Post-Wedding DIY

All of the powerhouse women in my family make quilts.

My MeeMaw made quilts from double knit fabric she found at thrift stores. My mom makes these now, and they aren't the prettiest things to look at, but they are warm and they last forever. My Grandma hand quilts absolute masterpieces that are more for display purposes...you would never take one of her quilts outside and h

ave a picnic on it.

I'm aiming for a combination of the two. And I have been chomping at the bit to get one started, and now that the wedding is done with and those DIY projects are over, I can figure out how to make a quilt.

I'm starting with a baby-sized quilt, because I don't want to invest the money and time into a full sized quilt when this is a learning experiment for me. I was sold when I saw the Road Trip Quilt, and I bought fabric for my very first quilt adventure today! The fabric is the Nicey Jane line from Z&S Fabrics. Originally I was going to with some 1930's repro fabric I found in my hometown quilt shop, but it was $9/yard and I wasn't 100% crazy about it. THEN Z&S announced a 20% site wide sale, and the line I had wanted from the get go was suddenly affordable.

This is what I bought:

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I think the colors go together nicely but aren't super matchy-matchy. Hopefully they'll come in ASAP and I can get started!

What was the first big post-wedding DIY project that you took on, or are you DIY-exhausted and don't want to hear about this nonsense?

For the Ladies

Last night, I wrapped the bridesmaid's presents.

Bridesmaids: Please vacate the premises.














I probably shouldn't've wrapped them so early, but I really don't want to be scrambling right before the rehearsal. If I don't do something when I think of it, it probably won't happen.

So I told you all that I made them tote bags, which I finished a long time ago. I ended up having enough scraps of fabric left over from that project to make my bridesmaid's matching jewelry rolls as well.

Sorry about the sideways....



The ribbon unties and you can thread rings through it, and there are 2 good sized zipper compartments to store jewelry in. You roll it up and tie it with the 2 long ribbons (I put little tags on them so people would know what they are).

And here is a tote bag with a jewelry roll:


This set is for Ryan's sister Erin, I love the pop of pink.

I also got a lightweight pashmina for everyone - red for the MOH's, since they're wearing aqua dresses, vice versa for the other B-maids.



So there it is, a bridesmaid present in its full form. They are all wrapped and sitting in a corner. I just need to write cards to the ladies and tie some ribbon and we're all done! Love having this crossed off my list...

I'm really glad I made their presents...I was able to get them more than if I had just bought them presents, and each bridesmaid has a tote bag/jewelry roll with fabric picked out just for them. Plus it was fun.

What are you doing for your bridesmaid's presents?

Must Make This

Must make this ASAP...as in, the very second I'm done sewing for the wedding and figure out what colors to use....

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I think this would be a great first-time-quilt-project since it isn't so big.

I love everything about it, though the instructions on cutting up the white are slightly confusing.

Have any projects caught your eye lately?

Clothes and the Sewing of Them

So I attempted to sew a ruffled wrap dress from a vintage pattern I picked up at a local thrift store. I invested pennies in the project, making the dress from super cheap lining and a vintage flowered bed sheet.

It is of my personal experience due to this project that choosing a pattern with 16 pieces as your first attempt at sewing is a poor, poor idea. And one of the those pieces was missing...my plan for that was to cross that bridge when I came to it.

I learned quite a bit from that major mishap that ended with me shouting at the dress "I HATE YOU" repeatedly. #1, never try to cut out pattern pieces on the floor because they won't be just right and #2, let's just keep it simple for now. 16 pattern pieces does NOT fit the definition of keeping it simple.

Armed with this new knowledge, I located a seemingly simple (foreshadowing, anyone?) pattern on Burda Style. It was a free download, and I had no problems printing the pattern out, taping it together and cutting it out. I intentionally chose a pattern with very few pieces (6, to be exact) and no complicated fitting requirements like darts or anything. I knew the zipper was going to be a problem (I quake in fear before zippers) but my grandma generously offered to help me when I got to that point.

