Box Bag

Lest ye think that I hath forgotten...

Warning...these are addictive. You cannot make just one! The one on the left is the gift I had for our Holiday Gathering. I enlarged the rectangle for the dance bag on the right.

And some alterations on the original pattern instructions posted by Desi...

http://www.20acresnosheep.net/2007/12/few-small-simplifications-to-box-bag.html

Holiday Party

Hello, Sew-Incredible-Sisters,
We had a wonderful time at Lucretia's house last night and missed all of you who could not come. Here are some pictures from the party. I wish I had thought to photo those cool gifts we exchanged. The hotly-contested red carry-all went to Elleen, I think. She was pretty quiet about it. Apologies to Colleen and Gail, who also were there. Hope everyone has a peaceful break coming up. Martha

Link for jeans skirt by Barbara Moss

I posted a link from Barbara Moss on how to turning a pair of jeans into a jean skirt. It's on the June 23rd post. Please check it out if you have a pair of jeans you want to turn into an expensive looking skirt like Barbara did.

Bag addiction - like Desi!

Here is one of the sashiko bags I'm currently working on. My husband thinks I'm nuts. I keep making these little gift bags, inspired by Nancy Shriber and her sashiko book 14x14, only mine are much smaller. Maybe I should work on something more useful...nah.

Bags so addictive, you can't make just one...

I found this bag pattern by way of a favorite sewing blog of mine - Stacy Sews. She found this bag pattern, whipped up a few and now she's addicted. I tried them out on Sunday (during my sewing binge) and I can't wait to make more. If I hadn't run out of zippers, I'd have more than just two of them whipped up already :)

Now, get to sewing, girls. One of these little bags stuffed w/ sewing goodies would make a LOVELY gift for our Holiday gift exchange....hint, hint, nudge, nudge....

Sew Incredibles Apron

Lucretia and Desi made each of us a Sew Incredibles Apron for the Ties That Matter volunteer sewing October 25. These are absolutely amazing, wonderful, and such useful aprons. Lucretia and Desi --- THANK YOU!!!

Japanese sewing sites, books, resources...

http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/japanese_pattern_books/



http://japancouture.canalblog.com/

And here's the book I brought to the meeting:

http://www.yesasia.com/global/search/hiraiwa-natsuno/0-0-0-bpt.48_q.Hiraiwa+Natsuno-en/list.html

Coverstitch Machines

I do so LOVE my coverstitch machine. We had a brief discussion about them last night at the meeting. Karen was asking how to go over the hem. Hellenne enlightened us by saying to snip the seam allowance and turn one seam one way and the other the opposite to reduce bulk. Then Desi piped up and asked how to stop sewing and not have the stitching come out. There is a trick to hand wheeling forward and then backward and listening for the click or something. I follow this great advice written by Debbie Cook. No sense reinventing the wheel so here's a link to her tutorials http://www.cedesign.com/familyphotos/sewing/info/cs_faq/index.html

Desi went fabric shopping at Britex!!!!

Desi had a GREAT time in Britex's four floors of fabrics, trims, buttons, and more fabric. She came home with lots of great fabric, and took pictures of bolts and bolts of fabric. (Only people who sew understand this.)

She also went to Japan Town in San Francisco and bought a bunch of sewing and crocheting books in Japanese, and in her excitement she forgot she couldn't read Japanese.

Look how HAPPY Desi looks with all her purchases!

Show and Tell at Oct 9th Meeting

This is Jan Martin's double layered reversible fleece vest bound in stretch velvet.

The little girl's dress is by Martha Meyers.

And here's Rena holding two crocheted spiral scarves that Desi makes while driving with her knees (Desi!!!).

Martha's demo Oct 9

Martha Meyers showed us various techniqes to use in both garments and quilts. Here she shows us the "Groovin' Piping" tool useful in trimming your piping to 1/4" and 5/8" available from www.piecesbewithyou.com/patterns.htm.

She also showed us her whole cloth facing, pouncing tool, bias binding joining of the ends, and more.

