The Purse

I like fun purses.  Last fall we went to a craft fair when my parents were here visiting.  At one booth, the lady was selling a variety of hand made purses and bags.  The coke print of one particular purse caught my eye, but on closer look, the whole design and make of the purse attracted me even more.

 I bought the purse.  My mom went right home and made a pattern from it and made herself a purse.  I decided that I wanted to try out the purse before I put too much effort into making one.  At first, I did not like the purse, but after a month the design really grew on me and I decided that I was ready to make one.  I even knew some changes that I wanted to make to the original pattern, like a way to hold the purse by the handles and closures on the purse and its pockets. On our last trip to Idaho to see my parents, Mom and I cut out and started to sew a purse for me.  This purse definitely tested my sewing skills and patience during construction.  I learned from the experience and know many things I will do differently on the construction of another purse.  On my purse, I made the lining and the outside of the purse separately and then sewed the two pieces together by folding the outside fabric over the lining and stitching.  Next time, I will sew the lining and the outside piece right sides together and turn the purse through the bottom of the lining.  In doing this, I will have to make the lining match the outside piece which will use a little more fabric, but will be much easier than hiding the raw edges on the part that folds over the handles.  

For the strap, I sewed and turned a tube.  Next time I will sew down the middle of the strap folding the edges in.  That will be much easier especially when hand sewing the strap closed.  I added velcro tabs to the large pocket in the lining and the front pocket.  I was also going to put a piece by the handles to close the purse.  The handle holds the purse closed when it is on your shoulder, but when you set it down, the purse can easily open and spill.  I decided not add this piece of velcro to my new purse yet to see how well it will do without it. If it turns out that it has the same problem as the original I will add it later. Because I wanted to embroidery on the front pocket, Mom and I left the side seam open to put the pocket on.  By doing this, more hand sewing had to be done.  I am not the best hand sewer, so hopefully it will hold up over time. 

All in all, the purse turned out pretty nice and I am excited to use it.  I am also excited to make another one and try my changes to the pattern.  I am not one to change my purse very often so, like sock monsters, I don't know what I am going to do with yet another purse.  

P.S. Dad made the handles.  Thanks Dad.  They work great.  

Spag-Eddy

Here's Eddy.

 
Spag-Eddy is my latest sock monster creation.  I had a lot of fun sewing him and learn several new things as well.  It was not easy to find solid color socks that I wanted to use for Spag-Eddy.  I finally had to settle on the ones that I used.  The dread locks were fun to make, and I learned a lot.

 
I have only worked with cording a very few times before.  I learned first to be extra careful not to catch the cording and second with each lock, I became better at finishing the ends, a more smooth, rounded ends instead of a flatten sewn together end.  I decided on Spag-Eddy to use the plastic eyes instead of buttons because of the black body.  I thought they stood out more.  You may also be wondering why the striped lips.  Same reason, to make them stand out.  I did not realize how much the black would hide.  Next time, I will do the trick the book suggests and replace the heel or lips with a heel piece from a different color sock. In my attempt to make these monsters look happier, I gave Spag-Eddy wobbly lips.  I don't think he looks any happier, but the wobbly lips match his googley eyes.  I made the apron as well.

Spag-Eddy does not have shoulders to hold the apron up, so I had to sew the apron strap quite tight around his neck.   My husband thinks the apron should be shorter so you can see his legs, but I like the longer apron.  I want to get him a small wooden spoon.  I have seen them before, but I guess not at Wal-Mart.  So, I will keep looking.

 
I am giving thought to the next sock monster.  I have some fun socks that I picked up it Vegas on our last visit.  The problem is though, even with how much I love to make these monsters and enjoy the creative progress involved with them and how much I learn, I am running out of places to put them.  Can anyone provide a good home for a sock monster? 

