Stop staring and start sewing!

My review of the Burnside Bibs Pattern - Two Bib Thumbs Up!

A couple of years ago I received a Burnside Bibs pattern at a sewing party and I've been wanting to dig into it since then. I finally had the time, fabric, and hankering to get it done and I absolutely love it! So comfortable without being sloppy looking. 

The pattern is from Sew House 7 and comes with a really nice instruction booklet.

I traced the pattern out (don't cut your patterns out please!) in my size and got to work cutting.

I chose to do view #1 which has darts in the back. Since that tightens the waist it requires a side zipper. I love installing invisible zippers and this one went perfectly.

The fabric is 100% linen in the Nine Iron color, midweight (5.3 oz).

Now you see it....

 

Now you don't!

Instead of pins I glue basted things like the pockets and belt loops in place. I find it holds everything in the right position until I get it sewn into place (then washes out with the first washing!)

I'm so proud of my invisible zipper!

You can tie it in the back as well. I like it in the front for now.

So comfy!

Darts in back (barely visible).

I think this is a really smart pattern! It has great illustrations and lots of helpful hints along the way. I saw a cute hack on instagram where she turned it into shorts so I'm thinking that might be my next version since it will be perfect for Arizona. Two big thumbs up for the Burnside Bibs Pattern!

I want to be Daisy Kingdom

When my oldest daughter was a toddler (she is now 30), I was shopping at Daisy Kingdom in Portland looking for some fun stuff to make and possible sell. My sweet friend who was with me offered to buy some of their signature girl dress kits for me to make and sell (her family had more money than mine and she wanted to help me). I declined and inside my head I heard my voice saying "I don't want to sell Daisy Kingdom. I want to be Daisy Kingdom." And that statement has practically haunted me since then.

This past fall (2021) I decided life was too short and I needed to take a big leap and open a brick and mortar store and sewing school. There's never a "perfect time" for any big decision but everything in my life was pointing toward THIS being the time. So I took steps forward and figured if I was mistaken and this wasn't the right time then there would be obvious stop signs in my way. I found a great location in a quiet strip mall that had seen better times (hence the affordability) and put down a honkin' big deposit, the landlord gutted the former medical office space for me so I had a bright, open place to work with. We spent a couple of months painting and cleaning the 1500 square feet and in December my sisters and their husbands came and helped us haul 3 rooms of my precious stash and supplies over to the new place. I officially opened the doors on January 8, 2021 and while I'm still settling and unpacking I've been busy with classes and it's starting to feel like home here.

Remember this dresser (November 2007!)? It has a new place here in Make Sewing Studio and is such a lovely greeting when folks walk in the door

Here is the beginning of what I hope will grow into a beautiful, inspiring store filled with irresistible treasures. I want to fill it out with more goodies like buttons, pretty zippers, and lovely gift items.

In the meantime this bright, pretty classroom keeps me busy with people who want to sew (or want their kids to sew)!

A massive thanks to my friend Heather Bailey for bringing in so much color and cheer with her beautiful designs at the front of my store! Could this get any cuter? I don't think so.

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See that young man sitting on the left hand side? Yeah, this is him when I started this blog. It's definitely time for a new adventure.

And while I've been buzzing around here our little strip mall is filling out with some great new tenants and so it turns out I get to be part of a rebirth of this cute little corner in Gilbert, Arizona.  Come visit! Oh, and I ran across this yesterday as I continued to unpack...

 

I made a darling baby quilt out of an IKEA duvet set

We have a new baby in our family and I knew his mom (my niece) was doing a dinosaur theme for his space.  Well, it turns out, cute dinosaur fabric is hard to find. I mean I found lots of dino fabric but it's usually very brash and busy and I wanted something sweet and whimsical so I had my heart set on the fabric in this JÄTTELIK duvet set from IKEA. They never seemed to have it in stock so I finally got wise and ordered it online (duh).

For 24.99 I got a bucketload of fabric when I separated the sides of the duvet and pillowcase, plus a seriously long zipper that I'm hanging on to (those can get expensive!).

I took part of the dinos on the main side and cut then into squares while making sure I left enough of a big piece to be the whole back of the quilt. Then I started framing them out with this sweet print from Heather Bailey's True Kisses collection (which I carry in my Fabritopia store).

I cut the pillowcase for this big t-rex panel and framed it out with a green Pure Solid from Art Gallery Fabrics (again, in my store and truly the softest cottons!). 

