I find that being the mom of a 3 year old, I am getting much better at dealing with the time I have to do projects.  I find myself working through my creative ideas while doing the dishes, preparing meals, driving to the grocery store.  I dream about my projects, practice them in my mind, make a prototype in my dreams, all this so when I have the five minutes to try it, I can actually make it.

I’ve been spending the last month on what to make with all our scraps from our Eco-Quilts.  I’ll eventually post a list of all the projects I’ve researched – so you can use your scraps too.  But I’m really excited about what we’ll be making over the next couple of weeks in our HomeSchool Sewing Class.  Week one, we’re making Scrap Flowers (just in time for Mother’s Day).  Week two, Fabric Beads.  I think the LuckyStitchers will be all scrapped out by then, so we’ll be making a bucket hat during the latter part of the month.

What I really, really love about my classes at LuckyStitches, is that each person walks away with their very own creation.  Each quilt we’ve made last month is completely unique.  There was no set pattern, only a technique that was introduced.  These creative minds can explore cutting and sewing so they can dream about it too and create their very own items, articles and art.  Nothing is wrong.  Everything is right and wonderful.

At the end of next week I’ll post our Scrap Flowers and let you know how we did it, so you can make your own too (or for the mom in your life…Mother’s Day is coming!).  They are really, really quick.  In the meantime, go grab your scraps.  If you are sewing this week, don’t toss your tiny scraps, keep them.  They work perfectly for these next two projects!

The LuckyStitchers have been working like MAD on their Eco-Quilts. They are still being worked on and you can flip through all the photos on Flickr.  Our Quilt Show will be up in June, if you are a local yokel – please come for a visit!

Hiding behind a stack of strips cut from clothes from our clothing swap to find materials for our Eco-Quilts. Our quilts will be made from clothing, bed linens and other scraps of fabric. Unless of course…

we had to try the clothes on….

and on….

It was a little wild…ly fun!

If anyone wants to sew along, please do!  A note – you don’t have to have a wild clothing swap to participate.  While it’s recommended, it certainly isn’t required. But you do have to have some fun.

I have been sewing quite a bit. A few birthday presents for kids that left before I could snap a shot. A little twirly skirt and a zippered pouch meant to hold tiny horses.

I finally finished the Doll Quilt for Iz. I started it a while ago, and finally finished sewing on the binding. I love her reaction when I make her things. So thrilled and she just loves everything I make, and you know that makes it so much easier to keep making her things.

Remember this hat I made for Iz last year. Well I’ve been noodling with the pattern and have already made this one, then I made this one:

I am really in love this with hat. The brim is nice and big to keep the sun away. I am even thinking of making a few out of felted sweaters for our nice cold spring, or next winter. (the lovely pics are from my HomeSchool LuckyStitchers – thanks guys! you ROCK!

I made a spring coat (Built By Wendy, Simplicity 3966), and I am so not in love with it. It’s HUGE! I made it two sizes smaller than what the pattern suggests, and it is still too big. The fabric is wonderful, I love the bright green lining and I am thinking big black bakelight buttons. I haven’t hemmed it yet, I think that I just need to make it the right length and it will be flattering. I’m bummed. I still need a spring coat.

I am almost finished with a lovely wrap dress. I’ll post pictures of it when I’m done (soon, soon, soon)

I am super excited about my next big project. The girls have been wanting to make quilts, and that’s what we are doing this month at LuckyStitches. I’ve also been trying to get everyone to think about their resources and using what they have, so I’ve asked them all to bring a bag of old clothes, bed linens and fabric scraps to share. These items up for swap go in the center of the table and the girls can grab and trade as they cut 3″ strips.

Or tear 3″ strips. Everyone got a bit of practice doing one of my favorite things, tearing fabric. With a little snip at 3″, then a good strong pull on either side and sheets and big pieces can rip beautifully. I love their faces when they make a little magic too.

Here’s the start of mine. From left to right – tweed pants, angora sweater, wool flannel pants. I’m not an earthtone kind of girl, but I am falling in love with these textures and colors. I have a bit more cutting to do as next week we’ll start sewing our scrap strips together.

I’m asking everyone to save all of their scraps from their cutting of the strips and we are going to try to use everything. I’m looking for scrap projects, so if you know of any, please share!

Happy Sewing!

I think you know that at LuckyStitches I offer classes to HomeSchoolers. Well, I’ve declared April to be Quilt month, and we are going to be making quilts! Let me tell you that I am no master quilter, by any means. I can’t stand cutting (but my rotary blade has certainly helped with that). I have made a quilt before, and I loved it! I still love it. Iz loves it too. They make for wonderful keepsakes. They also tell stories. I’ll be sharing resources with the kids so they can understand the history, passion and art in quilts too.

