slateblu

a little sewing and finding some new eye candy...

Ava has tons of clips and hair bands that I needed to create something to put them in.  This little project took no time at all.  I just used a little interfacing to help give it some lift and to stay standing.  I used some charcoal gray linen lined with some flowered japanese fabric that would show once you folded down.  I sewed a little strip of fabric to help organize her clips.

 

 

 

 
I discovered a blog and site from reading my In Style magazine - best of the web.

Look at these beautiful pictures from Amy Atlas.  This is her blog.  Great inspiration and ideas.

mother's day sewing

I hope everyone had a very Happy Mother's Day.  I did some sewing the night before our mother's day breakfast at Boulevard Cafe.  A place that's casual and that can hold 19 people with a reservation.  I made gift bags that were based off of the l'occitane  sachets. I think they turned out well.  A little awkward because I sewed the inside with french seams but had to tweak slightly to get the bow/knot part of the bag right. Here are the pictures:

 
...and a few drawstring bags:

I filled these with soaps and hand lotions from l'occitane and some mini journals from here.

A quick little picture of Ava that she let me take of her on mother's day.   

Next up...posts to finish on Paris. 

simplicity pattern 3835

I finally sewed the simplicity pattern 3835.  It wasn't as hard as I thought.  I made it 3/4 sleeve with some extra white linen I had.  I made my sister model it. She's smaller than me so it's a little big on her.

I also love this gift wrap. It's good to have on hand especially when you have a lot of birthday parties to go to and do lot of gift giving.

craft fair 2009

I sewed all weekend after having holiday with Anne, her daughter and Jason, for our craft fair at work. I'll post pictures soon on that too.  I also made some simple books with a coptic stitch to sell. 

 

my december crafting

It's been a little while since I posted but I did do a lot of crafting in December.  I didn't have time then to post about it but I do now so here goes...

My friend commissioned me to make some zippered pouches for her xmas gifts so I made them w/ brown nylon and colored zippers.

 

I also made quick little tags with a "j" stamp I bought at Paper Source.

   

For my annual cousin exchange I made journals/mini notebooks and also personalized them.

 

 We also had a craft fair at work so I also made pouches, tissue holders, and journals for that too. My co-worker took pictures so here is my little section here.

I hope everyone's holidays went well and I hope everyone had a very Happy New Year.  I can't believe the end of January will be next week! How time flies!

lots of sewing and a little book binding

This past weekend I did lots of sewing.  My cousin-in-law commissioned me to sew some brown pouches made with nylon for her bridesmaids.  She's going to fill it up with some goodies.  I did cutting one night, putting zippers only another, and then finished up the straight sewing another.  It's not bad when you do them in parts. 

 I also made my son a little case for his Nintendo DS.  I made it out of this tutorial.  It was very quick and easy.

With my new learned craft, I made another little book:

    

 

I'm at home for a few vacation days.  So nice not to go to work and I needed the break. Maybe I'll dust off the knitting needles and finish up those unfinished projects.

happy mother's day!

I'm having breakfast with my side of the family with aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. and then having an early dinner with my husband's immediate side of the family in the East Bay.  It will be a busy day.

I was busy sewing for little mother's day gifts...and some lite shopping.  At work we were given a special deal on some skin care from one of our affiliates.  I got these olive oil soaps:

I wasn't sure how to package them until I saw these little plates at Japantown.

I'm including this book with the soap:

...and FYI: I'm quoted on page 55:

I packaged everything together in fabric bags:

It was the first time I did a buttonhole...and sew a button with my sewing machine! I'm so proud of myself - haha!  I had to interrupt my husband from his online poker playing so I could watch how on YouTube. 

I had lots of practice since I made 8!

Have a Happy Mother's Day! I hope you all have a good one.

sewing and pictures

I wanted to experiment with sewing nylon.  Inspired by Yorktown Road's supply sack which is made out of a heavier nylon, I set out to make my zippered pouch with a very light weight nylon.  It came out great.  I didn't even have to sew interfacing. The nylon pouch is the one on top.  The pink one on the bottom is my regular cotton sewn pouch.

The inside:

We also set out to Yerba Buena Gardens so I could take pictures of Jason for his 5th b-day invitations:

Someone was not a happy camper:

finished and starting...

We went to Ikea last Saturday and I bought some fabric there to make new couch pillows.  I picked the red and orange flower fabric to add some brightness to my green couches. I finished these pillows rather quickly.

I also finished my sister's black scarf made with the brushed silk from this post.

Here is the pattern.

 

Now I'm starting a little baby hat made from a Rebecca pattern. I'm knitting with 100% cotton and there is simply no give at all but I like how it feels.

more knitting and sewing...

I've been knitting more fingerless gloves:

 

This is the same pattern as the black ones I knit in my previous post...

and these are the "dashing" gloves from Knitty.  I think I'm going to modify this pattern to make it shorter.  I love the cable pattern on these.

More sewing...

Pouches I promised to make someone a long time ago...