Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Eagle Scout Project

Today is exactly one year since my double mastectomy. It has been quite a hard and amazing at the same time type of year for me. But hey, I am here with my family and I am extremely grateful for many things. I am planning on a special giveaway really soon and I will share more about my journey in that post.

I am writing a quick post about one of my sons' Eagle Scout Project to raise awareness for Breast Cancer.

Michael wants to do heart shaped pillows to donate to my doctor's office. Last year before my surgery, I was able to donate about 50 pillows. Later they told me that they were gone so fast. I am glad that my small contribution might have been able to help someone, but that means, so many women were newly diagnosed with breast cancer...

I shared that with my children and they were quite surprised too. He wanted to do something meaningful for his project and we thought that this would be a great way to celebrate my one year anniversary as well.

For his Eagle Scout project, he needs to teach and lead others. So, last week I taught him how to make a heart shaped pillow.

He was such a trooper! It was kind of hard for him to keep the 1/4" seam especially on the curvy areas, but he made one pillow! Is he going to develop a love of sewing? I guess not, but I am proud of him for trying something new to serve others.

The actual day that he was able to schedule the church building for the big sewing event is during fall break (that was the only Saturday available this year!). We are a bit nervous about that... many people might be out of town, but he is hoping to make 200 pillows! Wish him luck! ;)

Note: I added the link to my original post from year ago. Near the end of the post(blow the picture of heart pillows), you can find the link to downloadable pattern for the pillow. Thanks!

Sew Powerful + Baby Lock National Sewing Month Project

Did you know that September is National Sewing Month? I know we are still in August, but let me do a shout out for a great sewing project so you can be ready!

Baby Lock has partnered with an amazing organization called Sew Powerful whose mission it is to help combat extreme poverty in Zambia through sewing. During September, Baby Lock retailers are hosting an exclusive charity events in their stores where you will use a Baby Lock sewing machine to make and donate purses that girls can use to carry reusable feminine hygiene products. This enables them to attend school all month long and improve their academic performance.

I love to sew quilts, clothing and other fun items, but wouldn't it be amazing to sew something so meaningful that helps young girls' lives?

Your retailer will provide you with everything you need including a sewing machine, fabric, and instructions. To find out more about the event and to sign up, hop over to Baby Lock.

Happy Sewing!




 

Magenta Pink Summer Dress

I was looking at some clothes I made in the last few months and I guess I have been really drawn to deep pink or purplish colors. I made a skirt with similar color to this dress and a lavender color linen dress. When I found this magenta pink light weight fabric I immediately pictured a summer dress.

I decided to use the pattern Butterick 6451. I love relaxed flowy style to wear around house and I noticed that tiered style is back. This was a perfect pattern.

The original pattern showed sleeves with elastics in them, but I decided to leave it as is (I left the openings just in case I change my mind, I have an option to put elastic through).

I think it would be cute to cut the sleeves short to make a short sleeve dress.

Magenta pink is a bit of a strong color, but it sure is fun to wear! What are you going to sew this summer?

Vintage Trim Belt Tutorial

One of the things I have a hard time resisting is buying beautiful vintage trims. I know you can buy some of them online and all, but there is a cute local shop called Harmony near where I live and they are the "go to" place to find such treasures. They have yarns, fabrics and many wonderful gift items (for your friends and yourself too!). Among them, the area I always check is the shelf filled with trims and ribbons.

I was there the other day and picked some up again. I am sharing a tutorial on how I made a belt.

You Will Need

Wide trim (Wrap around your waist and see how much you need. They don't need to overlap)
Fabric (same size as your wide trim)
two narrow trims (to tie a ribbon) about 18" to 20"

How to

1. Cut the fabric to the same size as your wide trim. It will be the backing.

2. Insert the narrow trim in between the wide trim and fabric on both ends of the belt. Pin them to keep them in place.

3. Draw diagonal lines on both sides of the narrow trim as shown in the picture. Leaving a 3" to 4" opening in the middle of the belt for turning, sew all around it. I used a 1/8" seam.

4. Turn inside out. Press with iron.

5. Stitch the opening with slip stitch.

6. I folded the ends of the narrow trim twice and stitched them to prevent fraying.

Now, it is ready to wear! I was thinking about many possible conbinations with my wardrobe, but this time I choose this dress. The belt adds unique flare to a rather simple dress.

I am planning on making some more vintage trim belts this summer. Do you have any favorite ways of using trim? What would you do with pretty wide trim?

Knit Set Up 2

I shared a knit set up in my last post. I loved it so much so that (and I have more fabric that I can use!) I decided to make a similar knit set up; I changed the skirt pattern and made it to a flare skirt with this one.

