bags..

I haven't been feeling very (blog) chatty lately, but I have been relatively productive with my sewing. Just wanted to share a few things I've been working on over the last few weeks. First up, the bags..

This was made with a fantastic emerald green dobby fabric I picked up at a 'fill a bag' event put on by Our Social Fabric in Vancouver. I actually came home with an incredible stash of silks, wool and fine cottons, as well as an organic cotton jersey (at $2/meter!!) which I used to make myself a maxi tank dress with this fabulous pattern. 

This bag is made from a surplus cotton canvas with a denim gusset and a vintage sheet for the pocket. Think this will be my beach bag for the summer if summer ever decides to show up on the West coast.. 

This was a gift for a friend. It's the Fold-Up Eco Tote from Rashida Coleman-Hale's book I Heart Patchwork. I made one of these totes for myself a while ago and use it all the time. Such a great pattern!

This tote was a gift for my sister. I had this Echino fabric in my stash for a while and love it, but just couldn't figure out what to make with it. Think it worked perfectly for this summer beach tote :)

And finally, a little drawstring pouch made with Jeni's pattern. I actually love making these. They are simple enough that it can almost become meditative, and the end results are super fun with all the fabric combo options. Will definitely be making more of these for Christmas.

Giveaway Day WINNER!!

Hey everyone! Thanks so much for entering my Sew Mama Sew giveaway this past week! It was so fun reading about what songs were playing in everyone's heads. And I apologize to those of you who ended up with the Muppets songs in your head after reading my post (they're just so darn sticky, aren't they?!?) And thanks for all the great jokes too! Now I've got some new material for entertaining the kids during long car rides and boring errands :)

Well, after plugging in the numbers into Random.org (to keeps things fair, I only counted 112 entries as the last one was in past the 5pm deadline.. sorry to be such a stickler to the rules..) the winner is...

who happens to be:

Amy  22 May, 2012 5:03 AM

I heard some kids at my son's school singing/playing "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz in their rock band class! (Just imagine kindergartners and first graders on guitar, drums and vocals -- it was something!) Now I can't get the song out of my head.

Congratulations Amy! I'll be sending you an email to get your mailing address so I can get this little pouch off to you! 

Thanks again for visiting my blog and I hope you drop by again soon! And just a reminder that I've got a sale going on in my shop for 25% off everything! If you mention 'Muppets' in the notes to seller at checkout, I'll throw in a little extra surprise gift :)

x melissa

well look at that, it's GIVEAWAY DAY!!

Hi everyone! And a warm welcome to all you SMS visitors! For those of you new to my blog, here's a little bit about me: I'm a full-time (stay-at-home) mom to two little kids, a crafter, a self professed fabric hoarder, and a lover of remnant bins and thrift store treasures. I like to blog mostly about my sewing projects, my obsession with Japanese craft books, thrifting, and pretty much anything crafty or vintage that catches my attention. 

I've always loved participating in Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day because, well, it's pretty fun to randomly give stuff away to people I don't know. And it's also such a great way to discover new blogs and make new virtual friends :) So, for this giveaway, I'm offering up my little Mod Vintage zipper pouch.

If you'd like to know all the nitty gritty little details about this pouch (size, fabrics etc.), check out my shop listing (by the way, I'm having a little sale over there right now..).

So, if you'd like to toss your name in the hat to win this little pouch, all you have to do is leave a comment below letting me know... 

What song is in your head right now? 

I ask this because this whole weekend, I've had the songs from the latest Muppet movie running through my head constantly! I feel like if I don't get these songs out of my head soon I might turn into a Muppet!!

If you don't have a song in your head right now, then please leave me your best joke. (Kid-friendly jokes are welcome too as my kids are always hitting me up for new comedic material.) 

One entry per person and please make sure I will have some way of getting a hold of you if you win (like your email address connected to your profile, or add your email right in the comment). Contest closes on May 25th at 5pm (PST), and I will announce the winner (to be selected by the mighty Random.org) shortly after. This giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere in the world (with a legit mailing address of course). 

Good luck! and make sure you head back to Sew Mama Sew to check out all the other awesome giveaways! (If you are also hosting a giveaway, feel free to include your link so I can head on over and enter yours!)

By the way, if you'd like to follow my blog, that would be fabulous!

I'm also on Facebook and Twitter if you'd like to pop by and say hello :)

Spring kcwc day 7 - the end

Well, it's the end of the Spring KCWC and unfortunately, I don't have anything exciting to show for the last day. I have to say, I'm kind of burned out and have just been super tired these last few days. (I'm blaming the West coast gloomy weather for this..) But, I did manage to complete everything on my list and even added a pair of sweatpants to boot! Tonight, I am still faithfully putting in my hour's worth of 'sewing/prep' by tracing out some patterns that I have now been re-inspired to sew. The Sailboat Top/Skirt/Pants pattern from Oliver+S has been showing up all over the elsie marly flickr pool and I've finally dug out my copy of the pattern and started tracing. I'm looking forward to sewing these up for lil C, but just not tonight. Tonight I'm going to veg in front of the tv with a nice cup of tea :)

By the way, if you're looking for some sewing inspiration, make sure you check out the flickr pool. So many awesome creations on there! I haven't had a chance to really look through all of them yet, but some of my favourites so far are this, this, this and this. And that's just barely cracking the surface. Seriously, amazing stuff.

x melissa

spring kcwc day 6 - pajama pants

Just a couple pairs of pajama pants for day 6 of the kcwc.

