Quilting and Refashioning

I'm not going to type a whole lot because its getting late and tomorrow is my first day at my new job.  This have been getting quite slow at MTS, so I picked up a second job at Bison, where Big D is working!  Tomorrow is my first day and I want to be bright and fresh.  That being said, I made some new items for my wardrobe.  I took a rather plain black skirt, shortened it and added a ruffle over the kick pleat.  I also used some left over red wool melton from one of my costumes to make a new scarf.  Not all of my sewing has been clothing related.  I finally finished the nine patch quilt and it has been gifted to my friends who treated Big D and I to a lovely dinner on Saturday night!!

I'll leave you with pictures to enjoy, but not before sharing the inspiration for the scarf here and here, and the skirt ruffles here.  Yes, of course, all of these inspirations were pulled from Pinterest.  Would you not have figured that out by now?

Before.  You can see the pins where I had to close up the front slit.

Re-sized and shortened.

A close up of the ruffle over the kick pleat.

The red felt rose scarf.  I am in love with how it turned out!!

The finished product!

I used packaged binding because I hate making it myself!

The back of the quilt. I love how it turned out!!

Nine Patch Progress...

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are down to the quilt sandwich!

That's right folks, I finished the nine patch quilt top for my friends daughter tonight and have it all sandwiched up for quilting!!  I'm very excited with how this is turning out, especially since it all started from Pinterest. (Yes, I have a problem! I'm fully aware of it and loving every minute of this addiction!)

And now, for the best part!  Pictures of the quilt top and the backing material I picked up on my visit to Fabricland a little while ago.

The quilt top finished, 41" square. I added the center purple block for a little something extra!

Quilt top pinned with the backing fabric.  I thought it was perfect, not only to match the top but for a sweet little girl!

Spring Wardrobe Refashion: Part 1

The reduction in hours at work has resulted in an increase in crafting and sewing at our place.  I managed to almost get two shirt refashions done and a quilt top while I was off for three days.  The second shirt refashion is nearly complete; requiring some binding around the arm holes and it’s done.  For now, I will show you just the simple tank top refashion with a step by step on how I accomplished it.

One of Big D’s soon to be sister-in-law’s has become a pretty good friend of mine.  (Both of his brothers are engaged at the moment). We spent a day at the fabric store a couple weeks ago getting fabric so I can make her and her mom some dresses.  After we got back to her place, we ended up going through some of her old clothes she wasn’t going to wear anymore.  I ended up with two bags of things to alter and refashion for my spring wardrobe.  This is the first of many from that group of clothes she gave me.  Have I mentioned that I L.O.V.E hand-me-downs?

So here’s the initial tank top with a cute little over shirt in matching fabric.  While I love the idea of layers, as you can see, this one is quite dated.  I decided this was the best option to try the flower technique that is ALL over Pinterest.  I did cut a small piece of fabric off the over shirt to make sure the fabric wouldn’t fray.  I only used one half of the front of the shirt, so I have lots of purple fabric for another DIY clothing project.

I cut random flower shapes and sizes, as tracing on this fabric was more time consuming than it was worth.  I also found that it wasn’t really necessary once you started assembling the flowers on the top.

 

I folded the flower twice and put a couple loops through the middle point by hand to pull the center of the flower a bit.  I then picked a random spot on the top and started sewing.  I repeated this step for all the flowers until I felt like I had enough detail.  I kept trying it on periodically to make sure everything was where I wanted it to be.

 

This is a simple hand sewing project that any beginner could do.  It sure was one of my more simple refashions, but really added a little something extra to the top.

 

I will be unveiling the finished product of the second top in the upcoming week, once I finish the arm holes.  For now, here’s a sneak peek of some of the lace detail on the shirt!!

 

 FUR BABY UPDATE:  Meeko and Monte pretty much get along, and have been known to sleep about a foot from the other on the bed when we aren't looking.  We think they will be buddies soon.  Kokanee still thinks he is the scariest thing ever and avoids him at all costs.  On the other hand, she was attempting to get him to play or something as she was half stalking him and jumping around.  The main part is everyone is sharing food/water dishes and the liter box, the rest will come with time!

Working on my PhD

I have been SUPER busy in the last couple of days getting some quilt tops done.  I saw a picture on my Mom's Facebook page that really made me think, I had better get some sewing done before I start any more quilts.

With that being said, I cracked down and not only finished the Jump Rope quilt, but I have made a ton of progress on the Gryffindor quilt I've been designing.

I found this pin on Pinterest which gave me the inspiration to pick up the Gryffindor quilt again.  For those of you new to my blog, I drafted this pattern from a knitting project I did.  I turned each stitch into a 1" square of fabric.  The end result was 600+ tiny squares I need to assemble for the centre crest on the quilt.  I was doing them one at a time, block by block and I was really dreading my decision to make this quilt.  Not only was I pleased with the ease of assembling the centre crest now, but it makes the piecing more even.  Check out this section I re-did after seeing the results from the iron on interfacing.

I'm a little ashamed of my piecing, but I think you can see how much better the result is.  If you are ever considering doing a quilt with this many small pieces, I 100% recommend this method for constructing it!

On that note, I've been up far too late sewing and I need to get some sleep.  I have to be up early to hem my day dress if I want to wear it to work for Halloween tomorrow.  Some people go in store bought or scary costumes, history nerds go in period costume. :D

Fun with Pinterest

I've been doing a whole bunch of pinning on Pinterest as of late.  I decided it was time to try a few of the ideas on there.  The first adventure was attempting to make skinny jeans from regular wide leg or boot cut pants. (I recently bought my first pair of skinny jeans and have gotten over the fear of thunder thighs when I wear them.  Now all I want is skinny jeans!!)

I found a tutorial on this blog about a lady that thrifts and DIY's almost all her clothes.  The jeans I bought were black so I thought I would take a chance and try to make a blue pair.  I have 2-3 pairs of wide leg blue jeans.  Unfortunately I don't have a before picture, but I'm quite pleased with the after.  I had one of my co workers take the picture of my finished results.  One leg does seem to be a little tighter than the other, but I'm pleased with the overall result of my first Pinterest clothing DIY.

I love my iPhone and I love listening to music on it.  It's so convenient and just plain awesome.  The one thing I hate is searching through my purse for my headphones and spending most of my bus ride trying to untangle those things.  They must have a mind of their own because no matter how I put them into my purse or pocket, they always come out looking like this.

Thankfully, I ran across this nifty little pin that claims to stop the tangle and makes your headphones unique and customized.  No more fighting with Big D over whose headphones are whose!  I did a portion of mine so far.  I'm not sure how I'm going to get around the volume button or the little clippy thingie, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. 

I also FINALLY finished my Eye of Partridge shawl, or as Big D knows it, the truck repair shawl.  I started it over 3 years ago when he bought his truck.  It was used and had a blown transmission but the price was more than right.  Every time we would go to his Uncle's place to work on the truck, I would bring this knitting project along with me to keep myself occupied.  The truck was repaired but the shawl was not done.  It went missing a few times in my bins of crafts, and the pattern took a vacation as well, but I finally finished it.  The funny thing is, Big D sold the truck about a month ago!  I'll upload a picture of it later.

For now, I'll get back to work watching the snow whiz by the window.  Yes, you read correctly, it is snowing here.  It's not staying, thank goodness, but it's making things cold, wet and slushy.  None of which I like in early October.  On the other hand, it is the perfect crafting weather!!