Sunday, September 29, 2013

Completed Pillows!

I took pictures of the pillows with my non-camera phone, aka camera! Thought I'd document them in all their glory! Look at all the pretty colors!





Friday, September 27, 2013

Blurry Pixel Pinstripe Complete! Simplicity 1803

I need to get more professional with my picture taking... which means, I need to take advantages of my weekends! No more nighttime or iPhone photo shoots. They are not paying off. Here's a blurry photo of my throw pillows:



I just need to stitch up the fluff holes, yes I'm pretty sure that's the technical term for it. There's plenty of extra fabric for more pillows. I've been scouring Pinterest for more ideas. Pretty sure this flower pillow is an absolute must! I'm thinking a big yellow flower on the blue chevron fabric. Or blue on the yellow? Or yellow on the flamingo?! SO MANY CHOICES! 

And here is a blurry photo of my Pinstripe Dress:



It's probably a good thing that last one is blurry. Just like all of grade school photos, my hair is ALWAYS a mess on photo days. Such a shame... every other day this week my hair actually looked good. Shame on me. 

I used Simplicity 1803 again, but this time view B. I removed the front center seam and cut the front bodice piece on the fold. Why do they have a seam down the middle? Isn't that strange? Anyway the only other change I made was chopping off a good 6+ inches from the skirt. It lands just above the knee, my favorite length.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Stars, Flamingos, and Bunnies!

The goal of this week is to have a more successful one than last! I feel like I'm off to a pleasant start. I've completed my pinstripe dress, it's quirky and cute. It's sure to be come my staple work dress. I plan on wearing it to the office Friday to finish the week off strong, I'll have my coworkers do a photo shoot with me!

I was having a hard time finding inspiration for the Constellations contest for Spoonflower. It's been a few months now that I've entered every single contest, and I was getting bummed at the thought of breaking that streak. FINALLY, an idea hit me and I was able to knock it out last night. Submitted it at the final second last night! Pshew!!! I think I get a little high when I finish a design and I'm proud of it. It's that extra boost of energy I need through the week.

On the cutting table... I got the most adorable fabric on sale the other week from Fabric.com. See! Adorable! 


My more adventurous little bunny, Rambo, tore up a few pillows on our couch months back. In reality, he just gave me a reason to replace those BLAH throw pillows. Thank you Rambo Bunny! It's also going to help make our apartment feel more like home, and add some color without having to paint. Hoping to have pictures to post tomorrow. But for now, I'll leave you with Rambo giving me the stink eye!


Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Disaster Week

This has been a frustrating craft week. I have diligently been trying to complete my sewing projects and nothing seems to be going right! 

It started with my pencil case design. I knew it was going to be difficult, sewing circles always makes me a little crazy... I should have stopped about an hour in. I should have taken a break. I should have relaxed and gone back to it with a fresh mind. I SHOULD all over myself. I ended up spending hours on this little pencil tube. It looks like a half-ass job. I called my mom the next day and she talked me down off the ledge and explained to me the proper way to go about this. I'm just not ready to go back there yet, but when I do, there will be pictures and a write up of Mom's way of doing things. (She's so smart).
  
In attempt to shake off that failed project, I moved on to the next catastrophe. I am working on my dress for the Fall for Cotton Sew Along. It's such a simple pattern, it'd be impossible for me to screw it up! Or so I thought... While I thought I had been careful and precise with my pattern alterations, I had not read all of the measurements correctly. As I tried on the dress for the first time, I quickly realized I had a big issue... my belly! I didn't alter the pattern enough for my boxy torso. So I have two options... Work out more and go on a diet, or alter the dress. I prefer the later :). It may take a while to lose 4" off my waist!. My plan is to make a little rectangle panel for the front waist. I figure I can do 2 buttons on each side and make it look like it was supposed to be there all along. Fingers crossed! I REALLY want to wear this dress. I have high hopes for this to be my new favorite.

