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

To quilt is human, to finish divine.

~ Unknown

I am making progress and things are being finished!  :)

First up, all four of the "Not-Ugly Car Trash Bags" are complete:

Next up was one set of 4 place mats.  The pattern created 4 place mats, plus napkin and silverware holders, out of just 1 yard of fabric.  I had purchased 1.5 yards, thinking that I'd make some matching napkins - but when I saw how small the place mats were going to be, I decided to use all 1.5 yards to make full size place mats and use a second fabric for the attached napkin & silverware holders.  

The pattern also makes the place mats out of 2 layers of cotton fabric - that seemed pretty flimsy to me, so I decided to add a layer of craft batting inside.

I placed the 2 layers of fabric right-sides-together on top of the batting and sewed around all 4 sides, leaving a 4 inch opening to turn it right-side out.

before turning right-side out I trimmed the batting close to the line of stitching

here it is turned right-side out

The next step in the official instructions is to top stitch around the edges, but because I added the batting, I figured I should quilt it and I wanted to start from the middle and work my way out to the edges - so I started with a big "X" connecting the 4 corners:  

I don't know if this is generally accepted wisdom or not, but based on my limited personal experience, if I start on the outside edge of a piece, the top layer of fabric is pushed and pushed and pushed until I get a large, ugly bubble on the other end.  Working from the inside towards the outside seems to distribute the fabric more evenly, so that, at worst, I get multiple small bubbles, instead of one big one.  I also used a walking foot to try to minimize any fabric "pile-up."  

Next I added a diamond connecting the middles of each edge:

Finally I top-stitched around the edges and added the pockets to hold the napkins and silverware.

Kind of cute, huh?  I definitely think the larger size is better.  Fingers crossed that my friend is okay with the second fabric that I added for the silverware and napkin holder - I did that all on my own...  Yikes!  ;)

Happy New Year Wishes and Kittens

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.” 

~Neil Gaiman

This rare moment of peaceful togetherness brought to you by the year 2013.  
(Possibly the only such moment we'll see this year...)

Wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year!  

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: