So, what's ya making?

I have small children, and Halloween is coming up, so I am making a costume: http://www.oaktrees.org/blog/?p=1955

Unexciting, I know, but it's the current project.

Well, I currently have a plastic bag with some (more) expensive (than I usually buy at the market*) material in, that I seem to have rashly promised a friend I'd make into cushion covers!

I have a trusty little Janone entry-level sewing machine that I bought when we bought this house 15 months ago and found that, not only are all our windows non-standard size, but that pairs of windows in some rooms (our bedroom, the kitchen...) are not the same size either! So, it was make 'em, or not be able to afford any curtains at all!

So I'm rather proud of the fact that we have lovely red curtains in the bedroom (with the same amount of gathering in each) and lovely long yellow curtains (with tie-backs!) up at the kitchen doors - made using only pieces of stuck-together newspaper as a pattern!

Surely I'll be able to graduate onto cushion covers soon...

Interested to see what inspiring things everyone else is doing!

* this IS the famous Birmingham rag-market, with many, many stalls selling thousands of rolls of material, not just a standard cheapy market!

next up for me are curtains for the bedroom. we just moved to a new apartment and there are ugly mini-blinds in every room.

for the curtains i'm using some cute green striped sheets that we bought at target. we'd used them as sheets for about two weeks until we decided the fabric was too rough to sleep on, but my husband and i both loved the pattern and didn't want to lose it in the room.

Ooh sounds lovely - kind of like "ticking" ?

Husbands and other halves generally are v useful when making curtains if you can prevail upon them to hold one end while you make sure the material is straight when you're cutting them out. I find the cat doesn't work so well...

Hi all, I just introduced myself under another topic but I will comment on the home dec stuff. That has to be the most money saving type of sewing there is. I priced even really cheapy curtain panels at IKEA and other places and even those that are supposed to be "economy" curtains can really add up. The trick with home dec is to keep straight lines so use a carpenter's square or whatever that thing is called that's like a flat metal ruler shaped like an L to square up the sides. I'll bet you are proud of those curtains and you could never have bought something that nice for 5 times as much money I'm sure. I have 4 grown daughters and I've sewn or helped them sew curtains for all of their various homes and our own home as well. It's saved them a ton of money over the years and allowed them to have things they coldn't have otherwise afforded - like nicely coordinated nurseries and such. They are at a different stage in life now and need my sewing skills less but I did enjoy it at the time. Even sewing for my grandkids is kind of coming to a halt as they get older and don't want home sewn garments as much. They love my flannel PJ pants and such but regular clothes not so much. The two grandaughters like home sewn items but girls are generally easier that way. Or at least my grandkids are.

I'm making an 18th century hat in white velvet, and a pair of black breeches in silk from the same period. Both to be worn at an 18th century ball in October. Not together, though.

isiswardrobe, I take it that you are a reinactor of some sort? I'm not familiar with the various groups but I know they are very popular, some recreating costumes that are as accurate as possible using the correct techniques for the times. Then there are those that just go for the "look" of the period and use modern methods and fabrics. Do you 'costume' on a regular basis or is it a once in a while kind of thing like for the ball in October. I would love to sew reinactment wear and I especially love the pattern lines that are quite historically accurate that we see in some of the patten books right now. I imagine it would be great fun to create a gown with all the accurate underpinnings. I can't imagine how women functioned in those elaborate getups. Beyond me!?!?!

