The Pyramid Purse

On Friday we made the Five Stone game. This fun game just called for a unique bag! I searched the internet and found just the right bag with a great accompanying tutorial - http://www.nicolemdesign.com.au/tips/index.html.

The bags of the Five Stones game look like a pyramid that has been pulled to one side, and the pyramid purse is the perfect compliment to it. It is just the right size to fit the five bags and the instructions.

The purse might look intimidating but I promise it is not. The tutorial walks you step by step through the process with lots of accompanying pictures. It just makes perfect sense.

I even used this tutorial to teach my friend how to put in a zipper. She has very little sewing experience yet she was able to sew up a pyramid purse within 30 minutes.

It is definitely a gem to keep in your tutorial arsenal!

Five Stone Game

How often do you get to hear “I didn’t need a Nintendo DS to be entertained when I was a kid! No, I used sticks and stones!” from older people around you?
Yup, I heard that from my dad not too long ago. I tried hard not to roll my eyes when he made that comment. I decided to check out how many games could be played with sticks and stones and entered “stone game” in to my trusted Google search engine since he wasn’t the first one who said that.
The first link that popped up was a post on how to make a ‘Five Stone’ game on the Zakka-Zakka blog - http://blog.zakka-zakka.com/make-your-own-five-stones-a-traditional-game.html.
(What a neat blog with tons of ideas. It hasn’t been updated in a while with the last entry dating 1 Oct 08. However it is full of inspiration and ideas and worth a visit!)

Back to the Five Stone game: You basically make five little bags filled with rice. Very simple, very fast. It takes very little fabric – scraps are probably best! The tutorial is very easy to understand with lots of pictures guiding you from one step to another.

The rules are just as easy to understand. Here are the rules that we are playing by: The first player starts the game by throwing the five bags on the ground and then picking up one of them.
Using only one hand, the player throws the bag up in the air, picks up one bag and then catches the bag with the same hand before it hits the ground. The bag is then put into the other hand. This is repeated until all the bags have been picked up. The player then throws the bags back on the floor and starts again, but this time, two bags must be picked up each time. This continues on except for the third round, when obviously, first three bags and then only one bag is picked up. Once all bags have been picked up in the fourth round successfully, the player starts again by going back down.
When the player misses the ball or does not manage to pick up the required number of jacks, the turn immediately finishes and the next player has a try. The player who manages to progress furthest in the sequence of throws wins.

There are many variations on it and you can adapt them easily. I do have to admit though that the rules that we found calls for people standing. We tried that a few times and failed miserably. We couldn’t even get passed the first round. So now we sit on the floor ☺
The game is addicting! Everyone who has played with us ended up requesting a set for their personal use. I have made 12 sets already and given them away to very happy kids.

May Tutorial Extravaganza

I haven’t posted to my blog as often as I wanted to. I catch myself composing in my head what I want to write but once I get a minute to write it down I find myself at a loss for words. I also forget to take pictures most of the time. So what to do to get myself in the habit of posting regularly? Well, I was told that it takes 21 repeats to form a habit. So I decided that I should make the month of May the ‘May Tutorial Extravaganza’. The plan is as follows: I will post a new tutorial from Monday through Friday each week. I will not only post my tutorial find but will also make it. I will let you know if I thought it was a good one or not. I might even do a couple tutorials on my own. I have lined up quite a few really good finds like a fun-shaped purse, softies, clothes, bags and other things. Most of them are so quick and easy that it will only take a couple of hours to finish.

On Friday you’ll see my first post – stay tuned!

Tada for now

Karin

No Photos

I have been sewing and sewing and sewing. Yet I have not one photo! I always seem to forget that I need to take a picture of my finished project. I need to remember to make a photo as soon as I have finished it regardless what time of day it is. :-)

Ta Da for Now

K

It's finished!

I had a moment of genius! Nor really. But it sounded good! I was about to place an order for an extra yard of fabric for the Kaehra tunic - something just told me to look at it again.  This is what I stared at for 10 minutes:

Then I realized that I could try to cut just the front yokes again from the one front piece that I completely messed up! And no, I don't have a picture of that!

But it worked. I saved Euro 16 for that additional yardage and I was able  finish the top.  Well, except for the hemming and the belt. But we aren't too picky about that, are we! LOL...

Here is P in all her 70's glory:

By the way, P was mistaken in the date for the dance. It's actually next week. But it all worked out didn't it! Her top is ready and I can check of another item of my sewing list!

