Or, the fabric stash clean out… Continue reading
Category Archives: Craft
Pajama Pant Party…
Awhile back, I posted about the stacks of fabric needing to be magically transformed into projects. I am happy to report that I managed to complete 9 pairs of PJ pants…plus one. Yes, I am insane, 10 pairs of pj pants. I suppose technically they were 3 pairs of fleecy/sweatpants and 7 pairs of pj bottoms…. but 10 none the less.

yes, this is what it looks like “in process”
The girls had picked out 3 flannel fabrics and a fleece fabric each. As I was going through my stash (another post for another day) I found a big piece of flannel so I could make pants for Charlie and a length of orange cotton fleece that I had bought on sale to make Gwen something. Since the pants for the girls would all take the same pattern, and it’s the same assembly routine for all the pants, I decided to go for it and make them all up at once. I sewed in two batches, two of the fabrics were on the light side so I made those up with cream thread and the rest were in black, this saves me having to re-thread my serger for each color.

When I have a number of the same things to make, I do all the operations in batches. I cut and mark everything at once, stitch all of the inner legs at the same time, press and stitch all the hems at the same time…you get the picture. It is far more efficient to work this way than to complete one pant then start on the next one.

Each pant gets a ribbon “tag” at the center back so everyone knows front from back!
The bonus to this process is that when you’re done, you’re DONE. And, I won’t have to sew pajama pants for awhile. Of course, you will note there are no pants for me ;-).

a stack of cozy goodness
9 pairs of “cozy pants” as we call them. They are growing leaps and bounds, hopefully this will hold them for awhile. One last pair of pants…

Of course, they need to be approved by the studio assistant. On to the next stack of fabric!
Layout – Silly Hats
I managed to eek out another layout this week…working in bits of time between dinner prep and soccer pickup and finishing up in the morning after everyone left for school. I am really fortunate to have a “room of my own” where I can leave a layout or project out on my worktable and let things percolate for awhile… or until my Studio Assistant knocks things onto the ground.
This layout was for a class at BPC called Stashbusters Anonymous and week 1 was layouts to help use up your paper stash. I’m writing up a post now on de-stashing but wanted to share one of the layouts I did featuring chevrons … 1/2″ strips across the whole page…then I realized that my base paper was 12×13 not 12×12…needless to say there will be some trimming of the left side going on but that’s OK, it will only reinforce the asymmetry of the page.

And while I will take a formal portrait of the page when it’s all trimmed and adhered to a piece of card stock (the edges are curling up right now) I really kind of like messy slice of life photos that show some studio details too.
Enjoy and here’s to a beautiful spring weekend ahead and a joyous Easter tomorrow! What projects are you working on over the weekend?
A sewing jumpstart…

I will say that sewing is my first (craft) love. I’ve been sewing since I was in about 5th grade when my grandmother bought me a sewing basket and helped me make clothes for my barbie…and I’ve pretty much never stopped. Sewing may take a backseat to other pursuits, but never for long. Tonight I cut out something for *gasp* myself! A super simple top that (theoretically) will be quick to make. Sometimes you need a jump start to get back in the groove. I think I burned out on 10 pairs of pajama pants, and I’ve got stacks of fabric that need to be transformed into things to wear and use and boy do I need to get on those projects! So here’s to a jumpstart and a cute new top! Oh and yes, I did finish the pj pants…post on that coming!
What projects do use as a jumpstart?!
layout share the last of 2013
I did manage to fit in a little digi-scrapping at the end of last year in between family and traveling and snow and ahem, not finishing my december daily or my Project Life (both in process) sometimes it’s just great to do something start to finish in one sitting…done
Both of these layouts (which I am presenting as a 2 page layout) are from a beautiful digital kit designed by my dear friend Janet Carr of Little Feet Digital Designs. the kit is available HERE and it is gor-ge-ous as you can see. Since the page with photos was so colorful, I opted to change all of my photos to black and white so they would stand out. I used PSE8 (i know, i know time to upgrade) and the “convert to b/w” settings to change the photos.
Hope you enjoy! Have more to post but signing off for now to survey the snow on the roof…
Have a great day everyone

