Dishies for a Friend

DISHCLOTH TACOS!

One of my very best friends just moved into a new place, in a new city, in a new province even!  Her and her hubby packed up a UHaul full of everything they owned in Toronto, ON, and drove it straight across the country (with a brief stop-over in Manitoba to visit family) to Edmonton, AB.  For two people who haven't driven much in the last 5 years, this was apparently a bit of a nerve-wracking trip, especially in parts of Northern Ontario, which is known for it's narrow highways and terrifyingly windy, hilly roads walled in with rock on either side.

I certainly didn't envy them the trip.

Love the textures on these easy to make dishcloths.  Great for scrubbing dirty dishes!

 I am excited for their new start in a new city though!  Apparently they found a nice house to rent with a yard and everything!  And since everyone loves to receive things in the mail, I thought I'd send them a welcome home gift.  Have you guessed yet what that was?  :D

They kind of turned out a bit...skewed...

Yep, I made them a set of dishcloths, like what my Grandma sent me for Christmas!  I have scads of this dishcloth cotton lying around, and it was about time that I started to use it. For those interested, it's the Grandmother's Favourite pattern (Ravelry link).  Of course, mine didn't turn out nearly as uniform as my Grandma's, but I guess perfection is the result of over 70 years of knitting, and I can't touch that yet with my measly 1.5 years. 

Still, pretty little dishcloths.  Pair them with a gift card to Canadian Tire and a babbly letter, and I think that makes for a nice Housewarming gift, don't you agree?

Bedroom Curtain Sewing Saga ala Twitter

      

BAM. Never again.

AAAARRRT!

While I haven't gotten any sewing done this weekend, I have (finally) hung up my art project. It's be complete for weeks, I've just been too lazy busy to hang it up. It may not be the fanciest thing in the world, but I'm pleased with it. Sorry about the awful pictures, my camera is on it's last legs, and I think it might be time for a new one.

The lace here was a gift from a friend, who found scraps of it at a garage sale and gave it to me. Thanks Sara!

I wasn't originally going to use this frame in the project. Despite that, it turned out to be my favourite.

As I mentioned before, I collected up a bunch of frames from thrift stores and painted them all white. Then I just used fabric, lace, and these stick on mirror sparrows to make a nice collage in the frames. They didn't turn out quite the way I pictured it in my head, but I'm pleased with it anyways. Better than the bare wall that was there previously!

The wide lace on the left was sent to me by Stacie. It's partially what inspired this project. Thank you!

This whole project was initially inspired by Tanit-Isis's post about lace, and a comment made by ElleC. I immediately latched onto the idea of framing lace, and knew that's what my collection of frames would be used for.

While I really do like the whole look, this has pushed my subtle bird theme to decidedly unsubtle levels.

In other news, I also managed to get my cork board hung up (finally) above my sewing table. And then proceeded to fill it up with all sorts of inspiration! If you look closely, you might have an idea of what I'm planning for my spring wardrobe.

If I ever finish this bloody coat, that is.

Paint Day!

My sewing day today was a complete bust. Seriously, nothing has gone right, so I made the executive decision to change Sewing Day to Paint Day.

I've been itching to work on my home decor anyways.

So I've been accumulating low-priced wood frames from thrift stores for a while now with the intention to do some sort of artwork for my living room walls. But I've been stalled on what to put in the frames.

Then Tanit-Isis wrote a post about the sudden increase in her lace collection, and between the pretties she shared and ElleC's comments on the post, I had an Inspiration!

These are my frames, all painted the same colour to make the different shapes more cohesive. Add fabric backing and some pretty lace, and voila! Instant (and inexpensive) artwork for my walls!

Never mind a chance to use some of the lace that I love and have no idea what to do with. :)

Treasure Hunting Yarrr!

I'm sorry dear readers, I've been rather quiet of late. It's not that I haven't been sewing (boy have I been sewing) or that I don't have anything to say (scads of potential posts dance in my head). It's just that I've had no desire to write any of it down. I've been in a bit of a funk lately, and that means I haven't really wanted to share much of myself.

Now that I realize this, I'm going to work on beating it. I'll try to make it up to you with all the posts that's been dancing in my head. They really need to be evicted.

The post ideas started off slow, gentle. Lovely to consider, but easy to put aside for another day.


