Allmodern.com Giveaway!

Posted on February 5, 2010 by Sarah

To kick off my new Pattern Challenge, I’m joining forces with Jamie from CSN stores to host an awesome giveaway!!

CSN stores is an online retailer with over 200 stores carrying unique, carefully picked products for those with an eye for style.  Their newest store carries high quality mail boxes for those looking to add a little curb appeal to their humble abode.

CSN is also the mastermind behind the lovely http://allmodern.com, which is your one-stop shopping spot for all things modern for the home.

This giveaway will be for a $50.00 shopping spree to http://allmodern.com!!  I am so jealous of whoever wins this…they seriously have such gorgeous stuff!  To wet your whistles a bit, I’ve picked out some of my favorite products under $50.00 that could be yours should you win!!

How cute is this removable chalkboard decal?

Little birdie salt and pepper shakers. Too cute.

Love this set of 4 Dwell Studio placemats!

This Dwell Studio child's backpack is so sweet!

This chandelier inspired lampshade would look dramatic in any bedroom.

Now, on to the official stuff.  Here’s how to enter:
REQUIRED:  Leave a comment on this post telling me what you would buy with $50 to http://allmodern.com.

EXTRAS:  You can earn more entries by doing any of the following:

  • Subscribing to my blog or letting me know that you already do (leave an extra comment letting me know you did).
  • Earn one more entry by joining in on my Pattern Challenge!  Join the Flickr group and be a part of the fun!  (Anyone in the Flickr group will automatically receive another entry)

  • Spread the word!  Another entry for blogging, tweeting, facebooking or spamming your friend’s mailboxes about this giveaway.  Just leave another comment with the link.

The fine print:

  • I’m so sorry to my dear international readers, but this giveaway is only open to those with US and Canada addresses.
  • I will keep this giveaway open until Valentine’s Day and randomly choose a winner the following Monday (Feb. 15th).

Good luck!!


Filed under: Giveaway | 55 Comments »

Join Me?

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Sarah

EDIT:  I’m giving away a $50.00 shopping spree to AllModern.com to kick off this challenge!  Enter here!

Join me in the Pattern Challenge!!!

Alternative Name

I’d love to have anyone who is interested in stretching their skills with apparel construction to join me in these efforts!  It’s simple:

1.  Choose your goals  (ex. To sew 4 garments before your next vacation, or to sew 1 swimsuit before summer, etc.)

-Make your goal(s) attainable and realistic for your personal life.
-Not interested in sewing clothes for yourself?  That’s OK!  Make your goal to sew clothes for your children, or your husband, anything goes!

2.  Put it in writing!

-Blog about your goals, or if you don’t have a blog, get it in writing.  You’re more likely to challenge yourself if you have someone to keep you accountable.

3.  Grab the “Pattern Challenge” button and Join our Flickr group.

-Post on your blog’s sidebar to get the word out!  Post about this on Facebook!  Tell your friends!
-Send me an email if you are participating, and I will add a link to your blog to my sidebar of participants.
-Copy the HTML button to your sidebar:

<a href=”http://www.comeandseetheseitz.com/” target=”_blank”> <img src=”http://comeandseetheseitz.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/pattern_challenge_resize.jpg” alt=”Alternative Name” /></a>

4.  Blog about your finished garments and categorize/tag them as “Pattern Challenge” .  In addition to this, you can post them to our Flickr group.  Be sure to add a note to your picture with a link to the blog post that describes the garment, if there is one.

-Title your blog post according to the sewing pattern name, and include “Pattern Challenge.”  For example, my first pattern was Burda 7550, so I’ve titled my first post, “Pattern Challenge:  Burda 7550.”  This will help when others are searching for pattern reviews.
-How awesome would it be if someday we had a whole pattern library from these posts?  My mind is spinning!  Please, feel free to offer suggestions!

My vision for this project is that in just a short amount of time we will have a virtual pattern library full of our reviews and photos of finished garments. We will also stretch ourselves to learn more about garment construction and we will have a way to share in the joys (and sometimes terrors!) of sewing clothes!

Please consider joining with me if you have any inkling of a desire to sew more clothes!

Filed under: Pattern Challenge | 16 Comments »

Pattern Challenge: Burda 7550

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Sarah

I’m on a major apparels kick, and I bought 4 new patterns on Friday.  I’m challenging myself to sew each of the new patterns in the next couple of months (leading up to my trip to Europe!).  I’ll blog about them here, which will hopefully keep me accountable.

