Aux Belles Choses

Tidying Up

2012-01-17T11:15:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm always at my most creative when everything is neat and tidy. I just love for everything to have a home, especially if that home is arranged by color, hehe. During the frenzy of making Christmas orders and Christmas gifts, often my leftover scraps and bits get thrown in a pile once I'm done so I can start on the next project ASAP. I really hate doing that, and when I'm not in such a hurry I usually clean up in between projects, but I just didn't have time. So I was eager to get started on cleaning up my crafting room after the flurry of activity.

You've seen my fabric shelf before, I've done well keeping it nice and tidy. My next project, I decided, was going to be my crafting closet. I keep all my crafting supplies in here, but they had grown and it just looked like a mess. Here are some before pics:

So I went to Ikea and got some nice new drawers!

I separated everything by category and moved things around a bit, and here is my newly organized closet:

I love it! It makes me smile, AND seeing my room all neat and clean and my supplies all organized gives me that itch to create something. Can't wait to share whatever that ends up being with you. :-)

It's a New Year!

2012-01-07T21:25:00.006-06:00

Hello all, wow December flew by without a single post, ha! I was SOOOO busy filling orders, and then of course making gifts right up to the very last minute. (I'm not kidding, Christmas morning I was still finishing a couple things up before heading over to see the family!)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, I'll be taking down my tree tomorrow, always a little bittersweet. (We keep ours up through Epiphany, after all that work I'm going to celebrate all 12 days of Christmas, thank you very much!) So any favorite gifts this year, whether handmade or not? I was so excited to finally get a Kitchenaid stand mixer this year! With a combination of points from our credit card, a great sale on cyber Monday (thanks Amazon!) and rebates, out of pocket I paid $35 for my new pro Kitchenaid, how cool is that? Here's my awesome setup for it!

I also got a great surprise gift from the hubs, a Kindle touch! I already had an older kindle version and LOVE it, but I love this one even more. Plus, I got a great hot pink cover for it, woohoo! :-)

As for gifts I made, for the nephews and nieces I went a little pillow crazy, ha. I was at Ikea and ended up getting 10 of those 99 cent pillows! I wasn't 100% sure what I was going to be doing with them, then I found some great ideas. I'd seen a pin on pinterest for a kind of pillow mattress for kids to lay on, and thought that was great. Then I found this tutorial, and ended up using it to make this:

Another pillow idea I'd seen was a travel pillow, which I thought would be perfect for my nieces who have an hour's drive to school and back with my sis every day! I used this tutorial as a jumping off point, but just made an envelope style pillowcase instead and made these for 2 of my nieces and one of my nephews. I added an initial on each one, and stuck a few goodies in the pockets, of course. :-)

Finally, for one of my sisters and my aunt, I made some of these fun ruffly scarves using this tutorial. I wanted a little bit of color contrast in mine, and I love how they turned out.

As for yummy goodies, DH and I had fun making some Peppermint cake pops and oreo pops, good stuff!

I've enjoyed a nice bit of time off from sewing, but I think I'm about ready to jump back in. I am usually at my most creative when everything is nice and tidy, so I bet you can guess what I've been up to in the interim, ha! I'll be posting about that soon, as well as an idea I have for a series this year.

I'll bid one last Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for this year, here's to 2012.

Ruffle Tissue Holder Tutorial

2011-11-30T11:42:00.016-06:00

Wow, where did November go!?!? Ok, so I planned on 4 tutorials this month and only got around to doing 3, but I've just been swamped with Christmas orders. That's a good thing, I'm certainly not complaining!

So a while back I promised a tutorial for tissue holders with RUFFLES! I love these, anything with layers and ruffles playing peekaboo just makes me smile. So, let's get started, shall we? (Apologies in advance for fuzzy pics, it was a race against the setting sun, lol, so my light wasn't great.)

Here is what you'll need:

2 or 3 coordinatings fabrics

Heat 'n Bond Lite (you'll be sewing through this) or some double sided fusible interfacing or adhesive, not too heavy

Double Fold bias tape

rotary cutter and cutting mat

scissors for trimming

iron

Alright, to start you're going to need to cut your exterior and interior fabrics, which will be 6" x 7". You need 2 of these per tissue holder. You could use the same fabric inside and out, but I just love to see a surprise fabric when I peek inside, so I always use two different fabrics!

Next, you'll cut out the fabric for the ruffle, which is going to be 2" x 9". This could be a 3rd coordinating fabric, or it can match the inside. You do want it to contrast against the exterior fabric for a nice pop of color, so keep that in mind when choosing.

I typically make tissue holders in batches, so usually I'll cut a long 2" strip...

fold it in half and press...

and then cut it into 9" strips.

Next, cut your adhesive or interfacing, you need one 6" x 7" piece per tissue holder.

Now you should have all the pieces read to go.

Next, press the pieces so they are wrinkle free, and then take your interior fabric and iron on the adhesive side to the WRONG side of the fabric.

Once it has cooled, peel off the paper...

and then place the exterior fabric on top of the adhesive side of the interior fabric, wrong sides facing. Fuse the two pieces together with your iron.

Now, you should have a double sided piece of fabric.

Next, cut two 6" pieces of bias tape, these will give a nice finish to the edges.

Take one of the pices of bias tape, and sew it onto one of the 6" edges.

To create the ruffle, run a gathering stitch along the long raw edge of the ruffle fabric, about a 1/4" from the edge.

Take your fused fabric pieces, exterior side up, and gather the ruffle until it fits exactly on the 6" side of the fabric that doesn't have bias tape. You may want to keep most of the ruffle towards the center, leaving the fabric flat on either end as you'll be stitching over it, like this.

You can pin the ruffle, or if you're lazy like me just kind of hold it as you go, making sure to line it all up well in the process. I did pin it here, mostly because I needed my free hand for the camera. ;-)

Next you'll sew the ruffle to the exterior side of the fused fabric. I usually stitch about half way in between the gathering stitch and the edge, just make sure to catch all your fabric in there!

Once you've done that, trim as close as you can to the stitches, and pull out the gathering threads.

Now you're going to sew on the other piece of bias tape onto the raw edge, over the ruffle and the fabric. It will be a little thick, just try to make sure to cover your stitches with the bias tape (that's why it was trimmed closely). You can pin the bias tape on if you'd like, but I find that more cumbersome than going without, personally.

Stitch the bias tape along the edge.

And you should have something like this!

We're almost done! :-) Now, take the edge WITHOUT the ruffle and fold it in about 1 3/4".

Then, take the edge WITH the ruffle and fold it on top, so that it overlaps about 1/4" - 1/2".

I usually take a peek inside to see if I have it lined up like I want.

I like the top edge to be as close to centered as possible. Feel free to do it differently, that's just my preference. Once you have it lined up how you want, again you can pin or not, I never do, you're just going to stitch over your whole fabric sandwhich on one side.

I typically go over the corners and center part (where you'll have a hump) 2 or 3 times just to make sure it doesn't come undone.

Since I usually do these in batches, most of the time I make a chain and just do one side of several at once, then start at the other end of the chain and do the other side. It goes much more quickly than doing one at a time!

Alright, once you've stitched both sides, trim the edges...

and then, my FAVORITE part!! You're going to turn it right side out, I usually do one side...

then poke the corners out a bit (but not too hard, you don't want to make a hole!)...

And then I flip the other side, do the same to the corners, et voila!

Stick a pack of tissues inside, and you're all done!

Admire your handiwork. Wasn't that fun? :-)

These make GREAT little gifts for secret santa exchanges, stocking stuffers, or just as a little something special for yourself. ;-)

Flower Magnet Tutorial

2011-11-11T08:00:00.002-06:00

Welcome to another fun tutorial! Last time we made magnet boards, this time we're going to make something you can put on a magnet board...some flower magnets!

Normally I'd just make some fabric covered button magnets to use with the magnet boards.

These are so easy, you just use the fabric covered button kits from your local craft store, break off the metal loop on the back, and glue a magnet there instead.

But I got a request from someone on Etsy to make flower magnets, and we both loved the result!

So, here is what you'll need...

*Fabric (these are perfect for using up tiny scraps!)
*Needle and thread
*Magnets(I just used some round ceramic magnets, on the package the strength says 6 out of 10...they are pretty strong!)
*Buttons
*Glue (I used Krazy glue, but hot glue would likely work just as well)
*Flower template (I just drew a 6 petal flower, about 2 inches wide, on some cardstock and cut it out. Doesn't need to be perfect!If that scares you though, you can always find some clipart that will work as a template, something like this.)

First you'll want to iron your fabrics so they're nice and crisp. I pretty heavily starched mine as well, makes them much easier to handle while cutting.

Then, take your flower template

and trace onto the back of your fabric.

Yes, I'm bad and use a regular old pen, but when I have a working fabric pen close by I'll use that too. ;-)

I usually trace once, and then try to fold the fabric as much as I can so that one cut yields several flowers. Here I folded it once...

and then twice.

Cut your flowers out.

You'll need 5 flowers per magnet, one will be the base, and the other 4 are going to be folded on top to create some texture. The 4 folded ones I usually cut every two "petals" so that there is a bit more movement.

The base one is left uncut.

You'll see that with the pink flowers, I'm using two different fabrics to add a little bit of depth, one for the base and then two of each fabric for the folded part.

For the yellow flowers, I just used the same fabric, so feel free to play around and see what you like. :-)

Fold each flower in half, and place two of them side by side, like so:

Place these on top of your base flower.

Then take another folded flower, and slip it under one of them.

Take the other folded flower, and slip it under the other one on the opposite side.

This is your basic flower, now you just need to sew it together. You're going to take your needle and thread, and make sure you grab onto each petal with it.

Side note: I saw a great tip somewhere on how to start a thread easily without having to manually tie a knot, and I wish I could find it again but I can't! Basically, just wrap the thread a few times around the needle, kind of grab the wrapped needle with the fabric, push the needle through, squeezing the looped thread with your fingers, and when you pull the thread tight that should give you a nice knot on the back to start your sewing job. It's much easier to understand with pics, but hopefully that helps a little.

