Kerry'd Away

Once you start sewing regularly you notice that not only does your material start reproducing, but your spools of thread start acting like unruly teenagers. You put them all together, but when you try to find them they are always as far away from you as possible. Then when you’re trying to get them singled out they cling to the others and you can’t ever find their matching bobbin. The spools have no idea where they last saw them. Maybe the bobbin is under their bed? They think that they brought it home from school…

To help combat this issue I had Jay print some spool holders for me. These work great! Most of my sewing involves the Dresses for Missions and I’ve discovered that I’ve collected numerous colors of thread in order to sew up these dresses.

I kept having to ask Jay to print more holders for me. And they were starting to get out of control.

I asked him to design a holder for my spool holders so that I can reclaim some of the space on my sewing table. When I need to use a certain color I can remove the 3D printed holder from the shelf and set it on the table. Then it easily goes back in its place when I’m done.

Jay and I have been trying to put the CNC Router and 3D printer to use in order to generate some income, and thus recoup some of the expense. One of my ideas was to do a smaller version of my spool holder for other sewers.

This is a prototype of the initial spool holder that I had in mind. I have already made an arrangement to have a friend who sews test this out and give me honest feedback. I designed this so that you can put hangers on the back and hang it on the wall if you don’t have the table space for it.

The next prototype that I’ll also have my friend test is a fixed design. This is for the sewers who typically only use a few colors so they don’t have to have very easy access to it. It’s just a nice way to keep the bobbins and spools together.

Or, if you use a lot of one color you can fill up three bobbins at a time and have them ready to go along with extra spools sitting behind it. You might have white on top, black on the second row, and maybe cream or ecru on the third row.

Again, this one can also have hangers put on the back.

Those are just a few ways that I’ve used to organize my spools and bobbins. I am constantly changing out my thread on my machine so I needed something that was going to be easy to access, but keep everything right at my fingertips and organized. What do you think? Do you have any ideas that I should incorporate into an organizer? Please feel free to share your ideas in the comments!

If you are new to sewing then you have no idea what you’re in for… Mwahahahahaha

It’s a little-known fact that fabric breeds like rabbits. One day you only have a few yards sitting in your sewing room; within a short amount of time it is falling off of your shelves, piling up on flat surfaces, and being stuffed into any bag that you can find to put it in.

I would post about the various ways that you can organize it, but I haven’t even figured that out for myself. Instead, I will give you some tips on how to increase your fabric stash while not breaking the bank.

If you haven’t looked at fabric lately it might shock you to know that your typical yard of fabric is going to be priced around $6/yd. That’s for your basic plain cotton. If you want some of the fancier calicoes or patterns then the price goes up from there. I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford to buy material at that price. I am cheap and I REFUSE to pay that much for material.

Tip #1 – Become a frequent visitor to your local fabric shop’s clearance area. You really never know what you’re going to find. Unless it’s really calling to me I won’t pay more than $3/yd for fabric. The plaid material above was originally priced at $6.99/yd, but I found it at Hobby Lobby for $2/yd. Knowing that I can use it for my Dresses for Missions I bought what remained on the bolt. It ended up being a little over 6 yards… so instead of paying $42 for that cut I only paid $12.

The sunflower material was one of my best bargains! Isn’t it adorable?! As soon as I saw it I KNEW that it would make the most adorable little dresses. When I saw the price I became greedy like Gollum (however you spell his name) from Lord of the Rings; I petted it and was heard to be mumbling “My precious…” It was $1/yd!!!! I think that the original price on the bolt was $5.99/yd so I really got a great deal on this. Where did I find it? Wal-Mart! The woman who FINALLY arrived to cut my fabric (that’s the bad thing about Wal-Mart, you’re going to spend at least 15 minutes standing around waiting for somebody to show up to cut your fabric), she gave me the weirdest look when I told her that I wanted all of the material on the bolt. It was a large bolt. I ended up with a little over 10 yards of fabric. Do you know how many dresses I can make out of that material?! And it’s adorable!!

Your fabric stores will clear out fabric after each holiday, after each season, and about once a year they will do a deeper clearing out of stuff that has been around for a while. If you don’t have an instant need for fabric then this is the best way to shop. You are going to start collecting fabric anyway, so you might as well do it on a budget. If you see Easter fabric that is adorable and on clearance for $1.50/yd, but you don’t know what you would do with it, buy a yard of it. You never know what’s going to come up that you might find a use for it.

Tip #2 – Use the store’s coupons!

Hobby Lobby and JoAnne’s Fabrics always have coupons available where you can get a certain percentage off of one item. They will count a cut of material as an item. If you’re working on a project and need five yards of a blue cotton, but it’s not on sale that week and there’s nothing on the clearance rack that will work, use the coupon. It’s not going to be as great of a deal, but at least you’re not paying full price for the material. If you have a smartphone you can download apps that will pull the coupons up on your phone. I do this for Hobby Lobby. There is a Hobby Lobby just around the corner from where I work (VERY dangerous!!), so if I get the hankering for a Hobby Lobby run I always have a coupon on me. All I have to do is pull up the app when I’m at the store and give the cashier my coupon code.

