I wish I could sew as well as this kitty...

From lolcats

298: Crafty Weekend

I did a lot of crafty things this weekend (by a lot, I mean two three!) and as soon as I take pictures I will post them up here. On Saturday, Garnet and I made magnets, thanks to the tutorial by not martha. It took forever to find the items we needed at Michael's, because our Michael's in Emeryville just has to be different and organized all funny. Once we found the glue (between the kid's and the paint section), the magnets (in the kid's section), and the circle punches (hidden in the scrapbooking area), we were ready to go to Tap Plastics to get our cabochons (best name for a plastic shape ever). We got a whole bunch of 3/4" ones for $0.45 each. Next time, we're going to buy them online in bulk, because they were so easy to make, we want more!

Yesterday I made a laptop case from my Home Ec class. I love it so much. The fabric is so pretty and it fits my laptop like a glove (it's amazing what accurate measurements can do). I can't wait to use it!

Update: I lied, I did three crafty things this weekend. The third thing I did was cast on for a new sweater for my dad. The old one has been a work in progress for at least 3 years, and although I was almost done, the second sleeve was about 2/3 the size of the first. So I decided to start over with a different pattern. We'll see if I can get it done it time for Christmas this year.

265: Sewing!

Can you believe there are only 100 days left in the year? Where did 2010 go? I guess I did a lot of things in 2010...like graduate, for one. And I also took a sewing class (Home Ec link in the sidebar) ^.^

So far, I love the class. It's technically over but I'm only about a third of the way through the projects. Luckily for me, they plan on keeping the blog up for a year, and the instructors will be around for an extra month to answer questions. Having written instructions is of course different than going in to a studio and taking a physical class, but I think the girls over at Home Ec did a great job laying out step by step instructions and pictures. I can mostly follow everything (the hardest time I had was with the hemming the jeans...go figure). So let's look at some projects! The first project had two different techniques to make napkins.

Zig-zag stitch napkin

Ric-rac border napkin

I like polka-dots...Surprisingly, the ric-rac one was easier to sew than the zig-zag one. I have a whole bunch of fat quarters so I might be making more of these in the future.

The next project was a drawstring bag.

My sewing was kind of iffy here. I completely changed the dimensions of the bag because I thought something smaller would work fine and I wanted to use up some fat quarters.

Project three was a market/tote bag. This is one of my favorites. I love the fabric and I was so proud of my sewing.

Look at that baller x-joint

And those professional looking straps

At first I had sewn the straps on wrong, like two different straps on one side....silly me. But that was easily fixed with a seam ripper and some patience. I've used this bag so much already. And I still have more of the pretty fabric!

I skipped the fourth project (bunting) because it uses different colored smaller fabrics. I figure I would wait until the end to see what I would have leftover. So the next project I completed was a supplies roll-up. This project took a lot longer and my tension was off in my bobbin so the stitches are all messed up in the lining. I was a little lazy and didn't want to redo it, so I just left it as is. I don't plan on giving this to anyone anyway...The fabric pattern is kind of fun, though, right? The project actually called for an oilcloth outside, but I had this zebra print on hand already, and it was thicker than your average cotton, so I used it instead. I also made the roll-up bigger than called for because I wanted to use it for knitting needles.

Outside - rolled

Outside - unrolled

Inside - empty

The next project I completed was an ironing board cover. This was so simple! And so quick! I bought this lovely fabric from Joann and I ended up having a lot leftover (even with cutting way too much fabric out), so that's exciting. I needed the ironing clips badly because of all the extra fabric. Surprisingly the elastic was pretty easy to sew on. And "finishing" the edges with a zig-zag stitch wasn't too bad either, although it gives it a more rugged look.

See? Pretty fabric...

I'm working on pot holders right now, which are much needed. I only have one which doubles as an oven mitt. All I have left to do is finish the seam and find matching thread to quilt them. And instead of making one, I made 4, because there was enough fabric in the fat quarters to do that...I love fat quarters.