artsy ants: sewing

Showing posts with label sewing. Show all posts

end of summer / early fall beanies

so, has hat making season officially started for you? it did for me, but not the yarn and needles version of hats. i've always really really loved sewing with jersey (here are a few examples of things i've made: cozy pants, the 90-minute-shirt, a jellyfish scarf), so jersey beanies were on my list!

after a recent trip to the fabric store i came back with sort-of-matching, color coordinated jersey for my little ones. the making of them was a bit of trial and error, as i had an idea on how to make these hats but didn't use a pattern or tutorial. i guess i still need to get better with the sizing. still, they turned out cute: his, a bit more baggy, skater style. hers: slim and snug.

they are lined, and thereby reversible, even though i definitely prefer the stripes on the outside with the stars peeking out. i still have a lot of jersey fabric left, so i guess there will be a whole array of hats to choose from soon, and one for me, too!

thank goodness it is still so warm that right after our quick photo taking for the blog the hats were tossed off and they played hat-less in their favourite corner of the garden.

cozy sewing

a sunday afternoon to myself? out comes the sewing maching! it's okay to sew with the little man around, but i do get a lot more done without my little helper ;)

for instant gratification, i made a jersey skirt from an old t-shirt (i made a 90-minute-shirt with the same fabric already). i did some funky stitching at the hem just to add a little more interest.

after that i started a pair of pants i had been planning for a while now. i didn't have a pattern for it, i just loosely traced another pair of pants and then freestyled the rest. it's a lot simpler than i thought it would be, i googled how to best sew a jersey waistband and found a video tutorial (in german) which was great.

i'm so so pleased with the way it turned out, that i'm itching to make more. one for the little man, and even maybe even one for me! i love jersey waistbands, so i might start making a skirt with one for me first...

linking up here.

summer outfits for 3 babies

a few weeks ago, i attended a gettogether one might call a sewing party. a bunch of girls and their sewing projects, all in one kitchen! i had been looking forward to some undistracted time at the sewing machine and got there all set with my sewing projects cut and pinned :)

as you see from the results, i quite like a little matchy matchy from time to time. the trousers/pants will hopefully still fit well into summer of next year. the skirt ended up a bit on the small side, i might open the seam and add some of the blueish fabric to make it wider. but for the first weeks it will be okay! i have so much of both fabrics left though, that i could make a second, bigger skirt for next summer as well. of course, the bébé needed a new skirt too!

unfortunately, the little man was not very cooperative when it came to photographing him in his new attire... but i am hoping to get all 3 babes into their summer outfits and onto a photo anytime soon!

finished my front door sewing project!

do you remember this fabric? i bought it in december and wrote a post about it, about how i was planning on using it for our front door. finally i found the time to sew it, and with the help of my mom i've got the new curtain up since yesterday!

although i have less fabric left than i thought i would (yeah, as a sewing beginner i calculated wrongly...) i do have some leftover that i will be able to make something with. i think it needs to be something for the hallway, something in the vicinity of the front door so it's obvious i'm using the same fabric and am trying to create some kind of a theme.

my front entrance is still not the way i'd like it to be, so i'll just show you an excerpt for now. but the flower and bird fabric definitely brightens it up, makes the door look friendlier and more inviting. so, all in all, i'm very happy with the outcome of this project!

the sibling blankets

the anna maria horner fabric i had ordered arrived a few days ago, and i couldn't wait for it to dry at last after washing in order to make the baby blanket. a simple, instant gratification baby project. that flannel is one of the softest pieces of fabric i have ever held in my hands! i think i will have to take it to bed with me just to feel it against my face and to give it that special mama scent!

as with the other blanket, i used some ricrac as embellishment, and it turned out to be a very summery colour combination, just right for the season in which this baby will be born! the little man tested it and found out it's perfect for playing peek-a-boo and filling mama's memory card with giggle- and laughter-filled photos!

so here is the pair, both ready to be used for snuggling up. they are so different from each other and yet they work so well together. it's just what you wish for the siblings too, isn't it?

