Arabian Nights Quilt

Pin It

Last week was Little Man's last day of preschool for the year.  He has one more year of preschool before kindergarten.   He only went two days a week for 2 hours at at time, but it was a great year and he had a fantastic teacher.  

I made Miss J a quilt to thank her for a wonderful year.  This was also Miss J's last year at preschool (she's planning on teaching elementary school next year) so I wanted to give a nice send-off.  We will definitely miss her next year!

Muscle Man

During our parent-teacher conference last month I not-so-subtley asked her what her favorite color was.  Turquiose/aqua was the answer.  While perusing my fabric stash my cuts of Lizzy House's 1001 Peeps line spoke to me.  It's not exactly turquoise/aqua, but it has that feel.  I've had the fabric in my stash for a while and haven't found the right application.  I opted for a lap-sized I-Spy-like quilt.  Miss J has 3 young kids so I thought the fabric would be fun for them.

It was cut and pieced exactly like the pink and gray quilt I made a couple months ago.  I threw in some non-character prints to add more color (green and purple).  So its not completely an I-spy quilt.    

For the back I used a large piece of Robert Kauffman's Metro Living.  I LOOOVE Metro Living fabrics and was happy to finally use a big chunk of it.  I pieced a yardage cut in the upper left and some remaining blocks on the bottom.  I really love how the back turned out.  

I think it looks good enough to  be a double-sided quilt.  I did have some issues piecing the back together.  I planned out the back in my head and didn't write anything down.  A lot of the pieces were either too short or too long so I had to either add or subtract fabric as I went along.  Moral of the story....write the dimensions down, don't try to remember everything.  

While I was making this I kept singing songs from Disney's Aladdin.  I quilted with simple, straight lines on the diagonal.  (Surprise!!)

I also had a hard time photographing this quilt.  The colors never looked correct.  Every adjustment to my camera affected more than one color.  I promise the green isn't that yellowish and the purple isn't that brownish.

Little Man had a lot of fun playing with the quilt after it was finished.  He posed for some pictures for Miss J, and then we played I-spy and finally made a fort.

Thanks for a great year, Miss J!

Mom Shorts

Pin It

I made myself shorts.  Proper shorts with a zip fly and everything.  I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself.  

I used McCalls M5391 for the pattern.   After making a sample pair out of muslin I made a few adjustments to the pattern.  For the most part the size I made fit as-is.  That rarely happens.  My husband bought me Sewing Patterns 200 Q&A for Christmas.  I used this book to help me with the pattern adjustments.  

For example the book showed what adjustments I need to make to prevent gaping the center back of the waistband.  Apparently I have a swayback.  It is so nice to have a pair of pants/shorts that don't gap in the back.

The biggest thing I changed was the pockets.  The pockets on the pattern are slash pockets.  I really hate how slash pockets look on me.  They make my hips look GINORMOUS.  I used a pair of jeans (for the shape) and changed the pockets to a rounded pocket.  

I also added pockets to the back.  The fabric for the shorts was found in the remnant bin.  By the time I got to the pockets I was running low on fabric.  I wanted the pockets to be longer than the fabric I had so I added the dot fabric at the top.  

Originally I thought this looked really cute.  Now, I think this is venturing into Mom Jeans territory.  I think might be removing the pockets.  Thoughts?

I had bit of an issue with the fly.  The pattern doesn't call for a fly shield (the piece of fabric on the inside of the pants that covers the zipper).  I added my own by following the Coastal Cargos instructions.  I think this looks better than an exposed zipper, but I don't love the flap that's hanging out on the right side of the shield.  I'll have to adjust my method for the next time.  

I also added a button to the top of the waist-band rather than hook-and-eye closures.  Mostly because I didn't have any hook-and-eye closures.  I think the button-hole should probably be horizontal rather than vertical, but it still works.  

The pattern calls for belt loops, but I left these off.  I was feeling a little lazy and I felt like since the shorts fit me so well I won't need to wear a belt.  

Just ignore my face.  This is the best picture Hubby managed to get of me.  I thought he was taking a picture of just the shorts.  I think I was frowning at the boys climbing on the picnic table. 

I think I might adjust the leg width a bit, but overall it's exciting to have a pattern for shorts that fit.  I will definitely be making pants this fall.

Kenda

Cardigan

Pin It

And the winner of the 1001 Peeps scraps giveaway was (as chosen by a random number generator) Beth!  I've contacted you and will be putting the fabric in the mail soon.

On to other news....I made myself a cardigan.  

I made a pattern using bits and pieces from shirts that I have.  This is my second attempt.  My first version (or muslin if you want to be fancy) was way to wide and long.  I adjusted the pattern and this is the result.  It's still a smidge wide, but overall I think it looks pretty good.  I can see a handful of these in my closet this fall.  

The fabric for both the sweater body and the ribbing is the same (cotton-poly interlock), but is contrasting colors.   Designer Matthew Arthur wore an awesome, color-blocked cardigan (it was stripes of color) on Project Runway this season.  I can't find a picture of it, but it was awesome.  Eventually I want to try that.

This came together pretty quickly and I even successfully added button-holes and buttons.  My secret was to use dissolvable stabilizer.  The stabilizer prevented the fabric from stretching which has been my biggest problem when it comes to button holes.  They still aren't perfect and the buttons don't even match, but they are good enough to wear in public.

It's been a rather cold spring so I've been wearing it quite frequently.  It was fun to make something for just me.    

Kenda

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!!!

