opens in Seattle in December!!! I’m thrilled to offer , which includes fun ornament projects like Pom Pom Garland, Scrap Garland, Felt Ornaments and Bird Ornaments, as well as a Fabric Gift Bag workshop and a No Sew Scarf class. And, of course, Sewing Machine Intro, because it’s time to meet your sewing machine (again or for the first time). So check out the , sign up for the , and please tell ALL of your friends, especially the ones that live in the Seattle area. Hope to stitch it up with you soon!
Archive for the 'LuckyStitches' Category
Iz needed a new hat, so I found a bag of brown/red yarn at Value Village, threw in some eyelash yarn and knit her up this quick little hat. I used the . Let me tell you, it is my favorite pom pom maker OF ALL TIME. So quick, so easy, doesn’t fall apart, it’s a dream. I’ve made pom poms, just to have them.
I don’t know about you, but I have become a fan of , BIG TIME. You can shop on their if the Japanese site is tough (but so worth clicking around).
Birds. Yep, on the brain, like everyone else. You’ve seen them all I’m sure. I’m working on my own little pattern, a few variations. Thinking about a possible class at when it opens in Seattle. These are so quick and take just minutes to cut out, sew and stuff. Next step – off to to find the fabrics for my little flock.
I found these at too.
I’m going to be using them for the ornaments for the .
I can’t believe Thanksgiving is next week. Why is there so much Christmas stuff in the stores already! I know why, I just wish those retailers wouldn’t do it. It makes me so crazy, I’m not buying anything this Christmas, I’m making it all from found stuff. So there.
Many, many months ago, I got a call from a young man looking for help to learn how to shorten shirt sleeves. See, he’s a rock star and well his clothes need to be tight, but the sleeves were always too long. Then his fiancé called and we met in a groovy cafe on a snowy day. The rest is history, and after a few months, Libby had a wonderful and unique wedding dress. While she’s been a sewer (the stiching kind, not the stinky kind), she learned a bit more about her sewing machine, how to sew with knits and how to make a pattern, among other fun sewing tid bits. We draped the pieces, drafted the patterns and stitched up this lovely dress (tunic and skirts). Congratulations Libby and Aaron, you look wonderful! Thanks for letting me be a small part in your amazing celebration. xxooZ
The top tunic part is a lovely jersey with a surplice neckline and petal like hem.
The skirt part is actually multiple parts, both made of interesting gauze pieces that Libby draped and buttoned around her.
Note the lovely green Dr. Martins. I think she has the largest collection of DMs ever! Amazing! – and Libby – love the necklace choice….
Libby sent her party green fabric and they each made their own (or had help) dresses. I think they all did an outstanding job. I love the green and red together.
Here’s a shot of . And here’s a shot of us .
All photos © Coleen Rudolf
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 have been working like MAD on their Eco-Quilts. They are still being worked on and you can flip through all the photos on . 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 realized it’s been a while since I’ve shared any of my sewing projects, so I thought I’d give you a little update.
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 (), 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’ve always been fascinated with quilts. Not only do I love the patterns, textures, pieces, colors but I love that they are meant to be cozy and keep you warm and even tell a story. I’m fascinated by the master quilters who can slice and dice fabric and stitch it into amazing shapes with color placement that makes me swoon, literally.
I think you know that at 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 or ). 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.
Do you remember sewing with your mom or grandmother or aunt or a good friend? Or maybe it wasn’t sewing, but knitting or gardening or cooking? Doesn’t a smile just start to sneak up on you as you remember the embroidery sampler, the scarf, the doll clothes, the vegetable garden? I find that I remember these things with my mom (sewing, gardening crafting), my grandmothers (painting, fashion show lunches, needlepoint, cooking), aunts who stitched, crocheted, photographed, read books, listened to music: the loving people in my life that were so passionate about their craft it seeped through every aspect and into mine? Sifting through their “tool boxes” as they baked in the kitchen. Smelling the oil paint, trying on thimbles, reading the climate maps on seed packets, fingering the embroidery floss and loving the colors, staring at bookshelves, loving the wonderful art books they found inspiration in. Maybe that’s one of the wonderful reasons sewing and these other arts are so comforting to me? The act of focusing on all these activities is so zen like, but how much of it is due to the love in how I learned to do it?
Each month at LuckyStitches I offer a class for kids and their parents to come in and sew a project together. This month, we made bucket hats.
Perfect for Spring. Especially since we keep having storm after storm and more snow (although today it was rain).
Everyone learned how to adjust the pattern to their measurements.
Cutting always takes practice.
Sewing circles takes practice and some advice from mom.
Making sure tootsies can reach the pedal, make for a tear free sewing experience.
Ages 7 and 10 – these little LuckyStitchers, along with their mom, made their very own hats. Together.
**Don’t forget to sign up for the 200th Post-O-Rama Giveaway by leaving a comment on that post by Friday.
oooooh – look what arrived today!
starts tomorrow. Pattern is from the wonderful () and arrived in the mail today. Dots are from , which we visited this morning. Even though they have a bucket of toys, I was rushed, but I like the dots.
PS – This isn’t for me. It’s a gift.
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