Hooray!!  Registration is finally OPEN for the Summer Dresses online class.  I am beside myself, I am so digging on these dresses and everything I have planned.  These are three original patterns that I have been working on for months now–and I can’t wait to sew them with you!  Three very different shapes: a babydoll dress with a slightly raised waist and a V-neck in the back, all over a gathered skirt; an A-line with a yoked collar that buttons on the side; and a racerback shift with a drawstring that looks great in any fabric.  I love them ALL and will be showcasing more details of each one over the coming weeks–lots of variations and fun ideas of things to do with these patterns!

In the meantime, get yourself over to the Summer Dresses e-course page and get registered.  I am thrilled and flattered to say that lots of folks have already told me they’re really excited to join the class, and I’d love to see you there before it fills up!  Need some added incentive?  I’m bringing back the Early Bird Discount: just $99 before May 25.  See you soon!

I have been on an insane cross stitch kick lately. It all started with this one, which was a gift to me from a friend. We’d had this conversation on the Twitters, and she tweeted the quote above, and I replied, “I’m going to need that on a cross stitch.” And she said she’d make it for me! Which is awesome and is totally the way that Twitter works–it let me meet Tony Danza, it has allowed me to keep in touch with some of my dear friends who I see only once or twice a year, and now it got me a cross stitch, custom made. Woot! But I didn’t want to let her do something for me and do nothing in return, so I offered to do a trade. I had already gone on a shopping binge over at Kitschy Digitals and picked up a number of fabulously nerdy cross stitch designs, and mentioned I had a Star Wars one. Reply: “Done.”

So I’ve been working on this one for a few weeks:

How great is that, right?  My husband is more than a little perturbed that this isn’t for him and his Mantuary (never mind that the Mantuary will be in the basement which is currently on the schedule to be finished in 2020).  He and I both also think that I should make one for his dad, whose call sign when he was a pilot in Vietnam was Skywalker, and who now owns a shaggy yellow lab named Wookie.  But this one is very specially ear-marked for Al, and I am soooo excited to see it nearing completion.

Like all good obsessions, though, I couldn’t settle for just one.  I’ve accumulated a number of very most favorite cross stitch pattern shops in the past weeks (see links below), and have started to sew out the designs that are calling me the loudest.  Like this one:

Can you stand it??  Sherlock is my Holmes boy!  On an oatmeal-colored 14 count Aida, with the text and border in navy.  I love this one, but made it for my friend Amanda, who took me with her to meet Tony Danza (via Twitter).  She offered me the chance of a lifetime, the least I could do was a little cross stitch!  I put a photo up on Instagram and someone commented that she would never finish a cross stitch–but this one really WAS easy.  Lots of simple, straight filling in, very clear pattern, uncomplicated shape.  I did this off and on one weekend while I was under the weather with a pollen-induced sinus headache–and if I can knock this out under those circumstances, baby, ANYONE can.

I’ve spent some time playing with various sizes of base cloth, too, and with how many strands of floss to use.  The Star Wars is done with all six strands of floss held together, and I really love the knobby texture that gives, but I won’t pretend that it hasn’t slowed me down–notice it was the first I started and still is incomplete.  So for the Sherlock piece, I went down to three strands held together, with two strands for the backstitch (on the smaller text and on the skinnier border).  Both are done on the same 14 count Aida cloth, so it was really cool to note the difference in how they turned out.  Then, on this fabulously obliquely-referencing-Doctor-Who one, I got the pattern and was a little disappointed with how small the finished product was going to be.  At first I thought, “Crap, now I’m going to have to blow the whole thing up and make it bigger if I want a pillow.”  But then I realized I could just sew it out on a larger-scale Aida.  So this is done on 6 count Aida, the largest scale I could find.  The “count” is the number of squares per inch in the fabric–so the 14 count is very small spacing between the Xs you’re stitching, and the 6 is naturally much larger:

I went ahead and used all six strands held together on this one, too, because I like my Xs to really fill up that box and have some presence.  With something this huge, that would’ve been tough with only two or three strands.  I also used a slightly larger needle, and varied my technique a bit–on the 14 count, I have to put the needle in the fabric, then reach around from behind the hoop and pull it through.  On this giant 6 count, I was able to put the tip of the needle in one opening, then out the destination opening, all from the front of the fabric and with no hoop–the larger squares made the surface more flexible and easier to work with that way.  I’m not sure which is the “correct” way to cross stitch–my lessons with Grandma Miriam amounted to making all my slashes in the same direction across a row and then working back going the opposite direction, and after that I was on my own–but I enjoyed playing with more than one technique.

