Why Do I Create?

That question was posed to me by Candice at Made With Love. I answered her question this way:

I create because it does de-stress me (at least from my daily life stress lol). I love using something I've made or being able to give something I've made to a friend or family member. Each item that I make seems to have a little part of me with it. So when I put it out there as a gift or (soon) to sell I pray it brings a smile to the face of the person on the receiving end and that it makes them happy to have it and use it.

I'll continue Candice's question.

Why do you create?

DIY - Not as Easy as It Looks

Design It Yourself - Not as easy as it looks.

After our last trip to Disneyland (we go quite frequently) I felt the need for a small yet hold it all wallet. Something my ID, cellphone, change, chapstick, and season passes could all fit in AND it could go on my Disney Pin Lanyard.

No big deal right?

I spent the better half of an evening measuring, drawing, and planning exactly how my wallet would look. The next morning first thing I started to actually make it.

It was exciting seeing my ideas come into reality while working on it!

The coin pouch even had a zipper (the first one I've ever done!)

Once I was done I was very pleased with my work but I could see some flaws and problems already.

I forgot to allow width for the folding the wallet does. The coin pouch is too small to hold the large chapstick I like to use. The cellphone pocket and the ID pocket should be reversed. And I can't for the life of me get the fusible velcro to fuse because that part of the wallet is too thick.

A Wallet of My Own Design

All these problems are fixable. I'm going to make changes where necessary and this time use some muslin so I don't use up the rest of my chosen fabric until I know I've got it right.

In the meantime I'm using my wallet and it works fine except for it's flaws and I'll enjoy having my flawless one made. =) Once I get it right I may start selling them in the shop.

On other designing notes I pulled out some blank cards so my daughters and I could make some special cards to send to grandparents. They made thank you cards for the recent visit and spoiling my mom and dad did this weekend. I made a get well soon card for my grandma who recently had surgery.

We had fun with rick rack on our cards!

I get my sewing talent from my Grandma. She always made us fun stuff. I remember when she made my sister and I matching Snow White costumes for Halloween. She also was the one who made our baby blankets. I still have mine, it's in pretty bad shape though. (I have a sibling who still actively uses their baby blanket.)

I got to play with my fabric today! However, while I was pressing the dryer wrinkles out I discovered 4 pieces were cut to the wrong length. =( Boo! Which put me 3 Origami Handbags short of my goal. Oh well.

Ok, I've got a question for any that have made it this far in my ramblings. Should I wait to list things once I've got a lot made or list as I make it?

Thanks for your opinions!

Pretty Fabric!

It sure was a good thing there was so much beautiful fabric that I was able to bring home today because otherwise this shopping adventure would have been a shopping nightmare!

The fabric stores I frequent are in the next town 20 minutes away (there are no fabric stores where I live besides Walmart which has a woefully lacking fabric department).

I received mailers recently for sales that were going on at both stores! I was excited to check them out. I loaded up my 4 children and we were off! I went to Beverly's first where they had all their print knits on sale for $2.44 a yard. After going through them all for an hour I was finally able to whittle my selection down and went up to the counter. (During this hour my children were behaving less than stellar. Plus there was a very grumpy grandma behind the cutting counter who didn't seem to like children that made any noise.)

I made my way to the registers where there was a nice lady ahead of me that thought my children's antics were very cute. She let me go ahead of her in line so that I could corral my wayward bunch out the door. Upon reaching into my purse I discovered that I had left my method of payment at home. I was not happy. The nice lady behind the counter offered to hold my fabric for me so I loaded the children into the van and we drove the 20 minutes home. I grabbed my forgotten items from off the counter and we drove 20 minutes back to the fabric store. At least the kids got in a nap during that 40 minute wait in the van.

The fruits of my labor from Beverly's:

Once we made our purchase at Beverly's we went next store to Betty's! Where the woven cottons that were on sale for $5/yard were now on sale for $4/yard.

The kids were better behaved in Betty's (I think the nap helped) except for a very embarrassing episode with my 3 year old by the register. There were so many beautiful fabrics that I spent WAY TOO MUCH time making my selections. I had wanted to be home at 5pm to start dinner, we didn't get home til 6:20.

My haul from Betty's:

2 Selections for the Pretty Pillowcases

A Stack of 5/8's for the Origami Handbags

5 yards of loveliness for the Phoebe Bags

I also wanted to find some boy fabric for some boy themed Crayon Wallets but there wasn't much boy stuff that I liked (in the sale section that is).

Unless I'm able to sweet talk my husband into letting me buy this Pirate Cove Bundle from Above All Fabric. There won't be much in the way of boy Crayon Wallets in the shop until I'm able to sell some of what I've purchased today.

