Category Archives: sewing

Done and next!

Posted on October 14, 2011 by SewTara| 7 Comments

So I finished my lovely little sewing kit thingie, thanks to Rashida’s tutorial.

Some things were confirmed with this little project.
1. I deviate from patterns, constantly
2. Taking photos in natural light is getting impossible this time of year.
3. Now that my work days have shifted, working all day Thursday is really cutting into this feature.
4. Me and snaps don’t get along.

I cheated and used my machine to sew up the sides, I was too tired and short on time to hand stitch it.
I also wish I’d used my cute Japanese fabric where the pink fabric is instead. That too tired thing got in the way of thinking clearly I think.

For my next trick I’m going to make this camera strap from lgb. Not only does it use up scraps and make your camera look fun it’s got a little pocket for your lens cap which I sooo need.

Join me if you like, your assignement is due next Friday. If you’re too busy, lazy, uncrafty, or tired to whip one up you can just click and order one here.

Sharing links if you’ve played along, or sewn on in the past, on Fridays is always welcome! Or you can add to the currently pretty empty Flickr group I created.

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Posted in DIY, scraps, sewing, tutorial-ish

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Flowers, hedgehogs and damask. Oh my!

Posted on October 11, 2011 by SewTara| 5 Comments

Totally meant to post this much earlier today but I got sleepy last night, you know at 12:30 am, and didn’t get to posting. Of course I remembered once I was cozy in bed doing the math that I had to wake up at 6:30. Long weekends are great but they sure do spoil me for waking up early.

Anyhow, here are some much better photos of my NapKitten wallet creation.

I picked a cute Japanese cotton print and a locally found red damask print. Due to all the pieces you have to cut for this pattern NapKitten has you cut as you go and I had a hard time with that. I’m a very visual person, and since I was working with a fabric where direction mattered I wasn’t sure I was going to have enough. The outside is one of the last pieces you cut and so I did some skimming through the pattern and some willy nilly cutting. I set aside the pieces and labelled them.

Making the bias tape was a fun experience, a little too finicky for my taste but I’m glad I know how to do it now.  I’m not a very good precision sewer/ironer and I think you need to be for bias tape making.  I found a video on YouTube on how to fold and cut fabric on the bias, while it seems confusing for me that was the easy part.  It was super tricky to have it nice and even and covering all the edges and previous stitching.

I made the inside pocket on the left there with the damask because I was worried I’d run out of hedgehogs, I think it was the right decision.

At the very bottom in this next photo you can sort of see the one place I’m not happy with my sewing job.  Right at the very bottom just left of the zipper is the seam of the outer binding and it’s a bit stuck out.  Also left of that in the very middle I had a hard time getting the binding up nice and close because of the middle card slot part and there’s some stitching and innards showing.  No one will ever see it since it’s inside my wallet but I plan on going back and hand stitching it a little with red embroidery floss just to hide it a bit.

Wonkiness aside I’m really happy with it and super proud to be using such a unique made by me item!

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Posted in fun finds, sewing

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So I have a new wallet . . . .

Posted on October 7, 2011 by SewTara| 6 Comments

and I’m going to use this thing until it falls to pieces in my hands! My goodness this was a crazy sewing project! Who’s idea was this!?!

Ok so I have to tell you I did have a great time sewing my wallet. I learned some new things, I found it ridiculously finicky at times and I don’t know if I’ll be making another one anytime soon but I’m really happy with the finished product.

It started with some fabric debating, at this point I actually thought I might make someone one for a gift as well. I decided on the fun fabric and set aside the more grown up one for later, yeah right. Now I have a few work in progress pics and my wallet is done so I’m a superstar as far as all that’s concerned. Where I totally suck is that I missed the chance to take some good photos of it today, my son’s birthday & party are tomorrow, and I was ridiculously busy today. Add to that the fact I took my class to the zoo all day yesterday and had a ‘Daddy was out’ night last night and I’m totally exhausted. Here’s a little flash ridden peek at what I did and I’ll post lovely pics ASAP.

I deviated from the pattern, as I usually do at some point, and added a magnetic snap and cute little button. I’m happy with it and it’s super adorable but boy was it challenging!! I’d love to see/hear about your experience with this pattern.

Here’s my next proposition and good news, it’s free! It’s a fun little coin purse tutorial, however I plan on using it as a wee portable sewing kit since I do a lot of crafting on the go. It’s the creation of the wonderful and inspiring Rashida Coleman-Hale

I think it will be a nice quick project and another bonus point is you can use up some of your scraps. So get sewing and I think over the weekend I’ll get a Flickr group up and running for this creative party I’m starting to run. I’ll also post much better pictures of my wallet. I promise.

