I'm Back for National Sewing Month

I'm back! It's been just about a month since I've posted any new projects, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy.

So what was I working on in August? First, I had a few birthday gifts to finish for two-year-old nephew Richie D and nieces Abby and Lauren -- yep, all three celebrated their 2nd birthdays within 3 weeks of each other and the gifts were due in July and early August, but unfortunately didn't get finished until the end of August. I had planned to start working on their gifts in late June, but instead I was making cool ties through mid-July . . .

And then there were a few home projects that needed attention . . . I spent an entire week at home while our central air conditioning was being replaced and updated. The old units were 20 years old and functioning poorly. We went almost two months this summer without A/C on the second floor where the bedrooms and my sewing room are located. So, we had new, more energy efficient units installed (but no, they are not solar). It should *not* have taken all week, but I don't want to talk about that. At least we have air conditioning again and I can sleep and sew in relative comfort.

Another week was spent weeding . . . one of my goals for this year was to try to keep control of the weeds in the vegetable garden and the rest of the yard. I failed this one. I'll post more about this later. I'll just say here that after two days, I'd filled 4 lawn bags with weeds and garden debris and I only cleared a small area and was too sore to continue. So I'll be doing more weeding in September, too.

Rich had taken off the week after Labor Day for vacation; we didn't do anything too exciting, just hung around the house and chilled out for a few days, did some home "projects", watched the Mets and Jets on TV.

September is National Sewing Month, and I have a bunch of projects already finished and in progress, which I'll share later this week.


One group of finished items is in response to Lazy Girl Designs' challenge for National Sewing Month to Make2/Give2 (below taken directly from Lazy Girl Designs blog):

- Make two ‘With Love Totes’ (free pattern from Lazy Girl Designs), wrap them like the gifts that they are, and give them to one non-sewing (or new-sewing) friend.

- One tote is for your friend to keep, one is for your friend to give to a friend. By doing so, your friend will experience for themselves the sewy-good feeling of this kind act and perhaps give sewing a try.

I've lost count at the moment how many With Love Totes I've made so far, but I created a photo set on Flickr (click here to see all the With Love Totes I've made). I decided to use these in place of paper gift bags for the birthday gifts; the pattern is easily adapted and can be scaled up or down as necessary.

Other projects completed so far include a new Westie purse for me and new dog beds for Keli and Penny.

My other plans for September include trying my hand at free-motion quilting, re-fashioning some t-shirts that are way too big for me and making hoodie raincoats for Keli and Penny.

The quilting is a direct result of my latest acquisition of a Fab-U-Motion Fabric Mover with Stitch Regulator. I couldn't resist the latest sale at my local Viking Sewing Gallery. I'll post more on this later. So, yes, I'm gonna try quilting. But I'm still not gonna claim to be a "quilter".

The t-shirt re-fashion is something I've been planning for quite some time, but National Sewing Month is a good excuse to finally get it done. I have maybe 5 or 6 Mets t-shirts that I really like, but they are just too big for me. Some were freebies given away at games (why do they only give out Men's XL?), others were purchased. I'm going to try to cut and stitch them back together so they will fit and still look good. And I'll get to use my serger - yay!

Earlier this year I made some fleece coats for Keli and Penny; included in the pattern packet is a design for a hoodie which I thought would be great for raincoats for them. Penny had an "accident" this weekend, mainly because she didn't want to go "out" in the rain in Saturday's downpour (thanks to Hurricane Hanna). So it's probably time to get this project done. I wanted to do these in pink or purple pleather or vinyl . . . and could not find anything I liked locally until this week. Thanks to Halloween and the costume fabrics, there's a small selection of pleather at JoAnn Fabrics. I may not get to sewing the raincoats, but at least I'm gonna buy the pink pleather!

So that's the September Sewing Plan . . . I don't know how much I'll accomplish, but I'm sure gonna try!


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