Clutches, Cards and Coffee Sleeves.

Hello again.

I melted my computer cord last week and therefore was unable to get onto my computer!  (and no... it wasn't some crazy glue gun mishap... my cord was old and it finally gave way and sparked/smoked and melted!).  I ordered a new one and it works wonderfully.

A few little updates!

I sold some of my mason jar pincushions at the craft sale!! SO exciting :)

Also, there are still 2 more weekends of the Handmade Market.

I was busily making clutches for the handmade market last weekend with my sister-in-law.  It was so much fun!  I've never actually crafted with someone before, but it was a great time!  I'm just used to being up in my crafting corner by myself sewing up a storm!  Gavy was busy sculpting (and baking a giant cake that was taking FOREVER... but that's another story) and I was busy sewing to the early hours of the morning.

Here they are!  They haven't been sold yet.  I really wish I had taken a picture of the linings!  The one with the bow has a green lining with white polka dots (I LOVE POLKA DOTS), and the one with the swirly-rosey-button has a pretty solid coral lining.

My clutches (with Gavy's painting!)

I ordered some business cards to have at the Handmade Market, and they came in very handy as tags for my first commission!  I made 9 coffee sleeves for a friend's aunt!  They are all identical and they were made red and black (the back is black with white polka dots).  These colours were chosen because they were gifts for a card group.  I love how they turned out :) 

That's all for now :)

Happy crafting!

~Becca

What a fun day!

Well this past weekend was a fun new experience!  I was part of the first weekend for the Lakeshore Mews Handmade Market in Barrie!!  How fun!

What a neat feeling having someone buy something that you made!! I mean, I just LOVE to make things.  It is so much fun for me, that it's just a fun bonus that someone wants to buy it!

This will be a very short blog post.  I just want to display some pictures of how the booth looked.  The booth had myself, my sister-in-law and her two friends.  We all have quite different things to contribute, so it made for a very neat booth.

The Handmade Market is running for the rest of the Saturday's in June.  

I had a lot of fun looking around at the other booths.  I saw so much talent at these booths.  It was just such an inspiring day overall!! AND.... the rain held off! BONUS.

Some last minute button sewing with my sister-in-law's cat Huxley! ....... I was trying to give her a piggy nose.... she wasn't very into the photo shoot.

Handmade cards by Elizabeth ! And reusable paper towels by Catherine.

Here is the other table with Gavy's art and my sewing :)

The dragonfly stopped by to land on the flower of my coffee sleeve :)

Here we are!

My sewing: Pincushions, sleeves and foldable tote bags!

Gavy's art and my clutches

Tote bags and quilted purses:)

~Becca

A Purse :)

Here's a quick little post to update on some of the craft sale projects I have been working on.  I am currently spending most of my crafting time on quilted bags.  They are very much similar to the one that I made for myself (you can see a picture of it in my earlier blog post here).

I love how this striped one turned out!  It is slightly larger than the one that I have, and I didn't use grommets.  The handles go all the way down the front and the back of the bag.

I also used fusible webbing for the first time to applique the flower to the front.  Fusible webbing is just about the coolest thing ever... and the simplest too!  You just iron it on, and then the fabric won't fray.  I added a cute little stitch around my flower by hand.  I just want to applique on everything now :)

This bag has a magnetic clasp (which gave me a HUGE headache when I initially installed them wrong by forgetting to put the backing on.)  The result was ripped fabric and the clasp looked HORRIBLE.  Once I figured out what was wrong though, it was a quick fix and now it looks great.

Here's a close up of the flower with button and stitching detail.

The interior has two pockets divided in half (so it actually has four pockets), and the front has a pocket too!

I think this bag would look great for the beach!  It's the perfect size for toting around your wallet, keys, sunscreen and even a book.  But it's also purse like enough, to look cuter than just a giant beach tote if you want to go out for dinner later:)

I'll be busy sewing more of these!  I have several in the works, ready to be quilted.  These ones should go a little faster now that I've smoothed out all of the glitches!

