The Cutest Little Model

My little model has clearly picked up some great modeling techniques over the past couple of months. Look at her smiling with her eyes. Perhaps she has been watching America's Next Top Model marathons. She is such a good sport and did not protest once through the photo shoot, even though she is teething.

Thanksgiving Presents

We spent Thanksgiving with great friends, and great friends deserve presents. I made my hostess this tote bag for a birthday present. She supplied the linen and I did the rest. The make-up bag was a gift for her sister and I am kicking myself for not making two since the two bags look so great together. Good thing Christmas is right around the corner.

Make-Up Bags Galore!

I just finished up ten make-up bags. They are all so cute lined up on my ironing board waiting to be packed up and delivered tomorrow.

The Holidays Are Coming!!

Like you needed me to remind you of that. That is what Walgreens and all of the other drug stores are for. How else would you know that the holidays are coming unless you saw Christmas stuff for sale in October?

As usual, the holiday season is going to be busy so I am trying to get a head start on my gift list. My goal this year is to make as many presents as I can with at least one handmade gift for everyone on my gift list. I have created my list and this past weekend turned my sewing room into Santa's workshop and was able to cross two things off my list. The presents are finished and photographed and all ready to be tunred into blog posts, but the recipients read this blog so I have keep up the veil of mystery. This creates a very big problem because I am such a big mouth and love to show off what I have created, especially when they are as cute as what I did this past weekend.

What to do? What to do?

Why post the pictures on Flickr, of course. If you want to see what I have been working on, you can click here for the link to my recent creations. If you are my mother or my in-laws, you SHOULD NOT do that, especially you ,Mom. No snooping or you will just be disappointed on Christmas morning. Isn't that what you told me?

Another little dress

This time, this dress is for a four year old and not a baby. I love the little pockets and the turquoise and while polka dot trim. I added a little fishie button on the collar to make because I have it on excellent authority that little fun buttons are the best part of the dress. I also have little kitties and mice buttons and they are a HUGE hit so I figured it couldn't hurt to add a fish to this dress.

Beetle Mania

Here is another new print - Japanese Beetles! It is just so cute and if you look closely at the bottom left corner you can see one of the little beetles I keep mentioning. I also lined the bag with a navy blue cotton which really brings out the white in the exterior print.

A New Purse

I put this purse together with a specific request for a bright yellow lining. The blue and white print with the splash of yellow work so well together. The blue print was purchased in Mexico and the yellow wool came from the Garment District. This one is for a friend but I will definitely be making myself one soon.

The Cutest Little Elephants

Today is a perfect day for sewing, lots of rain and no other pressing errands. I started this quilt the other night and was able to finish it up today. We don't know if the recipient is a boy or a girl so the colors and patterns are all very gender neutral. The bright animals and colors just make me so happy and the back is a nice, light blue that works with the cream thread I used for the free motion quilting. I even added a little tag to the back, just for fun.

New Office Curtains

I finally got around to sewing up some new office curtains. It is truly amazing what nice curtains can do to a room. Too bad they can't make you completely ignore the desperate need for a paint job, but they do come close. I chose Anna Maria Horner's Pressed Flowers print so that the curtains would work nicely with the chairs I recovered a while ago. The office is in full sewing mode right now so pictures of the entire room and the pretty pillow I made will have to wait until next time. The curtain hardware all came from Ikea. Those clippy rings are such an amazing time saver.

Sock Monkey Baby Dress

Sock Monkey Baby Dress
Originally uploaded by mellymellun

Here is another little baby dress I made over the weekend.

And Coming...

I bought this fabric in Italy a year and a half ago and have been patiently waiting for the right project to use some of my precious two meters. And I think this dress proves itself to be worthy, and then some.

Baby Dresses Keep Coming

Here is another tunic baby dress I just finished up. I was toying between the contrasting aqua with white polka dots for the trim and some pink, orange and brown polka dots. I went with the aqua on this one but there is enough corduroy for another version. I kept this dress pretty simple with just a little detail around the neck, arms and the finish on the hem, along with a little top stitching on the seams. I am picturing some tights and a little long sleeve t-shirt to complete the outfit.

Baby Boy Zoo Quilt

Here is my latest baby quilt. The quilt top is Alexander Henry's Zoo 2D print and the back is a vibrant royal blue. I was able to show off my new found free motion quilting skills on this one and let me tell you, working with a crib size quilt is so much easier than quilting a double size quilt. I love the simplicity of this quilt and the great contrast between the royal blue and the white in the quilting and the binding.

More make-up bags

Here is another little make up bag this weekend. I used up the very last of my all time favorite prints making this little lovely. The flower covering almost the whole side is just gorgeous. I also used one of my new little labels, ordered just for this type of project.

