Category Archives: sewing

Spoiler alert

Posted on June 10, 2011 by SewTara| 3 Comments

So when I did my Sew Mama Sew giveaway I invited Wild Olive readers over with the top secret assignment of sneaking a reference to a tea party into their comment. It was so fun to see how people did that, you know, just casually dropping ‘tea party’ into their sentence. I felt like I should reward al their hard work so I picked a second winner who dropped the secret phrase.

Then I made the vague promise of making something Alice in Wonderland themed to fit in with Mollie‘s focus for May. So I whipped up this little tea/sweetener cozy. I didn’t add a spear in the guards hand, tried to keep it happy. Should arrive soon Liz! (Hope you like tea)

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Posted in cozy, sewing

Pandas and pouches oh my!

Posted on June 7, 2011 by SewTara| 6 Comments


Let’s ramble shall we?

I made another coin purse, as I was mentioning the other day, I’m really excited with how it turned out. I kinda sorta drafted the pattern myself using the store bought pattern for the small purse and all I went well!

I used a really fun cotton & linen blend, a Japanese prints from my fabric crush drawer. Inside I used a random cotton FQ I had lying around. Sewing the hardware on is a bit tricky, apparently they have glue on frames but somehow I feel like that’s cheating. I’ll stick with my tricky, finger reddening, slightly pain inflicting stitching.

And under the category of sharing the love Thursday has a GINORMOUS giveaway going on right now to celebrate her 1000 followers. Head over and enter part 1, part 2 and part 3. I contributed a cup cozy to the pile o loot.

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Posted in fun finds, sewing

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An elephant never forgets.

Posted on June 1, 2011 by SewTara| 7 Comments

These cute little fellows reminded me about my blog. Hi there!

I made this.

It’s stinkin’ cute.

Yeah, I’m kinda bragging & sort of sharing.

I achieved that ‘Oh I just threw some scraps of fabric together’ nonchalance I always see in other peoples projects where it turns out freaking amazing, with fabric pairings I’d never think of myself.
Oh I thought of them.
It appears I’m pretty awesome too now.

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Posted in scraps, sewing

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Photographer’s block

Posted on May 24, 2011 by SewTara| 11 Comments

If you’re looking for the giveaway scroll down or it’s over here.

Mostly I make cozies. It wasn’t really what I set out to do when I opened an Etsy shop, but I sort of just fell into it and I’m glad I did. I like it, I get to be goofy and I’ve learned a ton of new things. One thing I haven’t really learned is how to take dozens and dozens of photos of what is essentially the same item and still make it interesting. Which is sort of stinky since I recently created a whole new batch of designs for the shop.

Part of me thinks, “Ok, it’s just a cozy, they get it. Do the plain background thing and be done with it”.

But then if I do have something in the background, like say cookies, I know people see it and look and want cookies so they might want my cozy . . . . Oh I know I’ll hold it in my hand! No one’s ever seen a disposable cup doing that before! *groan*

Today was nice and sunny (after the freak thunderstorm) so I tried to sneak some flowers in. But yeah I don’t know, it’s still a cozy.

What’s a disposable cup doing in my house in the first place let alone on my piano? Who knows, it’s a new place to set up a photoshoot. How about in front of my lappy, you know because it’s a computer joke, get it? Get it?!

Anyone else feel this is a challenge when you’re making similar items and need to photograph for listings?

Maybe I should just start getting really outlandish and putting them on my sleeping cats, or hanging from the ceiling or in the bath . . . .*sigh*

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Posted in cozy, embroidery, sewing

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Happy Giveaway Day! CLOSED

Posted on May 23, 2011 by SewTara| 277 Comments

In the spirit of Giveaway Day, organized by SewMamaSew, I’m going to give away gave away, one of my new cozy designs!
This one fits in with the whole theme of the day and is all about supporting handmade goodies.

Also, since I’ve organized another scrap swap recently I’ll throw some fun little scraps into the package too.

Simply leave a comment below! Bonus smiles from me if you say something nice.
Giveaway is open to everyone everywhere mail gets delivered until May 25th!

**WOW I have never had this many comments on one post! Does that make me seem lame? Oh well. I usually write out names on paper and choose one when I have a giveaway, don’t think that’s going to work this time.
It’s been so great reading all these comments, thanks for all your kind words. I love all the people noticing it’s a Timmy’s cup!

