Custom Yoga Bag and Giveaway Winner

The (late) winner of November's pattern giveaway is Amaratha, aka Megan from The Quirky Kiwi. Email me with your mailing address at mollysewsblog@gmail [dot] com.


I made this yoga bag quite a while ago, perhaps during the summer before I went back to work?

 I spent a long time on it- probably too much time, to be honest. I measured my thick yoga mat and made a rectangle. The base is a circle and I math-ed it out so it fit perfectly. I added the big pocket for a water bottle; the neck has elastic so the bottle doesn't fly out.

 The bottom of that pocket is a semi-circle, which prevents it from sagging too much.

 It closes at the top with a drawstring tie. The drawstring flap should have been more shallow, so it balloons up at the top a little too much. The shoulder strap is a really nice 2 inch wide braided trim. The fabric and trim are all from Jo-Ann's, since this was a spontaneous project. I had been using a fabric shopping bag for all of my yoga stuff.

Near the top of the bag, I made three pockets. One is for cash or my credit card. One fits my keys. The other can hold a lip balm and kleenex. That's basically all I need for yoga!

I spent an absurdly long time matching the print to make them invisible. I used the plastic baby snaps to close them, which is kind of a pain to use. The pockets are annoying to use because they are a bit too small for each item because I didn't account for enough ease. That makes them poof out when in use.

~~~

So the yoga bag worked reasonably well, and then I went back to work in September and haven't gone to yoga since. I do work on my feet all day as a special education co-teacher, which helped me finally drop back to my pre-baby weight! I do need to work on toning my sad and stretched out stomach muscles though!

Sweet baby Max is now ten months old (maybe 8 or 9 in this picture) and I hope that for 2016 I can sew one project a month. I miss sewing, but it is so hard to sew when I am so tired. I need mental energy to sew, otherwise everything is backwards or wrong ad I spend more time with the seam ripper than actually making things!

Here's hoping that 2016 has more sewing in my future!

Winners for March and April Giveaways!

The winner for March's small child patterns is...
Debbie!

The winner for April's large child patterns is...
Kristy!

Ladies, email me at mollysewsblog/gmail with your mailing addresses!

Winners and two NEW giveaways!

The winner for January's patterns is: Sharon!

The winner for February's patterns is: Nina!

Please email me your mailing addresses to mollysewsblog/gmail/etc/etc/ and I will try to mail them this week! Yay!

Ok, on to the belated March and April giveaways. These are all vintage children's patterns, which are not everyone's cup of tea, but if you have kids or know a tiny kid you want to sew for...then these are for you!

March is for the small child and/or doll for a child:

 You have eight patterns ranging from doll size to size 4. Simplicity 4560 size 4 skirt and jacket, DuBarry 5924 size 4 skirt and jacket, Simplicity 4114 size 4 overalls and jacket, and Simplicity 9584 clown-baby jumpsuit dealie.

 Simplicity 1809 for a 22" doll layette, a different Simplicity 1809 for a 8" doll, Hollywood 1511 for sz 1 year jumper/bolero/blouse, Simplicity 6208 for 60s style Barbie doll clothes.

 If those look appealing, leave a comment about March's giveaway.

On to April, which is seven patterns for larger children.

 Simplicity 5524 for a girl size 12, Simplicity 8127 for girl medium pajamas, Simplicity 8292 for boy's size 14 robes.

 Simplicity 5732 girl's size 8, Simplicity 5417 girl's size 8, Simplicity 3212 girl's size 10, Butterick 8255 for a girl's 10/bust 28.

If any of those look appealing, leave a comment about April's giveaway.

I will ship anywhere. Leave a comment to enter by Thursday, June 5th!

August Giveaway Winner~!

August's giveaway winner is Renee! Renee, please email me your mailing address at mollysewsblog {at] gmail{.}com!

Andrew and I spent a lot of time in Paris walking around and we would stop and read the ads for apartments for sale. This one was the best:

Marne, 1 hour and 10 minutes from Paris
