Not much sewing going on...

except for this little thing, which will be fully completed tonight or tomorrow. More details and pictures (with accurate color) eventually

Its 2010, where is my robot?!

This is one of those obligatory New Years resolution posts, nothing major, nothing ground breaking.

To start it off I'll post the unfinished garment that made me feel the need to make said resolutions.

Pattern: Simplicity 4076 - View E

Status: unfinished, unwanted

1. When buying and choosing fabrics I will take into consideration that I am a 25 year old woman, not a 15 year old girl. I like bright colors and loud prints, but this is just a bit too much.          
   
2. Though I don't plan on purchasing tons of fabric this year, I promise to purchase better quality fabric when I do. I purchased this fabric about two years ago from fabric.com, I'm pretty sure it was from the "everything under $1.95"  section. At least it feels like it was from the 1.95 section.                   
   
3. When choosing a pattern I will try to base my decision on what suits my figure, my taste, and my lifestyle. I originally picked up this pattern for the faux-wrap top (views A & B) which I loved. This top was really made out of curiosity about the construction of the twist, I never thought about the fact that I wouldn't wear it due to several factors:
   

• The shirt hits a little too high for me.What can I say? I have a long torso and I like to keep my backside covered. I added an inch in length to the pattern anticipating this problem and still it is too short.

• The deep neck line- I don't really show off "the girls" that much. I'm just more comfortable that way. I knew from the envelope that this shirt had a deeper neckline than I'd like, but still I made the top not taking my personal preferences into account.
  

• Those damn bell sleeves- I took an inch off the bell and it is still way too much.

      4.  Finish what I start. Honestly I do not plan on finishing this particular garment due to my dislike for it.   That being said this year I hope to finish more of the projects that I start or have previously started but since lost interest.

 Happy New year and until next time, take care.

Thinking ahead

July is almost over and I've been working on finishing up a Christmas gift for my mom. Now, it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I think she'll love it.
I would like to think the reason I was able to have such a good relationship with my mom while growing up was our mutual love of horror movies. Specifically those of the zombie genre. At a time where most teens would do anything and everything to stay away from their parents, I was spending time with my mom analyzing the social commentary in Romero's zombie pics. It made sense that I try to capture that bond in ornament form for my zombie loving, ornament collecting mom. That is when the idea of a decapitated zombie hand holding mistletoe came to mind.

I began by sketching out my idea, using my own non-decapitated hand for a model, researching what mistletoe looked like, improving the rest. I finished the outline in January, but put it aside afterward due to embroidery burn out (see Christmas in July post). Now after picking it up again last week I have this.

{picture was taken sideways... too lazy to fix)

For the mistletoe I used white glass cats eye beads that I picked up from Joann's. I liked adding that tiny three dimensional detail.

{Up close detail picture}

{Angled view of hand}

Now all that is left is to sew it up and give it to her. I'm thinking I'll give it to her around thanksgiving so it can go up on the tree.

One more time

To be honest I wasn't completely satisfied with the card I made before hand, mainly because I had deviated from my general winter holiday theme. So last night I gave it another go and this is
what I came up with:

I'll most likely play around some more with the text placement, but for now this is the general idea I had in mind. Please, if your reading this, feel free to add constructive criticism.

Tis' the season

Crap, it's December already and I have so much to do. This year I'm trying to give something handmade to family and close friends, sounds great and all but I've managed to wait until now to really figure out who is getting what. Bah, humbug.

One of the first projects I jumped on today was taking care of my holiday cards (it also gave me a chance to play around with my new drawing tablet).

This is what I have so far:

Once Ron the hamster gets up I'm hoping to get a decent picture and finish up the card so I can start mailing it out, as well as post the finished product.

Thats all for now.

Stash Busting and new project

A couple posts ago I made pajama pants using a pattern, a first for me. They weren't for me, but after finishing the project I had a hankering to use up some of my ever growing fabric stash. I actually made these the day after I posted the other ones, just haven't gotten around to posting them. So here I present to you my new purple paisley pajama pants. Only one pic to so as it is late and I was unable to take decent action pictures

So when I haven't been working, or sick due to work, I've been working on making my very fist pair of trouser pants from Newlook 6815. So far so good.

