November 27

I had a nasty accident while making these. The rotary cutter skipped up onto the ruler and sliced a big chunk off the side of my left index finger. Bled like a stuck pig, I did, but luckily not on the project. Anyway .... these coasters are 100% linen, embroidered on one side (no, I didn't do the embroidery myself, I bought a skirt at the thrift store that had six big flowers stitched along the bottom).

Josh says he needs twenty-seven gifts for his colleagues. More coasters. More banana bread. More coasters. More banana bread. Lucky I don't have anything else to do :-/

November 25

I've been wanting to make some of these for the longest time, and at last today I did. I modified Cindy's Crayon Roll Tutorial to work for a set of 24 coloured pencils. Fat quarters are the perfect width :-)

November 23

More coasters. Lauren and Josh are both standing in line to give these to the teachers/colleagues on their gift lists. So fast and easy to make, that I don't mind the orders. Fully customizable for the recipient's taste and preferred color scheme, too! What's not to love?

November 17

Wow, these coasters are so fast to sew up once the cutting's done. I found the instructions here. No hand sewing required! I'm going to make some more sets of these for teacher and hostess gifts. I love finding new ways to use my stash :-)

November 16

I didn't stop making stuff; this project just took more than a day to complete. I've been wanting to make an Advent calendar for years, and finally got my act together in November, instead of pining for one in December when it was already too late. I pretty much copied Jenny's idea here but instead of putting squares of chocolate in the felt envelopes (didn't seem a good idea, above the fireplace), I've written prompts on the back of the dangles, to get us into the holiday spirit. Ali Edwards posted a PDF of holiday prompts which I selected from, and added a few of my own, to suit our family and climate.

November 12

I visited my preferred fabric source today: the dollar rack at my favourite thrift store, and came away with nine or ten garments of cotton, linen and wool. After washing them all, I realised that I held in my hands a rather nice pair of linen pants that fit me. They were a little too short, so I let down the hem and covered the resulting mark with some trim. Voila! A groovy pair of soft, wide-legged linen pants for a buck! Yay!

November 11

It was rainy and chilly so we lit a fire and had an indoors Sunday ... very nice! Lauren had a friend over, and they did some crafts and sewing, while I made a wallet based on this tutorial. If you want to try it yourself, be warned that the instructions do not make it crystal clear which way the snaps should go. I got it wrong and had to unpick it all and remove them (not so easy). Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the final result, and may even keep it!

November 10

Lauren suggested I use the leftover bits of the green corduroy dress to make a bag. Hmmm.... not a bad idea!!

November 9

Baby blanket is done, and it's so soft and lovely!

Tessa, I strongly suggest you pick this gift from the Christmas Boutique.

November 8

Baby blanket in the works. I found a long green dress of soft velvety corduroy at the thrift store to use as a backing. Yummy.

November 7

I made a simple wallet following this tutorial, but I'm not very happy with it. I need to tweak the design to be more useful to me. But as it is, it might be a nice way to give a gift card. It was fast to make, and uses only small scraps of fabric.

Lauren (aged 10) has fallen in love with the bag I made two days ago, and wants to use it for school. So I added a zippered pocket inside, and a button and loop closure. It's really too wide and open to be suitable for a school bag, in my opinion, but she was adamant .... we'll see how they both fare tomorrow.

November 6

I went to the thrift store in the hopes of finding some chenille for this project (buying materials second hand doesn't count, right?) Sadly, there was no bedspread or robe waiting for me, though the dollar rack did have quite a few garments offering themselves up for the patchwork top of the impending baby blanket.

I was also delighted to find these two Crate and Barrel placemats ($1.50 for the pair) which, when combined with a previously thrifted silk runner…

…became this bag.

And, as a bonus, while scrabbling around in my button box, I found one of those snap bolt thingies I was mentioning in my last post, so I can make the little sack for yesterday's bag now.

Ah, life is good. If only I could make a living doing this!

November 5

I made another grocery bag; this one's VERY roomy. The tutorial can be found here. I didn't make the little sack for it because I don't have one of those little bolt snap things (and I'm just using materials from my stash, remember?) Actually, I don't even know where to buy those thingies. Where DO you buy them?

November 4

Wow, I have gotten so much done today. Amazing what I can achieve when the family's out and I don't do any housework. I finished transcribing and analysing the tape of my last ASL test, then I studied four chapters of Linguistics for an exam on Wednesday, and then I started sewing again.

Today's output (so far…): two tissue holders (these take five minutes each, including sewing on the buttons) and …
…a cloth shopping bag inspired by this tutorial. Mary Beth is using hers for a lunch bag, but I'm going to use mine for groceries. The thing I like about it is that it can roll up and sit snugly inside its own handle, like so:
I want something I can leave in the bottom of my handbag for those times when I'm standing at the checkout and realise that I left my totes the car. I'll test drive this baby, and if it works well, I'll make several more.

Later: it's past 10pm and I'm finally ready to stop. After dinner I made this bath mat …
… based on this tutorial. The guys were fairly unimpressed so this might go in the Christmas boutique if neither of them are begging to have it in their bathroom. I think it's adorable, myself.

November 3

I forced myself to spend the morning and half the afternoon studying before commencing today's sewing project. Whew, it was tough to stay focused that long, when I kept walking past the sewing machine set up on the dining room table. When I finally closed up my books, I leapt upon this tutorial and made myself a great doorstop. One thing I'm really enjoying about these Sew Mama Sew projects is that I'm not buying any materials; it's all coming from my stash. Though this one used up every last dried bean in my pantry, so if I want to make (or eat!) more I'll have to go to the store.

November 2

Since quitting my job, I've been really good about keeping to a daily schedule of working to build my graphic design business. After dropping Lauren at school, I've done the housework then "clocked on" at 9 am to do Studio Flourish stuff. But today, er .... it's now 10 am and I have been sewing instead. I'll blame the ants in the Halloween candy (discovered at 7 am) for throwing me off my schedule. But really, it's Sew Mama Sew's fault.

Based on this tutorial, I whipped up a wrist pincushion from a scrap left over from making Lola's bag. Just what I needed to recover from the ant carnage. Now ... time to do some "real" work. But I think I'll wear this all day. It makes me smile :-)

November 1

Inspired by this tutorial, I sewed a reversible half-apron tonight out of some thrifted shirts. I'm in the market for an apron myself, but I want a full one. I am hoping that Evie is making me one for Christmas ;-)