Merry Christmas Sewing

This year I did not do the usually Christmas sewing. It has been a very bittersweet experience. I certainly have not missed the anxiety over getting Christmas projects done, or the frustration when an idea or design does not work out as well as I had hoped. But, I am missing the joy of a completed project, and the excitement of giving a self made gift, a gift made just for that particular person, which really does make giving better than receiving. Yes, I know the answer to this, start Christmas sewing earlier. Christmas in July is not just an advertising gimick. Maybe with the lack of Christmas sewing this year, I will start sewing for Christmas 2008 earlier. Sounds like a great new year resolution to me.

To Yoke or Not to Yoke

This is the question I have for you. Pictured is my first attempt at a bowling shirt for my husband. I made up the pattern from his t-shirt pattern, so the shirt has no yoke. I know what the purpose of the yoke is (to give a better fit in the shoulders and more room around the middle), but if the shirt fits without a yoke, is it still better to have one or not? My previous thought was that a yoke made for a dressier shirt and no yoke was a more casual look.
I would not question this except it seems that all of the professional shirts we have bought him over the years have a yoke regardless of how casual or dressy the shirt may be. I guess I will let the wearer decided. After wearing his new shirt, my husband can tell me if he likes the yoke in his boughten shirt or the lack of a yoke in the shirt I made.

Dad's Doings

As I have mentioned before, my mom is an excellent seamstress, but the talent in the family does not stop with her. Beside his wood work, Dad is pretty creative with a latch hook. When my parents were here, I showed them the bathroom that I am decorating in Snoopy's. So, Dad made me this toilet seat cover to help me decorate. It is so cool. I would have him make rugs to match, but he has made me rugs before and I hate to put them to the floor. I don't want them stepped on. But, we have already talked about different Snoopy patterns and different Peanut characters he can put on more toilet seat covers.

The Corn Shirt

Several months ago, while visiting my parents, I ran across this corn print fabric in Mom's stash. My rusty creative wheel turned when I saw the piece, so I told Mom to make her a shirt out of it and bring it when she came to see me. She looked at me like I was crazy, but trusted the rusty wheel. She had only purchased enough of the material for a front apron so had to do some creative piecing to get a shirt from the corn piece. While my parents were here visiting, we embroidered the Snoopy on the shirt. My rusty wheel thinks it turned out pretty cute, if it says so itself.

Sewing with Mom

My parents came for a visit this last couple of weeks. We had a great time. We went and seen so much, but, of course, we found some time to sew, embroidery mostly. My mother is an excellent seamstress, but do to time, we purchased the shirts and did the embroidery. We had a blast. Mom collects nativity's, so two shirts with that design. I picked the Snoopy design for her third shirt. I told Mom that my only rule about embroidering or even sewing for someone is that they wear the finished item. Don't hang it in the closet and "save it for special". I expect her to wear out these two nativity shirts this Christmas season and we will made new ones for next year.

We did not forget Dad either.

There's Fabric in Anaheim CA

We went to Anaheim, Ca for a Halloween concert when I found this most wonderful fabric store, M & L Fabric. It advertised that most of the fabric sold for under $2.00 a yard. Yea, right. But, to my surprise no false advertising had occurred here. Not since the days of the $2 Fabric Store 20 years ago have I seen the likes of a store like this. When you first walk in there is a big bin of $1/yd and $2/yd fabric, nothing special, but as you check out the bolts of fabric you see wonderful pieces of fabric for wonderful prices. Pieces that sell at Wal-Mart for $3.96/yd are $1.98/yd. Yes, not all the fabric was under $2/yd. Silks, velours and denims were more, but some were under $2/yd. Some of the bolted cottons were more, but still very reasonable, $3/yd and $4/yd and some were even 60" wide. Then, there was the flat fold section, rows and rows of flat fold cottons only $1.68/yd for solid colors and $1.98/yd for prints. And, not to forget the notion wall with most items marked 20% off retail. After wondering in awe for several hours, I mentioned that there were no knits in the store. My husband, who is a real sport about this, asked a clerk, and she said the stretchy material was in the back room. I repeat the back room. So, off to the back room we went with rows and rows for flat fold knits, and sweatshirt fleeces for $1.68/yd for solid colors and $1.98/yd for prints. Much to my husbands surprise, we left with only 9 yards for fabric that day (less than$16), but this fabric store's location is permanently imprint in my memory cells, to be retrieved at a moment's notice if we are anywhere near Anaheim, CA.