If you don’t have a smartphone you will just need to plan ahead a little better. If you go online to the store’s website there’s usually a spot where you can download coupons and print them out. Or, use them on the store’s website. Either way, you don’t have to pay full price.

Tip #3 – Keep an eye out for clearance linens at department stores.

My mom likes to use flat sheets for her quilt backings. It’s a relatively inexpensive way to get a big expanse of fabric. What is great is when you can find a king size sheet for a great price. Again, I was at Wal-Mart and they were marking down their bedsheets to make room for the newer patterns. I paid $7 for this flat sheet. My mother-in-law gave me a feather down comforter, but I need to make a cover for it. I bought two of these sheets and plan on sewing them together and putting some Velcro at the open end. I have just spent less than $20 on a king size comforter cover. Nice!

Tip #4 – Shop at thrift stores.

If you recall, back in June my mom and I went shopping at a Goodwill-by-the-pound store when we were visiting my sister. This was a GREAT way to add to our fabric stash. Whether you purchase sheets, skirts or shirts you have a large amount of material at your fingertips for a tiny bit of money. This is great especially if you’re into making scrap quilts or other items that require small cuts of material. My mom shops the large man’s area to find as many 100% cotton shirts as she can. If you scope out your local thrift store you can find out what day they have the best deals and go shopping then. At my local Salvation Army store Wednesday is the day when they put a lot of the colored tags at 50% off.

My mom makes rag rugs, including ones made out of denim. Last month she had me go to the Salvation Army store and buy as much light weight denim as I could find. I went to the woman’s section and found the largest denim dresses that I could find. I was purchasing size 22W and 20W dresses for around $2 each. There is a LOT of material in those dresses!

I’m sure that there are other ways to score cheap material, but these are the ways that I use most of the time. The important thing is just to keep your mind open and think outside of the box. Good luck!

My sister married Chuk, who has a daughter from a previous relationship. Since she will be the closest thing that I will have to a human niece, I want to do something really nice for her for Christmas.

I asked my sister what I should get Raven for Christmas. Raven loves to draw, and is actually quite good at it. So it was suggested that maybe I get her a nice drawing pad or something.

Well, I wanted to do something else that wasn’t just a boring drawing pad. Raven splits her time between her mom’s place and my sister’s house. I thought that maybe I would make some kind of a carrier to keep her drawing pad and her pencils in it. I haven’t attempted the practice one yet, but here’s the idea that is rolling around in my head:

Created by Lidija Miklavcic

I’m thinking that I create a cover for it. This was created by Lidija Miklavcic and she has a placed this as a free pattern over on Craftsy.  Now, what I would do, though, is on the front I would create two flaps that will unfold to reveal spots for Raven’s pencils. I’m not sure if I would put a zipper around the entire foldable pocket, or just use some Velcro as a closure. I want to sew a ribbon to the top, though, that can be used as a bookmark so that she will always know right where her next empty page can be found.

What do you think? Think it will work?

For today’s post I wanted to put on a fashion show. After all, my sister isn’t the only one in the family with good fashion sense!

Growing up some of the best gifts that I ever received were the dresses that my mom would make for me. At the time I didn’t realize that she was making me dresses because we didn’t have a lot of money and it was much cheaper this way. All that I knew was that my mommy made me dresses with lots of ruffles and lace and I LOVED them!

I *think* this is one that she made me. If not, it was this style that she modeled a lot of the dresses after.

Lace – check

Ruffles – check

Puffy princess sleeves – check

Here we are at a church program in another homemade dress. Let’s go through the check list again…

Lace – check

Ruffles – check

Puffy Princess sleeves – check

Jelly shoes!! Okay, so my mom didn’t make those, but she did make the dress that I’m wearing…

I won’t go through the checklist, but I think that you can tell they are all there.

Oh, and Jay please note that in this picture I seem to have a bruise. See, nothing has changed!

As I got older I still loved to wear long dresses. I did give up the princess sleeves and the lace, but this one is kind of ruffle.

Yes, this is actually how I dressed in high school.

No wonder kids tripped me in the hall!

Look! This time I’m actually wearing pants. Except, they have the Puffy Princess leg thing going on. Actually, I loved this jumper and was upset when I outgrew it.

Wow. Jay is one LUCKY man!

When it came time to attend the prom we couldn’t afford to go out and buy a dress at the store. This was 10th grade and my mom had been given a black dress that fit me. It came just below my knees. We went out and bought dark blue and black lace, plus the elastic sequined belt. My mom made a skirt out of the lace and attached it to the dress using the sequined belt.

My Junior year of school I had a date to the prom, but only because the tickets were cheaper that way. It was definitely not a romantic thing.

As you can see, I really like blue. Again, we couldn’t afford to buy a dress at the store so we used what we had. My mom had been given a VERY long polyester black skirt. We went out and purchased this blue sequined material and my mom made a top for the skirt. We used the sequined belt from the previous year’s dress and used that to hide the seam.

