For a New Little One to Come in February

My cousin and his wife are expecting their second little boy in February. So I whipped up a couple bibs and a burp cloth. I used up some Harmony Art flannel scraps I had to make one bib and the burp cloth while the other two bibs are cowboy style—done in red and blue paisleys. I know they must have a ton of baby boy things already, but the way I see it, you can’t ever have too many bibs or burp cloths.
It seems everyone around me is announcing a new baby to come, so I’m going to get to work on more bibs and burp cloths once I find out the sexes. I’m thinking some little appliques to snazz them up a bit.

Again, I used the pattern from Chickpea Sewing Studio for the bib and drafted my own for the burp cloth.
Progress on Hayden’s quilt (which I started back in July) is coming along. I had it stashed away for pretty much all of October but dug it out again because I’ll be seeing her at the end of the month. Now that I have a deadline, I should work more quickly and efficiently. I do believe the next baby quilt will be machine quilted.

Wardrobe Staple.

Every woman needs a little black (preferably linen) pencil skirt in her wardrobe. I’ve looked high and low over the years for that skirt, with no success. It either had too many fancy details or was ridiculously over-priced. So I finally decided to just make my own. Why I didn’t do it sooner, I don’t know. But I have been so happy with this skirt and wearing it all the time, especially with pretty tights.
Along with my dark rinse skinny jeans and my age-old corduroy blazer, I think this is slated to be a staple for me. I foresee a lot of use out of this skirt–I mean, it goes with everything.
Now to think of the little black dress…

How about you? What are your wardrobe staples? Any of them handmade?

I Wished I Knitted and Thoughts on Names

Photo via here.

I really wish I knitted better because there are a couple awesome patterns out there with my name.
Yes, Liesl. (Or Liesel*)
All my life, I always stopped to look at those racks of personalized mugs or key chains, hoping, maybe there was that off chance they’d have mine. But alas, the only place it didn’t go from Leslie to Lisa was at a little gift shop in Southern Germany. And even then, the little hook with “Liesl” just stood there, sadly vacant. Someone had beaten me to them. I always cherished gifts given to me with my name engraved or embroidered on—especially a little denim purse with orange letters spelling my name.
And now, my crafty self finds these patterns and I don’t even knit. Hmmph! Is there a pattern or something special out there with your name that you love? Characters in a book or movie? Where or how did your parents get your name? (Mine is from The Sound of Music.)
And while I’m on this topic: I also found a crochet pattern for Spectator Gloves. And I’m in love. (Actually, I’m in love with everything from the Adventures of Jessica Rose shop. It all looks so classy and soft and gorgeous.) I want a pair. But I can’t afford them pre-made and I’m not sure I could understand the pattern if I bought it.

*There are no photos on this site that I could find but a simple Google Search will provide some.

Why Yes! These Aprons Are Made of Awesome!

It was a beautiful day today and I had the luxury of a free day to sew. So I finished up the next batch of aprons (with the windows open) and then went out to get pictures. I’ve got two more almost done and then I cut into the new Amy Butler Love prints.
Check out non-poladroid pictures over in the Aprons Set at Flickr. They will all be listed in the shop this week.

St. Brigid’s Cross Coaster Tutorial

As mentioned last night, here is the tutorial. These coasters were inspired by the shape of St. Brigid’s Cross. I think they look great with some stripes, like this ticking. If you want to bust your scraps, you can always use different prints in one coaster.

Finished coaster size is 4 1/2”

These instructions are for ONE COASTER. You need to repeat for however many coasters you want.

You’ll need:
One 2 1/4″ x at least 12″ of main fabric and one 1 1/4″ x at least 12″ of contrast fabric
(Or four 2 1/4” x 3″ of main fabric and four 1 1/4″ x 3″ of contrast fabric if you’re working with smaller or different pattern scraps.)
5 1/4” x 5 1/4” back fabric
5 1/4” x 5 1/4” of cotton batting

Cut the pieces.

With the right side of the main fabric up and the wrong side of the contrast fabric up, line up the long edges of the fabrics. This is the shortcut. You can sew each 3” piece individually. Sew 1/4″ along the long seam. Then iron seam open.

Cut at 3” intervals.

You should have four pieces that look like this.

Lay them out so you get a good idea of what it’ll look like finished.

Place one piece in front of you like this, with the contrast to the left.

Then, with right sides together place another square on top with the contrast at the top. Stitch along the top seam.

Repeat for the other two squares. Then flip one so it look like this.

With right sides together, stitch the middle seam bringing it all together.

Next layer the batting, the back fabric (right side up) and the coaster top (right side down).

Stitch all layers together leaving an opening.

