Vintage Lace Lust

When asked, “What would be the one thing you would grab if your house was burning down?”…most people would automatically say, “photographs.”  Not me.  Oh no.  I’ve made it clear to my family they are to take my two drawers of vintage lace and tatting.  Seriously.  (Not to worry, all important photographs are archived off-premises.)

Since I started sewing almost 10 years ago, I’ve amassed a nice “collection” of some of the yummiest lace—needlerun, Alencon, Bucks Point, Valenciennes, Point de Paris, etc. and vintage tatting.  I only use these on special occasions—when making a Christening Dress or something over the top.

But yesterday, I found Marielle checking out my lace stash as I was reorganizing my sewing studio.  She begged me to make her a lace headband to wear out at night.  So, being the wonderful mother I am, I whipped up a quick headband for her.

Simply measure a piece of lace to go around the head minus 5 or so inches.  Fold each end of the lace into a “V” (aka point).  Stitch to secure.  Then all you have to do is add some elastic to it.  Pretty simple, huh?

I’m in the middle of expanding my sewing studio.  I’ve been at it for almost a week now and probably have another 2 weeks or so until it’s useable.  I’ve managed to fold and put away all my fabric and trims.  That alone took 4 days! 

If I ever think about buying more flannel fabric at Joann’s Black Friday 99 cents sale, please smack me upside the head. I just realized I have more than 200 yards.

Yesterday, I moved my big filing cabinets.  Today I’ll be moving my black metal fabric storage cabinets to another area.  Thank goodness for those nifty furniture sliders.

Moving stuff around is not really the problem.  It’s trying to figure out how to supply electric and internet connections to my office area on the other side of the basement where there is none.  Wish me luck…I need it!

Fabric Hall of Shame™

Now you have all drooled over my beautiful organized fabric cabinets, right?

And my tidy sewing room?  Well, this doesn’t tell the whole story…not even close.

See, this part of my sewing room is a mere 1/4 of the space in my dungeon that holds all my fabric, trims, sewing machines and other notions.  The rest of the space is like my dirty little secret and it makes me feel like a fraud.  Seriously.

So I decided I’m just going to come clean.  And I know I’m not alone, because I watched two Hoarders episodes, both of which “collected” massive amounts of fabric and other crafting supplies.

Here’s my Fabric Hall of Shame™ which includes fabric, trims and notions that have yet to be organized.  Some of them are sitting there for more than 2 years now.  And of course, there’s even more fabric in all those boxes.

Seems I make way too many purchases, stack them on the pile and leave them there for “another day.”  And when I do use fabric, I don’t refold the remaining fabric from a project.  I just throw it on the pile.  LAZY.

Around the other side are the 16 feet of industrial cutting tables I bought more than 3 years ago—-laying unassembled up against the wall.  Next to that is the 30 yards of batting that I just had to have during one of Joann Fabric’s blowout sales 5 years ago.  Oh, did I mention, I’ve only used 2 yards of that batting since I purchased it?

To the side of that are several mannequins (4), dress forms(5), empty storage bins (20) and shelving (10).

And tucked in the corner are 4 industrial sewing machines which I HAVE NEVER even turned on!!!!  They’ve been sitting there for almost 4 years now.

I know I’m going to Sewing Hell™.  I know they say, “Whoever dies with the most fabric wins!”  But it’s not working for me.  I simply have more stuff than I will use in two lifetimes and I’m not using the stuff that would create my ultimate sewing room.

My entire basement dungeon is approximately 25” x 35”.  There is a small laundry area and office.  The rest is all sewing and craft stuff.  So, it’s not like I don’t have the room.  I just need to get it all organized.

I’ve spent the last two days trying to make a dent in the Fabric Hall of Shame™.  I’m making some progress and hope I don’t give up before it’s organized.  Ok…now show me yours!

Got Ink? Silhouette SD Tattoos, Giveaways, Tutorials and Promos

Let me tell you…everyday I’m finding more and more uses for my Silhouette SD Electronic Cutter!  It does vinyl decals, cardstock die cuts, rhinestone transfers, glass etching, fabric appliqués, magnets and now printable Tattoos!  I can’t take it…LOL!

This year’s BBQ theme is “I LOVE NY!”  So, guess what kind of tattoos I’ll be making for the kiddos?  Yep!  The Temporary Tattoo Instructions were easy to follow.

