Topic of the Day: Mail a.k.a. Review of Fabric-by-Fabric One-Yard Wonders

 It seems like that “mail” is a wonderful thing today! Since I already showed you what I sent off in the mail today, I thought it would be fun to show you what I got in the mail today. (Talk about perfect timing!)

It’s the new Fabric-by-Fabric One –Yard Wonders! 

I am so excited by it! It is chockfull of wonderful projects! I have already marked the following as must-have's:

Retro Bag by Sue Kim; I love the clean lines and the wonderful pleats. It also looks like it can carry what I use on a daily basis. 

Personalized Garment Bag by Lisa Cox; I need to make a couple for everyone in my family! We all have seasonal clothing that needs to be stored for at least a few months each year.

Hanging Book Display by Katherine Donaldson; I love this! I always pile up my books on my night stand. So I am going to make one (maybe even two!) for myself. I think that this will be my first project that I am going to sew out of this book!

Eight-Bottle Tote by Susan Byrd; What a genius design! And so easy! At least according to the instructions! LOL  I need to make one for my mom and for myself!

Farmers’ market Tote by Michelle Fante; No special reasoning behind it except that I love it! LOL

Pajama Boots by Sue Kim; Pasha showed those type of fleece boots at a store down town. So I know she wants some. Actually if I hurry up I could make those as a stocking stuffer! If I shorten it then it might work for my mom and sisters and even me (I hate cold feet...)! Hmmm, maybe this will be my first project instead since I have fun fleece on hand!

Bunny Pillow by Marlene Gaige; It’s just too cute not to make it!

Last-Minute Tunic by Heidi Massingill; I want one but I am going to add sleeves short ones or maybe even long ones since it’s cold outside!

Speedy Ruffle Scarf by Jenna Lou Odegard; I am a scarf fanatic… enough said!

Cool Season Clutch by Leigh Ann Tennant; It’s a bag that looks pretty! I am a sucker for pretty!

Wave Illusions Pillow by Caroline Sanchez; I don’t love making pleats but I love pleats! Does that make sense?

Of course, it also had some dress up clothes for “tiny” kids. But I don’t have those at home. But I thought that you might want to see a few of them...

The book also has a bunch of things that I really don’t have a use for it right now but I would never say never!

One project that I would definitely have to revise something on though is the Organizer Wallet. One of the materials needed is a magnetic snap! I don’t think that’s very smart though. Don’t banks and other places that give you those credit cards and membership cards tell you to keep your card away from anything magnetic because it messes up the magnetic stripe on the bag? So I would probably use a regular snap or Velcro. But maybe I am wrong about that?

Do you see a couple of projects that you might like?

Take care,

Me

P.S. I can't say how accurate or easy-to-read the instructions are. But I'll let you know as I am sewing them up! :-)

Sending Off Mail!

I mailed presents and fabric today! One is an envelope filled with wonderful scraps and yardage for my best friend! I know she'll love it! I hope she'll post on her blog what she is making from them!

The other package is filled with this - eight placemats! My friend had always admired mine and when a PTA Christmas fundraiser (for which I made these to donate) didn't come through I decided to send them up to her as a little surprise! 

Here is a look at one of them. 

I used scraps from one of my quilts and a vintage bed sheet as the backing from the thrift store! Placemats are super quick to make (about 30 minutes per without hand sewing the binding on!) and I love giving them!

Have you made some for your table yet? Or would you like me to make you some... wink, wink! :-)

Take care,

Me

Pasha's Choir Skirts #2 a.k.a. the Faux Pleated Wrap Skirt

I found a beautiful skirt with tutorial on Grand Revival Designs. I showed it to Pasha and we both decided that she had to have one! I quickly scanned the instructions and decided that it wasn't that hard but labor intensive because of the pleats!

I would curse myself quite often during the making of the skirt. I measured everything and cut accordingly. Everything was fine until I read the pleat instructions. Somehow I couldn't understand it and ended up with a huge skirt part. It was so big that I could have used it to make a pleated wrap skirt for myself!

