The sewing WIPs

Fabricland has a sale on interfacing and lining. Well.... it's actually most of their fabrics but I'm going to be good and NOT buy more fabric. I need lining and interfacing for a couple projects. I would like to finish a sewing project this month. :p

Anyway, this is what is in or on my fabric box, because not all my fabric fits. Last year I bought a lot of fabric intending to do a lot of sewing at the lake, and then ended up sleeping through most of it beause I was so sick. If I hadn't been sick, I wouldn't still have most of this fabric and would have finished garments to wear with pride and hopefully panache.  ;)

As you will no doubt realize by the end of this list, THIS is a huge part of the problem that led to my New Year's Resolution of finishing one unfinished project each month. Again, if I finish more I'll consider it all gravy. :)

Dark green lace on black satin bustier. I'm half finished, I think. I'm having issues with it putting little air bubbles over my nipples, so I need to take it apart again and try to smooth it out. I think I need to buy grommets because I ended up using the grommets for something else, but I don't have to pick those up right away. I'm only going to work on this one when I feel like giving myself a headache. It's going to take a lot of effort to finish.

Waterdrop peasant shirt. I don't need to buy anything for that. It's cut out. I need to sew the trim on(sadly, by hand), then sew it together. Since I already know the pitfalls assocated with this pattern, it won't go too badly.

Dark blue long "wrap shirt". Fabric cut out. Need lining and interfacing. Had an oops while cutting out fabric, so I need to remember to reverse two pieces when I put it all together.

Red knot shirt. Need to cut it out then sew it together. Since I've already made this three times, I could probably do this with my eyes closed. :p

Sheer skirt with the pretty mermaid tail thing that shows the feet. It and the lining is cut out. Need to borrow a serger because running a scrap through my sewing machine was disastrous. I'm dreading adding the zipper.

Uber strappy black dress. Need to finish cutting out the pattern. Then cut out the fabric. Then sew it together. This is going to be a loooong project. It has like 30 finicky pieces that need to be put together very specifically. This may be a repeat of my first peasant shirt where I took it apart and redid it seven times because things didn't line up properly.

Light blue fabric with black roses. I.... think I wanted to make a skirt. I seem to have a zipper for this fabric. The fabric is opaque enough that I don't think I'll need a lining.

Then I have some stripy floral fabric. I'm not sure what I intended to make with it. I think I intended to make another "wrap shirt" with it, only a shorter version. So I need lining and interfacing.

I also bought a lot extra of the stretchy black fabric for the strappy dress and of the dark blue fabric. I fell in love with it. I shouldn't have bought them in these quantities. :p I'll have to find somethig to do with them. I'm certain the stretchy black stuff would make another gorgeous knot shirt. I love my knot shirts... they are so unbelievably comfy. :)

I have a fairly large leftover from a skirt I made previously, but have no idea what I would use it for. It's a brown and khaki plaid woolish fabric. Maybe I can make... a bag or something. Maybe a shell for my purse!

This isn't exactly high on my list of priorities, but I made a bag out of some faux soft leather fabric. It's really thick, and I broke a heavy duty denim sewing needle trying to put the strap on. I'm going to have to find a solution to that, because I'd love to have the bag finished.

So... even without counting the extra fabric, just for sewing I have 8 or 9 projects awaiting completion. I forsee a lot of sewing in my future!

*sigh* What a lot of work this resolution is going to be.

See you next time!

Pretty card

Made something quick tonight. Just a card.

I also organised my craft stuff a little better. My boxes are labelled now! Except for paints and clay, I need to gather that stuff up from all corners and condense them. I ran out of steam.

And... I found another ball of yarn. I need to find something to do with all this yarn!!

I determined that my February project will be a knotted fleece blanket. I found two pieces of fleece last week while tidying. I had bought it intending to make it for the Children's Hospital and I would like to finish it in time for Valentine's Day. So that leaves me two weeks to chip away at a big project, most likely the Elf Blanket.