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Posted in DIY, scraps, sewing

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School morning organization help

Posted on October 5, 2011 by SewTara| Leave a comment

This post was originally posted over at Meremade as part of her September Back to School posts. My opinion may be biased but it’s a pretty handy idea and so I’m sharing it here.

Now that it’s back to school time things are a little busier in our house. I’m a teacher and with 1 in SK and having to get the kids out the door and over to the sitter I can use some help. This year I work in the mornings and not being a morning person doesn’t help when I have to get 3 people ready and out the door.

I usually lay out all of our clothes the night before and now I’ve come up with a handy little DIY that can help us all do it for the whole school week!

You will need:
Fabric for the tote bodies (you will be cutting 10 8×8 pieces)
Contrasting fabric for cutting the letters (I used a charm pack I had lying around)
Ribbon for the handles
Heat and Bond (really helpful but not necessary)

The first step is to cut your letters. I was planning on getting all fancy and cutting mine with my Cricut but I decided to just give it a go and do it by hand. Once I saw the size of my letters I decided that 8×8 would be a good size for the tote bags. I have 2 little boys so I’m only tossing some socks and underwear in there. If you have girls and might be including hair accessories or tights you may want to make your totes a tad bigger.

Cut your 8×8 tote pieces, set aside. Cut Heat and Bond as backing for your letters. This product saves a lot of time and allows you to just iron on your letters rather than having to sew them all around. If you like the look of stitching on top you can still do that of course, the Heat and Bond just makes extra sure those letters aren’t fraying or budging!
Iron the letters onto the bag tote front pieces. So 5 will get letters, 5 will stay blank.

Now you’ve got 10 squares of tote worthy fabric. We need to hem the top edge. So turn the fabric down to make a little hem, I did about 1/2 inch, press and sew.

At this point you could make yourself handles using coordinating fabric but I looked up and my ribbon collection was staring back at me so I choose to go to the easy route. Attach the ribbon slightly off center on the tote pieces. So sew it left of the center line on one piece and right of the center line on the other. If you lay it all out it will look like mine.

So you’ve created a loop to hang over the hanger.

Place the tote pieces right sides together and stitch around the 3 raw edges. And you are done!
If you happen to have some of those hangers from the store lying around you can use those to hang a top and bottom and then slip a handy little tote with the right day of the week on it over the hanger, fill with needed accessories, in my case socks, underwear and a diaper.

Hang in a handy spot (like on my linen closet door) and you’re ready to go!

Oh and keep the empty ones in a safe place. This picture is moments after Nate saying ‘Thanks Mom’ and wandering off with the Tuesday-Friday totes.

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Posted in DIY, kid fun, sewing, tutorial-ish

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Come sewalong!

Posted on September 30, 2011 by SewTara| 3 Comments

Alright I hear you all on the awesome wallet and I too am dying to make it . . . but it seems such an ambitious first project. Dare we try it? I mean 27 pockets!?

I’m thinking of posting sewalong items on Fridays. So I’m here to announce what I’ll be working on this week and I’ll be back Friday to do a reveal. If I happen to be bad and have an incomplete project I’ll just write about it anyway!

So that said I’m going to cheat a bit and share something I’ve already tackled recently and then propose the next item. I’ll also have to work on a cute little button, and a Flickr group I suppose . . . oh so many things to do.

Ok so I loved this fun clutch from I Think Sew. I also own this, this and this so I’m sure those will pop up in this challenge. There are also a bunch of free patterns, I think you get once you sign up, it’s been a while.

I had this great nautical fabric with little blue anchors and red hearts that I was dying to sew into something.

This pattern was great and easy to use. I’m not a pleat expert and it did a good job of explaining how to fold and lay them and I’m happy with the results. It offers options to have a wrist strap or handles which is neat too. I love the finished look with the top panel and then the pleates bottom underneath. It also comes with the patterns for a large and small clutch.

I had one surprise this with pattern, which I suppose would have been avoided if I had stopped to really, really think about it. I made the small clutch because I didn’t want what looked like a giant bag in the photo. But, turns out the ‘small’ is also gigantic! I made it with a wrist strap and there’s no way you could ever walk around with this dangling from your wrist it’s nearly the length of my entire thigh! It would make a great large makeup case, or for your brushes and hair things while travelling.

Since I love the fabric I plan on turning it back wrong side out and sewing around a tad smaller to try to scale it down.

