ohmygoodknits! » Sewing

doily love

Lisa — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:27:58 +0000

Inspired by the doily pillow tutorial on Smile and Wave, I started scouring thrift stores and craigslist for any little sets of doilies I could find. I HAD to make one. My couch NEEDED it!

One of the thrift stores close to our new house had some and I was SO excited! Until I saw the price tag. GAH! Them ladies knew how long and tedious doily making was and priced them accordingly. Unfortunately, doilies aren’t in the family budget, so I had to pass those up.

A week later, we headed back to our old stomping grounds in South Houston and hit up our old favorite thrift stores, including SeAM. I’m happy to say SeAM did not disappoint. I found a bunch of doilies for about two bucks. I used all the large ones, a medium one, and a few small ones to fill in open spaces. I still have a medium sized one and two little baby doilies left. I’m in LOVE!

I did this a little differently than the tutorial. After figuring out the configuration (most exciting craft-related puzzle!), I pinned the doilies to some yellow fabric, about 17.5″ square. I then hand-sewed them down, overlapping where necessary. I didn’t want to cut any and there wasn’t much overhang, so I didn’t. Most of the doilies were bright white and one was a lovely light brown, so I whipped up a pot of super strong tea and let the pillow top soak for about 10 minutes. I washed it with some dish soap and tossed it in my dryer for a bit. Tea staining for the win!

I used a vintage pillow case for the back. Again, i can’t stress enough how much I love reusing pillowcases like this. The hem is already there, so I don’t need to do any extra sewing! I cut out a piece about half the width of the pillow and one that was two thirds. I pinned it down and sewed it up. My 18″ pillow form makes it a little over-stuffed, but that’s how I like ‘em.

If you have any doilies you don’t want (psssssh!), please do let me know.

Productivity: increasing!

Lisa — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 02:31:00 +0000

Look at what I finished up, today! I crocheted the front on Friday and it sat on my loveseat all weekend. I kept throwing ideas around about completing the pillow. They’d land on uninterested ears (my husband, my kids, etc) but it wasn’t until last night that I decided to use one of my favorite vintage pillow cases as the back.

I liked this idea because I could use the pillow’s natural hem as the envelope-back hem. Less sewing! I used a brown paper bag to cut a circle pattern. I marked off half the circle and two thirds of it. I cut out my pieces, pinned them to the crocheted circle and hand-sewed it together. The seam isn’t perfect and my [foam] pillow form is kind of hard, but I really like the end result!

This orange packs a punch and the flowered back is just lovely! It’s the same fabric I used to make my last camera strap cover.

I dig this fabric so much, I couldn’t just toss the scraps. Instead, I made more buttons:

If you love them, you could buy them from my Etsy shop, here. They would qualify for my BOGO 50% off sale!

Crafty Garage Sale update

Lisa — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:22:35 +0000

I sold the cross-stitch fabric and now have ZIPPERS up for sale! They’re pretty inexpensive, IMO, at 50 cents a pop. There’s also an option to buy all 36. If you do a lot of sewing with zippers, I think this would be a great deal! I have accumulated them from various places over the years. I had high hopes for my sewing skills, but alas they remain small and I really just want to declutter.

If you’re interested, take a look! The crafty garage sale…

I love the old packaging on some of these vintage ones.

Thread Spool Holder

Lisa — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:55:40 +0000

I found two of these at a thrift store. I’m keeping the smaller one and would like to pass along the other (this one). It has 69 spaces for thread spools, minus one missing peg. It’s pretty sturdy (i.e. HEAVY), so keep that in mind if you aren’t in the greater Houston area. It would be great for someone who does a lot of sewing. Or someone who just likes to display their thread. Orrr someone looking for a place to hang jewelry (necklaces, bracelets, rings, etc). Contact me (lisa@goodknits.com), if you are interested. I didn’t pay much and will consider all reasonable offers through the weekend. Thanks so much for looking!