The Snoopy Sheet

Look at what my mom found for me. I am so excited. Yes, I know it is just an old sheet, but it has so many possibilities. Because it is a little worn, I will use it to make a quilt, just a lap quilt, throw around the house type thing. I have two ideas for the quilt though. Because the design is so cute, my first thought is to try and keep as much of the sheet together as possible. In other words, use it as the top of the quilt. My second thought though is to cut out the characters and applique them to quilt squares and then make the quilt. I am leaning towards the second idea. This would allow me to only use the best parts of the sheet. I can make the quilt more colorful or even a denim rag quilt. The quilt will withstand more, and last longer. On the other side though, it will take longer to make. But, for such cute Peanuts designs the work and time is worth it. Unfortunately, this is one of those projects that gets tucked it the box labeled "someday". Isn't Someday after Wednesday??

Hats Off

Warmer weather is here. With the arrival of the warmer weather, the neighbor, Mike, put away his stocking caps and pulled out his summer hat, only to find that his summer hat died last year. He brought the hat to me and asked if there was any chance that I could make him a new hat. He said that new hats in the stores were too small, and really needed one the same size as his old one. The challenge of constructing Mike a hat sparked my interest, so I told him I would give it a try. Since mending the hat was out of the question, I tore it apart to use as a pattern. With just three pattern pieces, I made the first hat out of a scrap of denim I had in the closet. It was fun to make and worked up quite fast. I did not put a lot of detail into its construction (I did not line the hat and I surged the brim onto the cap) because I wanted a prototype for Mike to try. After he wore it for a little while, he could tell me if it needed any changes. After a couple of days, Mike said he had no changes for the hat, so I tried another hat. On the second hat, I took the time to look for fabric in my stash (Note: I did not buy any fabric), to embroider on the front and to stitch in the ditch around the brim so that it had a cleaner finish. I still did not line the second hat. The hats were fun and easy to make and I was surprised that they did not require more time to construct. As I sewed the second hat, I had lots of ideas for more hats. So, now, added to my list of projects to do someday is make more hats.

F.A. (Fabriholics Anonymous)

One yard too many? Can one really have too much fabric? I use to say no, absolutely not! But, as of today, I say YES, you bet! We spent last week in Idaho, visiting family and friends, and buying fabric. Mom gave me some great pieces of fabric and then we went fabric shopping. I boxed it up all nicely and brought it home. As I loaded it into the closet with the rest of my stash, it became very heavy. I have so much that I don't remember what all I have or even which box a specific piece is in even if I did remember it. I have started to say that my hobby is not sewing, but fabric collecting. So, as of today, I will not buy fabric for 1 year! (Except for Snoopy fabric.) Bear in mind that I made this same oath in September of last year after our last trip to Idaho. I did well until we went to M&L Fabrics in California in late October where I promptly fell off the wagon. But, I am back on the wagon now and ready to go. When we made the big move to Arizona, I thought about getting rid of my stash, but after seeing that the only source of fabric in this town is Wal-mart, I moved my entire stash and bought more. So, I truly do believe that I have too much fabric, and the only solution is to get creative, get sewing, and stop adding to the problem. Wish me luck.

My Shirt

Bright colors are in. At least, that is what I read in Sew News. I hope so, because this is a new shirt for me. I fell in love with this fabric when I saw it in the fabric store, but it has lived in my stash for a long time. I got the buttons from my mom and just decided the other day that it was time for this particular fabric to leave the stash. The shirt turned out pretty good. For some reason, it is a little shorter than I would like. I can not figure out why either. I cut it from my basic sloper pattern. I was also smart enough this time not to try the bad black interfacing that I am supposed to be throwing away, so I did not have that problem to contend with. Sewing on decorative buttons is an interesting job. They do not sit nicely in the button foot of my machine, so it took at little extra patience and time to get these buttons sewed on, but I like them on this shirt, so it was worth the extra effort.

KnitWits

Last week, we went to Las Vegas for a concert. While we were there, we stopped in at FAO Schwarz in the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace. Take a guess at what they are selling. Yep, stupid sock monsters. I couldn't believe it. They are called KnitWits and cost $25 apiece. At first, I was disappointed to see that the sock monsters were being mass produced and sold in a retail store, but then I got excited by the many ideas they inspired. I am particularly excited about how these sock monsters were given eyes and lips. I am also going to make my ears or horns longer like the KnitWits, and I think displaying them from a clothes line with a clothes pin is so cute and a fabulous idea. I am excited to incorporate these ideas into my monsters. I wish I had the same source of socks that the KnitWit makers have. They have fun socks and great ideas for their monsters.

