My Swoon Pattern Addiction

WOW! It's 2015 and it's been a LONG while since I have wrote this blog-sorry about that! Life kind of had other plans for me for a while, my health wasn't the greatest but now that I am feeling a little better and dare I say it??!-back on the mend, I would like to keep this up and running steady now.

One of the things that has captured my attention while I was unable to sew was Swoon Patterns! I LOVE them! I love the look, simple instructions, style and the owner Alicia, who is amazing and works very hard to make her business a HUGE success. She is always there to answer your questions or offer advice. I have been printing out many of her patterns found on her website  http://swoonpatterns.com and when I started to feel better I started to SEW them! This brightened my life and made me feel great emotionally again-now I find that I am addicted!! Currently I have 10 of her patterns and I plan on saving up for the Vintage subscription-can't wait until it's March release!

I started with a Cate Bag moved onto the Coraline Clutch both large and small versions and now my personal favorite so far is the Della Wallet and Wristlet seen in the pictures below. It's simple instructions and fast sewing time is perfect for an afternoon or evening sew. I have made 3 already and plan on making one for myself next week!
This Frozen inspired Della is currently for sale on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/sewsimplycute or the Make It Canadian, Eh page over on Hyena Cart http://hyenacart.com/stores/MakeItCanadianEh  if you are interested in purchasing it. You can always message me too for a custom order.

Ok I guess that's it for this blog-until then have a good week and take some time to enjoy Family Day this upcoming Monday!

Serger Vs Me

I love my serger, don't get me wrong-it cuts back on time and finishes seams like DREAM...BUT today was a different story. Today all I wanted to do was serge some suit pants before I did a blind hem by hand. That's all, and of story-simple right?! Wrong. :(

What should have been an hour or hour and a half job ended up taking three hours and a lot of frustration and colourful words from me. Here is what happened. I had white thread on the serger already, I wanted to change it to black thread because I was going to be hemming black, dark grey and navy blue suit pants. I wanted it to look more professional because you can't have white thread on dark pants-it's tacky and not very nice to look at. So, I followed the instructions on how to change your thread from one colour to another-that was the easy part. What followed next was not so simple, easy or helpful. After tying the two threads together and replacing the white with black spools on the rack I started the peddle and everything was going OK to start. Then all of the sudden things got complicated in a BIG way.

The Fourth thread the yellow thread wouldn't catch and I couldn't keep it through the little guides along the way. Apparently the tweezers are supposed to help you with this process...apparently in my opinion they don't. LOL I kept on trying to feed it through like the colourful pictures told me to do, but I still wasn't getting it. Then I would try some more and just when I thought I had it I would start the feed through and it wouldn't "serge" it just came out in lines or snapped back into the machine,
my awesome tweezers didn't help either. I was so frustrated...hubby asked why I didn't just use the other sewing machine-but this time I was in it cause I was SO mad that I couldn't make it work I was in this now-until the stupid black thread STAYED in the yellow feeds!

So about half an hour into this mad decision I made, I decided the colour guide wasn't working so I got the manual out and well, that sort of helped...but it was still confusing...see what I mean??

And between that and the colour guide-below I managed after a total of 45 minutes to thread and SERGE a "tail" of thread!!!!!...Holy molly there has GOT to be an easier way of threading a machine...

Then I serged my dark suit pants all three pairs (and before the light colour pants) and was happy to at least have it working. Has anyone else been through this thread torture?! Have any tips or tricks?? I would love to hear them! I am still in love with this machine but WOW, who knew threading could be so difficult...so that is why the white is staying put for a while...LOL

And sometimes, the original is best <3 Maybe hubby was kind of right this time? Naaaaaaa! LOL

 

A Space to Sew and Learn

For the first few months of my sewing life, I was using my kitchen table to cut, sew, craft and for a long while it worked...until the fabric started piling up and the projects got bigger and I got tired of always having to clean up everything so we could use the table for meals or homework. My husband also didn't like seeing the sewing "stuff" all over the table, living room and well, everywhere I could stash it.
But what were we to do? We have a cozy two bedroom house with no basement! I am not using our bedroom for a sewing spot that's for sure! Where could I put all of this stuff?? The answer came to me one day when I was cleaning out our front entry way-it's a rather large with a brick floor and nice size closet, more like a mud room than anything...hmmm maybe this could work! We never use our front entry way anyway-it usually collects winter boots and stuff we don't need. We always use our side entry way. So I proposed the idea to hubby and he said LET'S DO IT!!

So we went to Home Depot and got some shelving and a nice bench seat so we could still use the front entry way if we needed to, and over one weekend hubby and I put it together! Now I am in love with this new found space! It's cozy but it's bright and it WORKS! Now I can leave a project mid-way if I have to and not worry about a mess because no one else goes in there but me...unless I am showing it off to guests that is-LOL...So here are a few photo's of my Cozy Sewing Space. Enjoy!

The start of the sewing space. You can see it has nice brick floors and is pretty wide for a front entry way.

This cool storage bench we picked up is really helpful! I use it to store my charm packs and shipping supplies. If someone uses the front door they can still sit down to take off their shoes.

I feel in love with this awesome PINK chair...so of coarse I had to get it...a kitchen table chair just wouldn't do anymore!

I added some storage for all of my notions and ribbons too in a rolly cart. Next were shelves and hangers and you can't see it but there is a rather large 4ft long closet on the right side of the photo, that holds most of my fabric and other random things like stuffing and batting.

Success the chair arrived and is super comfy...and then this other surprise showed up at my door from a mystery person who I later found out was sent by my.......

DAD!!! How awesome is that! He told me he was proud of the work I did and wanted to help. He is the best dad in the world!

Now I have two sewing machines to craft your creations with! Love it! I hope you enjoyed my story of how my sewing space came to "be"...I know I sure love using it! Until next week-take care!

~Melissa

It's Sew About Life.....First Times

Hello! I am excited to write my first blog about sewing and my life as a sewing lover, mom, wife and working mom. I am sure I will get better with time at this so just bare with me :) I also hope you enjoy what you read and comment along with me. My goal is to write one blog a week-probably on a Sunday afternoon or evening, then more as I get used to it.

I am the owner and designer of Sew Simply Cute on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SewSimplyCute I make many different things from kids clothing, pillow shams, Cuddle Collectors(stuffed animal door hangers) lanyards/key ring holders, reusable lunch and snack time bags for "litter-less lunches" at my son's school, ladies dresses, skirts and my all time favorite to make tutu's!

                                                              Lavender Glitter Tutu

                                                              Pink Cotton Candy Tutu

 

 

I really want to thank my mother in law for giving me the "bug" to sew because if it wasn't for her asking me to make her some Christmas Stocking Bags for our family Christmas every year all of the sewing and crafting I do would probably still be lying dormant in my brain...LOL So thanks Anne! I can never say thank you enough for asking me to make those stocking bags.

I've come a long way since then, but I am always wanting to learn more and there is SO much to learn when it comes to sewing! Enjoy, and have a nice day! See you soon.

~Melissa