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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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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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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Baby burp cloths and onesies – so easy!

Please forgive the quality of these pics – they were taken from my iPhone at 2:30am on Saturday!  But I had to share before I’ve moved on to another project.  Baby T’s pending arrival caused a flurry of activity in the studio last week (Kristen’s baby shower was on Saturday afternoon).  After such great intentions to get all of the sewing done WAY before the shower date, of course these were finished up just hours before the shower began.  They were inspired by the burp cloths that Mom Jodie made for me when my little munchkins were on their way.  I used the fabric from the quilt I made for Baby T to embellish cloth diapers as burp cloths and some simple white onesies.

On some of the burp cloths I added fabric and ricrac.  On others, I free-hand machine embroidered leaves to match the fabric.  (that was my first time – and my favorite part!)

I will take some better pics in a couple of weeks when I head up to Long Island for the next baby shower!  Kristen was just too antsy to take them home with her after her Delaware shower – and I can’t blame her 🙂

More to come soon on the quilt!

~ Jaime

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Heather Bailey fabric put to good use!

Today, after a long stretch of sewing nothing but items for Baby-T, I turned on Bernito to use some of the gorgeous fabric Mom Jodie and I found at Piece by Piece Fabric during my recent trip to Eugene, OR.  (more on Piece by Piece Fabrics later … suffice it to say I was like a kid in a candy store!)  It’s funny – they weren’t anywhere near each other in the store (fabric grouped by color), but Mom and I wound up pairing them together.  They are from the Spring Pop Garden collection by Heather Bailey for Free Spirit Fabric.  The colors are bold and bright, just perfect for a dress for Katie.  Not wanting to make something too fussy but still chic, I pulled out the trusted sundress pattern from the Habitual Blog (thanks again!).  The fabric had an odd spot on it in one place, so I stitched up some double layer lined pockets.

two pockets in one - both lined

Katie loves the dress – and though it’s a bit short (I was generous in hemming), I think it will look great for the rest of summer, and perfect for school with a pair of bright white leggings.

One down, two more to go!

~Jaime

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new fabric!

Jaime has been in Oregon this past week visiting with Mom Jodie – and not surprisingly, they went fabric shopping:

{so bright and cheerful!}

There is also this duo:

{the classic pink & green combo}

She would like to turn these pairs into some Habitual Dresses – they can be one of the first new projects we work on in our new studio, after we finish sewing and knitting for Baby T, of course…  Our sister’s shower is a week from Saturday, and it still seems like we have so many projects to finish!  This will be a busy, busy week…

Off to knit! ~Jenny

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getting started

{my treasured featherweight}

First, let’s just start off by saying I will post one entry for every 10 or so Jenny makes.  She is so inspirational and committed to these things.  Me, I sort of fly by the seat of my pants, which often leads to a non-committal attitude around things that are optional and not required.  Poor Jenny ….

However, this whimsical nature of mine does have its advantages.  Take sewing, for example.  I literally learned how to straight stitch on a Singer Featherweight from my Mother-in-law (henceforth referred to as Mom Jodie) two years ago.  She travelled across the country (from Oregon to Delaware!) to visit us and along came a video camera bag from 1985, which had the darling Featherweight 221 snugly contained for my sewing pleasure.

Oh Mom Jodie didn’t push … she showed me how to thread the needle and wind a bobbin.  She showed me how to straight stitch and how to backstitch.  I learned how to top stitch and make a basic baby burp cloth.  This was my repertoire for two years … flannel baby burp cloths.  Don’t get me wrong, they were AWESOME – and friends and family adored them.  But alas, I grew bored of the burp cloths and away went the Featherweight and all of Mom Jodie’s hopes and dreams of having a daughter who would sew along with it.

Then a strange thing happened.  We moved.  We got a new house in January and with it came a renewed interest in sewing.  I wanted to sew something for the house … something simple … like a shade for the bathroom!  A roller shade … it was a perfect idea.

Straight stitches, very little room for error.

And it was beautiful.

And the spark was reignited . . . ~Jaime

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