Happy sewing :)
~Becca

Reusable Coffee Sleeves

Hello my name is Rebecca and I'm a coffee-aholic............

but I hate hate hate when I buy a coffee from Tim Hortons and I burn my hands all the way out to my car.  I try to bring my travel mug with me most times, but sometimes I don't have it with me, and I feel bad asking for it to be double cupped....... that's when a coffee sleeve comes in handy!

So I just finished making a dozen reusable coffee sleeves for the craft sale! SEW exciting :)

I love how they all turned out!  I made the pattern for them by simply tracing around a cardboard coffee sleeve and then added seam allowances.  The centre is felt so that it won't be hot on your hands when you use them :)

The picture below is of my ceramic travel mug, but they fit on regular coffee cups too.  The button with the elastic cord button loop allows the sleeve to slightly expand to fit tightly on the mug.

Anyway, that's all for now!

Happy crafting,
~Becca

Upcoming craft sale!!

I'm part of a craft sale in June.

I'm also super nervous and have pretty much been up to my neck in fabric and thread since I said I would join the sale.

I am also SUPER excited!  A craft sale!  Someone actually might buy something that I made!  Whoa :)

The greatest thing so far about creating for this craft sale has been that I am able to make as many things as I want, but that they won't take up room (because hopefully someone will buy them).

It really is getting to the point where I should sell some things anyway, because although I adore making bags and pincushions....... I really can only use so many.

So here are a couple of pictures of some of the things that I have been busily crafting!

Pincushions yummy looking enough to eat!

Mason jar pincushions! (Buttons not included ;)   )

An assortment of clutches (great for makeup bags!)

Here's a close up.  I love the yoyos with buttons :)

MORE pincushions :)

The sale is for 4 weekends in June, and I am sharing the table with a couple of other people.  I'll keep you updated on the progress of more of my selling pieces in the near future.  I have until the 9th to be ready.

SEW SEW SEW

Happy crafting!

~Becca 

Tuxedo Apron

No, your eyes are not deceiving you.... this is actually another blog post.

In the same month.

This doubles the number of blog posts from April.  I'm going to try really hard to keep posting more often.

This is going to be a quick little post about a craft that I made last week for my mom.  

At her work they were having a volunteer appreciation dinner/dance, and the dress code was formal, but since my mom is the event coordinator, she was going to be in and out of the kitchen all night preparing/serving food for 200 people.  I don't know how she does it.......but she somehow remains calm, and the food is always great.  (If it was me... I would be freaking out!).

Needless to say, she really couldn't wear a ball gown in the kitchen so she came to me with a black apron and a picture from the internet of a tuxedo apron.

Mine turned out pretty much like the one from the picture, but at a fraction of the cost since I just used scraps of fabric from other projects.

She looked wonderful in her apron and to complete the look she had on a funky feathered top hat fascinator!

Happy crafting :)

~Becca

Finished on a Friday! : Rag Quilt!

I did it!  I forced myself to finish a project that was not done!    Like I was saying in my last post about the lady that makes herself finish already started projects on a Friday.  This is officially my first "Finish up Friday" project!  (Next time I need to post on the Friday... or least on the Saturday.)

Once I was done the project I may have started on other new projects, but that's besides the point because I actually finished something!

It's a rag quilt, and as I said in my earlier blog post, I started it over a year ago.

I went with my sister-in-law and her mom (who is an excellent quilter!) to this local quilting store to buy all the material that I needed.  When the two of us started looking for material to make our rag quilts we both had the same idea........ go for the fun material!  The owner of the store and my sister-in-law's mom thought it was quite funny to watch a 24 and 25 year old getting so excited over kid's material :)

That is why my rag quilt has a mixture of weiner dogs, flowers, spirals and dots! So much fun :)

This is a great way to ease yourself into quilting!

Each square is 10"x10".  The batting in the middle is 8.5"x8.5".

If you choose 6 different colours of fabric and cut 16 squares of each, it will end up like mine.

