Leggings and a Book

I decided to show you what I look like wearing the leggings. The burgundy leggings are just a little longer then other leggings but they fit really really nicely. I love putting these on first thing in the morning as I drink coffee and feed the cats. The material is 95% Rayon and 5% spandex. The material has a 4 way stretch, it's about a 60-70% stretch which makes it great for leggings. You can make a size smaller and they will still fit,. It's all about the waistband and the elastic you use. Some elastic is nice and comfortable but your leggings will pull down every time you bend over. A nice strong non-roll elastic will keep the leggings in place. I have come great celtic designs that I'm going to print on the fabric this week to see how it takes.
I received a copy of Sara Midds's latest book "A Bowl of Olives On Food and Memory" from Workman Press. It's a beautifully illustrated book that contains memories of picnics, summer dinners on the balcony, a funny chapter on eggs and a delightful page of napkin designs. Sara Midda's delicate watercolors through out delight the eye. I found myself looking at some of the pages soaking up the elegant images of raspberries, pomegranates & figs. Thought the book is small in size it is filled with such amazing detail,  I took 3 days to pour over and soak in this wonderful little book. I keep going back to the raspberry and the napkin illustrations for inspiration.  

Leggings

 I made another pair of leggings, It makes me sooooo happy because I have also found the perfect stitch on my server to make these leggings. It stretches nicely and holds the seam. It takes me about 1 hour from start to finish to make these leggings.

I have come to love this way of installing a waist band. You stitch the elastic down on the top of the band, the roll it down and stitch it again along the bottom. I added the blue piece of material so I tell at a glance which was the back. I think I will go back to the non-rolling elastic. The elastic I used on this pair was too stretchy & it may not provide the same staying power of the non-roll elastic. It's alway a test when sewing with materials that you get a thrift stores and estate sales. Though I love this pattern and would suggest it to anyone that asks. I want to try screen printing on the bottom of the next pair of leggings..oh yea there are more of these in my future. 

I bought a scooter a couple of years ago, we were going to make it into a rolling cupcake. It proved to be a little too large. It was about 5 ft long which would make the cupcake too large to store and we would need a trailer to move it. So my husband took about 18 inches out of the middle of the thing and then welded it back together there is a very study metal bar running down the center of the scooter). It's a little hard to ride if you have long legs but it's a work in progress. We are thinking of making a costume type of cover so the base can be interchangeable with different costumes. 

Making a shirt for someone for christmas. The burgundy fabric is from Pendleton Woolen Mills, it was a nice large piece in the scrap bin, it looks like a linen wool blend...but I'm not sure so I'm treating it like wool. That means I will have to wash it in cold and line dry the shirt. I'm in the process of putting it all together, I have the cuffs left. I should have it done in the next day or so. I will more then likely use snaps for the front closure as the recipient really likes snaps instead of buttons. I like to use a fun matching novelty fabric to add hidden details in the shirt. I have made about 5 of the Negroni Shirts so far, mostly for my husband...a couple for my father-in-law. They are always a hit and once you have made one...it's easier the next time. 

Out cat Sid sitting on the fence waiting for something to move in the night. 

Some leggings, a shirt and a quilt back

I love my light up Santa, if I could I would leave him out all year long I would, he always makes me smile. I completed several projects last week. My new goal is to do one thing every day. One day last week I spent on the internet choosing health care...that was a drag. So I had to get into the studio and make something. So I made a couple pairs of leggings for my husband, he likes to wear long johns under this jeans during the winter months. I bought him some silk long johns a few years ago, but he can only wear those so many times a week. These leggings are a little thicker and may be just a little warmer...at least he thinks they are. As you can see I did a zigzag stitch in the waist band. It took me about an hour to make both pairs of leggings. I'm going to Joanne fabric this week to look for some grey or red material to make a couple more pairs for myself. I love these leggings and as I said they are soooo quick and easy to make. I then finished the backing for the my Tula Pink Moon Shine quilt. I used the left over squares with some nice turquoise material that I found in my cupboard of fabric, I think the turquoise goes nicely with the bright Tula Pink fabric. This week I hope to put the entire quilt together and quilt it on my machine at home. I pulled out my Christmas Fabric in preparation of making a couple matching western shirts for my husband and myself. I was thinking of the grey or red for the base of the shirt with the Michael Miller Holiday Break fabric as the decorative yoke. I love this fabric it's very cure. 
I also finally tried to make a fabric basket. I have seen these on so many blogs. Ladies make the baskets to put in sewing rooms and fill them up with small scraps of fabric or thread destine for the trash. I have never made one before and found a nice tutorial on SewMamaSew during the handmade holidays posts the last few weeks. I like it but I do not think I will be making any more for my studio but I think I will make a couple to hold cookies as gifts this holiday season. During the winter months I like to wear long sleeve t-shirts under large sweaters. I tried the Alabama Chanin long sleeve shirt from her last book "Alabama Studio Sewing + Design". I used some cotton jersey that was not very stretchy thus the shirt is a little tight. I want to make it again because I like the flare in the sleeves. I think I have to do some adjustment to the bust, as that area was a little tight too. The fabric I used to make this shirt was some scrap that I bought at a thrift store so I have no idea of the actual content of the material. It was a white piece of material but I dyed it blue with a batch of fabric I dyed last summer on vacation. I really liked the color and was hoping that the shirt would work on the first try....it did not. I may just back to the Jalie 2805 pattern as I have made several of these t-shirts and they all fit really well.  

Sewing with Knits

I have crossed a couple of things off my sewing bucket list. I have seen several of the T-shirt quilts on blogs and I finally decided to follow a tutorial and make one. It's fairly simple I used this tutorial &  this tutorial that I saw in the Handmade Holidays series on Sew Mama Sew. I didn't have a lot of batting, so I used part of an old blanket in-between the t-shirt squares. This is a small 36"x36" blanket perfect for a cat bed. It's also amazingly soft. I want to make a larger one now. It's the effect way to use up small pieces of batting and puts old t-shirts to good use. I'm all about recycling whenever I can and I been hoarding t-shirts for a few years just for this type of project. I see a couple more of these t-shirt quilts in my future.
I also made a pair of leggings. I've had the Jalie 2920 pattern for a while but was afraid to try it. Strange that I would be afraid to try to make something. Sometimes I get it in my mind that it will not work and that puts up a barrier and keeps me from every trying. Well I was cleaning up my fabric collection and pulled out some stretchy black fabric that I bought 3 years ago to make yoga pants. The fabric was a little too stretchy and the pants fell right off me. I decided to make the leggings. The pattern is only one piece...it dosn't get any easier then that. I also found some non-rolling elastic to use for the waist. These leggings were so simple I made them in about an hour...that includes re-threading the serger and a couple of mistakes in my stitching. These black leggings fit great. This pattern would also work nicely as a pair of long underwear for my husband in the winter months. A serger makes this project go very fast but if you don't have a serger you can use a regular sewing machine too. I used my Brother sewing machine to put in the waist band, you can see the zig-zag stitch that I used in the waist band above. I love simple and quick projects that I can make is less than an hour, especially if they are things that I was afraid to tackle.