"Sew" Cute Pumpkins!

 

I'm always looking for easy sewing projects for my sewing club girls.  Thirty minutes is hardly enough time to start and finish any project after school sewing project.  Since not every girl comes every week, I like to find things that are easy, fast....and seasonal.  Yay fall!

 

 

I found this pattern for easy no sew pumpkins, and figured that it wouldn't take the students too long.  I sent out an email asking anyone coming to our weekly meeting to bring an old long sleeved shirt. The pumpkin in the pattern was made from a section of the shirt sleeve.

                                         

Teaching teenage girls for so many years prompted me to think about plan B just in case they came to the meeting unprepared.  I gathered the necessary materials for my pumpkin from my classroom closet, which some former students fondly referred to as Narnia (they even painted a sign above my closet door which says "Entrance to Narnia").  It's just amazing how much stuff is in my huge walk-in art closet!

                                

 

For my sample, I took 2 pieces of fabric and cut  approximately the same shape as the sleeve section which was used in the pattern. I stitched the two long sides together and proceeded with the rest of the directions, and my sample came out just fine.  So, now I was prepared in case I had a group of girls who did not bring in the requested long sleeved shirts.

 

When the girls arrived to the meeting, they seemed shocked to find they needed a shirt, proving they don't read their emails. Only one girl brought a shirt!  She shared a sleeve with her friend.  So that left 7 girls who needed pumpkin materials.

 

I was way ahead of them.  I pulled out some fabric and explained the directions to them. I made a quick template which they used to trace around on their selected fabric.  They quickly stitched up the sides of their selected fabric pieces, and continued with the remainder of the directions.  They got as far as the twine tendrils in one meeting which completely surprised me.  All that was left to do was to cut out leaves and glue them on.

                                 

 

To facilitate things, I Mod- Podged a large piece of burlap for the leaves the day before the next meeting, let it dry, and made a few leaf templates. The girls traced around the templates, cut out and hot glued the burlap leaves to their pumpkins.

I love the way their pumpkins turned out!  The best part of the project, is that it is cute, and easy. The project became low sew instead of no sew, but it was easy, nonetheless, and completed in nearly 30 minutes (plus 15 minutes of the next meeting for the leaves).  "Sew" cute!

 

Spring Rummaging

There are some things that are just better when shared with a friend, especially if that friend also happens to be your daughter.  One tradition that my daughter and I have come to share is our bi-annual trip to a large rummage sale held in a nearby town.  My daughter, who lives in Maryland with her husband, makes the pilgrimmage to New Jersey this time each spring, to share this exciting adventure with me.

It began on Thursday evening.  Dana and her adorably sweet, dog, Laila, travelled from Maryland to New Jersey after work.  I organized her old room which has since become my craft room, pushed aside the inventory of my Artfire shop, unplugged the sewing machine, and cleared off her bed.  She arrived at around 11:00 PM, tired from a long day at work and driving nearly four hours, but happy to see me, my husband and our 2 dogs.
It's nice to have her back in her room, shuffling around in her mismatched socks that she pulls out of her lingerie drawer still holding a few remnants of her youthful wardrobe.  For a few days, we are back to how life used to be.  It's great to have her back home, if even just for a few days.
I take a personal day for this event.  I NEVER take a day off from my teaching job, and my students can't believe I am actually leaving them to take a personal day.   But, I think this special time with my daughter warrants a day away from my students, and although I feel a little like I am playing hooky,( because that's just my strict work ethic), I reassure myself that it's ok to take 2 days a year off from school.
We rose fairly early on Friday morning, and dressed for the weather.  It always seems to rain the day we go, but Dana donned her rainboots and I put on my old sneakers, we grabbed some cloth bags to hold our treasures and headed off to the rummage sale.
It was crowded, as usual, with the parking section of the fairgrounds lined with cars , but we managed to find a space amidst the large, muddy puddles and headed off to the tents, plotting out our plan of which tents to visit first and what we intended to purchase in each one.
We began in the dry goods tent, weaving through the narrow aisles grabbing any fabric we felt would best suit our needs.  I found some gingham and tiny prints for a few baby projects.  Dana found some very cute beige fabric with tiny blue bird silhouettes that she thought would make an adorable baby skirt.  I am tucking that one away for my future grandaughter, when and if she ever comes into our lives.  Dana found some very nice upholstery fabric scraps to cover a chair pad.  She has a very descrimating eye, being a graphic designer.  Being an artist, crafter and art teacher, I am always planning my next project, and I am always on the lookout for just the right fabric to use in any or all of my projects at school, or at home.

