I signed up

I signed up for the Sassy Apron Swap a couple of days ago. I'm so excited as this is my first swap, and it is for aprons! I was already dreaming up designs, I'm having such a hard time not starting on one (or two) aprons already, but I want to wait until the partners are passed out so I can work on one especially for my recipient. This is going to be so much fun!

hmm...guess I could always just make an apron or two for myself first. We'll call it practice.

Frog Invasion!

The froggies invaded my sewing room


and now little frogs are hopping across my new skirt. It took me the better part of today to get all the kinks worked out, but I'm so happy with the finished product it was totally worth all the annoyance. Did the seam ripper ever get a workout today!

I drafted this skirt pattern earlier. Originally it was just a plain A-line skirt with a couple of darts on the front and back, with a facing at the waist and it was cut on grain. Well I liked the way the frogs looked when the fabric was on the bias so I decided to cut it that way instead of on grain which led to problems along the way.


Last night all the pieces got cut out, the interfacing was fused to the lining, and the polkadot trim was sewn to the bottom edge. French Seams are my favourite as it keeps the inside nice and clean (stray threads bother me). They are really easy, and great for delicate fabrics (though I use them on cottons). Anyway, just sew a 1/4 inch seam with wrong sides together, open up and press in one direction then realign the fabric with right side together and sew another seam slightly larger than 1/4 inch. Now the nasty raw edges are hidden between two seams. Tada! It looks like the picture above.

This morning I started working on the skirt and everything just went wrong. First the darts weren't working. Why I thought the darts would behave the same way on the bias fabric is beyond me, the end of the dart kept ballooning out no matter how it was sewn. I guess because the bias fabric has so much give on the diagonal as soon as there wasn't another stitch holding it in check the fabric went a little crazy. I ended up sewing long gradual darts from the top to the bottom of the frog fabric so I could keep it under control.


I put this together differently. First I sewed the left seam of the lining together, then the left seam of the skirt pieces, and then attached the lining to the skirt, pressed and top-stitched. So far the right side seam where the zipper is sewn in is still open and it made pressing so much easier. Then I couldn't put the zipper in. First it was too low, then it was crooked, then it was bumpy. Interfacing saved what was left of my sanity. I love the polkadot lining!

So after a day of pulling my hair out and swearing, I have this:


It's cold and rainy here today but I was already wearing it around the house with some black leggings on underneath to stave off the goosebumps. I can't wait til it gets warmer, this will be great with some flip flops and a hoodie.

p.s. You know you want the frog fabric, don't deny yourself the pleasure!

*edited to change the finished skirt pic. I covered up the duct tape with my fav tee. I'll probably wear it with that, I like the way they look together. Anyone recognize the character?

The Lightning Zero

Your Superhero Profile

Your Superhero Name is The Lightning Zero Your Superpower is Paranormal Your Weakness is Reruns of the Cosby Show Your Weapon is Your Poison Shotgun Your Mode of Transportation is Zebra

What's your Superhero Name?

Just had to post this because it gave me the needed giggles on this rainy morning. Poison Shotgun, nothing like a little overkill. The new froggy polkadot skirt I'm working on would make a perfect costume, especially with that stripey Zebra I'd be riding. Okay, I'm putting too much thought into this. I have to go finish my costume...err skirt!

Oh and the bag tutorial will be finished this weekend, the 12 inch turquoise zipper is an elusive beast.

More Fabric

Here are some pics of the rest of the new fabric that came in the mail. These are from Sew, Mama, Sew and I just love them! I already got to playing and picked out the coordinating fabrics so all that is left to do is pull out the rotary cutter and start slicing it up. Oh, that sounds so cruel. That might be what my problem is - I anthropomorphize everything. Yes, I make the animals talk but everybody does that, right? The problem goes much deeper than that though (like here for instance). People who know me get used to it, or ignore it, or think it's quirky that I'm having an ongoing conversation with the soup. So, it makes sense that I sometimes get the jitters when it comes to cutting up fabric. It's been welcomed into my home, washed, dried, ironed and folded. But it has also been petted, adored and a little life has been created for it. Then there is the future and aspirations of what it wants to become. It is just a matter of me making it so. That's a lot of pressure, but I have to believe that the skills are in me to pull it off so the transformed fabric can be sent of into the world in his new incarnation.

Oh yeah, I was going to show you fabric pics instead of rambling on!

I just love the spirals in that one, and the colours. He wants to be a skirt of some kind.


