So where did we leave off?  Sketches were drawn (and approved), fabric, paint, and pattern have been purchased.

I figured out how to modify the pattern to accommodate the different colors of fabric.  Each panel of the main body of the pattern was now divided into two.  The sleeves were also resized and divided accordingly.  One important thing I learned from cutting out the panels was that this fabric was unlike any other fabric I had worked with before.  You see, polyester costume satin likes to shred around the edges when cut.  Now if I was smarter I would have used a pair of pinking shears.  But I did not.  And eventually I was able to get the frays under control by going around every single edge of each cut piece of fabric with clear nail polish.  This of course resulted in me being up until 4am, but I at least I didn’t have to worry about those damn threads anymore!  I also realize now that I have a choice of three different overlock stitches on my awesome sewing machine.  Using one of those would have saved me a lot of time and a lot less fumes.

The panels were then sent into school to the art teacher.  We decided that to avoid mess or accidents, that she would tape down each panel to a table and trace the hands of the elementary students with either a chalk or lead pencil.  I would then go over the drawings with the glittery fabric paint.  When the panels came back to me, there were some that were not completed, and a few that weren’t done at all.  So I made a template of my son’s hands and also traced mine where the spaces needed to be filled in.

Once the drawing and painting for each panel was completed, I then laid them all out to make sure that everything looked all right and then got to sewing.  I should add on a side note that while I was working on this we were in the process of having one of our upstairs bathrooms remodeled.  Each morning the guys would arrive and marvel at the progress I had made the day before.  I was just praying that the ceiling wasn’t going to collapse over my head or that another flood would not occur above me and ruin all of my hard work!

Sewing all the panels together was pretty easy – the pattern itself was fairly simple to begin with.  The devil was really in the details.  As I already mentioned, the fabric itself was difficult to work with.  Fray checking all of the edges was not fun, especially with all the seams in the sleeves.  Finishing the coat also was a little complicated, as I did a bound seam of the gold fabric around the entire bottom, front, and neck seams.  This wasn’t part of the original pattern, and it was so small that the audience probably didn’t even notice it, but it gave a nice polished finish to the garment.  The front was finished off with a nice golden frog closure which allowed for a quick costume change on stage.

My husband was also a wonderful sport, as he also served as my model when I needed the piece tried on so I could see how it looked on a person.  Lucky for me he was also the same height as our Joseph, so that helped when I got to work on the final hem.

At times it felt like I was working on my own personal Project Runway challenge: “Designers.  You have 24 hours to make a Technicolor Dreamcoat and a small budget for this project.  Make it work!”   If I could change one small detail about the coat, I would have made the stripes on the sleeve shorter, but that is minor.  Otherwise, I love how it turned out (as did the school).  I was shocked to see that I received a standing ovation for the coat when they acknowledged me during the performance, and that my thank you took up the better part of the back page of the program.  I was excited to see it on stage, and I think I got more emotional (and was more excited) at seeing the coat on stage than I was for my son’s class performance during the show.

The success of this coat then led the director of a local teen community musical theater program to call a few days later and ask me for a huge favor…

In 2008 my son’s day school did a winter show about the story of Genesis.  They asked for parent volunteers to make or secure costumes for each grade – how could I say no?  His class would be singing a song about the ocean.  So I made simple blue felt vests for each student in the class with a wave on the front that had a sparkly white cap.  The wave on the front row vests went in one direction, the second row’s the other, and the kids swayed back and forth.  Adorable.  Well one of my friends warned me: “Never let anyone know what you are really good at because they will ask you to do something else.”  And sure ‘nuf – the next year the school came a calling.  Only this time the request was a little bit bigger – for 2009 they were going to a modified version of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” – could I make the dreamcoat?

It took me a while to figure out exactly how to tackle this.  I scoured the web for ideas and/or patterns.  Did I want to go for the whirling dervish type coat or just a choir robe looking thing?  Scouring the internets found me a lot of images from various productions of the show, but no patterns.  When I finally did find a dreamcoat I liked, it had been custom made, but for a nice price they would sell me the pattern.  Umm…no thanks.  At one point I was even considering making a modified version of Neo’s duster from the Matrix:

One thing I did know was that I wanted the final dreamcoat to be a showpiece for the school.  A piece of wearable art that they could display in the school after the performance.  And wouldn’t it be neat if I could get all the kids involved as well?  That’s not too ambitious at all!  So with coordination between the director of the show and the school art teacher – off I went.

