About Me
- Brigide
- I am a frazzled mother of 2 (4yrs and 14 months)that stays at home and attempts to keep house while crafting.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Where did May go?
Well, hello! It seems I missed the entire month of May on my blog. It was a good month mostly. Got a fair amount of sewing done, went to some birthday parties, had a birthday of my own (29 ouch... ) and watched my flowers and vegetables grow.
The sewing I finished, including but not limited to these items:
Fabric flower for my shirt.
Linen skirt with lemons (ha! say that five times fast)
Needs a bit of an ironing, I know. I do love this skirt. I plan on making some more of these. It was Burda pattern 8090.
New diaper bag (because the old one smelled like spoiled milk...ewwww)
I also finished a pair of knit shorts for the girl, traced from a pair of boys because she liked them so much. I believe they are in the laundry at this time so no pics of those.
The sewing I attempted and abandoned were as follows (no pics):
I keep a little book of my sewing projects. I write down what I'm aiming to do and I check it off and date it when I finish it. There are quite a few things on my list that never come into being but there are more things that do actually make it. I've finished more projects than this time last year, so cheers to being ahead of the curve! I think it's important to keep track of projects, finished or un.
I have many more sewing projects in mind for the coming weeks. Hopefully there will be more finished than abandoned ones.
The sewing I finished, including but not limited to these items:
Fabric flower for my shirt.
Linen skirt with lemons (ha! say that five times fast)
Needs a bit of an ironing, I know. I do love this skirt. I plan on making some more of these. It was Burda pattern 8090.
New diaper bag (because the old one smelled like spoiled milk...ewwww)
I also finished a pair of knit shorts for the girl, traced from a pair of boys because she liked them so much. I believe they are in the laundry at this time so no pics of those.
The sewing I attempted and abandoned were as follows (no pics):
- A 50's style dress muslin in which the sleeves resisted any and all efforts to fit properly.
- A practice blouse that fitted very oddly. I got it mostly finished and then quit before I put the collar on.
- A tank top out of knits for the wee little red headed devil in my life. I could not get the rib knit binding to cooperate at all.
I keep a little book of my sewing projects. I write down what I'm aiming to do and I check it off and date it when I finish it. There are quite a few things on my list that never come into being but there are more things that do actually make it. I've finished more projects than this time last year, so cheers to being ahead of the curve! I think it's important to keep track of projects, finished or un.
I have many more sewing projects in mind for the coming weeks. Hopefully there will be more finished than abandoned ones.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Easter, a few projects, and lots of rain....
Helloooo,
It's been raining forever here. There was a small amount of sunshine today which my seedlings were happy for. I've got some green beans, squash, watermelon, jalapeno's, mint, sage, and lots of basil to plant out if it ever stops pouring down rain here....
We had fun at Easter. We went to my MIL's house and did the egg hunt thing and had dinner. The baby is just a little over 16 months and she knew almost immediately what she was supposed to do. She'd pick one up and toss it onto the pavement to try to crack it open. I think we're in for trouble when she's older....smarter by a bit than the first one O.O
I made some last minute egg baskets out of fleece and the Purl Bee tutorial. The boy wanted to keep his simple so we only did two lines of trim. They turned out okay for a 10 minute job.
The dress the little one is wearing is the one posted about previously. I love it! It is just soo cute on her. I really hope she wants to be a girly-girl.
They are sharing a ring-pop in this photo. So sweet.
I finished up a couple of baby gifts this week. I do enjoy making baby things. They are usually small and easy.
This one is for a girl, pink you see ;) The giraffe was from a pattern I've had in my stash for a bit and I found the fleece print in the remnants at Hancock. Worked out really well. The blanket is just some sort of soft furry minky or something, a remnant as well, bound in grosgrain ribbon with a little giraffe applique I whipped up. The pacifier clip is broadcloth with the same ribbon on it.
The other gift is for a baby boy and I did a bit more work for this one. The toy is from this post and the quilt is my first attempt at anything approaching traditional quilting. I kept it simple and tried to work from what I had stashed. The batik's were new purchase but everything else, even the batting was stash. I like that they are boyish colors without being the usual powder blues that people buy for boys.
I did a self binding on it which was a new thing for me too and I kind of liked it. It was simpler than using bias tape. I'm not sure it holds up as well as bias tape though. The pacifier clip was left over batik and ric-rac.
