More Sewing and Animals Without Limbs

I got a few downloadable patterns from Etsy the other day, my attention span is short and I get tired of working on one type of thing and move on to something else rather quickly. Then I'll get bored with the something else and go back to the original thing that I was working on. My quilt is still in progress but I got distracted by a cute pattern for a little coin purse/keychain pattern that I found. I actually got a few patterns for different types of coin purses, looking for easy to make ones of course. The first pattern I got was cute but a little complicated, with darts and some hand sewing involved. Don't much like hand sewing, so I won't be making any more of that one.

This pattern is super simple, just two sides and some batting or interfacing and all the sewing can be done on the machine. I found some fabric glue that works great for openings in things that you turn and topstitch but still have that open seam part. Just glue it shut with the fabric glue, which is even washable, so for things like coasters it works great.

Here are some coin purses out of the easy pattern, I'm going to put them in my Etsy shop and see if anyone is interested in them.

It's kind of fun choosing a coordinating but completely different fabric for the insides of the purses.

Millie has been having fun chewing up her toys. Here are her favorites:

Red dog with no ears and missing a back leg. This is how that came to be the other day while I was on the computer and she was being extra quiet.

This is green frog who has no front legs.

And pink pig is missing her ears.

What? I can't hear you!

Adventures in Sewing

So, first off, the instant grits for ant killing thing really doesn't work all that well. We had a new ant nest in the dirt by the driveway so I sprinkled the grits but two days later Keith accidentally stepped on the ant nest and had biting stinging ants climbing up his leg. He got out the real ant killer stuff, good old Raid, and sprayed the heck out of those nasty creatures. I'm sure they serve a purpose in the whole food chain thing but I don't know what that purpose is and really don't care. We've used ant crystals on the nests before with good results, but don't have a fresh bag of crystals at the moment, so ant spray it was.

We haven't done a whole lot lately, I did do a big kitchen clean with scrubbing the cupboards and walls and washing all the decorative crap and such, but only got halfway through with the job before I'd had enough for the day. The other half of the kitchen clean is on my list for this week and we will see how that goes. I did get the living room carpet scrubbed that same day so it wasn't just total laziness but actual tiredness. Plus it was hot that day and by the time I'd worked for a few hours I was drenched in sweat and it was time for a shower.

Summer is here, we hit our first 100 degree day on Saturday so stay tuned for more whining about how hot I am.

I did some sewing, I bought a bunch of fabrics to make towels and coasters and got a little tired of making those (already) so started on a scrap quilt 'quilt as you go' blanket for my bed. I have about 1/5 of it done so far, quilting each square on the machine as I go and then sewing strips of them together. When it is done I'll put some backing on it and then maybe tie it together with yarn or whatever to keep the backing in place since the quilting is already done. It's very colorful so far.

I also made some new curtains for the kitchen window. Kind of hard to see with the sun shining behind them, but here they are.

As I said, it is getting hot and yesterday Millie spent most of her day like this.

Which doesn't look like a half bad way to spend your day.

I turned on the outside misters for Genie yesterday and I guess Millie thought it was raining, she went outside once, felt the mist, and then right back inside.

Getting My Sewing Machine Out

I used to sew on a daily basis, making clothes for myself and my kids back when fabric was so cheap it was worth sewing clothing. Not so much today what with fabric on the upside of $10.00 a yard. I also sewed crafty type things to sell at holiday boutiques and spent a few years making fabric purses to sell.

Then one day I just got tired of sewing and put the machine away, actually ended up getting rid of it entirely, it not being a really great machine to begin with and my sewing muse having withered up and died. I did buy the bottom of the line Singer at Walmart a few years back, a little machine for 'creating and mending' that I used in an attempt to make crepe paper ruffling for paper crafting purposes. The crepe paper ruffling was kind of a pain to make and back into the closet my machine went.

Until now.


I had been on Etsy working on my shop and saw some kitchen towels where they had taken retro type kitcheny fabric and embellished the towels with strips of fabric. How cute, but at $12.95 a towel, a bit steep for something you are going to wipe your hands on.

But, hey, I've got a sewing machine, so maybe I'll just make some for myself. I went downtown to Beverly's where I wandered about the fabric department and chose a few fabrics and some huck toweling material, then went home to experiment. I did wash all the fabric first and then played around a bit with the sewing of the towels and adding the fabric strips. Since I didn't really know what I was doing, the first few came out okay, but not quite what I had in mind and the toweling material was rather expensive.