But then they became this:


A little bit harder to ignore.

So in an attempt to ease my way into this again, I'm going to share the results of my adventures last week and weekend! Not strictly related to sewing, but tangentially related. That counts, right?

Of course it does!

So, a bit of back story. When I moved into my place, I bought this couch:

Ugly, eh? I thought it was ugly in a lovely way, but within a couple days I couldn't lie to myself any more: it was just plain ugly. I couldn't do anything with it! How could I make fun and lovely pillows when they'd go on that monstrosity?! So the couch had to go.

Last week, I found this gem on kijiji, and after a thorough check over, bribing a helper with a truck, and a steam cleaning, it's replaced my monstrosity. SO MUCH BETTER and so much more comfortable! And the best part is I can make funky pillows for it now! (The crochet owl pillow came with the couch. BONUS!)

See, tangentially related to sewing!

So now that I've got some living room furniture I'm not utterly ashamed of, I want to start finding some art for my walls. And since I've been cruising past the Mulvey Flea Market twice a day, every single day on my way to and from work and it's only a 20 minute walk from my place, I decided that Saturday was going to be TREASURE HUNTING DAY!

And boy what treasures were there to be found!

I got these two framed pictures for my sewing nook area (sorry for the crummy quality pictures), because who can resist Victorian ruffly dresses? Got the pair for $40, which I think is a pretty good deal, considering the crap I've been seeing at the stores lately for a lot more than that.

Now if I could just find the hardware to my cork board and hang the thing up, my sewing nook will start looking quite respectable. (Although I really need to tidy up and do something with that chair. A bit of paint and new fabric maybe?)

Then I found this art deco-y nouveau (thanks Fuss!) mirror, which is looking lovely on my living room window sill. I paid $20 for it, which is maybe a little steep, but I fell in love immediately and even managed to haggle the seller down a bit (I'm pants at haggling).

Seriously, I love the woman peeping into the mirror. This is something that's staying with me for a loooong time!

And finally, I found an oval mirror for my entry way, because I'm sick of stomping across my living room with my boots on to see if my scarf and hat are on decently straight. Plus it reminded me of one my Great Aunt had that I adored. $15, thank you very much.

Top it off with a hot cuppa coffee at my new favourite local independent coffee shop and a bowl of homemade potato dill soup, and I call the day a success!

Next up...an actual sewing project! Remember, keep your eyes peeled for treasure, in whatever form you find it in. :)

Too Many Projects homg

Ever since I started work, my posting schedule has gone down the tubes. I have a post in the works about the PR Day a few of us celebrated here in Winnipeg, but that'll have to wait for the weekend when I'm less brain-fried from field work.

For now, I thought I'd share what I've been up to, and give an answer to the question I asked in my last post.

So you take this thing,

...add a 'floating' sink and some velcro,

...and you get this!

A really cute way to hide all your bathroom stuff when you only have a medicine cabinet for storage! And it helps make my very 50's pink bathroom look less frumpy and more fun. Add the perfect shower curtain and rug, and you get this:

Seriously, the bathroom started as the ugliest room in the apartment and quickly became my favourite. I have a bit more trim I may add to the skirt to fancy it up a bit more, but we'll see. Now I need to add a curtain along the lines of the sink skirt to my back-entry-facing window, and this bathroom will be perfect!

*~~*~~*

My cross-stitch project is coming along nicely. Okay, so I have a ways to go, but it's still fun to do and is easy to put away if I'm getting tired of it. The hardest part is remembering that it's there to work on, since I'm very 'out of sight out of mind'.

*~~*~~*

Haven't been sewing much, but tonight I started a pair of panties from a t-shirt, sort of like the ones I made before. I was put off doing them after I received a very creepy email from someone about them, but I figured forget them. I'm not letting some internet creep keep me from making something fun, and it's also not going to keep me from sharing it with you. You just wont ever see me modeling them!

Anyways, I finally just put on a movie (Sense and Sensibility) and traced out the Team Canada pair that I love and wear as often as I hygienically can. They are, without a doubt, my favourite and most comfy panties, and I need more of them. Hopefully this copy will be just as comfy.

I'm even thinking of putting my new-found cross-stitching skills to use and making a pretty flower on them, since this pair is a little plain.