We continued on to the vintage, arts and crafts, holiday and jewelry tents, picking up a few items along the way.  Our last stop was the kitchen tent where I picked up some teapots and plates to use for the Senior Breakfast at the end of May.  As freshman class moderator, I work with the freshman student council to host a themed breakfast for the senior class.  This year our theme is "Mad Hatter's Tea Party".  I found exactly what I was looking for...an eccletic assortment of interesting teapots and plates.  As we juggled these items, my daughter found a cast iron fondue pot.  We were quite a sight with this weird assortment of items, standing in line, balancing the awkward and heavy kitchenware.
After checking out, Dana strapped our 3 bags across her back and headed back to the car.  I lagged behind toting the box of teapots and plates, stopping every few feet to regroup.  Tired and muddy, we headed back to my house chatting all the way home about our purchases, and how little money we spent on such great buys, and planning the best time to come for our trip back for the fall sale.
A week before Mother's Day, this was the most perfect early Mother's Day gift I could have gotten from my daughter.  As I get older, I appreciate time spent with my kids more because I see them less.  It was a very special day, and a very special weekend, rummaging with my "friend".

Falling Fabric Leaves

Fall is just full of inspiration!  One of the most vividly colorful seasons, an artist or crafter would be hard pressed not to find something to inspire them.  Multi hued leaves, orange pumpkins, bales of hay and slightly weathered burlap faced scarecrows offer a variety of colors, shapes and textures just begging to be transformed into a work of art.

After last week’s Sewing Club’s hand stitched pumpkin pincushion project, which, I might add was a big success, I thought I would keep the autumn theme going with another fall inspired project.  The girls are itching to use the sewing machines, so I guess I have to finally pull the machines out of the closet and set them up.  Machine sewing is an exciting prospect, especially to teenage girls.  They are getting pretty good at threading needles and simple hand stitching, so I suppose they are ready for a simple machine sewn project.  Since I only have 4 sewing machines, we are going to have to alternate time on the sewing machines.  One group will work on a hand sewing project while 4 will work on the sewing machine.

Student adaptation of Scrap-Buster Fall Pillow by Cluck Cluck Sew

I actually saw this project last year from Cluck Cluck Sew and loved the variety of patterns and colors and its simple yet striking design.  When I was searching for an easy machine sewn project last week, I came across it again, and knew immediately I just had to try this out with the Sewing Club girls.  I simplified it a little bit due to time constraints and the girls’ lack of sewing experience. 

I pre-ironed the Heat Bond on various fabric pieces, cut some trunk and leaf templates, let the girls rummage through the fabric pieces and had them trace and cut the leaf and tree trunk shapes from the backed fabric.  I eliminated the stitching on the leaves and the envelope stitched back.  The girls will just iron on the pieces, and stitch and stuff the pillow instead of inserting a pillow form.  Two or three of the girls had time to iron on their trunk and leaf appliqués onto their pre-cut solid pillow backgrounds and will be ready next meeting to stitch their pillows on the sewing machine.  Many of the girls still have to finish cutting and ironing which is really a blessing in disguise because of my limited number of sewing machines.

Student adaptation of PurlBee's Very Easy Pincushions

I totally enjoy moderating this club.  The girls are so proud of their creations and one girl, who is always the first one in the room at dismissal, said that Thursday is her favorite day of the week because of Sewing Club.  She even passed on the Gelato Sale sponsored by the World Language Club so she could pay her Sewing Club dues!   

Knowing how to sew is such a valuable tool!  I can’t tell you have much it has helped me through the years.  Besides making my own clothes throughout high school, and making my daughter’s outfits when she was young, I made countless Halloween costumes and crafts projects including fabric pumpkins, dolls and Christmas ornaments.  I have come full circle and now sew ring bearer pillows, wedding hair bands, and fabric flower bouquets.  Although I teach art, sewing offers me a little change of pace from the pencil and paintbrush.  I just love to create, period.  I can’t wait to try things out with lots of different mediums.    

As a teacher, my job is to inspire my students to appreciate, to learn, to develop their own passions about art, about sewing, about life.  If they can leave my room on Thursday afternoons with a newly sewn creation in their hands and a smile on their face, I know I have done my job!

Autumn Treasure Hunting

As I mentioned in my last post, my daughter and I make our annual excursion to the fall rummage sale held each year by the Visiting Nurses’ Association in the beginning of October.  It is a huge event held rain or shine, at fairgrounds about 25 minutes from my house.  I have to say that most times we went it rained.  But we always dressed for the occasion, rain boots, umbrellas and hooded sweatshirts, and virtually nothing could come between us and our quest for bargains.

We have walked away with some interesting finds the over the years ranging from fireplace tools, books, picture frames and candy jars to acrylic paints, note cards and, of course, fabric! 

My daughter lives in Maryland, so our yearly pilgrimages now have to be carefully planned between work for both of us, and other things happening in our lives.  But this weekend, she made a special trip for a brief visit and a jaunt to our favorite spot.

