Who, Me?

I don't deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don't deserve that either.

~ Jack Benny

Recently I was nominated by Gwen of All My Seams for the One Lovely Blog award and the Very Inspiring Blogger award.  

Thank you, Gwen!  I am really touched, especially because this blog is pretty new and I'm not always sure where I'm going with it...  ;)

The rules for this award are:

1.  Thank the person who nominated you. 

2.  Add The One Lovely Blog Award/Very Inspiring Blogger Award to your post.

3.  Share 7 things about yourself.

4.  Pass the award on to 10 nominees.

5.  Include this set of rules.

6.  Inform your nominees by posting a comment on their blogs.

So here are seven things about myself:  

1.  I love patterns and structure - whether they are expressed in fabric or in numbers - through sewing & weaving or through math & statistics...  

2.  I love teaching - both the part where you have to figure out how to explain and illustrate things and the part where you get to connect with your students on a personal level and share in their accomplishments.  

3.  I am married to a man who calls our kitten (Popeye, not Oliver), "Mr. Squeakers Magoo."

4.  My idea of heaven is eating dark chocolate while having my feet rubbed...  Oh, and I'm in a flowing pink dress!  ;)

5.  I struggle with chronic & clinical depression.  

6.  I feel the emotions of other people very strongly - nothing gives me more joy than doing something that brings a smile or a laugh to someone else's face...  :)

7.  In spite of all my sewing, I seriously need help putting together an organized, coherent and classic wardrobe for myself!  ;)

And my 10 nominees - if you aren't already following them, check out these lovely and inspiring blogs:

1. Becky at Sew and So
2. Beverly at Sew Much More
3. Claire S at 1 Seam at a Time
4. Elaina at Sew Ducky
5. Faye at Faye's Sewing Adventures
6. Ginny at Darling Adventures
7. Kate at See Kate Sew
8. Lynne at Sewing Cafe
9. Marie at Quirky Threads
10. Tee at Dressed to a "Tee"  

(My apologies if any of you have already received these awards - I tried to check before making my selections...)  

Thanks again, Gwen!  I hope my blog can live up to these awards.  :)

Last Holiday Countdown Give Away Winners! (Yes, that is plural...)

The last of my four Holiday Countdown Give-Aways is for the eight garment patterns from the Hot Patterns Basic Wardrobe Collection.  

The patterns include:

HP 1136 - Essential Shift Dress and Top
HP 1133 - Fitted T Redux
HP 1011 - 24/7 A-Line and Pencil Skirts
HP 1101 - Slouchy Fly-Front Skirt
HP 1029 - Superfantastic Shirt
HP 1113 - Relaxed T-Shirts
HP 1099 - Princess Shirt
HP 1051 - Everyday Pants

And the (randomly selected) winner of the complete set of patterns is:

MARY!  

Congratulations, Mary!  Email me at gwynhug@gmail.com with your mailing address and I'll get your patterns in the mail to you ASAP.   :)

Every time I have a give-away I wish that everyone could win.  Obviously, I can't give copies of all 8 patterns to each of the 7 people who entered, but...  

...let's close out 2012 and open 2013 with something special:  ;)

Gwen, Becky, Jenn, Lisa, Erin and Beverly - I will send each one of you the pattern of your choice from this collection!  :)

So, go browse your options (here), pick your favorite and shoot me an email at gwynhug@gmail.com with your choice and your mailing address!  :)

I hope this gets 2013 off to a good start for all of us!  :)

Santa's Post-Christmas Sewing Sweat Shop: Day One

Good judgment comes from experience, 

and experience comes from bad judgment.

~ Frederick P. Brooks

Yesterday I decided to start on my Christmas sewing projects by tackling the Not-Ugly Car Trash Bags - which account for four out of my nine projects.

I was hoping to finish them all completely - I didn't quite do that, but I did accomplish a lot.  As you can see, I'm basically missing the top binding on one of them and the long strap on all of them. (Oh, plus attaching my labels - here, pinned into place.)

