Another Day, Another Apron

Here is my FIRST custom order apron!  This is cut from my very own tweaked pattern.  (I HEART this fabric BTW – it is also HTF unfortunately).

It was tweaked (from the red snowflake apron pattern) for a few reasons. 

In order of importance:

1. The skirt was not flouncy enough.  So I went from a half circle to a full circle to cut the ruffle.  Boy am I glad I am good at geometry and math, specifically spatial reasoning.
2. The neck and waist ties were shorter than I would have preferred.  I made the waist ties longer and the neck ties into one continuous neckband that can be slipped on over the head.  Much easier to manage.
3. The apron was entirely too long, especially for the petite woman this one was made for.
4. It was too much bulk to sew the edges of the neck ties/band right at the edge of the top of the bib, so I moved those in just after the side hem.

 

All and all I’d have to say, this pattern making thing is really fun and I recommend it to my fellow blog sewing friends.  There are definitely some challenges, but like with everything, it just takes practice and some trial and error.

P.S.  Here is the Jessie Steele apron I was trying to mimic (next to mine):

  

I am going to squeeze in one more apron project before Christmas… Meanwhile I have yet another custom order, for 11 hand towels.

And I’d like to finally mention the great buy I found at a “garage sale”/estate sale/guy has several houses and is getting rid of this one and everything in it sale.  I have always wanted a Kitchen Aid stand mixer.  I have never wanted to pay the $200 or so for one.  I jumped at the opportunity to pick this one up for a fraction of the price!  I don’t think it was every used, or if so, very little.  I am really looking forward to making something with this new find!

 

Move Over Vera

Well, maybe not quite!

I have been busy with my head down at the sewing machine for the past two weeks. I've been working on a custom order from a client whose youngest daughter was in one of my dance classes last season. She wanted a duffle bag for her older daughter to use for her dance classes. The girl wanted it quilted and kind of Vera Bradley-ish but with funkier fabrics. She chose several fabrics that she wanted included in the bag and I met with the mom for her to relay all of the features she wanted.

I am now done and here is the finished product!

Front of the bag with matching makeup pouch

(I don't know if you can tell, but this thing is HUGE, I filled it with 4 large bath towels to give it shape for the photos)

Side with pocket

Back of bag

Inner side pocket

Inner end pocket

All fabrics are from Sandi Henderson's Farmer's Market Line in the Spring colorway.

Though I personally am not quite into the whole quilted bag look, I have to admit that it was really fun quilting all the pieces and seeing them all puff up before my eyes!

I hope she loves it. She came by before I sewed on the shoulder straps to see if the length was ok and both she and her mom were really excited.

Phew, onto my next projects... hemming jeans, adding an embellishment onto a homecoming dress and making a birthday dress for a little girl (not my girl). I also hope to get a few more potholders and maybe casserole carriers made (ha, good luck with that!) before a Boutique show I will be in in October! More on that later.

Bits and Pieces

My Impatiens in August

Recently I saw a tutorial for quilt squares called Quartered Squares that I really loved. I immediately decided I was going to make a quilt using this design. Then a few hours later my brain said "Hold on there!" I knew I had so many other projects to be completed, and starting a quilt was not only silly right now, it would require the purchase of more fabric. And I really would like to work through the fabric I have plans for before buying more. But then, as I was pumping iron at the gym, the idea came to me... Make a few blocks and turn them into a table runner! For my kitchen shop. So while visiting my parents yesterday, I put some scraps and fat quarters together that coordinated (I should probably have enough to make 3 different color theme runners with what I have now) and dove into making a trial table runner. I did modify the sizes of each row to make the squares smaller.

Table Runner Quilt Squares - atop the fabric I will use for the back, binding will be a natural cream color

At this point all the squares are made and sewn together and I have purchased coordinating fabric to finish off the back and binding (less than $2 for a minimum amount of sale fabric from Hobby Lobby). I'm very excited, but a little nervous about the free motion quilting thing again. At least the size of this should be totally doable.

I HAVE been chugging away at some other shop items in anticipation for next week's Farmer's Market. Not sure I will make my goal, but I'm working on it. For a sneak peak, here are a couple of the HOLIDAY towels that are done. Yes, holiday already!

Love that reindeer fabric! Click to enlarge!