(linking up with our creative spaces.)

baby girl dreaming

well, a baby is a baby. and i'm pretty sure you can make as many things for a boy as you can for a girl. i did not have any hopes or dreams connected to the gender of our little junebaby. but we found out last week that it looks like we're having a girl, and after the news settled a little, the dreaming began. oh, the dresses and skirts and headbands and everything else pretty to be made!

i ordered some of anna maria horner's folksy flannel yesterday, the little honey sea print and some yellow flannel, to make a light but still soft and cozy baby blanket. it will be similar to the one pictured above, which i made for spencer when i was pregnant with him. only he was a november baby so i made the backing with warm cotton fleece.

i love the little honey sea print because it has flowers and kind of a girly look, but it's still quite a neutral colour scheme (i am not so much a fan of pinks...)

knitting wise, i'm sure i need to cast on a little sister's dress, don't you think?

and browsing through my photo archives, i happily discovered many favourite pieces safely stored in the attic that i will just love to put on the new little one some day:

oh yes, the possibilities! (just loved the picture on this vintage sewing pattern found here.)

linking up with our creative spaces.

featured artsy friend: keiko's hammer

this past week we've had friends stay at our house. one of our friends with the nickname keiko had made a super cute bag for me. i've been using it almost every day since. it's completely hand made with mostly recycled materials. isn't it such a gorgeous bag? i love having talented friends! :)

let me introduce you the new handmade brand "keiko's hammer":

what inspires you?

the feel of certain fabrics is very inspiring to me. for example the fuzzy feel of felt reminds me of fur. i incorporate different textures into my designs to create contrasts. things in nature are also very inspiring to me, and prints i have seen elsewhere definitely get my attention.

you mentioned there were years of not creating much... what is your history as an artist?

i first learned how to sew in high school. when it comes to creative hobbies, sewing is the only thing that i stuck with although i had tried painting, drawing, and calligraphy in the past.

somehow though, after my son was born, my creativity was initially put on hold. i was focused on my role of being a mother so much that it took me many years to make the time for art again, to be able to focus on creating. after i quit my day job this past summer it was as if i needed to unwind from the working world for a while. now, finally, i have the feeling that i have "found myself" in the sense of being inspired and motivated to create again. now i have ideas and i just want to try them all out.

what's your secret to buying fabrics?

if you're looking to save money the best fabrics can be found in thrift stores!

do you have a blog or website?

actually, i just started keiko's hammer blog. so far i only have a welcome post but i'm planning to update it soon.

thanks so much for the interview and thanks much more for that cute bag you made for me! i can't wait to see your next project finished and already joined your blog so i can follow along as your brand grows.

a sewing assignment

the baby (pronounced a bit french by the little man, "bébé") has become more and more popular during the last weeks. spencer has always loved to carry it around with him and pat it's back, but for the last couple of weeks, he has picked it up more often and it has even stayed in bed with him at night.

the other day, shortly before we wanted to leave the house, spencer realized that the baby must be quite cold without a hat and with nothing on it's bare feet. and so started my very first sewing assignment by my little one. i took some jersey fabric and very quickly made a pair of simple socks and a little hat. now the baby could come shopping with us!

the overall the baby is wearing by the way was a gift made to us by my grandmother. it was made by her mother (spencer's great-great-grandmother!)

another cute thing happened later that day. even though he himself hardly remembers being carried, he must have seen babies being carried around the neighbourhood. because he expressed the desire to carry the baby infront of him. so i took one of my scarves which served as wrap to help him out in his very first babywearing experience!

handmade felted mittens

last weekend i got a little sewing project going - at last! i had been itching to sew for such a long time, and i took advantage of both the hubby and the little man taking a nap! i used fabric from a felted lambs wool sweater from a thrift store. as you can see below, it used to be a hip huggie. i still think a hip huggie is a fabulous idea, but the truth is, i hardly ever wore it. so i decided to make something else with the felted wool.

the best thing to do if you want to sew mittens is to trace fitting mittens or use your hands with plenty of seam allowance. make sure you cut them out with the thumbs facing each other, so that you'll have the right side on both sides.

i zig-zaged the pieces together quite tightly, because even if they may not keep out rain and snow, they should at least keep the wind out. the trouble is i am now wearing them inside out, because they looked all wonky when i turned them right side out, so i left them as they are.

if i didn't mention it, could you tell that they weren't meant to look like this from the start?

i made some fleece liners out of leftover cotton fleece pieces as well to wear inside, just a bit smaller than the actual mittens. now my hands will be really really warm. too bad the forecast says nothing of snow in the next weeks.