I pieced it all together with a white solid and was sort of bummed when I realized it wasn't an exact match to the white in the dino fabric. But I don't mind a little contrast so, all in all, I'm really happy with it. The duvet fabric is 50 % lyocell, 50 % cotton and it did behave a little bit differently than the cotton fabrics I was adding to it (kind of wiggly like a rayon) but it all came together with the quilting.

My thread kept on breaking at first and it was really frustrating. I have a Juki 2010Q and after quite a bit of online searching I found a great post by Quilting Jet Girl that had great advice (in the comments too). Since I'm in Arizona the part about my thread getting too dry made sense so I got it damp (by squeezing the spool with a wet cloth and letting it set for a bit) and tried again. It behaved so much better! Whew!

I worked my buns off on the front, but to be honest, the back is just as cute! Now you can see why I fell in love with the print!

I always use the Binding The Angel video tutorial from Sharon Schamber and it never fails to give me beautiful results with my quilt binding. The glue tips come from her daughter Cristy Fincher's shop Purple Daisies Quilting and they are the best!

Look at this pretty miter! And black and white fabric makes everything look more vibrant!

I had it all glued and ready to go just in time for my road trip to Oklahoma with my mom, sister, and daughter. I spent my down time hand stitching the binding and unwinding from all the driving.

I used the dino panel on the other side of the pillow case and some other fabrics (including the dino footprint fabric from the duvet) to piece together a new pillowcase to match the whole set. I just sized it for a standard sized pillow.

I still had the complete other half of the duvet sitting there (with the blue dinosaur tracks) and didn't want it to go unused. Then I realized it was perfect for a baby sized fitted sheet! And those are easy so I whipped that up just before leaving town! By the time our road trip was over I was able to hand the whole set over to my sister and watch her stuff it into her, already stuffed, suitcase for her flight back home.

I'm way behind on baby gifts from last year so I'm already on to the next project (and it's so cute!). Keep on sewing!

One Room Challenge Fall 2020 - My DIY Tufted Headboard, Revamped!

Last fall I joined the One Room Challenge and finally finished my master bedroom. One of the pretties upgrades I made was re-covering and re-painting my headboard. It was pretty boring before (here's the post from when we built it and covered it the first time) and I wanted a more glamorous (leaning towards gaudy) look.

Here it was before. Cute but safe. I didn't hate it but I didn't love it.

We took it apart and I worked on the inside padded part in our bedroom (it's heavy and we didn't want to haul it down and up the stairs). The yellow vintage quilt I'd originally covered it with was definitely wearing out so I was okay with thanking it and sending it on it's way.

The frame was taken outside for painting. We started with a couple of coats of gold spray paint.

Unfortunately I have never found a spray paint brand that has the right shade of gold so we went over it with Craft Smart bright gold acrylic paint. It takes a couple of coats but it is so worth the extra work.

Inside I laid the fabric (I used Bari Ackerman's Cinese Mystery from Art Gallery Fabrics) in place and ironed it just to get a good, smooth start. When I was shopping for this fabric I couldn't find any in the 45" width and I was starting to panic. Then I realized I could just get the 54" wide rayon and I wouldn't have to piece it together (which would require matching the design), PLUS it's softer than the cotton which is perfect for a headboard.

I kept the buttons from before because the color worked with the new fabric too. The tufting was pretty quick because I'd worked out the bugs the last time and now I'm pretty efficient at it.

This is the bottom after getting the tufting done. I used washers again to tie the thread because they will lie nice and flat.

I also reused the piping because it was already cut to the right length. I just removed the yellow fabric (which I always hated actually!) and covered it with the main fabric (but this time I used the cotton 45" fabric because I had enough for piping and it's easier to work with on the bias).

Once I sewed the bias fabric strips on the piping I simply hot glued it in place, hiding the raw edge in the back, and the result was perfect.

Just what I wanted! This is one of my absolute favorite fabrics ever and it needed a grand purpose in my room. Voila!

It didn't take long for my kitties to find their place in this glamorous suite. They are definitely aristocats.

Velvet by Amy Sinibaldi is available to order now! I just got my tracking number, woohoo!

If you've been waiting to get your hand on this gorgeous Velvet collection by Amy Sinibaldi....it's time! 12 beautiful fabrics in soft, crisp colors. So many ideas! Here it is!

 

Art Gallery makes the softest, most delicious fabrics!

AND I have fat quarter bundles!