Everyone loves new PJs!

So I'm on a fabric diet right now. The rule is that I cannot buy any fabric unless I am willing to get rid of the same yardage, which means I need to start digging through that stash and actually sewing from it. I found some flannel I bought three years ago at Joanne's Black Friday sale. The problem? I had one yard of the frog print and a yard and a half of the other print. Not enough to really make clothes with. I think I bought this fabric thinking I would make burp cloths that never materialized, so here I am with these small cuts of fabric.

I thought I could make this with my fabric:
But alas, there wasn't enough of the green and white, so I had to patch-work the pants. They kind of look like she has leg warmers on.

Anyway, I am doing a review on Patternreview.com soon, but my overall impression is that the pattern is cute, but way too large.

Happy crafting, everyone.

Got the dressed finished in time for the dress-up day at school. It was one of the most fun sewing projects I have taken on. The fabric was easy to work with, and the pattern alterations were just enough of a stretch for me that it was a challenge without being overwhelming.

Latest projects

This picture is the model for my daughter's Halloween costume. It's progressing nicely. Need to attached the collar and hem it. Pictures and review to come.

Some recent scrapbook pages:

Suhweet!

Let's just say I was more than a little excited when my daughter told me she wanted to be Annie for Halloween. So I went searching for patterns. With no actual costume pattern for Annie, I decided to shop my pattern stash and found this pattern:While the pattern isn't perfect, it certainly was a start.

I spent this evening almost complete redrawing most elements. Here are the changes I made:

• I folded out the bodice pleats.
• I took off inches in the sleeve in width so that there will not be so much gathered material in the armscye seam and at the bottom of the sleeve.
• I widened the contrasting band on the sleeve by a couple inches.
• I changed the collar to be pointed rather than curved.
  
• I complete redrew the skirt portion so that it is an A-line cut rather than a gathered square-cut.
• I will create a belt rather than ribbon for the waist detail.
• I will also add black piping to the sleeve detail and the belt.

Wish me luck. I hope everything works with all these changes. I did wonder at one point why I just didn't start from scratch.

More Recycling

I created a couple more cards using cardboard. I made this owl card. I think I liked the other one with the leaf-stamped background better.
I was disappointed at how this one came out. My friends are buying a new house, and I wanted a card to give them along with their housewarming gift. I'm not sure what I don't like about it. It just seems a little . . . flat, I guess. Still, I had fun playing with recycled materials and hope to do more in the future.

Owl Card

I love all the new owl images on stamps and whatnot, but I have trouble justifying paying $20 for a stamp set with such a specific theme. I saw something like this in a Paper Crafting magazine and thought it was cute. Plus, I like the idea of recycling in my crafting. So I found some cardboard and went to work. It's a little silly, I know. But I like it.

I used an elm leave to stamp the background and found a stick in my backyard to use. The eyes are made from buttons on top of chipboard circles.

I already have another owl cut out that will go on orange card stock and read, "You're a HOOT!"

Dusting Off the Ole Sewing Machine

Yay! I have finally gotten the sewing bug again. I needed a simple and fast project, and that's exactly what I got. I made this skirt for my daughter. She picked out the fabric first; we found the pattern later.

I cut a size 4 in width and 6 in length. It fits her well, I think.

We have a woven fabric for the top, which was largely why we picked this project. Now I'm not so sure I want to do the shirt. The fabric is striped, which I picture as being pretty busy with this skirt. Plus, a woven top like this just doesn't sound comfortable to me, and I'm not so sure I like the cut of that top. We'll see. Maybe I'll talk her into making PJ pants with it and finding a nice knit T to wear with the skirt.

With the way my schedule is so busy when I'm in school, I think it's important to stick to simple and relatively fast projects. The days of fitted jackets are going to have to wait until I'm not so busy.

Some recent projects

I spent Friday night at County Purr Farm, our local scrapbooking store. I love it when my friends I get the opportunity to do this. We enjoy one another's company and get to work on our latest projects. We catch up on one another's lives, give scrapbooking advice, laugh and eat chocolate. Last night I was there for over four hours and somehow left with only two things: a single 12X12 layout and a card. So not the best use of time, but I was happy with what I brought home. Plus the store was having a clearance sale, so I spent time shopping and brought home some of my favorite Chatterbox papers.

I have been into two things lately: using grids for my photos and using tan colored cardstock as the background. I love how pretty much any color works with it and how, despite what I expected, it does not suck out the energy from the photos.