Today my totally sneaky and wonderful husband sent me a BEE-YOOtiful bouquet of flowers while he's off on a business trip! Aren't they totally gorgeous! He really tricked me into being home for our remodeler guy to bring by some paperwork to sign so that I'd be home for the delivery of these.

My Bouquet!! - perfect colors for the end of summer I think

Finally, (long post I know) I found another stitcher Marie through a recent feature on Heather Bailey's blog who is also creating these name pillows that Crystal of Little Bit Funky is making. I was so excited when I saw this grandma pillow. What a GREAT idea for a gift!! Pattern is available here if you wanted to try making one yourself. Make sure to check out Marie's blog, I love the personalized towels she makes too.

And I'm off to the Farmer's Market. I'm going to get my sewing scissors sharpened, buy some popcorn for the kids and see what else I can find.

Hope you are having a lovely summer day!

Store Update

Lately I've been listing new items at Kitchen Stitchen my online Etsy store.  Some are new, like these cloth napkins...

This set of four placemats...

And some items I've had made for a while but just now offering online.

Waffle weave tea towels...

 

and pocket potholders...

 

I still have a ton of magnets to photograph.  I'm also working on a couple more sets of napkins in deeper colors, perfect for the upcoming fall!

Oh, and today I was also featured on another blog!  Come see the article here.

Thanks to you all who have supported me and believed in me through this crazy pursuit of offering quality-made kitchen items for sale!

New Pretties

Some fun new items have come to our house to live.  First is this enamel ring.  I would never have thought to seek out something like this, but I saw a mom of one of my son's friends wearing a white enamel flower cocktail ring and thought it looked so fun!  I found this pretty blue one  and purchased it from Linkel Designs.

Next, I'd been eyeing this cute pincushion for weeks and finally decided to suck it up and buy one of my own from Feltmates.  And I love it!  As you can see, it is getting much use.

Finally something for Ella.  Saw this at TJMaxx for a good price, thought it was cute and bought it to give to Ella for a first successful day at summer day camp.  Miles got a Cars (the movie) writing set, but it's not pretty enough to post!

Just got home from another Farmer's Market.  Did a little better than last time, but not much.  My jaw dropped when one lady, who apparently was looking for me each week, paired up five towels and pot holders to purchase as gifts for friends!  I also sold another casserole carrier and heard a lot of oos and ahhs over them.  There were a lot of artists this week all squeezed in together so much so that I couldn't set up my chair and could not even stand up next to my booth without being in front of another artist's table or in front of another artist's body (he had enough room for a chair).  Luckily there was a bench across from my booth.  Unfortunately I was sitting in the sun all day.  It was a little hot in the full sun.

Kitchen Inspiration

A Crate and Barrel catalog came in the mail today and I was really drawn to some napkins that I saw on the last pages.  So I went to their website to snatch a pic to show you all.  Too bad this pic doesn't do the pic in the catalog justice, but hopefully you get the idea.

 

Napkins, too easy.  But look how bright and cheery they are.  I am SO drawn to them.  So, I think I should make some and see how they do.  The Lord knows I have enough pot holders and tea towels made already.  Why not start a new line of items for the shop?

And then I saw this placemat and contrasting napkin.  The back of this placemat has the same fabric as the napkin.  I'm always thinking I need to make everything so fancy with crazy designs in all of my products.  But in each of these cases, the fabric stands on its own.  And the sewing is easy.  So why not give it a try?

Now I'm in the middle of making the two casserole carriers I promised myself I'd make before the next Farmer's Market.  But I think simple napkins and placemats should be next up.

And because I can't seem to give myself enough to think about, I'm on another kick to work on the kitchen, making it over that is.  I'm tired of the old wallpaper.  I want pulls and knobs on my drawers and cabinets.  I want bead board under my cabinets.  It can't be exactly what I want at this point, but a few changes to freshen it up would be a welcome change.

Oh sure Kristi, you still have that stinkin sewing cabinet to finish up!

Here are some other inspiring napkins that came up yesterday:

 

Source: Home Made Simple

Source: Anthropologie

I've already purchased a bit of fabric and started on some napkins.  Finding the trim (see above two photos) has been a huge challenge.  I finally decided that in order to get colored eyelet trim, I'm going to have to dye it myself.

Getting Ready

Tonight was the night I did a trial run-through of my table setup for the Farmer's Market next Wednesday! My wonderful husband helped by giving me suggestions and doing some of the product prep, oh and taking this photo, which I made into many photos.

