Sewing « mama urchin

Archive for the 'Sewing' Category

Looking Back

So 2009 is out the window and I am so glad. It was just a crummy year in the urchin household and from what I gather, a lot of other households too. So, rather than dwell on the yuck, let’s take a look at the good stuff I got accomplished while in the mire. First up, the knitting:

To be honest, I’m not too pleased about the knitting. I intended to knit through EZ’s Knitter’s Almanac and did not get very far. In fact the February Baby Sweater is the only completed project from the book. I’m hoping to change that in 2010. I think there was a lot of starting in 2009, not so much finishing, I’m hoping to improve in 2010. Dare I say that going into 2011 I’d like to have no WIPs in my knitting basket?

The sewing however, required two mosaics so that’s something. Katie alone got about a dozen new outfits made by her mama. That is something that makes me exceedingly happy. I also finished four quilts in 2009. I have a whole bunch of quilt tops ready too so just like the knitting, I need to finish what I start. This may be a theme. I made a lot more of the gifts the urchins give their friends so I would like to continue that trend in 2010. In fact, I’d like to try to get a stash together so I’m not always sewing at the last minute.

And then there’s the food. We ate mostly locally at almost every meal this summer and at many of our meals in the other seasons too. I canned so much — so so much — and looking at those jars makes me so happy. I remember one week in August where I canned something every day. We found a dehydrator on craigslist and expanded our repetoire to include dried food as well as canned and frozen. I canned jam and salsa, whole fruits and sauces, sweet and savory. We had to figure out a new system for storing it all. We’ll be eating well all winter I’m sure. In fact, on one of those stressful days before Christmas I realized I had gumbo in the freezer that I made back in the summer and it was so good.

But 2010, I have big plans for you. Plans that include expanding the garden and the pantry. Plans that include covering all the members of my house in their own quilt. But more on that later, for now I think I’ll just look at what was good in 2009.

A Dress to Sing About

Published December 16, 2009 Fiber Crafts , Sewing 10 Comments

Katie needed a dress for her choir performance at church last Sunday. At about 4:00 I was able to sneak into my sewing room for about an hour to make her one. This is not a method that I advocate but if you are in a rush and need a dress I highly recommend going the raglan sleeve/peasant top route. I have a whole bunch of this tablecloth print that I bought for about $1 a yard at Joann’s sometime after Christmas last year that I knew would be a dress, someday. If you’ve never used a tablecloth print before it’s printed on the fabric to be made into a tablecloth. So in this case, there is a brown band and a winter scene along each selvedge edge. I wanted to use that edge as the bottom of Katie’s dress and the cuff of her sleeves so I had to cut my pattern pieces sideways. The bodice and sleeves were based on pattern #18 from Ottobre 03/07. I shortened the dress length to be a bodice length, then I added a gathered skirt. For the sleeves I increased the length of the pattern piece to be long sleeved and gathered them at the cuff. We added the ribbon sash to make it a little more Christmas-y. Next time I think I’ll try to start earlier but it’s good to know in a pinch my girl can look pretty cute in a jiffy.

Santa Lucia

Published December 14, 2009 Crafting With the Urchins , Fiber Crafts , Sewing 6 Comments

When Katie was three or four years old we read a book about Saint Lucia day and Katie was wide-eyed. When she was four years old we made a set of Saint Lucia clothespin dolls. Last year we decided Katie was big enough to bring buns to us in bed — I get up and help her get ready then go back to bed — and this year we added a crown.

I first saw the idea in Living Crafts magazine — love this magazine by the way — and considered seeing if someone could make us one but never got my act together. So this one was made by me at the last minute but was so worth it when Katie realized she would be wearing a crown this year. The crown is made of wool felt with machine appliqued embellishments with a cotton strap in the back. We’re not Scandinavian, Italian, or Catholic so celebrating Saint Lucy is not part of our cultural or religious tradition. However, the darkness of these days as we near the solstice is something we want to recognize and the idea of a child reminding us of the coming light of Christmas is magical. So, our tradition has evolved to this, a little girl with candles and a crown helping us remember what this season is all about.

Addicted to Aprons

Published December 7, 2009 Cooking , Fiber Crafts , In the Kitchen , Sewing 5 Comments

It seems I’ve been on a bit of an apron bender. It started with making an apron and mitt set — fabrics are Alexander Henry sweet treats and petiti fours– for Tristan’s friend Mallory’s birthday to go with a baking set — I now buy the rolling pin etc. in a set from IKEA. Before her birthday we asked her what she wanted and she said cake! so a baking set seemed like a good idea. She made Tristan cookies to say thank you, aren’t four-year-olds so cute. He told Mallory that she’s a really good cooker.

