Happy 2011!!!!!!

I am sending out a Happy New Year to all you craft minded savants!!!! I also would like to send out belated holiday wishes. I wanted to blog during the Christmas holiday, but I chose crafting instead. There was just too much to get done. Crazy me decided to make this a handmade holiday, and you know there is nothing like waiting to the last minute. With that in mind, I would like to share all that with you before I move on to 2011 and my goals and such.

First I'll start off with the gifts that other people asked me to make for them to give to others. Two of my co-workers asked for gifts for their daughters and I was too happy to oblige them. The first was a painter's smock.

The fabric is a raincoat type material that I saw at JoAnns and thought would be perfect. I trimmed it out in some bias binding and found a tye-dye in hues of hot pink to make the mini pocket which I embroidered her name on. I got a very happy momma when she saw this.

The second was a hat and scarf set of my own design.

I used Deborah Norville's Everyday Collection yarn I found at JoAnns. The color is Parrot. It was pretty good to work with and it's anti-pill. The yarn was variegated so I worked it up Vanna's Choice Baby Yarn in two different shades of pink, Pink Poodle and Berrylicious to bring the colors out. The little diva this was made for likes her garments blinged out so I had to make sure I was on point, so I added the stones for a little extra. I didn't want to disappoint. I heard the 3 year old was shocked on Christmas morning. She couldn't believe the set was for her and loved it.

The next gift I made was for another co-worker who is expecting his first baby any day now. I used Manos Silk Blend for this one. I found the pattern on Ravelry. It's called the Maile Sweater. This was a quick one to throw together at the last minute and they loved it.


We did Pollyannas at work and the person I got asked for wine and a wine glass. I was aiming at giving her two glasses but time was running out and I wanted to do something special so I tried my hand at glass etching. I finally got it on glass number 3. She loved it and the personalization I gave to the gift. I'll do a tutorial for this in the future. If anyone is interested before I finally get to it, here are a few tips. make sure your stencil is secure on the glass. You can use blue painter's tape or masking tape. When picking out stencils and they do have specific ones for glass etching, go with a larger pattern than a smaller one. The smaller it is the harder it is and you will get smudging. Trust me, I learned the hard way. Always use gloves. The etching cream is nasty.

I made a few gifts for the other secretaries in the office. Sticking with the whole handmade theme. I went with earrings. I knew it was something I could do in a night, and boy did I have fun. These are not the greatest pictures(photographing these earrings were hard) and I know I didn't get pictures of everything but this is what I have. Excuse my earrings on the side. Hey, I got home from work took my earrings out and got busy.

I had to make a bracelet for one of the ladies as she doesn't have pierced ears.


I didn't make anything for Mr. D for the holiday, but I'll make up for that by his birthday next month hopefully. I did make a few items for the mothers though. My mom was very easy. Since I was on a role with the Burda turtleneck for the Sept. issue, I knocked out three for her and another two for me. Mine are not photographed here but one is all black and the other is blue and white striped. You know staples for the wardrobe. Anyway, my mother loved them. She especially loved how well they fit. It was really easy to fit her. She can pretty much wear anything that's in my closet. That was a great thing for me when I was younger. I use to raid her closet before getting dressed to go to school. Her pants never fit me, but I didn't care. I only wanted the tops anyway.

For my MIL, I made 2 nightgowns using BWOF 12/2008-114.

She loved both of them, and was shocked when she found out that I made them. Then she told me they looked kind of big. Mr. D then promptly told her, "Hey, they should fit you, she measured it against one you wear now."

After getting all that done, I made mini banana bread loaves for the neighbors and a dress for me for the Christmas holiday. It's BWOF 5/2009-103. I cannot stress to you how much I love this dress. I wore it to my office holiday party and Christmas Eve to church. I received so many compliments. There are a few adjustments that I need to make to it but I'll talk about that later. I do need to do a review on it. Oh and the fabric used was from the August PR Day trip to NY. I purchased the fabric from Metro Textiles for $5 a yard. It was so worth it and the fabric was a dream to work with.

