sewing

Martha! I Made It! Sewing Notions Organizer

Posted by Nat on May 30, 2011 | 8 comments

Whew!  I’m back!  I’m sure there are still several things to tweak on this new (and hopefully improved) site, but I need to get posting, wouldn’t you say?

I completed this project months ago and am so happy to a) have made it, and b) never have to make it again.  Ever.

You may have seen in my post about our house that we have an office.  It looks much different than it used to because now it’s a guest room AND my craft room AND an office.  While I didn’t need the office desk anymore, I did need help with all of those sewing notions that pile up.  I hate digging for stuff.  Maybe it goes back to my lovely run-in with scabies in Italy (shall I post about that sometime?  You tell me….), or perhaps it’s just that when I have to dig for something it’s a reminder that I should be more organized in whatever area it is I’m digging in.  This project eliminated a lot of that.   I am also a huge fan of taking advantage of vertical space.  Hence:

These sit above my sewing table, and they hold not only the things I use most when sewing, but also some crafting tools, as well.  And of course, it’s all because of Martha….

If you consult your Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts, you’ll find this one on page 267. I apologize in advance for not taking great pictures- this was definitely in my “blog break” time and I was really doing this for myself.

I’ll walk you through what I did and what I used- I used the instructions in the book as a guide, but really had to wing some of it.  As a result some of my pockets didn’t turn out super swell, but that’s okay- they work.  You’ll see in photos below I actually made three of them, and the middle one has office supply things in it, which is nice.

In the book they suggest using homasote fiberboard.  When I went looking for homasote fiberboard I could not find it in a small enough size.  The one size I saw at Home Depot was big enough to warrant bungee cords on top of my car, and that felt a liiiiiittle over the top, so I opted for some plain pieces of wood.  The two squares are 24×24, and the middle one is 12×24. I then used some quilt batting and spray adhesive to give them a softer look.  I wrapped them up with the fabric and taped them in the back temporarily while I figured out what was going to go where.   Then I pulled everything that was driving me crazy and laid them out like you see here just above.  This took a long time.  I really wanted to get it right, so I debated for probably-excessive amounts of time making sure I could fit everything I wanted. I really took the photos of the layouts so that I could refer back to them while I was in the process- if you decide to make one or more of these I highly recommend it!

The most time-consuming part, however, was cutting the fabric for the actual pockets.  The book gives you a formula for adding length and/or height depending on the pocket you want to make, so I followed that and for the most part it worked out just fine.   What was challenging was keeping them all straight so that I didn’t a) get them mixed up and b) remembered where they were supposed to go.  You also have to press them and sew the tops over so that they look nice (who’d-a-thunk- Martha wants something to look…nice?). 

Here is a collage of some of the process.  You can see that I ended up using some office labels to keep everything organized.  This worked nicely because they stuck nicely to the fabric without ruining it, so once I had the pocket in place and ready to go, I could toss the label and it was like checking off an item on a to-do list.  Done!

The bottom left photos shows the middle panel I made for office supplies- and you can kind of see that I taped a border around the edge.  I did this to help myself remember where the edge of the wood would end up being- sort of helped me keep everything level, I guess.  And the bottom right is just a sketch of each board so I could write down measurements, placement, etc.

Once I had the pockets sewn on I stapled them to the wood on the back with a staple gun about 8 million times.  My husband helped me place the hanging wires on the back and, since we used wood which is much heavier than the fiberboard, we made sure to hang them on studs in the wall so that they wouldn’t fall off eventually (crossed fingers).  Here are a few more pictures of the final product as it looks in my office:

It’s hard to tell in these photos but my office is still a dusty lavender- quite similar, actually, to my new background color on this blog.  I love it.  And the gray of the fabric and the print really looks nice.  You can also see that I made some little cups to hang- it looked sort of empty in between and I had a ton of fabric left over, so I made six little hanging….cups(?) to put things like buttons, pins and safety pins in.

How do you organize your sewing notions?  If you decide to make something like this, give yourself plenty of time and don’t rush.  I didn’t rush this one and I still made a few mistakes, but I still love the final product.  My pockets don’t look nearly as perfect as the stuff in Martha’s book, but it’s so very nice to have this stuff right in front of me whenever I need it.   If you have a question, if I left something out, please leave a comment!  I’m going to link up to some link parties, too, as soon as I get a chance!  And if you’re all the way down here at the bottom, thanks for reading this far!

I linked up to:

Night Owl Crafting

Sew Much Ado

Creations by Kara

Hello 2011, Goodbye 2010

Posted by Nat on Jan 10, 2011 | Comments Off on Hello 2011, Goodbye 2010

Hi everyone,

I’m not even sure who “everyone” is these days- I know I don’t have a huge following on this here blog (yet).  I’ve been thinking the last few days about this blog and what I want it to be.  I have yet to totally arrive at any conclusion to that, too.  I do know that, with as much change as I’m going to see in the coming months, I need to take it easy on myself.  The readers will come, the crafting will get done- eventually.  And perhaps someday I will have thousands of followers and I can refer back to this post and laugh.

