Hallows Thoughts

It is September and the Children have started school.

I am still not used to the idea of NOT having my boys for 6 hours, my daughter seems bored, and I don't know what to do with my time. I know that with time I will get a good routine down, but right now it just feels odd.

September, so close to October. October = Halloween. Halloween = COSTUMES!!!!

So I find myself asking the children ever so briefly what they would like to be for Halloween. The boys will need some sort costume that they can put on at school for the festivities. (They can't wear the costume all day.) and it wouldn't be fair to leave the girl out so she will need something as well.

I am thinking of finishing up the Rainbow Dash dress I started for her birthday and still haven't finished.

 It is a 3-piece ensemble, dress, jacket with wings, hat. Oh and I made matching shorts as well. It isn't finished because some child mucked with the settings of my serger and I couldn't get it back in synch in time for her B-day.

So I have a plan for one child, even though she keeps saying she wants to be a kitty, and I remind her that she was one last year.

I so far have not gotten an idea out of the boys, and am thinking that once they see their sister is going to be a Pony, they may want to be one too. I think I could convince one to be Doctor Whooves, seeing we are Doctor Who fans of many years (3 is my fave) but I don't really have another male pony that they would want to be and am concerned about sending them dressed as a female character. I will if it is what they want though, and I think they would be cute. Out of all the Mane Six, Rainbow Dash would be the easiest for a little boy to dress up as, but that is already taken in our family. AppleJack would be a good choice too an happens to be one of my boy's favorite Pony.

http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Dr._Hooves

Then *I* want something new and shiny to wear. All this thought of costumes is so much fun I start to feel left out.

But then the cynic in me asks "What is the point?" We will not be trick-or-treating, the children cant eat anything they would get, and I only some of it, my husband less. We are not likely to be invited to any parties, so why should I bother dressing up?

Last year's costumes worked out well, the children have used them as clothing and enjoy their hats very much, it was a win. a bit of a cop-out for a costumer, but a win. I had them finished ahead of when they were needed, they were loved and USED more than once. In fact my daughter is now sporting the shortest hair of my children since she found scissors, so I expect her to be wearing hats quite a bit in the upcoming months as it gets cooler.

Then I think of those UFOs I have. I am especially thinking of the Codex I started when my daugher was a baby (it was nursing friendly no less) but I ran out of time and ended up whipping up a gnome hat and being a gnome with my daughter and husband.

You can see the Codex staff my husband made me is quite shiny! That is my default ren dress by the way, LOVE it!

So Codex has sat in a box for almost 3 years, I should finish it. (Take out the nursing access if I can.) Then I will have something to wear to the local comic and Sci-Fi conventions! Yes that's it.

It is @&$# Halloween, I SHOULD dress up, it is part of the costumer's creed is it not?

Now to get that sewing space back in order.....

A gift for a book lover

Last week I was invited to an Acquaintance's Birthday Party, of course I decided to make something for her. I don't know her that well, but what I do know is that she sews and loves books. I took a quick look through my pinterest boards for crafty gift ideas and found some inspiration.

First idea was this project that I have been wanting to do for a while.

Mini Bookshelf Quilt Tutorial by Don't' Call Me Betsy

Second the idea of a needle-book

Last was the idea that the finished gifts should LOOK like books when finished.

I ended up making TWO gifts, and my husband also contributed his skills to the gift, so it is from both of us!

The first gift is a Bag.

The second is a sewing supply case/needlebook

I wanted the bag to fold up into itself and when zipped close resemble a book. That last part is why I had to sit down and write an equation, which I already bloged about.

 Once I had all my math done, it was time to work on the book shelf design. I went through all my stash and cut off the useful selvages.

I want to warn you, if you ever intend to do a project using selvages, do not go to the fabric store with selvage on your mind. I needed a zipper, but found myself looking at fabric, JUST to see if it had a cute selvage name! I was good and didn't buy any fabric for the sole purpose of selvage.

I hand appliqued the entire design, using scraps and stash, in fact the only thing I bought for the bag, was the brown book cover and the zipper.

Appliqueing the books took the most time of the whole project, but I enjoy hand sewing and I wanted a nice finish, also those selvages are narrow...

 Some of the "Titles" are not what I would expect on the recipient's bookcase, but I didn't have many options.
The V&A one is my favorite, I decided that it HAD to be a big thick book.

Only one of the titles went back on it's fabric, and one other has an author from a different selvage

I must admit I went and looked at my bookshelves to double check the direction the titles should go. I am please to have a few that were narrow enough to go horizontally!

Once the applique was done I moved on to the "book case"
This was what the math was all about, two layers of coton with a layer of batting inbetween, since it was going to be stitched to the bag, I cut one side to turn it right side out.
Then I applied the zipper 1/4" in from the edges.
Here is what it looked like before I attached it to the bag.

 Then I made up the bag, and it would have been finished as is, except that I wanted it to go into the case.

 This what the book side looks like, before I added the title

 It folds up into the case quite nicely!

