Stop and sew the roses

I am no stranger to making fabric flowers. I have made them to put in my hair (back when I had enough hair to do this) and also to put on vintage style hats like this one (my very favorite hat that I have ever made)


But this is the first time I have made hip flowers! :-) I am recreating the flowers from the necklace in black velvet to put on the belt of my belly dance costume. And here is the result.

These are pretty much the same kind of flowers I used to make for my hair, only on a bigger scale. I liked them for my hair because they had were light-weight, had dimension, and didn't get all wilty and floppy when I sweat through them.

Here is how you go about doing it
(Diet Coke in picture above is optional, but highly recommended).

First, draw a flower and cut out a petal pattern. Then cut out a billion flower petals (or however many you need) in something that has some shape. I used stiffened felt here because I had it on hand, but you can also use denim or canvas or heavy interfacing. I have even used those funky foamie sheets in the past. The color doesn't matter because you will be covering them.


Grab some sort of wire stuff. I used 22 gauge beading wire, but have used pipe cleaners and floral wire in the past. Basically you want something stiff enough to hold its shape, but not so stiff that it isn't a bit malleable. Sew the wire stuff around the edges of the petal.


Cut a piece of your fabric slighly bigger than your petal. Since my velvet is stretchy, I didn't need a piece much bigger than the petal; you might need a bit more leeway if your fabric has no stretch or cut it on the bias. Run a gathering stitch around the edge of the fabric. Before you pop the fabric on the petal, bend the petal into the approximate shape you want. You can make some adjusting later, but if you cover it while it is flat, it won't be as smooth later on.


Once all your petals are all covered and pretty, cut a circle of fabric/felt/interfacing that is smaller than your finished flower. You can then attach all the flowers at the center point. Be careful to keep your stitches near the center so they won't show around the edges of whatever center pretty you put on your flower. Depending on what look you want, you can sew partway up your petals, but make sure your stitches can't be seen in the front. This is the underside of my flower after all the petals were stitched onto the center circle.


Adjust the bendyness of your petals until it is all purty. Then attach a button or a sparkle or another fancy of your choice in the center to cover the stitches there.

Voila!!


EXPERT TIP:
The more cats you manage to pile on your lap while you are working, the better your flowers will turn out. :-D

All Hands...er...Paws On Deck

Quick, Mommy is making a quilt! She needs our help! Fred, you stand off to the side and be ready to jump in when she gets it all smooth and needs extra hands. George, you go head butt her and keep it up the entire time she is on the floor--she will appreciate your moral support. I will sit here on the quilt and hold it down for her. Ready....GO!



Thank you, furkids. I couldn't do it without you I am sure.

Cats and Sewing

So it seems that cats and sewing often go together. At least from the pictures of all the sewing "helper" cats that I see on various blogs. And my question for all you people is.....how do you do it?

My kitties are banned from the sewing room because I imagine all sorts of craft dangers for them (ribbons and threads and pins, oh my!). Which makes for difficult times because when I am in there they sit outside the door and cry and stick their little arms under the door and generally make me feel like a schmoo for depriving them of Mommy (apparently Daddy is a poor substitute, particularly for our orange cat).

So for those who allow kitties and crafts to exist in the same space, do your kitties get into craft trouble? Am I being overprotective of my little fur-lets? Do I underestimate their intelligence by thinking they will immediately nomnomnom every dangerous item as soon as they are allowed access?

Just wondering....

Updates

Well, as far as the sewing plan for my upcoming dance weekend...all I have done is a twirly skirt. YIKES! I have moved the fabrics and patterns for all the pieces around my sewing room multiple times, but never actually cut or sew. Time to get hopping.

In the meantime, I made this Halloween quilt as a present for my nephew. He LOVES Halloween.


And I made this kitty bed for a friend with a new kitten. With a matching fishy toy

Meow Mix

Someone asked me if the cats actually use the Cat Mat I made for them. This is a valid question, given that my cats have some attitude about mommy made presents.

