Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

My all your wishes come true!

Happy Sewing,
Michele P

Quick Gift - Fabric Covered Pattern Weights

I thought I would post this tutorial again as it was one of the most viewed in 2010!  These are a quick, easy, and inexpensive gift for your sewing or quilting friend! 

 

Custom Pattern Weights

Of all of the gifts so far, this is the fastest! 

Purchase washers from the hardware store. I found these at Lowes and I think a box of 20 were about $3.00.

 

Cut bias strips of light weight cotton - I tried heavier weight fabric and it just doesn't want to wrap. Fold strip as above and start wrapping around weight. Make sure that as you wrap, you cover the raw edge of the strip with the fold edge.

When you have finished wrapping the entire washer, fold raw edge under and either hand sew down or use my favorite product, fabric tac and glue the edge down . That is all there is to it! Make six or eight in matching fabrics and place in a decorative box. Your sewing friends will love them and sew will you.

I read all of your comments - so please leave me one if you have time or click a box to let me know you were here.


Happy Sewing,
Michele P

Christmas Centerpiece

As I told y'all in last week's post, I have been going CRAZY making holiday crafts.  I have been so inspired by all the talented people on Pinterest that I made all new Christmas decorations for my dining room.

These are the ones I made for the credenza:

One side of the centerpiece

Other side of centerpiece

Large Topiary

Two more

These decorations represent my new Christmas color scheme.  They really don't look like much, but they took me two entire days to make!  Today has been very rainy and grey so I had a hard time getting a good picture to show the colors. 

I have two more decorations to show you that complete my insanity of creation and will post them next week.

Happy Sewing,

Michele P



Tip Tuesday - New weekly post

Today I am introducing Tip Tuesday. I will post these on the Tuesdays that I do not have a T Shirt to show.

I don't know about you, but sometimes I am scarf challenged.  I can tie some scarfs, but these newer sheer ones have been given me a little problem.  I found this site via Pinterest (I am too obsessed with that site) and love this little video on how to tie a simple scarf.

Check out how to tie scarfs for several more videos!

Please don't forget to join my blog hop.  I know the pics are blurry - my first attempt was somewhat a guess I now know what to do for the next one.

Happy Sewing,
Michele P

My Christmas Wreath

I have not been sewing much lately as I have been obsessed with Pinterest and all of the crafts I see there.  I really need to quit looking at it, but I just can't!  After seeing all of the beautiful Holiday decorations I decided to make all new ones for our house this year!  After MANY trips to Michael's, Target, and AC More I have two things made! 

Here is my first - A new wreath for our Front Door

Not my best photographic work, but I hope you can see it ok. 

Another shot of the wreath.  This one is on the door to my studio - so the angle is kind of strange!  I will try to take one on my actual front door - but it has been raining so much that I have not been able to get outside and take a shot.

Now I am going to try something new:  I have been wanting to do a blog hop for quite a while - so here goes!  All I ask is that you post something you made and if you are not a follower of my blog, please become one.

T Shirt Tuesday - Au Bonheurs Asymmetric Tee

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and survived Black Friday as well as Cyber Monday.  I have been working on my Christmas Decorations so for today's T Shirt Tuesday I thought I would feature Shams from Communing with fabric .  This T is so cute and goes along with my post of last week on color blocking! 



  

Here is some of what Sham's had to say about the pattern: 

It's sad that this company is now out of business, but I know some folks do have their patterns. This one goes up to a size 46, though the finished bust measurement is 41". This is not nearly enough for my 48" bust. However, I have recently worked out that in stretchy tees, I like a finished bust of 44", or about 4" of negative ease.

I needed an FBA, as usual, and decided to try a new-to-me technique, the pivot-and-slide FBA. You can see it explained on the Sharon Sews blog. I pivoted the top 1.5". This worked well at the side seam, but had an undesired effect in the armsyce by making it too wide. I will explain how I fixed that in a bit.

As I traced off the size 46, I straightened out the extreme waist shaping, as I do not have a tiny waist, and I removed the extra hip width, as I have narrow hips.

The top features asymmetric cap sleeves, which are very cute, especially on Dorothy, but I do not wear cap sleeves. I decided to take the sleeves from the Style Arc Adele top that I recently made. This meant that I had to transfer the armscye from the Adele top to the Au Bonheur top. This took care of the unwanted width added from the pivot-and-slide FBA and also narrowed the shoulder by about 3/4". Another good alteration for me as I narrow the shoulders of most patterns.

Go to Sham's web site to read the rest of her post!

Happy Sewing,
Michele P

PS - let me know what you think by leaving a comment or click a box.

New Coat for Viva

Our little doggie Viva needed a new coat this year.  She is such a wiggly worm when we are trying to get dressed to go out that it is very difficult to get a coat on her.  She loves to go for walks and is wild when you say 'go around the pond'! 

I have purchased and made many coats for her and found that this style is the one that really works.

Viva is a VT fan and a real Hokie girl so I thought this pink VA Tech fleece was the perfect fabric for her.

And because she is a girlie girl I had to add a bow!

Happy Sewing,

Michele P



Welcome Back T-Shirt Tuesday!

I am so happy to have a T-Shirt Tuesday Project!  I have been in a T-shirt funk of late and have had no inspiration until today.  I have been motivated to make a color block T.  These Ts are a must have Fall 2011trend.  You can find them at every price point.