Here she is wearing the Sewing Workshop's ZigZag top in a beautiful blue crossdyed "linen (http://www.sewingworkshop.com/).

Crocheted Curly Scarf

The pattern for the crocheted curly scarf can be found here:

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/70603AD.html

It is a free pattern from Lion Brand, but you may  have to register with their site to gain access to the page. The scarf is made from 1 skein of homespun yarn. It works up quickly and also makes a great gift :)

Desi

Sling made from Men's Ties

Here is the link to the blog post that outlines how to make a sling pouch from two men's ties. This is a quick project and it would make a quick gift as well!

http://blog.betzwhite.com/2008/09/two-tie-sling-tutorial.html

Desi

Sew Incredibles!: free glasses case pattern

Sew Incredibles!: free glasses case pattern

free glasses case pattern

Hi, all,
Here is the link & picture for that free pattern for a glasses case:
http://www.contemporarysashiko.com/projects/contemporary-sashiko%E2%84%A2-project-series%C2%A9---2.aspx

SHNOODLE!

Go visit this woman's blog. Amazing, she is making a block a day using a daily callender. Amazing.

Kraftworks - ICE

Once again, Atlanta will have a monthly infusion of indie craft!

If you've been missing Young Blood Gallery & Boutique's monthly indie art and craft market, it's back with a bang! Young Blood has teamed up with the Indie Craft Experience to bring you this fabulous event. From now on, ICE & Young Blood will be previewing artists' work to make sure there is a great balance of items to shop for, which will be a win/win for both vendors and shoppers. There will be a $20 application fee which will allow us to promote the event. There will be 15 vendors each month and each vendor will have a 4' x 6' space.

The market will continue to be held on the first Thursday of each month from 7-10 p.m. The first Kraftwork in Young Blood's new space will take place on Thursday, September 4th. The deadline to apply is Wednesday, August 27.

Interested in being a vendor? Go to the Indie Craft Experience website for detailed instructions on how to apply.

Information copied from Craftzine.com

What an incredible group!!!

The Sew Incredibles group surprised me tonight with dinner at the Relish in Roswell and a pretty birthday cake baked by June Hoffman, and a card and a gift! Thank you everyone for celebrating my 50...uh...we'll keep it at 50th birthday! Yes, the cake was sweet! What a great group of nice people! Makes getting older nicer.

I also did a quick demonstration of silk dye painting and let the group loose on a silk scarf. Wow! The scarf turned out absolutely wonderful, and after I steam and wash it, we're thinking of auctioning it at Common Threads -- well, unless I "accidentally" lose it, :)

Click on the pics to get a close-up view!

At Show N Tell, Sandie gave us a mini fashion show (she had so many outfits she made!!!), Helen Mirren -- oops! I mean Martha, made the new Shapes skirt out of batik and the Mimosa Top (see photo left), Barbara Moss made the cutest pair of plaid capris lined in lime green, Sue Eisen showed us her quilt that makes one feel happy, and I can't remember the rest, so someone let me know what they were.

We're supposed to get instructions from Barbara on how to make this nifty tote bag that folds and zips into it's own little pouch that's attached to the tote bag front as a pocket!

Jan Martin's Recycled White Cotton Jacket

Here's the info Jan sent me regarding the White Cotton Jacket she recycled and modelled for us at out June meeting:

The jacket was made about 5 years ago from a Vogue Pattern. I followed the directions, adding a medium weight interfacing to the front panel. Because the front panels overlapped quite a bit, the result was a somewhat stiff front. The fit was very good with a mandarin collar included in the front panel of the pattern.

This year I decided to remodel it so I could use it in more casual settings, including going to concerts. First, I removed the white soutache braid from the edges. Since I no longer had the pattern, I folded back the unneeded sections, pinned them and wore the jacket that way around the house. I did much stretching and moving (I'm getting visuals here, Jan!) to make sure that when I cut into it the shape of the back and sides would not be affected.

