Sewing – Page 18 – Thimbleanna

A Few Wallets

53 Comments / January 22, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Sewing

I’ve been trying so hard to catch up on all your blogs this week, but I suffered a setback with the season premiere of LOST last night. I’m sorry, but, as much as I love you, I love Sawyer more. I was thrilled to see that the writers finally came to their senses and provided some excellent Shirtless Sawyer Scenes. I might have drooled on the remote control, just a little. Ok, a Lot. If you’re fairly new to this blog, you’ve missed my affair with Sawyer. It all started when I saw this. (WARNING: Fabric Fondling. Clicking on that picture will make you fall for Sawyer, but you should know that he’s MINE. I declared it long ago. Even Hot Monica acquiesced way back when, for fear of an Ugly Sawyer Throw Down.)

Ahem. Just a moment while I straighten my skirt and re-gain my composure.

There. As I mentioned in my last post, I had a belated birthday with SweetiePie last Sunday. She requested a new wallet for her birthday and since my wallet had a few holes in it, I decided to make a new one for me too.

SweetiePie picked her fabrics and I thought hers turned out pretty cute. She loves monograms too, so I put her monogram on the front and an embroidered star on the back — ’cause (cornball alert!) she’s a star for taking such good care of TheFirstChild while he’s in school. I put buttons on the back of my wallet.

The pattern is called “A Safe Place” by My Favorite things. I love all the little pockets on the inside, but I made one big change. The pattern calls for a velcro strap across the top and that would never work for me, as I’m the kind of person who crams receipts and papers into my wallet. So, I put zippers around the edges. It’s a huge pain to get that zipper sewn in there (because the wallet won’t lie flat on one end), but it’s very worth it to me.

Below is the inside of SweetiePie’s wallet. I like how her fabrics coordinated.

My old wallet lasted about three years. The edges (where the zipper ribbon is below) along the binding fray and wear out. I suppose I could have tried to replace the binding on the old wallet, but it was faded and besides, I was ready for a fabric change. I love my posh fabric. I’m thinking maybe I should hoard some of it.

I like having a bigger wallet for everyday, but for special occasions, I like a smaller wallet, so I grab the one that Lucy made me. Which also works, ’cause I don’t want to wear Lucy’s wallet out.

Now I have three years to rest until he next wallet. Yipee! Have a good weekend everyone!

XOXO,
Anna

December Busy

48 Comments / December 17, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Crafting, Sewing

It’s nuts here, just like I’m sure it is where you are. If you’re even there — you’re probably too busy working to even be lurking here. I’ve noticed it’s been a lot quieter in blogland these days — how fun to think of all the exciting holiday preparations going on out there! I’ve been cramming to finish up some projects that need to go into the mail tomorrow. Think there’s any chance they’ll make it before Christmas?

I made a few machine embroidered kitchen towels. The Jolly design is from Embroidables.com and the towels are from Crate and Barrel.

Then, some Keep Calm and Carry On pendants that I did in my soldering frenzy last week. Speaking of which, did you see this fantastic Keep Calm and Carry On knock off design? Procrastinate Now and Panic Later. That’s. Awesome. (We have a big thing about procrastinating here in ThimbleannaLand. When I made college quilts for TheFirstChild and a few of his friends, he insisted that I put “Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now” on the backs of their quilts. So the girls got nice motivational sayings and the boys got procrastination. Nice. It caused a few raised eyebrows and laughs.) I’ll definitely have to make this new Procrastinate saying in a soldered pendant. Too bad I didn’t know about it earlier — I would have put it on the flip side of these pendants. Thanks to One Pretty Thing for bringing that knock-off to our attention!

And I think these are going to be my new favorite pincushions. They’re giant (see the thimble sitting on top of that first one for scale?) and they’re perfect to sit on your sewing table. Thanks to Darlene for the awesome hint about using crushed walnut shells to stuff pincushions. It’s great and it gives them some weight. I made these pincushions from the Posy Pin Pie pattern by Jill Finley. Its finished size is 6″ in diameter by 2 1/2″ tall.

So, off to bed for me — it’s pretty late here. But wait! Looky Looky….She’s Baacckkkkk!!! WooHoo!!!

Oh, and Hell might as well have Frozen Over this morning, because CrazyBIL had a heart attack. I know this is a VERY serious matter, but you’d have to know CrazyBIL to know just how crazy this really is. He’s the most … MOST fit person I know. He does EVERYTHING right. And, at not even 45, he had a heart attack. He’s in good shape tonight, and we’re all feeling VERY grateful to still have him with us. Poor guy though, he’s going to have to endure a lot of harassment — those of us who are more sendentary have been telling him for years that all of that working out was going to kill him and now…well, it happened while he was working out.

We LOVE you CrazyBIL — slow down and get well soon!!!

XOXO,
Anna

New Jammies

38 Comments / October 9, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Sewing

I’m not saying anything earth shattering when I tell you that winter is on the way. (Well, I guess it would be big news to you guys in the southern hemisphere — you can ignore all this talk of cold weather and revel in your coming warmth.) Already tonight, I’ve read two blogs that have mentioned a chance of snow this week. Aaack — I’m barely adjusting to the idea of fall, but I know it’s coming.

