Disney Sewing Projects!

[sweetpee_1993]

Awwww...Siobahn...you make my eyes all glisten-y, too! Thank you a million times over...:kiss:

Yeah, I make stuff the way I do everything. When I'm in the middle of something and the urge to just "get it done" comes I refuse to do that. I want to give it every ounce of effort all the way thru. I always tell myself, "I'm not a half-a$$ person and I won't half-a$$ my work." And I don't. Sounds tacky in contrast to your eloquent Irish blessing but it's the plain truth of it. That is the exact words I tell myself. It's like a mantra. The week I spent on my knees with a toothbrush de-gumming my entire downstairs hardwood floor...running when my body is screaming to stop...sewing or crafting...frustrated/tired days with the homeschooling.... it always applies. "Kelly, you are not a half-a$$ girl. Do it right. Push thru." And I do.

Which brings me to your Irish blessing. I think you just passed your mother's phrase on to another person. It's one of those things you hear and it really sticks with you. You can tell in the moment that it's a rare gem. Is your mother Irish? My dad's father was born in Ireland as well. My maiden name is O'Brien. :wave:

Good thing the pollen is so bad here, too....plus the lawn crews are out cutting the neighborhood....


Oh yes! Coloring is the most theraputic thing in the world! Well, mostly. I have very distinct memories of being 4 years old and crying in frustration because I colored outside the lines. LOL! I have a Tom & Jerry coloring book my Dad's 3rd wife bought me when I was 10 that I still color in. It's almost totally full. I have a Cabbage Patch coloring book that I loooove, and 2 or 3 Disney coloring books I got a few years ago when some friends of the family crashed with us for a couple months. Me and my friend would sit here coloring for hours and chit-chat with our coffee. It was so fun!

 

[Tiggerish]

Both of my parents were born in Ireland, and they were each the only ones of their brothers & sisters to emigrate to the US, so all of my aunts, uncles and cousins are over there. I try to go over at least every other year to visit.

If you ever get the chance to go, I'll bet that you would feel a real affinity for the country, and of course you and your fair-skinned crew (especially the two redheads!) would fit right in. Did you know that O'Briens were once kings of Ireland? :king:

I'm not surprised that phrase would stick with you. Mom uses it frequently, even for a well-prepared meal or a tasty batch of cookies, which is great because lately the kitchen is the only place I have time to make anything from scratch. Truthfully (and at the risk of going totally mushy here), your fish extender is the first time I have ever been moved to say it.


I have a 100th Anniversary set of 64 Crayolas in it's own commemorative tin box! I can't bear to use it, though, so I have a second set as well. :lol:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Both of my parents were born in Ireland, and they were each the only ones of their brothers & sisters to emigrate to the US, so all of my aunts, uncles and cousins are over there. I try to go over at least every other year to visit.

If you ever get the chance to go, I'll bet that you would feel a real affinity for the country, and of course you and your fair-skinned crew (especially the two redheads!) would fit right in. Did you know that O'Briens were once kings of Ireland? :king:

I'm not surprised that phrase would stick with you. Mom uses it frequently, even for a well-prepared meal or a tasty batch of cookies, which is great because lately the kitchen is the only place I have time to make anything from scratch. Truthfully (and at the risk of going totally mushy here), your fish extender is the first time I have ever been moved to say it.


I have a 100th Anniversary set of 64 Crayolas in it's own commemorative tin box! I can't bear to use it, though, so I have a second set as well. :lol:

OMG! I totally love that you have a set of commemorative Crayolas as a collectible! I swear some days I'm like a little kid trapped in this old body. I love toys so much, especially dolls (of course). I always tell Tracey one of my dreams if money wasn't a consideration is to have a grown-up version of a playhouse in my backyard. When I was a little kid the girl across the street had a primitive playhouse built in her backyard. Playing over at her house was always such a treat. So I want my big-girl version. It would be like a guest house but look like a cottage on the outside. Window planter boxes, picket fence, and mailbox in front. Inside would be a big open space complete with fireplace, a daybed/sofa for napping, a couple comfy Pottery Barn rockers for reading or chit-chatting, and the ultimate sewing/crafting work areas with storage for all my many boxes of supplies and shelves so all my fabric stashes can be organized where I can see it all. Space for pictures & artwork is required. There should be a ledge or shelf all the way around the room to display my Cabbage Patch babies. I need a little kitchenette area with a microwave, mini-fridge, and coffee maker. Oooh...and a sweet little bathroom with a claw-foot tub for soaking. I'd love to have a ladder to a little loft area where I can put more dolls and floor pillows everywhere for just hanging out. Oh yes. This is the perfect playhouse for me. ((All that from the nostalgia of a collectible box of Crayolas....I know! :hammer)

