had a little sewing circle that involved wine and various little projects, including a "2" shirt for my boy. His birthday was last Saturday, but I'm a little behind. He is going to be 2 for a whole year, afterall.

Anyway, last night while we were sewing we decided to use some of my mountains of fabric and make the girls (her daughter and mine - they're 3 months apart and the best of friends) matching skirts. Perfect, I thought. And she just happened to have the 1-inch elastic that we needed.

The simple skirts turned out to be just that - simple. I love projects that are fast and easy, with instructions that are easy to understand. I meant to take step-by-step photos of the skirt-making, but we were all just chit-chatting and having a great time, so I didn't do it. I do plan on making more of these skirts in the future, so I'll post photos next time I make one. In the meantime, hop on over to MADE and check out the tutorial for yourself.

Next time I'll make it a little shorter since it gets so hot in Atlanta over the summer, but I like it long, too!

Flashback Post: Placemat Purse Tutorial

I'm going to cheat today, and bring back a post that I did way back in 2008: My first ever tutorial! I hope you enjoy!

Ta Da! Welcome to Shannon's First-Ever Tutorial! I was browsing around sewforum.com today and saw a very nicely done version of a placemat purse that I had never seen before. The person who posted her pictures didn't post how she did it, so we (me and a few others on the board) decided that we could just figure it out. And we did! I was at work all day, so I started playing around with a piece of paper, and ended up with a very nice office paper purse, complete with staples. I'll have to post that picture, just because it's funny. Anyway, I have a ton of placemats lying around just waiting to be made into bags, so I got home and after putting my neanderthal/toddler to bed, I started to play with a real placemat. And this is what happened:

Alternative Placemat Purse Tutorial (better name is pending - I'm open to suggestion!) 1. Start with your standard placemat. This one is 13” x 19”.

2. Fold in half lengthwise.

3. Rotate

4. Fold bottom up until you have the desired size of your bag. Pin and sew all the way around (you don’t have to do the bottom unless you want a top-stitched look). Make sure you use a heavy duty needle or a walking foot, depending on the weight of your placemat. This one is heavily interfaced, so it was pretty thick at the corners.

5. After sewing, you’ll have two pockets on the inside. It’s magic! Feel free to attach any closure at this point; snaps, Velcro, ribbon, whatever. I didn’t attach a strap to this one as I didn’t have any cord on hand, but I would attach it here.

6. And, voila! The almost finished placemat wallet/purse. This is relatively small, so I envision it to be used as a wallet while traveling, shopping, clubbing, any time you don’t want a large clunky bag with you. Great for moms! I didn’t permanently attach the ribbon, since I’m not sure if I’ll stick with it or not. I may embroider it.

Variation: I didn’t add any depth to the bag, but here’s what you can do: 1. Flip bag inside out 2. Cut about a 1-inch notch out of each corner at the bottom of the bag (I hope you can visualize this..Word won't let me copy the cute little graphic I drew) 3. After cutting, smoosh corners together and sew across the smoosh on both corners. I’m sorry, but I don’t have a picture to illustrate this, and my drawing skills are limited. If you have any questions please ask! 4. Flip bag right side out, and now you have a little depth to your bag!

There you have it! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask, and I'll do my best to help you. Special thanks to tzb123 on sewforum for my "A ha!" moment! I'll be sure to post pictures of the bag when I do get it completed with strap and embellishment. This should give you the basic idea, though! Go on! Be creative!

4/8/11 - As of this repost, this purse is STILL sitting in a box without a strap. I think it has pins in it, too. Don't tell anyone...

New Project: A Simple Skirt

-image from Dana at dana-made-it.com

I decided that while I'm doing the Ultimate Blog Challenge, I'll do another sewing project. Before I participated in the Sew Along for Japan, I hadn't actually sewed anything for a while. I finished a few projects on my embroidery machine here and there, but I hadn't actually sewn anything in...well, a while. Oh wait, I did sew a couple of key fobs, but those take about 2 seconds, so I don't feel like they really count.

I actually forgot how much I enjoyed sewing, so I started looking around for another project I could work on and blog about. I've been doing more craft blog hopping lately, and have been finding some wonderful blogs that offer a great deal of inspiration as well as tutorials. My first new favorite is Living with Punks, as I've mentioned before; this is where I participated in the Sew Along for Japan, and rediscovered my love of sewing. Just yesterday I was browsing around the interwebs and stumbled across Made. I don't even remember how I found it; I believe it was because a Facebook friend had "pinned" this particular tutorial and it struck my interest.

So, my next project is to make "A Simple Skirt" from Made for my Pookie. I figure with a tutorial this easy, I should be able to do it without a problem. Maybe I'll make her two. Or maybe I'll make one for myself. Maybe, just maybe, I'll even make matching skirts for my nieces. But then, both sisters-in-law also sew, so maybe they'll just make skirts for their own girls. ;)

I dug through my fabric stash this evening looking for some purple polka dot fabric (Michael Miller, I believe) that I know I have around here somewhere, but couldn't find. I unearthed this purple fabric from Joann's instead, so I'm going to go with it: Again, I apologize for my terrible pictures. Someday soon I'll get it together and take non-cellphone photos in actual daylight.

This fabric is perfect for a summer skirt. It's hard to tell in the pic, but it's a nice laverder-y purple color with hearts and swirls throughout. Supercute for a 4-year old!

I still need to wash the fabric, round up some elastic, and take measurements, but I'll get that taken care of and get started. Stay tuned for the finished product (or products!). Maybe I'll even (gasp!) use bias tape. We'll see how it goes.

Oh, and go check out what all Dana has to offer on her blog. There are tons of tutorials, patterns, recipes, and other great stuff!

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 for Japan Progress!

In my last post I mentioned I was joining in the Sew Along for Japan over on Living with Punks. It started on Monday, but of course that day turned out to be super crazy and I didn't get the 'Day 1' part finished (or even started). So, I'm a day behind!

Anyway, last night after the kids (finally!) went to bed, I got to work. Here's my progress so far:

My 4-year old, Pookie, picked out the fabrics; I think she did a great job! She gave her input on the hair colors as well, but by the time we got to the felt section at Joann's, she was a bit distracted ("Look, tiny hats!"). So, we quickly agreed on gold and brown.

Tonight comes the sewing part; I'm not sure if Pookie will be involved in that part or not. I may not be able to get anything done again until both kids are in bed...oh the life of a crafty mom. :)

Check back tomorrow to see more progress! And it's not too late to join in on the Sew Along - Go here for more details, and the steps up to this point. There's also a Giveaway for everyone who participates and links up.

Help brighten a Japanese child's day by making a super-cute shirt.

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.