Tag : sewing

152 posts

Learning a new skill

Over the weekend we had guests…my brother-in-law and his girlfriend. I had asked her if she’d show me how to knit some time. She said sure if I’d show her how to crochet.  We both learned something very interesting, I knit like a crocheter and she crochets like a knitter. It was difficult for each of us to break the habits that we used for our previous yarn work.  I’ve been trying again and again but never get any further than this. I’ll keep trying.

I also made this journal cover  the other day but as I was working on a second one…my sewing machine started acting goofy. I think the timing is off…or maybe the tension. I’m going to have to bring it in for a tune up. It’s about 25 years old and has never been looked at…it’s well over due.

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Art Journal remake


A while back my good friend Elizabeth sent me one of her wonderful sewn art journals as a birthday gift.

You can see the first set of signatures here and the second set here.

She lamented over and over about how much she hated the cover she made for mine. She even told me that I should try and fix it.

I love the inside covers as much as she did but the covers were over-sized. We talked about how I might be able to salvage the insides while doing the remake.

Time passed…I did nothing.

But now I’m really wanting to start a journal so I figured I’d better listen to Elizabeth and refit the cover.

I carefully cut the “spine” from the rest of the cover salvaging as much as humanly possible of the gorgeous inside fabric.

Since I seem to have a thing for denim, it seemed the natural choice for a scrappy cover.

 

 As you can see I used Elizabeth fun hand-dyed fabric with pen pockets on the front inside cover.

And her even more impressive bird mono-print with pocket on the back cover.

I made a flower from the lace to cover the sewing of the closure strap and added a vintage button for interest. 

Now time to get writing…

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Suede pouch

I am very behind here in blogland…


Last Saturday evening I made this suede pouch to hang from my belt at the Renaissance Festival the next day.

I had already sewn a backpack but with the temperatures sounding on the cool side I figured I’d be wearing a shawl over my costume. If I had a backpack on I’d be sporting a “hunchback of Notre Dame” look.


So a belt pouch was in order….

I had a magnetic purse closure in my sewing basket so that worked out very well.  I used a scrap of suede to cover the ugly metal backing.

We had a good time with the kids at the festival. Such a different experience than going with another couple.

***I once again have to apologize for the poorly lit photos. Seems every time I want to photograph something it’s raining!!***

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Suede backpack

You may remember a while back I used a suede jacket to make a book.  I still had lots of suede left waiting for inspiration to strike.

As the old saying goes…Necessity is the mother of invention….

I needed a bag of some sort to carry at the Renaissance Festival this weekend that would look a bit more like a bag from that period.  After seeing the crazy expensive prices of the beautiful tooled leather belt pouches I knew I needed to come up with my own design.  I’d already spent too much on my new bodice… Did I mention how much we love the Renaissance Festival!!

I must apologize for the poorly lit photos…it is a very dark and rainy day here but I just couldn’t wait any longer to share…

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August Dress

Wowsers…August snuck up on me. I had to quickly whip up this dress so I wouldn’t fall behind the rest of the Dress-up project participants.

I call it the Summer of Love sundress.
The fabric was scavenged from a pair of pants my son wore many, many years ago. I had fun drawing on the fabric with markers before sewing. 

I was going to make a mini replica of my flag twirler outfit from high school but decided that would be just too difficult to figure out on the fly. Maybe I’ll make it for October…like homecoming. My junior year when I was a flag twirler was my best year of high school…so many good memories. Hard to believe my 20yr reunion was just last week! Although, I skipped it. :)

Don’t forget to check out all the other August Dresses over at the Alice and Camilla blog.

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Scrap bag


I started this project over a year ago. But for most of that time, it’s been in a drawer..out of sight and out of mind. I had to clean out my sewing table (aka small desk I refurbished years ago) because it is now our aquarium stand.

Anyway….I had intended on making a tiny little string purse for going to garage sales and festival type things. Since then I’ve discovered that I really need to carry more stuff all the time…so a bigger bag was born.

An old piece of table cloth was used as the base for the random scraps. I used different colors of thread and stitches for a fun crazy quilt look.

I decided on a jagged edge on the flap for interest.

The lining is a re-purposed pillowcase. I wish I had the forethought to sew a pocket or two on the inside but when you’re winging it…those things don’t always come to mind.

I did learn a couple things while putting this together that I’ll *hopefully* remember to apply to my next purse project.

The only purchased item on this purse is the magnetic closer. I bought 3 of these a while back when I was making more purses

Otherwise everything used to create this purse is re-purposed or scrap.

A girl can NEVER have to many purses! Maybe I’ll sell a few when I actually stock my etsy store… It’s just an empty storefront right now.

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July Dress


Well, lookie here…I’m right on time with my July dress for the Dress-up Project!

When I think July, I think Independence Day, hot & sunny days,  picnics and time with family.  What would a fashionable girl wear for that? A Patriotic sundress, of course.

Head on over to the Alice and Camilla blog to see the rest of the July dresses.

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