Update

It dawned on me today that I haven't posted in some time.  I have been working on projects, November was just a crazy month.  Lots of tests right before Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving itself and this week was finals.  I have one more final and my semester is over.  The bad news is we have an ice storm heading this way. (I choose to see it as keeping me inside to craft, hope for the power to stay on) As I type this, my sewing/embroidery machine is chugging away on an awesome gear snowflake ornament for the tree that has yet to be put up.  That isn't my fault, I can't at this time get to my tree.  If I don't fix that problem by the end of the weekend, I'll have to get another tree (which I don't want to do, we've had that tree since the first year we were married back when we were up in Alaska so I'm rather fond of it).  My point is I will try to get pictures of some of my projects up this weekend.  I'm also starting to prepare to launch a business.  I'm working on my website now, so as soon as it is live, I'll post a link so you can give me feedback (which I could really use).  Hope everyone out there is having a good week and I'll get pics up soon!

Fixing kids clothes

I seem to be having computer issues today, so we'll see if I can get this post up.  Another lovely Halloween has pasted us, so I have costume pictures for you.  This year, Moo wanted to be Pikachu from Pokemon, so I used a dragon pattern (will try to remember to look up the pattern number later)  - mainly a jumpsuit and a hood - and  made my own pattern for the ears, tail and back patches.  Here's the finished result:

The tail got a bit of abuse the first time she wore it, so it didn't want to stay up.

I spent the weekend working on so repairs.  First up, Moo has a cardigan that she likes, it's a pretty teal sparkly one.  The only problem is she has a habit of sucking on the sleeve ends (no clue why, it's only on this sweater) so they are looking a bit rough.  She saw these buttons that she absolutely loved, so, a new cardigan was born.

  buttons $2.25 normally, bought for 1/2 off.
Ribbon $3.99 for 3 yards, bought for 1/2 off and used less than a yard. (total makeover was around $2)

Before - note the nasty ragged sleeve edges

After - ribbon added to case sleeve edges, buttons switched (I know, too easy)

The buttons

Being worn (the turtle knees on her pants are another repair)

I also bartered a repair for a jar of the single most awesome pickled okra ever.  A friend's little girl has a pair of jeans she likes but like my daughter, her legs grow but her waist doesn't.  Also like my daughter the knees get it.  I could have sworn I took a before pic, but I must have misfiled the pictures.  Here's the after

The Knee repairs, I bondex patched the holes and covered them with these owls - crochet of sparkly yarn. Pattern from here: http://lovethebluebird.blogspot.com/2012/02/crochet-owl-pattern.html

The full jeans - 3 inches added with jumbo cuffs

Cuff fabric

This is the cuff folded in case she needs less length

Flower tutorial

Here's the promised tutorial.  Keep in mind, this isn't meant to be a perfect flower, it's just the way I found to show kids to make a felt flower. These look good layered and the students I was working with used tulle with them in layers or on the side and it looked great.  So, here we go, I'll do my best to explain clearly, if you have any questions, leave me a comment.

First, cut a square of felt just a little bigger than you want the flower to be (I cut these out for the kids)

 

Fold the square in half

And in half again (so now you have a smaller square)

hold the square by the corner that is folded.  The top will have 4 loose layers of fabric.  This is where you will be cutting.

Cut the mountain into a hill (round the corners of all 4 layers)

When you unfold it, you should have a mostly circle shape

Now, for the petals.  It's hard to see, but cut from the edge of the circle towards the center (don't cut all the way to the center, about 2/3 of the way is good)  Make as many cuts as you want petals (I recommend 3 to 6)

Pick up the circle.  Fold down the petal pieces on either side of one.

Round the two points of the petal (don't worry about making it petal shaped, just have them round off the points)  Repeat all the way around with each petal.

And you have a flower.  How about a leaf?  With only two cuts.

 Take a square, fold it in half.  On the edge that has two free layers (not the fold side) round the corner.

 Cut number 2 will be on the same side.  Cut from about half way from the top to the top of the fold (where the scissors are covering).

 Unfold and you have a leaf (use a narrower square/rectangle if you want a narrower leaf)

Put them together with a gem in the center and you have a flower for a hair clip.

I hope this works out for you all out there.  Enjoy.

What I've been up to

I realized there are several projects I haven't gotten around to posting pictures of, so here they are:

Made this one for Squish before the machine was acting up, embroidered freestanding lace from my fav - Urban Threads

These are for a friend of mine's daughters, hope she likes them

And a better pic

Penguina rocks the headband

I will try to get the flower tutorial up this weekend, I've taken the pictures, now I just have to load them.  Have a lovely day!