Some questions have popped up in the comments, here are some answers,
– That is not my sewing machine, sadly, it’s LAs and she took the photo
– You can use your cozy on tea. Coffee is evil (well in my opinion) but my cozies don’t explode when interacting with it or anything
– I’d love to include cookies with your cozy but not sure that’d work in the mail. They are yummy little gems with hidden chick pea goodness from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook. I baked them for the photo shoot and they are sadly, long gone.
– Happy birthday if it was recently/is your birthday *please note that doesn’t mean you automagically win* sorry

I’ve been bouncing around all the other blogs and there’s some great prizes out there, and wonderful blogs. So happy I joined up this year, not sure how I missed it last year. Also really glad today was a holiday for me, it gave me time to click and comment!
Please feel free to add me on Twitter, follow me on Pinterest or come back again. I’d love to keep seeing everyone.

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Posted in cozy, embroidery, sewing

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More envelope pouches.

Posted on May 19, 2011 by SewTara| 1 Comment

Last night, despite saying I was going to go to bed early, I got on a roll and finished the rest of the pouches I had ready to go.

I’ve been a little out of sorts the past few days. Totally missed playing up the scrap swap as much as I wanted. I’ll match us up tomorrow and send out emails.

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Posted in scraps, sewing

My Little Red Riding Hood bag.

Posted on May 17, 2011 by SewTara| 6 Comments

I love this bag already, even without handles!

I took a break from creating for others on the weekend and finished this Saturday night. I stayed up way to late to get it done I was so excited. I intended to sew the handles on Sunday morning and have a lovely new bag. BUT turns out the handles I bought (before I knew what fabric I was going to use) are too small. I won’t be able to put the bag on my shoulder and they’re so small they look a bit silly.

So I’ve rearranged my BFF night out (Thanks BFF!) so I can head to the store tomorrow and pick up a longer set of handles.

Guess I’ll have to just sew another purse for these handles I already have *smile*

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Posted in sewing

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My weekend, in bags and purses.

Posted on May 16, 2011 by SewTara| 3 Comments

The ladies at work think I’m some sort of super woman.  I went into work today with 3 purses, hemmed pants, repaired pants and my Little Red Riding Hood bag.  Luckily it was a rainy weekend and the boys did a lot of snuggling on the couch with Daddy watching movies like Ghostbusters and Spiderman.

So here’s the parade of things I finished up this weekend.

I parted with some of my treasured Echino fabric to make the vest bag on the left, mine is on the right.

I made 2 of the vest bags in green for a lady at work who’s giving them to her daughters.   One was already done, but I got this one finished on Saturday.

My friend wanted a bag just like mine from KimmyKingsbury.  She found some fabric she loved and I created her own little copy of my bag.

Funny thing is I just packaged up 2 Kool Aid totes to ship tomorrow.  It’s been a productive last few days!

 

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Posted in sewing

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Who’s up for a scrap swap!?

Posted on May 13, 2011 by SewTara| 12 Comments

Yeah, I’m definitely addicted.  So who wants to satisfy their craving with me or get hooked?

Sign up here, I’ll take names until Friday May 20th .  Leave your name and some contact information and I’ll pair us all up. Be ready to commit to shipping your scrap bundle by June 10th.  This will be open to everyone everywhere so please let me know if you object to international shipping and I’ll match you with someone in your country.

I’ve learned that  shipping works in mysterious ways (something I’ve learned running my shop) so if you’re shipping across a border keep in mind it might take a bit.

The keep everyone happy guidelines:

– scraps must measure at least 2 inches by 2 inches, there is no maximum size but it is supposed to help you destash your scrap bin so sending fat quarters probably won’t help with that.

– scraps must be clean, and in usable condition

– scraps can be new fabric or vintage reclaimed pieces

– fabrics should be of relatively the same weight, cottons/linens/light canvas so allow for quilting, or mixing with other fabrics and use in the same project

– send 10-ish ounces to your partner by June 10th

Feel free to add some other goodies or random items if you wish.  Check out blogs or shops to get to know your partner, send an email and be friends, most importantly have fun!

Sign up below!

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Posted in scraps, sewing

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Bartering fun

Posted on May 12, 2011 by SewTara| 2 Comments

I had the pleasure of meeting Celine of Blue Calla at a Mommy’s night out thing a while back.  With my pathetic willpower and purse/tote/bag addiction I wasn’t able to walk out without one of her items.  She touches on so many of my favourite things like beautiful fabrics and Keyka Lou patterns.  She also makes her own creations that are fantastically made and lovely to behold. Here’s the bag I bought.

Recently she attempted the ditty bag and wasn’t so sure about how it would be received.  I offered to take this cute little one off her hands.  We ended up working out a barter.  Shortly after my fun little ditty bag arrived.


I’ve done a few barters before, they work out really well at craft shows, especially since you can do more than one and walk away with *all* your earnings.  So check out Blue Calla’s shop, new blog and Facebook.  You might see something you like!

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Posted in fun finds, sewing

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