Pink Fabric Creations & Giveaway Winner!

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

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

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


2. Leaving your email address in your comment.


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

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!

Alright, have at it!

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!

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

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

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?

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

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. :-)