After I finished those up I cut a new dress for me. I'm making a muslin this time around to see if I can understand the finer points of tailoring to fit. I'm really digging 50's vintage looks these days. I'm doing my hair more that way and I'm realizing that the clothing shapes work for a woman with curves, which I have plenty of. The cost for pre-made dresses are prohibitive to my budget so I'll be trying to work out how to make my own with reproduction patterns and sale fabrics. I'll let you know how all that works out.
It's been raining forever here. There was a small amount of sunshine today which my seedlings were happy for. I've got some green beans, squash, watermelon, jalapeno's, mint, sage, and lots of basil to plant out if it ever stops pouring down rain here....
We had fun at Easter. We went to my MIL's house and did the egg hunt thing and had dinner. The baby is just a little over 16 months and she knew almost immediately what she was supposed to do. She'd pick one up and toss it onto the pavement to try to crack it open. I think we're in for trouble when she's older....smarter by a bit than the first one O.O
I made some last minute egg baskets out of fleece and the Purl Bee tutorial. The boy wanted to keep his simple so we only did two lines of trim. They turned out okay for a 10 minute job.
The dress the little one is wearing is the one posted about previously. I love it! It is just soo cute on her. I really hope she wants to be a girly-girl.
They are sharing a ring-pop in this photo. So sweet.
I finished up a couple of baby gifts this week. I do enjoy making baby things. They are usually small and easy.
This one is for a girl, pink you see ;) The giraffe was from a pattern I've had in my stash for a bit and I found the fleece print in the remnants at Hancock. Worked out really well. The blanket is just some sort of soft furry minky or something, a remnant as well, bound in grosgrain ribbon with a little giraffe applique I whipped up. The pacifier clip is broadcloth with the same ribbon on it.
The other gift is for a baby boy and I did a bit more work for this one. The toy is from this post and the quilt is my first attempt at anything approaching traditional quilting. I kept it simple and tried to work from what I had stashed. The batik's were new purchase but everything else, even the batting was stash. I like that they are boyish colors without being the usual powder blues that people buy for boys.
I did a self binding on it which was a new thing for me too and I kind of liked it. It was simpler than using bias tape. I'm not sure it holds up as well as bias tape though. The pacifier clip was left over batik and ric-rac.
After I finished those up I cut a new dress for me. I'm making a muslin this time around to see if I can understand the finer points of tailoring to fit. I'm really digging 50's vintage looks these days. I'm doing my hair more that way and I'm realizing that the clothing shapes work for a woman with curves, which I have plenty of. The cost for pre-made dresses are prohibitive to my budget so I'll be trying to work out how to make my own with reproduction patterns and sale fabrics. I'll let you know how all that works out.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Lost Toof!
My little boy is 4 (5 at the end of July) and he's already lost a toof! (sniff sniff)
He's growing up so fast. He keeps saying he wants to show the whole world his tooth, so I thought I'd help a little bit and put it on the interwebs for those that want to see. Sigh...starting to feel old over here...
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Spring came back!
Hello hello again! Spring decided to come back for a bit so we got to do some outside work. We had two huge yew bushes in front of the house that I have always despised so last Sunday we did something about them. We yanked them out of the ground! YES!
I was worried the whole time that something bad would happen so I didn't get any good action shots. Luckily it worked like a charm and ripped most of them right out. Now I have some roses planted in there (hard to see right now) and I'm planning on putting in some blueberry bushes on the edges and annual flowers in the front of the flower bed to brighten it up a bit :). I am so so so glad to have those ugly shrubs gone! Apparently I hated them so much I have no pictures of them at all so no before pics for you.
The seedlings I planted a while back managed to all die so I had to reseed. The new little ones are coming right along and they should be good for planting once the frosts have all gone away.
Inside the house has been busy busy as well. I finished the fancy dress for my niece and ended up with enough left over to make her a cute little draw string purse to go with it.
Since I wrapped all that up so quickly I whipped up an everyday sort of dress for her too.
It's fun sewing for little girls and I have a lot of stash fabric that fits the bill.
After doing up the little dresses I decided it was time to finally sew myself something. I settled on Burda pattern 7695 and used a really pretty white cotton with small flower sprigs on it. It's a bit see through so I'm putting a liner in it so I feel comfortable wearing it out but I LOVE IT! It is just so cute and I'm so proud of myself for making a garment well enough that I will actually wear it out of the house.
*Please ignore the fatness of the model, she eats too much chocolate.
