Projects

Just Had To Brag!

FabGrandpa and I drove from Alabama to Georgia yesterday for Becky’s wedding tomorrow. On the way, we met my sister and handed off the flower girl dress. My niece and her bridesmaids and the flower girl were getting together at David’s Bridal for their alteration fittings today. This is what my sister posted on her Facebook Wall tonight:

“The Flower Girl dress that my Sister made for Adayla is gorgeous AND the Seamstress at David’s Bridal said that my Sister did an EXCELLENT job on the dress…said the hidden zipper was awesome…Karen…you have been lifted above even David’s Bridal’s Seamstresses….you should be proud….”

Girl! I am bustin at the seams proud of that!

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I Am Getting Even Fab-er

Karen · 13 Comments

So, this week when we were in Tuscaloosa, getting the last minute alterations done on my dress for Becky’s wedding, I got a phone call from Emily, my youngest daughter. She started the conversation like this “Mom, are you sitting down?” Now, as a mother, for all of you who are mothers, don’t you just hate to hear that? You immediately start imagining the worst. And I can not even say out loud the things that raced through my mind when I heard her say that.

I said, “No, but I think I will be able to handle anything you can tell me right now.” I was after all, at the VA Hospital, so I think if I had fainted they would have at least come to my aid long enough to haul me to the civilian hospital across town. She says “I am pregnant.” and I said “Oh My Gosh!” She has been married for 19 years, and has one son who will be nine years old in April. But, she has said since she was pregnant with Spencer, before he was even born, that she did not want another child, that one would be enough. They weren’t trying to have another child, it just happened. And she is over the moon happy about it. And so am I!

I was so happy, in fact, that when I stopped at the fabric shop to get the brown fabric to complete my bedroom redo, I bought this cute baby quilt pattern:

baby quilt pattern — Dinosaur Quilt pattern

I can hardly wait to make it!

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My Evening Clutch Bag For The Wedding

Karen · 3 Comments

I know I said I was going to do a tutorial on making the RV curtains, but I haven’t got around to it yet. Time just got away from me. I had a lot of things to get done this week, and going to Tuscaloosa to pick up my dress was one of those things. We combined it with stopping by the VA so FabGrandpa could get his quarterly blood/lab work done, going to the grocery store, and stopping by the fabric shop. That was yesterday. Today, I made a little envelope clutch bag to match my dress. It is just a simple little bag, just big enough to hold my Droid, my drivers license, a lipstick (If I actually buy one, as I don’t own one right now) some extra batteries for my camera, and some tylenol. Cause you know I’m gonna need it.

I used the fabric that was left over from doing the alterations to my dress for the outside, and some of the brocade that was left over from the flower girl dress for the lining. It has a magnetic closure. The whole thing is small–that is my Droid X in front to give you an idea of the size of it.

evening bag for the wedding — Envelope Clutch Bag

Here is another pic with my hand it it to show the relative size of this bag. I think it is going to be just right. Oh, and look what came in the mail for me: a new business card case, engraved on the back. It has Swarovski Crystals on the front. I love sparkly!

engraved business card case — Ooooo, Purty!

I show more of that soon, but be assured it is going in my new bag.

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Redecorating The RV Bedroom

Karen · 16 Comments

This is what the bedroom looked like before I started:

redecorating the RV bedroom — This is the old bedspread, pillows and curtains.

It was hard to think about redecorting the RV. It came with that brown print bedspread, the pillows and the curtains. Some guy at the RV manufacturing plant decided what my bedroom should look like. That bedspread, while it matches everything int he room, was incredibly ugly and scratchy. I hated it from day one. As a matter of fact, in our other RV, I threw the bedspread that came with it away the very first day after we moved in bought a comforter and pillow shams to put in there. The only reason I didn’t do that with this one, is that the bed is a weird size–queen stuff is too big, king stuff is too small. So, we have used this same set for more than 4 years.

In October, I got my quilt finished and put it on the bed, and threw that ugly bedspread away. After the lovely quilt was on the bed, I immediately thought “I need some new pillows and curtains”. I got online and ordered some matching fabric so I could make them:

I kept thinking about making those pilllows, but with the flower girl dress sitting there on my sewing table, I couldn’t do anything else until that project was done. It taunted me–I wanted to do other things, but that dang dress wouldn’t let me. Thank goodness I finished it last week, so I could move on.

The pillow project took three days, mostly because I was doing other things during the day instead of sewing. When they were finished, I did the curtains in about two hours. So here is what it looks like now:

The only thing left to do now is cover the cornice boards. I am trying to decide what to do with them. I only have the striped fabric left, but I am thinking about ordering more of the brown to cover the cornice boards. What do you think? Stripes? Brown? one of the other prints in the quilt?

Tomorrow I am going to be posting a tutorial on how to make the RV curtains. Stay tuned for that.

Pin4

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How To Make A Ruffled Pillow, Part 2

Karen · 3 Comments

Yesterday, I got as far as making all the ruffles. Today, the first thing I did was pin the ruffle to the pillow. To do this, take one piece of the pillow, and place it right side up on your sewing table. Pin the ruffle in place, with the edge of the ruffle even with the edge of the pillow fabric, and with the ruffle toward the center of the pillow:

how to make a ruffled pillow — Pin the ruffle to the pillow fabric

Straighten the ruffle and smooth it out as you go. Notice the rounded corners on this pillow–it is much easier to make a pillow with ruffles with rounded rather than square corners. Once you have the ruffle pinned all the way around, you’ll need to sew the ends of the ruffle together. To do this, pin the ends together, then take out the pins for a couple of inches on either side of the ends. Pull the ruffle away from the pillow, and stitch together. Re-pin the ruffle to the pillow fabric. Once you have done this, the piece will look like this:

ruffled pillow tutorial — Pillow with ruffle pinned in place

Take your piece with the ruffle pinned in place to the sewing machine, and stitch all the way around with a 7/8 inch seam.

sewing a ruffled pillow — Sew the ruffle to the pillow fabric, using a 7/8" seam.

