Okay so it’s not the biggest hate in my sewing toolbox, because I secretly like making my own bias tape (the Clover bias tape makers are the best). It’s just applying it that is fairly tedious and annoying, especially when going around very sharp curves. That is what I hate. On the other hand, it always does look so nice once done, which is probably why I keep doing it…

This is a picture of a work-in-progress for a friend of mine with twins. At some point I’ll post pictures of everything I made — these bibs, blankets, and taggy cubes. I’ve done the cubes before, and the blankets are utterly simple, but these bibs are a new design for me. We’ll see how they do!

This is mostly just a test post, to figure out why images, for some reason, are turning out broken in Bloglines — but only recently, because my older posts are still showing up right! Beats me. :P

Here’s an image with which to test.

So what have I sewn over the summer? Not as many things as I originally planned (of course). Probably the biggest news was our local fabric warehouse — owned by Cottontail Originals — has decided to shut its doors and has been selling off its entire inventory all summer long. Needless to say I’ve bought plenty, mostly linens and cottons, but a fair amount of ribbon and other trim too. This dress of Asha’s I altered from a shirt pattern, and it matches a simple shirt & pants outfit I made for Niki. Getting them both to pose together with their matching outfits was no easy task, however…

I did make Asha another outfit, and this time let her pick out the fabric from Walmart. An…interesting choice, as usual for her; the texture is a funky sort of weave almost like a basket weave. All I know is that it frays like crazy, which was almost enough to force me to learn how to use the serger I borrowed from my mom.

After more than a year of absense, I’m finally getting back around to writing here again. At the very least, I’ve updated my theme with widget-y goodness, but that’s more of a behind-the-scenes thing than anything else.

I’ll post more soon with pictures of the various things I’ve made lately,
and even maybe pictures of the two new dogs!

My two dogs got in a fight with a skunk that turned out to be rabid. Even though either didn’t apparently get bit, state and federal protocol is that they have to be euthanized (or boarded for 6 months at a vet, which is way too expensive). Tomorrow is the last day.

Yay, eggs! Niki helped me dye these, mostly by doing all the stickers. But then she got in trouble this morning by sneaking out and eating the chocolate Cadbury egg that was her surprise after I told her NOT to eat it, so no egg hunt for her. Oh well, maybe next year…

I made this gentleman a month or so ago, when spring seemed far away. We’ve hopefully had our last freeze of the season (although, being Oklahoma, it could certainly surprise us again), and I can’t wait until I can plant some new flowers in the flowerbed. In the meantime, I need to make more elephants! I really like the shape, and it’s letting me experiment with embroidery.

So where have I been lately? Sewing! Well, mostly. First there were the allergies, which are still ongoing, but… I was asked to sew a sideless surcoat as a gift for the Queen before Gulf Wars. (Translation for non-SCA folks: for a lady in this medieval reenactment group I’m in.) Only I had no pattern. Or fabric. And had less than two weeks. At least I did have her measurements…

I got a pattern from a friend and ideas on what decorating bits to do. Normally I sew mostly in linen, but a sideless surcoat needs to be out of something stiffer so it won’t scrunch up weird in the front (due to not having any sides, see). Because of that and the time crunch, I went with a nice cotton twill. The only problem was that the local Wal-mart was out of the burgundy… I wound up driving 60 miles to the next city over to buy some. The yellow bits (and white bits) are linen, the yellow dyed that way from the white. It didn’t come out as deep a shade of yellow as I wanted, but it’ll do. All the bits (stars and suns and lion-dragons) are simply ironed on with Heat’n'Bond Ultra Hold. I sure hope it holds like it says it will…

While there are things I don’t like about it, they’re practically all things that I had to do because of the time issue. But since it went together so well and easily, now I’m back to thinking about making myself some new dresses, particularly since my “newest” dress is around five years old now!

Oh how I hate allergy season. It’s been so dry and unseasonably warm here that all the cedar trees are LOADED with pollen, and it’s making me want to claw my face off. What better thing to do than to stir up some dust by cleaning the house and building myself a new computer (necessitating digging into the old computer, which is dusty, of course)? But anyway, here I am now, on a zippy fast new computer and a box of kleenex at hand.

Karen over at Blogging Baby posted about an article I found
about the phrase “Gotcha Day”. Both of our kids have such days coming up — Niki’s is April 10th, and I’m trying to think of what to do for it. And what to call it! I’m thinking about “Forever Family Day”, since it was the day she really entered the lives of not just us, but our extended family and friends.

Asha’s is in May, but it’s only a week after her birthday, so I’m even more unsure what to do about that one. Of course, she’ll just be two, so I’m probably off the hook for a few more years…

Today was my friend’s baby shower, the event for which I’ve been frantically sewing for the last week and a half or so. I told her originally that I’d make a bag for her, then in discussion decided to make TWO — a large one for those big trips and all-day visits to Grandma’s and such, and a smaller one for quick trips around town and for when baby is older and doesn’t need as much stuff to haul around. She picked out the fabric, a cute alphabet print on dark red cotton for the lining, and black denim for the outer shell. We also picked up a cotton red-stars-on-cream print for pockets and contrast.

The “large” tote turned into a huge tote; I definitely over-achieved. You could fit a baby in there! The smaller bag is a messenger-style, with an adjustable strap. Both have bottle holders and numerous pockets. I embroidered a little firedog on the front of the large tote (daddy is a firefighter). I also made a changing pad using iron-on vinyl (first try using it — eeeee!) and a cute stuffed cube with satin ribbon loops all over it. Both bags were filled with bottles and teeny shoes (unworn) and baby clothes Asha’s outgrown and other odds and ends like that. (Lots more pictures on Flickr.)

I was pretty happy with the bags, especially the small one, but I got a bigger response out of the other ladies at the baby shower than I expected. I may have custom orders coming out of this! Now I need to figure out how much material I actually used so I can figure out what I should charge…