Here's the dress in question:

Maryy Dress

I bought some cheap teal cotton fabric (on sale for $1.99/yard, woohoo!) and did everything I was supposed to do...washed, dried and ironed the fabric before cutting out, etc. I cut out the pieces on my cutting "table" (a cardboard measuring thing my mom scored at Goodwill set on top of my bed, it works very nicely) and last night I sat down to puzzle it out.

It all began well. The first step was to add the gathers in the middle of the bodice, which I had never done before, so I whipped out my handy dandy sewing machine manual and investigated how to add gathers. I practiced on a piece of scrap fabric first and the gathering was very successful. Encouraged, I proceeded to gather the actual pattern pieces with an impressive degree of success. Then I sewed the wrong things together, picked out the seam, figured out what actually needed to be sewn, obsessed that it was obvious I picked out a seam, got Alli's opinion (she told me I was being anal retentive), sewed the right thing together and then moved on to the next step.

Which makes no fing sense whatsoever. So I went to Burda's website where there was 1 commenter saying the instructions made zero sense and another 100 commenters who keep harping on how "easy" this dress was to put together. Which made me feel like a.) the instructions are vague, its not just me and b.) EVERYONE ELSE FIGURED IT OUT I MUST BE STUPID.

Also, a sewing blogger recently did a review on the pattern magazines she sews from and lo and behold, she mentions how obnoxious Burda's directions are.

I'm sure if I were an experienced seamstress, I could figure this out. But I am so far from that. I am a complete beginner, and instructions that assume I know all about garment construction are not helpful.

So, I'm taking over the instructions in question to my mom. My mom sewed us so many Halloween costumes, and she improvised and owl costume when I was the Owl in Winnie the Pooh. She makes T-shirt quilts and blankets too, she knows her stuff. If she can't help, then I'm taking this all the way to the top...my grandma. She is an award winning quilter and she sewed countless garments for her 7 kids and for her many grandkids. When I was little, she always sewed her granddaughters Easter dresses.

I WILL figure this out.

Even I have to start making educated guesses and sewing what looks like it needs to be sewn together, together. Ripping out seams doesn't scare me.

This must be part of the learning process....that, or I just keep making terrible first project decisions.

Anyone else out there trying to teach themselves a new skill and hitting some roadblocks?

*Urgent Update: After posting on the blog I mentioned above about how Burda's instructions are driving me to tears, she wrote back and said that their online instructions are way, way better to the print-out ones. And after glancing at them, I now know where to put the pieces in questions, a million thank you's Fehr Trade! I just love the blogging world.

Tutus

I just watched the most amazing video on the costume shop of the NYC Ballet, check it out here.

Project-less

The bouquets are done (except for mine, but once I get the feathers in, that's a 10 minute deal), the handkerchiefs are done, the corsages are done, the bags for the bridesmaids are done....all I really have left to do on the DIY front is the table overlays for the reception and adding ribbon to the cardbox (and um, post that stuff that I haven't yet...my camera broke so now I have to harass Alli, so taking pictures is a slower process). Neither challenging or time intensive, as they mainly employ copious amounts of glue.

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This should be great news! I have a pattern for a dress I want to make for my sister Alli, and I have a stack of things I want to make apparel-wise for myself, such as this obi-style skirt. But sewing clothes scares the crap out of me, as I fear messing up...even though I know with sewing that messing up in inevitable. It will happen, it's simply a matter of when and how badly. That's why I love doing a mock-up first out of fabric that doesn't cost lots. So I need to give myself a serious pep talk and get to it.

Honestly, making all of the things that I've made for this wedding has been so much more satisfying then I thought possible. Seeing something outrageously expensive or beautiful that I love and then recreating it myself, sans directions in many cases, feels so good! Knowing that so many personal touches are headed in the direction of people I care very much about makes me happy. And I am really proud of myself for doing all that I've done DIY wise, because it turns out that I really enjoy it and the stuff I've done has turned out better than I could have hoped. Who knew, right?

