Troubleshooting - Grey Tunic Shirt

In a fit of boredom I rearranged my apartment last night. I started to clean and decided to flip the whole room - it's a studio so there isn't a lot of space to move anything to. It took me three hours and left me with a "new" view of my apartment, plus a pile of things to take to Goodwill and a shopping list for Ikea. On the upside, I think the place is set up now for me to get a table large enough to cut and sew on and some shelving to store all my fabric and yarn in a less chaotic way.

This may also help me to get some projects done since I won't have to be constantly moving from coffee table to ironing board to kitchen table to bed in order to work. Thus why all this takes me so long and it's easy to put off whatever I'm making for another weekend. Case in point, those Built-by-Wendy shirts. Although I did finish this grey tunic shirt before I went on vacation in early August – I just wasn’t able to get this posted until now. I’m now trying to sort out the second shirt (blue button down from Sew-U) which now I might actually be able to finish in the next couple of weeks.

getting what I need

After spending a weekend in Seattle, two weekends at my parents’, two weeks in New York with my cousin, and Labor Day weekend in Sacramento with my friends, I relished my first weekend home in nearly a month. And I have to say it was exactly what I needed it to be - a couple of well rounded days with little bit of sewing, food, and futbol (both kinds).

catching up

I have never been very good at keeping a diary – and it took me several tries to figure this out – so why I thought it would be realistic for me to post at least weekly is beyond me.  And the fact that I don’t have internet at home doesn’t help either.  Anyway, excuses aside I am past due for an update on projects I’ve finished recently.

shirts!

And now I’m done with Amy Butler (for this week anyway) and have moved on to some other patterns by Wendy Mullin and her Built by Wendy line. I bought Mullin's book, Sew-U, at the same time I purchased In Stitches. It’s a fun and useful tutorial for anyone looking to get into sewing garments and how to work with patterns. While I’ve yet to find the patience needed to learn how to make a pattern fit me before cutting my fabric, and I have every intention on buying a dressform when I move into a larger place (450 square feet really isn’t very much space when you have your bedroom, living room and craft room all together), getting to work with patterns and learning how to change the design has been, well, fun!

a roll of the dice

I have made a lot of Amy Butler projects lately for two reasons: there was a period where I was obsessed with her fabrics and am now catching up with the projects I planned; and I bought her book, In Stitches, and keep finding uses for various items. And so in looking through the book for the umpteenth time I saw the quilt pattern and decided to go for it since it would be a good way to incorporate multiple prints within a color scheme. K’s wedding colors were red, black and white. She is a little bit punk, a little bit emo and is into graphic arts and art nouveau, anything with skulls and knives, and loves roses and gerbera daisies (guess which are her favorite colors?). I tried to keep all of that in mind when looking for fabrics.

backstory

Growing up, I had five girl friends that as individuals couldn’t be more different from each other, but we came to see each as a part of ourselves. We have now been friends for over 15 years and I can’t play favorites with any of these incredible women, especially when I know how lucky I am to have had them with me nearly all my life.

blueberry pie

Before it's August and I've passed a whole month since making this for July 4th, here's how this year's pie-of-choice came out.

stash bags

As I was making the quilt for my best friend’s wedding, I wanted to use some of the extra fabric for her birthday gift. She rarely carries a purse and likes little cases or bags to stash her stuff in and throw in her car. When I saw the pattern for these little bags (appropriately called “Stash and Dash” from Amy Butler) I couldn’t resist.

I couldn't resist

Mmm… double-drop chocolate and vanilla cookies.

a la americana

I feel like I've been procrastinating (oh again). I’ve been going through the last month saying, “This week I’ll…” and running off a mental to do list of all the various projects I have been meaning to get to. But, alas, they still remain in the same neat pile in the corner as neglected as always and waiting for the eventual Someday.

pretty placemat

While perusing the wedding gift registry for one of my best friends, I noticed that the couple had picked out gorgeous china settings but had no placemats or napkins. This friend loves to have dinner parties and sets the table for each event. I did pick out a few pieces from the registry, but wanted to do a little more.

swing bag

Behold the Amy Butler "Swing Bag". I was looking for something to make for my cousin who lives in NYC that would be fun to have, but not completely impractical. 

vintage ruffle scarf

This is a little bit of an archive/catching up on projects I've done, but I first made this scarf for a fundraiser at work over a year ago and there were two people that wanted it so much that I made a second. I made it again last Fall for the same fundraiser and once again two people wanted it so much that I made it for both. My mom wanted one for Christmas (shown). And my grandma wanted one for her friend. I’m sure next Christmas they’ll be requested again. Somehow these are a little bit like the potholders: I tried the pattern and now I want to move on, but people like it so I’ll keep making it.

la prima

I have always liked to sew and crochet, although it's only been in the last two years that I've really gotten in to the wonderful world of crafting (which I define as an expensive, time consuming, never finished and yet satisfyingly fun project).