more sewing…

Jaime has been sneaking a little bit of sewing into her nights, which I’m glad about.  Anyone that works as hard as she does needs a creative outlet every now and then.  While she was out in Oregon, Mom Jodie taught her how to make a reusable coffee sleeve.  Together, they made hers (on the left),  and when she got home, she kindly made one for me (on the right).

She chose a chic gray floral print for the outside of hers, and paired it with a contrasting yellow for the inside.    For mine, she chose a grayish-black floral for the outside and a solid red for the inside.  She used a pretty wave stitch in a contrasting thread to sew each together – you can see it best on the lighter fabric:

She added snaps for closures, which involves lots of hammering.   And who doesn’t like a little bit of hammering after working a standard eleven-hour work day?

If hammering snaps is not your thing, you could also use Velcro, and then just sew a little button the the outside for decoration.  I used my sleeve for the first time on Thursday, when I went to the bookstore for a little coffee and magazine reading.  It felt good to leave the cardboard sleeves sitting in their little holder…

This is another great project for the little scraps of fabric in your stash.  Don’t you think these would make great last-minute stocking-stuffers or holiday gifts for teachers?  And they can be put together in under and hour.   I’ll see if Jaime can work up a template for you…

Hope your week is off to a good start! ~J

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scrap fabric bookmarks…

This weekend, my sister did a little crafting in the studio and whipped up a small batch of bookmarks for everyone.  She had a ton of little scraps tucked away in her stash, so she let the kids dig through them and chose which fabrics they wanted to use.

They ended up choosing two different fabrics for each bookmark – except for Dora.  Berry is serious about her Dora:

They came out so sweet!  Especially the frayed edges – it makes them look like they’ve seen the insides of lots of books.

If you’d like to make your own, you’ll need:

• two 2.5″ x 6″ rectangles of fabric
• one 2.5″ x 6″ rectangle of interfacing
• a small length of ribbon

Sandwich the interfacing and the ribbon between the two rectangles of fabric (right sides facing out); pin.  Then, using your sewing machine, zigzag stitch around the edges (Jaime went twice around each bookmark).  Press with an iron, and voilà!  This is good if you are looking for something to do with leftover scraps from a loved project.

As you can see, mine is already being put to good use. ~J

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Far Far Away II by Heather Ross…

Heather Ross just recently released a follow-up to her popular fabric collection, Far Far Away.  The fabric is a heavier, bottom-weight linen, and has three colorways that compliment the colors of the original Far Far Away collection:

{color-boards, from left: meadow, aqua & plum}

The prints include classic favorites like Sleeping Beauty, dreaming in her bed and surrounded by branches of lily-of-the-valley:

And Rapunzel, tucked away in her tower with her long golden hair:

And don’t The Owl & the Pussycat, drifting lazily along in their sailboat:

She has also included two smaller prints to coordinate with the main patterns; English Garden, with colorful cabbage roses:

And Night Sky, with serene-faced moons and twinkling stars:

These would make cute pillowcases, pajama pants, or a sweet quilt for a little girl.  The fabrics retail for $16.95 a yard and can be found at Sew Mama, Sew!  Happy sewing… ~J

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hooded baby towels…

Jaime and I are always looking for fast and cute baby projects around here – and this hooded baby towel featured over at The Purl Bee sure does fit the bill nicely!  The vintage looking Blue Posies fabric they used is totally sweet for a girl, and they paired it with Michael Miller’s soft Organic Terrycloth.  For a boy, I might back the terrycloth with this charming Three Little Pigs fabric:

A whole stack of these would be perfect for my adorable nephew, Jack, who is totally in love with his new pool.  Here is a picture of his very first swim, taken just last week:

He needs something soft and cozy to dry off that little Buddha-belly of his! ~J

{Towel project page here, fabric can be bought here and terrycloth here.}

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weekend to-do list

1. Make a delicious brunch.  Doesn’t this Brioche French Toast looks scrumptious?

2. Browse the new fabric at Sew Mama Sew!

3. See what Garance is up to.  Then promptly clean out closet.

4. Catch up on Never Not Knitting podcasts.

5. Splurge on a glamorous new summer lipstick.  Wear it every single day to justify the cost.

6. Check out the new Spud & Chloe yarn colors.  Also:

7. Read about Susan’s Dream Catcher Baby Blanket.  Adorable and free!

8. Read the new online Lonny magazine.  Drink hot coffee. 

9. Plan a trip to the gorgeous new Purl Soho shop.  Leave wallet at home.

10.  Make a pot of Sunday Sauce.  Check out Ree’s yummy version.

~Have a great weekend!