Fruits of my packing…

Lisa — Wed, 12 May 2010 18:30:09 +0000

Yesterday, I made a big dent in sorting/packing/purging. The best part about it isn’t that I’m that much closer to being done. No. It’s that I’ve been able to unearth a few projects that just got lost in the shuffle. One of them was my English paper-piecing project. I originally intended this to be blanket-sized, but when I saw it yesterday, I thought it would look great on a canvas, as a wall decoration. When I picked it up this morning, though, I wanted a pillow. I wanted to be able to cuddle it. So, I got to work. I finished up the corner hexes and then I quilted it to a piece of cotton batting (with embroidery floss). I used some cloth napkins to make an envelope back and sewed it up, early this afternoon. It’s pretty.

sewing project: pencil bag.

Lisa — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:32:43 +0000

One of the items on my son’s [pre-kindergarten] school supply list was a “10.5″ x 5.5″ natural canvas pencil bag” and the only place I could find one was a supply distributor online. Since school starts TOMORROW (commence internal freak-out), I decided to just make one, yesterday. I was going to wing it and make a regular zippered pouch, but I ran across this tutorial and simply adjusted the fabric dimensions. So, now, instead of a 10.5″ x 5.5″ pencil bag, Nathan has a 6″ x 11″ bag. And that should be enough!

Tomorrow at 7:50ish, I’ll probably be shedding a few tears as I say goodbye to Nate for 3 hours. It isn’t really the separation that’s getting me, but the simple fact that he’s no longer a toddler. He’s a boy, now! A new chapter is beginning in our lives. It’s bittersweet, really.

dinero: a coin purse

Lisa — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:15:56 +0000

I made this back in September, I believe. I am rearranging my craft area and I came across a tote bag and this was in it! no, there wasn’t any money in it, just my tiny sansa clip mp3 player. I should take up cross-stitching again.

the yellow fabric is, I believe, linen. It came form a set of a napkins I thrifted.

starting a hex quilt

Lisa — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:23:04 +0000

Thanks to all the awesome photos in the English Paper-Piecing Flickr group, I started a hexagon quilt on Sunday. I bought a set of coordinating fat quarters (there were a lot, in a cute little tin) and decided on a cute pattern to put them in. I’m using freezer paper to stick my hexagons to my fabric. I’ve attached seven together so far. I got antsy and just sewed up my 7 lonely hexagons. I’ll make more later this week and perhaps photograph my progress.

I still haven’t finished the dodecahedron I started weeks ago. Using worsted weight yarn with small needles really makes my hands ache, so I’m giving it a rest for a while. This hand-sewing is fun. I hope I can finish it and not get unmotivated after a few days. I need to make a lot of hexagons, so that I get to a point where there’s no lookin’ back.

it’s been a while

Lisa — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:58:51 +0000

Forgive me for my absence! I had a lot going on. I made 27–27!!– little rice packs as thank yous for the attendees of my baby shower. no, there were not 27 people there, but I made extras, just in case. Those took about 3 separate evenings to make. they were little 3″ x 6″ rectangular packs. I think everyone liked ‘em.

Since then, the household has been a little on edge preparing for our new arrival. I’m currently 37 weeks pregnant! full-term! huzzah! I finished the ripple blanket for my baby and a poofy girly blanket for my cousin’s fetus. I also finished preparing the birth announcements (I made a layout in photoshop and just need photo/s and info; I also made the envelopes), but I’m not quite sure they’re done FOR SURE. I’m being really weird about them for some reason. they look fine as is, but something in my brain says “keep working on them!” maybe a stamp or something will bring it all together.

This brings me to today. While the husband went to a meeting with a prospective employer, I put on a movie for the toddler and went to town making a pair of cloth baby shoes using the Stardust shoes pattern. They were a pain in the butt to make (mainly attaching the back to the sole) but I think they’re ADORABLE!

Itty Bitty Owl

Lisa — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:22:00 +0000

little pink owl
Originally uploaded by yarnattacks.

I used this “tutowlrial”.

it took about 10 minutes to make. the longest part was cutting the pieces because there’s no pattern, so you kind of have to fudge it. I omitted the base because I’m lazy. I also didn’t want to look for any cardboard.

she measures about an inch and a half from top to bottom. so tiny and cute! I have had this tutorial sitting in my bookmarks for months! I started one out of felt, but then forgot about it and now I can’t find said felt, so I just made this out of some scrap fabric. I wish I had better fabric to make cuter ones. they’d be such an adorable little mobile!