I will take you on a tour of my table to show you how I decided to display all of my items.

Well, first off, we have to have a business sign. Since I just found this out last week, I came up with something simple. My business logo in a frame. As I set up the table, the framed logo started to get swallowed up by all of my items. I started to look around the house for some sort of riser for the sign and came up with the idea to stack up a bunch of cookbooks. I will probably tie a bow around the books so there will be less question as to if they are for sale. I also felt the table needed more ambiance, so I added this utensil crock with utensils in it.

Next up, {please pardon the lack of merchandise I didn't feel like getting a bunch of magnet tins out just for a trial run} this was my idea for displaying the magnet sets. {I will replace that sign with a nicer one}. I just took a large cookie sheet that we had and stood it up in a plate display easel that we also already had.

Two towels are displayed on a countertop towel holder I purchased at Homegoods for a steal. The rest of the towels were rolled up and tied with a white ribbon. {Thanks Jason for all of your help with these}. I thought they'd be easier to display this way, not to mention neater. And as I saw those tied up little bundles sitting there, they looked like little gifts. So inviting! I purchase the wire basket at Homegoods as well. Mind you, I had this all worked out in my head before I found the wire basket. Good thing I found one!! And the chalkboard basket labels are from Pottery Barn Kids. I think they add to the ambiance of the table.

The potholders were easier to display than I originally thought they'd be. I thought I had to have them hanging up, but that was near to impossible to figure out in any simple manner. So I found this perfect shaped basket at Ikea. I will have at least one out on the table so people can see what they look like and hopefully make them want to go rummaging through the basket.

Casserole carriers - one will be displayed with a dish in it as seen in this photo and the others fanned out underneath it.

My business cards are printed vertically, so finding a creative way to display them turned out to not be so hard when I saw this glass candle holder at Hobby Lobby. It's the perfect shape and size!

As I close this most exciting tour of my table, I will also point out the wonderful display idea for my apron{s}. My friend Gail came up with this idea and lent me the dress form! Notice the Kitchen Stitchen logo shirt I ordered from Zazzle. As for me, I purchased a polo shirt and my parents have been working hard to convert my logo to an embroidery file for my mom's embroidery machine. I plan to take my shirt there tomorrow to get it all logoed up to wear at the market! Perhaps along with another one of my aprons. Oh, and before I forget. We just bought this table at Aldi on sale. It is so sturdy and collapses so nicely into a portable size complete with handle. And the "table cloth" is a $10 bedspread from Ikea. Probably should iron that up a bit.

I'm getting so excited!!

Little Star

The highlight of the weekend was going to Ella's singing recital.  Though her group only had a very short part of a song, it is always fun to see your child perform.  And I am very happy with how comfortable she is on stage.  I think it is a great experience.

Plus she makes friends wherever she goes.  Is there anything sweeter than little girls in pretty dresses playing ring around the rosy?

It was a fairly hectic weekend with lots going on and hubby on a camp trip with his dad and brother.  I've been sewing up cute bags for the kids' teachers. {WAIT till you see these!}  We also host a church small group at our house and I had to find time to straighten up the house too.

I will have a couple of custom sewing jobs soon.  Plus I want to have time to make more for the shop.  Especially with Farmer's Market coming up mid-June.  I've already started gathering displays for my wares.  It may also be an excuse to purchase more fabric!  What is your favorite fabric that you'd like to see on one of my potholders and/or tea towels??

I'm also trying out using my sewing as a mini-ministry!  Today was the beginning of my first project along these lines.  I knew of a young lady through the teen mom ministry I'm involved in who is getting married this summer.  She is not rolling in the dough, but wants a respectable wedding.  She has many people from the church helping her out and I am offering my sewing services to her to make her flower girls {2} dresses, ring bearer pillow and a couple of bridesmaids gifts.  We met today and talked.  It was nice to get to know her even better and to hear how much she has learned, and changed over the years.  I gave her my advice and support where she asked for it and prayed with her before we parted ways.  We will meet up this week to look at some fabric.  This is probably not something I'd do on a regular basis, but every once in a while when the opportunity arises and I feel called to do it.  Anyway, I'm excited!  Here is our start - the pattern for the girls dresses {her daughter and her daughter's friend}. Different colors and trim, but I'll keep you posted as planning and sewing progresses!