In the heart of a 2 hectare wooded park
600 m2 on three floors
Versailles parquet(floors)
Moldings, woodwork
Pool, pool house
Winter garden (glass greenhouse), pond
16th century vaulted cellar

Guys, it's only about one million euros! How about an early Xmas present? :)

November Giveaway Winners!

Andrew and I went to my friend's wedding and it was super fun. 

 No, that is not the dress I was making...more on that later this week.

Luke and Andrew are beginning to brew beer. I bought them a kit as a joint b-day present (3 days apart).

 Luke and I had a Molly & Luke Thanksgiving II. It was delicious.

 We did not dress up. I am experiencing zit face remorse for passing out after the wedding without washing my face. So stupid. I now have six giant zits.

 And the winners:

Heather won the fabric!

Jeannine won the patterns!

Ladies email me your addresses at mollysewsblog[at]gmail (dot) com

May pattern winner and some loot

I bought one patterns, a box of machine feet and three pieces of vintage fabric at an estate sale a few weeks ago and the left it in the trunk of the car forever. 

 On Saturday, we stopped at a sale on the way to the grocery store and I got this salt and pepper shaker set ($6)

 and this awesome lamp ($4). She called it a "hobnail" lamp. It is blue glass and has a marble base. It needs a good cleaning and to be rewired and a new shade, but I think it has potential. The estate sale itself was rather creepy. This person collected baby clothes and dolls, mountains of clothes and scary old dolls and doll parts.

 The winner of the May pattern giveaway is Dee Coyle Anderson! Dee, send me your mailing address at mollysewsblog/gmail/com.

April Giveaway Winner

Well, the winner for the April patterns is Rainpatter!

Email me your mailing address at mollysewsblog{at}gmail{dot]com.

March Pattern Winner!

And the winner of the four patterns is... 

Debi, of My Happy Sewing Place!

Debi, email me with your address and I will send these off to you in the next few days! mollysewsblog [at] gmail (dot) com

Pattern winner!

Andrew and I went to this estate sale because it was only a few streets away. Mostly all overpriced junk, but this treadle sewing machine was very pretty and the table was as well. They wanted something like 160 for it and it was missing the belt. So I took a picture for free!

 The winner of the patterns is Beata! Yay, email me your address at mollysewsblog -at- gmail [dot] com.

I have way too many patterns so I will do another giveaway in a week or two for March. I have more sizes too, maybe some 36 or 38 ones?

Vogue 1161- A pretty awesome pattern!

Pattern: 

My fabric: cotton from the estate sale a few weeks ago. It has blue, yellow and burgundy flowers and stuff in patterns. (You can click on the picture to blow it up)

 Time: I have been trying to enjoy sewing as much as possible this week, since I start the restaurant training on Monday. This is not very complicated and I only had to look at the directions for turning the bodice lining, which is pretty impressive for a Vogue pattern. Maybe 3-4 hours.

 I thought to include my scary-spice pose, as it is funny and shows off what I am calling the "under-butt ruffle"

 I made this out of 1 1/4 yards fabric and 3/4 or a yard lining.

 The back has this cool knot detail, which is really pretty!

Notions: just a zipper. This is also my Molly's Ew. I dug through my drawer of zippers and found a baby blue metal one that worked. I sew in half of it by hand. I zip it up to pin the other side to match and the zipper goes flying off the end! AHHH! Please, do not be as stupid as I am. It was a zipper that closes on both ends, so I just hacked off that little stopper and did not see the consequences!!! Fortunately, Andrew somehow fixed it and saved me gallons of agony.

Cost: fabric, 1; zipper .25; lining 2.75. I love sewing! Awesome dress for 4 bucks? Awwww yeah!

So, I love this dress. I cut a 6, and while it is snug, I don't feel like a sausage. I am going to make it again soon    using the red silk Andrew brought me back from China. Wouldn't that be hot? When I make it again I am going to elongate the skirt piece to get more under-butt ruffle and take a dart out of the center neckline bodice pattern piece so that the neckline doesn't gape so much. I think all of you should buy this pattern (on sale for 2.99) and make it. It is easy and beautiful!

