Farewell 2016!

I always love the holidays! Lots of time with family and friends, pretty Christmas lights and decorations, time off from work, a bunch of birthdays, my Son-in-law, my husband, one of my brothers and mine and if lucky, we get the first snowfalls of the year. I enjoy buying and making gifts for my family and friends and I always look forward to see what goodies I will get. :)

My sister, Jennifer and I in front of the
 Art Institute of Chicago.

Myself, My sister, Jennifer, and my daughter, Melissa. 

                                                    

 I won't bore you with all the nitty gritty details of my holidays but, I do want to share with you the sewing related gifts that I received. 

Designer books: (I've linked to amazon on each of the book titles)

Manus x Machina

This book is amazingly cool! I was unable to get to  NYC to see the exhibit so the book was a welcome gift and addition to my library. They did a wonderful job with the photography as well as with some very cool printed illustrated pages. SOme of these illustration are silver printed and some are printed on silver pages. My copy also included a separate booklet of interviews from some of the designers.

Dior Impressions

This is a wistfully wonderful book. Dior does some of the most feminine and beautiful designs. It really shows how some of the works of Dior relate to the impressionist movement. Photos of beautiful artworks from the impressionists era are compared alongside amazing Dior dresses. A great book for both an art and fashion lover! 

Issey Miyake

This is one giant book! This book has over 500 pages and is 12x12. I have always had a fascination with Issey Miyake's creations. The way he has bravely gone to places that other designers don't dare and that he has been successful for so many years really makes him and his work interesting to me. His work is not my personal taste but it is always interesting and sometimes makes me wonder and want to ask why. Maybe someday I'll venture into trying out some of his designs.

I also received several pieces of fabric. Happy dance! 

My sister, Jennifer, braved the fabric store and found me this beautiful length of a taupe mesh with this delicate sequined design. It is light, airy and sublime! I am envisioning a lovely over tunic or dress/skirt layer for this fabric.

My wonderful friend, Wendy of Couture Counsellor gifted me these lovely lengths if fabric that she had printed from spoonflower. They are based off of  The Woman In Gold painting done by Gustav Klimt. The painting is beautiful and the story of it is even more beautiful. I can't wait to see what my imagination comes up with for this pair of fabrics.

Wendy and I at the Field Museum for my Birthday.

I did some sewing for the holidays. Not as much as I wanted but my health issues were still being worked out, lots of rest time and time finding the best mix of medications was needed for me. 

I made my granddaughter, Princess Victoria, a holiday dress to wear for Christmas. This is a BUrda Kids pattern. It was my first time using a Burda pattern and It came out great! She was happy to wear her pretty and comfortable new dress.

I also had grand plans of making PJ's for everyone for Christmas morning... then I though I'll just make the PJ bottoms and buytops... and then it went to just making the PJ bottoms. I almost had them done... so close, I just needed a couple more hours before we were to get in the care and make our 12 hour journey to my mom and dad's place. Buggers! Well, those darn PJ bottom are all done now :) Better late than never. I will just have to photoshop a picture together of all 7 of us in our respective Hudson pants PJ bottoms. I can say that this pattern by True Bias is very well drafted, excellent directions and a modern updated styling.

Princess Victoria was the first to get her new PJ pants, the Mini Hudson Pants.
They are quite adorable and she loves the pockets!!

Each couple has a specific color. My daughter and son-in-law have the grey check knit. My parents have the red check knit and my husband and I have the purple check knit. All of them have black knit for the waistband, ankle cuffs and pocket detail.
I left out the drawstring. I figure for PJ pants it wasn't needed.

I did also manage to squeeze in 3 new Appleton dresses. 2 for me and 1 for my daughter. We all needed some new clothes for the holidays :) More on those at a latter date!

I'd like to say that 2016 was good for me... it was not one of my better years. However, I'm here, I'm kicking and I have the most amazing friends and family. So very much that I am thankful for and appreciative of. Here's to making the best out of 2017!

A Christmas visit to Idaho and Simplicity 0571

In my last post I showed progress on my new coat! Well , I am quite happy to report that I was able to get that coat finished just in time for our Christmas trip to Idaho!!! We had a flight on Friday December 16th in the evening and that morning I was sewing on the buttons and doing the final hand stitcng of the sleeve linings! 

The entire reason for the coat was that we were having family photos outside and the colors were grey, blue and yellow. Here is a preview of the Idaho family photos! I think we are quite a nice looking bunch :) 

We had a Christmas Day storm which gave us about 8 inches of snow and made for a beautiful picture. The rest of the photos will be ready in a couple of weeks, can't wait to see them.

Here are some more photos of me in the coat and having some fun in the snow!

The collar is nice and versatile. It can be worn open or can be worn buttoned up against the weather and wind and in this case... Snow!

I love the silhouette and the back fit of this coat, it really defines my waist.

