A Midsummer Night’s Bloom – Bed Runner

~ Pamela Klingensmith ~ 1 Comment

No garment sewing last week, but I did manage to piece together this bed runner topper:

The pattern is from a book by Kathy Brown, Bed Runners Using Precut Fabrics.  This is the second bed runner I’ve made from this book.  I made the first one for our guest room.  This one is going in our master bedroom.  The pattern is called A Midsummer Night’s Bloom and I used Breakfast at Tiffany’s fabric line by Fig Tree Quilts for Moda.  As you can see, I don’t have it quilted yet.  I still need to purchase fabric for the backing, so once I drag myself out to the local quilt store I will be finishing this up on my quilt frame.

In the mean time, I hope to get some garment sewing underway this week before I have to travel for a few days.

Descent from M-M-M’12

~ Pamela Klingensmith ~ 3 Comments

I must confess, the Me-Made-May’12 challenge proved to be just that – a challenge!  Several days each week I did wear something I made.  The other days?  I either completely forgot, or was just in the mood to wear something else.  And some of the days when I did wear something I made, I forgot to photograph my ensemble.  So there you have it.  We are at the end of May, I did not make the challenge, but I did learn something from it:  I have some items that I tend to wear over and over, while some of my other items sit idle in the closet either forgotten or ignored.  I have beutiful garments that I put a lot of time into constructing and I need to make a conscious effort to ensure they get their due time on the runway.  I guess it is no different from my RTW clothing.  I have some items I wear over and over while others sit idle.  Perhaps I need to clean out my closet. 

I leave you with a couple photos from this week:

Simplicity 1806
Simplicity 2154

Right now I am piecing together a few quilt squares for a bed runner, I have a Vogue top on my cutting table, and I have a baby gift in queue.  Hopefully the remainder of this week I will be productive.

Jalie 2908 Morphed

~ Pamela Klingensmith ~ 1 Comment
Jalie 2908 Capri Style

I took the Jalie jeans pattern and morphed it into a pair of capri pants.  Actually, in looking at the photo, they’re more of a pedal pusher.  Just like the jeans, they are very comfortable and have a great fit.  I used a black stretch denim from Hancock Fabrics and I topstitched with white topstitching thread.

Something I did not add on my first pair of jeans was a coin pocket.  I did add it to this pair and I really like how it turned out.  Here’s a close-up of the itty bitty pocket:

Front coin pocket and rivet

You can also see the rivets that I added to this pair.  I did not include them on my first pair because my jeans had gold topstitching and I wanted to add gold rivets, but they were nowhere to be found locally.  Does anybody have a source for jeans hardware?  I love the more RTW look of jeans with rivets.

For the back pocket design, I decided to go with an embroidered applique.  I chose a subtle white tone-on-tone print fabric for the butterfly and used teal embroidery thread. 

Back pocket design

The white fabric seemed like a good idea until I looked at my rear end from a distance and it just looked like two huge white splotches on my rear – like I sat in paint or something!!  So I pulled out my scrapbooking supplies (yes, I said scrapbooking, not sewing) and I used walnut distress ink to tone down that white butterfly a bit.  The idea of the unfinished edges on this applique is that it will fray more with each washing and the outline of the butterfly will become more noticeable.  I have washed these several times since making them, and sure enough, that applique becomes more defined with each washing.  One of these days, I will take a photo and post it so you can see I’m not making this up as I go.  🙂

If you are in the U.S., have a terrific and safe Memorial Day weekend.