I'm Janimal, happily gainfully employed Momma to a sweet girl. Livin' it up in Atlanta with a great husband and a good job. Sometimes I make stuff and here's my spot to show it off! Life is good, so I'm sharing....
Showing posts with label sewing machine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sewing machine. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

A Yo Gabba Gabba Bag

Do you love Yo Gabba Gabba like Delilah loves Yo Gabba Gabba?!

Her crazy parents (us) have front row tickets to see Yo Gabba Gabba Live! when they come to Atlanta. We are excited!

We have to carry a lot of stuff with a toddler in tow, so I created us a special bag to take down to the show. May I present.....Delilah's DJ Lance BoomBox Bag!





Looks like Muno and Foofa managed to worm themself into the front pocket of the bag. For those of you not familiar with the show, a DJ named Lance has a big magic boombox. And in the boombox live odd little creatures. The boombox is opened and the characters play and dance.


Here is a pic of DJ Lance and the "real" boombox from the show:





This bag is based on the tote tutorial posted here on Sew Mama Sew. I made this bag a little bit wider than the tutorial to make it more boombox shaped. (This tutorial rocks. I have made so many of these bags)

I love this bag! The satin is shimmery and the bag is roomy. The colored pieces are felt that I lightly glued on then topstitched around each piece. Moms know, we have to bring a bag with us wherever we go with our kids anyway, so why not a fun bag that relates to the show! When I showed Delilah the bag she pointed to it and yelled "Yo Gabba!" which made me feel lovely.



Our plan is for my husband to dress up like DJ Lance for the show! Yep - seriously. Is he a great Daddy or what? I'm thinking about what I want to make for Delilah and I to wear. So far I think I will make her a dress modeled after the robot character on the show, but I'm not sure yet. There will be a photo op with the characters and I am ALL about the great photo op! It's a rare thing to get front row tickets to anything, so we are throwing ourselves all in for the experience. Costumes, photos, fun!

Still working on bringing you some new items and tuturials - two more ugly knit entries coming up. One I think is pretty cool and I am proud of - the other, well, I took an ugly sweater and made an ugly hat from it. Ah well.

Later skaters,

- Janimal





Show and Tell GreenPonyTails and FishScales


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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Union Jack Coaster

I discovered the MOST AWESOME website for machine embroidery downloads. I have devoured the whole site and am SO EXCITED to figure out places to put the designs.
Check it out: http://www.urbanthreads.com/

(They have some Alice in Wonderland characters to die for. I have plans for them! Check out this Mad Hatter. Only $3 to download to my machine. Awesome. For a hand embroidery download, just a buck. Coolness.)

Love it.

I stitched out a Union Jack from their site on a piece of bright pink Kona cotton. Just to see. Stitched out wonderfully! Instead of red, white, and blue, I went with light pink, pale blue, and grey. I liked how it turned out. But then I didn't know what to do with it?

Eventually I decided to make a coaster. See:



Already at use on my desk at work. Reminding people that as A Brit, I drink tea. Not coffee.


Blogland is chock full of tutorials for making coasters. Another one really isn't necessary. It's just a very simple project for stitched squares together. But what the heck, I took pictures while I made mine as practice for tutorial writing.


I eyeballed the flag and figured it would make a "larger" sized coaster. I thought about making it a potholder but didn't have any heat resistant batting on hand. (Will get some!). I thought I had scrap batting around, but oops, no. So I improvised and cut a square from a piece of thick fleece blanket like material. (For future coasters, I will probably use the fleece again. I have a tons of it. It worked great., was easy to cut, and easy to sew through.)

So 3 pieces of fabric. The embroidered flag, a piece of fleece, and backing fabric. All 6' by 6'.


Sandwich them together. Put the two thin fabric pieces right side together, and lay the inside piece (in this case fleece but batting if you have it.) on top.



Stitch through all three layers of fabric around the edge. I used my presser foot as the seam guide.



Don't forget to leave a space for turning.


Clip the corners to remove bulk, then turn it right sides out.



Ok, so turning, with the big flat embroidery and the attached stabilizer, wasn't a piece of cake.




But it wasn't impossible!
Push out the corners with a turning tool, or blunt end of a pencil, or in my case, I grabbed a nearby paintbrush and used the bottom of that!



Iron that sucker flat.

Now the fun part, put the coaster back in the sewing machine, right side up, and sew some lines. Quilting it. You pattern doesn't have to be lines of course. You could stitch a pattern or use a decorative stitch. I stitched lines because that seemed to work with the Union Jack design.
Just be sure to secure with backstitching at start and finish.


At this point, I realized my topstitching hadn't closed the turning gap, so I hand stitched the opening closed.



And Ta-dah! Gosh, makes my stapler and tape dispenser look homely. They may have to get some Mod-Podge treatment.....



I'm not sure if I will link this up to any link parties. I mean, there are already so many coaster tutorials out there it seems a bit silly to promote another one.

Unless there is a linky party for British stuff for other people who love the Union Jack!

I'll be back with a project for the Toy Society!


((OK, I decided to link it up, what the heck. Just have this disclaimer that I know coasters are not a crazy original idea. Just showing off my pretty pink one!))



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Monday, March 29, 2010

Popover Dress by Oliver and S

Thanks to the wonderful company Oliver and S for sharing the wonderful Popover Dress pattern on their blog!

Their other free pattern, the Lazy Days Skirt, is super easy. If you can sew a straight line, you can make that skirt. The dress is a little more challenging (ok, challenging to me means I had to use pins. I don't like pins.) But really this dress is simple and the instructions so well written and clear. No buttons, no zippers, nothing too complicated.


Here is my first attempt. I really wanted to get a picture with my little model wearing it, but I am too impatient to wait!







This black/white / linen one is my favorite. That's Alice in Wonderland themed fabric. Yum! It has french words but the fabric is by Kokka of Japan. Kokka has SUCH amazing fabrics. I also made a matching hairbow. Pics of that and tutorial to follow!





And this last one, I think the fabric is by Robert Kaufman. D LOVES animals, so this is special to me. I think I should have used a solid for the yoke and straps though.


So there you have it. Oliver and S has two great free patterns to follow. They were easy and I love how they turned out thanks to such great instructions. These free patterns have inspired me to try their other patterns, so stand by for more one of these days.
Incidentally, I find it kind of a bummer that the free garment patterns they offer are only for girls. These patterns gave me confidence and have encouraged me so much to try their other patterns, seems like they are missing part of their market if they are only appealing to those sewing for little girls? Boys need some special garments too!




Making


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Sunday, February 14, 2010

New sewing machine!

My sewing machine was a gift 15 years ago. It has been used sporadically over the years, and despite NEVER being serviced or even cleaned properly, she still works well. Here she is:

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(please ignore the messy table!)

Not fancy, but has gotten the job done for me. Now that I am sewing on a more "semi-regular" basis, and am trying to improve my skills, it's time for a new machine.

Last weekend I bought the Brother 900d machine. I think I am about to become an embroidery FOOL and Delilah will have her name on everything! That is, if I can figure out how to use it properly. It's so fancy compared to what I am used to, I am a bit intimidated! Last night I managed to add a decorative stitch to the bottom of a tshirt, and embroider Delilah's name on a piece of white fabric.

Here is the machine and a picture of my first shot at machine embroidery:



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Note the paisley square on the right front of the machine? That's scrapbook paper I cut to fit the little window. I'll likely replace that with a picture of Delilah (because I am crazy photo momma with that kid) but for now the scrapbook paper works.
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