My kids have been asking for more pairs of flannel pajama pants for lounging around the house. They actually don't even wear them to sleep, just to play in. Nothing new or fancy here. Just the same pattern as these sweats, but without the modifications. I had the robot flannel fabric in my stash and once big C saw it, he demanded that I make him some comfy pants with it. As for lil C's pants, I have so many lovely AMH flannels in my stash and was hoping I could make her some pants with those. But lil C had found this duck fabric at the fabric shop a while back and immediately fixated on it. I bought it but tucked it away for bit, all the while showing her the AMH fabrics hoping she'll want them for her pj pants. But lil C always remembered the ducks and insisted on that fabric. So here they are.

Ok, so maybe they actually are kind of cute. I think the thing that creeps me out though are the crazy eyebrows on these ducks! (or are they extreme eyelashes?..) 

Well, one more day of kcwc to go! What to make now..

kcwc days 3/4/5 - Ayashe Blouse

Ooh! I'm so in love with this blouse!

A few months ago, Shelly and Daniela of Figgy's Patterns/blog hosted a sew-along for this blouse, one of their debut patterns. I was all psyched up to join in but then life got in the way and I didn't end up sewing along. So, the first thing I thought when I signed up for this Spring's KCWC was that I would make this blouse, and I'm so glad I did!

I've used a few of Shelly's patterns before and really do love them. This blouse has such beautiful details like the front bodice top-stitching and the gentle gathers on the yoke. I would actually love to make a blouse like this for myself! (Shelly & Daniela, if, by chance, you're reading this, please make an adult version of this pattern!). Here are the details:

Pattern - Ayashe Blouse from Figgy's Patterns, size 4/5. I made the short sleeve option with the mandarin collar, and left the bottom hem straight without the elastic or drawstring.

Fabric - AMH Little Folks Voile, Little Honey in Gold. 7/8 yard (with some to spare)

General Thoughts - Again, I love how this blouse turned out mostly because of the sweet little details that make it so professional looking. The pattern instructions were good although I did get stuck putting in the yoke facing. I was going on very little sleep that day and was determined to put in my hour of sewing. Luckily, I remembered the sew-along and went to check there for extra tips. Got it all figured out the next day after a good night's sleep (it actually wasn't hard at all, my brain just wasn't working that night). I also made the size 4/5 for my big (just turned) 3 year old, and it fits well with room to grow in the body. However, the neck hole for the 4/5 size was too small and I couldn't get it over my daughter's big beautiful head :). So I just picked out a few stitches more (about an inch) down the front seam and tack stitched the bottom of the opening to secure it. The collar was easy to sew in although I had to adjust the length a bit to fit nicely. The sleeves were also pretty easy to sew in (I usually hate fitting in sleeves), but I still have to figure out how I want to finish those seams (I did french seams for the rest of the blouse but couldn't do that when joining the sleeves. I'm thinking of finishing this with bias tape so the inside of the blouse stays all neat and tidy.) 

Overall, I really enjoyed making this blouse and will definitely be making more very soon!

kcwc day 2 - simple sweatpants

Ok, so nothing glamorous here.

Just a pair of sweatpants that were very much needed by my 4 1/2 year old boy. Lately he's been totally into comfy pants (when he was younger he only wanted to wear jeans), and the few pairs we have are about 3 inches and 2 sizes too small. So, I decided to whip up a pair with some fleece from my fabric stash.

I was kind of lazy with these pants and didn't bother finishing any seams. But hey, you can do that with knits, right? I also made these after C went to bed so I wanted to try them on him first before I invested too much time in making them all neat and tidy. Here are the details:

Pattern - New Look 6746 view A pants, size 5. Originally I was going to just copy a pair on sweatpants he already owned, but as I mentioned, the only sweats he had were 2 sizes too small. So I decided to try using this pajama pant pattern I had on hand and just add the ankle elastic and, Voila! Sweatpants!

Fabric - Gray heather fleece from my stash. I know this isn't 100% cotton but I'm not really sure what the blend is. It's suuuper soft and cozy though which I know C will appreciate :) I also added a little Japanese linen twill tape with a cute monkey on it so we can easily tell the front from the back.

General Thoughts - Again, another super easy and quick project. Two pattern pieces and sewn with a knit fabric so no seam finishes. Sewing time was probably just about an hour after the cutting out the fabric pieces. The only thing I'd do different is to add a little extra room in the butt area when folding down and sewing the waistband to make them even more comfy.  But, C does seem to love these so I'm calling this a success! Hooray hurrah!

 

And on a side note, check out yesterday's twirl skirt in action