Nine Years Before the Mast

Today is my wedding anniversary. In honor of being married to my wonderful husband for nine years I finished a UFO. It is a quilt I started for him over a year ago. Some things I learned whilst making this quilt:

(1) Once you put interfacing on the t-shirt fabric it stops feeling like fabric.

(2) If you are going to back your quilt with flannel you probably don't need to use batting.

(3) If you are silly enough to use t-shirts (with interfacing), batting, and flannel material for the backing don't try to do any fancy quilting. The quilt will be way too heavy and the thread will break and you will curse worse than any sailor you have ever known (or not known). You will then be so annoyed / disgusted with your project that you will leave it on the floor and walk all over it and allow the children to play on it and use it - even though it isn't quite finished yet, because you haven't sewn the binding on yet.

Yes, my children have used this quilt already. Upstairs, downstairs, really, wherever they could drag it. So, I guess it isn't that bad. It just isn't as pretty (the quilting part I mean) as I would like.

Happy nine years before the mast for me and my hubby. Perhaps if I start on a pair of pants for him now they will be done before his birthday in May, or perhaps they will become a Christmas gift. It all depends on whether the pattern directions leave me cursing like a sailor.

New Ironing Board Cover

I made a new ironing board cover today. I saw this posted via my Craft Gossip email and said - I can do that. So, I did.

The fabric and batting were from my stash. The top fabric (it is a reversible ironing board cover but I did not take a photo of the other fabric) is "go for baroque" from Alexander Henry. The hardest part was pushing a safety pin with elastic all the way around the cover. It made my fingers sore.

What I want to do as a finishing touch, to make sure the cover stays snug, is to add some straps to the back of the cover. I must say, it fits way better than my old.

Off to iron fabric for another project!

Two Dresses for Little L

My little one has the good fortune of inheriting lots of clothes from her older sister. That also means that a lot of the clothes have a good chance of being stained, er um - well-loved.

There was one nightgown that was well-loved. It had stains from hot chocolate spills, a gum incident left one arm eternally a little gray and hard in areas, and the fairy on the front was fading away from too many washings. I decided, even though it was too big for my five-year-old, that I would take apart the nightgown and make a new one for her. I hoped the sizing would be better since I didn’t plan on adding a seam allowance.

Little L was born in 2004 – the year of the Monkey according to the Chinese calendar. For Christmas I purchased some flannel fabric that featured monkeys on moons. She was very happy with the fabric choice. Taking the nightgown apart was painstakingly slow – I didn’t want to mess it up. Putting it together proved to be rather easy. The nightgown is still a tad big but she loves it and wore it all day. It was also my first time using Fold Over Elastic (FOE). I think it is my new most favorite thing.

And, since we are headed off on a cruise soon, I thought I should make her a warm weather dress. I used Easy stitch ‘n save M5370 by McCalls’. I had size 1-2-3. I wasn’t sure size three would be big enough but thought I’d give it a try. Amazingly it is too BIG for my little girl! It comes down to her feet. She picked out her fabrics and even picked a flower embroidery stitch to go around the entire hem. It went together easily (concept - twirly skirt attached to a lined bodice) and she’s happy and will actually wear it!

Sewing With a Purpose (SWAP)

Shirt #2

One of my goals in 2010 is to sew with a purpose. One of my husband's goals if for me to sew with the supplies I have on hand in the house (including fabric and thread).

I really want to sew more clothing items. Even if they appear a tad homesewn. I doubt I'll ever run into Michael Kors so I'll take my chances at having mistakes in my wardrobe.

I have sewn two more t-shirts from The Perfect T-Shirt pattern. The yellow one was done earlier this week and the blue one I finished up this morning.

Shirt #3

I did the FBA for the blue one and must say, I think the shirt does lay a little better now. Creating the dart was easy following the video on the Perfect T-Shirt DVD (Pamela also has written directions on her website).

Up next - I promised my girls each some jammies. One daughter wants a dress out of fleece - so she can wear it outside and not be cold. I do plan on making some sundresses since we are going on a cruise in February and I am an optimist and expect that we will need warm weather clothes on the cruise. I am going to place a call into Mother Nature (oh - maybe she is on tweeter!) and let her know the dates so she can be sure we get nothing but sun and good weather.

Posing for the camera girl. She thought my other pose was boring.

New Year - New Sweater

New Year - New Sweater
Originally uploaded by bethvanduzer

It's a New Year. A New Decade! And that called for - a new sweater!

At the beginning of December I purchased some Pantagonia fabric from Fashion Fabrics Club. I figured it would be warm and as I get older (and I'd like to think because I've lost weight over the past two years) I am actually cold in the winter.

I was amazed by the raveling of this sweater fabric after the initial wash / dry. There was so much raveling! Regular knit doesn't ravel. That was the first sign I was in trouble.

I used The Perfect T-Shirt pattern for the sweater thinking I have sweaters that look like the same shape. Oops - the sweater rib fabric is THICK. Thicker than just straight knit fabric. So the neck biding is out of whack. All user error on my part. I'm hoping a run through the washer and dryer will spring the sweater into better shape.

The sweater is warm and even though it is 100% acrylic it isn't itchy or annoying - a good thing. If I can't fix what I ruined in the neck I'll just wear the sweater over a t-shirt or tank top of some sort.

I am now on the lookout for a pattern that uses sweater rib knit. Anyone have a pattern they recommend for my light blue Pantagonia sweater rib knit?