And how fun are these patterns?  I realize now that I’m assembling all the images together that they’re ALL nerd-centric, but I own that, with no apology.  Love me some Doctor Who and Sherlock and Star Wars.  And Harry Potter:

This one is a graduation gift for my oldest, who is finishing up her final year of high school THIS MONTH.  Have I mentioned that?  Yes, I think I have.  Sigh.  They grow up so fast.

She and I both love Harry Potter, and “Lumos!” seems like an appropriate message for a girl heading off to her new intellectual life on a college campus.  Or at least, a hope from a mother that her child will walk into the light while she’s on that college campus.  Oy.

Plus!  This one’s done in glow-in-the-dark floss!  Which is totally cool:

And it really does glow, too.  Pretty well.  It’s a BEAR to work with, and tangles easily and is hard to thread through the eye of the needle–and makes a lot of my stitches less tidy than I would like–but when I take it into the closet and close the door to check that it really does do what it says it will do, it DOES.  This one will be a pillow for her to put on her bed in her dorm–which I think she will.  She and I both believe in separating the wheat from the chaff when it comes to friends, and any kid who doesn’t think a Harry Potter pillow that glows in the dark is cool probably won’t make the cut.  Fair enough.

Should you be looking for some cross stitch designs of your own, check out these fabulous shops–I have purchased one or more designs from each of them over the past six weeks and been really pleased with the quality and speed of delivery:

And for supplies, I’ve had great success with Everything Cross Stitch.  Their patterns are a good bit more matronly and traditional than what I would probably stitch up, but their pricing on floss, needles, and accessories is great and they ship really quickly.  For a hoop, like the one in the Lumos project above, I use the Q-snap frame, like Anna Maria does.  You can get one from your local quilt shop (lots of them carry these frames for hand quilting–I use the 17″ x 17″ for that), or from Amazon, CrossStitchers.com or CreateForLess–I’m using the 11″ x 11″ in these photos, but the 8″ x 8″ is a great size, too.

Have fun cross stitching, y’all!  I’m off to see if I can’t get R2D2 some lights going…

Short version, AKA I’m planning to look at the eye candy and then get out of here because I really don’t need to know that much about someone else’s fabric purchases: We recently took a family trip to New York City, and while I was there, I managed to squeeze in a visit to Mood Fabrics, where it’s possible I spent a little too much and brought more home than strictly necessary.

Full version, AKA I have a fabric fetish and even the most mundane details of a trip to a fabric shop fascinate and enthrall me, so I would like to read every ridiculous detail so that I may more fully live vicariously through your experience and then follow a link or two to make some unnecessary purchases of my own: So, my oldest child is graduating from high school next month. Yes, GRADUATING. And yes, NEXT MONTH. #freakingout

I don’t care if it’s inappropriate hashtag use, I am FREAKING OUT. But keeping it under wraps. Last fall, we made her a deal, in the hopes that we could motivate her to higher academic standards and thereby assist her in securing the widest array of possibilities in her college choices: make straight As the first semester of her senior year, and we–my husband and I, just the two of us, none of her younger siblings–would take her and a friend to New York City for Spring Break.

There was cursing and gnashing of teeth (on both sides) over the months of that semester, and a near-miss when one of her grades missed the mark by a SINGLE GRADE POINT.  After forcing her to complete a PowerPoint presentation on why we should overlook the one point and still permit her to head to NYC with her friend on our dime (yes, we really did that, and yes, we expect to hear about it every holiday for the rest of her life until she has her own children, at which point we’re anticipating a hearty “my bad” from her), we made the travel arrangements and set out on our journey.