I was mad, cursing and just in general not a happy camper. I just simply couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong... That fabric was just too beautiful to toss it in to the wader bin! So I decided to ditch the instructions and make a faux wrap skirt. I left the pleats in for the front and wrapped it around 1.5 times. So I started on her right side and stopped on her left side. I attached the waist band and inserted an elastic band. I also made a big bow that I sewed on permanently. Much much easier than the tutorial. If you ever decide to make one and it worked out, let me know maybe you can explain to me where I went wrong!

And this is what I ended up with:

I don't have pictures of Pasha wearing it yet. She loves it though! In fact, she wore it to the tree lighting ceremony choir performance. It was just too dark to get a good picture :-(

Have you sewed up any skirts yet?

Take care,

Me

Pasha's Choir Skirts #1

As you know, Pasha is a member of the GEMS choir. The required performance wardrobe is festive and semi-formal! I am not willing to pay a lot of money for clothes that she'll only wear a few times. She likes casual clothes too much :-)

Well, she picked a couple of fabrics at the fabric market in October, and I made her a couple of skirts. The first one is a Peggy Skirt.

The skirt sews up in a couple of hours. The instructions are pretty straight forward and you you shouldn't have a problem.... unless you are me! Unfortunately I had to make two because I didn't add the sewing allowance in the first time and it ended up being too small! Would you like to have it?

Pasha is pretty happy with it! Here is a closer look:

And here is another view :-)

I have one more to show you tomorrow.

Take care,

Me

Tree Lighting Ceremony

The first choir performance of the year is the community tree lighting ceremony. We always find the time to attend that! 

The German Bundeswehr Music Corps would play a few German Christmas songs.

.. and then the GEMS choir sang a few songs.

The kids put in a lot of work and it shows. They sing wonderful!

The tree is very simple yet so beautiful!

In case you are wondering, yes, I was able to make a couple of skirt to help Pasha have a good choir performance wardrobe. Everything is white and black! I will show you the first skirt tomorrow!

Take care,

Me

P.S. I forgot to bring our "real" camera. Sorry about the horrible picture quality!

Charm Pack Project Parade

I have finished and  posted about each of my charm pack projects! But they are scattered all over in different posts. So I figured I should do one long "parade" of my projects in one post that I could refer back to! :-)

Let me back track for a moment... I bought a Christmas charm pack with the intend to make some Christmas decorations. I used of course more than just the charm pack... but everything I used  I had already in my stash...

And here they are:

Project # 1: The Wall Hanging

Needed: Charm Pack + 2.5 yards for front, back, letters, and binding

Project # 2: Table Runner

Needed: charm pack scraps + 2 yards for front, back and binding

Project # 3: 3 Pillow Cases

Needed: charm squares + charm pack scraps + 1.5 yards fabric fabric for front and back

Project #4: Another Pillow Case

Needed: charm squares + 0.5 yard fabric for front and back

Project #5: Yet Another Pillow Case (Sheesh!)

Needed: charm pack scraps + 0.5 yard fabric for front and back

And the final Project # 6: 4 Mug Rugs

Needed: charm pack scraps + fabric scraps from the previous 5 projects

I think that 1 charm pack if used as the main accent in a project can really go a long way! 

What could you do with a charm pack?

Take care,

Me

Final Charm Project # 6

I got inspired by your mug rugs and decided to use the last scraps that I had to make up a couple (okay, more than a couple!) for myself!

These are the scraps that I primarily worked with. I used some grey, cream and red fabric left overs as well as a charm and a half that I somehow hadn't used yet :-)

I lined them up and sewed two of them together like this:

I then stacked them...

and put some grey and cream on the sides. 

And this is what I ended up with... four mug rugs!

And a closer look at each one of them:

I have used them already! At first I thought I wouldn't because they are just so pretty but now it's what I reach for when I drink my tea during lunch! 

Thank you for inspiring me!

Take care,

Me