Fall Swapping Season

Several of the forums I participate on have swaps going on all the time. I may have shared here before about the 12 days of Christmas swap -- that one is lots of fun & I'm looking forward to signing up for it again later this year. Recently, I've participated in a 'Pampering Mom' swap, and my parcel arrived today: It's perfect for me. To fit the budget for the swap, I listed a few books I was missing in various series and said I'd be more than happy to have them in good used condition. What a pleasant surprise to get not one, but both of the books I needed to own the complete O'Malley's series! Along with a bookbag from a seller of great products on both Etsy & Hyenacart - Beneath The Rowan Tree / DaydreamBelievers. We love Lori's designs, and I'm happy to have this great tote for my library books. Things just kept getting better, as a pair of earrings I'd been wishing for were also in the package, along with some velour face wipes (like reuseable/washable cottonballs), and several sample/travel size soaps. I'm also expecting parcels in a couple other swaps -- one that supplies me with knitted goods & I pay the knitter in an equal amount of yarn!, and another that was a crazy mess of requests, offering & matches. I've sent off a baby carrier, and a couple sets of gift bags, and will be receiving many WAHM-made goods in exchange, but not from the same people. In sewing forum swaps, I will soon be sending off a batch of aprons, and a parcel of toddler clothing ... guess I should get back to the sewing room....

A year of Christmas ...

I know, I know, it just ended ...



If you aren't sick of Christmas yet, and you want to get your crafting finished before the 24th of December next year ... check out what we're working on at Sewing Mamas - A year of Christmas



Here's a preview of some great tutorials that have been gathered up to help us get a head start on Holiday Decorating for 2010 -- January's theme. Each month has a theme to focus the sewing efforts.



I can't wait to see how many of us can finish this!



STOCKINGS

1. Stockings with rick rack

2. Stockings from quilts,

3. Stocking tute

4. Rick rack flowers

5. Button wreaths

Ode to the zipper foot.

Ok, well it's not an ode, because I can't write in any sort of poetic manner. I love my zipper foot though.

Here is my lovely zipper foot.

Emily found it for me and it makes zippers so easy! There's still the odd bit of user error, but at least I don't blame them on having the wrong tools for the job. Last night I put in 6 zippers, and they all look lovely.

Potty Time.

The boy child is soon (hopefully) going to be ready for some potty training. And that means - underwear!

Here's the first batch ... more are cut out, and will be sewn up as time allows.



These are a great use of scraps!

75 Yards Sewn.

In February, I sewed about 75 yards of fabric! I far exceeded my goals, and I bought no fabric.

Here is a before/after comparison of my fabric shelves.

Bottom two shelves, flannels, fleeces, decor weights, quilting fabric.

And now ...

Cotton Wovens, Solid Knits, Solid Tech Fabrics





Last shelves are the printed knit fabrics, with the bulky knits up on top of the bookcase.





It's not as dramatic a difference as I'd thought!

Still Sewing, Sewing, Sewing ...

More clothing for the small boy, as well as a sleeping bag, and a couple gifts I won't be showing here!

Sewing Trains

This is probably the first time I planned a mix & match bit of sewing. A couple shirts and a couple pants for Finn. There's a couple more tops in the planning to go with this train mix.

Trims, Lace & Ribbon

I am very fortunate to have a friend who knows just where the holes are in my sewing collections! She was given a massive amount of trims, ribbons and lace from a gentleman who's wife had passed away. She skimmed off what she thought she could use, and passed the rest along to me. Finn & I spent a good part of our morning sorting and rolling, and this is what we ended up with.

I think this little yellow bit is my favourite, and there is just enough to trim a 25"square blanket. I'll tuck it away for the next time I need a baby boy gift.

Sewing.Sewing.Sewing. It's StashGame time (again)

On a forum I frequent, there are 2 Stash Games a year .... points given for yardage sewn, points lost for yardage bought. In September I was honoured to get the 9th place prize! I had just under 450pts. I had no idea I'd make it to the top-ten, I was just playing for fun.

My only goal this time is to get more points than last time! I've got lists & spreadsheets to keep track of it all. Here is what has been stitched up since Sunday at 12:01! (And, yes, I did stay up late to do that one overnight project, it's a fun way to kick things off).

Bamboo Velour yoga pants & a Cotton Velour v-neck for me.

Bike T-shirt for the boy.

Grey Jeans for the boy. Look at the great detail - love these and have another pair cut out in a tan corduroy.

Tops for the boy.

Top for me.

Top & cropped pants for me for camping - lightweight fast drying, no seams on top of the shoulder. Great for both paddling & portaging.

That was 4 days of sewing ... there were a few more odds & ends in there, a small bag, a bamboo terry hair wrap, but they are boring!

Sewing Shorts from old pants

Some shorts for the little guy, cut from the bottoms of pants that I can't/don't/won't wear anymore. It'll be a while (months yet!) before we're ready for shorts, but I wanted to get them off my 'to do' list. I left the existing hems intact and matched up the new topstitching as close as I could.

Laptop Sleeve for cj

My sister requested a protective cover for her laptop, and a little pouch to stash power cords and such. I took the measurements, and well, winged it. It worked out pretty well, though I had to use a slightly different sized laptop for the photos.

Today was a busy sewing afternoon, but I didn't get photos of the rest yet.