Reading*Crafting*Baking: fabric

I have been quite busy lately being crafty. I knitted my first pair of socks and my first pair of mittens. And I must have been very good last year because Santa brought me an amazing new sewing machine, which has led to some terrific projects.

Last summer, my beloved sewing machine died while I was trying to sew a Star Wars quilt. It had broken before and I took it to a repair shop, it cost a fortune to repair and they had kept it for nearly six months. This time, when the machine made a horrific grinding noise and locked up, I knew it was time. Unfortunately, I was unable to afford a new machine, but Christmas morning, waiting for me under the tree, was Agnes.

Yes, I named my sewing machine. Meet Agnes, Aggie for short.

Isn't she beautiful? I did watch the 30 minute DVD included because my last sewing machine had a thread cassette, which means I slipped the spool inside this plastic case and slipped it in the machine where it thread itself. This time, I have to thread the machine myself, which I hadn't done since I made shorts in my Junior High Home Ec. class.

Aggie is a fancy computerized sewing machine.

Look at all the awesome specialty stitches!

Of course I tried out a bunch of the specialty stitches and I can spell out words. How cool is that?

My first project was a simple one, I needed to get to know Aggie before I tried anything more complicated.

Years ago, my parents redid their family room in a lighthouse theme. I surprised them with a set of lighthouse couch pillows. Well, years passed and several people, and dogs, used those pillows until they fell apart. My mother asked me for a new set for her birthday.

Rather than doing lighthouses again, I found this fantastic nautical map fabric at Hancock Fabrics. The pattern is a simple envelope pillow pattern I've used many times before, I have two oversized pillows on my own couch I made with this pattern and my dog has a bed I made with it as well.

Around about the time I received Agnes, I discovered the website Spoonflower. I love this website. It is a specialty fabric site that allows you to design your own fabric or buy fabric other people have designed. It's not cheap, one yard of cotton fabric runs about $17.50, but it is all unique and really cool.

The first thing I bought, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with, but I had to own it.

The Doctor Who 10th Doctor Trifold Wallet, it's a panel with all the pieces needed to make a cotton fabric wallet based on the 10th Doctor.

David Tennant as the 10th Doctor (Doctor Who)

I had to buy it. When it arrived I knew I had to make it for my 7 year old nephew who loves the 10th Doctor (he has his own Sonic Screwdriver and likes to wear a necktie).

This wallet was very easy to put together and came out really cute.

Wallet folded

Exterior of the wallent

Interior of the wallet

Lining of the cash pocket of the wallet

I loved the quality of fabric and how it looked, so I returned to Spoonflower and I found Sonic Screwdriver fabric that I could not resist! I had found a pattern for a messenger bag on Pinterest that called for a yard of fabric, so I had to buy it.

Seamus, my assistant, helping me cut the fabric.

A closeup of Aggie hard at work

I loved the coppery hues in this fabric with the pops of blue, red and green. I went to Hancock Fabric and found a copper colored fabric for the lining and a copper button.

The pattern does not call for a button, but I wanted to try the buttonhole foot on Agnes, so I added one.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It is bigger than I thought it would be and I've already used it for work and to carry my laptop.

While searching through Pinterest, I found a beautiful pattern to make a burlap purse.

It is a free pattern from La Maison Reid.

A friend and I went to Hobby Lobby, where I had every intention of making a brown purse like the one above and then I saw all the colors of burlap they offer. They had brown, tan, blue, gray, a bright orange and more. After some deliberation, I decided to go with a pale blue for the bag, gray for the rose, and a pretty blue floral cotton for the lining.

Burlap is not easy to work with. As soon as you cut it, it starts unraveling. I'm not going to lie, this bag brought me a lot of frustration. I have since found a link on Pinterest that shows you how to cut burlap so it won't unravel, I'll be using those tips next time.

But I am very happy with how the bag turned out, it's so pretty and spring-y.

And I just love the lining.

