Be Kind Cross Stitch

It took me about 4 months to finish this lovely piece. It's about 8". I modified the original pattern to include the to yourself. It's my first big cross stitch piece. I really enjoyed it.

Craft Room

Did some tidying up and got things more organized at least for the moment. It won't last long, but it's starting to feel pretty cozy in here finally!

Simple, shell top

I'm on a quest to find a top pattern I like. So I decided to try Simplicity 1316. It has princess seams and no set in sleeves so it was easy to put together. I'm not thrilled with the fit, but it's wearable, and fun fabric. And I used Sergio for the first time.

New Machines

I've been thinking about a serger for a long time. My trusty Janome Magnolia 7330 struggled a bit with my shark skirt. I then tried to make a knit top with a silky jersey knit. My machine ate the fabric a couple of times, and really couldn't handle it. I decided to finally get a serger--a Brother 1034D. It sat in it's box of for almost 2 weeks. I was intimidated. Fortunately my favorite place, Stitch Lab, offered a serger class this week. It wasn't hard to thread and really easy to use. Yay.

During all the debacle with this knit top, I decided I also needed a new sewing machine. I finally outgrew my Magnolia. It has always done buttonholes erratically, and having more trouble with some of the various fabrics I wanted to use. I visited 4 different shops in town, and decided on a Viking Opal. She's a computerized machine packed with features and lots of stitches that I probably don't need. I've made one buttonhole and it was so easy. You tell Opal what kind of fabric and she automatically adjusts settings. I love that!

Meet Sergio and Opal.

Tutu Skirt

For three years I've been wanting to make a shark costume for Halloween. A tutu skirt would represent the water, and then out of felt make a shark to come out of the water. I was intimidated by working with tule. I basted the the tule to gather it into a skirt and it's been sitting this whole time. It didn't really take that long to sewing into the waistband.

Akita top

I decided to try printing the pattern for Akita at home. It was a little tedious, but not as difficult a I thought it would be. This was 21 pages, and doable, but I don't know that I'd do it again or not.

This was an easy project. I wasn't happy with how much the sleeves stick out, so I laid another shirt on top and realized if the shoulders were at an angle instead of straight it would probably lay better. I was pleased I figured it out.