The ol' homestead

Little Miss makes a poodle skirt

Cowgirl Cuties tutorial: Ipod Nano pouch/cover

Well yesterday Cowgirl Cutie was looking at some crafts and found a tutorial on an Ipod Nano cover that she really wanted to make. Since she really does not get much time on a sewing machine, she was excited to be here to make one. We looked through our fabric stash and she found some cute polka dot/striped fabric that she wanted to use. We then pulled out some purple felt and that was our 2 fabrics we used.

1. You will need:

Two fabrics of your choice (CC used a printed cotton for the outside and felt for the inside) 

10cm of ribbon 

Thread 

Scissors.

2. Cut one 24 x 8.5cm rectangle from each fabric. Place right sides together, and sew almost all the way around with an 8mm seam allowance. Leave about a 3cm opening on one of the short sides.

(A cats tail sometimes gets in the way)

3. Snip the corners and turn inside out through the opening. Use a pointed object (like a knitting needle) to poke the corners out.

4. Iron out the seams well.

5. With a 3mm seam allowance, stitch across the short side to close the opening.

6. Next, place your iPod pretty much bang on centre of your rectangular piece to determine where you need the opening for the lead to go.

7. Mark the opening and sew a buttonhole (notice we have switched sewing machines to use the vintage sewing machine buttonholer thingy.... that CC almost rolled laughing in the hallway but she finally came around to see that the thingy was really cool after all)

8. Fold at the buttonhole as shown in the photo. Insert one end of your ribbon about 2cm from the bottom.

9. Still with a 3mm seam allowance, start from the bottom and sew all the way around (sandwiching the ribbon between the layers), and thereby also topstitching the flap, until you reach the point where you need to insert the other end of the ribbon.

10. This is where it gets a little fiddly, but don't worry. It's the trickiest part, but you're almost done! Stop sewing about 3cm from where you need to insert the ribbon. Sandwich the ribbon between the layers like you did on the other side.

11. Making sure the ribbon is stretched taut across the fabric, sew until just before you reach the ribbon, then stop with the needle still down.

12. Now push the opposite side towards the presser foot, as shown in the photo, and continue stitching under the arch of the ribbon, until you reach the end. It's a bit fiddly, but you can do it! Now just snip off any loose threads. Add a button for decoration on the ribbon if you like.

Now your done, go slip your Ipod in your new cover and crank your tunes!

Murphy's Law of Sewing

Murphy's Law of Sewing

Fusible interfacings always fuse to the iron. If you need six matching buttons, you will find five in your button box. The seam you meant to rip out is invariably the other one. When you are in a hurry, the needle eye is always too small. The fabric you forgot to pre-shrink will always shrink the most. The pattern you wanted to make again will have one key piece missing. If you drop something out of your sewing basket, it will be your box of pins with the cover off. Whenever the construction process is going well, the bobbin thread runs out. The scissors cut easiest past the buttonhole. The magnitude of the goof is in direct proportion to the cost of the fabric. Your lost needle will be found by the person walking around barefoot. Collar points don't match and you've trimmed all the seams. The iron never scorches the garment until its final pressing. The steam iron only burps rusty water on light silk fabric. The sewing machine light usually burns out on Sunday. Pinking shears get dull just by looking at them. Gathering threads always break in the middle

Capri set finished (pictures)

I finished Little Miss' capri set and here is done:

Here is the back of the top (I like the light gathers in the back)

Here is the capri pants (I like the little kick pleats on the side)

New vintage style apron

Heirloom gingham embroidery class finished (aprons) and our formal tea party

My daughter and her love/hate relationship with the seam ripper!

   Big Miss got Grand-doll's (who just turned 1) Summer capri set done just in time for Easter. Even though it was way too cold here to wear it at least she was able to take it home. We all had a great time with an egg hunt -including the teens (ugh) and a cook out with burgers and dogs. I got to spend some time with Grand-doll -she really is a dear. She is getting so big, and the things she does is just so cute!

Here is the picture of Big Miss sewing away. Since she is only 16, I am proud she is learning this skill much earlier than I did. Although she gets impatient and discouraged while she is learning new things with the patterns and machine, she says she is in a serious love/hate relationship with the seam ripper. ~haha

And here is her finished project:

SSS (Sewing Seeds Skirts) pictures

My heirloom gingham embroidery class

Here are a few pictures from one of the co-op classes I teach. These are girls ages 7-11. I have 7 girls that have started from the beginning with learning about threading needles to basic stitches. They are doing so well! They finished their first project which was cross bookmarks

and are now working on lace stitch sachet bags. After next week I believe they will start to stitch on their homemade aprons, and they are very excited about it.They have learned to make the x stitch, snowflake stitch, the circle stitch and to alternate to make the look of lace.

 They are getting so good and I am so proud of them. We have also got in a little practice of hand sewing and all of the girls want to learn to machine sew clothes and so we are working on plans for the Summer to have a beginner sewing class.

Vintage apron done

What a great day I had yesterday! I met up with an old friend that I have not seen in several years, it is always so much fun to catch up on new things and laugh about the past! Ahhh, bringing up old stuff can be such a hoot!

I did get my apron done and I am very pleased with it and have been getting good use of it. As I was saying before, I bought a vintage tablecloth with the intentions of not using it for a tablecloth but to cut and fashion an apron out of it. All went well and the design I chose looks good with this fabric. It is a nice blue color with little roosters all over. And because it was an older fabric, then I found a vintage style pattern to match it to. It turned out very nice as the apron is lightweight but has a good quality to the cotton for practical use when baking.

Here is the uncut fabric:

The close up of the print:

It has 2 little pockets that are essentially useless but add to the character of it I think:

I like the way this has side panels... 

Tommorrow I will post some pictures of what I have been baking lately to break this ol' apron in!