Heart 2 Hands

Another sewing list update.

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 22:56:16 GMT

Well, I feel like I'm getting there, but boy, time's ticking! Here's the latest:

1. Zoe's curtains
2. Amy's curtains
3. Tirzah Cinderella covers
4. Tirzah birthday dress.
5. My skirt. White linen with red embroidered flowers.... will be maternity.
6. My top to match skirt from a red stretchy cotton.

I made the party goal after all! I love, love, love this outfit..... it's wonderful to have clothes that fit well and look decent. :-) And the top will be easily altered for nursing, so that's a plus. I hope the skirt can have something done to it so I can wear it, as well, after baby arrives.
Here's a better picture of the top:

~~7. Dress for Tirzah will match the sleeper I made for her when she was tiny.... baby can wear sleeper and I think Tirzah will enjoy wearing the matching dress. :-)~~
(This is done, but I haven't taken a picture!)
8. Doll clothes. We bought a doll to give to Tirzah when baby comes, and it needs some clothes and little diapers. I plan to make 3 or so flannel diapers, a sleeper, a simple dress and a fancy one, and a flannel blanket.
Working on this one, currently. I have the blanket and one dress done. Will post a picture as soon as the rest is done.
9. Leather shoes for my cousin's baby boy
10. Leather shoes for my sister-in-law's baby girl
Had to skip a couple to get this one done, due to baby shower dates..... she loved the shoes, and I made a little country floral print corduroy dress to go with them. But I forgot to take pictures of that too. :-/ Baby Kacie is due December 24.

11. Fitted diapers for baby
12. Pantyliners for Mommy
13. Diaper covers (probably simple pul ones.... would like to make 2 to add to the one wool and one prorap I have already.)
14. One-size pocket diapers (just a couple, to supplement and try out my one-size pattern on a tiny one.)
15. Thick Mommy cloths for postpartum.
16. Matching Christmas outfits for my babies.

Sewing list update.....

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:52:04 GMT

Here's a quick update on my sewing to-do list! It's moving right along, though my earlier goal of getting my new maternity outfit sewn by the girls' birthday party (this weekend) may not be met. :-( I'm still hoping for the chance and will do my best, but it seems there's SO MUCH ELSE to do! So we'll see. At any rate, here's what IS done. :-)

1. Zoe's curtains
2. ~~Amy's curtains~~
Sorry, I don't have pictures of these.... the finished products are hanging in Amy's house. :-) But they fit the windows and ARE done! And then last weekend we did a little (unexpected at the time of the making of this list) more curtain-sewing, when in one day we knocked out beautiful red floral valances for the kitchen and dining room in the new house. I don't have pictures of those either... maybe sometime I will get some. :-)
3. Tirzah Cinderella covers
This one expanded to include another cover for my niece, Kira, to give as her birthday gift. Tirzah's has blue on the back, and Kira's has pink.

~~4. Tirzah birthday dress.~~

5. My skirt
6. My top
7. Dress for Tirzah will match the sleeper I made for her when she was tiny.... baby can wear sleeper and I think Tirzah will enjoy wearing the matching dress. :-) She needs longer dresses for the fall, anyway.
8. Doll clothes. We bought a doll to give to Tirzah when baby comes, and it needs some clothes and little diapers. I plan to make 3 or so flannel diapers, a sleeper, a simple dress and a fancy one, and a flannel blanket.
9. Leather shoes for my cousin's baby boy
10. Leather shoes for my sister-in-law's baby girl (these will be shower gifts)
11. Fitted diapers for baby
12. Pantyliners for Mommy
13. Diaper covers (probably simple pul ones.... would like to make 2 to add to the one wool and one prorap I have already.)
14. One-size pocket diapers (just a couple, to supplement and try out my one-size pattern on a tiny one.)
15. Thick Mommy cloths for postpartum.
16. Matching Christmas outfits for my babies.

Sewing List

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:21:29 GMT

As best as I can figure it, this is my list of sewing-that-needs-done for the next few months, more or less in preparation for the following upcoming occasions: Tirzah's 2nd birthday, Baby's birth, two other births (a cousin and a sister-in-law being the mommies), and Christmas. There will be much more in preparation for Christmas, I imagine, but this is enough for now. I guess how much I'm able to do handmade for the holidays will be dependant upon how long before my baby comes I complete this list, since with a due date a month before Christmas, I doubt I'll do much afterwards. :-)

The list is in numbered in order of priority, and my first goal is to complete numbers 1-6 by Tirzah's and Kira's (my niece) birthday party on the 28th of September, so I can wear my new outfit. :-) I will try to post photos to keep me accountable. :-)

Here we go! You guys feel free to hold me to it!!!

1. Zoe's curtains (finished the set for one window and need to do the second one. Zoe is my other niece. :-))
2. Amy's curtains (my sister-in-law.... they just moved into their first house and all these curtains are the consequential necessity. :-) I made a set for their apartment bedroom which, thankfully, fits one of their new windows, but there is one more window now that needs covered.)
3. Tirzah Cinderella covers for a birthday gift. This will likely be fleece and very simple.
4. Tirzah birthday dress. This is only a maybe..... but likely.
5. My skirt. Bought material last weekend, white linen with red embroidered flowers.... will be maternity.
6. My top to match skirt from a red stretchy cotton.
7. Dress for Tirzah will match the sleeper I made for her when she was tiny.... baby can wear sleeper and I think Tirzah will enjoy wearing the matching dress. :-) She needs longer dresses for the fall, anyway.
8. Doll clothes. We bought a doll to give to Tirzah when baby comes, and it needs some clothes and little diapers. I plan to make 3 or so flannel diapers, a sleeper, a simple dress and a fancy one, and a flannel blanket.
9. Leather shoes for my cousin's baby boy
10. Leather shoes for my sister-in-law's baby girl (these will be shower gifts)
11. Fitted diapers for baby
12. Pantyliners for Mommy
13. Diaper covers (probably simple pul ones.... would like to make 2 to add to the one wool and one prorap I have already.)
14. One-size pocket diapers (just a couple, to supplement and try out my one-size pattern on a tiny one.)
15. Thick Mommy cloths for postpartum.
16. Matching Christmas outfits for my babies.

