Completed!

After the meeting when I issued the dare, I went to my office and made up a list of things that ought to be completed.  The list was VERY long.  Very long.

When the month was over I had accomplished a surprising amount.  Not a LOT of what I had written....that list remains long and will probably always be...but a lot of productive work none the less.  Here it is in no particular order.....

This small panel of flowers was put together back when Cursed Quilt did  hexagons and by behest.  You can see that these AREN'T hexagons but go together with the same technique.  I have a little template set that I bought and used up bits of a jelly roll of solids.  As an exploration it was productive but then just sat around as it is both an odd size and an odd shape.  For Completion, I decided on borders and an eventual home: my Mother-in-Law's house as Christmas Present.  I love the way it turned out with a few exceptions I will NOT mention. ;)

Here are a few of the flower center details that I like.  All in all, a pleasing completion and one fewer thing in my multiple work boxes!

I also finished the "Presentation Cases" (which are pillowcases, really) for our Quilts of Valor which are nearly ready for sending out!  WooHoo.

I also made a variety of other pillowcases (with help from Nicole and Karen) that got sent off for donation.  31 in all not counting the QofV ones.  I hope they find good homes.

Now the last thing I have to report is that this Dare has done what nothing else has been able to do in more than a year....get me back to WORK.  Here is a pictorial (and not a good one at that) of what I accomplished in the month...a work that continues, I am pleased to report.


10 Dresses, all new draft or first check patterns (plus a skirt and top.) In the pattern pic, the top row are checks, the middle are new drafts during the month and the bottom are new drafts since the end of the month to show how the work continues. I will post the dresses on my blog someday soon so you can see the details (and prices) but since the Holidays are upon us, I think that can wait. Besides, I have a quilt to bind, a pattern to check and at least two more designs to draft! (And I have already put in one zipper for December!) k.

Liz's Introduction and Finished Projects

Liz here. So, introductions first?

My mother was a sewer. Growing up, she made most of our clothes--I remember matching strawberry-print sundresses made for me and my two sisters particularly well--and all of our Halloween costumes. I understood the principles of sewing, but never had much interest in actually sewing myself because my mom just did it better. (Being a perfectionist has it price since I never wanted to try something new if I thought I'd be bad at it.) She did force me to help her sew my pioneer skirt and matching bonnet for our Stake's pioneer-themed Youth Conference when I was 14. But it wasn't until my junior year of high school, when I was faced with an open spot for an elective class, that I decided that sewing might be fun. I took two clothing classes in which I made everything from pillows to simple pajamas pants and skirts to dresses and even a fully lined jacket. I really enjoyed my clothing classes and my mom even gave me her ancient Singer sewing machine (okay, it was really only from the 70s) which weighed approximately 50 pounds. But college derailed my sewing endeavors. I never learned how to use my mom's old machine and grew tired of lugging it from one apartment to the next so I gave it to my sister (a move I still regret, especially since my sister doesn't sew). So I didn't sew for nearly ten years. I had been thinking about buying a simple machine and picking up the hobby again right around the time that Kimberly announced the quilt group. That was all the impetus I needed (that, and Dongdaemun) to start me on my new sewing craze. I love having a creative outlet and I really enjoy making things for my family and others to enjoy.

Zara has two cousins (and 3 second cousins) who were born within a month of her. My brother and his wife welcomed their first baby--a girl--on August 24th. Zara followed a week later on August 31st and my sister had her third child--her second boy--on September 21st. (And my other sister just announced that she's expecting her second next year.) So for Christmas this year I decided to make everyone a diaper and wipes case. I used a tutorial from Make It and Love It, one of my favorite crafty sites. It's not the best tutorial, but now that I've made so many of these things, I can whip them out in under an hour. I love quick and easy projects that can be finished in a day.

These don't use a lot of fabric so they're a simple project to do with your scraps or other fun fabrics that you're not quite sure what to do with yet. I made the one on the right side for myself. I just couldn't help myself.

The insides. I actually started working on these quite some time ago (I did the one in the center during the summer) but I had just never finished them. But I was motivated after our last meeting, and so I finished them all last week and they've now been mailed off to their intended recipients.

Well, I had so much fun finishing that project (finally!) that I decided I wanted to do another quick and easy project. And since I've got this really adorable little baby now, who's suddenly very interested in grabbing and holding onto things and shoving them into her mouth, I wanted to do some simple toys she could play with.

So I turned to Make It and Love It once again and found tutorials for cloth blocks and cloth teething rings.

I made 6 inch, 5 inch, 4 inch, and 3 inch blocks using lots of fun, vibrant fabrics. The 3 and 4 inch blocks are easier for Zara to hold and play with now.

Here she is with her 3-inch block clutched tightly in her hands on its way to her mouth. Next up, the cloth baby rings. These were another pretty quick project, but I think I stuffed them with just a little too much fabric because they were kinda a pain to sew together.

Luckily, black fabric hides a multitude of sins.


And Zara certainly doesn't seem to mind my less-than-perfect sewing projects.

She's just that awesome. Also, she really will stick anything into her mouth. At least these are easy to wash.

December's Dare: Zippers!

At today's meeting we had a great time showing off the things we completed.  I am afraid I exposed myself as a "show-off" but I am so delighted to have some things finished!  (I will post my personal entry soon.) 

In our discussion last month we decided that we all need a refresher in zippers, so we did a little example and talked about what seems to go wrong (and a few ideas on how to fix them.)  What do you think of our fabric choices?

The first revelatory idea was that the edge of the zipper does not HAVE to start at the edge of the item.  (see the pic here!)  No one can get the stitching perfectly straight while working around the bulky tab.

We also talked about different pinning techniques, basting and even using a glue stick (suggestion from HERE.)  (This linked blog also includes a hilarious pep talk about how you can do it...and how the zipper foot isn't as intimidating as you might think....)

Other ideas include using 1/2 inch tape down the right side of the garment/item to give you a 1/4 stitching guide on either side of a centrally placed zipper, not waiting until the very end to put the zipper in to minimize chances for catching other parts of the item and having to pick out, etc.

There is a great list of tutorials available online HERE  Note the date, however.  This list was made years ago, so there may be a number of other great tutorials on YouTube etc at your fingertips by simply searching for "zipper sew tutorial."  :)  We actually watched THIS which does a nice job of explaining how to do (at least the first part) a "lapped" zipper (shown on the left) in contrast to a centered application.  This sample is the first time I ever tried it and the tutorial was very helpful!

So, amid all your other adventures this Holiday Season, we dare you to put a zipper in something...anything.  That is all. k.

Not Sew Daring

Here I am at last.  My mom took a lot of home ec classes in high school and still has/uses the sewing machine she got (used) as a young adult.  She didn't often have time to sew, as she worked full time, but stated she was a "pretty" sewer, meaning she sewed neatly and properly, which is true.  I had an interest in sewing as a child, and would "help" her a bit, then took my one and only home ec class in high school.  I made a few dresses that I wore, on which she would usually have to fix the tricky parts for me.  Since then I have been interested in sewing more, but only have dabbled a little in it, and made an occasional thing or two, but more often just mending or hemming as needed.  This group is great for me to get out of the funk and have motivation to actually do something.  I am still not a "pretty" sewer like my mom, but maybe with more practice... 

I'm finding that sewing with a pattern (i.e. McCalls, Butterick, etc.) is much like learning to read music to play the piano - a lot more work, time, effort and tedium (yet seems like the "proper" way to go).  Whereas, following a simple tutorial or youtube video to make something fun (or remake something) is more like sitting down at a piano and picking out a tune, or for the really gifted, truly learning to "play by ear".  It is instantly rewarding, or nearly so, without all the turmoil of cutting out a pattern and all that.  I've been learning the past couple of years that it is more rewarding to shift from the "pattern" mindset to finding something simple and fun that I want to do, and using cute fabric to do it.  This way, I am breaking the "mental block" I've had about sewing, because it seems like so much less of a chore. 

Sew, with this past month's challenge, I vowed to actually finish something.  Oh, the guilt I carry for projects unfinished, nice fabric unused, and on and on.  Three homes ago, I bought some inexpensive (from Walmart) curtain panels and hung them in our home.  They have a tapestry look about them and I really liked them.  We sold the house to a couple of young male punks and I feared that all my heart and soul that I had poured into the house would get thrown in the trash, so I took all the curtains throughout the house with me, and have lamented it ever since, wondering if I would ever have occasion to use them again.  Not really.  Every "home" (or army quarters) is different, and we've only used one panel on one window since, so I've been kicking myself that we move or store this extra weight without using it.  But alas, we bought a new mattress before coming to Korea, and so had no need for our 4" memory foam mattress topper anymore.  I drug it with us here (it is heavy) and the plan was to cut it into chunks and make big pillows out of the curtain panels to stuff it into, since we couldn't really bring our giant bean bag that hubby and the boys like to wrestle on.  I needed no pattern.  I just cut one of the panels in two, and sewed it up (leaving a hole to stuff, then hand sewed that closed).  It took many hours to cut up the foam, but the sewing really didn't take long.  One is complete, and the next just needs to be stuffed and finished by hand.  I may have enough foam to do a third pillow/bean bag.