by Sherri Sylvester | Mar 7, 2013
I have been receiving a link to a new sewing tutorial in my email everyday from Sew Can She for a while now. It’s amazing getting something you can sew in your email everyday – and the ideas are always relevant, cute, well photographed, trendy… what more can I say? Sending out these emails was a really great idea!
I have been fortunate enough to be able to submit my Sew Handy Fridge Towel pattern and tutorial to Caroline and she has been kind enough to send it out in today’s Sew Can She email! (If you would like to be on her mailing list click here and submit your email address at the bottom of her website.) I am SUPER excited about this – and a special welcome to anyone visiting from Sew Can She today!
As well as emailing out my tutorial, she took the time to make a couple of towels herself. The fabric she chose is really cute – you can check out her post here. She reviews the pattern, adds a few new things and tells you how to miter your corners neatly when using bias tape. I’m definitely going to use that tip the next time I use bias tape on a corner – you learn something everyday!
Caroline’s Sew Handy Fridge Towels (photo: Caroline, Sew Can She)
by Sherri Sylvester | Feb 11, 2013
I was at Mad About Patchwork a few weeks ago searching for some Kona Cotton in Charcoal for my husband’s T-Shirt quilt and I got a bit lost… well… maybe a lot lost. I ended up with 3/4 of a yard of Octo Garden in Aqua. The Salt Water line by Tula Pink is really great. I wasn’t sure at first, it’s a bit strange – octopuses… really? The way they are incorporated into the fabric is really fun and unexpected – right up my alley! Looking at the Salt Water options again I also really like the Sea Strip in Aqua. Maybe some throw pillows for the couch?
I have had some trouble finding aqua coloured fabrics in the right shade for my living room, which has a red and blue colour scheme. It’s surprising how often they are too purple or too green. Anyhow – this shade of aqua is perfect, thank goodness! I can cross this project off my list, it has been too long in coming. Though the chair seat re-cover doesn’t have any sewing involved, it does have the gorgeous fabric. Also, it is graced with a Valentine’s project worthy pillow, so I’m good with it!
Octo Garden Chair
This chair used to be covered in this fabric, just for reference and so you can see how wildly my tastes have changed in the last 5 years. Don’t worry, I made the photo small so you aren’t blasted with the craziness!
The chair sits in the living room against a wall to provide a bit of extra interest along with the red couch and chair. I have been looking for something to recover it with since I changed the colour scheme over a year ago – has it been that long already?!
Here’s a better view of the octopus himself, or themselves, since there are many in the pattern. I really like how it doesn’t look like a sea creature from across the room until you walk closer. And the splash of pale blue is much better than the golden yellow/red that was there before.
Now all I have to do is finish painting light gray over the darkish taupe I have in most of the house. I think it will freshen up everything and maybe provide me with a few more photo walls, hooray!
The pillow was made following this tutorial by Noodlehead. I made it a bit smaller by printing the template about 1/2 size and then decreasing the seam allowance by the same percentage. I really like how it turned out and the contrast with the chair is fun too!
Speaking of Valentine’s, I am making some for my daughter’s class based on this idea and will post a printable for them by Wednesday morning – just in case you procrastinate as much as I do and want to make some too!
Along with the gorgeous fabric, I can’t forget to remind you about the interview with Pam from Mad About Patchwork I posted on Saturday – she even gave us a coupon code for her Canadian online fabric store – check it out! (And just in case you are wondering, I have not been paid to post her information. The opinions are all my own, she really does have a great store!)
by Sherri Sylvester | Feb 5, 2013
Quick note here – you all need to buy this! The Sew Fab ePattern Sale is on at Sew Much Ado (and other places I imagine). I found this yesterday and I am buying it! This is one amazing sale, I have been waiting for the perfect time to buy quite a few of these patterns – and it looks like I have waited long enough!
I actually looked up this exact pattern for kids pj’s from Peek-A-Boo Pattern Shop. I think it could easily translate into some wearable day-time shirts too. The Sidekick Suitcase has been on my list (and my pinterest) for a while – maybe now I can get up the courage to make them!
I ran into patterns by Figgy’s a while ago and am crazy about them. They actually have a bit of modern trendy style, and the photos and fabrics are really great! I like these pants (and shorts) in particular – but the open back on the dress – it makes the creative in me go nuts! Now, if I altered it to have an empire waist… and added few more ruffled layers on the bottom… While you are at it, check out her idea for the Figgy’s Kids Foundation.
Bought the patterns yet? Now sign up for the contest! (Scroll about halfway down the post.) There are more amazing things you can win than I know how to talk about. We could be here all day!
(Note: I am not getting paid to say this – I think it’s a great deal and want you to know about it too!)
by Sherri Sylvester | Jan 29, 2013
Okay, so I completely missed posting the tutorial on Saturday… {Sorry}. I had the busiest sewing related weekend that I can remember having since making my daughter’s coat! After that I began and am in the midst of the busiest work related week I have had in a long time. I am actively trying to find time to post the tutorial {Promise}!
