Wholock Hobo

Last week I finished my first official commissioned bag, and I'm really happy with it. This project made me think I should get business cards and carry them, because you never know where you might sell something! Like when you're at the vet. My cats' vet noticed my Doctor Who Rosie back in June when I brought them in for a checkup, and asked me if I made it. Her daughter is a Whovian and a Sherlock fan (do they have a name?), and had a birthday coming up, so she was thinking she would like something like that. I showed her the India Hobo, and she loved my idea.

I made a large India, which is fully reversible. On one side we have Doctor Who -

and on the other side, it's all about Sherlock.

I ordered the special prints from Spoonflower. The gray and blue for the Who side came from JoAnns, and was a lucky find. It was perfect, with the gray shades, and the blue diamonds that resemble stars. I hadn't received the special order stuff yet, so I pretty much crossed my fingers and hoped the colors worked. As you can see, I lucked out and it's just perfect. Making the choice for the Sherlock side was much harder. I was told the intended recipient liked bright colors, but I tend to think of dark, muted tones when I think of Sherlock, so I had to dig a little deeper and do some research since (please don't throw things at me!) I'm not really into it and have only watched the first couple of episodes. What I came away with was the damask wallpaper, a yellow smiley face, and a purple shirt. Getting the Spoonflower print of the wallpaper was cost prohibitive, plus it was still pretty drab, so I settled on using purple. It took a month to find the I right one, and I found it at Calico Basket while I was visiting family for summer vacation. It is a gorgeous purple, blue and tan damask batik. My photographs really don't do it justice.

I somehow forgot to take a picture of the side of the bag that is only this, so this is my little bit of leftover.

My tag on the inside of the Who pocket! Please ignore my chipping nail polish.

Choosing accent piping and zippers was exponentially easier. I took the lazy way out and used pre-made piping from JoAnns. The zippers were part of a multicolor pack I bought on Etsy from Zipper Shop. Putting the bag together is actually fairly quick once you get to the sewing, but my least favorite part of making bags is ironing on interfacing. It definitely adds body, but standing there pressing a dozen pieces of interfacing to their fabric counterparts is quite boring, and I don't yet have a full sized board that I could set up in front of the tv. ;)

In the end, it came out pretty much just as I hoped. My client was extremely happy with it, and I hope her daughter loves it too!

*Post contains affiliate links to Swoon Patterns

Summer Shut Out

I realize it's been pretty quiet, even for me. With Cy out of school, time to sew is minimal. While I have in fact done some (okay, a very little bit of) sewing, I have not gotten photos taken and write ups done. Talk about your lazy summer! How do bloggers with kids do it when they rely on blogging for income? My hat is off to you who are able to make a career of this. Don't cry for me, though! School starts in a week (what?!?) and I'll hopefully have more time for sewing instead of being forced to do things like go to the park, play outside, or play in the pool, and otherwise spend time with my amazing kids all day. It has been pure torture, can you tell?

Currently on my cutting table is a Wholock themed India Hobo Bag that I'm making as a commission. Yay for actually making a paid project! Here's a peek.

Piping subject to change.

The fabric choices were pretty much left up to me with a minimal amount of guidance, so I hope she loves them. It took awhile to decide on the main fabrics, but I'm liking how it's coming together.

The project list from now to the end of the year is filling up, but exciting. Once the bag is finished up, hopefully in the next day or two, I'll be whipping up some Avengers themed pieces to add to the link up over at Crafting Con! There's an Iron Man and a Hulk design sketched in my little black book, just waiting to be made, so with a little luck they'll be ready on time!

Don't mind my pajamas. And yes, it's blurry on purpose.

I also signed up for the back to school swap through the Scientific Seamstress Lab Group on Facebook, so I'll be squeaking out a couple of extra pieces closer to the deadline than I'd like. And that's just for the next 2 weeks. Time to say goodbye to summer and get back into the sewing groove!

July 4 Sewing

I wasn't going to do outfits this year for July 4. We weren't supposed to be going anywhere or doing anything, so why bother if no one will see them, right? So of course, we decided to go to a party at the last minute, and I decided they needed coordinating outfits. Because I needed to spend half of July 4 sewing.

Cyrus' shorts are the ones I made last year. He has outgrown so many things that I was honestly surprised to find that they still fit this year, but it was a nice surprise. These are just super basic shorts, but they do have a nifty cargo pocket on one side. It has a star button in a circle that is reminiscent of the Captain America shields on the shorts. The fabric is Marvel superheroes, and also has Wolverine claws and Thor's hammers.

Ellie's dress is the Peek-a-boo Pattern Shop Sugar and Spice dress. I had leftover fabric from the shorts still sitting around in my stash, so I paired it with some red polka dots. Initially I really debated using the flutter sleeves, but decided she would like it better if it had the ruffly touches. There is white piping along the bottom edges of the front and back bodices. Luckily for me, she was totally pleased with this dress. I foresee a few more dresses and tops with this pattern in our future!

