So it's W.I.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, and as usual, I don't have much to report. I feel like I have been doing alot, but don't have much to show for it!
I've mostly been trying to catch up on some Christmas items that never got made and I've tried to keep myself from starting anything else before I get them done (hince the lack of things to show...) I've got one purse I'm working on now, and one to start that will actually wind up being a birthday gift instead. Her birthday is in March, so I should be able to get it done in time. For some reason, the purse I'm working on now really has me dragging. It's another Sophia Carry All by Amy Butler (you may recall my previous experience with this bag...) The difficulty I had the last time is probably what's keeping me from getting into this one, but I'd already cut out the pieces and hate to waste it so I'm forging ahead. There are 2 things that I've learned while making this pattern that I wish I had remembered this time around....
1) Label the darn pieces. There are ALOT of pieces to this one, and last time I used the wrong piece to make the handles and had to do alot of seam ripping. Of course I didn't learn from my mistakes and didn't label them this time and as I was applying the interfacing I realized I may have cut something wrong, so now I've got to re-trace my steps and see what I've got...maybe now I should label them to save my self any more heartache? yeah...we'll see about that...
2) Don't bother with fusible fleece, it's a pain in the butt. I've been using Pellon brand, and man it is hard to get it to actually fuse. I've used the non-fusible kind before and just used a spray addhisive to apply it and it was fine, so I'm totally doing that from now on. Not only is the non-fusible kind a little cheaper, it also would save alot of time to spray baste than try to fuse the darn stuff...
Another WIP that has been keeping me occupied:
Yeah so it's not sewing related..but it is DIY! We've been redoing our guest bathroom, and I suppose you could say this is my longest running WIP right now. We actually bought all the the stuff to do it back in the beginning of September, I started then by ripping down the wallpaper border with the intent to start painting, but then life got in the way and everything sat around in the garage until about 3 weeks ago when we finally decided to go ahead and get it done. We are not redoing the tub or shower tile as it was in pretty good shape, but we have done all the painting and tiled the floor. These are terrible pictures, but the second one shows the color a bit more accurately. This grey was actually the 4th color I tried, I'd originally picked out a purple back in September but when I busted it out to start painting a few weeks ago I H-A-T-E-D it. So then I decided I wanted turquoise and tried two different shades, both I liked but just wasn't sold on either of them. Finally I gave in and decided to go with something slightly more neutral and got this grey that has just a hint of blue to it. I never thought I'd be a grey person, but it just looks so fresh and clean with the bright white ceiling and light colored tile...perfection! This weekend hopefully we'll get the baseboards back on and install the vanity and put the toilet back. We have been mostly confined to working on it on the weekends, so it's been taking a while to get it all done and man am I ready to get everything back in order!
I did manage to finish some stuff in the last few weeks, but of course I was in too big of a hurry to get it sent out that I forgot to take pictures. I made little blankets for my two nephews and my sister-in-law says they love them! They were very simple, I just got some Cars fleece (they are big fans of the movie) and coordinating flannel for the other side. I applique'd their initial on one side and made it as kind of a "Self-binding" blanket, with just straight line stitching to give it some detail. I actually wound up making three of these because the first one I made I attached the fleece backwards and it wasn't until I was completely finished with it when I noticed the print was inversed...oops! (This was one of the times that I've enjoyed being able to blame "baby brain" rather than "Jess makes silly mistakes")
That's about all I've got to share...I have this giant stack of brand stinkin new fabric that I washed and folded last night that I just can't wait to use! Curves class (held by Rachel at Stitched in Color) starts this week and I've been holding out on cutting into any of these yummies so I can use them for the class, so hopefully I'll have something fun to share in the next week or two! Also on deck is some experimenting with paper-piecing and attempting to refashion some clothes into maternity clothes. I bought some t-shirts at Joanns the other day ($3 each, can't beat that) with the intent to add some rouching to the sides, and to cut one up to make some rolled flowers or perhaps a ruffled neck line to fancy it up. I've never done any kind of clothing before, so we'll see how this goes! If anyone has any tips on rouching, I'd love to hear it! I've browsed a few tutorials but right now I'm probably going to just wing it...
So, what have you been up to? Be sure to hop over to Freshly Pieced to link up and see what other's have been doing!
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