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