Easy Scrap Wreath a.k.a. The Boys' First Video Tutorial!

Check out my cool new wreath on the front door! Doesn't it just proudly proclaim, "A quilter lives here!" I can't remember where I first saw this idea -- somewhere on Pinterest, I think -- but I loved it. A few months ago, I came across a metal ring while going through my mom's sewing things, and realized that it was perfect for this project. It's a simple afternoon craft, and very kid-friendly.

The hardest part was taking the time to cut the scraps. I cut them 1" x 5.5". I cut waaaaaaaaay too many, so I'll probably go on the hunt for another hoop soon.

Once you cut the strips, it's as simple as tying a single knot around your ring.

 Meet my little hams -- they wanted to do a demo for you:

This is my normal front door decoration...it was made for my mom and dad by my Uncle B. 

For a few weeks, though, I'm excited to show off this beauty!

Happy sewing!

Tutorial Part 3: Upcycled Finds into Wild Kratts Costumes for Less Than $35

Holy Tamoley! So, yesterday, a lovely lady name Marney commented on Part 1 of this tutorial, asking for a link to Part 2. I replied with the link and then started editing the first two parts to make sure they both had backlinks to one another when - BAM - I suddenly realized, "I never did write part 3 about the gloves!!"

You guys, seriously, I'm crazy sometimes, and the blog has been WAAAAAAY on the backburner for the last couple of years. If you've seen my last few posts, you've probably gathered that I spent most of last year working out of town on reserve duty, and in the meantime, I'm still wading through my parents' estate, almost two years later. (That, blessedly, is soon to come to an end.)

But I'm back now, so, please accept my apologies, and with love, here's the final installment to the Wild Kratts costume!

Blessings!

---

So, this is the easy stuff. Start with a couple of pairs of black gloves...those dime store one-size-fits-all stretchy ones work great for this. I used one pair of those, plus one pair of old fleece gloves I still had in the box from our Colorado days.

Step 1: From your green and blue fabrics, cut 5 little circles for the finger tips and one larger circle for the palm. The size totally depends on your gloves. I winged it, but my finger tips were about 5/8" in diameter and my palm circles were a shade smaller than 2" in diameter...about 1 3/4".

Use the same fabric glue you used in Part 2 -- (I used Mod Podge Fabric) -- to glue them to your gloves.

At this point, you could go the easy route by skipping to Step 3 and being done. Your kids will be just as happy, and if I had it to do over, that's what I would do. 

Step 2: Not knowing any better, though, I took it one step further, and made the gloves come up the arms a bit like the Kratts, and made a strip of binding from the colored fabric for the edges. That was easy with my old fleece gloves...they were already longer.

It was a little tougher when it came to the dime-store gloves, so I cut two cuffs from leftover fleece from Part 1, and put the green colored binding on the edge.

From there, it was simple. Fold right sides together, stitch a seam, turn them right side out and voila!

No need to finish the top, because the fleece won't fray or ravel. I didn't attach them to the gloves -- they fit nice and snug, so once we put them over the gloves, they stayed in place.

Step 3: From there, I used Tulip Glow in the Dark Dimensional Fabric Paint -- no, I'm not getting paid by any of these companies...just telling you what I used -- to outline the colored circles.

That's really the money step. If your kids are into Wild Kratts, you know certain parts of the outfit glow. I didn't ring every single piece that glows on the Kratts, but you could. The gloves were enough to delight my kids, who holed themselves up in the closet, admiring the soft glow of their fingertips, for the better part of a day. :)

Ta-Da!! You're done! (And I finally got back to finishing this up!)

This has been one of my most popular tutorial series. Thanks for hanging with me, and please share photos of your finished costumes!

See Part 1 of this tutorial series here.
See Part 2 of this tutorial series here.

Into making kids' costumes? Consider trying this Craftsy class:

Costume Box Class

I have NOT taken this class, (though I've been intrigued by it for a long time!) If you decide to try it out, please let me know what you think!

* * *

As always, the modest revenue that comes from pattern sales and blog ads helps me support my family, as well as my sewing and quilting addiction, which then lets me share those tips I learn and tutorials I write with you. If you find that you want to purchase a class or item I recommend here, please consider using the links I've embedded. And by all means, if you try a class or product I recommended, or have your own recommendation to share, allow the rest of us to benefit from your experiences by sharing them in the comments!

Christmas Pajamas!

Meet the newest project to roll out of my sewing studio.  Drum roll, please...it's Christmas jammies! 

