Rockin' Bobbin

Holiday handtowels

2009-12-19T12:21:00.000-08:00

It doesn't take much to dress up some handtowels. With these, I found some holiday fabric, then cut them into strips, and ironed all the raw edges in about 1/4 inch. Then I pinned the fabric to the towel where I wanted it and stitched. Super easy and the I love the way they turned out.

Hemming jeans

2009-12-17T13:58:00.001-08:00

I'm on the shorter side, but not extremely short. The problem I run into when wearing jeans is that petite jeans still look like high waters, but I'm not tall enough to wear normal jeans without heals and rarely do I want to get that dressed up. I came across this blog via Koala Brains and thought it was worth trying. What's cool about hemming jeans this way, is you get to keep the hem that's already there. I have to admit that usually I just wear my jeans extra long but since turning 32, I've decided I should probably stop dressing like a sloppy teenager. I'm not going to post a tutorial because I wouldn't be able to make the instructions any clearer.

Excuse the fingerprints on the mirror. It's my 4 year old's room I'm taking the picture in because it had the best lighting. I should have known.

Evening purse

2009-12-16T10:42:00.000-08:00

I attended another stitch-out class. In this class, we used our embroidery design software and we started with the letter "P". Using just that letter, we stretched it, duplicated it, rotated it and transformed it into our design. Then we stitched it out onto our fabric and made a small purse. What was neat about this project was it was done entirely in our embroidery hoop. Even the button holes on the back side. No sewing reqired. Can you see the "P's"

Mae doll

2009-11-02T14:07:00.000-08:00

My sister, Stephanie, had an emergency appendectomy the day before she and her husband were to be moving, because they had just bought a house. I had just gotten off work when I found out and had worked 108 hours that week. I was exhausted, but nothing was going to keep me from helping Stephanie. She watched Riley for two weeks when I was in the hospital the year I was pregnant with Nicholas. The good news was that my parents and one of my other sisters came up as well, so I got to give Carly her birthday present!

I wasn't able to take a picture of Carly with it. Maybe Heidi will be kind enough to do so and send me a picture. I hope she likes it. I've never sewn a doll before, so I am quite happy with it. The best part about this gift was it cost me about $2.00 to make. Don't let that fool you as to the qualitly of it. I'll definately be making more of these.

Christmas stockings

2009-10-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

I went to my first stitch out class at one of the semi-local fabric stores. This particular stitch out class is for people who have embroidery design software as well as an embroidery/sewing machine. I'm in still in the middle of taking my embriodery design software classes, but I have already done all the tutorials on my own, so the instructors invited me to class anyway. We were making Christmas stockings today. First we used our laptops and software to design what we wanted to embroider on the stockings.

Then we sent our design to our embroidery machine to stitch it out. I have a USB stick that I save my designs on and then just stick that into my embroidery machine.

Our next step was to sew the stocking together. I didn't get a picture of this part. I put piping on the cuff of the stocking, which I'd never done before. We also added a tassel and ribbon to hang it with.

These pictures were taken in very bad light, so it looks a lot better in person. I still have to get rid of some the aqua film stabilizer that you can see from where I embroidered.

I wasn't thrilled when I found out that this was the project we were doing, but I after working on it all day, I must say that I am thrilled with it. If I did it again, I would make a few minor changes with the embroidery colors, but overall, I like it a lot. So much so, that I bought supplies to make all the boys one. One will get one like mine, and two will get red ones. You know me...we've got to have coordinating Christmas stockings.

