In Progress

Suddenly tomorrow is September (!) and with the change in the weather this week (rain, finally) it feels absolutely like harvest time and the season for cozy indoor crafting. Really, who am I kidding - summer in Portland continues through September - but I'll make the most of this week of cozyness and cool nights after so many months of heat and drought.

In progress these days:

• This chili ristra, made with the glowing fruit of my Dragon Cayenne plant. 

The peppers turn red a few at a time, so the ristra is hanging by the window with the needle still on the doubled thread, ready to add a few more chilis every couple of days.

• Coriander seed

 Mostly dried on the stalk in the garden (from a handful of generous volunteer plants) after we ate all the leaves, I rescued a big handful of these from the rain this weekend. It is finishing its drying in a paper bag hanging in my room, then will move to the spice cupboard.

• A braided rag rug. Perhaps my newest favorite crafty endeavor, I'm completely hooked on this project!

When I moved in with Bill, I was finally able to move my fabric scrap collection from a big bag into some Ikea wire drawers, and I took the time sort it all and purge out all the scraps I didn't want to keep for future sewing projects. A lot were old clothes and linens. Some (read: the bright orange 70s print above) came with other, more desirable fabrics in cheap bags found at secondhand stores. I wanted to make use of all the scraps in some way, and my longtime love of the Little House books immediately came to my aid - a rag rug! I looked up a tutorial and immediately found this one, fittingly on the Little House Living website.

 My rug will not be chic in its color scheme, which is a complete hodge-podge, but it sure is fun and easy to make. Once I had torn all of the fabric into strips, I organized it by color (sort of). One ball is entirely a red and purple based print that I had an overabundance of, one ball is all of the solid colors, and another is all of the other prints. I have no real idea how big the final product will be, but I'm already looking forward to making another in the future. I like the idea of finding some old sheets at a thrift store to create a more consistent color palette. [Tip: Cut the strips into ~3 foot strips. Any longer and they get easily tangled with each other. Also, try not to be adding two new strips at exactly the same point, or the braid gets extra lumpy; try to stagger the bulk of adding new strips]. 

This is a really great project to have at hand to pull out and work on for a few minutes in the evening or on a Sunday afternoon. I've been enjoying listening to podcasts (Backstory is my current favorite) while braiding away. 

Happy September, everyone!

A Lively Quilt

I'm back, to share my very first solo quilting project with you! Over the last year or so I've been challenging myself with new and more complex sewing projects, including quilting and making various items of clothing. A dear friend of mine recently returned to our hometown after nearly six years of living in Southeast Asia, and she returned not only with a wonderful husband, but with a bun in the oven! I latched onto the opportunity and decided to try my hand at a baby quilt. I had been involved in quilting projects with my mom and aunts while growing up, but never attempted anything on my own. I used this tutorial, and found it was flawless (the tutorial, not my quilt).

I mostly used fabrics I already had. Knowing that this baby would have a big, bright personality, I went big and bright with my fabric choices. I also knew it would be a boy, but I try not to let gender have too much influence on colors and patterns. My favorite tip from the tutorial was to include a "zinger fabric" to really get a color that pops out and catches the eye. After going through my collection and cutting out squares, I ended up buying some bright red and yellow to get the zinger effect.

I think my favorite stage of the process was arranging and rearranging the squares until I got the perfect layout of colors and patterns. 

 Adding a bright yellow border

 I used a double layer of 80/20 cotton/polyester batting since I was machine quilting. Love the feel and weight of it, and it feels a bit more wholesome than the completely synthetic stuff. I used a pale yellow gingham for the backing.

Learning how to use basting pins. 

Learning to quilt with my shiny new sewing machine (!!). It was a little cumbersome but went quickly. Looking at this picture, I'm not entirely sure why I was trying to feed all the rolled up part of the quilt under the machine arm rather than turning the whole thing around and sewing from the other direction. Well, you live and learn. 

Perhaps not entirely straight corners and quilting, but I'm pretty pleased with the result. 

Adding the binding!

Learning how to make mitered corners. 

Done! Bright, soft, and a really nice weight for a wee one. 

Washed and ready to go. I love the crinkled antique-y look it took on after washing. 

 The quilt was posted off at the end of January, along with some burp clothes and bibs. I learned so much, had a very satisfying result, and am looking forward to trying my hand at another (small) quilt soon. Also, you might like to know that Baby Boy was born strong and healthy, at home, on February 5th. I get to meet him this weekend and can't wait!

A Birthday Apron

I just finished a fun, challenging-to-me sewing project: a kids' apron of my own design. My niece Maya (daughter of one of my best friends) just turned six (!!), and this was my gift to her. In a sense, it was custom-made: I took Maya with me to the fabric store, and she picked out all the fabrics and decorations ("Can it be pink, Auntie Liz? Can it have sparkles?!?! And these buttons?!" Sure. I can figure out a way to put buttons on an apron!). Then I worked up a design and sewed for a month of fits and starts, as I do, and voilá:

I am pretty pleased with the result. I'm really glad I wrote my pattern out step by step ahead of time, to make sure I got everything in the right order. I presented it to the birthday girl on Thursday, and was happy to see that it fits well, although is plenty large so she'll be able to use it for a long time. And was very gratified by her glorious smile and exclamations of "You made it so so beautiful Auntie Liz!" Bless young eyes that don't see my mistakes.

I don't have a good way to share my pattern, but it was fun to come up with so I'll give it a shot. It was a good exercise in geometry and fabric engineering, for my not-particularly-math-inclined brain. I probably could have made it simpler, but I wanted to make sure it was "fancy" for this awesome little girl. Hopefully the photos are a good reference if my directions get confusing.

This could easily be adapted into a larger apron, but the final dimensions for this one were:

Height (top of bib to bottom of skirt): 29 inches
Width (top of skirt): 13 inches

Materials:
2 100% cotton fabrics, one print (1/2 yard) and one solid (1 yard), pre-washed and dried on high heat
Matching thread(s)
Ric-rac
Buttons (optional)

Pieces (All dimensions include 1/2 inch seam allowance on each side):

Print fabric

Skirt:

• Shape is a trapezoid, with the curve added onto the bottom after these dimensions 
• Height: 15 inches from top to bottom of trapezoid
• Width at top: 14 inches
• Width at bottom of trapezoid: 19 inches
• I used a ruler and the skirt of one of my aprons to help me free-hand an even curve at the bottom of the skirt. The curve is optional!   

Bib: 10 inches x 10 inches

Solid Fabric
Belt: 5 inch x 44 inch strip (could stand to be longer, but these are the dimensions I used)
Neck straps (2): 2.5 inch x 19 inch strip
Pocket: 5 inches x 6 inches (optional: cut off bottom corners diagonally for more interesting shape)
Hem ruffle: 3 inches wide, cut to match slant of sides of skirt and bottom curve of skirt, or  3x19 inches with slanted ends if using flat line at bottom of skirt

Project Steps:

Cut out pieces in this order:
1. Belt (you'll want to use the long side of your yard of fabric before you cut out any other pieces)
2. Neck straps
3. Skirt
4. Bib
5. Pocket
6. Hem ruffle 

Sewing:
(note: I'm leaving out steps that involve pressing seams and belt/straps, I figure you'll be able to tell when you need to do those things)
1. Hem top of pocket
2. Sew ric-rac onto pocket
3. Turn sides and bottom of pocket under and sew onto skirt
4. Hem the bottom of the ruffle
5. Sew ruffle to skirt
6. Sew ric-rac onto skirt
7. Hem sides of skirt/ruffle
8. Fold belt piece the long way with right side of fabric facing in.
   8a. Sew into a long tube, leaving the ends open.
   8b. Turn tube right side out (this is easiest done with a large safety pin pinned to one end, the same trick I use when threading elastic through a waistband).
   8c. Hem the ends of the belt
9. Sew the skirt to the belt (make sure to mark the center of the belt and center of the skirt and line them up before sewing)
10. Sew ric-rac onto bib
11. Hem sides & top of bib

12. Sew the bottom of the bib to the belt (again, remember to center it)
13. Sew the straps to the top hem of the bib, at the very edges of the bib
14. Sew the buttons onto the bib

Done!

Lately

It's that wonderful sunny busy time at the front end of the summer, before things get REALLY busy. Here's a little of what's been going on in my life lately. 

:: I spent Memorial Day Weekend up north with my family, babytending my wee niece and enjoying a stay at my childhood home, where my favorite wildflowers were blooming. 

:: My mom and her grandbaby

:: A gift-in-progress for a pink-loving six-year-old

:: The final batch of starts are now safely into the garden, with Bill's help this morning. Ararat basil from the farmer's market, tomatoes grown under my shop lights. Peas abound.

:: Some of Bill's students got a gorgeous day to launch the boat they built. Bill took them on their maiden voyage, and later a smaller group of us went sailing in another student-built boat.

:: Life is pretty darn good.

The Best Bibs (Apparently)

A few weeks ago, I was chatting with a friend of Bill's who has an 18-month-old daughter. We got on the subject of sewing, and I mentioned that I had a whole storm of babies to make things for right now. She immediately whipped a handmade bib out of her bag and said "A friend made us several of these, and it was the single best baby gift we were given.We use them every day." That's pretty good advertising! The bib was fairly basic, so I decided to try my hand at replicating it. From what I could see, the main features were:

a. It's a pretty big bib compared to most that you see sold in stores.
b. It's reversible
c. The edges were overlocked using a serger
d. It fastened with a simple snap

I don't have a serger, so I modified the design to have pinked edges and be sewn up with a zigzag stitch. I made a simple pattern cut out of cardboard, that I can trace around. I traced around a large mixing bowl to create the round shape, and then free-handed the strap parts, trying to replicate the bib I had been shown. My pattern is 11 inches across.

 Once the pattern was made, the rest was really easy:

1. Pick out two complementary fabrics (I used basic 100% cotton/calico, but thicker fabrics or flannel could be nice too). All the ones I used came from my existing stash, pre-washed and ironed.
2. Trace the pattern onto the back of each fabric, and cut out using pinking shears. (Note: If, like me, you freehand part of the pattern, you have to flip the cardboard pattern over to trace onto one of the fabrics--because the pattern is not completely symmetrical and if you trace the same side of the cardboard for both fabrics you will end up with not-quite matching bits when you put them back-to-back. But you can always trim the edges to match once the two pieces are sewn together!)
3. Pin the two pieces back-to-back.
4. Sew around the edges using zig-zag stitch, using a complementary color (I used the same color on both needle and bobbin).

 5. Use a snap tool to place a snap near the ends of the neck straps. Done!

I gave sets of two bibs each to my expecting friends in Seattle, and will whip up a few more for my niece/nephew. It's such fun coming up with pretty and practical things to make for the wee ones, and feeling more and more confident in my sewing skills as a result. I love the way these bibs came out (picking out the fabric pairs was really fun), but the true verdict, of course, will come from the parents who use them.

For Babies

I've spent the last couple of months immersing myself in lots of fun knitting and sewing projects for the many (ok, three) babies in my life who are due in March and April. My brother and sister-in-law, plus two sets of good friends, are expecting, and it's been such fun to put together little bundles of baby gifts for them.

For my niece/nephew, another Pebble vest, and Saartje's booties (These are now up on my Ravelry account). I used the same heathery wool that I used for my first Pebble this spring, and made both the vest and booties a biggish size. They also got some blankets, flannel pants, and burp cloths.

These didn't all go to the same baby, but the colors looked nice together for a photo! The pants are from the same pattern as these, in the 0-3 months size. 

I love love love this wool, and the buttons too- and the stem. If only I had read the pattern more closely and not decreased too soon...it turned into a beanie. But that didn't stop Joel & Heather's 2-year-old daughter from wearing it, and hopefully it will fit the new baby somewhere down the line.

Another Pebble, this one for Laurel & Robert's due-in-April daughter, green like the spring. This one is teeny for a brand new baby. 

The assortment that went to Heather and Joel. We had a good laugh because the burp cloths (one of my go-to baby gifts) I made were actually the same flannel I had used for a blanket for their 2-year-old when she was a newborn....but I had forgotten that I used the same fabric two years ago. Their little girl recognized it and said they matched! ...She also put on the new bibs as a cape and wore them around for awhile.

I'll write about the bibs in the next post. They are my favorite thing that I have sewn to date.