I released the mandarin collar seam. Allowing for a 1/2" seam, I drew the cutting line with a pencil and cut the jacket fronts. I closed the raw edges with hand sewing and replaced the soutache braid and mounted the large button to close the front.

It was a very nice jacket -- hard to believe it was recycled! click on the image to enlarge

Martha's show 'n tell from June 2008

Here are my show 'n tells from last night. The blue jacket and the brown skirt are both from Simplicity 3688, one of the patterns for the 2008 ASG contest. The lavendar jacket is from the 2007 ASG contest. Hope to see everyone else's show 'n tell and other projects too!

Enabler Alert

Here's the link to the CUTE cords from Fabric.com
http://www.fabric.com/apparel-fashion-fabric-corduroy-fabric-21-wale-cool-cords-fabric.aspx

Also they have some solid color cotton twill for $3.95/yard...great for skirts, pants, tote bags, etc.

I would write more about last night but my laptop is bouncing up and down from the jackhammers!!!!

June Meeting: Fringes and Trims

We had lots of laughs and fun as Desi showed us her collection of gadgets for trim and fringe making. The bottom line was: buy the trims and fringes because it's too boring and too much work to make them! However, the cord she made with wool yarn, and then felted, was something we all thought was interesting even though the bunch of samples she was clutching looked like colorful snakes. Her felted purse is to die for!

Among the many show and tells were Martha's swimsuit, her two suits, an adorable $3 jean skirt made by Barbara that was very expensive looking, Sandy's beautiful unmentionable and a cool LJ Designs Versa jacket she is in the process of completing, Karen's beautiful Diane Ericson Peony Jacket, Jan Martin's classy white jacket, an amazing smocked dress by Kay, and many more treats (including the cookies Desi made)!

Here is a link to the jean skirt Barbara made:

http://www.sewing.org/html/jeans_skirt.html
And she suggests:
"I would change the directions by marking the inset, cutting with a 5/8” seam allowance and serging the edges (even though it’s semi-bias) before sewing. It just seems like a cleaner finish to me."

And someone (who didn't have a name tag, I think) brought in her bottle cap pincushion which was ADORABLE! So we all want to make these pin cushions. Here's a tutorial (if you google bottle cap pincushion tutorial you'll get a long list of sites):

http://mylittlemochi.typepad.com/my_little_mochi/patterns_tutorials/index.html
Scroll down towards the bottomto see her bottle cap pin cushion.

This link is for other pincushions (eyecandy) designs:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bella_dia/sets/733357/

And the winner of the Nametag contest is Kay! I need a pic Kay!


July 28, Tuesday at 7pm is our next meeting. Come to dinner at The Relish at 6pm before the meeting! July's topic will be silk dye painting by Hellenne.

Swim Suit

After my presentation on swim suits, I realized my girls' swimsuits were awfully small! So I promised them a trip to the pool and had to whip up some suits. This is Kwik Sew 2884 with some alterations to the top. The bottoms were made like the pattern.

My 7 year old is a girly girl so I knew it had to pink and it had to be frilly! Originally it was more of a tankini but her torso is so long that it just looked like her suit was too small so I chopped it off and added a contrast band with elastic.

As for the crossover top, I used the pattern for the tank top and drew a line curving from a little past center front to the side seam for the right side. The left side I cut off at the curve and added a seam allowance. I sewed the shoulder seams and added the ruffle to the front pieces, folding the ends under a little at the shoulders. I sewed elastic all the way around the neckline. Then I sewed the left side under the right side and topstitched with a zig zag. Start the zig zag on the right side front and go around the neck ending under the ruffle as close as you can get to the seam. I think the next version I will add binding rather than ruffles and see how that works.

My favorite part of swimwear is making up new designs! It's so easy to take a basic pattern like this one and cut it up, add new details, and make it your own.

My big girl's bathing is next. It's finished, I just have to get her to slow down long enough to get a picture!

NEW CHALLENGE: name tags!!!