The Great Livingroom Makeover :-)

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:35:54 GMT

Well, since my long, long post about the latest wedding gown is taking longer to finish than the gown itself, I will content myself with another, more recent creative project for my first post on this journal. It is on this week's to-do list to finally launch this little place, so this is it!

So, about our Great Livingroom Makeover.....

Before we got married, my husband lived on his own in all the glory of bachelorhood.... and his decor definitely reflected it. :-) We didn't have money to buy new furniture for our little apartment when he moved into it 3 months before our wedding, so we began collecting whatever we could, and God graciously supplied all our needs. A bookcase from Jonathan's mom, and a baker's rack we used as an entertainment center, an old kitchen table we cut down to be a computer desk, my great-grandmother's antique settee, and our pastor's family's destined-for-the-trash green gingham couch and loveseat (with 3 legs between both pieces, soup cans made up the rest. :-) ) furnished our livingroom. My first challenge as a soon-to-be wife was HOW to make this into something homey and pretty. We settled on a more-or-less Italian country theme with a green, red, and yellow color scheme. A friend gave us an old trunk that had belonged to his grandmother, to which we added legs and called it our coffee table, and we bought a pretty dark red patterned rug with a shower gift card that made the room complete for the winter, though we put it away for a lighter feel in the summer. As I sat in that room as a new bride, I was able to survey it quite contentedly.

This contentment lasted for two years and through a move across the apartment complex into a larger one. During that time we replaced the loveseat with a rocking chair from Salvation Army and a glider rocker from freecycle.com, since we were going to have a new baby, but nothing else changed. Early this year I realized I was ready to do something different. My dreaming didn't extend too far, just touching things up here and there, maybe making some new throw pillows for the couch, etc. I wanted to change the color scheme to possibly a lavendar and green, since that would allow us to have a change but still use the furniture we already owned. I talked to my husband and he said I could do it. We set a $100 budget and started brainstorming.

While walking through Joann's trying to pick out material for the pillows and window swags (our windows had never yet had any sort of treatment, just the white blinds the apartment came with, and I'd recently come across some semi-sheer almond-colored material at Walmart for $1/ yd. that I planned to use for the curtains) and finding nothing that matched the picture in my head, I happened to walk past a material that was nothing like what I was looking for, but so beautiful. A silk dupioni in the most lovely shade of blueish green that to me was the very color of peace and serenity. It would never be made to work with those couches, though, so I walked on past..... then came back for a little sample to carry home with me, walking out with no other material. How to make this work?

By this time those poor couches were truly deteriorating, the seat sagging when sat upon, new tears turning up constantly, and the trash they'd once been delivered from was now beckoning. I would have been happy to just recover them, but they weren't structurally worth the money and effort, so we decided to check craigslist for something "new". I hoped very much to find something in a neutral color that I could work with more easily than that green gingham, and something good quality but as inexpensive as possible. I finally found just the thing, but when I emailed the owner it turned out someone was coming to get it that weekend. I was sorely disappointed, but imagine my joy a week later when she wrote again to say that the people never showed up and I was welcome to the couch if I still wanted it! Oh, and they had the matching loveseat, too, and were asking $125 for the pair! We asked if they would take $100, and they readily accepted. The details on this furniture are as follows- 3 years old, La-Z-Boy brand, lovely neutral beige color, great structural condition, but both pieces had some upholstery damage. I knew I could work with it somehow, and we picked the pieces up that weekend. I was thrilled! A few weeks later we found a WONDERFUL cherry computer armoire for $60, also on craigslist, and as Jonathan wanted it at least as much as I did, we got it too. :-) With a 40% off Joann's coupon we purchased 3 yards of that wonderful fabric, and elsewhere we found two darling lamps and a rug.

With a wedding gown in the making at the time, my decorating was brought to a halt for awhile, but early this month we finished it all. Here is what happened after our original $100 budget stretched to $250, with the originally unplanned but very happy purchase of 3 pieces of furniture, and after my husband turned out to have some very good and specific ideas about how he wanted it to look, and the willingness to pay for it :-) :

The livingroom before, from the front door-

And after-

The curtains, swag and jabots, bookcase curtains, and pillows were sewn easily, the the trunk painted with a $5 can of paint.

The main wall before and after-

The little cozy corner before and after:

The little bookcase houses Tirzah's toys, and I made the curtains to conceal them when not in use. The tall bookcase went to the hallway. The picture, lamps, and bowl full of oranges were inspired by a photo a friend once took in another friend's house that I thought was positively lovely. I owned the picture and bowl already, so the lamps only were purchased for my little whim. :-) I desired taller ones, but these were the right price, and they are just fine with me.

The bar wall before-

And the couch before we fixed it, on the same wall-

In progress.....

And all better! I found the tack gun and staple gun to be GREAT fun to use!!!-

So there you have it- our great makeover. :-) I'll always be grateful for those varied pieces we started out with. I am now just shocked at how smooth and easy decorating goes when you start with a piece- or color, in this case- that you love.