Alright, so make sure to sew through each petal.

Once you're sure the petals are secure, add a button...

or two. :-)

Secure your thread on the back

and you're done sewing! You should have a lovely little flower.

Now all that is left is gluing it to a magnet. I used krazy glue, because I'm not so great with the glue gun!

I just put a good amount on the magnet

and then applied pressure for a good 20-30 seconds.

Once I could see it was sticking well, I stuck it on a metal surface, flower side down, so that the magnet is kind of helping to apply pressure to the glue while it dries. Leave it there so the glue sets nicely while you make other flowers. ;-)

And that's it, you're done! :-)

These went on a lovely floral magnet board, I think they make the flowers look like they are popping off the print!

Soooo many possibilities for scraps! These are fast and easy, and oh so pretty. Hope you enjoy making them as much as I do, go wild! :-)

Fabric Covered Magnet Board Tutorial

2011-11-02T21:22:00.015-05:00

With the holidays coming up, I thought it would be fun to have a series of tutorials during the month of November! I know I'm always looking for new things to make for holiday gifts, so I hope these tutorials give you a few little ideas. :-) I'm going to aim for posting one a week during November.

This is my first tutorial ever, so I hope it's clear and easy to follow! Please let me know if you have any questions. In this tutorial I'm going to show you how I made the magnet boards for the Bird Fabric challenge several weeks ago.

Here is what you'll need:

1 burner cover (check the dollar store or local discount/thrift store)

Spray paint (optional, but recommended if your fabric is light colored)

Fabric large enough to cover burner cover

Mod Podge or any decoupage glue

Paint brush or sponge to apply glue

Scissors (preferably fabric scissors for a nice clean cut!)

Coordinating ribbon to hang

Drill or some way to make holes

Sandpaper to smooth edges of holes

Decorative magnets (I'm planning on making a tutorial for some lovely magnets soon!)

First, you'll need to make holes along the top rim of the burner cover. Obviously the one I used here is square, so I just centered them, but most covers you'll find are round and the great thing about those is you can't really go wrong with the hole placement. I just eyeballed it and made some marks with a permanent marker, and then I had the hubby help me drill holes, lol, because I'm not so good with the power tools!

Once your holes are made, use the sandpaper to make sure you don't have any sharp edges around the holes. (If you're good with a drill, you can try to take any sharp pieces off with it, but proceed with caution or you might end up with bigger holes than you intended!)

If your fabric is light colored and you think the pattern on the burner cover might show through, it's a good idea to spraypaint them before covering them. If that won't be a problem, feel free to skip this step!

I just used some matte white spray paint, laid the covers on some newspaper in my garage and went to town...

First coating...

Second coating looked good to me! (NOTE! Be sure to spraypaint in a well ventilated area, this stuff can get stinky.)

Once you're sure the paint is all dry, we can start decoupaging!

First, you'll need to make sure your fabric is the right size. I just traced around the burner cover, and then measured the width of the edge, and added that to what I traced. (Sometimes only visually because I'm lazy, but remember it's better to have too much fabric than too little!)

Once your fabric is cut and ready to go, try to center the cover and make sure you have enough fabric around by folding up each side, like so...

If you have a round burner cover, I'd start by gluing to the face of the cover first, being sure to center it well, and then going around the edges. With the square cover, I found lining up the top edge first was easier, so that's what I'll be showing here.

Starting at the top where the holes are, apply glue. As for how much, you don't want there to be tons so that the fabric is swimming in glue because then it won't stick quickly. Just a nice thin coat!

Then making sure to line up the edge of the fabric so that it is just under the lip, press the fabric down and make sure there are no wrinkles or bubbles.

With the square cover, clearly you'll have to navigate the corners. After gluing the fabric to the top edge, it should look something like this...

What I found to work best was to just cut the fabric on the natural curve..

resulting in a flap...

and then glue the flap around the corner.

Do this on both of the top corners.

Next you'll be gluing the fabric to the face of the burner cover, so flip it over and peel back the fabric as far as it will go.

Apply a strip of glue...

And then press the fabric down, smoothing out any wrinkles or bubbles.

Repeat the process again, applying another strip of glue and pressing down, continuing until the whole face is covered with fabric.

For the bottom edge, you'll probably have a bit of fabric overhang so you'll need to trim the fabric down.

You could try to measure and trim that way, but I'm lazy so I just used a pen to mark where the crease is.

Here's a view of under the fabric, so you can see where I'm placing the pen.

Once you have your line drawn, cut along that line...

And you can see that it should fit perfectly.

Once that has been glued, cut the corner flaps on the bottom edge, and glue them like you did on the top edge.

Now all you should have left to glue is the the sides. You may have some overhang, again, so mark and trim that if necessary.

Next you'll apply glue all along the side, and press the fabric down, paying special attention to the corners.

You might need to add some extra glue and manipulate the fabric a bit, but there's no right way to glue it down. Just kind of play with it and fold it until it settles and sticks.

The perfectionist in you may say, "Ack! It's not perfect!" but tell her to hush. ;-) It's going to look fab!

Repeat the process on all 4 corners.

At this point, if you see any little threads sticking up or bits of tiny overhang, you can try to use your nail to just push them down between the crease.

If you'd like, you can then apply a coat of glue all over the fabric to give it a harder-feeling exterior. I tried both ways, and I ended up liking the softness of the fabric, so I didn't do it for this one, but feel free if you want to!

Finally, you'll need to cut holes in the fabric to match the holes you made in the cover. Use anything sharp, a pair of scissors works fine. You might want to hold onto the fabric where it is glued along the seam as you poke the hole, because it will tend to get pulled and want to come unglued. If it does, just dab a little glue under the fabric and press to stick it back in place.

Once you've made the holes, you can just apply some glue on the backside and press any loose threads down so that they dry flat. I also used a pen that fit through the holes to kind of push any unruly fabric to the back and press it down there.

Once the glue is dry, take the ribbon you'd like to use, and cut a nice corner so it will be easier to thread through the hole. Pull it through one side...

and out the other...

and then pull however much ribbon you want through both holes, being careful not to dislodge the fabric in and around the holes.

Once you're happy with the amount of ribbon, pull it tight against the edge...

then tie a pretty bow, trim your ribbon's edges, and you're done!

Grab some magnets (or wait for my next tutorial where I'll show you how to make some pretty ones!), stick some stuff on your magnet board, and you're good to go. :-)

Phew! That was a lot of pictures, lol, but it was fun! I hope this helps you out a bit, it would make a great gift for Christmas. :-) Of course, if you love the idea but don't want to do the work, I have several in my Etsy shop available, and plan to add many more in some fabulous fabrics very soon. (I find decoupage so therapeutic!)

Do let me know if you have any questions or if something wasn't clear.

Happy crafting!

Fabric Destash Finale Winners!

2011-10-25T11:20:00.006-05:00

Thanks so much for all your comments, I loved hearing what your favorite things were. I've enjoyed this series, and it has definitely helped make a nice dent in my fabric stash!

Here is what my fabric shelf looked like before:

And here is what it looks like now:

See that? There is space on top of each shelf, lol!

You can actually see the fun pink stripes on the back of the shelf now, yay. :-D

I love having that room to grow, BUT I plan on keeping that room there, and not just filling it up again. ;-)

Alright, now for the winners of the fabric giveaway....

REDS - Regina
PINKS - Andrea
ORANGES - Angela
AQUAS - Elisabeth
BLUES - Charity
PURPLES - Amanda
BLACKS - Autumn

Congrats to all of you! I'll be sending out emails shortly to get the addresses I don't have.

I have one last little surprise for all my readers, if you'd like to get a jump on your holiday shopping, I'm offering 15% off anything in my Etsy shop from now until Nov. 8 (That's 2 weeks). Just use the coupon code DSTASH2011 when checking out. :-)

Thanks so much to all of you!! Stay tuned, as I'm planning on putting up some tutorials in the following month as we near the holidays. I know I'm always searching for new things to make for gifts during the holiday season, so I hope to help you out with a few possible ideas.

Fabric Destash Finale!

2011-10-18T12:00:00.001-05:00

Alright friends, I thought that for the big finale it would be a great idea to give away lots of FABRIC! So I went through my stash to see what I've had around for a while that hasn't been used and that I don't have any plans for, and came up with 7 groups by color.

First, I'd like to ask a favor of you. :-) I would love to hear what your favorite creation(s) of the Great Fabric Destash Challenge was! It's a big help to hear feedback so I know what would be most popular in my Etsy shop. Your comment will be your entry!

If you don't have a use for fabric but would like to comment anyway, that would be great too. :-)

If you do want to enter to win one of the sets of fabric below, please list your top 3 color choices along with your comment. You have 24 hours to comment, and I'll select randomly as usual! US Residents only for this one (sorry International friends!)

As always, make sure I have a way to contact you, either through your blogger profile, or leave your screen name if I know you from a message board.

Alright, here are the fabrics up for grabs! Most of these are quilting type cotton, except for the aqua/brown fabrics which are decor weight cotton.

REDS

PINKS
ORANGES
AQUAS
BLUES
PURPLES
BLACKS

French Creations and Winner!

2011-10-17T10:12:00.004-05:00

Can you believe this is the last fabric creations post? I've had so much fun thinking up ways to use up fabric!

Alright, this week's giveaway...can you guess? ;-)

An apron!!

This is a style I haven't really done before, I'm loving the pleated ruffle, it's almost like a little bustle in the back.

Next I made a couple magnet boards, one that's 10" across...

and another that's 8" across.

And finally, I made a couple more composition notebook covers.

And now for the winner of the final giveaway creation....

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

Now, before we finish up the series I have one last giveaway post planned, it will be a little different than the others, because there will be several giveaways in one post! So get ready, I'll post it tomorrow (Tuesday) at noon (central time.)

Choose My FRENCH Fabric!

2011-10-05T05:00:00.002-05:00

Alright, folks, this is it! The very last Choose My Fabric post, and we're ending with a French theme. ;-)

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 parisian scene type fabric, with bursts of pink and green. The second is a pink and brown Eiffel tower toile, so much fun! And the third has vintage sewing machines and dress forms with related French words on it, how cool is that?

