Yes, they both can sew.

This one just doesn’t usually choose to.
  
MiniMe got her top braces off yesterday. After her appointment, she came to the store with me. Isn’t her new smile gorgeous? She doesn’t hang out here with me as often as her little sister and hasn’t shown as much interest in doing all the crafty things that E and I do around here. But yesterday she was either inspired or just really bored because she made two pillows for her room and a fabric covered message board.

Remember when I mentioned a couple weeks ago that she was going to repaint her bedroom? Yeah, about that. It is a hair past half-way done. This means that the second floor of our house is completely and utterly trashed. Almost all of her earthly belongings are piled either in the hallway, the guest room or the “spare” (formerly my sewing/craft) room. The laws of physics would indicate that there is no possible way that all of that crap will ever fit back into the smallest room of the house, her bedroom. It may also explain why it has been virtually impossible for her to accomplish and maintain a clean room for the past year or more. I see many trips to Goodwill in my near future.

Filed under Life on Shiny Island, message board, sewing | Comments (2)

A bird in the bag?

 
Emily and Lauren are sisters who have been coming in to learn to sew this past month. Their first projects were cool pajama pants (sorry no pictures). Then they chose Amy Butler’s new pattern, The Birdie Sling for their second project.

They did a great job choosing coordinating fabrics. Amy’s great colors and patterns make it pretty easy anyway! Emily chose Temple Garden and Full Moon Polka Dot from the Lotus collection with Oxford Stripe for the lining. Lauren selected her fabrics from the new Midwest Modern line; Optic Blossom in linen, Martini in mustard and Happy Dots in grey for the lining.

This was my first time making this pattern too. As with any pattern, I’d advise reading through the directions before starting. Amy Butler patterns are very clear and detailed. This one doesn’t have a lot of diagrams and there were one or two steps that may have been clearer with a diagram. Also we had a little trouble getting the top of the bag pieces and the top bands to match up evenly. We managed to fudge around enough that the end result was fine. I haven’t found any references to this problem in other online reviews of this pattern so it may have just been our mistake. I’ll have to make another sometime to see if we weren’t precise enough in our cutting this time around. This turned out to be a two session project. On the first day we got through the first 6 or 7 steps in the pattern and finished up the last 4 or 5 on the second day. The laying out and cutting of the pattern pieces always takes longer than you expect it to and with the last few finishing steps it is always important to take your time and be sure you do a nice neat job.

The finished bag is very roomy and the pattern includes instructions for two interior pockets. One is divided and quite deep, Lauren commented that this one is the perfect size for her eyeglass case. It wouldn’t be difficult at all to add a zippered pocket to the lining or a smaller cell phone sized pocket to the nice wide strap. I’d also suggest adding a magnetic snap. The other feature I like about this pattern is the use of fusible fleece for the lining interfacing. It gives the bag a nice body and protects your belongings a little bit. (One caveat: the fleece interfacing I ordered came in non-fusible so we used a temporary spray adhesive to stick the lining and interfacing together during assembly. This worked just fine, maybe better than using fusible as my luck and experience with some fusible fleeces has been hit or miss.)

Overall I’d give this pattern an A and Lauren and Emily an A+!

Filed under Classes, The Business, Uncategorized, sewing | Comment (0)

Week in Review

Whew! For a three day work week I’ve been really busy (good busy!) and it has flown by. My blog posting stats have been weak at best recently but this week will have to suffice with a long week in review post before I head out of here for the holiday.

First of all we had our official ribbon cutting here Tuesday afternoon. Many members of the Chamber of Commerce and other local business people came out to show their support. I was so thrilled to have the mayor, Don DeWitte, attend and do the official ribbon cutting with me. As it turns out, it was like old home week for him. He grew up in the house directly behind the store here and spent his youth running this neighborhood!  
Wednesday and today I’ve been doing a lot of what I opened this store to do; teach people to sew. Yesterday I had two return students that made pajama pants with me last week. This week they came in to make the Amy Butler Birdie Bag pattern. We didn’t quite get through the entire thing so they will be coming back next week to finish up.

Today I had a fun morning doing my part to contribute to “Burgess Camp.” My friend Judy has her 5 grandchildren come for a few days every summer and they do all kinds of fun things together. I was thrilled to be able to offer them a morning of crafting fun. We made fish in a bag soaps and some “dragon tear” magnets. (The youngest grandchild informed me that the flattened marbles are actually “REAL!” dragon’s tears! Who knew?)   

Then to wrap up my week Chris, a new sewer and new student, came in to make her first apron. She is a natural! She chose fabrics from the Moda Christmas selection (25% off for the month of July!) to make her sister a cute hostess gift.  So it is official, Chris is the winner of the first Christmas sewing/craft project completed at My Eclectic Mess 2008! Drop the balloons!!!!

So now I am off for the holiday weekend to spend some time with my husband and kids, probably a large amount to be spent lounging in a pool float. Mini-Me is planning to repaint her bedroom (I think this may count as the 8th or 9th time one of the upstairs/kids’ bedrooms have been painted since we moved into this house 11 years ago!) I would really like to have nothing to do with the entire project but I doubt I’ll get so lucky. Did I mention that the room is currently dark brick red?

Someone please pour me an icy cocktail, I’ll be there in a few minutes!

Filed under The Business | Comment (0)