But I also need to decide how to attack the sewing projects. I have nine or ten that I have most of the materials for, but need lining or interfacing and time to work on them.

I need a crafting weekend so that I can spend the two weeks prior cutting fabric so that I can just fire everything through the sewing machine all at once and be done with it. :p

I found a link on Pinterest that will help me use up some beads I've been looking at and thinking "Why did I buy these? What on earth am I going to use them for?" They're just not my style, as I see it. ;)

I must admit, I'm not sure how to count beading and card making because they're much quicker projects. And don't use up as much materials space-wise. Do I count them because I used things that have been collecting dust? Do they really count as "projects" if they take under half an hour?

I guess the best way to look at them is gravy on top of anything else I've accomplished in the month.

So, one blanket, three pairs of earrings, six cards(one design). Not bad. Not bad at all!

Here's the card I made. :)

Finished!

I finished the blanket!!

It measures about six feet by nine feet and is warm and fuzzy and the dog loves nesting in it.

Ends are all weaved in and everything. :)

See you next time. :)

Hooray!

After posting yesterday, I took a much closer look at the Elf Blanket and determined that I CAN use the tails from my leaves, but I have to work right to left instead of left to right. A bit counterintuitive, but Yay!!

So I spent an evening at Boyfriend's, and got half of two strips put together. Amazing! It's starting to look like an actual blanket! :)

I had the day off work today, so I picked up the blanket for Brother and finished it. Now I just have to weave in the ends, so I'm watching Warehouse 13 and doing that. That'll take me a couple evenings, most likely. Not the end of the world. I should be able to finish that by the end of the month without any trouble.

It's actually been a pretty busy day. Went to the dentist, ran an errand for my mum, did some grocery shopping, put gas in the car, walked the dog, finished knitting the blanket... Though while tidying, I found more yarn. Boo! I'll have to make some quick projects to get rid of some of this yarn.

Oh bother

I am a mere five rows from finishing my brothers blanket. Now if only I could be at home for enough time to knit those five rows... ;)

I know I can finish it by the end of the month. I'm totally on track for my resolution.

I finished the last strip of the Elf Blanket last night while out with friends. It's been my on-the-go project because I can fit whatever part I'm working on in a ziplock bag.

So this morning I went to grab the strip I finished last and couldn't find it. It's missing. Darn. "Oh well, I'll take the first two strips instead and sew those together." Great plan, right? Turns out sewing the strips together isn't going to work the way I thought it would. I thought I would be able to use the tails on my leaves. Nope. I'm going to have to carry around bits of all six colours. *sigh* And weave in all those extra ends. *SIGH*

But you know what? It will look amazing when it's done. :)

See you later!

Almost done!

I'm almost done the blanket for my brother. I decided that it's long enough and now time to switch to the brown border. Just three more balls of yarn and some weaving in a lot of ends and I'll be done! :)

Next, I'm teaching myself European Pic because this took way too long. I had previously told Boyfriend that I would make him a blanket next, but he has told me he doesn't want one at this time. However, he suggested I make one for my little furry friend. The dog has been nesting in the blanket when I'm not around and I'm told that it's adorable. This yarn is all warm and soft, so I'm not surprised the dog likes it. The floors have been really cold lately, so I'll make a little blanket to line his bed with. :)

On a more frustrating note, I found a bag of material this morning while putting away laundry. It's two lengths of fleece. As soon as I saw it, I knew what it was intended for. I bought it intending to make a blanket for the Children's Hospital. You know, the fleece blankets where you cut fringes and then tie them together for a double thickness blanket.

So I think I'll make that my February project and keep picking away at the Elf blanket. I've made one of these before, and what took me the longest was cutting the fringes. The tying the two together only took an evening.

See you next time!

I heart earrings

I made these the other day. I've always loved the look of seed beads dangling from a larger finding.

See you next time!