In the meantime, here is a short note about something super exciting – I have photos of 3 Speedy Tote-Able Towels that weren’t made by me! I received a comment from Marilyn on my tutorial post, where she also left her email address. I was able to email her and ask if she used the tutorial and if I could have some photos to share with you, and she was kind enough to send me some!
She sent a very sweet note in her email, “Yes, I did make some towels, 3 in fact for the kids to take to swimming lessons and I love how they came out and how easy they are for the kids to carry. … Thanks for the great tutorial – it really made the whole process very easy.”
I also found out that she lives in George, which is in the Western Cape in South Africa. Blogging from Canada, it is fun that we can find each other despite the distance. It is amazing that we are all so connected online, it makes the world a lot smaller!
Thanks for taking time out to send these Marilyn, I really appreciate it!
by Sherri Sylvester | Jan 19, 2013
The first and most exciting is that the first meeting of the …. umm…. “Friends We Know that Sew” Club… was last night. We’ve definitely got to come up with a better name for it! Everyone was commenting that they aren’t sure how to explain the …. umm…. “Club” to all of our non-sewing friends – so any suggestions (write in the comments!) would be gratefully received!
I should likely have taken at least 1 photo of the 5 sewing machines on my dining room table and the (gorgeous) fabric and amazing projects everyone was working on. It is so much fun when you are able to talk with a whole bunch of other people that love to talk about what you love to talk about! We are super excited to have another night soon and maybe all work on the same project together over an evening.
The second exciting thing is that I stole away for a bit this afternoon to go to the fabric store. I was inspired by one of my friends’ quilt projects and have bought fabric to make a couple of quilts for my daughters. I have had the pattern for The Proverbial Quilt by Denyse Schmidt for a few years and haven’t got around to making anything with it as yet. I think I have finally come up with a saying that I like and will post more about that later.
I’ve always been “scared” to start a quilt – first I am not sure that I have the patience to finish it – and to cut out all of those pieces! Second, I am overwhelmed by the enormous options for fabric that are online. I can’t decide what to pick and so usually give up before I have ordered anything. There are just too many good fabrics! I decided today that I was just going to go and pick something at my local specialty fabric shop and not care so much! Here’s what I came up with.
Quilt 1 – Pink and Blue
This quilt will be for my older daughter. I asked her to go through my fabrics and come up with some that she liked and she ended up picking a lot of pink and blue, so that was the starting point. I bought a few new fabrics to supplement what I already had. The solid pinks will be the text, the blues are for the front of the quilt and letter backgrounds. The pinks on the bottom of the photo are for the back. I still have to go find 2 more light blues at another store to fill out the selection – the fabric I was able to find for the other quilt is a lot more varied.
Quilt 2 – Purple and Green
My youngest will be getting this quilt. She seems to like green as her favorite colour, so I went with that and purple for good contrast when reading the words. The top solid purple/pinks will be the text, the greens for the top of the quilt and the darker purples (from the bottom of the photo) for the back. I knew I had been saving my Heather Ross “Far Far Away 2 – Sleeping Beauty” 1/2 yard for something special and this is it. I love her fabrics, and Sleeping Beauty is perfect for a tiny person’s quilt.
So long for now, I am off to prewash my fabric – how boring! If some of it had not been washed already I suppose I could skip this step…. ah well. Maybe I’ll get a bit of time to play with it tomorrow.
by Sherri Sylvester | Dec 30, 2012
I have seen this pattern before online at one of my favorite blogs – Maureen Cracknell Handmade. I thought it would be good to give it a try. As much as I love a ton of quilts (check out my pinterest folder here), I can’t seem to get my desire-on for making one. They seem so repetitive and time consuming to cut out.
Anyhow, either way, I thought this dresden plate was super easy to make. It is also very pretty. It was also going to be my last Christmas project to finish before the holiday. Ooops. The holidays took over and I finished this one last Wednesday. I am using the term finished loosely, as you can see it has no centre and is not attached to anything as yet. I found this large size gold shirt that is a good size for a pillow and I think I am going to fold them up together and pack them away with the Christmas things – something to finish next Christmas!
I have been stashing the elf fabric for a couple of years now. Funny thing is the fabric arrived and the elves had no eyes. I know it is personal preference, but I think they looked a bit creepy that way (see below) and have never sewn anything from it.
A while back I was sewing with a friend and came up with the idea of putting the eyes on myself. I have some fabric markers from the Dollar Store and always wondered what I would do with the brown one. Now I know! I took the whole 1/2 meter of fabric and put eyes on every single elf.
Ahhh… much better!
Of course, I also couldn’t resist adding in some of my favorite Michael Miller Fabric – Put A Lid On It in Charcoal. My husband surprised me a while ago by buying 2 meters of it and I’ve been adding it to everything I can ever since. You can also see it here and here. They also have it in yellow (citrus!) with multi-coloured pots! Love!
I was thinking about making a few different sized templates for a dresden plate and will post them here soon.