The answer...


Yes.


Upcoming is a new purse that looks nice but isn't as functional as I want so I might give it away. And TWO more baby quilts that I am in the middle of that I may need some advice on from all y'all stitchy folks out there. Photos and such to be posted soon.

So productive I don't even know what to do with myself

A very productive weekend for me! First, I made a quick Jalie top to wear to our usual Second Saturday swing dance in Richmond. Fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics, of course.



I had a few problems with it, mostly of my own creation. I tried to do a FBA, forgetting that I usually don’t need to with Jalie knit shirts. But after fiddling with it for a while, it was pronounced Good Enough and worn happily to the dance. I like the style and it was pretty easy to put together. I am sure I will do another one and not try to “fix” it and then it will turn out splendidly. All I see are fitting issues, but I got many compliments on it at the dance, so perhaps to the non-sewing eye it looked fine.

Most of the sewing was quilting stuff. I am still in progress on the Giraffe Baby quilts. The tops are done now, and I spent the weekend practicing free motion quilting. Here was my very first attempt.



Not perfect, but not too shabby for a first try. But I wanted a bunch more practice before I quilted on the Baby quilts, particularly since they are a gift. I decided to make a very small little quilt to put on the cat’s window seat, a Cat Mat. I figured the cats wouldn’t care if the quilting was a little wonky! 

I whipped together this quilt top and quilted it as my second practice piece.



Much better! Still not perfection, but good enough to start on the Baby quilts. I set it aside to do the binding later.

I actually finished the quilting on one of the Baby quilts and started the binding. There are a few boo-boos, but I don’t think they are noticeable and I really feel like I am getting the hang of free-motion quilting on my machine. But all of these projects are very small, so doing the Mod quilt will still be an adventure. I will try to have pictures of the finished quilt top tomorrow, but no promises as I am meeting with Vintage Pants dude again tonight to go over some changes he wants in the pants.

Busy Busy Busy!!!

Parting shot: The children are enjoying the end of rain and the opening of the house.

An Oldie, but a Goodie (the Fish Cat Bed

I ran across these pictures of my kitty Joe (who passed away in July 2007) and his fishy bed that I made him many years ago—that, of course, all the current kitties just ignore. But Joe Kitty LOVED his fishy bed, so I thought I would post about it.

The pattern was on sale. And I am insane.
Those were the two main forces driving the making of the Fishy Bed for my cat. This project ended up being one of the most horrifying things I have ever taken on. I even sewed through my finger at one point and still have the scar.

Here is Joe Kitty, satisfied with the end result.



The Materials:
Pattern = Simplicity 9004.
Outside fabrics = various cotton prints.
Lining and lips = snuggly blue fleece.
Polyester foam sheets give it the shape.
Eyes = ping pong balls cut in half and a sharpie marker
A little bit of catnip sprinkled in throughout!

The Process:
I used a walking foot and tear away paper when feeding through the machine. This project would have been much easier with a Teflon foot (which I now have!) because the foot really wanted to grab on to the foam...but, live and learn.

About halfway through the project, I became too angry with my machine to keep using it (this was before I upgraded to my current fancypants machine), and ended up sewing a lot of the seams by hand, especially those where four layers of foam plus four layers of fabric all smooshed together. With a project this small, it worked out ok.

Although I hated this project while it was in process, the end result was so cute (and well loved!) that I can’t regret doing it.

Plus it gave me a lot of gumption to take on new things afterwards. “Zoot suits, wedding dresses, groom suit, hats? No problem, can’t be worse than the cat bed.”

I'm the Staypuff Marshmallow Girl

Ooof. I am donating eggs again this Friday (round number 5) and am feeling very very puffy. I am so full of eggs I am about to cluck. The last day or two before retrieval is always kinda miserable. It doesn't HURT, but it is just uncomfortable to be so very aware of your ovaries.

