Tag Archives: fabric

Surtex Prep!

Here at the studio, I'm in full-out Surtex prep mode!  Yes, it's only March, and Surtex is in May, but I hate leaving things to the last minute.  I tend to avoid last-minute frenzies and prefer instead to work at a steady pace...

So that's where I've been... in Surtex preparation!  (Ahem... getting ahead of myself, eh?) Ah yes, I should explain. 
What is Surtex?  It's a tradeshow for licensing illustration and artwork.  
What do I mean by licensing? That's when you rent your work out to different industries that need visuals for their products.  And, that's my aim along with meeting art directors interested in collaborating with me and asking me to illustrate people or flora and fauna for them!

My top three areas of focus are...

1) Surface design for apparel / home decor / gifts



2) Illustrations for children's literature



3) And greeting cards and stationery


I'm getting so excited!  I just sent my files to be printed as fabric swatches and I cannot wait to SEW with my own designs!!  I made my first prototype for what I'll be wearing during Surtex today, and I might very well be bubbling over with excitement!  (bubble bubble bubble)

Oh, are you going to be at Surtex too?  Let me know!  I'll be exhibiting as part of my art collective, Finch & Foxglove at Booth #543!

Toddler Streaky Legs & Moneta

That felt really weird typing the title to this blog post, but yes, admittedly my son is now a toddler and most definitely not a squishy baby anymore!  I finally finished one of his "Streaky Legs" poofy pants this weekend!

The Facts
⁃ Fabric: <1m single jersey, <0.3m ribbing for cuffs
⁃ Pattern: Ottobre "Streaky Legs" pattern
⁃ Year: 2014?
⁃ Notions: waistband elastic
⁃ Time to complete: 1 day for tracing and cutting, an hour for sewing
⁃ First worn: May 16, 2015
⁃ Wear again?  He has no choice! hahah!
⁃ Mods? Nope, they fit great on him.

and I finished Moneta from Colette Patterns for me!


The Facts
⁃ Fabric: 3m soft interlock, maybe french terry in turquoise
⁃ Pattern: Colette Pattern 1028 Moneta
⁃ Year: 2014
⁃ Notions: Framilon clear elastic
⁃ Time to complete: 1 day for tracing and cutting, 1 day for sewing
⁃ First worn: May 17, 2015
⁃ Wear again?  YES!
⁃ Mods? Yes, I would like to make the shoulders wider so it doesn't fall off my shoulders... or expose my bra straps to everyone.

Just in time!

"Indian Elephant" from Ottobre 06/2014

Yikes!  This baby really is growing fast!  I finished the all-in-one pattern "Indian Elephant" from Ottobre 06/2014 just in time for the little dude to wear it.  It only took me two weeks to make it, but now I know that may be too slow!  Whoah!


This baby is making me a much faster sewist.  Even a week can be too slow in the world of baby growth.  I'm going to have to plan projects for the far future to keep up!  The pattern "Indian Elephant" is pretty straightforward.  It's actually a lot easier than the onesie pattern "Warmly Wrapped" that I finished last week.



The toughest part is applying the binding and, once again, the snaps!!  What in the world is up with these ring snaps and why don't they install correctly!?  This is with the special pliers, too.  The prongs often don't align with the center of the snap and then stick out... possibly with the end result of scratching baby. Not nice.


If he's in hefty stuff-in cloth diapers like today, the crotch gusset is a bit revealing shall we say, but if he's in a trimmer model diaper, it'll fit just fine.  I may still add two more snaps.  Maybe.


Pattern: Indian Elephant, Ottobre 06/2014
Fabric: organic cotton jersey from Lillestoff in "Pirates" print
Notions: fine ribbing in red, a bunch of snaps, stretchy interfacing G785 from Vlieseline/Vilene, and Vliesofix (two-sided fusible interfacing)
Special Tools: twin needle, snap pliers, walking foot, stretch needle

FO’s: Baby Stuffs

Baby stuff is so satisfyingly quick to make!!  I guess there's extra motivation when you've only got a few more weeks left in a pregnancy to "finish" everything on your to-do list.  In my case, I've had to put the Zig-Zag Quilt on hold because my free-motion quilting foot is on back order.  If I don't get it by this week, I'll just do simple zig-zag echo quilting and call it a day.

In the meantime, here are a few of the things I've been knitting and sewing...

Baby Booties


These are one of the quickest and most satisfying knitted items you can make, and these are made with all the mini leftover skeins I wind after a project so they're a bit of a motley crew.  These booties used sock and sport weight yarns and this pattern is called Christine's Stay-On Baby Booties.