Unprinted Newspaper

Pictured is a valuable tool I use often in my sewing. It is a roll of unprinted newspaper. Growing up my mother always had a roll around the house. In sewing, it is very handy for tracing a pattern, modifying a pattern or creating your own pattern. I use to use plastic weather sheeting for tracing patterns. The plastic sheeting did work, but had a tendency to slide around. So, one day I talked my husband into stopping at the local newspaper to see how much a roll would cost. The lady at the front desk gave me this roll. She said at the end of a printing, what was left on the roll is thrown out and a new roll put on for the next printing. It is taller and bigger than any roll I remember. I have enough paper to last for the rest of my life, or at least that is what my husband says. It lives in the garage though for two reasons. It has a little black resin on the ends of the roll. The resin has never caused me any mess in the house with the pieces I have brought in. Second reason, I can't lift the roll. So, when I am ready to trace or create a pattern, I make a small trip to the garage with my paper scissors and cut off what I need. By the way, this roll of paper was extremely valuable when we moved. I wrapped all the knick-knacks and dishes in the paper before packing. Because it is unprinted, it did not leave all the black marks like printed newspaper does.

Baby Girl Gifts

Here are some pictures of the sleepers I made to give as gifts for baby girls.

Baby Boy Gifts

I have had many great ideas suggested to me for possible baby gifts. I am excited to get creative with many of the ideas that I received. As the conversation continued at work regarding baby gifts, the mother with the second boy on the way said, "Oh, I can't wait to see what you're going to embroidery for the baby.'" So, with that in mind, I figured a couple of new sleepers especially made for this new little boy would be good. One suggestion for a baby gift was a shopping cart cover. Great idea. I can embroidery something fun on that. Another suggestion was a baby file box instead of a book. Can't really embroidery on the box, but can gets really creative with stickers and crafts. I just love it when my mind finally gets rolling with ideas. We all agreed at work that the gifts for the two mothers would be different where one already has a child and for the other it is the first child. So, keep an eye out for baby girl items to be posted soon. Now for the next quandary, is terry cloth too heavy for the baby in the AZ heat? I keep telling myself no because we all live in AC homes. I can always find something to worry about.

Baby Gifts

I currently have two friends from work having babies, one her first child and the other her second. For baby gifts, I almost always make baby sleepers as seen in a previous blog entry, but for some odd reason this time, I am not sure this is what I want to give. The problem is that I don't know what would make a better gift. After looking through all my patterns, I am still at a loss. I asked the expecting mother who already has a child what would be a good gift, and she said that she already had everything she needs. She also said that with the first child, she was given so many newborn size clothes that her son could not wear them all, and many outfits he only wore once. So, what do I sew now? So, I made her this little t-shirt for her older son. It was fun to make and simple. It will not be the only thing I make her, but I am still in a quandary. Any suggestions from anyone? I keep telling myself to just get over the block, and get to sewing sleepers. So, that is the plan for now.

The newest addition to the family

I would like you to meet LaGwenna. She is my third sock monster. She is different from Norbit and Stretch because she is entirely hand sewn. As mentioned before, socks, once they are cut, tend to run and fray very easily which makes machine sewing difficult. Hand sewing also allows for smaller seam allowance than machine sewing. With her long skinny ears and arms, I was trying to get the largest tube I could. Normally, I would not take the time to hand sew even with the advantages just mentioned, but with the long car ride to see my parents, I had plenty of just sitting time. Luckily, hand sewing in the car did not make me car sick. As with any project, I learned a lot. I have not done much hand sewing so it was good to see what stitches held and what stitches did not. I am also new to the whole stuffing game. I had a real fight getting her tiny arms and ears stuffed. I am still not 100% happy with the job I did. I will need to do some research on stuffing items. Does anyone have any suggestions? All in all, LaGweena was a lot of fun to make, and especially to accessorize.

Buttons, Buttons

Guess who's got Mom's buttons.