Oh wow! You go to Ireland! I'm so jealous! Actually, my in-laws are there right now! They went with one of my nieces & her parents as part of a school trip. I've always dreamed of seeing it for myself. Tracey went to Europe (Germany, France, Scotland, etc.) when he was maybe 12 or 14. His grandparents lived in Scotland for a short time while his grandfather worked on an oil platform project there. He says that the fields and open pastures in Scotland were incredible...the colors of green from field to field were so different and vibrant. He says it's like a pure glowing feeling. He wants to take me to Ireland someday, and Scotland, where his descendents are from.

I never knew my Irish grandfather. Unfortunately, he was in his later 40s when my dad was born and not exactly the most upstanding of fellows. He was a carny, actually. :lookaroun My granny was a simple country girl, had never met anyone from somewhere so exotic as Ireland. It was a pretty dramatic bunch of years for her from the bits I heard. Mostly his dad traveled with the carnival while Granny Myrtle would come in and out of town in Alabama. She mostly left her 3 children she had with him with her mother while she tried to travel and keep up. When my dad was like 6 or 7 his father was back in town again. This time he told his momma he didn't want her to leave with his dad. The way Dad tells it, he told her she had to decide: Her kids or her husband. She left with the husband. He didn't call her by "mother" or "mom" again until I was a teenager. And that's the last time he ever saw his father.

I do know the O'Briens are descendants of royalty. :king: My dad is pretty toasty up-top nowadays (seriously, he is mentally ill: PTSD, panic, and mild schizo). He's a brilliant guy, tho, and has always been a big history buff. Some days he calls wanting to talk endlessly about such random things. Often he repeats things he's already told me a bazillion times. Or reminisce about things over and over. One of his favorite topics is how we descended from royalty in Ireland. He swears I could go over there and fit right in because of my red hair & freckles. I don't think he keeps in mind that I've lightened my hair considerably over the years and I go to the tanning bed so my freckles aren't as prominent. Plus, all I'd have to do is open my mouth to speak.... :lol: Do you have any of the accent from over there??? Oh I bet I'd be totally smitten with it the way I am with the real Cajun accent our dear friends have.

So interesting! I always thought your name was so beautiful and exotic! I didn't realize it was Irish! That's so awesome. So how exactly do you say that? It's Gaelic, right? I'm about to go dig out my baby name book to look it up!!! LOL!

 

[Tiggerish]

Kelly, you should so get to Ireland one day. They would love you--Irish people just LOVE Americans, accents and all. It really is true what they say about it being a friendlly country, and if you have roots there... well, as we say in NY, fuggedaboutit! (I'm married to an Italian, so I get to borrow that one!) Ireland is full of wastrels (such as your granddad!). What an interesting story, you should do your geneaology!! They won't care if you've lightened your freckles.

The way I explain my name is--everyone knows a Sean (Shawn), right? Which is Irish for John. Well, my name is the feminine of Sean, it's Irish for Joan, it's like "shawn" with an "iv" up the middle. Shiv-awn.

I'm so looking forward to meeting you on our girls cruise, which we all have you to thank for!!

Hope you enjoyed St. Patrick's Day!!! :wave:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

More sewing/crafting! I'm not done yet either. And I still have a bazillion things to do before Sunday when we leave for our 5-night Magic cruise. Thought I'd post what I have while I'm taking a short break.


First, my Pixar Up! upcycled Little Golden Book journal. Yes, this is a sewing project. Sorta. I bought the book off eBay for a couple bucks plus shipping. I was kinda miffed when it arrived. It was warped and beat up. The listing said nothing about this. However, Now that the journal is made, I'm glad it was beat up. I didn't feel near as bad about deconstructing a book that already had issues. I think the wear adds patina to the journal that you can't create intentionally. So, here it is:

I added the braided embroidery floss to the binding to use as my page marker, This makes jotting down notes on the fly muuuuch easier. The story and all the pictures in the book are still there in the correct order. My lined journal pages are interspersed randomly. See?