but winter is still long, so i'm hoping for my chance of mitten-y snow action!

street playmat to go

a growing interest in cars by my little one made me think that it would be cool if he had a street playmat. i browsed around etsy for some handmade ones but none really caught my fancy. i have to say the most awesome handmade playmat i found was this one on homemade by jill. it's so cute, full of detail with all the personal touches of actual places. but she herself says that it was a labour of love and i very quickly dismissed the idea of making something similar within the next months. some more googling brought me to this great tutorial.

it was truly not easy to find that riley blake fabric, but i finally found some in a dawanda shop here in germany. even though the streets are a bit narrow for most of the cars, it's stil the perfect fabric for a project like that. i used a coordinating riley blake pattern for the back.

i adjusted the pattern/tutorial a bit according to our needs. our little one has a few bigger cars, so i made the pockets (or garages, as we call them now!) in different sizes. also, instead of the hairband and button to close the rolled playmat i simply used a long piece of ribbon.

perfect for our upcoming overseas trip!

upcycling week :: day 6 :: roundup / link list

we hope you enjoyed our upcycling week and feel (a bit more) inspired to repurpose and recycle. for future reference, and for those of you who want to go further in their upcycling endeavours, here is a link list of more fun projects.

thanks to everybody for sharing, happy browsing and have a lovely weekend!

upcycling week :: day 5 :: home decor and accessories

welcome to day 5 of our upcycling week! today we're taking a look at other stuff you can make. it might still be about clothes, but you can recycle them into so many other things as well!

i shared my corduroy bag made from a pair of trousers on the blog before. i'm still using it, if you make it out of a pair of men's trousers it has the perfect size for a beach bag:

you can find more photos in this post and the pdf tutorial is here.

vintage fabric can be used for all kinds of projects, especially if it has beautiful prints, it's great to make something with it that people actually look at. danielle made this pretty lampshade for her daughter's bedroom a few years ago:

she used an old pillowcase she was given with a pile of fabric and random textiles from a friend. then she added lace trim and stitched on a satin rose and a crochet flower, both in hot pink.

our friend Steffi makes cool bags, this one was made out of placemats. the crochet details are especially cute, thanks for sharing, Steffi!

if you don't have any fabric on hand, why not try out kitty litter bags? that's what Syrenitee springs of Project Sanity did. check out her full picture tutorial on how to make one. here is a photo of the end result:

have you got any other ideas or links to share? please do so in the comments!

MORE OF UPCYCLING WEEK:

:: day 1 :: starting easy
:: day 2 :: a few stitches here and there

:: day 3 :: going a step further

:: day 4 :: iron-ons

:: day 6 :: roundup / link list

upcycling week :: day 4 :: iron-ons

first of all, here is something i had meant to share yesterday: Kelly of Green Baby Designs made this fantastic skirt out of t-shirts for her daughter Willow, who looks supercute modelling it.

you can see more photos on this post, be sure to check out her blog, Kelly has loads of awesome upcycling projects on there!

so, today is day 4 of our upcycling week and we're talking about iron-ons. iron-ons are another way you can make a plain old garment look like new.

i found this really cool book full of iron-ons by sukie a few months ago. i have to restrain myself not to cover all my belongings with sukie iron ons, because i'm so in love with them...

of course, you can get a bit more creative and make iron-ons yourself. iron-on transfer sheets that you can put in your regular printer can be found in almost any office supply store. here is what danielle did: she scanned a drawing by her artist friend rosie, printed it onto the transfer sheet and ironed it onto a piece of white fabric. she then sewed the piece onto a bright green t-shirt. you can also iron your design directly onto the garment you chose of course!

(we dug into the archives but could only find this photo of danielle wearing it. you can't see the whole print, but it gives you an idea. awesome art-wearing, isn't it?)

so as always, feel free to share: have you ever tried iron-ons? were you pleased with the results and have you got any more tips to share?

MORE OF UPCYCLING WEEK:

:: day 1 :: starting easy
:: day 2 :: a few stitches here and there

:: day 3 :: going a step further

:: day 5 :: home decor and accessories

:: day 6 :: roundup / link list

children's clothes:

adult clothes:

home decor:

accessories:

MORE ARTSY ANTS UPCYCLING WEEK POSTS:

MORE OF UPCYCLING WEEK:

MORE OF UPCYCLING WEEK: