I Made a Dress... From a Pattern!

Believe it or not, I actually followed a store-bought pattern and made a dress! Trust me, this is big news for me, because I am not a fan of patterns... as you can probably tell if you read my blog, I prefer tutorials from the Internet instead! However, my sister wanted me to make her a dress, and she wanted one like the pillowcase dresses I make for toddler girls.  So I found this pattern:

View A is the one I made (the one she is modeling). It really does look like a pillowcase dress for adults!

I had one stumble as I was making it... entirely my own fault, nothing to do with the pattern. All in all, it was pretty straightforward and easy to do.

I know it looks long; that is because it's not hemmed yet. I want my sister to try it on so I know exactly where to hem it for her.

This is a view of the back. The ribbons tie in a bow on the back. And yes, that is bias tape you see lining the armholes... pretty easy to do once you get the hang of it.
Now if I could just get up the nerve to try buttonholes, I could finish the jacket I started for her last year!!

Sew a Candle Cozy

I just introduced a friend of mine to sewing, and she has embraced it full force. She is converting a room in her house to a sewing room, so I wanted to make her something for her new crafting space.

I saw this idea somewhere on the web, but I didn't bookmark it.  Mine is different from hers in that I did not quilt mine and add a buttonhole closure to it. That is because I am still deathly afraid of the buttonholer on my sewing machine and have not gotten up the courage to try it yet! So I substituted a pony tail holder instead. Oh, and mine is reversible!

If I make another one, I'll do a couple of things differently. I will use different buttons, as mine ended up being way more decorative than functional:

It has a bit of a gape at the top once it is buttoned, so next time I may do two closures, one near the top and one near the bottom, rather than just the one in the middle.  I could have probably cut my fabric a little smaller too, but I was just sort of winging it. It was kind of tricky trying to sew on two buttons at the same time, but I managed.

This was a really quick, easy project. I cut out my fabrics, and I added some batting between the two layers to give it some thickness. I tucked the pony tail holder between the layers of fabric and stitched over it several times, both before I turned it and during the topstitching.

I think this would make a great last-minute gift that you could sew up in a hurry.

I also printed out a sewing printable for her that I found here. It is in her right sidebar towards the bottom under "Fresh Free Art" and there are several colors/styles available.

I sure hope she likes these for her new crafting space!

Linked up with:

I Made a Bapron

Yes, you read that right... a bapron!  It is a baby apron and I found it at Jess's blog here. She has a great step-by-step tutorial, along with a pattern that you can print out and use!

Here is what it looks like:

I just used some fabric from my stash to make this to try it out, but I will definitely be making more. It was quick and easy to do, and turns out really cute.

Here is the reverse side:

You really should check out Jess's blog, if for no other reason than to see the photos of her adorable baby Charlotte! She also has TONS of free tutorials ... if you have a little girl to sew for, you will love them!

Quilt #2

I made another quilt using Two Little Banshees' tutorial found here.  I really love this quilt pattern, it is so great for beginning quilters like me.

I did a much better job at quilting the horizontal and vertical lines this time, because I marked my quilt top and followed those lines.

I also used a really pretty variegated purple thread which stood out really nicely on the quilt. I made this for a very sweet teenager whose bedroom is ... you guessed it... purple and lime green!  I forgot to take a picture of her with it, but hopefully her Mom will take one and send it to me; if so, I will share it with you.

I can't wait to make more of these... they are so much fun and come out really pretty!

Zippered Pouches

I also made two zippered pouches yesterday. I used the tutorial found here.

I wanted to try a different way of doing the zipper, and I really like this tutorial. You sew small rectangles of fabric to either end of your zipper, and it gives your bag a nice, finished look.

I did something for the blue floral bag that I did not do on the red one, and I like it much better. When I was pushing out the corners, I also pushed out the areas around the zipper. It made it lay much better ... think you can see the difference in the photo above.

I added my signature beaded zipper pulls that I make for all my zippered pouches (click on the photo for larger view):

I love making these; they are great when you need a quick and easy gift, and who can't use a zippered pouch?  Enjoy!

Reversible Sewing Machine Cover

I was inspired by Jackie's post today, and made this reversible cover for my sewing machine:

I used the polka dot fabric that I made a pillow with awhile back, so that it all coordinates. Here is what the other side looks like:

It matches the pennant banner I made for my window treatment in my craft room!

I thought the plain pink was too boring, and when I saw this tutorial on the link to Tipnut that Jackie posted, I knew the pennants would be just perfect!

My sewing machine came with a hard cover case, but this is so much cuter!

Thanks for the inspiration Jackie!

My First Quilt

Here it is .... my first quilt.

Well, technically it's my third quilt, but it's the first one I'm willing to show you.. ha ha! 

I followed this tutorial to make it. It is such a great tutorial for a beginning quilter like me, and it doesn't require a lot of fabric. I was able to use a fat quarter pack I purchased at Wal-mart for about $10, as well as pink fabric for the backing and binding that I already had on hand. Since I'm new to the quilting game, I'm not ready to invest in really good quality fabric just yet.

I definitely learned some things along the way:

• I'm going to use painters tape or make markings on my quilt next time to get the horizontal and vertical quilted lines. (Yes, this was supposed to be quilted with horizontal/vertical lines, but as you can see, it didn't quite turn out that way!
• I need to practice more so that I have less starts and stops; you can definitely see jagged lines in places where I stopped and started sewing.
• I learned that I love the process of sewing and pressing the quilt top - for me, that was the fun part!

This was also great practice for my rotary cutting skills, and I'm getting much more adept at using my ruler and rotary cutter to cut my fabric.

My binding came out really good, thanks to Jera's tutorial. I am not a big fan of hand sewing, so I searched for a tutorial on machine binding and found this great one. Jera is a very talented quilter, and she has lots of great tutorials on her site. If you want to go the more traditional route of binding and then blind stitching, she has a tutorial for that too. But this method, which involves cutting your backing fabric a little wider on all sides and then bringing it around to the front for the binding, is so easy and really works good for someone like me who is new to quilting (and still trying to get mitered corners to look good).

I think I'm going to use this same pattern to make some of the baby blankets that I need to make - I currently have 4 that I need to make, so I best get busy!