I've Been Selfish

I've Been Selfish... #Selfish Sewing that is!

While I didn't get as much made during Selfish Sewing week as I wanted to, I'm very happy with what I did manage to accomplish.

First off was the open wide pouch I made on Monday:



Then there was this teapot cozy I made on Wednesday and then improved on Thursday:

The first version (above): The "spout" was a little too high, the top was a little too angled, and there was a centimeter gap at the bottom.  Plus I thought I'd like it in linen and I ended up thinking it was too boring.  The improved version (below) fixed all of these problems.





And finally there was the Miz Mozelle dress I started Thursday night and worked on on Friday (but still haven't quite finished yet):










My thoughts?

The open wide pouch was a lot of fun to make and I really like how easy it is to see everything inside of it.  I ordered a 50 pack of zippers from Zipit on Etsy so you can be sure that there will be MANY more of these in the future.

The teapot cozy was fun to make and I love that it looks like a teapot.  My first draft of the pattern was just a large half circle that covered the whole thing and it was just SO BORING.  This cute tailored cozy is much better, though to be honest it's probably much more difficult to get on the pot than the half circle would have been.

The Miz Mozelle dress pattern is AMAZING.  I was a size 18 based on my bust measurement and it fits me so well and is really comfortable.  The keyhole is a bit large and shows quite a bit of cleavage on me, but the hubs said it's his favorite part (go figure) and it makes it so that I can nurse the Little so I'm okay with it.  I used a heavier stabilizer in the collar than I should have and that's what I'm attributing my collar problems to.  I think I'm going to take the whole collar off and make a new one.  The pattern was easy to follow but it did have a few techniques I had never done before, but the instructions and images were clear enough that I had no problems figuring it out.  The fabric I used was a rayon jersey and it was great to work with.  My serger is currently out of commission until I get a new needle so I used a ballpoint needle on my regular sewing machine with a stretch stitch and it worked great.  All in all I think I'm going to make a few more of these dresses if I can find cute enough fabric.  I'd love to find a cream stretch lace to make a black and white version of this dress. 

And my thoughts on Selfish Sewing week in particular?  Do it.  Be selfish.  Just do it.  It's was great to take a little it of time to make something for myself.  I was so excited to get in the sewing room every day knowing that what I was making was just for me, just because I wanted to make it, and that I had no deadline to meet.  I  highly recommend being a little selfish to everyone.

Also, be sure to check out the Selfish Sewing Flickr group.  There are so many great projects on there that I now have about 10 new patterns that I'm dying to try.

And what about you?  How have you been selfish recently (either sewing related or just treating yourself well)?

P.S. You'll have to forgive the way I look in the pictures.  I had just managed to get the Little down for a few minutes and wanted the hubs to get a few shots of the dress in progress, so I had no time to do hair or makeup or anything.  I'm laughing in the second photo because the baby had already woken up again.  Figures.

WIP Wednesday 9-25-13

I'm sad to say that I have no #SelfishSewing to report for yesterday.  I didn't get any "me" time until after 8PM and when I finally did have time to myself I edited photos instead of sitting down at the sewing machine.  But I am happy to say that I went through all of my photos from 2012 and 2013 and discovered that I have photos of over 40 projects that haven't been blogged about.  I edited photos for ALL of these projects so hopefully there will be many many blog posts from me in the future.

In the meantime, going back to my WIP blog post from last week, I spent the remainder of last week organizing my sewing room.  It always ends up being a MUCH bigger task than I imagine it will be.

It went from this:

 to this:

Have you had the urge to organize anything lately?

***disclaimer: these photos do not represent the entirety of my sewing room.  To see photos of my whole sewing room check out this post

A Little Bit of #SelfishSewing to Report

In between taking care of the Little and trying to get the house in order I managed to be a little bit #selfish today and made my first ever open wide zippered pouch using Noodlehead's tutorial. 

Super straightforward and easy to follow, I think it took me around an hour and a half to make this beauty.  She's perfect to sit next to my machine and hold all of my scissors and other things I need to have handy all the time.  I made her out of some sewing themed fabrics I've been hoarding for awhile and I love it.