JM192, how are the bedroom curtains coming? I'm assuming by now they are all hung and looking wonderful?
LyzzyBee, have you taken the plunge on the cushion covers yet? I highly recommend using a zipper and a pillow insert to make the covers removable. It never fails that something gets spilled and you need to take the cover off for cleaning. You can find really nice quality down cushion inserts in some larger cities, but there are also really nice poly stuffings that don't clump and pack down the way poly fill used to. I also saw on a TV program a combination down/poly fill where it had the fluffiness of down but the resilience of poly. We can't get anything with down in it where I live and I'd probably buy a down duvet on sale and use the stuffing for cushions if I had to have down. Or even take some of my down pillows for the bed that have lost some of their oompf and combine two to make one cushion. I wish I could find the down/poly combo ones here, but I've never seen them.

the curtains are finished! my parents were visiting this weekend, so they needed to be done in time for their arrival.

i'm pretty pleased with them. they don't look like homemade, and they do a lot to brighten up that side of the room (i live in an apartment and there's no painting allowed, so the curtains help a lot).

next i'm taking a break in order to study for the GRE, but after mid-october i'm planning on starting on my next project. that should give me two weeks to decide what the project will be :-)

Good job on finishing the curtains!! I am a great starter but not so great a finisher so I have lots of UFO's (Unfinished Objects) in a basket by my sewing table that keeps me discouraged. Lots of people find it liberating to toss their UFO's as it frees them up to move on to more satisfying projects. I'm afraid not only do I have trouble finishing them, but I can't let myself NOT finish them so it's a big internal struggle all the time. But I've been getting the Halloween costume orders from the grandkids so those are projects that must be finished especially the two that have to get put in the mail. I'm puzzling over howto make a whale costume because my 5 year old granddaughter is determined she doesn't want to be a princess like she said, nor will she be happy with a mermaid costume (I tried the mermaids swim with whales argument) She jsut wants to be a whale and NOT a KILLER whale Grandma!! That leaves a lot of latitude and the difficulty is without a picture is that I could fall far short of what her idea of a whale costume looks like. We'll see how that goes. Apparently the idea comes from a toy whale that she sleeps with every night. I want my daughter to take a picture of the toy whale and I figure I can't go wrong from there. Will see if she does it or not.

i finished the GRE and have found myself with a lot more free time. on to the next project! or projects, really.

i'm working on three square pillows for the bed to match the curtains (the main fabric will be the same stripes as the curtains, and the cording for the pillows is the same as the curtain tabs).

i'm also beginning construction on a pair of pants. one of my favorite pairs of jeans has passed the point of being wearable or repairable enough to wear to work, but the jeans fit really well so i'm using them as a pattern for a pair of my own construction. i've never made a pair of women's pants before or any clothing item without a 'real' pattern, so this should be a bit of a challenge for me.

Last projects finished. Tab curtains for the guest bedroom. This was meant to be a quick project. Perhaps no one will notice that the directional fabric is upsidedown on one of the panels:-)

long, narrow quilted bargello wall hanging (black, white and a dash of hot red) for my oldest daughter's stairwell.

I, too, have many small UFO's:-) but I usually finish them eventually.

I'm thinking of doing some craft fairs in 2007 (haven't done any since the mid-1980's) so I'm making some little "garden pails" out of various delicious fat quarters.

I have a dozen or more UFOs in each of my art & craft pursuits, but today I'm finishing up 2 -- a pink crochet cowboy hat and matching pink fleece chaps. I'm not entirely happy with the chaps, which I had to create a pattern for, but they are "good enough"...an amazing thing for me to say because I'm usually a perfectionist with my projects!

OK folks there are quite a few members now, how about we each post what we are working on? I have two quilt block a month tops that I am working on (I"m not a quilter, but I love piecing so I have a pile of quilt tops that need to be quilted)
In addition to those, I have a request for a lot of Sponge Bob Squarepants PJ's from my one grandson (he goes and gets the fabric and brings it to me and pulls on my arm trying to take me to the sewing room - subtle!)
I also committed myself to sew slipcovers for two storage ottomans for my hairdresser in exchange for hair services. Waiting in the wings are lined drapes for my dining room with a formal swag and jabot valance, a 30lb weighted blanket for my grandson, bibs etc. for my other grandson, and lots of spring/summer clothes from Ottobre Design magazine for my two granddaugters.
I just got a new serger and coverstitch machine so I really need to take them for a test run. What is everyone else working on.