Friday Create Along giveaway, on a Wednesday!

Posted on December 7, 2011 by SewTara| 25 Comments

I’ve done some poking around and found some neat patterns to add to my growing list of ‘make this for the create along’ items. Luckily I’ve also dome some asking around and I’ve been told I’m allowed to share a pattern or two with a lucky reader. I’m also going to challenge myself here and switch to a crochet pattern and hope for the best. These are adult slippers, but Two Girls Patterns also have a toddler version . . . sometimes it’s a good thing I have 2 boys.

Sooooo if you would like to win a PDF copy of this pattern leave a comment below. You don’t have to jump through any hoops to win. However, I would love it if you can actually make the slippers for the Create Along and if you could share your creation (email me or post it in the Flickr group).

I’ll keep the comments open until Friday’s Create Along post, which, if I’m honest with myself will probably go up in the late afternoon for me now that Friday is one of my full days at work. I’ll pick one lucky reader and email them a copy of the pattern. Then we can get our crochet on! Good luck everyone.

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One of a Kind Craft show

Posted on December 5, 2011 by SewTara| 3 Comments

Well I had fun, I bought some stuff, I bumped into some great people selling some awesome stuff . . . so basically it was a good day.

I bought a great screen printed wall hanging from Coucousalut, she has a lovely little blog, link to a shop and an Etsy shop of course. She drove all the way from Montreal to spend days and days sitting at her booth.

I grabbed some Pomegranate and Goji tea from Tealish, which is in downtown Toronto should you be in the area. The teas smelled amazing, AMAZING! I wanted to just crawl into the tins for some of them. I resisted and bought one, for now.

I also got some fun Misfit stickers from these lovely ladies. The stickers and felt dolls are ridiculously cute. They all have fun names and real life like quirks that might bother us but these little fellows embrace them.

I didn’t buy anything from Manitoba based Firewood but I thought the products were really great. Since they were screen printing I got talking to the guy manning the booth and found out they use remnants and found fabrics quite often.

I really wanted one of the book covers but I was having a case of the ‘I can make thats’ and just could do it. They even had little pouches made with fun Japanese cotton/linen prints, that they had screen printed on top of!! It took me a few minutes to mourn the hiding of cute prints.

They also have this great thing they’ll do – turn important clothing into bags.

The man at the booth told me they had made a bag for a girl because her dad played hockey and his dad played hockey and his dad played hockey and this one jacket was passed down and down. Then along she came, a girl who didn’t play hockey. So they turned this family heirloom jacket into a really awesome bag for her. Pretty cool!

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Create Along

Posted on December 2, 2011 by SewTara| 3 Comments

Another Thursday night sewing session and a crummy night time photo but I’m finished my headphone pouch. I used the fun little fabric my bff got me for my birthday since I sewed most of it into pouches but I had a big scrap left. This project was ridiculously quick and I can’t wait to stuff my headphones into it and stop them from getting tangled on everything.

I also want to take a moment to share a dumpling pouch from this Create Along that was sent to my by the lovely Jen of Oh So Cute Props. Looks like hers turned out better than mine.

So here’s my next proposal, soft baby blocks. It’s a little selfish because I want to make these for a gift but perhaps you can gift give these as well in the near future.

Now I’m sure the idea behind these is pretty easy, especially if you can do some basic sewing. But a tutorial to guide things along can’t hurt.

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Oh hello December.

Posted on December 1, 2011 by SewTara| Leave a comment

I nearly missed saying hi, things are busy around here!

I’m heading to the One of a Kind Craft Show tomorrow and I can’t wait! I love seeing all the great handmade items and talking to so many creative people. It’s such a blast.

I’m hoping to bump into this lovely lady. I purchased one of her prints when I was selling my own stuff, this print was just soooo beautiful.

I told Laura I wanted to wake up every morning looking at it and I do. I’m starting a wall right next to my bed of handmade art and graphic prints I’ve gotten on Etsy. Just a few things to frame and hang and I can share a pic. She’s got her Etsy shop on vacation right now as she lugs her stock down to the show but in the meantime here are some more of Laura’s amazing prints.

This last one is a detail of a beautiful print she has of a hare sitting in the snow on a starry, starry night. I just think nursery when I see it, it’s so simple and beautiful.

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Stickygram awesomeness.

Posted on November 30, 2011 by SewTara| Leave a comment

Now as if the whole Instagram app wasn’t cool enough. Now along comes Stickygram and you can turn all your fun photos into magnets. If my children are Grandsons to you please go away or you’ll ruin the surprise.

