jcaroline's blog

I made something!

Lately, I've been filling my time with business and parenting and not enough time sewing and creating.  So this Saturday, I devoted my afternoon to sewing and made this:

I used Patty Young's Kyoko Pattern and Michelle Engel Bencsko's Shade Garden fabric.  Four hours from start to finish, which I consider a good afternoon project.  On the fabric, I used Snail Trail on Light Blue for the bodice and skirt, Teal Fiddleheads for the skirt, and Violets on Green for the bias trim and obo sash.

Above right is our family drawn in chalk.  I'm the huge person in blue and Henry is the tiny little thing next to me.  I'm not sure why I'm the biggest in the family-- I guess it's my large presence!

I hadn't sewn up one of Patty's patterns yet and I loved it.  Easy to follow and I love the shape of this top.  (It can also be sewn as a dress and with long sleeves.)  It is very loose fitting, so if the child falls between sizes, I would go with the smaller one.  I also lined and interfaced the bodice.  (I've told you- I was raised by a woman who interfacing everything!)  The pattern did not tell me to interface it and you shouldn't do it-- I turned the bodice into a light coat.  I lined it since the bodice fabric is fairly light in color.  But if you use a darker fabric, I don't think a lining is necessary.

I am going to make up some matching pants, but that will have to wait for another Saturday.  By the way, the Flax and Olive Oasis Canvas look great with these fabrics.  And yes, I know I need to drop the hem on last year's jeans.  They are right now somewhere between jeans and capris.

And because a child's project always gives me an excuse for more pictures of the girl:

So, if you've taken a break from creativity, I highly recommend getting back into it.  It sounds a little odd, but I think I need to "schedule" creative time so I make sure to get some in every week or so.

Quick Beach Towel Project

Olivia is at day camp this week (for the whole month actually).  They swim Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings and I have already discovered the problem with camp/school/day care and kids... keeping track of their stuff.

So I picked up this $5 towel at Target and appliqued her name on it and added bias stripes as ties (approximately 30" long).  I just made two ties and stitched them at the half-way point on the towel.

And then you can roll it up and tie it into this little number.

Here are my instructions for doing appliques.  Working on the terry towel can be a little more challenging than working on regular fabric, but after beating my machine into submission, it worked.  :-)

Henry isn't going to camp, but I think he may need one as well.

New Tote How-To

Remember these toes from about 100 years ago?  Well, after a couple of requests I finally sat down and wrote a tutorial for them.
 
If you use the tutorial, please post your bag on my flickr site jcaroline creative tutorials.  I love to see your results!  (And if you spot something wrong in the tutorial, email me, please.)

Valentine's Project (and it's no sew!)

Caley at FaveCrafts.com asked me to do a project for them and with Valentine's Day coming up, I thought... hey, how about a Valentine's project?  I'm pretty clever that way.  The funny thing is I don't normally celebrate Valentine's Day (there is no way a husband or significant other can live up to the huge expectations of that day, so I have always let them off the hook).  But, now that a certain little person is around, I can see Valentine's Day being fun again.  What's not to like about candy (especially conversation hearts) and paper hearts and maybe even cupcakes?

So I came up with this crazy idea of a fabric Valentine and it exploded from there.  Those are the double-sided fabric envelopes up there.  What's in those envelopes?  Well, let's take a look...
This one contains a sweet little note tied around a felt and fabric heart.  Aaaahhhh....

And my favorite-- a fabric, felt and ribbon banner comes out of the other envelope to display as the receiver wishes.  I think the possibilities for this are endless- you could make the pennants out of paper and glue them to ribbon.  You could use the pennants in different colors for a birthday card or other occasions.  You could embellish them ad nauseum with trims, ribbons, buttons, bows, beads, embroidery-- anything.  And you can do it all with Heat n Bond Ultra Hold, an iron and scissors.  No sewing needed.

The How-To is on my site here.  FaveCrafts.com has it posted here and on their blog here.

Fun Holiday Decorating

This weekend we did a little Christmas decorating. We do own some glass Christmas ornaments (lovely ones, actually that my mother-in-law paints for us every year). But with a two-year-old in the house, those aren't going out this year. (Not that we put up a tree anyway, but that is for another post.) So Olivia came home with the wreath on the right from Mother's Day Out where they had used her fingerprints to make the little berries. Sweet, huh?

So I decided to do a project that my friend suggested last year that I had never done-- making paper tree ornaments. I was way more interested in doing this than a certain two-year-old, but she did participate in some gluing and cutting (they can't resist scissors, can they). Grab any kind of construction or craft paper, trace around some Christmas cookie cutters, add buttons, ribbon, whatever you've got lying around and voila!-- child friendly Christmas ornaments. Unless they pick the buttons off and swallow them. Okay, so leave off the buttons if you've got a swallower.

Awesome Desk

I've been referring to this as the "awesome desk", so I'll just stick with that term.  This was the poor little Goodwill find before:

I liked it's shape, but it had lots of missing veneer.  And I know the desk was made before 1961 and traveled from Mesa Arizona, because there were several letters behind the drawers to Kay from the Spring of 1961.  No money, no savings bonds... just letters.

