The elderberries killed it with the purple. I am shocked at the beauty and vibrancy of this color!! Super excited to get down to business and start knitting this up into something cozy and warm for winter.
Dye baths are so freaking gorgeous. I can’t handle it.
Sunflower petals and elderberries.
Yarn reveal coming soon :)
A little natural dye adventure update:
I gave eco printing a try and I loved it. The process is a little more simplified, since you don’t have to create a whole dye bath for your fabric. The swatch on the left with the speckles is the eco print. The other fabric I dyed with Cornelian Cherry, and I love the color! I look forward to doing more these. I have tossed around the idea of selling a few handkerchiefs in my shop... tbd.
Making a complete mess in my mostly empty workspace. After far, far too long, I finally pulled out my Burnside Bibs pattern and got to work. It is not a complicated pattern, but there are a lot of moving parts. Also the instructions are a little bit confusing... look at the photos, read the pattern piece descriptions, and don’t sew your back pockets into one pocket, instead of the two separate pockets it is supposed to be.
Anyone else make this pattern? So far this is turning out way better than I thought it would. They also fit! Which is wonderful, because I never make a muslin, I mean who has time for that? Just need to do some finishing touches today or tomorrow :)
Burnside Bibs by Sew House 7
Cross Back Apron by Purl Soho.
This was a fun project, and also a great use of this whale fabric I have been holding onto for far too long. I ended up adding a little snap to the back so it fits a little tighter, but it is still easy to take off.
10/10 would make another one of these. It is just super functional. It comes with pockets, and makes for a pretty great piece to wear around the house.
Let’s talk a little bit about sewing.
I am finally branching out and trying out some actual clothing patterns. I have a few things lined up.
First will be this Grainline Studio t-shirt pattern. The fabric was a birthday gift from a friend. I have been trying to use it for ages, but patterns in English were hard to come by in Okinawa.
Second I will be remaking the City Gym Shorts by Purl Soho. I made them many years ago (5 maybe?) before I knew anything about sewing. You can probably find my post on them if you dig through my blog. So I picked up this cute comfy flannel, in the hopes that they will make a nice snuggly pair for the winter.
Who else loves Gudetama? Because I sure do!
My lovely friend back in Okinawa took me fabric shopping and I picked out this beauty. I finally got a chance to sew it up into a project bag. Pretty simple one, and on the smaller side. But I have plenty of left over fabric. I hope to make a larger one with handles and pockets and everything good.
You know what is fantastic? Holidays. They are the best.
I took Labor Day off and enjoyed some good quality time with me craft supplies. I sorted through my stashes, organized my projects and even took time to sew.
I finished up this drawstring bag that I had started back in Okinawa. As well as drafted up a design for my new Gudetama bag. So excited to start working on it! I love all my fabrics from Japan so much. I really miss being walking distance from a sewing shop. Most of the nice ones here are a drive away. But I can’t complain that much, they are really, really nice.
Anyway, it was so awesome to wind yarn, sew, knit, and plan out new projects all day. I have missed that in my life so much.
I hope you are all enjoying any time off that you have. Don’t take it for granted.
Last weekend we were blessed with a baby typhoon. So my Saturday was spent relaxing inside with my paints, journals, knitting, and sewing machine. My knitting buddy had shown me these project bags a while ago, and I became obsessed with trying to make one for myself.
I was shocked that just by glancing at a few photos on Pinterest, would lead to such a nice bag. It will fit most of my projects well. I am very excited to make more, especially since this was completed in about an hour (or less).
All I really need is some thicker leather cording. The one adjustment I will make for my second one is getting it to close up tighter. It might require a second look at my friends bag.
Currently working on a making my friend a bag for her birthday. She is obsessed with Scotland. So I thought I would make her a bag with the Scottish flag. Although, the lining is made up of a map of London. Which kind of works out, because our eventual trip to the UK would involve stopping in London to visit a friend, then traveling up to Scotland. Who knows when this trip will happen. We had hoped to go this fall to celebrate our 25th birthdays. But sadly life happened. For now we will stay happy by gifting each other various Scottish items, like tea and maps :)
Since I have received so many request to make more Alice in Wonderland bags, I started stocking up on fabric. I hope to post the purses for sale sometimes before May. I plan on making each on different, but a circle bag might just pop up :)
Have you ever wondered what it is like to shop for crafts in Okinawa, Japan. Well let me enlighten you!
The lovely @seireinxo invited me to take a little trip down to one of the larger craft supply stores on the island. While the drive was long and full of obnoxious traffic, the company was great.
Craft stores here hardly resemble anything like Michaels/Hobby Lobby/JoAnns in the States. There are no large spacious warehouses filled with copious amounts of craft notions. Here stores are small and few. But some of them can be pure goldmines. Rainbow house, the one we adventured too, was mostly stocked with fabric and sewing notions. They had a tiny section of yarn to coo over, but yarn here is expensive and the skeins are very small.
I was more thrilled by the Sanrio themed fabrics, and even a few Lolita inspired prints. I had a hard time passing up all the Hello Kitty and a My Melody prints. Then I stumbled on all the Alice in Wonderland themed items, and I almost went a tiny bit crazy.
I settled on the things I actually needed: thread and beads for cross stitch and a few notions for my Alice purse, zipper, lining fabric and strap. Things I couldn’t pass up were the Little Twin Star pre-quilted fabric, and the Gudetama patch.
All in all a good haul. I also now know I will be planning a Sanrio themed quilt before I leave island.
House warming gift for a friend.
A mini rug knitted from torn strips of cloth.