I ordered 2 sets, one for Nana and one for Grandma & Grandpa. I didn’t order one for me, I was really torn about it but I figured they’re my kids, I see them everyday. I regret that choice now. These things are awesome!

Maybe I can do something with the little picture that’s on the ‘hey here are your Stickygrams’ note. Like stick them on the back of some ugly fridge magnet or something.

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Wanna be in my sidebar?

Posted on November 29, 2011 by SewTara| Leave a comment

Where is time going?! It’s just flying by!

That said, I’d like to take once last moment to point out the lovely links I’ve been sharing this month and to also let you know that you can be one of the lovely links shared for December. I love the online community and how we all share the love. Not only have I been highlighting these ladies but the they’ve been great tweeting or re-tweeting things and all the cross promotion has been great.

Click here to see all the fun info.

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Amazing scraps!

Posted on November 28, 2011 by SewTara| 5 Comments

I was really on the ball and packaged up my scrap swap packages quick and even ran off to the post office instead of leaving them in the car for days. Then on the weekend I popped over to my friend Tabatha‘s house where we did a little swap of our own. It was supposed to be my yellow wood grain for her green wood grain but when I got there she couldn’t find it. Instead she let me pick some pieces and then she let me raid her ‘scrap bin’ which I have to say looks way better than my fabric stash! And it’s her scraps!! Pieces she doesn’t even really care about anymore!

Part of me felt bad that I hadn’t gone there before I made my packages for the swap. Then part of me was happy because now I get this cool stuff to play with. Yeah, I’m selfish like that, mostly when it comes to beautiful fabric.

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Posted in scraps, sewing

Create Along Friday

Posted on November 25, 2011 by SewTara| 2 Comments

Wow, so I guess I was busy this week. Friday is now my full day at work, thanks to this whole day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 thing we do in my school board, and I realized as I was drifting off last night that I hadn’t actually written today’s post. Then of course a day of work, a busy evening and last minute craft show prep has kept me from actually posting it. But here is my dumpling pouch a free pattern from my pattern selling friend Keyka Lou. **Her patterns are still just $5 until November 27th**

I love the fun rainbow/froggies in the rain print. For the inside I just reached into my scrap stash and grabbed something.

The pouch opens up ridiculously wide, it would be great for lots of little things like make up, art supplies, or crafting stuffs. The zipper goes in really well once you cut the little notches in it and my dumpling is only a little bit wonky on one side.

Just tilt your head a little and it looks like a really good pouch. Now I have no idea what advice to offer to get this side looking good. Maybe “close your eyes”?

I have absolutely no stinking idea how that happened and I’m stumped on how to fix it. I’ve turned the pouch and tried to resew that seam and every time I turn it back right side out that one corner is all stupid. Soooo oh well I’m just going to have to live with it. However, I will be trying again once I had some spare time! But if you don’t look to hard, or need the pouch to stand up on it’s own it looks great!

For my next trick I’m going to be sewing up one of these handy things. I’m usually fumbling for my headphones in the car to use my phone, or they get all tangled up in my purse or gym bag. I’m hoping this little friend will solve all those problems. Plus it’s got no corners so I can’t really mess it up too much!

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I broke my promise.

Posted on November 24, 2011 by SewTara| 1 Comment


I said to myself I would work through the stash of fabric I have, but then I found some cute stuff online and well, you know how it goes. A few clicks and an order (possibly two) was placed. Yeah, I need help. But behold the pretty colours and prints.

Most of it is Khristian A Howell’s The Woodlands collection. There’s an Etsy search so you can see all the prettiness. I ordered mine from Fabricworm.

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I made some zipper pouches, just a few.

Posted on November 23, 2011 by SewTara| 3 Comments

This was my Saturday, 9 zippered pouches. I used all sorts of random scraps and snuck in a lot of my cute Japanese fabrics. These sold really well at my last craft show, they sold out in fact, so I decided to build a bit of a stock. I’ve been making them since the Create Along on them, plus I love all Keyka Lou’s stuff.

The insides are just as fun.

I tried buttons, nothing and even got adventurous and tried my nemesis The Snap again.

During the last Sew Mama Sew giveaway day I managed to win some charm packs, all solid colours, and I’ve been using those for bits and pieces on these pouches. If you do a bit of an assembly line and go nuts cutting one day you can sit and sew a whole pile of them in one day. Probably something like 9 of them.

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Posted in scraps, sewing