My roses are different from the one she used on La Maison Reid, because I had trouble making them. I tried several different techniques I learned on websites and fromYouTube videos, but it took me forever to create roses I actually liked.

And when it was all said and done, Seamus took the left over scrap of blue burlap and adopted it as his new best friend.

But I haven't just been sewing, I am still knitting as well!

I made my first pair of socks! Yay! I am so excited! A new yarn shop opened about 5 minutes from my house and I am in trouble! Little Owls Knit Shop. The owner is very sweet and she did a lot of giveaways and free classes for the grand opening week. She held a two hour sock making workshop and I decided to sign up. I've wanted to make socks, but I've been very intimidated by them. The pattern she gave us used a thicker yarn, worsted weight instead of sock weight, and larger needles, which made the pattern more accessible.

The socks are warm and soft and cozy. I had them finished within a week. I used Tatamy Tweed yarn by Kreamer Yarns. I am now a little obsessed with making more socks, so I'm sure I'll have more pairs done soon!

I also made my first pair of mittens! I've made fingerless gloves in the past, but I hadn't attempted mittens or gloves, mainly because fingers scare me. Well, I was snowed in one day and decided to give mittens a try. I had found this pattern for Last Minute Mittens on Pinterest, but I made one big change. Rather than do the ribbed cuff, I took a funky novelty yarn I had and made the cuffs out of that before using bulky gray yarn I had in my stash and I came up with these fun mittens that have kind of wonky thumbs (fingers are hard!), but I'll keep practicing and I'll master fingers someday!

This is Seamus (pronounced Shay-mus). He's a 3 year old cocker spaniel and he is my crafting assistant.

It goes back to when he was just a little, 7 pound, 8 week old bundle of fur.

He just wanted to be held, so I set him on my lap, picked up my needlework, and didn't think anything about it. After a while I felt a gentle tugging on the embroidery floss. I lifted my work aside and saw Seamus had rolled onto his back and was batting at the floss with his paws, trying to nip it with his teeth. My first thought was "Aw, that's so cute." But I have since learned better. I should have taken it for what it was: A Warning.

I had to become very careful with my notions. Skeins of floss and spools of thread would disappear. I later found them in his favorite hiding place, under my bed. The labels would be ripped off the skeins and the floss would be unraveled, damp with puppy spit. The thread on the spools was untouched, but the ends of the spools would be chewed to the point where I could no longer use them in my machine.

Seamus has a weird obsession with fabric.

I live in a very small apartment, so the easiest thing for me to do when I need to measure and cut fabric is to move my coffee table and spread it out on the floor. No matter where he is, I swear Seamus can hear me unfolding fabric. As soon as it's set out and I start measuring, he appears. His favorite thing to do is to plop his butt right on the fabric and stare at me, like he's daring me to cut around him. If that doesn't work, he sprawls across it. He doesn't just lay down, he spreads out as far as his body, legs and tail will go, covering as much of the fabric as he possibly can.

A couple years ago, when he was still just a puppy, my parents redecorated their family room and went with a lighthouse theme. I found some pretty Waverly decorator fabric, covered in lighthouses, and decided to make pillows for their couch. As I measured and cut the fabric, Seamus sat next to me, watching my every move. I dropped all the scraps into a pile beside me to deal with when I was done. Like something out of a cartoon, Seamus got up, sniffed through the pile of scraps and selected one. Carrying it in his mouth, he proceeded to creep across the room, heading toward the bedroom. I called out to him. "Hey, what are you doing?"
He froze, dropped the scrap of fabric and sat on it, giving me the 'What? I'm not doing anything' look. I don't know if he thought I didn't know he had the fabric because he sat on it or what, but it was one of the funniest things I ever saw him do.

I try just about every craft project I can get my hands on and several years ago, I bought my first and only latch hook project. It's a small rug of the Mary Engelbreit Scotty dog design and I love her work, so I thought I'd give it a try. Every so often, I take it out to work on it, and, of course, Seamus has to help.