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

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

Leaving your email address in your comment.

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

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 Thursday evening at midnight (central time). I'll update this post with the winning fabric on Friday, and then get to work! Check back next week 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 #1 is our winner! Check back next week to see what I've made and who has won the final giveaway!

Bird Fabric Creations and Winner

2011-10-04T19:53:00.004-05:00

Here are this week's creations!

First up, the giveaway item...

A magnet board!

I found the idea of turning burner covers into magnet boards on Pinterest, and knew this was exactly what I was going to do for this week's giveaway, especially since I mastered making button magnets last week. ;-)

I also took pics as I went, so I'm planning on putting up a tutorial in the future, with lots of pics showing how I made these. I'm excited about that! The rest are up for sale in my shop.

Alright, next up I decoupaged a cute little wooden tray, using some coordinating blue damask fabric.

Then I made a plastic bag dispenser:

A notebook cover (without a flower, as I wanted the little birdie to be the focal point!)

And one tissue holder, with the birdie peeking over the edge. :-)

The giveaway winner this week is...

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

Can you believe it? The next Choose My Fabric post will be my last one for the Great Fabric Destash! Be sure to check back tomorrow to help me choose my last fabric, and then stick around for a great finale!

Choose My BIRD Fabric

2011-09-26T23:30:00.001-05:00

This is one of those things that I didn't realize I was attracted to until I realized how many bird-themed fabrics I had in my stash! Lol, apparently I like fabric with birds on it, who knew?

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 almost like a bird toile, with lovely deep pinks on a cream background. The second is a gorgous colorful bird print on a light blue background. The third is a giant fun bird print on a white background.

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

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

Leaving your email address in your comment.

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

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 Wednesday evening at midnight (central time). I'll update this post with the winning fabric on Thursday, and then get to work! Check back early next week to see what I've made, and of course to see who has won the giveaway and what they won!

Choose my fabric! :-)

UPDATE: Looks like #3 is our winner. Sadly I seem to have caught a stomach bug so I'm having to take things slowly right now...but I'll use it up as soon as I can! Hopefully by early next week.

Floral Fabric Creations and Winner!

2011-09-26T22:27:00.007-05:00

Finally, the floral fabric is all used up!

For the giveaway item this week I made...

Some cute fabric covered button magnets! This was my first time making fabric covered buttons, it was fun.

Next I made, yes, another composition notebook cover, lol.(Sorry about the awful lighting! It was already dark but I was determined to get this post up today.)

See, I bought dozens of the composition notebooks when they were only 10 cents each on clearance! (I mean, with my serious paper love, how could I not??) So I've been trying to use them up, and I'm planning to have a nice large stock by the busy pre-Christmas shopping season. This time, though, I made a ruffly flower instead of my usual petal flowers.

I enjoyed playing with the fabric figuring out how to do that. :-) This one is up for sale here.

Finally, with most of the fabric I made...

a half apron, which a fun bunch of ruffly flowers on it.

I really love how the flower cluster turned out!

It's up for sale here.

And now for this week's winner...

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

I'll be posting the next fabric choices ASAP, only 2 weeks left!

Monday, Monday...

2011-09-24T21:10:00.002-05:00

da daaaa, daa, da daa da..so good to me...da daaa, daa, da daa da..

Everybody now, sing with me! ;-)

So once again I'm behind, I'll do my best to have the floral fabric creations up by Monday, and get the next fabric choices up as well. Only 2 more weeks!

Choose My FLORAL Fabric

2011-09-18T05:00:00.001-05:00

Alright, we're getting close! Only 3 weeks left...this week we'll be looking at some sweet floral fabrics.

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 pastel floral with a subtle stripe running through it. Next is a floral fabric with a muted brown background and pink flowers that pop. Third is a bright floral with an orange, red, and fuschia mix.

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

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

Leaving your email address in your comment.

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

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 Monday evening at midnight (central time). I'll update this post with the winning fabric on Tuesday, 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 #3 is our winner! Thanks everyone, check back later this week to see what has been made and who won the giveaway!

Damask Creations and Winner

2011-09-17T21:48:00.006-05:00

Goodness, I'm falling more and more behind! Ok, here's what I made this week.

First is the giveaway item...

a composition notebook cover! I just loved finding coordinating fabrics and ribbon, so much fun. :-)

I made another one that is up for sale here.

Next I tried out a new item, a pleated tote.

It's lined, has a magnetic closure, and one pocket inside.

I really love how this turned out! I *heart* the oversized bow on the front, and the adorable single pleat. :-)

It's up for sale in my shop here.

Next up, I made another plastic bag dispenser.

And then I made some more decoupaged letters. These are so much fun!

I made one set that saysDREAM:

and another that says SEW, with slightly larger letters:

This fabric was just lovely to work with, I almost wish I had more of it to use!

Alright, now for the winner...

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

Ok, I'll be posting the next fabric choices tomorrow...only 3 more weeks left in the Great Fabric Destash Challenge, so join in while you can!

Choose My DAMASK Fabric

2011-09-09T05:00:00.003-05:00

Alright folks, I know I'm not the only damask lover out there. I had such a hard time trying to choose which ones to post!! I was almost tempted to put more than 3 options, but I figured that would just make your job harder. ;-)

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.

You probably recognize a couple of these, the first is the green and aqua damask which I thought probably didn't get a fair chance the last time around because the color of the pic wasn't so great initially. The second is a lovely large damask with greens and aquas as well (I really wasn't trying to match colors this time, lol, it just kind of happened!) I have about one yard of it. And finally, from the orange choices quite a while ago is this aqua and orange damask, of which I have less than 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

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

Leaving your email address in your comment.

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

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: Clear winner is #2! Check back later this week to see what I've made and who won.

Toile Creations and Winner!

2011-09-08T11:16:00.007-05:00

The toile fabric is all used up! Each time I work with toile I end up falling in love with it even more...I don't know if it's the pretty ladies in bustly dresses or what, lol, I just can't get enough.

So, for this week I made a few new items that I haven't done before, and I'm so pleased with the results. I didn't have a lot of the fabric, so I resorted to decoupage yet again to make the most of what I did have.

First, the giveaway item...

Some wooden letters that spell LOVE, decoupaged and ready to hang with pretty little bows. :-)

Once again, so simple to do, a wonderful way to use up scraps, and the result just makes me smile!

It was lots of fun trying to figure out the placement for the letters, so that you get just a peek of one particular lady or the pretty trees or the lamb.

I made two sets, so the other is up for sale on Etsy here. I think I'll definitely be making more of these letters, I find decoupage almost theraputic, I love to just switch something on Netflix and sit and paint glue on things and see the fabric bond like magic, like they were meant to be together. There is definitely a sense of instant gratification!

Ok ok, enough about that...next up are some sweet votives I made, again just using Mod Podge to glue on the fabric to some old glass votives I had sitting around.

I just love how the light shines through. :-)

These are up for sale here.

And finally, I did do a bit of sewing! I made something similar to my usual notebook covers, but instead of small notebooks I used composition notebooks, which allowed me a little more room to embellish. ;-)

Isn't the flower fun? And the ribbon was a last minute addition that kind of spontaneously happened, which I LOVE!

The great thing is, I was able to stock up on a bunch of composition notebooks from all the after school stuff being clearanced, yay for frugality!

I have two of these available in my shop here.

Alright, now for this week's winner....

If Toys Could Talk! :-) Congrats, I'll be sending you an email shortly to get your mailing address.

Thanks as always everyone, check back tomorrow for the next group of fabrics.

Choose my TOILE Fabric

2011-09-02T06:00:00.001-05:00

So as I mentioned before, this is going to be the final month of my destash challenge. We're done with colors and color combos, and we're going to be looking at groupings of prints from now until the end. First up is one of my long time favorites, toile! I have a crazy love for toile that I simply can't explain, so naturally I have a ton of it in many different colors. It was hard enough just choosing 3 to show here!

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 actually a very large toile on a lovely linen fabric. The second is a brown asian toile on a creamy yellow background (the colors didn't show up all the great, sorry!) And the third is pink on pink toile, I love the girliness of this one! It's what I have on my wall covering a cork board in my sewing room. :-) Not much left of it, though.

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

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

Leaving your email address in your comment.

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

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: Looks like #1 is our winner! Check back later this week to see what I've made and who has won. :-)

Pink and Green Fabric Creations and Winner

2011-09-01T19:18:00.005-05:00

Alright, I'm not completely caught up, but definitely in a better place than I was last week, breaks are good!

You've waited long enough, so let's get right to the pink and green stuff.

This week as the giveaway prize I made...

a fabric box! This was fun to design and make, although it took me a few tries! I designed it so that it can be disassembled and packed flat. To assemble it you just slide the ribbons through the holes and tie a pretty bow. :-)

I made another that is up in my Etsy shop here.

I also made a fabric tray, also able to be packed flat with sweet ribbons on each corner that you just tie together to assemble.

This one could also be reversed, the creases would just need to be ironed out and then reversed. I made two of these, both available in my shop.

Next I made a flouncy apron

which is available here.

And then I made a notebook cover (I clearly liked this fabric combo together!)

That's available here.

Finally, I with the leftovers I made 6 ruffly tissue holders.

I just love the little peekaboo ruffles...I'm considering making a tutorial for these in the future.

Those are up for sale here.

And now for the winner of the giveaway...

Kristi!! Congrats, I'll be emailing you shortly to get your address. :-)

Thanks everyone, the next fabrics will be up tomorrow!

Taking a Teeny Break!

2011-08-25T11:39:00.003-05:00

Hi all, just wanted to pop in and let you know I'm going to take a week off to catch up with all the daily stuff that has somehow accumulated around me! I'm working on the Pink and Green stuff (I *heart* this fabric, so excited to use it up!) but I probably won't get around to posting what I've made until some time next week.

