Choose My BLACK & WHITE Fabric

Alright everyone, we're officially done with the rainbow! So what now? I'm going to post some fabrics with certain popular color pairings, since I have quite a few with similar colors! First up is that classic combo, black and white. I *LOVE* black and white, I love that you can add a little burst of any color to black and white and it looks amazing.

So, you know the drill, tell me which fabric you like best. Whichever fabric you help me pick (I'll choose whichever gets the most votes), I'm going to have to use it ALL up...that means NO leftover scraps like I usually have. Most of what I make will likely end up for sale in my Etsy shop.

Once I've used it all up, I'll choose something I made with the chosen fabric to give away! Here are this week's fabric choices:


Click on the image for a closer look! I've included a quarter to give you some sense of scale.

The first is a sweet floral pattern, I have less than a yard of that one. The second stripe fabric does actually have some color in it, but it's mostly black and white. And the third is a damask. (Notice a pattern? Lol...I seem to always have a damask, clearly I love the stuff!)

All you need to do to enter the giveaway is:
*Leave a comment with your VOTE on which fabric I should use up this week or which one is your favorite, and

*Include an EMAIL ADDRESS where I can contact you should you win, (US and Canada residents only, sorry!). You can do this either by

1. Making sure your email is available through your blogger profile. (See here for help with that)



2. Leaving your email address in your comment.



3. Emailing me at mllevaleur (at) hotmail (dot) com with your email address, subject line "Giveaway email"



4. OR if I know you from a forum somewhere, leave your SCREEN NAME so I know who you are!

If I can't find a way to contact you, I'll just have to pick someone else, so make sure to do one of the above! :-)

I'll choose the winner randomly from among those who voted for the winning fabric, since I'd hate to send someone an item made from a fabric they don't love!

Please submit your vote before Saturday evening at midnight (central time). I'll update this post with the winning fabric on Sunday, and then get to work! Check back at the latest on Friday to see what I've made, and of course to see who has won the giveaway and what they won!

Choose my fabric! :-)

UPDATE: And the winner is #1, thanks for voting! Check back before Friday to see what was created and who won the giveaway. :-)

Purple Fabric Creations and Winner

I don't know about y'all, but for some reason I still get excited when I see all the shiny new back-to-school supplies in stores! Blank notebooks, new pens, pretty folders...I just want to buy them all, even though I don't really have a reason to, lol. So, I was inspired this week with a back-to-school theme!

First, the giveaway...


some lovely bookmarks!

One with a cute little button,


and one with a fun ruffle.


On top of that, the winner also gets a cool corner bookmark!


Isn't that fun? Here's the back..


That's 3 bookmarks for the winner! I made plenty more which are all up for sale in my shop.


Next I decoupaged a wooden box.


I love the simplicity and ease of simply covering up a plain box with pretty fabric!


I have several of these, I use them for pens, pencils, scissors, etc.


This one is up for sale in my shop here.

Next up, I made 4 super-purple notebook covers!


I tried out a new elastic strap closure this time, which I'm quite pleased with!

I need to make myself a new notebook cover soon (I have mine with me ALL the time and use it constantly) and I think I'm going to make myself one with the elastic strap, love it. All 4 are waiting patiently in my Etsy shop to be taken to their new home.

Finally, back to decoupage, I prettied up a plain old clipboard!



So easy to do and it looks SO much better. This is also up for sale in my shop!

Now for the winner...

CHARITY!! Congrats! :-) I'll be contacting you shortly to get your address.

Thanks all, the next round will be posted some time tomorrow!

Choose My PURPLE Fabric!

I'm back! I had a lovely vacation in Florida, saw the last space shuttle launch, went to visit Hogwarts in Orlando, lol, and had a great time relaxing. I'm definitely ready to get back to sewing, though! This week we're moving onto purple, the last of our rainbow colors.

So, you know the drill, tell me which fabric you like best. Whichever fabric you help me pick (I'll choose whichever gets the most votes), I'm going to have to use it ALL up...that means NO leftover scraps like I usually have. Most of what I make will likely end up for sale in my Etsy shop.

Once I've used it all up, I'll choose something I made with the chosen fabric to give away! Here are this week's fabric choices:


Click on the image for a closer look! I've included a quarter to give you some sense of scale.

The first is a lovely floral/paisley fabric. The second is a purple poppy fabric, I love this fabric but only have less than a yard left. The third is a fun purple damask, of which I have about a yard.