I ended up using Simplicity pattern 5840 (the blue one in the upper left corner) as my basic template.

In order to involve the elementary school kids, I thought it would be neat for them to literally have their hands on it.  Back when I was a summer camp counselor, one of the biggest hit craft projects we did each summer was to have each kid in the bunk bring in a t-shirt.  We then painted their hands, put their hand print on a shirt, write their name underneath it, and repeat the same process with each kid on each shirt.  When we were done, every member of the bunk had a personalized souvenir of all their friends for the summer.  The question with the dreamcoat however, is how to get the hand prints on the coat without making a huge mess of the fabric?

Once the broad details were decided, the rest was a lot easier. (or so I thought).  First up was sketching out my idea:

Then it was off to the fabric store to buy the necessary yardage.  All I knew was that I wanted shiny.  SHINY!  It also had to have a “golden lining” as the story goes.  Luckily, it was close enough to Halloween that all sorts of polyester costume satin was available.

I was able to find plenty of “golden lining” and I went with a satin that had glitter to add that extra sparkle.  The only problem with that later being that almost everything (myself included) ended up being covered with gold sparkles by the end!

I also bought a host of glittery fabric paint for the hand prints and tested those out to make sure that the colors would contrast nicely:

Next though came the hard part – construction!

Look at me – updating the blog again – twice in two days!  I’ve got a lot to catch up on (funny how I’m great on taking photos, but never manage to post them), so here we go!

So every now and then I do a project that I like to call a “quick craft” – something that I decide I have to do, figure it out, and then just do it.  Oftentimes I’m inspired by something else I saw online and decided “I need to have that, but I’m not going to pay someone else to make it for me when I can figure it out myself.”  Other times it is just something that popped into my head.

My inaugural quick craft is a set of pictures frames.  Tradition was in our house that on the kiddo’s birthday, I decorated a blank wall in our dining room with a string of twinkle lights and hung up pictures taken on each of his birthdays.  I eventually decided that I would love to have this hanging up year round, so I set about making a frame for each birthday.

Supply list:

• As many wooden pictures frames you need.  I used an inexpensive set of Nyttja frames from Ikea.
• A pencil
• Scissors
• A permanent marker
• Tape
• A printout of numbers (names written out) in your favorite font
• Pictures of your favorite kiddo!

First up – take your list of numbers, and cut each one out.  (The hardest part of this project for me was finding just the perfect font.)

Figure out where you want the number to appear on the frame, then tape the cut-out number on one side only to hold it in place.

Flip the paper open (the tape should still hold it in place) and rub the back of the paper with your pencil making sure to cover the entire word.

Flip the paper back over, then write over the word with the pencil.  Make sure to push down firmly so that the graphite transfers to the frame, but not too hard that you end up with indentations in the wood.

Remove the paper, and then trace over the newly transferred text with your permanent marker.

Make sure the ink is dry before flipping the frame over and inserting your favorite photo!

Find a favorite spot – and hang them up!  The nice thing about this project is that you can have the text say whatever you like.  I wasn’t quite paying attention when I did these, so you can see that while I put the numbers all in the same place, I didn’t take into consideration the orientation of the photo.

Full disclosure – I did buy enough to go from start – 18.  I am too superstitious to make them all that far in advance, so each year after the official birthday candid has been chosen, I make the next one and add it to the wall.

They are hanging upstairs in the hall (sans twinkle lights), and I love seeing these every time I come upstairs at the end of a long day.

The new year brings lots of new ideas, and of course that also means resolutions. Mine will be to update this darn blog more often. Do I care if no one but me and a few friends read this? Does anyone read this? Don’t know, don’t care. I just like to share what I do, and hopefully inspire someone they way I have been inspired by others.

This evening was mostly frittered away flipping through other quilting and sewing blogs and marking all the projects that I would love to do, and who I would give them away too. Many of my friends say that I should finally start selling shtuff in that Etsy store I set up ages ago, but has always remained empty. I thought about that as well as I flipped through and booked marked all these awesome ideas.

But I have a problem.

My problem is that I am too damn creative. I know that this sounds like bragging, but I don’t mean it to be. The problem is that I have so many awesome ideas or things that I want to do, and I just don’t have the time to turn them all into reality. I work full time at an amazing job that I love. My husband and I also volunteer our time working with a youth group, and in the winter months my time is also spent volunteering to do costuming for a local teen community musical theater group. Oh and we have a pretty awesome 9 yr old as well. None of this is anything to wish I didn’t have, but if I could have more hours in the week when I was wide awake to dedicate to my sewing machine, well that would be awesome.