My final dress for the year was a quick and easy one for New Years Eve. I sang that night, and wasn't going to make anything, but crazy me at 2:30 in the afternoon decided to jump up and run over to JoAnns to see if they had any stretch velour to make this cute little number. It's a franken pattern of yes, the Burda turtleneck pattern and I used the skirt portion from my Christmas dress. I figured it looked pretty good for last minute thinking. I received quite a few compliments on this one as well. At the end of the night a gentleman walked up to me with his wife and said, "We love your dress but how are you getting out of it. We don't see any visible zippers. " I smile and started laughing and then explained to him about the fabric being stretchy. I like this dress very much and plan on making it again. I think it will work well for work with a cardi or jacket.

That's it for me right now. Up next. Goals for 2011 and hopefully a small recap for 2010.

A New Hobby!!!!

Over the last 4 weeks I've been taking a silversmithing class from Ria. It is something that I've always wanted to do, but could never find the time nor a teacher in my immediate area. I was at my local train station waiting to catch my ride to go into the city and found an ad posted on the wall giving classes. Since my boss was laying me off again for the summer, I thought it would be a perfect time for me to start classes.

Week 1: I learned how to saw into metal. Let me tell you, this can be a little dicey. I kept think I was going to cut my fingers while doing this, but I got lucky and didn't. Here's my first project.

It's very simple, but as they say, you have to learn the basics first.

Week 2: I learned how to solder metal at 1300 degrees. Very cool, I didn't burn my fingers off. I made this pendant for Mr. D which is a little too big.

He wants it turned into a key chain of some sort.

For the past 2 weeks I've been working on a ring for myself and I finally finished it Wednesday night. Let me tell you, it was so worth the work and the classes. Ria is an awesome teacher. Here's my ring. I am so very proud of this piece.

Karen took a picture of me wearing the ring but it's a little blurry Here it is anyway.

I also started a matching pendant to go with it, but I have to still set the pearl and polish it up.

I'm taking a few weeks off but hope to finish it soon.

In sewing news, I worked on Vogue 8379 last week.

I wanted this pattern for a very long time, but every time I went to JoAnns, they were sold out of my size. I don't know why I've never made a wrap dress before, but this baby is going in the TNT pile. That's right I said TNT (this is my 1st one for the pile). I love it, and can see more of these in my future. First off, once cut out, it only took about an hour and a half to sew this up. It took longer than I expected but that was because the original fabric that I had chosen went and ran on me when I started sewing. Another bad piece of fabric purchased at JoAnns. I'm so not happy about that. Oh well, back to my stash. I ended up picking a piece of fabric that I purchased from Fabric Warehouse about a year or so ago. Here's the front view back view. Please excuse the hair. Very bad hair day. It looked great when I left the house but once I left the house, oh well. I guess I'm going to have to start using hair spray with this heat. I'm not a big fan.

Over the 4th of July weekend I worked on BWOF 07/2008-117, the Marlene Dietrich Trouser.

The pattern calls for a more light weight fabric like linen, but I went for a cotton twill in a dark blue that I purchased at Walmart for my first pair. I did my muslin on Saturday and learned that I didn't have to add any length to the pants. Major plus for me. I'll start to use Burda patterns more often knowing that. I always have to add at least 2 to 4 inches on the Big 4 patterns. Sunday I cut my fabric out and started working on the pants. I finished them up on Monday. Here are some close-ups of the front, (Sorry for the wrinkles. Pictures were taken after wearing them all day.)

zipper insertion,and my first attempts at using the hook and eye closers that I purchased from Greenberg and Hammer back in November when I went for PR Day. There's nothing better than taking a hammer to a pair of pants if you've got issues on your mind. Once I figured out how to use them, it was smooth sailing. I like the look, and I makes my pants look a little more store bought. All in all, I like the way they turned out, and they are wearable. I really need to make pants more often instead of being scared. Now I need to work on a few PR reviews, I'm so behind with that. What are you working on this weekend. I'd like to start on Simplicity 2648. My fabric is cut. I just need to mark everything and start sewing.

I don't have any pictures yet, but I'm finishing up knitting my short sleeve sweater. The body is completely done and I have the shoulder seams sewn together. I also completed one sleeve during the week and am working on the other one now. I still haven't decided if I want to put the pockets on it yet. Oh well, decisions, decisions. I hope you all have a great weekend. Stay cool. Adelaide, if you read this post, I'm putting my package together for you this weekend for my donation.