I DO!! I spent this last week visiting my parents. While there, I told Mom my buttons woes. I did not realize that previously as I finished a projects that required buttons, I would check my box first. If no suitable buttons were found, I would check Mom's box next. If the correct buttons were not located, which rarely happened, I would grin and bear it, and buy buttons. (I am cheap. I hate to pay more for the buttons on a shirt than it cost for the fabric for the shirt.) Now that checking Mom's box regularly is not an option, I have had to buy buttons more often. Mom was so sympathetic to my woes, that she allowed me to raid her button box. I felt extreme guilty for taking my mom's buttons, but as you can see guilt did not stop me.

Pictured here is just a sampling of the buttons I took. I had a great time sorting buttons. Many memories were brought back as I found buttons from things Mom had made over the years. Mom has so many fun and unique buttons. I even got to check out my grandmother button box. So, I believe my box is now set to handle most button situations thanks to Mom. Note - take a look at the price tags on some of the card buttons, $0.09, $0.19, $0.15, and even $0.20 from Sprouse Reitz.

New Jamies

Pictured here are new jamies for my niece. There is a story behind these new jamies though. My first thought for the fabric was a shirt for me, just a simple t-shirt. I washed the fabric then laid it out to cut. I cut the back out, only to find a huge flaw, a run in the single knit right down the middle of where I was to cut out the front. I turned and folded the fabric every way I could to get the front, but to no avail. I tried to find a matching blue in my stash to creatively piece together with no luck. For a long time, I considered using white, but I do not wear white well. Discouraged, I folded the fabric up and pushed it into the corner. As it sat in the corner, it started to speak to me. My niece has beautiful blue eyes, and looks so pretty in blue, and needs new jamies. It all just worked out. I was able to cut around the flaw and use the already cut pieces and scraps. I have enough fabric left for a t-shirt for her or a smaller baby sleeper for someone else. Too bad her younger cousin is a boy. This is the first time I have made this particular pattern. I have made the smaller size many times, but this pattern was a little different, so I hope it fits well.

Success at Last

I finally did it. I made this shirt without any major hang ups. It is good fabric. It cut out well. The fusible interfacing went on without a hassle. It sewed up nicely. I did not have to argue with the buttonholes much, and best of all, it does not require much ironing after washing. Admittedly, I do miss not learning something from this project, but sometimes it is nice to just have everything fall into place. There will be plenty of learning opportunities in the future. (Just a side note, I really like this fabric. I bought 10 yards of it at Wal-mart for $2.00/yd.)

The Shirt on the Irregular Rack

Take a look at this shirt. Can you see the problem? I made this shirt for me. I had put several hours into its construction, only to find my cutting error as I started to sew it together. Boy, do I feel stupid. I thought about not finishing the shirt, salvaging the fabric for another project, but could not come up with another project for the fabric. I finally decided to just finish the shirt for me and hope that the fatal flaw would not be too noticeable. So, I am asking you, "Why would this shirt be on the irregular rack?" Each time I sew a project, I learn or relearn something, which make even the problems worthwhile.

Fusible Interfacing Redux...

Well, I have ironed what feels like a million little 3" squares of fusible interfacing to a variety of different fabric scraps. I have learned a lot, but I sure feel stupid because I thought I knew everything I needed to learn at some point in my sewing career.

First, it did not seem to make a difference what temperature the iron was set on, and it did not seem to matter if it was a dry or steam iron. I tried using a damp cloth on a few samples, and learned that that is only a good idea if the fabric can handle it. Pre-shrinking the interfacing did not make a difference either, but my interfacing may have already been pre-shrunk.

There are two points I learned that are of the most value to me.

1) Do not slide the iron while applying fusible interfacing. Sliding the iron seemed to produce a lot of bubbles and wrinkles on the fabric side. Just set and lift the iron over the interfacing. Now, I am sure that I have applied interfacing just like this before, but why I forgot, I will never know.

2) Trim the interfacing so that it is 1/8 to 1/4" smaller than the fabric you are ironing it to. I knew this, but never paid it any mind. I have always just cut the interfacing to the size of the pattern piece and applied, but I noticed that with my samples that I got a better adherence if the interfacing did not come completely to the edge of the fabric.

Hopefully, this newly remembered knowledge with help me to apply fusible interfacing with more success.