 

I was also able to finish J's skirt. She chose a black baby corduroy with cute skulls on it. She proudly wore it to school.

Here is a close up of the fabric:

Next up, another bath mat for my mom and a passport organizer for our trip to Arizona this summer.

Tada for now

K

Third Try!

Here I am - sitting in front of the computer instead of sitting at my sewing machine. I messed up. Big time! I promised P to sew her the Kehrae tunic from the Ottobre 01/2009 in time for her to wear it to the 70's dance on Friday. I thought - sure no problem. I have plenty of time and it looks easy enough.  Especially with three successful patterns sewn up from Ottobre. This should be so easy I could do it in my sleep. Yeah right! I traced the pattern on Sunday, prepped the fabric and read through the instructions as well. I noticed that I wasn't sure how the button part would work up so I decided to do a muslin of just that step. It had plenty of pictures with every step but it was still really confusing. I felt dumb! I begged M for an old Polo Shirt that I could take apart so I could understand what I was doing. It helped a bit but I had to modify it. I was still satisfied enough to get started on the actual project. But since it was already past 2300hrs I decided to wait until the next day.

Today during lunch I cut out the fabric. I had some extra time and started on the sewing. Mistake #1: I didn't read the instructions again and did step 4 right after step 1 - stupid me. I had to cut out the front dress pieces again as well as the button part again. Thank goodness I had enough fabric! I have less than a fat quarter left now.

Fast forward to the evening: I am getting started again. This time I made sure that I was following the steps and everything turned out quite nice! Step 6 arrived: I am supposed to sew the shoulder seams. Then I noticed that the armholes didn't look right. I am comparing the sewn pieces with the drawings, and then it hit me: Oh, no! I placed the front yoke pieces the wrong way!!! I looked if I could save it somehow but I already serged everything in to its place! I told P about my mess up... Needless to say that she was pretty upset about it. I found a fabric store that carries the fabric. I am going to call them tomorrow at 0900hrs and place my order and ask them to rush it. Hopefully it will get here by Thursday and I will get it done by Friday afternoon. I don't know how but it has to work. Wish me luck!

I don't like to post without a picture so I am going to show you the Siiri tunic I made from Ottobre 01/2009. I traced out a 146. It is two sizes too big and a tad too long. by the way, I send that picture to my parents. They said she looked lovely in it but next time not to choose a wallpaper pattern for her. I sure had to laugh about their comment! She chose it and she loves it and that's all it matters!

Tada for now!

K

i started sewing clothes!

Hi there,

I have been super busy this month. My job has kept me more at work than ever. Thank goodness that I love to do what I do!

But anyway, this blog is not about my work but about my hobby - sewing! I have started sewing clothes. I have been buying the Ottobre Design for about a year now. The kids magazine comes out 4 times a month and the women's twice a year. I have looked at these pages over and over again yet never found the courage to try it. But something in side of me just kept on taunting me about this so I decided a couple of weeks ago to just simply try it. And was I successful you wonder? Yes I was! In fact, my little success went to my head and I tried my hand on two more patterns from the same issue 01-2009. The fourth one is all traced and ready to be cut out

 I put up a review of the Sudoku Skirt on patternreview.com. 

Here it is - the Sudoku Skirt:

Pattern Description: Patchwork skirt

Pattern Sizing:104-140cm; I sized the skirt up to 146. However, it turned out that it was a tad big on her. So I cut the elastic by a couple cms and it turned out fine. I should have measured up my daughter first and it would have saved me a ton of time 

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?Yes, just without the bottom ruffle.

Were the instructions easy to follow?So easy that anyone (even people without much garment sewing experience like me) could be successful in sewing this one up.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?Like: I didn't have to match my seams perfectly. So even if I was off a couple of mms no one will notice. It is very forgiving. Dislike: there were 29 pieces to cut. Cutting and laying out the fabric took me a bit over 2.5hrs. Lots of gathering!

Fabric Used:Garden Party by Anna Marie Horner

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made:I was a bit tired after I gathered 24 pieces of fabric. So after collaborating (a.k.a. bribing) my daughter she agreed that the bottom ruffle could be left off.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?Even though it was really easy I don't think that I will sew this one again. 

Conclusion: A wonderful skirt pattern that is wonderful to sew up for all experience levels of sewers.

I am still working on my other ideas. I have realized that I need to write up a few posts in advance to get more organized. :-)

Tada for now!

K