Then, we are going to start the last and final month of the Destash Challenge! I have saved some of my favorites for last, so I hope you will enjoy these last weeks. I'm looking forward to them! And I'm planning a nice big giveaway for the finale, so stay tuned. :-)

Have a great week!

Choose my PINK & GREEN Fabric

2011-08-20T06:00:00.002-05:00

This will be the last of the color combos, and so we're going to look at one of my personal favorites - pink and green! One look in my sewing room is enough to see clearly that I love these colors together...

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 large floral with lovely pink roses on it, and a nice bright springy green as the background. The second is a sweet smaller paisley print, with just hints of olive green throughout. The third is both a floral and a paisley combined, it's a bit darker than the others. I have about a yard or so of each.

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

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

Leaving your email address in your comment.

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

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 Sunday evening at midnight (central time). I'll update this post with the winning fabric on Monday, 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: Wow, I think this is the most evenly spread fabric choice yet! It was very nearly a three way tie, lol...as it is, once again I have a 2 way tie between #1 and #3. I'll do what I did last time and flip a coin...and #1 wins! Check back later this week to see what I've created and who won the giveaway. :-)

AQUA & BROWN Creations and Winner

2011-08-20T00:03:00.004-05:00

Aaaaand we're back! Apologies for my tardiness, it has just been one of those weeks. ;-) Without further delay, here is the giveaway item this week:

A fabric covered frame!

More decoupage magic, and it's sealed with decoupage glue as well so it will be nice and sturdy.

I just love covering up plain old wood with pretty fabric...so fun!

Next up is an apron!

Just a simple little half apron with a double flounce on the bottom, it's up for sale here. I love these fabrics together! This combo was one of those chance match-ups where I just happened to have it sitting out while digging through my stash and the sight of the other fabric right next to it caught my eye and I said, "Yes! That's what I'll use." :-)

I also made another plastic bag dispenser...

which is in my shop here. I just love how quickly these go together! I've yet to make myself one but I'm planning on it.

And finally, I made a meal planner, like the one I made for myself here.

It could also be used as a chore chart, or a scheduling tool, anything you can think to write on a 3x5 notecard works! This has really helped me cut my meal planning time down drastically, I love just being able to look through a stack of meals and pick one and slide it beside a day of the week. It has helped me remember all my grocery needs as well, as I'm always forgetting something!

This one is up for sale in my shop here.

I also made a couple sets of coasters, and several tissue holders but haven't gotten around to listing them yet and taking pics, but I'll post a link as soon as I do. :-)

Alright, now for the winner this week...

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

Ok, since I'm a day late I'll be posting the next color combo fabric soon, and I'll leave it up through Sunday to vote. I'm excited about the next one!

Thanks everyone!

Choose my AQUA & BROWN Fabric

2011-08-12T08:30:00.002-05:00

Alright, next up is another very popular color combo, aqua (or blue) and brown!

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 kind of subtle aqua and brown floral damask type print. The second is a much less subtle aqua and brown damask. The third is closer to a blue than an aqua, but it's still a greenish blue, and has a brown whispy damask print on it. I have about a yard or so of each. And yes I know, these are basically three variations on damask, lol.

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

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

Leaving your email address in your comment.

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

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: Well, we have our first tie! (Including some votes via a message board I frequent.) I decided to toss a coin to see which fabric wins...and the winner is #2! Check back soon to see what was made and who wins the giveaway. :-)

Pink & Brown Creations and Giveaway Winner

2011-08-11T11:17:00.007-05:00

All done! Here's the giveaway item:

A set of 4 coasters. :-)

They're reversible...

and yes, that's fabric #3 from the choices on the other side.

All wrapped up and ready to go!

Next I made a grocery bag dispenser, hadn't made one in a while!

Used the same fabric combo.

It's up for sale in my etsy shop here.

And finally, since I had used this fabric before for some circular/flounce type stuff, I had a lot of strangely shaped pieces left and I wanted to use them up somehow, so I decided to use them as embellishment...

on an apron, of course.

I just cut the fabric into strips (I had some nice long sections) and pieced them together, they make great ruffles. :-)

The apron is up for sale here!

And now for the winner....

JustChristie!! Congrats! :-) I'll be sending you an email shortly to get your mailing address.

Thanks everyone, we'll have another popular color combo up tomorrow so check back soon!

Choose My PINK & BROWN Fabric

2011-08-05T00:00:00.002-05:00

Next on my list of fabric combos is one that we've all seen a ton of! Pink and brown, such a sweet combo. :-)

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, surprise! A pink and brown damask. The second is an adorable pink and brown dot fabric. The third is a pink and brown stripe.

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

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

Leaving your email address in your comment.

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

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 #2 is the winner this week! I'm actually a little surprised, I figured #1 would win, but y'all keep me on my toes! Lol..check back later this week to see what I've made and who won the giveaway. :-)

BLACK & WHITE Creations and Winner

2011-08-04T18:02:00.006-05:00

So I wasn't extremely creative this week, but I did use up what I had of the fabric that was chosen. :-)

First the giveaway item:

A tissue box cover!

I just enjoy making these, they're fun and quick. :-)

I paired it with an aqua scrolly fabric, I thought they complimented each other well.

Next I made a book cover with the same fabric combo.

This is just a simple cover for standard sized paperbacks to protect them, and it comes with a bookmark to keep your place. Pretty handy!

Finally, I made some more bookmarks.

I must be in a reading mood lately with all this book-related stuff on my mind. :-)

And now for the winner....

AIMEE!! Congrats, I'll be contacting you soon to get your address. :-)

Thanks everyone, watch for the next color combo which will be up tomorrow.

Choose My BLACK & WHITE Fabric

2011-07-29T15:00:00.001-05:00

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

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

Leaving your email address in your comment.

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

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

2011-07-28T23:13:00.007-05:00

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!

2011-07-22T00:00:00.004-05:00

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

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

Leaving your email address in your comment.

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

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!!

2011-07-15T00:00:00.000-05:00

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

2011-07-12T17:39:00.006-05:00

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

2011-07-02T21:53:00.005-05:00

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!!

Choose My RED, WHITE, and BLUE Fabric

2011-06-25T11:03:00.005-05:00

I'd originally planned to do purple this week, finishing out the rainbow, and then do patriotic colors next week in honor of the 4th of July. But, seeing as we'll be getting ready to go on vacation next week I figured I just go ahead and do them now, and then we'll have a little break for a couple weeks while I'm on vacation. I may still do some blog posts, but the Great Fabric Destash Challenge series will have to wait until I get back home to all my fabrics. :-)

Oh! Also, after several requests I've decided to go ahead and open up the voting to my Canadian friends to the north, since shipping costs are fairly similar. Sorry to all my friends overseas, wish I had the money to open it worldwide!

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 the leftover of a fabric I used to create a border on a custom skirt I'm still in the process of finishing, there's not a ton left of it, less than a yard. The second is a great big kind of flowery check pattern, so fun! I have a good 3 yards of this so I have some big plans if this one is chosen. The third medallion-like print is a little bit of a cheat because that's all I could find in my stash for this theme! It does have red, white, and blue but it also has some gold in it, I think 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

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

Leaving your email address in your comment.

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

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 Sunday evening at midnight (central time). I'll update this post with the winning fabric on Monday, 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: The people have spoken, #2 it is! With 3 yards to use up completely, I have my work cut out for me! I may be a little later this week with all the fabric to use up in the midst of packing for the trip, so I'll shoot for Saturday. Thanks for voting!

Blue Fabric Creations and Winner!

2011-06-23T23:31:00.006-05:00

Alright, it's all used up! First up, the giveaway item....

I enjoyed making the tissue box cover last week so much that I decided to make it as a giveaway item this week. :-) It's reversible this time as well, same as last week's version.

There's also one for sale in my Etsy shop.

With the majority of the rest of the fabric, I made a milkmaid apron!

The one I made for the Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway was just purchased, and so I was inspired to make another one because, well, I just loved seeing pics of it in my shop, lol.

It's up for sale here.

And finally, with the scraps I had left...you thought I was going to say I made some tissue holders, didn't you? ;-) Can you believe I didn't make any this week? Instead, I made some fabric stickers!

I had a lot of fun deciding which shapes to cut out, I printed out some ideas from the computer and went to work.

I made one set of animals - kitties, birds, and butterflies...

And one set of fashion-y type stuff, with dresses, a dress form, and some cameo ladies...

I think the ladies are my favorite!

And finally, for the winner of the giveaway...

NaDean! I'll be contacting you shortly, congrats!

I'll be listing the next choices of fabric on Saturday, so be sure to check back soon! Thanks for your continued participation, I hope you're all enjoying this as much as I have been. :-)

Choose My BLUE Fabric

2011-06-18T11:21:00.005-05:00

This week we'll be looking at blue fabric, we're almost done with the rainbow! But don't worry I have a lot more groups of colors and patterns to get through. ;-)

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 blue toile-like floral on a very light blue background, the second is a blue and cream scroll, and the third is a kind of paisley like pattern, it's close to a decor weight fabric and says it's stain proof!

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 residents only, sorry!). You can do this either by

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

Leaving your email address in your comment.

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

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 Sunday evening at midnight (central time). I'll update this post with the winning fabric on Monday, 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, check back by Friday at the latest to see what has been created with it, and who won the giveaway!

Aqua Fabric Creations and Winner

2011-06-17T19:34:00.006-05:00

Ok, finally I'm able to post the aqua creations! I had a few technical difficulties yesterday, half of my pictures were eaten by the computer. :-P So that set me back a little on time, but it's all good!

Alright, so the giveaway item this week is....

a rice therapy pack!

It can be heated up in the microwave or stored in the freezer. I made some with lavender oil, and some with vanilla mint, mmm! The winner can choose which scent she'd like, and all the others are in my Etsy shop.

On a side note, I got a little stamp from VistaPrint this week (it was free, yay!) and started experimenting with it a little, as you can see here...

Way cool!

Next up, I'm totally in love with this next project because it was SO easy but the result is just TOO cute!

A tissue box cover. :-)

Do you just love those bows?? And the best part is....

