Sewing Projects

Hi friends,

I'm glad you've stuck around.  Despite the lack of blog posts in the last few months.  I have been very busy.  In particular, I've rekindled my relationship with my sewing machine.

I started sewing as a kid when I was in the 4H sewing club.  Did you have 4H when you were growing up?  For me, it was what all the kids on the farm were doing.  I credit it with turning me into a feminist.  I watched my mom do all the hard stuff the guys were doing (driving tractor, birthing cows, staining the deck, etc) but she also knew how to do all kinds of other stuff (sew curtains, make really tasty food, make you feel better when you were sick, etc).   When I was little, 4H was just about sewing club, and cooking club.  As we got older, we got to raise and show animals.

I was kind of a miserable failure in the 4H sewing club.  I'm pretty sure I didn't finish my first project.  I was always much more interested in cooking.  It became my creative outlet at a pretty early age.  Then 2 years ago I had a kid, and it seems that my ability to get creative in the 20 minutes between when I get home from work and when a full-blown tantrum starts (!) is really limited.  So I started to sew.

Sewing has been a huge creative outlet for me.  I can do it after Elliott is asleep.  I get alone time, and a creative channel that has no time crunch.  Here's a peek at what I've been up to, and where you can find more inspiration if you're interested:

Travel Car Mat

I became re-interested in sewing when I discovered some crafty blogs that I really liked.  After a few projects from various blog posts, I decided to buy the book "Stitch by Stitch" by Deborah Moebes.  I can't say enough good things about this book.  I've been working through it project by project, and I love it.  I have learned A LOT.  One of the early projects she has is a make your own place mat.  I did that, and then decided to switch it up and make a travel car mat as a birthday present for Elliott's little BFF.  The mat has pockets for matchbox cars, and I bought fabric so Z could drive his cars up and down all the roads.  Rumor has it that he likes it.  I figure it's good for restaurants and airplane rides.  Or trips to the doctor's office.

Elliott's Birthday present

I made Elliott this beanbag chair for his birthday!  Seriously I am really proud.  It turned out great, and he loves it.  I think we play with it every day.  I bought the pattern from MADE (another all time favorite blog).  That pattern is great and worth every penny.  Dana has tons of pictures, and again, I learned so much from making this!    

Also, if you're curious, this fabric is called "Hello my Friend" and it's made by Push Pin for Kokka.  (A Japanese import fabric).  I bought it from SuperBuzzy, but it's now out of stock.  You may have luck on Etsy.  

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Next project was a sweet little monster bag for another one of Elliott's BFFs.  This little bag holds a coloring book or two, and has color crayons for teeth.  I found this inspiration during "Celebrate the Boy" month on two of my favorite blogs:  Made by Rae and MADE.  You can find a link to the tutorial for this bag here.

Happy Birthday Chris!

Here's my most recent project.  Also inspired by a blog post during Celebrate the Boy.  I've personally never played Angry Birds, but I hear it's addictive.  Our good friend Chris seemed to really like the game, so I whipped these little guys up for his birthday.  You can find a tutorial for them here.  If you like Angry Birds, she has tutorials for all the characters.  I just made two.  I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to throw these at Chris in order to give him his gift.  

That's what I've been up to.  Happy Crafting!