sewing – Page 3

Homespun Magazine and New Free Pattern Preview

January 12, 2016 by Jessica 2 Comments

I received a copy of Homespun Magazine the other day and flipped it open to find one of my projects featured in it. It still makes my heart flutter when I see one of my projects in print, whether a feature or a whole tutorial. The magazine is quite lovely overall and full of all kinds of craft and diy goodness.

They showcased the Fabric Tape Award Ribbons that I created a diy for last year. And speaking of diy, I am working on finishing up a new free pattern that will be on my site by Monday! I have my goal set for Friday, but I like to give myself some wiggle room for things that might come up. It will be for girls sizes 2-8 and is an easy sew! I can’t wait to share the pattern with you 🙂
-jess

Fox Quilt in Blues, Greens, and Oranges

January 7, 2016 by Jessica 2 Comments

This fox quilt is probably one of my favorite quilts I have sewn up so far. The main reason, besides all the fox cuteness, is that I used a linen fabric for the background fabric and it made this quilt so cuddly! Miss E has requested a fox quilt for herself and I will most certainly use the linen fabric again (this one was for my newest nephew). It was hard to keep the linen fabric from moving all over the place when doing the quilting part but it was totally worth it.

I used the Fancy Fox Quilt Pattern by Elizabeth Hartman here. Isn’t it adorable? It’s a pretty simple sew as far as quilts go. Lots of cutting, but once that’s done it goes fast. This was the baby size but the pattern also includes sizing for a lap and a twin size quilt. The baby size is still a good size so you could just not use as many fox blocks and make a smaller one to be used for a car seat blanket if you wanted.

I used the Keepsake Calico Cotton Fabric – Mini Crosshatch Black/White fabric for the backing. The binding was a gingham that I had gotten from Walmart a long time ago. I used fabric from my stash for the fox faces. Some of those are even vintage fabrics. It’s fun mixing the old with the new. For the batting, I used a 100% cotton type because this quilt will live in an area that actually has some colder weather.

Has anyone else made this quilt yet? Share if you have a link. I would love to see your variation 🙂 The next one of these I make will be super girlie with pinks, purples, and yellows per miss E’s request.

-jess

Sewing a Cardigan

January 4, 2016 by Jessica 4 Comments

Do you ever find a fabric you love and buy it even though you have no plans for it? That is what happened with this piece of Aztek Jaquard fabric. We went over to Texas one day and I swung by Jo-Ann Fabric Store to see what they had. I don’t get over there much, so I knew if I saw something I liked and wanted to sew with eventually it would be smart to go ahead and buy it.

Once I got the fabric home I decided that I would be sewing a cardigan. I got around to doing so the other week and used a sweater I have to create a pattern. The fabric doesn’t have much stretch like my sweater so I had to adjust and make sure there would be room enough for me to fit into it.

I barely had just enough fabric to make this! I even had to add length to the sleeves with remnants to make it work. In lieu of the fabric shortage, I left all the edges raw so I wouldn’t need the extra material to create nice finished edges. I personally don’t mind raw edges and I plan on going over them with my serger later. Can you believe I still haven’t unpacked it since we moved in July? Hopefully this project encourages me to get it back out and running. The lack of fabric also made it not possible to add an extra strip that would go down the front sides and around the neck. It creates for an interesting neckline but still looks good to me.

I’m thinking I should try and find one of those super large safety pins to secure it to the side when I wear it. Any ideas where to find one?

-jess

A Baby Gingham Quilt

November 21, 2015 by Jessica 1 Comment

One of my good friends is about to have baby boy #4 and we went out last night to have a girls night out baby shower. Let me say, it was a lot of fun! It totally suited her more than a typical baby shower. I wanted to make at least one special thing to add to her gifts so when I stumbled upon a gingham quilt on Pinterest I knew that would be the perfect thing to make and reminds me of how she dresses/styles her little boys. (PS, those little shoes are from Michaels! They have some cute little baby shoes in the craft section.)

I went to Hobby Lobby and decided to use shades of gray for this quilt. I used a dark, medium, and light tone. I got a half yard of each, but in hindsight should have gotten a whole yard of the lighter color so I could have done one more row to have it end on the same colors on the sides. I cut out 6 inch squares and lined them up in the order shown above.

Since it was so gray I wanted to add some color pops. I found a plaid fabric, from Hancock Fabric, that played along with the grays and had some yellow. This allowed me to grab some pre-made yellow binding at the fabric store for the edges. I didn’t use any batting in between the two layers since it is usually on the hot side here in Louisiana. It makes for a nice lightweight quilt.

To save even more time, I did a simple curved edge so I could just sew the binding all the way around without stopping until the end when I needed to overlap the ends. I was surprised how quickly this went together and love how perfectly “boy” it is. I threw it in the washer to get that wrinkled fabric look I love. I can’t wait to see little man all wrapped up in this quilt made from love.

-jess

My Projects in “Sew Sweet Creatures”

November 17, 2015 by Jessica Leave a Comment

I had the privilege to work with Lark Crafts again and have three of my projects that you can now make published in one of their newest books Sew Sweet Creatures. To my surprise, one of my projects (the party fox) even made the front cover!!! That made my day 🙂 I had a lot of fun creating these creatures, what theme they would have, and the props that go with them.

I based this little gal on the ever so popular photo booths that we see at parties. There are instructions to make the props that go with her too along with an idea to create her very own photo booth (see pic further below for that).

The Farmer Hare was inspired by my farm loving daughters. The accessories that are shared with this guy are a simple basket to hold his yummy food he grows and clay carrots to go in it.

And the Adventure Bear was inspired by our love to explore. His accessories are a map, book bag, and camera.

You can see below that the book is full of many other fun and cute projects to sew up as well.

If you are interested in buying a copy, you can support Happy Together by using the affiliate link below. You can also find this book in local book stores. Happy sewing!!! -jess

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