The suspense is killing me!

Since we are now less than 2 hours from the contest deadline, I've decided to unveil my potholder beauty. I have been on the edge of my seat for days in anticipation for the end of the contest. I can't wait to find out the results, and even if I don't win, I can't wait to see the winning potholders for inspiration!

So... drum roll please....

It was really fun creating this potholder! The concept came about when I was talking to my husband and explaining the contest. I mentioned how much I hate when I've got the kitchen timer going off and I can't seem to find two potholders, then trying to find a place to set the hot dish down without burning the surface I put it on. So together we came up with this idea - a double potholder when a section that connects them that can rest underneath the dish to protect the surface.

So we'll see what happens! The winners will be officially announced on the Prudent Baby blog next Monday, Valentine's Day!

Is it a sign? Has the time finally come?

My new project is completed, but I won't be unveiling it until after February 9th. Prudent Baby is currently holding a competition for the best potholders, and the 2 winners will receive a sewing machine. I have finished my two entries and can't wait to share them. In the meantime, here's a story sure to make your bumps goose (ok, exaggeration, but it's my blog and I'll embellish if I want to).


As I mentioned in my Inspiration post, I'm currently borrowing my mom's sewing machine. About 3 months after my son was born, I bought an incredibly beautiful Limited Edition Project RunwayInnov-ís 40, with the honest intention of starting up an Etsy business. I fell in love with this machine from the moment I saw it zip through denim like a hot knife through butter, and so I bought it. Fast-forward to a week later and despite my best intentions, I just didn't find the time to sew that I thought I would. And with great sadness, I returned the machine, knowing that someday the stars would align and my beauty would come back to me.


Well wouldn't you know it, the time has come! One of the machines being given away in the competition is the EXACT same machine! I discovered this while browsing for a tutorial on the Prudent Baby website and nearly jumped out of my chair in delight, knowing that I would once again, soon, have my girl back in my arms.


And so, after many hours of designing and conspiring and sewing, and countless lost hours of sleep, I will be submitting my potholder ideas to Prudent Baby, awaiting the moment when I hear the knock on my door, and my long-lost daughter stands sheepishly at the doorstep, nervously and excitedly anticipating our reunion (are you gagging yet?).

Tootchie Approves!

So it looks as though Tootchie approves of her clothing as well! She's lost a few pounds since I measured her though, so I'll have to take her skirt in. Good for her!

Project 3 - Doll Clothes - 987 Days Left

Sorry for the fuzziness... Using a point and click camera. I really need to learn to use my better camera!

Cost Breakdown
Fabric: $4.37 (5/8 yard @ $6.99/yard, normally $9.99/yard [I already had the brown fabrics for the coat, so I only had to buy the fabric for the top/skirt])
Thread: $1.05 (normally $1.75 each)
Braiding for the coat: $2.46 (40% off 2.75 yards at $1.49/yard)
Hook and Eye enclosures: Again, I already had some of these, so $0
Pattern: $0 (my lovely friend whose daughter is receiving this as a birthday gift is paying me back for the pattern, so I won't count this in the cost)
Total Cost with tax: $7.88


This was definitely a fun project, because it was so cute to see the little clothes coming together as I went. I will say though that it was pretty difficult in some spots, and my husband discovered that I can make quite the creepy, guttural noises when I'm really irritated with something. Nonetheless, it was well worth it because a fabulous little girl who just turned 8 will be receiving this as a gift.


I didn't take pictures as I started the process since the pattern was pretty self-explanatory. But I did take some pictures of the more difficult stuff to showcase things I learned along the way.

Meet Morton. I don't have any good dolls to use as a model while making doll clothing. I have a son, so this is the best I've got. And so Morton was my lovely and gracious model during the process.

As you can see, I started with the top. It was fairly simple and straight forward. The only part that was a little bit tricky was lining up the velcro in the back, but thankfully my velcro happened to have sticky stuff on it, making this task fairly simple. Once I placed the sticky sides on the fabric, I just sewed around the velcro to attach it to the shirt.

The pattern calls for snaps on the arms, but since I don't have any snaps lying around, I used hook and eye enclosures. I figured this was a little more authentic to the time period of the clothing anyway (or maybe I just made that up to justify my lack of basic notions...)

Next came the skirt. This was even more simple than the top, and again, I used a hook and eye enclosure in the back instead of snaps.


Something to note - on both the top and skirt when it called for being hand sewn, I passed on that whole nonsense and used my sewing machine. I figured someone with incredible ingenuity created this machine for the purpose of avoiding sewing items by hand, and so I wanted to pay homage to that. I'm lazy pay homage to that as much as possible.

The first part of putting the coat together was very simple. I sewed the outside coat pieces and inside lining pieces together, then started on the hood.

This too was pretty simple. The pattern didn't call for it, but I top-stiched 1/4" in from the edge. Since the lining isn't cotton fabric and tends to be a little unruly, it just made for a cleaner and more manageable edge. Then I attached it to the coat as instructed.

