Moar Little Projects

Feb 282013
 

I’ve been continuing my short-attention-span project kick, so very quickly, here they are! I made a sewing kit for my sister’s birthday present using Michelle’s zip pocket pouch pattern.
Stacy's sewing kit

I added felt to hold needles and two twill loops in the open pocket to attach a pair of snip scissors and a bobbin of thread. I also put a thimble and extra colors of thread in the zippered pocket. The smallest size of this pouch is a nice size for carrying around some sewing essentials without taking up a lot of room in your bag!
Stacy's sewing kit, inside

Since I bought the ditty bag pattern recently during a $5 Friday, I made a couple of them to help justify the purchase. :> These are both the largest size; the blue one is for holding my after-having-given-birth toiletries, and the red one is for my parents (my dad declined to offer input on the fabric, so I chose what I thought my mom would like).
pair of ditty bags

Finally, I made a couple more kleenex pouches for another friend who uses them. I still haven’t made one for me, though!
more kleenex pouches

Locked and Loaded

Feb 232013
 

Sara at Sew Sweetness released her Locked and Loaded bag pattern, which means I can show the bag I made to help test the pattern. This bag is nice and roomy, and I really like the shape!
Locked and Loaded bag

I tried to be a good tester and follow the instructions exactly, but I couldn’t keep myself from adding a patch pocket that’s not in the pattern.
Locked and Loaded, patch pocket

As you can see, I had to get creative with my lining fabric, since I didn’t have enough of that pinkish stripey print (that matched the Echino really nicely, boohoo). And then I got annoyed at myself because I put my lining in backwards from what I prefer, since I like to have interior zipper pockets on the back side of the bag. Once I flipped my bag right-side-out, I had to keep telling myself that my sister (who said she’d take the bag) wouldn’t care. >_<
Locked and Loaded, zipper pocket

One of the fancy features of the bag is the twist lock, and it’s the first time I’d ever installed one. I think it looks nifty! My cheapskate side tells me that twist locks probably won’t become a regular feature of the bags I make, though.
Locked and Loaded, twist lock

I think this is a super cute tote that’s the perfect size for the kind of mom who probably ought to still carry around one or two diapers and a couple of toys along with her normal stuff, but doesn’t need the entire gigantic diaper bag all the time. In other words, me. Hah! :D

More Valentine Thingies

Feb 212013
 

I made a couple more things for the kids’ second Valentine’s Day on Saturday; first was a new bag each for Cosmo and Sunshine. They both have the same reverse applique heart and birdie embroidery (although I forgot to include the wing on Cosmo’s). Since Cosmo can work zippers, I made him Noodlehead’s wide open pouch. It was also kind of a test because I was thinking of making these for end-of-year teacher presents, and I wanted to see if I liked it.
Cosmo's and Sunshine's Valentine bags

Sunshine’s bag has closed, finished handles because of Ikat Bag’s fantastic Make a Bag series. I love these! I’ll never make an exposed open-ended bag strap again!
Sunshine's Valentine bag handle

I put in yummy (I want to buy more for meee!) almond cookies and candied squash. It looks kind of empty in the kids’ bags, but that’s all I could fit in my niece’s goodie bag.
Valentine bags, goodies

For my sister-in-law and niece, I made heart-shaped ditty bags. I like them! In person, though, they remind me of 80′s Madonna pointy bras. :D
heart ditty bags

The coolest thing I’ve ever made

Feb 202013
 

Tah dah!
Kakashi pillow
For like two days after I made it, every time Mr. Yazoo passed this pillow, he’d pick it up, grin, and say, “that’s so cool!”

