Tuesday, July 30, 2013

An experiment

An experiment by Sew Festive
An experiment, a photo by Sew Festive on Flickr.

I had originally sewed this up one evening because I was in a slump. I wasn't feeling like sewing anything, but I wanted to sew everything.

My thought was that I would embroidery lazy daisies in the blank square to make up a 4th tear drop shape. Now I'm not sure. I did enjoy sewing some precision curves and matching them up to my HSTs though!

Ps, all I see is snowcones when I look at this!

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Victoria Blazer - in progress

Victoria Blazer - in progress by Sew Festive
Victoria Blazer - in progress, a photo by Sew Festive on Flickr

I have had a stressful work week -- I'm in week 7 of a training class for my new job, and I have to take a state certification exam tomorrow. So of course I put aside everything else I was working on and started something new.

Enter the Victoria Blazer from By Hand London. I bought the pattern last month and then waited (most impatiently I might add) two weeks for it to arrive. And oh man is the pattern packaging awesome. I will make sure to take a picture for the post with my completed jacket. 

I'm using this unknown fabric that I picked up at my local fabric shop for a glorious $5/yard. Its an off-white with a golden metallic sheen. I wish I knew what type of fabric it was though...its got a pretty open waffleish weave that my stitches just sink into. And I thought it was going to be scratchy, but its not at all. It is very clingy though.

The bottom left portion of the photo shows the black polka dot lining that I was going to use until I realized that it would show through the shell. So I'm using a yellow and white striped silk instead. The pattern only calls for lining in the body of the jacket, but I plan to line the sleeves too, since the shell fabric is so clingy.

There has only been one difficult part so far and that was just due to a vague piece of instructions, so if you want a jacket pattern then I would absolutely recommend this. I'll explain more about the difficult part when I get some pictures of that step so it will hopefully clear some things up for others!

I can't wait to finish and wear the jacket. And then make like 17 more in fun, funky prints!

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Pillow top progress

Pillow top progress by Sew Festive
Pillow top progress, a photo by Sew Festive on Flickr.

I've been working on some pillows for my new couch, starting with this fabulous Echino Decoro rhino fabric that I had.to.buy. I'm loving the pieced circles and graphic look and my attempt at whimsy.

Happy Wednesday!

*linked with WIP Wednesday

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Is it autumn yet? Time for a Renaissance pillow!

I have a backlog of some projects that I thought I'd share here. First up, my first foray into sewing with velveteen and metallic thread! It was a smidge bright out when I took the pictures, so please bear with me.


I used some AMH Field Study velveteen and some Robert Kaufman Toscana velveteen to make this pillow cover. The designs are just fleur de lis raw-edge appliqued to the top with metallic gold thread. I'm looking forward to when it frays more and gets even more snuggly.


It was originally going to be a project in Stitch Fall 2013, but when I sent it in they ended up not using it because they thought the color choices were a little dated. That may be true, but I liked it? Maybe I'm dated? I think that the AMH velveteen would also look delicious on a charcoal gray background, but the selection of quality solid-colored velveteen needs a little expansion...


In any case, since I made up a template and wrote instructions, I figured I might as well share them with you all in case anyone else wants to make a beautiful fall Renaissance pillow :)

You can find the template HERE and instructions HERE. Make sure to print the template full scale.

Happy Friday!

**Linked up with Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

Monday, July 8, 2013

The bad side of publication

Having your sewing ideas accepted for publication is super exciting. Knowing that your design/construction is unique and appreciated, and getting paid for that work, is amazing.

The downside is when you're only working on things that can't be shown and it feels like you're never making progress that you can share. And the sharing is one of my favorite parts of this whole bloggy business!



So there you have a snippet of the quilt that I made last weekend. An entire quilt, after weeks of not much sewing, and yet I can't tell you about it. Very sad.

I've still been working on my Irish Chain bed quilt, and I've been plugging away on a Colette Laurel and Hawthorn, a Wiksten Tank, and a By Hand London Victoria Blazer [I get a little bit crazy with cutting out clothing patterns].

Here's to hoping I'm at a sharing point soon!