For this class, however, we won’t be going to the fabric store to make our quilt tops, we are going to be looking in the closet. Using clothes, linens, towels, blankets, anything made of fabric or fabric scraps. We’ll be making the ultimate in scrap quilts, turning something that doesn’t’ seem to have a use anymore (pants that don’t fit) into something eternally useful (a quilt!). For years I’ve used old sheets, blankets, towels and clothes and made them into something new, preventing the “old” item from going to waste or ending up in a landfill (did you know that the dyes used in coloring fabric are mostly toxic? You can read more here or here). Hopefully, by making these quilts, we can also raise awareness of our use of textiles, how they are made, thrown away or even better – re-used.

Here’s our tentative schedule if you want to participate or follow along:

Week 1 – Cutting. We’ll be cutting our found items into 3″ strips. We’re going to be holding on to all our scraps and perhaps use them along the way or figure out something new to do with them.

Week 2 and 3 – Sewing. We’ll be sewing our strips together. End to end then strip to strip. We’re just going to keep sewing until we have enough for a quilt that’s about 50×50 ish.

Week 4 – Quilting. We’ll be safety pin basting our quilts together, using batting if necessary and attaching a back. Then we’ll quilt it all together either machine quilting or tying.

Week 5 – Binding. Maybe using scraps or linings or something left over, we’ll stitch together strips for a binding and sew it on.

I’ll be posting inspiration, photos and stories along the way.

**Remember, I can sew, but I’m not a super duper quilter. I’ll be showing the kids some super basic techniques. Hopefully, this will give them the foundation they need to go and either take another quilt class or start on another quilt or even make their own pattern. Whatever the outcome, they will have made something that is eco conscious as well as get more practice sewing, and have it for the rest of their lives (as long as mom doesn’t clean up their rooms and throw everything out that’s on the floor…not that these will end up in a pile somewhere…).

I hope you’ll follow along. Even better if there are kids in your life who can follow along too! And if you do decide to participate, please let me know.

HomeSchoolers:

We’ve been working on our sewing machines. Some students have been stitching for a while, whether they started during the classes that began back in December, or earlier. Some have never used a sewing machine. You know what’s great about teaching these kids to sew on machines? They try anything. They don’t give up and aren’t afraid of the machine or to make mistakes. They are thrilled to be making things.

This week it was tote bags. Fabulous practice for first timers, lots of straight lines, hems, corners and straps. For those that are more experienced, they design their own bags.

Above – the kids ages 6 -11 – all sewing on the machine for the first time.

Flannel pups, we put french seams in our tote bags so they wouldn’t ravel all over our books, groceries, sewing projects, dolls, etc.

Dolls watch as we sew straps.

The perfect pocket completed by a first time sewing machine 6 year old queen.

While each child is different, I am amazed by the talent displayed by my youngest students. They sew straight lines. They remember how to wind bobbins and thread the machine. Some parents declare that their 6 year old can’t use a machine (and they could be right), but have they tried? Sure, they shouldn’t be left alone, it is a machine and it can sew over a finger, but why not sew together? If you give them a chance, they can totally do it.

The classes are designed as guidelines.  Since everyone works at different levels, I provide the basic idea and encourage everyone to make it their own.  This 12 year old decided her tote would be in strips.

After attaching the strips, she pleated every other one.  I can’t wait to show you what she does with the bag this week.  It’s a very clever bag (no longer the trad tote!).

This is a box tote, that has been quilted and has tons of pockets including a zipper pocket on this side of the bag.

Bag has handles attached with square rings and fabulous batik trim.  The inside is lined.  More on the bags after classes this week.  We’re going to have a bag show.

We’ve also been working on embroidery.  We are working in T-shirts.  More pictures later.

Embroidery 101 :: I created a sampler and taught the basic stitches (so everyone could create their own!).  Here we are using the  “window method” to transfer the sampler pattern to our fabric.  We are using basic color pencils to transfer the pattern

French Knots, Split Stitch, Chain Stitch, Satin Stitch and Blanket Stitch.

We are still making jeans.  Here, the edges of the pieces are being serged (denim ravels like CRAZY).  My jeans are just about done, but, and I can’t believe it, but my jeans are just way too big!  How did that happen.  The muslin fit!  Maybe the “Sew Diet” is working.  I’m eager to finish my first pair, I have many more in line.

If you have an iron, it’s best to have an aloe plant around.  We needed this during a Sew-cial when a 6 year old was learning how to iron (with her mom), and ironed her arm. ouch.  If you don’t have an Aloe plant at your home, sewing room or lounge, go get one.