This month’s Silhouette Promotion:

For only $199 You Will Get…

- Silhouette SD Electronic Cutting Machine

- 2 packs of Temporary Tattoo Paper

(that’s a $120 Savings!)

If you already are lucky enough to own a Silhouette, you can take 25% off all supplies in their store (excluding gift cards and download codes).  This promotion runs until June 29th.  Just enter promo code “DIVA” at checkout to get the discount!

Giveaways, Tutorials and Promotion Around the Web

Check out all the following blogs for current Silhouette SD cutting machine GIVEAWAYS, Tutorials and Promotions:

Tip Junkie

Better After

How Does She

Southern Savers

Motherhood Your Way

Design Dazzle

My Charming Kids

The Shopping Mama

Crafts by Amanda

Zakka Life

Sew Mama Sew

Funky Junk Interiors

Givers Log

The Shopping Mama

My Repurposed Life

Every Creative Endeavor

Whipperberry

I Am Momma…Hear Me Roar

Lil Blue Boo

Infarrantly Creative

Tea Rose Home

Positively Splendid

The Shabby Nest

Little Birdie Secrets

Sugar Bee Crafts

Honey We’re Home

Shanty 2 Chic

Scissors & Spatulas

Oopsey Daisy

The Crafting Chicks

Crap I’ve Made

Sew Dang Cute

Eighteen 25

Living with Lindsay

Craftaholics Anonymous

I Heart Naptime

Sugar Doodle

Sumo’s Sweet Stuff

The Idea Room

Keeping It Simple

Cake Push Up Pops and a Prom

CAKE PUSH UP POPS

Had to get together a quick dessert for the Pre-Prom party.  Quick like as in within an hour.  I had ordered some disposable plastic push-up pop containers a month ago and figured it was time to test them out.

Here’s a list of places to find them in larger quantities.  However, head on over to Etsy.com or Ebay.com if you just need a dozen or two.

JB Prince

Laguana Wholesale

Culinary Direct (I think they have the best prices)

Martellatousa

Cake Deco via Amazon

Push Pop Containers

Pastry Chef Central

Now you can bake little cupcakes in mini muffin pans, but I took whatever shortcut I could.  I went into my local supermarket’s Bakery department and asked them to give me a small vanilla sheet cake without frosting.  I also picked up Jell-O Vanilla and Chocolate Pudding, some fresh Strawberries and a few cans of Whipped Cream.

Brought it all home and used my cake leveler thingy to slice the cake in half.  I then used the round part of the plunger of the push-up pop as my template to cut out small circles from the sheet cakes (got the idea from Kathy).  Worked like a charm!

I was about to put the pudding in a Ziploc bag and cut a hole at the end to fill the push-up pops.  But then I remembered I had a nifty Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator in my arsenal.  Yeah me!  You could also just use a disposable pastry bag.

I alternated layers of cake, pudding and strawberries.  Then I put them in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.  Right before I was walking out the door to the party, I added a little whipped cream on the top and some sprinkles.  Done!

Here’s some ideas for your Push-Up Pops:

Triple Rainbow Push-Up Cakes

Gourmet Mom on the Go Fireworks

Sugar Bee’s Frozen Yogurt Pops

More Gourmet Mom on the Go

Firefly Confection’s Watermelon Pops

Party Animal’s Rainbow Jello

Party Animal’s Hot Fudge Brownies

Cupcake Project Cupcakes

Cupcake Project’s Key Lime

Love From the Oven Peeps

Brandy K’s Rainbow Push Cakes

Laguna’s Recipes

Now you could buy expensive push-up pop holders like these:

JB Prince

Culinary Direct

Pastry Chef Central

But unless you are really fancy, there just no need!  You can have your handy husband drill some holes halfway into a piece of wood.  Or if you don’t have a handy husband, just get a piece of Styrofoam and poke holes in it with a screwdriver (like I did).

If you have a lot of time on your hands, you could easily cover the Styrofoam with either shredded paper grass or wrapping paper.

The cake push-up pops were a hit!  Next time I will make cute decals for them with my Silhouette Electronic Cutting Machine and even tie some pretty bows on them.