You layer a piece of flannel, a piece of batting and then another piece of flannel together.  Pin to hold and then sew an 'X' shape from corner to corner on each of the 'quilt sandwiches'.  With a decorative stitch (I used a zigzag stitch--- that's as fancy as Sewphie got) sew a 6"x6" square around the centre.

A neat idea from  sister-in-law's mom is to cut out a piece of plastic and draw an 'x' in the centre.  That way, you can line up the stitching with the drawn on 'x' and trace around the plastic square with chalk!  Neat!

Once you have 48 sandwiches, you are ready to sew them all together.  One side of the quilt should be nice and neat and the other side should have all of the edges showing.  I used a 3/4in seam.  Sew around the whole edge of the blanket when all pieces are sewn together with a 3/4 allowance.

pre-washing/drying

CAREFULLY clip all edges.  Wash and dry.  It will fray up nicely!

Close up after it has been washed and dried

All done! Only took me well over a year....

Then it is time to test out your blanket of course.

I wonder what I'll finish up next Friday :)




Happy sewing:)

~Becca

In desperate need of some inspiration!! (Updates on projects in the works!)

Wow..... where has April gone?!  It's coming to an end and I haven't written a single post :(

I'm sad to say I don't even really have a complete post to show you right now either, so I thought I would just update on a couple of projects that are in the works, or soon to be in the works.

I've been quite busy this past while with work, and I have recently been trying to workout more than my usual amount of working out.  I have started running a few times a week which has been fun.... but all of this hasn't left me much time for creating!

This blog post is going to serve as a little inspiration for both myself (and hopefully for you as well!).  It's amazing that as invested in this hobby as I am, and how much I think about crafting, that there are times when I run into an inspirational dead end.

I'm going to assume that this happens to everyone.

Here we go....
Reminding myself of some projects that I want to try/finish will hopefully help the creative juices start flowing again!

Over at Leave it to the Imagination, Artsy Ally has a variety of different mixed media creations using melted crayon! SO COOL!  I have seen a few versions of this on Pinterest.  I really like the underwater one that she has done.  I have even bought crayons to do this, but it has yet to be started!  Gotta get going on that one :)

This picture I found on Pinterest, from  katiebrownblog.com

In the sewing department...... I have two things that I have started and have yet to finish.  Actually, when I think about it, the dress that I'm making is part of the reason for the dead end I am at.  I had spent so much time on this dress, and I need to alter it now because it's a little too puffy looking.  It is so frustrating, the thought of ripping out seams that I have spent so much time on, that I have shied away from touching it.  Gotta get over that!  (Yes.... it's ANOTHER lace dress, but unlike my first lace dress it is much more form fitting, and it's made out of an old curtain!)

This first picture is the inspiration.  I'm not sure where this picture is from.  Google?

This is the picture of my dress in progress.  I know..... no where near the above picture.  Now you might understand the dead end I have come to.

And this is the pattern that this dress is loosely based on.  I chose a shape that was similar, and only used the lining pattern pieces for the bodice.  When I say loosely..... I mean it.  I used parts of the pattern, but I winged it so much, that you could use any basic dress pattern.

I also revamped an old sweatshirt with some buttons!

Here it is before:

And here it is after:

(please excuse the pyjamas!  It was 2 am.  I was in the crafting zone.)

I had to shrink the sleeves, rip/cut out the front pocket and make some button holes.  I nipped and tucked as I went along.

I also need to DESPERATELY finish the rag quilt that I started over a year ago!  This rag quilt was the start of my sewing endeavours.  It's not that I am not capable, or excited to finish it.... it's just that so many other projects and ideas have come in the way since then!

A lady in a sewing store I was at mentioned that she had a rule, that on Friday's she couldn't start any new projects.  She had to choose an unfinished project to work on.   Maybe I should adopt this "finish up Friday" rule.  I might get something done!

Here is a project that I have bought the material for (dark stretch denim)... and I have the pattern, but I haven't started yet.  Shorts!  I better get on this, or it's going to fall before I get started!

Okay... so there it is!  A blog post that slightly dragged on.... but nevertheless has started getting me inspired to finish old things and start new things!

Keep the inspiration coming!