Interfacing Troubles

"Interfacing is one of the steps that can leave the most confident of sewer worried and the novice terrified." -Sew News. All of a sudden, I am having the worst luck with fusible interfacing. On my last couple of projects, once I have applied the interfacing, the fabric side has bubbled. Each project used a different type of interfacing, so I have decided it is not just a bad piece of interfacing. I have researched the problem so I am currently trying to solve whatever it is that I am doing wrong. I bought most of my interfacing off the bolt, so I really did not get any directions included. My first try is going to be to decrease the heat on my iron with steam and without steam. I am also going to try pre-shrinking by both soaking the interfacing in hot water and air drying, and steaming it with a hot iron. I guess my fusible interfacing has just decided it is time to test my problem solving skills. As my mother always says, "If you want to learn patience, sew."

Nothing To Do With Sewing

This has nothing to do with my sewing. I just want to show off a couple of purchases I have made recently. Thanks for letting me share.

Internet Fabric

The first picture is of a piece of fabric that is my first purchase of fabric via the internet. I purchased it from Hancock Fabrics. I am not sure I would have bought this fabric if I had seen it in the store. I will, of course, still make something from it. I would have like to have felt the fabric before I purchased it.

The second picture is my second try at purchasing fabric from an internet source, e-bay this time. All I will say is fool me once shame on you, fool me twice... Although I love the Snoopy fabric, it was not what I was excepting. It is very thin, and I am afraid to wash it. It will not work for what I wanted to make with it, unless I get really creative. So, I guess that ends my career of purchasing fabric from an internet source. This makes my husband quite happy. Wal-mart is my only source of fabric for 100 miles, so it limits my ability to increase my stash.

Simple Teddy Bear Pattern

This is a simple little bear pattern I thought I would try. For only 3 seams, he is kind of cute, but to me he looks more like a dog toy then a child's stuff toy. As seen in the picture, I still have some finish work on the bear, some more stuffing and to stitch up the back. I don't think I will make another one. I think I will go ahead and look for a little more complicated pattern to get a better looking teddy bear.

Stupid Sock Creatures

Stupid Sock Creatures is a great book. I have made 2 monsters, as I like to call them, so far. Stretch lives at my sister's house. He is made of knee high sock so came out a little long. Norbit is pictured below. He is made of anklets so a little shorter. Norbit was named for his teeth, get it Nor(bit), big teeth. I will have to admit that these guys do take some time and work to create. The thinner sock fabric is not that easy to work with, watch for runs and fraying, and there are some seams that are probably better off being hand stitched, but it is amazingly fun to let your imagination run wild and see them come to life as you sew. I am excited to make a whole clan of monsters. The instructions in the book are easy to follow, and the ideas are endless.

Batman Shirts for the Nephews

These shirts were made from McCall's pattern M4849, size 3-4 & 5-6. This is a good pattern with good instructions. The size 5-6 shirt fit my older nephew better than the 3-4 size fit the younger one, so only a little alteration was needed, mostly in the length which of course meant the buttons had to be adjusted up a little. (So FYI, if you're making this pattern, I put the first button down 1 & 1/4 " from the top on the size 3-4.) The material was bought to make something else, so there was not quite enough for both shirts, so I used black on the sleeves, which turned out ok because it gave me a place to embroidery. Embroidering has changed the way I buy fabric. I now look closer at solid colors and smaller, less cluttered prints.

My Sewing Room and Me

Hi! My name is Lanita and I just love to sew.

Sewing is just a hobby for me, no professional sewing here. I have three machines. I have a Brother ULT 2001 that I use for my sewing machine, and a Brother Innov-is 4000D that I use for my embroidery machine. Both machines are usable as sewing and embroidery machines, but each has features that I like better for either sewing or embroidering. My third machine is my serger, a Viking Huskylock 1001L. It is an older serger, but it does a great job, so I have seen no need to upgrade.

My sewing table is new, and I am totally enjoying it. I got the cabinets and counter top from Home Depot. My custom made table was a little expensive, but it was still less expensive than the manufactured sewing tables that come in sizes and shapes that you cannot choose.

My machines are protected by Norbit, the sock monster. He keeps the dust bunnies away.