this week

My plan of finishing a garment in the last week of February did not happen. I managed to get sick, just when I thought I was getting better from my cold, I got a sinus infection with a horrible sore throat. I'm finally feeling better after a couple days, which is so awesome!  I will just have to work on sewing things soon when I have time. I'm also meeting with a friend next week, on an ongoing project. I honestly haven't worked on it much since our last fitting, so it's good to have a fitting scheduled to encourage me to work on it.
Yep. Not a whole lot has been happening, just resting. I confess that I found out that Youtube has whole episodes of What Not To Wear on it.I've watched a few episodes the last few days.  I don't think i dress that badly,  but I am hoping (as i feel like i mention every post) to find tops that aren't T-shirts that I will like, or just have more varied options than my high school T-shirts.

Recycling paper

Making valentines is a great way to recycle. I have too much paper, and have saved odd things for years... sigh. This year I made an attempt in a few short weeks to sort through some things and recycle. I didn't quite get as far through things as I had wanted, but going through it a few times was a good thing, it became easier to just recycle things.

Here's some valentines

Here's some stuff I recycled without having to save them for valentines: from a project i did for school several years ago, probably black and white basic design...

Baby Blanket

a little elephant (i wish i had a finished photo when he's stuffed!)

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry about the crazy photos, the editor on blogger seems to not want to let me rotate them, which seems like it should be the simplest thing, especially if you rotate them, and save them, and then it still doesn't work.

During the end of the summer/early fall I started making a baby blanket for a coworker. It was before she knew if it would be a boy or girl. I used cottons I have had in my stash forever, and also batting that I had. The only thing I bought was red binding. It was really fun to piece together, and since I had started the blanket so early I decided to try hand quilting. I ended up doing just a basic sort of loose stitch. We had a large hoop, but the quilt wasn't really fitting in it, so it was easier to just wing it. I'm pleased with the result, even though it is definitely not perfect. For the back of the quilt I had a weird piece of printed fabric from a kids blanket I had gotten for free (from a neighbor) years ago. It has a boat with some cute animals in it. It was the perfect size for the project, and I hand embroidered a little on that, just to make it more personal. To cover the whole back of the blanket I added two other panels.

Anyway, It was really great to work with my stash and not have to buy any fabric for it, plus i'm very happy with the end result, and so is my friend! and her baby will be arriving soon, so i hope he likes it too!

a little update.

Some links to share:
today i bought the pdf for this bag pattern, the Two Zip Hipster. my daily purse is sort of reaching the end of its days. it's a black hemp purse that i'm tired of, plus it is showing wear. I made an awesome purse, but it is sort of big and maybe more for dressing up. I've really been looking at stores and sometimes online for a little while for a purse that would be similar but better to my black purse. TaaDaaa.... I'm so excited about this. It will be a few inches bigger, but i think it will be great, and I'm happy to find a pattern with a long strap. Anyway, I'm not sure what fabric to use, I may have enough of my own or I may purchase some. I think it would be good to make it in a dark color, but we'll see, and if it works out, I may make a few colors.

I also bought a pattern for a top. I've been meaning to make some tops that aren't t-shirts. so... i saw this one and thought maybe it would work for me. It's the second one (red and blue) on this site. I really like her site, and it makes such a difference seeing something sewn by someone... So, same thing, I'm not sure if i have enough fabric of my own but i may end up buying some.

Today I spent most of the day cleaning. I have a little table in my room, which was covered in sewing stuff. Today I changed it into a music table, with my awesome new recorder from my awesome boyfriend. I will try my hardest to keep this table only for music making. I was able to condense some things, and also recycle a LOT of paper. so, I'm glad I spent the day on it, though i feel like i have so much sorting to do. I'm hoping depending on my tax return (like if i get one or not) of possibly buying a scanner/printer, and possibly an ipod, so that i can store my CDs instead of have them take space in my room.

In my sorting I also cut up some rag rug and quilt squares out of fabric i had designated for scraps, but hadn't had the time to cut up yet.
Of course I have been planning to put photos on the blog, but i feel like i don't have time to stop to organize all that.

This evening I worked on two little projects to felt. While cleaning today, I found a cat toy, one of those plastic balls with a jingle bell inside. I had heard a while ago of knitting or crocheting around the toy and then felting it into a soft ball that jingles. I have not felted it yet, and it may be too big, but i will try it. I also used some of the same yarn to make sort of a pot holder, or rather maybe something to put on the table, is trivet the right word?

I sorted my yarn last week, and found that most of it is 1 or 2 balls - left over from projects, mainly in different weights, which makes it hard to find projects. anyway, I've tried before to find projects for certain yarns, and now after going through my stash I am more inspired about it.

That being said, my fabric stash is probably 10 times larger than my yarn stash, so that is partially why the name of the blog has gone from Pretend Like You're Knitting to ...Sewing.

Survey time!!!

If you're interested in taking a survey about you and your clothes... that i just made up this morning sort of randomly... here it is..

I'm super excited some people have taken it already. i hope it wasn't too long winded or weird.
anyway... I will look at results later today i guess.


Right now i need to get back to a sewing project for work. Draft (you know, like wind) blockers for under our garage door. I made the first one a few months ago for a regular door. Today i'm making 3 to cover the length of our garage door. I have two done, except for handsewing some velcro, and then I just took a lunch break, and I have 1 left to make!!! Thank goodness for podcasts and that the sewing is going well!


I have photos to post about several projects, hopefully in the next few days I'll get something more fun up here!

Statistics

Wow. I once had a clothing excel spreadsheet. and I've just now found Dixie DIY's clothing spreadsheet. It is inspiring to see someone else working on the same thing. (Though my wardrobe organizing/reinventing has sort of been on the back burner.) I'm pretty sure my clothing spreadsheet went away when my computer died a while back. So, I will plan on making a new one! I also made a hand bound book cataloging my clothes in spring 2009- wow I guess I should finish it (I never quite finished the notes about the clothes) As I have had some turnover, perhaps I should make a new one, or give an update of some sort! Without counting, I know I need more skirts, since I only have a few (and fewer still that I wear), and I need more shirts that are not T-shirts. I also have several sweaters with boat-necks, which is great, except they're hard to layer... I guess I need boatneck tops to go along with them. Or just get better sweaters?

I will need to think more about this... :)

PS: I have been catching up on blog reading while I wait for my song tracks to upload to CD baby, which will then be available on iTunes, etc in the next few days. Hooray!