So it is now January 6th, and I figured I’m not really going to start anything new & big until mid-February. The six weeks ahead of me include: show costumes, a week-long work trip, a day lost to a court appearance, a birthday party to plan and execute for the kiddo, birthday parties for the kiddo to attend, car repairs, speaking engagements, an article to finish polishing and send off, and a monster of a baby quilt I hope to finish this weekend. Projects that I am planning on doing this year include: a gift for a new cousin born a few weeks ago, and quilts for my three nieces that should be done in time for Thanksgiving. There are some other special people I’d like to make a quilt for by then as well if at all possible. Part of my biggest problems with these five quilts is that I still need to design them and figure out exactly what I would be making.

One day when I was working away at my trusty Kenmore, my son asked: “Mommy? Why do you like sewing all the time?” I asked him “Why do you play video games all the time?”. “Because it’s fun and makes me happy.” “Exactly!”

Being creative and making things crafty or quilty makes me happy. I use the time to go over things in my head, work out problems, focus, etc. Some people do this while gardening, running, or doing yoga, for me it’s when I’m being crafty/quilty. I like that I can make things that make people happy, and that in turn makes me happy. I guess I really need to appreciate the irony that I should be sitting at the sewing machine trying to figure everything out and to not let the stress overwhelm me. It’s always better to be overwhelmed with good problems rather than bad ones I say.

So tonight I write, tomorrow I sew, and everything will start to sort itself out.

I have been talking about making my in-laws a quilt for some time now.  Last fall, my father-in-law and his fiancée (now wife) bought a new place together, so I thought – what a perfect housewarming gift!  The only problem was – what the hell kind of quilt do I make them????

Lucky for me, as I was flipping through a quilting catalog, I came across the “Fig & Plum” quilt kit from Moda.  It didn’t look that hard or complicated, and the colors perfectly matched their new home, so I went ahead and ordered it.

I admit – I was quite excited.  I’d been wanting to make my father-in-law a quilt for some time and didn’t know what to do.  Since I prefer a more contemporary style quilt, this was a more traditional pattern than I was used to, but that was cool.  It was also my first quilt using charm squares – so less cutting for me! I couldn’t have been more wrong.  Silly Fred – there are triangles to be had here!

And of course since I’m so anal retentive, I didn’t want to have the same fabric repeating too closely to itself, so I had to lay all the pieces out and move them around until I was satisfied with the final look.  I had quite the intricate numbering system in order to keep all the triangles and rows in order as I took them off the wall to sew and assemble them.

Once I got the hang of sewing all the triangles into squares and then squares into diagonal strips (chain piecing is your friend!) it motored along pretty quickly.  Aside from the batting, the big thing that does not come with the quilt kit is the backing fabric.  I found some really nice light yellow plaid cotton from a Winnie the Pooh collection in the discount bin at Jo-Ann Fabrics which I thought complimented the color pallette.

Then the big question was – how to do the quilting?  I decided on a simple straight line pattern for the main body of the quilt (like an argyle), but thought it would be pretty to do a string of ivy or something floral for the border.  I really REALLY wanted to try my hand (machine) at free motion quilting.  Try as  I might I could not get the pattern down or transferred correctly it so that it was even and fit the corners.  So instead I stuck to straight lines thanks to my good friend Mr. Masking Tape.

The kit did come with yardage for binding, so I made that and whipped it right on.  The finished quilt was a huge hit with the happy couple and fits perfectly in with their decor.  So where does this leave me?  Well I learned that a quilt kit can be a good thing.  Charm squares are easy to work with.  This pattern is actually serving as my inspiration as a contemporary argyle quilt that I started sketching out this past weekend.

So…for quite a few months I’ve been working away on multiple projects.  Accomplished quite a few actually.  Always intending to blog about them (because you know – I have such a rabid fan base following me – ha!) but never got around to it.  Then my webmaster/husband thoughtfully asked one day “Hey – are you ever going to update this thing or should I let the domain name expire?”  and I thought – tis the time to get caught up.  Now I say that now fully realizing that in a few months I may let this thing go again, but the least thing I can do is try to catch up.  So lots to look forward to: Costumes! Quilts! Crafty things!  In my head I plan on updating this sucker weekly in order to catch up.  So – keep watching this space!