Carly's present

2009-10-14T14:31:00.000-07:00

I haven't been neglecting my sewing, just my blog. I haven't really sewn anything blog worthy lately...unless altering my husbands turnout jacket and pants for work counts. I've put those off as long as I could because altering them didn't interest me, but I guess that's the price I pay for having an incredibly supportive husband that lets me buy the sewing machine of my dreams and lets me sew to my hearts content.
I have sewn one thing I think is very blog worthy, but I can't post a picture until I wrap it up nice and my niece, Carly, opens it. Not that Carly would care...she's only a year old, but it's a surprise for my sister, Heidi, too. I am so happy with the way her gift turned out, having never sewn this before, and I've let Heidi know that I am pleased with it. I only hope I haven't hyped it up too much. It would be like seeing a movie everyone else loves so you have high expectations for it, so when you see it, it's actually a little disappointing because you thought it would be better. Regardless, here's a teaser picture of Carly's gift. I hope they both like it. I'll post a real picture of it after Carly opens it. Unfortunately, it may be a while.

Strike two

2009-10-01T17:43:00.000-07:00

I'm actually grateful I struck out on this refashion attempt. I attempted to refashion this tank top I found on clearance at Target into a girls summer dress, similar to this one. What I didn't realize was that the bust was gathered, so it looked funny after I took in the side seams and cut off the straps and the top of the bodice. So, no, I'm not going to finish this one either. What's the point, really? It wears funny, so I would never give it to anyone. Besides, I learned a lesson so it wasn't entirely in vain. The reason I'm grateful I struck out on this one was because I would rather have struck out on a clearance tank at Target, than the one I originally had in mind that cost me $18.

I didn't take an after picture, but here's the before. It had so much potential.

Photo shoot

2009-09-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

I've been working on my own boys tie pattern and after finalizing one of the sizes, wanted to take some pictures of Riley in one....He didn't

Refashion disaster

2009-09-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, maybe the word disaster is a bit harsh, but my first refashion definately didn't turn out as I had hoped, and I am acting like a two year old because I am not going to finish it. My idea was to turn these mens ties into ties for my boys.

I am working on, and have almost finished making my own boys tie pattern. I thought I would use that pattern as my template and that is whern I ran into my first problem because my tie pattern isn't made the same as these were, so I didn't have enough fabric to line the tie with. I thought about what to do for days, and it finally came to me as I was thinking in bed before falling asleep. A lot of the solutions to my sewing problems come to me this way. Glad to have that out of the way, I went on to make the tie.

Cutting the tie was harder than expected. Cutting silk is not like cutting cotton. But I didn't worry about it, and just thought I would be careful sewing it together and not worry too much about the lines not being cut exactly straight. That is where I messed up. Because I didn't cut the pattern out straight, I didn't sew it straight, so it's curved on one side. Not exactly a good look for a tie. So, here is my half done tie. My tie pattern is really two pieces.

Trying to look at the bright side, at least I only ruined one tie. I've still got another one I can try to refashion.

Made by Rae Jackpack Backpack GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-09-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to make this backpack and now Grosgrain is hosting it as a giveaway. It would be awesome if I could win it, so I wouldn't have to make it myself. I could finally scratch something off my to-do list.

Made by Rae Jackpack Backpack GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Putting my plan to work

2009-08-25T13:09:00.001-07:00

After signing up for wardrobe refashion, I decided that I don't really have anything in my closet that needs rafashioning. After recently donating some clothes to a local thrift store, I shouldn't have anything in my closet that I don't wear. Now, while we all know that women don't wear all of the clothes in their closets, I am still not ready to potentially ruin any of these said clothes that don't actually get worn in a wardrobe refashion attempt. So, I decided I needed to go thrift shopping for some items.

At the first store, I bought 2 mens ties to be refashioned into ties for my boys. The ties didn't have price tags on them, but I didn't think they'd be much money. They ended up being $2 each, which isn't expensive, but is the same price that it would have cost me to buy fabric to make them ties. I guess at least this way I get brownie points for reusing what's already out there. I also bought a big pink and white striped seersucker skirt for what I thought would make a great market skirt. In fact, I could probably get 2 or 3 market skirts out of this one skirt. Another dress later and I spent just over $10 at the first store, which isn't alot, but after Jenn only spent .99 cents on a very cute vintage pillowcase I was feeling like finding good deals thift shopping is a learned art.