I can say that 90% of my wardrobe is skirts or dresses. Things like this is very comfortable to wear, washable and instantly looks put together. What's not to love? I made this just before I went in to get my procedure and I haven't sewn any clothing after that, but I am recovering and started doing some hand stitching. I have been looking at my fabric piles and thinking about what to make next. I think that is one of the fun parts of sewing... imagining the potential of the fabric.

It is a bit cold to wear this without a jacket where I live but I am going to wear this all the time this summer!

Sewing ~ Strip Knit Set Up

First of all, please let me apologize to the people who left comments on the post about my breast cancer journey a few months ago Breast Cancer Awareness Month and My Story, This is the Morning and Update ~ Post Surgery. I didn't get an email notification for the comments and didn't know there were comments for the posts. I happened to be poking around and found a bunch of comments and I was so touched by each one of your kind comments. I am so sorry that I didn't reply to them, but I deeply appreciate them. I changed the setting, so now I finally get email notifications.

I can't believe it has been almost 6 months from my mastectomy. I had quite a rough time after the surgery from the reaction to the anesthesia, bleeding problems on both breasts resulting in me going back to surgery the next day, infections and low grade fevers that lingered for a few months. I just didn't feel like writing a post about it during that time. My fever finally went away and the last couple of months I have been sewing a lot more and enjoying my family. But this morning, I am ready to go back in to get the second part of reconstruction surgery. Wish me luck!

In the month of March, I sewed several clothes using the fabrics I already had. It was a very good experience to revisit the fabrics and patterns I already had and complete the projects. I am very much motivated to continue this even though it is April, in fact, I would love to keep going till I use up all my apparel fabrics. I finished this knit set up a couple days ago.

I have been looking for a T-shirt with V-neck in the back, but I never found one with just the right amount of opening. I drafted a pattern and made this one and I. love. it! I found this knit probably a year or two ago and couldn't decide what to do with it, so I stashed it in my closet. I am usually intimidated by knits, but this one is thicker and it was much easier to work with.

Clothing like this is comfortable to wear, you can mix and match with other things, and with the right accessories you could instantly look put together and that is exactly what I love about them. My newest project is also a knit set up with a slightly different design. I didn't have time to take pictures, so I will share it after I recover from the surgery. Stay tuned!

Purple Dress

I have been participating in a sewing challenge called "Sew that pattern now" during the month of March. Emi, Olga and Mijke encouraged people to sew with the patterns and fabrics that have been sitting in your closet or sewing room forever and just get it done. I am totally guilty of having such stacks and I decided to join the fun and knock some projects off my list. It is actually really motivating and fun to go through my stash of fabrics and patterns and finally do some. I made other garments, but this dress is the only one that I took picture of with a real camera and I decided to write a blog post. I promise that later I will upload pictures from my phone and share other clothing I made.

I used linen blend I bought years ago in San Jose. for the longest time, I couldn't decide what to make with it, but I am really happy with how it turned out. The pattern I used is from one of my Japanese sewing books.

I love the pleats and V-neck on this dress and I am thinking about making it with different colors (yes... I have more fabrics in my closet. This is what happens when you shop faster than you sew!).

I was suppose to have surgery done at the end of this month, but last Friday, the doctor's office called and they needed me to reschedule my surgery to the beginning of next month. To be honest, I was pretty annoyed about this at first because that would affect everyone's schedule around here. Also, I thought I wuold be recovering, I didn't plan our Spring Break trip, otherwise we would have been on the road. :( But, now I am thinking I can sew a little bit longer before the surgery and organize my house too. Do you think I can squeeze in some more projects??

Top from Japanese Sewing Book

I fell in love with this top when I first saw the cover of this Japanese Sewing Book (I don't think it is translated to English) and it was put it on my "things to sew" list...
When I was visiting a local shop, I found a beautiful shot cotton in a similar color, I immediately thought about the top.

Ok, it is a little bit brighter, but I still like how it turned out. It was a very straight forward and easy to make pattern; I enjoyed making the shirt.

I used left over faux fur from another project I did recently and made this scarf. It is so fun to coordinate the things you made yourself.

I love this top so much so that I am probably going to make more in the future with different colors. Simple and versatile white or nice and soft muted green...who knows, I will know when I see the perfect fabric for this. :)

Daysi Do Quilt

This the is final post of 2018! I have been working on some hand piecing and EPP through out the year, but I finally finished this quilt!! This is a pattern called "Daisy Do" and designed by Jen Kingwell. This is one of the quilts that took my breath away and I had to make one. When I make scrap quilts, I go through my scraps first, move on to fat quarters and if I have to, then I cut in to bigger pieces. It was so much fun to come up with different combinations of blocks.

