Stop staring and start sewing!

Skirts! They're popping up everywhere (not literally)!

If you haven't picked up a copy of my book yet run over to Sew 4 Home because they're doing a give away and have a nice review.  I love the folks at Sew 4 Home and I'm tickled that they included my book (and the correct pronunciation of my name, thank you Liz!) on their blog since, technically, a skirt is not a home project.  They're drawing a winner on the 31st so don't wait too long!

 

My friend Jemellia made a gorgeous version of the Basic Skirt using Anna Maria Horners Field Study fabric.  This is a great example of why fabric matters.  Something as simple as the Basic Skirt looks amazing because she picked amazing fabric.  Jemillia has a great eye for combining sewing patterns with the perfect fabric and you should definitely follow her blog.  See the hearts?  She loves it (and so do I!).

 

 

Here we are together at Quilt Market in Portland.  I'm wearing the Triple Ruffle version of the skirt but I turned it into a Quadruple Ruffle skirt by adding another tier.  You can even make this one a Quintuple Ruffle skirt if you want to keep going.  I really love this skirt and have to send it back to The Bernina Connection since I offered to make it for a store sample using their fabric.  I'll wear it one more time and then say farwell to it.

 

 

 

Here is another great book review by Katie at Swim Bike Quilt.  Again, the Basic Skirt which looks fantastic with this fun fabric.  Super cute!  And great blog!

 

 

 

And here's the skirt I made for Bari to wear in her fabulous booth at Quilt Market.  I don't usually sew for other people (so don't bother asking) and this made me nervous.  But I pulled out the pattern from my book (which I found out was printed smartly and perfectly, whew!) and using the measurements Bari gave me, created this darling Contrast Pleat version of the skirt using her gorgeous Bijoux fabric.  I was so relieved and proud when I saw how great the fit was!  Plus those boots knocked it out of the ballpark.

 

 

 

So far I'm pulling in 5 star reviews on Amazon and will probably cry when a lower one comes in.  But, the part that really makes me happy is a lot of really new beginners are using it and finishing with skirts they are proud of and didn't have to pull their hair out to get through the process.  Whew!

 

I'll be making more skirts and posting them soon.  I've just been busy enjoying summer with the kids and working on my little Hipster Haberdasher business here.  Back to School time is crazy with kids needing covers for their laptops so be sure to stop by if your child is running off to college (or high school) with a new laptop!

My "new" sideboard

In March I blogged about my new duvet curtains (which I still love!).  The brown beat-up sideboard really started nagging at me so I got to work painting it a week later.  I know some folks in the comments said I should leave it but by the time I read those comments I'd already started paining it....now it's fresh and phenomonal!

 

I really love IKEA but not all of their furniture is cut out for a family with lots of kids.  This was a lovely piece of furniture at first but after awhile it looked beat to bits with the tilting draws and loose panels.  I kept my table clothes, place mats, etc. in this.

 

Isn't this better?!

 

I used 2 coats of Glidden Gripper primer (I hate their paint but the primer seemed to work nicely), and 2 coats of Behr Satin Premium Plus in Swiss Coffee.  The Krylon Brushed Metallic spray paint in Nickel worked nicely for the drawer pulls.  I thought about replacing them but since the spray paint ended up looking so good I kept them.  I normally paint white things pure white with no tint but I've really learned that you need to add a little color to the white to keep it from looking to harsh (and cheap).  I really, really like the Swiss Coffee since it has a "sweet cream" feel and adds a richer look than just white.  Thank you Pinterest!

I set up my work station inside and everything went pretty quickly until we got to replacing the panels...

 

I put everything away while Joey cut new panels out of beadboard to replace the panels that were always popping out.  These aren't going anywhere.  He really set them in there nicely and I caulked them around the edges on the front (when I finally got back to them 2 months later) before I painted them.  I love them.

 

Here's my corner before....

 

Here it is now.  Sweet.