It's reversible! How cool is that? I think I'll definitely be making more of these in the future, super quick and easy and gives me immediate gratification, which I love, lol. I have 2 available in my shop!

I also made another grocery bag dispenser.

And some tissue holders.

A couple of my smaller scraps weren't even big enough for a whole tissue holder so I decided to sew some coordinating fabrics together to make it large enough. Love the result!

And now for the winner....

STEPHANIE!! No, not me, the other Steph in Texas. ;-) I'll be emailing you soon to ask which scent you'd like and get your address.

Thanks everyone, I'll post the next fabrics tomorrow and you'll have through the weekend to vote. :-)

Choose My AQUA Fabric

2011-06-10T00:00:00.005-05:00

Quick update: I retook the pics because some people weren't seeing the aqua color in the third fabric, hopefully it's better now! :-)

So we're going to take a slight detour from the rainbow, and look at aqua fabrics today! Seeing as it's kind of in between green and blue, I thought it would be a good time. I have a ridiculous amount of aqua colored fabrics, apparently I'm drawn to the color. So I'm excited about this week's choices, can't wait to see which one y'all choose!

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 fun floral on an aqua background, the second is an aqua and white damask, and the third is an aqua damask print on a green background.

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 residents only, sorry!). You can do this either by

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

Leaving your email address in your comment.

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

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 Monday evening at midnight (central time). I'll update this post with the winner on Tuesday, 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: Alright, so #1 it is! I already have some ideas for this one, so I'll get to work! Thanks all. :-)

Green Fabric Creations and Winner

2011-06-09T09:52:00.007-05:00

Green fabric creations are all done! Since the fabric is green, I decided to go with a "green" theme.

First up, the giveaway item...

A reusable grocery bag. :-) Paper or plastic? Neither! Fully lined with a nice unbleached muslin inside. I made two, one to give away and the other is up for sale in my Etsy shop here.

Since they were pretty large bags, I didn't have a whole lot of fabric left over. With what I did have, I made some cute ruffly cup cozies! Save some trees and use these instead of cardboard ones.

They're up for sale here.

Finally, in the interest of being "green" by using every last bit, I had just a small amount left and made one lone tissue holder from it.

Don't recognize that green fabric? Take a peek inside. ;-)

This one is for sale right here.

And now for the winner of the giveaway...

JOLAN!! Congrats, I'll be contacting you shortly. :-)

Thanks everyone, I'll be posting new fabric choices tomorrow...I'm excited about tomorrow's color, it might not be what you think. ;-)

Choose My GREEN Fabric

2011-06-04T23:35:00.005-05:00

Continuing down the rainbow, we're going with green fabric this time! Green is one of my faves.

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 an earthy olive, the second is a springy green with flowers and chandeliers, and the third is a cream and green damask.

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 residents only, sorry!). You can do this either by

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

Leaving your email address in your comment.

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

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 Monday evening at midnight (central time). I'll update this post with the winner on Tuesday, 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: #2 it is! I'll use it up by Friday, and announce the winner of the giveaway when I post what I've made. Hopefully I'll be a bit more punctual this week, don't have nearly as much going on so I should be. ;-)

Thanks for your votes, everyone!

Yellow Fabric Creations and Winner(s?)

2011-06-04T22:38:00.008-05:00

Phew, what a week! I'm going to keep this short and sweet so I can get back on track.

The giveaway is a gathered clutch with the combination of the 2 fabrics several people suggested in the comments.

With about half of the fabric I made a Regency Inspired apron, combined with a black check so it reminds me of a taxi, lol. For sale here.

Next is a notebook cover, again with the combination of the two yellow fabrics. I ended up using up nearly all of fabric #2 as well, so that's a bonus! :-) In my Etsy shop here.

And finally, some tissue holders, but with a twist...

RUFFLES! I don't know why it took me so long to add ruffles to a tissue holder, but I love the results.

They're up for sale here and here.

Now for the winner of the gathered clutch...drumrolllll....

RAMONA! Congrats, I'll be emailing you shortly. :-)

Now I have a surprise! Since I was so late this week AND since I ended up using pretty much all of the #2 fabric, I decided to pick a second winner from those who voted for it. They'll be receiving a ruffly tissue holder. That winner is...

JANE! Keep an eye out for an email from me.

Thanks all! Hopefully I'll be able to catch up a bit on all I need to do this week, stay tuned for the next choose my fabric post.

I'm Still Here!!

2011-06-03T18:15:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the delay, this week has been crazy! Got to watch my little brother graduate from high school (he's the last one out of the nest), spent time with family, and tomorrow I have a friend's wedding to attend which, of course, I need to make a gift for tonight. ;-)

I'm nearly done using up the yellow fabric, I'll post the winner and the yellow stuff tomorrow, and I'm going to push the next fabric choice to Sunday and Monday.

Thanks for your patience! :-D

Choose My YELLOW Fabric

2011-05-27T11:20:00.004-05:00

Continuing down the rainbow, we're going with yellow fabric this time! Isn't yellow such a happy color? It makes me smile. :-)

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 mustardy yellow scroll, the second reminds me of sunshine, like little suns peeking out over each other, and the third is a kind of icy lemon-lime damask. There's about a yard of each.

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 residents only, sorry!). You can do this either by

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

Leaving your email address in your comment.

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

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 winner 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: Looks like #1 is our winner! I'll use it up by Friday, and announce the winner of the giveaway when I post what I've made.

Thanks for your votes, everyone!

Orange Fabric Creations and Giveaway Winner

2011-05-27T09:35:00.007-05:00

Running a little behind this week, it's been crazy! But I finally managed to use up all the orange damask fabric. First, the giveaway item...

A plastic grocery bag dispenser!

I love the idea of taking things that usually aren't so pretty, and making them pretty. :-) What better excuse to hang some bright and happy fabric in your kitchen than a grocery bag dispenser? Lovely AND functional, my favorite combination!

Don't have plastic grocery bags around? This can be used for many other things as well: towels, tissue paper, even diapars.

I made another one with some orange poppy fabric, which is up for sale in my Etsy shop.

This fabric was just so happy and cheery, combined with the yellow polkadot fabric it reminded me of citrus and sunshine...which reminded me of a kitchen...

Which, of course, meant I had to make an apron. ;-)

It's up for sale in my Etsy shop here.

Finally, while the leftover scraps were mostly too small for tissue holders, I still didn't want to throw them away and so I made some fabric covered cards!

They are also for sale in my Etsy shop!

Now for the giveaway winner....

Regina!! Congrats on the win, I'll be emailing you shortly to get your shipping info. :-)

Thanks everyone, I'll be posting the next round of fabrics in just a little while!

SMS Giveaway Winner!!

2011-05-26T11:19:00.005-05:00

Are your fingers as exhausted as mine are from clicking and clicking and clicking through all the giveaways? WOW!! First I just want to say THANK YOU so much to everyone who visited my blog, and all your lovely comments! It was like Christmas opening my email and seeing my inbox flooded. Thanks as well to all those who are new followers, whether of the blog, on facebook, or on Etsy! I have loved browsing all of your own blogs and Etsy shops, I'm just amazed at the talent out there. :-)

Ok, down to business! I compiled a list in a spreadsheet with all of your names listed chronologically. I had a few people I needed to incorporate who wanted to enter but couldn't comment here, so added them in as well, and then I put random.org to work...and it gave me the magic number 235!

Which led me to Cass, who said:
I love the look of the Victorian style apron, but the fabric of the Flouncy Full Apron is so gorgeous that it is the one that gets my vote. :)
You do beautiful work. I'll be having a browse of the rest of your blog soon.
Have a wonderful day!
Cass

Thank you so much, and CONGRATS!!!! I'll be emailing you shortly to get your address so I can ship the Full Flouncy apron to you. :-)

What will happen to the other 2 aprons, you ask? The good news is, if you can't live without one of them they are listed in my Etsy shop, so they could still be yours!

Here's the Regency Inspired Apron, and here is the Milkmaid Apron, which I've named Victorian Rose.

I got so much wonderful feedback from y'all, I will definitely be making more of both of these in the future.

I had a few questions in the comments that I wanted to answer.

A couple people wondered about sizing.
One thing I love about my Regency Inspired apron design is that it is completely, totally adjustable. The ties cross in the back, and then run through D-rings that can be tightened or loosened right under the bust at the empire waist, which means it will perfectly comform to your bust size whatever it is. I'm quite large-chested myself so I'm very aware of the need for such adjustments, especially with empire waists!

As for my other aprons, in general I tend to make them a little larger in the waist than a lot of other aprons I've seen out there (usually between 24-28 inches rather than 20), partly because I'm a little larger in the waist and I tend to make what fits me! I also always try to make sure my ties are nice and long. But I have also made plus sized aprons upon request in the past, for even more extra coverage.

GlendaJune33 wanted to know, "Do you ever make matching aprons for mother and daughter?"
And the answer to that is YES, I have made several matching aprons for Moms and daughters in the past. These are usually made upon request, here are a few examples:

This fun and playful flouncy apron set was for a plus sized mama and her daughter.

This was another mother/daughter flouncy set, with cupcakes!

I've even made matching aprons for a whole family!

Finally, Katie asked, "Do you offer patterns?"
...which made me chuckle considering my strange phobia of patterns! ;-) I'm slowly working on it, though!

Since I'm not really a regular user of patterns, I've yet to really make my own. I kind of just work it out organically as I go. I do have a general idea of the shapes I need, and how they'll hang, but often I grab some fabric and start pinning it on my dress form trying to figure out what I want. I usually just kind of remember if I want to recreate it.

The truth is, I'm terribly lazy!! I just want to grab some fabric and pleat it or cut it and be done with it, for some reason the idea of using patterns seems much more complicated to me, so that's why it doesn't even really occur to me to make a pattern for my own designs!

But, who knows, maybe some day in the future I'll pick one of my designs and put together a tutorial of sorts. :-)

Again, thank you all so much, I had a blast this week! Don't forget I'm doing a weekly giveaway series right now called the Great Fabric Destash Challenge. I should be posting my ORANGE creations later today, along with the winner of that giveaway, and I'll be posting the new set of fabrics you can help me choose from tomorrow, so stay tuned!