...And it's okay that I was selfish today because yesterday night was dedicated to making a wet bag and bib for the newest Hoffling.  These will be going out to my friend Rebeckah's first nephew who was just born on Saturday night.

Speaking of selfish... on the birthday front a present arrived today from my sister in Hawaii.  She painted all of my favorite books like they were sitting on a bookshelf together.  I love it (and I love her).  It's totally going up in my sewing room with the other paintings she's painted me over the years.

Are you making anything #selfish this week?

It's Time For Some #Selfish Sewing!

I've been working hard making gifts for others that I really think it's about time I made something for myself.  It also helps that it's my birthday this week and if you can't be a little selfish on your birthday then when can you be? 

Thinking about it the last thing I sewed for myself was a nursing cover, but that doesn't really count, so that means that the last thing I sewed for myself was my camera bag that I made to go to Sewing Summit last October... so it's been 11 months since I've done any selfish sewing.  Yep, it's definitely about time.

I have no idea yet what I'll make, but I do have a few things I've been wanting to sew that keep getting pushed to the back burner, so maybe I'll focus on one of them.

Little Moments

Little moments like this are so sweet.  Like when I look over after writing a blog post and see this precious beauty and immediately have to post again to share the moment with the rest of you.

#TBT Throwback Thursdays

A few weeks ago I had what I thought was a brilliant and original idea for a linky party, only to discover that someone else had beat be to the punch! (disclaimer: I still think that it's a brilliant idea, and I'm super happy that someone else started it first, since that means less work for me since I don't have to organize anything)

So without any adieu... enter #Throwback Thursdays

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#Throwback Thursdays at Quiltin' Jenny is an opportunity to blog about and share all of those projects from your past that never got their day in the spotlight, and believe me I have TONS of those.  The number of projects I've made and never blogged about probably outnumber the number of projects I have blogged about (and that's not even counting all the stuff I made for the baby since I still have plans to blog about all that).

And since today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day (aarrrggg!) I thought for my first #TBT I'd show you the Halloween costumes I made the hubs and I five years ago.

For his costume I made the coat, shirt, and pants using Simplicity 4923, and for the sash and boot tops I made my own pattern.

For my costume I used a pattern for the corset (which I can't find anymore and can't locate online, but it was either Simplicity, Butterick, or McCalls), but for the bloomers (which you can see better in the second photo), skirt, arm bands, and undershirt (since I was uncomfortable with the amount the corset showed) I made up my own pattern. 

(You'll have to forgive my attempt at a saucy pirate wench pose, I never dreamed at the time that this photo would be seen by anyone but the hubs and I, much less that it would end up being blogged about)

The hubs has gotten some use out of his pirate coat over the years but I've never stepped out of the house in my pirate wench costume, it ended up being WAY to revealing.  If we ever decide to be pirates again I'll probably re-make my costume, and next time I'll make it with a coat so I don't freeze to death Trick or Treating.

Do you have any past projects still waiting for their day in the spotlight?  Link up with us over at Quiltin' Jenny for #TBT Throwback Thursday and share!

WIP Wednesday 9-18-13

If you saw my post from Monday you would know that I was almost done with my Japanese + and x quilt when I realized that I had messed up on the binding at one point and would have to go back and fix it.  Well, I finally got around to doing that yesterday, so now I'm happy to say that I'm 100% done with the quilt.  Of course, today of all days it's overcast outside so I'll have to take photos of the quilt later this week.

In the meantime the overcast weather seems to have put me into a cleaning and organizing mood because I've decided to re-organize my fabric storage.  Of course I have no before photos (I'm never that organized), but I do have a few photos of how it all looks mid-organizing.

These shelves are the shelves that inspired me to re-organize.  This space in my sewing room used to have a dresser that held all of my "other" fabric (all the non quilters cotton), but when we did the nursery we moved the dresser into the nursery and my sewing room got this cabinet that we found on the side of the road in our neighborhood.

