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By admin, on December 28th, 2011 Next in the series of designs that Miranda has requested is the rose capelet. (See also the Bunny Express Vest). This is another design that she saw in a Happy Happy Clover manga.
Here is the design drawing I found on my table. It was followed by several others, but this one I think captured the sense of it best. Basically it is a pink hooded capelet, with a cutwork lower hem and a rose and petal closure. She also explained that the circles spread across the shoulders of the cape are ‘sparkles’.
 Capelet design drawing Ingredients
- Cape/capelet pattern (e.g. McCalls 4703)
- Pink polar fleece
- Green polar fleece scrap
- Red polar fleece scrap (5″ square)
- 1 pants fastener
- Iridescent white sequins (approx 50)
- Pink, red and green thread
- Needle
- Aleene’s tacky glue
I used McCalls 4703 for the pattern. I used the short version of the pattern, but did not add the fur hem band. Instead I added 2″ to the length of the cape to allow for the cutwork. I used pink polarfleece for the cape, and red fleece for the rose and green polar fleece for the leaves.
 McCalls 4703 Capelet pattern I created the scallops by folding the fronts into even quarters and the back into 8ths. I marked the fold points and those marks are where I cutout between the scallops. I made sure the high points of the scallops started at the center front and hit at the sides as well. To create the cutwork I created a template for the cutout portion from a business card, then traced around it inside each scallop. I stay stitched both the lower edge of the scallops and just outside the traced line for the cutouts. I then cut them out just inside the stay stitching. I had so much marking chalk on it by then that I put it through a quick cycle in the wash. Good thing polar fleece dries fast because Miranda was hovering by then asking when it would be done.
 Cutting the capelet scallops To make the rose I used the pattern for felt flowers over at Crafted Sparrow. I ended up using red sweatshirt fleece because I didnt have any red polarfleece on hand. I’m sure either would work fine.
 Capelet rose For the leaves, I drew a pair of leaves with a space between them to mount the rose. I cut that out of dark green polarfleece and used light green thread to stitch in the leaf’s vein pattern as well as to reinforce the center piece.
 Capelet Leaf pattern After stitching, I re-trimmed the edges to get rid of the fuzzy bits, then used fray check to reduce further fuzzing. I reinforced the underside of the center piece with a small scrap of quilting cotton.
 Caplet leaf reinforcement Next I cut off one of the leaves, close to the edge of the reinforcement patch (sorry forgot to capture a picture of this). Then I sewed the hook portion of a pants clasp onto the underside of the reinforced portion of the leaf/rose assembly. I sewed the loop portion of the clasp onto the upper side of the leaf-only side. Then attached each side of the closure to each side of the cape at the neckline, making sure that the rose piece projected far enough past the edge of the front edge to be able to reach the loop. See below for a closeup that should help explain this better.
Yes, I was lazy and used the dark green thread I had on the needle rather than changing to pink like I should have.  I’m definitely aiming for speed here rather than a haute couture finish.
 Capelet clasp attachment detail Next I attached the sequins scattered across the capelet. I used iridescent white sequins as these seemed more snowy and sparkly to me. Pink or gold would have worked nicely as well.
Here’s the finished caplet, then a closeup of the closure.
 Finished capelet  Capelet closure detail closeup
By admin, on December 28th, 2011 Miranda frequently leaves little drawings around of designs she’d like me to make. I can tell its time to do something about it when she keeps showing me alternate views of the design. I can get a hint.
Here is a recent item I made for her that was inspired by her favorite manga Happy Happy Clover.
Bunny Express Vest
Clover and her friends have a delivery service called Bunny Express. Here is the official girl’s uniform for Bunny Express. The boys wear a very similar design, but it has sleeves.
 One of several 'design drawings' left in my sewing room Here is the finished vest. Please excuse the rumpled appearance, but Miranda has been wearing it all day (and sleeping in most nights) for the last two weeks. Its nice to have my work appreciated.
 Front of the vest  Back of the bunny express vest
By admin, on November 26th, 2011 I’ve created a tutorial over at Instructables, showing how to make these decorative and functional pattern weights. I hope you enjoy it.
 
By admin, on February 26th, 2011 One of my kids asked me to draw them a coloring page of two dragons fighting. Here’s the result. I’ll try to post some more coloring pages, as this is a regular thing for them.
By admin, on November 26th, 2010 In 2008 they were Princess Mononoke, a cat, and a spider.
In 2009 they we have: a butterfly fairy princess (not wearing her wings yet), a wood-elf warrior (who refused any costume makeup), and a rather suspicious-looking purple pumpkin (without her stuffing in yet, so she looks deflated).
And we were rained on the whole time.
I went as a zombie.
By admin, on September 26th, 2010 Here’s a set of ponytail ties has a bear face attached that I made for my youngest. Basically its a felt-mascot face attached to a tie.
 And here is a set of Hello Kitty Hair ties. I made the pattern for these. I got a picture from the web of Hello Kitty and resized it so the face was roughly the size of the bear ties above. Then I traced each component of the drawing as a separate piece.
By admin, on August 25th, 2010 So I decided my magazine holders were just too ugly. I had those cheap cardboard, faux-wood ones…I mean, does anyone seriously think faux wood grain is a good idea rendered in cardboard? I selected some fabrics form my stash, used spray glue and a little Sobo, and covered all my magazine holders. 27 of them. From this…
To this…
By admin, on June 26th, 2010 Kirby
 My daughter recently got a Kirby game for her DS and asked me to make her a Kirby mascot. I based the pattern on the Kirby on the cover of the video game. It was a pretty simple pattern.
