Little Hipster

Okay, I’m not totally done with this little number yet, but I was too excited not to share what I’ve done so far. It’s just the cutest pattern ever!! I found it over on http://etsy.me/yozlY1. There is a peasant dress, wide leg ruffle pants and an apron. I haven’t done the apron yet. Hopefully I’ll get to it tomorrow, but poor miss Grace isn’t feeling well, so I may not. Anyway, I’d love to make these as gifts because they are just too cute!! They took quite abut of fabric though. Oh!!!! And Miss Grace hid one of the ruffle’s for the pant leg in the garbage!! Took me around 45 minutes to find the sucker!! Those ruffles on the pants are made of 22 separate panels, so to say the least it was quite time consuming! I was NOT about to start over! Little sinker!!

Also, I’m definitely going to have to get a serger! I did my best to finish the raw edges with the sewing machine, using the wide zig zag…but A. It’s time consuming and B. it’s just not as good.

So, need to research sergers because the only one I ever see is the same old Singer. Maybe it’s fine, but a girl needs some options!

Okay, thanks for checkin out my latest project. It was my favorite I’ve done by far!

Who knew sewing was so dangerous

Who knew, right? I didn’t, that’s for sure. A few weeks ago, I almost sewed right over my finger..that one hurt. And today, I snipped the skin between my thumb and pointer finger with my scissors. After some serious bleeding and some new skin, I was good to go! I was most worried about getting any blood on the cute little clutch/wallet I was making.

I got the free tutorial here and it was really easy to follow. For any of you who are leery of sewing zippers, this is the place to start! The whole project from start to finish only took around an hour. Didn’t wanna sit in my sewing room all day, it’s gorgeous out! This is a day that the Lord has made! <3

Zippers are so overrated!

Seriously…I can understand why button fly pants became the rage back in the early 90′s. People were sick of sewing in zippers. Now, the purse I plan on making calls for a zipper pocket. (who needs a zipper pocket anyway) so today I thought I’d give a zipper a whirl on one of Grace’s bibs. ‘Aww, it’ll be cute..she loves to zip and unzip…now she can do it with her bib! She can put little goodies in there, it can hold her paci…all sorts of fabulous ideas.’ I’ll get to use my zipper foot…this will be FUN!!

NOT SO MUCH …..o_O

Must must must watch some zipper movies on YouTube. First…I do not get the zipper foot. I don’t like it in fact. I want my trusty little ‘normal’ presser foot. Second…I believe I was inadvertently trying to sew an invisible zipper. I don’t know what I was doing. I finally gave in once I was ripping yet ANOTHER seam out (pockets are only good if you don’t sew the zipper closed. Which reminds me….why are some pockets on pants sewn closed?!?) Anyway…ripping out the seam and ripped right thru my material!! All done…time to clean the house. It needs it anyway!

Looks like an afternoon of zipper 101 for Nichole!!

Getting faster

Just finished a buttercup bag that I plan on giving away. I’m excited because I was able to complete it, from start to finish, while grace took her nap. Grant it, she took a really long nap!

The pattern doesn’t call for it, but I put the straps in the inside of the bag, which to me looks a lot better. Hope it holds up as well too! Ha! Hopefully tomorrow, I will start on the big huge bag. I’m excited to work on it, but I still haven’t found the fabric I want. Boo! Can’t decide!

Bapron Take Two

Well, here is the bapron again. Much happier with you it turned out this time. I made the bias tape properly this time too, and that makes a huge difference. Although I’m going to have to do the tutorial I saw somewhere on how toile continuous bias tape with a yard of fabric, because I’m not a huge fan of doing it so far. Very time consuming, but much cheaper than buying it per made. Anyhoo, got two more cut out and ready to go, just need more material for the bias tape. And oh yeah…my cute little labels are done!!

The Buttercup Bag

Well, here is the next project I started. It is called the buttercup bag. I mainly picked this bag to make because A. it’s darling and B. it was free. You can find the pattern over here. Now, this was obviously the first bag of any sorts that I made. It took a while for me to wrap my head around the tutorial. But, she really walks you through it so well and makes it very do able. It had a lot of fun making these bags! I went back and bought the pattern, which will give you rights to sell if you ever want, and it also includes a bigger version of the Buttercup bag, which I will be making very soon. The flowers are just pin on flowers from my daughters hair bow collection…but I think they add a lot to the bag. The original pattern has two buttons sewn on the front, which is equally as adorable.

Here goes somethin’..

Well, here is the first project I made. Thanks to the super duper helpful tutorial over here . I have only made this one “bib”, and there is a lot I need to change on the next one I make. Simple little things, but important. This was the first item I have sewn, so my seam allowance here is really exaggerated. I’m looking forward to making quite a few more. Even though this is too big, in the arm hole area…my bad…it still works really well for her. And she loves it which is a huge plus, because she hates bibs!

How a beginner copes :)

I just want to address quickly “how” I have been teaching myself to sew. I kind of just dived right into it without looking back. My mother in law gave me her old sewing machine. I wouldn’t have it any other way either. It’s an old Singer 237 machine. It’s from 1968. It has been very easy to learn on. There isn’t a computer you have to learn in addition to sewing. There isn’t 1000 different stitches. There is a straight stitch, and a zig zag. Good enough for me. (for now anyway ) :p I have found so many helpful blogs along the way, most of which I’ve been directed to through pinterest. I found the essentials that I would need from one blog. I watched a million videos on youtube on “beginner sewing”. I’ve quite literally been all over the web reading about sewing terms, sewing “notions”, and different fabrics. All the info in the world, can not compare to the actual experience you gain when you actually just start sewing. After practicing sewing a straight line on a piece of paper (no thread), I was ready to go. Or so I thought. My first several attempts at simply sewing a straight line on my pillow case were quite frustrating. I thought for sure “something” was wrong with the machine. :/ Umm…no Nichole. The machine is quite fine, you on the other are not. I quickly discovered that it really helps to have the presser foot in the down position when you are sewing. While this may seem like “DUH” to most people that have been sewing for years, (okay weeks)  it was something not so obvious to a beginner. Nothing that I had read or watched, including my manual told me to do this. Now, just a few weeks into sewing, it seems quite obvious. Anyway, you live and learn. So, for any other newbies out there that may have just a ton of thread nesting up underneath your fabric…this may be why and first check your presser foot! Ha! As I write this post, I am a couple of weeks into my learning to sew journey. I have very quickly fallen in love with sewing. It gives me quiet time. Time to create. Time to “iron”…which has also been a learning experience! haha! The whole process is just amazing to me. Creating “something” from scratch is really rewarding. The only problem I’m having, is that I have a hard time stopping. Once I start a project, I don’t finish until I get done. Now, I realize when I start doing more elaborate projects, I will have to stop. But for now, I can always see the end in sight, and I just can’t quit. While this normally would be a good quality, and really it is, the problem lies in the dust building up on my furniture. Must stop sewing and clean the house! So far, I have made a bib, two purses, and a lunch bag. I have found all my patterns either for free on some amazing blogs, or else purchased for fairly cheap on etsy or some other sewing site. I’m looking forward to my next bag I’m going to make. It’s really HUGE though, I wasn’t quite aware of just how big it is when I bought the pattern. So…I need quite a bit more fabric. Once I can find some that I really love, I’ll get started on that. In the mean time, I’m going to make some bibs, and if they turn out decent, just might send them to some mommy friends.