It’s a very rare occurrence, but I actually sewed for myself for a change!
I present the cuteness that is my new apron!
Love the apron, but I don’t know if I’ll be making another. Maybe as a gift I suppose. I need to shorten the neck straps since 2yds of bias is definitely more than necessary and makes tying difficult. It was an easy to follow pattern though and is now my new favorite 
I found this cool Aerosmith logo ribknit last year (I think). I hate ribknit, but I think this turned out pretty well.
The lighting was awful in here tonight, but I don’t know that I’ll be motivated to retake these tomorrow.
NCBE again, size 3-6 months. I think all of these fabrics except for the brown cl are Chez Ami. I got to use my new Coverpro and I love it!!
(the browns really do match! like i said, awful lighting!)
Now I just have to decide which baby gets which outfit!
Just thought I’d list out these things to try and keep myself accountable
I got the pattern for the Emmeline apron last week. Since I made a slew of aprons last year for everyone but myself, I thought I deserved one.
Apron #1 will be in these fabrics:
Chocolate Lollipop by Anna Maria and Duet dots by Timeless Treasures
and 
I love the aqua/brown combo! The ties will be done in a dark brown.
Apron #2 will be in these fabrics:
Jitterbug by Cosmo Cricket
Again with the blue/brown combo, yes, but it’s oh so cute!
If only it was so easy to pick the fabrics for the baby outfits! I’d probably be sewing more often!
I’d like to introduce you to the newest addition to my sewing set up.
Isn’t she lovely?! I’ve been wanting a coverhem for a while now and so I had to snap one up when the price recently dropped! I’m looking forward to learning how to use her!
Before I allowed myself to sit down and get to know my new machine, I made myself get the sewing room into order. My fabric shelves were getting unruly again, so I decided to ruler fold everything. Here’s a neater version of what it looked like before I started…
Getting started…
and all finished!
Ok, well, it’s not completely finished. I mean, the fabric is all folded and put away, but I still need to figure out how to organize and store my yarn. I’m thinking a wide 2-drawer Rubbermaid thing will probably do the trick. Eventually, I think I’d like to replace my plastic shelving with some chrome shelving, but that will have to wait for a little while until some other reno projects around the house are finished.
So now that that is all out of the way, I need to order new curtains. Jay wanted to install French doors to separate the (empty) living room from the craft room, but I suggested hanging curtains instead. It’ll be less expensive, no doubt and I think will do just as good of a job. It’s also a good excuse to get rid of the current ugliness that’s hanging on the curtain rods right now… blech!
A few words about ruler folding. My eyes say it’s a thing of beauty, my back would thoroughly disagree! I was more than a little doubtful that it would work for my thicker fabrics (fleece, sherpa, terry, etc), but the folds weren’t nearly as bulky as I thought they would be and they did take up less space than I thought they would.
I’m so behind on baby gifts. I can’t figure out why, but sewing hasn’t appealed to me in such a long time. Maybe it’s the tracing and cutting… those are my least favorite parts. The actual sewing part was actually nice these past few days.
So, the above outfit is about 4 months late… oops! Hopefully it will fit its intended recipient, the 9th child of one of my good internet friends. I met her when we were pregnant with our almost 11 year old girls! It’s the New Conceptions Baby Essentials pattern that I like so much in size 9-12 months.
The below outfit is only a few weeks late. It’s for a friend of Jay’s who’s wife just had their 4th baby. I made this one in size 3-6 months and am hoping the kid hasn’t really chunked up yet!
This is a wrap top for Kenna. I made her a quickie one a few months ago just to try out the pattern and to see if she liked it and she’s worn it ever since, so I thought it was time for a new one. Plus, she just got a new leo and leg warmers and the old one doesn’t match This is from Ottobre 3/2006 and is made from black cotton lycra. I omitted the ribbon ties because she prefers to just tie the front.
Next up… Sweet Baby Things. Surprise, surprise, right? It has been a while! I’ve got a quilt in the works too!
Michelle asked me to knit her another kitty hat (from Stitch ‘n Bitch), but this time in black. It seems a little big, but hopefully it’ll fit! Quick knit for once. I bought the yarn on Thursday and finished it last night. My carpel tunnel is still acting up, so I was only able to knit for short periods of time.
I’ve been knitting far more often than I’ve been sewing! It’s a portable craft so I can knit while I’m waiting for the kids at dance class or while watching TV. The only down side is that my carpel tunnel has been flaring up big time. I haven’t had to do the daily ibuprofen regimen or wear my braces for almost 3 years, but I’m back to that now. Anyway… on to the squishy stuff!
I made some LTK pilot hats for a friend’s baby. The sizing on her patterns never really works for me (I knit pretty tight), so I made 2 sizes just in case and have no idea if either will fit. I used Knitpicks Swish Superwash and would definitely buy this yarn again… very nice!
Next it was a scarf for my good friend Diann. We were at our staff Christmas party looking at another teacher’s scarf and she mentioned that she wanted a handmade scarf. I’m hoping to see her this week so I can gift it to her! Wavy pattern from Knitty.com in Lambs Pride Superwash Peacock colorway.
I have two more projects on the needles for me
Palindrome scarf in Paton’s SWS Stripes, Natural Pink colorway. This yarn is so incredibly soft and pretty!
Jaywalker scarf in Knitcol Adriafil, which is a very cool self-striping yarn. Superwash too so it’s easy care. I had to modify the pattern just a tad because hers wasn’t working for me for some unknown reason.
I’ll be honest… I have no desire to sew right now. Zero. Zip. Zilch. It stinks because there are quite a few gifts that I’d love to be able to send people, but I just can’t make myself (or find the time to) do them. I was hoping that Christmas break would light a fire under me, but it hasn’t.
I did bust out the sewing machine to make teacher gifts this year. I bought the Mini Patchfolio pattern at Craft Apple. It wasn’t hard, but it was kind of tedious so assembly line sewing worked pretty well for these (I had to make 4).
We added gift certificates for each teacher and they were well received. Hopefully it’s a useful gift and won’t be tossed aside with all the candles and lotion!