And really, what could be better than manta rays and bloody-mouthed sharks? The shark fabric's out of print now, I think, but I tracked it down on eBay. (Thank you, once again, Alexander Henry, for another amazing fabric. We're big fans of your designs around here.)

So, I know, I've been gone forever! Total radio silence. Well, for the record, I really HAVE been gone. I've been on orders for months and just finally got home in November. So, the sewing, quilting and blogging fell a bit by the wayside. However, since I got home, I've been catching up on sewing projects...and adding more to the list, of course. In short, I've been sewing with an obsession that would make my friend Tina proud.

I'll fill you in on more of the projects over the coming days, because, I'd like to do something of a holiday sewing series.

From the time I was a little girl, my family always opened presents on Christmas morning, but to ease us into the fun, we were allowed to open a single "December 24th" gift. Inside that box, without fail, was a new pair of pajamas. I always loved curling up on Christmas Eve in soft new jammies, waiting for Santa. It's a tradition we've carried into our own little family.

The hard part is always finding good PJs. Clothes for kids always seem to be made so cheaply these days, and we consider ourselves fortunate if we can find anything that isn't covered in licensed characters.  

So, this year, I decided to make the jammies.*HUGE GRIN*

Here's Big Boy's set...

...and Bitty's.

I drafted my own patterns for everything and used my own assembly methods. I've made lots of PJ pants before, but this time I tried a new approach for the drafting that started with this tutorial. Even though it's easier to cut the front and back pant legs the same, I'm not wild about the fit. If I make jammies for SuperHusband and myself, I'll be ditching pretty much everything from this tutorial except the cuff idea and going back to the original method I learned for drafting drawstring pants. Oh, and pockets. Must add pockets for the adults.

I decided do a few fittings along the way, so the kids have already seen them. (I'm confident, but not that confident.) When I finished them last night, they begged, BEGGED me to let them sleep in them, and -- guess what -- I'm a total sucker.  So these have already been laundered and worn, and they're holding up great!

So here's where I would love a few do-overs:

When I attached Big Boy's red cuffs, I sewed the cuffs on, then completed the side seam, (similar to the way I attached the band on the pillowcase in this tutorial). This process is easier than the alternative -- sewing the leg up first, then attaching the cuffs afterward -- but it doesn't make for a pretty turned-up cuff, as you can see. Thankfully, his pants are the right length without folding the cuffs up, so everybody's still happy.

When I made Bitty's, I did the opposite: sewed the side seams first, then attached the cuffs. Voila! No exposed seams.

This was also my first foray into making knit t-shirts. The knit sewing and working on the serger went quite well, thanks to this really helpful Craftsy class. However, since I drafted my own patterns, the first one is always apt to need some adjustment.  Bitty's neck was a bit too big, so Big Boy's shirt -- my second go 'round -- fits much, much better.

I'm super proud of my finishes. Every one of my knit attempts prior to this project, unless it was from fleece, (which is heavy enough to sew like a woven), was a disaster.

Check out that neckband application!

Here are the inside seam finishes.

And the bottom cover hem. I recently sold my Babylock Imagine Wave from several years ago and upgraded to a used Babylock Evolution that I found from a delightful woman on Craigslist who had given up learning to use it.  I'm thrilled to have a machine that can do this stitch! (We have SO many tshirts laying around that need to be altered, fixed, shortened, etc, etc.)

Let me pay this fantastic tip forward that someone else gave me: If you don't want to pay an arm and a leg ordering high-quality knit fabric when you're just learning to sew on knits, go to the thrift store and shop in the oversized men's shirt (XXL, XXXL, etc) section. I bought a red Alexander Julian Colours mock turtleneck at the thrift store for $4, then cut it apart to get the yardage for Big Boy's tshirt. He didn't want the little embroidered logo, so I cut around it and pieced in the racing stripes. He's in love with them and so am I!

I'm going to start doing a bit more blogging on serging with knits. In my own sewing and quilting journey, I've found there's woeful little out there for people who want to do serious serging, (or any serging at all, for that matter). Don't worry, I'm still primarily here for the beginners. :)

You probably won't see a full-blown tutorial on these pieces. I want to keep sharing projects with you, but in an effort to make my little "negative-profit" more sustainable, I'm going to start offering more patterns. My Halloween costume patterns did pretty well this year, and I'm encouraged. So, that's yet another step that makes me all giggly inside. :)

Is this a project you might like to see in my Etsy shop?

Thank you for stopping by and for not forgetting me after all this time away. Despite all the down-time, the blog's audience has grown considerably over the last few months. I appreciate you, sooooo much, and I'm so excited to be back home and sewing again!

