A Crafty Christmas!

Merry Christmas all! I hope yours was wonderful, I know mine was. Lots of food, gifts, and family... what isn't to love about that? I also have some finished projects to show you! None of them are sewing projects, but side things I wanted to finish.

Yesterday, my dad helped me upholster the set of dining room chairs I found at a Goodwill downstate.

Here's the before:


And here's the after!
And here's me enjoying the two inches of new foam padding and pretty upholstery fabric!

I think they turned out beautifully! They will have a whole new life! We only had enough fabric to complete two of the chairs. Since I bought it downstate where I go to school and am now home for break where we don't have a fabric store that I can simply run to to pick up a couple more yards, the other two will have to wait just a smidge longer. But they are stripped of the old fabric and the foam is cut, so they will be a breeze once I get more fabric.

Ok, moving on to the next project on the list: Kris' warm woolies! I finished these Christmas eve as well.

Here I am hard at work!


and the completed warm woolies!


Here's Kris modeling them:


Aww, doesn't he look handsome and cozy? And the hat was a homemade Christmas present from his Grandma! He just has handmade love from head to toe :)

The woolies were really easy to do on the Knifty Knitter loom, but my joints in my hands get really sore from the tedious loom work, so I had to do them in increments. They turned out nicely, one a little longer than the other, but when they are stretched onto his feet you would never know. Now his toes will be nice and toasty for the long, cold (last!) winter semester at Michigan Tech in Houghton, MI!

So those were my two Christmas eve projects, and they were both successes, I think! Now moving onto some sewing for the new year. Santa was a dear and was somehow able to fit my dressform down the chimney ;) I love it! I don't have it together yet, as today was a whirlwind of a day, but I at least took the bodice out of the box, and I love it!

(I don't get dolled up to open gifts Christmas morning, I just roll out of bed, so don't mind my not-so-fresh morning look haha)


And a quick shot of our beautiful tree!


Next on the list are some small curtains and tie backs, and then little wool herringbone dress, here I come!

Tiki Piki

This is just as a little side post that has nothing what-so-ever do with sewing... I just wanted to share an awesome photo of my loved one and I decked out in our tropical attire for a tiki party!


Kris's shirt is great, no?

Long time, no blog!

Hi all! Sorry I have been away so long. The past few weeks have been filled to the rafters with academic ickiness. But Fall finals are over and I am officially on Christmas break!! I haven't had any time to even think about sewing... until now! I have a few things lined up for the upcoming weeks:

-I just cut out the pieces to make a little red herringbone wool dress, it will be my first! Hopefully tomorrow afternoon I can get started constructing it.

-I am finishing some warm-woolies for Kris for Christmas (even though I have been slowing making them since Halloween hehe).

-Some small curtains are in order for a friend, so those should be a breeze.

-I would like to make some warm lambswool-lined mittens, but we will see how much time I have! I know the end of break is going to come too soon, as always.

-I am also planning on finishing these chairs from my December first post. My wonderful father pulled out all of the old staples and fabric so they would be ready to go when I got home. Thoughtful, right?

I also pre-ordered 2 lovely colette patterns that I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of in the mail:

The Sencha Blouse

And the Rooibos Dress


For today, I am feeling lazy and might work on the warm-woolies a bit, but I just need a little time to do absolutely nothing after a hellacious semester. So stay tuned as I post these finished projects in the next couple of weeks! Happy Holidays!

Professor Plum

On this very snowy evening, I have finished my "Professor Plum" skirt! I have had this wonderful plum wool-blend for a while now, but finally got to make use of it. The pattern used was McCall's 5523, view C. I left off one of the ruffly bits, added some buttons, and took up the hem a bit, but other than that no alterations were needed. I had taken this pattern out of the package and tried to make sense of the instructions about a month ago, as I was planning on this being my first project, but quickly got overwhelmed and put it away. I went back to it last night and the instructions and construction were easy peasy!

Here's the front:


And the back, with a little gathering and some cute buttons:


A close up of those cute little buttons:



And a SUPER close up :)


And a side view:



I call it the professor plum skirt, well, because it's plum, and because I made it to wear for a final presentation in my Public Health class that I wanted to look professional for (but still cute!). I think this mission was accomplished!

A Collection of Little Thoughts

I was pretty busy over the Thanksgiving holiday, so I don't have anything new to show you, but I will soon I promise! I just have some snip-its that I've been meaning to post. First off, my wonderful parents are getting me a dress form for Christmas! I had gotten a 50% coupon for Jo-Ann's in my email, which made the cost of a dress form a little more reasonable for a Christmas present, but the site and phone lines were jammed up all weekend! How frustrating! I eventually found the same dress form on the Target website... for half the price that it was on the Jo-Ann site and with free shipping... mind boggling, right? Its the singer 150 adjustable dress form with 12 dials in a shnazzy rad hue:



I can't wait to unwrap this beauty on Christmas morning! I have a feeling it will making my little sewing world an even better place :)

On a completely unrelated note, I'm going to have a little jump up onto my soap box. People, curves are back, and they are sexier than ever. The new Colette Patterns were revealed last Friday, and as I sat oogling them for the first time, I naturally showed each one to my boyfriend, who was less than interested but tried to act excited for me. When I did my rounds in the blogosphere yesterday and read Gertie's latest entry regarding a comment made by some fellow regarding the Colette models, my feathers were a little more than ruffled, to say the least! Apparently, these are HUGE women, and the clothes would look better on "skinny" models:

These women are a size 4/6 and an 8/10. I hardly think that women in these categorizes of size are huge. Immediately after reading Gertie's Blog about it, I called up my boyfriend to see what his thoughts were when he first looked at these pictures with me. I knew he would be honest, and I wanted to hear a true mans perspective. I must say that I was a bit surprised when he admitted that he too thought these women were "a little bigger" than usual. He said it very cautiously, as if I might explode into bits and start screeching at him, but I didn't. I just hmmed and hawwed and absorbed it. He said that he is just used to seeing models be super skinny, and that it is just part of our American culture to think that skinnier looks better and sells more. I can see what he is trying to say, but at the same time, I thought a curvier look was making a comeback. I must have been mistaken. I am a size 4, I have curves, I like it like that, and so does he. Right after reading Gertie's entry about this, an I love Lucy episode came on called "The Diet" in which Ricky will finally let Lucy be in his show if she can fit into a size 12 costume:



This is just the first part of the episode. If you want to see the rest you can find it on youtube, but she starves and steams her way to a measly size 12, performs with Ricky, and then is promptly diagnosed with malnutrition. Just a side note, the performance they give in the end of this episode was one they used to do together in a vaudeville act.

ok. Hopping down from my soap box.

Here are the fabulous chairs I found for 8 bucks at Goodwill! I purchased some awesome black and white retro geometric upholstery fabric and some 2 inch foam that I am going to re-purpose them with, and then I will probably paint them a bright red. I'm hoping I can get this done over Christmas break with the help of my dad's staple gun (and maybe my dad himself hehe). So here's the before, and I will soon post the after!


For now, I'm starting a different project. I have a final presentation in my Public Health class next week, and I want to make a cute, professional looking skirt to feel and look confident. I am going to use McCall's 5523 pattern and create view c:

I have had this gorgeous light-weight royal plum wool for a while, and I think it will be perfect for this skirt:
Well, I'm off to get started on my skirt and to watch the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show!