I had been at JoAnn's - yes, my home away from home - since it is the closest fabric store to where I live, and is very convenient to get to. There is also a store called G Street Fabrics about 40 minutes away, but they have lost a step from what they were back in the day, where they were like a huge warehouse with wall to wall, floor to ceiling fabrics of every hand, size, pattern you chould think of. Now they are half the size with not such a big selection. Or at least I was disappointed when I went last time, because I was excited to go to be in a plethora of fabrics and had a hard time even finding what I wanted, and no more of a selection than the fabric store around the corner - and no fabulous sales or anything, either; seems you had to clip a coupon from the website to get any breaks. ANYWAY, I was at JoAnn's and the RedTag materials were 50% off, so I plundered through them, and came across this motorcycle material! it was perfect for anything! I immediately thought of a shower curtain, and at $4.00 per yard scooped up 4 1/2 yds.
Then I wanted to try my hand at using rivets, truth be told because I didn't know of the button hole method at the time for the shower curtains! Well, how about it, the notions wall was 50% off, too, so picked up rivets and a rivet hand press (pliers), knowing that the press would certainly be used for future projects - purses, duffel bags, who knows what, but they are such a kewl finishing piece. The hand press was real easy to use. You just measure off your fabric width and divide up the top into the 12 holes spaced evenly, with both ends being in one inch from the edge.
I guess you can't really see it in this picture, but I included "bottom weights" - they are from the curtain section of the store, so the curtain hangs appropriately. I just spaced them into the hem - a set of 4 one inch weights.
So the next day when my husband saw it, he remarked "Oh you got a new shower curtain". Then I told hiim I made it the night before (he fell asleep early), and he remarked "WoW" and gave it a second look. I showed him the details - rivets, weights - He really like it and was impressed - I could tell. Not to mention enjoying the fabric pattern! The curtain only took about 2, maybe 3 at most, hours to make - It is an easy project, and I was thrilled at the results! This is a completely washable curtain, too. Gotta love those clearance sales!
Next - here is my neck pillow! I use this a lot now, it is a comfy pillow to use while sitting in my chair watching a movie, or TV. Talk about simple - this was real easy to make.
I tried it because it was my first attempt at using piping. I tell you, the piping itself is not difficult, but doing it for the first time on these curves was tricky. but it worked out well. I need to read up again on how to "end" the piping - join the ends together so there's not that overlap, or white under-cord showing through at the end of the project.
The material I chose was a nice soft sueded material, here is a close up of the piping. It really gives it a nice look. I like piping, and found out how to make my own, in case I want larger piping or piping to match an item...but for now, the store package is good. :-D
This was a real easy project and now that I'm done with it, I can't help but wish I embroidered something on it... :-) But at the time - don't you ever just ever want to accomplish something easy and quick? no muss no fuss? I wanted to do something that would yield a nice result, but have no hassle, so this was my pillow.... :-) Quick and easy - under 1 hour. If I was to embroider, it would have taken all the time to figure out what to embroider, measure up the pattern to the embroidered design, so it's cut properly, centered, all that jazz... (not to mention the time to embroider)...You know what it's like....anyway I do have material left over for a second pillow.....
Lastly is my IPAD Pouch that I made for a colleague at the office. They have Vizsla's (Dog breed) and one day I was surfing through the Embroidery Library Catalogue and just came across this Vizsla design. (found here) It is not common to find, so when I saw it, I had to do something with it. Decided the IPAD pouch was appropriate, and even if they didn't use it, they would have something with their dogs on it. I personalized it with the dog's names. The design, I downloaded into my embroidery software and copied and flipped it so I had two facing each other. I decided to go "Low Key" which was to stitch Black on Black, that way the design would be there, but not stick out like a sore thumb. I used black faux leather, because that would be appropriate for business. (Case Pattern is by Gaila Designs.)
Used fleece batting, and put in a zipper, and silky lining. The zipper opening gets smaller than the rest of the bag, maybe there is a way to minimize that, I have to practice more on my zippers for pouches, purses. I made the Koala clutch after this pouch, so I did learn something here.... Anyway, I presented my project to my colleague (upper management) and I think they genuinely appreciated it.
That's it for now... I will go ahead and start my Ravens Jacket #2 page, all I have is the jacket at this point, I will eat breakfast and see if I can get any creative ideas...
Ciao!
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