New Beginnings

2013 is upon us, and I have to say I'm happy to see it!

www.goodfon.com

This past year has had its ups and downs and has ended with some challenges...so I'm looking forward to the idea of a fresh start!  I'm counting on less stress, more focus, lots of laughter and new beginnings in the New Year!

When I drafted my first post a few weeks ago, I had no intention of doing anything with this blog until 2013 officially started.  It is, after all, meant to chronicle my ambitions for the New Year.  But I found that simply listing my goals in a public setting jump-started my motivation.  I've never been more excited to finish those old projects and start new ones!

I haven't had a chance to work on my pleated skirt since I've been getting ready for our New Year's celebrations.  Still, going into 2013 I've already marked one item off of my forget-me-not list, made several Christmas gifts, and am half-way through a second UFO.  Not too shabby!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Progress Report

I’m currently working on UFO #2: the black faux-leather pleated mini-skirt.

http://www.bergdorfgoodman.com/

I purchased the leather-look fabric for this project in the clearance aisle.  I believe it’s actually vinyl and is intended for use in home decorating rather than self-decorating, but I’m taking a page from Tim Gunn’s handbook and I'm going to “make it work.”  If it turns out to be a success, I'll find a better quality fabric and make a few more.  We'll consider this my trial run.

I’m trying a new pleating method with this skirt.  Typically, I like to “wing it” with my pleats.  I’ll mark center front and sometimes quarter-marks on the fabric and fold the excess material in-between.  While this actually works very well, I wanted to have perfectly uniform pleats this time. 

Following the instruction of The Sewing Bible: A Modern Manual of Practical and Decorative Sewing Techniques, I took the time to mark 1.25” guide lines on the back of the fabric.

The pleats are turning out beautifully, although this method uses much more fabric than I had anticipated.  I am going to have to cut the bottom half of the fabric off to use for more width…which means that I will certainly have a very mini skirt when I’m done. 

Time to locate my self confidence…I think I tucked it away when I started eating Holiday-worthy portions of carbs! 

Infinity Scarf Tutorial

Infinity scarves are my newest fashion fixation.  They are so versatile and effortless – no knot-tying skills required, thank goodness.

For Christmas this year, I made scarves for several of my girlfriends.  They were so easy to make that I thought they would be perfect for my first tutorial.

http://www.gossip-girl-episodes.com/news

There are countless tutorials for infinity scarves available on the web, but I’m going to go ahead and post one of my own.  I found that when I was searching for instructions, not many of them had exact measurements, which made it difficult for me to know how much fabric I needed to buy. 

Keep in mind that you can make an infinity scarf out of practically any length or width of material that you have, but for the sake of clarity, I’m giving the exact measurements that I used.

Materials Needed:

Fabric (63” x 19”)

Matching Thread

Hand-sewing Needle

Pins

Sewing Machine

Instructions:

Cut a rectangle that is 63 inches long and 19 inches wide.  Since my fabric was 36 inches wide, I simply cut it in half length-wise.

Match up the raw edges on the long side of your fabric and pin in place, right sides together. 

Make one long seam here.  I used a zig-zag stitch because my fabric had some stretch to it.  If your fabric is not stretchy, just use a straight stitch. 

You’ll end up with one long tube of fabric.

Turn the tube right-side-out and match up the two ends of your scarf - line up the seams and pin right sides together.



Arrows indicate seams being matched



Keep pinning the two ends of your scarf together, going in a circle until you can’t pin anymore.  You won’t be able to go all the way around, so don’t worry when you come to a stopping point.

Sew this pinned seam.  I just used a straight stitch here. 

After you’ve sewn as far as you can, you’re left with a small opening of a few inches. 

Fold under the raw ends of your fabric and pin in place.

Slip-stitch the opening closed.

 Voila!  Your stylish infinity scarf is complete!

Over the Holiday break I also started working on my second UFO, so be on the lookout for that post in the next couple of days!

Busy Little Elf

I've been toiling away in my workshop these past few days making Christmas gifts for my friends.  I can't disclose what I'm working on just yet, but I will say that once I'm done I'll be posting my very first DIY tutorial!

Putting the "cork" in Thimble&Cork

Another first: My Etsy shop is live!  I've wanted to open an Etsy shop for a long time now.  I adore the Etsy community and always find the BEST gifts/ideas there.  After having so much fun making the Country Bunnies for my nieces, I decided that they should be my first listing.  I'll be posting more items very soon, so be on the lookout!

Handmade Christmas

I have always preferred handmade gifts to purchased ones, no matter the occasion.

When I was a child, my mother made a stuffed rabbit for me. She was crafted out of old blue jeans from our family and some remnants of brown velvet upholstery fabric.

Although she wasn't made out of fine, expensive fabric, she was my most prized possession.  Mom put so much love and care into making that doll; she wanted it to turn out perfect for her little girl...and it did! 

I now have two adorable nieces and they are quite taken by my old friend. I decided that I would make them bunnies of their own for Christmas.  I got a pair of blue jeans from my brother and sister-in-law to use for the bodies and found similar upholstery fabric. 

As is true most of the time, my imitation of my mother’s masterpiece is not exact.  "It just ain't like Momma made it," as they say.  But I'm sure my nieces won't mind.

I hope the girls will treasure their bunnies and maybe even one day make some for their own daughters or nieces.   

 

I have a few more Christmas gifts to mark off of my to-do list, and then it's back to the Forget-Me-Nots!

Bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Thimble & Cork is now a part of the wonderful world of Bloglovin!

Why Wait for 2013?

I did it!  I must say that I never expected to mark an item off of my list so soon, but I finished a forget-me-not!

Granted, it was the 10-minute skirt but hey, I’ve got to start somewhere right?  Here is the final product on Elie, my dress form…named after one of my favorite designers, Elie Saab of course. 