As a bonus, here’s a Yazoo tutorial on how to make a four-seam, butt-easy project like this take an hour and a half (or more):

  1. Order an extra large t-shirt with your favorite anime character on it.
  2. Put the shirt in your scrap bin “to sew with later,” and then forget about it for about a year.
  3. Find the shirt again when you’re rummaging through your scrap bin for hexie fabric.
  4. Buy a 14″ pillow form because it’s cheap and the 12″ one is definitely way too small.
  5. Cut the side, neck, and sleeve seams off the shirt.
  6. Even though you know that you bought a 14″ pillow form, measure the pillow a couple of times to check that it’s really 14 inches.
  7. Measure a 15″ square around the best part of the design on the front of the shirt. Measure it twice more, just to be sure.
  8. Cut the square out of the front of the shirt.
  9. Decide to add interfacing to the front square of the shirt so the design won’t stretch and look weird.
  10. Think about your decision for a while.
  11. Decide you’ve made a good decision, cut out the interfacing, and iron it on.
  12. Think about using the serger to finish the inside raw edges of the pillow cover.
  13. Vaguely remember that serger stitches aren’t stretchy, so google how to finish the raw edges of your knit t-shirt square (just in case you ever wash the pillow cover [which you won't]).
  14. After a good while of googling, remember that knits don’t unravel. DUH.
  15. Dither for a while about whether to put in a zipper or make an envelope enclosure. Decide on an envelope enclosure because it’s for you and you’re lazy.
  16. Realize you can use the finished bottom edge of the back of the t-shirt for the outside of the envelope enclosure so it looks pretty. Pat yourself on the back and take a snack break for a reward.
  17. Decide to make the inside bit of the envelope back 10″ tall.
  18. Waffle forever about whether to make the outside bit of the envelope back 10 or 11 inches tall. Seriously, FOREVER.
  19. I’m not kidding; keep waffling.
  20. Finally decide on 11 inches, because you can always cut off more, but you can’t add any back.
  21. Cut out your two rectangles. Bam!
  22. Pin the heck out of the three pillow pieces so they line up perfectly. Goodness knows you can’t afford to be off by any little bit, considering you’re sewing a fabric that will stretch to fit the pillow, and you’re using a measly half inch seam allowance.
  23. Unpin and repin the pillow pieces because you put the nice, finished, bottom hem from the t-shirt on the inside.
  24. Sew those four seams!
  25. Wahoo! An hour and a half later, you have the most awesomest pillow in the world that your husband will love the most of everything you’ve ever made, ever!

And here’s that fancy dancy envelope back thingoo.
Kakashi pillow, back. BOOYAH.

Valentine Stuffies

Feb 152013
 

Mr. Yazoo and I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day (we’ve got Christmas, then a bunch of January birthdays, then a whole bunch of February birthdays, so it’s too much present pressure), so this year I was surprised that I was all excited to do Valentine’s things for the kids and other people. It’s a non-romantic holiday for me, apparently!

Since we’re finally done having kids, I made my mom a complete set of mini Yazoo hand/footprint pot holders. Pot holders are totally my Achilles heel of sewing — mine always come out looking so home made! I get away with it only by sticking baby prints on them.
mini Yazoo pot holders and Valentine envelopes

I also made Valentine envelopes for the kiddos. Can you believe that these took me an entire night? I have unparalleled powers in making super simple projects take ages to complete. I kept sewing and ripping out the embroidery because it looked bad, so that added time. I also stamped the kids’ names on the front. A little while ago, Cosmo brought a silly little cheapie card to school, and he and another kid got into a fight over it because the other kid thought it was his. Mr. Yazoo let the other kid take the card home, and the next day, my mom sent Cosmo to school with another card that had his name on it. Heh!
Valentines envelope, back

The instructions indicate that buttons can be used to close the envelopes, and I thoughtlessly made a big buttonhole on Cosmo’s before I remembered that he wouldn’t be able to work the button. Then I replaced it with velcro and sewed on a felt heart to cover the hole and velcro stitching.
Valentines envelopes, inside

I also made glow stick favors for his classmates and kleenex pouches for his teachers. The tag says, “I’m sending all my love achoo!” Hee!
teacher kleenex pouches

My new backpack!