I recommend leaving the opening along a stretch where there is no seam, like seen in the photo. This is so you won’t risk pulling the seam open when turning right-side out.

Clip the corners.

Now turn inside out, using a something blunt but pointy, like a crochet hook to poke out the corners. Iron nicely.

Stitch about 1/8” around the edges, closing up the opening.

Or you can simply whip stitch the opening close, like I did for these or these.
And you’re done with one coaster. Repeat for the next three or five or seven or nine hundred ninety nine.

Questions or comments or notice any errors, feel free to contact me.
For personal use only please.

Simple Small Hobo Winner and Other Things

I’m logging off the computer for the night so that means it’s time to draw the winner for the Simple Small Hobo Giveaway. The lucky comment is number 10, so that means Shalet of Peculiar Momma is our winner. I’ll send you an email now. : )

Thanks to everyone for participating! It was interesting to see which items in my shop catch people’s fancy.

Today was a busy day around here. We had a bit of an Indian Summer and my father and a friend took advantage of the weather to cook a brisket over the fire pit as well as make up a batch of apple butter. I myself enjoyed the weather by going for a short hike with the twin, hence the photos.

Also worked on a new tutorial to share with you. So stay tuned. I’m thinking it’ll be up tomorrow.

My Place & Yours : Secret Weapon

I’ve decided to play along in My Place & Yours over at Meet Me at Mikes.
The theme this week is “Secret Weapon.”

My first thought was my stash or scrap box because all I have to do is dig one out and start playing around with the fabrics and I’m dreaming up new ideas. But then I realized, maybe my real Secret Weapon is my Music. I never sew in silence. Whether the tunes are streaming out of my laptop and filling the room or pouring into my ears via headphones, drowning everything else out, they are always present and keeping me going. It’s like fuel to the fire.
I’m currently obsessed with Sarah Jaffe.
(PS: There is still time to enter the Simple Small Hobo Giveaway here on my blog. Comments close later tonight, EST and I’ll announce the winner!)
Hope your weekend is going splendidly.

Friday Recap

Here are the interesting bits of my past week:

Realized I have a stack of books that need reading before I buy anymore. (I really should stop perusing eBay.) Which do you think I should dive into next?

I’m loving Sarah Jaffe.

My Hexagon Eyeglasses Case Tutorial was featured in the ‘Read’ section of Sew Mama Sew’s Handmade Holidays series. If you haven’t checked out this series yet, you really should. Not only do they feature a ton of awesome tutorials to make and handmade things to buy, but they are also giving away a ton of great prizes.

A great tutorial from Pink Penguin.

Happy that the Yankees won the Series!

I received a surprise present in the mail recently from my Grandmother–my very own yogurt maker.

And the shop is well stocked with make-up bags.

What about you? Anything new or exciting done or found or enjoyed this past week?

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. :)

(Also, are the photo’s of the polka dot jumper showing up in the sidebar for anyone? They aren’t for me. I was going to feature a photo or two of my most recent creation in the sidebar, but I fear it may not be working out.) [EDIT: I've figured something else out. Thanks everyone.]

My Creative Space

My crafty time this week has been filled with working on a handful of different things for the upcoming craft market. I bounce back and forth between sewing up aprons, makeup bags, even a couple skirts. The To-Do Pile is gradually getting smaller and The Completed Pile is growing. The one consistency is the light spilling in. Since the time change the light floods in the window of my west facing room a lot earlier. And I like it.

Now to dive into a big box of fabric the UPS man brought me–which includes some of Amy Butler’s ‘Love’ prints!

Check out more creative-y spaces over at Kootoyoo.

And don’t forget to enter the Simple Small Hobo Giveaway here on my blog.

Simple Small Hobo Giveaway

EDIT:
Thanks for playing along everyone, but the comments are not closed and the winner to be drawn.

I was going through my stock and I realized I still have this purse. I made it quite a while ago but never listed it in the shop. It features a golden paisley cotton fabric and yellow cotton lining. There is an elastic and fair trade bamboo toggle closure. Inside zipper pocket. Measures about 9″ tall by 12″ wide by 2″ deep with a 21″ strap.

I’m currently working on a much larger version for the shop. But I decided to give this away to one of you dear readers so it can hopefully have a good life on someone’s shoulder, as opposed to a hanger in the closet. You’ll also have to love it despite it’s minor imperfections.

The rules of the giveaway are simple. All you have to do is swing over to my shop and tell me what your favorite item is and if you know why that would be cool. One entry per person. Comments close sometime this weekend. Open internationally.

Earn extra entries by sharing this on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc. What you do is share it on one of the social networking sites or your blog and leave a extra comment here on this post saying you did so for each site you shared it on–maybe even include a link. I’m working with the honor system here so please play fair.