Baby Items & Accessories

I photographed my latest sewing and knitting exploits together.  These include knitted and sewn hats, leggings, sleep sacks, etc.



From the top...

A) Hipster Cred Hat - made with SMC soft merino yarn in 2 colors - pattern from Dilettant Knits
B) Baby Bedtime Bag - made from a recycled t-shirt - pattern from Running with Scissors
C) Tie-Top Baby Hats - made with knit scraps - pattern from Tie Dye Diva via Sew Mama Sew
D) Baby Leggings - made from knit fabric and scraps for waistband - free pattern that came with Baby Bedtime Bag from Running with Scissors
E) Reversible Baby Bonnet - fabric scraps featuring prints from Tula Pink's Prince Charming - pattern from the book "Hat Shop: 25 Projects to Sew..."

And, I'm hoping that everything goes well in the next few weeks!  I'd love to get the quilt finished before baby comes.  Yep, I think I'm going to forgo FMQ plans and get straight to it.

WIP: Zig-Zag Quilt

At first, I had looked at the Rainbow Stash-Busting quilt from A Quilt Story from the book Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe, inspired, I jumped into my stash and came up with handfuls of lovely fabric.  I used many of my Tula Pink "Prince Charming" fat quarters and finally used up lots of my rainbow color scraps.  But I cut too many HSTs (half-square triangles) with white and then decided to rearrange them into zig-zags (chevrons).  And, I think it'll work!

 

I have no idea what the final size will be, but with all the HSTs already cut, I may have enough to do two baby quilts, so I'm having fun!  The first little quilt  is going to focus on blues and greens (above pic), and hopefully I can finish it before baby arrives.  I'm running out of time!


Full Disclosure, Life WIP

My latest stash acquisitions are actually a gift from one of my friends.  She thought of me and brought me fabric from Japan!  And you're probably wondering why she's given me a bunch of baby-boy themed fabric... Well...

Time for a confession.  It's been a bit quiet around here on the blog, but in real life, it's been a lot more chaotic.  See, I've been holding something back from you all.  If you know me in person, then you can see what's going on, but I didn't want my life's issues to spill over into the blog.  I try to keep the blog focused on my work: knitting, illustrating, sewing, quilting, etc.  But, I'm about to shift gears, and I wanted you to know ahead of time.  As I look around the blogosphere, I've noticed that I'm at that age... that age where bloggers  who are in my age group are starting families.  What I'm trying to say is that I'm pregnant.  I'm very pregnant.


And, that's why I haven't really been sewing for myself.  It's been crazy.  This will be our first child, and we are over the moon to be almost at the third trimester.  As a nice science project-type thing, I started taking my measurements on a weekly basis starting from the early weeks of pregnancy... Let's just say we (baby + me) are growing at a quite rapid pace.  So quickly that if I started a dress today and it took me a week to finish, I may not fit into it.  We're talking about an inch (2.5cm) to two inches of bust difference in just a week some weeks.  So, I'm taking a break from sewing for myself.

Instead, I've been illustrating and finishing up loose ends.  I'm done with the blankets for the twins and will have photos to share soon.  I also would love to get some baby sewing done!  I hope I get time to do it.  I was hospitalized for a whole week last week fighting a serious infection, and I'm truly hoping that everything goes smoothly from here on out.  The baby is okay, but that was quite a scare.  So, I'm going to try and check in as often as possible with the latest projects, but just know I'm not as nimble as I was, and life... well, life has a way of letting you know when to slow down.  Point taken!

xoxo

Show and Tell: New Stash

I finally got around to photographing some of the lovely new fabric I added to my stash last year...

My favorite is this Charles Rennie Mackintosh-inspired print from Liberty's Lifestyle Stile collection.  I luuurv it so much.  It tickles the sewist, quilter, and illustrator in me!  To read more about the collection see here.

This particular print is called "Mackintosh Red"

The second fabric I'm sharing is this lovely lightweight cotton lawn from Alexander Henry in a print called "Lydia".  It's a small chunk, only a half yard or thereabouts, so I'm not sure what to do with it yet.  Any ideas?

Fabric Fridays

Remember how I mentioned on Sunday that I had a cold? Well, I have been home from work all week, sick as a dog. Thursday was the first morning I was able to forgo a nap after bathing, and even then, I laid down on the sofa for about 30 minutes. I haven’t been this sick in ages, and I’m certain it’s as bad as it is because I’m pregnant. My body’s number one priority is grow the baby, not to fight off a virus, so I have been making it my number one priority to rest so that there is energy to fight off the virus. I am beginning to feel much better, though still definitely in the recovery period. They baby seems perfectly happy and healthy, and likes to kick me when I cough like it’s a really fun game.

