Archive / January, 2012

Tablet Cover Pattern…Coming Soon!

Hey there, sorry for the radio silence. Had a couple busy weeks with a Children’s Ministry conference and my children getting sick. I’ve got some more gifts to blog about, as well as some aprons I made for a friend to give her daughters for their third birthday. Cute stuff. But first…

Let’s talk about my tablet cover. Since I started this whole blog thing my Tablet Cover and Tote Bag post has been by far the most popular.

Mostly it is popular with people searching for tablet covers, table cover patterns and tutorials, etc. So, with that in mind I have decided that I am going to create a pattern/tutorial to sell. Woot!

I wanted to announce this publicly so that way there is some accountability. :) My goal is to have it ready to test by February 10. If you are an advanced beginner and are interested in being a tester please send me an email to sewinharmony (at) gmail (dot) com.

UPDATE: Thanks to all who volunteered to test my pattern! It is nearly finished, just some tweaking to do and I am sending it out this weekend.

Gift Giving: Decorative Embroidery Hoops

Time for another gift giving recap!

Shockingly this gift idea came from another Pinterest inspiration. I saw these sweet little hoops and just loved the idea of them. I filed them away, but didn’t know what I would use the idea for yet.

And then when I was planning my Christmas gifts I remembered my mom’s “bride room.” One of the guest rooms at my mom’s house is decorated with her daughters’ bridal portraits as well as pictures from her own sisters’ weddings. Perfect!

I decided to do a hoop for my mom and dad, my sister and her husband and for Christian and I. I wanted to include our wedding dates and I thought it would be nice to also embroider flowers from each of our weddings. In order to give the hoops some dimension and texture I wanted to experiment with some 3D elements for the flowers. After playing with buttons and felt I looked into ribbon embroidery. This is mostly done the same way as hand embroidery so it didn’t seem too daunting. So I ordered the supplies and got to work.

I have to say I really like how they all turned out. I am sure with time my ribbon embroidery will improve, but I feel like I did pretty well for being so new to the medium. Anyway, here are some close ups of each hoop…

My mom and dad had a true seventies wedding…peasant-style dresses, blue tuxes with pastel colored ruffled shirts, feathered hair and a fro or two. She also used her favorite flower, the daisy. Her sisters were her bridesmaids and they wore wreaths of daisies in their hair. I replicated those wreaths on their hoop.

I stitched the stems and lettering with a backstitch and used the “lazy daisy” for the leaves and the petals. The stems and leaves are with normal embroidery floss, but I used 4mm silk ribbon for the flowers.

My sister and her husband had a sweet springtime wedding. I can’t believe that was almost two years ago now! She used a variety of spring blooms, but the most striking were the blue irises.

The ribbon embroidery was perfect for creating the irises. The fullness of the ribbon compared to embroidery floss really helps to create a nice three dimensional flower. I used 4mm ribbon for the actual flowers and used 7mm ribbon to create the leaves.

I got married at Christmas-time in a church with burgundy carpet. So I stuck with simple greens and whites. My bridesmaids carried just a few white roses still on their stems and that is what I choose to put on our hoop.

I made the roses out of 3/4 inch satin ribbon. I looked all over the interwebs to find a good tutorial for a rose that I liked and I settled on something similar to this tutorial. I had originally planned on using felt to make my roses and I even had it stitched onto the hoop and I realized that felt wasn’t right. These satin roses have more of the feel I was going for with the hoops.

I really like the way the hoops all look together. The idea came together very nicely and I hope they look good in mom’s “bride room.”

My new toy…

…is here!

I have been wanting a new machine for a long time now. I was originally looking at a VERY expensive machine at our dealer here in town and had started saving my pennies toward said machine. And then a friend and fellow sewer told me about her Brother machine and I was intrigued. And then I looked them up and was floored at their price. So, I was able to afford a wonderful machine (and the needed accessories) much sooner than I thought. (Thanks mostly to a generous Christmas gift from my lovely husband.) AND this machine has the added bonus of doing embroidery too! Applique here I come!