Oh and in case you didn’t know, these push up pop containers are WASHABLE and REUSABLE.  But how do you stop guests from NOT throwing them in the trash?

PROM PRINCESS

Grabbed a few quick pics of Marielle leaving for her HS Prom.  The dress fit like a glove.  So glad it all went smoothly.  Between her arguing with friends and dumping her boyfriend two weeks before the prom, I didn’t think it was going to happen.  But luckily, everything worked out and she’s having a blast down the NJ Shore over the next few days.

 

Between the dress, hair, make-up application, jewelry, prom tickets, limo costs, tanning, waxing, new teeth, NYC party, NJ shore party money and eyelash extensions, it’s lucky I didn’t go broke.

When I graduated high school, it wasn’t cool to go to the Prom.  My friends and I chipped in for a keg of beer and partied down at the beach.  How times how changed!

Sewing Here and Around the Web

SEW PARALYZED

Good news…darling daughter decided she didn’t need me to add a slit to her lined sequined prom gown.  Whew!  But I still had to hem it…both the lining and the dress itself.  Easy enough, I thought.  Wrong again.

See, I have a habit of “imagining” I have these advance sewing skills.  In my mind, I tell myself, “No problem.  I can easily do that.”  But then reality sets in (usually the night before a deadline) and I panic.  Often I am paralyzed with fear of screwing up.  I have thoughts of ruining the fabric with a slip of the rotary cutter, hemming something too short, or any number of things that can’t be fixed.  Truth is I’m usually winging it…trial and error (with mostly errors).  But last night, I had to suck it up and get it done.

The satin lining had a scalloped rolled hem.  I needed to take off about an inch.  Being that I’ve never perfected the rolled hem, I opted to finish the raw edge with a 4-thread overlock stitch, press up the hem and do a simple edge stitch.  It came out decent enough for a slip (no one is going to inspect it, I hope).

 

Next dilemma…trying to mark a cutting line on the sequin/beaded gown.  You simple cannot mark this fabric with anything…I tried chalk (which just made a mess of my cutting table) and  tape (I couldn’t curve it).  Neither solution worked.

Then I got the bright idea to baste the cutting line on my sewing machine.  I used blue painter’s tape to mark the 4 inches distance for the basting.  Basting such thin fabric just ended up making it gather randomly.  I tried doing it on the sewing machine, but kept breaking needles (even metallic/sharp needles).  At this point, all I wanted to do was stick a needle in my eye.

I decided to just “eyeball” it.  Not perfect, but good enough.  I cut away all the sequins and beads in the path of the needle and did a 3-thread rolled hem on the serger. Worked pretty good.  And she’ll only be wearing the dress for 3 or 4 hours.  Then the gown will be thrown in the bottom of her suitcase never to be worn again.

I have to spend today cleaning up the mess the darn sequins and beads made.  They are everywhere!  Never again will I sew with this type of fabric.  I detest it.

 

But really…it could have been so much worse.  Originally, she wanted me to alter this teal sequin gown (pictured above) from my wedding (20 years ago!!!).  It’s fully sequined, lined and has boning.  Thankfully, she picked out the brown sequin gown and it’s done!  I’ll post pictures of her in the brown gown tomorrow after prom.

SEWING AROUND THE WEB

Here’s an easier way to sew an elastic casing:  Elastic Casing

Luvininthemommyhood posted about How the Heck to Buy and Choose a Sewing Machine

Wildflowers and Whimsy has a great Bustle Back Dress Tutorial posted.

Pam Enry (one of the most talented shirt makers around) shows us how to sew a designer elasticated casing.

Laurie Anderson shares a great Lace Insertion Tutorial.

Check out Dawn’s (Olabelhe) new sewing room!!!  WOW!

Happy Sewing!

With friendship,

Lisa

Sewing Mojo Continues

THE SEWING MOJO CONTINUES

Trying hard to keep the sewing momentum going!  So far, so good.

Tuesday I spent most of the morning in the sewing room trying to put a dent in the silk curtains.  Pressing up side hems and stitching them down.  Boring.  Yep…but it’s got to be done.  Sewing isn’t always glamorous.  LOL

I still need to I finish the top headers and will have to wait until the curtain rods are hung at the store to determine the exact length needed.  I put the silk curtains in the UFO pile.  They’ll just have to wait for another day the deadline.

