Summer Sewing

If you remember, my sewing space is also our guest bedroom. My husband's sister is visiting us for a bit so I've finally devoted some time to hand sewing my Hope Valley hexies!

I especially enjoy having a project like this when the weather is good enough to be outside because that means I can work on it while the kids are running around the yard like the insane energy freaks that they really are.

Originally, I was planning on making a little drawstring pouch/bag/purse with these but I really like them all laid out flat so I may switch things up and make a table runner instead.

It's been a lot of fun watching all the little hexies play so nicely together. And stitching them up is going much faster than I thought it would.

And I'm such a dork that I even love the messy backs.

What are you sewing up this summer?

Scrappy and Snappy ~ Part 4

Thanks for the comments and emails about the Scraptastic Projects so far. For those of you who've asked about a zipper tutorial to document my zippiphany, I'll get to work on that in the midst of a few other projects. It may take awhile but in the meantime you can enjoy a new obsession: snaps!

I made these little snappy pockets with some larger scraps, a minimal amount of thinking and very little time. Win, win, win. Speaking of larger scraps, you should know that I don't cut up ALL of my scraps for patchwork. Especially larger pieces that may be useful in other ways (linings for pouches, strips for piecing, etc.). For me, it's just a handy way to control some of the ever-growing scrap pile and it makes patchwork a breeze when the urge hits. Onward....

I am so loving these little pockets! I want to make a pocket for everything.

This one has an interior divider and can hold my two sets (1 1/4" and 1") of Jill's hexie templates.

Does anyone else love that orange lining? Every time I see it, it makes me happy.

Awwww, look at how cute and cozy the templates are.

This one holds our library cards and can easily be tossed into a book tote for a trip to our local library. It can also hold credit cards and I'm planning on making one that is sized for business cards.
The bird/dots fabric was raw edge appliqued onto the base for this one. The orange and green one above is made of three strips that are actually pieced together. Both have a layer of lightweight fusible fleece to give them some dimension and provide some reinforcement for the snap.

And this one also has a twill tape tag. Sometimes I just can't help myself.

If anyone is interested I can also do a quickie tutorial on making your own custom twill tape tags. Any takers?

So, if zippers aren't your thing or you just want to try something else then give snaps a go. They're fun and relatively easy. I got a plier tool thingy that can set snaps and small grommets (50% off at the craft store!) and then got those awesome pearl snap fasteners that you see on the pockets.

Tips and tricks: Take your time setting the snaps in the pliers. It's a little bit fiddly, but not too bad. Just trust me when I tell you that you will NOT be a happy camper if you spend your time making a cute pocket and then screw up putting in the snap because you didn't get the pliers set up quite right.

Have fun! And if you make any snappy pockets, I'd love to know about it!

My Moleskine

Okay, both Jen and Jill beat me to the punch and posted about their Moleskine covers, so it's only fair that I post about mine as well. This was a really fun experiment/challenge and I love how differently all three of our covers turned out!

Here's the front of mine:

I used an IKEA sheet for the solid and a thrifted floral sheet for the print/back. The hexies are some of my favorite sewing related prints and I love the graphic punch they add.

Here's the inside flap:
I went ahead and made mine removable but I didn't include any pockets or anything. After thinking about it I decided that I didn't want any bulk there to interfere with writing on the backs of the pages. But I do have a plan for carrying my pencil/eraser/swatches/ruler.

Here's the inside back flap:

I made the flap so that I can still access the back pocket of the moleskine.

Here's the back cover and a great look at that pretty sheet:

A close-up of the hexies (I must get more of that math print. I LOVE it):

And finally here's a detail of the topstitching and lace from the front cover:

So my plan for writing instruments/rulers and such is to make a pencil pouch that has a large covered elastic loop attached so that I can use it as a closure for the notebook. But I haven't even cut out fabric for that so you'll have to wait to see it.

Cute Alert!

Lookie what I found at Goodwill for two bucks:

My daughter wants it. Bad.

But I've made it very clear that this particular item is mine. All mine.

It holds other cute items:

I had a pretty serious obsession with Hello Kitty when I was ~ahem~ younger. It seems I never quite got over it. I mean, how else can I explain denying my very own daughter this sweet treasure? But I did. And I don't have even a twinge of guilt.