Frogs? What can be better than frogs? I'm going to cut the fabric on the bias like its shown here because the frogs seem to have more movement this way. They were going to become a bag for the tutorial I'm working on but the progress shots would have been too dark. So it's becoming a skirt too.


I just love this little pattern, it reminds me of something from when I was small, but I can't quite remember what. I think it might be similar to something on my grandmothers everyday dishes.

Alright, now I'm going to go work on that bag tutorial.

Something Completed Finally

Here is Mom's finished tote. The dimensions are 10 x 14 x 4. Inside is one large zippered divider pocket and on each end are two smaller pockets. I used the same idea from Lana's bag except I did the inside pocket a little differently. To the lining pieces for the ends of the bag I added an extra 1/2 inch. When it came time to sew the already finished pocket into the bag I just folded the lining end piece in half with right sides facing with the edge of the pocket sandwiched in the middle and sewed a 1/4 inch seam. That was repeated for the other end of the pocket. I don't know how this is done in patterns, but it's what I went with and the results are great.


Extra care was taken when cutting the pieces for this bag out. I made sure to get the pattern centred so it would look pretty.


When cutting the sides I wasn't so careful. But it still looks okay.


I'm not usually one for making the same thing over and over. Once I've figured out how it's done it is easy to lose interest, but this tote gives great results with a minimum of fiddley details. I just might have to make one for myself! Maybe I'll make a tutorial.

What a Haul!

There was an awesome sale on at Fabricland this weekend, everything was 50% off unless it was already on sale. So it was stocking up time! A bunch of 100% cotton solids both for accent fabric and more applique came home with me. I was a little dismayed at the available colours of the cotton solids, while if you walked to the other side of the counter there were three times the amount of poly/cotton broadcloth. Ah well I'm tingley with the lot of them.


Once everything got home and washed and ironed, it was time to pull it all out on the table to start playing with colour combinations. I love how much fabric changes just by switching accent fabric.

I'm still having a hard time deciding which of these I like best.


Or this


Or maybe this


Oh decisions, decisions. Then there is this new fabric that came in from Equilter (it was hiding in the picture on the post about that) and I must admit to having an almost indecent love of it. I paired it with the turquoise and a teal because there was no matching greens to be found.


It's hard to decide whether the two solid colour combo is too heavy or not. There is also the option of adding an accent colour using ribbon on the solid fabric and there are more options for ribbons than there are for 100% cotton fabrics.


There is way more to show but this post is already picture heavy as it is. Time to go finish stuff instead of planning the next three sewing months away. Mom's bag is almost done, I would have finished it up last night but either the light isn't good enough or my eyes aren't because I couldn't even tell the right side from the wrong side of that black fabric!

Something wonderful

Something wonderful hopped out of my oven today. It all started with those last two bananas. You know the ones, the ones that are always left in their embarassingly over-ripened state sitting out on the counter no matter how quickly you try to eat them up, and no matter how many you bring home from the store there still always seems to be two. Seems like it should be a chance for some simple arithmetic, if you buy 6 bananas and end up with two over-ripened bananas leftover then next time you should buy four, four bananas. Ha Ha Ha. (Sorry had a Count von Count flashback for a second there.) Of course this is simplistic because there are variables like the green-ness of the bananas at time of purchase which would affect the length of time before the bananas passed their ripeness peak, but that is putting far too much thought into this. Point is - even if you buy two less bananas, there are always going to be two 'past their prime' bananas on the counter. It seems like some evil banana conspiracy.

So the two bananas were destined to become banana bread - a most noble end for those sweet but not so attractive leftovers. My tried and true recipe got a minor adjustment so here it is.

Butterscotch Banana Bread

Prehead oven to 350 celsius

mix in one bowl:
1 3/4 c white flour
2/3 c white sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

cut into flour mixture:
1/2 c butter or margarine

stir into flour/butter mixture:
3/4 c butterscotch chips

in another bowl:
mash up 2 lg. bananas (1 cup)
beat in 2 eggs
add 1 tsp vanilla

dump the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just mixed.
Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan and bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Let loaf cool for 15 minutes and then remove to cooling rack.

And you end up with this:


It turned out super yummy. The butterscotch chips melted and sometimes burst through the crust making little golden rivulets which cooled and formed little candied bits. It may not be a regular breakfasty snack, but who cares, it tastes so good!


Make some for breakfast, if it lasts til then.