This was the first Burda pattern I've done. I was impressed with the clarity of the instructions and with how easy it was to construct the dress. Every pattern I've done before this one has you put the zipper in near to the last and this one had it at the beginning. GENIUS! It was so much easier to install it first thing. There were no bothersome notches to cut when you cut out the pieces and everything went together beautifully. The sleeves were super easy too and I have never done a better job of setting a sleeve in my life! I will definitely be checking out more of their patterns.
Next on my list are a couple of baby gifts, one girl and one boy, that need to be done pretty soon. I'm thinking fleece blankets, pacifier clips, and a stuffed animal should do nicely. All from stash fabric too (love fleece remnants). Guess that's all the news for now. See ya!
I was worried the whole time that something bad would happen so I didn't get any good action shots. Luckily it worked like a charm and ripped most of them right out. Now I have some roses planted in there (hard to see right now) and I'm planning on putting in some blueberry bushes on the edges and annual flowers in the front of the flower bed to brighten it up a bit :). I am so so so glad to have those ugly shrubs gone! Apparently I hated them so much I have no pictures of them at all so no before pics for you.
The seedlings I planted a while back managed to all die so I had to reseed. The new little ones are coming right along and they should be good for planting once the frosts have all gone away.
Inside the house has been busy busy as well. I finished the fancy dress for my niece and ended up with enough left over to make her a cute little draw string purse to go with it.
Since I wrapped all that up so quickly I whipped up an everyday sort of dress for her too.
It's fun sewing for little girls and I have a lot of stash fabric that fits the bill.
After doing up the little dresses I decided it was time to finally sew myself something. I settled on Burda pattern 7695 and used a really pretty white cotton with small flower sprigs on it. It's a bit see through so I'm putting a liner in it so I feel comfortable wearing it out but I LOVE IT! It is just so cute and I'm so proud of myself for making a garment well enough that I will actually wear it out of the house.
*Please ignore the fatness of the model, she eats too much chocolate.
This was the first Burda pattern I've done. I was impressed with the clarity of the instructions and with how easy it was to construct the dress. Every pattern I've done before this one has you put the zipper in near to the last and this one had it at the beginning. GENIUS! It was so much easier to install it first thing. There were no bothersome notches to cut when you cut out the pieces and everything went together beautifully. The sleeves were super easy too and I have never done a better job of setting a sleeve in my life! I will definitely be checking out more of their patterns.
Next on my list are a couple of baby gifts, one girl and one boy, that need to be done pretty soon. I'm thinking fleece blankets, pacifier clips, and a stuffed animal should do nicely. All from stash fabric too (love fleece remnants). Guess that's all the news for now. See ya!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Spring is not here...
We were tricked a couple of weeks ago into thinking that spring had come and that it would be warm for a while. Lies, utter lies. Here is a pic from this past Saturday night....this all came after a week of 60-80 degree afternoons....sigh
It was a good opportunity to build a snowman with Lego parts for eyes and nose tho.
Here at long last are some pictures of the Spiderman costume. I finished it a bit ago but the boy child phased Spiderman out of his life and I was waiting for it to come back around. I didn't actually have a pattern for this one and it's quite a bit too big. On the whole I think I did a moderately awful job on it. The lines are hand drawn and they bled in the wash :( Oh well, live and learn I suppose.
This is another recently finished project, an Easter dress for the girl child. This one I'm a lot happier with. I think it's my best wearable garment yet. Not risking putting it on her till the day we need to, she is exceptionally skilled at ruining clothes swiftly.
My next project is 3/4 cut out and 1/3 sewn already. It's a princess dress for a certain blonde niece of mine. Birthday isn't until May-ish but I know if I don't get it going now, it won't be finished. I think I've been promising her one of these for 3 birthdays now, gotta deliver this time. I guess that's one thing cold weather is good for, keeps me home and at my sewing machine instead of prepping the back yard for green beans and watermelons.
It was a good opportunity to build a snowman with Lego parts for eyes and nose tho.
Here at long last are some pictures of the Spiderman costume. I finished it a bit ago but the boy child phased Spiderman out of his life and I was waiting for it to come back around. I didn't actually have a pattern for this one and it's quite a bit too big. On the whole I think I did a moderately awful job on it. The lines are hand drawn and they bled in the wash :( Oh well, live and learn I suppose.
This is another recently finished project, an Easter dress for the girl child. This one I'm a lot happier with. I think it's my best wearable garment yet. Not risking putting it on her till the day we need to, she is exceptionally skilled at ruining clothes swiftly.