Then I decided to make aprons for the urchins and their cousins for our annual family Christmas cookie bake-a-thon. Tristan picked out this Thomas the Train Christmas print sometime in the early Autumn. I’ll admit it was bribe to get him in and out of the fabric store with minimal fussing. I had no idea what I was going to do with it until I started making the aprons. So both boys got Thomas aprons using the same pattern as Mallory’s. For my nephew — who is only eighteen months — I sized it down a bit by reducing the length and the width but keeping the overall shape. For the girls I started with a top shape from a Simplicity pattern — 3949 — and then did my own thing for the waistband and skirt. The Simplicity pattern just had way too many pieces for me. I also changed the neck and waist ties to be more like the toddler apron with an elastic neck and velcro closure on the waist. I’m all about the urchins dressing themselves without frustration.

When Tristan’s best friend decided he wanted to have a chef party I knew he would be getting an apron and baking set too. I decided though that instead of an oven mitt Sam should get a chef hat. After a bit of figuring I made the chef’s hat with a coordinating stripe. The band is adjustable with velcro so it should fit a variety of head sizes. I think it made a pretty cute set.

I think before the end of the holiday season I may just have another apron or two up my sleeve. We’ll see though, I still have a lot to do in the next 18 days.

Wrap It Up

Published December 1, 2009 Crafted by Friends , Fiber Crafts , Gifts , In the Mailbox , Sewing 3 Comments

24 days, huh? That’s not a lot of time for making and oh do I have a lot of making to do. I started a list today and it’s a little bit long. One thing I did get done on time — actually early — was this wrap for my sister-in-law’s birthday tomorrow. We gave it to her last week with the easiest chocolate cake ever and she seemed pleased.

The pattern is free from Martha and very easy. I made this one from some really gorgeous boiled wool jersey. I think the color will look great with brown or black, grey and jewel tones, and keep my sister-in-law warm in a drafty office. I also think this would be really beautiful made of a silk jersey for the warmer months. The edges are unfinished so it makes a very quick gift and at this time of year that’s something we could all use.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Published November 16, 2009 Fiber Crafts , Sewing 19 Comments

Do you remember our need for camping quilts? I guess camping quilt is a bit of a misnomer since this will be used for camping and the beach and picnics. I really should call it a drag-around-everywhere quilt. I’ve been sorting scraps, cutting strips, and sewing log cabins since July — not continuously, obviously — and I lugged a ton of scraps to the quilt retreat and back. When I left home I had the red, yellow, and orange log cabins done. When I returned home I had finished purple and green. Last week I made a whole bunch of blue blocks and over the weekend I got the whole thing together.

The quilt top measures about 68″ x 85″ and has a total of 80 log cabins. After I sorted my scraps by color I trimmed the pieces into squares and strips. Each log cabin has a 3″ square — before sewing — at the center and the strips for the logs are 2″ wide before sewing. I had two rules while making the blocks: 1. do not repeat a fabric in any given block, and 2. just use the next strip you grab from the pile, no editing. I cannot tell you how many times I pulled a strip to add to a block and thought yuck! but sewed it on anyway. Sometimes the yuck ones turned out to be favorites, sometimes they were just fine, none were so bad I had to rip them apart. I also made all the log cabin blocks I could from each scrap pile so I had some variety to choose from when laying out the quilt. That also means that there is a sizable stack of pre-made log cabin blocks just waiting to be used. I already have ideas for 3 more camping quilts so I know they’ll be coming in handy.

One of my favorite parts of this quilt is finding the fabrics from any number of projects. There are lots of Virtual Quilting Bee fabrics in there, most of Katie’s dresses, baby quilts for friends, bed quilts my mom made, pillows, bags, backpacks. It just makes me so happy to see all that in there. I just love the whole thing so much it’s going to be hard to take it camping. But seriously, when we do we just might have the best bedding in the campground.

Mermaids, and Robots, and Patchwork, Oh My

Published November 12, 2009 Fiber Crafts , Sewing 5 Comments

It’s funny that Anne mentioned Heather Ross‘s Mendocino line in my last post because that is indeed one of the quilt tops I made using this same design. On the rocket/robot quilt there were two large scale prints that I wanted to leave in large pieces. Then there were three pretty monochromatic small scale prints that were the same except in three different colorways. And then I had two prints left, one a stripe and one a sort-of medium scale print that had a lot of the other colors in it.

A larger version of the baby quilt for Tristan

For the Mendocino quilt I wanted to really feature the large scale print in yellow — Katie’s favorite color — so all of the big blocks are made from that fabric. The three smallest rectangles are made from three small scale mostly monochromatic prints — two are the same print in different colorways, one is a very similar print in a third colorway — and the two medium rectangles are made from more medium scale prints that include a lot of the colors in the quilt. I found that having the medium blocks incorporate a lot of the colors really helped the aesthetic of the quilt.

