This fall I decided to take a pattern drafting class through Furman University. The class will teach us how to draft skirts, shirts and dresses. For homework we are asked to sew the patterns we draft. Usually I design bags, but I thought it may be fun to learn pattern drafting for clothes. Here are a few of the fabrics I picked out for the class.
Not only have I been knee deep in a Kitchen Remodel, but due to the recession I’m now the only full time accountant at work. Grateful as I am to still be employed, I’m not enjoying the long hours. Longer hours means shorter sewing time. Instead of sewing I’ve been doing some maintenance on my website and learning Photoshop. My site is now utilizing WordPress instead of Blogger. I was reluctant to switch, but more options and the simplicity of WordPress won me over. Even though I still have a LOT to learn about Photoshop, I’m pretty proud of my pictures so far. Check out all of my images on my Gallery page, but here’s a sneak preview:
Laura Ashley Travel Bag
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the quality of the pictures on this site has degraded over the past year. Specifically, the sharpness of the pictures is has been falling off (examples here). Our camera is about 5 years old, and it just doesn’t have the right stuff anymore. Every time I take pictures of a project I’m working on, I have to take them from several different anglers on several different camera settings, hoping that a few of them turn out sharp and in focus. What good is a photoblog without good quality photos? This was the old camera:
It was a good little Kodak, and it’s features were innovative when it was made. Unfortunately, those days are long gone.
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We are finally finished with our kitchen remodel! My husband built the wall of cabinets at the back of the room. He also made the pot rack and the island underneath. It has weels underneath so we can move it to the middle of the room if we need to.
We have a functioning kitchen again!! The cabinets and counter tops were installed this week. The electrician installed several more outlets – we only had one before. How can anyone function with only one outlet? The disposal switch was under the sink, so we would have to open the cabinet to turn it on. Now we are normal people with a light over the sink and a switch for the disposal next to it. Our dishwasher was in good condition and we couldn’t justify buying a new one just to match our other appliances. So we found this stuff called Soft Metal online and stuck it to the front panel. Amazingly, it looks like a stainless steel appliance. We still have a lot of finish work to do such as the baseboards, the built-in cabinets along the back wall and my husband plans to build a potrack and a small island on wheels.
Dramatic changes happened in our kitchen this week. We were able to paint the walls and tile the floor. Being beginners, we chose to place our tile diagonally. What could be difficult about that? Nothing, if you have standard 8 or 10 inch ceramic tiles, but we went with 16 inch porcelain tiles. The saw we borrowed was way too small and the tile was the thickest tile I’ve ever seen (although I didn’t notice this fact when we picked it out). Needless to say, it took a really long time to do all the cutting – and virtually every piece needed to be cut. Next time we either use a professional to lay the tile or we don’t lay anything on the diagonal. After it was all said and done I think it turned out really well. We decided to use our paint sparingly and didn’t paint where the cabinets would go.
This weekend we spent a lot of time prepping the walls and ceiling for paint. The walls were pretty damaged from wear and tear over the years, not to mention a few bumps and scratches that happened when we were taking down the old cabinets. The old cabinets went all the way up to the ceiling and the new ones will not so all the popcorn needed to be scraped off. We also framed the back wall for our new built in cabinets surrounding the fridge, and lay perma board on the floor to help the thinset stick between our floor and tile. Here are a couple of pictures of the kitchen at the end of the weekend.
Some of you may be wondering why there haven’t been any recent posts. To answer you questions we have started to remodel our 1940′s era kitchen. I usually sew on our dining room table but as you can see…
…Our dining room is being used as our make-shift kitchenette.
Here are a few pictures of our kitchen before the demolition
My husband and I plan to do most everything ourselves. Hopefully the only
jobs we will have to hire out are the electrical, plumbing,
and cabinet/counter top installation.
In this picture you can see we have ripped up the tile floor. Underneath we found several layers of really old linoleum – that was ripped out too. The old sub floor was in very good condition so we were able to leave that alone. We also tore out the two closets at the rear of the room. We are hoping to stack the washer and dryer and put the fridge on the back wall as well. This will allow more counter top space near the range.
From this angle you will notice we closed off the door – which led into a bedroom. We still can’t figure out why there was a bedroom attached to a kitchen. It felt more like a big hallway than a room. You will also notice we have torn out all the cabinets and old counter tops. Underneath the cabinets we found 5 or 6 different colors of paint. One was even bright teal -For mother’s day I just had to make bags for my grandmothers. One of my grandmothers is very southern, so I tried to pick fabric that looked like her personality:
Here is the fabric I chose. I’m measuring out the fleece so I can quilt it.
I use a yard stick to measure out my quilting squares
I like to use my machine to quilt the fabric – not the old fashioned way.
This is the outline of the bag. The bottom will be square.
The painful process of turning the handles inside out -
it really is very painful on your fingers
And this is the finished tote. I think it captures my grandmother’s personality perfectly.
This spring, my husband and I went to Jekyll Island, GA for a night. I haven’t spent too much time on the southern Atlantic coast, and was amazed at the scenery. Here are a few pictures from our trip.
Trees in Historic Jekyll Island
While riding bikes we happened upon this guy.
My husband wanted to get closer, but I wanted him to keep his legs.
These trees are so big their branches touch the ground.
They are just perfect for climbing.
We stayed in the Historic Jekyll Island Club Hotel. It’s a reminder of the days gone by. Jekyll Island is a place where Morgan, Rockefeller and Vanderbuilt (just to name a few) spent their winter vacations. Of course, it has changed a bit and everyday people can afford to visit now.