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Another sewing project

I made this bag for my cousin that I just visited in Phoenix.  I thought it turned out pretty cute.  It was a rather simple project and the size is prefect.  I did add a little length to the straps so that it would be long enough to wear over the shoulder.

I found the FREE PATTERN HERE. 

Thank-you to My spare time for posting such a fun pattern!  I may try your Pleated Pouch next.  Three cheers for great talented sewers helping me out by sharing great tutorials.  

Bamboo!

As I was walking through my yard with a friend, we discovered bamboo.  That was about a month or two ago.  Since then, it has emerged from it's dormant winter state to grow grow grow.  And boy does it grow!  

This can be either a wonderful treasure or an enormous annoyance, depending on how we take care of it.  I plan to think of it as a treasure.  I have great plans for crafting and using the bamboo around the house and in the garden.  I cut one down a few weeks ago and used it as a curtain rod (camera battery now dead, pictures soon).  I cut a few more down to create a border around my heirloom tomato plants.  I may plant some pole beans and let the beans climb up the bamboo shoots as well.  

I plan to purchase THIS book from amazon today so that I can learn more about containing it with a plastic underground barrier and more crafty projects I can do with bamboo.  What fun!  What a treasure.

a purse and beautiful flowers

Here are the photos of a purse I made a couple of weeks ago from a FREE pattern.   Switching out the winter purse for the fun spring one is always a delight.  This was my first bag that I made following a pattern.  Again, for someone who doesn't know a ton about sewing, following a pattern is so much easier because you don't have to try to wrap your brain around how to get it to work--- especially a lined bag.  However, I'm sure that after I follow a few more patterns I could easily make one without a pattern.

Mistakes were made and fortunately a big one was able to be covered up by a button.  But it was fun and is very usable although not terribly large (it should have been bigger than it turned out but like I said....mistakes).  

Do you see the beautiful roses?  They are part of a collection of flowers I got to take home from the Women's conference at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte.  I was the music leader this weekend and it was SO much fun.  I hope I am invited to lead music for many more conferences.  It's always so great to be under the teaching of wonderful teachers and in the company of such great Christian women.  

I wish they could stay like this forever.  They smell so wonderful.

Cheers.

So, I'm really getting into sewing these days

I'm realizing that downtime is more fun if you have a needle and thread nearby.  Right now I have a little purse that I just made that needs a couple little stitches sitting right next to me.  I'm so thankful for websites like PurlBee, MadeByRae, and Threadbanger that offer fool proof tutorials and patterns (mostly for free) for dummies like me.  Sewing is a newish hobby for me so I need all the instruction, and color photos I can get!  There's a couple of books that have been catching my eye that seem like they may be great **ahem ahem*** mother's day presents or birthday presents (May 10 and May 9 respectively).

Weekend Sewing is another book that has made its way up on the list.  Lots of projects you can make in a weekend.  That's right up my alley.  I like being able to finish something shortly after I started.  That's why I couldn't really get into crocheting and knitting.

Bend the Rules with Fabric isn't exactly out yet... but it looks SO cool!  Her other book, Bend The Rules Sewing is a great book for beginning sewers.  Her blog is great too, she shares yummy recipies, her crafty projects and even pictures of her handmade underwear!!!

So, that's all I have to say about that.  Off to work on my PURSE.  I'll share photos when I'm done and when Andy brings the cord from the camera home from work.*ahem, ahem**

Cheers.

A Flower Pin

I made this little flower pin using Heather Bailey's yo-yo instructions.  There are so many things you can make with yo-yo's.  My original intention was to make yo-yo's to sew onto some accent pillows that I have that are rather plain.  This fabric was a bit too thick for that though so I just sewed this button in and pinned it to my shirt.  Isn't it cute?  I found the button in a drawer of a house we are living in.  It has all sorts of sewing supplies, rulers, thread, sissors, buttons, bindings, lace etc.  What a wonderful treasure to find!

Handmade Church Clothes

This was so exciting for me.  Matching but not overly matchy-matchy clothes to wear on Easter Sunday for the boys.  

Of Course there's no pictures of them both looking at the camera and smiling, but that's life.  This photo-shoot was actually the pre-easter trial run anyway.  I wanted to make sure they fit right.  Owen's is a bit big, if I wanted to have it fit perfectly, I should have used the 12 month pattern but I opted for 18 mo.  It looks good though.  The romper was downloaded from YouCanMakeThis.com.  It was quite doable for a novice sewer like myself.