Temporary Delay in Construction

When the package said razor edge, it meant it. I bought a new pair of scissors, and they are wonderful. I have had no trouble cutting anything including my finger. I had cut a small piece of fleece and left some fussies on the scissors, so I just slid the blade between my two pinched fingers. With that little move, I filet my finger open, luckily on my left hand, unluckily right on the pad of the finger. So, for a little while, I am functioning with one less finger.

The Tiered Dress

Two or Three tiers? I saw a little girl wearing a cute three tiered knit dress, and decided I wanted to make one. I figured it would not be too hard to modify the t-shirt knit dress pattern that I have made before. It did take a lot of thought, but I finally came up a pattern. Pictured is my end result. In the construction process, I decided to try just two tiers instead of three, but after seeing the finished result, I want to make another dress with three tiers. With just two tiers, the tiers are too long, but it turned out cute anyway. Just to show that I can't follow good advise, I did not try the ribbon idea on the gathers. I did the gathers the old way with large stitches and pulling the threads. I am going try the ribbon idea on the three tier dress. I believe it will be easier to keep the gathers gathered. I will be able to pin the ribbon in place and hopefully have a little more control of the gathers. I will let you know how it goes. By the way, I was just told last night, that Alec has made another sock monster. Good Job, Alec!

Sew News

I enjoy reading this magazine. I have subscribed to it for several years now. It is full of tips and ideas. This last issue showed up just in time to answer some sewing questions, how to determine the right side of a piece of interlock knit, (stretch the fabric and it will roll to the right side), and a great tip on gathering (zig zag 1/8 inch ribbons to your piece and use the ribbon to gather instead of a thread). The section on the basics is always informative, and even the advertisement are fun, a way to keep up with the latest and greatest. When I first subscribed to Sew News, I did not keep the magazine after I read it. I know now that that was a mistake. Now I post-it mark the pages that I think I will need to refer back to at a later date for help or an idea.

Alec & Zagit

Alec lives next door. He is in high school and is currently learning to sew in home ec. Alec was over last Saturday talking computers with my husband when he saw the sock monsters, and asked if he could make one. I was surprised that Alec really wanted to spend his Saturday sewing and even more surprised at how much Alec knew about sewing and how much he seemed to be enjoying what he was doing.

Alec picked out the pattern and socks he wanted. He did all the machine sewing and hand sewing. He also picked out the eyes and the name. He even stuffed the monster himself, which is the part I like least. So, say hello to Zagit. I think he turned out great and that Alec did a super job sewing Zagit together. Good job Alec.

Purple and White

My husband was in need of a new shirt. This piece of purple fabric was lying on top of the my stash so, it was picked as his next shirt. The problem that I ran into was I had no matching thread. I dug though my box of thread and picked out all the purples I could find. When I showed the spools to my husband, who is my color coordinator, he picked white, bearing in mind that white was not one of his choices. I tried to talk him out of white, but he insisted. So, I started construction of his purple shirt with white thread. The more I sewed the more I liked the white on the purple, and after embroidering the white apple logo and sewing on the clear buttons, I liked the contrast even more. As you can guess, the moral of this blog enter is try an idea even if you just know it will look awful.

Sewing with Blanks

I purchased these little tank tops last fall on clearance, $0.50 a piece. Once again my husband thought I was crazy, but when I saw the tops, I knew they were good blanks, a purchased item that I can just embroidery on. The tops have such cute detail with the back straps looped together and the little piece of lace sewn it the front. I had to remove the applique from thefront of each shirt,
but that only took a second to unpick. It is very rewarding to work with blanks because it take so much less time to a completed project. I will confess though that one disadvantage to sew on a blank is hooping, especially with blanks for toddlers. Hooping your item for embroidery is so much easier when the item is only partially construction, instead of completed.

