Ring around the Roses

I have a handful of unfinished projects in my pile of fabric. More are back at home, many more. I brought two with me. Both I was able to finish over my spring break! This here is the first unfinished project I dealt with.

This bag has been finished, save for the handles since the summer of 2005. Yes, it’s taken me six years to finish this sucker. Should it have? NO! I’m not sure why I put something so simple as making handles off for so long, but I did. I even used up some scrap fabric I’ve had.

I don’t think finishing this up took more than an hour, if that. It was one of my goals on Sunday after making the scrubbers to complete this piece. I’m currently looking for an excuse to use it, but biking to classes certainly puts a damper on carrying something like this.

When I do another bag like this, I’m going to do a few things differently. Such as how I finished the top seams. I initially folded both sides over and sewed them together back in 2005. That made sewing the outer fabric and the lining together a bit difficult around the seams. Now I realize I should have just sewed the sides together, then hemmed the top. Hindsight is always 20/20, right?

Attack of the Orange Puffs

On Sunday I headed to Jo Ann Fabrics to purchase some fabric. Now, don’t be giving me that look! I only bought half a yard of fabric! And I SWEAR I’m not going to be wearing the items any time soon!!!

I made more dish scrubbers. The one my roommate and I were using had seen its better days and there was only one more left. I was forced to buy more fabric so I could make these suckers before I forgot about them.

I’d love to say I was good and only bought the bright orange fabric, alas, I wasn’t. There were a few more items purchased: buttons and batting. See, no new fabric! I was tempted though, so tempted. I need the buttons to finish up another two projects and I’ve got a project in mind for the batting as well.

My roommate had only one request for the color of netting I bought, no white, it would show the dirt. So bright orange I went with! I’m sadly excited to be using these to wash dishes. My roommate turned one of the small scrubbers into a hair accessory. Apparently, these suckers have a duel purpose!

Scraps to Squares

I swear I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth again! My parents were in town visiting and then I went on a sewing marathon. I was a bit preoccupied to write.

After my parents headed back home I whipped out a pile of fabric I had that was too small for me to make a garment out of, yet too large for me to bear to part with. These scraps are all from a garment or project I’ve had over the years since I started sewing. I really do have a problem getting rid of fabric....

Above is the pile I started out with, I weeded out some of the teal and heart fabric as they could possibly be turned into something besides quilt squares.

After eight hours of cutting fabric, I reduced the pile significantly. And yes, you read that right, eight hours of cutting fabric into 2 inch by 2 inch squares. Don’t worry, I still have my sanity (what little I posses) and all seve- I mean ten of my fingers... I unfortunately don’t have my cutting boards down in Savannah with me, so I had to cut all of the fabric with scissors. It would have been so much easier to do this with my rotary cutter.

This is then what I ended up with! Many, many 2 by 2 inch squares! I've been working on sewing blocks together, but those are slow going and I'm still trying to work my way through other fabric I have from my stash.

Also, classes started today. My first one was at 8 in the morning, half an hour away by bike, in a building I’d never been in before. Finding my class was an adventure filled with near death experiences and bird poo. I’ll see what excitement tomorrow brings.

Saint Paddy's Day and Fabric

After spending the most of the day outside for Saint Patrick’s day, I can officially say I experienced the celebration in Savannah. I even have an awesome souvenir from it! Sunburn! At least it’s not too bad this time....

I headed downtown with my roommate and we were able to catch half of the parade, which we were hopping to miss. It was interesting. there was a large military presence, not surprising as there is an Army base in Savannah. It took a minute to figure out why all of the servicemen had multiple lipstick prints on their cheeks. When the parade paused women would run out to kiss the servicemen! I’d never seen that anywhere before. But had I known, I would have joined in!

After enjoying the great outdoors for the day I evaluated my situation for sewing. I have a lot of fabric I’ve accumulated over the past year and half that I need to make into something. I don’t think this is even all of it! I probably have a few more yards back in my home state.

Since I have the next few days free I’m thinking of putting a large dent into this pile of fabric. Unfortunately I have a few patterns in mind for some of these fabrics and they are back in Ohio. Over the next few days I should be turning out a few articles of clothing and possibly a few crocheted items.

New Fabric and Aprons

So, I haven't been up to nothing. Work has pretty much held me hostage for the past few days. Who wants to work 7-8 hour days when working for minimum wage? Certaintly not I, but that's the schedule I'm stuck with and I am greatful for the money. Without my job I wouldn't be able to fund my sewing addiction/hobby. There's always that blasted give and take to everything isn't there? Now, don't get me wrong, I like my job, I just wish I didn't have to work as often and got paid more. Hence why I'm going to graduate school, to get a "grown up" job.

I have been tampering with my sewing machine and fabric these past few days. I had this lovely apron (pardon the akward picture, the sunlight hasn't been working with me to get decent pictures) half finished for a few months now. And I got around to dragging out the iron and ironing board so I could finish it! I quite like it with the pink and black, I feel I could have added a bit of black detail to the bottom and at least one pocket, but oh well, it's finally finished and I'm not tampering with it anymore...

Aside from sewing I've revisted my local fabric store (JoAnns) and dug through the remnant section. Remnants are how I justify my mass quanitiy of fabric. If it only cost $4 a yard (or so) and the object only cost $5 to make.... I'm slowly, slowly adding more handmade garments to my closet. Mainly dresses, which I hadn't worn much in previous years. I've found that dresses keep me cooler and with the AC going out a lot at work, it's not worth it to wear pants.

The lovely pink and yellow popsicle fabric is for bags. A free pattern for Charlie reusable bags can be found at Burda. I've modified the pattern a slight bit for most of the bags I've made (pictures will show up later). The pink fabric is actually going to be made into a bag for one of my friends. I have to draft a pattern for that, not especially hard with grocery-like bags.

There was a sale this weekend, or rather is a sale, for patterns. How could I pass up $0.99 patterns?? Answer: I couldn't. I caved and bought 3 patterns, one for shorts which I desperately need. I can't find shorts the right length! I'm a bit too small for the misses sizes and I don't want to look like a hoe in junior's sizes. Making my own just seems logical. I also have a pattern for a dress and cardigans. I need to stop buying patterns though and start sewing more!

And lastly here's a picture of some lovely clearance fabric, everything was on sale for $6 or less, and since I didn't buy more than 1.25 yards of anything, I was pleased. Fabric and patterns all for under $12, now that's a steal.

Hopefully I'll get around to more sewing this weekend, but I never know. My old computer's hard drive bit the dust and I still have files (and pictures) that I need to get off of it. Evil technology, attempting to rui

n my weekend by making me retype things as opposed to working fine and allowing me to sew.