Two Dozen Dolls

Two Dozen Dolls

Having a nervous breakdown is alarming.  After I broke, I couldn't feel anything. After several hours, my teeth had stopped chattering but my heart had stopped feeling.  The world grew cold.  I was a ghost.  I didn't know what to do.  I felt profoundly alone.  So I started making dolls.  

Sewing had always made me feel better, so it was my first thought for therapy...but sewing didn't warm my heart.  I hoped that the dolls with their smiling faces might do the trick.  Three dolls later and I wasn't feeling any joy.  Then my husband said, "you have to give them away, that is the piece that is missing".   So the journey began.....

Eva received the first doll.  She patiently let me hold her for an hour while she held her little doll.  She reminded me that we all started out bright and shiny, a story just beginning to unfold.  We all end up on a path with twists and turns that we didn't expect.  And, we all get to choose a path with heart or not.  I am choosing the path with a heart.  

Eight dolls have found their way out into the world and 16 dolls are waiting.  With each doll, I feel the heavy darkness break free and fall away.  I feel lighter.  I feel brighter.  I am coming back to life.  

I am thankful for the path my life has taken.  It has been boot camp for my soul.  

Some people say, "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade" but it wasn't that simple for me.  So I say, "Remember who you are, deep in your heart, and find ways to bring it out in the world."  

Together we can light up the darkness.   

                                        We can refuse to have hate in our hearts.

                                       We can choose to be honest and loving.

                                         We can find good in each other.

                                        We can be as bright and shiny as we were...

                                           on the day we were born.

Together, we can light up the world.

The Little Black Dress...Yay!!!

My Little Black Dress

 I have been wanting to make a little black dress for a while now.  It needed to be simple but classy with a twist.  I found a pattern from the designer section of Vogue patterns and decided to give it a try.

Famous last words "I think I will make something simple that doesn't require me to think too hard".

This pattern was a nightmare.  Every notch had to be numbered on painters tape but the tape kept falling off or sticking to other pieces.  Some of the seam allowances had to be trimmed and a strip of fabric sewn in its place.  Others just needed a trim.


I got totally mixed up, basted all of the pieces together and at the end....they didn't match!  One armhole was tiny, the other, huge.  That wasn't right.

Thankfully I had basted them together. My problem was the result of edging all of the seams with a shiny black swimsuit fabric for contrast.  This made the seam allowance wider than the pattern needed on some of the edges.  Once I figured out where I went wrong, I marked and numbered the notches in chalk, cut off and resewed the trims at the correct seam allowance and then celebrated when the pieces matched up PERFECTLY!!!!!




It is designed to be worn over the ball of the shoulder and should have additional straps.  They never looked right, so I left them off.  The dress fit just the way it should, thank goodness because I had no idea how to adjust the fit on a dress like this.

 
And of course it looks great with the Louboutins!

Give me a few seconds to make a sweater

Give Me a few Seconds to Make a Sweater

I had a yard of this sweater knit and an hour to kill.  So I copied another sweater by laying it on a piece of grid paper and tracing off all of the pieces.  I then cut out the sweater and serged it together.  There was a strip of fabric left that I used as a cowl collar. It was a narrow strip, so I lined it with fleece.  I decided that the edges of the front should be trimmed in fleece as well.  I used a hairband to make a loop to catch around a giant velvet button on the right side of the sweater.  There is a snap on the left.  

 

 I like to wear it open with the black fleece showing over a black top.  So simple, so warm and it matches my new orange shoes...a bonus!  

Blackboard Trigonometry

Blackboard Trigonometry Hoodie

The first piece in my "Cheat Sheet Collection" is done.  I designed the fabric myself on my IPad and then had it printed at Spoonflower.com.    It was my first attempt at designing my own fabric......

You are probably thinking that I had to buy it which would break my rule about not buying fabric for a year....and you would be right.  BUT, I made a little exception for buying fabric that I designed myself.


I did use a jacket that I had in my stash, that was uninspired and incomplete.  It is a heavy fleece.  The trigonometric functions are in the hood lining, pockets and sleeves.  There is even some fabric in the inside front of the jacket.

 

I finished it off with a unit circle on the back.Nerdy is the New Cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

As Soft As A Pink Puppy's Ears

As Soft As a Pink Puppy's Ears

I fell in love with this fabric when my labrador passed away.  I missed her soft little ears so much.  When I touched the pink fur at our local Ben Franklin's, I recognized that softness right way...it was Sandi's ears.

With a 25$ gift card, I was able to purchase the fabric for the coat.  The coat went together quickly but then hung in my closet for 2 years when I couldn't find the right lining.  I had some brown and pink geometric fabric that I had cut out but hated.  So there it hung, waiting for its lining.  

I ran across the polka dot charmuese and knew that my coat could finally be finished.  

My friends gave me advice on the buttons, a little sparkle seemed like the perfect finishing touch.

It is a cozy little coat.  But the best part is petting the soft fur on the sleeves and remembering the love of my dog.

A Little Pile of Scraps = A lot of Love

Scraps for Sister:

My little friend Tawny came over to practice her sewing skills.  She has a beautiful baby sister named Eva.  Tawny thought it would be nice to make her baby sister a blanket like the one we had made when she first started to sew, years ago.  Luckily, I had saved all of the scraps!

We made a pattern in the shape of a heart, then started cutting out flannel squares, two layers thick.  One by one, Tawny made a pattern of prints and began sewing them together.  When we had enough squares, we trimmed the blanket into our heart shape.  We also clipped the seam allowances, so that it could fray in the wash.  


After a nice soak and fluff, here is the final project....notice the cute little girls snuggled together.  It makes my heart feel as big as a flannel patchwork quilt.  

In the Mood for a Reversible Coat

In the Mood for a Reversible Coat....

 I finally finished my reversible coat!!!!
I bought this fabric from Mood Fabrics...yes, the fabric store from Project Runway.  The fabric is a soft wool, black on one side and brown on the other.  Fabric like this deserved something unique and reversible. This project would make me think, like a killer sudoku at the end of the puzzle book.  




The first challenge, reversible seams.  Sewing them in the obvious way would result in a contrast on one side only.  So I knew I had to over lap the seams so that there would be half of a seam allowance on each side.  To do this, I had to baste a seam line on each piece, overlap them so the basting stitches matched, carefully pin them together and then sew on the basting line.  I then pressed the seam allowances open, top stitched them and trimmed the excess fabric off.  This was especially challenging along the sleeve.

When I had finished sewing together the coat, I realized that the coat was too loose for the the look I wanted.  I was not going to resew the seams, so I was faced with another puzzle.  I pinned out the excess fabric into a series of darts.  I had to carefully measure and draw the stitch lines for each dart.  I slashed the center line, overlapped the stitch lines and finished them like a seam  The perfectionist in me has issues with the darts, but from afar, the lines that were formed give a spectacular effect.  And the coat has a wonderful tapered waist.



The cuffs made me crazy as did the closures.  I wanted them to be unique but struggled with the design.   I made the cuffs two layers thick but kept sewing the wrong sides together, which made both sides the same color.  Frustrating.
For the closures, I read about bound button holes in Threads magazine.  I did some unusual sewing together of pieces and clever combining so that they could be reversed on the opposite side.  It took an entire Sunday for me to figure it out.  In the end, I think it looks really sharp.  I found buttons that were black and brown.  There could not have been a better match for the button flaps.

The only downside to my coat design, is that it does not have pockets yet.  I think I will put them in eventually by splitting open a seam and creating a pocket that gets pushed into the inside, depending on the way the coat is being worn.  For now, it will remain pocketless and I will enjoy a project complete.