*~~*~~*

I started a top using this fabric ages ago, part of a series I was planning to make and post about. I may still do that, but this UFO has been sitting here needing the sleeves eased in since way before I started my job last September. I adore the fabric, the fit is fantastic (nearly perfected from an earlier version), and it's nearly done, has been nearly done for ages. Why can't I just get these sleeves in already?! SHEESH.

*~~*~~*

This doesn't even include the projects I want to start...now. Including a winter coat, although I'll get into that more this weekend. Never mind the Christmas presents I have in mind! ACK!

*~~*~~*

I know I'm not the only one who has too many projects on the go. How many do you guys have on your sewing table?

Here's to finishing them up!

...Someday.

Thinking Pink Blouse, and Other Rambles

I was planning on posting when I finished the project that I'm working on, but it occurred to me that I'll never actually post anything that way. Plus I have too many fun things to share, and I'm at a tedious part of my project.

So PR is having a 'Think Pink' contest, and all the lovely pink garments in the gallery really inspired me. I figured 'hey, I need more office work blouses (I've been itching to make this Simplicity 2339 pattern), and a pink one would be fun!'

Then I got sent out of town for the weekend. However, when I got there on Friday morning, they told me they only needed me for the day, so luckily I was able to get my plane ticket changed and was home by Friday night. A shopping trip yesterday yielded this lovely pink chambray! Up until yesterday, I didn't know what a chambray was. According to thefreedictionary.com, it's a lightweight plain weave fabric where white threads are woven with a coloured warp. According to ehow.com, it was originally created in Cambria, France, from which the fabric name was derived.

Learning all this made me realize that my Lucky Business Dress is made of a chambray. YAY! That was really bugging me. My pink fabric feels a bit heavier and less flow-y than what I used for the dress, though. It doesn't iron out as smoothly either, so maybe the fiber content is different between the two.

Anyways, I have all the pieces cut out for the blouse, and just need to finish transferring the bajillion markings and find cut out the interfacing pieces. I'm really hoping to finish this thing tonight, because I have to leave for field work tomorrow morning, and won't be back until the weekend (I hope). The contest closes on the 31st (a Monday), so I should be able to photograph the top and get my review made up when I get back.

*~***~*

I've been slowly settling into my apartment. I'm no where near finished unpacking, but I'm getting some parts of my sewing nook set up. I came up with a cute way to organize my patterns! I sorted the patterns according to type (tops, bottoms, coordinates, dresses, etc.), and then made little dividers to put between the sets. Instead of labeling them, I drew on fun little images of the pattern types. They make me smile whenever I see them, and it's so much easier to find what I'm looking for now!

I found a few other treasures during my shopping trip yesterday. At the fabric store, I picked up some black broadcloth and a bunch of fun trim and hardware to make a curtain and an under-sink skirt in my bathroom. I have a big window in there that faces the back entry (and I'm on the main floor, too), which most people use or smoke in front of, and while I have blinds on it, it still makes me nervous to shower at night in there. I figured I'd make a curtain to cover any gaps in the blinds. I'm super excited to get it finished and show it off to you all, because while I hated the (pink, 1950's style) bathroom when I first saw it, it's quickly becoming my favourite room in the apartment!

The other thing I found was this 1960's dress pattern, in what is nearly my size! A bit of alteration will be needed to fit it, but I'm super excited that I get to make my own '60's dress after giving away all those lovelies in my vintage pattern giveaway! I think I finally found a pattern for a piece of black and white polka dot fabric I found this past spring!

Although now I'll probably eat my own words on how much I like that older patterns don't baby you along. Oh well, it'll be an interesting challenge!

ETA1: Oh! If any of you like this pattern and are looking for a size 20, I found one on etsy. Looks like it's in much better condition than mine, too! Actually, tcmally appears to have scads and scads of vintage patterns, so go check her out.

ETA2: I should also note that I did actually get something done for the Friday Night Sew-In, although it wasn't much. I managed to work out what sizes I'd need to cut out for Simplicity 2339, and got the pattern prepared for it. I forgot to mention above, but I've totally played with the sizes here, starting at size 16 around the shoulders and neckline, size 18 for the arms and bust, size 20 at the waist, and 22 at the hips (PR reviews indicated that there wasn't a lot of ease through the hips). Obviously I'm a little more pear shaped than I was last year. Mmm...pears. :)