Studio 1.0 and finished object #1

 

Updated with pictures!

 

So the sewing room has a good start (as you can see by the mess).  Except for about 1/2 of my fabric,

I’m all moved in.  The paint on the ceiling turned out lovely, and my in-laws just generally put a lot of work into painting this room so nicely.  Yay ceiling!

My next order of business is getting some task lighting.  My thought is to put pendant lights in the center of each of the three ceiling thingies.  It will make the aqua get less lost in the shadows and provide better light for my cut table.  The trickiest place to light is the ironing board, but whatever I have will provide more light than the light I’ve had for the past 2 years of ironing in the bathtub. 

In the middle of getting moved in, I went to my ASG meeting a couple of weeks ago and got to make a fat quarter tote. 

Normally I wouldn’t be   excited about such a project, but it was fast and easy and a good way to get back into sewing after a hiatus of a couple of months.  The flowered fabric is vintage fabric from my husband’s grandmother’s stash.  My mother-in-law said that she thought her Mom had made a wrap skirt for her out of this fabric.  It’s so bright and vivid and have been hoarding it until the right project came along.  It being nearly as heavy as canvas, a bag was a good choice, and it definitely makes a swell library tote.

I finished a top too and am working on some shorts!  But more on that later.

Tea tin tidying tutorial

If I haven’t mentioned it before, I am a tea junkie.  I must have my little pot in the morning before I can function.  It’s not so much about the caffeine as it is about forcing myself to slow down long enough to sip a pot’s worth of tea.  It just might be the only time of day that my brain isn’t going 80 mph.  Here’s the problem though:  we have VERY little storage in our kitchen, so all of my teas just sit on top of the refrigerator in some glass jars or in the paper packages I bought them in.  It’s not so attractive to look at, and when your space is small, I feel like the things that you must look at should be a little cuter simply because you have to look at them.  Here’s my solution:

Fabric Tea tins

Materials:

Small glass jars or tea tins

Pinking shears

Fabric scraps

Matte Mod Podge

Foam brush

Acrylic paints

Take a scrap of fabric and cut enough to wrap around one of the glass jars plus a little bit extra.  Use the pinking shears to cut along the bottom and top of the scrap.  Using the brush, paint a thin layer of ModPodge on the outside of the jar and attach the fabric, smoothing as you go around the jar.  When you get to where you started, fold over the raw edge (that’s why you cut a little extra) to finish the “seam.”**  You can add fabric to make the tops of the jars a little nicer, or you can paint them with acrylic paints.  Seal the paint with a couple layers of Mod Podge.  Fill the jars with your tea and enjoy how pretty they look the next time you make your morning cuppa.

**You could put some more Mod Podge over the fabric to make it nice and shiny, but note that it will make it feel a bit crunchy–you can sand some of this sensation off with fine grit sandpaper, but not all of it.

                                      Before

 

                                      After

Zakkattack

In my women’s prayer group, we draw a name every year for each of us to be responsible for the festivites of one person’s birthday.  I drew my friend Vanessa, who has the first birthday of the year on Jan. 9th.  We celebrated last night with a savory galette des rois that I made with a filling of bacon, cheddar, eggs, asparagus, and parmesan–all of which Vanessa loves.  We played the find the treasure that you traditionally do with a galette des rois. 

There was talk that the contest may have been rigged so that the birthday girl would get to wear the sparkly glittered crown that was the prize for finding the bean in your slice of the pastry.  I admit nothing.

I checked out Zakka Sewing at the library and saw this adorable pattern for little potholders that have a wee pocket to hold your spoon for coffee.  Being a lover of lattes (or leche con cafe as I like to say given the amount of milk Vanessa likes in her coffee) and having just moved into a new house, I figured she would like these very much.  Being a library book, I approximated the pattern from the book on grid paper. 

 

I also made her a little coin purse to house a gift card to a home store.  I’ve decided that it is so incredibly fun to make these little personal things for people.  I’m so grateful to be able to give something from my heart to someone else and I’m even more grateful that I’m able to do this because my sweet husband let me buy a sewing machine in the first place.

I also made the little houses because I made a cape a while ago for myself from S.E.W. Sew Everything Workshop that didn’t end up fitting me very well (too wide in the shoulders even after I took the pattern in and it made my hips look bigger–who wants that?).  Vanessa saw it and LOVED it, so I decided it would be a good birthday surprise for her.  I think she liked it.

All in all, we had a very fun night celebrating our friend.