Summer Shirt Dress

On a last minute whim, Theresa and I decided we just HAD to use our grand opening coupons at the bigger and (slightly) better JoAnn's in town. Of course, that's always hard to do when almost everything is on sale! We spent way more time browsing than intended, mostly due to a few people with TONS of bolts needing cut, and of course we are easily distracted. A lovely cotton shirt fabric jumped off the shelf at me and I headed overto patterns to find the perfect design for a lovely cotton floral print. I had in mind a wrap dress but a Simplicity Lisette shirt dress pattern seemed absolutely perfect for my newly found fabric friend. When I got to the cut table the bolt was short a half yard for the dress pattern but I decided it would work to shorten it into a shirt or do the other not-as-cute-or-flattering shirt dress pattern in the set. Saturday was my day to relax and not worry about cleaning the house or weedingthe garden so I decided to start on my dress. It's been quite a while since I've sewn. The craft hut is still a chicken-rearing disaster so I brought my machine and tools into the kitchen, threw the leaves into my grandpa's table, and started ironing and cutting away. My goal was to get the dress done for a dinner date and good-bye party but, asusual, that was another silly Cerise dream. After my dinner date (sadly, I missed the good-bye party since dinner took a while), I stayed up late sewing and ran out of thread. Sunday morning I switched from a bright reddish-pink to a bright red spool of thread and kept on sewing while Theresa made a zafu and linen napkins. With the sleeves painlessly sewn on, the button holer was attached and sewing away with not all the button holes being centered down the front plaquette by the end of it all. I added a random mix of white buttons from my collection of odds and ends gathered from thrift stores and old clothing along the other front plaquette and viola! A done summer shirt dress. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day so I'll have to put it away for the summer sun, if it ever comes! It's a little snug in my hips but fits my upper body really great.The buttons were put on too close together so theleft side of the dress is about an inch shorter than the right side, but at this point, I don't really care and I don't think anyone else but my fiancé will notice.

Happy Sewing and Hoping for Sun!!!

Cerise : )

Lovely Linen Napkins

Our sad little excuse for a fabric chain store was closing it's doors to open a larger store in the Big Box section of town and there were some great closeout deals. A wonderful green linen peeked out from between gaudy costume fabric and a bolt of disturbing colored velveteen. When I saved it from the pile it pleaded to be made into a set of napkins. Sewing on sunny weekend days is always hard to do but unfortunately Corvallis got a not-so-rare rainy day in mid-summer. Cerise invited me over to sew while she finished up a cotton shirt dress so I measured out my fabric and cut it up into squares, ironed and folded, and sewed away. A half hour later a set of six wonderful napkins were neatly folded and waiting to be used for my next dinner party. A great project for a rainy day!

Theresa, Ommama

Grand Opening!

This weekend marks the grand opening of our local Jo-Ann's here in Corvallis. I took a sneak peak recently. What a change! From a dreary little crowded shop with horrible rust carpeting to a huge, well-lit grocery store size store. Oddly, though they had it well-stocked and full of new things, the place is very "harsh" and "severe". What a contrast to yarn stores, that tend to be well-lit and yet soft and cozy. Perhaps it is the difference between corporate, big box, to independent or perhaps it is the medium: bolts of fabric interspersed with notions and imported craft supplies versus fluffy angora, alpaca and wool. I always want to linger in a yarn store. I will go to the grand opening of Jo-Ann anyway. After all, I have a chance to win a gift card!

Theresa, Ommama

One More Great Find

Here is one more great find from the Antique Mall in Albany, Oregon where I got my sewing machine. They had this 1960 Bing and Grondahl Christmas plate. I was lucky enough to get my grandmother's collection of these lovely Danish plates and have added to it ever since. I have been also trying to fill in backwards to 1957, my earliest plate from Grandma. I found this 1960 plate at a great price. My husband's uncle sent me my very favorite, the 1907 "Little Match Girl" at Christmas this year (Thank you, Ted!). My china cabinet is full so I either will need to buy another cabinet or store away further purchases. I could also get crazy and hang them all over my walls. They are sure beautiful!
Theresa, Ommama

