A Match Made in Heaven

A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to join the pattern-making club. My first pattern was the Peek A Boo Pleats skirt, which has been sold on You Can Make This for almost 2 years. I've also written up- to varying degrees of completeness- several other patterns that I don't really have the time or skill to finish up and publish.

Enter Jen, the Tie Dye Diva. She's an excellent pattern maker/eBook author, and was in need of some new patterns for her collection.

Do you see where this is going?




I am now authoring patterns for Tie Dye Diva! Jen has tweaked the Peek A Boo Pleats skirt pattern, and it's now available for sale in her etsy shop.

We've got several more patterns on the way, so stay tuned!

Did you miss me?

Hi, my name is Carol, and I used to sew.

Here are some of the things I've been doing since you last heard from me:

Sewing costumes for Arts Alive's production of The Robe.

Coordinating summer programs for Elon University's Challenge Course.

Starting up a non-profit homeschool tutoring program- Archway Classes.

Being a single mom while my husband traveled for work all summer.

Vacationing at our parents' homes in Virginia Beach and South Carolina.

And reading- oh, reading! I used to read all the time and stopped when my oldest was born because I just didn't have (ie, make) the time for it. But this summer all of my boys can read and now I can read, too! My fare has mostly been tween & adolescent fiction (Mysterious Benedict Society, 39 Clues and Hunger Games series) and I love it!



Now that I am done with most of the above activities, I have time to sew again (HOORAY!) and my list is long! A quilt for a sweet little boy diagnosed with cancer, testing womens knitwear patterns for a friend of mine (I can't wait to show you the results!), and sewing LOTS of Halloween costumes are all on my list. And then I found my stash of Halloween fabric and I *really* want to make something with it now, too!

So I just relisted all of my ready-to-ship Halloween outfits in my etsy shop and am offering free shipping on them to anyone who tells me they read about it in this blog post.

Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!

Thanks to all who commented hoping to win the adorable modkid dress bag pattern. You ladies have some fun travels planned! The lucky winner (who would like to go to Australia or on a Disney cruise with her bag) is Jennifer Bailey! Jennifer- please contact me with your shipping info.



As far as travels go, I was able to go on a brief journey of my own yesterday- I took the older boys skiing for Finn's birthday! It was their first time skiing (and my first time in over 10 years) but we all did great and had perfect weather.

And as for the chicken dinner, well, I'm about to look up some new recipes for my crock pot. We've got a winter storm heading our way this weekend and I need comfort food when it's cold outside. Stay warm, everyone!

Testing, testing...

Several years ago, when we were both new to the boutique sewing world (on eBay, back in those days...) I "met" Patty Young of modkid fame when we were both members of Adagio Bleu Studios. It has been amazing to watch her career take off since then- if you haven't seen her fabric lines or patterns, you are really missing out. They are amazing!

I was lucky enough to be chosen as a tester for her newest line of patterns, and just before Christmas I received a box full of fabric from her latest collection, Flora & Fauna, along with the rough draft pattern for the dolly-sized modkid dress bag! Her pattern books are so beautiful and easy to use- full of colorful pictures, helpful tips, and easy-to-follow steps. While this was a more complicated project (it involves zippers, grommets, and gussets, oh my!) the conversational tone of her clear instructions helped me create a gorgeous garment bag. Wanna see it? It's the turquoise hummingbird one on the inspiration gallery page.



What about you? Want to try it?

Like I said, this is not a pattern for beginners, but if you are an experienced seamstress you should give it a try. I am going to give away one copy of the modkid dress bags pattern which includes instructions for both the dolly size bag I made and the larger girly bag (shhh... I'm not a girly girl but I may have to make one of these for myself!) If you'd like to win a copy of this pattern, just leave me a comment telling me where you would like to travel with this garment bag. If you'd like to promote this giveaway on your social media of choice (twitter, facebook, etc.), feel free to do so! I'll be randomly choosing a winner on the night of my son's 10th birthday (this Thursday, January 28).

Proud Mama moment

My 3 boys usually dread going to the fabric store, and sometimes I bribe them by promising to buy them fabric to make something like pajama pants. I also make them entertain themselves at the pattern table by looking through Simplicity and McCall's pattern books (Halloween costumes are their favorites).

A few months ago, Finn (who will be 10 in 2 weeks) expressed interest in sewing something himself. Not wanting to squelch his creativity, I bought him a pattern (Simplicity 3553) and allowed him to pick out fabric to make his own pajama pants. He found a royal blue tie-dye fleece that he loved and I went with that since it would mean we wouldn't have to worry about finishing any seams. I had him read the instructions and take his measurements, and the pants got cut a few weeks before Christmas. And then they sat in my sewing room for a month.