As you can see in these last 2 photos.... The coat sure does move well and I was having some fun in the snow!!!! 

Such a silly time!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday :) 

I gave several me made Christmas gifts this year and had wanted to take pictures of the recipients with their gifts but was just so enjoying the spirit of the season and just enjoying the family time that I just forgot!! And I am OK with that :) All the gifts I gave were very well appreciated and I can't ask for more than that.

I also got a very nice sewing gift this year in the form of quilting fabric. I enjoyed that immensely. :)

Next up.... My birthday and then New Years. I'm still hoping to get a couple things finished before New Years!!!

Holiday catch up!

Gosh.... It's been several weeks since my last post! I needed a little hiatus during the busy holiday season .

December was a CRAZY month for me. The first 2 1/2 weeks was solid packed with work travel, all the last minute end of year meetings to try and squeeze in before the holidays. 

Then my daughter, Melissa, and I were off to the Netherlands for a long weekend just before Christmas. It was a GREAT time!!! I got to meet my new niece and she is the most adorable tiny 5 week old ever. I was immediately smitten by her alert steel blue eyes just watching you. I did not want to leave without her :) we also got to celebrate my brother and his wife's wedding. They had a civil wedding back in September but had the wedding celebration the weekend before Christmas. We enjoyed spending the weekend in Leiden, Netherlands. 

I wore my new dress that I finished up after thanksgiving for the wedding. It was comfortable, looked quite nice and wore very well! Since I knew we would be walking to and from the wedding celebration I wore the dress with black leggings and black ankle boots. 

Once back home for the Christmas I have just been enjoying the time with the family and friends! Lots of relaxing, playing games, movies and just good old fashioned family time!

Now it is New Years Eve and I got one last project done for 2013! A new super hero apron for my hubby. It's the small things in life that make him happy and I am more than happy to oblige! 

I lined the entire apron in muslin to give it a little more body to it. The straps were made on my serger using the triple cover stitch and the 1 1/2" belt loop maker. I  made buttonholes to thread the straps through. The big front multi pocket has a light interfacing and is matched perfectly to the main fabric that you can't even make it out in the big overall picture. A fun project to finish up the new year! 

I'm wishing everyone a Happy New year!! I'm looking forward to 2014 :)

More Holiday Gifts

So, I have been so busy making Christmas gifts for everyone else that I have not had time to work on anything for me :) That's OK! I still have lots of fun and these little gift bags are a great way to take my mind off of everything.

These are a bit smaller than the Black and White ones that I made a couple weeks ago. Almost 1/2 the size. They are full of some goodies for my barn team mates. A couple little things for them and of course some horse treats as well!

Best of all, I actually used stash fabric this time :)

Several more Christmas gifts

X-Mas tree in Philadelphia

Yesterday afternoon I had some time to work on several more Christmas gifts. These are not major gifts, just what I like to call add-ons. Special little somethings for the special people in my life.

Zippered pouches... awaiting some special goodies to be placed inside and sent to sit under a special Christmas tree! The fabric is printed from photos I took of my flowers this summer and printed on specially treated fabric.

These were sort of an experiment. I have somehow collected a massive number of zippers, had some single sided quilted material left over from an old project, add that to some specialized ink jet "print your own fabric" that i have had for 2 years now waiting for a special project... add that all together, shake it up, swirl it around, add some wishful summertime flowers from my backyard, my trusty serger and voila!!! splendid little zippered cosmetic cases or little carryalls for your purse.

Quilted inseide

A fun project! Cute Drawstring bags

I have 4 adults on my Christmas list that are getting these super cute drawstring bags full of special goodies! Originally I was just looking for the usual paper product bag and tissue paper that you buy for some silly overpriced amount that most likely gets tossed out.

This year I decided it would be fun to be more 'responsible' and make the bag part of the gift and have it be nice, reusable and fun. And of course it meant that I had the opportunity to go to the fabric shop... yes, I could have made do with stash fabric. But this fabric is just so much fun!

The bags are fully lined and are approx 9 X 13 finished size.

Bag lying flat

the lining
(also the same fabric as the drawstring casings)

Gathered

Filled and ready to send off to go under a Christmas Tree...

all I need to add are the tags.

A little parting shot of the snow this morning!

Winter weather has graced us :)

I am still here :)

I don't have much to report for now... The past 2 weeks have been quite busy with Thanksgiving, decorating for Christmas, and then a work trip to Boston.

My daughter was home for the Thanksgiving holiday so instead of spending time in the sewing room... I spent time with her and my hubby and I took a road trip up into Wisconsin. We visited my favorite Christmas Shop in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin. The Kristmas Kringle Shoppe were we picked up several new Christmas ornaments.

On the way back I talked my husband into stopping at the Nancy's Notions retail shop in Beaver Dam Wisconsin where I spent some money :) of course. A little Christmas shopping for myself!

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to spend some time in my sewing room.