I plan on refashioning these to fit the boys

I'm not entirely sure anymore what I'm going to do with the baby dress. I don't think I was thinking properly when I bought it, because it's a size 3-6 months. We'll see what I can come up with.

I did better at the second thrift store and found an awesome mens buttondown shirt for only .99 cents that looked brand new to make a mens shirt dress.

The third thrift store we went to was not a thift store I think is ideal for finding things to refashion, but finding things to actually wear as is. They only carried designer labels, but I didn't realize this until I found a tank top I badly wanted to refashion and upon looking at the price tag saw it was $18.00. I sadly put it back on the rack and continued to look. After going back twice to look at it, I decided to buy it even though it was expensive and I am just going to cut it up because this is the refashion that I am most excited about.

Taking pictures I realized why the tank was so expensive. It was brand new with the tags on it. Brand: Bebe Original Price: $64.00

Now, off I go now with scissors in hand and unpicker in the other to try and come up with some decent refashions.

I took the pledge

2009-08-22T21:09:00.001-07:00

After seeing all the things people make over at Wardrobe refashion, I finally decided to stop coming up with reasons why I shouldn't sign up and decided that maybe if I did sign up it might encourage me to actually try refashioning something....something other than a lightbulb box.

Making Pillowcases

2009-08-21T17:36:00.000-07:00

I taught another sewing lesson to some neighborhood girls and we made pillowcases. Kai joined up today for the first time. I wanted them to get more comfortable sewing straight lines and thought this project was perfect.

We used a rotary cutter and mat to cut our entire pattern. No scissors this time.

Kai ironing the contrasting band on her pillowcase

It was cute to see the girls reactions as they saw their pillowcases coming together. Class is two hours long, so I bought some scrap fabric and thought we could make fabric bookmarks if we had any spare time. Unfortunately, class actually ran a little late. Not quite sure why. I think maybe it's because I encouraged them to read the instructions and try to figure out what it was saying before I jumped on in and did it for them.

Kai with her finished pillowcase

Annake with her finished pillowcase

Here is the pattern we used. I'd say for the seamstress who is not learning, it would take 20 minutes to complete.

A giveaway

2009-08-19T01:22:00.000-07:00

My sister, Stephanie, had cataract surgery recently. I know what you may be thinking. No, I don't have a 70 year old sister. My sister and I, who are still relatively young at 31 years old, had cataracts. I was diagnosed with them when I was about 20 years old. However, it wasn't until I had my first son, Riley, that I felt like my vision was being compromised by them. I had my cataracts removed about 3 years ago and my sister, who was only diagnosed with cataracts recently, just had hers removed.
The location of our cataracts magnified the sun brightness. So much so, that our doctors said we were legally blind when ouside in the sun. Inside, it wasn't quite as bad, but we still couldn't do things like thread a sewing machine.
Cataract surgery is fairly routine. However, during the recovery, you aren't supposed to lift anything over 10 pounds. Hard to do when you're a young mother with small children. Stephanie's in-laws took her children for a week on two different occasions during her recovery. Our parents helped in their own way as well. Stephanie sewed a purse for her mother-in-law as a thank you. I really like this bag.

But it's not this purse she is giving away... it's this purse below, which is still really cute! This is the purse she made for our mother and she's giving another one away to a reader. So, head on over to the sewing room to see the details about the give away.

Pillowcases

2009-08-10T21:01:00.001-07:00

For my second sewing lesson with the girls, we are going to make pillowcases. I wanted to stick with something that was fairly easy with basic straight lines. I think this is perfect.

I love this fabric and am tempted to make matching sheets, but then again...I don't think either of my boys (or my husband) would want this on their bed.

Life with my boys

2009-08-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

You know how you start to get suspicious that your kids are up to something when it's just a little too quiet in the house? I wish I had that excuse. I'm always so happy to I hear them playing together, especially when I'm not in the room to enforce sharing. This time, I heard little whispers and giggles, apparently, about the mess they we're creating. Walking into the loft, I noticed that one of my ribbon drawers was open. Nothing to be concerned about, because the boys like to take my ribbon out and wind it up the lamp pole or something. A little closer, and I notice it's empty.