 

It turned out to be the perfect spot to stash all of our games (pencils, dice, cards, etc. go in the small drawers) since it's near the big table where the kids play.  Add these cute little plates I nabbed at my favorite thrift shop and I'm pleased as punch.

Sunlight feels right (and paint too)

We have been painting like crazy here and have made mountains of progress here in our upstairs hallway.  This is our new color (Spare White by Sherwin Williams but bought in Behr) and we are flippin' happy with the light airy direction we are going in (the door trims need painting but I didn't want to wait to share).

Here is what it looked like up here a few months ago.  I called it the cave.  The tan paint wasn't a bad color but there was no natural light in this area so it was much too dark.  Add the bookshelves, which only narrowed the hallway (supposed to be temporary but I think they've been there forever), and it just felt tight and dark up here.

 

This past spring we finally had some extra money (yay for money!) so I had a solar tube installed in the hallway (see top picture), right over the stairway (by this guy, whom I highly recommend if you live in the Phoenix area).  That might be the best 600.00 we've ever spent on a house project.  Finally some light up here!  

Only now I could see just how shabby our walls had become since I'd painted them about 8 years ago.

 

I did a little research and ended up buying a nifty power painter and quickly started kicking myself for not buying one years ago.  I'm always painting something and I find myself putting off projects because I know how much labor is involved.  Joey loaded up this sprayer and had a quick layer on the walls within 2 hours.  I had him spray two more layers over the Fourth of July weekend and it looks top notch beautiful upstairs now.  And I didn't do any of it, Joey did it all!

The paint I got was Behr Ultra (with primer) at Home Depot and I asked them to mix Sherwin Williams Spare White.  I'm sorry but I really like Behr and it's so much less expensive than Sherwin Williams (which is nice paint too, just not amazing enough for me to justify the cost).  It was 152.00 for 5 gallons but, as with all holiday weekends, Home Depot had a 20.00 rebate offer.  The Power Painter (by Wagner) was 99.00 and we are very happy with it.  Plus we got a can of Rust-Oleum Hammered Black spray paint for the doorknobs and light fixture.

 

I picked the Spare White paint because it was the next lightest shade up from our lovely Sea Salt color downstairs.  I normally don't go that light with paint but the goal was to completely brighten the upstairs hallway and it worked (floors next!).

I'll get the walls looking pretty soon with more pictures and things but for now I'm just enjoying nice, clean walls and being able to see everything up here.  Yay!

So, like I was saying....

Sorry.  I seriously just got tired and dumped all of my Quilt Market pics into flickr (see them here).

I've been sewing a lot and the fun part is that lot's of it has been fun sewing (as opposed to business sewing which is tedious but having money is fun so there's that....).  Last month we got to escape the Arizona heat by driving to California for the wedding of the middle son of our best friends ever.  I was so happy to make the bow ties for the groom and his guys and a necktie for the grooms dad (who officiated the wedding and was the best man at our wedding nearly 27 years ago).  Don't they look great?  I used my bow tie pattern and this tutoral designed by Georgia Solorzano at Puking Pastilles.  It a great pattern and I highly recommend it.  The fabric is a poly/taffeta type and it was great to sew with and I loved the finished look.  I'm so used to working with quilting cottons that I wasn't sure how this fabric would work.  It worked great it turns out!

 

The beautiful bride wanted a tulle garter which I'd never even heard of (kids these days!).  The one she really liked was 92.00 (yeah really) so I went to work trying to recreate the look and it was truly fun.  I searched high and low for the lace embellishment and found something sort of similar.  I dyed it with a combination of tea and grey dye from Dharma Trading Co. and got this great taupe color.  Then I trimmed it down to a reasonable size and added some little beads for a touch of bling.

After a little practice here's the finished garter.  That was fun!  I gave her the practice one for tossing.

And here I am with my honey and his own snappy bow tie.  Life is good folks!