May Giveaway Day

2011-05-23T00:29:00.013-05:00

Bienvenue! Welcome to all my visitors today, new and old! I'm so excited to participate in my first Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway day.

My name is Stephanie, and I'm fairly obsessed with gorgeous fabrics which inspire me and give me the itch to make something pretty. My most common use of fabric is to make aprons, and so that is what I decided to give away today.

Then I had to decide which style apron to give away...and I couldn't! So, I decided to let you choose.

My aprons are a little bit different than most, in that I often use the fashion of specific time periods as inspiration for them. The truth is, I never outgrew wanting to play dress-up! So, I see an apron as both a functional, practical aid, but also a quick and easy way to play dress up for a while, even if you're wearing jeans underneath. ;-)

The first apron I ever designed was inspired by the empire waists of the Regency era. If I had a signature apron, this would likely be it! Here I am modeling one of the very first ones I made, so you can see the criss cross back and how it looks on:

And this navy striped Regency Inspired apron is one of the three the giveaway winner can choose from!

Another time period I absolutely adore is the Victorian era, all that fabric so stunningly draped and pleated. LOVE! I played around with some Victorian aprons, but a while back I designed what I called the Milkmaid apron which I think also fits in the victorian category with the overskirt and all. I modified it a bit this time, adding a drop waist, but the cool thing about this one is it has two totally different looks.

First, there's a fun super-full skirted half apron.

But just for kicks, look closely and you'll see some buttons and loops...

to create a kind of bustly, drapey front!

Peek-a-boo! Yes, this is a double layered apron with its own sort of ruffled petticoat underneath.

Isn't it fun? And I just love these fabrics. There's also a pocket...

This is the second of the three choices the lucky winner could choose.

Finally, because I know not everyone is as into antique fashions as I am, I'm offering as the third of the choices one of my more modern designs, what I call the flouncy full apron. Simple and chic!

So if you'd like to enter to win one of these aprons, please leave a comment with:

1. Which apron you like best (1. Regency Inspired Apron 2. Milkmaid Apron 3. Flouncy Full Apron)
2. Your email address (Either in your profile or in the comment, as long as I can find it! If I can't I'm going to have to pick another winner so make sure it's somewhere!)

Entries will be accepted through Wednesday, and on Thursday I'll announce the winner and contact them by email. I will ship to you wherever you are in the world, so everyone is welcome to enter.

Just FYI, I'm currently doing a weekly giveaway series, asking people to help me choose fabrics to use up and then I give away an item made with the chosen fabric. :-) It's a GREAT way to use up my stash! Check it out if you're interested, and if you're on facebook you can follow my facebook page where I post reminders about the weekly giveaway contest so you can enter.

And if you should fall in love with any of my designs and don't end up winning, I do sell them in my Etsy shop! Custom orders are always welcome. Also, whichever 2 aprons don't get chosen by the winner will be up for sale in my shop once the giveaway is over!

Well I think that about does it. I'm so thrilled you stopped by, and I can't wait to check out the other amazing blogs doing giveaways today! Bonne chance!!

Update: Thank you SO MUCH for the wonderful comments and feedback, I'm just blown away by the overwhelming response. Please check back tomorrow morning to find out who the lucky winner is! :-)

Choose My ORANGE Fabric

2011-05-19T23:50:00.001-05:00

Ok, we're going down the rainbow now! I have to admit, I had to cheat a little this time because I really don't have that much orange fabric, it's just not a color I usually gravitate towards. So one of my fabrics has orange in it, but is not necessarily primarily orange.

That being said, 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 (thanks to Cynthia for the suggestion!)

The first is my "cheat," a coppery orange damask on a teal background. This combo reminds me a bit of oxidized copper! I think I have about a yard, maybe a bit less, of this one. The second is a smaller print, maroon curly cues on an orange background, of which I have about 2 yards. The third is a true orange damask, the lighter part is creamy, almost yellow (which is hard to see in the pics.) I have one yard of this one.

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 residents only, sorry!). You can do this either by

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

Leaving your email address in your comment.

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

UPDATE: And with a good 3/4 of the vote, #3 is our winner! I'll use it up by Friday, and announce the winner of the giveaway when I post what I've made.

Also keep a look out for a bonus giveaway this week, as I'm participating in Sew, Mama, Sew's May Giveaway Day. This one will be open to international readers as well! How exciting! :-)

Thanks for your votes, everyone!

Pink Fabric Creations & Giveaway Winner!

2011-05-19T11:50:00.006-05:00

Alright, this week's pink fabric is all used up. :-)

First, the giveaway item I've chosen...voila!

This is an inspiration board, a place where you can stick photos of friends and family, pictures of things that inspire you, pieces of lace, ribbon, fabric, dried flowers, perhaps some antique brooches you have lying around for a bit of bling? ;-)

I have one in my sewing room and I love having a place to stick whatever is on my mind lately, whatever is calling my name.

Hopefully the winner enjoys it, I know it's a bit of a gamble as things like this aren't always for everyone...but it can always be given as a gift if nothing else!

Of course, before announcing the winner we'll take a look at everything else I made with this lovely pink fabric.

With summer coming up people may be making travel plans, and so with most of the fabric I made a set of two shoe bags!

These are great to keep your clothes protected in your suitcase. I lined it with a great black and white floral from my stash which kind of gave me a Liberty of London vibe. LOVED the combination of these fabrics together!

They can also be used as on-the-go laundry bags while travelling. Or a lingerie bag...or if you aren't travelling anywhere, they make great reusable gift bags as well!

These are available in my Etsy shop here.

Next I made some tissue holders.

I used the same fabric for the inside of these as well, love that combo.

These are up for sale in my Etsy shop here.

Finally, I made some fabric flower clips with the last remnants of the fabric.

These can be worn in your hair, or on your purse or bag...anywhere you can clip it works!

These are also available in my Etsy shop.

And now for the giveaway winner...

Kristi!! Congrats on the win, I'll be emailing you shortly to get your shipping info. :-)

Thanks everyone, I'll be posting the next round of fabrics at midnight tonight so keep an eye out.

Choose My PINK Fabric

2011-05-13T15:08:00.008-05:00

Sorry for the delay, Blogger was having issues there for a while! :-) Here is the next installment of Choose My Fabric, we're going PINK this time! I could have gone straight to orange (following rainbow colors), but I have so much pink fabric I definitely needed to include it.

So 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!

The first is a black and pink floral on a baby pink background, the second is a large pink and cream check, and the third is a pink and red floral on a deep pink background, the fabric is very light, almost sheer. I have about 1 yard of each of these.

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 residents only, sorry!). You can do this either by

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

Leaving your email address in your comment.

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

UPDATE: The winner is clearly #1 this week! I'll use it up by Friday, and announce the winner of the giveaway when I post what I've made. Thanks for your votes, everyone!

Berry Fabric Creations & Giveaway Winner!

2011-05-10T21:04:00.009-05:00

I'm done, I've used it all up!!

First up, the item I've chosen as the giveaway...

TA DA!!

It's a pleated wristlet clutch adorned with a flower. Isn't it cute? I just love those pleats and how the flower, made with a cream colored toile, pops against the berry fabric. In the middle of the flower I've sewn on some pretty beads...

The inside is lined with the same cream toile as the flower.

Hope the winner likes it!

Before I announce the winner, though, I'm going to show what else I made. (I know I'm cruel!)

Care to guess what's next?

I had to make an apron, of course, but instead of using the berry fabric as the main fabric, I used it as the accent. I used the same red polkadot as on the clutch for the main body:

I decided to cut the berry fabric up into strips and sew on some fun ruffles, I love the result!

It's up for sale in my Etsy shop here!

And finally, with the last of the berry fabric (which wasn't much!) I made some tissue holders. This is the most common way I use up those small fabric scraps that I can't bear to toss.

I used the same red polkadot fabric for the inside (I just love a surprise fabric inside, don't you?)

These two are also up in my Etsy shop here!

And now to announce the winner of the giveaway! For the sake of fairness, I counted up the number of votes for the berry fabric, numbered the posts chronologically and then used random.org to pick the winning number. I have to tell you that the first 2 choices I couldn't find an email or way to contact, so I just went with the first one that I could contact! Sorry, be sure to leave your contact info next time if you didn't this time.

And the winner is...*drumroll*...T.L.!!

The very first poster, how crazy is that? Random.org gave me #1, though, so that's what I went with. :-) Congrats T.L.! Watch for a message from me if you haven't seen it already so I can get your US mailing address.

Thanks so much to everyone for participating, and keep an eye out for the next Choose My Fabric post coming up on Friday for another chance to win!

Choose My RED Fabric

2011-05-06T00:00:00.004-05:00

Alright, here it is! The first Choose My Fabric post for my Great Fabric Destash Challenge.

As I explained here, I want to hear from you which of the fabrics below you think I should use up! Which one is your favorite? 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, all fabrics that are red and natural/cream colored.

Click on the image for a closer look!

The first is a deep red damask on a natural background, of which I have about 2 yards. The second is a berry fabric on a cream background, I have about 1/2 a yard of this. The third is a very large stripe made up of the print you see on a natural background, it's just asking to be made into some kind of border fabric! I have about 2 yards of this one.

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 an EMAIL ADDRESS where I can contact you. (US residents only, sorry!)

**Please make sure I can find your email through your blog profile (see here for instructions), otherwise please leave your email address in the comments along with your vote...you can use this format [mllevaleur at hotmail dot com] if you don't want to have it show up as a link. If you get chosen and I don't have a way to contact you, I may have to just pick again. Thanks!**

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 winner 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!

I'm so excited!! Ready? Set? Go!!

UPDATE: And the winning fabric IS #2, the berry fabric...by ONE vote, phew, that was close! :-) I'll use it up by Friday, and announce the winner of the giveaway when I post what I've made. Thanks for your votes, time for me to get to work!