Before the reorganization started the bottom two shelves looked like the way the bottom shelf does now, and the second shelf had a few large folds of quilters cotton cotton in it, and the top shelf housed all of my fat quarter stacks and precuts.  I've pretty much left the top shelf alone, but I put all of my "special collection" quilters cotton from my other fabric shelves on the second shelf where they can be a little more on display and are less likely to get dusty since they're behind glass.  I also put all of my garment making fabric onto boards to make mini bolts and put all of those on the third shelf down.  They go: linens, flannel, cotton, voile, corduroy, jersey knit.  I still haven't decided what I'm going to do about the bottom shelf.

Once I moved my "special collection" fabrics off of these shelves I cleared up quite a bit of room so I was able to add some new fabric I've bought recently (I'll show photos later), as well as give my stash a bit more wiggle room.  Before they had been so tightly jammed in there that you couldn't pull anything out without pulling a bunch of boards out at the same time.  While I was in the precess of moving the mini bolts around I decided to make it prettier by putting them in rainbow order (they were already grouped by color, but the colors were on the shelves in a random order based on how they could fit), and now they look much better.

Now it's a lot easier for me to see what fabrics are where, and hopefully it will inspire me to make more projects using my stash.

My goal for the rest of the week is to finish organizing that bottom shelf and to get started again on my WIP list from the beginning of the year.  I definitely got sidetracked a bit from the list and only got a few of the things off of the top of the list done.  Since many of the items are Christmas-themed items I really want to get back to them and get them done before the holiday season starts.

I also have a quilt to make for my sister's first baby who's due in December.  She's having a monster themed nursery in lilac and green and I think the Giggle and Squeak pattern from SUCH Designs is going to look great in the colors she chose.

What's on your WIP list this week?

Little Mistakes...

Blarg.  I hate it when I think I'm done and then realize that I made a mistake and have to go back and fix it.

Well at least it was a little mistake, and I'm glad I caught it before I sent the quilt off. 

Have any of you made any "little mistakes" like this recently?

(Also, who else is a huge Liz Lemon fan?)

Almost finished up...

Almost done with the quilting on this one.  I just need to quilt the border and then add the binding.





It will have to wait though until after my husband and I take the baby to the park.

I love Saturdays.

WIP Wednesday 9-11-13

I've had these Japanese + and x blocks for awhile now and am finally putting the quilt top together.  These are the blocks from the Believe circle at Do. Good Stitches from February that I was supposed to put together and quilt months ago.  Alas, pregnancy and motherhood and all that goes with that got in the way and I'm only now getting it done.

The new design wall I hung over the closet doors in my sewing room has definitely helped me in putting this quilt top together.  Before I had it up I had pulled the blocks out several times and tried to figure out how I would piece them together, but without being able to see them all at once I was at a loss as to what to do.  With the help of the design wall I was able to arrange them all in a way that I thought looked good.

Since the top was sort of on the small side I added a 6" border of Kona Bone.  I have a pretty blue voile fabric that I bought to back this baby, and I hope to get to that either later today or tomorrow.  I also have some pretty ambitious plans for how I'm going to quilt it, so hopefully they work out and the quilt looks good, otherwise I have no idea how I'll quilt it.

Linking up to:

The Past Eight Months

How the time flies!  I knew I had been neglecting my blog but it's hard for me to come to terms with the fact that it's been eight months since my last post... and even that was just a quick post and not anything substantial.

What have I been up to?  Well, I had a baby, and since she's been born I've spent all my time loving her and thinking about how utterly perfect I think she is.

Honestly though, in the two months since I gave birth I haven't done a whole lot of sewing, but in the months leading up to her birth I was sewing like crazy, so I hope to be able to start posting about all that stuff I made as soon as I finish taking pictures of it.

In the meantime, here's a recap of my past 8 months, Instagram style:

And while I'm at it, since I missed the big exodus from Google Reader to Bloglovin' because I was in a hospital giving birth, I'll use this post to claim my blog on Bloglovin'.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin'

***All photos on this blog, unless otherwise noted, are the sole property of Stephanie Granite and may not be used without expressed written permission.***