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!

Elephant Pincushion Time! Spring Palette Challenge #1

Elli!

I completed the first pattern of my Spring Palette Challenge!

And what a joy this little elephant was to make. I used the Effie & Ollie pattern from Heather Bailey to make this sweet little guy. It was super easy and quick to follow. I am soo used to cutting out clothes - where the pattern pieces are really big. Who knew making a mini-thing would take so much less time? I got the little guy done in one afternoon!

Here are a few pics of the process:

I like to trace my patterns, especially with clothing, then I can go back to the original pattern and make different sizes.

The ear gets sewn in between the head and body pieces.

The trickiest part was sewing the second side of his body together.

My Fiance holding the empty (skinny) elephant!

After choosing the right button-eyes he was done!

This elephant was so fun to make! I was smiling every minute, because it is just so darn cute. The examples on the pattern have felt flowers and stars sewn on - I definitely want to make some like that too!

This first elephant is a Mother's Day gift for my Mom. She is a quilter/ wool mitten-maker and I think she will love it. Eventually I want to make a pincushion for each of my grandmothers - and of course one for me!

And what a cute little tail!

I already started cutting fabric for my second project of the challenge, a very-blue Peony dress from Colette Patterns. I am making the bodice in a light-blue embroidered cotton and the skirt in dark-blue denim. I also bought some pretty blue trim for around the waist and maybe the neckline!

Spring Palette Challenge 2012!

For the next several weeks, I will be participating in Colette Pattern's Spring Palette Challenge. This is my first palette challenge, so I'm trying to keep it manageable.  I was a little behind on my mood board (some people have finished their first garments), but I love how it turned out. Working on the mood board really helped me to narrow down my color and style choices. I love how fresh and bright blue and yellow look together, and I guess I was feeling the primary colors because I was really drawn to the  barn-red accessories. So here is a run-down of my plan for the challenge.

1. I bought an adorable Heather Bailey pincushion pattern at Home Ec. in Iowa City. My mother is a quilter/ fashionable mitten maker and she is constantly sewing. I want to make her and each of my grandmothers one of these sweet little elephants for Mother's Day. She also loves antiques, so I want to find some pretty antique jewelry and pin it to the elephant! It should be really cute.

2. For my second round, I will be making a Peony dress. For the bodice I have some light blue fabric with with white embroidery in my stash, and I plan to do the skirt in a dark denim. A few weeks ago, I saw some light blue velvet ribbon and I might make some embellishments with that. The pattern has a boat-neck top and I want to try to make it a slight scoop-neck. I've never altered a pattern before, but I think it will be fun. It will be pretty, summery and easy to dress down or up.

3. Finally I want to make the beignet skirt in a cornflower yellow. I think I might do a lightweight corduroy, but I haven't totally made up my mind. It's number 3 - I have some time :)

Good luck to everyone else working on the challenge. I can't wait to see everyone's work! Stay tuned for the adorable elephant!

The fun has arrived!

She's here!

After much anticipation my new dress form arrived (a few weeks ago)! I started using it right away on the Colette Peony dress for my mom. It was a great relief to know the dress would fit, and it was soo nice to use for  hemming. I used to have my sweet fiance help me with hems, so Old Blue is putting him out of a job. 

We've gotten pretty close :)

My dressform is a Dritz Double Deluxe. To be honest I think they were pretty generous with the term "deluxe." It seems pretty cheaply made - cheap plastic dials and such, but it works well so far. I found it on Overstock for half the price Joanne Fabrics was selling it for, so I got a really good deal. I think it will be a great starter dressform for me. I'm happy to have it!

Sewin' Time!

Now I should be able to make my family and friends garments that fit! Yippee!

Tracking my new addition!

That is right, a new addition! And this lady is trackable through the UPS website, so of course I have been checking the website a few times (or more) a day. It is my very first dressform! I am too excited! This dressform is going to change my life - one correctly fitting garment at a time. I like to make clothing for my family members, so old Blue will be invaluable with fitting everything.

Dritz Craft Rambler Double Deluxe!

I have been living vicariously through this double for the past few days, while she makes her way to Iowa on a cross country road trip. I ordered the form on Overstock.com earlier this week and I have been amazed and intrigued at it's shipping process.

Two days ago the journey began in Salt Lake City. Blue (yes, I am lame and calling it (her) that) departed the next day and made it all the way to Commerce City, CO. That's about 532 miles and 8 hours of driving.   I had never heard of Commerce City, so I thought I would give it a look. Apparently it is home to around 46,000 people, they have a majestic mountain view, it's near Barr Lake State Park (I love State Parks), and Wiki says they are known for greyhound racing (interesting thing to be known for? hmmm). I guess old Blue had enough dog racing, because today she busted out headed for the Midwest. She landed in Omaha, NE at 2 pm (another 8 hour trek - 529 miles).

The "early arrival" date is scheduled for tomorrow. The dressform made it all the way to Des Moines, IA at 10 pm tonight (another 2.5 hours - 140 miles). Once she gets here, Blue will be staying in one place for a while. Home sweet home!

When it's all said and done total mileage will be ~1,281 miles.... and I will be one happy lady!

Handmade Christmas

The ruffle scarf was actually a finale to a whole handmade Christmas. As I love making homemade gifts, this past Christmas I wanted to make something special for all of my immediate family members. For my father - pajama pants, for my mother - a dress, my oldest sister - a blouse, and for my little sister a vest (the vest has yet to come into fruition - but it will make the blog some day).

Things didn't go quite as planned- they never do however, so I should have expected it. I planned on spreading the work out through December, but I got sick, my sewing machine died, and my fiance took me on a lovely vacation (poor me). Somehow I pulled it together - used all my free time sewing like a mad-woman, and by Christmas I had created some special gifts that I was proud to give. And I got a fancy new sewing machine in the process!

Some Christmas morning festivities!

The photo above is of my Dad in his new homemade pajama pants and my older sister playing the harmonica I gave my Dad for Christmas. I took everyone's measurements a month before, claiming that it was purely out of curiosity. They didn't really buy that, haha. My Dad's pants were created from Simplicity's 2037. They were super fast and easy to make.

Sencha blouse and Ginger skirt from Colette Patterns

My older sister is a little over 6 feet tall. One of her gifts was the Sencha blouse from Colette Patterns. With Maria's height I should have lengthened the blouse, but I didn't and it came up to her belly button. Ooops! That wasn't really the look I was imagining for her, so I kept the Sencha top and I am making her a new one.

Mom in the Peony - wearing the necklace I made her for Mother's Day!

When my Mom first tried on her Peony dress, another Colette patterns marvel, we could barely get it zipped up! How disappointing, after I had been working night and day to finish my presents by Christmas! Obviously I have some trouble with making things in the correct sizes - I would probably benefit from a dress-form. I was resolved to fix it though and it ended up being fairly simple. The bodice half was too tight, so I kept the skirt and made a new bodice for it. Look how beautiful she looks. Mission accomplished.

My goal for next year... Start sooner  :)