Wild and Free Clutches

Hi everyone...I survived quilt market!! Woohoo! Quilt market at 7 mo. pregnant is not quite the same as it was last year. I came home and took a five hour nap yesterday and hit the ground running today. Look for a full Quilt Market post tomorrow, but today I wanted to quickly show a couple more of the items that I made for Maureen Cracknell's Quilt Market booth.

I had a couple of trial panels laying around from the Garden Tiles bag I made for her so I thought I stitch them up into a pair of cute clutches.

They have recessed zippers in the top. I experimented with a couple different ways of inserting the zipper, but sadly didn't get a shot of them.  

I also added a little ring to the side and tassles made from the left over knit fabric. I love this little detail. It gives you a little something to hold onto.


So there you have it. It is fun to be able to experiment and play with such pretty fabric. 
Thanks Maureen!

Meredith's Dress Mash Up

Mer has been dreaming up dresses lately. We decided that if we were going to get good at making dresses we like we better start practicing. She designs them and I sew them up.  Someday I hope she'll have a little more interest in sewing but for now it's fun to try to recreate her visions. 


This is just a "muslin".  It was our practice dress to make sure we got everything right before cutting into this pretty Ponte de Roma from Girl Charlee.


It still needs a little tweaking. We used the top of this dress...

and bottom of this one as the inspiration for the pattern,


The fabric is Laguna Cotton Stretch Jersey from Robert Kaufman.  It made one super comfortable dress. I wish it fit me. I might have to size it up and make a maternity version of this. :)

 The jersy has a bit less structure than the Ponte de Roma that we plan on using so it will be interesting to see how the next one turns out. 

 The waistline turned out a little big and the bodice was a little too long so I added a little casing for some elastic. It totally solved the problem I think.  I'm going to change the pattern a bit for our next try though.

I do have one request...will someone PLEASE tell me how to hem with a double needle so the fabric doesn't bump out between the stitch lines.

Other than the hemline, I love how this turned out! What do you think?

 Stay tuned for the next version.

Sewing with "Wild & Free"

 I've received some lovely shipments of Art Gallery Fabric over the last couple of weeks and I'm super excited to share with you today some of the projects I sewed up with them. Maureen Cracknell has a new fabric line that she'll be debuting at Quilt Market next week. It's called Wild and Free.  She sent me a few of her precious strike offs to play with and sew up some handbags for her booth.

 The 2 prints on the right and left are actually knits.  Jersey with spandex knits. They are luscious!!
She also sent me a bunch of coordinating solids to use.

Want to see the bags I made?
For these first two I used the Beautiful Belle Handbag Pattern by Amy Butler. I decided to add a little color blocking.


For the 3rd one I used my Garden Tiles pattern minus the tiles of course. Each side is different.


I just love the side cinching on this bag. (I have a pattern in the works for this one).


I have a couple more little things I'm sewing up with the scraps that I'll show you soon. I had so much fun sewing these up, You should check out Maureen's blog to see all the other awesome things she's been sewing up with her fabric. Her thread sketching is amazing!! I can't wait to see how her booth turns out.






Purse Palooza

Hi there! Just in case you haven't heard Sara from Sew Sweetness is hosting Purse Palooza again. Hop on over today to see my handbag pattern review. It's the Crafty Satchel, a pattern from our new book Just For You. Go read all about it HERE!


You should enter a bag for the sewing contest. There are some awesome prizes to be won!

Saturday Night Tunic- Maternity

I'm happy to report that I added another make to my Maternity wardrobe! 

With our new book coming out we get to go to Quilt Market this month to show off all our projects at a Schoolhouse presentation. I'm so excited! Of course it's the perfect time to wear some of our projects throughout the weekend too so I decided to make another version of the Saturday Night Tunic just for me! This pattern is designed by Caroline of SewCanShe and is actually on the front cover of the book. 

It already has a slightly empire waist so I thought it might be perfect for maternity wear.  

For the fabric I chopped up Mer's old Liberty of London dress that doesn't fit her anymore.  Remember when they had a limited edition line at Target? I wish I bought more! Anyway I couldn't part with this beautiful fabric.  It turned out to be the perfect size to cut a tunic from.

I opted to keep the bottom hem as is, which saved sewing time.  I'm still on the fence about it though, That green might need to be narrower. I decided to not shirr the middle so I could belt it or not. I think it also looks cute and retro not belted. I also considered adding the pockets back on... Decisions, decisions!

This is how it sits for now...Any opinions on this? Green hem or no green hem?


And that's it for today. 
Happy Sewing!


Half Square Triangle Baby blanket

Sometimes its fun to just sit down and sew without thinking too hard about the finished product.  That's how quilting is for me. Especially a simple quilt like this one.

One of my sweet friends had a baby last week so I decided to sew her up something cute.  I used a charm pack of Bella by Lotta Jansdotter that I picked up at sample spree last year and paired it with a light gray Kona.

I decided to take it a step above patchwork squares and try out a Half Square Triangle quilt. I'm so glad I did. I love how this turned out.  Being pretty small (34" x 34") it was a really quick sew. I didn't use a pattern but if you are looking for some basic instructions on sewing a half square triangle quilt there are great tutorials from See Kate Sew and Sew Can She
I've been trying out different batting with each quilt I make so I can see which one I like the best.  For this one I used Nature's Touch by Pellon.

I just love how crinkly this one looks after it's washed. I must make more quilts! Sewing this one got me thinking that I need to make a couple of baby things for my own baby that is due to arrive in just few short months.  Yikes! I need to get my hands on some good boy fabric, any suggestions?

Want to see what I had under my machine today?
I'm killing two birds with one stone on this project...Making myself a new shirt and getting ready for quilt market.  We get to go and do a Schoolhouse presentation for our new book JUST FOR YOU, and we need some more sewn items to show off.  I'm upcycling my daughter's old Liberty dress into the Saturday Night Tunic that is pictured on the front cover. I'll show you the rest soon.
Bye for now!


A Color Blocked Maternity Shirt


  I just learned that it's Selfish Sewing week over at Imagine Gnats and I'm happy to have something to share. My sewing machine has been stitching away and I'm just getting around to posting. Here is the maternity shirt I stitched up last week.  We finally got a minor break in the rain so I could step outside for a few meager shots of it.
I told you I was going use those orange polka dots again. I'm on the fence a little about how this turned out though.  Of course I used a regular pattern and "maternity-fied" it. This pattern happens to be in our new book Just For You. It's a fun pattern by Jessica from Running with Scissors with endless color blocking options.

 To make it maternity, I just swooped out the bottom a little more on the side seams and turned the "hi-lo" hem into a "lo-lo" hem, making the front the same length as the back but leaving the swooped opening at the sides

The back has three panels as well, which hopefully you can see through all the wrinkles from a day of wear.
I'm not sure this is the most flattering style for my preggo belly but I do like the color blocking on it and will definitely sew this again when my belly has shrunk a bit.

 Have you been doing any selfish sewing this week?