I have to admit, we couldn’t have asked for better fall weather.  The sun was shining, the air was crisp and cool, so we didn’t have to lug around umbrellas and try to balance them while carrying a bag full of treasures and digging through goody-laden boxes!  But we are troopers in the face of adversity!

This year’s beautiful weather drew a seemingly larger crowd than usual, if that is even possible, so we decided to play it smart and rather than wait in traffic and park in the main lot on the fairgrounds where the tents are set up on one section of the grounds, we opted for an additional parking venue down the street and around the corner.  It was about an 8 minute walk, but we figured it was a nice day, and we were excited at the prospect of bargain hunting, so that walk was welcome exercise at 9:30 AM. 

When we arrived at the entrance and noticed there really wasn’t too much traffic and there were still lots of parking spaces on the grounds, we sort of wished we had parked closer, but rationalized the 8 minute walk was good exercise on a perfect day.

Since we were there early, the lines had already started forming outside the tents.  Due to the fact that the volunteers only let a few people in at a time so as not to overcrowd the tents, we had to wait five or ten minutes tops outside the more crowded tents.  But we used that time to chit chat about the family, and what has been going on in our lives.  The first tent we visited was the dry goods tent.  This always seems to be the most crowded, but obviously, my favorite.  Since it is crowded, you have to be an acrobat to hold everything and work your way from one box to another while batting away aprons hung over the fabric boxes.  Quick decisions had to be made, but since my projects for my Sewing Club and my online shop were set in my mind, I knew what I was looking for.  I got some great buys for $20.00. 

We visited a few more tents and got some spontaneous buys, but the catch of the day was definitely a very heavy silver reindeer centerpiece with cups for votive candles in its antlers, that my daughter snagged for a mere $10.00.  A bit tarnished, we decided a little silver polish would perk it up, and even if that didn’t work, it looked kind of cool and “antiquey” with the little touch of tarnish on it.  But, what we soon realized was that it weighed a lot, as did the $20.00 worth of fabric in my canvas tote bag!  We sort of carefully picked through the other tents’ contents searching for items that didn’t weigh too much.

Since my daughter had to go to a wedding rehearsal in Delaware in the evening, we had to cut our trip rather short, and hike with our items back to the car in the lot around the corner and down the street.  The 8 minute trip back to the car with everything slung over our shoulders now seemed like a 40 minute walk with several stops along the way to rearrange the bags and rest every few feet! 
It was a wonderful day well spent with my daughter.  The drive back home found us talking about days gone by and the fact that we both have always loved the fall with its beautiful colors and welcoming fall decorations.  It’s just a homey sort of feeling that stirs up lots of fond memories when our family was young.

Tired and happy, we arrived back home with our treasures.  I said farewell to my daughter and wished her well as she drove out of my world for another few months.  As she left my driveway, I looked ahead to days when we will share this tradition with my future grandchildren.  It’s always a fun-filled day, rain or shine, to browse, buy, and best of all spend some time with one of my most precious treasures and her slightly tarnished reindeer centerpiece.

Pumpkins and Pincushions

Pumpkins….don’ t you just love them?  A definite harbinger of fall, these plump little veggies can spark just about anyone’s imagination.  Whether they are transformed into jack-o-lanterns, fall displays, centerpieces, costumes, or pies, these orange favorites are a never-ending source of autumn inspiration!

My Sewing Club is meeting at the end of the week and it’s time to start another project.  They spent the last 2 meetings playing with yo-yo’s , so now it’s time for the girls to step up their hand sewing skills just a bit before we move on to the machine.

So, in my weekly quest for new and exciting projects that would appeal to both me and the students, I came upon this very cute idea.  Now that it’s October and the leaves are changing color, the scarecrows and pumpkins are appearing on porches everywhere, I thought I would choose this seasonal twist on a sewing room staple- the pin cushion.

I loved the idea of the traditional tomato turned into the not-so-traditional pumpkin.  The best part of the whole project is that is basically is, what else?  A larger and stuffed version of the yo-yo, something they are quite familiar with at this point.

I really enjoy having the girls create all these projects, because, I don’t know about you, but buying fabric is, to me, one of life’s greatest pleasures.  To walk into a fabric store, especially as an artist, and see all the gorgeous patterns, colors and textures all lined up in beautifully neat rows, is truly a breathtaking experience for me.  Since I am a bargain hunter and try to keep costs down for the girls, I often seek out thrift shops and rummage sales for unique fabric treasures as well.  Although the fabric is far from being stacked neatly and color coordinated in these venues, the thrill of the hunt mentality takes over and I find myself actually enjoying the challenge of finally finding the perfect fabric for the projects at just the right price!  The problem is, I either have to figure out my projects ahead of time, or think on my feet of future project ideas, which, over the years, I have become somewhat of an expert at.  For at these one day sales, you know that either you buy the fabric now, or it’s back to the fabric store to pay full price. 

