Late Night Summertime Sewing

I was up WAY too late last night sewing. Wanted to share my projects!! No patterns, just online tutorials and whimsy. Sometimes I think I should have a separate craft blog called "Pinterest After Dark" *shrugs*

First off, the sewing machine cover. I am really happy with the way it turned out. I won't be remaking it, even though it is not as wide as I would have liked. I measured. I must have lost more inches than I had planned to in the seam allowances.

Its double sided.

Side one is a patchwork striping of blue/purple/green cotton fabric. I used grommets on the sides so that I can cinch it with ribbon.

This is the other side. I love this little sewing notions fabric! Cute colors, the buttery yellow suits my sewing space really well. I put a pleated pocket up front so that it can double as a sewing mat. I will be making a matching thread catcher.

 I am really pleased with it. Despite being thinner than I had imagined, it will do the job of keeping dust off of the machine and prettying up the space.


And then I made a bag. But not just any bag. This back is from Noodlehead. Its special for another reason, too. Ill get to that in a minute. This little pouch is about 12" wide. It's got a squared off bottom so I can use it for my makeup and actually see the makeup inside. Pouches can be so irritating to riffle through! But, not these. There will be many, many more in my future. Izzy loved it!

This is why its special. See that on top. Its a ZIPPER. MY FIRST ZIPPER!!!!! *squeal*

 So much procrastination has used, so much elastic has been used....all in the name of not sewing on a zipper. I was intimidated. But, not anymore. I did what everyone told me to. I went slow, I pinned alot...and it was easy.

 So easy that I decided that I needed a skirt with no elastic waist. I used a hummingbird fabric that I bought a while back at Joanns. Its a quilting cotton. I just traced a skirt that I liked, sewed up the sides (minus where the zipper would go). I did a turned hem on the top and bottom edges. Once again, lots of slowness and pinning at zipper time. And its perfect! Fits just right, no bunching, and the zipper has no gaps or mis-sews.

Its hard to tell but the side has a little pocket on it...if you squint just right you can see it right there.

 Front view.

 Pocket and zipper view. Yeah...the pink doesn't match. I love when things don't match. Everything has to match perfectly or has to be a completely different color.

 Then, I used a Pinterest tute on making a thing that Velcros your babies to chairs.

Where were these when my babies were of the age to be Velcro'd to chairs?! This would have been great at grandmas' house when I had a stroller in the living room so that I could take a 15 minute break from chasing them. But, I can let bygones be bygones.

This is for a friend, Joelle, and her brand new baby boy!! I would post a picture of him, but that is rude to do without asking. Lets just say....GORGEOUS!

I used black quilted cotton fabric on the inside and a print that I bought way back that is also made of cotton. They were both "oops fabric" at Joanns. I had enough to make two of these. So, I actually made two of these for $4 + thread and a little velcro...so $5.

 Here it is all laid out. I actually attached the pieces wrong. The bigger piece on the bottom is supposed to connect to the other piece on the shorter side. So it will need to be folded as shown above.

And finally...another dog bow. The pink one. I love the way light pink pops on Pickles black coat. The fabric is glittery and looks great on our walks out in the sunshine. No tutorial. I just winged it. I used scissors to cut 1.5" scallops along a 2" wide strip of fabric. It was the edge of a bolt, so 45" long. Then I ran a wide basting stitch and gathered the fabric. I spiraled the gathered fabric to form the shape of a flower, got it just right and then hand sewed it to keep it in place. Once it was just right I hot glued a button on the front and some double sided Velcro on back. I am  hoping the Velcro will stay on better than the alligator clips have. *fingers crossed*

Well, that't it! After this I noticed that it was 3AM and my husband was getting up for work. So I threw in my new Jillian Michaels DVD (the butt and thighs one AWESOME - 30 minutes and a nice mix of circuits and old school butt exercises), hit the showers and went to bed for a few hours. Now I am off to walk the dog! Happy Thursday!!!