I think pillows are a great beginner project, heck – they are a great project for any level stitcher. Excellent practice. Not a big fabric investment, not even a big time investment, and they allow for you to experiment with fabrics, colors, thread, closures and size. They always look fabulous and are the perfect accent in any room. Beautiful shots of color. I love pillows.

Everybody came to class with an idea or drawing and we talked about how to turn it into an appliqué. We made a pattern, traced it onto the fabric, then cut them out of fabric and pinned the motifs down to the pillow fabric – and stitched away. Once the front was done – we put a zipper in the back, stitched up the sides and VIOLA! pillow happiness.

I think you might remember my love of handmade pincushions? This is another great sewing project. Great practice for learning basic hand sewing stitches. These were inspired by this FABULOUS tutorial. Each picked a jar or bottle lid, made a pattern and picked their colors. I LOVE the pocket for the scissors/seam ripper. Makes it a cool little sewing station.

Small projects like these are perfect practice for any sewer. They make the best accessories for your home or sewing kit (or sewing lounge!)

Wednesday, February 27 6Pm-9Pm – we’re making Egg Cup Pin Cushions at LuckyStitches.  I hope you can make it.

Working on this wedding dress reminds me of how much fun I had at our wedding.  I thought about making my dress, but I couldn’t find the time (I loved the dress I found anyway…).  It was so much fun, a fabulous little party with close friends and family.  I smile when I remember it.

The dress is coming along beautifully.  It is a surprise – so no pictures to give it away, but the shapes are really amazing.  (insert giddy mad scientist giggle here…)

This week is Pillow with Appliqué week.  First, everyone made patterns, either on paper or just freely cut out their fabric.

Next, everyone will learn how to insert a zipper.  I love this part.  I have a favorite way of inserting zippers, so much so, I don’t follow the sometimes super lame instructions provided sometimes in patterns.  I pretty much follow these methods. After a bit of practice, they look really good.

We are all finally home. Iz recoved quickly from her Pneumonia and Rob brought her to meet me in the city. She loved it. We didn ‘t get to do as much as we had hoped, but we did eat wonderful food, walked, rode the subways and Path train and almost fell backwards as we tried to see the top of the Empire State Building. We wish we could have stayed longer and visited with more friends, but next trip.

It’s been a busy few months and I’m hoping to catch up on, well, everything. After the stress of working a J-O-B and being away from home while Iz was sick, I am now sick. Perhaps it’s a sinus infection, I am exhausted and argh. I’m sitting on the couch, a wonderful blanket, 600 channels (of nothing) to choose from and my friend the lap top. Hot tea is brewing and after cancelling a private instruction session today, I’m hoping to bounce back and be as good as new tomorrow.

To get ready for my trip, I did a bit of pampering. A little snip here, a little snip there and a date with a bottle of the white stuff, and I have a new doo! I was hoping to swing to Rescue while I was in the city for a little mani-pedi, but no time. It’s my favorite place for this sort of thing.

The last few weeks have been productive for the HomeSchool Sewers (could be a band – no?) We made FABULOUS Fabric Belts and the warmest and oh-so-lucky Winter Hats.

The grown-ups got around to making some Lucky Winter Hats too.  Meg’s (the one on the left) is made from and old felted sweater.  These are just too cute!

I’m bummed that I had to cancel my private instruction today.  We’re working on a wedding dress!  EEEK! Have you ever felt so inspired by something things just start flowing?  Libby has a beautiful vision and design for her wedding dress and after we spent a bit of time mapping out the execution of her dress, we got busy.  Using fabric from my stash and hers, we started draping for part of her outfit.  I love draping.  I love patternmaking too, but draping really allows you to feel and shape fabric around a form.  Very different from drawing lines on a paper to get the same effect.

Pinning and cutting and pinning and tucking and marking and JOY OH JOY!

Next…I will finish my jeans and other items from my wardrobe plan (that was all put on hold when Iz got sick before I left).  I need to update all my bookkeeping (anybody have any tips, argh – this is overwhelming for me).  I have to finish up a doll I’m making for Iz’s 3rd birthday (just a few days away!), and I need to finish my Christmas presents and get them in the MAIL!

The feet dresses! Next – sew on the sole.

Probably the toughest part is fitting the sole onto the body of the slipper. Hard because we are making up our patterns from tracing our feet, and not measuring. So, lots of pins and slow and smooth sewing.

Then, once the muslin fits, moving on to the actual slippers.

Pictures next week of finished slippers, and hopefully pics too of our next project – Scrap Scarves!