It Pays to Read

We all know the excitement of receiving goodies in the mail. Especially when you have a project ready to start and it arrives in the nick of time. Aren't these sweet translucent buttons just adorable? Ten sweet buttons are what I "ordered". (in my mind)

Imagine my surprise when I discover this bag o' buttons when I opened my package. I thought, 'that is odd, I wonder if they had an abundance and made this bag o' buttons one of their Free Gifts?" NO!

I decided to look at the invoice and there in highlighted text is "per 12 buttons"!! Of course I might be wrong, but I am rarely in doubt. I marched over to the computer just knowing that it was someone else's error! NOT!

Notice what it says right there in that green circle. Per 12! I am now the proud owner of 120 sweet pink buttons. Thank heaven it wasn't a button set that was $15 a set. It could be worse and I have no one to blame but myself.  Farmhouse Fabrics has always had great service, they have even called before when they thought there was an issue with an order. This was not their doing, it was 100% mine.

It. Pays. To. Read.

Children's Corner "Lillian"

Someone is growing into quite the young lady. It was time to try a more grown up dress. Lezette Thomason, former owner of Children's Corner Patterns, presented a challenge on the FB Sew Classic for Children page. Take the Lillian pattern and rework it. So that is what I did.

This was my inspiration that I saw on Pinterest.

Fabric was a well aged piece of 100% cotton that Princess's mother brought back from Princess's first trip abroad. She was lucky enough to go to Paris at the wise age of five months. How fun is that selvage?

I mimicked the appliqués from the inspiration piece coupled with a faux collar, all of a large scale pique. The appliqués also repeat the shape in the fabric print.

Because my fabric was a print I could have made it easier on myself with the center front. You can't really tell there is a center seam between the two rows of triple stitched top stitching down either side. And buttons, those were tough to match. Finally ended up with craft buttons from Joann.

After using buttons all down the front, I felt like buttons down the back would just be button overload. A zipper was called for. A zipper!! A real sign that a little one is growing up. A moment of silence should be taken at this time.

All in all a cool summer dress for Princess. Need to get some baseball shorts made for her brother before I send this. She doesn't like it if I send her something and not him. Keep stitching, faithful reader.

First there was ONE...

Have you heard of the Sew Together Bag by Sew Demented? If you haven't, you may be the only person. A friend from my SAGA chapter brought one to a gathering our chapter hosted last summer. We were crazy about it. Then another member made one for herself and her daughter. The crazy was on! A group of friends got together and the member who had made one for herself and her daughter agreed to "lead" the rest of us in a sew along to make one for ourselves. Little did we know what a slippery slope this would be.

You have to have fabrics for this cute scrappy looking bag. The scrappier, the better. That took a few of us to one of our local quilt shops, Janie Lou Quilt Shop. They were only too willing to feed our obsession, show us the ones they had made. Don't you love those bunnies? You know the problem with a cute quilt shop? All those dang fat quarter bundles wrapped with ribbon with a cute hang tag. Cute, fresh, modern fabrics in on trend color combinations. All there together for the taking. (Well pay first, it will work out better for you.) All the colors, patterns and designs just calling your name. I bought so da** many its not funny a few. I slapped myself silly when I found myself picking up a Christmas bundle. NOBODY NEEDS A CHRISTMAS bag!! NOBODY!

As you can see inside each pocket is a different fabric. Orange and Navy aren't normally colors I would be drawn to, but that pink stripes and the bunnies just wouldn't be ignored. SO I bought the whole bundle. Of course I did!

After the cute fat quarter bundle, you need zippers. Oh you need so many cute colored zippers. Not those plain ones in boring colors from the big box store, J*'s or H*L*, no you need cute electric colors!

And why buy ONE when you can buy two dozen? WHY? There is a GREAT seller on Etsy called Zipit.  Stupendous service and so quick. Ordered on Tuesday, had by Thursday. And has a large assortment of colors in just as many lengths. Truly the zippers come out to well under $1/each. I can justify with the best of 'em.

I loved my bag, monogrammed of course. It was so quick, done in an evening and a little bit. No time at all. And fun! Well there my downfall began."I could make these for the girls!" I said; "It won't take but a minute", I said.

And so I did. Even more of those cute FQ bundles jumped into my bag and more of my $$ jumped right out.

For the theater/stage manager/tv and movie lover daughter.

For my go getter, stylin' daughter.

For my sophisticated style, accountant, daughter in law. Note the account ledger fabric in one of the pockets.

For my don't go too loud, tailored style daughter.

I did these four for Christmas gifts. "I'm finished" I said to myself........

Well no I wasn't! I went to Sewing at the Beach in January and needed to take girlfriend gifts with me. Soon four more bundles jumped into my bag. And more $ jumped out. (Are you noting a trend here?) This photo was taken at night with my camera phone, excuse the poor photo and no, there are no photos of the insides. I needed to pack the night before I left.

So it began with ONE Sew Together Bag and then there were NINE! I can put those zippers in in my sleep. No two are alike, and that is the fun of it. There are some great blogs out there with step by step photo instructions for making the bag. The best one is by Quilt Barn. Check it out.

Have fun faithful reader and I apologize now to your wallet.

Time to Take a Tour

No need to find your passport, wear a name tag, put your luggage outside your room or board a bus, but it is time for a tour.

You may have noticed that things are looking a little different around here. It was time for a change. Not a lot has changed, mostly just the look of the place.

First I want to thank Erika over at Designer Blogs.  Her patience and creativity are much appreciated. I would recommend both Designer Blogs and Erika.