So, over to Walmart to see if I could just buy ready made towels to decorate. I did find a pack of 6 bar towels for $6.00 so brought some of those home, washed them to see how well they would hold up, then played around some more with the towels and the fabric. I also tried a few coasters with the scraps, those coming out pretty well.

Then, the fabric buying bug bit me full on, and off to Joann's, where I did find some more fabrics but had to put up with the store smelling like poo for some reason. Also, they don't have any music playing so you kind of feel like you are in a warehouse. A little depressing shopping in there actually.

I also shopped for fabric on Etsy, there are quite a few fabric sellers there but the downside is paying shipping and then waiting for your order to arrive.

I went online to search for any other fabric stores here in town and SCORE! a quilting shop that I'd never heard of that wasn't too far from the house, so off I went again. And oh my, this quilting shop was like walking into a candy store! It's called Strawberry Patches and walking in there was instant inspiration, with the store laid out in little areas of coordinating fabrics with all sorts of quilts, pillows, girls dresses, aprons, etc made out of the fabrics offered in each little area. Bright and clean and colorful, and I'm going to start making all kinds of stuff so that I can keep going back to this store! I didn't take any pictures but did find a few online.

I bought about 10 different fabrics that day, just for starters, ha ha, and did make a towel and coaster set that I'm going to send off to stepson James in Florida. He is really into cooking so I think he will enjoy the towels.

And now off to get the sewing machine out again! And yes, everyone will be getting towels and coasters for Christmas this year.

Sewing

I'm actually using my sewing machine for the first time today in I don't know how long. I'm making some super simple pillows for the window bench in my studio. These are actually going to be for the cats to sit and shed on. No, they are not spoiled or anything.

I used to love love love to sew. I learned how in 7th grade home economics class. Young people today do not know what a home economics class is, but back in the late 60's every girl took home economics in jr high school-middle school as it is known today-and every boy took shop class. Mandatory.
We learned simple sewing and cooking-I still remember making cinnamon toast in the oven and my group forgot to turn it over half way so it was toasty on one side and soft mushy on the other. You had to eat what you cooked, too.
After learning the basics of sewing and ripping out a lot of seams, I figured out that mom would let me sew my clothes so I saw it as a good way to get more clothes-clothes and style being all important when you are in jr high school. We couldn't wear pants to school until i was in 9th grade, so I made lots of dresses. I remember one in particular, it was a tent dress, which was in style back then-really it was! A tent dress looks exactly like it sounds, a dress that starts out normal sized at the top and then just gets bigger and bigger towards the bottom, kind of like you are wearing a big letter A.
From this early start, I sewed clothes for years and years, saving all the scraps of course. You had to save the scraps after you cut out whatever you were making. You never knew when you might need a piece of olive green polyester fabric! I ended up with a lot of scraps!
Speaking of polyester, does anyone remember stretch and sew? Stretchy fabrics were kind of new back then so stretch and sew was the revolutionary way to make your own tee shirts and stretchy elastic waist polyester pants. Not that I would have worn stretchy elastic waist polyester pants!
I made lots of little dresses for Jennifer when she was young, Joseph wasn't quite as much fun to sew for, pants and shirts are kind of boring, but he had his fair share of home sewn clothes. He got to where he hated going to the fabric store, we were there at least once a week if not more. I do remember him finding some very brightly colored tropical fish fabric and specifically asking me to make him a shirt out of it. Back then it really was cheaper to sew your own clothes, not so anymore with fabric upwards of 9.00 a yard.
When I first started making things to sell they were all produced on my 1930's singer that I bought at a junk shop for 25.00 when I was 17, complete with a very retro wood sewing cabinet, all for 25.00. I sewed on that very very heavy black metal machine for years and nothing compares with the good old singers. I made very elaborate cloth dolls and sold them at a local gift shop until I got tired of dolls and the gift shop, and started making holiday things to sell at an annual holiday boutique each year. I'm amazed at some of the things I used to make and how much time they took and how little I charged for them!
Then, I got into handbags a few years back when handmade bags started becoming popular, and sold lots and lots of those.
I just kind of lost interest one day in sewing and would rather do other things these days, but I still love fabric-the prints, the colors, the smell, everything about fabric. I just don't like to play with it anymore.