Thank you, Blogosphere!

A little over a year ago, I decided I wanted to give sewing another chance. Up to that point, my experiences with sewing where few and far between. I took a sewing class in high school where I ended up with a not hemmed pleated mini skirt. Never worn. Also in high school, I got to spend a week working with a seamstress in her studio. She was a childhood friend of my mother's. There was a bit of a language barrier as I fully understand German when spoken but can't really speak it myself. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Anything I attempted to sew after that failed miserably. I barely knew how to thread my machine, didn't know that certain needles worked with certain fabrics, or even that needles needed changing from time to time. Fast forward to last year. . . I bought a sewing machine, went online, and learned more than I could ever hope! I am constantly amazed at all the awesome advice, tutorials. patterns, and simple inspiration available on blogs. Who knew?! Here are a few projects I've worked on the past few weeks:

Summer Vacation Dress:



I saw the Summer Vacation Dress tutorial over on Made and knew I had to have it. After going to the ends of the earth to track down elastic thread, I finally got to make my first dress (actually, thanks to the wonderful technology of the cell phone camera, my husband was able to pick some up for me in Georgia)! As I am overly protective of fabric and don't want to ruin any while trying something out for the first time, I ended up using thrifted fabric and scraps. I'm pretty sure the blue striped fabric was a table cloth at some point in its former life and the floral band across the bottom of the dress came from my scrap stash. I really do like this dress and it fits Sydney perfectly BUT I'm not sure about the buttons. Either they are too big or I need to take in the front edges of the dress a bit and move the buttons inward. I doubt I'll mess with it though.


Note Taker by Pink Chalk Studio:




My best guy friend is a huge Alabama football fan and asked if I could make something to hold his steno pad, business cards, and pens. While I already have a great pattern for something like this, I decided to get Pink Chalk Studio's version for this particular project. It has a pretty nifty way of putting the parts together so that you can use a really stiff interfacing without major issues. The pattern comes with pattern pieces for two sizes although I came up with a size in between to accommodate my friend's preferred notepad size. I have to say I was very proud of my sewing machine after sewing this Note Taker! The fabric I used was actually a light canvas, which was interfaced, and with all the layers I worried topstitching was going to be impossible. Nope!

**I just got an email that there is a big sale going on at Pink Chalk fabrics.**

I see fabric starting at $3.99 a yard and lots of patterns 50% off. Sale good through May 17th.


Gathered Clutch:

I made this clutch using a tutorial by Anna of Noodlehead. I'm sure most of you already know about this great blog but if not, go check it out! I'm sending the clutch to my sister to use to carry her jewelry when she travels. The tutorial includes instructions on how to add a divider and card pockets so it would work well as a wallet also. Mother's Day gift, anyone?

*I used a new Joel Dewberry print and an awesome faux burlap print from Fabric.com. Apparently they have sold out of the turqoise burlap fabric. So sad since I only ordered a 1/2 yard.

Rag Quilt Lovey:

I was really pleased how this turned out! Oscar's mama chose the fabrics and asked to have his name embroidered on the lovey. Unfortunately, my machine can't do neat tricks like that so I took one of the blocks to a local embroidery shop and had it done. I used various tutorials to get a general idea of how tomake these but if anyone would like a tute for how I put these together, let me know!

A few projects I hope to tackle soon:

Grocery Bag Dispenser I saw the pretty ones Mary made at Pin.Sew.Press made and decided I might just need some of these as well!

Shirt Dress Another one of Dana's great tutes. I actually tried to make a shirred verison of this last night but my serger ate it. Honest. Think I'm going to stick to the original version next time.