And here's a little closer shot of my handiwork at rebinding the book. This is where the sewing happened. It took me a few tries to get it right....plus some less-than-magical words, a few stuck fingers, and a bull's determination. The binding isn't meant to be perfect and pretty. It's functional and sturdy.

Then there's the project that I worked on all weekend long. I'm terrible at underestimating the time it takes to do this stuff. I thought I'd be spending a day making my skirt to wear for pirate night on our DCL cruise next week. No, this was more like 2 days...both were no less than 9-10 hours long. I hadn't even cut the fabric when I started this thing on Saturday. Ruffles are brutal! The zipper (not pictured) isn't perfectly precise the way my mother-in-law does them but I'm proud to say the zipper is IN and it's not backwards. Zippers are my nemesis. I hate them and they hate me. I plan to wear this with my black Goonies Never Say Die fitted tshirt. I'll wear a pirate bandana as a headband, my hair in 2 braids again like last time. This time, tho, I have an assortment of pirate ribbons I can tie onto my braids and decorate my flip-flops with!

I had grand plans of making myself another cross-body bag to carry reminiscent to my first pair of bags I made. They're a little too small in size for me now. I need more space. I still have some of my favorite fabric so I was planning to do a new one like the pastel patchwork one that's a little bigger. Well, last week a Disney-buddy from here contacted me and asked if I could possibly make her a custom Minnie-inspired bag if she paid me. Good timing since I was planning to make one for myself, too. Again, I underestimated the time involved. It took waaaaay longer than I thought it would. Like I was thinking 4 hours tops. Yeah, it ended up being more like 14. This is why if I make another like it I'll likely charge considerably more. I hurried to get hers done today so I can get it shipped. I have yet to start sewing mine. Hers sure turned out gorgeous, tho! Very proud of this! She asked for the white daisy detail vs. Minnie's hair bow. She favors the more vintage Minnie look. Here's my interpretation:

Another ruffle. I'm telling you, ruffles will be the death of me! So tedious! And here's the inside of the bag. I like light/bright colors inside so the bag isn't so dark you can't find anything. The little side pockets are created to be the perfect size for slipping in your room key and driver's license. The ribbon, I thought, was a fun detail:

I'm off to start sewing on my bag. I don't know if I'll have pics of it before the cruise. I'll try. I have soooo much to be doing and my back is kiiiiillin' me from these long hours bent over the sewing machine and ironing board.

 

[Sans Souci]

You are truly talented! The Minnie bag is adorable, I love the little pouches for cards. I am amazed that you just come up with this stuff without patterns.

You definitely have been given a gift.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

You are truly talented! The Minnie bag is adorable, I love the little pouches for cards. I am amazed that you just come up with this stuff without patterns.

You definitely have been given a gift.

Thank you! I do sorta use patterns. I think of what I want to make then look for patterns that are similar or have elements I'm looking for. I take what I need and modify it to what I want. Like the Minnie bag is from a Simplicity pattern that I enlarged a few pieces to 110%, omitted the pockets they had on the bag, made the strap longer, added the pocket I needed, and incorporated my embellishments. I knew I how I wanted the bag to look but I didn't need to take the time to figure out how to get the liner in or anything. The pattern told me that. I modify lots of patterns. Sometimes I combine more than 1. I resize most everything. It's how to get where I want to go. No special trick. I don't pull it all out of thin air. Just find avenues to get me what I want. Problem solving more than anything. Look for stuff you like then find patterns that are similar. I promise it's not hard. Plus, it's awesome when you wear something that someone compliments and you can say "Thanks! I made it!". That's the BEST!

 

[Tiggerish]

Absolutely AWESOME!!!!! :sohappy:

The journal is perfect for your trip, and you will rock that pirate skirt.

The Minnie bag is totally precious. You will make a bundle when you start selling bags--we can call you the Disney Vera Bradley. :lol:

I totally sympathize with you about ruffles. They are a beast.