What I do know is that right now I must go easy on myself.  Work 4 days/week, expecting #3, and trying to keep my head above water:  that’s all I need to focus on.  I’m still sewing every once in a while, I’m still using good ol’ Mod Podge where I see fit, but my hopes of being a renegade, craft-at-all-hours, multiple-posting blogger WHILE doing all of the things I must to keep myself and my family healthy and sane- those were futile hopes, I fear.

So I guess in a way I’m sort of giving myself public permission to “let my blog go” for now.  I will post infrequently, as I see fit, and I will not feel bad about it.  I will keep my blog floating with minimal supplies, and come summer time when all of my big changes happen, then “Howdy, folks!” I will be back and blogging (I hope).

Until then I hope to bring you fun posts as they come- maybe once a week, maybe once a month… maybe longer.  I thank you in advance if you stick with me through this tough time- because it’s tough for me to work 4 days/week and try to maintain any presence…anywhere, let alone online. 🙂

Hugs,

Nat

Martha, I Made it!….. It’s just a pincushion

Posted by Nat on Oct 30, 2010 | Comments Off on Martha, I Made it!….. It’s just a pincushion

I know- it’s just a pincushion.  But I made it.  Ta da!

(Please pardon the poor lighting- I did this one at night.)

You can find the instructions (which are uber-simple) for this lovely heirloom tomato pincushion in your Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts on page 278.

By the way, I’m in the process of making something else from this book that I am super excited about.  It’s taking a long time to make- silly thing I have called a job keeps getting in the way.   But it’s going to help me organize my sewing notions, get rid of my desk, and make way for a guest bed- wowzers!  Can’t wait to show it to you!

A Journey and a Pillow

Posted by Nat on Sep 8, 2010 | 3 comments

I have begun a journey that I know will end on June 17, 2011.  I have begun my final year of teaching.  I have mixed feelings about it.  I still like teaching in the moments with my students- I love giving children joyful experiences through music, I love the teachers I work with, and I think if I have a traditional job, I want it to be teaching.  But my life has become one that I see needing a non-traditional scenario.  I watch hundreds of moms throughout the week picking up their kids from school and walking home with them, and realize that I want to be that mom.  I want to be able to pick my kids up from school, I want to be there when they have a bad day so I can give hugs and homemade cookies.  I want to be there for them- it’s the most important thing.  And so, with this realization last year, I told my husband and my principal (in reverse order) that this is my last year of teaching.  I needed to name it and speak it in order for it to happen.  That, coupled with my newfound love of sewing and creating things with love has instilled in me a lot of hope.  I have no idea if we’ll be able to “make it” without me working.  Rather, I’m sure we’ll “make it” but it will be a different kind of life.  But it’s the life I want; my current life is hard to handle on a day-to-day basis.  I can’t keep up with myself, my kids, my relationships…. the list goes on.  I don’t handle being two people well.  I want to be a good teacher, but it’s more important to me to be a good mom than anything else.

This blog is going to be sporadic while I’m working- I hope to keep up with posts.  I am for sure unable to stop sewing- even if I want to take a break, an idea comes to me and I make it or else it eats at me.  I’m also addicted to giving things I make to family and friends- it’s so much fun.   So I hope that those of you who are reading this blog consistently stick with me- I can’t wait until I can consider myself a true SAHM and a full time blogger/crafter.  I fantasize about it.  No really.  I do.

On to one of my latest projects.  I posted here about my duvet cover that I made.  Yeesh- I can’t believe I made that thing.  I needed to finish it off with an accent pillow, so here it is:

It’s that little green thing in the middle of the two white pillows.

To make the slipcover for this accent pillow, I followed this tutorial at Cottage Magpie that I found while hunting for tutorials.  (That, by the way, is an addiction in and of itself.)  This tutorial is GREAT- I wouldn’t change anything.  I will probably never buy pillows ever again- it’s so much easier to pick your own fabric and make exactly what you want.

My pillow is 14×14 and a bit chubby, and because I wanted the fit to be just right I cut the fabric to be 15.5×15.5.  This gave me plenty of wiggle room, and since the cotton is nice and crisp, it looks great.   The only thing I did differently was the back two pieces are slightly bigger than what is recommended in the tutorial because I didn’t want there to be any pillow showing.  So my two back pieces were 15.5 x 10.5.  This gives you a nice, flat overlap in the back.

Here are some closeups:

It’s amazing what a little pillow can do!  Now if we could just get the rest of the room finished…

Martha! I Made It! (…or, I made more of it.)