Oh, and if you're interested in the really great Craftsy class I took, here's the link:

Craftsy Sewing Fashion Knits Class

This is a sponsored link, but my opinions of the classes are genuine. I will not promote a class or product that I haven't personally tried and don't believe in. I may occasionally link to classes I have not tried, but I'll be up front about it. If you want to know more about sponsored links on my blog, check out this posting, On Advertising and Integrity in this Blog.

I will add one more thought to what I wrote nearly three years ago: The modest revenue that comes from pattern sales and blog ads helps me support my family, as well as my sewing and quilting addiction, which then lets me share those tips I learn and tutorials I write with you. If you find that you want to purchase a class or item I recommend here, please consider using the links I've embedded.

The QuiltWest tribute ... One year later

One year ago today, 12 first responders gave their lives in an attempt to save others in the small town of West, Texas.

QuiltWest was born of a desire to give whatever small gift I could to comfort the family members of these men.  I wanted to wrap them with quilts and the warmth of knowing other people felt their loss.  I knew I couldn't do it alone:  In all, 18 ladies from across the nation have opened their hearts and given of themselves to make 12 quilts for the families.  These quilts have taken us on a journey of love, compassion, relationships and hope.

I grew up the daughter of a first responder.  You can learn a little more about my mother's legacy as a paramedic and public servant here and here.  She also loved quilts and quilting, and understood the treasure of a gifted quilt.  I lost her just one month before the events in West, and throughout the project, I carried in my heart a quiet dedication to her.

The families who live in West will receive their quilts today.  My heart broke when I realized work and family schedules simply wouldn't flex to allow me to deliver them personally, but my contact with the City of West has put me at ease.  The fire chief has graciously agreed to pass them along and to see that the remaining quilts are sent to the out-of-town families who couldn't make the trip for the memorial gathering. 

As QuiltWest winds down, it's extremely hard to put my emotion into words.  If you'd like, you can read an excerpt of my letter to the families here.  It's really my best attempt to explain all this.   Thankfully, I have many, many photos of this wonderful journey and the lovely ladies who stitched their love into every quilt.

I truly hope you'll check out the QuiltWest Collection on Flickr for more photos of the quilts, the process and their makers.

If you'd like to learn more about QuiltWest, check out these previous blog postings:

Calling all quilters!  QuiltWest for First Responders' Families - April 25, 2013
Update: QuiltWest - Quilts for West, Texas first responders' families - May 7, 2013
Tutorial:  Basic Jelly Roll Quilt - QuiltWest - May 21, 2013
Today's Photo Journal:  Over the QuiltWest Hump - October 21, 2013

Our love and prayers remain with the families of West, Texas -- all the families of that community -- as they take time today to look back in tribute...and forward with hope.  May God's blessings be with you. 

Basics: The Great Fabric Stash Organization project

Okay, so I have a confession to make:  I'm a fabric hoarder.  No, not like those gross people on TLC, but I really do struggle with throwing away bits of fabric, let alone yardage(!).  I just can't stand the waste.

If you sew you know how it is -- when you first start sewing, you don't have a stash, so you have to buy new fabric for every project.  Depending on the project, you may have a few bits let over, or you may have quite a lot of fabric left at the end.  It's not just a quilter thing:  Home dec and especially garment sewing usually leave larger, more holey, and funky-shaped scraps. 

Basics: Flatlocking and our 100th Day projects!

Whoa.  Apparently, the 100th day of school is a big, big deal these days.  Okay, confession time:  I kind of dreaded this assignment.  We didn't do anything special for the 100th day when I was a kid, and really, who wants to walk around finding 100 different objects, sticking them to a piece of paper and watching them fall off?

I looked around the house and found a large piece of white paper, but my very serious artist explained he wanted a colored page.  Then I found construction paper, but he said that wasn't big enough.  (Some of the kids were using poster board, but it was too late in the day to make that happen.)  My attitude started looking up when I figured out that it didn't have to be a piece of paper, though -- fabric stash to the rescue!  Then Big Boy got jazzed about designing his own custom background.

Goals for a New Year

Ugh.  My blogging has slowed way down.  The last couple of years took away a lot of steam.  At times, my self-imposed blogging deadlines helped me cope, I imagine, but at other times, they really added stress in an already tough situation.  I've already started quilting like crazy again, though, and I'm ready to rediscover the fun in writing!