Update:  CONSIDER JOINING ME!!!  See this post for details:  http://comeandseetheseitz.com/2010/02/02/join-me/

Here are the 4 patterns I’m working with:

  1. Burda shorts (finished as of this weekend!!) 
  2. Cute jersey dress (I got the pieces cut out last night)
  3. Super fancy and chic skirt
  4. Simple shirt (recommended highly by Amy Karol).

(on the off-chance that I finish all of these before my Europe trip, I also want to try this one)

The first of my finished patterns was Burda 7550:

I’ve never made anything this tailored/structured before, and it was so much fun to work through.  The pattern was a really good intro to making pants.  Also, the next time I try this pattern (I’m already thinking about making another pair out of a nice cotton/linen blend) I will add some pockets.  I like that added barrier of fabric to separate the world from my backside :) .  What else….the zipper part was super scary.  I was SO confused when looking at the pattern about how this was going to work out, but it turned out beautifully!  The fabric perfectly covers the zipper and it stays put when zipped up.  My main advice to those trying this pattern:  don’t over think it.  The instructions seem way simpler than they should be, but it really is simple!

You’ll notice that I haven’t made the button-hole or added to button closure yet.  That’s because of two reasons:  I hate making buttonholes.  I suck at making buttonholes.  Anyone else share my pain?  The second reason is because I need to get some of these jeans snaps.  I’m hoping Joann’s carries them so I don’t have to order a million….I highly doubt I’ll be making 12 pairs of denim shorts/jeans….but, who knows?!

Stick with me to see my progress and to find out if my European wardrobe turns out exactly how I imagine!

Quick question:  Would it interest you to see how these actually fit/look on a human?  Or are you just more interested in seeing how the finished garments turn out?  Let me know in the comments!

Filed under: Creations, Pattern Challenge | 5 Comments »

Just Like Mommy’s

Posted on January 28, 2010 by Sarah

Back when I first started selling my Damask Purses, my sister quickly snatched one up from my Etsy shop.  I really didn’t want to make her pay for it, but she insisted!  What a good sister, right? 

So, for Christmas this year I decided to make her 2-year old daughter, Maddie, a matching purse!  The cuteness factor here is unbelievable!  Here is the mini version:

I had a photo shoot with Maddie and her purse, but I just couldn’t choose which pictures I liked best!  She was being so cute:  putting on my shoes, picking up bark and storing it away safely in her purse and wearing the bag perfectly around her wrist.  Love it!

So, you might be wondering, how can I make one?  It’s so simple!  Take one of your favorite purse patterns (I used Keyka Lou’s Small Satchel, but I would also recommend the Buttercup bag or the Phoebe bag) and cut out your pattern pieces.  Then simple cut about 1″ off of the entire perimeter of the pattern pieces.  I chose to make a tiny little cell phone pocket for her mini phone, but you could also add a zipper pocket if you want to get really fancy.  Mine has a magnetic snap, which I think is Maddie’s favorite part.  She loves opening and closing it over and over again! 

This purse only took about an hour to make, and my neice loves having a purse that’s just like mommy’s (and auntie’s, for that matter)!

Filed under: Creations | 7 Comments »

Photo Highlights

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Sarah

I got a new camera for Christmas this year.  At the recommendation of my friend and co-worker, Cameron, I got a Panasonic Lumix LX3 and I absolutely LOVE it!  I’m trying to improve my photography skills (which is a long shot for me…I am definitely not a star photographer!) and I knew I needed to have the right tools to get me there.  This camera is said to be somewhere between a point-and-shoot and a digital SLR.  It seems to be the perfect way for me to build up my artistic eye before putting a lot of investment into a really pricey camera.  

The thing I love about this camera is that it’s compact enough to be the perfect travel companion.  We’re going to Europe this May, and I definitely wanted to buy a camera that would travel well.  Not to mention the fact that it takes beautiful pictures!  It has an incredibly crisp Leica lens and a large (3″) LCD screen.  It also takes beautiful HD videos!  I didn’t do any photoshop-ing on the photos below and the black and white pics are all from the camera’s “Dynamic Black and White” setting. 

On my trip to California 2 weeks ago I definitely got to test out my new Lumix.  Here are some photo highlights of my trip (with little to no commentary, so please feel free to ask any questions in the comments!).  You can click on any of these to see the full quality picture. 

Reflection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Photos | 3 Comments »

Sammy’s Quilt

Posted on January 20, 2010 by Sarah

This is my new nephew, Sammy’s quilt.  My sister and I picked out the fabrics together, and she knew she wanted something with a circular theme.  I used Anna Marie Horner’s method for making the circles, which worked excellently (although tedious!).  The background fabric is a Kona cotton in white.  I made a scrappy binding using three of the darker of the fabrics in the quilt.  I quilted this one with 2 simple straight lines parallel to the block borders.  I quilted through the quilt front and batting layer, and then added a minky backing afterwards.

