Smitten with Mittens

My mom has been making really cute - warm mitties out of felted wool sweaters. Last year she gave a bunch away as gifts, and this year she will be selling them at local stores and through her email. I designed the logos above and tags for her to put on her mittens!

Mitten mountain!

I really love how the tags and logo turned out. I think they look especially great on the mittens!

In other news, I started cutting out my pattern for the beignet skirt! Yay!

Negroni's Day Out

My first try at an intermediate pattern was a success! Labor Day weekend I finished the Colette Negroni shirt for Josh and he wore it the next day! I had many reservations going into the project, but the pattern was easy to follow and the instructions and pictures were so helpful.

Back yoke of the cowboy inspired negroni.

Lately Josh has been getting more adventurous with his style. He is especially attracted to retro and vintage clothing, and he loves cowboy shirts. Who doesn't love cowboy shirts? You have the pockets and yokes to play with, there are so many possibilities!

Piecing the Negroni together.

Yikes! 1st fitting  :)

Negroni basking in the sun

Every year my family goes to the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion in Mt. Pleasant, IA. It's a fair that celebrates the history of midwest farmers and rural life. I've never really been too interested in farming, but it's a fun family tradition and we always have a great time  :)

Old picture of people threshing and a special guest!

   

I found a little friend!

What a fun day! Eventually I am going to make him a Negroni with long sleeves  :)

Roy Lichtenstein & a Sencha Blouse

Sencha blouse and patterned skirt hitting the city!

Last weekend I visited my sister in Chicago and gave her a beautiful Colette Sencha blouse. Originally I made her a Sencha blouse for Christmas, but forgot to adjust the pattern to her 6'1" frame. I kept the original blouse, shown in my Handmade Christmas post, and gave her a much prettier one.

She must be saying, "This is my favorite shirt ever!"

Another motive for visiting was going to Lollapalooza. My sister and I are both HUGE Jack White fans, and this was my first time seeing him in concert. He was amazing! I wore my Ode to Sewing shorts to the concert.

The amazing Jack White

Now back to the shirt... I bought some beautiful silky cotton at Home Ec. and I put white pearly buttons up the back. This time I made the shirt 4 inches longer and it fit perfectly.

White buttons up the back

We decided to do a photo shoot at the Chicago Art Institute. They have an amazing Roy Lichtenstein exhibit up. If you're not familiar, he is a really famous pop artist. Now for more photos!

Waiting outside the Art Institute

My favorite Lichtenstein at the show!

POP!

The Art Institute has an amazing collection, so after the Lichtenstein exhibit we tried to see as much as we could before closing time.

Monet!

Seurat!

Picasso!

Next on my sewing table....

Up next is a Colette Negroni shirt for Josh. He has been waiting patiently while I work through all my other projects. It's an intermediate pattern, so this is going to be interesting!

The Patterned Skirt

The last weekend in July, I took a class at Home Ec. on how to make a bias skirt pattern and sew it. I've been wanting to make a pattern for a long time and there aren't really any places nearby where I can take classes. When I saw this class being offered,  I jumped at the chance!

The pattern we made is for a very simple elastic-waisted A-line skirt. We basically took our measurements and used them to draw a triangle shape. It was really simple and fun, and we were done with the pattern and sewing in less than 2.5 hours.

It was really sunny!

After I finished my class, Josh and I went camping at Sugar Bottom park. It's one of my favorite places to camp and that's where we took these lovely photos!

I'm already thinking of ways to play with the pattern. I'm not a huge fan of elastic waistbands, so I may try to draw a zipper back for the skirt!

Last weekend I visited my sister in Chicago and went to Lollapalooza! I gave my sister a version of the Colette Sencha blouse and we took pictures at the Chicago Art Institute. I will post those pictures soon!

These Shorts Measure Up!

Today I finished my final project for the Colette Spring/Summer Challenge! Originally I planned to make a Colette Beignet skirt with a beautiful teal wool. Then it got really hot and summery outside and I decided to make my first pair of Colette Iris shorts!

The shorts are sewing themed. I bought the fabric at my favorite fabric store, Home Ec. in Iowa City. I decided to add the wide ric-rac at the waistband, as part of my ode to sewing :D  

I positioned the ric-rac and basted it on, before sewing the waistband to the shorts

The pocket fabric is from a vintage pillowcase!