Feb 122013
 

Last month, I treated myself to a couple of Architextures prints and the Day in the Park Backpack Tote pattern. I love bags that can also turn into backpacks! It makes it easier to chase after my boys in stores while bystanders wonder why that mom doesn’t have her kids under better control. :>
Day in the Park backpack, front

The bag closes with a magnetic snap, and I’d like to say again that I dooooon’t like sew-in magnetic snaps. I can’t sew around them neatly! After I finished the bag, I vaguely remembered that it might work better if I sewed the magnetic snap to the sew-in interfacing instead of the wrong side of the bag lining, but pfft. I think the prong magnet snaps look nice, so I’ll just use those in the future! Plus, this bag never closes anyway because it’s always stuffed too full.
Day in the Park backpack, inside

This had an awful lot of pattern pieces, so it took me a while to cut just because I kept forgetting what I was doing and kept flipping through all my bits of paper. Some of the pattern pieces were just rectangles, though, and I understood that they were included because of pressing guide marks and things like that, but it added to my paper overload confusion.
Day in the Park backpack, back

These straps are ingenious and so comfy! Plus, I like that when I put on or take it off as a backpack, it doesn’t go sliding off wonkily sideways the way it would if the backpacky straps were one long piece. Mr. Yazoo said this is his favorite of the bags I’ve made myself so far. :)
Day in the Park backpack, backpack style

I want to make more of these, and maybe I’ll be ambitious enough to try to add an inset zipper at the top!

I triple zipped-along

Feb 102013
 

I had actually seen A Quilter’s Table’s triple zip-along a while ago, but didn’t think I needed such a pouch until Svetlana pointed out that it makes a great epp project holder. Ah hah, sold!

I (what’s the slow-pokey version of “whipped one up?”) last night to hold my hexies for my future rainbow quilt. I like Debbie’s way of doing zipper ends because it forces me to pay attention to where I place the fabric and how much of it will show once the seam is sewn. Also, it requires one fewer pressing step than the previous way I was doing it!
triple zip pouch

Unless I missed a step (which I totally could have, since I tend to skim instructions), the back of the top zipper can’t really be top-stitched, but it’s okay since the fabric got pulled down away from the zipper by the stabilizer. (I used sew-in stabilizer instead of fusible fleece.) Also, I couldn’t really figure out what I was supposed to do in the final set of picture-less instructions, but it was easy to sew the side seams by just having the whole thing inside-out with the main lining flipped up and away from the exterior and other pockets, and then just sewing along the open edges.
triple zip pouch, back

The biggest pocket is the perfect size for my unsewn 1.5″ hexies, the middle pocket holds the sewn ones nicely, and I think I’ll put different color threads in the smallest pocket. Hey, do you have an opinion about how you like stitching together epp pieces? I know people generally whipstitch them together, but I like the no-thread-showing-ness of ladder stitches. However, I was worried about how strong each of these methods would be, since I like my quilts to be tough and machine-washable. With that in mind, do you think whipstitching or ladder stitching would be better?
triple zip pouch, inside

Look what I made!

Feb 062013
 

Hehehe!
Glowbug

I’m going to do a timeline version of events!

  • 5 am
    Woke up, felt small contractions. Thought I had all day (Cosmo and Sunshine were born the day after I first felt small contractions) and went to work.
  • 8:15 am
    Contractions were annoying, so decided to go home before I couldn’t drive through them. Called Mr. Yazoo to let him know, but still said we had lots of time and he didn’t have to leave work.
  • 9 am
    Got home, and contractions had been 5-6 minutes apart during the drive. Whoops! Called Mr. Yazoo to tell him he should probably head home.
  • 9:20 am
    Contractions were super duper sore, so I called for an ambulance.
  • 9:30 am
    Pooped the baby out. Hah!
  • 9:40 am
    Mr. Yazoo, a fire truck, and the ambulance arrived, so we went to the hospital. Yay!

Clearly, my brain was not at all engaged on Friday. Hopefully, that means Glowbug here sucked out all my thinking juices and will be really smart!

February Goal

Feb 062013
 

Gah! My goal for February is just to sew my very late Piece Bee house block. I have the plan drawn out (except I think I need to add window frames):
Piece Bee house plan

… and I just need to sew it! Argh!

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