Teeny Tiny Scraps

While cutting fans for my sunnyside Dresden quilt, I ended up with a lovely pile of very small scraps. I tried to take a picture of them, but it was night time, the light is terrible in my sewing room, and I was too lazy to figure out how to make it better. So, just trust me that the pile was super adorable and far too pretty to toss in the trash. While chain piecing my Dresdens I used the scraps as leaders and enders and eventually ended up with a long string of tiny, wonky pretties which I turned into this:

New Fabric!

While picking up my sewing machine from her annual checkup, I browsed around the store and fell in love with this fabric - sunnyside by Kate Spain. It was so pretty and I loved the rainy day and sunny day fabrics all together. So, of course, I had to take it home with me. I bought two charm packs, grabbed my Pfaff, and zoomed home to play.

Serger Joy!

My sister sent me this little beauty a couple of years ago, and it sat in my closet waiting for me to do something with it. The problem was that it came without a power chord and I didn't have any idea if it even worked. So, before leaving on vacation, I took it in to my sewing machine guy and asked if he could turn my dust catcher into a working machine. And he did! Now I just have to learn how to use it. Lacie, I'm looking at you!

Resizing a Knit Shirt

I went through my winter clothes the other day, in preparation for our trip to Germany (because my deep South winter clothes are perfect for a light autumn day anywhere in the civilized world. Like, anywhere where there are actual seasons. But I digress). 

One of the wonderful things about losing weight is that yeah! you are losing weight! Also, there are clothes that you can wear that perhaps you haven't worn in a few years. One of the negatives about losing weight (okay, let's not talk about how I haven't had a glass of wine in 6 months and occasionally I stand in the candy aisle of the grocery store and make porn star noises...) is that you might have beloved clothes that don't work for you any more. For instance, I have a light teal knit mock turtle neck that I love to death. By the end of winter last year, this shirt was, um, a little snug.

(The color in this picture isn't very true...I'm working on my photography skills.)

When I tried it on this year, however, I was swimming in it. It was just a titch too big. So, I thought, resignedly, I'll wear it to sleep in. And then I thought, joyfully, (I blow through emotions like tissue paper. Keeps things interesting.) I have a sewing machine and I know how to use it! Kind of. 

The Sweater Purse

Once upon a time there was a bright red chenille sweater that was deeply, deeply loved. It was loved so much, in fact, that it was loved literally to pieces. The neckband was in tatters and one of the sleeves fell off. That's right. It fell off. The lady who loved the sweater was sad and lovingly placed the pieces of her sweater into her fabric stash and waited for the right project to come along. Sadly, this was not the right project.

Okay, okay, it's not that the project was wrong for the sweater, let's be fair. This was purely user error. As much as I loved that sweater, I do not love this bag. Let's examine what went wrong, shall we?

Welcome!

Welcome!

Hi and welcome to my blog. This is a new adventure for me, and I hope it will be as fun for you as it will be for me. I am planning on sharing my adventures in sewing here, with pictures of what I am making, some tutorials (because we all love tutorials!), and...well, honestly I'm not sure what else yet!

This is absolutely a work in progress, so I hope you will hang in there with me as I figure out this whole blogging thing.

To begin with, I thought I would start a series called "What I Made and What I Learned" where I show you what I have made and what I would do differently next time, or what new techniques I picked up along the way. I promise that nothing I will show you in this series will be perfect - lots of mistakes and lots of learning. So, let's get the show on the road!

What I Made