MOSS Project – January 16 Sewing Machine Cover

You thought I forgot, didn’t you? Not a chance! My sewing machine is set up in front of a window and is a complete dust magnet. It’s a pain to have to clean it off every time I want to sew something, so I’ve been wanting to make some kind of a cover for it to keep it dust free.

I made a very simple box cover using two 23×15 pieces of fabric. You’ll see I decided to coordinate the cover with my ironing board. I simply sewed around the sides and top of the fabric (wrong sides together of course) and then fitted it over my machine to shape the corners. Shaping the corners was easy – I just pinched the top sides into triangles and slipped a pin in to mark the fit. Then I sewed across the triangles and cut the excess fabric. I finished the cover by doing a simple single fold hem along the bottom. I flipped it inside out, and onto the machine it went. It took me 15-20 minutes, start to finish. I love the quick instant-gratification projects!

The great thing about a simple cover like this is the fact that it can be tailored to cover just about anything, by changing the measurements of the fabric – toasters, computer peripherals, coffee makers, filing cabinets – whatever you need to cover up.

(Oh, and I know the calender on my sewing desk is a date ahead. Guess I got a little overzealous flipping through those little cubes.)

Helpful Sewing Tutorials

I’ve only recently starting sewing in earnest in the last year or so, and there is still so much to learn. Since I don’t have a grandma at my elbow teaching me all the ins and outs, I’m mostly relying on teaching myself from books, consulting with friends and internet projects and tutorials. Good tutorials are invaluable – the step-by-step photos are just as good as having an experienced sewer sitting right next to you. So I thought I would share the wealth – here are some of the great tutorials I’ve found really helpful in learning to sew.

Smashed Peas & Carrots has some great tutorials, including How to Sew Bias Tape and how to sew mitered corners with bias tape

Sew Mama Sew has a lot of great tutorials as well, including how to use a pattern.

Noodlehead has a super-easy zippered pouch tutorial – a great beginner project.

Grosgrain has a 5-minute pillow tutorial – another great beginner project.

2011 Goals

I feel a sudden and intense urge to get some things done and the best way for me to do that is to make them public and hold myself accountable for them out here. So, here goes…

- Finish putting together our wedding/honeymoon scrapbook. Various pages and components are sitting in boxes in our closets. Not exactly what I had in mind as a “showcase”.

- Sew a border on the bedroom curtains to lengthen them (they are woefully about eight inches short) and replace the crappy, half broken blinds behind them with wooden blinds (while I’m at it I want to replace all the blinds in the apartment with the nice wooden blinds).

- Upgrade the laundry sorter. We currently have an all-beat-to-hell mesh number that is beyond it’s last legs. I’d actually like to get a wooden bench style sorter, that holds two or three removeable canvas bags under the seat.

- Keep up with my MOSS Projects (I’ve got a lot on my list with sewing!).

- Sew a quilt.

- Replace the front hall closet door with a door that actually fits and closes.

- Build a few storage shelves into the back of the furnace closet for out of the way tool/household item storage.

Those are the big things. Okay, there. Now I’ve just got to do them all.

MOSS Project – January 9 Mini Ironing Board Cover

Our mini ironing board came into the house way back when my husband and I first moved in together; it actually belonged to him. We’re still using his original iron too. He had an ironing board because, responsible bachelor that he was, he always made sure he had crispy ironed dress shirts for work. As for me, I refused (and still do) to wear anything that requires ironing.

The ironing board was so ugly – it was a simple plywood affair with metal legs and an awful faux-denim print cover. I can’t tell you how many times I almost pitched it. But as it turns out, an ironing board is essential for professional-looking sewing projects. It’s needed a makeover for years. Today, I finally did it -

It’s a huge improvement on the old. It’s a bit hard to see in the photos, but the fabric is red/white ticking stripe. I just love ticking. It always looks good, no matter what. I created my own pattern by following the instructions in One Yard Wonders which is my favorite sewing book on the face of the planet.

