Spring!

When I think back on how busy the last few weeks have been, I feel like I should have more to show for all of my hard work!  Unfortunately, I have not had one minute to work in my sewing room on any of MY projects.  Right now my to-do list is longer than there are hours in the day, and, with some deadlines looming, I've got to put my projects on the back burner.  I have a beautiful wool skirt that is *almost* finished, but I won't get to wear it this season.  I love how it's turning out, with some hand embellishment, and can't wait to show it to you.  I just hope we haven't reached bathing suit season before I can.

Most of the things that have been keeping me occupied aren't blog- or picture-worthy (tagging items for my church's consignment sale, taxes, yard work, subscription renewals, doctor's appointments) but here are a few little projects that I've been working on.

I needed to come up with five little thank you gifts in a hurry.  Luckily, I had some materials all ready to go that allowed me to whip up these five kanzashi flowers in an evening.  A couple of years ago I led a program at my local ASG group on making kanzashi, and I still have lots of prepared supplies left over which makes it easy to get started on a project.  You can read more about the flowers in some of my previous posts here. 

Today is the last day of school before Spring Break and I sent some special treats to school with my kids today.  I told them that these are the Easter Bunny's favorite cookie.

Lastly, my oldest son is finishing a program he's been in all year (hence, the need for thank you gifts).  They are sending him off with a little party this afternoon so I made these cupcakes for the occasion.  The butterflies are made from gumdrop-style orange slice candy, the antennae are piped icing and the tips of the antennae are sprinkles.

All of these pictures make me feel so happy, like spring has really arrived.  Wish me luck finding time over the next week to finish up some projects in my sewing room -- with Spring Break happening at my house I'll be lucky to find even a few minutes for myself!

Color Play

Today I share a spot of bright color.  The projects I have been working on recently are not blog-worthy (or picture worthy).  They mostly involve cleaning out closets and entire rooms in my house.  When I moved into my house four years ago I designated one of the basement rooms as a craft room but it has been nothing more than a storage room for all of that time.  Recently I have reached “critical mass”, so to speak.  I am frustrated at my inability to find things I know I own and often resort to buying more since that is easier than unearthing the missing items.  So I have been trying to unpack boxes, create storage and generally whip things into shape in that room.  But like any project, to clean one room usually means to clutter another (I always think of that tile game I played as a kid with one empty space to move tiles to) so this project will take some time to complete.  I’ll post a picture when I am finished.

The colorful bits above, though, are one project I have finished amidst all of the chaos.  Next Wednesday, September 15, I will be teaching the program at my local American Sewing Guild Neighborhood Group meeting.  We will be making kanzashi flowers (you can see some examples by clicking on the Kanzashi tab in my Category listing) and I have been prepping all of the necessary materials.  So this is also a little sneak peek for those of you who are coming to the meeting – these are the fabrics and buttons we will be working with.  I love how these fabrics work together.  They are from Sandy Gervais’ Frolic collection by Moda.

I hope to see lots of you at the meeting next week and look forward to seeing what you create with bits of colored fabric.

Sandal Kanzashi

More kanzashi.  I just can’t stop making them.  They really are addictive, and I love giving them as gifts.  These are for my friend Pat who lives at the beach.  And loves the color red.  I put shoe clips on them so she can wear them on her sandals.  I started with 2” squares and used the pleated petal technique.

If you would like to learn how to make these flowers (and make one for your very own) I will be doing the program for my ASG group in September.  Come join me.

Bag of the Week 5

The Ribbon Handled Bag

Before my first son was born in 2006 I used to teach kids to sew at G Street Fabrics.  I really loved working with blooming sewing enthusiasts and was always pleased at how proud they were with their creations (even when they were terrible).  One week I was called and asked to act as an extra pair of hands in a class for a Girl Scout troop where another teacher would take the lead and plan the project.  Sue arrived with a darling little ribbon handled bag that she had received as a Christmas present.  And like many of us do when we find something wonderful, she had knocked it off (that’s “copied” for those of you wondering).  That day in class we made these little bags, and they were a huge hit.

A few months later I was teaching a class for 8 to 12 year olds and decided to do this bag as the project.  I arrived at the store to find a handful of students but nothing set up for me – the store had dropped the ball and didn’t realize there was a class that day.  Thank God for Lynn Berry who had brought her daughter to the class.  Lynn is a friend of mine and knows her way around a sewing machine just fine, thank you very much.  She stayed and helped set up all ten machines.  I don’t think I could have done it without her.  Sometime later Lynn asked me for instructions on making this bag and, since I had had other requests from parents, I wrote up a tutorial to share with instructions and lots of pictures.  You can also find other projects on my Tutorial page (the link is in the righthand side bar).  Lynn says she has made a number of these bags in all sizes including one to carry a laptop – they make great teacher’s gifts.

I liked the bag just as it was but wanted to give it a little extra personality so I added a kanzashi flower made from coordinating micro-dot cottons and an oddball button from my button box.

More Kanzashi

In my recent post Love in Bloom I wax poetic (sort of) about Kanzashi, folded fabric flowers that can be used to adorn all sorts of items.  I love the trend of big flowers that people are wearing these days, and I wanted a flower pin of my own to wear.  Starting with some moth-eaten scraps of raspberry coat-weight wool I fashioned a 7-petal flower.  For the center I covered a large button with a raspberry and white silk houndstooth check.  I wanted to be able to wear this pin on my leather jacket but did not, of course, want to put a pin through the leather.  Instead I used a mitten clip on the back which I can clip onto the collar or zipper edge of my jacket.  When placing it on my collar I made sure the teeth of the clip were centered over the stitching along the collar edge so as not to leave an impression in the leather.  Love it!