A Reupholstered Chair

Here is what I have been busy with lately. I had two chairs purchased from a garage sale several years ago. They were yellow and I liked them well enough, but decided I needed to lighten up my living room. There are no windows on more than half of the room.
Here are the chairs before I tore them apart.

I have done slipcovering a few times in the past, but this was my first attempt at actual reupholstering. I watched a couple of u-tubes and then tore into it.


Alas, I didn't take many pictures of the process. I saved the pieces I tore off and used them as a pattern. I bought foam (this is EXPENSIVE). Something to do with the price of oil. I used the foam instead of the cotton batting. I simply pulled taut and stapled.
My husband provided me with this dangerous-looking, but highly efficient staple gun powered by compressed air. It did the job beautifully.






I'm really pretty pleased with the outcome.

Striped Knit Skirt

This is a knit skirt I made recently from Butterick 641 which was just an old pattern I had in my stash. I don't necessarily recommend it. I only used it because it has the front panel on the skirt. There are many patterns that you could use. I made mine with no side seam, then. That is, I taped the side front and side back pieces together. My daughter bought a skirt from the Nordstrom rack similar to this. I purchased the fabric again from Gala in Victoria. It's a lovely knit with a good recovery in the stretch. It is super comfy to wear, perfect for this time of year!

My Coat!!!

I have been wanting to make a wool coat forever! There have been so many coat sew-alongs that I have looked at the past couple of years. But wool fabric is so expensive and I wasn't sure about the whole thing.

I used Burda 7587. I made a muslin out of some heavier polyester type fabric that I happened to have and never used. The muslin fit well with no adjustments.

From November 7, 2011

I had thought about interlining it with flannel, but instead bought the Joann's lining fabric that is flannel-backed. It is plenty heavy. I have worn it a couple of times - wool is a very warm fabric!

I got the wool fabric up in Victoria while we were vacationing up there recently. I spotted what turned out to be a fantastic fabric store called Gala Fabric

From November 7, 2011

From November 7, 2011

From November 7, 2011

Ottobre Baby Shirt

I wanted to do something different and make a baby shirt for six month old Conrad. I got out my Ottobre 4/2008. This is number 1, the baby t-shirt. It was fun and easy, of course, after you get used to tracing off the complicated array of pattern designs. I did the tab a little bit differently. I didn't add the bit of ribbon on the front of the tab, but was able to make it look nice just by adjusting and sewing.

From November 7, 2011

Catch-up

Here's a little hoodie I made for my little 5 month old grandson. Pretty basic pattern, but I wanted to see if I could do it.

From August 23, 2011

Also, I made myself a new knitting bag using Ghees#781 bag pattern.

From August 23, 2011

From August 23, 2011

Pincushion Treasures!

I had read on someone's blog recently (can't remember where) that they had a tomato pincushion and one day they decided to take the pins and needles out of it and knead it to see how many they could retrieve out of the middle.

Well, I have a tomato pincushion that I use for sewing machine needles that haven't been used much, and sometimes I stick a sewing needle in the top.

This lady said she got 50 some needles out of the middle of her pincushion. Well, today I decided to do the same with mine. I took out the pins and needles that were sticking out. I started kneading it and expected to find maybe 15-20??? Guess what? I got 48 sewing needles out of the center. I do have to admit that this is old (I got it from my mom). It was great fun!

From August 23, 2011

Apron and Potholders

Here's an apron and potholders I just finished for a wedding shower! Fun fabric called Floralicious.

From August 16, 2011

Some New blogs

Many days I jump onto the "popular" sewing blogs, that is, the ones you see listed on the side bar of many, many blogs. They are wonderful and I've learned a huge lot from these couture sewers. I love blogs that give lots of pictures, show the pattern and then show their version, and, yes, their mistakes and how they would correct it the next time. We have such a wonderful advantage with all this information over our mother's generation.