A Lovely Mother's Day Gift

I had to share this photo of the bowl set I got recently for a mother's day gift fro Cerise! I love these old kitchen pottery bowls. Cerise is starting to collect Bauer Pottery herself so she is always on the prowl at antique store and thrift store to find some little gems for her collection. I can't wait to display these in my new cabinet! (more on that later!)
Theresa, Ommama

Salivating over Another Sewing Machine

Here is a great site if you love Singer Featherweights as we do. April 1930's is a site and shopped dedicated to Singer 221 and 221K models. They also have a great newsletter and wonderful information. Their current newsletter features a 100-year old brochure from Singer "Evolution of the Singer Needle" explaining how needles are made.
And, they have the coolest Singer 222 model. These have a thin arm so that you can sew in the tiniest places. I will have to sell a lot more on Etsy before I get one of these baby's. I am putting it on my Birthday, Christmas and all other holiday list!
Theresa, Ommama

New Singer! Am I collecting?

A mother's day treat was to hang out at a local antique mall with Cerise. I wanted to find a small table with a drawer to fit in the hallway. Tape measure in hand, we set out to find the perfect little item. We did not find a table; instead we found a portable Singer 221-1 in wonderful condition. I am not sure yet, but I think it is a 1952. It has all it's parts including the instruction manual and just a little bit of scratches on the front. It is very dry and will need to be oiled. The machine says made in Great Britain and the motor says made in Canada. I will be doing some research to find out more.

It's not like I really need another machine, but it is so rare to find one in pristine condition I couldn't pass it up. I am not sure at which point one is considered collecting. So far I have two of these Singer Featherweights and Cerise has one. I am very excited to give my new old gal a spin and see how she sews! Thanks for the great Mother's Day, Cerise!
Theresa, Ommama

Knitted Foodies for Passover

Happy Erev Pesach!

I've really been into knitting monsters lately and now I spend a lot of time obsessively browsing Ravelry for toy knitting patterns. Of course, knitted cupcakes and pastries are always appetizing and little mice of all sorts are very cute. Some fun Passover food patterns for the seder plate that are out there as well so I thought to share a pattern set for Passover Eve. (I even found a knitting pattern set for the 10 plagues of Exodus! I really love the origami froggy and little locust but the Egyptian kid is a bit iffy.) So many fun knitted noshes are out there it's hard to pick just a few to share. I've found that I can always find someone to give my newest monsters to but I never could think of what I would do with little knitted foodies. These would definitely be fun play knits for young children, and I have a few younger-aged relatives who might enjoy playing with my food. So watch out monsters, there might be some knitted food fights in with the youngin's in the future!

Happy Food Fights!

Cerise : )

Liquidation Sale

The only thing better than getting those great fabric store coupons in the mail is getting a liquidation notice. Apparently the new Joann's store is getting stocked all anew. So the old Joann's is completely liquidating. Good news, savings store wide. Bad news, no selection and the prices aren't as great as they first appear. That didn't stop me from buying a lot of stuff. I couldn't get bobbins or needles for my machine. They were gone before liquidating. And there were very few patterns, though I looked for hours.

I did get oodles of fabric, most of it 50% off. I also came home with 10 spools of thread, a vase (no, I really didn't need it) and some funny little boxes. I will now have to sell a lot of yoga bags before I can go to the new store and spend more money on fabric!
Theresa, Ommama

Bigger Better Fabric Store

While I love specialty and independent fabric stores, for staples Jo-ann's is the go-to place. The store in Eureka, California was so small and always out of products. Then I moved to Corvallis, Oregon and the store was even smaller! They have incredibly decrepit carpet and shelves and so little room. But the staff is always very nice there and mostly I get what I need.

I am very excited now that they are moving to a bigger, new store. I have great expectations (more cotton strap and cord colors please!) of a wonderful new store. I only wish that they would carry more items, especially more fabrics, made in the USA. But alas, there is very little cotton grown in the US any more (all the cotton fields have been taken over by corn) and very few mills. I looked for hours one day at fabrics and only found one denim that was made in the US. I do look forward to that grand opening at Jo-ann's in May!
Theresa, Ommama