Stuff for Dorothy

Aside from the diaper I made at my sewing class, I haven't posted much about things I have made for Dorothy lately.  Her hair is finally long enough to be pulled back with a little clip.  She prefers the two pigtails that look like antennae look, but sometimes I can talk her into a barrette to keep her hair out of her eyes.

Brown and white/off-white barrettes.

I covered an alligator clip with velvet ribbon because the velvet seems to grip her fine hair better, so they stay in a little longer. Then I glued on some pre-made flowers I bought to match the ribbon. If she starts wearing these more, I might look in to making some bows and such myself, but for this first try I wanted it to be quick and easy.

Close-up of the brown ones.  They have little pearls in the center.

She has outgrown her Purdue shirt and I had to pull it from her closet because it wasn't covering her tummy any longer. The pants still fit great and are perfect for her gymnastics class, so I wanted a new shirt to go with her plain black pants. I bought a plain shirt on clearance at Target and decided to add this shifty-eyed panda that I have used before. I thought it was a little boring in just black and white, so I experimented with adding a ribbon bow. I liked the bow, but wanted it to tie in a little better, so I also added bows near the cuffs. I'm interested to see how they wash and hold up. If they do well, I might use this more often. I like how it adds a little color and a little texture to the shirt. I might even try coordinating the ribbon on her clothes to some bows for her hair. We'll have to see how ambitious I'm feeling.

Panda shirt with added bows.  I'll have her wear it to gymnastics this week, then see how it washes.

Better view of the bows on the sleeves.

Close-up of the panda with the bow.

My First Sewing Class

It took me a year to finally get to it, but I completed my first sewing class yesterday! This one was for making a diaper cover with PUL. I have worked with PUL before, and it is a little tricky. I was also very interested in learning how to use fold over elastic. I have tried various types of elastic where I have to stretch it as I sew it, and it rarely works how I expect it too. There were only two people signed up for the class and the other person never showed, so I had a private lesson. The class was scheduled to be 3 hours long, but even at the snail's pace I was going, I was done in an hour.

What I learned during my class:

1. I have been doing just fine reading directions and following along as best I can. I'm doing better than I thought

2. My "failures" with stretching and sewing elastic were not really failures at all. It just doesn't gather as much as I expect it to. If I want something pulled very tight, I'm better off doing a casing and cutting the elastic to the desired finished length.

I'm glad I took the class, and it was refreshing to get out of the house so that I could concentrate without listening to the sounds of the house and wondering if I should stop and help out. I had extra fabric and stuff and I wish I had asked if I could stay and do another couple just to enjoy the quiet.

Here is my finished product. It isn't perfect, but it was super easy and now that I have done it once, I'm pretty sure I could do it much cleaner and faster the next time.

Closed.

Open

Goals for 2011

So, I had a list of goals for last year and I only marginally managed to complete some of them.  Let's recap a bit, shall we?


Goals for 2011

1.  Spend two nights a week in my sewing room, or anywhere else working on a project, for at least one hour. 

I would do well for a while, then would fall off of the wagon for a while. When I was doing well, I got a lot done.


2.  Put away all the odds and ends of fabric that are still out in the open in the sewing room.

Ha! Ha! Ha! I did a little here and there, but it is still 100% a disaster in the sewing room. I really do need to do this. It would be so nice to work in a beautiful room.


3.  Hang the thread organizers.

Kevin did it for me, but at least it got done. Check!


4.  Set up my snap press in a permanent way.

Done! Check! Whew. Finally one where I can claim success.


5.  Make the curtains for my sewing room with the fabric that I bought a year ago.

The fabric is still sitting there, mocking me.


6.  Recover my chair and lamp shade now that the colors in my room have changed.

The chair I had been using has been replaced...by two chairs that need to be recovered. I have doubled my work and my lamp has not changed.


7.  Make a dent in the giant pile of scrap fabric.

Well, I did a little of this, but I need to do some bigger projects involving my scrap piles. I have a couple of ideas, but I need to actually do them.