Have a great day everyone and have you been to a great fabric sale lately?

COMING SOON

I've finally set up shop at Etsy! My store "Grace, Faith, and Glory" will be opening soon. I'm currently working on getting goodies ready for the shelves.

I've been wanting to put my sewing to good use and honor the Lord Who gave me this talent. Our church is going through a building project and I'll be donating 75% of the profits of every sale to the building fund.

What happens when the project is over? Well, we'll see what the Lord has in store when that time comes.

What kind of things will I be selling? I hope to load the shop with my Fun and Comfy Skirts from yesterday's post as well as Crayon Wallets, the Origami Handbags, and any other fun thing I may be making at the time. I'll post an announcement when the Grand Opening is officially scheduled.

Comfy and Easy Skirts

If you haven't made yourself a circle skirt yet I highly recommend it! After seeing how cute my daughter's skirts were I wanted one for myself. This morning I set about it and made myself my very own. It is sooooo comfortable and so easy to make. You don't even need to buy a pattern!! It's very easy to make yourself and here are 2 great links to tutorials on making them:

Rosie's Whimsy Circle Skirt Tutorial

Whitney Sews - Tshirt Resize and Tshirt Circle Skirt Video

I foresee many of these making it into my closet and many more trips to the thrift shop and garage sales for graphic tees.

Keep on Sewing

WOW! Has it really been 2 months since I posted last! Goodness. Well, I certainly did not put my sewing machine away. It did sit dormant for a few weeks due to life in general and surprises that the Lord had for us but I've sewn a few things here and there.

I've made 2 crayon wallets one for a birthday present and one as an order. The mother of the girl I gave the 1st one to wanted one to give as a birthday present for her daughter's friend. She wanted a little purse to go with it so I made a matching Origami Handbag to go with it.


Next I made a pillow case for a girlfriend's birthday. It wasn't just any old pillow case though. My friend is a flamingo fanatic! And I wanted it to be special for her as her husband is on deployment.

I had so much fun making this pillow! I had so many ideas and the design changed a million times before I finally settled on what you see here.

I was going to embellish both sides but opted to leave a side plain so that she wouldn't wake up with unsightly stitching lines on her face. lol

Then on Monday I wanted to get out and make my daughter a circle skirt out of knit fabric but after looking at the state of my garage/sewing area I decide to clean instead. I was able to unload 2 large black bags, 2 large boxes, and 1 small box full of fabric that I didn't need/like from my garage. Most had come from a buy sight unseen selection of fabric I picked up at a garage sale. There was plenty for me to keep but a lot I didn't want that was cluttering up the area.

Now that the area was decluttered the creative juices were flowing freely! I picked up my scissors and attacked repurposed a Hersheys Milk Chocolate T-shirt into a circle skirt for my daughter.


I always make things so hard on myself. Instead of a simple 1 hour to make skirt this skirt with it's bits of this and pieces of that took W-A-Y too long. But it sure is fun!

This entire skirt was made from repurposed fabric. Three t-shirts and some leftover floral fabric from an earlier project went into this skirt. There are white shorts sewn in as well to keep her modest when playing. =)

After the Hershey's Skirt was complete I whipped out this pink skirt in one hour. Oh if only I had made this one first like she wanted. lol My little girl loves all things pink and when given her choice she'd pick this skirt over the one mommy spent so much time slaving over making for her. ;)

This one also has shorts sewn in.

Now that she has 2 new skirts I may make one for myself tomorrow! They are sooooo easy to make! I've got to keep repeating to myself "Keep it simple! Keep it simple!" I tend to go overboard with the design of my little creations that I don't get done nearly what I should.

To anyone who actually read this and made it all the way to the bottom, Thank you! Thanks for sticking with it and waiting for me to finally post again.

Happy 5th Birthday/My 1st Sienna Dress

It's finished! And it came out PERFECTLY!! Well, at least as perfect as I can tell before seeing it on her. But that will have to wait until morning it's after 11pm right now. Sorry for the bad lighting in the pics. I took many but these were the best two.

This was a very fun project and would have been quicker but I just had to complicate things. lol I used the Sienna Dress Pattern from Lil Blue Boo (as I said in my last post). I decided to go with the short sleeves and I had to add an inch on to the bottom, I like their dresses to last through a growth spurt.

I had a lot of fun using Lil Blue Boo's Freezer Paper Stenciling Tutorial (except I used Tulips Spray Fabric Paint, didn't have to mix my own) and trying out her Reverse Applique Tutorial as well! Then at the end my little birthday princess wanted ruffles on it so I decided to lettuce edge the hem and the sleeves. I can't wait to try it on her tomorrow! Good Night!