Lucky Girl

I picked up this Simplicity pattern last week and couldn't wait to try it out. It can be made in size 1 - 5, which means I can start dressing A LOT of little girls. This dress in a size one but shortened by 2 1/2 inches because a baby in an evening dress is not the most practical attire. The print is Lucky Girl by Robert Kaufman and is a stretch cotton, which is perfect for little bodies in motion.

Coordinating In A Studio

City living is hard. You spend way too much money to live in way too small of a place. But if you find yourself living in a studio, the best thing you can do is be friends with someone who likes to sew.

The OLDM needed some pillows for her new couch that would also work with her fabulous quilt. After some online and brick and mortar shopping trips, she ended up purchasing a coordinating print from Alexander Henry. The black and cream flowers in the pillow fabric show up in the print we used for the quilt. It works but isn't too matchy matchy. They look great on the white sofa and when it gets chilly this Fall and when someone uses the quilt to cuddle on the couch, everything will be tied in perfectly.

Pretty In Pink and Yellow and Orange Flowers

I spent the weekend sewing little girl dresses and I am so sorry the weekend is over. I could sew cute little dresses all day long. I made two of these little cuties for my coworker's daughters. The fabric is from the Park Slope line, the ribbon is from my favorite trim store in the Garment District and the buttons are from a store in Cancun (I know, random, but I was there recently and try to incorporate fabric shopping in all of my travels).

More Furniture

So I have the furniture bug. High off of my success recovering my chairs, I picked up an old bench at my local used furniture store. Immediately, I contacted my interior design consultant and she suggested this gorgeous David Hicks fabric. Once the fabric arrived, I took apart the bench only to find that the seat was a mess and was going to require my dormant 8th grade shop class skills. One trip to Home Depot, the loan of a drill and the very patient assistance from David and we have ourselves a new seat to the bench. And I am loving the results.

The bench is going to be used as a coffee table for when we have guests over. I am picturing it topped with a clear acrylic tray. My living room is too small to have a coffee table set out all the time so this is the perfect solution. Once I make a slip cover for the couch, I will post a picture of the room in all of its new decorating glory.

Another little make-up bag

Jess sent me some linen to work on a new purse for her, and what did I do? I immediately made a new make up bag. I had random purchased some adorable ribbon on Friday and the colors worked perfectly with the linen and some fabric in my stash, so I made a little cute magic this afternoon.

Just In Time For Fall

Here is my latest obsession. After finishing the Bird Quilt, I was consumed with the idea of making another quilt for our house, and one that is really for David. (You know that they say, "the quilter's husband always goes cold.") I had a stash a Japanese fabric and had been eying a pack of charm squares at City Quilters for a long while, so the quilt design was pretty obvious. And if I say so myself, the charm square quilt did not disappoint.

I also got to break in my new quilting gloves that I received as a birthday present from my mom (Hi Mom!). They were terrific and I only managed to sewing my finger once.

As for the free motion quilting, I am 100% addicted. It was hard but it looks so great. I am sure my technique will improve, since I had only really practiced a few times on swatches before I dove into the full size quilt. It is all washed, puckery and on my bed, and the quilting has held up perfectly so far.

Three Ladies

Here are three pretty purses modeling some of my Fall fabric. The style is a cross between the Handbag and the City Bag and was originally created for a certain person named Nadia. When describing this style to my coworker, I kept referring to it as "like the one I made for Nadia." When my coworker placed her order, she asked for three bags in the Nadia style and the Nadia Bag was born!

Labor Day of Love

I left work early on Friday to go home and whip up four additional blocks for my Common Threads quilt and to put the quilt top together. I was back at the sewing machine at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday finishing up the quilt top and quilting. Besides an exercise and dinner break, I finished up around 10 pm last night. It was a long day.


There were also two special quilter elves that helped me get this job done. This is the largest quilt I have ever done and working with so much fabric was a tough, sweaty job for this hot labor day weekend. It was a lot of work but I am so excited to have it finished and on my bed. My quilter elves really made the process so much easier, so thank you!

I probably could do some additional quilting in each of the individual blocks to reinforce it better but I am going to put that off for another weekend. The quilting will blend in with some of the blocks better than others and I need to work myself up to sewing over some of these gorgeous blocks. Any suggestions on how to incorporate additional quilting without detracting from the blocks would be greatly appreciated.

August's Common Threads Block

Since I was lucky enough to be assigned July for my month of the Common Threads Quilting Bee, I have only done one block for Rebekah before getting the chance to sit around and have fabulous blocks sent to me in the mail. I was very excited to make another block now that I know what it is like to be on the receiving end. As soon as I read the instructions and saw the fabric, I knew I wanted to do a log cabin block. I usually keep my blocks pretty simple, just to cut down on the production time (or the beast that must finish projects will never be fed) so doing one fancy, super detailed block is a lot of fun.

