Been Sewing up a storm!

So as you can see from the few recent posts, I have been sewing up a storm in my little house. (no, I have not finished the other two chairs yet - I get distracted by shiny things....) My list so far includes:


Car Cozy (made up of little slots for the cars and a "road" to drive them on)

Boo Boo Bags

Cloth book

dresses for the couple of little girls who have been staying with us

Shorts for the boys (not my best work...)

Belts (pictures to follow - I actually took pictures of these)

crayon cozy (same concept as the car cozy, just with crayons and a note pad)

Activity Bags for the kiddos on car trips



Next on my list: rag quilt for a new little one - Welcome to the world Kadence Isabella! - and a new rug for our living room and matching runner for the entry way.

I haven't been taking pictures - I haven't really thought about it much - and my camera is not very fancy, so I don't have any good pics of my projects so far. But hopefully I will remember where I stashed my camera when I get started on the next pictures and I can post some more! I am just a regular ole' domestic diva these days! :)

Dresses for Africa - Part 2

Remember my post about the Dresses for Africa? Well, I have been working on some (admittedly I only have 4 complete and two more in the works) and thought I would post some pictures. I also promised Pati @ A Crafty Escape that I would do a review of the pillowcases I bought to make these dresses. I bought them from www.pillowcase.net. They were relatively inexpensive - though a good day at the thrift store might prove to be a better find. The shipping was about as good as any other online store and the shipping time and service were good. I had the pillowcases within a week. I even goofed and thought that I had only received 12 (I ordered 24) and sent the customer service an email about it. They (kindly) helped me to see that the pillowcases are packaged in sets of 2 so while I had 12 packages, I really had 24 pillowcases. They were pleasant to work with even in my own mistake!

That being said, the review of the actual pillowcases is that they are relatively good. For the price they are not bad, but they seem to be hit or miss. Of the 6 I have pulled completely out of the packages so far, two (the brown ones) were a bit flimsy and caught in the sewing machine when I was sewing. I am not the worlds best sewer and so if I had taken the time to use a different needle or thread that was compatible with the material of the brown cases, they probably would not have snagged. But I didn't....

Anyhoo, the other two I have sewn with now are good quality cases - nice sturdy material the kind you would get with a nice set at a department store at least. So overall, I would say they are still worth the money, but be prepared that you do get what you pay for on some of them. You don't get to pick your colors either so it is just a chance you take. You can apply the same principals to buying them in the thrift store, except you don't get to handle them first when you buy them online. I will likely buy from them again should I need some more pillowcases for projects like these.

I have also found some cute tutorials out there using bandannas to make similar styles of dresses. Almost easier with the bandannas, but I encourage you to get the better quality ones so they are not as thin ( and see through!). You wanna see pics of the ones I have made so far? I have not gotten too wild and crazy on the embellishing, but I am still just starting out....(let's also try to ignore the fact that these beauties could use a real good ironing as well!)

THE Chair

Well, I have been scouring the blogosphere recently looking for projects to occupy my time - you know since I have so much extra time! Anyways, I came across this project at A Crafty Escape (one of my favorite little crafting blogs). I decided that I was going to give this one a try.

After I purchased the pattern here I found some coordinating fabric on www.fabric.com. Coordinating because I was not going to make just one - oh no! I have WAY too much free time for just one! - I was planning on making THREE! Well, after you pick your chin up off the floor, remember that I am one of those overly ambitious types that has a problem remembering that my projects almost always end up being a bit more than I think they will be. I am happy to say, not necessarily so with this chair! However, I made a few changes.....

I went to purchase the foam on sale at Joanns already at 50% off plus I had another 10% off coupon on top of that. I thought surely that would mean I could get out with a pretty decent discount and get the foam for all three at once. Oh my, was I wrong! After I got over the sticker shock (and subsequently ran through and dismissed every plan I could come up with to convince Patrick to let me spend that on some kids chairs) I decided I needed a more cost effective plan for us. Enter the bean bag filling!
I found some inexpensive (albeit probably not very earth friendly) bean bag filling at Wal-mart. I ordered up three bags (one for each chair) and set to work on my sewing. I got about half way through two and finished one before the bean bag filling came in tonight. I had to go ahead and try it out. Here is the finished result:

Not too shabby right?? Here are some of the details like the handle and the back pocket:


And of course, my "testers" had to give it a go!



I didn't make any changes to the pattern other than to use bean bag filling instead of the foam and I only used one zipper for the closure. If you have the extra $$ to spare, the foam may be the better choice just because it will hold its shape better that way. My version is just like any other bean bag chair in that you will have to reshape it a bit after sitting in it and will require re-filling after a while (not more than any other bean bag chair, but just keep that in mind). So far, the kiddos are enjoying the one. Hopefully it will stay together long enough for the other two to get done - or longer than that even! We shall see!