My husband located a Vacation Rental By Owner in the Garment District, which I thought was an accidental stroke of luck but it turns out was just another example of him being adorably thoughtful (I hardly ever notice these efforts and the time, and he doesn’t call them to my attention, so when I realize he’s done something extra sweet, it’s always like falling in love all over again–but I digress).

image via Mood

The apartment we rented was on 37th, just two blocks from Mood Fabrics.  As our cab passed by on the way in from the airport, I had to physically restrain myself from tossing my body through the window in order to go roll around in some pretty fabric.  I do most of my garment fabric shopping online, so the chance to cavort through three floors of deliciousness and pick and choose based on texture and real-life color rather than relying on images and description and my steadfast avoidance of polyester seemed like a vacation in itself.

On the third and final day of our trip, I finally managed to pull off a visit.  We had walked all day and the dogs were tired–so we headed back to the apartment with about 90 minutes to change and rest before needing to leave for the restaurant to make our reservation, and then on from there to make our curtain time (it was all just so New York, y’all).  We lollygagged for a bit, but I finally persuaded my husband, “I really want to go to Mood.  You can come with me.  We’ll find some seersucker and I’ll make you a summer jacket!  You’ll be just like Matlock!”  I am not above bribery for any of my family members, it would seem.

image via Etsy

We had a scant 45 minutes to get to the shop, browse three floors of rafter-high fabrics, check out, get back to the apartment, change clothes, collect the children, and get moving.  It was a whirlwind.  A whirlwind that requires having a Plan.  I thrive when I have a Plan.

All this was scored during just 40 minutes on the shop floor, which included a lengthy conversation with the nice man in the linen section who had extensive advice to share with my husband regarding slacks (particularly his approval of the choice of mustard-colored fabric as a bold, fashion-forward selection in the pants department):

And that doesn’t include the buttons, the trim, and the white twill that steadfastly refused to photograph well for this group shot.  We were ANIMALS, I tell you.

Keep in mind as I list these that we all carried on our baggage, had already purchased clothing and gifts to take home, and literally had NO ROOM for more stuff.  But when I see a fabulous linen, I simply cannot say no.  Here’s what I brought home with me:

These three are for shorts, for me and for the children.  But mostly for me.  I get super frustrated when shorts shopping, because while I have nice legs (if I do say so myself), I’m not 22 anymore, and the shorty-mc-shorts-shorts just aren’t appropriate for a nearly-40 mother of 4 to go galivanting around town.  However, I’m no matron, either, and I do like to think I have some sense of style–even if I’m wrong on that one, Audrey would never have worn old lady shorts.  Since I struggle to find anything close to that in the shops, I’ll be making my own this summer.  Either the red or the white will be a pair of piped sailor-style shorts, and the other will be an above-the-knee pair.  The grey will be a creased-front, zip-fly short that hits around mid-thigh.  These are all cotton, but the bottom has some stretch to it.  I got one or one-and-a-half yards of each, despite them being 60″ wide, because I wanted to have enough to make shorts for the children in addition to my own.

The only thing I can think of to call this besides a “shot” linen is FABULOUS.  Even the sweet dude at the cutting table said, and I quote, “This is really something special.”  AGREED, homes.  I adore this fabric–it’s drapey for a summer linen, and has such amazing texture to it.  And those “shot” threads really make it stand out in an unexpected way.  You’d almost never know it’s linen, except that the feel against your skin is so perfect.  Plus, it’s my go-to shade of tomato red.  It will unravel like a crazy dog, but I don’t even care.  I’m planning to make a sleeveless, full-skirted sundress out of this one, and cannot wait.  I got 3 yards total, and I don’t even care if I have some leftover.  Matching handbag, anyone?

Hello, nurse.  One: it’s my signature lime color.  Two: it’s linen.  Three: it’s checked.  Four: it has an embroidered eyelet border.  Five: it’s a DOUBLE border.  This is the last fabric I chose from Mood, after I nearly couldn’t carry everything in my arms.  But it had to, had to, had to come home with me.  I see no downside here, and I was prepared to wrestle the stewardess to the floor of that Boeing in order to get this puppy in the overhead bin.  I’m thinking of a lined summer shift, with the border at the hem.  Of course, I got 2.5 yds, so I could very well do another full-skirted sundress with the border at both the hem and the upper edge of the bodice.  Either way: yum.