My stitching isn’t one hundred percent pretty and I definiately need more practice tucking fabric around curves, but the pattern guidelines in the book are incredibily forgiving. I could’ve gotten the cover to lay a bit flatter on the board had I been more careful (or rather, more experienced) at tucking. But not bad for a first time. This was also the first project I’ve done that requires making a casing for cording and that was super easy – you just have to go slowly around those corners, so your fabric doesn’t bunch up horribily and get sewn into itself.

I was also pretty excited about this project because I found a remnant in my fabric trunk that was perfectly sized, so I only had to cut the rounded corners. And I reused the cord from the old cover in the new. All in a all, a pretty good project, and my sewing supplies are looking even spiffier now with a bright flash of color from the ticking stripe.

MOSS Project – January 2 Draft Dodger

For January 2 I decided to sew up a draft dodger for our back door. It can be a little drafty even though the door is well insulted with weatherstripping, so I thought an old-school draft dodger would help the situation. It’s beats an ugly old towel any day!

Please pardon my dirty floors. I designed to be a bit long so it can be pushed all the way into the doorframe for a snug fit, and sewed a ribbon loop into one end so it can be hung out of the way when not in use. It’s filled with almost five pounds of rice (which only cost me about $3.75). It’s about 33 inches long and 8 inches in diameter - a hefty dodger for an exterior door. The fabric is a great pine board flooring print, which Tracy of Half Pak Designs got me for my birthday in December.

Next week’s project – a mini ironing board cover!

Month of Sewing Sunday (MOSS) Projects – January

For January’s MOSS projects, I’ve decided to focus on a “home” theme for what I’m working on. You can do the same theme for yours if you’d like to, but it’s not obligatory – the point is just to get sewing, no matter what you’d like to work on!

This month I plan to do the following -

January 2 – Draft Dodger

January 9 – Mini Ironing Board Cover

January 16 – Sewing Machine Cover

January 23 – Potholders

January 30 – Sewing Kit Roll

Month of Sewing Sundays!

One of my goals for this year is to sew something new every week. I have alot of patterns I’d like to try out and things I’d like to make for the house, as well as the fact that I’d like to keep honing my skills so I can work my way up to advanced projects like clothing.

So I was thinking about that today and it occured to me – why not invite others to join in? This is how it works – at the beginning of each month, I’ll make a list of the projects I want to get through in the month. I’ll allot a week to work on each project, and it’s “due” every Sunday, where I’ll post here, as well as in the Apartment Farm Moss Project flickr group.

If you’d like to participate, do the same for yourself! Email me a jpeg of your project and I’ll post it into the MOSS page of the flickr group. This way we can all have a little fun encouraging each other and showing off our work. I’ll be designing a badge this week as well that you post to your blog if you’d like, to show that you’re a participant in the project.

Since 2011 was kind enough to start on a Sunday, it makes sense for everyone to start with the project next week. But I was so inspired and ready to jump in that got right to sewing when I got home today. Stay tuned momentarily!

Recent Sewing Projects

Now that the season of mass gift-giving is over, I can post a few of the sewing projects I did for Christmas. I didn’t get as much done as I wanted (and like a broken record every year, in January I vow to start my Christmas projects for the next season right away…). At any rate, these are the crayon rolls and craft totes that I made for my nieces. I also sewed a black, red and white apron that for some reason I can’t find the photo of on my computer. C’est la vie.

Winter Chill

It is cold in Chicago. So cold that I am loathe to leave the house. But with Christmas less than a week away that’s likely a good thing. My apartment looks like a tornado just went through the toy workshop the North Pole – piles of wrapping paper (this year, it’s store-bought – one is printed with peppermint candies of all shapes and sizes and the other is printed with winterberry branches on snow), ribbons and gift tags, half-finished sewing projects and baking ingredients. But I’ve been getting a lot done. I’ve sewn a lot of gifts this year, including two crayon rolls and mini tote bags for art kits for my nieces. I actually remembered to take pictures of everything before wrapping it, so I’ll get those posted soon I promise – and I’ve even got a new camera that I actually know how to use too!

I need to finish a small zippered bag for a “makeup kit” for my eldest niece – she’s four and loves to do her “makeup” with mommy in the morning. I found some cute little lip balms that are shaped liked cupcakes along with some brightly colored hair clips and nailpolish (which her mother strangely agreed would be fine for me to include). And I do have a little hand sewing left to do, in finishing the play fruit for my younger niece’s other gift – I’ve got to finish the strawberries I started last week as well as do up some lemon and orange slices. I should be able to finish them up this week while parked in front of the television (as I inevitably will be for a least a few hours – I need decompression time after the office job!) 

I’ve done a little bit of baking this year, mostly by doing quick breads. Last week’s cookie baking with my in laws got cancelled because of some nasty weather, but I do plan to do some Russian Tea Cakes (which are husband’s favorite) and some snickerdoodles (which are mine) this evening so we have some tasty munchies this week. I’m also going to do another batch of my Super-Pumpkin Pumpkin Bread so we’ve  got something good for breakfasts this week.

Time just seems to fly by me lately – I still can’t quite figure out where this year has gone. There have certainly been some difficult moments in the last year, but I feel good to have my family around and a good home to comfort me. I probably won’t post a whole lot of new stuff between now and New Year’s because this time of the year is so hectic, but I promise to be back full-swing in January – I’ve got two seed catalogs to continue planning with, and lots of post-Christmas winter projects to – sewing “draft dodgers” for the in front of the doors, sewing house slippers, working on scrapbooks and trying some new things in the kitchen – so stay tuned for all of that. And if I don’t get a chance to say it to you all in between now and then – have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas is Coming!

I love Christmas. It’s glittery, sparkly, and warm. You get to spend time indoors with tea or cocoa or spiced wine and tasty baked goods and share it all with the people you love. And it’s so fun to make or choose the perfect gift for people that deserve something special.

As per our usual tradition, we got our Christmas tree from Gethsemane Garden Center on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This year, we had Grandpa Olsen join us. The day was crisp and cold and sunny – a perfect winter day. Gethsemane was bustling with other families on their Christmas tree mission, but it wasn’t so swamped that it was impossible to get around. After much deliberation, we chose a five foot Fraser fir. I think this is the second year in a row we’ve gotten a Fraser Fir. In my opinion, you just can’t beat the color, fragrance and lasting ability of them.

In addition to the tree, we also wanted some greenery for the back deck. We selected two bunches of pine boughs for the window box, as well as some branches of wintergreen. We also got an 18 inch round boxwood wreath.

We laid the pine boughs and some of the wintergreen into the window box, securing them down with landscape pins. In the planter in front of our bedroom window where we have the dwarf creeping juniper dwarf blue spruce planted, we also laid some of the pine boughs down in front where a few gourds were previously. We also stuck a few wintergreen branches vertically in back for a little height. For the wreath, I wound a glittery red ribbon around it and we hung it on the back door. And I had intended to post pictures, but we forgot about taking them while it was still daylight and now we’ll have to wait until the next weekend since it gets dark at four o’clock. (I really do intend to start posting photos here again!)

While the tree was opening up, I put around all my Christmas tchotchkes – nutcrackers, candles, figurines and such. I hung the stockings in their place of honor on our bookcases. And then trimmed our tree with colored lights and our ever-growing collection of hand-blown and vintage Shiny Brite ornaments. The house is looking quite festive!

I also got started on some of my Christmas crafting – I’ve got fabric pieces cut for four gifts, and have to cut fabric for another four gifts in the next week, so everything is all ready to sew up at once. I also started crocheting another gift, and will be taking my crochet tote on the train this week in order to get a few things done during the commute. Let the games begin!