Let’s put this right out there – I like monkeys.  Especially the soft fluffy kind.  What’s not to love?  They are funny, goofy, and very easy to make.  I also like to help people out.  Everyone needs a special sock monkey in their life, so why not combine the two?  So I started a program I call “mitzvah monkeys.”  A mitzvah is a good deed.  A kind action.  Something that you do to help others.

So I started with the youth group that I volunteer with.  Kids that were in 9-12th grade.  Had everyone bring a pair of socks and I taught them how to make sock monkeys in 16 simple steps!  We also collected new toothbrushes, travel size toothpaste, and floss and made tooth fairy pillows.  The kids had a blast and we donated everything to a local shelter for women and children. (I’m also proud to say that we won a special award for best social action project of the year!)

Then my husband asked if I could teach his college students how to make them.  At the time he worked for Hillel – the on campus ministry for Jewish students at a local university.  They were having a mitzvah day and looking for various projects to do throughout the day, so off I went with my socks and sewing supplies.  Now I had a group of macho fraternity boys who thought they were too cool to sew.  By the end of the afternoon, I had all the guys sitting on the couch, watching NCAA basketball, sewing monkeys, and most of the guys didn’t want to give them away!

Thus the mitzvah monkey program was born.  I have made monkeys everywhere from the New Jersey Turnpike, on board the Eurorail in Germany, and on planes back when you were allowed to bring a needle and scissors on board.  I would make monkeys on occasion for friends or upon request, but truth be told, I let them lapse.  Then my husband had a great idea…

The aforementioned youth organization does a week long camp at the end of the summer to provide not only fun but also learning and leadership training.  They always include a social action project and I was asked to teach the kids how to make mitzvah monkeys.  For some reason I thought that I would be working with a group of about 20 kids – whoever signed up for the activity.  But nope – I was to teach 198 sixth – twelfth graders!  Divided into two large groups, with just a couple hours each.  Challenging nonetheless.  The kids were told ahead of time to bring a fun pair of socks.  Those who didn’t bring socks paired up with a friend and each kid took on one sock of the two sock project.  Of course they ran out of time to finish their monkeys (although I did have a few of the younger kids – boys & girls – who insisted on spending the end of camp pool party sewing their monkeys).  So we packed all the monkey bodies, parts, stuffing, and supplies into the car and brought them home.
Once we got them sorted out (pairing up extra socks with bodies, etc) we ended up with 89 definite monkeys.  There is also a box full of “orphans” socks that have no obvious match, so those will be resorted and paired up together.  And now I have taken on the job of completing all the monkeys.  As each monkey is completed, I shall post them here.  Although I do need to catch up and post on some previous projects.

Most of the monkey bodies were in good shape.  Some needed reinforcements, so I did their seams on the sewing machine.  Any arms, legs, tails, and ears that were not yet created were also on the machine.  Both for speed and accuracy, however everything has been hand-stitched on to the body (no other way to do that really).  Also, since the monkeys will be going to small children, I’ve created a new way of making the eyes.  Using leftover sock scraps to make the eyes rather than buttons or googlys that can come off easily.

Where will all these monkeys go?  Good question.  That is for the youth group kids to determine, although most likely to local shelters or police stations.  So let the monkeying around begin!

So say you’re out shopping for a Purim costume with your family and your son decides out of the blue that he wants to be Spider Man.  Not that you have any inherent issue with Spider Man – he’s a nice boy – but you don’t want to spend $25 on a costume the kid will only wear once because after all he is way more into Phineas & Ferb.  But then you turn the corner and find a super cool (and only $4) secret agent hat.  And that’s all it takes.  $4 more and you got yourself a secret agent Perry the Platypus costume!

So how do you make a six year old fanboy to look like this?

Step 1. Start with the hat.

Well we did – it was the whole inspiration for the rest of the costume.  We found the hat in a costume shop that was having a huge going out of business sale.  So it only cost us about $4.  Any black fedora will do and could probably be purchased at a second-hand clothing store, Goodwill/Salvation Army type store.  Or a costume shop/party supply store.

Step 2. Get the shirt.

I bought a solid teal kids t-shirt for a couple bucks at the A.C. Moore.  It’s the perfect Perry color.

Steps 3- 9. Make that tail!

I bought 3/8 yard of orange felt at JoAnn’s Fabric.  El cheapo – again less than $2.

First I folded it in half and drew a tail shape then cut it out with my rotary cutter

Then using the cut out tail as a template, cut out a double layer of batting (I already had some leftovers from a previous quilt project).  Trim a 1/4 inch off around the edge.

