Quick update/More pillowcases

The past week has been so busy between work and my last masters class that I haven't had much time to even think about the projects I want to complete. Though after inviting my Mom over for dinner last night I got into a bit of sewing mood and wanted to complete the (king size) pillow cases that she wanted me to make for her. I made them right before she came so that she could take them home with her after dinner. Here is picture of the finished product...

Such a cute print!

Then this morning, I decided to finally make the Valentine's Day (standard size) pillow cases. Just in time for the holiday this week.

I think I am the pillowcase queen now. I have made so many of them. The good news is that it now takes me longer to cut the fabric than it does for me to sew them together! I hope that you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day! I am very much looking forward to spending the evening with my husband celebrating our first Valentine's Day as a married couple. I put together some fun things for him (none that I made unfortunately) but I am excited to give it to him.

Enjoy your week everyone! Please follow me if you're not already. Then leave me a comment or question... They make me happy and reading them serves as a nice break from my masters project. :)

Work, School and the Flu.

Yup, aren't you jealous? That's what my week looked like in a nutshell. I was in the office a ton extra this week (and weekend for that matter) prepping for new units that I'm starting to teach this week. I started feeling sick on Tuesday and somehow made it through teaching two more days. Though when it came time for me to attend the first day of my last masters class Thursday night I was running a fever and didn't feel like going. But I couldn't miss so I sat in class aching and feeling horrible. I spent all of Friday on the couch taking nap after nap with my cat. Feeling a bit better I got a little bit done on stuff for work. Today I went in to work to get a bit more done and I was able to work on my gifts for my pregnant friends. This week was not full of fun blog writing type events, so sorry for the boring post. I hope you enjoy this picture of my Princess napping...

Decisions, Decisions!

I have purchased a few (or 4) sewing books! We have a local craft/sewing store going out of business (SAD since I just started to appreciate this store) and they were clearing out their books at 40% off so I picked up two books there. I am in LOVE with the first one (One Yard Wonders), there are many things I want to make out of this book and it comes with patterns. I have also realized I love purses/bags... especially the idea that I can make them out of the CUTEST fabrics!

I also picked up two more on amazon because I had a gift card to use (THANKS Grandpa & Grandma!) I am learning lots form Sewing A to Z and  I know I will be using it as a reference often. The second is another One Yard Wonder book, with some more cute ideas. I think I like the first one a bit more just because it has a few more things I want to sew out of it. However, I am still glad I purchased this one as well because I will want to make more of the patterns in it when I start a family.

I picked up a few more patterns since Joann's was running a nice sell on them this past week. Also, this weekend there is a 25% off your whole purchase deal for teachers. I LOVE my job and especially the discounts that stores run for those of us in the profession!

So, in other words... I am currently stocked up on supplies for several projects but I am having a hard time deciding which one I want to start with! Silly, I know but alas I am just too excited to choose!

Before I can start on new projects, I have three projects I need to complete in the next few weeks.

#1 Larger pillowcases: For my Mom, since she has larger pillows on her king size bed. We found some super cute fabric for $2 a yard!

#2 Baby gifts: I have a couple of friends that are due in April. I am (hopefully) making them some super cute things but I don't want to say too much because they just might read about it before they get them. There will be a future post on this after my friends have their gifts!

#3 Pillowcases: (since I'm a pro at those!) I am making them for different holidays. I have bought fabric for Valentines day, St. Patrick's day, Easter, and Halloween. Now I just need to make them!

Then there are THESE (below)... which are all projects I want to make too!

Top Left: Bag with pockets on the sides for water bottles and such.
Top Center: Book bag w/ a large front pocket (In much cuter fabric!) - From: One Yard Wonders
Top Right: PJ's!!! :) I bought some awesome fabric to make Pj pants for my hubby and I
Bottom Left: Plastic bag holder -From: One Yard Wonders
Bottom Middle: Aprons, simple and fancier choices
Bottom Right: Apron with pot holders built in

Now that you can see what I am so excited about, help me! Which should I try? Any experienced sewers have a suggestion for me as to which would be the easiest? I don't think any of them are overly complicated and none have evil bias tape... :) Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

Not so "easy" Grocery Bag

Week Two:

OK. I have finished my first pattern made sewing project. I have to say the package lied that it was much harder than I thought! I had many times where I got frustrated and wanted to throw something (or burn the pattern.) I made it through eventually... after venting to my husband and having pure determination to finish my first project.