8.  Hang up the pictures I have framed.

Done! Check!


9.  Finish at least one project that is partially done.

It was small, but I did it. Check!


10.  Take a sewing class.

I am signed up for one tomorrow. I didn't make it in 2011, but I am finally going to do it. Yay, me! Hopefully, I will learn something.


After my class tomorrow, I'm going to spend a little time reflecting on what I want to do this year. I might not make a ten point list. I have some things that I would like to get done, but I also have some things that I really need to get done.

Korean Dragon

I have had a shirt sitting in my sewing room, ready to be embroidered for a couple of months.  Malcolm had a pair of pants and a fleece sweatshirt that were both solid colors and needed a little something to tie them together.  I used the pants color (grey) and the sweatshirt color (periwinkle) in the design to make it a complete outfit.  I love how this dragon turned out and he might make some appearances on some other clothes. Malcolm is getting to that age where some things are a little too young looking, while others are too mature. I think this design is grown up enough for him to wear for a long time, but not so mature that it looks out of place on a 4.5 year old.

After it was done, I wished that I had used a peach-y apricot color thread instead of the yellow, but the yellow looks good too. The shirt is a very deep, bright green that is more vibrant than in the photo. I can't wait for nice weather so I can take pictures outside again.

After I started making the dragon, I took a break and told Malcolm about it. It had been a while since I had talked with him about my plans for this shirt, and I think he forgot about our talk. I asked him, "You like dragons, right?" and he answered me, "No," in a tone that indicated that I clearly didn't know him at all. However, when he wore it to school a day or two later, he very proudly showed it off to everyone. I had told him that it was a Korean Dragon, but he had a really hard time pronouncing "Korean" and they thought he said "Norwegian." I was momentarily confused when his teachers said they liked his Norwegian dragon. I thought maybe he had made a dragon at school until I remembered what he was wearing.

Final Christmas Crafts

So, I forgot to post a couple of my Christmas crafts last time, so let's finish these up and move on already.

First, I made clip on butterfly ornaments for our tree out of the butterflies I used when I made a baby mobile when I was pregnant with my first child. Both kids are long past the baby mobile stage, but I didn't want to just throw away the butterflies I had used. I hot glued them (after a failure with craft glue) on to alligator clips from the beauty supply store.

The yellow and orange ones hanging out on the tree.

Close up of the yellow one.  There are 5 all together: red, yellow, orange, blue, and green.

My final project was to use a large circular paper punch on the Christmas cards we received. I ran out of gift tags this year and will use these next year instead of buying more.

All the tags cut from cards.

These are a few of my favorites.

That's it (finally) for all the holiday stuff. Up next, more embroidery.

Holiday Catch-Up

I made a few things for gifts this past holiday, but I was terrible about blogging about them, so I'm going to dump them all into this one post.

First up is a set of kitchen towels that I made as part of a wedding gift. 

I made a hand towel for each of Malcolm's teachers at school and the the director of the school.  They also received some home made jam.  The towels and jams were all different so that they could each pick their favorites.

A reversible dress for a friend's one year old.

What it reverses to.

I had a few issues with the reversible dress, like sewing closed the arm holes; twice.  Then I sewed the buttons on (it buttons down the back) much to tightly and could hardly get it to button at all, let alone on a wiggly child.  Once those issues were fixed, I was finally able to send it off to her.  I hope they like it.

I don't have any photos, but I also made two Kermit shirts for my cousin's sons.  I think mom was more excited than the boys, but hopefully they like them too.  One of them put it on while they were here having dinner, so that's a good sign.

Lastly, I was also busy making jam which I give out to friends, family, teachers, and just about anyone who teaches or takes care of my children in some way.  This year, I made two batches of cranberry peach and one batch each of blueberry peach, blackberry, and blackberry merlot.  A butter cracker, goat cheese, and blackberry merlot jam has become my favorite snack.