Where'd it go? I ask Riley. He says he doesn't know. I told him he needs to help me find it and he gives me a cheery "okay" and bounces down the stairs. That's when I got suspicious. Starting to follow him, I stop halfway realizing he's going into the living room,. I go back to the loft and peer down into the living room from the loft.

A little upset, but it could have been worse. I actually think it's a little funny. As I cross the loft, to head downstairs, I notice my pin magnet is empty.

My thoughts race as I envision all my little pins scattered among the living room, hiding in the crevices of the couch. I run downstairs, and step on something. I'll clean up whatever that was later. I have more important things to do right now. Then as I get into the living room I turn back around, and notice a dining room floor full of shiny pins. The dining room floor, that I just crossed. is full of pins. 87 to be exact and what was it I stepped on? A pin that was sticking straight up from the floor. I'm just grateful it was sharp side down.

Go USC!

2009-08-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

I've been in kind of a rut the last two days. I know that sewing will usually put me in a better mood (at least temporarily) but I also know I shouldn't work on anything right now that requires a lot of thinking. I've had some towels and ribbon sitting around for a while, and thought that hooded bath towels are pretty low on the thinking radar, and I have been meaning to make one for my friend's daughter now for months. I guess now's a good a time as any to make one.

My friends husband, and his entire family, are huge USC fans, though I don't quite get the hype. No one in his family even went to that school....at least go to the school. Regardless, because he's such a huge fan...so is she.

When I saw this USC ribbon, I immediately thought of them. So, I made their daughter a hooded bath towel using this ribbon. I hope Parker (and her dad) enjoy the bath towel.

I used this super easy pattern for the towels.

Sewing Headbands

2009-08-04T14:55:00.001-07:00

I started giving sewing lessons, and today was our first lesson. The girls, 3 of them, made super cute headbands. I didn't think to bring out my camera until after one of the girls left, but was able to get pictures of Annake and Aubrey sewing their headbands.

I couldn't have done it without the help of my friend, Mindy, who was there to help the girls and to sign for her niece, Aubrey, who is deaf. I actually took 3 semesters of sign language in college, but that was 10 years ago, and it would have been difficult, for me at least, to explain to the hearing girls and sign for Aubrey at the same time.

The girls with their finished headband! Such cute girls and they were great to work with. I don't think I was very patient when sewing at this age, and all the girls did such a great job!

You can find the FREE pattern here that we used. A great project for a beginner.

Cherry & Lace Giveaway

2009-08-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

My sister, Stephanie, over at The Sewing Room is having a give-away. I encourage any of you that have little girls to go check it out.

Nicholas' Blankets

2009-07-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

My mom made Nicholas a blanket that he loves. One side is minkee and the other satin. I love this blanket too. Something about the two different textures on each side, and both textures are pleasing to the touch.

I found some similar fabric while shopping with my mom, and I decided I wanted to try and make one too. I started, taking pictures as I was going, with the intentions of doing a tutorial, but halfway through decided I just wanted to finish the blanket and ditched the pictures. If I do another blanket, I'll post a tutorial.

I thought my hang-up would be the corners, but they really weren't hard.

He loves to pull the blankets over his head and play Peek-a-boo with them.

I was curious to know whether he would prefer one blanket over the other or one color over the other. I'm glad he doesn't. He's perfectly happy with either....or preferably both.

The Claire Dress

2009-07-27T11:42:00.000-07:00

I made this dress a while ago, but didn't have anyone in mind for it. I just thought the pattern was cute and wanted to try it. My niece, Sadie, finally fits into it, and I was able to get some pictures taken.

I made my own bias tape for the first time. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would have been. I appliquéd the cherries on it with my embroidery machine.

I also made the matching bow. You can find some similar ones here.

The ties are meant to resemble petals.

The Market Skirt

2009-07-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

Dana has a great tutorial out that is super cute, so I thought I'd share.

