Thursday 24 May 2012

Supposedly a cell phone case plus bonus crochet hat

I know I haven't been updating much, at all really. I have a good reason. I've been working on finishing my TEFL certificate and getting everything in order to send to Korea. I applied to teach in Korea and was accepted into a program called EPIK (yay!!). I've been putting more effort into that than anything else lately, including sewing. I have made a few small things, but nothing major. I've actually spent more time crocheting because it's easier to stop and go than sewing is. When I take a break from TEFL, I don't really want to drag out all the sewing equipment only to hide it back again in an hour or so. It's a whole lot easier to pick up some yarn and relax and then put it off to the side again where it can easily be reached later on. I'm working on a few things, but I finished a cute slouchy hat that I wore over the May long weekend. (skip to the end of this post if you want to see it / don't really care about a little pouch).

The sewing project this blog is supposed to be about, was supposed to be a case I could attach in my purse to hold my iPhone. I used this great tutorial called the Easy iPhone Sleeve by Erin Erickson. It is very easy to follow and makes a great little pouch.

It fits my phone fine, a little tight but the pattern said it would be, so it wouldn't fall out and all that. However, I don't like fighting to get to my phone, I'd rather have it easily in hand and doing whatever. So I re-purposed it. It now holds my work pass, which I always managed to lose before. I would spend a full five minutes at the little machine thing that clocks my hours, searching in my purse to find my pass card. Only to realize I left it on my desk somewhere. No more! Now, it always sits in the same spot in my purse, in this little gadget.


You can see my pass peaking out the top. It sits permanently in the side pocket of my purse, which is used less often and so less cluttered.


This was the first time I've ever used batting. It's interesting stuff. I also ironed on some interfacing so not only is it tough, but it's also kind of soft.

So that's that, not a big project. I don't really have time for big projects right now though so it works.

As for the crochet project, I followed this super easy tutorial called the Combination Summer Hat I found on Ravelry. You need an account to access any projects on Ravelry, but it's free to sign up and their database for crochet and knit projects is huge. 


It's called the Combination hat because while the main body is crochet, the band is knit. I don't know how to knit so I just did a few rows of single crochet with a much smaller hook. It worked out well and I love the look of it!

Now break time is over again and I should start working on TEFL, but I just decided that today is a no-TEFL day. My mind is overflowing with grammar and teaching techniques and needs a break longer than an hour. Hm, maybe I'll drag out that sewing machine?

Friday 4 May 2012

Mexican maxi skirt

I'm actually in the middle of sewing something right now, a pretty dress, but just managed to punch a hole through the casing for the elastic and I am now very annoyed with myself. I haven't figure out if it's fixable or if I'm going to have to resew the casing ... So I'm giving up on it for now. Hence, a new blog post!

I call this my Mexican skirt because I made it using some pretty ribbon I got in Mexico, and I made it to go with an embroidered top I bought at Chichen Itza. As it turns out, it doesn't go so well with the embroidered top. It needs to be shorter otherwise I end up looking like an peasant from the 1800s. I have more than enough fabric left over so I will make a shorter version of this skirt, probably just above knee length, but for now, it is my Mexican Maxi Skirt!



I love it. Super super comfy! It's basically a tube with an elastic sewn into the top. I sewed the elastic in place in four spots so it wouldn't move and shift as the day went on. I try to make sure that most of the ruffle bits are at the front and back, and less so at the sides where they just add volume I don't need!


I have since sewn a small slit into the side. I could walk, but I couldn't take large steps. It wasn't a big problem, but I'd like to have the option of running in it. Just in case. It's not a big slit, it reaches just below my knee on the one side with a seam. I just haven't taken pictures of it since adding it in.



I did a wide hem on this too. I like the look of wide hems I guess. :)  I think though that a smaller hem with the ribbon on it would look a little off balance. The 3 inch hem is perfect for adding a ribbon. Isn't it a pretty ribbon too?


I hand sewed it on. I didn't want to stitch it by machine because I was using a purple thread and I didn't want to have bits of purple randomly on the green or gold. The purple bit of the ribbon isn't completely straight and following the line it makes with the sewing machine would have been frustrating to say the least. So hand sewing it was!


You can see the difference between my hand sewing and the machine ... the machine is so much neater! I followed the purple bits. Each two purple bits had one purple bit sewn down, if that makes sense. It made it go faster and it was still attached well.


I even made sure that the start and finish of the ribbon was aligned to the seam of the skirt! Talk about pro ... I'm definitely getting better at thinking through a project and each step and it helps in making them turn out the way they should. Big step up from the 'picnic' dress I messed up on and haven't wanted to look back at yet! I'm sure it's fixable ... and eventually I'll get around to it ... but for now, I have 20 other projects I want to work on first.