Fast forward to this week when our local Chik Fil A was having a pajama party night and kids wearing pajamas got a free kids meal. Finn didn't want to wear any of his store-bought pajamas (too embarrassing), so I encouraged him to sew the pants he had started on last month. I got out my old/back up machine and gave him a brief tutorial on how to stitch forward and reverse and keep your seam allowance correct and let him go. It was nerve wracking (would he sew through his finger? would the seam allowance be even?) but I realized that this was HIS project and I needed to let him experience the success and failures that come with sewing. Yes, the seams got a little wobbly at times and he did poke himself with pins frequently, but in the end he had a great fuzzy pair of pants that he was proud to have made himself.

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...

Peek-a-Boo Pleats!

I am SO excited that my first eBook is finally finished and listed in my etsy store! You can find it right here, but if this one happens to be sold already, don't worry. I'll be re-listing often and you can just check my store to see if it's in stock. Youcanmakethis.com is also reviewing my work, and I hope to be selling on their website soon!

I've already got an idea in mind for my next pattern, but may have to wait until the April Challenge is over before I find the time to work on it!

Cole's stuffed "animal"

Going to the fabric store with 3 boys in tow is an unfortunate reality for me. Because we homeschool, I am rarely without them. Some fabric store trips are better than others; we've had some pretty good ones lately because I have learned that offering a Krispy Kreme donut as a reward for good behavior works wonders. Sometimes, they are happy to help me locate a fabric if I give them a swatch and say, "find me something this color." Pattern books are usually a big hit; I can usually get away with a good 10 or 15 minutes while they look at the Halloween costume section, and now I can give the older boys an assignment and ask them to find a particular pattern in the drawer for me.

During our time in pattern land this week, Cole discovered a pattern that he *had* to have. And when they're on sale for a dollar, I generally appease such a request. The last such request resulted in me making this parrot for Finn. So this time, Cole got his pattern and 1/2 yard of fabric-of-his-choosing. After 24 hours of unrelenting begging, I helped him make his creature last night. Here is the chronicle of his "animal."



Here are the fabric and pattern he chose.



The pattern gives several options for which body, ears, arms, and legs to combine; here is his combination after I addeed the felt mouth with hand-stitched teeth and button eyes.



After I stitched the body together, Cole dutifully stuffed his little guy for nearly 10 minutes before he got bored. I finished the stuffing & sewed him up, resulting in...


A happy Cole, and his "animal" named Crazy.

What all the well-dressed dogs are wearing...

Webkinz dogs, that is! My boys are crazy about their Webkinz... and dressing them up online is not always good enough for them, they want their REAL animals dressed up, too.

For a while, I got away with simple grosgrain ribbon collars with snap closures. Then the clothing requests came rolling in. "Can you make Shoeshine a pair of jeans and a black shirt?" I developed a prototype pants pattern a few months ago, which I have since lost in the chaos that is my sewing room. And the clothing rage was forgotten (hey, it's too hot right now for them to be wearing lots of clothes, anyway. They've got fur!)


Then yesterday, as I was cleaning the house, I suddenly felt the NEED to crochet a sweater for a Webkinz animal. Don't ask... it doesn't take much to distract me from housework! So I grabbed some yarn and the nearest available model and spent about an hour creating my own pattern. I think it turned out pretty well, don't you? This is Annie and Little Sunshine, modeling their new sweaters.

Now all the other dogs are jealous and want them, too!

The waiting game and In His Steps

After nearly 2 years of faithful service, my sewing machine blew a fuse and had to be sent of for repairs. This was two lonely weeks ago and I am still waiting for the service center to call me. Meanwhile, I've been getting by with my back-up machine, and antiquated Pfaff hand-me-down from a friend of my MIL. But it just doesn't do all the cool stuff "my" machine does.


I'm also waiting on some out-of-print patterns that I ordered; they shipped today so *hopefully* they will be here by this weekend. They are for play costumes that I mentioned what seem like 100 years ago. Well, first of all, I was on the wrong side of the turn-of-the-century; the play is set in 1896 (late Victorian) instead of the 1910's Edwardian era, which means the styles were totally different. The funnest (yes, I think funnest is a word!) aspect of the design is that this was at the tail end of leg o'mutton sleeves being in fashion, so the costumes for the very fashionable ladies will look something like these.


And this is the pile of fabric and trim that await me (and the patterns)

In case you are curious, the play these costumes are for is called In His Steps; which is a WWJD story that was written over 100 years before all of those bracelets & bumper stickers because trendy. This is a costume that I finished last week. No big sleeves; it is for a working-class character. It'll look better on it's intended wearer ;o)