{image from the lovely Sunday Suppers}

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an Easter project…

Easter is tomorrow, so around here that means dress making!  The girls picked out this colorful fabric – bright aqua cotton with sparkly peep-like bunnies all over.  I’m not sure it would have been Jaime’s first choice, but sometimes it good to let the kids have a little creative control; it makes them feel like they are part of the process!  The bunnies are kind of sweet in a sugary-confection kind of way:

The pattern is from a book Mom Jodie generously sent to us from Oregon called Absolutely A-Line:

The book gives you a way to make 26 different dresses from one pattern.  Jaime kept it simple and went with a basic A-line shift – no bells, no whistles, just a simple dress for Katie to run around in and still look cute for pictures.  Not that she doesn’t always look cute in pictures:

There was a little surprise added to the dress that Katie just loved – a little carrot button and pink ribbon closure:

It was the icing on the sparkly bunny cake.  Katie got to wear her dress to school on Thursday for their Easter party, which she was pretty excited about.  I love that she gets excited about wearing homemade things to school.  She always wears her Mom’s creations proudly, which is just the sweetest.

One dress down, two more to go…We hope you all have a very Happy Easter!

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A Little Glimpse…

…at what’s going on in the Sorella Studio.  Wait until you see what this is going to be!  ~Jenny

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Before & After…

{ugh.}

This is the mess I was greeted with when I opened up our fabric cabinet this morning.  I am actually a little embarrassed to show this to you, dear readers, but things have gotten a bit out of hand.  I mean, come on:

{seriously?}

I am not sure how things got so messy, but it could do something with the fact that when you have a house filled with as many people as we do, well, something has to give, right?  I decided that this is no way to head into the holiday crafting season, so I threw everything into a big pile on the floor and sorted.  And folded.  And organized.  Until finally, order began to emerge:

{getting better...}

Isn’t there  just something so calming about creating order out of chaos?

{neat, organized piles}

Slowly, everything made it’s way back into the cabinet:

{ahhh...}

Until…voilà! Perfect organization:

{MUCH better.}

And now, if you’ll excuse me, there are some Christmas fabrics calling my name… ~Jenny

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new cotton prints…

{a quilted storefront!}

Jaime travels a lot for business during the fall and winter months, so she uses those opportunities to seek out new fabric and yarn shops.  This past week, she stopped into Windy Moon Quilts in Reno, Nevada.  I just love the way they painted the front of the building to look like a giant quilt, don’t you?  How clever!

She managed to find a few new cotton prints to add to our ever-growing fabric collection.  First up, some holly-berry fabric which will be used to make a holiday gift for someone who shall-not-be-named:

{an old-fashioned holiday print}

Sorry that the picture is sort of blurry, but the gold dots on the fabric really confused the focus feature on my camera lens…after the 20th picture, I gave up!

She also found this, an homage to our childhood:

{toasted everything with a shmear, please... }

Growing up on Long Island, Sunday bagels with lox and cream cheese was a family tradition – one that we still continue to this day.   We are going to whip this fabric into some fun little napkins for those long, leisurely brunches.  The kids are going to love them!

Speaking of kids, sissy also picked up some sweet holiday-themed fabric:

{naughty or nice?}

…which will be sewn into some twirly, Christmas Day skirts for the girlies.  We plan on pairing them with some striped tights and long-sleeved t-shirts.  That way, they will look nice for pictures, yet will be comfortable enough while sitting on the floor playing with all of their new toys.

This week, Jaime is back in Nevada, and will be stopping into Jimmy Beans Wool – I am off to browse their website and cross reference their stock with my Ravelry queue…

~Jenny

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Jackpot.

{meet my new babies!}

My darling sissy took a little trip out to Oregon this past weekend to visit with Mom Jodie, and she was sweet enough to bring me back a few surprises!  Let’s have a look, shall we?

First up – two skeins of Misti Chunky Baby Alpaca:

{hello, big blue!}

Besides being super-soft, the colorway is fantastically quirky – it’s a tealish-navy with flecks of magenta.  It’s got a retro-80’s vibe to it and is begging to be knit into a chunky seed-stitch scarf for winter.

Then there’s this:

{Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk Aran}

This amazingly silky yarn will most likely be turned into a simple winter hat and mittens.  There is a certain luminescence about it, and it should do a good job of brightening up my pale complexion.

Next up:

{Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK}

I am debating what to use this for…maybe a lacy scarf or a special pair of socks.  Either way, this yarn is perfect for something worn right against the skin – it’s so soft!

And last, but certainly not least:

{Malabrigo Worsted, a.k.a - "crack for knitters"}

I am SO excited about this particular skein, as this yarn is exalted among knitters.  This will be knit into some Owlings, which are fingerless gloves based on the ‘Fetching’ knitting pattern.    This time, I’ll make sure they fit…

Speaking of Owls, Jaime also brought back a little something for herself:

{hoot!}

If I had to guess, this will most likely be made into something for Erin, as she is the resident night-owl.

In addition to Jaime’s amazingly generous offerings (thank you, thank you!), Mom Jodie was also kind enough to send back a few things.

She sent me a gorgeous cashmere sweater:

{vintage nordstroms!}

Which I think was a peace offering, because she also sent these:

{University of Oregon Duck Football Whistles}

Thank you for the sweater Mom Jodie!  I love it so much – it is the first cashmere sweater I have ever owned, so I promise to take really great care of it.  I cannot, however, promise the same about the duck whistles.  They will most likely be smashed with a hammer on the back deck before the day is out*.

Thanks again to both of you – I cannot wait to get knitting today! ~Jenny

*{just kidding.  almost.}

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