27 Pillowcases closer to One Million

I'm in charge of a monthly Women's group (Relief Society) activity at our local LDS Church. We have scads of fabric in our closet that people have donated for quilts and such. When I heard about the American Patchwork and Quilting's 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge I knew just what we'd do with  all that fabric. Make pillowcases of course! They are a little quicker to sew than quilts and just as useful. We used a simple free Roll-it-up method pattern from the APQ website. There are lots of fancier patterns to choose from too. This one has french seams on the sides and bottom so there are no raw edges.

I wish I had taken pictures of the ladies in action but we sewed up a whopping 27 pillowcases. Now each pillowcase takes 1 yard of fabric to make so that is 27 yards of fabric sitting there folks.

 We chose to donate them to two local women and children's centers. They were so happy to receive them. It was so fun to see the look of surprise on their faces when I handed them a stack of new freshly washed pillowcases that they could distribute to those in need. It makes me want to make more things to donate. We actually have about 4 quilt tops in our closet that are waiting to be put together so that is next on the list.

If you want to learn more about the One Million Pillowcase challenge go HERE. When I uploaded our contribution to the tally they were around 500 K. They are actually hosting a 24 hour sewathon coming up on September 19. You can look in your area to see if you live near a quilt shop who is hosting one or just sew along at home. If you need fabric, consider checking at your local Goodwill or thrift store, You would be amazed at how much fabric they have there for cheap. 

Get Sewing!

Hey June Lane Raglan … Maternity Style

I made myself another shirt this week. One more thing I can fit into, yay! (I'm 21 weeks along here, more than half way!) This time I used the Lane Raglan pattern from Hey June. I love a good raglan sleeve. They are so easy to sew. This pattern can be sewn entirely on the serger, which means it’s super fast to sew once you get it cut out.  I really like the way it turned out in general.

The pattern sizing says to go by your waist measurement. Since my waist is a little altered I went with my current non maternity shirt size which is Medium.

I also wanted to try and turn it into a maternity shirt so I added 4 inches to the front panel and gathered it into the side seams.  It turned out a bit too big and a bit too long.

 I ended up taking it in a little on the side seams in the chest and arms. I think I could still do that on the tummy and be okay.  But I’m going to leave it so my belly still has room to grow.

I also shortened the sleeves since It’s always hot here. I love the cuff around the bottom of the sleeve!! Since I shortened the sleeve, the patterned cuff wouldn’t have been big enough to go around my arm. So I re-sized it to be ½ inch shorter than the width of the bottom of the sleeve where I cut it, if that makes any sense.

 I also really like the band around the bottom though you can see it very well in these pics. It theoretically would have been great if I didn't add length to the front panel.

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The verdict: This pattern is clear and well written.  It’s easy enough even for the beginner to sew. This pattern runs a little big and longer than I expected.  I do like the pattern though and will definitely sew it up again.  Next time I think I’ll try out making a size Small and not adding the extra maternity length on the front.

For fabric I used some striped knit that I picked up from Joann a while back. It has a little metallic shimmer to it that you can't really see. It is a great weight and I think it worked well.

I will definitely be sewing this one again, soon!

Until next time Happy sewing. 

Oh yes...I'm linking this up to Take a Look Tuesday and Project Parade.

Embracing Maternity Clothes, At least trying to...

Ugh, I do not like maternity clothes.  Every pregnancy I try to get away with not wearing them for as long as I can. I’m sure it’s silly of me but maternity clothes seriously give me anxiety.  All the extra tent like fabric and frou frou embellishments.  They make me look and feel larger than I already do. So I’ve been on a quest to find cute maternity clothes that I might feel comfortable wearing, because I have to wear something. In the mean time I was desperate for a shirt that fits me the other day. While browsing through my closet I saw a beach cover up that I had half made last year. It was just hanging in my closet unfinished.  I cut it off at tunic length and finished the neck and sleeves. Then sewed a little tie to go with it.  I think it turned out pretty cute.

 

 I loosely used a pattern from our new book, Just For You, that’s coming out in a couple of months.  It’s called the Saturday Night Tunic, the girl on the front cover is wearing it.

 I turned mine into a V-neck just to see how it would turn out. I think I need a little more practice hemming a “V” neckline because this one didn’t turn out too great.

 But it’s still wearable so I’m happy.

I have a stack of miscellaneous knit fabric waiting for me to sew it into something comfortable. And it looks like I like navy blue and grays. :)

I already have another shirt cut out and ready to sew from it.  Hopefully it whips up as quickly as I think it will and I’ll have something else to show soon! 

Happy Sewing!

Summer Sewing

I hope you all had a lovely summer! We had a big, exciting and busy summer here. We learned that we are expecting baby #5 and decided our house is just to small to accommodate our growing family.

And yes it's another boy! Looks like that's what we know how to raise best.  I'll get to sew up all the fun things I never got around to sewing for my last 3 boys :) Hooray! Anyhow, we spent a month purging stuff, touching up paint, and updating a few things so we could put our house up for sale.  Combine that with the usual squeezing in summer fun and vacations it made for one BUSY summer!
Sadly I had to pack away most of my sewing supplies. Off to the storage unit they went.

