Cootie Cover...almost done....

Cootie cover #1 (for Katie) is almost done...what a relief. These last few steps were not as painful as the quilting, but gosh...I'm glad I don't do this every day! Threading the elastic through the binding actually made my hands a bit sore. I'm now sewing the snaps onto the toy loops, then I will have to hand-sew the toy loops onto the cover. I'm going to set them a little lower on the cover than the directions state...I think the loops will actually fall outside of the shopping cart seat if I had sewn them into the binding. The snaps will allow the loops to open (not an option in the original directions) and make the loops a bit more practical.

I also found a neat set of instructions on eBay for folding the cover into itself and using the safety strap as a carrying handle. I had thought about making a pocket to fold the cover into, but those directions are so much better.

The next cover that I'll make for Alyson will be different...and easier. I'll just use the width of the pre-quilted fabric for the 44" wide part (I should have thought of that with the first cover...), then I'll measure 40" into the length of the fabric. The toy loops will be made from left-over leg binding (I'm hoping that there will be enough, if not, I'll use some extra shoestring/drawstring for the toy loops). I have plenty of leftover blanket binding for the second cover...as it turns out, I only need one package for each. Doing the second one back-to-back with the first will make the second one go faster, I think, as I will remember the steps and the short-cuts that I want to take.

Then...on to my next project. It's coming up on spring...or maybe I'll make another pair of knit pants.

Test driving the cootie-cover

I went to Walmart today and brought the nearly complete cootie-cover to see if it would fit the shopping cart. It's *just* short...by an inch...in the back. Sigh. I thought it might be but I was hoping.... so I bought an extra yard of fabric to make a border. But when I got it home, I saw that I had some left-over fabric from the project. Being the, ah, time-efficient person that I am, I just used the left-over to add 3" to the back of the piece. I spent an hour doing that tonight. Tomorrow (or maybe Friday), I'll put the blanket binding on...one step closer to completion.

I had a bright idea for Alyson's cootie-cover...use pre-quilted fabric. Ta-da! And pre-made bias binding...I know, I know, I swore off the stuff but man, do I hate making binding. Maybe it will get softer after washing (wishful thinking??). I also think that I will either use snaps to attach the toy-loops or I'll get some carabiners to make it easier to hook a toy into the loops. I wonder if there's such a thing as plastic carabiners....

Batting...ugh

So, I have once again reminded myself why I am not a quilter. I'm working on a shopping cart cover for a friend of mine, Katie (an excellent nurse), and I've also volunteered to make another one for my office-mate and general confidant, Alyson. Except next time I am getting rid of the batting and maybe the quilting part as well. As I was struggling mightily with the "quilt sandwhich" to get all three uber bulky layers underneath the presser foot, I was swearing mightily and thinking, this totally sucks. I do not own a real quilting machine...and it's evident by the fact that there is just not a whole lot of space to the right of the presser foot in which to cram almost 4 feet of bulky quilt. I wanted to start drinking by the end. Add to that, in my demented, perfectionistic state, I HAD to, had to, do all of the quilting lines in the same direction...so that I wouldn't get any weird puckering. I didn't get any of the puckering caused by sewing in opposite directions, but I'm not sure that my sanity was worth the effort.

I'm almost done with it, and I do have to give myself a pat on the back. It's pretty cute. But the next one is being done with 3 layers of flannel. And no batting. Or maybe just low-loft batting next time... All I can say is god bless quilters, those sew-ers are patient folks.

A new star!

As I was browsing through PR this week, I noticed that I got another star! I now have TWO stars. so Cool. This is really quite exciting...my first star was over a year ago (at least), so this second star was a long time in the making.

I finished a pair of brown knit pants a couple of days ago and I realized that a) I need to chop off at least 1 inch from the hem, and 2) I need to play with the side seams a bit. I essentially chopped off about 1" from the CF seam, and that's thrown off the side seams. Since the pants are knit, the fit is great and the wonky side seams are much of a bother, but being who I am, I want to fix the side seams for the next pair of pants.

I'm trying to decide what my next project will be. I have no burning desire to do any particular project...I want something quick and easy. Maybe I'll hem those jeans that have been on the to-do list for a year now. Haha.

Wow, it's Valentine's day, already...

I've had a bum day at work and I haven't blogged in a while, so I figured I would post an update...which in turn will perk up my spirits.

I made an awesome tutorial for how to copy my favorite RTW pair of underwear, it's posted on pattern review. I've already made three pairs of underwear and I love them. I've got TONS of beige fabric left over so there's plenty more where that came from :) I'm so inspired by how well the undies turned out that I'm thinking of copying my sports bras...which are really just basic little training bras for girls that I bought from Target. They work for me :) So while I can be depressed by my membership in the IBTC club, at least my bras are inexpensive. Anyway, copying shouldn't be too difficult.

I bought a new "journal" for keeping track of my WIPs, and also any changes that I made to the pattern. It's a hybrid notebook-slash-binder; it's got these plastic rings that kind of snap open like the metal rings in a binder, but the spine of the notebook is made from a fabric-like material, so it's very flexible and I can open the whole thing like a regular notebook. It's very neat and while I was initially kind of squeamish about spending money on it, I've definitely come to prize the notebook and it's perks.

I made a butterick top last weekend from some knit fabric that I bought at PR w/e 2007. It's a large print composed of mod flowers. The shirt came out okay, but I'm convinced that either the style or the large print itself makes my bust look even smaller. I need to post a review on PR when I get the time. I plan to wear the shirt to work next week.

I made the obi- style belt for the Vogue dress...and it did NOTHING for the dress. I still looked like I was wearing a mumu. I kept the dress because I'm thinking of recycling the fabric (there's like 3.5 yards of fabric invested in the dress..I could make a tank top or three!). At first I was going to do a review, but I've already wasted so much time on that darn dress that I don't want to bother. On to bigger and better things!

So I've got TONS of fabric that my mom gave me. Most of the pieces are slithery, sheer, very pretty, poly prints. I guess this is my chance to work through my phobia of those very fabrics. I've got nothing to lose...

I've got a long weekend this weekend...maybe I can take advantage of it and give myself a little sewing vacation. MMMMM...the possibilities :)