Funny story, I really wanted to get a picture of Sammy with the quilt, and since we were in my sister’s backyard, I thought we could just put the quilt down on the (very slightly) sloped grass and set Sammy there.  Well, turns out the slope was a little too much for a 5 week old!  Little Sammy did 2 slow-motion rolls down the hill before mommy grabbed him up.  We were in stitches though…the sight of it was just too funny!  I happened to snap this picture as he did his first roll (I don’t think he woke up at all!):

Later that day we had a little photo shoot which, I’m sure you can tell, Sammy loved!

I like to think he’s waving ‘hi’ here:

You can probably see this in the pictures above, but here’s a close-up of Sammy’s quilt label (handsewn to the minky back):


Sasa is the nickname my brother gave me when I was little and it has kind of always stuck!  Funny coincidence, my brother ended up marrying his lovely wife, Emily, who has always called her grandma, Sasa.  Random, huh?

Filed under: Creations, Quilts | 11 Comments »

Maddie’s Color Wheel Quilt

Posted on January 18, 2010 by Sarah


This is Maddie’s Color-wheel Quilt (click the image above to see this in full size).


Isn’t my niece the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?


I designed and Spoonflower printed this little tag so Maddie will always know that her Auntie made this quilt just for her.

Purlsoho.com provided the lovely bundle of spectrum fabrics (fat-eights).  I never would have been able to come up with such a pretty range of fabrics!  The bundle provides enough fabric to make 2 colorwheel quilts, so I think it’s well worth the money.

Pattern:  Colorwheel Quilt from Last Minute Patchwork and Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.

I highly recommend this pattern, trust me, it’s easy!!!

Filed under: Quilts | 12 Comments »

Jewelry Roll

Posted on January 15, 2010 by Sarah

I broke down and bought the One Yard Wonders book.  Oh, how I love it!  So many gorgeous projects all using no more than 1 yard of fabric!  What a great concept!  The only problem is that it is not very often that I buy fabric by the yard.  Since I’m mostly quilting these days, I usually buy fat quarters or half yard cuts.  But, I’m finding that many of these projects actually take much less than a yard.  I made this Jewelry Roll as a Christmas present for my auntie using just 2 fat quarters…genius!  The outer fabric is Heather Bailey’s Nicey Jane line and the lining is a cute yellow linen a bought as a remnant.

The ribbon tied placket is where you can string your rings or pierce your earrings through.  This pattern had a great method for applying the zippers which ends up looking very nice.  I almost always have a hard time with zippers, but not this time!

My last two big presents (quilts!) were gifted this past week on my trip to California, so I will finally be able to post pictures.  I’m so happy with how they turned out and I can’t wait to show them to you!!

Filed under: Creations | 2 Comments »

Argyle Scarf

Posted on January 11, 2010 by Sarah

 

I made this flannel argyle scarf as a Christmas present for my best friend.  I followed a free tutorial which has now become a not-so-free pattern.  It was super easy to make, though.  Especially with my newly discovered AMAZING trick for ruffling/gathering.  I was able to ruffle all of the strips for this scarf in about 15 minutes.  Here’s how:

 

Simple Ruffling Trick:

To create a ruffle with your machine, set your machine’s tension to the highest number that it will go to and  set your machine’s stitch length to the longest possible stitch.  Sew your strips (or whatever needs to be gathered), and the imbalance between the tension and stitch length will cause the strips to ruffle up simply by sewing them!

Here’s to happy, simple gathering!

Filed under: Creations, Tips | 5 Comments »

Patchwork Pillow

Posted on January 8, 2010 by Sarah

I am hooked on this new tip.

When it comes to piecing together many small squares, there’s often little room for mistakes.  But, if you try out this method, you are basically guaranteed perfect patchwork squares.  The genius behind this method comes from using fusible interfacing as a base to “glue” your squares in place before you even sew them.  I’m not really sure how to explain how this works, but definitely check out the tutorial if your interest is piqued. 

The pillow above was made from 5″ Amy Butler squares that I purchased pre-cut about a year ago from Ebay.  I backed it with an adorable Amy print, and finished off the pillow with a zipper-closure (see my tutorial here).  Such a simple and rewarding project!  This one was a Christmas present, but I plan to try this method again for some pillows to keep.

Filed under: Creations, Tips | 6 Comments »

Next Page »