I kept my sewing machine and a little fabric just in case. I did get to do some summer sewing while getting our house ready.  First off,  I made new patio cushion slipcovers for the dingy chairs on my back porch.

It gets really grimy out there so I made the new slipcovers out of Tula Pink Laminated cotton. I love them.  They stay clean and they even go along with my fabric covered ceiling fan that I made a few years ago. Which I'm happy to say looks as good as the day I made it. I thought for sure the Florida humidity would have that fabric falling off in no time. I'm glad I was wrong

We added a cute little table and plant and the back porch was ready.

My realtor said she liked all my crafty decorations so we left most of them in place instead of redoing everything. I did have to make a bunch of new pillows for the couches. She said to go turquoise to match my little Pier One chair. I pulled out all my turquoise Anna Maria Horner Drawing room fabric and went a little crazy with it.

One of my favorites is this rosette pillow.  It would look cuter with a better pillow form though. I must admit, I was in such a hurry that I ended up hot-gluing all the flowers on instead of sewing them. I've already had to re-glue 5 or 6 of them. But it's still my favorite.

I also covered some wooden frames for wall art. A little fabric overload but I was desperate I tell you :)

Okay, that's all for now. Hopefully this the start to a great blog comeback. :)

Happy sewing!

A Quilt for a Favorite Teacher

Summer is in full swing over here. I'm busy keeping kids busy and doing a bit of traveling and enjoying family visits. We are also doing a lot of arts and crafts to keeps little hands entertained. I'll try to post some soon in case you are looking for ideas, I know I always am.  Today I want to show you the quilt I made for our Kindergarten teacher. We loved her and she retired this year so I thought a special memory quilt would be a good gift for her.

This quilt was inspired by one I saw on The Tilted Quilt. I started out having the kids all write their name and draw a picture of themselves. I was originally just going to turn them into a fun big card but when I found at the last minute that she was retiring this year I thought she deserved something a little more grandiose. I scanned and printed the circles onto iron on transfer paper and ironed them onto fabric. I cut them into a 6" hexagon shape, then just sewed a 5" strip to every side and put them all together.  I also appliqued their favorite kindergarten memories to under each picture.

For a quick quilting job I just swirled around each hexagon.  Clearly I needed to pin a little more carefully, there are quite a few puckers on the back. 

It was my first time trying out "Y" seams. I'm just so glad it all worked out and that it was finished in the nick of time. I bound it the morning of our party and my daughter trimmed all the threads and held it up for a quick photo on the way to school. Phew!

In other news I had a bunch of wonderful people test out my Tulip tote pattern and I will hopefully be putting on the finishing touches on the final draft this week. I am a little nervous to pull the trigger and actually publish it but I keep telling myself it's just an experiment, so we'll see if I can really pull it off. 

Until next time...

 Happy Summer and Happy Sewing!

A Winner, Fabric Finds & WIP's

Thanks to everyone for playing along on with my Mama Sew Giveaway last week. The winner was "RedSetter", who requested the yellow handled Tulip tote. I will be sending it her way just as soon as I get her address. I have a few more slots open for pattern testers if you are interested in a free pattern for this little Tulip Tote. Email me!

I have been following #quiltmarket on Instagram all weekend. So much pretty eye candy!! So many fabulous new lines of fabric coming out.

I have a stack of pretty fabric sitting on my desk just waiting for me to find time to play with it. I found a steal of a deal on these end of bolt cuts at Mountain of the Dragon. I snatched them up as a birthday present to myself last month. They are from Anna Maria Horner's Dowry line. What should I make?

And I'm getting close to finishing the blocks for my Bejeweled Churn-dash Quilt.   I was hoping to have it finished in time to link up the the Blogger's Quilt Festival but alas I have a few graduation presents to make that will trump that project. Here are all my little block piles ready and waiting.

Ta Ta for Now!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day: Tulip Tote

Hello there sewing fans!  Today is Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day! I'm so excited to share with you a little handbag I designed called the Tulip Tote. 

Update: The Mini Tulip Tote is now available as a PDF Sewing Pattern. Click Here!

It is a small, stylish little thing that is just big enough to swing on your forearm and carry the essentials.

The dimensions are about 7'' tall x 14'' wide x 4'' deep.  It has lovely Soft and Stable interfacing and a great boxed bottom which makes it stand up all on it's own.  It also has 2 magnetic snaps that keep the top closed snugly. (okay, the yellow handled one is slightly smaller than the other)

Giveaway closed!

Today you get the chance to win ONE of these cute little handbags. Which one do you like best...yellow or navy? To enter the giveaway use the rafflecopter widget below and don't forget to tell me which bag you'd like to win. These are the prototypes for a pattern I'll be releasing and I am looking for some pattern testers to try it out.  So if you aren't a winner, perhaps you will consider being a pattern tester for me.   If you are interested please contact me at sarahmarkos(at)gmail(dot)com and let me know what kind of sewing experience you've had.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for joining me for giveaway day and Happy Sewing!