Christmas Project

So, shhhh!

Inspiration: http://www.oopseydaisyblog.com/2011/08/photo-tile-coasters-using-resin.html

Desire: Old Nashville photos... there were none. Except in an expensive book...

Result: Quilt square coasters!

They turned out so much better than I was expecting. But then, I had low expectations since I'd never done this before! All my resin experience was pouring into molds, not onto flat surfaces. So, I'm happy. I'd be a little happier with certain things being different, of course, but these are pretty good for a first try. I do wish I'd been able to find thinner tiles. Oh, well. Next time, maybe.

What I did: I cut the quilt squares out of a magazine, mod podged the front and back (as recommended in this resin tutorial: http://skinnerstudio.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-embed-paper-in-resin-part-one.html), mod podged them onto the tiles, trimmed the edges to be even with the tile, mod podged the edges again. After letting that dry for a while, I got the resin ready to go. It took between 2 and 3 ounces of mixed up resin (resin + hardener) to do 8 tiles. After pouring, popping the bubbles, putting the bubblier tiles under a light in the hopes of the heat lifting some of the air bubbles, and putting them all on this tray, Daddy moved the tiles up on the top of a shelf, and I left them alone for over 24 hours. I got them down this morning, and they seem to be fully hardened! They're nice and glossy! The resin had run down the sides of several of them, so I got out my dremel, attached a sanding/polishing bit, and went around the edges, being careful not to hit the top, or even the top of the edges.

Now all that's left to do is add something to the bottom of the tiles, hopefully a thin layer of cork. I might try to find something to finish the edges off a little better too, but that's not totally necessary.

This was a neat project, so I'll probably try it again. I'd like to try using photos, like the inspiration. I'm curious to know if they need mod podge-ing like regular paper does.

2 more down!

Woohoo! 2 more sweater alterations out of the way! Again, not too creatively, but done nonetheless, and I'm happy with them. :)

6 Shirts

4 Skirts

Tally Update

Until today, I hadn't sewn at all since Wednesday. Sorta lose motivation, you know? Well, that and the fact that Thanksgiving lasted through the weekend, the Lord's Day was full, and yesterday and Monday were busy with other things, including getting over a cold. I'm going to try really hard now to stick to my 2-a-day goal. I went a long way in accomplishing that today since I successfully, if not overly creatively, conquered 2 sweaters! Which brings us to the tally:

4 Shirts

4 Skirts

Alteration/Repair Count

I worked a good bit of the day Wednesday on that stack of stuff next to the sewing machine. I knocked out 1 shirt and 4 skirts, and I'm sorta-kinda in the middle of another shirt (although I'm pretty close to just calling that one a failure...).

Just thought I'd pop by while I had a minute and create a tally! I think the total (of successful alterations or repairs is something like this:

2 Shirts
4 Skirts

My goal is kind of a 2-a-day thing on normal days, which, obviously, wasn't yesterday, and isn't today, seeing as how we're about to leave for another day with family! Gotta go!

Show time!

I don't have a before picture, but imagine this in a men's medium size, mock-turtleneck, hugeness. Yep, I wore it anyway, but, nonetheless, it landed in my ginormous pile of things to alter. So, I decided to change it up a bit today. And, boy, change it up I did!

I actually had enough material after cutting the original shirt all to pieces to do Vogue 8536. Well, more or less anyway. I based this off of it, and I like how it turned out! :)

I've done that pattern before, but I did a different view. Last time it worked, per se, but my fabric wasn't as stretchy as it's supposed to be. This time it worked a lot better - despite the fabric still not being quite as stretchy as it's supposed to be, I think. I'm assuming it's not as stretchy anyway; I didn't check it. The neck facing/binding piece was not able to stretch as long as it needed to to cover the neck opening. That wasn't a problem though; I just gathered about two inches of the neck opening on either side of the "V." It added a nice touch, I think.

Been a while...

Heh. No excuses really, except that I've been busy with farm work and THIS project. I've got a whole stack of projects to work on now though; I just went through my closet! Whew. It's a rather discouraging pile of alterations/adjustments/changes/re-purposes/repairs. I suppose I'll get through it somehow...

I've put this off for way too long... :-/

Simplicity 2498

Yes, yes, it's been months... Still, I found time (and motivation, if not inclination) to sew the past couple of days. When I bought the fleece for THIS, I bought a cheap piece of green... something or other. Suiting of some sort. It's been sitting around just waiting for me to do something amazing with it. When I got it, I had a skirt in mind, but when the opportunity to work with it, I wanted to make a dress. My choice was Simplicity 2498. I've made this pattern before, but I chose a slightly different view - view A with adjusted sleeves.

Detail close-up. It's around the hem and under the bodice-skirt seam. I was trying to keep it from looking Amish. ;)