Sewing for Kids Workshop

Posted on July 4, 2012 by oliver's fancy

I realized that I never blogged in detail about my sewing class that I took at Whipstitch back in March. Because I learned so much at that class, I wanted to discuss it a bit and show off a few pics. To begin with, I have talked several times about how much I LOVE Whipstitch. Seriously, if you get a chance to go to Atlanta, you MUST go to her store. It is the perfect shop for the modern quilter/sewer. But even if you can’t get to Atlanta, she has an etsy shop where you can buy her fabric online.

I had been to Whipstitch last year when the hubs and I went to Atlanta for our anniversary. It is so modern even the hubs said he doesn’t mind going into it- Score! When I saw Rae blog about the class she and Karen would be teaching there in March, I jumped at the chance to go- meet one of my bloggy heroes and learn more sewing tips…perfect weekend. It just so happens that I have a birthday in March so the timing worked out well for me. No need for the hubs to buy me any other presents!

And it pretty much was the perfect weekend. We headed down to Atlanta after the hubs got off work Friday night (about a 2.5 hour trip). We have a very generous friend who lives there and offered for us to stay with him all weekend- thanks, Andrew ,for making our trip possible! (I’m sure he doesn’t read my blog but I’ll give him a shout out anyway. 🙂 ) There was a crafty meet-up on Friday night that I really wanted to go to but we got in too late for that…bummer.

I stayed at Whipstitch all day Saturday and the hubs very generously watched the Little Man for me. He dropped me off early in the morning for a free clothing workshop- given by Karen and Rae, came back for lunch with me and then took Little Man back to the house for an afternoon nap while I went to the Sewing for Kids Workshop. All day I was pretty much like a kid in a candy store.I know I am being a bit melodramatic here, but it was a dream come true for me. Being a mostly self-taught sewer, it is so helpful for me to get instruction from others. The Saturday morning tutorial was all about constructing handmade garments that look professional. A lot of discussion was given to seams and finishing touches. I really took away tons of helpful advice for clothing construction. Then in the afternoon class we made the treasure pocket pants that I have been addicted to since…from the book Sewing for Boys. It was a crazy whirlwind class because we were trying to finish the pants in 3 hours but it was loads of fun! Rae and Karen are great teachers! I am just sad I don’t live closer to Whipstitch or Michigan to make attending more classes at either a regular occurrence 😦 . Whipstitch just happens to be about 5 minutes away from Ikea so after my class was over, we headed over there with our friend Andrew to have some fun.

Here are some pics of the weekend…They are mostly instagram shots because we didn’t bring the regular camera.

my nerd shot- getting a pic with Karen and Rae (both of them made their dresses…love!)

frantically sewing during class

rae busy sewing the demo pants

the boys having fun while I sewed

Oliver loved Ikea!

: The finished pants!

Fun with applique

Posted on June 28, 2012 by oliver's fancy

The last several weeks I have been working on some ideas that I hope will turn into money-making adventures for me. I would love to find a way to make some money from this sewing habit of mine-if only to help fund my fabric habit. This hobby sure does get expensive at times! But I think that it’s worth it to be able to create handmade items for friends, family, and myself. 🙂

I have focused on handmade items for boys because I think that so many people make cute things for girls and leave a lack of options for the male child. Having a male child myself has opened my eyes to this problem. I hope to open up my dormant etsy shop this weekend and see how my creations do out there in the big world. It has been fun creating all kinds of new outfits for Oliver in the process of trying out different ideas!

I have also delved a bit into the realm of decor- as you will see in the pictures. I am in love with embroidery hoops and have received such a great response from some hoop art I made for my house, that I decided to try out some options with that as well. Not everything has turned out great, but it has been a good learning curve. I really like the quirkiness of many of the resulting creations. Although I am marketing boys’ items, many of these creations could very well be used for girls’ rooms or even for general house decor.

Here are some pics of the resulting projects. All of the applique is adhered with an iron-on adhesive and then machine stitched for some extra durability. I primarily used fabric for the applique pieces but also used a few felt pieces for the hoop art. I did not use felt for the onesies because I want them to last through many washes. By the way I realize that the South Carolina pieces do not have the heart/star over the capital city. I thought these would be fun pieces for local people- therefore I have made Greenville the highlighted city!

Of course I can’t resist at least one picture using my adorable model 🙂

More Treasure Pockets

Posted on June 2, 2012 by oliver's fancy

I have yet another pair of treasure pockets to show! When I made the last pair of treasure pocket shorts, I had planned on using this pocket fabric with those shorts, but I didn’t like how they coordinated once I had them cut out so I stashed away these pockets until I could find some linen fabric I liked. I picked up some linen this past weekend and here are the resulting shorts. I love how lightweight and airy this linen fabric is! The pocket fabric is an organic cotton- Cloud 9 I believe- that I picked up at Whipstitch when I was in Atlanta this spring. I only bought a fat quarter because the organics are so expensive, but I love how even a scrap can be used as a fun accent in this pants pattern.

These are my favorite treasure pockets to date! Every time I make this pattern, I improve my sewing a bit and understand the instructions better 🙂 Except for cutting the pants off 3 inches below the crotch seam (to turn them into shorts), I pretty much followed the instructions word for word.

Note what a helpful little gardener I have 🙂