Project Run and Play: Signature Style

This one completely missed the boat, and I'm way late here. The last weekly theme of Project Run and Play was Signature Style. I've been considering this theme for the last couple of PRNP seasons, trying to figure out what my signature style is in kid sewing, but it's a tough one for me. My projects always feel like they're a bit all over the place, so I started perusing what I've made over the past year since I've started sewing more again. Eventually I concluded that pretty much everything I planned for weeks 2 and 3 could have worked for this as well! So here's what I actually made for this week.

Ellie's signature style is "princess". She loves pretty dresses, twirly dresses, and tutus. I don't really do tutus right now, so I make her fancy looking dresses in easily washable materials - she gets her princess dresses, and mom doesn't freak out about them getting dirty. What's the point of a dress you don't actually get to wear? Going over the things I've made, I also noticed that this style of gathered straps, simple bodice, and a gathered skirt has featured in multiple patterns and dresses. This time I used the Emory Dress by Izzy and Ivy, since Ellie is just getting the idea that pockets are awesome. She chose the fabric, pink with "birds and words", and the heart buttons for the back.

I love letting my kids choose their own fabric. Usually it has a better chance of becoming an item of clothing they really like than if I choose, although I sometimes do a good job, too. For example, this time around I chose the fabric for Cy's pieces and made them as a surprise. It was well received.

Similarly to many 6 year old boys, a fair number of Cyrus' clothing items have superheroes on them, including things I've made. I was feeling a bit at a loss when he shot down my original plan, so I just started going through my fabric. Originally I bought this Marvel fabric to line a messenger bag for him that I never made, along with enough extra to make pajamas or something. Well, this is something, right? I'd already traced the pab cargos, so I just added the shorts line and folded the pieces while I cut. The pattern is so busy that I skipped the cargo pockets. He never uses back pockets, and complains when I straighten them, so I skipped those too. You really don't ever see the waistband when he's wearing it, but I liked the way the green made the hulk pop, and it balances all of the red/yellow/orange in the print.

I did also make him a tonal orange raglan, but he kept wearing it and it was in the wash the day we finally got pictures taken. So he chose a tank I bought last year. Perhaps not the most perfect pairing, but if it makes him happy, that's what counts/

Back on the Wagon and (Another) Bag Swap

Just a quick update to say I haven't forgotten about you even though I haven't posted in nearly a month. I did have projects planned for weeks 3 and 4 of PS. And then I did yard work and inadvertently found out we had poison ivy somewhere in the yard. With my face and neck. Needless to say, I haven't felt much like sewing , and all I got done was the bag I made for the latest swoon swap. Even if I did make my outfits, I'm not sure I want to publicly post pictures of myself covered in red patches. Ugh. Instead I've been waging war in my lawn and being exhausted from antihistamines. So I apologize for the lack of posts and projects for the last couple of weeks, and now that the itchy rashiness is mostly cleared up I can hopefully catch up! I did finally get pictures of the kids' outfits from the last week of prnp last month, and I'll get that post up as soon as I edit them.

For today, how about that swap bag?

This round of Swoon Patterns swap was the India Hobo. It's a semi-slouchy (depending on your interfacing), reversible bag with a slip pocket and zippered pocket on both "inside" and "outside". I made my zip and slip pockets layered, but you could put them on opposite sides of the bag if that was your preference. The blue is a rose floral tonal in shades of dusty blue that has been kicking around my stash for close to 10 years. The medallions are quilting calico from JoAnn Fabrics. My swap partner requested a more neutral bag, so I wanted to choose patterns that would go with almost anything. I guess I did okay, because she tells me she loves it! Very gratifying, because I would feel just terrible for choosing badly if she didn't like it.

Showing both sides, since it's reversible. Yay for versatility!

 

Yup, that's my tag :)

 I'm still waiting for my bag to get here, so I can't share pictures of it yet. A couple of these are on my projects list to make for myself, though. I've never been much of a multi-bag kind of girl, but this one may convince me that I need handbag options. Fingers are also crossed because I may have someone who wants to actually pay me to make one for her daughter (in a Doctor Who/Sherlock theme, no less). Do what I like to do and get paid - what's not to love?

Project Sewn Week Two: Floral Frenzy

This week's Project Sewn challenge is florals. Hm. I haven't worn much for florals in, well, forever, so I went hunting for something with flowers that I also liked and thought I would wear. I bought 5 prints. Maybe a little overboard for a single challenge? Most of them are still sitting in my stash piles, waiting for me to decide what they might become. Two are rayon challis, which is lovely and soft and drapey. And I hate trying to cut it. I made a zippy top out of a pretty purple and neutrals floral, but rayon challis slips and slides during pinning, during cutting, during sewing... In the end it did come out okay, but by going with my bust measurement it was a size or so too big everywhere else. I've worn it, but decided I wasn't happy enough with it for this challenge and I didn't feel like taking it apart to remake the neckline. Plus by the end of the first day I wore it, Ellie had pulled on the neckline and broken my zipper stitching. Guess that didn't get enough care and attention. On with more planning! Which came to a screeching halt when I ended up testing a pattern last week, and suddenly realized that oops! I don't have anything flowered. So I whipped this up so I'd at least have something to show!

