My Mini-Wardrobe for DYT 2

I finally got my patterns and fabric choices together and am ready to post pictures!  For PR's mini-wardrobe contest, the rules require that we have only 4 items sewn/reviewed/posted in 1 month.  I've decided to construct 1 printed knit top, 1 t-shirt, 1 jeans, 1 shorts.  I'm also hoping to finish a bonus item, an ultrasuede jacket with a waterfall collar.  Similar to this one here:

I'll have to figure out how to draft the collar onto the jacket pattern I want to use, so I'm not sure if it will be done in time.  But it'll be nice to have this when the weather gets cold here.  I love the drapey, soft collar... what a challenge I'm tackling!

Here are the other pieces I hope to finish (click to enlarge):

The white will probably be changed to a different color if I can find an appropriate fabric.  If not, I'll probably end up dying it.  Maybe I can just wash it in the load with my denim and it'll be less stark.  Anyway, the contest begins soon and I'm really excited to get started.  I've been tracing and preparing patterns over the past few days.  And I'm working on getting all the supplies together.  Happy sewing adventures everyone!  :)

A New Start!

Recently, I purchased a program called "Dressing Your Truth" by Carol Tuttle.  It has been enlightening and I'm beginning to allow myself to be truer to who I am.  It has been my belief that I'm a wimp and I needed to be tougher.  Tough love with my children (though I was never really successful at this since my softy side always interfered), turning away from softer "drab" (but appealing) colors, ignoring the fact that I really do like more feminine details over plain but practical clothing.   I always felt this was a waste of time and I needed to spend my time learning about things more pertinent to life...  you know,  like earning money, cooking meals, keeping the home in order, parenting.  I rarely put myself first or bothered to examine what I really like when it comes to my appearance.  And I did not value WHO I am, a gentle, slow and deliberate person.    

What I've discovered so far, is that a gentle nature is also VERY strong.  Our strength comes in the peaceful, relaxed and easy-going way we live everyday.  We help others slow down when they're going in circles.  We help others release when they need to rant.  We help others to stop and breathe for a minute, to appreciate what's around them.  And we just help others... Yes... I am a Type 2, a softy, a yin, and most importantly, a peacemaker.  What I once saw as a weakness, I now view as my greatest strength. 

That said, I just signed up for the Mini Wardrobe challenge being held on PatternReview.com and decided to start sewing some Type 2 clothing.  Thus the rebirth of my blog, and the name change.   Welcome to my blog.  :)   

Simplicity 2172 - jacket turned vest

 So my daughter is into cosplay and wants to achieve a similar look to this:

And this is the pattern I had in my file:

 

Close enough to adapt into the shape she wanted.  We simply removed the sleeves and pockets, redrew the hem, eliminated the top ruffly bit and added a tiny ruffle around the bottom hem.   Luckily, she's short, so when we removed the excess back-waist length, we ended up with the perfect amount of space for the two big silvery buttons.  Here's what we ended up with:

 

She loves the vest, but doesn't seem to wear it out much... as with the cute bloomers I made to complete the look.  I'll post those later, when I have a picture of it.  It was completed quite a few months ago... it's gotta be around somewhere in her room (the black hole).   Hopefully I'll catch her when she decides to wear it for another Anime Convention or something.

Craftsy Classes: BOM

I began taking the FREE craftsy BOM class at the beginning of 2012 and am only NOW getting to the actual quilting part.  The reasoning  for this quilt was to use up all my little barkcloth scraps that I've kept from work over the past few years.  It looks like I've used up most of them, so at this point I'm looking at a nearly successful quilt... The sewing/sashing was easy... I had no trouble gettiing it all put together, the stitching dooesn't show so it looks really nice right now.   But I'm beginning to do some free motion quilting on it and am struggling to make it look good.  My curves and loops have been looking more like zigzags and I'm ready to give up.  I've spent so much time ripping out stitches... :(  My quilt will consist of mostly echo quilting and stitch in the ditch. Here's a peek at my quilt at this point... 

You can see some of the attempts at FMQing, the ones that I felt were acceptable enough not to tear out.
I'll keep working on finishing this quilt between work projects, But I sooooo want to master FMQ though...

Blue and White Pillow collection

Blue and White!  My favorite!  I made this batch of pillows for a friend's TV room.  Her theme was Japanese and her main focus was comfort.  Thus, the big cooshie pillows...

She had requested 4 large 20x20 pillows, a sobakawa back pillow, 2-18x18 pillow, a dogbone pillow, and a pillow that looks like a couch pillow, recovered.   My favorite thing about this project was that she gave me her old pillows and some fabric and just said... "Do whatever you want.  Just recover these."   So I added a few decorative elements to some of the pillows.