But I'm a bit sad that I'm out of projects at the moment. I think I need to put my big-girl pants on and stop being a pansy about the scary sewing patterns.

Are you done with your projects, or are you just beginning? Were you slightly sad that they were over?

Dads and Grandpa

My dad has carried a handkerchief as long as I can remember. If we skinned our knees or had a runny nose when we were little, the handkerchief was there. When I got a little older I'd embroider dad a set for Christmas or his birthday, so I knew I wanted to do something special for the wedding. Ryan's dad occasionally carries a handkerchief and Ryan mentioned that his grandpa would like one as well.

I bought a set of 3 Charter Club handkerchiefs at Macy's for $10, and I bought red and aqua embroidery thread at Hobby Lobby for $2. I could've gotten away with way less thread, too, since embroidery thread has 6 strands in it and I separated it to use 2. So one piece of thread could go 3 times as long (the stitches were thick and sloppy looking with all 6 strands, 2 definitely looked the best).

I typed up the words I wanted in the font we used for our invites. It's called Tagettes and I downloaded it for free from DaFont.com. After washing, drying and ironing the handkerchiefs, I traced over the typed up words in with a pencil so I'd have something to go from.

After that I just used a simple outline stitch, and that was it, really. I got all 3 done in 3 days, it took about 1-1.5 per handkerchief. (Here's a good tutorial on stitches, the one I used for these was an outline stitch).

Anyway, here's the one I made for Ryan's grandpa:


And I made 2 of this one, one for Ryan's dad and one for my dad.



I am thrilled with how they turned out. They are not perfect, but I love that they don't look machine stitched, they look handmaid. I hope the dads and grandpa like them as much as I do!

Also I really miss having these to work on already...anyone need any embroidery done? I can really only do the cross stitch and outline stitch!

Does your dad carry a handkerchief?

Oooo la la!

I sewed my garter...months ago and I'm just now getting around to blogging it. Oops!

Future Hubs: Please vacate the premises immediately.





















So Ryan and a bunch of his runner friends are on this running team they call "Omega Falcon" and their colors are royal blue and orange. Since almost all of the Omega Falcon runners will be in attendance at the wedding, I had to the garter in those colors, right? Right. But I have love in my heart for dotted swiss, and the challenge was to mix that girly fabric with the sporty colors. I found some dotted swiss tulle at Hobby Lobby for the low low price of $4 a yard and picked up 1/4 of a yard for almost nothing. The ribbon I also got at Hob Lob when it was half off for like $1.

Ta da! Please ignore how pasty my legs are.


Making this was super unscientific and very much a trial-and-error process. I basically cut material in rectangles and sewed it to a piece of elastic until I got what I wanted. The piece of tulle is much longer that the elastic, and when I sewed the 2 pieces together I stretched the elastic out with 1 hand while sewing, so when I was done sewing the elastic contracted and gave the tulle that nice gather.

It's nothing fancy by any means, but it'll do. I keep seeing other garters on the blogosphere that I want to attempt (like this one), but I think I just need to let this project be. My friend Melissa did mention that she might have me sew her garter, which opens that realm of exploration back up!

Did you ever finish a project and were then tempted to do it all over thanks to too-much-inspiration?

Patting myself on the back...

Because I successfully completed some bridesmaid's bags...and I have never seen more beautiful tote bags in all of my life. I am making some for myself after I get all of the ones for the girls out of the way! I am tempted to take a page out of the Selfish Seamstress's book....

I'm going to be obnoxious and show off...here's a completed bridesmaid's bag:


I really like how structured the bag is, it looks really nice and tailored in real life. Once I got the hang of it, the other bags have been going so, so fast. I have 3 100% done and 2 more that just need the handles sewn on and the sides structured. I thought this project would take me forever but that hasn't been the case at all.