A long drive for fabric

2009-07-23T15:01:00.000-07:00

I have been neglecting this blog, but not on purpose. I have been on vacation and am starting to get settled back into my routine. I have been doing quite a bit of sewing as well, and can't wait to get pictures up of some of the things I've been making. Here's the fabric I bought on my 11 day vacation to Montana.

Gra Gra's little helper

2009-06-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

Every time my mom comes to visit, or the kids visit her, they make cookies. So, for Christmas, I made her chef hats; one for her and one toddler size for when she makes cookies with one of the grand kids. On this occasion, my mom came up one day to watch Riley and Nicholas while Jim and I were both working. Of course, they made cookies.

Gra Gra is Riley's word for Grandma

Guest Blogger - Lessons Learned

2009-06-08T14:08:00.001-07:00

My sister, Stephanie and I have come a long way with sewing, but still make mistakes, and thought it might be nice if someone else could learn from our mistakes.

Lessons Learned - Patchwork Pants
By Stephanie

I wasn't planning for this sewing project to be a "lessons learned" experience, so I don't have pictures to go with this other than the finished pair of pants.

I have always wanted to make a pair of patchwork pants, so when I saw this totally CuTE Moda fabric, Clementine, I decided to give it a try. I have made several pairs of pants and in my opinion, they are about the easiest thing to sew. However, I’ve never made a patchwork pair, and I didn’t have a pattern, but I figured, “How hard could it be?” I bought a charms pack that had different fabrics from that fabric line already cut into 5 inch squares. The thing I was scared about the most was having the corners all match up when I sew, so if I didn’t have to cut the fabric into squares myself, that would help. That was one less thing for me to mess up on.

When making a store bought pattern, always measure your child, because 9 times out of 10 they will not be the same size they are in store bought clothing. For example; Sadie wears a size 18 months store bought clothes, and I made theses pants a size 6 months for her.

I started sewing the pieces together, and found that it wasn’t hard at all to have all the corners line up. I used a walking foot on my sewing machine, and I’m not sure if that helped or not, but in the end, all but 2 corners were perfect, and the 2 that weren’t were less than 1/8 inch off.

The first thing I noticed that I should have done differently is buy 2 charm packs instead of 1. There were 42 squares in 1 pack, more than enough squares to make a pair of pants, but I didn’t want to use every single square. Some fabric squares were brighter than others, or I just didn’t want to use a particular color. Also in a charm pack, they may give you only 1 square of a particular fabric (most likely the one that you wish you had 3 of) and other times they may give you 2. So, if you buy more, you’ll have more choices for fabric placement. I used the fabric squares that I liked the best for the front of the pants and the back of the pants were the leftovers.

The second thing I did wrong (if you can’t tell from the picture) is when placing the pattern on the fabric. I placed the pattern piece directly going down the middle of the seam where I sewed the squares together. Because the pants weren’t that big, when sewing the side and middle seams together, the squares got cut off and now look like rectangles. So, my suggestion when making a pair of patchwork pants, place the outside seam of the pants as far as you can to the end of a set of squares, not in the middle of them.

Other than that, I still think they kind of turned out cute. It makes me want to try again though, and see if I can conquer the patchwork pants. I’m thinking a cute 4th of July fabric this time.

To sum it up:
Tip #1. When making a store bought pattern, always measure your child, because 9 times out of 10 they will not be the same size they are in store bought clothing. (This wasn't a lesson learned, but a nice tip for someone new to sewing patterns.)

Tip #2. Buy 2 charm packs (or at least make sure that it comes with enough of the fabric’s you want to use).

Tip #3. When making a pair of patchwork pants, place the outside seam of the pants as far as you can to the end of a set of squares, not in the middle of them, so you get squares, and not rectangles.

Church ties

2009-06-03T16:13:00.000-07:00

I made ties for the boys. The baseball one was the first one I made, so don't look too closely, because it's not even at the point. I realized this, and noticed it was the pattern, and not me, so I fixed it on the other one.

