Sewing a Curtain

One last thing I needed for my bathroom was a curtain. I'm lucky enough to have a washer and dryer in suite in my apartment, but they're a bit of an eyesore in my bathroom so I decided to make a curtain to keep them out of view, but still in easy access.

I had this Ikea fabric I bought a few years ago (long before I sewed!) and this seemed like the perfect accent to the room.

I'd never made a curtain before but this seemed easy enough. A hemmed rectangle and loops at the top. Not too tricky.

And the finished product! I still need to get a hook so I can keep the curtain to the side when I'm using the machines but I'll wait a while to get that.

Contrary to what it looked like, I ironed the curtain twice before hanging it up. I blame lighting for pointing out all the wrinkles.

Bean bags

I have a sweet two year old nephew who I lived with first the first 14 months of his life. My sister recently asked me to make a few bean bags for him for her to keep in her purse. She's really big on homemade and wooden toys for Ben.

After a bit of delay from a jammed sewing machine, I finally got them done recently! I made a lining with a thick fabric and put the rice inside of that, so that even if Ben gets a hole in the beanbags, the rice still won't spill out.

I made three different bean bags - one with patches of Guatemalan handmade fabric, one of a ladybug (Ben's favorite animal) and one with the letter B on one side and Thomas the Train on the other.

The cutest thing was when I gave the beanbags to Benjamin, he thought they were tiny pillows and promptly put them on the floor and laid his head on them and snuggled with his blanket, his Curious George, and the beanbags.

Before and After - Telephone Bench

I got this telephone bench a few months ago and absolutely fell in love with it.

But the upholstery was outdated and worn out, with a little hole on the seat.

I've been meaning to upholster it again since I bought it, but had been waiting around for just the right fabric. Well, I decided yesterday that I'll probably never find the perfect fabric, and decided to just use some leftover Amy Butler fabric I had from creating pillows in my living room.

I just did a quick hack upholstery job, without removing the old fabric, but I think it'll hold up fine until I find that perfect fabric!

(For a second, I was considering leaving it like this. I'm glad I didn't.)

I'm happy with the results, it looks cute and summery.

Sewing again

A few weeks ago I braved a new world of sewing - clothing! Sewing clothes is a lot more noticable if you mess up than a pillowcase, so I was a bit nervous to try it out.

I found a really easy free "pattern" at this neat website called BurdaStyle where pretty much all you do is measure your waist, do some math about circles, and make a giant circle with a hole out of it in the middle the size of your waist and then sew on a waistband.

(excuse the crappy quality, they were taken with my iMac with the 3 second timer)

I'm really happy with the results. I changed up the "pattern" a little in that I made it shorter (the original pattern went just below the knee) and I didn't have the belt hardware they used in the waist, so I used a zipper and eyelet hook.

A minor problem I have with it is that any gust of wind makes it fly up. I heard that you can sew fishline into the hem to help weight it down, but at this point I'm fine with it as it is.

Having success with this has definitely made me more confident in sewing garments. Maybe I'll try a dress next if I can find a cute pattern!

Birds Table Runner

My second sewing project was making a table runner to match the pillows I made earlier.

I wanted to make one that looked a bit homemade, a little kitschy, with sweet birds stitched on top.

Blurry, I know, but it's the only one I took where you can see all 6 birds.

I drew the birds by hand on the fabric and then cut them out and stitched them on to the runner.

This bird is my favorite because it looks like he's still learning to stand.

I like this bird's skinny tail.

I'm happy with the results! (Other than the drop of chocolate milk spilled on it)

Secondhand fabric

Ah, I've been terrible at updating this lately. Mainly because I've been waiting to borrow Mike'scamera. Posts without pictures aren't very fun.

Since I got my sewing machine for my birthday in June, I've taken up a new interest in textiles and fabrics. Buying new fabric can be costly though, and in an effort to save some money, I've taken to buying fabrics at my local thrift store. There are so many cool fabrics there! Plus, I like the thought of repurposing old fabric rather than buying new. I mainly stick to the bed linens section because the fabric is so large there, but I'm sure for a smaller project you could sift through some old men's shirts and get enough fabric.

Anyways, here's what I picked up on my last trip.

Isn't this dotted pattern sweet? I love it. The reverse with flowers was the trim on a pillowcase that matched the sheet.

Pretty pink paisley.

I love the delicate pattern on this one.

Big blue flowers make me happy. I'm making a skirt out of this one.

My first sew

My lovely Michael bought me a sewing for my birthday a few weeks ago and I finally got a chance to use it this weekend!

I went to Mitchell Fabrics and picked up a few basic supplies and some fabric. Mitchell Fabrics is a huge fabric store in downtown Winnipeg. There are some good fabrics, but there's a LOT of tacky fabrics as well. But if you're willing to sift through hundreds, you might find what you're looking for!

Anyways, I picked up some fabric - two Amy Butler prints and two solids, with the plan of recovering some pillows. I am a pillow addict and have collected a lot throughout the years, but some of them had pretty awful patterns.

(Michael will make fun of my Christmas woolies.)




It's been nine years since I last touched a sewing machine in home ec class, so I read through the manual to re-learn how to load up a bobbin and how to thread the machine.




The color palette for my pillows (and living room - new Ikea furniture arrives in 9 days!!) comes from my grandma's vintage lamp she gave me (with a new shade from Ikea). I'm really loving the mellow greys and whites with a cheery yellow.




The larger pillow in the back is my shoddiest work - I had to work really hard to mush the pillow in to fit the amount of fabric I had, and I didn't have enough fabric to make a nice cover that's removable, so I sewed it completely shut. I still think it looks pretty good!




The grey pillow is my favorite and took me the longest to make. But I love the details on it!