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Derailed into sewing

Sherry here...

So much for the crocheted projects, not that I won't get to them, I've just been pulled into playing with fabric. I blame some of it on the fact I have a lovely little machine to sew on that works a total dream. I've also fallen into an awesome blog called Fabric Mutt. I did the adorable key pouch and have a list of her other tutorials I want to play with:

Malibu Satchel - I love bags like this
Agave Clutch - two zippers seem an interesting challenge
Key Pouch - I want to make more of these and have ideas to improve it
Party Apron - just looks cute, might change my mind
Ellie Travel Case - see previous statement about loving bags... it's an addiction
Ipanema Beach Bag - we will be doing a cruise in Sept, this could be useful

I do have photos to post, but that will have to be a bit later because the pictures are on my phone and not this computer. :)

I also have 4 commercial patterns I want to work on, two of them being from the lovely StudioKat. Love her stuff.

The other thing I need to work with is the carry-all I cobbled together for Kate. I'm referring to the current incarnation as the "mark 1" version. I have most of the "mark 2' drafted out in my head. Might get time tonight to actually cut and sew it. :) We'll see.

The UFO's have landed!!!!

I tidied out my sewing cupboard the other day...

I know exactly how poor old Hercules must have felt upon first entering the stables of Augeus, and the cold realisation of the enormity of the task dawned on him! There were many drawers filled with many things, each one of infinite beauty to my magpie eye but damn-all usefulness. And then there were the UFO's...

These Un Finished Objects, begun in the first bloom of enthusiasm, then discarded when a brighter project caught my attention, or the gulf between my imagination and my skill was simply too wide to leap, lay stuffed in the backs of drawers like dirty secrets. I emptied them out. DIY lingerie? What was I thinking? Mounds of used, ironed dryer sheets for God knows what? Bin. Oooh! What's this?

Folded in a ball, I shook out my first (and only) attempt at a quilt. Okay, the quarter inch seams were more free-spirited than is generally accepted amongst the quilting élite but the colours were pretty and I had made the top and basted the three layers of the quilt before I'd abandoned ship.

I took it out, quilted, trimmed and hand binded it. It didn't take long, as it happens. The little one who I'm giving it to wasn't even a gleam in her Daddy's eye when the project was started but I'm delighted at the thought of how my UFO will be chewed and dribbled upon and, if it's lucky, be that little girl's special comfort blanket.

I should really finish that DIY lingerie... but first! I think I'll start another quilt! :)

A Pinny For Your Thoughts...

With great shame and mortification, I must confess that I am a Clot of the Highest Order. I have been wiping wet and manky hands on my lap for so many years now that the muscle memory is honed to superhuman precision. I can find myself suddenly wearing a floury/chocolatey/jammy skirt front at any moment, without the first clue as to how this happened.

So, in absence of any sort of self awareness and with little will to change tactics at 40 years old, I am a devotee of the pinny. Casual enough to wear to answer the door but without the 'I mean business' determination of an actual apron, a pinny will keep me clean and allow me to fully indulge my need to keep a pocketful of random crap on my person at all times. Even as I write, my pinny pocket contains my phone, change, lip balm, safety pins, a cat toy and three sugar free sucky sweets. This requires a sturdy pocket,as you can imagine...

So, my old stock of [pinnies being oft-mended, threadbare and tatty, I decided on an upgrade. This time, double thickness for durability in washing, with a wide waistband and ties and a super-strong pocket. I found fabric I liked (on sale!!) and that was that! Here is my first, in a pretty green, I hope to make the second today, from a similar blue fabric.

There are many mistakes and wonky seams and I ran out of the correct green hue of thread before sewing on the pocket, but I'm delighted! If I can stop being side tracked by the next project, I plan to make quite a few of these. :)

A Cushion Whose Time Has Come...

This cushion is a very long time in the making; almost a year in fact. When all of Jack's things were packed away, to be discarded or donated, this shirt escaped the cull. Washed and worn, then washed again, almost to the point of transparency, this was Jack's favourite shirt. This is the shirt I washed a hundred Sunday gravy spills from, replaced a dozen popping buttons on, and which told tales on Jack when he came back from town with a big resplendent jam stain down the front. 'Who? Me? Eating doughnuts? Of course not!'

I packed and unpacked this shirt many times in Jack's last year, in and out from hospital as he was, and finally laid it aside, when the time came to spend the last week at home, in pyjamas. There are many years and many stories woven into this old shirt; how could it be thrown away?

So now it sits on Anne's bed, to remind her of her Swiddy. It even bulges a bit! Bad sewing or an accident of perfect appropriateness? Fat Boy would have laughed! :)

Ok, here are some of the things I need to get done, I found more after I took the picture. I am going to at least get these done...
... Without Mickey leaving his dental record on them. I hope.

More hats

Soon this yarn will be Frozen themed hats for a trio of cuties.