Meet the Newest Member of the Family

Say Hi to Sprog. He is the newest member of my sock monster family. He is my first attempt to use anklet socks to make a sock monsters. I bought some knee high socks for sock monsters that came paired with matching anklet socks. I don't wear anklets so I am trying to use them in the sock monster creation. He is not quite done yet. One of his eyes is loose and needs to be sewn on again, and he needs a collar to hide his neck stitches. I learned several things about sock monster sewing in the creating of Sprog. I am not happy with the way his legs and tail turned out. I stuffed his legs and tail first and then sewed them to his body. Next time I will sew the legs to the body and stuff the legs and body at the some time. I think he would stand up if I had sewn his leg this second way. I tried to make him smile by making his upper lip smaller than his lower lip. It did not really work. I have given quite a bit of thought to how to make the monsters smile, but still do not know quite how to stitch the mouth to get a smile. It is not as easy as it look due to the design of the heel piece of the sock. I also did not make the neck darts on Sprog, and I wish I had. It would have shaped his head instead of just being one long piece. Yet, even with these issues, I think he is pretty fun and I am happy to have him in the sock monster family. Coming some day, a distant relative from a foreign county. Stay tune.

The Dog in the Mouse's House

While on vacation, we stopped at Wal-mart to pick up a few things and of course, even though I am 2000 plus miles from home, I had to check out the fabric department. To my excitement, left sitting all alone on the clearance rack, the only piece of Christmas fabric left, was about 3 yards of this years Snoopy Christmas fabric. At my local Wal-mart, this Snoopy fabric was completely sold before Thanksgiving. I quickly carried the bolt to the cutting table and ask for every inch. The bolt was marked $1.98/yd, but when the associate scanned the tag it rang up at $0.99/yd. I was even more excited. Still on a high from such a find, I talked my husband into stopping at the next Wal-mart we ran into and bought another 3 yd for $0.99/yd. My only reasoning for this is that when in central Florida, the mouse is king. Don't get me wrong, I like Mickey Mouse as well as many of the Disney characters and movies and even Disneyland and Disneyworld. But my heart belongs to the dog, Snoopy. My husband thinks I am nuts. Of all the souvenirs from Florida that I could choose to pack in the limited space in my suitcase, I chose Snoopy fabric.

The Vacation Shirt

While staring in my closet, deciding what to pack for vacation, I decided that I wanted a new shirt. After finishing the shirt, I could not decided what to embroidery on the front. I debated about not putting anything on it, but since we were on our way to Florida, I decided to adorn the shirt with a manatee. The shirt turned out pretty good, except I had a fight with the interfacing again. I think I will throw away the remainder of that piece of interfacing and buy new. Of course, something had to give me grief because I was hurrying to complete the shirt before we left. The vacation was a blast, and the new shirt was fun to wear.

Send It To Aunt Nita

Pictured are two new shirts for the nephews that come with a little story. My sister had taken her grandkids, the nephews, shopping. (The two little nephews are actually my great nephews, but that makes me feel old, so we will just refer to them as the nephews.) On the shopping trip, they stopped by Joann's where they found this piece of transformer material. The nephews were excited about the transformers, so my sister bought what was left of the bolt. When she asked the nephews what they wanted made from the fabric, the oldest said, "Send it to Aunt Nita. I would like a shirt." This story just thrills my heart. I am so happy that the nephews like the things I sew for them. Upon receiving the fabric, though, I found out that there was not enough fabric for two shirts. So, I dug through my stash and found the Batman print for the younger nephew. (This was ok with the nephews. The younger nephew is by far a larger Batman fan than transformer fan.) I used the same pattern as before, and learn one obvious thing. Except for the previous entry in this blog about the last shirts, I made no other documentation on the pattern about lengths or sizing. So, during construction, I am scratching my head, trying to remember all the modification made to the last shirts. So, lesson learned. By taking a few seconds to write down some notes on a pattern, a lot of precious time can be saved later.