Don't look at the knot too closely either. I don't know how to tie a tie, and Jim wasn't home to do it for me. I was lucky Nicholas let me put the tie on him, I wasn't going and try to chance my luck by changing him into church clothes as well as trying to put the tie on him.

I think next time I do a tie, I am going to disassemble one of the ties I bought for the boys at The Children's Place that is pre-tied and you just clip it in the back,and use it as a pattern. I think the boys do better letting me put those kind on.

The Apron Jumper

2009-05-30T12:29:00.001-07:00

My sister and I have a new ebook out on the website youcanmakethis. You can check it out by clicking on the pictures, or by clicking on the picture on the sidebar. Eventually it will get in our Etsy store, but for now, it's just going to be available on the you can make this website.

Burp cloths

2009-05-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

I was so excited when I got this Robert Kaufman flannel.

I finally got some burp cloths made.

I also got some some cute coordinating hibiscus print.

You can find them at my etsy shop!

Inspired!

2009-05-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

I have been inspired! Dana makes me want to sew. I know I sew here and there, when I have a baby shower or a last minute christmas gift. But, I have a list that only keeps getting longer of things I want to sew, curtains for the bathroom, big pillows for the loft, an apron that should have gone with my mom's Christmas gift, but time ran out, just to name a few. I have decided I need to get back into the swing of things. Here's the first project I tackled. Nothing fancy, and very easy. The boys got a wagon for Christmas and they love it! I wanted to make a cushion for it so they wouldn't have to sit on the hard wood. Yes, there's a reason why I did two cushions instead of just one, but that's another story for another day.

First I made a pattern from the foam

Then I hemmed the ends

I sewed the side seams on one half of the cushion

Sew the corners. I didn't take a good picture of this. You need to open the corner up and lay it going the other way, then sew.

Turn it right side out, it will look like this

repeat with the other half

Finished!

Who am I

2009-05-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, I am Stacie; a tomboy at heart and mother of two. After that, it pretty much depends on what website you're on. I started out as Jack and Jill designs on Ebay with my co-conspirator in nearly everything I do; my sister, Stephanie. We have also made a couple of ebooks that are available on the website youcanmakethis.com under that name. It is on this website, that we will forever be Jack and Jill Designs. After Stephanie had a baby girl and started making bows for her, Never Enough Bows was created.
When we opened our Etsy account, we decided to go with the name Sadie James, after a member of each of our families, and we changed our Ebay name as well.

A little about about me.
First, I have a tendancy to ramble. I will try to keep my entries "to the point".
Second, I dispatch part time for the local fire dept. Sometimes I think it would be fun to have a separate blog where I could post some of the calls we get. Of course, I would not reveal any names to protect the innocent, but mostly the stupid. You would be amazed at what people call the fire dept for.
Third, I have two boys, which is a little ironic, because I mostly sew girl stuff. I think it's harder to come up with cute and original boy ideas, but I'm trying!

Tutorials

2009-04-20T13:22:00.000-07:00

Holiday dishtowels
It doesn't take much to dress up some dishtowels. With these, I found some holiday fabric, then cut them into strips, and ironed all the raw edges in about 1/4 inch. Then I pinned the fabric to the towel where I wanted it and stitched. Super easy and the I love the way they turned out.

Cushion cover
I have been inspired! Dana makes me want to sew. I know I sew here and there, when I have a baby shower or a last minute christmas gift. But, I have a list that only keeps getting longer of things I want to sew, curtains for the bathroom, big pillows for the loft, an apron that should have gone with my mom's Christmas gift, but time ran out, just to name a few. I have decided I need to get back into the swing of things. Here's the first project I tackled. Nothing fancy, and very easy. The boys got a wagon for Christmas and they love it! I wanted to make a cushion for it so they wouldn't have to sit on the hard wood. Yes, there's a reason why I did two cushions instead of just one, but that's another story for another day.

First I made a pattern from the foam