Here are a few that have inspired me:

Here is my interpretation of the color block T

Start by using two long sleeve Ts.  I purchased them from my fave Target on sale last year.  Play around with the color block. 

This was my first try.  Ultimately I decided that I wanted just two blocks rather than three.

The Final design with only two blocks

Once you have finalized the block design, put the two Ts on top of each other and cut your blocks.  You will note that the mustard T is a turtle neck which goes to show that you can use any T you find.

Next, cut the block from both T as they are stacked. 

Cut the sleeves at the same length as the body block to create a line the goes across the body and sleeves at the same point.

Now sew the two block together and you should have something that looks like this:

I thought this was a little too plain for me so I took some of the left over mustard and made a large bow.

I used the entire width of the T and cut it about 3+ inches.

Fold the strip in half with the seam on the end.  Place a rubber band the color of the T (if you have one) about 3 inches from the end to make the bow.

Add to T and walla designer color blocked T for about $3!

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or click a button.

Happy Sewing,

Michele P

DIY French Lamp

I have been wanting new lamps for our family room since I gave  kiddo our old ones.  I put out our even older ones just as a place holder until I found what I wanted.  Well. . .   3 years later, and one Faux Retirement later I still have no new lamps!  The only ones I find that I like are $300 or more.  I just can't bring myself to spend that much and Dr. P really won't!  So - I decided to make one.

On the Kitchen table to provide a better picture

This is where it actually sits in the Family Room

I found this Eiffel Tower base at Target and had to have it!  I do love the way Target identifies their bases by size so that you know exactly what size shade works with the base.  I can't tell you how many shades I have drug home only to return them because they were not the right size for the lamp.  Anyway, this is a medium size base so I needed a medium shade.

This is what it looked like when I brought it home.

I silk screened this vintage French postcard design on a large piece of silk / cotton fabric and then applied it to the shade and finished it off with brown petersham.

I think it is only appropriate that one of the books I used to raise the lamp is the Chanel

I am happy to report that this project was a success.  My barometer to determine the success of the project is sometimes Dr. P's reaction. Therefore when Dr. P came home from work the day I completed it, he had a little mad fit thinking I had purchased it from a little boutique that I had dragged him to a few weeks before and the price of a similar one was $450.  He was soooooooooo happy when he found out I had DIYed it.  And I didn't even get mad at him for his fit!


Let me know what you think by leaving a comment for clicking a box.

Happy Sewing
Michele P

Blessing Bags

I am rarely called to action - but when I saw this post on Pinerest I had to do the same.  And I am so glad that a little good has come from my addiction to Pinerest!

These are called blessing bags.  You make them up and keep them in your car for a time when you come across a homeless person.

This is what they look like from Pinerest

These are Mine

The idea is so simple I wish I had thought of it.  All you need is a gallon zip lock bag.  Fill it with:

tissues

tooth paste & tooth brush

comb

soap

hand wipes

granola

crackers and cookies

chap stick

deodorant

band aids

hand or foot warmer

I also added $1 in change in case they may need to make a phone call.

I am often overwhelmed by the plight of the homeless and feel helpless - not knowing what to do and think that I really can't do anything to help.  Well, this may not be much but it might help someone for a few minutes.  I hope you will do the same and let me know if you do.

Happy Sewing,

Michele P



Halloween UFO

Happy day after Halloween!  I hope you had fun and saw lots of kids in creative costumes!

I have completed another UFO!  Yeah!  I started this wall hanging about 5 years ago and finished it two days ago!

After I completed it, I was stumped as to how to hang it.  It was a short term display so I did not want a permanent holder.  Then eureka, I found the solution to my problem - over sized clothes pins.  I purchased them from Michael's.  They were red and I took them apart and painted them black.

Here is a reason not to procrastinate - finish your projects in a timely manner.  This one was in the guest room laying on an ottoman for a year or so when I decided to work on it again.  To my horror I saw this:

Miss Viva had discovered it and started making her afternoon snack from the edge she could reach!  I had to cut off about 1/2 inch on the 4 sides to repair her snack attack!

Let me know what you think, please leave a comment or click a box.

Happy Sewing,

Michele P





Happy Halloween

Viva in her witch's hat

Viva channeling her inner Dorothy

Happy Halloween ya'll!  I tried to take a picture of Viva showing off in her costume but she was having none of it!  So here she is waiting for a treat!

Now that I am hooked on Pinerest, I have too many holiday projects on my mind.  I became obsessed with this wreath and would have bought one if she had any for sale:

Since she did not have any for sale last week I was forced to make one myself!  After only 3 trips to crafts stores and many $$ later here is my version!

Not an exact copy - but my version

close up of the spider hanging from her hat

I love these feet - it took me several tries to make witch shoes!

close up

Hope you have a happy day and see lots of darling costumes.

Let me know you were here by leaving a comment for click a box.

Happy Sewing,

Michele P

I've been pinned!

When I first head about being pinned - it sent a tsunami wave of wonderful memories washing over me. It sent me back to a college day when my fraternity boyfriend pined me!  The guys from the fraternity came to my dorm and serenaded me by candlelight.  Oh, those good ol' days. 

Back to reality - thanks to Jane over at lucky sew and sew I am now ADDICTED to pinerest!  She introduced me and now I can't stop.

Here is a sample of my boards:

stuff i've seen on other blogs

Home Dec ideas

Click Here to see my pins.

Warning - you too could be addicted!

Happy Sewing
Michele P