All you need to do to enter the giveaway is:
*Leave a comment with your VOTE on which fabric I should use up this week or which one is your favorite, and

*Include an EMAIL ADDRESS where I can contact you should you win, (US and Canada residents only, sorry!). You can do this either by

1. Making sure your email is available through your blogger profile. (See here for help with that)



2. Leaving your email address in your comment.



3. Emailing me at mllevaleur (at) hotmail (dot) com with your email address, subject line "Giveaway email"



4. OR if I know you from a forum somewhere, leave your SCREEN NAME so I know who you are!

If I can't find a way to contact you, I'll just have to pick someone else, so make sure to do one of the above! :-)

I'll choose the winner randomly from among those who voted for the winning fabric, since I'd hate to send someone an item made from a fabric they don't love!

Please submit your vote before Saturday evening at midnight (central time). I'll update this post with the winning fabric on Sunday, and then get to work! Check back at the latest on Friday to see what I've made, and of course to see who has won the giveaway and what they won!

Choose my fabric! :-)

UPDATE: It was a close race between #1 and #3, but #1 is the winner! Check back before Friday to see what I've made and who the giveaway winner is. Thanks for playing!

Fabric Love!!

Ok, I'm still trying to stay on my fabric diet and I've been doing well. BUT, I saw this fabric recently and just had to buy some!!! How could I resist??











Can't wait to figure out a use for this!

Toile Meal Planner

I recently decided I needed something to help me with my meal planning. I tend to put it off because, for me, the hardest part is just making decisions! It's mentally exhausting. On top of that, each time I sit down I have to recall what my choices are as far as meals go, and then remember all the ingredients needed, and then make a grocery list accordingly. It's mentally taxing to try to remember everything from scratch!

So, I decided first to take regular notecards, and write down all of my most common meals, along with the ingredients needed to make them.


These weren't recipe cards, I don't have instructions on them...just the name of the dish, and the ingredients. I bought an inexpensive plastic notecard box at an office store to store the cards in.

Then I bought some vinyl, cut it in strips, used binding tape on the edges and sewed it to some fabric to make clear pockets for the cards.


I made six rows of 4 pockets, and in the first slot I placed a card with the day of the week on it.


And finally, sewed a few loops of ribbon along the top for hanging.


Now, all I have to do when it's time to plan meals is to flip through my box of notecards, rather than trying to recall every meal I make, and place them in the slots for each day. So much quicker! This also allows me to see the ingredients needed at a glance, so I can use them to make my grocery list.

Since I made my meal planner I haven't put off planning the meals, it's much less taxing on my brain! And of course, I always love another excuse to hang some more pretty fabric somewhere. :-)

RED, WHITE, and BLUE Creations and Winner

Goodness this week has been crazy! I had several orders to get done and/or ship before heading off to Florida this weekend, so I was a bit swamped. And here I am blogging Saturday evening when I haven't even begun to pack, ha! So typical of me to procrastinate as long as humanly possible!

Alright, let's get to it...the giveaway item this week:


A fan! I figured it was a great thing to have during summer, reminded me of outdoor July 4th fun. :-)



I'm very hot-natured in general, and I'm sure most of my real life friends could tell you they see me with a fan in my hand pretty frequently - so much nicer than scrambling for a piece of paper which doesn't work all that well, and they fit so nicely in a purse. Ever since I got a fan, I honestly don't leave home without it, it's been a life saver for me more times than I can count, especially during this sweltering 100+ degree Texas heat!


So what else did I make? What were my big plans?

I was in the mood to make myself something, so I made myself...


a skirt! And not just any skirt, but one that was big and fluffy and voluminous. :-) This is basically a double circle skirt, with a few reverse box pleats, so it used a LOT of fabric.



It also has a pocket in the seam, pockets are so easy to do and sooo useful that I can't help adding them!


It used so much, that this is all I made, lol! Nothing for my shop this time, but one fun skirt for me, just in time to take on our trip. :-) I plan to wear it on the 4th, so here I am trying it out.


Now, I have to confess I did not use up all my bits and pieces of scraps this time! I just completely ran out of time and needed to get a million and a half things done before we leave, but hopefully I'll be able to use them up sometime when I get back! I did use the great majority of the fabric.

Alright, so who won the fan?
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KELLY! Congrats, I'll be sending you an email shortly. I'll probably have to wait until I'm back from vacation to send it off to you, just FYI.

Alright, time to pack!! I plan to make a couple blog posts while on vacation, but the Great Fabric Destash Series will be on hold until I get back. I hope you all have a happy and safe 4th of July!!