The pattern is quite simple - the main bag (cut 2), a front pocket, and a short and long strap (with a buckle).  I purchased single fold bias tape, and I'm a little bit sorry - I think the binding along the top of the pocket and the top of the bag would look nice a bit wider...

Trash isn't always dry and clean, so I decided to line the bag with a plastic layer.  I could think of two ways to do this - sew the lining bag separately and insert it into the fabric bag OR attach the pieces of lining to the pieces of the bag and then stitch up the bag, treating the double layers as if they were a single fabric.

I chose the first, thinking of the advantage of being able to hide the seams between the two layers.  In hindsight, I wish I had done the second and used french seams, because - as always! - I had trouble getting the two bags to be exactly the same size.  And, as you can imagine, the plastic liner doesn't have any give to help with a less-than-perfect match.  

Oh well, next time I'll know...  ;)

As you can see in the picture above, the straps are sewn on last, along the side seam, to the inside of the bag and over top of the binding.  

Guess why I wasn't able to finish these yesterday.  

Around 9:30 pm I ran out of white thread!  Can you believe it?  Anyways, I'm off to get some thread this morning and then my goal for today is to finish these bags and make three more gifts - two bed pockets and one set of place mats and napkins.  

Wish me luck!  :)

Miscellaneous Day-After Bits...

One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day.  Don't clean it up too quickly.

~ Andy Rooney

Well, we're back home from our Christmas trip visiting family - apparently just in time.  It sounds like there's going to be bad weather interfering with travel today...  :(

I've got a couple more days off work - time to start my Christmas sewing!  ;)

Sadly, I'm serious - I'll be madly stitching my way through nine, One-Yard-Wonders for the next few days - hopefully I'll have lots of pictures for you as early as tomorrow!  

In the meantime, here are a few miscellaneous pictures and thoughts for your consideration:

Can you believe that I am lucky enough - at the ripe old age of mumblety-mumble - to still have my Grandmother in my life?  Here she is on Christmas Day, 2012:  

One of my un-achieved goals of 2012 was to get back on my floor loom.  While browsing on Etsy (thanks to my sister for a gift card!) I found a shop selling recycled t-shirt yarn.  Doesn't this have rag rug written all over it?  :)

In addition to sewing, I have a run to the post office scheduled for today - I've got some Holiday Give-Away packages to get in the mail!  ;)

Remember, there's one more give-away left - a set of EIGHT Hot Patterns patterns!  Leave a comment to enter before midnight on Thursday and check back on Friday to see if you won.  Good luck to everyone!  :)

To everyone who is traveling today - be safe!  

Sending Merry Christmas Wishes

“What do you think of Christmas?"

"I like it," she said. "I think we should have it every year.” 

~ Liz Flaherty

These fine fellows are sending their best wishes to you and yours for a very Merry Christmas!

And I'm hoping that your day, your week, your month, your year and your life are filled with the most beautiful treasure of Christmas:  

The Trip

Christmas is, of course, the time to be home - in heart as well as body.  

~ Garry Moore

A Christmas trip to the Great White North to visit family means:

Watching our great-niece cheer for her high school basketball team...

And watching them win!  

Re-acquainting myself with that cold, wet white stuff:  

Family and delicious food!  

(Sorry no real pictures - I was too busy eating and laughing!)  

And bringing home a stack of gift cards!  :)

I hope you are surrounded by the people you love and enjoying this special time together!  

Holiday Countdown Give Away - Week #4

Scroll down to learn who won the Give Away for Week #3

If you didn't win, don't despair - there is 1 more Give Away before Christmas!  

I have been celebrating the holiday season by offering a give away each Friday in December up until Christmas.  This is my last give away.  Each give away has been a collection of sewing-related gifts with a theme.  

This week's theme is "Hot Wardrobe Staples"

The give away package will include:

• The eight garment patterns from the Hot Patterns Basic Wardrobe Collection

The give away is open to international readers and will be open until midnight (EST) next Thursday (December 27th).  I'll announce the winner and the next give away on Friday, December 28th.

To enter, leave a comment and don't forget your name!  