Anyway here's a couple of other blogs that I happened on from other people's sidebars that I have enjoyed recently. I am sure many of these are couture sewers as well, I've just not read their blogs before.

http://sewmesane.blogspot.com
http://bamblue.blogspot.com/
http://www.pattythesnugbug.com/
http://allthewyldthings.blogspot.com/
http://designrefinebemine.blogspot.com/

Wiggle Weights

I REALLY like these Wiggle Weights that I picked up at the Sewing Expo in Puyallup this year. They are heavy and you can curve them around your pattern pieces. I googled it and there doesn't seem to be a lot of places where they can be found, but I did find this site.

From lois

A Flower Pin

I made this pin using some organza:

From Stitches by Lois

to go on this top and sweater:

From Stitches by Lois

Pinterest

If you haven't seen Pinterest you should check it out! I had to have my daughter help me figure out how to use it, and now I LOVE it.

You have to put in a request to sign up and will get an e-mail back in a few days with an okay. Basically, if you're browsing blogs you can click the "PIn It" icon on your tool bar and it will save anything you think is interesting/cute into any variety of subjects.

If you're like me and have trouble remembering two minutes from now what I thought was cute, you will love it!

Chubby Chicks Baby Quilt

This is a baby quilt I made for our son and daughter-in-law's new baby. It's called Chubby Chicks.

From lois

From lois

Bib Overalls for a boy!

My grandson requested bib overalls. The best pattern I could find was Burda 9609.

From lois

It was fun to sew but had lots of topstitching. Burda instructions are not easy to follow, at least for me, so I puzzled a bit from time to time, but all in all, it was quite easy. I decided not to do buttons on the side as I figured he wouldn't want to button two buttons on each side as well as the strap buttons each time, so I just did a velcro tab on each side.

I really like the way the knees were done, with little darts on each side of the knee, making it easy for a little boy to stoop down and play.

From lois

From lois

From lois

From lois

From lois

Onesies

Here are the onesies that I am currently making. I got the pattern idea and tutorial from this. The pattern is in the Ottobre 4/2008 mentioned below.

From lois

From lois

On her blog ZootZMama stitches the knit edging on with her serger coverstitch. I did try that but can't manage very well around the suble curves (i.e. the crotch area etc). When you try to turn with the serger the knives are very anxious to cut away what's coming into the machine! ZootZMama did a beautiful job, but I found something that works better for me.

From lois

From lois

The Berninas Foot #2 is an overlock foot, and on my 440 QE you use stitch #8, the overlock stitch. It goes on beautiully and I am able to manage the curving of the fabric much more easily!

There are more in the works! They are fast and fun. Had a bit of a time finding a store that carried the ribbing.

Children's clothing

I bought this Ottobre magazine to make some onesies.



Then found a shirt and sweatpants to make for my grandson.

From lois

From lois

From lois

From lois

A few projects

Thought I would take a few minutes to post some of the sewing projects I have worked on and completed the past few months.

First of all is this little winter table runner. I made the pattern up myself.

From lois

From lois

Next is a skirt I made from a vintage pattern

From lois

From lois

Close up of the pocket. I love this skirt!!!

From lois

My daughter gave me this funky monkey kit for my birthday and I made him up and decorated him:

From lois

I made this jacket from Simplicity 2341 I love the jacket and the fit! It went together so easily - the fabric was from Joann's. A 100% polyester.

From lois

From lois

Did you know it's almost impossible to buy a dark brown jacket zipper? I used black and it looks okay.

And last, but not least, is this Amy Butler coat that Carissa (daughter) and I made over the holidays. It turned out great after some adjustments!

From lois

The armhole pattern is WAY too small. You would have to be extremely small or a child to fit into the arm opening. Not having a lot of experience or time in adjusting an armhole, I found a reference book that recommended slicing across the top (about 4 inches from the top) and adding ease. We added 3/4 inch across the sleeve and both front and back and then sewed it in. That seems to solve the problem, although I still think there may be a better way.

Anyway, she wanted to make a heavier coat, so we added batting in between the lining and main fabric. Luckily the lining fabric (Joel Dewberry I believe) had a pattern to it so that we didn't have to draw lines to complete the quilting. It really worked great!

From lois

We cut the darts out so they wouldn't add additional bulk. Actually we did the sleeve hem and bottom hem slightly different than the pattern recommended and the coat is reversible (except for the buttons).

From lois

From lois

From lois