When you know, you can grow

These last two days have been good sewing days for me.  I enjoy closing off the world when I enter my sewing space, and entering a place of peacefulness, calm and serenity.  There is a certain freedom in sewing that I truly appreciate!

Thank you so much for all of the kind comments regarding my daughter's ER incident.  She is doing great, and her cheek is healing nicely.  Most of all, I am glad to get back to normal life and normal things.

Speaking of normal things, I made sugar cookies with the kids today.  Actually, they are baking as I write this post (I love to multi-task).  When Christmas comes around I can't help but to bake!  I usually bake cookies or some kind of treat every week (no kidding, ask my hubby).  Our Christmas tree is already up, but I need to do some ornament editing = ).  Does anyone else move ornaments around on the Christmas tree until they find that perfect spot?

These are the yummy cookies we are baking, though ours are star cutouts:

I am almost done with my son's PJ shirt I've been working on, will probably post that tomorrow, but I started thinking about sewing in general, and what certain tips have made my sewing experience FAR, FAR better.

I could think of a couple, but my absolute, most favorite is this one:

**Mark the wrong side of your fabric**.


Especially in cases where your fabric sides look the same, such as cotton interlock knit, take the time to mark the wrong side of your fabric.  It is so extremely helpful, because then you do not have to wonder if you are constructing the garment correctly due to not remembering which side is which (and I do tend to forget).  I like to mark my wrong sides with paper masking tape.

I just put a small dot of it on the wrong side of my garment where I know it won't get in the way.  I never have problems getting the tape back off again, and paper tape is gentle enough for all the fabrics I've worked with.

Anyhow, you can use anything you want to mark the wrong sides of your fabric, it is just important that you mark them.  Trust me!

So, that brings me to a question I wanted to ask all of YOU!

What is the best sewing tip you've ever received?

It could be as basic as mine, or more advanced.  In essence, what sewing advice really changed your sewing life?


Stay sew-filled!

In stitches...

I hope everyone else had a good weekend, because I did not.  My weekend consisted with an ER visit, after my daughter fell and slammed into a headboard at a friend's house, and slit a small part of her left cheek open.  Now, as a nurse, I have been trained to see just about anything.  In fact, I would go so far as to say I have seen a lot of things, and I was not phased by it.  However, seeing my daughter crying with a slit on her face (of all places) really did something to me as a mother.

I didn't panic, but quickly applied a cold compress to her cheek, rocking her to comfort her from crying, and began to pray.  Mostly my prayer was thankfulness that she did not get hurt more seriously, but I also prayed for her healing after such a bad fall.  Of course my husband, who was in the other room, rushed in by then, and I told him we would have to go to the hospital because our daughter fell, slit her cheek, and looked like she needed stitches.

Fast forward a little more, and our daughter did get stitches (she was lightly sedated, and had a numbing paste placed on her cheek beforehand), and the staff in the ER was excellent.  The doctor who did the stitches was amazing, and his hand-stitching technique was flawless (as an avid sewer, I did notice this small detail amidst the craziness of the situation).

Immediately after the stitches the cut looked much better, and we went home at about 1AM.  Well, my night was only beginning, because the medication they gave my little one made her crazy--and very angry.  She was kicking, biting, pinching, punching, pulling, and doing everything in her power to hurt us.  I knew it was the medicine (and not my dear sweet baby girl) so I waited out the meds until she fell asleep at 4AM, and woke up eight hours later smiling ear to ear.

Looking back, I am so thankful for all the supportive people and family that we have in our life because they all rallied around us with prayers, phone calls and texts.  I pretty much crashed on Sunday though, emotionally and physically.  I was just exhausted from the lack of sleep, and tired from talking to people on the phone most of the day (and that means a lot because I can be a talker ).

In all, my little one is doing well.  She is healing well, though she still has a little bruise under her left eye, and the stitched up cut.  Other than that she is her normal fearless self.  She is still trying to jump off couches and balance on step stools!  Talk about getting back on the horse, she did not waste her time, not even one second!

As you can imagine, I pretty much put any sewing I had planned on hold this weekend.  I did organize my sewing room in order to keep my mind busy, but did not go any further than that.  I plan on getting back to what I enjoy sometime tomorrow.

I have chosen to learn what I can from this experience and move forward counting my blessings.  I am truly thankful that things were not worse, and my daughter is still as smart, loving, and beautiful as ever.

