creative

Sew What! – Project Two

Angela Pea1 Comment

I’ve joined my bloggy friend Cynthia from The Sewing Dork, and her friend Michelle from Until Wednesday Calls for Sew What!, a summer sew-along.  Participants pick their fabric and tackle the challenge projects.   The second projects assigned was to make a bag/ purse/ clutch and decorate it with words.

Admittedly, I stretched the definition of “bag” for this project, and turned out a new clothespin bag for the clothesline!  I really needed a new on, as my current one had a big hole in the bottom and was spewing pins all over the lawn. 
As you can see, this is actually an apron, but since its purpose is to hold and carry pins, technically, it’s a bag. Or a very large pocket.  I used the tutorial here at My Byrd House to make this.  The changes I made were to make the back of the bag out of two layers of fabric back-to-back for more stability, and to make bias tape ties instead of a waistband.
As for the word art, I cut out letters on the bias and simply stitched them on with a running stitch in heavy quilters thread.  I’m hoping that they fray a little for some textural interest.
The entire project is made from stash materials – in fact, I used up every smidgen of the funky geometric print!

Angela Pea

healthy

Back in the Saddle and Running Again

Angela Pea1 Comment
Holy Cow, last week and this have been a bear.  I had a HUGE project at work to finish that consumed every waking moment and entailed several last minute revisions from the client and lots of overtime for me and my team.  Grrrr – I work very hard at keeping ahead of design schedules so that we don’t get into a panic situation at the end of  project with a deadline looming.  It’s so frustrating when changes get tossed in at the eleventh hour.
That said, I didn’t get a whole lot of exercise in, other than quick 30 minute breaks during the day to run down to the gym, spend 20 minutes on the treadmill and then 10 minutes cleaning up. I held steady, and despite the stress, lost another pound.  We wrapped up and delivered review sets today, so I came home early and went to the Y with my daughters.  Now I have a confession.
I really, REALLY like running on those super nice high tech treadmills with built in televisions.
There I said it.  It is SO much easier to run on a treadmill than to run outside, especially when the thermometer is showing triple digits and the heat index is hovering around 110 degrees. I easily ran for two miles tonight.  Can I have one of those machines at home?

skinnyap

creative

Sew What! – the First Project PHOTO!

Angela Pea1 Comment


I’ve joined my bloggy friend Cynthia from The Sewing Dork, and her friend Michelle from When Wednesday Calls for Sew What!, a summer sew-along.  Participants pick their fabric and tackle the challenge projects.   The first project was a skirt, and my chosen fabric is cotton.  I made the skirt and then it left for a while, but Teen Daughter #2 has FINALLY returned to the fold, laundered her skirt and took five minutes to model it for my camera.  What a trooper!

Please Note – something this tiny only works if you are sixteen years old. If you need a little more coverge, head over to the Flickr album and see all the AMAZING denim skirts.  I especially like this one from Michelle.

How easy is this?  Peasy kind of easy.  Open the inseam of a pair of jeans.  Lay flat, and add an insert.  Finish the hem.  Here is a great tutorial, complete with pictures.  Here is a fantastic tutorial from the excellent crew over at Threadbanger.

Angela Pea