And then zips closed

Yes I admit my title is a bit lame, what can I say, I was tired at that point!

So that was the first gift, the second was also in a zippered book, slightly smaller, inside are sewing tools.

My husband turned this seam ripper, it is so nice to hold, we hope she likes it.

 I love that the there is no cap to lose, you just pull it out and flip it around, and rip away!

I purchased scissors, needles, and safety pin, as well as the supplies to make the seam ripper for this part of the project.

 The print you see there is dictionary terms for sewing words and is actually a small zipper pouch, could be used to hold thread, buttons, etc...

 There are 2 pages of wool felt for needle and pin storage.

 Last "page" is stitched into the book, covering the slit where it was turned, again wool felt, this time I embroidered "Needles" on ti it.

So that was my weekend craft project, unfortunately I was working on it until the party was to start, and transit time would have made it prohibitive to go for such a short visit, not to mention my children needing a regular dinner and bedtime.

Bed Curtains

Personal Project Alert
I have mentioned before that I am reorganizing my living spaces. one aspect was to move my bed and add curtains around it.
Last night I finally finished that project.

My husband and I wanted curtains around our bed for some privacy, as we share the room with our children.
Here is how I accomplished that.

First I did room measurements, then I took my stud locator and found where the beams in the ceiling were.

When I knew the measurements I multiplied them by 1.5 so that the curtains are not too full.

We wanted the top of the curtains to still allow the sunlight to come in, as it helps us to wake up. I figured on about 24" for that. The bottom part ended up being the same size as a Twin Sheet, so that is what is is!

Yes our bed is IN the closet!

I did have one complication. there is a shelf on one wall that sticks out 20"
I thought long and hard about how to deal with this, my solution was to add a smaller, shorter panel to hang from the underside of the shelf. the top part is cut the full width of the curtain, and with the removal of the shorter panel, could be attached nicely to the bottom half and be a fully matching curtain.

Magnus says Hi!
The sheets are not that opaque, but a little privacy is all we need.

The sheets are poly cotton, and were $8 each, but there was a buy one get one half off sale, so that was actually $12
The top fabric is a curtain fabric and was under $4 a yard, I bought 2 yards, it is 108" wide, 100% poly.
I had just the right shade of blue in my stash, and just enough of it too! the rope was from my local Sailor, eyebolts found in the shop.

$20 project! and it makes me happy, if my children can leave my curtains alone, they will get their own!

Another Dragon Bag and copyright thoughts

Here is the second Dragon bag all finished up.

But it is not going on my etsy shop.

I made a mistake, and selling this one would be infringing on copyright, so instead it is being gifted to my friend and fellow dragon lover K in Canada.
My mistake was in the choice of dragon design. Both this and the last dragon were stencils I made from books for a previous gift project. 
This dragon design is from of Dragon Wings and Faerie Things by Jillian Sawyer Amazon Link
Before I finished I double checked the copyright in the book, and then on the website.
On Jillian's website is a clear declaration of Copyright.

So the point of this story is to always check the copyright before you make something for sale!

And it also brings me to think about what type of copyright I will put on my patterns? should I allow sales from my patterns? Should the sales be limited?

Questions I will have to answer before my patterns hit the printers, and I will be sure to tell you of my decision in a blog post to come.

The Celtic knot was also a stencil I made for the same gift project that the dragon stencils were made for. I am actually surprised these stencils were in the house when so much of my sewing and craft supplies are still in the storage unit from my move months ago.

In the mean time, more pictures of the Dragon bag. I outlined this one in couched metallic embroidery floss, just to be different from the last one I did.

The face came out a bit sad looking, but still nice.

Quick project for the children.

I did some sewing this weekend, quick projects which are so nice and rare for me to do.
It all started on a trip to the fabric store with my daughter. As most 2 year olds will do, she was running ahead of me saying "I shopping for you" and picked out two remnants: yellow minky and bears in aviator caps on a pink background.
When we got them home she proudly showed them to her brothers, Brother Bear thought the bear fabric was for him, so I cut it into 2 pices and they each had a 30" square, not really big enough as a blanket.

The next time I was at the fabric store with my daughter and Brother Bear, they each picked out more remnants. Bear picked out the pink John Deer fabric and I tossed in the turtles.

Then the fabric sat, the children would use them as blankets, and I washed them several times.
Finally I had enough and got out the graph paper, measured each piece and devised a cutting layout to make their blankets.

They were sewn up in a day.
This is my daughter's with the purple back

 Brother Bear has the John Deer back.

Then I had to make one for the eldest. The next day I took him to the fabric store and he picked out some fabric. And some ribbon. We washed the fabric and I sewed up the blanket that day, I decided to use the ribbon to spell out his name and the hand sewing that on took longer, so it wasn't a 1 day project.
This was his blanket before I added his name to the center panel in ribbon
The red dog fabric is the backing, it is about 90" long, so a very long blanket!

 Click to read how I applied the letters.