Days 12 and 13: The Very Big Project

Two days. That is how long it took to unearth all my fabric and yarn that were packed away in totes and boxes, and basically a big jumbled mess.




I sorted all my scraps of fabric by color and ended up with 11 totes that I can now look through quickly when working. Plus I think it sets a good perimeter on what I can keep. If it won't fit in the tote then I have to get rid of some. (That's the theory anyway...)


The drawers are now for my yarn storage and sorted by weight and style of yarn. I think 4 drawers of yarn should be enough for anybody, right?


And the big blue tote in the corner? Yeah. That is all my pieces of fabric that are a yard or more. I made a solemn vow not to buy any more fabric until I emptied that box by sewing my way through it... that vow lasted about 6 hours until I went to the fabric store with my cousin tonight and found a beautiful, butter yellow, fine gauge corduroy in the clearance rack. Hey, at least I am not addicted to crack or heroin...

Day 11: Dead on my feet...

The "Very Big Project" continued today with a garage sale to free up storage space and make enough money to get the storage I want for my sewing room. It was a successful day, but due to insomnia and a baby wanting to eat at 4 a.m. I didn't sleep last night. By the time I got tired it was 5:30 and I needed to get up by 6 to set up the yard sale. And it was so stinking hot today! I got about an hour or an hour and a half nap after the sale, but I can barely type this post let alone try to work on any of my projects. So good night to all and I will hope to have something more interesting to share tomorrow.

Day 10: A very big project

I am determined to set my sewing room in order. To that end, today I spent sorting through my children's toy room and 14 totes (I am not exaggerating that at all, I counted them...) of baby and children's clothes for a yard sale tomorrow. I got down to 4 totes of clothes and cut down at least a fifth of the toys. I am hoping in a few more days to be able to post pictures of a clean, well-organized, creativity-inspiring sewing room. But with a project this big my other interests will have to take a back seat for a little while.

Day 9: that stuff you never thought you'd use...

Yes, I am talking about math. Today my project was drafting out the plans for both a skirt and a baby quilt. Sewing is a lot like carpentry... measure twice, cut once. If you take the time to plan everything out on paper it makes for smoother sailing later on. So I knew that I wanted to make the baby quilt 36 inches by 48 inches, and I knew that my finished squares would be 4 inches on each side. So using that math drummed into my head by the public school system I figured out that I would need 108 squares. But... this is a rag quilt, which means that each square is comprised of 3 layers. So that means 8 yards of fabric cut into 324 individual squares. More than 4 hours later and this...


becomes this...


Not bad for a day's work if I say so myself. (The black and red fabrics on the right are going to be my skirt. I am quite excited to make it, I don't sew for myself very often.) And an added bonus, my kids love when I am cutting out projects. They love to play with the scraps. It never ceases to amaze me that even with a play room full of toys, they will spend hours playing with little pieces of fabric.

Day 8: an even shorter post...

Today the most I could do was finish the purple shorts, that did mean loading three kids into the car and going to the store for a spool of purple thread... okay, I'll quit whining.

I also did quite a bit of knitting and I made homemade cookies. From scratch. Yeah, you wish I was your mom.

Day 7: a short post

I am feeling thwarted by the sewing gods. I ran out of purple thread with 2 seams to go, arrrgh!! But I finished the teal ones so I am counting those for today. Again, a simple project that I cut out probably close to a year ago and then has sat in my to do pile. I am glad to be done with them... almost.

Day 6: a clever fix...

I found this cute ballerina fabric in the remnant bin at JoAnn's awhile ago. "Just enough to make Evie a pair of pajama pants!" I thought, and you really can't beat getting a pair of pants for under $2.


But after I washed the fabric and got it on grain, there was only enough fabric if I cut the leg a little too short. So I did thinking I would make them into capris. But I was only a smidgen too short! Not even a full inch! Arrgh!! Then I had a brilliant thought. I bought some satin blanket binding and sewed it on instead of hemming the pant legs. Adorably cute, and if I hadn't told you otherwise you would have thought it was just a design decision I had made... right?