So onto my first *real* selection in this fun sewalong game. Let’s be crazy and go for the wallet. Available here in NapKitten’s store (I made another purchase just going to get the right links)

Some tips before you start: she recommends ‘duck canvas’ to make the wallet sturdy and heavy. At my local fabric store the sales lady suggested just some denim. She said she had tried to make a wallet before and it gets really thick once you’re sewing all the layers together. Since this one is all held with bias tape she suggested a strong needle because we’ll be sewing through so many layers. I picked up some remnant/end of bolt denim for super cheap.
I’ve never made bias tape so this will be new for me. There’s also A LOT of cutting involved in this pattern. There is no pattern as all the shapes are rectangles so she just tells you the sizes. She also suggests you cut as you go so as not to get confused by all the pieces. I would say this pattern, just from glancing at it, seems to be for someone pretty familiar with sewing or comfortable taking on a challenge.

Ok, I hope someone joins me! Let me know in the comments if you are.

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Posted in DIY, sewing, tutorial-ish

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Magic ratio?

Posted on September 29, 2011 by SewTara| 1 Comment

A while back I picked up this little pieced bit of applique.  It was in a thrift shop that also sold antiques and handmade items.

I’m thinking of adding handles and turning it into a tote, because I don’t have 365 yet and can’t change every day.

So my question is – is there some magic way to figure out how bit your handles should be based on the size of the bag. The ones I have seems a bit small so I’m not sure. Anyone have any ideas?

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I promise,

Posted on September 27, 2011 by SewTara| 4 Comments

I’m going to work through all these PDF patterns & turoials I have! Honest.

I was going to plan something silly like 52 weeks of patterns (yes I have nearly that many) but I realised I probably can’t comit to actally getting 1 thing done per week. So instead I’m just going to plow through them and share what I’m doing along the way.

I’ve built up quiet the stash of various patterns, since I’m always up for trying something new. Some are free, some are tutorials on blogs, some I paid for. I own nearly every Keyka Lou pattern not to mention a bunch from I Think Sew and

I might even get ambitious and post my planned project a big in advance and we can have a sort of sew along . . . perhaps once I settle into this back to school/work thing and get my classroom running smoothly.

So until I share here are images of some patterns I have on hand and plan on tackling soon. Let me know if you want to see anything in particular or if you’d like to play along.

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Posted in DIY, sewing

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It’s my birthday! It’s my birthday!

Posted on September 20, 2011 by SewTara| 10 Comments

Annnnnnnd my BFF is pretty awesome.  Here’s some of the fun goodies she got me (she snooped in my Etsy favs). There’s a really cool nautical patterned fabric.

Some fun vinyl stuff, nice linen/cotton blends, fun ribbon and a button.

And this cool piece with vintage images on it, it’s some sort of panel type thing. I’ll find a use for it.

Luckily it’s a half day of work for me so here’s hoping Nate has a nice nap and Wesley is enamoured with his LEGO yet again this afternoon and maybe I can wander off and create something fun with all this pretty new stuff!

I’ve also got a DIY post featured here today, a little back to school organization sewing project that anyone with little kids to get ready will love. Hope you all have a great day, even if it’s not your birthday!

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Posted in fun finds, sewing

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I cracked the code

Posted on September 19, 2011 by SewTara| 7 Comments

Well sort of. I have this fun Japanese sewing book.

I gave one of the patterns a shot, I figured it was simple enough, but I managed it!

I even had to do some tricky math to scale the pattern because my hardware was a different size from what the pattern called for . . . well I think it was.

I used my fun hippo fabric I’ve had lying around for a while with a scrap swap piece on the inside. I’m super happy with how it turned out.

I’m not sure about how I handled the openings where the snap frame slides in but it works and looks good. Time to try another pattern.

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Posted in crafty books, scraps, sewing

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Craft swap fun to keep my ipad cozy.

Posted on September 14, 2011 by SewTara| 1 Comment

So I signed up for 2 craft swaps this year and in the first one I was lucky enough to get Shealynn for my partner. After a few emails I wasn’t really sure what to send her, she makes/made these great camera strap covers and I didn’t know if I could impress her with anything.

So I just plunged in and sent her a sewing machine cover and some other goodies. I figured if I went first I wouldn’t feel pressure to be awesome like her creations. Sure enough, this amazing ipad cover arrived for me a little bit ago.

Now I had made myself an ipad cover before, but it was showing signs of wear and it was like a sleeve and there have been a few times my ipad was on the verge of just sliding right out when I wasn’t paying attention. So a snazzy new cover was just the kick in the butt I needed to finally cut my old one up and reuse the material.

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Posted in repurposing, sewing

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