Now begins the daunting (but fun) task of figuring out how to work this new toy!

Gift Giving: The Phoebe Bag (with pattern review)

This will be the first in a series of posts this month detailing all the gift sewing I did towards the end of last year. For the past few years I have given mostly handmade gifts. It is fun to do, but VERY exhausting. I am thinking that this will be my last all handmade Christmas. I mean, if I find a project that is absolutely perfect for someone then I will gladly create it for them. I have just decided to not kill my self every fall from now on. We’ll see if this resolution holds true. :)

The first gift I want to share is the bag I made for my sister’s birthday. This has become somewhat of a tradition, at least for the past three years. Here are the first two bags I made for her.

2009

Margaret Bag from Oh, Fransson!

2010

Buttercup Bag from Made by Rae

For this year’s bag, I settled fairly early on making the Phoebe Bag from artsy-crafty babe.

I really liked the shape and it looked like a great pattern to showcase a great fabric. The next step was to find this great fabric. I looked and looked and finally settled on the Amy Butler Lotus collection in sky blue and slate.

Now for construction: I wanted to do a simple pattern review for those of you who might be interested in sewing this bag and want to know more about sewing it.

First, the pattern gives some helpful information at the start including how much fabric and other materials are required. I found those estimates to be pretty much right on. It also notes seam allowances, how many of each piece to cut out, and gives tips on how to make a more rigid bag if desired.

The markings for joining the pattern pieces were very well marked and easy to match up. She even includes a scale on the pattern pages to help you print the pages the correct size. That was a nice bonus and I have not seen that on any of the other free pattern downloads I have used.

I decided to make two pockets, instead of the specified one. First I did the standard patch pocket called for in the pattern. This was simple enough and I had made several of these before. I sometimes measure the object (phone, etc.) that I might put in the pocket and custom fit it, but because this was a gift I just made it the standard size outlined in the pattern.

In order to stretch my skills I also decided to insert at zippered pocket. I followed this tutorial on Sew, Mama, Sew! and found it was very easy to do. I feel like a zippered pocket makes it more like a “real” purse.

The darts are marked clearly on the pattern piece and they were easy enough to transfer. Through my own distraction I accidentally made the markings on the right side of the fabric and had to redo all my marks (thanks, Felicity). You’ll want to make the markings on the wrong side of the fabric so you can match the lines easily and then sew along the line to be sure you have a straight dart. I really like the shape the darts give the bag. Most of the bags I have made have had squared corners and this was a nice change.

I like the way the strap is designed to have the lining fabric on the inside. It gives the bag nice contrast. The instructions were easy to follow and even had a little diagram to help make it clear in case you got confused.

The instructions for where to install the magnetic snaps were very clear as well as the instructions for the flap and its placement.

The instructions for pinning the bag and finishing made sense to me, but I have made several bags previously. I think the instructions are clear enough for a beginner, but, as a visual learner, I would have liked a couple of pictures of the process if I was new to it. (Grammar police: please forgive that last sentence if it is punctuated wrong.)

Overall, I really like the pattern. It makes a very nicely shaped and sized bag (around 14″ x 12″). One of the main reasons I chose it (to showcase a nice fabric) was well validated. The blossom fabric looks great here.

For an intermediate sewer, like myself, the pattern instructions were good and I always understood what she intended. As I said before, if I were a beginner I probably would have liked a few more pictures and/or diagrams to help me visualize better, but the written instructions are very clear.

One other thing that I like about this bag is that it would do well sized up or down. The shape would make a cute smaller handbag or a larger cross-body bag. (Similar to the Margaret Bag above.) In any case, I would definitely sew this bag again for either myself or as a gift.
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And a couple notes: sorry about the crayon-colored table. I don’t have many clean photographing surfaces! And do you like my new logo?