I am a hand quilter and usually if I spend so much time hand piecing a quilt, most likely I hand quilt it as well. But, a few years ago, I injured my shoulders and I was supposed to get surgery this year; well, that plan was before I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I felt that I needed to take care of that first and that put my shoulder surgery off. I finished the quilt top a while ago, but wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do hand quilting. I finally decided to ask someone to machine quilt my quilt and I asked my friend Audrey who runs a machine quilt company called the The Quilt Barn with her sister, Emmy. I couldn't be happier with the result!! She did such an amazing job! She even quilted each circle in the middle of the flowers.

The way she quilted really emphasis the design of the quilt top and that was exactly what I wanted. I pieced the backing and with her beautiful machine quilting design, I feel like I have two quilts in one. Thank you so much Emmy!

Last but not least, let me mention my middle son. I wanted to take some pictures of the quilt, but really needed help, he came with me and did above and beyond for the photo shoot. I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to him too. I know I am blessed with one of the best teens! I didn't use this picture at the very top of the post, even though I really love the look of the quilt hanging from the tree. He climbed up the tree and held the quilt while he was balancing and stabilizing himself on the V shaped tree. I spotted his foot sticking out from the quilt while I was editing the pictures. I thought to myself, "Shoot! Why didn't I see that?" But, this picture is very special because it reminds me of him and how sweet he was to help me out.

Well, everyone, 2018 was quite eventful for me both good and bad but, I am so grateful for all the experiences I went through and love I received. I hope I will be healthier and
able to do more in 2019.

I wish you all the very best and send my love. Happy New Year!!!

Gray Apron Skirt

I have been wanting to make an apron skirt but no luck finding a pattern that I exactly wanted. I looked through my old Japanese pattern books(I bought 20+ years ago!) and found a couple patterns that I thoguht I can combine some aspects from both of them and create my own and that's what I did.

There are a few things I would change if I decided to make this in a different color, but I like how it turned out. Mr.Tea Rose Home said I look like a "farm girl" from the old movies... ok, maybe a little. :)

Let Them be Little Baby Quilt (Giveaway!!)

Have you had a chance to take a look at a adorable new fabric line by Simple Simon and Company? It is called Let Them Be Little (When I heard the name of the new line, I already knew I would love it!!).

As you can guess by the name, it is geared towards babies and toddlers, but I see some designs are very much suitable to create whatever your heart desires.

I had a chance to create something fun with them and I decided to make a baby quilt. If you are a long time reader, you know that I don't have a baby at home...guess what? I
am giving away the quilt!!! I will let you know how to enter at the end of the post, but let me tell you how I made the quilt.

I drew out the pattern and made the quilt. I don't have a pattern for you to purchase or to download, but here is what I did.



Gingham Baby Quilt
finished size 40 1/2" x 58 1/2"

*What you will need

Black --- 1 1/2 yard (3/4 yard for the top and 1/2 yard to make bias tape)
Gray --- 1 1/4 yard
White --- 1/2 yard
Backing, batting, thread and proper equipment to make a quilt

*How to

1. Cut 35-5"x 5" pieces from the black fabric, 58-5"x 5" pieces from the gray fabric and 24-5"x 5" pieces from the white fabric.

2. Use the picture as a guide, lay the squares out and piece them together. (using an iron for between piecing will help the finished top come out much nicer)

3. Base the quilt, quilt, and bind.

*Here is the link to how to make bias tape if you know how.


Ta-da! And here is the finished quilt. Now, are you interested in finding out about the giveaway???

The rule is simple, just leave a comment here and tell me your favorite things to sew. That is it! It is easier for me to do a giveaway at one place, so I encourage you to 1.follow me on instagram and 2. to leave a comment on my giveaway post there (that counts as two entries!). But, if you choose to leave a comment here, I will count that in. ;)
I will close the giveaway midnight Friday MDT, and announce the winner on Saturday morning. Good luck everyone!

Embroidered Denim Dress

I found this gorgeous embroidered light denim fabric at Joann's. It was a little bit more than I normally pay for fabric, but it was 30% off and I had an additional 20% off coupon, so I decided to go for it. I just wanted a casual dress with a simple design for everyday wear. I used one of my dresses as a guide for cutting and kind of made this up as I went. Here is the finished dress.

It is a light denim, but with all the embroidery, the fabric is a little tough. I love the dress and it turned out pretty much the way I imagined, but I wish I made it tad bit bigger.

I have many ideas of how I am going to coordinate this dress with what I already own. Cardigans, scarfs, flats, boots, and other accessories. This is just an example of how I am going to wear it in the fall.

I also made a ribbon out of a part of the fabric. I thought that I can dress it up a little with some heels as well.

Do you have any plans to sew something for your wardrobe for fall? Whatever it is I hope you will have as much fun as I had sewing this simple dress. :)