So, during the sewing frenzy of last weekend, I managed to make some new flannel jammies from some fabric that had been aging in my stash. (‘Cause I couldn’t be caught wearing old ragged jammies with my new caterpillars, could I? And btw, should I be making these things for myself? No. I. Should. Not. I’m not going to tell you how close Christmas is ’cause you already know, but I have gifts to make and I’m starting to get nervous. This is my stall tactic.)

Fortunately for me, No-Mash Kim happened to blog about some CK jimjams that she received for her birthday, and even though she couldn’t keep them very long, she had them just long enough to inspire me. I loved the fact that the collar was a different fabric from the main body. (And coincidentally, I also just happened to be very short of the main floral fabric (Amy by Free Spirit.)

Do you sew-ers (I have to put a hyphen in there ’cause otherwise it reads like the place where you flush your waste and that just bugs me!) out there have a serger? I LOVE my little serger — it lets me make clothes 3 or 4 times faster than I did in my pre-serger days. These jammies only took a few hours to complete (not counting cutting out.) People are often intimidated by sergers, and I have to admit, I am too. Mine will do several different stitches, but I’ll bet 95% of the time, I use the same stitch — the 4 thread overlock.

C’mon Old Man Winter — I’m officially ready for you. That’s not true — the yard and house are still a mess, but we won’t talk about that.

So, let’s change the subject. I want to wish two of my bloggy friends the very best of luck with their fantastic new adventures: Sweet Nan has opened up her new online pattern and supply shop Nanny’s Quilt Patch. And Adorable Karen has opened her everything-you-could-want-for-woolens online shop, Farm House Woolens. (I can’t wait to get my hands on some of those needle punch kits.) You Go Girls!!!

Speaking of You Go Girl, you know how you see an idea and you scream Eeeek! and fall in love and think about it day and night? That’s how I feel about this adorable little patch that Cassie has made. I. Love. It. — so very clever.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

Halloween Towels

43 Comments / October 6, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Sewing

Well Hello There! Did you all have a nice weekend? Our weekend was perfect. We had beautiful weather, but I missed it because I spent most of the weekend in the dungeon sewing. Yipee! And, Friday night was the official start of fall in ThimbleannaLand — MeMum made her first pot of soup for the season. Ham and Bean. YumYum!

On Saturday, I was right in the middle of drawing around a template and Porky TheEmptyNestChild decided he needed to help.

He doesn’t sew very well though — he mostly just batted at my pencil and then eventually attacked my hand. After awhile he got bored, so he found a door open on one of my fabric cabinets and disappeared inside where he could curl up for a nap.

In the meantime, I’ve seen so many owls around blogland that I decided to make a few owls.

Nah, just kidding. I made some Halloween hand towels. (Don’t look SweetiePie!) When I went to visit SweetiePie a few weeks ago, we stopped in at Erica’s. They had lots of Halloween goodies in their shop and SweetiPie and I liked these spider towels.

The spider comes from a pattern called Spooky Hollow #141 by Little Quilt Company. The towels at Erica’s had a spiderweb on them, but when I got home I discovered the pattern didn’t have the web pattern, so I just drew them in and stitched toe-grabbers with white pearl cotton.

And finally, two quick things:

Erin is having a fun giveaway (her 1st!) and Juliette is hosting a fabric swap — they both look really fun, so you might want to check them out!

XOXO,
Anna

The Ugly Tree Models

40 Comments / September 4, 2008 February 1, 2021 / Sewing

On my break last weekend, I finally managed to squeak in a little sewing. I made Funked Out Peasant Blouse (which I purchased at Clementine’s — mecca for all things “funked out”), skillfully modeled for me by our Ugly Tree.

(Wait. Look at this tree first. Do you think this is an ugly tree??? TheManoftheHouse hates this tree and says it’s SO ugly. That’s why we call it the Ugly Tree. I love it. It reminds me of a weeping willow pine tree.)

Anyway, back to my blouse. Unfortunately I don’t have a cute, hot little body like Lila Tueller, but it will do. Equally unfortunate is the fact that the Ugly Tree doesn’t have breasticles. This blouse looks lots better with a bust to fill it out. I’d show you mine, but then you’d see my spare tire and that would never do. (Hey! Maybe that’s why TheManoftheHouse doesn’t like this tree — it has no breasticles!)

I altered the pattern a little. Lila has a zipper in the side of her version (which she notes in her pattern errata, is not listed in the supply list.) I skipped the zipper and inserted elastic under the breasticles. I also changed the sleeves a bit.

I was afraid the billowing version of her sleeves would just annoy me. I’ve been wearing my shirt all day and it’s very comfortable. The sleeves can end either above or below the elbow, depending on how I choose to wear them.

I love to sew and I’m hoping to do more of it this weekend. I have some use-it-or-lose-it vacation time to take tomorrow, so with the extra day I might be in luck. I hope you have something fun planned for your weekend too!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. Are you in a swappy mood? Jo-Anne of The Carter Clan is hosting a Christmas Ornament Swap and Sharon’s at it again, this time with a Polka Dot and Ric Rac Swap. Go forth and sign up!!!