Music Letters

Every two months new classes come out for the sewing courses. Sometimes the classes repeat themselves and that's the case for the Teen Sewing 101 class. The pattern was letter pillows and it was for January through April. I had the final class with this project last weekend.

Any samples I make for the class where I buy the supplies I obviously get to keep. Most of the time they are clothes that I'll alter and wear at some point so I don't mind. For this project, I couldn't really figure out a word that I could make that would look appropriate for my apartment. So I asked my sister if one of our younger cousins might want their name or something. That's when my 20 year old sister said "Make them for me!!!" How could I refuse? :) So she wanted me to make the pillows spell out MUSIC. She loves to sing and it's a theme she had in her room.

They are individual letters (although you could hand stitch them together if you wanted) and about a foot tall. Every letter was included in the package so the sky's the limit when it comes to the words someone wants made.

All of the letters in order

 Here are the individual shots of each letter.



I asked my sister for a picture of the letters so I could blog them, and she took one right after I had gotten my pictures, so I wanted to include her picture too



I had to hang on to them for four months so now she was finally able to take them home and set them up in her room. Wonder where she'll put them?

~JV

Floral Tunic- Class/Easter

This morning I had a class with a young women who is really interested in fashion and wanted to learn how to sew her own clothes. I love that. The project we did was a simple tunic. I'll admit that the projects they have available for the classes aren't as trendy as a younger crowd may like, but they are good introductions to sewing. Besides, this pattern included a belt she could make if she really wanted to.

It's a pretty simple design with a yoke in the front and the back, pleats under the yoke on both the front and back, 3/4 length sleeves, and a hem that hits just below the hips. The fabric I chose is a cotton floral print that had a texture of small nubs on the entire fabric. The vibrancy of the print doesn't allow you to see the pleats very well in the picture, but they add the fullness to the tunic. I also created my own bias tape to attach around the neckline.

Front View- Yoke with Pleats



Back View-Yoke with Pleats

 The pattern also included instructions for a belt to go with the shirt. It's a simple belt, which I used material I had leftover from the Felt Flower Pillow I made. The tan went perfectly with the colors of the shirt. I used the extra self-made bias tape to make the ties for the belt.



View 1 with Belt- Ties brought to front

View 2 with Belt- Ties in back




This Pattern is Simplicity 2147 View C Tunic and D Belt



I always make the actual project for the student to look at when they are working so I had this made about a week ago. That means I was able to wear it for Easter too!! I love that I get to do that.

~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

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

Felt Puppets

I've been a busy girl as of late and have been teaching a lot of classes. I'm trying my best to get pictures of the projects we work on in class. Taking pictures with my phone is the easiest way to do that, so I apologize in advance for the quality of the picture.

This project is a kids class that is coming up in March and April. They are hand stitched puppets made out of felt and embroidery floss. And they are super cute :)

I'll have to take a picture of the stuffed robots that was the project for January and February because those were super cute too (especially when the little girl in the class was acting like they were falling off of a cliff)

Enjoy!

~JV

Fun Clutch

I started teaching classes back in October at JoAnns. So far I have enjoyed it a lot and have been gaining credit and acknowledgement for doing really well and bringing class registration up.

I have done quite a few projects and just now thought of posting pictures of them. That way I will actually update this blog on a regular basis.

This small clutch is from Teen Sewing 201 called the Zip It Up Bag. 

(Funny thing is the two students were actually adults- but hey it works)

 It's about 3'x7" with a pocket in the front. 

It doesn't take a lot of fabric and you can use the cute fashion zippers they sell at JoAnns.

I did purchase more fabric to make another one so I'll have to post that when I make it.

Hope you like it :)

~JV

P.S. I teach at the Roseville JoAnns if you wanted to take a class. I teach all the sewing classes

And sorry about the phone pictures. Makes it faster to just upload it like that.