Want to learn to sew? I've got you covered!

One of the questions that I get asked again and again (and again!) from friends and blog readers alike is, "What is a good book for a beginning sewist?"  Well, I have finally found my favorite!



The sweet Katie Lewis, who blogs over at the red kitchen, has just published a fantastic book for anyone just starting out on their sewing adventure (Christmas wish alert!).  The beginning section covers all the basics you'll need to know from fabric and supplies, to stitches, and techniques.  I think I might even lend it to my husband for a bit, because I don't know how many times I've been sought out because he "just doesn't know how to sew on a button".  Yep, covers that too!



Katie takes you step by step through 30 projects that are just perfect for a beginner, but are versatile enough for a more advanced sewist to have fun with.  And for me, the thing that makes this book stand out above all the other "learn-to-sew" books is that each step and each direction for every project is accompanied by a photo.  She really ensures that anyone can become a confident sewist!  

So many of these projects are super kid-friendly, and combined with the step-by-step photos, this is really a great first sewing book for a child as well as an adult.  I know I'm going to be handing it over to Phoebe soon as she expresses more and more interest in using the machine herself.



Okay, so let's get to the projects!  I got straight to work on making a set of adorable bean bags.  I must of had a moment of crazy, because all of a sudden I found myself cutting into my precious japanese fairytale prints that I have been hoarding for years.  But they turned out super cute, and they are way more fun to play with and enjoy than just sitting on the shelf in my sewing room.



Phoebe claimed them immediately and has been playing toss, stacking them up, and carrying them around ever since.



Who wants an early Christmas present?!  Katie is playing Santa Claus and giving away a copy to one lucky reader!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
And if you'd like to buy a copy for every one of your friends, Katie's book can be found here - 
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books & Things

Thanks for the giveaway dear Katie, and congrats on the great book!

Gaudy Kitty Quilt

  
Oh, gaudy kitty quilt.  I love you so so much.  I am 99.9% sure that this is my favorite quilt that I've ever made, beating this quilt by only 1/10 of a percentage.



Background - We moved Phoebe into a twin size at the beginning of summer;  hence, she needed a new big girl quilt for her big girl bed.


 
If you learned anything about Phoebe from her Rainbow Kitty Party, you know that this girl has a *bit* of an obsession with kitty cats.  So I decided to take all of my kitty fabric - including the super gaudy novelty prints that had been in my stash for forever - and combine them all in a quilt that any 4 year old, cat-lovin girl would go nuts over.  In turn, the Gaudy Kitty Quilt was born.


 
It took me quite awhile to figure out what kind of layout would be best for this crazy quilt.  I didn't want to cut the fabric pieces too small since a lot of these novelty prints have a larger scale.  Plus, I got into quilting because of all the amazing textile design, and I like to really showcase the prints in my quilts.

   

My good friend Rossie is the one who recommended this layout of equilateral triangles with the prints laid out in rows.  I had just finished working on this poor quilt that was never blogged about, which was also made up entirely of triangles, and the last thing that I wanted to look at was MORE TRIANGLES, but I knew that it would be the way to go.



This was my original fabric pull.  I have some other great cat prints in the stash, but once I started putting the majority of the fabrics together, the quilt's own color palette started developing, so I decided to remove the blues and most of the other darker toned prints.  Yes it was being made with novelty cat fabric - but I wanted to at least try and make the final product pretty!



I didn't have enough kitty fabric to complete the entire top, so I started mixing in other things Phoebe likes - butterflies, bugs, birds, bunnies (apparently anything that starts with B), and some blender floral prints that I thought made the color scheme a bit more interesting.  I'm proud of myself for even cutting into some of my preciously hoarded japanese fairytale prints.



After getting the top pieced, I made the decision to send out the quilt top to a professional long-armer to be quilted.  I've always quilted my own quilts on my machine at home - even some much larger than this, but my friend Brenda put the idea into my head to have a design of cats quilted all over the top - which was pretty much the best idea I'd ever heard in my life.

Luckily I know Kathy though our Modern Quilt Guild who owns Thread Bear Quilting.  Not only is she an amazing quilter, but she was able to quilt this design all over the gaudy kitty quilt.

I wish I would have remembered to get a detail picture of the quilting itself, but take my word that it's amazing.  If you look closely in the third picture in this post, you can make out the quilting the clearest. 