I really had to push it to get a 12.5" x 12.5" block with the amount of fabric I was given, but somehow I managed to make it work. The few little scraps I have left would make an thrifty quilter so proud. There are a couple of extra seams because I had to sew smaller pieces together but they are pretty subtle for the most part. I am pretty pleased with this block and I really hope Liz likes it.

New Purse Fabrics

Someone, and I am not naming any names here, has been doing some shopping.


I am putting together some fun fabric choices for purses and totes just in time for the fall. Many of the these are from the Garment District and others are from my stash. I keep waiting for just a little more free time so I can have a chance to start building up a collection of bags to sell on Etsy and at the Bust Craftacular later this year.

Oh, sweet free time...I know you are out there somewhere.

Preppy Girl's Quilt

Here is my latest creation, the preppy girl quilt. The commissioner of this quilt fell in love with the purple bunnies online at Reprodepot. Once we had the bunnies in our hot little hands, we met up at Purl Patchwork and picked the other five fabrics. The white on white Robert Kaufman floral print is the same print as the pink and white floral backing. Overall, I am totally charmed by this quilt and how it turned out.

Bad Crafter

I have been way too busy having fun this summer and not working hard enough on all of my great projects. I am a very bad crafter. Like this past weekend, instead of sewing, I went off to the Jersey Shore. Saturday had great weather but storms rolled in on Sunday. I didn't have my fancy camera but was able to capture a couple shots before the storm. But don't worry, the crazy rain didn't stop the fun. My only regret was having to leave to go back home so I could go to work on Monday.

The boardwalk seems so mellow on a cloudy day. But it was bumping the night before!


The lifeguards announced that the storm was coming and the beach cleared out, fast.


The seagull didn't seem too nervous.


Those were some scary cloud formations. They were moving so fast and were so ominous. My camera's batteries died right after taking this shot so I didn't have a chance at capturing the crazy lightning in the distance.

The good news is that I don't have any plans for this weekend besides staying in my nice, air-conditioned apartment and getting caught up on some projects. Someone might have also bought a new Japanese sewing book with awesome looking patterns that must get tried this weekend. And when I say someone, I mean me, the person who isn't supposed to buy any more patterns until there is some better production coming out of the Astoria studio.

Little Miss B

Here is Brielle, the cutest little model. What a natural! She is such a good natured lady and ever so patient. Doesn't the first shot nicely show off the hem on the bottom of the dress and her cute little legs?

Overall, I am very happy with the way the dress turned out and how it fit. My only concern before trying it on was the length. It seemed a little too close to evening gown length and my suspicions proved true when I tried the dress on Brielle. Next time, I think I will shorten it a bit. The pattern does come in larger sizes for toddlers and bigger girls. Once the model is walking, I think the length will work a lot better.

Quilt Action Shots - VI

Here are the sweet little twins modeling their new quilts.

More Makeup Bags

So, a certain blogger gave me a couple of yards of very cute Amy Butler green polka dots when I was out in San Francisco least month. It is perfect for makeup and to carry other little goodies. Although it is only July, I am already planning out what I want to make for the Bust Craftacular coming up in December, which is going to include little bags like this one.

To give the bag a little more structure, I used batting between the polka dots and yellow lining. I also added some adorable grosgrain ribbon to the little strap, just to make it sassy.

I offered Amy a little something in exchange for the fabric and all I could get her to agree to is a case for her sunglasses. It should be super cute. Hopefully I will have time next weekend to try making one.

A Dress For Brielle

I am in a countdown to meeting little Brielle, who turned three months old yesterday. In anticipation of our first meeting, I wanted to make her a little present. I used the Oliver + S party dress pattern. It is labeled easy and for the most part it was. My only trouble came attaching the bodice to the skirt. I managed to create matching puckers in the middle of the front and the back. Boo. I ironed them like crazy and am hoping no one will notice.

I also want to take this moment to give my sewing machine a big shout out. My Brother sewing machine is awesome. The pattern calls for buttons and due to some unfortunate buttonhole attempts with my old machine, I was very very very apprehensive to ever doing buttonholes again. And let's not even talk about the button setting. With gritted teeth, I tried the buttonhole setting and it worked like a charm. Feeling a little more confident, I went for the button feature and that was even easier. Who knew it could be like this? I am a changed woman. More confident, ready to face the world, one buttonhole at a time.

The Second Twin Quilt

So there are two little ladies in Los Angeles waiting for their quilts. I purposefully picked very different fabrics for each girl but I will leave it up to their mom to decide which one will get the seersucker quilt and which one will get this fun animal print. I quilted flowers and circles on the seersucker quilt but went for the simple stripes with this one. It was my first attempt using the quilting guide with my machine and did alright - if you look closely, the lines get a little wavy, but that can be chalked up to the charm of homemade, right?