Sewing Shenanigans

In the last month or so, I have rediscovered my love of sewing. It comes and goes, mostly depending on whether or not I want to pull down the heavy box containing my sewing machine from the closet in Nathan’s room and we want to eat meals on the couch for weeks at a time, since the machine and all my sewing things are all over the table (and living room). But I stole the table we’d been using as Nathan’s changing table and moved it into the bedroom and now I have a little sewing station in there and I’m far enough away from Nathan’s room that I can sew during naps and in the evening without worrying about Nathan waking up. And no more fabric scraps and bits of thread all over the living room! Yay!

Several weeks ago I was hanging out with some friends at chik-fil-a and we were talking about sewing and fabric and how JoAnn’s is great and all, but their fabric selection is pretty much always the same, and there’s not enough variety. But none of us knew of any local fabric stores in the area with a better selection (and just ordering fabric you’ve never seen or touched can be tricky). So later when I got home, I googled specialty fabric stores with my zip code and would you believe it?! There was one right down the street from me! What?! So that weekend a friend and I went and checked it out! And while the selection wasn’t big, it was all new (to us) and it was fun to go see what they had. Almost right as we walked in, I saw ‘it’. Navy blue with white polka dots. And I knew it had to be mine. I didn’t even have any plans to sew anything, but that didn’t matter. An hour later, two yards came home with me. And I was so stinkin’ excited.

By the time I got home, (the drive was all of 5 minutes) I had decided that I would make a skirt, and I found a skirt tutorial on my pinterest board HERE that would go perfectly with my polka dots. Later I was face-timing with my mom and she’s all “um…where’s my fabric so that you can make me one?!” So back to the fabric store I went, buying almost the rest of the bolt to make skirts for me, my mom and my sister.

But enough talk, here is my cute pleated skirt that I made with my awesome polka dot fabricYou might not believe me, but I’m still quite the beginner. My measurements for the waistband and the length were a little off, so I altered as I went and made it work. But it has a zipper in the back and I’m quite proud of that. AND pockets. Cute coral colored pockets. SO FUN. My mom’s and sister’s did not get pockets, as I didn’t have them there to measure their hands and pocket placement. So my pockets are special ;)

I ended up having quite a bit of my polka dots leftover and with a little creativity in my pattern piece placement, I had enough material to make a dress with the leftover fabric. I used Simplicity’s New Look 0180 and added the sleeves from New Look 6000. 0180 was sleeveless and while I could have left it that way and just worn something over it, I wanted to be able to wear it this summer without getting too hot, so sleeves it was. This project was especially exciting because John got me a serger for Valentine’s day and I got to use it for this dress. It’s the coolest thing ever. He got me a Brother 1034D and I. Love. It. The seams and edges on the inside just look so professional and it’s pretty awesome. The pattern also includes instructions for a belt and I had some leftover white satin from my Mary Poppins costume, so that’s what I used. I’m really happy with the way it came out! I think I need like, 5 or 10 more dresses like it ;)

I’ve also made a few other small things, mostly for my camera. I had been looking and looking for the perfect fabric (and I must confess I kind of wanted it to match my adorable Jo Totes Gracie in Mint camera bag that my in-laws got me for Christmas) and I finally found some white with gold polka dots (I’ve got a thing for polka dots lately, can you tell?) as well as some gold and white chevron - both are from Michael Miller’s ‘Glitz’ collection - and snatched some up from an online store and made a reversible padded camera strap – with pockets for my lens cap even!

It’s already on my camera strap, and I didn’t want to take it off…so this is the best I could do ;)
I had quite a bit leftover, even though I’d only purchased 1/2 a yard of each, so I made some more fun accessories for my bag. Like this battery and SD card wallet:
And it folds up all cute and little ;)
And some little zippered pouches to hold odds and ends (And I really just wanted to practice zippers. They are pretty awesome once you get the hang of it!)

And that’s it so far! But I haven’t put my machines away just yet, I’m having way too much fun!