Have a GREAT time on your cruise!! :wave:

 

[Sans Souci]

@sweetpee_1993 Did you learn at somebody's elbow or are you self taught? I want to start sewing, but I wonder if I am a lost cause. I just love that Minnie Mouse bag!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

A bit of both, really. I watched my momma hand-sew stuff when I was little & she showed me a few basics. Same with crocheting. Then I took the little bits and figured out how to accomplish what I wanted. Then I married my hubby who has a very talented seamstress for a mother. She learned from her mother and, naturally, my sis-in-law is amazing at sewing, too. When I say talented here I really mean it. They take multiple patterns, meld them together, & create stuff. I've helped them make 3 or 4 wedding gowns. They taught me the basics of following a pattern. Watching my mother-in-law work taught me a lot about how to fine-tune my finishing work: patience, perseverence, and attention to detail. Borrowing her sewing machine & serger gave me a lot of practice with machine sewing. Then, 2 years ago, one of my good online friends who lives in California got really into making artist bears. Like these are little works of art! She sent me a bunch of books and explained about pattern-altering. If you sew a bear from another artist's pattern it is not considered your original creation. Buuuuut, if you take patterns and change them, mix or match pieces, resize, rescale and make a bear from that it IS considered an original. I didn't spend enough time on the bears to get the hang of them (I still have everything to go back to it). What I *did* learn is to look at patterns differently. If you want to make something but there isn't a pattern for it find one for something similar and alter the pattern. Like I wanted to make little bear clothing and doll clothing to fit my dolls in my collection. There's a lot of different sizes of dolls & bears that aren't standard. So I buy patterns then resize and rescale them to fit my needs. And it works!

So the answer to how I learned to sew isn't whether I had someone to teach it all to me. I had key people who taught me basics. Then I found ways to create the things I wanted to make. Like my quilt. Nobody ever taught me anything about quilting. I saw quilts I liked and had an idea to make myself one. I searched the Internet for info, instructions, etc. then formulated my own plan. It always starts with primitive scrawled sketches complete with rough dimensions. Then I just do it. That part is what nobody taught me. It's my own problem-solving put to work. I don't always like what I make and there's plenty of times I've started into something, scrapped it, and started again. It comes with the territory.

I'm still learning all the time, too! I still only aspire to have my mother-in-law's beautiful finish work. There's so much I still want to learn. Like smocking! I still completely stink at doing zippers which really grinds my last nerve. That's another goal: to be able to sew a zipper free of intimidation and make it look normal. LOL!

If there's ever anything I can help with just shoot me a PM. I'll do my best. I'm no expert by far but I'm pretty good at figuring stuff out.

 

[Sans Souci]

@sweetpee_1993
Do you recommend any sort of machine for a beginner? I really would like to start reading, figuring out "how to" (like you said) and just have a go at it.

I think you should sell your wares on Etsy. No, it's not steampunk or hipster, but it's so adorable and well-crafted. I think you could pull in a tidy sum.

 

[aka_emilicious]

I finally got around to posting some of the projects I've worked! This is the Mickey drawstring bag I made. I made it out of ripstop and sprayed it with scotchgard. This thing is on three years of amusement park outings and MANY rainstorms!

This is the Ellie costume I wore at our local Convention (its not JUST comics, but a lot of other geekery too).

And a close up of the pins:

Glad to see there's other Disney crafters out there!

 

[Tiggerish]

Neat!! Well done.

 

[aka_emilicious]

I just FINALLY finished my Figment sweatshirt! I couldn't wait to post it here!

 

[Ariel484]

@aka_emilicious, really cool stuff! LOVE the Ellie costume!

 

[MissAlmyra]

@aka_emilicious LOVE that sweatshirt! How cute!

I'm currently re-working a few pieces of my Haunted Mansion maid costume in preparation of MNSSHP! She's sort of a mix of the WDW/DL costumes and TDL's costumes. Here's a photo.

Some of these projects are really amazing! It's motivating me to sew more.

 

[Tiggerish]

@aka_emilicious, your Figment sweatshirt is great!!

@MissAlmyra, your image isn't loading...

 

[MissAlmyra]

@Tiggerish Thanks for the heads up! I tried re-posting it, it's displaying ok for me now.

 

[Tiggerish]

I can see it now!! Looks great!

 

[Birdie757]

I can't believe I never noticed a sewing thread here after all my time reading the site. I sew outfits for my girls for each day of all our trips! I am a bit crazy but glad to see others sewing in the Disney spirit! Sorry to shamelessly post a picture of my kids on my first post but this is one of my favorite outfits so far!