Part of the solution is to stop feeling guilty about everything.  We women are the world's worst about beating ourselves up with guilt.  A little guilt can be a great motivator...  A lot of guilt can be a paralytic force of devastating proportions.

In 2013, there were some major guilt issues:
...not spending enough time with the children or not being engaged enough when I did -- perhaps the common lament of every parent everywhere since the beginning of time.
...not having the physical or emotional stamina to do everything for my mother I wished I could have.  (That guilt reached back to 2012 when Daddy passed, too.)
...not getting enough estate work done, or tax work, or house work, or church work, or well, you get the point.
I felt guilty about things I didn't even do wrong, thanks to a few rather harsh critics.

But as if those weren't enough, I even gave myself grief about small, inconsequential blog things:
...not blogging twice a week, then once a week, then once a month.
...writing anything that didn't relate to my blog's sewing and quilting focus.
...writing a blog posting without imagery to accompany it.
...not having time to compose lengthy, illustrated tutorials.
...sewing something for sheer enjoyment without stopping to wait for the right afternoon light to take pictures of the project in-progress.  (Shock!  Horror!)

Eventually, I didn't want to do anything at all, because nothing I could ever do would keep me from being overwhelmed, and therefore, I couldn't shut out the guilt.

And so, as we move well into 2014, I'm going to make a few resolutions:

1.  I'm letting myself off the hook.  It's not okay to wallow or be indefinitely paralyzed by stress and guilt, but it is occasionally okay to have a movie day, a sad day, a lazy day, an eat-all-the-chocolate-and-potato-chips-you-want day, a curl-up-under-an-OliviaFurryBlanket day, a sleep-through-the-rain day or all of the above at once.  There's no more room for guilt when it comes to the arts that have previously brought me comfort-bliss. 

Tutorial: Upcycled Finds into Wild Kratts Costumes for Less Than $35

This.  This right here.  This is why I love Halloween so much.  What could possibly be better than dressing up and exploring another identity for a day?  Especially when that identity is someone you think is cool!  

The kids embraced it with their usual verve.  They were awfully proud of themselves as they bounced around the neighborhood pretending to be the Wild Kratts pretending to be various creatures.  :) I'm pretty proud of myself, too.  I've made the kids some cool costumes over the years including last year's Toothless dragon and shark costumes, but this is the first year I've managed to do it for so little moolah!

Today's Photo Journal: Over the QuiltWest Hump!

That, my friends, is perhaps the largest stack of binding ever.  (Okay, except maybe in a factory where they make the stuff commercially, but you know what I mean.)  That bottom layer measures up to roughly the size of a 9-inch round layer of cake!

QuiltWest is still in full swing.  So many lovely ladies have come together to make these beautiful quilts!  Need the background?  Check out these posts:

Calling all Quilters! QuiltWest for first responders' families
Update: QuiltWest - Quilts for West, Texas first responders' families
Tutorial:  Basic Jelly Roll Quilt - QuiltWest

Here's Miss Sherry putting together that binding...

The JustSewOlivia Project Runway "Make it work!" Tutorial

In celebration of the start of a new Project Runway season starting tonight, I've sewn, photographed and written this tutorial starting at 6 p.m. central time -- just one hour before the beginning of Season 12 -- with the goal of completing the tutorial before the show starts!  Holy cow...I only have 10 minutes as of this moment.  Yikes!

Here's the backstory:

Busy, busy!

Wow!  So much has happened!  We've been all birthdays and company and traveling and Air Force duty, not to mention QuiltWest, which continues to progress.  Nearly all the quilt tops are in from our hard-working sewistas, and I've completed long arm quilting on two of them!  Check out these rockin' paisleys, yo.

I bet you think I've totally let the shark costume drop off the map, but I haven't.  I'm in the process of revising some of the pieces and steps to make it WAY easier with far better results.  Might be a few days yet, but HOORAY for easier/better!

Speaking of sharks, here's a quick preview of Big Boy's birthday cake.  More to come on that...

So on to some BIG NEWS:

Sewing with Precut Fabric Bundles

Since I selected the Jelly Roll Race quilt technique for QuiltWest, you probably noticed I'm finally coming around on the whole precut fabric thing.  For years, the frugal homemaker inside me just couldn't come to terms with paying so much extra for the process of having someone else do your cutting.  Frankly, I saw it as a luxury I couldn't afford.

Boy, has my perspective ever changed...

Shark Costume Part 2: Drafting and Cutting Out the Tail

UPDATE!  See this link for the Shark Costume Pattern

Welcome to part 2 of the Shark Costume Tutorial series!  This posting will focus on drafting and cutting out the tail. 

