Sunday Sewing

This week I treated myself to the book Alabama Studio Style. I've loved the work of Alabama Chanin ever since I saw their first book, the Alabama Stitch Book, which sadly, I don't own yet. As I was looking at all the beautiful projects in Alabama Studio Style, I realized something about myself. I am afraid of jersey. Specifically sewing jersey. Jersey for all intensive purposes is tee shirt material. It's a knit, and stretches and I find the idea of making a garment from it highly intimidating, since I'm just now getting comfortable with sewing straight lines through woven cotton with my machine.

But, these pieces are just so beautiful, I decided to face my fear. So I bought the book, and a set of cotton jersey sheets (sheets, yardage, same difference, right?). As I started reading the book, I realized that everything in it is sewn by hand! Ok, this I can maybe do.

What makes Alabama Chanin's pieces so appealing are their patterns, which are executed though a variety of elaborate stenciling and stitching, also all done by hand. I decided to get my feet wet a little bit at a time by just doing some sample pieces of their techniques. I'm glad I did, because I learned a lot and came up with some effects I really like. I got 100% cotton, cream colored sheets, so that I could dye them any color I wanted.

I've spent the past few days stenciling, stitching and beading and am getting ready to make an actual project. I'm in the process of dying the entire top sheet dark blue. I've yet to make a successful garment, so wish me luck!

Sunday Sewing

Well, I've made 70 squares and I've decided that that's enough. I'm going to space out the squares with about 2 inches of muslin between each one. I'm pretty excited with how this project is coming together so far. I used mostly fabrics I had on hand, but did dye some to incorporate with the commercial prints.

Sunday Sewing

It's spring and I've been the mood to spiff up my apartment. Last weekend I did some much needed spring cleaning, although looking at things now, you probably can't tell. (Seriously, how do my floors get so dirty in a week?) I'd like to do some redecorating, but making my apartment exactly how I want it isn't really an option, since I can't afford replace all my furniture. But I've been thinking about what kinds of things I could make to brighten up the place, specifically things I could sew.

I decided to start with the throw pillows, and made this over-sized pillowcase today. Again, it's maybe not exactly what I wanted, but I'm trying to stick to my novice sewing skills. I'm going to try to get another one of these done today, and then maybe something for the smaller pillows. I'd also like to make a bright patchwork throw to cover most of my couch, since it's dark, and I'm kind of tired of looking at it. But I might have to wait until summer to tackle that. I might rearrange my furniture, too.

New Book!

So, only about two or three times in my life have I said to my self "I want/need a book like . . ." and then actually discovered the very book I need some weeks/months later! A while back, I was thinking to myself that I what I really needed was a bunch of quick, easy to sew projects, using only one yard of fabric. And low and behold, I found One Yard Wonders! I had to wait about 6 weeks for it to be released, and then about another week to get my copy from Amazon. But I finally got my paws on it and I love it! Some of the projects are not so thrilling, and a bunch are for kids (not so useful to me right now) but there's quite a few projects I intend on making. It has everything from bags to tops to organizers and even a dress. I highly recommend it to any sewing enthusiast. Storey Publishing is having a Yard-of-the-Month Sweepstakes where you can win a yard of fabric a month for a whole year!

Process Shots of the Week

Mesh fabric components stitched and filled with sand, the stitched together.

For People Who Sew

If you're into sewing, I highly recommend checking out BurdaStyle. They've got tons of cool projects and patterns, most of which are either cheap or free! I'm totally going to make this bolero top. It's super easy and made from a T shirt!