Go!

Winners!

I random number generated some winners, and none of them wanted the same patterns, so that was super easy!

The first winner is Marie, with the blog A Sewing Odyssey! She wanted Simplicity 8955 and the McCalls in the same picture.

The second winner is Riange, of RiAnge Creations. She wanted Simplicity 3989 and 4252.

The third winner is Katherine, of Something in the Way She Sews. She wanted the 34 B Butterick and Vogue.

Great! Winners, if you could email me your mailing address to mollysewsblog (at) gmail (dot) com. By Saturday morning would be wonderful, since then I could mail them on Saturday!

Weekend goals and giveaway dress pics!

Look! Cheryl (my giveaway winner) got her dress and it fits and she likes it- how cool is that?

You can read her post on it here: beep!

I have been staining a picture frame that I bought at a garage sale last spring. It is on its first coat of clear varnish, so i hope I can finish it up this weekend and get some good pictures. It's a really awesome, seemingly hand-carved frame that's maybe 2 1/2 by 3 feet.

My blue striped dress is nearly finished. If I can find anything not-horrifically bad on tv tonight I will finish the hand sewing- sleeve and neck facings and the hem. It is definitely falling into muslin category. Since I screwed up and didn't cut the skirt front on the fold, the waist is extremely tight. I feel like a snausage. But I am learning about what to adjust for the final version, which I picture in a nice eggplant purple fabric with a lining. And I never do linings!

I also want to do the hand sewing on my cape. It still needs the armhole and neck facings sewn down and the bottom hemmed. This sounds like a weekend of hand sewing, which I dislike. Boo.

On a happier note, my frame is awesome and maybe I'll go to some garage sales. Plus, the students have exams this coming week, so all I need for Monday and Tuesday are typed up lesson plans. That is so much more free time!!

School happiness:

Not only will I have my own classroom next year and not move from room to room with my stinkin cart, I will only be teaching 6th grade!! Yay!!!! Or as my boyfriend puts it, half as much work for the same amount of money. Lol. Next year will be infinitely better! (9 more school days!!)

Well, that's my life for the last week. Hope yours is good too!

Curls!

I felt super lazy this morning with my hair, and didn't feel like making the ends tuck under after blowing the top dry. So, I pulled it up in a French twist, which is amazingly easy now that my hair is so much shorter. After a whole day of school and French Club after school (I am the only sponsor :( because no one else speaks French) my pins were de-braining me. Well, that's what it felt like! But, look- when I took them out I got half-curls!!

I wish I had gotten a picture of the back, but the camera was dying and trying to turn itself off. My hair is very unwilling to curl, so I was excited.

In case you can't tell, I haven't been sewing much. I have merely been lounging around enjoying the 80 degree evenings before it heats up more and the AC goes on until September.

I hope everyone is having a a good week!

P.S. I did not make this dress. I bought it for 20 bucks at Target in XS without even trying it on, and shockingly, it fits pretty well. Other than making my hair look ginger, it's a nice hot weather dress.

P.P.S. I didn't wear it to school! Not appropriate!

P.P.P.S. My winner of the Little House on the Prairie Dress is Cheryl! She is a history teacher as well and likes to sew, so I chose her! Hopefully, she will send us a picture of the dress being enjoyed! Go visit her blog: http://coldwarunicorn.wordpress.com/

Winner!

I used a random number generator and even had Andrew click the button! Totally fair and unbiased, lol.

The winner is.... Rachel!

You can visit her blog here - it looks like the dress will be heading to Australia!

Rachel, you can email me at mollysewsblog (at) gmail (dot) com and give me your address!