I have gotten some sewing done, including a new Jalie top that I love, but refuse to have my picture taken while I am in a state of puff. So pictures next week.

In the meantime I have been cleaning out the sewing room to make room for my Big Surprise. If I am lucky, perhaps it will arrive this weekend. Cleaning the sewing room is like a treasure hunt. I am finding all kinds of supplies and fabrics that I have no recollection of buying. Which tells me I need to STOP buying until I get a handle on what I have. Sigh.

Poor orange cat Fred is getting surgery on Friday as well, on his eyes. We will convelese together. Nothing like a living purring heating pad to make you feel better post-surgery! :-)

Return of the Mojo

I spent last night in the sewing room making little simple things for the holidays, and I think I have gotten over my slump. Which is why I don't have pictures of the horrible Hot Patterns top--I didn't want to kill the momentum, so that will have to wait until this weekend.

The Husband's office does the whole Secret Santa thing and he asked me to make a few things for his person. He bought a bunch of little bath items and I made this Box Bag for him to "wrap" them. I found this bag on Stacy Sews and, like her, I can see myself making a bajillion of them because they are so easy and so cute. Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone, so my bag is only loosely based on that pattern. I changed the way it is put together and the dimensions....ok, so only the shape is vaguely the same. But that was my inspiration. :-)



I started out making the Noriko Handbag, available free from Lazy Girl Designs and it is SUPER cute, but The Husband ended up buying more bath things than he thought and they didn't all fit in this bag, so I get to keep it!



Being the nut that he is, The Husband can't just leave the gifts on her desk, but is sending his person on a treasure hunt through the office. He got a little cheap pirate hat at the dollar store and made a map and left clues all over the office. I thought that she needed a companion for her journey. So I made this "parrot" for him to leave on her desk with the first clue. The pattern is free from Spool Sewing and again is super easy--only two pieces--and a great way to use up those little scraps that I can't bear to throw away! I made a little birdie pirate eye patch, but forgot to take a picture of it. And sorry for the poor quality of the pictures I do have.



The Mojo is back! I think... And a good thing too because I have several knit dresses to make this weekend for the ladies in the office (nothing like a few commissions to get some extra holiday cash)!

Parting shot: I forget how little Bella still is until I see her asleep next to one of the boys. Here she is with Fred. She is so feisty that she seems much bigger when she is awake!

On the 13th day of Christmas

We all decorated with



13 FELT MONKEY FACES!


My company gives each floor of the office 100 bucks to use as they like to decorate or donate and then there is a judging with prizes. Our floor decided to use our money to buy lots of socks to decorate our tree (and then donate to a locale shelter)....somehow that turned into sock monkeys as our "theme". And somehow I volunteered to make felt monkey face hangings for everyone's workspace. They were very simple actually, just felt shapes glued on more felt. And then I used my embroidery machine to put everyone's name on their monkey.

I also brought in sock monkeys I made years ago to place throughout the office. :-)



And brought in items from my personal monkey collection, including socks, t-shirts, and a bag I made. It is kinda scary that I have this much monkey stuff just lying around (and I really didn't think I "collected" monkeys....)



The purse is pretty awesome. I made it using Lazy Girl's Miranda pattern. Very quick and easy to do, and her instructions books are amazing with full descriptions and color photos of every step. I highly recommend her patterns for a beginner, just because her instructions are so detailed.



And the end result is....I won the office decorating contest! Woo-hoo! I am off to spend my Barnes and Noble gift card (and what an appropriate prize for the librarian!)

Parting shot....
The boys are teaching Bella all about her duties to protect the house from squirrels. Of course, this is hard to do through the glass door. I swear that squirrel laughed at them and twitched his tail Nyah Nyah Nyah at them.....

New addition to the family

Sorry for the blog silence since the wedding, but here is my excuse...



A new kitty baby!! Her name is Bella, and she is even uglier in person. :-) She is so ugly she is almost cute. And she is VERY affectionate. She is four months old and after a few trying weeks has settled in nicely with our two boy cats.