Well for those of you that missed the meeting Monday it was delightful as always! We had beautiful weather and sat on June's screened porch and sipped fancy strawberry drinks and chatted. The food was fabulous and the evening lifted my spirits.We discussed that we should all have name tags since we seem to be getting new members faster than we can learn names!

We decided that it should be a name tag challenge so here it is...Make (however you choose to interpret that) a name tag that shows your personality and style. There will be a prize involved so try your best to make something fabulous!You have a month to get this done and we will model them for all to see at the June meeting. If you don't make one, you will wear the badge of shame (one of those stick on My Name Is...)I think this will tie into the fabric and fringe program at that meeting just great too!Go, get busy!!Rena

Yea, I'm here and home from Skip's. Never did I think it would go so fast and so well too... He actually drove today for a 10 min trip--that was enough but... Wow! The elephant is only a few stitches from all finished...Yea, yea and double yea!!! June

i have no clue

This whole blog thing is new for me. As you can see, I have figured out how to sign up for google (oy vey, another password to remember) and I guess I can post. So do I just remember to show up to the blog once a week to check out all the stuff we have sent each other?

I am trying out a Lyla Messinger pattern for a T shirt, making two muslins large and extra large so I can screw up before I cut into my purple bamboo. I am taking the sewing and knitting classes this weekend and suspect that Barb Callahan is bringing some fabric to sell....

what is this thing at the end called Labels for this post.........am I supposed to write something there too. And can anyone get into this blog or is it just by inviation from the blog mother Hellene? I suppose I will need to learn how to take a photo, put it on a computer and transfer it to a blog....lots ot learn, lots to sew, so little time

Martha Fabric Shops in Japan!

Here's evidence that Martha will go anywhere to shop for fabric!! With Pam Uchida in Osaka last year.

Look at ALL that fabric!

Places to go for ideas!

Here's something Desi told us about on Monday evening that sounds interesting:

"CraftStylish" - also from Taunton Press. There is a website and a magazine related to this topic. You can find out more at www.craftstylish.com - think "Sew Stylish", but for all types of crafts! Neat ideas on ways to express your creativity!

Also, I am not sure of who is aware of the upcoming "Indie Craft Experience" on June 7th in Centennial Olympic Park. It's worth checking out their website (http://www.ice-atlanta.com/) From my understanding, this is a juried "Craft fair" of independent crafters. It's not your typical type of craft fair - think artist-type crafters, not the usual crafters you see at a country fair. Looks like a great event!

It's all Hellenne's fault!

Wow! This blog spot is a great idea for our Neighborhood Group. We never have enough time to share all that we want. I'll look forward to everyone's posts.

I am busy trying to meet the ASG Creativity Contest deadline. I'm working on Simplicity 3688 with a bit of 3631. This is all Hellenne's fault. She challenged me to try for it last Saturday. Actually, thanks, Hellenne. It's fun to push myself a bit. When I last talked to Hellenne about it at Spring Fling, I still had a week to go. And my calendar was pretty empty.

Well, today my daughter, grandson (7 months), and granddaughter (2 years) came over. All 3 are sick and my daughter was operating on about 10 minutes of sleep. Boy, do I feel guilty for wanting to sew instead of taking care of all of them! And, tomorrow, my daughter-in-law and another grandson (2 years) are driving in from SC to spend a long week-end. Whoa! So much for the free week!

As Hellenne pointed out, it doesn't have to be absolutely finished - just enough to photograph. Hmmm... Also Ginny pointed out that it's good practice to try even if you later decide not to submit. My goal is to create something I might actually wear, and to try out some new techniques. Tonight I'm working on Cynthia Guffey's "mock Hong Kong finish with interlining." It looks pretty. I hope it fits.

Great to see everyone on Monday. I'd love to hear what everyone is sewing, either virtually or actually.

PS - Hope I'm not a bad Grandma. I really, really do love being with them!

WELCOME!

American Sewing Guild's Atlanta Chapter neighborhood group Sew Incredibles has a blogspot! Here we can post and share our pics, resource links, meetings, etc!