I saw a sweet little dress at the department store not too long ago (you can find the original in my Instagram feed) that I thought was just precious–but not so “precious” that I couldn’t pull it off.  It was an orange cotton seersucker with a line of trim down the center, on a simple sleeveless shift with a short hem and bust darts.  Except the bust darts!  Were basically pointing to my chin, and nowhere near my bust.  So while it fit, it didn’t fit, you know what I mean?  I took a shot on the IG and everyone agreed with my husband: why bother buying, when you can just make it?  So this was the first fabric I was looking for when we got to Mood.  That, and a trim to go with it.  The lovely woman in the trims department helped me choose a few, and this is the one that I liked best.  At just $4 a yard, I think it will really perk up the seersucker and give this shift some real life.  I got 2 yds of this seersucker, I think.  I tend to over-buy, but that’s because I like to be on the safe side.

My husband has a navy blazer, as I think most men his age do.  And I do NOT like it.  It has brass buttons and simply looks dated every time he wears it.  But there have absolutely been occasions where I could see that a navy jacket would be appropriate, and that it was understandable he should want one.  So while we had a men’s jacket in mind for him, anyway, and were up to our knees in the linen section (basically my mothership), I eyed some beautiful navy linen.  This photo is a little blown out–it’s actually a deeper blue than this–but I wanted to show the gorgeous texture this linen has.  It isn’t stiff, it has a real softness to it, but without being so flowy that it won’t make a very nice men’s jacket.  My husband picked out the buttons while I waited in the (very long) line, and got them to me just in time.  He got a few spares, too, at the suggestion of the folks in the buttons section, in case one goes missing.  He’s VERY excited about this jacket, which I am planning to make partially lined and use a Hong Kong finish on the seams.  We brought home 3 yds of this linen, on the (very small) chance that there will be enough leftover for me to squeeze out a teeny matching vest for our son.

And finally, the fabric that was (theoretically) the purpose for our visit: the classic blue seersucker for a men’s summer jacket.  I adore this fabric, and while we briefly fingered a couple of other colors, it’s the classic blue that makes the most sense.  Again, my husband picked out the buttons himself, and they’re much better than what we would have found at a big box fabric store.  I love the weight of this fabric, and the very high quality you can feel in it.  The seersucker texture is just right, and the stripes are woven, NOT printed–extraordinarily important distinction when shopping for seersucker.  I won’t do printed stripes, because honestly, if you aren’t going to do it right, why even bother?  We got 4 yds of this one, since it’s so awesome, and our girls will get skirts to match Daddy.

If you’re keeping track, that’s somewhere around 20 yards of fabric, plus buttons and trim.  And I had to get it all home in my suitcase–which I did!  Hooray for fabric and efficient packing!

Mood was lovely, it was so fun to be there, and seriously, I think having a strict unbreakable time limit saved me about $500 that I would have spent if I’d actually seen all there was to see.  I can’t recommend enough going with a PLAN and knowing the two or three categories of fabric you MOST want to see so that you can target your shopping and not get overwhelmed by all there is–because that’s when you get home and look at your purchases and think, “What the crap did I just buy???”

Thank you, Mood!

It starts today! There are still spots open in the Everyday Handbags e-course, and I’d love to have you join us! We’re spending a little time every day over the next four weeks sewing four fabulous bags: the Poolside Tote, the Asymmetrical Clutch, the Circular Pocket Bag, and the Audrey Classic Shoulder Bag. I adore these shapes and hope you will, too–all while getting step-by-step, video-guided, one-on-one personal instruction in how to make these in ways that will translate into ALL your sewing and bag-making in the future!

Check the links for more images and details on each bag, and then register to join us today. Class JUST began, and you’ll have so much fun! Jump in, the water’s awesome, y’all.

