Category: Sewing, Knitting & Crafting
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A Trivet (at long last)
Here are just a few of the things I’m bad at: • Running long distances • Math • Recalling the story lines of movies • Mailing things promptly It often takes me months to mail anything. As a kid I moved from Indiana to Minnesota, then back to Indiana. My friends and I had the…
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Liberty Print Refashion
I grew up wearing a steady stream of old clothing — but not the vintage kind. My dad was (and still is) a camp director and we lived on property. Each summer hundreds of campers would leave behind towels, tennis shoes, t-shirts and shorts. All of their unclaimed belongings made their way into my dresser…
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Ruffles
I don’t normally shop at Forever 21 since I’m well past 21 and all, but on a whim I walked into the store on my lunch break and walked out with 4 shirts to embellish. This is shirt number two. Using some green jersey fabric I had in my stash, I cut a two foot…
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Doilies
This is what happens when doilies meet a flimsy Forever 21 t-shirt. I’ve fallen short of my goals this year for learning to make clothes. Between vacation, summertime socializing and a heap of new responsibility at work, spending my nights and weekends learning to sew hasn’t happened as planned. While I try to get back…
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Project 4
After realizing how difficult it is to work around zippers in my last project, I decided to forge ahead and tackle the dreaded zipper in a skirt that was all but finished. It turns out I spent a lot more time worrying than I actually needed to. Do not fear the zipper (if you have…
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Project 3
For starters I did not pick the most flattering dress concept. From my vast dress-wearing experience I know I don’t wear strapless well. It’s just too much skin. I have horrible posture when I feel exposed. Strapless dresses scare me. That said, I went ahead and made this dress. On one hand I love that…
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Project 2
For February I made a dress and in doing so realized that I still have a lot to learn about fabric. The fabric and I had a few spats, but ultimately worked out our differences and agreed the final result. Pattern: Modified Baby Doll Dress from Wendy Mullin’s Sew U: Home Stretch This took a…
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Zipper: 1 Claire: 0
I’d hoped by the end of February I’d have a new skirt to show — one that I’d drafted just for me. And it was looking good, like it could happen … until I got to the zipper. Zippers and I have never really gotten along and I’ve managed to avoid them until now. But…
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Starting Over
Standard processes are something I’m not good at following. I always try, but I always get ahead of myself. Instead, I tend to think I can find a better way — one that doesn’t involve following instructions. And for some reason I try to jump in at an experience level that is beyond me. Why…
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Belated Gift
My Grandma is the quintessential Grandma. She’s kind, gleeful and easy to please. Her house is filled with every gift that anyone has ever given her. With each gift-giving occasion, her children and the grandkids seem to give smaller and smaller gifts so each trinket or decoration can nestle into another nook or cranny of…