I heart books shirt

My it has been a busy few weeks.  I'm not really clear on where November went.  Not much time to sew, or thing really.  But the next few weeks will be crazy busy for sewing as I have a not too short list of Christmas / Birthday / Sinterklaas (Dutch St. Nick) presents to sew up!  And it will all be awesome!

But before I get started on my gift sewing, I thought I'd procrastinate and make myself a shirt.

I really love books.  I have a ton of them.  And while trying to declutter (and update on which will come soon as progress has been made!)  Books have been the hardest.  I packed a TON of them away, and have 4-5 boxes to give away, which is pretty huge for me!

So in a nod to all those books, what could be more appropriate then for me to make a shirt with books all over it!

I picked up this fabric in the summer, it's a Victoria and Albert Museum print actually, so historical to boot (and we all know how much I dislike history :P)

I really want to work on bettering my sewing skills for me, as I tend to avoid making anything for me that is too fitted.  I am a skinny thing (despite my love for all things fattening) and even the smallest pattern size is too big.  I'm not very confident on altering patterns yet, so I find patterns with elastic and ties!  That way if it's just a bit to big (which this was) I shorten the elastic, and voila it pretty well fits!  The fabric is a bit stiff for this, so this shirt might make me look pregnant again from some angles, and I did sew it up pretty quick, so it is far from perfect, but too bad.

I like the books :)

Oh and the pattern is just a Butterick one (can't recall the number right now!).  I like the little pleats at the shoulders.  If I use this pattern again, I'll need to use plain fabric so you can properly see them!

Back to gift sewing now!

Gifting a figure eight

Just a quick post today to show you the scarf I made my cool sister-in-law for her birthday.   Yes blog readers, this a post with adult clothing, shocking, I know...

I just gave it to her today (a few weeks late, sorry sis!) but I hadn't quite finished it last I saw her.  I blame the hand stitching required to finish it up and leave the fabric loop open and have it sit nicer :)

Either way, now I can finally blog it!

I first saw this scarf on Made by Rae, and though, oooo pretty.  She used Anna Maria Horner's blog tutorial found here to make her scarf, so I did the same!  AMH uses a lovely voile and velveteen combo, and I did something similar, using those pretty fabric I've been meaning to make something with for a while (which I think could be called a voile, or close to it anyway), and some plain purple (yes it is purple, despite what my crappy quick shot above makes it look like) velveteen from the local chain fabric store.

The velveteen definitely makes it cozy, with the light voile keeping it light.  But boy, that velveteen can stretch if you let it!

I love this scarf, and will definitely be making myself at least one, very, very soon!

Where has all this fabric come from?

The fabric I ordered a few weeks ago on Etsy from Fresh Modern Fabrics has arrived!  And boy it's nice looking.  Originally I had just planned to order some of Melody Millers "Ruby Star Rising" Transistor radios and viewfinders for Squiggles.  But then I saw that they still had some of Lizzie House's Castle collection.

Let just say I really really like castles and Medieval stuff, so I had to get some.  For what? Not sure yet, but I wonder if I can pull off making something for me from it?

The other bit of fabric is for a christmas gift.  We plan on a pretty minimal Christmas this year.  We are only buying a few things, the rest I'm making.  And I'm not necessarily making that much either.  We really want to move to quality, not quantity and start to teach Squiggles that he doesn't need to get lots of stuff to have an awesome Christmas.

I also visited a local quilt shop to buy the rest of the fabric for the handmade gifts.  This store stocks some of the nice designer fabrics I see online.  Like Amy Butler, as seen frequently below.

They also had this awesome fabric with a print of an old paris map. Awesome.  And since then, I've seen online that the same collection (3 Sisters for Moda)  includes fabric with old building plans on it.  Even awesomer, I'm hoping they get some of that.  And if so, I will be buying a bunch to make something for me!

I do heart fabric, yes, yes I do...  Anyone else already planning/making Christmas gifts yet?