I wore the shorts on a hike at the Mines of Spain park in Dubuque. What a beautiful backdrop for a beautiful pair of  shorts!

Pretty wildflowers

Next on my sewing table

This week I bought the Violet shirt pattern from Colette patterns. I want to make a shirt to match my Sew Shorts! I'm thinking white with a black collar.

Neon Sencha!

Today I wore one of my versions of the Colette Sencha blouse, and I wondered, why have I never blogged this?

I actually made this one several months ago from some of my favorite fabric in my stash. It turned out too big, but since I used some of my favorite fabric I decided to make the most of it. I folded the fabric over itself in the back and sewed it up. It isn't the prettiest from the back - but I like wearing cardigans anyway :D

I thrifted this fabric from a second hand shop in Iowa City. I love the pattern!

The back has matching fabric covered buttons

Please ignore the wrinkles. It was 100 degrees today in Iowa, too too too hot to iron!

Oh no! Sooo many wrinkles!

Out on the town! Apparently the fabric glows. 

Next on my sewing table....

To finish the Colette Spring Palette Challenge I was suppose to make a skirt. The fabric I picked out is a beautiful blue wool, but it is way too hot for wool. I am in the mood to make some shorts, so the skirt is going on the back burner for a little while.

The Colette Iris pattern

Last weekend my friend Jessica and I had a craft day, and started cutting out pattern pieces for the Colette Iris pattern. I made a practice pair, and they were a little snug so now I need to re-cut pattern pieces in a size 6. I bought the coolest fabric at Home Ec.  The fabric has a tape measure pattern and the shorts are going to be sewing themed! I'm really excited. Jessica bought some really cool upholstery fabric with great texture. When we get done, I will have to post a picture of the two of us.

BFA Postcard Design

Wow! This summer is flying by already, and technically it hasn't started yet. Life has been busy, so I'm sharing something I put together back in April.

My great friend, Emily Schaum, had an art show displaying the amazing work she created during her BFA program. She specializes in metal-smithing, and her show also displayed some prints.  Emily did a beautiful job! Emily asked me to design an announcement postcard with clockwork and mechanical elements. This is what I put together!

Front of postcard

Back of postcard

And here are some pictures from her show.  I think the postcard matched well!

Jeanette and I enjoying the show. I am wearing a Colette Jasmine blouse!

Blue Peony: Colette Spring Palette Challenge #2

Pattern Completion #2 for the Spring Challenge!

It has really been a busy few weeks. I had my sister's graduation, Mother's Day, my first paid musical gig, and I started taking an HTML class. In my free time, I've been sewing up a storm. I made two more elephant pin cushions for my grandmothers, worked on a shirt for my older sister, and finally finished my very blue Peony dress from Colette Patterns.

I had a lot of fun with this one, and I love the outcome. The top is an embroidered thin cotton material and as you see, I used denim for the skirt. The dress is embellished with some pretty blue trim that I hand stiched on and sewed into the back zipper-seam.

I really wanted this Peony to be nice, so I made sure to finish all my inside seams. I used french seams and lace bound seams.

Stitchin' the trim!

I really love how the trim looks, but in the future I may need to figure out a different way to set it up. Having it sewn into the seam of the zipper makes it really difficult to close the zipper. I have to tug a lot and it finally zips up, but I'm worried the zipper may eventually break from stress. I'm not sure yet, what I could do differently.

As difficult as it is to zipper up, the trim does look nice sewn into the seam.

Pocket shot! Same fabric I used for my Mom's Peony.

This Spring Palette Challenge has been really great for me so far. It was so fun to make the mood board and plan my colors. It has also been great motivation to keep sewing and sewing. Up next will be the Colette Beignet pattern. It is a beautiful high wasted skirt pattern. I wanted to do the skirt in kind of a goldenrod-yellow corduroy, but I haven't been able to find any. I have some really nice blue woolish sort of fabric in my stash - so I think I will use that. More blue! I'm a bit nervous because the pattern is for intermediate skill leveled sewers, but I'm ready to give it my all. Bring it on Beignet!