And that brings us to the end of this quilty journey.  Phoebe loves, and I mean LOVES her quilt, which makes this momma so darn happy.  But even if she didn't, that would still be okay - because then I'd get to keep it for myself!

Meow! 

**This quilt is part of the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Click here to be inspired by hundreds of beautiful quilts!

Secret sewing - revealed!

I have been just dying to share this sweet little dress with you, but I had to wait until the pattern was officially released.  Well wait no more, dear friends!



Shannon from luvinthemommyhood designed the most lovely pattern called the sweetheart dress, and I was lucky enough to test it out last month.



Why is it called the sweetheart dress, you ask?



Check out this completely unexpected and adorable heart cutout on the back! 



The dress features a fitted and fully lined bodice - and believe it or not, this was my first time making a lined bodice!  Constructing the bodice was a piece of cake thanks to Shannon's pattern, and she even teaches you a couple of neat tricks to put everything together and hide all of your seams.

How adorable is that lining fabric peeking through the sweetheart back?



For the main dress fabric, I went with a print from Denyse Schmidt's Meadow Lark line from Joann's, and I lined the bodice with a print from Hello Pilgrim by Lizzyhouse.  The mini pom-pom trim was a complete last minute addition on my part, but I think it really puts a nice finishing touch on the dress since I used such a subdued print.



Shannon also includes a tutorial for a hand-sewn button loop, which uses a fun method that I have never tried before - but I'll be sure to use it again in many projects.  I love when a pattern teaches me new things!



Making this dress was a nice warm up to Elsie Marley's kids clothes week challenge that starts next week.  If you're not familiar with kcwc, it's a week where you set aside one hour each day to sew clothes for your kids.  The idea is that we all have the urge to sew clothes for our children, but we don't always give ourselves the time to do it.  Well this is the week, folks!  I probably won't have a blog post for everyday (it's not blog writing challenge week after all),  but I'll definitely be popping in with some project updates.  I look forward to seeing yours!

Still playing catch up

Here's another quilt that I finished over the summer.  It has long been sent off to it's recipient, but the photos have been sitting here for forever, just waiting to be blogged about.

So this was another commissioned project - a wedding gift - and the only information that I was given was that a) the couple's apartment is very modern and mostly white, b) the couple really likes peacocks.



Thankfully, feathers of all sorts seem to be a big trend right now, so it wasn't hard finding a modern peacock print.  I went with a couple of prints from Dear Stella's line, Lanikai, then threw in some coordinating solids.

I stayed true to my usual sewing method and didn't plan a darn thing.  I made some half square triangles, and haphazardly picked up whatever fabric was lying close to me and sewed some wonky corners onto 6" white squares.  Then I threw everything onto the design floor (seriously, I've been quilting for years and STILL haven't made a design wall.  Eesh!) and rearranged until I shouted, "Eureeka!"



I backed it in a giant piece of the Dear Stella peacock fabric, and quilted it with random (of course!) straight lines.



Word on the street is that the couple loved it!  Congratulations, you two!

Sewing for school

First day of school!  First day of school!  We have been talking up preschool all spring and summer long and it was wonderful to see my normally clingy child so bouncy with excitement on the first day.



All we needed to send her on her way (aside from one of ten monthly tuition checks and a boatload of paperwork, meetings, orientation, etc.) was a couple of momma-made items to make her feel at home during those long three hours a day, four days a week that she is away from us.



First off - a brand new skirt to wear on the first day.  Fabric is from Sarah Jane's "Out to Sea" collection (narwhals!!!), and the double layer skirt was made using Dana's tutorial.



Next was the most quintessential of school items - a backpack.  I love love love Rae's Toddler Backpack pattern because it's super easy, holds it's shape really well - and it's toddler sized!  Most commercial backpacks are sized so that they practically swallow middle school students - let alone preschoolers.  This one is perfectly proportioned - but also comes with instructions on how to size it up for when your toddlers turn into big kids.



Phoebe picked out the Contended Cats fabric from Tammis Keefe tribute collection by Michael Miller.  A quick search revealed that they have it on sale over yonder at Fabricworm right now!