Be careful while sewing this seam, because with all the layers and pins, it will be thick and you could break the needle.

broken sewing machine needle — Broke the needle

After you change the needle in your machine, sew around the entire piece again, 1/4 inch from the edge. Next, pin the pillow pieces together. Place the piece with the ruffle sewn on right side up on your table. Then, place the other piece right side down on top. Line up the corners and pin all the way around.

Now that you have the pieces pinned together, mark an opening on the fabric. You will start sewing at one mark, and sew around to the other mark. This will leave a place where you can turn the pillow right side out and have room to insert the stuffing.

sew a ruffled pillow — Mark an opening for your pillow

The size of the opening depends on how large the pillow is and what you are using to stuff the pillow. This pillow is rather large, and is stuffed with polyester fiberfill, which was reused from the original pillow. I left a 15″ opening so it would be easy to stuff. If you are using a foam block, you would need to measure the block to determine what size opening you would need. You might even have to leave one whole end open like a pillowcase in order to get a foam block inside. Sew around the pillow, beginning at the first mark and ending at the second one. Turn the pillow right side out.

Stuff the filling into the pillow. Once it is all in, pin the opening closed.

This next step is a little difficult to complete because the stuffed pillow is very large and bulky–I had to get FabGrandpa to help me. Take the entire pillow to your sewing machine. Stitch very close to the edge of the pillow to close the opening.

Your pillow is now complete. I have one more to go and my pillow project will be done. Here is how the new one looks compared to the old one:

Pin3

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How To Make A Ruffled Pillow, Part 1

Karen · 4 Comments

This was my old bedspread. It came with the trailer when we bought it, and I hated it from day one. It was ugly and scratchy and I was really happy to get rid of it when I finished my quilt a few months ago.

So now I have that fabulous new quilt, but I still have the ugly scratchy pillows going on. Today, I started making the new covers for the pillows. It started out with my old friend, the seam ripper. Together we ripped the old pillows apart. Then I used the old covers as a pattern to cut out the new ones.

Now I am working on making the ruffles. Ruffles are pretty easy, just monotonous work. To make ruffles, cut your fabric twice as wide as you want the ruffle to be, and two and a half as long as the circumference of the pillow. Fold the fabric piece in half with wrong sides together, and stitch 1/4 inch from the edge. Then, starting at one end, and using the widest zigzag stitch your machine will make, sew a piece of cord or yarn to the fabric, using the first stitching as a guide for placement of the yarn. Make sure you do not stitch through the yarn, just over it with the zigzag stitch:

how to sew ruffles — Stitch over the yarn with a wide zigzag stitch

After you have stitched the yarn to the fabric, hold one end of the yarn, pulling it to “bunch up” the fabric on the yarn. Spread out the gathering until it is evenly spaced, and stitch over the yarn using a straight stitch.

Continue pulling up the yarn, bunching up the fabric, and stitching the fabric in place until you get to the end of the piece. I use a pin to pull up the yarn between the zigzag stitches as I progress down the length of the fabric:

sewing a ruffle — Continue pulling up the yarn to gather the fabric and stitching the gathers in place until you get to the end of the fabric

The sewing area was a mess! That fluff on the floor is the inside of the pillow I took apart today. Tomorrow I’ll put all the pieces together again, and then the pillows will match the quilt. Next up: new curtains.

ruffles are easy to make — Ruffles are easy to make

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A Sash For The Bride

Karen · 1 Comment

wedding dress sash — Pay no attention to the model. He is such a good sport, though.

After I finished the flower girl dress, it was time to start on the sash for my niece’s wedding dress. She wanted the sash to match the sash on the flower girl dress–it also matches the dresses the bridesmaids will be wearing. I put off making this sash because it is so long, and had to be turned after it was sewn, and I hate doing that. When I make tote bags, I fold and press, then top stitch the handles so that there is no turning involved. It’s just that the turning makes my fingers hurt.

My husband is such a good sport. He knew that this picture would wind up on the internet, but he doesn’t care. I guess I could have gone outside and tied the sash around a tree, but it was cold out there and I didn’t want to get the sash dirty. And FabGrandpa was handy, so there ya go. I am sure Stefanie will be a beautiful bride. The wedding party’s wardrobe is certainly looking good so far.

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The Flower Girl Dress Is Powerless Over Me!

Karen · 19 Comments

After months of it watching me cower in the corner, I finally made my move, and have emerged victorious over the Flower Girl Dress. While it thought it would leave me in a huddled mess, I stood up to the challenge of it’s incredible super powers. The Slick Fabric:

The dastardly Invisible Zipper:

The Stiff Fabric Sash:

The Full Lining:

The defeated enemy:

And again:

I am glad I took the challenge of making this dress. I learned some new techniques, and figured out how to put a lining in a dress when none is called for in the pattern. It was interesting, and fun. I still have some “finger work” left to do, but it is basically finished. I can’t hem it because the Flower Girl lives 250 miles from me, but I hate hemming anyway. We’ll have to wait until June to see a picture of Adayla wearing it. Stefanie and Adam are getting married on June 18. Next, I get to make the Sash For The Bride.

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