Tropical Love is in the Air!

After a splendid hiatus from real life, I’m back with a bunch of fabulous inspirations.  My love and I just returned from a week long Caribbean cruise, during which I went from status girlfriend to fiancé!!  So, now I am a betrothed woman – I like the word betrothed, and I’m set to bring it back into our daily lexicon! 

While we shopped around on the islands, I saw many a cute beach cover up, tote bag, and sundress that as I checked them out, I realized I could definitely make those items.  So, hopefully as the spring and summer months are close approaching, I’ll remember my tropical inspirations and then be able to post tutorials and pics along the way. 

On a totally separate note, remember my last minute costume for a birthday party that I made a Marilyn Monroe dress (my first attempt at sewing clothes) in 3 short days?!?! If not, here's that post: click here.  Well, I finally have photographic proof.  Ta da!!!

That's all for me for now.  We're off to go camping in Mexico this weekend.  My eyes will be open for sewing inspirations while I'm there.  Until next Wednesday...

Ciao!

Show & Tell Time - My First Projects

Hello friends! 

When it comes to my humble sewing roots, I'm pretty much still a sewing newbie by most regards.  I first set my hands on a sewing machine back in April of 2011, thanks to Melody teaching me how to sew and to Holly for selling me her old machine.  My original goal was to be able to make my own costumes and creative attire for parties, events, and trips.  I have many artistic friends through the Burning Man community who are performers and skilled costume-putting-together-ers, and they inspire me every time I see their clothing & costume creations. In the truest sense, I had to learn to crawl before dance, so I started making some household creations before I ventured into clothing and costumes.  Once I got the hang of it, I soon realized that there's a whole world of things that can be sewn or crafted ~ who knew?!? 

The rest of tonight's post will be mostly visual.  Admit it, you know you like flipping through a magazine to peruse the pictures and skim the captions.  It's ok, me too. 

So, without further ado, here are some fun fotografias.

My first project ever.  A set of placemats with matching cloth napkins that fit inside the convenient placemat pocket.
Oh la la!



2nd project was the matching apron ~ it's reversible!

These plain white dish towels are plain no more!!
 

My first bag!! A bunch of your SUTI (Sewing Under the Influence  - get it???) bloggers all took a quilting class and made the same type of bag. 
I totally fooled some of my coworkers and friends ~ they thought it was a "crafty - looking" purse from a chic boutique. 

The Sewing Mat bag - to carry all my sewing supplies as I travel to Monday Night Sew In gatherings.  It holds  so much stuff and is very sturdy.



 These placemats & matching coasters ended up as a gift to my mother.

Burp Cloths for my coworker ~ she had a little boy with a monkey themed nursery.... I expanded and went with monkeys and other jungle animals

Matching Bib and Placemat for a friend's new baby girl, Maddy


Much love & sunshine!

Nina

How do you unwind?

How do you unwind after a long day of work, carpooling, errands, etc.?  I prefer to sit down at my sewing table and work on various projects, gifts, etc.  I prefer to keep the TV off, and crank up some tunes.  Usually I spend most of said "sew-time" searching for a tutorial of the project to be made, then when I find one/few, I get stuck perusing the blog or site where the tutorial resides.  Many a time, my rabbit hole of looking at cute tutorials leads me to start pinning the pics of the projects I want to do someday on Pinterest, or getting ideas for totally different projects altogether.


When it's all said and done, I need to conciously tell myself to focus on the project at hand.... and then I sew.  And once I'm started, I don't want to stop.  I'd rather keep going on a project until 2 AM - it's like an adrenaline rush, and the importance of the time of night (or early morning) goes by the wayside.  My latest project & oh-so-incredible-first-time-feat was actually make a piece of clothing.  Not like a one size fits all apron, but a dress... from a pattern.... that was to be worn... for an audience... and to be finished in... 3 days!  It was quite an endeavor, one for which my fellow Monday sewing ladies called crazy. Yet, I did it!  My costume dress came out great and I am so excited that it turned out well.  Plus, now I'm no longer afraid of venturing into a new world of sewing and crafting my own clothing/costumes. I'm hoping someone caught a pic of me wearing it, otherwise I'll lay it out and snap a couple soon.

Oh, and back to the original question at hand: "I unwind by spooling up" as my boyfriend so wittily described.