Lessons in Sewing

1. If you are going to sew on your lap, you should probably make sure you don't stab yourself in the leg (which, might I add, is still a better situation then cutting out a chunk of finger while baking). I'm not saying this happened to me or anything, it just seems like something to be aware of....
2. If you make an oops, you just need to pick the solution that will make the oops less obvious in the end
3. If you oops again as you are trying to fix the first oops, and all hopes of playing it off like you meant to do that have flown out the window, just make sure when you give it to someone (if you are in fact going to give it to someone) you stress how much time, love and devotion went into the making of said sad object
4. If nothing else, the most important lesson sewing has taught me that mistakes happen and life will move on. Not everything can be perfect (or anything if I am sewing....especially by hand) and sometimes you just have to tell yourself that imperfection is what makes things special. If it's true for people it can certainly be true for things, crafts included. As my dad always says, it makes it unique, and really aren't we all about unique? That said, I should still probably consider giving up hand sewing and stick to machine sewing if I feel like I really want to continue to torture myself.....

Card Holder Wallets

Well, I am working my way through my list of gifts for this holiday season and am getting close to done. I just finished making little card holders for my two younger cousins that are the same two fabrics but reversed. First of all, the pattern is from the book Bend-the-Rules Sewing which I know I have mentioned before. I thought they were really cute and I had the perfect leftover fabric so figured I would go ahead and try it and let me just say, they could have come out better. They look pretty good overall, but the main problem is that cards do not fit in the pouch, thereby defeating it's purpose as a card holder! They each have two pockets that are the same fabric as the outside and on each one, the bottom pocket can squeeze a card in, but the top one really doesn't work. I am figuring that it will still fit cash or tickets from the carnival/arcade and things like that so I am not too worried about it. The other thing is that the snaps are a bit strong so everytime you open it, it seems that the fabric might rip if you aren't careful. There is really not much I can do about either of these issues so we will just have to see how it goes. Worse case scenario: they don't use them and at least I got some good experience. I really like how the pattern came together and despite their problems they are really cute. This is why I shouldn't make things that need to be a specific size. I swear I measured right and everything! But at the end you go around the outside to close up the edge and that was what made the pockets just that little bit too small. I even tried to fix it for the second one, but apparently it did not work and they are exactly the same size. Oh well. So here they are!

Cat Pillow

Yes, I know, more pillow business, I have a pillow problem, but I finally decided last week to make a pillow for our kitty to try and make him more comfortable and give him a space of his own. Of course he is absolutely not interested and would rather attack the pillow then sleep on it, but that's okay. I made it to fit in his new carrier to make it a little more homey for him and so maybe he would hate it less, but I doubt it will work. Anyway, I actually cut up a pillow case that we had (a sock monky pattern that seemed like a good idea at the time but is actually really creepy to sleep on so it was perfect to cut up for the cat) and remade it into a pillow with an envelope back so that I could also make a pillow form and stuff it and put it inside so the cover is removable and thus washable. I made the pillow form out of a plain cotton flannel and stuffed it with leftover eco-friendly stuffing from the ugly bear. Then I cut up the pillow case so that I could use the ends as the place in the back where the case overlaps and I wouldn't have to hem or anything because they would already be so nicely finished which worked out beautifully :) I opted for the envelope closure so that I wouldn't have to deal with zippers or ties (which he would just attack) and I am incredibly happy with the choice. In fact I think I may make all my future pillows close that way! I guess we'll see once I have space for more pillows haha.

wedding goodies part II

Well here we are, another month down as the wedding slowly creeps up. The wedding project for this month is going to be the cute "will you be my bridesmaid/maid of honor?" cards that I made for my girls. I used the red yellow and orange theme and when I went into it I really had no idea what the cards would come out looking like but I was really happy with how they turned out. I don't often have a good excuse to do paper crafts like scrapbooking every since I caught up so I love having little projects like this that I can spend an afternoon doing and really take my time figuring out layouts and details. It is nice to have a project that is not overwhelming (unlike doing an entire scrapbook with tons of pictures). I used ribbon and rub-on flowers (I love rub-on stickers by the way) and a pretty dress stamp. Actually the only thing I don't really like about them is my handwriting but oh well (and the fact that nothing I do ends up straight haha). So here they are:

And I swear I will post about all these projects I keep babbling on about soon!

Pot Holders

Yesterday and this morning I have been a very busy bee. I still have to take care of some details and snap some pictures and of course some things must wait until after the holidays to be posted, but I still have some good things to post. Today is a follow up to the cloth napkins because yesterday I finally finished my pot holders! They are super cute and really make it a nice set. I already had the fabric sewn together and everything as you may have seen in the other post, I was just waiting on some cotton and insul-bright batting so that, ya know, you don't burn your hand trying to pick up something hot! And now I have it and they are done :) The only weird thing about them is the insul-bright batting actually. It makes a sort of strange crinkly noise when you move it but since it keeps hands safe, it's all good. So that is all I have for today, if I can get my camera to cooperate, I will have the rest by next week and if not, I'm sorry that my camera is crap and won't hold a charge for more than 10 minutes.

totally unrelated

This is absolutely not craft related, but I just saw this handbag givaway here. There is really nothing to lose and it looks like it will be a pretty sweet website :) Anyway, I'll be back later this week with a lot of crafty things that I am ready to go on!