Negligent Blogger Here

Dear poor readers, all 4 of you (ha!).  I am so sorry that I have not been very good with the blogging.  Lots going on around here.  First of all I'm still trying to recover from last week's cold.  I'm not sure if I already mentioned that I had a test done and it was NOT the flu.  As it turns out, the swine flu does not appear to be any different than most flus and not as huge as a scare as it was made out to be.  Anyway, there was a thought it might be because we had be traveling between Chicago and Miami via air, I got very sick when we got back and my daughter was throwing up one morning.  But she was instantly better and I was negative for flu.

I feel that I left some topics hanging, so I'll try to sum them up here:

• Earlier I was trying to decide if I would try out either the Grayslake Arts Fest or our Summer Farmer's Market.  With the Arts Fest, it was almost imperative that I be ready to accept credit cards (more expense for me) and that I buy a tent and a table.  After going to a craft show and as I thought about it, I decided I was not prepared to prepare for an Arts Fest.  Additionally, I decided to try the Farmer's Market for these reasons:  People at a Farmer's Market generally are people buying fresh produce and therefore cook.  They would be a good set of consumers to be interested in kitchen gear (which is what I sell).  Also, the farmers do not take credit cards, so most people arm themselves with CASH which makes me think it would be ok to not accept credit cards.  So my plan is to do one show per month for June, July and August.  I applied and was accepted with enthusiasm.  Yay!  In fact the coordinator complimented my items and asked "do you really make those yourself?"
• This is the LAST week (in fact today is the last day) of teaching dance for the season.  I think I was sadder thinking about it last week.  This week is so busy, I am really accepting it as the natural end to something good.  I am truly looking forward to having more free time and enjoying the summer without teaching.  The rehearsal and recital are this weekend and I'm predicting I will be sad again either during the recital or Sunday after it's over.  We'll see how I feel.
• Oh boy, our vacation!  I need to get around to posting some photos.  The first part of the trip was a meeting for Jason.  We stayed at the Four Seasons and it was both nice and uncomfortable.  At the Four Seasons, everything is PERFECT, the service is instant.  You are never made to wait, you are wanting for nothing.  But I was so nervous.  Was I acting ok?  Was I looking ok?  Did I tip the right person?  Every time someone did something for me and then asked for my room number, was I going to be charged?  Ugh.  That was just one night stay, then we moved to another hotel for the REAL part of the vacation.  Our hotel was right on the beach, South Beach that is.  The weather was great, food was delicious and it was just so fun and relaxing.  And did I mention we didn't have the kids?  We did a LOT of walking.  The culture and people were very interesting.  Lots of people in good physical shape.  Not so much shyness about their bodies.  Even walking down the street, people would just be wearing their bathing suits, or just very small clothing.  Another interesting thing I noticed was that people were VERY forward.  If they saw someone they liked, they'd yell over at them their interest and sometimes a conversation would result.  Anyway, it was a nice break.
• Our kitty Paris is doing much better.  Still taking her antibiotics, not pooping in the wrong places and much more friendly (which honestly still isn't that friendly).  She just seems happier and healthier.  Even her coat seems shinier.
• In sewing news, I've made a few more towels.  Two are in the shop.  I'm working on a set of placemats.  They are almost done, but I am having to break from that to hem a prom dress.  I am also doing a special order and making some pillows for little girls.  I have the first pillow top finished and promise to post a pic soon.

That's about it for now.  Gotta run.  Don't give up on me and my blog please!!

Thanks I Needed That

My latest addition to the Store.

Just sold two other towels after quite a dry spell. That feels good. :-)

I also received an inquiry about whole sale orders which I responded to buy have not heard back about and another about consignment. I'm nervous about that. I'd have to ship stuff to another place. But would it be worth it for the exposure? Anyone have experience with this? It would be for a webstore.

I've also been made aware of a new "Slow Food" movement, the global, grassroots movement originating in Italy that links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment. I am going to figure out how I can incorporate my products into this philosophy to develop a better niche for myself.

• Miles has been sick and sleeping all day but perked up a bit right before dinnertime. He didn't eat much but was very talkative and gregarious and he has cooled down considerably. Then he wanted to go right back to bed which is good. He needs the rest.



