Curtians

Things in our house have been getting cramped and nonfunctional for awhile now. Since we haven’t been using our living room for anything (we had our computer that we watch shows on in our back room) my husband decided to install some shelving in our living room area with a curtain rod on top so that we can close off the area when we aren’t using it, and who better to sew curtains than his lovely and talented wife. The challenge for me with these curtains wasn’t the difficulty, they are super easy to make, but the time frame. I am trying to get done with the whole project by the end of the day but I am terrible at working straight through a project. I always want to stop and do something else. However with someone waiting for me to finish it does put a small fire under my bum. I have one curtain left to finish and then two small pieces for the side. So that’s what I have done with my weekend.

 

Dear Sleve Placket…

I hate you! I posted before that I am making my son a dress shirt by taking a part a shirt and just copying what it looks like they did. Sleve plackets are tough though. I tried pre shaping them and could not get it to work. Apparently you aren’t supposed to pre shape. Apparently you just sew the stupid thing on and then it magically shapes itself, or so that’s what I am hoping for. Man, I thought the collar was the hard part and it would be easy sailing until the button holes go on. Blah, I can’t wait to get these done and have them in my bucket of things I know how to do.

Shirt progress

Just wanted to update my progress a bit. I have been pretty intently working on a dress shirt for the booger bear to wear to an upcoming wedding. For the pattern I took apart a shirt that was the style I liked and made it a size bigger than he actually wears since the wedding is in April and we have a second wedding in June he will be wearing it to as well. I got the collar put on a couple days ago and am now trying to figure out the sleeves. Since this is the first shirt I have gotten this far on and I am just trying to remember how everything on the original shirt went together, it is taking a little longer than it could but it is going really well. Here is a picture of how far we are.

 

sorry it is so dark, but you get the picture 🙂

Bow Tie

 

Every little boy needs a little bow tie right? I originally bought this material because the reverse side is suede and I am making him some shoes that call for suede. Since I ordered online I didn’t know that it was going to be a beautiful silky material as well. I plan on putting Velcro on the straps but seem to have lost the rough side of my Velcro. I have just about turned the house upside down trying to find it, how frustrating. To get this picture I just used a clothes pin to keep the back closed. Now I think we all need to see a few more pictures of this cuteness. Sorry for the poor quality, I just got a new tablet and it doesn’t do a good job keeping out blur. If you would like to make your own bow tie you can find the tutorial I used here.

 Bye bye

Lately

So I haven’t blogged in awhile. It has been a combination of a bad computer, bad project and some laziness. I had been working on the yellow shirt, but it went south when I tried sewing a no sew heat bond interfusing.  Dumb, I know, but how do we learn from our mistakes if we never make them? Yellow shirt is on the back burner, happily forgotten, for now.

What’s on the front burner then? Well, I decided the best way to learn to make a shirt, and find out what interfusing is, would be to take apart a store bought shirt and see how they did it. Luckily Joseph had a shirt that was the exact pattern I want and he wasn’t using it, so why not? Let me tell you, if you want to learn how to make something, take it apart! I have learned so much. Now I have gotten the majority of the original shirt ripped apart. I have started tracing some of the pattern. I hope to start sewing early this week. Sadly I forgot to get interfacing while in town today so I may get stalled a little but it will get made. You just wait and see.

Busy day!

Wow, I have had one productive day! It started out by seeing this blogger’s site. Now, from what I read she is the mom of five children and manages to keep a clean house and still do crafts and blog! If her picture isn’t under inspiration in the dictionary it should be. She did a 31 Days to an Organized Home segment so you will be seeing some of that here. Today was organize your hall closet, which I managed to do before the little man woke up. So, here is a before and after shot.

Before…

And after…

My husband likes to drive me crazy by coming home and emptying his pockets in random locations, then asking me where everything is. That is why there is a little table there. Out of the way of the baby. He hasn’t really started using it yet, but he will.

Husband has also been making tons of jerky lately so I have been busy washing gross, fat covered dishes, plus he brought home a deer this morning and gutted it, so there was all that. Yumm, thankfully he cleans most of that mess because he knows my feelings on dead animals. Joseph and I spent a bunch of time playing outside. Tonight I relaxed to some of my Grandma’s old country music and cutting that fabric I said I was going to cut for my shirt, here’s the proof!

All parts cut, just waiting for me to iron and sew tomorrow. I can hardly wait! I still have to buy the interfacing but am hoping to do that this weekend.

Broomstick Lace Bracelet

I finished my broomstick lace bracelet! See!

I saw THIS on pinterest and since she said it was a left hand tutorial I found this youtube tutorial. Since I didn’t have any hooks or needles big enough for the “broomstick” I used a sharpie instead. After the initial learning curve it got easier, especially after I got past the fear of having any yarn off the sharpie. Although I’m sure a hook or needle would be a lot easier the sharpie did the job. I used medium sized yarn but I think that I will try again with some really thin yarn to make it look more lacy and less bulky. 

Now that I am finished with this project I have no excuse not to start tracing the pattern to my first shirt.

Awesome pleated skirt tutorial!

Awesome pleated skirt tutorial!

I haven’t blogged in a couple days. I have been working on a pleated skirt. It is kicking my butt. I have never done a pleat before and thought it looked simple enough. I found a tutorial that gave a vague over view of the process. Anyway I needed a LOT more information. Then I found the tutorial that I just posted. It is so straight forward and simple. I love it! I’m nearly finished with the skirt I am working on now but am very excited to start another one following this tutorial.

She has a lot more tutorials too, I suggest you check it out.

Get the Mad Hatter on the horn, I’m having a tea party!

Seriously who doesn’t love Sheldon Cooper? Smart, arrogant and at times oblivious. Up until this episode aired I had never tried a long island iced tea. I hate the taste of alcohol and had been sifting through different wines trying to find something I could enjoy. After seeing this I figured I love tea and Sheldon, there was no way I could go wrong on this one. Which brought me to Twisted Iced Tea and yummy-ness!
Now let me tell you about my day and the reason I post this. As you may have seen on my blog I have one heck of an adorable son, whom I love a ton. I also have an amazing husband who I have yet to post a picture of (He is camera-shy but it is coming) Anyway said husband drove the wresting team to a match today so adorable son and I got to spend all day together, just us two. Quality time, awesome. Until someone decides to cut nap time short and be a fussy butt.
After bed time tonight I go to the fridge to grab me some delicious tea to relax with and Sheldon’s voice pops into my head. “Get the Mad Hatter on the horn, I’m having a tea party.” And at once my spirits are lifted.
I’m sure every mother out there has those days where your kids drive you a little nuts. I am still at a loss to understand how he can be doing something irritating and still be unbearably cute at the same time. It should defy the laws of physics or something. I try not to get too frustrated with him on his bad days because I know that life can’t get much better than this, and one day I will long to live these days over. But for now I will just make it through one day at a time, hoping the terrible twos won’t come too quickly. But when they do you can bet I will look forward to relaxing at the end of the day with “A treat that’s hard to beat.”