This is when I started grunting, though not too audibly yet. It seems whoever created the pattern for this project assumed that the person making these clothes would be a more advanced seamstress than myself. 

The thing you see sticking out like a tongue is the hood between the pieces of fabric

So if you decide to make this pattern, or anything similar in the future, make SURE you stick the hood in between the lining and the outer coat fabric. 

At this point I had to take a break to harvest my farm. I was beginning to resemble a certain Patrick Star, thanks to my brain gears burning out from all that hard thinking stuff!

Now I had to attach the sleeve lining to the outer sleeve fabric. I vaguely remember this being the point when my grunts turned into mutterings outward displays of profanities and such, similar to King George VI (Colin Firth) in the King's Speech. Seriously, what beginning sewer can understand these directions: "Re-pin sleeves, RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER, matching notches and seams. Stich." Maybe it's just moi, but that's not at all self-explanatory.

What this REALLY means (thanks to this fabulous tutorial) is that after you've pulled the sleeves through the opening at the bottom of the jacket, you have to roll the outer fabric over a bit and pin the lining fabric to it. So here's a semi step-by-step as I rolled, pinned, and stitched.

Step 1 - Roll the outer coat fabric up a bit, like 1/2" or so

Step 2 - Pin the lining fabric to the outer fabric after sliding it over the roll

The sleeves look like this once pinned together correctly

Step 3 - Stitch the sleeves together

You'll know you followed these steps correctly if this is what your end result looks like

Thinking I was finally through with the most difficult part of my project, I then moved on to attaching the braiding to the coat.

The dark spot you see on the braiding is anti-fray gel

Pinning the braiding on was a breeze, but my machine was just not having it. 

I am a constantly evolving Spongebob Squarepants character.

So here's the final result once the braiding was attached to the outer edges of the coat. I still had to attach it to the sleeves. Once I did that, I started the final piece of the outfit - the muff for the hands.

The pattern calls for attaching the outer fabric and lining pieces together, then creating a casing for elastic. Again, this wasn't all that intuitive, as they didn't mention leaving an opening on each end (near the seam) for the elastic to enter and exit out of. This is how that should look...

Entering

Both sides with elastic through, stitched together, and trimmed

I didn't have any batting around, so I found another solution. Who would've thought that taking out one's aggressions on a defenseless teddy would feel SO good?

I then inserted the batting into the muff. I ended up using the dull end of my seam ripper to stuff it in and make the shape more uniform. It was rather bumpy and uneven before doing so, and my fingers didn't seem to be able to push it hard enough.

Once the batting was completely in, I hand-stitched (GAH, the sewing machine just couldn't do this job) the muff shut, and the project was complete!

Morton approves!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder!

I so desperately want to be sewing... All day... Every day. Unfortunately, I'm a full-time student and I have an exam coming up in a week, so I'm having to take a small break from sewing.

I am however in the middle of the next project I'll be posting, so stay tuned! I'm hoping to have it done this weekend, in between taking care of my mini man, reading, and inhaling coffee.

Thanks to all of you who are following me! It's a lot of fun to be working on something like this and have others along for the ride. It just makes it that much more enjoyable! <3

Project 2 - Ruffled Nursing Cover - 997 Days Left

The picture isn't really true to color... The ruffle and straps are fire engine red.

Cost Breakdown
Fabric: $13.90 ($6.95/yard, normally $8.95/yard)
Thread: $6.46 (2 @ $3.23 each, normally $5.39 each)
O-rings: $2.79 
Total Cost with tax: $25.23


I made this nursing cover for a friend who is expecting a little girl next month. It was totally fun, and I have to admit, I've made nursing covers in the past, but never one like this.


Here are my materials:

2 yards of decorative fabric, 1/2 yard of ruffle/strap fabric, heavyweight sew-in interfacing, O-rings, and a pipe thingy from Home Depot (yes, of course that is the technical term for it), which I had my wonderful husband cut into a 16" length for me.

I started by cutting two strips of fabric for the ruffle, both 5" wide (and the entire width of the fabric, which I think was 44"). I then pinned the two pieces together and left about a 5" gap open where I would turn the ruffle right side out (see picture below for gap in pins).

I then sewed the two pieces together, pivoting at the corner with my needle down to give the cleanest look to the fabric.

Poo... my bobbin cheapness led me to run out of thread mid-way through sewing...

I then turned the ruffle inside out and ironed it. I've found that ironing in between steps makes the fabric SO much easier to work with!

I don't have a ruffling foot, so I had to do the ruffles the old-fashioned way by creating two lines of thread across the length of the ruffle to bunch it up. It's VERY important not to backstitch at the beginning or the end of the threads, otherwise you won't be able to bunch the fabric up. I set my stitch length to the longest possible for ease of bunching, then sewed the two lines across the top of the ruffle.