So for the nitty gritty stuff. I started with my finished large block size. On the baby quilt the finished large blocks are 9″ square, on the larger quilts they are 12″ square. For the medium blocks you just half — because there are two pieces — the dimensions, 4.5″ square for the baby quilt, 6″ square for the bigger. Lastly, the three smaller rectangles are one-third the large block in height and half the large block in width, 3″x4.5″ for the baby quilt and 4″x6″ on the larger quilts. After you figure out all those dimensions you need to add 1/2 inch to each side for your seam allowance. So my cutting chart for these quilts was:

	Baby Quilt	Throw Quilts
large squares	9.5″x9.5″	12.5″x12.5″
medium squares	5″x5″	6.5″x6.5″
small rectangles	3.5″x5″	4.5″x6.5″

Not too hard, right? Here’s a closer look at the medocino blocks, if you click through to flickr the dimensions are there too.

Rocket-Robot

Published November 10, 2009 Fiber Crafts , Gifts , In the Mailbox , Sewing 9 Comments

Ages ago I saw this rocket-robot fabric on Kathy‘s blog and she had a contest about quilt patterns for the fabric. If you ever need some pattern inspiration the comments in that post are a great resource. So somewhere in there is a pattern for this design idea.

One thing I learned on the retreat last weekend was that some quilters really like to use patterns. I rarely do and I think it’s because I like to figure things out and also I think it’s because I’m a little bit cheap. I guess when I go into a quilting shop I’d like to spend my money on fabric over a pattern every time. I also like the aesthetic of patchwork which is something that you can figure out. So this design didn’t seem too tricky and also looked to be a good way to showcase some of the larger prints in the Robots line.

The quilt is about 36″ square and is a gift for a friend’s baby. I quilted it with wavy lines which might be my new favorite way to quilt — since I am free-motioned challenged — so prepare yourself to see more wavy lines in the future. I ended up liking the layout so much I’ve used it in two larger quilts where I wanted to showcase the fabrics. Maybe I’ll show you those tomorrow with some guidelines for figuring out a design like this, anyone interested in that?

There and Back Again

Published November 9, 2009 Crafted by Friends , Fiber Crafts , Gifts , In the Mailbox , Sewing 13 Comments

I returned this morning from a fantastic weekend in Colorado. Amanda Jean was the guest speaker at a quilt retreat at the Inn at City Park in Fort Collins and I was lucky enough to go. When Amanda Jean announced she would be speaking at the retreat I offhandedly told Stefan that would be fun. A month or two later — after a weekend where he was away with the guys — he told me that I should go, seriously. One side benefit of a traveling husband is that he has miles you can use to go to quilt retreats.

What a wonderful weekend we had. It was so great to meet Amanda Jean in person after being friends for years. Plus I got to meet a bunch of other great women, some bloggers, some not. It was so much fun. I learned a whole bunch — you are allowed to carry-on a sewing machine — and got so much sewing done that I’ve nearly completed a pretty big quilt top. Papa did such a great job flying solo that Katie said it was okay if I needed to stay away longer. Coming home though, was wonderful too. I kissed Tristan in his bed when I got home at about 1:30 AM and he rolled over and smiled and said Mama in a dreamy little voice. It just melted my heart. So, now I’m back at it, housework, school, you know, the schedule. But this week I thought I’d share some quilts I’ve recently made that never got blogged. And maybe by Friday I’ll have that quilt top done. Happy Monday everyone and see you back here tomorrow.

Seasons Round Exchange

Published September 24, 2009 Crafted by Friends , Fiber Crafts , In the Mailbox , Knitting , Sewing , Swaps 1 Comment

We were lucky enough to participate in the Seasons Round Exchange, hosted by Kyrie. This round of the swap had a Harvest theme and the idea was to send a few things for the children to use on their nature table or seasonal display. We have a nature table on our front porch which corrals any natural stuff the urchins collect. Inside we have a basket of seasonally appropriate toys that get switched out every few months.

On our end we collected acorns and a few other things on our walks. I made two drawstring bags — one to hold the acorns and one to hold the other things — for the two children in the family we swapped with. We also made a little book about oak trees and acorns. I knit a hedgehog — pattern by Little Cotton Rabbits — and felted him in the wash. He was knit in worsted weight yarn — held double for his body — so he is quite large and perfect for snuggling. I also made a little quilted mat from some harvest prints. The last thing we included was a fabric pear and undetermined red fruit. It was meant to be an apple but I think it looks a bit more like a tomato. Oh well, more room for imagining I guess.

In return we received a fabulous box of goodies. The urchins have been fascinated by the jar of buckeyes — I am in love with the actual jar. The felted acorns have been a huge hit. I seriously was looking to make/buy some of these before the package arrived. The acorns live in that cute little knit basket. The little gnome has journeyed all over the house already and his cloak is perfect for taking on and off many, many times. We’re really looking forward to the next round, sign-ups open October 1st.