Below is a picture of the pattern pieces marked off on the dollar a yard fabric I procured not too long ago. I just began attaching the waistband today, hoping to have them finished possibly by next week.

Well, thats all for now. Goodnight.

Project Manchild part 4

So close I can taste it. Today I did the face image on the back of the shirts, they came out pretty well if I do say so myself. Now all thats left is to let them dry heat set and wrap it all up. What else can can I tell you?

a quick peek at whats to come

{Before} 6 dollar chair from the salvation army, originally intended for craftster's "in the hot seat" contest, I kind of forgot about this chair until a few weeks ago.

{During} ripped off hideous fabric (apparently someone else tried to give this chair a makeover), and added new foam padding.

{During} Sanding down the chair for the next step....

::Stay tuned for the finished product::

Unfinished business and new arrival

A couple months back I had posted pictures of fabric which I reclaimed from a HUGE casual business blazer. I also promised to give an update...so here it is, a much delayed update on a long forgotten project. Perhaps it's because it was the first skirt I ever attempted to make, or the fact that I don't normally wear skirts and dresses, (although with some tutorials and patterns I've found, I'm a little more open to the idea), but something doesn't seem quite right about it. It looks a little triangle-y. I wasn't quite sure how to tackle fixing it, so I put it away and forgot about it until now. Now that my bf and I are getting ready to move in the next 2 and a half months I need to start finishing some of my semi-completed projects so I don't end up having to pack up clothing with pins sticking out everywhere.

Now for a quick peek at one of my newest salvation army finds. I LOVE this bed sheet, I wish I bought the other pieces now that I think of it. So many ideas are going around in my mind as to what to make with this sweet printed bed sheet. Only time will tell...

long time no post

So I've been working a bunch, and switching back and forth between working days and nights which has led to my lack of posting (insert sad emoticon). I have been getting things done though.
I made my first bag ever which I'm pretty excited about. Its going to be an overnight bag pretty much. I based the bag on a smaller messenger bag that I've been using for years and made a few changes to suit my needs. I added on an elastic cup holder for my coffee mug (works with water bottles as well. The bag that I based my pattern on had no inside pockets which I've always hated due to the constant shifting of things during my commute. I added in a zippered pouch/divider pocket so I can keep my electronics separated from my keys, wallet, and reading materials among other things.

Next up is a fairly quick clothing recon (majority of it done in less than 5 hours-that's good for me). I bought the shirt at target a few years back, wore it a few times, but as always I hated the t-shirt neck line. The green fabric was a fat quarter I picked up at Michael's a few weeks back. For this recon I "drafted" a pattern piece for the green fabric I used due to the fact that I didn't have much room for error. After showing it off to the bf he suggested adding some of the green fabric elsewhere on the shirt to give the shirt a "more unified" look. Not a bad idea, I'm just too lazy to do it right now. No action shots yet, maybe once its fully completed

At least I paid my taxes on time

Well its been a few weeks since I last posted, but I assure you I have been doing some work. To start things off I have finally finished my sewing desk. I had either had my sewing machine on the kitchen table or on an old wooden filing cabinet that was going to be thrown out until I thought up this project. At home depot I was able to pick up some knotty pine and have it cut to size, I then took it home a varnished the heck out it.


Here's a picture of my original filing cabinet set up; good lighting, horrible ergonomics.






Over here is my semi-completed project, you can kind of of see the interior of the filing cabinet. The bottom draw still slides in and out, I just removed the from of the drawer so I could easily see whats in it just by looking down. I removed the top drawer and I am currently thinking of making a shelf. The front of the bottom drawer was used as an expandable work space/cabinet door-unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of that in action. I'll take more pictures once the whole interior of the cabinet is finished. The important thing is that I now have my very own crafting corner.

In celebration of my new desk I was able to start and complete a quick clothing recon that I've been thinking of for a while now.


I bought these pants at Marshall's few years ago for about 10 dollars (my mom said I overpaid-notice how the pattern doesn't match up on the sides). I think I maybe wore them once, it was just too much plaid. I tried the pants on and marked them about two inches below the knee, and cut. I tucked and folded the edges and hemmed them (while at my new desk)




The result is a little something I would like to call plaid perfection.