My mom swore she would never make anything using that sequined material again! And she hasn’t.

This is actually a few years after my Senior prom, but this was the dress that I wore to it.

I told my mom that I wanted a store bought dress just once. We got this one for a really good deal. She just had to change the sleeves (they were gaudy with way too much material) and then she had to take it in to fit me better.

I don’t know if this counts, but my mom also made the skirt that I was wearing in this picture. In fact, my mom has made a LOT of my skirts. Mainly because I’m very picky and I like them long, but since I’m so tall I have a hard time finding them long enough. She uses the same pattern and makes me different skirts with it.

When I was in college the movie Ever After with Drew Barrymore had recently come out. I LOVED that movie and wanted a dress made for the formal at college in the same style as what Drew Barrymore wore.

This was dark purple velvet and I loved it. Yes, I looked like a dork. No, I didn’t care. At least I wasn’t walking around all night constantly pulling my top up!

After college I was asked to be the maid of honor in a friend’s wedding. She decided that the bridesmaids would make their own dresses. Not me. I handed the stuff over to my mom and asked pretty please.

The other two bridesmaids were the soon-to-be sisters-in-law of the bride. Their mother made their dresses. I felt bad because she did her best, but you could tell that they were homemade. One lady came up and asked how I managed to find a dress to match theirs off the rack? I told her that I didn’t, that my mom had made mine.

This is just a tiny sampling of the various dresses that my mom has made for me or my sisters. As you can tell, she really is good with the sewing machine! I hope to someday be as good as she is. Until then all I have to do is smile prettily and ask, “Please?”

Today Jay and I are going to an Air Show, so for my daily sewing post I thought that I would remind you of the wing bags that I made for Jay’s Rascal 110.

Actually, on my blog this post is one of the more popular ones.

I made these in 2013 without a pattern or resource. As you can see, though, I did have a very good supervisor who was checking from all angles to make sure that it looked okay. lol

You can read the original post if you want directions on how to make the wing bags. These have held up very well. I had to fix one of the handles this year, but other than that they are still in great shape.

With the extra material that was left I even made a set of prop guards for Jay’s Rascal.

I am in the process of making a set of wing bags for one of our club members, but I need his plane here to make sure that the idea I have for them is going to work.

I’ve shown the wing bags that I’ve made Jay in previous posts.

One of the other guys in our RC club asked me to make him a set of wing bags. I took measurements and told him that I could do it. I’d made him one other set of wing bags and apparently he was happy enough with them that he wanted another set for a new plane.

The biggest problem with this set of wing bags is that I don’t have the plane here to make sure everything is going to fit. Then I didn’t realize how the tail was going to be assembled so I had to redo my original design. That meant some ripping out of seams and shortening of pieces.

I think that I finally got it all figured out.

I’ve found that the cheapest way to get fabric for these bags (they take a LOT of fabric) is to buy the cheap fake quilt comforters when they go on sale at either Sears or JCPenney. You need to look for the sale where they say that you can buy any size for $20. I buy the King size comforters and that gives me enough material for about four wing bags, or two sets.

Wing bags are meant to protect an RC plane’s wings when they are being transported or stored. You want a little bit of padding so that if you accidentally bump it into anything you shouldn’t do any damage. Hopefully.

Once I got the panels placed on the bag for the tail boom I pinned it together to sew it closed.

Don’t forget to place the handle where you want it before you sew. After I had this all sewed together I realized that I should have moved the handle back a little bit. Oh well. It’s going to stay where it’s at. I’ve ripped at this one too many times, plus I still have some ripping to do on the other wing bag.

One down, one to go….

Of course, while I’m trying to sew I have to keep an eye on Bob. He came up and tried to steal something out of my waste basket, but all I had were pieces of thread. I had to chase him down to get it out of his mouth. I keep small pieces of lace around the sewing room for just this situation. You see, he’s looking for scraps of fabric or lace in my waste basket that he can play with, even though he has an entire box of toys downstairs. Nope. This poor, neglected and abused little cat has to scrounge around in the garbage can for toys. *sigh*

Yet again my mom is going to be brought up in my National Sewing Month post.

She makes these hooded baby towels for gifts and to sell at her craft table. People love them and I can’t tell you how many times she’s been asked to make another set to replace an original set that was worn out.

Now that my sister and I have friends who are having babies it’s a great gift for us to easily whip up.

You can make hooded towels using any color of towel. You just have to make sure that there’s a hand towel to match.

To make these you simply need two regular size bath towels and one hand towel. Plus whatever ribbon you would like to go on top.

They can be unisex or geared towards a specific theme. For Jay’s cousin I found a cut ribbon with zoo animals on it to go with the zoo theme that she had chosen for the nursery. For one of my friend’s boys I used Pittsburgh Steelers ribbon (she’s a fan), plus some Snoopy playing sports. They were adorable!

If there’s no theme then just go with whatever you think is the prettiest. After all, these towels are meant to get sopping wet and be washed a LOT. This is definitely not going to be something that will be folded up and put away for future generations.