Saturday Stream of Consciousness

I'm sure it's not a good idea to blog ONLY when entering a contest, but perhaps that was just the incentive I needed.


Halloween wrap-up
This year I sewed:
*5 Ducks (Donald or Daisy)
*4 lions
*2 Dorothys
*2 Princess Tianas
*1 frog prince
*1 peacock
*1 tin man
*1 scarecrow
*1 Glinda
*1 colonial boy

Those are my boys and niece as the Wizard of Oz crew. Who can resist a 2 year old Dorothy travelling with her posse of devoted older cousins?

I really feel like there was more, but it's been a long time since Halloween and I've tried to put the memories of the related sewing mayhem out of my mind (I am STILL sweeping up duck fluff and lion mane fur!). I wish I could be as successful getting rid of all the lingering candy at my house, but eating it myself is not exactly working towards my goal of dropping a few pounds. Oh well, it's the holidays, right?

So once again, here I am with an excuse about why I haven't been sewing. Really, it just LOOKS like I haven't been sewing because I haven't listed a lot. I have actually beens sewing quite a bit.


My new obsession is aprons. I made my first one about a year ago, and intended to keep it for myself but it turned out so cute that I couldn't resist listing it (money > clean clothes while baking... that's a greater than sign up there. Yes, there is math in my Saturday blog. Don't sue me). I bought some adorable Pillow & Maxfield fabric for my birthday and intended to use it to make myself an apron, which I would for real keep this time. But, well, it turned out too cute (and I decided that the particular pattern that I enjoy making is not very flattering on me. And we all know that baking should be about looking good!) so I will be listing it as soon as I get pictures. But here is one that I made, love, AND took pictures of! You can love it, too, and buy it. I plan to go crazy with this particular pattern because A) it is adorable, and B) it is great for using up leftover scraps that I cannot bear to part with. To this day, I am still lacking my own apron. Maybe I should try making one with fabrics I don't like so I'll want to keep it. At any rate, keep your eyes on my store because I have lots more to add!

But the point of this blog was that I love fabric and I love free things and the fun & friendly Melanie from Above All Fabric has given me the opportunity to get fabric as a free thing! First of all, I have to say that I adore Melanie. No, I've never met her and now she's going to think that I'm some kind of weird cyber-stalker, but she really is amazing. Her fabric selection and customer service are perfection, and she always has some kind of great sale or promotion going on. Hands down, she's got the best online fabric shop around. Did you know she even has a wish list feature on her site? I am filling my list up since Christmas is just around the corner. Imagine a Christmas where all the packages were filled with fabric! It's a blissful thought, isn't it? So I'm telling you about the wish list, giving me the chance to win some free fabric. And if YOU blog about it, YOU can be in the free fabric contest, too (details here)! Yes, your entering the contest does decrease my chances of winning, but it's the giving time of year, so I'm giving you a chance to win, too (3 of us can win- let's make it be me and two of my friends. I just won't say who, and you can pretend I'm talking about you!)

Sewing for me!

I never sew for myself.

Let me take that back: the few times I have tried to sew for myself have been disastrous, so I just don't do it. Here are my problems:

1) I usually sew for kids, so when I cut things to be my size they look enormous (and I don't want to feel enormous)

2) Commercial pattern sizes are so bizarre. It bugs me that based on my measurements, I need to sew a size 12 or 14 for myself (everyone go check your patterns to see how small I am, LOL!). It just doesn't seem right. Then, inevitably, if I cut and sew the size that the pattern suggests I should wear, it ends up being too big!

3) I am too picky about how things fit and get frustrated if something I'm making for myself doesn't turn out the way I want it to. Then I get mad that I wasted all that time and fabric on something I am never going to wear...

See what I mean? It just doesn't go well.

But last week I ordered some gorgeous fabric from Above All Fabric, including this pretty print from Sandi Henderson's Farmer's Market line. In my mind, I was going to use it to make a little girls dress but the scale is much larger than I anticipated (the flowers are about 6" in diameter) so I had to scrap that plan. I love this fabric so much that I decided- not without a great deal of trepidation- to make something for myself. But what? I had just over a yard of fabric to work with. An apron seemed like a good option, but it's too pretty to just wear it in my kitchen. I decided I would squeeze a skirt out of this meager yardage.

I looked at just about every pattern out there and settled on this one. I chose option J which called for 1 7/8 yards of fabric, but I knew that I would be shortening it by a few inches and could use a coordinating fabric for the parts that don't show. I was determined to make it work (get it? make it work? and it's a Project Runway pattern? okay...)

Start to finish, it took me less than 4 hours (including a few interruptions from the kiddos). The pattern is very straightforward and would be easy for a novice seamstress. I wouldn't suggest it as the first pattern you ever try: it does require a zipper which can be kinda tricky, but it would be easy enough to try for your first zipper project.

And with no further ado, here it is! Maybe a tiny bit shorter than I would have liked, but pretty darn good for the limited fabric I had. My favorite part is the contrasting gingham-esqe fabric that I used for the yoke and pocket linings. And the fact that I found a zipper the EXACT color of the fabric.

Trying to reason with Hurricane Season

Hurricane season technically doesn't end until the end of November, so Ida came along decided to be one of the only storms to even come ashore this year. I'm usually pretty fond of hurricanes. I mean, how many natural disasters actually give you several days notice that they are coming? But I digress...

Hurricane Ida made landfall briefly in the Gulf Coast and then sent all of her rain up to North Carolina and Virginia. We are on day 3 of rain, high winds, and general misery here. The big difference about having a hurricane in November instead of the summer is that it is COLD- I think today's high was only in the mid 40's. Power outages have been sporadic in our area; luckily we have not been affected. The creek in our backyard is very high, but not this high.

Since it is miserable outside, I'm going to share a few random things that have made me happy of late:

1. I'm a winner!

Melanie of Above All Fabric is one of my Twitter friends, and she recently had a giveaway for some Quilt Market Goodies on her blog. I was lucky enough to win this amazing FQ collection of Sandi Henderson's new collection called Meadowsweet. It's not even out in stores yet, but there are 17 gorgeous cuts of fabric in the peach colorway on my ironing board, waiting to become something spectacular.


2. Knitting

Much more portable than sewing, and easy to do while catching up on the TV shows that keep piling up on my DVR. I'm currently addicted to making little rolled brim hats for American Girl dolls and matching ones for the girls who love them. I'm taking a bunch to a local craft market tomorrow, but will have some up in my etsy store soon.

3. Patterns

I am currently working on 3 new eBook patterns to debut right before Thanksgiving. Two of them are perfect for Christmas gifts- stay tuned for details! I've got so much going on inside my head right now; I wish there were more hours in a day for me to get everything done.

Speaking of which, I've spent way too much time on this post already...