Here are some pictures...
First, after using the pattern to cut out the fabric.












Next: Adding the bias tape border around the handles... I found this to be one of the hardest parts and the only part of the project that I am not overly happy with how it came out... I would not consider using bias tape on inverted corners like this to be an easy task for a beginning sewer. Maybe that's just my opinion and lack of sewing skills though? Anyone have any wisdom they would like to share with me on this topic? I would love to be able to know how it should really work, should I need to do something similar in another project.


Here it is after doing french seams on the sides. The pattern is NOT CLEAR as to how this is supposed to be done. I found a blog, from another novice sewer, where she wrote about this pattern that linked me to a video on youtube that helped a lot more then the pattern did. (She also had trouble with this pattern, which made me feel a bit better about the whole thing!)
Here is the link to the video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvb2TaHUu-U

FINALLY the finished product!

It helped a lot to look at a step by step picture guide of another similar bag that I found here...
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=177482.0
I personally think the pocket should be a bit higher because once you load the bag full the pocket becomes rather useless... If I were to ever (not positive I will though) make it again, I would definitely move it up or make it taller. However, I am thinking that if I really wanted to make a bag like this then I would just use the link above because the bag from the link has no evil bias taping and it has cute lining inside!

Here's a little something else I made this week...

My husband made me a rice hot/cold pack for part of my Christmas present. He even used my sewing machine (I was totally shocked and impressed!)

He also bought some super cute fabric to make little covers for it too! Today I made one of the covers... no pattern or anything, I just measured it and went from there. I think it came out super cute! My husband knows me very well, I just LOVE this fabric!

Over all I am glad that I can say that I finished my first pattern project. It wasn't a huge failure so I will maybe try something else soon... really not sure what to try next. Any ideas for a beginning sewer?

Please leave me a comment with your thoughts, advice or ideas!

My helper...

I totally forgot to add this picture of my little helper from yesterday. Her name is "Princess Fiona"... because her green eyes reminded me of one of my favorite movies, Shrek! She is always following me around and seeing how she can get in my way help. When I was finished she promptly took a nap to recover from being so helpful.

Getting organized

Well I decided that I should clean all the crap out of organize my office so that I can be prepared for blogging this year. My husband and I rent a cute 1000 square foot house from his parents that is just perfect for the two of us. It is a 3 bedroom house and the master is our room of course. There is a storage guest room and then there is my storage office/music/reading/craft room. Previously (until 9 hours ago) my office was filled with my school papers, sewing supplies and filing boxes from when I moved in that I had not completely gone through. It looks MUCH better now!

As you can see I have created a little sewing area along the back wall of my office. I covered two of my empty filing boxes with white wrapping paper to use as a bit nicer looking storage containers for fabric and projects. I also bought a storage container at target today to house my patterns. I know that they used to make boxes specifically designed of storing patterns but they do not seem to exist any more. I finally found one that will fit my patterns, though they will have to lay on their side for now. As you can see I have plenty of room for more patterns!

I also found this little beauty on sale at target! I thought it was adorable and I needed something to help store extra supplies that wont all fit in my adorable sewing basket.

Here is the adorable and awesome sewing basket my Aunt gave me for Christmas! It is so nice to have my supplies all organized instead of in plastic Joann's shopping bags. :)

Well, now I am all organized and ready to begin my first non-pillow case sewing project. I received a Christmas gift from another music teacher colleague of mine. She is so sweet and picked out a super amazing sewing project for me... complete with pattern, fabric and bias tape! Here is what I am hoping to attempt in the next week so that I can show her the finished project when I return to work from winter break.

Wish me luck! I will post pictures if it doesn't turn out to be a huge mess of the finished product in my post next week.

New look... for my blog that is!

Well, I have spent some time trying to come up with a brand new look for my blog. What do you think? It is quite a change from what it looked like before. I am hoping to actually post constantly this year. My goal is once a week. You may ask what I will be blogging about... Well, I am still thinking about that! Most likely it will be about work, school, sewing, cooking (recipes) and trying new things. Not sure if I'll try to post on the same day each week... I am sure it will depend on work and school. Well, that's it for now... be on the look out for a lot more posts!