This made me realize just how precious our time with each other is.  I hope that each of you will cherish the time you have with your loved ones as well because one moment can truly change your entire life.

Stay sew-filled!

Ottobre design Autumn 2010

I received the correct Ottobre magazine in the mail a couple of days ago, and I am delighted by all the cute clothing it contains!

Though I do a lot of sewing for my daughter, I wanted to start sewing more for my son.  It broke my heart one day when I came home from Joanns with fabric and sewing patterns for my daughter, and my son said "Mommy, what did you buy me?  It's not that I didn't think of him while I was at the store browsing, it's just that there are really no patterns for boys!!  Can anyone else relate?  I do tire of sewing PJs and a basic shirt and pants for the little man.  I want to sew for him, and not have to sacrifice style as well.

This is where Ottobre magazine enters.  When I first saw the designs in this magazine on their website, I was so pleased!  I knew I just had to try them out!  If all my efforts resorted in putting a smile on my son's face, knowing that he is special, and he is heard, and his mommy loves him, then it would be worth it!

This issue has a lot of really neat outfits in it, and it has a lot of cool stuff for boys!  Here are some of my favorites that I must sew sooner or later:

I am a fan of this little boy's outfit.  The raglan sleeve sweatshirt and dark denim jeans are so cool!  I have never made jeans before, but this makes me want to try!  Also, the button-front shirt to the right is also a great play on different fabrics.

This is another really cute outfit!  I think the hooded sweatshirt with the pocket on the front is a nice casual top.  The corduroy jacket is cute too, but I'm not sure if my son would wear it.

For my daughter, I am absolutely in love with these corduroy overalls!  The heart-shaped pockets are too cute for words!

This A-line jacket is so sweet!  It is so colorful, and I like the pockets and buttons.  It looks like a grown-up jacket made appropriately for a little girl!

So, I will have some work ahead of me...

Right now I am still working on the pajama top for my son.  It will be in the same fabric as the boxer briefs, and I hope to finish it in the next couple of days.

If anyone knows of any other resources for boy's sewing patterns, please let me know!

Stay sew-filled!

Boxers or Briefs?

How about boxers and briefs?

I am happy to say that I finished my first Ottobre magazine project!  I really wanted to do the Pinafore dress I mentioned here, but I didn't even look at the sizing for the children's clothing.  I merely assumed it must be similar to the sizing here, only given in cm.  Well, I was wrong, of course!  It turns out that I will have to sew from the baby sizing for my 18 month old, and the smallest of the toddler sizing for my 4 year old!  Odd, but I'll go with it.

That brings me back to the topic at hand--my first Ottobre project.  I made the Pikkumies boxer and briefs from the Ottobre Winter issue.

FABRIC:  Lil' Zoo cotton interlock knit from Joanns

Now usually, my son is not a boxer and brief kind of boy.  He's very particular about having his clothing fit a certain way (a very analytical personality type) so I was shocked when he looked at the picture in Ottobre, pointed to the Pikkumies, and said he would like "that one."  

I was a little skeptical sewing them up too because the pattern pieces did not seem to fit together the way they should.  So, needless to say, I had to keep looking at the directions, and looking back at my pieces.  I even went back to the pattern map to double-check for mistakes, but everything was right.  It turns out, that as I serged these pieces together, they fit, but more like when you are sewing sleeves into sleeve caps, and not a perfect alignment.

The rest of this project went well, and I was surprised that I did not miss the step by step diagram directions.  Keep in mind that this project is rated one out of three circles for difficulty level, and I did not find it hard to sew at all.  In fact, when I finished, and the boxer briefs fit my son like a dream (yes, a dream) I found myself loving Ottobre!  These boxer briefs are a definite keeper, and I plan to make more of them in the future.

In the meantime, I took advantage of some online shopping deals and am waiting on an order from fabric.com, which I love!  I need some more fabric to finish the PJs for my son, and I am thinking of what I will be up to after that.

I'll continue to let you know about my experience sewing Ottobre patterns for those of you who are interested!  So far, I am really enjoying it. So much so, that I am heavily considering subscribing to Ottobre and forgetting about the BIG 4 pattern companies.  We shall see...

By the way, I want to send a big thank-you to Janimal for telling me about the Ottobre sewing group at Yahoo!  I decided to join the group, and it has been an excellent resource!  

Stay sew-filled!