I’ve had all these grand plans of what I was going to get done this week, before I got sick, when I was still planning to work everyday, but now it has amounted to little more than sleeping or staring at the walls. I did manage to do some laundry at some point, and make a run to the craft store when I was also going to the pharmacy. (It’s not my fault the built the CVS right next to JoAnn.) So, I have a few things to show you this week.

First, my fabric order came in–and I pre-washed it.

osnaburg
This is the osnaburg for the ring slings I want to make. The photography is horrible, but you can see the woven texture to it. It’s sturdy, and still next to skin soft. The next step is to split it in half and decide how it’s going to be decorated, but don’t worry, I have all of the paints!

meadowlark muslin
I also bought some muslin that is mostly just for practicing my printing. I am very pleased with this muslin. It’s a nice tea towel muslin, not too gauzy, not to heavy. It should do equally well for baby blankets, scarves, or you know, tea towels.

cloth diapers
I also picked up a pack of cloth diapers for the purpose of making into burp clothes. I loved using cloth diapers for general baby clean up with Athrun, they’re just so handy. However, since I’m planning on using cloth diapers on this little one’s bum as well, I wanted it to be clear which ones were the bum diapers and which ones, well, weren’t. I found this sweet tutorial one of those times this week when I was mostly staring at the wall, but trying to be productive.

I was cognizant enough to pick up some fat quarters to give it a whirl, which you can see on my instagram, because for some reason, I haven’t figured out how to share photos from there yet.

Fabric Friday

Christmas ended, and I realized that I have less than four months until the baby gets here. For some reason, instead of unpacking the rest of the house and cleaning everything from top to bottom (though I am sure that will come), I am feeling compelled to sew everything for the baby we don’t have yet. When I can’t sleep at night, I browse sewing patterns online for babies: diapers, blankets, clothes.

While I have conceded that since I don’t really sew very often, it might be better for me to buy my cloth diapers. And while I might make a small garment or two for the babe, I really am not willing to put the time commitment in to sew everything a little one will need. But I have found a few projects I think I can tackle.

First, Brock and I really want a ring sling each. I had a Maya Wrap with Athrun that I really liked, but don’t have any more. Since those wraps run around $70 each, I figured it could tackle the project for the both of us. I happened across this pattern, put together by Maya Wrap. They even recommend where to buy the rings! I’m very excited to try this out. I found some osnaburg fabric from fabric.com, which I read is a good choice for this type of project, though to be honest, I know nothing about it.

I also bought some muslin, mostly to experiment with the printing I keep talking about doing. (I was thinking about making a light weight scarf for myself with hot pink sheep on it, actually.) Since my nesting instincts seems to require a lot of browsing on pinterest, I came across a baby blanket DIY the other night.

So now I have something to do with the large swathes of fabric I was planning on covering with sheep prints, you know, for practice.

Craftsy BOM 2012 – Blue Quilt Done!

Finished binding this rather large quilt yesterday evening, and took some photos of the finished blue quilt on the ironing board.  Maybe I can get someone to hold it up over their heads so I can take a photo of the full quilt front and back.  In the meantime, here's my too-excited-to-wait photos...


The quilt is bound using DIY binding made from backing fabric scraps.  Since the blocks were medallion-style quilted, then sewn together, this made for a LOT of scraps.




I'm really pleased with how the blocks came together. Doing the free-motion quilting in smaller chunks really let me explore different motifs and techniques.  For new FMQ-ers like me, I found Leah Day's motifs, tips, and tricks to be invaluable.  Her main website is free, and her first Craftsy course focuses specifically on this quilt as well as generally handy techniques for free-motion quilting on a regular home sewing machine.  Those Machinger's gloves that she recommends are not a gimmick.  If you have perpetually dry hands like I do in winter, those gloves saved me a lot of muscle aches. They helped me grip the quilt-sandwich open-handed - letting the machine do it's job without fighting the weight of the fabric.  I'm now using the gloves for all kinds of sewing, not just quilting.


I bought this binding foot off of e-bay to sew on the binding, but I couldn't figure out how to turn corners with it.  So, it's great for straight binding, or continuous binding, but not so much for corners.  Maybe there's some kind of trick I don't know. (?)


 I don't like it when my blankets have a lip or any edge that can snag a toenail.  So, I ended up doing a second pass on the binding with a zig-zag stitch.


Next up... finish the twins knitted blankets and a whole host of  holiday projects!  I think I'm going to wear this quilt over my shoulders while I work on the knitting machine.  It's cold today!

Happy crafting, everyone!