The Great Fabric Destash Challenge

2011-05-04T22:00:00.000-05:00

I'm excited to announce a new challenge, one for which I'm going to need your help! Remember my nicely organized fabric shelf? I've done a good job of keeping it organized, and not adding much to it. The problem is, I'm having a harder time actually using up what I have, I feel like I've barely made a dent in it! So, I've decided to issue myself a challenge.

Each week, I'm going to post some pics of several fabrics with a theme. I'll probably start with colors (so, several red fabrics to choose from the first week), and later I'll probably get into patterns (striped fabrics, or polka dot fabrics, or toile fabrics, etc) and maybe even themes (french themed fabrics, peut-être?). Whatever the theme, when I post these fabrics I want to hear from you which one you think I should use up! Whichever fabric you help me pick (I'll probably 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 probably end up for sale in my Etsy shop.

The best part is, each week I'll choose something from whatever I make with the winning fabric to give away! It might be a tissue holder, it might be a flower pin or headband, it might even be an apron! All you need to do to enter is leave a comment with your vote on which fabric I should use up this week, and an email address where I can contact you. :-) 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!

The first Choose My Fabric post will be up on Friday! You'll have until Saturday evening at midnight (central time) to vote. I'll update the post with the winning fabric on Sunday, and I'll announce the winner of the giveaway along with a pic of the item being given away and what else I made with the fabric on the following Friday. I'll also post the next set of fabrics to choose from, and we'll start again! I suppose I'll keep going until I run out of fabric themes or out of fabric, haha, so I imagine it will keep me busy at least through the summer.

I do have to limit winners to those living in the US for postage cost reasons, sorry!

I'm excited to have your help deciding which of my fabrics to use up, and I'd also appreciate it if you could pass the word along to anyone else who might be interested. :-) Feel free to add me to your feed so you don't miss out on Fridays. Let the Great Fabric Destash Challenge begin!

P.S. - You may have noticed a new Facebook badge on the sidebar, I plan to update my facebook page regularly throughout this challenge, so if you'd like to follow me that way, just click on the badge and become a fan of my page there. Don't forget to tell your friends too!

Nautical Mustard, Anyone?

2011-05-02T23:00:00.003-05:00

For whatever reason, I often go in cycles of being drawn to different color combinations. Lately, I've been in love with the mustardy yellow that's popular right now, specifically when it's combined with nautical colors, navy and white stripes, etc. So I've been using a lot of these colors in things I've made, and just been drawn to them in things I've admired. Here are some of them!

It started a while ago with the dress I made, out of a navy and white damask:

I ordered several fabrics that were deeply discounted, went a little navy stripe crazy!

I recently made a regency inspired apron with some of those fabrics, it's available here in my Etsy shop! :-)

For Easter, I used another pattern (yay! - Simplicity 3921) and made a mustard capelet, which I wore with some cream vintage gloves and a lace flower in my hair.

I *just* finished a new apron design inspired by 1940s fashion using a small navy pindot coupled with a navy check. This was fun, I hope to be making more in this style soon! It's available in my Etsy shop here.

And finally, here are some items I found while browsing Etsy that I loved!

This pleated wristlet is just adorable, love the fabric!

And I'm always a sucker for amazing hair accessories, isn't this absolutely gorgeous? Love it!

Coupon Organizer

2011-04-12T17:19:00.004-05:00

This isn't exactly sewing-related, but it was an idea that I found helpful so I thought I'd share! I don't know about you, but I've often tried to get in the habit of using coupons to save a little money here and there. Usually what would happen is, I'd set the coupon in a pile of paper somewhere and forget about it. Or I'd finally get an accordian style coupon organizer, only to file coupons away and forget about them. Or I'd remember to use them but had the hardest time trying to look through all the coupons and find the one I'd need while at the store.

Well, a few months ago I got on a coupon kick again, determined to put them to good use! So I went in search of some better way to organize them, something that would help me be able to see what I had more easily. I went looking through the organizing stuff at Target, but all they had for coupons was the usual accordian type organizers. In a last ditch effort I walked down the photo album aisle, and picked up a small plastic photo album, the kind you might stick vacation photos in. Suddenly it hit me, this is what I'd been looking for! I could stick coupons in each page, and easily be able to flip through them to find the one I needed. So that's what I did!

I've separated my coupons into different sections in the album, restaurant coupons, sewing coupons, grocery coupons, specific Target coupons (I shop there often and print coupons they have available online weekly) and other, miscellaneous coupons. As soon as I get a new coupon, I place it in the album, and I keep it in my purse so it's always with me.

This has worked so well for me! I love the ease of using it at the store, I can flip through and see what I have quickly without trying to search through a pile of coupons and dropping them everywhere. In February, I saved almost $60 using my new system, and in March I saved more than $85! Typically it has saved me about 25-30% per shopping trip. Yay for saving money!

As a bonus, I slipped some fun paper I had in the cover to make it a bit prettier. :-)

Full Flouncy Aprons

2011-03-21T00:21:00.000-05:00

Another new style I picked up besides the Olive Apron is one I call the Full Flouncy apron, because of the fun flounce on the bottom! I wanted a simple silhouette that hugged the curves and then flared out at the bottom. I went a bit crazy making these right before Christmas because they were so quick to put together! So I have quite a few in my Etsy shop now, including one made of oilcloth! Here are some examples:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/64965241/blue-floral-flouncy-full-apron

http://www.etsy.com/transaction/45600633 (This one has been sold!)

http://www.etsy.com/listing/65896698/blue-and-white-toile-oilcloth-flouncy

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70500752/black-white-and-pink-damask-full-flouncy

New Dress - I Used a Pattern!!

2011-02-26T01:47:00.005-06:00

So I've mentioned before that I have a hard time understanding how to use patterns. For some reason, all those written instructions and strange shapes just become a big confused jumble in my mind. More often than not, it seems they end up just way over-complicating even the simplest task, I don't get it.

But, now that I've been sewing for a few years, I thought I'd give patterns another try. I did use a pattern for my regency dresses, but it came with online pics and help which I probably used more than the pattern itself. It felt like cheating, and I knew eventually I'd want to try a real pattern from the store, with no online help! A while ago I was browsing my local fabric store and a 99 cent pattern caught my eye. It was one of those "See and sew" types that are supposed to be simple and straight forward, so I figured if I was going to try it again I might as well go for an easy one! The pattern was B5307:

Here is the final result!

I did end up making quite a few changes. The first thing I knew I'd need to alter a bit was the neckline, I could see right away just from the cover that I'd be majorly flashing people if I left it the way it was, since I'm rather well endowed. So I thought about doing a panel of some sort, but I suddenly had the idea to add a pleated ruffle! I decided to use the contrasting fabric I'd planned to use for the waistband, and voila.

The next problem was that the fabric I used was actually a decor fabric, ha! I had ordered several yards for another project, and ended up using something different for it. So I had this thick, bulky (gorgeous!) fabric just sitting there waiting to be used for something. Seeing as I'm on a fabric diet, I decided to go for it. But, this super thick fabric doesn't exactly gather all that easily...so I decided to pleat it at the waist instead. I also just prefer pleats to gathers in general, and I love the result!

Ok, here's my favorite part!! Notice where my hands are??

IN POCKETS!! Yes, my dears, this darling has pockets. Oh how I love pockets in my dresses, and now I know how to add them! I used this tutorial to help me add seam pockets, and I'm sure I'll be adding them to every garment possible in the future, especially skirts and dresses. I was able to go to an event the very evening I finished the dress sans purse because I had everything I needed in my pockets. :-)

Lastly, I actually did not include a zipper and opted instead to just sew the back all the way up, as I figured I could just as easily slip it over my head with much less fuss. I was right. ;-)

[As an aside, you might be wondering what that white thing in my hair is...

BIRDS! Aren't they adorable? I just love hair doodads, there's something about sweet little birdies perched in an updo...love!]

Look Ma, no unwanted flashing cleavage. :-D

I wore my new dress all evening to an event, and it was surprisingly comfortable. (I was worried about the decor fabric being a bit scratchy or hot, but neither were a problem at all!) I'm glad to have finally used a real pattern, like, from the store, and I enjoyed it. It actually wasn't too bad or too confusing.

I do wonder, though, do people really need a pattern piece to tell them to cut a straight 5 inch strip of fabric? (See the contrasting fabric at the bottom of the short dress on the pattern cover.) Really? Tell me people don't really take the time to actually cut out the pattern piece and pin it and painstakingly cut the fabric using that and all, right? That's the kind of thing I think confuses me about patterns...I see that and think there must be some complicated thing I'm missing because they have you doing a bazillion steps. Then I realize later, no, they're really just trying to get you to cut a 5 inch strip of fabric so many inches long, and I marvel at the enormous waste of time! Anyhoo...I was certainly happy to have the pattern pieces that weren't just straight strips of fabric or big rectangles. ;-)

I'll leave you with one final pic, my little cat Berlioz wanted to join in on the fun, and thus quite appropriately situated himself atop the piano.

Organized Fabric Makes Me Happy!!

2011-02-19T10:20:00.001-06:00

I've been working on cleaning up my sewing room for the past week or two, that was my "big project" for this month. I'm pleased to report that I have folded nearly every piece of fabric I own (that wasn't small enough to fit in my scrap collection) into a 10"x 7" rectangle so that it would fit on my fabric shelf, AND allow me to actually close the door fully! It is also, of course, sorted by color...I LOVE seeing that rainbow of fabrics, it puts a huge smile on my face!

I have a few before shots, but I didn't think about taking them until I'd already started so they're not quite as bad looking as it really was to begin with.

Top Shelf BEFORE

Top Shelf AFTER

Middle BEFORE

Middle AFTER

Bottom BEFORE

Bottom AFTER

The door is CLOSED! :-D

Aaahhhhh, sweet organization! I love it! And now, it's time to go on a fabric diet so that I curb my fabric collection before I run out of room. ;-) I'm not going to buy new fabric (unless it's for a specific custom request) at least until Easter - it can be part of my Lenten penance, lol. I am looking forward to using up some of the gorgeous fabrics that I rediscovered while organizing, I think I have plenty to last me!

