Tuesday, June 18, 2013

We Did It! Wednesday

Welcome to We Did It! Wednesday! If you haven't entered the Fabric Weekend Giveaway yet, be sure to go HERE and enter. There's over $800 worth of prizes, including a serger and 4 bundles of $150 worth of gift cards!

Here's how We Did It! Wednesday works:
1. Enter a link (specific blog post, not your homepage) using the Linky Tools below to something you made that you want to share. It can be something you sewed, crafted, painted, baked, or anything else you made that you want to share.
2. Try to check out at least one other link on the list (and I'm sure they'd love it if you left a comment too).
3. Post the We Did It! Wednesday button below to your post or sidebar to let others know your participating.

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Monday, June 17, 2013

My Fabric Weekend Experience


Fabric weekend logo
I'm sure you've heard bits and pieces about Fabric Weekend floating around online the past few weeks. And if you follow me on Instagram (@sewmuchado), you might have followed along all weekend with us!

Fabric Weekend was organized by the wonderful Andrea from The Train To Crazy, with a lot of help from Bev from Flamingo Toes and Justine from Sew Country Chick. It involved about 20 sewing bloggers getting together in Los Angeles for the weekend, and, you guessed it - fabric shopping! Plus, a lot of food, late nights, and laughter. This photo of Sabra and I kind of sums up how I felt about it all...
Photo credit: Jess

Most of us trickled in to Los Angeles on Thursday, and I soon met up with my roommates - Sabra from Sew A Straight Line, Stef from Girl Inspired, Caila from Caila Made. Cherie from You and Mie also stayed with us and arrived the next night.

Friday morning the fun began with a tour of FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising). I left feeling very inspired. I have to admit I also enjoyed watching the students coming and going. I kept thinking to myself how exciting it was that they were pursuing their dreams and choosing such an exciting career. Don't get me wrong, dental hygiene was super exciting too...
Photo credit: Jess
We shopped in the FIDM scholarship store, where I got about 6 yards of the animal print and a denim-looking knit for $5! The other fabrics were from other shops.
 
It was definitely a tight squeeze for 20 bloggers!
Photo credit: Marigold
Next we went over to Michael Levine, which really was the highlight of our fabric shopping. We got to meet THE Larry, who owns the store, and he gave us a tour of the store and their warehouse.
Photo credit: Marigold
It was pretty incredible to see the isles and isles of fabric, and to see Larry's excitement as he talked about what he does and about the beautiful fabrics. The hashtag #larrylovesfabric was also born at some point along the tour :).

The part of the trip I was anticipating the most was shopping at The Loft, where Michael Levine has bins and bins of fabric, mostly knits, for $2.50 a pound! It exceeded my expectations, and I came away with so many great finds. I also picked up a few other fabrics in their main store, including the Kokka butterfly print. I can't wait to make it into a dress for Lola. And if you're like me and live far far away from LA, you can also order from Michael Levine online!
 
Bethany snapped this photo of me in all of my Loft glory...

We also spent a bit of time that afternoon in other shops in the Fashion District. I won't be needing to buy elastic or zippers for quite some time ;).

Saturday morning we headed out to Mood Fabrics for some more shopping, and just when I thought I couldn't possibly find any more fabric that I needed, I was wrong. I came away with more great knits and even some green leather that I couldn't pass up.
Photo credit: Jess
Miriam and I at Mood
The whole gang at Mood...

Some of us (thanks to Bev's superb LA driving skills) hit up SAS Fabrics that afternoon, where I found some more must-have fabrics (or should I say fabircs) and even more notions! My goal was to get a button collection going (don't you hate having to buy buttons for each project?), and I'd say I'm now well on my way.
Bev, Andrea, Sabra, Marissa, Melissa, Mie
Saturday evening we all met back up for a fabulous Girls' Night Out, hosted by Jess and Jo-Ann Fabrics. Even though I feel like there's no possible way I could need any other sewing supplies for the next year after this trip, I know that I'll still be stopping by my local Jo-Ann here in Seattle.
Me, Andrea, Miriam, Bev, and Sabra
Photo Credit: Justine
It was fun to get dressed up and have one last event to visit with such wonderful women and friends. It was great to come home with a suitcase full of fabric and notions, but even better to come away with such great friendships.
Photo Credit: Jess
I came home absolutely exhausted, but it was such a fabulous experience and I hope that I'll be able to do it again! It was amazing to hang out with people like me, who love to sew and don't have to just smile and nod while you're going on and on about how to get the tension right on your twin needle. I'm so grateful to Andrea, Bev, and Justine for all the work they put into the weekend, and for Jess for organizing Girls' Night Out.