Final disaster... and the biggest disappointment of them all... my Pixel Pinstripe dress. I learned my lesson a while back to always wash my fabric before cutting. Welp, I did that with my custom printed cotton from Spoonflower. The colors did not hold up as well as I would have hoped. It faded quite a bit, the fabric now has a greyish blue hue, not my original intention of a dark navy. Another lesson learned! Also, I didn't realize how much fabric I'd be losing to the increased salvages of custom printed fabric. That's probably my bad. I definitely didn't think about it when I ordered it. I was already trying to squeeze as much out of as little fabric as I could. Again, my bad. I was able to get all the pieces cut in my fabric, but there wasn't nearly enough to match the stripes. So I currently have this weird thing happening where random pieces are matching up completely on their own and others are way off, making the dress look asymmetrical. This may end up being something only I notice, but it's driving me batty right now! My backup plan here is to do a white top stitch over all the seams to break it up a little more and add a little extra flare. If nothing else, it may make me feel better about it all.

The goal here is to always end on an upbeat! So here's to hoping today ends my losing streak. Tonight is my last chunk of free time for the week so I plan on taking full advantage of it. I want to wear my new clothes!!!! UGH! These piles of unfinished goodies are taunting me. 

Lessons learned:
  1. When in doubt, call mom.
  2. Always make a muslin, no matter how simple the pattern looks.
  3. Measure twice cut once... DUH!
  4. Be prepared for fading on custom fabric (Avoid printing black!)
  5. Always always always always order extra fabric. It's worth the extra $!

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Adobe Kuler!!!

Life has certainly gotten a little out of control. Ever since the Friday before Labor Day, I feel like I've been going non-stop. Between work, skating, my boyfriend, and my side projects, well, very little sleep has been happening. Way to much has happened to write about it all, so quick post on my quick Kuler Project.



Spoonflower's contest this week is to use the Adobe Kuler App to choose a color theme. This is my new favorite app. I assume I will be using it ALL the time to pick colors!!! So much fun. I grabbed an old photo I took of Mayan Dancers at Lucha VaVoom a year ago. (If you live in one of the Cities where this happens, GO TO IT!) The colors were so vibrant I just couldn't resist. I kept the design simple, partially due to my own time constraints, and also to challenge myself to find balance with simple geometric shapes. Happy with the outcome! Let me know what you think.

I will CUT you!

Despite the heat, Labor Day weekend proved to be mighty productive for my crafting! An early dismissal from work gave me enough time to run to Jo-Ann's with a friend and pick up a few patterns and cone thread on sale for dirt cheap. Slowly but surely, I'm building up my arsenal of patterns. The purchase I'm most excited about is McCall's M6044. It's a simple men's shirt pattern, which looks perfect for my man. He's ridiculously picky about his shirts so if i can find the perfect pattern, and grab his favorite fabrics on sale... well, avoiding shopping for shirts will save a world of headache! Only thing left to get is a pearl snaps tool!

Saturday morning I kept the momentum going and headed downtown to The Loft. Grabbed a pile of fabric for $2.50 a pound!!! It's hit or miss, but this trip was definitely a hit! I found cotton plaids, spandex sparklies, thermal knits, stretch denim, lace, and flannel... pretty much, you name it, I grabbed it! I walked out of there paying only $20 and enough fabric for over 10 projects. I did the math for cost per yard, and it ended up being something ridiculous like $1 per yard of fabric. That place is my all time favorite. If you live in LA and haven't been yet, clear your calendar! It's high time you made the pilgrimage. 

The rest of the weekend I squeezed in cutting time between party time! I'm trying something new. I'm cutting out all my planned projects at once. Cutting's my least favorite task so if I can get it out of the way early, I'm hoping it'll pay off with more completed projects in a shorter time frame.

Here's my list of cut and ready to sew projects so far...

-Pixel Pinstripe Dress - Simplicity 1803, view B
-Denim Circle Skirt - Self Drafted (YAY! First attempt!)
-Plaid Retro Wrap Dress - Butterick B4790
-Peach Toile Thermal - Sew U Raglan Pattern (altered)
-Rocket Blue Thermal - Sew U Raglan Pattern
-Flamingo Floozy Tank - Sew U Raglan Pattern (altered)

Seeing it all listed out is exciting! I'm about to have a whole new wardrobe. Sitting on the cutting table I have my Man's pattern in two different fabrics, a flannel for a cute little button up for myself, and some spandex for new shiny workout shorts. Waiting on fabric to make my sister's birthday pajamas! 

I AM A SEWING MACHINE!!! 






*forgot to actually ever post this...was waiting to take pictures...guess pictures will have to wait!