Despite the sad mew mew mews outside my sewing room (no kitties allowed!), I have done a little sewing and this weekend hope to get the pics off the camera to post about it. I continue to be in love with Jalie shirt patterns and am going to give Hot Pattern pants a whirl in the near future.

Practicality wins

So as much as I would have loved a gorgeously hand-sewn hem on my reception dress, the fullness of the skirt beat me over the head with the impracticallity of doing that with so much to do and so little time. So I cheated and just did a rolled hem on my serger.

Does it look fabulous and is it what I wanted/dreamed of? No.

Is it passable and unnoticeable to 99 percent of the people that will see it? Yes.

Sometimes you just have to go with what is easy.

So the reception dress is almost done. I brought it to work today to do the finishing details, so hopefully it will be done when I get home and just need a good pressing. Work proceeds on the suit, but I have so little time left it might just be a two piece rather than a three piece.

But in the meantime, I am soothing myself with these pictures of the Cutest Cake Topper EVER!! Yes I made it. Yes those are tiny replicas of us and the cats in clay, dressed in real live scraps of fabric. The little paw prints represent my kitty Joe who passed away last year. The kitty poses represent the personalities of the kitties (George is saying Mommy Mommy look at me while Fred goes straight for the cake) while the humans are in a swing dance pose that even ended up vaguely heart shaped. AWWWWWWWWW.



Yes, I am a crazy person. :-) I will try to get better pictures, including ones that show the kitty faces because they turned out really cute.

Orange Cat for Sale

Ok, Fred isn't really for sale. But ARGH!!!!

I pranced home from work last night, confident in the knowledge that this was The Night--the night I would actually finish one of my wedding dresses, thus taking some of the pressure off and preventing me from breaking out in stress hives.

Only to find Fred had taken off his cast. AGAIN!!! The vet is a bit at a loss with what to do. They wrapped him up again and this time we have him wearing one of those soft cones so he can't chew or lick on it. But she said it didn't really look like he had chewed much on the two he took off, so the cone might not help. And he only does it during the day when he is shut up and alone, so we have no idea how he is doing it.

If he does it again, I will have to start taking him to "day care", which is another name for dropping him off at the vet every morning for day boarding. Which will be EXPENSIVE. But not as expensive as surgery for his foot if he rebreaks it.

Fred! Gimme a break! Take off the cast as much as you want AFTER the wedding, but for now, let momma sew!

Jalie and Fred--Disaster times Two!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled wedding dress sewing posts for this Jalie Top.

Several weeks ago was my office summer bowling party. The name of my team was The Frame Throwers. We all decided that LOOKING good while bowling was much better than BEING good at bowling. We got together and coordinated various "flame" outfits as a play on our team name. I made the Jalie 2806 with the gathered foldover. I used a flame-y fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics. Here is the result.



This top, I am sad to say, was a disappointment. Or maybe disappointment is too strong a word, as the end result was really cute I think. I struggled to get to this point though. After being MORE than pleased with all the other Jalie tops I have done and thrilled with how easily and quickly they went together, this one made me cranky.

It was the instructions for the gathered foldover part. I may just be being a blockhead, but I still don't know how I was supposed to do that according to the pattern instructions. After reading them multiple times, walking away, coming back and reading them again, I still didn't get it. I ended up just futzing around with the fabric until it approximated something that looked purposeful. I really liked the tulip sleeves though, so I will probably adapt them into other patterns.

Like I said, I liked the final result, but I don't think I will be making this one again. I make knit tops in between my Big Scary Projects because they as close as instant gratification as you get with sewing. And this one was far from instant--I don't want to be stressed out when making my stress busters!!


In other news, sewing plans were CANCELLED last night when I came home and found Fred's cast laying on the floor with no Fred in it! I took him (and the empty cast) to the vet and they don't think he did himself any harm and rebandaged him. They said they had never seen a cat wiggle out of its cast before. The new bandage is more secure and hopefully he will not houdini himself out of that one.