The idea for making this skirt came about because my friends often tell me that they want to sew a garment and ask for my help.  When I saw a link to this tutorial on Pinterest, I knew it would be the perfect project for us.  This skirt is quick and easy.  No real measuring or sewing experience is needed, so it really is the perfect project for beginners. 

I ordered the fabric from Mood, which is one of my favorite fabric stores.  This particular skirt is made from a Lipstick/Metallic Red Plaid Boucle:

www.moodfabrics.com

I also made one of these skirts out of red and beige wool, and honestly, it’s my favorite of the two.  

www.moodfabrics.com

I’m pretty happy with how the skirt turned out and I’m thrilled that it’s done in time for the Holidays.  One project down, seven to go…

Making a List, Checking it Twice

I have many (often conflicting) sides to my personality, but one thing remains constant: I am a list person.  I probably write about 1-3 lists per day for various things.  Should I ever find myself in the grocery store without a list, organized by each items location in the store, I’m paralyzed with fear.  It is not a pretty sight.  So…to start out the New Year in an organized fashion, I’ve compiled one of my beloved lists.  This one is an accounting of all my unfinished projects that I absolutely WILL complete next year.  I’ll also put these in a separate page for updating as I finish each one.

So far I have 8 forget-me-nots as I’ve come to call them, but I haven’t exactly scoured my sewing room so I wouldn't be surprised if this list grows a bit.  For each of these items, I have purchased the fabric, the pattern, all notions required, and have already started sewing some of them!  But in my room they sit, all alone, forgotten and abandoned.  No more!

So here it is, in no particular order, my list of failures previously-started-projects, and a picture of how I imagine they’ll look once completed.

1.       White, long-sleeved mini dress - I bought the fabric for this one probably 2 years ago now, so this is my oldest UFO.

http://capecodcollegiate.tumblr.com

2.       Black faux-leather pleated mini-skirt - Flirty black leather skirts are my current obsession, so this might be one of the first to make its appearance!

www.chicwish.com



www.patternity.co.uk



3.       Purple wool crepe dress - I started this dress for a class that I took with couture dressmaker Susan Khalje.  I made a muslin and had two separate fitting sessions with Susan to get the fit just perfect.  Now I need to use that muslin to make the actual dress.

www.fantasyshopper.com

4.       Pencil Skirt – Mint green wool

www.jcrew.com

5.       Pencil Skirt – Black & White Plaid...because one can never have too many pencil skirts, right?



www.etsy.com/shop/paisleyfacevintage



6.       Grey & black jacket - Honestly, this is the one that I’m most terrified of.  Skirts and dresses are my forte.  Jackets are definitely out of my comfort zone, and this one has a few techniques that I’ve never used before.  It will be a challenge, but I know I will learn a lot, so I’m (timidly) looking forward to it.

www.patternreview.com

7.       Red skirt - This one will take all of 10 minutes to complete.  It’s a simple elastic banded skirt with one seam and a hem.  I just haven’t taken those 10 minutes to actually do it yet!

www.handmademess.com

8.       Green wrap dress - This is my second oldest forget-me-not.  I ordered the fabric from Mood Fabrics online and absolutely adore the color.

www.polyvore.com

Now that I’ve written it all down, I can’t wait to start!  The Holiday season is always chaotic, but I might at least find time to make that red skirt…it IS perfect for Christmas after all

Welcome

Welcome to Thimble & Cork!  I created this blog for the sole purpose of finally completing all of my unfinished sewing projects.  Seriously!  I have a ton!  I am a world-class quitter when it comes to sewing.  I really have no idea why that is, unless maybe I’m afraid it won’t turn out exactly as I’d hoped, so I put it off until another project comes along and the first one gets tucked away in my sewing room, never to be looked at again.  It really is a problem…just to think of all the money spent on fabric and patterns that have been half-used…it’s ridiculous.  I am hoping that by documenting all of my projects and the progress that I’ve made on them, I’ll have more motivation to actually finish them. 

I am a mostly self-taught sewing enthusiast.  Like most home sewers, I learned the basics from my mother as a child, lost interest for a while, and came back to my love of creating as an adult.  Once my life settled down after college and marrying my wonderful husband, I realized that I desperately needed some creativity in my life.  My analytical-spreadsheet-full-of-numbers job just wasn’t cutting it.  So I started sewing again, and I’ve been starting and not finishing projects ever-since.  Hah!  Ok, maybe it’s not quite that bad.  I do finish a lot of projects, but I have far too many UFO’s!

My plan for this blog is to work my way through a list of goals that I have set for myself in this new year – 13 goals for 2013.  Obviously the first has to do with the aforementioned forget-me-nots in my sewing room closet.  Here’s the complete list of resolutions, which I will also be updating on the next tab throughout the year.  I’d love to hear all about your goals for New Year too, sewing related or not, so please share!  Here’s to 2013 readers!

My Sewing Goals:

1.       Finish all UFO's currently taking up space in my sewing room (as in unfinished objects, not the extraterrestrial kind!)

2.       Complete at least two garments per month – this will be a challenge!

3.       Learn/use/improve at least one new technique per month.

4.       Tackle the things that terrify me: pants, shorts, jacket...

5.       Use more of the patterns that I have in my stash.

6.       Organize my sewing room.

7.       Finally make something out of that beautiful beaded lace that I bought long ago.

8.       Focus on building a wearable wardrobe for both work and play. 

9.       Work through the Craftsy courses that I purchased and haven't had the time to look at.

10.   Take the time to improve my finishings.

11.   Be more mindful of the cost of my projects and find less expensive alternatives.

12.   Document and blog about all of my projects - even the failures!

13.   Develop my business idea!!!

I think I can, I think I can!