Sandwich the batting between the two pieces of felt.

Pin the sandwich together and sew a 1/4″ seam around the outside edge using black thread on top & bottom.

Then using your handy pencil, draw a 1″ grid on the tail at a jaunty angle (I went with 45 degrees – because I could)

Following the grid, sew the grid, again using black thread.

Safety pin the tail to the bottom of the t-shirt and then…

Step 10.  The all important duckbill

Also at AC Moore I found a bin full of foam animal face visors.  I bought two (they were $1 each) just in case I screwed it up the first time.

I carefully ripped off the bill, punched two holes in the sides, inserted some small rhinestone holders  to shore them up, and ran some string through.  Voila – mask!  The boy decided he was going to just wear it over his mouth rather than his nose so that he could see.

And there you go!

I am super psyched for Monday! Who loves Monday?  I do!  Why?  Because on Monday I get my new sewing machine!!!

While we were at the mall this afternoon, I had to swing by Sears to pick up some sewing machine oil.  While I was looking at the boxes of quilting accessories, and the boy was crawling around on the shelves at floor level, my husband is looking at the models on display and starts asking me questions about the differences between computerized machines and the others.  Then he points out a machine that’s on clearance for $225.  A Kenmore 385-19606 by Janome.  Hmm…

Now I’ve been thinking about getting a new machine for some time now.  I’ve had my other machine for about 16 years now. A Kenmore Convertible 1785.  Clearly older than I am.  I bought it used when I was in college for about $100.  I remember not doing any research on it, it was what they had in the fabric store we would frequent on occasion.  For $100 I got the machine, accessories, manual, and carrying case (that sucker is heavy!  It’s all metal).  I elected not to get all of the decorative cams much to his dismay, and I have to say after all these years I haven’t really missed them at all.

The Kenmore 1785 has been a workhorse.  Over the years I’ve made costumes, clothes, home dec stuff, stuffed animals, handbags, quilts, soft sculpture, all sorts of stuff.  I think I’ve only had to take it in for repair once.  Over the years I’ve gotten very good at having to readjust the tension every time I start a new project, de-linting the bobbin casing, sewing button holes with all the plastic attachments, making piping, sewing zippers, all sorts of fun things.  I’ve even managed to do some freehand quilting while not using a darning plate & foot.  But while working on my latest quilt project, it got unhappy – there was a lot of rattling and squeaking and then it just stopped.  Not good.  I managed to clean out all the lint from the bobbin casing, which got it working again, but after one 66″ strip of piecing, the squeaking started again.  Now I confess, I have been remiss in oiling (hence the reason for my trip to Sears today), but I also started to worry “What if the oiling doesn’t solve the problem?”  I knew that I could borrow a machine from a friend who is in the process of moving, but still.

So as the boy ran around the mall’s play area for an hour, I used this time to surf the web and check out reviews for this machine.  And they all rocked.  Everyone loved the machine and highly recommends it – especially if it’s on sale at this price!  So I went back to the store and asked if they had any new in box.  Nope.  Next closest store?   Nope.  The closest store that has it is about 30 miles away.  Which while far from our house, it’s not to far from the husband’s work!  So after a confirmation call – they had one left – I went ahead and placed the order and got the quilting attachments pack as well.  And oil for the old machine.

So I’m excited to try it out.  From reading about it, some users did complain it doesn’t have an “auto threat cutter” which I don’t have on my 1785, so I won’t miss that.  It does have an auto-threader, which will be weird since I can thread my machine in under 30 seconds.   I am looking forward to trying out the auto-lock stitch feature.  I have a feeling that I’ll still use the old machine for certain projects so we won’t say goodbye entirely, but we’ll see.

So I’m going from this:

To this:

I’m going to oil up the old machine tonight and see if I can finish up the piecing that I already have pinned up.  But on Monday night the new adventure begins!

To be continued…

Things have been quite busy, and while I’ve been keeping up with the crafties, I just haven’t had time to blog about them.  So with the new year, is a new commitment.  I will do my best to post in a more timely manner.  And to catch up, I will go back in time and post about completed projects.  So look for more Amy Butler bags, quilts, and whatever else my inner creatives come up with.  I’ve also created an Etsy shop, on which I (hope) to sell personalized baby quilts, much requested handbags, and maybe even some hand-painted kippot.  We’ll see.  If I sell just one item, then I think I’ll be happy.