New(ish) Design - The Olive Apron!

2011-02-14T22:45:00.000-06:00

So I came up with this apron design several months ago but I'm finally getting around to posting about it! While browsing Netflix for something interesting to watch, I came upon the adorable Pushing Daisies and soon fell head over heels in love. If you haven't seen this show and you love gorgeous fairytale-like, color drenched eye candy, go watch it!! The costumes are just beautiful, retro and slightly over the top, just my style.

In the second season, one of the characters named Olive Snook (played by the adorable Kristin Chenoweth), goes to a convent and while twirling on a hill top, à la Sound of Music...

...her full skirted apron completely captured my attention and inspired a new apron design. I couldn't get it out of my head until I'd made it with my hands!

I loved the combination of the slightly dropped waist with the full, gathered circle skirt.

And that is why I've named this style Olive. :-)

I exaggerated the dropped waist a bit, added a bit more fullness, shortened the skirt and eliminated the bib as I just wanted a half apron. This was the result:

That was the first attempt, it's available on Etsy here.

Then I made these as well, also available on Etsy:

Etsy listing here.

Etsy listing here.

Facelift!

2011-02-10T19:39:00.001-06:00

As you can see, I've given my blog a facelift! Now it matches my sewing room and makes me smile. :-) I just love chandeliers and damask, what can I say? I've also updated my packaging, stickers, business cards etc to match as well. I do plan on keeping up my blog more frequently, I'm going to aim for a blog post a week. I've already been making a few new apron designs that I haven't mentioned here, so blogs about those will be coming up soon.

It's Been Too Long!

2010-03-15T01:27:00.000-05:00

Well it has certainly been much too long since my last post, but a lot has happened since then. My husband and I became homeowners and, of course, I couldn't wait to decorate. My favorite room of all is my sewing room, here are some pics!

With my lovely new room to inspire me, I've finally had the chance to make some new aprons for spring. Maybe it's my walls, but I'm especially in love with springy greens right now!

Spring Vines Retro Full Apron

Red Scroll/Damask Regency Inspired Apron

Spring Green Regency Inspired Apron

Spring in Bloom Ruffly Half Apron

I hope to be adding even more in the very near future. :-)

New Dress!!

2009-08-28T21:41:00.000-05:00

So I was itching to make something new, and recently I had a sudden desire to do some shirring. It looked simple enough and I had some elastic thread on hand. So, I dug through my stash and found a drapy polyester fabric I'd bought several yards of online at $1.99/yd quite a while ago, and figured I could play around with it.

I've seen a lot of dresses in stores lately that are basically just shirred on top, and long and flowy on the bottom...I even bought a couple! I figured something like that couldn't be too hard to make, it's just a big tube that's shirred on top. So I started out with the plan to do just that...but then, I was worried that the fullness I wanted on bottom would be hard to achieve, as I'd read that sometimes it's difficult to get the shirring as tight as you might want. So I decided to do some pleating in back, and shir a panel in the front to give it enough give to pull on. And besides, I just love the look of pleated stripes, how the hidden stripes cascade out from the pleats like a special surprise. :-)

I then added some sleeves, basically a long rectangle of fabric hemmed on the edges, and then ran a few rows of elastic stitches on one side so would ruffle up a bit and stay on my shoulders. Finally, I sewed a coordinating burgundy belt as an accent to make the dress pop, but also to help shape the dress in front, to pull in the fabric high on the waist.

Et voila. :-)

It's not hemmed in the pics, so it's a couple inches shorter now, but I do love the result! The best part is it was fairly simple to make, no cutting complicated shapes, just a long tube sewn together and pleated and shirred for shape. :-)

The Milkmaid

2009-07-18T01:01:00.000-05:00

I was making an apron for a cousin's wedding present and thought I was going to go one route, a double layered apron, something simple. I made up the top layer, but while I was kind of playing around with it I suddenly had an idea. The two fabrics I'd picked just didn't pop together, so I decided to set aside the top layer and use it for my new idea.

So once I finished my cousin's apron, going a slightly different route than I'd originally planned, I got to work on what I call the Milkmaid.

I love draping and swags of fabric, and I fell in love with how the top fabric looked draped a certain way. The apron is composed of two layers, the bottom layer is a half circle with a loose ruffle attached, the top layer is a half circle. At first I was going to sew the draped fabric in place, but then I realized I could make it more versatile by giving the option to leave it down or drape it. When the top layer is down, it just looks like a cute retro circle skirt like apron.

I sewed some ribbon loops along the waistband and added buttons on the skirt.

This allows the top layer to be easily draped, either on one or both sides to give that swaggered milkmaid look.

I really like the result, I think I'll be making some more of these in the near future! This one is up for sale in my shop now.

Adorable Shirt Tutorial

2009-07-18T00:41:00.001-05:00

My sis sent me a link to this tutorial for a darling springy/summery shirt. I just had to make it before leaving on our trip, and of course I stayed up ridiculously late getting it done the night before our flight.

I didn't get a chance to take a pic of it until we were in Miami, so here I am squinting in the Florida sun!

Folklorico Aprons

2009-06-23T22:55:00.000-05:00

One of my latest requests was to make a folklorico inspired apron which coordinated with this image of the Virgin of Guadelupe:

So I searched around for those lovely shades of green and peachy orange, found some I thought would work well, sewed yards and yards of ribbon onto yards and yards of ruffles, and this is the result. I didn't have a folklorico dancer handy so I pinned it up in the swirly motions mimicking the dancers to get the full effect. ;-)

Here it is un-pinned:

A close-up of some ruffles:

The waistband mimicks the border of leaves around the image:

I also made some matching half aprons for the littles in the house. :-)

It was fun to dream up! I hope she and the girls enjoy them.

Shower of Roses Circle Skirt

2009-05-26T13:50:00.000-05:00

I actually started out making this for myself, but for some reason once I was done I felt like I should sell it instead! I think this is the first true circle skirt I've made...it was fun! :-)

It's up on Etsy here.

May Flowers

2009-05-15T01:03:00.001-05:00

For Mother's Day I decided to make some flowers for my mom that would last longer than a few days, so I looked around for some ideas to make fabric flowers. I found this tutorial and then went crazy making flower pins! They are so easy and fun to make, here are just a few examples of some I made.

Tie One On Apron - No $$

2009-05-01T16:32:00.000-05:00

The latest Tie One On theme was "No $$," you had to use things that you already had on hand and not buy anything new. To be honest, I felt a bit like I was cheating because I have SO MUCH fabric to choose from, that it wasn't hard at all, lol.

I ended up using a blue and cream stripe that I'd had on hand for quite a while (I think I originally bought it to possibly use for a victorian apron, but never felt like making it) and then I used the leftover blue scraps I had from the Alice Apron for the trim. I ended up with just enough blue for the ruffles, pockets, and ties, but couldn't for the life of me figure out a way to fit in the waistband which I'd originally planned to be blue as well. Luckily, I looked through my stash and found some scraps (in my scrap box) of a cream and blue print (which I think was actually used for a victorian apron) that went beautifully with it! It's a super full apron, very twirly and fun. :-)

I call it Country Blue and Cream:

The Alice Apron!

2009-04-17T16:23:00.001-05:00

I had a request for an apron inspired by Alice in Wonderland. It was so much fun to dream up and to make, and it's (finally!) all done.

Here was the original sketch:

And the result:

The white over apron can actually be removed, there are buttons on the top (under the collar) and on the waist where it attaches, and this is how the apron looks without it.

The neck strap is adjustable, and also uses buttons.

This was a fun one, I hope she enjoys it!

Regency Inspired Apron With a Twist!

2009-03-30T16:18:00.000-05:00

I decided to use my new ruffler foot and make a Regency Inspired Apron that was gathered rather than pleated. I quite like the result!

It's up on Etsy here. :-)

Fun With Ruffles!

2009-03-23T13:12:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited, I got a ruffler foot! It did take me a while to figure out how to use it, but once I did I couldn't wait to make something with it. So of course, I made an apron. :-)

It's amazing how much time it saves (and thread, since it gathers and attaches at the same time.) I did both the ruffle around the bottom, and the gathering for the waist with the ruffler.

It also makes pleats, so I may have to come up with another project to test those out as well!

Oh, and of course this apron is up for sale at my Etsy shop. :-)

Petticoats!

2009-02-02T11:41:00.000-06:00

A while back I ordered a simple cotton petticoat off of Etsy, trimmed with a lovely eyelet lace on the bottom. When I got it, it was longer than I had imagined...I still use it for several of my longer skirts, especially when it's cold outside! It really does help keep you warmer.

But since then, I've been wanting to make a shorter one to wear with some of my shorter (as in, calf-length) skirts, and with a bit more pouf to it!

I was as Walmart the other day browsing the $1.50 fabric section, and I found some...uh...I don't know, nylon something? I'm not quite sure what it is, lol, but it's synthetic and has a nice stiffness to it, and I thought it would make a great petticoat! I also grabbed some $1.50 tulle to accompany it.

So I figured a petticoat is simple enough, one tier of fabric big enough to go around the hips, elastic for the waist, then another tier or two with more fabric each time for fullness. This was my first attempt:

It's shorter than I had planned because I stopped at the second tier after realizing it was definitely poufy, but it was poufy all around and wasn't all that flattering with the kind of skirts I was planning on wearing it with. It kind of just made me look like I had a huge bottom half! I had also doubled the amount of tulle on the back rather than putting a single layer like I had on the front...

Needless to say, I underestimated tulle's pouf factor!

I thought a bit about where I wanted the fullness to be in the petticoat. I realized I wanted it on the sides and a bit in the back, but I didn't want it much in the front.

So I began again, this time making sure to gather the fabric mostly on the sides and a bit in the back, but to keep it flat in the front. And this was the result:

I'm quite pleased with the result, it's full in just the right places. It's amazing to me how this simple piece of underclothing can add so much! Here are some comparisons of a couple of my skirts with and without the petticoat.