Hexagon Needle Book ~ Tutorial

After looking all over for a cute hexagon shaped needle case tutorial, I kept coming up empty. I started by making this one, which was inspired by one I saw in a magazine but it was really fussy and I didn’t like all the thread globs from starting and stopping the stitching. I was looking for a clean simple design – just like the hexagons I’ve been piecing! So after a few more attempts, I came up with this. It’s not too fiddly, is quick to come together and you’ll have a cute needle case when you’re all done!

Bear with me – this is my very first tutorial.

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

Outer fabric: two 4.5” squares

Inner fabric: two 4.5” squares, one 1.5”x 5” piece (for “hinge” piece, not pictured)

Fusible interfacing: two 2” hexagons

Felt: one piece approx. 7" x 3.5"

Four 2 inch and two 1.75 inch hexagon templates (you can print these up here)

Sewing machine and thread

DIRECTIONS:

First, let’s make the hexagons. We need to make four hexagons: two with the outer fabric and two with the inner fabric. You can baste the hexagons using the 2 inch templates as a stabilizer (just like regular paper pieced hexagons) or you can join the Lazy Crafter’s Club and just press them around the template, which is what I do.

Once you have your four hexagons be sure to press them well so that they will hold their shape and have nice crisp edges. Remove paper templates, if using.

Gently open up the outer fabric hexagons and place one of your fusible interfacing hexies inside, fusible side down. I actually cut mine down to be a little smaller than 2 inch hexies so it's easier to fit them nicely inside there.

Carefully fold back the edges so that you have a nice tidy hexagon again. Press well. Repeat for the other outer hexagon.

Your hexagons are done!

Next, take your 1.5” x 5” piece of inner fabric (or whatever you’re using for your hinge piece (mine is a scrap of brown linen/cotton) and press ends under (1/2 inch) and then press in half so that you have a piece that measures 1.5” x 2”.

Now let’s tackle the felt! I like the pages of my needle book to be slightly smaller than the cover so I use the 1.75 inch hexagon template. I make a larger template by placing the two hex templates side by side, with a half inch space between them. This extra space is to make room for the hinge part at the fold of the needle book. It should look like this:

Use this template to cut out your felt.

Yay! You now have all the pieces needed for your needle book. Let’s assemble!

Take one outer hexie and one inner hexie and sandwich them wrong sides together. I put one pin in each side to hold everything so things don’t get shifty. On the side where your needle book will fold, tuck your hinge piece in about 1/2 inch.

Sew along the edge all around the hexagon sandwich. Keep your stitching very close to the edge.

Repeat for the other hexagon, tucking in the hinge piece again so that there’s about 1/8 inch between the two hexies for the fold. Like this:

Almost done! Take your felt and center it inside your needle book.

Stitch along the center attaching the felt to the hinge.

That's it. You did it! Admire your fabulous new needle case!

If you make one, I'd love to know!

A first attempt

Tried a little project to see if I could make it work.

Can you figure out what it is yet?

It's a needle case!

It's a little wonky yet, still need to make a few refinements. But I like where it's headed! Perfect to pack in a hexie take-along bag for the hexie maker on the go.

Just when you thought I was done....

MORE hexagons!

It's probably bad form for me to be posting these since I made them for a PMQG swap later this month. Oh well. I love them and hope that whoever nabs them in the blind swap loves them too.

Also made a tiny little drawstring pouch for them because one can never have too many tiny red and aqua hexie adorned drawstring pouches, can they?

Hexagon madness!

Here are the hexies I made for the Handsome Hexies swap over on flickr. It's all Amy Butler from the Midwest Modern collection. I loved making these and am always a little bit surprised at how much more I like certain fabrics when I only see a tiny amount at once. It's almost like looking at the fabric through a microscope.

And here they are all stacked and ready to go in their little drawstring pouch.

And on a completely unrelated note: I had some help in the kitchen making a blackberry/blueberry crisp.

Excited, are we? We picked the blackberries around our house and the blueberries on Sauvie Island.

I made the aprons from bandanas and some black twill tape. Bailey chose pink ric rack trim for hers (sweet) and Owen chose a pretty awesome black and purple zebra trim for his. You can just barely see it around the waist.

Now I'm off to start on more hexagons for the PMQG hexie swap!