I love to sew swap

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=338168.0 I joined another swap on Craftster the I Love to Sew Swap Round 3. I did round 2 last year and I really enjoyed this swap. Now that I think of it I was part of round 1 also. Sewing is probably my favorite craft and so I love getting to know others who love to sew too. I even decided to sew a scrapbook for the other swap I am in on Craftster the Scrapbook-cookbook swap. We get our partners for the Love to sew swap on Friday or earlier if all the slots fill up first. I already did a bit of stalking from the people already signed up. But really I will just have to wait for partners to get started on this. I still have some parts of the Cookbook swap to get finished. I would like to try and send early if I can.

A Silk Apron

I made this apron today from my stash fabric. I just love it. I got the silk fabric for free from a friend who works in a drapery workroom. I probably wouldn't have made an apron out of this pricey silk fabric but it was scraps that would have been thrown away. The lace around the edge of the skirt is some vintage lace that a friend gave to me. It looks like it was cut off a garment or something it already had sort of a rounded shape. So it worked well around the rounded edge of my apron skirt. The only thing I bought for this project was the doily topping on the skirt. I got that in a lot of embroidered and crocheted linens from Goodwill online.

http://www.shopgoodwill.com/

I joined a Cookbook-Scrapbook swap on http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=335316.0 . In this swap I have to make a cookbook-scrapbook with at least 10 recipes and send a purchased cookbook and craft a kitchen related item. I made this apron with the intentions of sending it to my swap partner. I think she is going to love it. She likes nature themes and sage green. That's why I picked out the leaf embroidered silk for the skirt. I think this is a fun and flirty apron and maybe a bit impractical. Although silk can be washed even when most care labels say to have it dry cleaned. I wash silk all the time. I just wash in cold water and hang to dry and I may have to iron it a bit. I like this apron so much I may have to make another one for myself. I have been enjoying making aprons lately but this is the first one I have made of silk and this is probably the fanciest one I have made too.

A New Dress

I got this embroidered boarder fabric at JoAnn's on the clearance table. It is a wool blend and it has a flower embroidery with little free standing butterflies on it. I used Simplicity 2846. I wanted a pattern with few seams at the edge because it would show off the boarder to the best advantage. By using this kind of fabric I needed to decide on the length before cutting it out as the finished edge of the fabric is the finished edge of the garment. Well I guess I was not careful enough in my measurements because my dress turned out to short for my taste and figure.

The pattern also called for a slit in the back and I realized that that was unnecessary too and it really became to short in the back and revealed to much of me to the public. I had to think of someway to salvage the dress so I could wear it. I really liked the fabric and I didn't have enough left over to make anything else out of. I decided to add a band of the same fabric to the middle of the dress. That gave me the length I wanted. No one would ever know that that wasn't

the original design of this dress. I also closed up the slit I made as I didn't need that and it was still to revealing even with the longer length. Now I can wear the dress. I would have preferred cutting it out right in the first place but I am glad I came up with a solution that I could live with. The other idea I had was to cut off the top part of the dress and just turn it into a skirt. Or I could have pitched the whole project but I really didn't want to do that.

Kitty Pouch

My latest small project is this zippered Kitty Pouch. I bought a kit with everything I needed at the sewing expo I attended in August. The booth was http://www.quiltplus.net/ The had all kinds of adorable things for purse making. This little pouch was pretty quick and easy to make. The direction called for a lot of hand sewing. Like hand quilting the layers together and even hand sewing the zipper in. I saw no need to hand sew those things especially the zipper so I did it by machine. The only hand sewing I did was to applique the cat head in place and embroidering the face. I like the size ans shape of the pouch and I would like to make more. It would be easily adapted to other designs on the front anything that would fit in the same space would work. A novelty fabric would be a cute and simple alternative to the applique.

craft eNVy: Tie Headband

I should make one of these necktie headbands to match the necktie skirt I made for my daughter. She like to accessorize her outfits but for some reason she doesn't like headbands. I may make one anyways. I probably couldn't get away with wearing a tie skirt but I could wear a headband. This one looks adorable on this baby.craft eNVy: Tie Headband

Necktie Skirt

I got a collections of neckties a few months ago at a yard sale. My daughter had mentioned that she saw a skirt made of ties and thought it was cute. This actually surprised me because she usually doesn't like things like this. But she is older now and her tastes are changing. I whipped up this skirt today. To make it I used 14 ties to fit around my thin daughters waist. I sewed them together by butting them next to each other and sewing them with a multiple zigzag stitch. I used red thread as that seemed to be the predominate color in my ties. I cut all the ties to a 17 inch length. This was a good length for my daughter. I also choose this length because most of my ties were clip on ties and when I took them off the clips they had holes in them where they attached to the clips. I put a lapped zipper in the side and I used the narrow part of a tie for the waistband. I just need to add a snap to the waistband and the skirt will be all done. I think I will have it dry cleaned too as some of the ties may have been a bit dirty. This is how to make a silk skirt out of a pile of old neckties.

Valentine Garland

I finished my heart garland last night. This was
really a quick and easy project. A good project to pass the time on a cold snowy day when you just want to stay snug inside. The pattern came from http://www.skiptomylou.org/2009/01/28/crochet-heart-garland/ . Maybe I will make some more hearts to scatter around the house.