Teaching Children and a sewing machine update

I have signed up to teach an hour long after school class at my daughter's school.  It's called Fashion Craft and I am teaching 19 girls from 1st to 3rd grade to make wearable projects.  Yesterday was our first class of 5.  It went pretty well, though we were running a bit behind at pickup time - I'll do better next week.  I forgot my camera or I would post pictures of their beautiful work.  We were making hair accessories - mostly flowers cut from felt with some tulle sprinkled in.  It went fairly well, but I will say, their creativity was amazing.  We put the flowers on headbands or hair clips.  Next week - Rapunzel scarves.  I still have to cut 60in pieces of yarn, that'll take some time.

As for the sewing machine - I took it in to the shop, they were very nice there.  I brought it in on Thursday and had it back Saturday.  Yea!  Sews great.  Went to do an embroidery project yesterday, and it was acting a little glitchy - nothing too bad and then (dum dum dum) I stepped from the room for a second to investigate a crash (pets, what are you going to do?) and came back in and the machine was making bad sounds and the needle couldn't go up or down.  Grabbed a flashlight and took a look, the thread broke off and wrapped around something I can't get to.  Looks like back to the shop for my machine. :( 

On another note, or a previous one, I'm going to try to make a tutorial for how I was teaching the girls to make the flowers.  It was pretty simple, few cuts and looks good.  I will do my best to have it up this weekend, though I make no promises because I have a grant proposal due today and a Halloween costume to make this weekend.  Have a great day!

Sewing machine woes and a few projects

So, I can't sew or embroider right now.  My machine (a beautiful brother SE400 that I just bought on 30 Sept - yes about 2 weeks ago) is not functioning correctly at this time.  I'm a bit miffed.  The tension won't adjust - at all.  The bobbin thread is showing on the running stitch and the zigzag is skipping zigs and zags.  Grrrrr.  Called the only place that services brothers for more than 50 miles and was told that I could bring it in, but there are 6 machines ahead of mine and the guy that works on them only works Tues, Thurs and Sat.  Also, he wasn't in yet (it was tues morning at about 9:30) and she wasn't sure when he was coming in.  Note to self: consider taking a sewing machine repair course.

 I emailed service from Brother's website to see if they could tell me what was wrong.  Hoping for the best.  Will keep you updated.

Machine issues aside, here's  a few things I either forgot to post last time or worked on before the machine died.

Wearing these today:

 A very good friend of mine saw my key earring and loved them.  Unfortunately her ears aren't pierced.  Could have done clip-ons, but once I told her I had a similar choker pattern, we knew what had to be done:

There was much squealing when I gave it to her. (As always, the wonderful embroidery patterns came from my favorite place on the web: Urban threads.

One other project, based on the tutorial found here: http://www.urbanthreads.com/tutorials.aspx?t=Restyled+Shrug

These two shirts (picture the black one as a long sleeve t-shirt, I forgot to take a pic before hacking away)  Plus this ribbon:

Give you this (sorry, forgot to turn the pic)  I didn't grab a pic of the embroidered back.  I will try and get a better pic of this later, the very lovely Shey has agreed to be my model for the things I make so I can have nice pictures - She's worlds more photogenic than I am.

Update

So I haven't posted in awhile...okay a few years if we want to be specific.  My life went crazy for a bit, but I'm back.  I've been a bit crafty this week, in part because of the new sewing/embroidery machine I splurged on.  I figure, I sew quite a bit, so it was a justifiable expense.  Love the embroidery on it, and this one (unlike my old one) has the ability to hook to the computer and pull patterns off.  Hello Urban Threads!  So, what have I been up to?

  

Made this one for me and then the Squishy Moo (who is now 7) saw it and wanted one, so I did the same on a pink hoodie for her and added small purple dragon wings on the back (don't have a pic right now).

I also answered the age old question, what do you do with a pair of jeans that fit, but the rise is waaaaay too low to be appropriate (like underwear showing and I thought if they slipped a millimeter there would parts of my anatomy showing that shouldn't be).  So I did the standard of reconstruction - I made a jean skirt.

 The finished skirt - well, mostly finished, I'm thinking it needs some cool embroidery.  Maybe tentacles coming from the side?

I added pretty fabric behind the holes that came with the jeans - why is it the more expensive they are (these were Hollisters) the more holes they have?  It's hard to see, but there is also silver thread over the smaller holes.

My unique bottom trim.  It's black, 3 shades of purple and silver thread sewn over each other.

Well, that's a bit of what I've been up to this week.  My goal is to finish at least one project a week.  I also have made a few scarves in the last few weeks, will try to get pics of them.  Time to go back to the recon I was working on today...bye for now.