This page incorporates both elements. It's about what a great father my husband it. The journaling is behind the bamboo stamped cardstock and tells a couple stories that illustrate his love and devotion to our kids.
My cousin got married today, so I made this card for her. It took forever for something so simple. The inside has a quote stamped in it. My favorite part about this card are the tiny blue gemstones I placed in the center of some of the flowers. It adds dimension and sparkle. I didn't get to go to the wedding, since I have a sick kid, but I did send the card and a gift certificate with my parents.

Some more recent paper creations

This is a birthday card I made for a friend. For her present, I gave her eight cards, two of each: masculine birthday, feminine birthday, hello, and congrats. It was a lot of fun making them. Too bad I forgot to include envelopes in the present, but I did finally get them to her.



This page I whipped out in minutes. It was one of those don't-think-just-create pages. It's not stellar, but it was fun to make.

Been Busy Scrappin

My images aren't that great, but I still thought I'd share. I had a lot of fun making these pages.

Before and After

My crafting area went on a diet. I cleaned out a lot of stuff. What I have learned is that I need TO STOP BUYING STUFF. Since my son was born two and a half years ago, I have only sewn a few things. Still, I have not stopped buying patterns and fabric. I need to make before I buy. Anyway, I'm proud of the work I did, and I now have a space that inspires me to create. (I have no idea why this text is underlined, and I can't figure out how to make it go away. Blogger can be frustrating at times.)

Some Stats:

• Gone: 2 1/2 garbage bags full of trash
  
• Gone: 2 shopping bags full of patterns
  
• Gone: 3 shopping bags of fabric and clothing items I had been saving for repurposing
  
• Purchased: 2 cloth baskets
• Purchased: 2 vases
• Created: 1 altered clipboard as decoration
  
• To be purchased: 12X12 vertical paper holders

Altered Clipboard

This is the before picture. I got this from a colleague who left the profession. It was all tagged up and whatnot. I wanted some artwork to hang in my crafting area. I didn't want to buy anything, so I brought this home and altered it:
I first painted it green. Then I scrapbooked a piece of paper to fit. I didn't even glue the paper down, just clipped it to the clipboard. This is the first altered item I've ever done and found it very fun. The journaling is a Thich Nhat Hahn quote:

If we are not peaceful,
if we are not feeling well in our skin,
we cannot demonstrate real peace,
and we cannot raise our children well either.

The Current Project

Right now, my current crafting project is to clean out my crafting space. I have been working on it little by little. Here are a couple "before" shots.




Looks cluttered and messy, doesn't it?


Some stats so far:

• Gone: 2 garbage bags full of trash
  
• Gone: 2 shopping bags full of patterns
  
• Ready to be gone: 3 shopping bags of fabric and clothing items I saved for repurposing
  
• Purchased: 2 cloth baskets
• To be purchased: 12X12 vertical paper holders

I'm looking forward to posting the "after" pictures.

Brown and Blue

I made some cards recently. I've mostly been working on cleaning out and organizing my crafting area. Once I'm done, I'll post before and after pictures. Meanwhile, I am not working on my large projects, just some cards here and there. Love summer, but I do wish I didn't save all these projects for summer when there isn't enough time to do them all.

I played with stitching this time. I liked the effect, but the light on light colors is very subtle. Next time, I'll stitch with contrasting thread.





July will be a low-impact month for me, which means I should do more scrapping and sewing, less shopping. I should probably load up on adhesives, however, as they're the one thing I tend to run out on.

Reengergized (Let's Hope It Lasts)

I haven't sewn in a loooong while. Yesterday, after listening to Material Mama's podcast, cleaning all the scrapbooking stuff off my sewing work space, and going to Joann's, I was feeling inspired. I prefer Butterick's patterns, and behold! they were on sale. Here's what I bought:

Although I've made shopping bags by using a plastic store bag as a pattern, I thought I'd try a couple of these out.

I liked this pattern (above) because it looks like a pretty versatile dress pattern - one that can be worn to work or hanging around town during the summer.

I love the lines on this dress and have the perfect fabric for it already. I only hope it looks good on me with all these extra pounds I'm carrying around these days.

Butterick pants fit me the best. I actually bought this pattern just for the pants, but think the sleeveless top and skirt might be good choices for some of the fabric my mom bought me a couple years ago.

Although I have a ridiculous amount of patterns in my stash, I needed new patterns, as I've gone up a size, which has taken me from one pattern size block to another. (One great thing about McCall's is that they have more variation in their groupings: 8-10-12, 10-12-14, 12-14-16.)

My plan is to first finish a UFO I started last summer. It's a skirt with maroon pinstripe fabric my mom bought me. I lost interest because it didn't fit and isn't terribly flattering, but I'm thinking that once it's done, hem and all, it will look flattering with the proper blouse.

Happy creating to all.

Just uploading some pages

I have done some scrapbooking lately.