Good luck to everyone!  :)

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And now the moment you've all been waiting for - the winner of last week's give away!  


There were 4 entries (giving each person a 25% chance of being picked) and the randomly drawn number was #1:  

Diana!

Congratulations, Diana!  

Email me at: gwynhug@gmail.com with your mailing address and I'll get your "Pattern Magazine" package in the mail!  :)

Everyone else - don't despair - there is 1 more chance!  Sign up for today's "Hot Wardrobe Staples" package!  :)

He likes it!

A child's smile is one of life's greatest blessings.

~ Unknown

Thanks to my friend who gave me these pictures of her son modeling the rain coat I made for him. I think he likes it!  :)

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P.S. - Don't forget to sign up for the third of my four weekly holiday give-aways here.  The theme is "Pattern Magazines" and the package contains a one year gift subscription to a pattern magazine of your choice, 10 yards of Swedish tracing paper and a seam allowance guide!  

Check back Friday to see if you've won, and to sign up for the third give-away!  All give-aways are open internationally.  :)

Gratuitous Kitten Picture

By and large, people who enjoy teaching animals to roll over 

will find themselves happier with a dog.  

~ Barbara Holland

Popeye is always so helpful!  Here he helps make sure that I don't lose my place online...  ;)

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P.S. - Don't forget to sign up for the third of my four weekly holiday give-aways here.  The theme is "Pattern Magazines" and the package contains a one year gift subscription to a pattern magazine of your choice, 10 yards of Swedish tracing paper and a seam allowance guide!  

Check back Friday to see if you've won, and to sign up for the third give-away!  All give-aways are open internationally.  :)

More Gift Ideas

The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value.  

~ Charles Dudley Warner

So, you know all that exhausting "research" I've been doing to create my four holiday countdown give-away packages?    ;)

It turns out that this may be a heretofore undiscovered talent of mine, because not only did I come up with ideas for my 4 packages, but I came up with LOTS of other ideas for gift packages for people who sew!  

I thought I'd share some of the ideas that I am not using for my give-away.  

Okay, this post is not really for YOU.  This post is for someone who loves you and is wondering what to get you for Christmas.  So either forward the link or print it out, do some selective highlighting and pass it over to that person.  Then sit back and let the sewing gifts roll in!  ;)

Gift of Learning

There are lots of ways to put together a package of learning.  Obviously you could start with a sewing book or two.  It turns out that many popular options are available on amazon.com in the neighborhood of $20-$30, including: 

• Dressmaker's Handbook of Couture Sewing Techniques
• Burda Sewing Vintage Modern
• Colette Sewing Handbook
• Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing

Speaking of PatternReview - you could throw in a Friend of PR membership ($30) and maybe an online class or two...  Online classes at PR tend to run in the $50 - $75 range and classes on Craftsy.com tend to run in the $20 - $50 range - but both sites have specials.

Gift of Finishing Touches

Why not put together a collection of some pretty rolls of ribbon, packages of ric rac and bias tape, packages of elastic in different widths, some Velcro  a set of hook and eyes, a selection of fun buttons AND a set of personalized labels?  

Gift of Cutting

Maybe some combination of dressmaker shears, snips, a rotary cutter (don't forget an extra blade!), pinking shears, a cutting mat and an organizer to hold them all...  

Gift of Measuring

You could always put together a set of clear plastic rulers in variety of shapes and sizes, a measuring tape, a seam gauge, a flexible ruler and some french curves - all in a ruler organizer.  

Gift of Pressing

Do you have a nice steam iron?  What about all those other pressing tools?  Like a ham, a seam roll, an ironing board cover, tailoring board, sleeve ironing board, etc.

Gift of Pattern Drafting

There are some great books on pattern drafting - but be warned, they tend to be more expensive than the sewing books mentioned above!  Of course, you'd want to combine this with some french curves, marking pens and tracing paper.  Another possibility in this category is a Lutterloh kit...  

Gift of Thread

How about a collection of assorted colors of all purpose thread, some wooly nylon thread and a thread spool rack?  