Once done with the lines, I started bunching and made the ruffle about 36" in length, the finished width of the nursing cover.

I then cut my decorative fabric - two 25" x 37" pieces, which allows for a 1/2" seam to give a finished dimension of 24" x 36" (not including the ruffle).

Apparently I'm the only one with such an obsession for sewing...

So anywhoo, after cutting the decorative fabric, I cut the fabric for the straps, one 3" x 10" and one 3" x 18".

I then attached both O-rings to the shorter strap.

By the way, you may notice that I top-stitch EVERYTHING... I think it gives the final product a cleaner look, plus it makes the fabric much easier to work with and less difficult to iron after being washed.


So after adding the O-rings to the short strap, I pinned the ruffle to the decorative pieces of the fabric. As you can see in the picture, the side of the ruffle with the strings I pulled on is pinned to the bottom of the RIGHT side of one of the pieces of decorative fabric. I then took the other piece of fabric, RIGHT side facing DOWN, and pinned all three pieces together. This makes for a nice, strong seam and also makes it look more finished.

Here's what the ruffle looks like once sewn on and the fabric is turned right side out.

I then sewed the two short sides of the two pieces of decorative fabric together, leaving the top end where the straps will be attached completely open.

Afterward, I cut two 1" x 18" pieces of the interfacing, and sewed the long ends together, creating a housing for the piece of pipe thingy.

Inserting the piece of pipe thingy isn't very easy...

Once done with that, I found the center of the interfacing pipe thingy and matched it with the center of the top of the nursing cover. This way I was able to measure out to each side how far the straps had to be attached. (I forgot to take a picture of the straps attached... It was getting late and I forgot the most important sewing tool - coffee).

I attached the straps out as far as they needed so that each would just be at either end of the interfacing pipe thingy. I did this in the same manner that I attached the ruffle, but placing the raw end in between the decorative fabrics, sewing, then turning the fabric inside out.


I found the easiest way to get the interfacing pipe thingy placed was to drop it inside the hole at the top of the nursing cover once I turned it right side out, then topstitched around the entire nursing cover (therefore closing the interfacing pipe thingy inside) and positioning it at the top with pins, then sewing around it. Since I didn't think ahead to make a tube of fabric for it out of the top of the nursing cover, this was the easiest solution.


And the final product is what you see at the top of the page. :)

Project 1 - Flyaway Cardigan - 1,000 Days Left

Cost Breakdown
Pattern: $1.00 (normally $17.95)
Fabric: $2.76 ($1.47/yard, normally $2.95/yard)
Thread: $2.79
Total Cost with tax: $7.16

This project was fairly easy as my first project, though cotton jersey knit isn't exactly a breeze to work with. I started with this pattern made by McCall's.

It was fairly simple to cut out, though I have to say, the promise of a "1 hour cardigan" is really deceiving. I'd say all together it probably took me about 5 or 6 hours, between cutting, ironing, and assembling.

And can I just say too that cotton jersey knit is not only semi-difficult to sew, but it's really difficult to cut too, due to the stretch. This might not have been the wisest of first projects...

Bobbin's wound... Here we go. (Cheap Tip: This is probably just a bit of my OCD coming through, but I tend to wind only a small amount of thread on the bobbin so as not to waste any, mainly because I only have 4 bobbins total and I'm too cheap to buy more.)

One of the first steps is putting darts in the front of the cardigan. This is where the learning process comes in, because it took me a good 30 minutes to figure out exactly how best to approach these darts. I think a YouTube tutorial would have been a good way to go at this point, but eh, I preferred to wing it!

After drawing the lines for my darts, sewing it was pretty simple... Just sew down the line. I will say at this point I started noticing that my needle was catching a bit, and I figured it was mainly due to the fabric I was using.

So I changed my needle to one meant for more delicate fabrics and it was life-changing... Well, maybe just moment-changing. Off I continued...

Mmm clean lines, pretty seams. Next I had to pull out the most important of all sewing tools...

Yes, that's right, coffee. Coffee makes me drool like beer makes Homer Simpson drool, and it's 50% of my blood composition.

Thanks to the coffee I was able to zoom through and finish up the armholes at 12:00AM. At this point my baby's been sleeping for a couple of hours. The old saying goes "Sleep when they sleep," but sleep is for the weak, and I am not weak, I am on a mission to sew!

So here's the finished product (along with the photo I posted at the top). For some reason the focus on my camera decided to get screwy at the end of the night, so I will attempt to take better pictures tomorrow.

Overall rating of project: I'd say this is a fairly simple project, especially for the cost. These sweaters sell for upwards of $50+ in stores, so it was definitely worth it. However, the fabric is kind of difficult to work with for a beginner, so it might be better to get a little more experience with something less stretchy like cotton before taking this project on. I had fun though and can't wait to wear this over a white long-sleeve shirt or over a tanktop this summer. :)