Black & White Floral Scarf

Let's continue with the subject of scarves.

For Christmas, I bought my mom a grey shawl. She ended up not wanting to keep it, so instead she asked if I would make her a scarf like I made my sister (I'll try to get pictures of that one as well). So I did as she wished and made her a beautiful infinity scarf. This one also has no buttons. She wanted black and white, so it could go with more outfits. It's a silk floral print and the same black fabric I used on my scarf.

Here's a picture of it full length around the neck, showing the black silk side and the floral side.

Here is the scarf wrapped around the neck twice

She seemed very happy with it when I gave it to her, so hopefully she gets to wear it soon :)

~JV

Paisley Scarf

The project I have for this post is a scarf I made for myself. This one I altered a little bit by removing the buttons and sewing the two open ends together. An infinity scarf. I had picked out the fabric a couple months ago and just got around to finishing it; of course when the weather starts to get really nice. But it's a beautiful black silk and silk paisley design, so it's not too heavy. Nice for those cool spring days.

I fell for the colors as soon as I saw them. I love the turquoise and magenta. I also love how full the scarf looks when it's wrapped around a few times.

Here's a picture of it full length around the neck, showing the black silk side and the paisley side.

Here is the scarf wrapped around the neck twice.

I love this scarf and it makes me hope that there will be a some cool spring days to wear it on (no snow though, please)

~JV

Blue/Purple Floral Scarf

I know a while back I said I would post projects that I made people for Christmas. Forgive me for doing some a bit late. I seem to be a bit scattered in my blogging. But I'm doing it so that's what counts. The next couple blogs will be along the same lines (same project but for different people).

For one of the classes I taught in November/January, the project was a super cute button infinity scarf. So of course I made an example that I would eventually be able to wear myself.

I have a stockpile, or should I say bins, of fabric galore. So I didn't even have to buy fabric, or even the buttons. I used a floral silk I had left over from a dress I wore to my brother's wedding and a purple lining I had stored away.

Here's the post about the dress: http://sewingpassion.blogspot.com/2011/07/dresses-of-summer-evening-wear.html

Folded with the Buttons on the Right Side of the Picture

The 5 Buttons have a Silver Shell with a Purple Gem

Showing the Purple Lining Underneath

The floral print has a slight hint of purple in it so I wanted the lining to bring it out a little more.

I mentioned Christmas presents at the start so obviously I haven't kept it for myself. I had made gifts for all my sisters and wanted to make one for my sister-in-law as well. So I thought it would have a lot of meaning if I gave her this scarf made out of fabric I wore to her wedding. So I (I mean my mom) shipped it off to Japan where hopefully she's been able to wear it :)

Stay tuned for more scarves!!

~JV

Happy St Patty's Day/ Green Plaid Shirt

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!!

In honor of everyone being a little bit Irish today, I thought I would make a quick post with something green. In this case it's the shirt I wore for St. Patrick's Day last year.

The fabric is a cotton plaid print with green, blue, yellow, and orange in it. It has two front pockets with button closures, the front buttons up to the bust to create a v-neckline, a mandarin collar, and the sleeves roll up and can be buttoned.

Front View with the Sleeves Rolled Down

Front View with Sleeves Rolled up and Buttoned on the Side

Side View, Sleeve Buttoned Up

Back View

This shirt is from Simplicity Pattern 2255 View A

If you notice in the photograph, the sides also button up, I just forgot to do that in the pictures.

It is long enough to be worn with leggings as well, which can help switch the look up a bit.

Enjoy the Holiday and be SAFE!!

~JV

Living Room Pillows

As I've said before, I teach sewing classes at JoAnn's. I've been trying to post pictures of the projects we've done in class. Tonight I'm posting two styles of pillows we've created. The first one (felt flower) is for the March/April classes, and the second (swirled print, double layered) was for the January/February classes.

The students only get to make one in the class but I decided to make two of each for my own sake, to go in my living room. The colors match a beautiful landscape painting I have on the wall.

The pillow from the Jan/Feb class is a double layered design with the pillow form basically sandwiched between, with a stitching encasing it. I used a black/tan swirled print fabric on the outside and a plain cotton fabric on the inside, matching one of the outside color.

This picture shows one of the corners folded down so you can see the inner fabric.

This pillow is from Simplicity Pattern 9873 View A, Sewing for Dummies :)

The felt flower pillow for this month and next is one that I really love. Such an easy way to add some flair to your pillow (I'm thinking of adding a button or something to the center of each). 

A close up view of the felt flower, it has 7 circular layers, one on top of the other (kind of a pain to sew as the layers get thicker)

This pillow is from Simplicity Pattern 1933 View A

I love the other pillows in this package as well. Although I've been told I have enough pillows as it is :/

~JV

Vintage Blouse

I'm going to start off by saying my Grandma's basement is one of the best places to find awesome vintage clothing. That being said, when I visited her last Friday, I came home with a bag of clothes. Love it!! One of the pieces she gave me was a beautiful kimono style turquoise, blue, and brown print blouse.  My favorite colors.

Front

Back with keyhole button closure at neck

I was going out on Saturday for a friend's birthday and decided why not add just a little bit of a new design to the shirt. I needed to do something fast so I added elastic shirring to the waist. I had looked at a shirt I liked that had a shirring around the waistline so I used that as my inspiration for the quick redesign.

 The elastic shirring is a quick stitch with thread in the top of the machine and elastic thread in the bottom. It automatically gathers up the fabric. I did 10 lines of this stitching under the bust and across the waist.

Front

Back

Close up of shirring

I love it and love that it was so easy to remake. Now I have to figure out what to do with the other clothes.

~JV

Scarf Night!

First lets start off by referencing my previous post about the t-shirt scarf I made: http://sewingpassion.blogspot.com/2012/02/t-shirt-scarf.html

I had some friends and family comment on my facebook about it so I decided to have people over for a scarf night/Pinterest party (since that's where the idea came from).

So on Sunday night I had a few ladies over and basically "taught a class" so they could make their own scarves. I bought about 15 L-XL t-shirts (good thing they were on sale) in a variety of colors and we went to town making scarves.

Here's a picture of the girls hard at work

These are pictures of most of the scarves that were made

Heather

Heather

Erin

Erin also have a light purple one I didn't get a picture of. It was like Heather's tan scarf.

Katie

Katie

Lauren

Lauren

Julia

Julia

We had a lot of fun making these. Pizza, snacks, and wine were involved which added to the fun (especially the last part). There was some sewing involved so it helped to have it at my place. And that's also the reason why I had to finish my one scarf once everyone left since I had a lot of sewing to do for the ladies. But I didn't mind because they had a great time and their scarves turned out beautiful!!!

Now it's time to check out Pinterest to figure out our next craft night!

~JV

My older sister also came but was making some really cute felt flowers for St. Patrick's Day. I'll have to make some too and post about it.

I also have about 15 tops of shirts that I have to figure out what to do with. My younger sister suggested making braided headbands so we'll see what happens.