Keeping those hands busy!

When we were heading out on our driving vacation to our friends house in Cincinnatti, we brought gifts.  The night before heading out I realized we didn’t have anything for Kelly (Steve was getting beer…a total man gift!), so I worked on this apron for her.  Again, no real pattern, just made it up as I went along.  I should have made the strap over the head a little shorter, but overall I was really happy with this one.  It is fully lined and looks the same on the opposite side.  I had a ton of this print, so I was super happy to get to use some of it up.

That night I also finally tried making a freezer paper stencil.  Basically, you take freezer paper and trace out your pattern.  Next, using little scissors, cut the pattern out for the stencil.  Then you will use a dry iron and iron the stencil on the shirt with the shiny side facing the fabric.  Next, take your fabric paint (I bought mine at Michael’s) and using a stencil brush gently blot the paint on the shirt.  Remember when stenciling to not load up the brush with too much paint.  Also…IMPORTANT…put something between the layers of shirt or else the paint will bleed onto the back of the shirt.  I just used some cardboard cut to size.  When it is all dry, iron the shirt to set the paint.  I was pretty happy with my first attempt. 

This next item is an embroidery I did in the car while on the trip.  I traced out one of my drawings with a fabric pencil on this Old Navy plain knit shirt.  In order to keep it from stretching too much, I put Stitch n’ Tear behind the drawing and placed it in a small embroidery hoop.  Next, was about 12 hours…on and off…of work.  Yeah, I’m sure she really appreciates how long it took. 😉  I forgot the papers I had printed off of the different stitches, so I did it from memory.  There are some not so good areas, but overall I like how it turned out.  This is post-washing after the first wear…thankfully the stain came out.  Yeah…didn’t take her long! 

Next, I made a few Barbie clothes, but I’m just showing the 70’s wedding dress right now.  Doesn’t Cinderella’s bee-hive hairdo fit it perfectly??  It was mostly machine sewed, but the beading was done during the roadtrip.  There are a few random beads rolling around on Brian’s car floor right now.  😉 It’s nothing spectacular, but for my first attempt I wanted to keep it simple.  The lace on it were lace collars I had sitting around with no use.   They worked perfectly for the dress!  Anya said it was, “Beautiful!” and wants more.  Mayhaps for Christmas.

I didn’t sew anything last week.  I had big plans for the weekend, but they didn’t get done.  I spent some time organizing my fabric and taking stuff out that I wanted to use for the kids’ Fall/Winter wardrobes.  I intend to get things cut up first and then I can sew when possible.  We will be starting on our basement at some point, so I don’t know how long I have before it gets moved to the dining room table and much less space.  If I have it all ready to sew, then it will be a lot easier and less messy.  I actually found an outfit for Anya that I made her this spring…it still fits even!  I will get a picture of it this week to share.  I do have to sew up a Mei Tai for a baby shower present by Saturday.  It’s all cut and ready to sew.  Big plans this week…as usual. 🙂