I do want to give the bridesmaid's something in addition to these bags, but I'm kind of stuck. The only thing I can think of is a vintage rhinestone pin. I want to give them something they'll really use and love. What are you all giving your bridesmaid's, any ideas for me?

Need this

Just saw this new fabric collection today....you know how I've been wanting to make a quilt? How pretty would these fabrics be together....

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Someday! Not that these match anything I own or registered for...but still. How cool would these all look together? And the tree one, so gorgeous. Unfortunately they are all $9.50/yard, which is super expensive when you put together how much yardage you would need.

Any projects you are looking forward to post-wedding?

Twinkle Sews

I saw this book in Barnes and Noble last week and I want it so bad:

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Look at that neckline, it's gorgeous. Usually there's maybe 1 thing I want to make out of every 50 or so patterns I see...but want to make 95% of the things in this book. Unfortunately the reviews on this are not good at all. The patterns used are on a CD, and almost everyone who reviewed the book said that they are a nightmare to print out and put together. Also, it does not look like this book is meant for a beginner, which I very obviously am.

Sigh. Maybe someday! Right now I need to focus on sewing things I can successfully complete without too much frustration, and I don't think this book fits that bill.

Quilting

Tomorrow is the last day to enter the Threads Remembered giveaway! Find out all about it here. I'm glad I'm using a random number generator to choose a winner, if I had to choose on my own I would be a basket case, there are so many good ideas in the comment section!


Quilting and blanket making is a big thing in my family.

My MeeMaw used to make blankets out of old double knit fabric. She was ahead of her time with the upcycling! The blankets were not the prettiest things to look at but they are so warm; I have one she made me on my bed. When Ryan and I had just started dating, there was a vicious ice storm and almost everyone in my hometown lost power. He was in his last semester of grad school at the time, so he lived in Cape and had an apartment. My sister Alli and I, my grandma and Ryan all stayed at my parent's house for 3 days because my parents luckily had power and none of use did! That's when my mom found out that the only blanket Ryan really owned was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fleece throw. So in the 3 days we were iced in, mom and grandma made him a double-knit blanket with flannel on the back. So warm! (Also during that ice storm, I really started falling for him. He got along so well with my family and he was just...amazing. He dug my car out of 3 inches of ice after dropping me off at my job at 5:30 a.m. Hello, keeper anyone?)

My mom now makes double knit blankets just like her mom did, and her best friend Suzanna always comes over to help us tie them. Tying a quilt is when you connect and secure all 3 layers of the quilt-the top, which is the part with the design, the batting, and the backing. We use my MeeMaw's old quilt frame to do. Then Suzanna takes the quilt home and does the binding by hand.

My grandma has won prizes for her quilts. She has been quilting with a ladies group at her church for years and they donate the money they make to the church. I remember sitting in mass with my grade school and opening a new hymnal to see a note that said it was donated by the quilting ladies and being so proud. Her quilts are more works of art than blankets, in that you can't throw them in the washer when they get dirty like you can the double-knit blankets.

I would love to be able to make a quilt for Ryan and I, but I like the more non-traditional quilt styles. I checked out Flickr, and I'd love to do something along these lines:

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I wish I could do the hand-quilting, but it is so time consuming that I have a really hard time even fathoming it. Paying to have a group hand quilt is very pricey for obvious reasons, so whatever quilt I end up doing will be machine quilted. I think that simple straight lines fit what I have in my head the best.

Sidenote: My mom says I fixate really badly on stuff I want, and I think she's right. Like with wedding dress shopping, I knew exactly what I wanted and that's what I ended up with. I get a very specific image of what I want and the problems come when I deviate from this!

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I like this too, it would be perfect if the lines were vertical. I know that fabric isn't as long as I would need it to be, so some of the strips would have to be made up of 2 different fabrics.

I might attempt a baby-sized quilt for practice first. My mom's going to help me, I'll probably need all the help I can get!

Any projects you're looking forward to starting as soon as you take a big chunk out of that wedding to-do list?