Wednesday, May 30, 2012

MAXI SKIRT

Oh how I love maxi dresses and maxi skirts!  It seems to be the hottest new trend this summer.  They seem so simple and elegant.  I've been wanting to make a summer maxi for myself but shopping choices are so limited in my area.  There was the cutest maxi skirt in a boutique window but, of course, they didn't have my size.  Luckily, to my surprise, I found a wonderful tutorial from Jaime Christina of Pretty Ditty here.  To make things even better, the local "Discount Fabric Warehouse" just rec'd a large shipment of assorted knits and there they were, rolls and rolls of "Ella Moss" labeled fabrics....I love Ella Moss.  I just can't afford to have an entire wardrobe of her collections.  After my purchases of "a yard of this, a few yards of that,...."My "Ella Moss" striped knits came home with me.

After about two hours (this includes taping newspapers together to make out the pattern), I end up with my very own Ella Moss copy cat skirt:

I LOVE IT!  My new summer maxi needs a quick steaming and it's ready to go to town!  Oh, I added a waist band following this tutorial

Thank you tutorial world for the inspirations! 

What's on your "make me this summer" list?








Monday, May 28, 2012

T-SHIRT QUILT, MEMORY QUILT

A friend of mine wanted to give her high school graduating son a memory quilt that he can reminisce through his childhood years.  Not having enough confidence to complete the quilt, I gladly offered to make it for her (even though I had all the confidence in the world she could have accomplished this task).  You see, she's visited a few times and along with a few other gals, we spent some time crafting and learning how to sew and she wanted to make this for her son.  Unfortunately, her schedule got a "tid-bit" hectic as graduation day approached and really, there wasn't enough time that would allow her to finished the quilt as scheduled.  Lucky for me, she did all the cutting and interfacing.  Personally, I think that is the hardest part of it all!  She dropped off the perfectly cut T-'s and together, we managed to finish it in the nick of time...one week before graduation day which  make it possible to have the blank block that was reserved for signatures from his family, teachers and friends to be filled in.....Congratulations "Mr. K"!  Hope you enjoy your quilt in the years ahead and wish you all the happiness and success in the world!


I found my inspiration on T-shirt/memory quilts a few years ago while watching HGTV's Simply Quilts with Alex Anderson.  I was actually watching something else and left the television on.  When I returned to the living room, Alex Anderson had a Special Guest talking about recycling out-grown apparel to quilts.  This is where I also learned about rag quilst which is how "Mr. K's" quilt was constructed.  The fringes will become more soft and "fluffy" as it is used and washed.

Of course as I was making the rag T-shirt quilt, I remembered a bin of T-shirt squares that was prepped a few years ago for my son.  With a few hours here and there on my good old faithful Jan (my Janome sewing machine), wallah, it got completed:


Oh the memories of each block....

If these blocks could talk, what would they say? 

Kalaeiki baseball camp for youths that pushed the purpose of academics and good sportsmanship:
 

A football T from my talented neighbor who played football for the local high school (#7) and the World Cup when it was in San Francisco:

Oh, this was a trip to a neighboring island and we tried the new burger joint with the kiddos:

A restaurant at I think, Newport Beach, Cali a few years back...they had delish food! 

Uncle's VW shop....

For the second quilt, I made it differently from the traditional quilt where there's a backing, batting and then the top pieces.  Instead with right sides together, I sewed the top piece with a 1/4" seam around the edges onto fleece leaving a gap about 8" wide for turning.  Once the corners were clipped, the quilt was turned and the gap was hand-sewn closed.  This method seemed much easier for me.  Machine quilting a large piece on a traditional table-top sewing machine is not my cup of tea so this seemed to be the route to take until I can "perfect" my quilting techniques.

Do you have a sentimental item that takes you back through the years?

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Silhouette sd

Last Christmas, I treated myself to a silhouette sd as an early gift to myself.  It makes the world of crafting so much more easier for me which motivates me to keep creating personalized gifts for others.  As in my last post,   I mentioned about fun gifts that was created with the silhouette sd die cutter. 

First are T-shirts for sisters..."Tita" in Hawaii is a word used as "sister".  So, here's LITTLE TITA's and BIG TITA's matching T-shirts:




Two other gifts made with the silhouette sd cutter using store bought ready made aprons:


The silhouette's website provides easy to follow tutorials.  This is the tutorial that I used which was very easy to follow. 

Have you had the opportunity to make home made gifts, lately?