Etsy Shop Update

Despite my crazy Fall this year, I've still been trying to keep up with my Etsy Shop . Thanksgiving is right around the corner and then Christmas!! Since holiday shopping is the busiest time of year, I'm trying to get the shop stocked.

The bags are the same great design with more fabric choices.

I've also been adding more snack bags to match the lunch bags. More of these are to come.

Happy Fall and Thanksgiving next week! Where has the year gone?

Curtains - room #1

It has been somewhat of a whirlwind, these past 2 months, after moving into our new place. The first thing I wanted to take care of (Ha! I say that often, "the first thing") was the curtains. We have many outdated curtains.

In my oldest son's room the curtains weren't even dark enough for him to sleep - or block out the hot sun. This is a before shot. (If I were to have taken a picture of the whole room, you would see our tub, vanity and toilet that went into our "new" bathroom.)
The curtain rod really was fine to keep. The curtains needed to go. This window faces east and the first half of the day the sun cooks this room.
After:
I used a sheet! Honestly. It was cheaper to buy a set of twin sheets from Target and use for fabric than buy the yardage of fabric I needed for three windows in this room. I sewed blackout fabric behind the sheet. It's amazing what blackout fabric does. It really does live up to its name.

(This picture shows a little too much of the messy room)

A close up of the blackout fabric sewn into the curtain.

I used simple drapery hooks to attach to the wooden rings. this tutorial showed me exactly what I wanted to do.

A closer view of the fabric (i.e sheet ;)

These curtains cover 2 of the three windows in the room. I finished the third window's curtains last night, but need to buy a new matching curtain rod. They are hung on the old rod now, but can't open and close yet. The old rod is a pull cord and one panel can't exactly split in half to open.

I am also planning on making some pillows for my son's bed using some of the extra curtain fabric and a navy blue fabric to match his new bed spread and sheets. That will probably take me another 2 months the rate things are going over here. . .

Side Door Curtians

Our new house has SO many windows. It really has been a big - expensive - project to cover them or recover them. The curtains when we moved here were a bit outdated (i.e. lace gathering or screaming orange plaid). I described them to my sister as "church" curtains. They really are nice curtains quality wise, but they aren't modern or attractive.

We don't have air conditioning in our house and so at the end of the day when the sun comes in the west side of our house, things start to heat up. I purchased some blackout curtain fabric from Jo Ann Fabric. I started with the side door (below).

Before - Bad lighting, but this is our side door before I switched out the curtains. The heat at the end of the day would pass right through the glass. Also our neighbors could see right in at night if the light was on. Privacy and light coverage is what we have now!

After - Much better! That blackout fabric really does what it says it will. I was impressed. I have 11.5 more yards to help some other windows with heat and privacy. I'm planning on adding two strings/ties in from each end to tie the curtain up and make it more attractive in the winter months when the heat will be wanted. For now I just needed the window to be covered.

Wet Bags

Before I moved across the country, I had made a few wet bags to add to my Etsy Shop . I haven't had time to list them until now. My friend also asked me if I would make some for her and her new baby. It was a perfect reason to get my sewing room up and running sooner than later. I always love a reason to sew!


I have never been one to use cloth diapers for my boys, but I know many people do. These cute little bags provide a place to put the dirty diapers until they can be washed. Diaper bag or nursery, they fit right in.

I use these bags for swimming! I've been a swimmer all my life and transporting a wet suit home isn't always convenient. I've used many plastic bags and got many car seats wet. These bags have saved other things from getting wet and are a lot cuter than a plastic bag.

This is a smaller wet bag I made for my friend's diaper bag. I used Amy Butler Midwest Modern II collection - Garden Maze Sky fabric.

Below are images of the larger wet bag I made for my friends babies room. This bag will hold the bulk of the diapers. I wanted to make sure she could hang it where she wanted to I sewed in two snap closure handles on the top. I also added an invisible zipper for a nice finish.

Two snap handles

I'll be adding more bags to my Etsy Shop this week.

Finally arrived!!

We have been in our new place a week and a half now. Time flies!

We're getting unpacked and settled in nicely. Not to mention our only full bathroom has been ripped apart to be remodeled (by my wonderful husband). Because of redoing our bathroom, life has been a little more complicated. I have to keep our two little boys busy while my husband works.

My husband had a week and a half before he really started work, so we figured this was the best time to get it done. I'm excited and ready for it to be finished.

On a happier note my sewing room (yes!! I have my own sewing room now) is in the process of being unpacked and I'll be up and sewing in no time. I have a few projects that need to be done in a few weeks and so I'm going to be jumping right back into things.

My sewing room is our fully finished sun room. There are windows encircling the room. I need to get some drapes going pronto! I would love to sew them, but I might just buy some to get them in sooner (and honestly sometimes buying fabric and sewing costs more than finding a good sale somewhere).

Moving

It's finally here - the week to pack up and say goodbye to Washington state. My husband, two boys and I are moving to upstate New York this week! Crazy, talk about literally across the country. That is the reason things have been kind of slow on this end (um, no posts).

