I’ve been bitten by the embroidery bug! There’s no stopping me – ‘plain’ clothing is no longer safe! Actually, I was itching to do a bit more embroidery work, but since Easton is sick, going to the store for ‘blanks’ just wasn’t an option. That’s why I raided closets and came up with a few shirts that looked like they needed a little ‘something’. This design is Urban Thread’s (large) Hardcore Bunny, although I did make a few, small changes (I changed the shirt color on the bunny & omitted the saying at the bottom since it just didn’t fit in with the shirt style). Overall, this one came together FABULOUSLY although it took about an hour to stitch out. I’m anxious to try out a very large, intricate design on something like a jacket or bag, but now I can’t imagine how long something that it will take to embroider! But first, I may have to try one of those, “in the hoop” projects… those look like fun!

This weekend kind of went as expected for a holiday: We did egg hunts, dyed eggs, enjoyed the beautiful weather, and ate way too much food candy. Best of all, I spent some time working on a few projects that really needed my attention. While I can’t show you the finished project just yet, I can say I think you’ll really enjoy it. This was something that really made me think about design and even forced me to make numerous prototypes to test interfacing, shape, size, etc. before cutting into the final fabric.

With some of of my deadlined projects finished, I’m ready to make something just for me. I think I’m feeling a new shirt or bag (or both) should be next!

I couldn’t help myself – I had to make something for Easter. This year I decided to give Retro Mama’s Fabric Easter Egg a whirl. Overall, these are super easy to whip up, but the key to a good looking egg is all in the stuffing – it’s important to stuff VERY firmly and then ‘smoosh’ it until it takes the right shape (mine really need to be molded a bit more because a couple still look lopsided and almost football shaped to me). The other key? Keep them solid or use a muted color palate when you’re mixing prints – my vivid, rainbow egg looks a bit wild!

**You’ll have to forgive today’s photo – I decided to play with Instagr.am because I was giddy that it’s released for droid phones. Now that I see it on the blog, I’ve decided it just doesn’t fit with the rest of the blog. I’ll save the vintage images for something else!

Copyright is a ‘hot topic’ at the moment. Many, many years ago (although, it still pops up here and there today) there was a lot of controversy about using images that were not your own on websites\blogs. This brought about numerous discussions on what constitutes ‘fair use’ (as well as numerous cease and desist letters for many of us). While that dust has settled, new sites and issues have popped up that surround copyright issues. Most recently? Pinterest who changed some of their policies on ‘pinning’ photos\websites\works\etc. and the Kate Spain and C&T Publishing quilt book\eco tote bag issue. Both parties weigh in on the issue and other designers have shared their thoughts and further cleared up the topic of what is ‘fair use’ in the fabric\sewing community. Of course, no one address the fair use of ‘copyrighted fabric’ (a good example would be Disney or collegiate prints) – I am guessing because they don’t have any knowledge about this area.

So what are your thoughts about fabric copyright?

As much as I love to sew, I think I can say that I am equally in love with embroidery. I’ve spent a little bit of time playing with my machine, but I haven’t really worked on a lot of ‘finished projects’. Last night I completed one – Urban Thread’s Cuppa Tea teatowel. I picked this one for several reasons: 1) I really wanted to use a design that wasn’t in the machine so I could try uploading designs from a flash drive, 2) I’ve never used an Urban Threads design and really wanted to see how they stitched up (this one was free), and 3) I wanted something large (come to find out the 4.83″w x 6.33″h design still doesn’t fill up the hoop – that’s one big hoop!) with several colors that I could ‘swap’ out from the original.

Overall, things went very smoothly and I’m really pleased with the end result! Not only did the Urban Threads design stitch out beautifully, but I totally appreciate the automatic thread cutter on the machine. Now, what can I embellish next?

It’s been so warm here lately it feels like summer. I guess that’s why I was attracted to this Friendship Cuff Bracelet – it screams summer camp! I found some of the Cynthia Rowley trim at my local Joann’s and went to work. While this is an easy to stitch up project and my final project looks a lot like the inspiration photo, I’m just not in love with the end result. I found that the braided trim needs to overlap quite a bit in order for them all to fit on the webbing. Consequently, I think that the design(s) gets a little lost and the final cuff is fairly stiff. The strings on the end aren’t fabulous either – they are far too long and the beads don’t add much to the end design. All in all, this project falls under the ‘meh’ category in my book. It’s a shame I paid full price for all the notions with this experiment.

Those who can’t sew…. shop! At least that’s how I tackle my inability to make it into the sewing room consistently this week (apparently the week after spring break has to be one of the busiest of the year). Since there’s been a definite lack of sewing books released recently, I decided to browse Amazon to see what they had to offer. I put Jennifer Paganelli’s Happy Home into my cart along with a non-related sewing book, but ‘must-read’ (in my humble opinion): Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir) (for those of you who don’t know the author Jenny Lawson, I highly recommend her website The Blogess – it’s a hilarious read). Even though I don’t normally go for home dec. books, I am making an exception because I’ve seen the images from Girl’s World and I would LOVE to make everything from that book even though I don’t have a little girl!

I’ve also found a number of fabrics I wouldn’t mind adding to my stash…. although I’m saving that for if I win the Mega Millions tonight. Good luck to everyone playing – half a billion dollars could really go a long way!

I’ll blame the very mild temperatures and the sunburn I received this weekend for making me start thinking about swimwear. I have a very strong desire to make one… right now. I rummaged through my patterns and surfed websites for new ones and keep coming back to McCall 6569 (Ottobre Woman has a nice swimsuit that is a strong second right now). I love the rouching on the sides – not only is it on trend (in fact it looks exactly like Juicy Couture’s Ruffle Skirted Swimsuit), but it should be extremely flattering\slimming because the gathering around the midriff. The drawback? Notions. This is the first swimsuit that I would have to deal with boning and polylaminate foam (for making custom bra inserts) – neither of which I’m wild about having to do.

This of course leads me to my next questions: Does anyone know when Kwik Sew or Jalie (both of which release great swimsuit patterns) release their new pattern lines? Besides eBay, are there other sites that sell polylaminate foam (or any brick and mortar stores) in smaller quantities? And is anyone interested in a swimsuit sew-along in a few weeks?

This morning I’ll be cutting into these gorgeous prints from Free Spirit for an upcoming article for Sew It All (and the good news is, you’ll be able to make the same project too!). Even though I’m excited to make my final ______, I think I’ll stitch out one more prototype to make sure everything is perfect. What are you all up this week?

I am a big fan of the Hunger Game series. Needless to say, I was very excited when my husband got us tickets for an opening weekend sho – so much so that I had to make a craft to celebrate! I used the stencil from this tutorial to make a freezer paper stencil for the back of my shirt. I also went along with her idea to use spray paint instead of a product like Simply Spray and was pleasantly surprised at the results. I’ve worked with the Simply Spray and found that it’s very easy to overspray your shirt (mostly splatter which might not look bad with this design either) and it takes a bit longer to dry than the spray paint. Of course, the real test will be washing – I’ve found Simply Spray holds nicely… I’m just not sure what to expect from spay paint!