Something Interesting

I have a job! Okay, well, sort of. Tina's sister is getting married and Tina has hired me to make "The Most Beautiful Apron Ever" and some napkins for a wedding gift. So I thought I'd share what I'm going to make.

First the apron. I made this apron from some fabric I bought from Marie.

It's a really beautiful pattern. The original I cannot find online anymore but I was smart and saved the pattern to a Word document when I found it a few years ago. This is the picture from the original pattern. I'm sorry I cannot credit the picture taker.

This is the fabric I purchased for the apron.

 Look at that baby boy! Isn't he the cutest!?

It's Moda Aster Manor by Three Sisters. It's fully lined. I'm so jealous. I might not be able to actually send it to Tina to give to her sister. She may have to fly out here and wrench it from my hands.

The napkins. This is the china Tina's sister has registered for.

Isn't it pretty? Fortunately I found this fabric at Joann's, on sale even!

They only had three yards of it and she's registered for 16 settings, so I'm not sure I can get sixteen 17 inch napkins out of it, so I will have to get creative. I am going to use a white broadcloth for the contrast color.

And that's what I am sewing right now.

Fabric Grocery Bags

A long time ago, Meagan posted a link to a tutorial for fabric grocery bags. At the time I thought it was a really great idea but never got around to making them. Well, this is the year for that project. My mom made some also so she made the pattern. I invented the little pouch to hold it in, based off some wallets I made for the girls.

This one is probably for my neighbor.

Christmas Sewing

This year I have a whole list of things I'm sewing up for Christmas gifts. Maybe you'll be inspired to make some of these this for someone.

First, I'm making 8 of these purses. Five for my girls, one for the neighbor's daughter, one for my niece and one for a friend that has requested one. The hardest part is cutting everything out. After everything is cut out, it goes together really quickly.

To match each purse, I've made these little wallets. These come together in about 20 minutes from start to finish and they are really cute!

For each little girl I want to make these little crayon rolls to go in their purses also, but I may not have time for that. We'll see.

I am making 12 balls for Sonya's kids.

I am making these hooded towels for my kids. I picked some coordinating fabric and Johanna currently has them and is embroidering names on them.

I am making two of these reusable grocery bags for my neighbor and maybe for me.

With everything that I am making, I would take a guess that we're saving a minimum of $200 by me sewing so much. It's a lot of fun!

On a side note: (if you have kids) does your diaper bag ever look like this?

Do your diapers get all smooshed up in your bag and then they're hard to use? It happens to me all the time! So I used this tutorial to make these two diaper caddies. Aren't they cute!?

Now see how my diaper bag looks? Lovely.

What Am I Gonna Do?

I want to make all these. Do you know how hard it is to find a simple cotton robe that doesn't look like your grandmother should be wearing it? Even here in Florida you have three choices for robes: gramma robe, satin/silky/sexy robe, fleece-"I-live-in-Canada"-cold robe. I don't get it.

I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed that the print on the fabric I bought is so big.  That's Ella's hand there.  I took a picture with my hand in it but I'm too embarassed to post my fat hand.  I mean, my hand is sporting some serious chubbiness. The huge print really limits what I can do with this fabric, but I though one of the shirts above or a skirt would look nice.

See, big print.

It'll cost me at least $20 to buy the planet fabric from Ebay or Etsy. I'm disappointed that Fabric.com gave me the wrong fabric. It was a good deal, but I may never buy from them again because this isn't the first time I've been disappointed by them.

Maybe I'll make some boy balls for Isaac with this stuff.

Actually Sewing

All I can say is, "Woo-Hoo!  I've actually made something!"  It really is worth celebrating considering I haven't made anything worth posting about until this last month since my last baby was born.  But, my creativity is returning slowly but surely.  I decided to make some gifts.  I have a friend who has been dropping subtle (and not so subtle) hints about wanting some of my coasters for quite a while.  I finally made her some!  I think the colors remind me of the ocean.

You'll have to excuse the quality of the pictures on this post....I'm not really good about photographing my work.

I made a set of 8 in blues and greens.

This same friend is having a birthday party for two of her children this weekend, so I made her son (turning 2) some tie t-shirts...

These shirts are *adorable* and so easy to make!

...and her daughter (turning 5) a bag to use when she goes to the library. (A little birdie told me she wanted one and liked a ballet theme, too.)  The lining of the bag is blue denim.  I guess it could be reversible, except for the two hand stitches anchoring the lining and outside fabric together at the base of the bag.  Those would stand out if the bag was denim side out.  But the embroidery was done before the bag was sewn, so there is no "wrong" side.  I guess if she still has the bag when she prefers to not have the pink, she can reverse it and snip the anchoring stitches.

I added a couple books so that she knew what the bag was for!  Although, she could also use this bag when she goes to her ballet class for whatever it is little girls take to ballet.  I really wouldn't know! :)

And since Marie mentioned that she wouldn't mind seeing some of what I do for work, too, here are some pictures of things I have embroidered for Showers of Blessing.

Coordinating blanket and burp cloth for Amelia Ann.  I like this fabric so much that I went back to buy some to make Hannah a blanket.  I haven't let myself make anything for her yet since it is so far away still, but I didn't want to see all this fabric go.

Isn't that a great name?  It's not for my Andrew, though!

Speaking of work, I'm taking on a new business venture selling jewelry!  I love, love, love jewelry and have been to a few jewelry parties with the company Premier Designs.  I have hosted a couple parties with them, too.  I have decided to join up and now I will be the jeweler who comes to do the party in someone else's home!  My first training meeting is May 10, and I will officially begin June 8.  I am super excited about it!