Gift of Notions
A seam ripper, a seam gauge, a point turner, a loop turner, marking pencils, pens and/or chalk, a bias tape maker, a bound buttonhole maker...  What else would go into a notions package?  

So, what do you think?  Do any of these gifts appeal to you?  What sewing gifts would you love to get for Christmas this year?  What gifts are you giving to your sewing friends?  :)

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P.S. - Don't forget to sign up for the third of my four weekly holiday give-aways here.  The theme is "Pattern Magazines" and the package contains a one year gift subscription to a pattern magazine of your choice, 10 yards of Swedish tracing paper and a seam allowance guide!  

Check back Friday to see if you've won, and to sign up for the third give-away!  All give-aways are open internationally.  :)

Not a Good Year...

We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, 

a life free of violence and fear.

~ Nelson Mandela

A Timeline of Mass Shootings in the United States Since Columbine

Number of Fatalities per Incident

And now, a star for each of the people - mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, lovers, friends - we have lost...  

Holiday Countdown Give Away - Week #3

Scroll down to learn who won the Give Away for Week #2

If you didn't win, don't despair - there are 2 more Give Aways before Christmas!  

I have decided to celebrate the holiday season by offering a give away each Friday in December up until Christmas.  Each give away will be collection of sewing-related gifts with a theme.  

This week's theme is Pattern Magazines!  

The give away package will include:

• A one-year subscription to the pattern magazine "Burda World of Fashion" OR "Ottobre" (your choice)
• Ten yards of Swedish tracing paper
• A seam allowance guide

The give away is open to international readers and will be open until midnight (EST) next Thursday (December 20th).  I'll announce the winner and the next give away on Friday, December 21st.

To enter, leave a comment and don't forget your name!  

Good luck to everyone!  :)

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And now the moment you've all been waiting for - the winner of last week's give away!  



There were 7 entries (giving each person a 14% chance of being picked) and the randomly drawn number was #1:  

Ellen!  

Congratulations, Ellen!  

Email me at: gwynhug@gmail.com with your mailing address and I'll get your "Fabric Shopper" package in the mail!  :)

Everyone else - don't despair - there are 2 more chances!  Sign up for today's "Pattern Magazine" package!  :)

Introducing My Home Stash

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, 

or believe to be beautiful.    

~ William Morris

Organizing my fabric stash last weekend felt a bit like Christmas - it was so much fun uncovering fabrics that I had forgotten about and remembering where and why I had purchased them.  Here are some of my favorite discoveries:  

First, apparently my husband has FOUR Hawaiian shirts coming sometime in the future...  

Check out these two beautiful cotton prints.  On the left is some fabric that I purchased on a work trip to Pensacola, Florida.  I had in mind a cute, button-up, fitted blouse.  On the right, is an old Christmas gift from Ana - she also picked out a skirt pattern for this fabric.  It's going to be a beautiful skirt -she really knows me and my style!  

These 2 are for a Colette crepe dress.  The fabric on the right is the main fabric - the fabric on the left will be the contrast (sash).  

I purchased this fabric on a summer vacation in Iceland!  I was imagining it in an Asian-style dress...  

Finally, these pieces were purchased over time for various reasons and from various places - the one in the middle is my first (and, so far, only) piece of Liberty of London fabric - thanks to a birthday gift certificate from a friend.  The one to the left of that was purchased on a work trip in Edinburgh, Scotland.  The 4 on the left are slated to be tops and the 2 on the right are slated to be skirts.  

What I like about this picture is how well the fabrics go together color-wise.  You can see that I really am consistently drawn to a certain palette.  

Clearly, I've got enough fabric to fuel a year of sewing!  Say, for example, 2013...?  ;)

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P.S. - Don't forget to sign up for the second of my four weekly holiday give-aways here.  The theme is "Fabric Shopper" and the package contains a gift certificate to buy fabric, a set of The Original "How Much Fabric?" Reference Cards, a special fabric buying t-shirt and a starter set of fabric organizers for your home stash!  

Check back Friday to see if you've won, and to sign up for the third give-away!  All give-aways are open internationally.  :)