Posted by Nat on Aug 26, 2010 | 4 comments

This is a continuation of my original post in this series.  I made some baby shoes way back when for Miss Clare.  Then another friend of mine came to mind because she has a little girl about the same age, “V.”

When I made the first pair of shoes I was quite excited to make them.  They were easy and quick.  I also noted, however, that the buttons were hard to do when they were on Miss Clare’s kicking feet, so this time I decided to do snaps and elastics to give them a whirl.  What did I learn?  I hate sewing on snaps and I hate sewing elastic.

In Martha’s book they show the shoes with these perfectly sewn squares on the elastic.  Can anyone tell me how they did that?  Impossible. And the snaps?  Oh, the snaps. They took forever, too.  Once I finally got them on I was also left with ugly shoes, so I had to get a bit creative and cute them up.  Here’s the finished product (I made two sizes since V’s measurements were a bit bigger than Clare’s):

And here’s a picture of the pink ones on Miss V’s feet:

I just love the heart on the bottom.  And I put hearts over the snaps- that was part of the “cute them up” I was mentioning.  My other feat with this project was sewing on the rick rack.  In the book they tell you to use fabric glue.  Using fabric glue on baby rick rack is like ironing a noodle.  It’s very unproductive.  So I sewed them on very carefully and it turned out much better.

My other accomplishment with this was that I altered the pattern in Photoshop to make them bigger for Miss V.  Lots of accomplishments for such a small project.

In other news, I am back to work.  Meh.  So I will be posting less, I’m sure, though I can’t seem to stop sewing.  On our first day we had to write what we needed to “let go of” on a paper plate and throw it in the trash. As we threw it away we were supposed to tell the rest of the group what was on the plate.  My plate said, “I’d rather be sewing.”  I made more pouches of my own design, so I’ll have photos of those up soon.

If you are awaiting paper from my post on the Beer Makeover, I am going to mail them tomorrow!

I am officially rambling, so I’ll sign off for now.  🙂

An Obsession? Perhaps.

Posted by Nat on Aug 18, 2010 | 2 comments

I bought some fabric a while ago.  If you’re reading this post at my actual site then you’re looking at the fabric because it’s in my background.  I bought too much, for sure.  I still have tons and tons left.   That’s a good problem, though.

Many moons ago I found Noodlehead.   I just have to point out, even though I’ve already mentioned it on my “About Nat” page, that my name is Natalie and my daughter’s name is Anna.  Noodlehead is done by Anna (who just made an awesome dress) and her daughter’s name is Natalie.  Neat, huh? 🙂

I found Noodlehead via my friend Kari of Handmade Mommy.  Kari posted about doing Anna’s tutorial on L’il Cutie Pouches, and how they helped her overcome zipper anxiety.  “Zipper anxiety?” I wondered to myself.  “What’s zipper anxiety?”  I recognized what a great little thing they’d be to have around, though, so I got some zippers (okay, a lot of zippers) and set to work.

I decided to make one just to try it out, and then I’d make more if I didn’t break my machine.

Moment of hilarity:  I followed Anna’s tutorial precisely- it’s very well done.  But once it came time to sew around the perimeter of the pouch I froze.  “How do I go over the zipper?  Can you sew over a zipper?”  Enter:   zipper anxiety.  So what do I do?  I called Kari, of course.

Kari, who was busy building a volcano with one of her adorable boys, took the time to say, “You’ll be fine.  Just hand crank your needle through it and you’ll be fine.”  “Okay,” I said, while in my head thinking, “For reals?  I can sew over a zipper?”  And yes, my friends, you CAN.  It was fine.  Though if Kari had not told me to do it by cranking my needle by hand I think I probably would have broken something.

So after I made the first one, I cut oodles of fabric up (cutting takes forever!) and I made some more.

Okay, I made 11.

I’m officially the SWF (Single White Female) of sewing.  But later today, I am going to my first meeting of the school year and I’m dreading it.  It will give us at least a few moments of fun when I plop these on the table and let everyone pick one.

See the red, white & blue pouch?  That one is special.  A friend of ours recently got her U.S. citizenship finalized and will be sworn in this month.  I’m so excited for her, so I made her a little patriotic pouch to help celebrate.

p.s.  Like the little lion?  He’s probably older than me.  He used to be in a drawer in my grandparents’ house that we’d play with during our visits. Anna loves him now.  I just think he’s adorable and it’s amazing he still works.

p.p.s.  I have no idea what’s going on with my quotation marks.  It’s driving me crazy.

Closing question (if you sew):  How much fabric do you buy if you see something you like but don’t have an intended project yet? I need some guidelines!

Don’t forget about my giveaway! It ends on Friday- hope you can take a moment to leave a comment to enter!  Click here to check it out.