You can download the pattern for this mascot.
Girl Mascot
Download the pattern for this girl mascot
By admin, on April 26th, 2010 I’ve become obsessed with making felt mascots. They are hand-sewn, stuffed and embellished animals and other creatures. Typically they are small enough to fit into the palm of your hand: 2.5 to 3 inches at most. I’m not normally into “cute” much, but I just can’t seem to get enough of these things.
I first ran across them in The Cute Book. Below was my first set. My daughters are constantly requesting more. I also made the lizard, and two of the squirrel from The Cute Book, but have no photos of those.
By admin, on December 25th, 2009 Before
You can see some additional ‘before’ pictures at my old sewing roompage.
In the picture below you can see a picture of one end of the room and a close-up of the room floor. It had this fantastically ugly vinyl tile that I believe dated from the 60′s. It was hideous. About half the floor was covered with an ancient blue/gray industrial carpet that was showing canvas in some spots. Basically a depressing scenario.
During
Here is my husband installing a new door. There was quite a lot of rot around the old one and the sill had to be rebuilt. Notice the black mold in the right corner. We had a yard-runnoff drainage problem fixed a few years back, so this shouldn’t happen again.
Here he proudly displays the new door. It has in-window blinds, which I love.
Below is a picture of the room in general disarray. This is after we peeled up the vinyl tiles and had moved out most of the stuff.
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These are the colors I’m using in the new room. Behr has a nice selection of color combinations. I was tending towards painting the walls gray, and this “Smoked Oyster” is a really pleasant lavendery-gray. We used Popped Corn for the trim as show in the picture. |
Here’s the room after painting, but before the new floor was put in.
We’re installing wood-pattern sheet vinyl in the room. Its quicker and cheaper than wood, and vinyl is a good choice for sewing rooms. I thought everyone would get a kick out of my vinyl-installation method. I use paper and packing tape to make a pattern of the floor. I used about 250 feet of paper. Its great because I can make (and repair) mistakes on the pattern long before the vinyl gets cut. Once I have a perfect pattern, down to the details around the door molding, I lay the pattern on the vinyl and cut it out using a fresh craft knife. I’m cutting it on the driveway as its the only flat spot large enough for the 12×22 foot sheet.
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Here’s a shot of the room after the vinyl is installed. This shot shows a fairly accurate view of the paint color (at least on my monitor it does). It looks more lavender in some lights and more grayish in others.
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| I thought I’d show close-ups of the changes in the “moldy corner”. |
Here’s before (but after we ripped the old flooring out).
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Here’s after its all complete. Looks pretty gorgeous to me.
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After
| Before we began work I modeled the room in Sierra Home Architect. I used it to figure out how I wanted the room arranged for maximum functionality and storage, while maintaining a roomy feel. I found this really helpful to visualize what I wanted. So below I’ve included both actual after pictures and 3-D rendered pictures of my design. The room is not finished as you can see from the pictures, but having the virtual pictures helps me stay focused on how the room will eventually look. |
| These following two pictures show the view to the right as you enter the room from the kitchen. This is where my built-in work surface and storage will go. I won’t normally have computers here. The room is definitely not together yet. At this point I am still moving things back in, and my husband has not yet built my work surface and shelving. |
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| The rendering below shows the view to the right as it will look when complete. The built-in L-shaped cutting and activity center that my husband is going to build. The far wall has a 40″ deep surface that extends the full width of that wall (roughly 9.5 feet). I’ll have a my 72″ x 40″ cutting mat there, which I’ve represented with a stretched out chess board in the simulation. Hey, what can I say they didn’t have a cutting board object in Home Architect. The table will wrap around the wall to the right, where the surface will only be 20″ deep. The whole area will have wall shelves or cabinets above the surface. My sewing machine and serger tables will be in another L shape completing my “sewing cube”. |
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| Here’s the view to the left as you enter the room. This is my office area and will include my desk, computer and most of the books. |
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This view is straight ahead as you enter the room.
 This is an aerial view of the room and is the primary working view when you’re building things in Sierra Home Architect.
Decorating
I have been collecting old apron patterns for many years; particularly from the 40′s and 50′s. The cover illustrations on the patterns are so charming. I knew that one day I wanted them decorating the wall of my sewing room, so I’ve also been gradually collecting 8″ x 10″picture frames from thrift stores. A few weeks ago I primed and painted the frames in one of the coordinating colors for my room. Then hung the picture in the frames on the main empty wall of the room. I am just delighted with them. I’d still like to get 4 or 5 more pictures up, so I need to start haunting the thrift stores again.
Below is a close up of some of the pictures. These are not the actual pattern covers. Most of the covers are quite delicate and very discolored. So I scanned the covers and used Photoshop to clean up the pictures, mostly removing discoloration and tears. I’ve prepared a photo gallery of the apron pattern images. Most are post-cleanup, but for a few of them I’ve shown the before and after versions. You can click on the thumbnails to get a larger picture, and click on the larger picture to get a full-size, high-resolution version suitable for printing. The high-resolution pictures run 1 to 2 megabytes.
Cutting Table Being Finished
We’re down to the final stages in the sewing room. Installing the backing board behind the table (all the electrical work will pass behind this, include a multitude of outlets). There’s a soffet to finish at the top of the cabinets and its done. I’ve been using it a lot (as you can tell by all the junk in the foreground, which we had to move off the cutting table and onto the serger table while the backer is being fitted.
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