I'm saying goodbye for now because we need to pack up our iMac and get it ready for the move. Goodbye, see you on the other side of the country in a few weeks (lets be honest I'll need to unpack before I post again).

Skirt giveaway!

I would love to win this skirt.

I've been looking for cute summer skirts recently and this one caught my eye. I thought I'd pass it on to everyone out there.

I really enjoy Elle's blog. She's so creative when it comes to sewing clothes - dresses and skirts.

Giveaway Winner!

I used Random.org to generate a winner. It was #26 - Hippie Housewife!

"What a cute snack bag! My favorite food to take for lunch is pitas with a container of hummus. Bonus if I remember to bring some cheese too!"

Thanks to all those who commented. I have a lot of great ideas for lunch now. Humus is quite popular. I love humus wraps for lunch AND dinner in the summer.

Snack Bag Giveaway!

Snack Bag GIVEAWAY!!
After making insulated lunch bags and snack bags for a while now, I've decided to give one away!

I'm giving this away because of Sew, Mama Sew's Blog. I didn't post this until after 9am and so I didn't make their list :( I'm vacationing and didn't get around to posting (I have trouble setting blog posts to be posted on a certain date)

I started making these bags after requests to match my reusable lunch bags. I've also found they are great for hiding "candy" treats from my son (he doesn't know what the contents of the bag are!). With small children and lunches/snacks on the run, these bags are a great way to save plastic bag waste. This Snack/Sandwich bag is 7" x 6.5"

This bag can be shook out, wiped down, or thrown in the washing machine for cleaning. To dry just lay flat or hang.

Here are more listed in my ETSY shop.
TO ENTER: Leave a comment with you name and e-mail so I can contact the winner. That's it! If you have time, tell me your favorite food to take for lunch.

Giveaway ends May 25th at midnight. I will contact the winner on May 26th.

Reusable snack bags can hold a variety of snacks: crackers, pretzels, carrots, sliced apples, cookies, dried fruit, candy - whatever you're in the mood for!

Zippered Boy Pouch

While I was on my pouch kick I thought I'd make one for my son. He loves to put his toys and anything else he can find into containers. I figured he would love this little treasure holder.

I used an old zipper I took off of something else - so there are little loose threads sticking out here and there. I tried to get as many as I could off. Back and front look the same. No variation here.

Yes, indeed he does put things inside.
I started taking out some receipts and papers that were on my desk and though I spotted something at the bottom of the bag. . .

Indeed I did. $30! I guess it's a good idea to check what he's putting into his containers every now and then AND to make sure what I leave laying around.
With even further examination I spotted $.26 Not quite as much but I just have to laugh at what this kid finds.

Spring Top Contest 2011

I finished my Spring Top For the Made By Rae spring contest! Yeah! I've been thinking about what I would make for the past month and finally got a around to finishing it this week.

I started out with this top from Nordstroms for my inspiration. However, after drafting a pattern on my own I wasn't a huge fan of the scoopy neck line.

I bought THIS Simplicity pattern (2418) because it was similar to the shirt I wanted and tweaked it a bit. Because I didn't like the neck line, I made it higher and added lining inside. The original pattern was just hemmed at the top. I didn't like the idea of a straight hem that could be flipped over at anytime to see the inside of the fabric. I realize that my shirt isn't much like my inspiration shirt, but that's okay. I'm happy with what came out of the process.

I bought the fabric last fall at JoAnn fabric right after I found out I was pregnant. Instead of making something then, I figured I'd wait until after the baby was born.

Here's the shirt:

I'm not quite ready to be wear fitted tops yet after just having a baby. Thus the choice for a looser front.

SLEEVES:

The sleeves are capped sleeves with a lined panel over the shoulders dipping down in the front and back.

BACK:

My favorite part of the shirt is the gathered back. It just adds a bit of character to an otherwise plain back.

NECK:

As I said above, I wasn't a fan of the scoop neck. I actually raised the neck line up a bit.

There are 3 gathers on each side of the neck line. These are from the original pattern.

FRONT:


One last look at the final project.

Head on over to the Made By Rae blog to see how you can view the others in the Flickr pool.

Headphone Helper

Recently we purchased some DVD players for our car. We bought a set of headphones for my son so he could listen to the movies (and we didn't have to). The headphones were too larger for my son even at their smallest setting. My husband asked if I could sew something that could go around them to keep them up on his ears - rather than sliding down below his ears. Sure! I said and quickly made what you see below.

The fabric choice wasn't my husbands favorite. I literally used the first piece of fabric I found since it wasn't going to be an attractive pad anyway. He thought I should have used black, which I guess is probably true.

I made a padded rectangle with velcro on both ends for fastening around the top of the head phones.

They work wonderfully in the car and at home. My son likes to use my husbands iPod for playing games and listening to music. He likes the novelty of headphones. Now they fit perfectly!


(I know this isn't "clothes" but it's still something for my son that I wiped up really fast. He's "wearing" it so I feel like it counts. )