Inspiration

Well...It's been a long time since I've posted something.  I've really been off to a slow start on this blogging thing.  It is definitely not from lack of inspiration though.  I actually have found tons of inspiration and if I could figure out this while pinning thing then I would link you to all of my inspiration that I've found lately.  That's for another post though.  So until then I'm still saving links and my favorites list keeps growing.  Hopefully I'll find the time soon to get around to all of the ideas that are spinning in my head (ha!). 

I just got back from an AMAZING trip to New York.  I had never been there before and I already can't wait to go back!  This is a picture of me in Times Square.  Pretty cheesy, I know, but I was so excited the entire time.

When we were there I got all kinds of sewing ideas!  I never saw the same outfit twice.  I loved just sitting down and watching all the people to see what they were wearing and how they fixed their hair.  I was often left speechless.  One thing that I saw over and over was a sheer maxi dress and the person just had on their bra and panties.  I'm all about trying something new with fashion but that's one thing that you won't see me doing EVER!  Anyway, I did fall in love with maxi dresses and skirts.  I have a few maxi dresses that I've bought but I don't wear them often because I'm afraid it will only make me look shorter than I already am.  After seeing girls wear a see through dress I'm no longer concerned with making myself look shorter.  So I've been taking pictures and searching for the perfect fabric to make some maxi skirts like these. 

I think that these will be pretty easy to make, I'm just going to follow the form from my maxi dress with just a few modifications.  I'm not ready to try zippers yet so I also need to find some cool belts to hold these things up!  I have found some solid knit fabric that I love.  I haven't found a neat ikat material yet to make the first skirt.  If anyone knows of a great place to find material for clothes then please let me know! 

I am addicted to knit material though.  It's so soft.  I'm a texture girl so I love the way that it feels.  I saw this shirt in some store in soho (I'm sure they loved me taking pictures of everything).  But I kept thinking I could make that! 

Really, this shirt would be so easy to make.  The only modification is that I would make it a little longer so I could wear it with tights and skinny jeans.  But I love that there is a pattern to it.  I'm holding out hope that I will be able to find some cool fabric like this one. 

Even with all of the ideas that I have there is still a barrier and it's a big one.  Right now my sewing machine is set up on one side of my kitchen table.  My wreath making area is on the other side of the table.  My material cutting station is the living room floor and my classroom crap is all over the house.  This kind of makes my eye twitch.  Yesterday I was being lazy and sitting on the couch at home.  I looked around the living room to see PVC pipe for my classroom, a chair that I plan to re-do, a euro pillow form with fabric draped over it, monsters for my classroom and a pile of grad work that I needed to be working on.  So in true avoidance style, I went outside.  :) 

But I decided that I really needed an area to work if I ever wanted my eye to stop twitching and to eat a meal at our kitchen table again.  I asked Josh about redoing the guest room and making that my craft room but he wasn't too fond of that idea.  Really, I'd be willing to give up my bed when someone wants to stay with us, no bigs.  So I had to move on to another idea.  Our house does have a basement and half of it was livable when moved in.  We (and by we, I really mean I) painted and have decorated some, then we had someone come in to lay carpet.  I love our basement area.  It's really just one big room and I didn't want to take that area up with all of my crafts.  We use the TV area that's down there and it's festive to have when we have people over.  But when you first come down the stairs there is a hall area that's actually 7x12 feet.  Currently I just have a table there with a lamp on.  It's cute but nothing exciting.  So this area will be my new crafting area. 

I have packed away my crafting supplies, mid-cut, half-wrapped wreath everything and I'm now focusing on getting this area set up and organized so I that can continue with all of my inspiration.  I have found a few pictures and thought of some things that want to have in this area.  It won't be anything too fancy but it will allow me to keep everything in one spot and keep us away from the TV trays that I hate so much! 

I know that I will need a desk or table large enough to hold my sewing machine as well as have some extra room for other things that I'm working on.  My mom and I went to antique stores in Shelbyville yesterday.  I found one table that I LOVED but it was more than I really wanted to spend so I took pictures and keeping it as a back up.  I did manage to find a great chair though.  It has good bones and after a coat of paint and some new fabric it will be perfect for my little area.  My goal this week is to find a table/desk area. 

Storage will be a huge issue for all of the little things that I have and will need not just when I'm sewing but when I'm being crafty in other ways too.  When I worked at Julie's we used a peg board for some of our storage.  I decided that I would buy some of that and paint it a festive color to help store things.  I loved this picture.  It makes me smile just to look at it.  I'm sure my area won't be that cool but I can always dream. 

I also know that I'll want to have a shelf that I can put some baskets on for storage.  While searching for pictures I saw where they had used the bottom of the shelf for storage too.  I know that between my Granny and mom they probably have a bazillion Mason jars sitting around so I'm totally going to steal this idea.

That's about as far as I've gotten in my thought process for this.  I'm really excited about it though and know that I'm going to love whatever I come up with.  I'm just hoping that I can make it come together this week so I'm not stressing over this craft area when school starts (Ahhh!).  Now it's back to cutting out monsters for school and typing a paper...Happy Sunday!!

Happy Birthday America!!

So...I've been meaning to post this all week long.  But I had a training that I went to for three days this week and I was trying to catch up from vacation.  Whew!  Here is the tutorial for a fabulous 4th of July wreath. 

 One great thing to know about this wreath (since it's almost too late for the 4th) is that you can pick fabric to match whatever holiday you are being festive for.  We will however, be celebrating Independence Day for a while!

My wreath is modeled from this one here Fourth of July Wreath But I did end up making a few changes to what she had done. 

To make this wreath you will need various different fabrics.  Mine were all themed red, white and blue, burlap (I bought a yard but didn't use all of it), buttons, a wreath form (I ended up not using the one that is pictured), hot glue gun and a sewing maching.  The cat is optional.  It wasn't worth fighting to get her off the bed. 

First, you will cut the burlap into strips.  This was kind of messy but you don't have to be very exact when doing this.  Many of mine weren't very even.  

Once you've cut your fabric then begin wrapping it around the wreath form.  I switched to a green wreath form because it was easier to work with and looked better once it was wrapped.  Use just a little bit of glue to secure each strip.

 After the wreath is wrapped then I took some of my fabric and cut it into long strips that varied in width.  I really wasn't sure what I was doing for this, it ended up working out ok. 

After cutting my fabric I started sewing.  I took the strips and did a mix of pleating them and just scrunching the fabric up.  There is a way that you can sew it and it will ruffle, but I haven't figured that out just yet. 

Once you finished with a section it would naturally curve around.  That's a good sign I think.  :)

Scrunch all your fabric and you will end up with cute piles of festive fabric. After I was finished sewing I heated up the glue gun again.  I took the fabric and layered a few pieces from largest to smallest.  You totally could have stiched them together but I just used the glue gun to secure them.  I did them in layers.  I glued each piece into a circle then I glued the circles together.  To finish it off I glued some buttons in the center of each flower.  Here is a finished flower.

These are so flexible!  You could use all the same fabrics, you could use a lace with it, really just work with whatever you have.  After getting all of my flowers together I put them on the wreath.  Instead of gluing the flowers on, I used a straight pin and just stuck them on there.  That way, I can switch it out for the different seasons!  Here is a close up of the 3 flowers I did.

They are pretty big and busy - I'm ok with that.  You can make them smaller like the link that I posted or have them be large and in charge!  The hanger for my door is pretty short so I added some navy ribbon to the top before hanging it on my door.  Enjoy!!  Hope that everyone has a great 4th of July!