So I filled, sanded and primed it.  Then I decoupaged on some of Jessica Jones's Fireworks fabric on the top, Parade on the front and in the drawers.

But the pieces de resistance are the Fabric Button Knobs out of Boardwalk fabric.

I'm sure someone has thought of this before, but the only thing I found on the web was covering a wooden knob with fabric.  And then you've got these raw edges and a big gluey mess. So yet another use for those crazy You Cover Buttons.

And why this frenzy of furniture re-doing, booth building and other such nonsense?  Because I decided approximately four weeks before the biggest fabric trade show (for the retail fabric trade anyway) of the year to participate.  And why did you wait so long, you ask?  Historically, we have not had any products that we wholesaled and it is a wholesale show.  Michael Miller Fabrics will be distributing her two new collections to retail stores just like they did Modern Flora.

But I also have very mixed feelings about Quilt Market.  It has a reputation of being a bit.... okay, I'll just say it... stodgy.  And until about 18 months ago, that reputation was well deserved.  But thanks to the likes of Free Spirit, Michael Miller, Alexander Henry and designers such as Amy Butler, Anna Maria Horner, Heather Bailey, Sandi Henderson, on and on by the dozens, it is getting to be much more stylish, modern, aesthetically pleasing and .... again, I'll just say it.... more friendly.  So, many Quilt Market attendees may not be ready for Jessica Jones's awesomeness, but they are going to see it in its full regalia anyway!  (And those of you that are ready-- I anticipate much awesomeness.)  Thus the booth.  Thus all the work.  Thus you are going to be seeing a lot of progress pictures for the next two weeks. 

Couch Redo Complete

Well, if you are a reader of Anna Maria Horner's blog, you know that she asked me to recover a couch for her to show in her booth for Quilt Market (the semi-annual fabric trade show).  Well, I can't resist a good furniture re-do and I'm always game to help a fabric designer achieve fame and fortune, as I hope they will take me along for the ride.

So here is the couch as I got it from Goodwill for $15:

A little dirty and worn, but a good shape.  I wonder why they used the right side so much more than the left?

Here it is as of tonight:

The keys to this little beauty?  Beautiful fabric (thank you Anna Maria), a new foam seat cushion and a little labor.  The fabric is Ivory Shadow from her Drawing Room collection.  Anna Maria suggested the rust piping and even cut it for me.  I couldn't see it in my head, but I trust the trained artist more than myself.  And lo and behold, the rust piping is gorgeous.
And I love how the solid cushion and back show off the gorgeous large print.  I was able to run the fabric sideways (I think professionals call that "railroading" the fabric) so that I didn't have to seam it on those big expanses.  I'm pretty proud of this one and can't wait to see it in all its glory in Anna Maria's Quilt Market booth.

In the meantime, I decided last week to have a booth at Quilt Market (it is a full three weeks away), so now I'll focus on Amusement Park projects.  I've got four upholstered dining chairs just begging to be recovered in each of the four prints!  I'll be showing all THREE of Jessica Jones fabrics and some new ribbons.  More on the ribbons in a week or so...

Spoonflower + Wordle = Fun Pillow

If you haven't heard of Spoonflower by now, let me be the 800th person to talk about it.  Spoonflower allows you to print as little as an 8" x 8" swatch and up to five yards of fabric with your designs.  They are currently in Beta, meaning you have to have an invitation to print, but watch their blog, as they say they are close to opening it up to everyone.

The design idea came from Wordle, which How About Orange got me addicted to a few weeks ago.  It takes words from your web page, you pick a font and a color scheme and it goes to town.  I will admit, I used their result as a template and redid it in Illustrator.  My first reason being I couldn't figure out how to save a high-resolution version of it.  And redoing it let me change some words, leave some out, rearrange some, change fonts and colors at will. 

It reminds me of those junior high craft projects where you cut out "cool" words from magazines and arranged them in a collage for your friends.  This to me is an excellent use of Spoonflower, since you truly can create a one-of-a-kind gift.  And Miss Orange commented that my Wordle would make a great pillow and the rest is history.

Merryville Playmat

I just finished up this little cute-y just in time for a birthday party tomorrow.  I used Michael Miller's Merryville fabric and quilted it with Blue Play Dot as the backing.  It is bound with Red Pindot Bias Trim.  Then we (I had my employee, Maribel, bind it for me- hers looks so much better than mine) just used 14 inch long strips of bias trim to use as ties.

I am not an expert quilter, but I didn't think this came out too badly.  I just started in the center of the mat and carefully quilted around the design on the road.  And yes, in some places the fabric is a little gunched up, but I figure that is just part of it.  A couple of machine washings and no one will notice, right?

UPDATE 8/1/2008: I wrote up a general tutorial here.

Dick and Jane FINALLY!

Remember a lifetime ago when I said I would have the photos and instructions for the Dick and Jane Crib Set on the web? Finally. Have a good weekend.