Faux Chenille Quilts!

I've fallen in love with Faux Chenille Quilts. I'd seen pictures of them online, and thought they were beautiful. I looked up how to make them and it was SO intimidating.  It took me a long time to work up the nerve to attempt to make them, but I'm so glad I did!

This is the first one I made, for my niece.


One of the things I love about these blankets is that they are SO forgiving of mistakes.  I don't think any of my lines are straight, but you can't really tell with the finished project.

See? Looks like I was sewing while under the influence!

This is the one I made for my nephew


This is one I made for a lady at my church.
 
 

l

This one for my sister.  I love the neapolitan chenille part.

 





And all four in their faux chenille glory....





I also have another one planned, but have to wait to order the fabric though.  Now that I've gotten all the photo sharing out of my system (I really love taking pictures of them!), I can get to work on the tutorial for you guys!

Simplicity 2373 Pattern Review

During my blog hiatus last month I did something it took me a long time to work up the courage to do.  I made a dress for myself.  Using a REAL pattern even!  During one of Joann's big pattern sales several months back I picked up Simplicity 2373. 

 

I loved the dress so much.  I even went to the trouble of ordering the same fabric online.  Then the pattern and fabric sat in a box for awhile, because I was too scared to attempt it.  After a month or so I finally decided to attempt a muslin mock-up.  It turned out horrible. So I tried again using some quilters cotton I had an abundance of.  It came out even worse.  It was too big and looked horrible. This was probably a combination of a couple things, such as the sizing I went by on the back of the pattern, and that the pattern on the fabric was HORRENDOUS. Neon rainbow stripes horrendous.That was enough to scare me into putting the pattern away for a couple more months.

But then the warmer weather started making its appearance here in Oregon, and I wanted some cute dresses to wear.  So I decided to toss caution to the wind, try again, and even use my nice fabric for it.  The gamble paid off, the dress turned out and I love it!

The dress on Monica.  Yes, I named my mannequin.

 I made several changes to it though.  To fix the size issue, I looked towards the bottom on the back and looked at the Finished measurements, then went with that size, rather than looking at the top tables and going by what those measurements said.  This gave me a much better fit. With the practice dresses I made I felt like the bodice came too high up on me, so rather than adjusting the pattern to make it lower, I just omitted the top band.  To sew the bodice this way, I sewed the main fabric bodice pieces together, then the lining bodice pieces together, and basted them WRONG sides together.  Then I attached black single fold bias tape on the vertical seams, and used black double fold bias tape at the top.

One of the problems I encountered on my practice dresses was the gathering on the skirt part.  A search of the world wide web for reviews turned up that I wasn't the only one who had the problem.  It made the dress look very maternal (and the woman wearing it look very pregnant).  Not so much the look I was going for.  Several of the reviewers suggested trying pleats or darts instead, so that is what I did.

There might be a better way to figure out pleats, but I don't know it.  I laid my bodice out flat (the front and back were sewn together at one side at this point, but not the other) and then laid out my two skirt pieces (that I had sewn together on one side and already hemmed) right below it, matching up the side seams.  Then I just pinched the fabric and formed/ironed the pleats until the front skirt was the same width as the bodice front, then same for the back.  From there I pinned the pleats and sewed them down a couple inches. 

When it comes to attaching the zipper, I have an easier time doing the zipper first, then sewing the rest of the side together, so thats what I did. 

The straps seemed too wide to me, so I trimmed them down, and then just used double fold bias tape on the edges so I didn't have to turn and top-stitch them. After trying it on I decided it still didn't look quite finished, so I added the black band right under the bodice. 

 

I love it!

In fact I loved it so much that I made another one the next day, in this super cute cherry fabric.



Overall, I think it is a great pattern and I really love the style.  The instructions were hard for me to follow, which very well might have just been my inability to read a pattern, so after the two practice dresses were FAILS, I ditched the instructions and used my knowledge of garment construction to figure it out myself.  The sewing techniques required for this dress aren't very hard at all. I used my serger for some things, but a serger definitely isn't required.  The only stitch I used on my sewing machine was a straight stitch.  I think this dress would be fairly easy for someone who has basic knowledge of garment construction (or can read a pattern and follow directions better than me!) and knows how to use bias tape (if you do it my way instead of theirs and using ribbon). 

Good luck!  I hope my review and breakdown of adjustments I made was helpful to you!

Crayon Roll tutorial

This tutorial has been moved over to my craft blog- Cautiously Crafty. Come on over!

Organization: Mini Fabric Bolts

Lately my fabric has gotten kinda outta control.  It used to be neatly stored in those Rubbermaid 3 drawer carts (and a huge cardboard box next to them).  Then it exploded and was taking over the entire downstairs.  While browsing the web and my crafting forums I happened across several references to "mini-bolts" of fabric. What are mini-bolts exactly?  They are ridiculously adorable baby bolts of fabric.  Someone somewhere at some point in time had the genius idea to take comic book boards and use them to wrap their fabric around, making a mini-bolt of fabric.  These ones are 6.75 by 10.5 inches, some out there are 8.5 by 11 inches, and there are other sizes as well.

I hate ordering things online though, because then I have to WAIT for them to arrive.  I'm an instant gratification kinda girl. In my internet perusing I saw several people say they used regular old foam-core board (the kind you get by the poster board).  I decided that's the method I would take because then I could run out and get them and get started on my reorganization RIGHT THEN. So I did.  I picked up four boards, they were 20x30 inches.  I cut each board into 8 pieces, measuring 7.5 by 10 inches.

To wrap my fabric around the mini-bolt I laid it out and folded it selvedge to selvedge (the way it comes on the bolt at the store). Then I fold it into thirds so it is just a little bit shorter than the mini-bolt.  Place the piece of foam-core at one end and roll the fabric around it.  Use a pin to secure the end when you're finished.  VOILA adorable baby bolt. I've spent the past week or so (on and off) doing this to all my fabric.  Then yesterday I went and picked up one of those 9 cube storage things. Unfortunately it wouldn't fit downstairs with the rest of my sewing stuff, so I did some rearranging and now it happily resides in my bedroom closet where I can admire it before bed. 



ugh.  Isn't that just beautiful?  Looking at it just fills me with happy.  My fabric is all nice and displayed, I can see what I have and can easily pick and pair combos.  and its just so gorgeous! I'm in love.  Seriously.  My impatience definitely paid off though.  If I had been willing to wait and ordered comic book boards, they wouldn't have fit on the shelves.  These however fit PERFECTLY.  I have wanted one of these 9 cube storage shelves for an eternity but was never sure what I would do with them.  Now I have one and the perfect use for it, and have I mentioned how wonderful it looks?  I just love the sight of all my fabric displayed in such a neat and organized fashion.

 Mini-bolts of fabric=WIN.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with my fat quarters and scraps.