On Wednesday, I decided I needed something fun to sew.  Those silk curtains were sucking the life out of me.  I purchased this cute Baby Ruffle Pants pattern by Bettsy Kingston.  I like that there was an additional additional technique on her website.  However, because I’m a genius, I decided on a completely different construction technique.

I first serged the pant leg openings, stitched on the elastic, flipped the pant leg seam in and stitched it down to the wrong side…all the time stretching the elastic while I sewed.  I thought it would be much easier to sew the elastic in the pants legs while flat.  Not easier…just faster.

I then made the ruffle strips (rolled hem edges) and gathered them to fit the pants.  It was then I realized the ruffles were not full enough.  That’s probably because I didn’t bother measuring exactly how long I would need them. Typical Diva disaster.

No big deal.  I’ll use the first ruffles to embellish a matching baby top or dress.  So on Thursday,  I made another bunch of ruffles on my sewing machine using my ruffler foot and made them extra long so I’d have plenty of ruffles to fit.

See…now that’s some ruffles!  I had to admire them all day Friday.

Then today, I once again, deviated from the instructions.  Instead of stitching the top ruffle first, I opted to start from the bottom ruffle and work my way up to the top ruffle.  The reason being, both long edges of the ruffles have rolled hems and it’s not necessary to attach right sides together, flip and topstitch.  If I was working with an unfinished edge, I would have followed the instructions.  Well, probably not, because I’m a rebel like that.

I was pleased with the way the ruffled bloomers came out.  Aren’t they stinkin’ cute?  My feeling is one can never overdo ruffles.

Now onto the next sewing adventure.  I really need to get serious here.  My daughter just handed me her lined sequined prom gown and requested that add a slit up the leg and hem it 4 inches.  That would be good and fine is I knew how to do it.  I am so going to have to wing this.  Anyone have ANY experience working with sequins and linings?  I’m desperate.  Oh and she needs it for Wednesday.  Yep.  That’s a mere 4 days from now.  HELP!!!

SEWING AROUND THE WEB

The Train to Crazy’s Children’s Summer Clothes Tutorial Roundup has tons of great links!  Check it out!

Look at this clever sewing invention…it’s a Seam Allowance Guide for your scissors!

Did you know about the Olfa Rotary Arm Guide for rotary cutting?  I must live under a rock.

With friendship,

Lisa

Sewing Mojo – Day 1 and Other Sewing Around the Web

DAY 1 

In an attempt to get my sewing mojo back, I chained myself to my sewing machine for 1 hour Monday morning. I am forcing myself to spend 1 hour each weekday in hopes of finishing up UFOs and creating new stuff.

 

First up, I finally finished my Godchild’s doll cradle bedding.  Umm…like this has been laying in my sewing room for months.  Made a fitted sheet, a baby doll quilt and a pillow.

I think I procrastinated as I have no idea how to quilt.  It’s just not my thing.  My dilemma was adding ruffles to a doll quilt.  Couldn’t figure out how to bind it with a ruffle.  So I just did the old sandwich method (the quilt back is not attached via quilting).

Next up, my BFF, Diana Bagels, asked me to make curtains for her soon-to-be remodeled Bagel store.  Simple enough you say?  Well, it required 20 yards of silk dupioni.  That’s a lot of fabric to deal with.  Seriously.  But the good news is I scored at Joann’s!  They were having a Red Tag Sale on their Home Decor fabrics.  I was able to get 54” decorator silk dupioni for a mere $4 a yard!

Being that the fabric was 54” long, I needed to piece together two different colors to get the required length for the windows.  Ugh.  But I did it.  Now I’m working on all the side seams.  That should keep me busy for a day or three.

SEWING AROUND THE WEB

Check these out:

OMG!  One of my Facebook friends turned me onto The Bitchy Stitcher blog.  Check it out!

Carla (aka The Scientific Seamstress) redid her Sewing Lab and created an awesome Period Table of Sewing Elements printable!  Thanks Carla!

Joanna from Fig Tree Quilts shares with us her easy Appliqué Starch Method on Sew Mama Sew.  How clever!

Check out Heather at Extra Frosting Please.  She created these neat wall print with free printables over on 30 Days of Handmade.

What’s going on in your sewing room these days?

With friendship,

Lisa