About a week ago, I found THIS pattern for a little boy's tie.  I found the pattern so simple to follow, but I shortened the tie since D is so young.  I also used the interfacing from one of Andy's ugly ties.  It was perfect considering I really didn't have enough of this fabric to make Deacon a matching romper, and he's getting a bit old for these anyway.  

Andy found matching blue shirts with the tags still on at the thrift store for $.25 each!  Those were a great score and Deacon's pants were only a couple of dollars also.  They were in beautiful condition.  It helps to keep your eyes open at the thrift stores.  

A few ladies at church told me that they have sewing machines and really have no idea what to do with them.  SO... I'm thinking of starting a very small sewing group so that we can share our knowledge with each-other.  I just need to find some ladies that actually know how to sew so that they can help the rest of us!

Late in the evening, Andy asked me to hem the pants for a newer suit that he has acquired.  So we got them a few inches shorter so he could look classy for his first Easter Sunday as a minister.  Isn't he so handsome?

Easter Baskets

Easter baskets- basically breakfast.  Complete with cheerio filled eggs for the little one.

Painting Eggs

Bedroom Progress

I'm very happy with the color that I chose for the bedroom.  It is from Glidden (ICI) paints and the color is called Fossil Gray.  It is perfect.  After painting 6 rooms in this house, this is the first color that actually turned out exactly the way I wanted it to.  

I was about to run to the store on Tuesday to buy curtain rods, but as I was walking through our yard with a friend, we discovered all sorts of Bamboo growing near the edge of our property.  So I'm going to saw some off and make curtain rods with bamboo.  Won't that be neat?  I'm trying to figure out what else to do with all this bamboo.  

I would like to make some fabric art like this with our monogram on it and hang it above the bed.  I would also like to a nice summery bedspread to use and fold this quilt up at the bottom of the bed.  This quilt is quite special to us as it was hand stitched with over 4500 pieces by Andy's Grandmother.  It was a wedding gift from her.  Isn't it lovely? I really do love the feeling of sleeping under a nice soft and thin cotton quilt.

The shirt that should have been an apron all along

This shirt was $1 from the thrift store.  It took me about 15 minutes to transform this teeny-bopper tank into a motherly apron.  That was fun.  

I'm planning on embellishing it a bit with some lace, but I ran out of thread in my bobbin, so that meant it was time to quit.

I think Devona would be proud of me.

I can make it!

While following some crazy rabbit trail about making children's clothing, I found this great site called "You Can Make This."  I downloaded the pattern for the boy's (and girl's) romper.  It was just all too perfect for my needs, with sizes from 3mo to 4T.  I could make pants, shorts, little ones for O and big ones for D.  These are simply my FAVORITE sorts of things to dress my boys in during the hot SC summer months.  

While I'd like, someday, to be able to truly call myself a sewer, I have to admit that for a while I was really scared of making anything involving curves and patterns.  It just seemed like too much attention to detail to me.  I've made appliques for t-shirts once for the boys, along with a couple of backpacks, but no clothing.  While this romper was rather simple to make with the pattern, there would be no way I could do this without one.  This was my first attempt at sewing clothes and I am so happy with the outcome.

They still need buttons, but aren't they cute?  This is a light seersucker fabric lined with white cotton.  I'm going to leave them long for a few more months and then hem them shorter when it warms up.  This is the 18mo size.  I'm planning to make a bigger one for Deacon using this fabric.   I'll probably  applique a train on them, or maybe an airplane.  These will be their Easter outfits this year--if I can make it happen.  (Andy says I should leave off the trains, planes and automobiles until after Easter.  I'm not sure that's necessary.)

I noticed that the colors really match Owen's name train that he got for his first birthday from grandma.  Maybe I'll get Owen's photo taken while wearing the romper and playing with the trains.  Won't it be so cute?  He really is rather photogenic, don't you think?

He's a little bit cartoony too.  Once I get buttons on it and my camera back, I'll take pics of Owen wearing them.  (Photobooth doesn't have a "kids and pets" function, so there's no way I could get a clear picture of him using the computer.)