Remember me? It's been a while...

Hey!  My name is Johanna, and I used to be crafty and contribute to this blog!  Somehow, having my third baby sucked the crafty life out of me and I have not done anything post worthy in 1 1/2 years.  The only time I turn on my sewing machine lately is to embroider for pay, which I guess is something, but it isn't coming out of my inner creativity as much as it is fulfilling an order.  When I found the MADE blog, I thought the month of boy projects would be just right to rekindle my creative fire and I figured I'd be making boy projects to get me going again.  Well, I didn't make a boy project, but it did inspire me in that it made me miss crafting.  I found myself longing to browse the aisles at JoAnn again.  I found myself looking at crafty blogs again, and actually wanting to turn on my sewing machine for fun.  Although I didn't start with one of the boy projects I found so inspiring, I did make something.  Check it out.

I know it doesn't look like much, but it is just what I needed to get my feet wet again.  You see, I have a lovely kitchen table.  It has beautiful wood that I love to show off, but it also has grooves in the wood to make it look like planks that salt and crumbs get stuck in.  I found myself breaking out my vacuum attachments to clean my table.  Then this happened.

This lovely bit of artwork was compliments of Aaron when he apparently got bored during dinner and decided that the end of his fork was a great carving tool.  Oh, and see the crumb buildup in those grooves?  So it was time for a covering.  I didn't want just a cloth tablecloth because it would get way too dirty, so I made the cloth one and then edge stitched a big piece of plastic to make a plastic tablecloth to go on top.  Now it looks nice and wipes up easily!

Hopefully you'll allow my seam work and edge work to count as something worthy of blogging about, because I am so proud of myself for ending my dry spell with any completed project at all!

One Lunch Bag

Hello again.  Here's my first lunch bag.

They are a little more difficult to make than I thought they would be, but still extremely easy to make.  I added Velcro so the bag can be closed.  They are difficult to make because the printed side sticks to the machine.  You must use a jeans needle to sew this material.

Would You Like to See the State of My Sewing Room?

It's very sad.  I can't remember the last time I turned my machine on.  It's feeling quite unloved.  In fact, the last time I think it was turned on, it was being tortured by Lily.  It may never work the same again because of how traumatizing that was for my poor little sewing machine.

Okay, so just let me tell you that the table there, I *just* cleaned off, so don't be fooled.  It was covered in miscellaneous stuff not 30 minutes ago.  I want to show you a few projects that I haven't finished...or even started for that matter.

Tie T-shirts I'm making for my "friend with boys."  They're not so cute for girls, but gosh-darn cute for boys, and I don't have any boys.  Yeah...haven't started.

Lunch bags for three families, including mine.  That's oil cloth there.  Can't wait to try it out.

I'm supposed to be making one of these capes with Sarah.  I bought this fabric in January with Sarah.  Sigh.

I bought this fabric in NOVEMBER to make some napkins for Tina.  Obviously that hasn't happened yet.

I was supposed to send these golf towels to Johanna so she could embroider Del's initials on them.  Then Johanna even showed up HERE, at my house and I still forgot to give them to her...duh.  It's a good thing I have a box I'm supposed to be sending her with some T-shirts and lunch bags...that I haven't started.

So...there you go.  Impressed, right?

Some Things I Want to Make

Chef's hat

Tissue holder

Shoes for the new baby

This 9-patch quilt...for the new baby?

What's Been Keeping Me Busy...Besides the Obvious

Our church is having a benevolence event this December: Women's Christmas Coffee. Women from church volunteer to host a table where they will serve coffee, tea and some light snacks. There will be entertainment...I don't know what kind of entertainment. Anyway, tickets to get into the Coffee are a minimum $20 gift card to Wal-Mart or Publix. The gift cards will be used to help families in need throughout the coming year.

My mom loves to do this kind of stuff. She “drags” me into it and then I end up totally having a great time. I enjoy crafting, decorating, preparing food for people...I just don't enjoy chit-chatting with a table full of women I don't know. Not good about chit-chatting...with strangers.

So my mom volunteered to host a table. At first I was dubious, but then I lost my mind. The tables are to be decorated like some high-class event. Mom and I have been having a great time running around town, buying fancy-looking table decorations on a budget.

First there are the chargers and napkins. I saw these (charger and napkin tutorial) at Moda Bake Shop (I *heart* that blog) and was instantly under the impression that I should make some, but had no excuse. Well, the Christmas Coffee was the perfect thing. We used all my Japanese fabric and some filler fabric. They went really quickly.

For favors we've got these candles and stockings. I saw the idea for these in a Joann's flyer I got in the mail. We found the candle holders and votives at Pier 1 Imports and got the paper and ribbon at Joann's. We'll punch stars in the paper and add a couple of the gold sticky stars. The little stockings we want to stuff with a few items (a small bottle of lotion and some Kisses and a candy cane maybe?). I had intended to use the stockings for a Advent calendar. I might as well admit it to myself that I am not an Advent calendar-remembering type of gal. So, the stockings are for favors. I have 20 more to do...something with. I got the pattern for that here, from Stardust Shoes.

The napkin rings were also got at Pier 1 Imports. Aren't they cool? I never would have thought they would work, but I think they look nice.

The centerpiece was purchased in separate parts at Old Time Pottery. The water glasses we also got there. So far we've spent less than $100. We plan to use these all at our own Christmas table, also,