My next project is 3/4 cut out and 1/3 sewn already. It's a princess dress for a certain blonde niece of mine. Birthday isn't until May-ish but I know if I don't get it going now, it won't be finished. I think I've been promising her one of these for 3 birthdays now, gotta deliver this time. I guess that's one thing cold weather is good for, keeps me home and at my sewing machine instead of prepping the back yard for green beans and watermelons.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Bored.......so bored
Utterly, completely bored. Blah..
Spring is on it's way and little signs are popping up but it is coming so slowly...sigh. I have basil seedlings that are stretching and desperately in need of transplanting but I don't have room for all of the ones that came up. I hate to kill perfectly good seedlings so I haven't transplanted any yet. I'm going to have to set up my card table in the kitchen to keep the baby away from them.
Been working on the Spiderman costume and have a fair bit done. Just have to stitch the pieces together for the most part. It looks a bit wonky but that's what you get when you have no pattern or sweatshop labor to sew it like store bought costumes...I'll post a pic when it's all done.
I've been watching the heck out of Netflix since it's rainy and horrible outside. I've watched almost all 4 seasons of Doc Martin. It's a British comedy and it kicks serious ass. Still bored tho.... (yawn) Sleep now...too bored for anything else..
Spring is on it's way and little signs are popping up but it is coming so slowly...sigh. I have basil seedlings that are stretching and desperately in need of transplanting but I don't have room for all of the ones that came up. I hate to kill perfectly good seedlings so I haven't transplanted any yet. I'm going to have to set up my card table in the kitchen to keep the baby away from them.
Been working on the Spiderman costume and have a fair bit done. Just have to stitch the pieces together for the most part. It looks a bit wonky but that's what you get when you have no pattern or sweatshop labor to sew it like store bought costumes...I'll post a pic when it's all done.
I've been watching the heck out of Netflix since it's rainy and horrible outside. I've watched almost all 4 seasons of Doc Martin. It's a British comedy and it kicks serious ass. Still bored tho.... (yawn) Sleep now...too bored for anything else..
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Cake and Presents
The present my husband ordered me for our anniversary was this awesome cookbook. I absolutely LOVE it! I watch the show on PBS whenever I can and I'm thrilled to have the recipes written out in front of me so I can really use them.
I wanted to try out a recipe from it so today I made the Chocolate Bundt Cake. The recipe was well written and really insightful. Very clear instructions on mixing and technique too. I haven't gotten to slice into it yet but it baked up beautifully and if the finished product is half as good as what I licked off my fingers I think I'll be in heaven...le sigh. I'll let you know how it turned out soon. *
In other news, I'm following the Celebrate the Boy month on MADE. Interesting so far, I might try the pants if I slog through some of my other projects. One of those being painting spiderweb lines on fabric and trying to make stuffed muscles...Oy...
I have a redesign for my bedroom sewing space jangling around in my head. It desperately needs some attention and I'm hoping me and hubby can get to it this spring/summer. The kid's room has some work scheduled too so we'll have to see what gets done.
I'm pledging some skirts for myself and to try really hard to destash everything I can. I am easily seduced by fabric. Normally I'm the epitome of restraint and refinement but once I walk into a fabric store I'm like a sailor on shore leave... Well, we all have our little faults.
I'm off to a military ball of sorts this evening. I'm going for a pinup girl vibe. Here's a sneak peek for ya....
See ya!
*It was incredibly awesome......my thighs are not thankful for this cookbook.
I wanted to try out a recipe from it so today I made the Chocolate Bundt Cake. The recipe was well written and really insightful. Very clear instructions on mixing and technique too. I haven't gotten to slice into it yet but it baked up beautifully and if the finished product is half as good as what I licked off my fingers I think I'll be in heaven...le sigh. I'll let you know how it turned out soon. *
In other news, I'm following the Celebrate the Boy month on MADE. Interesting so far, I might try the pants if I slog through some of my other projects. One of those being painting spiderweb lines on fabric and trying to make stuffed muscles...Oy...
I have a redesign for my bedroom sewing space jangling around in my head. It desperately needs some attention and I'm hoping me and hubby can get to it this spring/summer. The kid's room has some work scheduled too so we'll have to see what gets done.
I'm pledging some skirts for myself and to try really hard to destash everything I can. I am easily seduced by fabric. Normally I'm the epitome of restraint and refinement but once I walk into a fabric store I'm like a sailor on shore leave... Well, we all have our little faults.
I'm off to a military ball of sorts this evening. I'm going for a pinup girl vibe. Here's a sneak peek for ya....
See ya!
*It was incredibly awesome......my thighs are not thankful for this cookbook.
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