It has become a fall tradition for my daughter and me to spend some quality time visiting a local rummage sale every October.  Fortunately, we share a love for bargain hunting and great finds, and since she is a graphic designer, she also enjoys finding vintage items she can use in her house, in her work, or just for inspiration.  The acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree!

Since the rummage sale will occur after my next Sewing Club meeting, the fabric for my pumpkin pincushion project will have to come from the fabric store with its bolts of beautiful colors, gorgeous patterns and rich textures at full price. Sometimes, we all have to make a sacrifice!

Yo-Yo Inspiration

I have been thinking a lot about yo-yos since my last post. It has become my latest crafting obsession! If you are a creative person you know what I mean about obsessing about creating something. You see something, you get inspired, and you have to try it out in a variety of ways, colors and patterns. In fact, if you are anything like me, you think about it when you wake up in the middle of the night, or when you're brushing your teeth, or driving to work. It seems that you literally can't do another thing unless you try out your new idea!

 Last week I wore a new white knit cardigan sweater with decorative accents around the collar. The minute I saw it in the store, I loved it because I tend to gravitate toward sweaters or shirts that have interesting details, like crocheted fringe around the collar or cuffs, pretty buttons or a combination of contrasting fabrics.  I didn't really investigate the detail around the collar of this this sweater that closely. I knew I just liked the look of it, so I bought it.  I knew that what I thought were flowers, were made of chiffon type fabric with white beads in the center.  But when I put it on the first day I wore it, I took a closer look at the details, and, much to my delight, the flowers were actually yo-yos! In fact, my art colleague even asked me if I made the handmade detail around the collar.  Since that day, my wheels have been turning!

So today, I finally got a chance to try out my yo-yos in a sheer fabric.  My idea is to use these sheer yo-yos in some of the items I make for my shop on artfire .  I have often seen yo-yos on pillows, so I know that will probably look pretty on my ring bearer pillows, maybe with pearl beads, or fancy buttons in the centers, or maybe I'll just leave them au natural!
I also make bridal headbands, so they may be a nice alternative to fabric flowers, maybe with a little lace or tulle as accents.

I have some other ideas about what I can do with these marvelous little puffs, but since it's time to do other things right now, I will just have to spend a few more nights dreaming and planning as I try to drift back to sleep!

Learning to Sew Fabric Yo-Yos

I have a dream job doing what I love to do every day. I teach art at an all girls’ high school and I moderate Sewing Club as my extra- curricular activity.  These are two of my favorite things to do!  Last week I had my first club meeting after school.  Several students asked for this club a few years back because they wanted to learn how to sew.

My grandmother taught me to hand sew and crochet at an early age and my mom taught me to machine sew when I was 13. When I was in high school I remember running to the fabric store on the weekends to get fabric to make an outfit I could wear to school on Monday.   I never took home economics in high school because I always took art classes, but my mom was a wonderfully patient teacher and I learned so much from her about sewing and life in general.

I noticed that when I assigned an art project requiring the students to make a few simple stitches, relatively few of the girls even knew how to thread a needle.   Although my wonderful school is very supportive of the arts, there is a strong emphasis on academics, so consequently we do not have a home economics program.  My little club is an attempt to teach the girls a few skills that seem to have fallen by the wayside.

The first club project is crucial, since initial impressions are important in drawing the students back in for the rest of the year.  I searched the internet for beginner sewing ideas and found something that I had done as a teenager and had also done with one of my classes a few years back…fabric yo-yos!They are so much fun to do!  When I was a teenager, I made a vest out of these little puffs of fabric.

I cut a bunch of fabric circles in lots of different patterns and colors and decided to pre-thread the needles to save time and my sanity!  I never know how many students I will have at the first meeting, and I wanted to be ready for them.  I know that in the learning process, it’s better to have the students do the project from the very beginning all by themselves, however, in the interest of time and given their skill level, I made an executive decision and opted to facilitate the project steps.

Although we had a few disasters, they were quickly snipped and restarted relatively quickly.  Most of the girls got the hang of sewing a simple straight stitch and were able to stitch around the circle to the end, gather it, and, with my help, knot the end. 

Then I brought out my fabulous button assortment!  There is just something wonderful that happens when you bring out a box full of buttons and set it in front of an eager bunch of teenage girls.  It’s sort of like kids in a candy store.  They dig, pick out their favorites, and have a hard time choosing just one.  Time was running short, and I knew that some of them would have a difficult time negotiating the button stitching, although some actually did sew the buttons on and did a good job.  The others, however, used the hot glue gun to attach their buttons. 

At 3:15 we were pretty much done, and although the girls wanted to bring their yo-yos home, I asked if I could keep them a week for a display in the showcase outside the art room.  They wholeheartedly agreed and the next morning we had a lovely display of Sewing Club yo-yos! 

Knowing how to create something is a gift, but sharing that gift is a reward in itself!