Hooray!!  FREE pattern today for the vintage-style teddy bear I made based on the bears my mother sewed for me when I was teensy tiny (turns out she made them when I was a baby in Germany just after I was born, which makes this gingham bear older than I generally talk about in polite company).  I drafted the pattern using the original as a guide, but of course they’re not identical–I’m sharing it with you because I love the bears so much, but please keep in mind that this pattern is for personal use and not to be duplicated, manufactured or sold in any way.

You can download the pattern as a PDF document to print.  It comes on two pages and requires NO taping or assembly; the pieces are each isolated to a single sheet, so it’s a quick little pattern to print out and get started with.  Pages look like this:

You’ll notice that the printed pattern includes notes and assembly instructions, but also directs you to find step-by-step photos here on the blog.  Wanna see them?  Here they go!

Begin by printing and cutting the pattern out–regular 8.5″ x 11″ or A4 paper will do the trick.  Print at 100% for the bear size seen above, or adjust the sizing to make smaller and larger bears–make your own bear family!  Working with a fat quarter of quilt-weight cotton, fold the fabric in half so that the folded piece measures approximately 18″ x 11″.  Lay the pieces as shown above, taking care to place the head on the fold once, cut, then move and cut again, also on the fold.

Place the two front pieces right sides together and stitch the center front, along the belly line.  JUST the belly, now, not the arms and legs; we’ll get those later.  Then, repeat on the center back, but stop and start at the dots by backstitching so you can leave an opening to turn it right side out later.

With the major body pieces sewn, turn your attention to the face!  I pulled a major space-out moment and totally neglected to add the sweet oval of solid white on the face that the original bear has–if you want to throw that in, knock yourself out.  It looks very sweet, and is a simple machine applique using a wide zigzag stitch.  For the facial features, trace on the mouth and eye shapes using an air-soluble pen or chalk–I did these free-hand, and since my ink was air-soluble (disappearing) ink, I just drew and re-drew until I was satisfied with the shape and placement.  On the mouth, use a backstitch to trace over the line you drew; on the eyes, use a satin stitch.  (Sublime Stitching has some great online tutorials for these stitches that make it super easy!)  Add a vintage button for a nose, or use the male part of a sew-on snap, like my mom did on the original bear.

With the face sewn on, we can move ahead to the last major step: attaching the head pieces.  Make sure you sew the FACE to the FRONT of the body, and the remaining head piece to the BACK of the body!  Otherwise: awkward.

Now you should have a bear front and a bear back, with the face sewn on and the head attached.  Place the front and back right sides together, making sure the neckline seams match, and lining up all the raw edges.  With only a 1/4″ seam allowance, you really do want to keep things as accurate as you can at this point.  Stitch the entire perimeter of the bear, all the way around, leaving no opening.  When the seam is sewn, go back and SNIP the seam allowances along all the curves to release the fabric and prevent puckering.  Snip up to the stitching but not through it.  At pivot points or corners, snip in at a diagonal.

Now we get to MOVE THAT BUS!  Turn the whole bear right side out and use a pokey stick to get all the edges nice and smooth.  Then, use polyfill to stuff him up!  A lot of folks like to use giant handfuls to stuff with polyfill, but the secret is using TINY handfuls.  That way, the stuffing is less likely to clump up over time.  For this little bear, we’re going to stitch seams to define the arms, legs and ears, so begin by stuffing ONLY the arms, and then we’ll sew that seam.  After that, we can move on and repeat the step with the legs and finally the ears.

As each arm, leg and ear gets individually stuffed (a little more firmly than you might think necessary–I like them really plump), you’ll sew a seam through all the layers, catching the stuffing to one side, to make a “joint” that defines the appendage.  I do one at a time, and sew each seam after I stuff, then go back for more stuffing.  Make sure to backstitch at the end of every seam!

Once all the stuffing is in place, you can hand-sew the back opening shut.  I like the whipstitch, obviously, but you can certainly use any number of hand stitches for this step.  If you’re accustomed to hand-sewing your quilt bindings on, for example, you can use a slipstitch here and that’ll do just fine.

And voila!  Magically delicious and super cute teddies all day long.

Add your finished teddy bear to the Whipstitch Flickr group so we can all get inspired by your variations on the theme!