Feelin' Lazy - Week 8

I was feeling lazy and uninspired this week....but I made a promise to create one thing each week for an entire year.  So hear it is...the lazy girls super easy, yet super cute skirt!  The pattern is by Simplicity # 2368, they call it a 1 hour skirt (more like a two hour skirt).  The fabric is a cotton floral print which I pre-washed and dried ahead of time.

I really like this fabric. It has small flowers in a lot of colors that will go with quite a few tops and sweaters in my wardrobe. 

 There were only two pattern pieces to cut out which is awesome because the cutting is my least favorite part!  I ended up lengthening the skirt because it was considered a mini and it was very mini!  I cut the skirt pattern piece horizontally across the middle and extended it by five inches so that it hits just above my knee.  I then cut out the waistband piece.  I sewed the skirt front and back together at each side and sewed the waistband together at each side as well, then folded it in half and attached it to the top of the skirt.  Inserted the elastic in the wasitband and ironed the skirt.  I used my serger to finish the seams for a professional look and also serged the hem for a raw edge look.  

There you have it...very easy and cute!

So as to not be totally lazy this week, I did use the serger on my other two past projects and cleaned up the seams as well!  I have a couple of yards of this fabric left, so next week I am going to make a blouse of some sort to wear with the skirt or jeans.

Cowl Girl - week 7

This week we've had a few days that actually felt like winter, so I was inspired to work with some warmer fabric.  I have this great pattern, McCall's 5271, that has several different variations of a knit shirt.  I chose view F, it has a cowl front, long sleeves and a band at the bottom that makes the top blousey.  The fabric I chose is a black and gray lacy paisley print in medium weight knit....very soft and comfy!

The pattern was very easy to sew.  There were just four pieces to cut out: the front, back, band, and sleeve.  It only took me a few hours to make the whole thing.

I am very pleased with how it turned out and plan to wear a black or white tank top under it.  I will probably make one of the other views sometime too.

Sew Happy - Week 6

This week I felt like sewing something.   I usually don't know what until I start looking through my patterns. I decided on a cute summery dress by Simplicity.  Then I started looking at fabric...that can be daunting because I am a bit of a fabric hoarder and I have a lot to choose from!  I ended choosing a beige floral and a medium denim.  I wanted to make a hybrid dress from views A and B.  A is all one color and sleeveless, B has two fabrics with sleeves.  I decided to make the sleeveless version, but with two fabrics, the beige for the dress body and the denim for the yoke and bottom panel. 

Next I cut out the appropriate pattern pieces

Pinned them to the fabric and cut them all out.  This is my least favorite part of sewing but, thankfully, this pattern didn't have to many pieces!

Following the pattern directions VERY carefully (I usually mess something up and have to rip out stitches)    I started sewing

I'll spare you all the boring details since sewing directions aren't very exciting, but, basically I sewed the dress sides together, sewed the yoke pieces together and sewed them to the dress and then sewed the band onto the bottom.  This was an easy dress because there were no zippers or buttonholes!

Once the yoke was finished I added some cute white jewel buttons.

This was the easiest thing I've sewn in a long time and I didn't use my seam ripper once!  When I tried the dress on before adding the denim panel on the bottom it was waaay to short but with the denim it hits me just above the knee.  I plan to wear it with a white cardigan sweater while the weather is still cool.  To tie the dress in with what ever I wear over it, I decided to make a fabric pin.

Using my Sizzix die cutting machine and a flower die made it really easy.

First I layered my fabric over the die, then added the cutting mat on top and rolled it through the cutter. There are blades in the die that make the cut once pressure is applied, it is really pretty cool how they come out so perfectly!

Pulling the layers apart.

Arranging the layers into a flower and gluing on a jewel.

Cute! I'll pin this to my sweater!

Not sure yet what I plan to do for next week, maybe more clay!  Stay tuned!

My Heart Goes Tick Tock - Week 5

Wow...I can't believe it has been five weeks since the new year started!  Time is going by so fast, maybe that's why I've been thinking about making something with watch gears.  Being that Valentine's Day is next week I decided to combine the gears with a heart to make a "steampunk" inspired pendant.  I don't really get the whole "steampunk" thing...dressing up like old Victorian era people and the love of inventions from the industrial revolution, but I do like the look of the jewelry creations I've seen.  So here goes my attempt at an artful invention!

I gathered up the supplies I knew I would need:  Brown, gold and silver clay, rubber stamps, heart cookie cutter, small watch gears, guilder's paste and embossing powder.  To get started,  I tore off a chunk of each piece of clay and rolled them around in my hands to warm them up.

I took the brown clay and pressed it flat on the table and added smaller pieces of the gold and silver, then I ran it through the pasta sheeter to flatten and combine the clay.  I folded the clay over on itself and added a bit more metallic and ran it back through the sheeter.  I did this ten times or so to get the colors blended how I wanted.

The three colors of clay blended to a nice bronze-brown.

I then rolled the clay out to a 1/4 inch thick and cut out the shape with the cookie cutter.  I added the loop for the chain at this time so it would bake into the clay.

Using a rubber stamp with a french script pattern, I stamped half of the heart by pressing the stamp into the clay.

Then I embedded various gears and watch parts to the other side and made little indents in the clay with the end of a paint brush to add texture. 

The heart was then baked for 15 minutes in a 295 degree oven.

After the clay cooled off, I added some gold and patina colored Guilder's paste to give the heart an aged look.

I wanted to make sure the gears stayed in place and for the heart to have a shiny surface, so I covered everything in a clear embossing powder and heated for two minutes in the toaster oven at 350 degrees.

The result was a really shiny, hard surface that looked pretty and protected the clay.

For the final step, I added an antique looking ball chain and there ya have it....a cool "steampunk" inspired necklace.  Polymer clay is very easy to work with and I am very happy with how it turned out. I can't wait to wear it!  Let me know what you think!

My blog is posted much later than I would have liked due to technical issues with the computer...it took almost two hours just to get the pictures uploaded and oriented correctly.  Maybe the "steampunkers" have it right.....new technology isn't always better!