• It has been pure misery trying to get these cats to take their deworming medicine. It's in a powder which I am to mix in with a meat variety of baby food. Velvet wants nothing to do with it, so I tried mixing it with wet canned food. Still not interested. Called the vet who told me to try mixing it with the dry food. I don't think anyone's fooling Velvet. Paris is much better but gets a little tired of it after one helping. I have to divide the powder in half and give it twice a day. Plus I have to do the same with powdered probiotics for Paris.
  

  
  



• I have been reading advice and article and posting in the Etsy forums about how to get more exposure for my shop and feel a bit encouraged. I'm a little nervous about approaching some of my favorite home dec blogs to see if they'd be willing to feature my shop on their blog. Do you think I should try?
  



• Forgot to mention that Jason gave me a "night off" Wednesday night and told me to get my nails done and come back whenever. It was great. I did get a mani-pedi, went to Panera for a salad and a cafe latte poring over lots of crossword puzzles. It was a nice break.

A week in the life of...

This morning I planned to share a recipe for a cake I made yesterday and then enjoy being alone to get some things done around here.

But last night after having a slightly sick sweet boy, the sweet boy's temperature spiked to 104, and I worried. And I woke up my husband. And he voluntarily ran out to get some children's acetominophen so we could do double duty with the ibuprophen we had on hand which didn't seem to be affecting the temp all that much. It did the trick, but he was hot this morning so I'm keeping him home from school. He was SO unhappy and cried. But this is good. He LIKES to go to school. He is no longer crying when he has to go or when he is dropped off.

And I can't find the camera on which I took pictures of the aforementioned cake and assume that Jason took it with him as he left the SLR. So today's post will not be a recipe. Maybe next post.

Yesterday my parents came up for a visit which turned out great for me as I had to bring both of our cats to the vet. The vet doesn't know what is going on with the kitten but we are going to systematically treat her for various potential causes of her blood in stool. So now I'm to feed both cats a deworming powder in meat baby food and a probiotic to the kitten. The problem is that the older cat will not eat the baby food nor the soft cat food I tried. Yet he is BEGGING for dry food. So I'll be calling the vet for advice on that.

I also got to run a few short errands including going to Joanns for some elastic. And I also ended up leaving with this (and a coordinating fabric for trim):

So you know what my next towel and potholder set will look like.

Sales at Kitchen Stitchen have been REAL slow. I'm looking into doing a local Spring Farmer's Market to see if I can do better in person. Still not sure on the Art Show.

Speaking of the store, here is the new packaging for my magnets. I love it. So much more professional than just throwing some magnets in an envelope. Though the packaging adds a bit to the pricing. I think it's worth it. Especially for gift giving. I am thinking of using a punch I have to put a paper background in the bottom of the tin behind the magnets.

And because of the small amount of the Red Beater fabric I purchased, I had to make the tea towels in a different style... In case I haven't mentioned this enough, I LOVE this fabric.

We have started focusing more on chores with Ella. We really need to take advantage of the fact that she LOVES helping out and loves the positive reinforcement. I paid her a quarter after she folded all of our socks and put them away. She has been putting coins in a piggy bank for a long time, so I had her count all her change and see if she had enough to buy something I told her about - a leotard outfit for her American Girl doll which I found at a resale shop. She did and we went to buy it. It was so cute to see how excited she was about the whole thing.

Another major incident* in our household was that I thought our dishwasher was broken. I ran it one night and in the morning the dishes were still dirty and the green "Clean" light was blinking and I couldn't get any programs to run or get the light to stop blinking. I phoned Sears for a service call and was not to happy with the pressure the customer service rep was putting on me to purchase the more expensive service charge which included parts and a warranty and a voucher if the machine turned out to be unrepairable. The dish washer is only 2 1/2 year old. I finally got off the phone with her using the excuse that I had to talk to my husband about this. She said she'd wait for me to call him and I explained I had to get off the phone with her to call him. She didn't like this and demanded "Can't you just make a decision right now?" Well forget that. I went online and found a quick fix at http://www.fixya.com/. It worked the blinking light stopped. We were able to run the dishwasher and it works. Ha!

I have REALLY been enjoying the sunny weather. We had one warm day this week and the others were certainly not as cold as it has been. I'm VERY excited about the warmer months!!

Have a GREAT weekend all!

*I consider this a major incident because I HATE doing dishes.