~Becca

Bunnies and a purse!

There are several things that I want to let you know about in this blog post.  First of all, RIP Sewphie :(  It's a sad tale to tell, but it's for the best (at least right now).

During the last post I had said that a piece was coming in for Sewphie, and that she would be fixed.  Well, the piece came in and we put it in, but then realized that the piece was backwards.  Since we put it into the machine, the plastic part gear was ruined, and unable to be sent back.  So instead of spending another $25 at the moment to get the piece, I think I'm going to hold off.  I've looked on Kijiji and I've also had someone offer to let me see if an old sewing machine of their's might work.  So for now, Sewphie has been laid to rest.  In the mean time, between Sewphie dying and me deciding what to do, my sister-in-law has lent me her sewing machine (**happy dance**).  I was going into withdrawl (I know... pathetic).  The night she dropped it off I started and finished a purse which I will show later in this post.

poor Sewphie :(

 On a happier note, Steven and I went to see Xanadu (the play that I helped make costumes for), and it was a lot of fun to watch!  Also, I found it pretty cool that the costumes that I had made actually looked great!  I kept saying, WOW.... I actually made those.... that's so cool.  It's so neat when something you  make turns out!  Here are some more of the pictures I took of the costumes.  These are only a couple of pictures, but I made 6 costumes in total.  (These pictures were taken before I had sized and made a few adjustments.

The silver belt on the silver dress (which isn't pictured) was the biggest pain of the whole thing!  I had made the belt, I was lightly ironing it..... and then the iron MELTED A GIANT HOLE in it about 30 minutes before I was taking them over to the director.  Fortunately it was on the inside of the belt.  Later, when I got the costumes back to adjust them, I was adding velcro to the silver belt with my mom's old (in need of a tune-up) machine.

Needless to say the belt went flying across the room when I threw it in rage when the machine wouldn't sew the velcro on properly.

The last time I used that kind of material was to make my Batman costume for Halloween, and it was just as much of a pain!  Other than that though, things went smoothly, and I had so much fun doing it!  I got to practice sewing in boning which was also cool. 

The dress that almost got the better of me!

I figured I'd add this picture in for fun!  I love it:)  This was the first time I really made costumes, and the costume satin on Batman was SO FRUSTRATING- Steven's Robin costume was much easier, as it was mainly all t-shirt material (except for the cape, which was a giant yellow dress in it's former life)! I love how they all turned out:)

After Sewphie bit the dust, and after I'd given up hope on my mom's machine I decided I needed something to make that didn't involve sewing.  These cute little paper towel roll bunnies looked great this past weekend when everyone got together.  We had a celebration which can only best be referred to as a "Happy Gradu-Birthster-Gagement", as we were celebrating my mom's, dad's, grammy's, and my birthday, as well as my younger brother's graduation from post secondary school and his recent engagement, not to mention Easter, which we decided to celebrate early, when everyone could get together.

Super simple to make!  All you need is craft foam in pink and white, assorted buttons for the nose, googly eyes, fabric paint (or a black marker) for the whiskers and teeth, pompoms for the tails, and paper towel tubes covered with white paper.  Add some hot glue and Presto!  they'll be multiplying like bunnies in no time ;)

I also had a plain white bangle (I think I got it at Value Village).    One night, I decided to paint it with bright nail polish colours for fun!

Then, like I said earlier, my sister-in-law lent me her sewing machine!  I have been able to finish my clutch that I was half way done, and I also made a purse- which turned out to be one of those projects that you surprise yourself with because it turned out way better than you thought.  My sister-in-law wants to buy one from me too because she liked it so much!  So when I make that one, maybe I'll take a few more pictures and post how I did it.  Until then though, I'll just show you the final product!

Whew...... that was a lot of updating!

I hope to post again soon, as I have SO MANY projects all swirling around in my brain right now, and with the loaning of the sewing machine, which my sister-in-law said I could call Kendra (it's also a Kenmore), the possibilities are endless! 

If you've stuck with me to the very end of this post......thanks!!

and 'HOPPY' crafting! 

~Becca