Oh, and did you enter the Fabric Weekend Giveaway?! There's over $800 in prizes, and you could even win a serger!

Friday, June 14, 2013

Pattern Review: Floppy Flower Sun Hat


It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop's patterns. In fact, I haven't met one yet that I didn't like ;). When Amy contacted me recently to do a pattern swap (you can see the Seafarer Top that she made for the pattern tour here), I was immediately on board and already knew exactly what pattern I wanted to make.

Have you noticed how hard it is to find a cute basic sun hat in the stores? I think part of the problem is that I'm too cheap frugal to spend money on something that I could so easily make, so unless I find it on clearance for $3, I probably won't buy it. I think it's a disease that many of us sewists share.

Luckily I had recently scouted out Amy's Floppy Flower Sun Hat pattern. I loved the wide floppy brim, and what a simple pattern it is.

I put the pattern together a bit different than Amy's instructions, mainly because I was originally planning to make it a reversible hat. Techically I guess it could still be reversible, but the straps would be on the outside of the hat instead of the inside, so I probably won't use it that way. I do love the Amy Butler lining fabric though - I used up the very last of my scraps that I've been saving for years.

I basically just made the outer hat and lining pieces exactly the same, with the exception of sandwiching the straps in between the crown and brim on the lining, sewed them right sides together, turned them right sides out through an opening, and then topstitched around the brim.

I initially made the mistake of sandwiching the straps in the wrong place, resulting in the brim seams being on the center front and back of that hat. And unfortunately I didn't realize it until the hat was almost finished. Not good with large polka dots. So after a self-pep talk and some seam ripping (and a little encouragement from some Instagram friends), I fixed it and am really happy with how it turned out.

The fit is perfect on Lola's little head. She's 13 months now but I made the 6-12m size and it's snug without being too tight. I've been in a bad habit lately of making everything a size too big for her so that she doesn't grow out of it too quickly, but the little stinker just doesn't grow and it's kind of backfired on me. So I have several things I've been waiting for her to grow into, and I didn't want it to be the case with this hat.

I obviously left the flower off the hat, to keep it simple and give Lola one less thing to tug on.

I'm excited to have a cute new hat for Lola to wear and had lots of fun making it. I love being able to sew mindlessly and use other designer's patterns! Get the pattern here!


Get the pattern

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Fabric Weekend Huge Giveaway!

I think I'm almost recovered from Fabric Weekend! Let's just say I've got some work ahead of me to sew through all my new fabrics. I also had the time of my life with friends who I had never met in person before, and came away feeling inspired and motivated! I'm excited to share all the details of my trip next week, but for today I get to offer you an amazing giveaway brought to you by the sponsors of Fabric Weekend!

Fabric-weekend-giveaway

Giveaway prizes, rules & entry:

One GRAND PRIZE winner!

Brother 1034D serger! (donated by GoToPatterns.com)

Four lucky winners will receive $150 in prizes!

$50 to GoToPatterns.com

$50 to LowPriceFabric.com

$50 for a class at Craftsy.com

Go-to-patterns-star-logo
Michael levine logo
Craftsy logo
Contest Rules:
Giveaway open internationally to contestants 18 years or older. Contestants must enter their email address to be added to the LowPriceFabric.com and GoToPatterns.com email newsletters to win. All prizes are awarded in the form of gift certificates. Winners responsible for paying shipping. Gift certificate value of serger is $210. Contest open from June 11, 2013 through June 20, 2013 EST. Winners will be notified within 24 hours of winning. Winners have 48 hours to claim their reward. New winners will be chosen if prizes are unclaimed. Winners will be emailed their rewards within 7 days of claiming their prize. ONE ENTRY per person. This contest is being held on multiple blogs. Please enter only once. You will be counted only once.
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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

We Did It! Wednesday

Welcome to We Did It! Wednesday! Sorry I missed you last week! I'm sure you'll have lots of goodies to share this week and I'm excited to see them! Also, make sure to check back later this week for an awesome giveaway ($800 value!!!).

Here's how We Did It! Wednesday works:
1. Enter a link (specific blog post, not your homepage) using the Linky Tools below to something you made that you want to share. It can be something you sewed, crafted, painted, baked, or anything else you made that you want to share.
2. Try to check out at least one other link on the list (and I'm sure they'd love it if you left a comment too).
3. Post the We Did It! Wednesday button below to your post or sidebar to let others know your participating.

BLOG TITLE
Copy and paste the HTML text below to your own blog or website.