I love making Halloween costumes.  In fact, Halloween costumes were the first project to really make me want to learn to sew.  I just HAD to have something different from the standard brothel pirate costumes and Elvira wigs at local stores, but I didn't exactly have the funding for anything elaborate.

So the requirement was "uniquely cheap."  Or maybe "cheaply unique."  :)

Did I mention I had no idea how to sew?

I went to the local Joann's and browsed the Halloween patterns, trying to find something I could manage on my own.  Eureka!  The Flintstones!  How hard could it possibly be? 

Turns out it was a little harder than I thought, but after some trial and error it turned out bueno.  I made costumes for my roommate, myself and our dates.  Roommie K. and her beau were Fred and Wilma.  My short, blond date and I -- with my sassy little bob -- made a picture-perfect Barney and Betty.  It worked out perfectly and I was hooked!  Okay, perfect except my date felt a little too twinkie-esque and added horns to his forehead with fake blood running down into his eyes.  Harumph.  Boys...)

Didn't the costumes turn out cute?!  Sorry for the quality...and cropping.  No creepy ex-boyfriends on this blog!

Anyway, here's how this shark tail thing is going to go down...

Shark Costume Part 1: Research, Planning and Materials

UPDATE!  See this link for the Shark Costume Pattern

Life happened.

That's why I never got around to writing the tutorial for the shark and dragon costumes last year after Halloween as promised.  But it's time to finish what I started, and I am TOTALLY jazzed about it!  :)  Read on to get a better look at the shark costume...adorable, right?

Tutorial: Basic Jelly Roll Quilt - QuiltWest

Goodness!  We're about halfway through our project to make quilts for the families of first responders in West, Texas.  Several people have asked me how to make a Jelly Roll Quilt, so here goes!

First, check out this great video tutorial with Jenny Doan from Missouri Star Quilt Co on this technique.  A lot of people call it the Jelly Roll Race, because it goes so fast that they want to race each other to see who can get it done quickest!

Now that you have the basic idea, let me walk you through in a little greater detail.

Supplies you need:

Update: QuiltWest - Quilts for West, Texas first responders' families

Goodness!  I'm sorry I've gone so long without providing an update on the QuiltWest project.  People have been so incredibly generous with their time and talents, so we've been busy, busy! 

First, I want to highlight the people who have provided our inspiration.  Their selfless actions remain at the center of this project:

Kevin Sander, emergency medical technician
Captain Robert Snokhous, firefighter
Captain Doug Snokhous, firefighter
Joseph "Joey" Pustejovsky, firefighter
Captain Kenneth "Luckey" Harris, firefighter
Cody Dragoo, firefighter
Cyrus Reed, firefighter
Jerry Chapman, firefighter
Perry Calvin, firefighter
Morris Bridges, Jr., firefighter
Jimmy Matus, honorary firefighter
William "Buck" Uptmor, honorary firefighter

Here's where we are in the process:

Best Practices: Working with 100% Cotton Thread

If you're quilting Jelly Roll Race quilts along with us for QuiltWest, you'll know that I requested participants use 100 percent cotton thread for both the piecing and the quilting.  I have a confession to make:  I pretty much hated quilting with cotton thread until a fellow long arm quilter gave me some tips...

Calling all quilters! QuiltWest for First Responders' Families

A few days ago, our nation felt the impact of two devastating events.  For the families at the heart of the devastation, the whole of their lives changed dramatically in a matter of seconds.  Particularly touching to me was the tremendous loss in West, Texas, with 10 first responders among the fallen.

I wanted to help, but what do you do for someone who's lost so much?

Getting on the bus...and off the roller coaster

I'm sorry I haven't been around lately.  You see, I lost my mother in March, and it's been hard to focus on sewing or writing.  When I do write, I get lost in emotion.  The endless photo search just results in waves of silent tears, and then surrender.  Even when I'm trying not to think at all, everything seems to remind me of her.  Even weird, silly things that you wouldn't expect.

Like today when I put Big Boy on the school bus.

Upcycle: Long Jammies to Layered Tee

A few weeks ago, I cut off my son's favorite pajama bottoms and made them into shorts to solve a specific problem.  He look adorable in them!  But I'm not a girl who wastes a perfectly good set of matching leggings with knit cuffs, so I had to come up with something for the scraps. 

How about a faux layered t-shirt?  My youngest wasn't into it.  His delicate sensibilities couldn't handle putting his pants on his arms, but Big Boy was jazzed at getting a new tee with trucks on the sleeves.