new stuff in the store!

I am slowing getting back into the sewing swing of things.   I have re-opened my Etsy store, Delphinium Designs, with a few items.  Just a smidge of things I can do.  I hope to sew more in coming weeks and get even more items up.  For now, because of the herniated disc in my neck, I am going slow.  But, my neck is MUCH better, which is great.  You have no idea how great!!!

Well, anyway, back to sewing easter dresses and then I get to make a few of these lovelies for customers.  I love this fabric sooo much!  Dena Designs Monaco blue peacocks. I am fairly sure I bought the last ten yards of it last year.  And the sash print is also from Monaco.  I have this peacock fabric in blue, also, and my friend at Treasure Bay Fabrics just added it to her store in pink! I am going to have to buy some, when I plan out what to do with it.  It is softer and thicker than standard quilting wovens.  Just lovely!

Mod Podge in the kitchen fun

Thanks to my friend, Hope, I recently discovered the fun of Mod Podge.  I have long been a fan of all sorts of glue, but this one was new to me.  It is basically no different than watered down Elmer's but it has a fun name!  What Hope introduced to me to is the idea of using Mod Podge to make a collage on a small canvas.  You can use paper or, in my case, fabric. In the last few months, I have won several small fabric sets and have not been sure what to do with them.  This was a perfect craft for these smaller pieces of fabric.  

This was also a great activity for an dreary day when both kids were home early from school.  

 

 So, here we have the scene: my kitchen, laminated fabric to protect table, books of paper from craft store, Mod Podge, stack of small canvases, small bin of fabric, scissors.

 There are different kinds of Mod Podge. I bought Matte.

 Do I use the Anna Griffin or the Anna Maria Horner?

 Set of 10 small canvases.

 Oldest daughter just wanted to paint on hers.

 She decided to switch to acrylic paint at some point.

Youngest daughter started off with Dot to dot paints. 

 Then, she switched to watercolors.

 

 So, here is what I did. I cut up small pieces of fabric and arranged them on the canvas to look like a flower.  I painted glue over and under each piece as I went.

 Work in progress.  The glue is white but dries clear.

 Here I am,  hard at work.

 My second picture, halfway done.  Here's how to do it:  Cut curvy pieces of fabric or paper and layer them.  Cut smaller pieces as you go along.  Layer them in a circular manner.  Who cares if raw edges show? Contrary to popular opinion, flowers are not perfect. They have rough edges and flubs and slubs, so there is no way to get this wrong!

 The finished products, hanging above my kitchen window.  

I think I need to do two more to fill out that whiteness!

 Closeup #1

Closeup #2

This project took an hour from start to finish!

A fun new project!

This week (and a bit of last) I have undertaken a fun new project, to make a flutter-sleeved top similar to one sent to me by a customer.  Here is the original.

Here is a closeup of the top portion.  It has a square neckline, different from what I am used to sewing.  I have made several flutter-sleeve tops, most notably this one from a McCalls pattern and this one from TieDyeDiva. 

 This one has a square neckline so I had to modify the patterns to make this work. 

Here's my first attempt at a bodice.

 Here's my model.  It fits her well! 

Back View: 

 So, now on to trying it out with this fabric!

Is there anything better than baby Ottobre?

I have been busy the last few weeks but unable to blog about what I have been doing because it has all been sewing for a friend!  I didn't want to ruin the surprise. However, now that her baby shower has come and gone, I can tell you about it!  

Baby Ottobre!  Oh my, what lovely patterns I had to choose from!  Several years of Ottos yielded a huge array of choices.   I decided against one-piece rompers or sleepers because I figured she would get a lot of those from other people.  Since this is a Spring baby, I decided to pick a Spring issue.  I went with issue 3/2009.  

Meet Cecile, Cassia, Toffee, Hermione, and Lola!  These were all done in fabrics from Chez Ami and Michael Miller.

Here is Toffee tunic #1 with Cassia shorts #1 and Hermione, the cutest hat in the entire world!   These were all made with Sarah Jane Children at Play fabrics, for Michael Miller.

This hat pattern was not easy.  It is not a beginner's sewing project but after much patience and more than a few seams ripped and redone, here she is in all her glory.

 I modified the pattern to add a strap so it would stay on a tiny head. 

And, yes, it is reversible!  These are all Children at Play fabrics by Sarah Jane for Michael Miller.  Love this line!

Brim can be worn up or down!

Here is Toffee tunic #2 with Cassia shorts #2.  More Sarah Jane fabrics. 

 

Here is Cecile blouse #1 and Lola leggings #1 made from Chez Ami cotton lycra. I modified the pattern to use fold-over elastic for the neckline. 

 Same process for Cecile #2 and Lola #2.  Also, CA fabrics. The blouse, however, is jersey this time.

The idea was to make everything mix and matchable to stretch out how often they can be worn.  Mama-to-be was very happy and I am hopeful these will get worn! I told her I will make her a stuffed doll when her little girl outgrows all of this, just so the baby can then play with the dolly, who can wear these tops and dresses!  

Feeling blue........and green

Feeling a bit of blue and green this week, and I need some new clothes, so I broke out a pattern I bought a while ago but never made: Fashion Formula Skirts Mini Booklet by Serendipity Studio.  This is a great booklet!  Very well written and easy to use.  You might have to break out the calcultor to figure out 86 times 1.25 but that is about as hard as it gets. I used this one to make the following, using only blue and green fabrics from my stash:

Well, now, that is a pretty horrible picture, isn't it? I just could not get this baby to photograph well, no matter where I put it.  I am not a tiny person, so there's a lot of fabric in there!  It just never looked good, no matter what I tried. But this is not bad.  Okay, whatever, anyway the fabric at the top is all Tula Pink Prince Charming.  The lower two tiers are Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow.    Modern Meadow is a very pretty line, but check out Prince Charming.  I love Tula Pink!  Most quilting fabric is either pretty, cute, or geometrical.  It is rarely artsy at the level it is with Tula Pink.  You have to check out her blog and look at her new book, her original art, and her other collections.

This was a very easy skirt to make.  You just do the math to figure out the sizes for your tiers. I used my machine to gather.  I just set the stitch length and tension to their highest settings and it ruffled just fine.  It did not do a perfectly spaced gather, as a gathering foot would do, but I did not mind that for this project.  It made it a fast skirt to sew.  There is an option to put a wee ruffle between each layer or a different strip of fabric, but I was going for simple here.  The top has a simple casing and I made a button hole 

I whipped out another project today, for my brother!  He and his family are trying to live a crunchy, green lifestyle, to be good stewards of the planet.  So, I made him (them) some cloth napkins!  In my own family, we eat on a table cloth and use cloth napkins every night.  In my opinion, dark prints hide stains best, so I tapped the green and blue stash again.  I made two different sizes, so they can choose which they like.  There's some Tula Pink again (green), some Amy Butler Organic (navy and blue) and some Dena Designs Tea Garden. 

They have a sweet little beachie bungalo all decorated in blues, so I hope they love these.  Happy Birthday John!!!