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.

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!

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.

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.