I lurve my new header/logo. So fresh and girly looking. And let me tell you, watercolor clip art is a whole 'nother obsession where you can find yourself losing your way down a rabbit hole. What fun though.  A great starting point is Etsy. Just search "watercolor clip art". Wow!

I also love my new signature. Thanks Erika!

The biggest change is that the whole place is cleaner and less cluttered. To that end a few familiar things have moved.

Moving the lists off of the side bar meant they had to go somewhere. I love visiting other blogs and I was certainly not going to take the tutorials away. They have gone to "pages" that you will find at the top of the screen below the logo.

Here is where you will find the blog lists that used to be to your right. Now there is a change that happens in blogger when you place those links on a page as opposed to as a widget along the side of the home screen. In the widget it automatically places the blog with the most recent update at the top of the list and as each blogs posts the links become listed in order of last post. Not so on a page. So the links are all there, with a photo/logo above each link. Those links will not relist in order of most recent posts though. Sorry. There are a few links that there was not a title/photo/logo associated with that blog. The title is still linked but it appears to be just a line of text. No they aren't step children, they just didn't have an associated logo I could place there.

Way down the side bar previously was a short list that was titled "FYI". I have renamed that Resources and as I find new sites that I think would be useful, they will be listed here. If you know of one I have missed, let me know.

And most importantly, the Tutorials are list on their own page as well. It was kind of amazing to realize how awful some of those early photos were and several were not watermarked. In the coming months I will try to upgrade some of those photos. The early ones were take with an Olympus point and shoot camera with terrible light and color balance.

The about me page doesn't contain anything new but you will find pics of a few of my favorite treasures.

I hope this answers your questions. Don't forget to come back often and I hope you keep stitching, faithful reader.

Achoo!

Lest anyone should think that the baseball curse of 2015 has occurred again, no the pollen curse of 2016 is upon me. I am a long time sufferer of epic hay-fever.  Ever since grade school, spring with all its colors, song birds and breezes are torture. And it is better than it used to be due to a two year course of wicked shots a few years ago.  At least now I don't end up on steroids every year.

While spring may evoke images of rolling in the grassy meadow for some, (please God, no!)

This is me instead. While my neighbors are throwing open their windows to the warm spring breezes we have enjoyed, this place is battened down like Fort Knox for fear one tiny molecule of pollen might wiggle through the cracks around the windows. We go straight from furnace to a/c around here.

This is pretty much how you will find me. I never know how long the "season" will last each year. It varies.  I will try to rise up and sew in the coming days but I am making no promises.

Opening Day!

Just so my "friends" won't be disappointed.  It is time to play ball in St. Louis!

Rain has stopped and the sun is shining.

And the Clydesdales have just circled the stadium for this year's opening day.

Enjoy the view.

And my favorite part:

A New Girl in Town - Classic Sewing Magazine

Premier Issue Spring 2016

In case you missed it, there is a new sewing magazine in town.  Classic Sewing Magazine. It is Published by Hoffman Media, producers of Victoria Magazine, Southern Home, Cooking with Paula and several others.

Summer Issue 2016

So far, I have been very impressed.  Phyllis Hoffman Depiano and Kathy McMakin are the editors. You can tell they are having a ball putting together this new magazine.  Some of your favorite designers have been featured so far,

Gail Doane

Lezette Thomason

Kathy Dykstra

Debbie Glenn

Missy Billingsley

Sonia Showalter

Connie Palmer 

and more. I'm sure I am leaving someone out, but don't take my word for it. Subscribe!

Each issue not only comes with lots of inspiration but there are also full size patterns included in a separate pattern envelope. Hint: Children's Corner has even released some favorite discontinued patterns in both issues so far. Each Issue also has exclusive downloads that can be accessed by subscribers.

Classic Sewing Facebook Group

There is also a Facebook page where even more inspiration is shared. I encourage you to subscribe.  I can't wait to hear about how much you love it.

What's on the Machine Today

Working on something for Princess today. Sometimes simple is more work than you bargained for. I am anxious to see if my idea works out the same in reality as it has in my head. 

Thanks to those faithful readers who have contacted me looking for elements on the page that appear to missing. Hang tight, they will return. As you can see the look of things are changing.  It was looking kind of drab and tired I thought. No different than when you are painting and hanging new curtains, you have to make a mess in order to get there. Hope you are liking the new look so far. With any luck it will be back up to speed over the weekend.

More Birthday

You might remember, faithful reader, that Little Girl's nursery was done in flamingoes. So Momma has had a penchant for flamingoes ever since. So what better to do a casual birthday dress as well. Why not? So I found this cute baby flamingo at Just Peachy The number appliqué is from DigiStitches.

If you have been a reader for very long you should be able to recognize the pattern right off. A favorite, Children's Corner Lucy. I have lost count of the number of these I have made. Fabric is Dakota Pique from Spechler Vogel.  A dream to sew and care for. Poly/cotton.

And why make it just one dress? I made it reversible. This side is monogrammed and made from an Heirloom Imports (sadly no longer in business) pique.

I can not remember where the monogram came from. Both this sweet white broadcloth blouse and the one from the matching pique under the flamingo side, are both an out of print pattern by Children's Corner called "Meg". It comes up for sale on Etsy and eBay pretty often. It is definitely a keeper. As a matter of fact LG needs more of them now.

It all makes it worth it when you see it on this sweet thing. By this time in the party, the bow was gone, the party dress had been annihilated and the shoes had been ditched. She has now turned into a "NO!" screaming 18 month old. Momma threatens to sell her to the gypsies. I just need to send her this photo to remind her what a sweet baby girl she is.