Truth be told, I don't actually give Phoebe total freedom when picking fabrics for her projects, because otherwise we'd end up with crazy psychedelic animals, or something that would leave a trail of glitter wherever she went.  So I end up picking about four or five fabrics that I think would appeal to her, but yet still stay within my realm of design sense, and let her pick from those.  Win win.



And here's my silly girl at the end of her first day.  Super happy and excited to go back again tomorrow.  Her funniest comment about the day?  "I didn't cry or scream at all....  but lots of other kids did!"

Maternity top to girl's maxi dress

Phoebe has been growing like a weed this summer, and has somehow completely skipped over 3T and now fits comfortably into a 4T.  It's definitely time for me to sew her up a new batch of clothes since preschool is right around the corner - eeeks!

As I've stated in previous posts, I really love working with re-purposed clothing when sewing for children, since you can usually get more than enough fabric out of an adult garment, plus you get to take advantage of already finished seams, hems, cuffs.  Yay for being lazy!

So pardon the terrible photo, but here's a before picture of a maternity top that I definitely never plan to wear again....

I didn't have a particular pattern in mind - just measured around Phoebe's chest and waist (21") and determined how long I wanted the dress to be (22" with an already finished hem!) and cut a rectangle to that size (I think I only ended up using the front panel from the original top, lol) and sewed the long ends together to form a tube.  

Then I cut a band that was about 5" wide by 20" long (you want the band a little shorter so it will stay tight around her chest and not fall down).  I sewed the bands short sides together, then folded it in half to a double thickness and basted the ends so it would stay put while attaching the skirt.

Then it was as simple as sewing the skirt to the chest band.  Just be sure to stretch the band a little bit while sewing to fit it to the skirt.  I also hand sewed on an extra strap that ties around her neck to make sure it stays up while she's running around.

I'll be back soon with lots more Phoebe clothes (I've got to round up some photoshoot bribes first) and some other back to school sewing projects! 

Ack! The cuteness!

This is a post about the Cutest.  Fabric.  Ever.

A Thumbelina border print with flowers, birds, mushrooms, and ladybugs.  If there was a hedgehog or a fox hiding in there, this print would probably burst into flames from the cuteness.

So of course, I had to make it into a skirt for Phoebe. 

I bought a yard and cut it in half parallel to the selvedge (so it was 36" wide x 21" tall), sewed it in a circle, and added some elastic.  Something super simple that lets the fabric do all the talking.  There was still a bit of excess fabric from the half piece that I used, so I whipped up a cute little purse to match.

And what makes this fabric even more amazing and awesome???!!!.....

 

......you've still got the other half of your fabric left to make into a matching skirt and purse for your daughter's bff!  More times that not, sewing your own clothes doesn't save money, but in this case - I got two skirts and two matching purses out of only one yard of fabric.  A high quality, Japanese cotton-linen blend, nonetheless. 

Can it get any better?  Well heck yes, it can!  It's currently on sale in Brenda's shop!  I'm just trying to refrain from making one for myself....

Flying geese in grey and yellow

Alrighty folks, since summer is winding down and Phoebe will be heading off to preschool in two weeks (!!!Yay!!!), I'm hoping to get up to date and share some projects that have been keeping me busy these past few months...

One of my cousins is having her first baby next month (a girl - yay!), and is planning her nursery around the palette of grey and yellow.  I've always wanted to do a flying geese quilt - plus, my good friend Brenda just told me about this amazing ruler that makes absolutely perfect flying geese blocks - four at a time!  The Quilt in a Day Flying Geese rulers come in a large or a small size, and you have the option to make two different sizes with each ruler as well!  Even better?  I picked mine up at Joann's with a coupon.  This quilt was made with the large ruler and the finished block size is 4" x 8".

The block layout - as well as fabric choices - were completely random.  I'm actually pretty terrible about planning out my quilts in advance.  I like to just move everything around for a couple of hours after all of the blocks are finished.  I quilted it in straight lines that change direction when they hit the middle of the quilt - following the diagonal; and I backed in it one of my favorite folksy flannel prints.  Soft and warm for a fall baby!

My sister was my lovely quilt holder for this photoshoot, and as you can see, she took her job very seriously :)

Thanks, Abby.

And here's my cousin Jess opening the quilt.  I love you Jess, and can't wait to meet your precious little baby!