Pin It

It's giveaway day at Sew Mama Sew!  I'm giving away a pile of scraps from my latest quilt (just finished last night, haven't photographed yet).  They are all from the Lizzy House 1001 Peeps line.  The scraps are of various sizes equaling roughly half a yard.  

To enter leave a comment telling me what book I should read this summer.  The giveaway will stay open until May 10 and I will let the winner know by May 12.  Make sure your email is attached to your comment so I can contact you!  Sorry, I can't ship internationally.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again!

Kenda

Upcycle Squared

Pin It

Last week was Kids Clothes Week, a week-long event where people commit to sewing kid's clothes for one hour every day.  I didn't fully participate, but I did finish up a nice stack of t-shirts for Mini-Man.  

All of the shirts started as mine.  Two years ago I upcycled the shirts to fit Little Man using a home-made pattern before I knew anything about patterning.  They were one of my first ventures into sewing knits.  

They were utter crap and I never used them for Little Man.  I found them in the the boys' closet the other day and decided some of the graphics were too good to go to waste.  I ripped them all apart and re-cut them into a smaller size to fit Mini Man.  I used the R is for Romper pattern from the Sewing for Boys book.  

 

Mini Man decided to eat the sand.  He wasn't a fan.  

For the all sleeves I used scraps from old shirts.  The sleeves on the original upcycled shirts weren't big enough to re-size.  They are now frankenshirts (or upcycled squared).

A few of the shirts are silly Nebraska-themed shirts (my home state).  Its nice to see a shirt from Nebraska without the Huskers plastered all over it.  

These pictures outside were taken two days ago.  It was 80 degrees.  It is now currently snowing.  SNOWING!  I think someone forgot to tell Mother Nature that it is now spring.  

 

Hope you are having a nice spring!

Kenda

Goodbye Google Reader

Pin It

Sadly, Google Reader is going away at the end of June.  Why must all good things end?  First Picnik now Google Reader?  I've added my blog to Bloglovin.  If you use Google Reader and are looking for a substitute Bloglovin looks like it will do the trick.  Check it out:

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Kenda

Cat in the Hat Baby Quilt

Pin It

Hubby's boss and his wife are having a baby some time next month.  Hubby asked if I would make a quilt to celebrate the occasion and I was more than happy to help.  Do I ever need an excuse to quilt?  The theme for the baby's room is Dr. Seuss.  Hubby had thought of the Cat in the Hat quilt I made for Little Man last year.

I wanted to make blocks with wonky squares similar the the outside blocks in my previous quilt.  After I decided on the quilt layout I decided to use the same Cat in the Hat panel as my previous quilt.  

I found this fat quarter bundle on Etsy:

Source: http://www.robertkaufman.com

Source: http://www.robertkaufman.com

The bundle (according to the listing) came with two panels, the large Cat in the Hat and this:

Source: http://www.robertkaufman.com

Score.  The second panel was exactly what I wanted for the center of the blocks and the fat quarters made shopping much easier.   

Unfortunately it was mislabeled and it came with this new panel instead.  

Source: http://www.robertkaufman.com

I was not pleased.  The seller was new to selling Robert Kaufman fabric and had listed the fabrics as Robert Kaufman had given her (which was incorrect).  The seller was very nice and helpful about the mix-up.  She offered to send me the old panel, but unfortunately it would have taken too long.  She instead gave me a partial refund.  The new panel is utter crap.  There were very few pictures that were actually complete.  Crap.  And the ones that are complete (umbrella and phone) are just dumb.  I don't remember a phone being central to the Cat in the Hat.  

If I had known the panel was going to be the new one I would have bought the fabrics and old panel separately.  I also would have bought different fabrics.  The bundle came with too many character prints and not enough low-volume, simple prints (stripes, dots, etc.).  This led to some very busy squares.   

Long story short: Robert Kauffman should get rid of the new panel of squares (in the bundle) and bring back the old one.

Front

I started by making the blocks.  I fussy-cut some images from the square panel for the centers of the blocks.  I used some of the character prints for the rest of the centers.  After making 12 blocks (enough for the front) I had more fabric so I kept making blocks until I ran out of fabric.  I ended up with enough blocks for the front and the back.  Nice.  I added some black-and-white prints from my stash as well as some solids.  If you are curious I used Kona Red, Kona Corn, and Kona Pacific. 

Overall I'm pleased with the quilt, but I don't love it.  There were times as I was making it that I absolutely hated it.  I think there is just too much going on.  I had a really hard time arranging the blocks so they each stood out.  I think they work well enough, but I think the quilt could have benefited from some sashing.

Back

I think the back is my favorite.  The lattice print on the bottom left was a last minute addition.  

The quilting is simple (boring) straight lines on a diagonal.  The quilt needed something simple.  I tried to use the quilt guide on my walking foot to space out the lines, but the damn thing was so wobbly that I couldn't keep the spacing even.  I got about a third of the way through before I decided to abandon ship.  I ended up marking the rest of the lines with a ruler and hera marker.  Lesson learned.  

The quilt measures ~ 45" x 60".  I tried to get a picture of Mini Man on the quilt for scaling purposes.  Alas most of the photos ended up like this:  

I need to make friends with more moms of babies so I can have a continuous supply of quilt models.  Quilts always seem to look better with babies, right?

I did manage to get one decent picture of him.  I had to bribe him with the one of the clamps used to hold up the quilt.

I also made a pair of reversible booties with the last of the scraps.  

I cut the stripe pieces on the bias for a diagonal.  Love this.  

The inside fabric was left from jammies I made for my boys.  

More pictures and close-ups of the blocks:

Thanks,
Kenda