He and his brother are named after the Weasley brothers in the Harry Potter books.....perhaps I should have named him after a Muggle so he couldn't magic himself into so much trouble!!

No more procrastinating.

Work proceeds on the wedding clothes. I have settled on designs for and made muslins of everything. Some final tweaking for fit and I will start cutting the "real" fabric this weekend.

The Plan for the ceremony dress is a combination of these two patterns, an OOP Vogue pattern and the fantail skirt from Truly Victorian.



It will have red fabric around the neckline in the front and a loooong red train, which if I have time will be beaded. I have pictures of the muslin of this, I will try to post them tomorrow.


The reception dress is based on this vintage Vogue.



I am dropping the sleeves because they restrict movement too much and this dress is specifically for dancing. I could probably do something with a gusset if I was bent on keeping them, but frankly I don't have the time to mess with it at this point. Plus if it is sleeveless it connects back to the ceremony dress more, which is a nice bonus. The trim around the neckline is again the red fabric. And I have some fabulous red netting with a little bit of silver sparkles to make the petticoat.

I am also covering a pair of shoes in the red fabric. If I have time. :-)

The Boy's suit is moving along ok. I actually have the real fabric prepped and cut out for the pants. The jacket muslin has been approved so I can move forward on that. I still need to muslin and make the vest, but if it comes down to the line, he says I can drop the vest, so that might be the last thing I work on. I am also making him a tie out of the red fabric from my dress.

Shew!!

I love Summerset's Parting Shots, so here is one of my own. Orange kitty Fred with his leg in a cast. Awwwwww!

neverending story

My orange cat Fred is back at the vet. When I got home from work today, his front paw was all swollen and scary looking. Turns out he fractured all four toes on his foot. We have no idea how. He is at the vet being splinted right now and The Boy is downstairs emptying out a room so we can shut him in without fear of him jumping on something and hurting himself. I am going to put a mattress on the floor so I can sleep in there with him, so he won't be so scared.

This does not bode well for all the wedding sewing that needs to get done. The wedding is less than two months away. No clothes (two dresses for me, a suit for him) have been made and only a few pieces are muslined.

not. good.



Me and Fred, last Christmas.

Vote for Fred!

As some of you know, Trey and I adopted two special needs cats from the SPCA last July. The SPCA has been extremely supportive and generous to us through the multiple surgeries and treatments our two cats have needed since then.

And now is our chance to help pay them back. Bissel (the cleaning people) are running a Most Valuable Pet contest, and they will donate 10,000 to the SPCA (our chosen charity) if we win the photo contest.

So please take a minute and help us help them by clicking on the link below and voting for the picture of our cat Fred. And please pass this along to as many folks as you like.

Vote For Fred HERE

Thanks so much.

Brooke

Fur Babies!

Not much of anything getting done over here except going back and forth between my two post surgery kitties. Both are progressing very well though.




I occasionally manage to cut out a pattern piece in between demanding meows. I swear I am going to get to The Boy's wedding suit this month. Oh yes, I am. Stop Laughing!!

Just Call Me the Easter Bunny

Thank you all for your kind comments and emails regarding my last post. Egg retrieval today went well. Once again, I was a mad crazy egg producer--26 this time. I am in a bit of pain, but partially that is because my orange cat Fred seems to think that the best kind of post-op therapy is to lay directly on my ovaries every time he gets a chance.

Speaking of kitties, both my poor boys are going for surgery themselves next week. Fred is getting knee surgery, and George is getting eye surgery. Fortunately, since they were conditions that both kitties already had when we adopted them, the SPCA is paying for it. I can't seem to resist a special needs cat. But still, it is going to be a tough couple weeks for everyone. Next week I have off of work--the gap between quitting the old job and starting the new one--so that should help.