School's Out For Summer...Almost

I am almost done with the classroom aspect of my Master's Program and I am pumped!! I decided to hold a 30% off sale in my Etsy shop to celebrate. Stop by my shop and help me get this fabric out of the house!! I have one big project left for school and then on to my final internship. I can taste freedom in the future.

My Sewing Circle

My brillant friend over at imagingermonkey told me about My Sewing Circle. It is a really cool site that is just like Raverly for sewers. Go and join. It's free. You can find me under Punkrockertracey!

Projects Galore

Blogger and I do not seem to be friends anymore. I cannot get the dang picture uploader to work and I am ready to rip my hair out!! I am going to post some photos to my flickr account until Blogger and I take some time apart to breathe.

I have been BUSY with a TON of projects, but it is nice to have my sewing mojo back. I have done a little cropping to a shirt I bought at goodwill. Check out my flickr to see how it turned out. Don't miss what happens when you leave sleeves cut off from a shirt on the table. (Hint: my husband is dangerous when unsupervised!!)

I have completed the cushions for our outdoor area. We have been cleaning up back there and I have almost completed the staining process for the table. I still need some more decorations but I hope within two weeks or so to have some more photos!!

Off to sew some more. Thanks to all my seam ripper friends for the encouragement. I don't feel so frustrated with my seam ripper as much anymore.

Now off to try something industrious for myself. I am going to cut out and make a mock up of one of the dress patterns from Built by Wendy. Keep your fingers crossed. Making my own clothes has been a difficult process for me. The first shirt I made when I started up sewing again had to be cut off by my husband. Nice. He did say it did nice things to my chest area - spoken like a true man :)

I will have more photos this week of a hat I am making, hopefully a picture of a completed bag for my mom, and some fun tutorials I have followed (two adorable necklaces for the summer), and hopefully some progress on some long term projects!!

Seam Rippers

We have a joke in our house that the project I am currently working on is not a "Tracey item" unless the seam ripper has been used. It never fails, regardless of how prepared with a pattern I get - there will be use of the seam ripper. I made some curtains for our bedroom this weekend and had to use the seam ripper. I didn't realize how much of a joke it was until I did my normal "growl" (which usually includes my favorite cuss word - here is a hint - it starts with F) and my husband says while looking at the computer "Time for the seam ripper?".

Now - I did glare at the back of his head for a moment, but then the humor got to me. It irritates me that I have to use the seam ripper, like that suggests I can't sew or have no business sewing. When I made a comment to that state, my husband's response was "If all sewers didn't need a seam ripper, than why make it and why are so many bought?"

Leave it to the husband to make me feel better. How about you? Do you have to use your seam ripper a lot or am I just an impatient sewer??

Help Me Help Craft Hope

I have signed up for Craft Hope's next project. This one is a winner in my opinion. We are helping those with need and it is an educational project. Read more about the project here. The basic overall of the project is making bean bags that Liberian children will use to learn. I have emailed for some specifics. There are some examples that schools usually buy from google. I signed up to do a set of numbers.

Here are some of the requirements I know:
* The background fabric must be the same color
* The numbers should be the same color (this enables the children to learn the numbers - not memorize the fabric of which one number 5 is)
* The bean bags are due by May 15th to the organization, so your bag would be due to me by May 5th. That gives me ten days to fill the bags and mail them!!

So here is what I am proposing:
I want to do a set, but that can be a big project. SO - I am asking for volunteers to sign up on my blog using a form and volunteer to make a bean bag. I will purchase the fabrics for the background and the numbers (no picking on my selection - hee hee). The only thing I ask of you as the volunteer is that you will pay postage for me to mail the fabrics to you and to return the fabric to me. I will also fill the bags. If you will leave me a small opening in the bag, I will fill it and sew the opening up.

I will send you a money request through paypal once you have signed up for $3.00. Then when you return the bag to me - just pay the postage when you mail it.

I will include details with the fabric such as size, date needed back to me, which fabric is background and which is for the number, how to make the bean bags (there is a great online tutorial to make bean bags) etc.

I need at least 9 people to sign up to take a bean bag. If we get more, maybe we could do two sets!! Thanks for considering helping me.

Want to help? SIGN UP HERE!