There was a flower in my hair courtesy of a small princess, but it didn't show up in the photo. Darn.

When this fabric arrived, the flowers were bigger than I realized. Score one for not checking the swatch with the measurement markings. It's a rayon cotton blend with gold and turquoise batik and gold embroidery.

Up close and personal so you can see the embroidery details.

Since it wasn't going to work for the dress I'd envisioned, and for the life of me I could not find a solid I liked with it in a comparable weight, it sat around while I bought a couple more fabrics. This weekend it came to the rescue as this super simple wrap skirt.

You may have noticed, I'm barefoot again this week.

The skirt is full of cheating as far as finishing details (or lack thereof) because I started it in a hurry trying to get it done before going out on Saturday afternoon. The front edge is actually the selvedge, and the inner wrapped edge is simply serged. Originally I tried making it with two full fabric widths so that I could leave both selvedges, but it was way too much fabric, and that bit was my undoing while hurrying along on Saturday morning. (As a side note, this turned out to be a good thing. It suddenly opened up and poured at the festival we were at, and this would probably be a hinderance while herding small children in the pouring rain.) The hem is serged and folded up once to limit the loss of length in a hem, and the waist is self bound with a pieced strip of fabric that is also the ties. I added quick and dirty belt loops onto the inside back waist to hold the waistband and wrap around piece of the tie together.

Must be time to end the photo shoot and play.

I finished Sunday morning, so I had no husband around to take pictures. These are all courtesy of the self timer. (In related news, I could really use a new and nicer camera! This one does fine for the time being though.) I really like this skirt. So simple, so fast, and so comfy! Grand total even with setbacks, this only took me a couple of hours to put together. It could easily be fancy, but with a simple tee and a ribbon choker it's right at home in the grass with little princesses.

Project Sewn Week One: Leading Ladies Challenge

Week 1 of Project Sewn has arrived! And I'm actually ready to post at the beginning of the week. Shocking, I know. ;) The first week challenge is the leading ladies challenge.

"The Leading Ladies Challenge---make a look inspired by a leading lady from the movies. (This doesn't mean it has to be an exact replica, although it can be, but only needs to be "inspired" by your feature film leading lady."

Finding a leading lady for inspiration took some thought. My first thought was a panicked "but... I don't movie!" I don't watch much for movies these days, and haven't seen anything in a theater for a couple of years or more. So I started going through the tried and true favorites, and came up with... Lord of the Rings. Hold on. How do you make an everyday summer outfit based on those dresses? Gorgeous, and I've used them for inspiration when making medieval styles, but not for daily outfits. But I'm up for a challenge, so I sifted through a bunch of photos of Arwen, Eowyn, Galadriel, and Tauriel from Desolation of Smaug. Eventually I settled on this photo of Eowyn.

It's not technically featured in the movies, since most of the scenes with it were cut, but it's still become an often used photo, and I decided it was something I could work with. And this is what I came up with. Definitely inspired by and not a replica!

Yeah, I totally wore my Chucks with this because we walked to the park. That is why in most of these I'm barefoot.

What's that, Mommy is trying to do something without me? Nope, don't think so.

Eowyn's dress was made of a silk jacquard gauze. No way am I getting anything like that, so the dress became a boho style knee length skirt. I used an embroidered cotton voile for the main skirt fabric, and used a different specialty cotton in the bottom, a la a lace inset. The skirt absolutely needed a lining, so it's lined about halfway down in muslin. It didn't come out quite the way I envisioned. The cotton lawn doesn't quite have the drape I was hoping for, maybe because of the stiffer muslin lining, but it's still so pretty and will definitely see a lot of use this summer.

Please excuse the hint of bra that decided to peek out.

I turned the bodice over the dress into a tank top - not exactly a stretch. The brown knit was leftover from another project, and I used a brown quilting cotton for the straps. I loved that I found this pattern that looks lace-like to go with the feel of the skirt and the lacy inset detail. It is self lined up top, and I considered making a built in bra, but I wasn't convinced that the fabric was sturdy enough to take it. I'll spare you an up close look at my top stitching, it's a skill I'm still perfecting! One of the straps ended up at a slightly wrong angle in the back, but I didn't feel like unpicking the serged seam since it looks fine.

This is the first outfit I've ever made totally without a pattern or tutorial, and while there are definitely things I'd do differently next time, I'm really pleased with how this outfit came together.