Welcome to Anne's sewing blog!

I started this blog in 2012 in an attempt to keep better track of all the little things I make. I have found it fun to 'catalog' what I make so I'll continue to post my finished projects as they appear.

Its mostly for my personal use, but also gives me a way to share cute stuff with my craft-oriented friends and family. Enjoy!

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Crochet Purple Baby Blanket

I have a friend having a baby girl any day now and made her this baby blanket over the course of the late summer/early fall.






It was a pleasant crochet project to have sitting by the couch for TV time.  The pattern is simple - just rows of double crochet alternating with rows of single crochet, all the rows done through the front loop only.  I've used this stitch pattern before and its easy and gives the project cool texture.  I used an acrylic yarn from Hobby Lobby that I've used a few times before - I like the sheen it has and it makes the projects super snuggly.

At the end I embellished it with a few flowers.  I tried hearts first but they kept turning out lopsided so I switched to flowers.




Blessings on your Baby, Friend!


Miscellaneous September.... leggings, Star Wars shirt, piano book bag, oven mitts...

Fall has begun with school schedules and music lessons up and running.  It has been great to have a more structured routine... for the most part.  It sure makes lazy Saturdays seem like a treat.  :)  In the sewing world, I am back to part-time work at the costume shop working on a fun show with projects that have been amazingly smooth and without difficulty or drama.  At home, then, I have just been puttering.  I've been tackling little projects I've been meaning to do or that have popped up, all of which can be started and finished in a day or two.  They're nothing fancy or even all that exciting so I'm going to squeeze them all in one post just for the sake of cataloging them as finished projects.

First up was a batch of leggings.  Both girls wear leggings almost daily so we go through them pretty quickly.  I definitely buy store bought leggings, but this year I thought I'd make some too.  The white ones are for church to be fake tights since neither girls can stand the top part of tights anymore.




The second project was rescuing an adult sized Star Wars shirt from the donation pile.  Leah bought it for Keith last year for his birthday but I forgot to check the tag - it was 100% polyester fabric.  That's a no-go for Keith so the shirt wasn't getting much wear and Leah was sad to see it being neglected.  So, it was granted a second life as a child's size raglan shirt.  It was a pretty smooth project.







The stripe shirt was a wearable mockup of the raglan pattern to make sure it was going to fit before cutting up the Star Wars shirt.



We have a beginner piano student in the house so I couldn't resist a little bag to carry her piano books on Thursday afternoons.  I cut it too close and it could have been made a little wider but as it only carries two little books it'll do.






Last but not least, I finally used up a bit of fun baking themed print I've had in my stash for a while.  I tried Insulbright batting (two layers per each side of the mitt) and it seems to be working great.  I made two mitts, using my old nasty dirty ones for a template, and then used up the rest of the Insulbright to get a rectangular hotpad and then a little mug rug.  The excess worked out just right that I used up all the fabric and all the Insulbright with very little waste.  They all went straight into the kitchen drawer to be used and I immediately threw in the trash two old mitts and four hotpads that had lived a long and dirty life.





That is what has been keeping me busy in September!  I am in the planning stages of a big quilt project and also brainstorming a new crochet project so I'm looking forward to starting those projects.

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Back to School Art Apron

My kids need art shirts every year at school and I have always sent their dad's old t-shirts turned inside out with their names written on them in Sharpie.  Really classy.  But I've always WANTED to make them cute art smocks.  Every single year I've thought about it and it has never happened.  This year I have a fifth grader (last year in elementary school) and I finally made it happen.



We happened to pick up a cute toddler and matching doll apron pattern at a garage sale in late August and I changed it to fit my lanky ten year old.   The center part is a couple layers of muslin I had laying around.  It was already in my stash and it was sturdy and it sort of looks like canvas.  I'm sure it's no longer this pristine now that it is being used at school.   The purple print came from the same garage sale.






The letters are stamped on with regular stamping black ink and heat set with the iron.  I made the whole thing in one afternoon and then stood back and said, "Whew... I have been meaning to do that for a long time!"

My ten year old loved and it loves wearing it to art class.  My eight year old kind of shrugged and wasn't interested so she went off to school with an inside out tee shirt with Sharpie.  Party pooper.