A Full Cup Design has been full speed ahead in real life and on Etsy/Facebook/Instagram, but somehow my WordPress site had a hiccup and lost several year’s worth of posts!
I’m going to forge ahead and also drop some throwbacks here and there.
Sewing, nuno felting, crafting, reading
Archives for posts with tag: sewing
My friend wanted a total re-do for her son’s room. She picked out tan/grey/taupe map fabric for Roman shades, a chair cushion, and pillows.
Getting Started
When finished, there were four Roman shades to replace the plastic Venetian blinds, four pillows, and a small chair cushion.
Pillows, Cushion, One Shade
Two Pillows
Small Chair Cushion
Roman shades, pillows, and chair cushion all in their home. I think the room looks fantastic!
Finished Room
Installed Shade and Cushions
I even made some throw pillows with the old dinosaur curtains.
Dinosaur Pillows
My wristlet/clutch won Honorable Mention Crafts at the Weston Arts and Crafts spring awards show in May. This category includes all crafts from fabric creations to turned wood bowls to pottery to fused glass and even jewelry. So, I was very happy to receive a ribbon!
The judge said, “A wristlet clutch that is made with attention to detail. The wrist band is particularly thoughtful in its comfortable and colorful construction.”
Honorable Mention Wristlet
We had a hard winter here in Massachusetts. Over 100 inches of snow that never seemed to melt plus bitter cold days. The kids racked up more than a week of snow days! Between the snow days, ice dams, shoveling, and shivering, I didn’t get much sewing done. I did manage to make some scarves and hipster cross-body bags.
Now, Spring is here, and I have lots of projects in the works. I have seven messenger bags cut out and ready for sewing!
Nuno Felted Scarves
Cross-body hipsters
I finally finished the 25 wallets I started a few weeks ago. Then, I had to wait for a week or so for the sun to shine for my listing pictures. Now, I am in the process of adding them all to my Etsy store.
At about step 11 out of 13 of making the wallets, I realized that I had forgotten to add my Full Cup Design sew-in labels. They should have been added around step 3. I faced the choice of ripping out all that stitching, or just going forth, label-less. I decided on the latter since the labels really only matter to me and the marketing gurus. I am a perfectionist, though, and the labels were hard to let go.
As I made this choice, I was reminded of the title of the appendix to one of my favorite books, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. The appendix in my softcover copy is called Mistakes We Knew We Were Making. It somehow makes the mistakes seem OK and not so big of a deal. You can let the mistakes get to you, let them go, embrace them, or change the names to protect the innocent!
I often like to make a bunch of one item at once and work like an assembly line. I usually will make 5-7 of one item at a time. With a big storm bearing down on us last week, I decided to make 25 wallets knowing we would be stuck inside for a while. These wallets are really popular for Mother’s Day and end-of-year teacher gifts. I got a jump on the spring season during the blizzard – between bouts of shoveling, of course.
Making the wallets involves a lot of straight stitch sewing which means a perfect time to use my vintage Singer Featherweight. Machines work best when used! Too bad my snow clearing machine was me plus shovel.
A full cup must be carried steadily. English proverb
I’ve been sewing and working with fabric since I was a child. My mom taught me to sew, and I have taken needlepoint and embroidery classes. I started by making sleeping bags for all my favorite stuffed animals. When I went off to college, my favorite item was the tie-dyed comforter cover I made.
After college, I had a job writing and delivering training to Wall Street traders and FAA air traffic managers. I left that high-stress world behind when my husband and I started a family. I still needed a creative outlet, and re-discovered my love of sewing. When my children were very small, I made pillows, curtains, and purses for myself and for friends and family.
In 2010 when my youngest started school, I opened up my Etsy shop. I wanted to try my hand at sewing for a wider audience. I love to buy fabric and try out new patterns, and thought Etsy would be a great way to do all of those things.
A few years ago, I saw a Nuno felted scarf that I fell in love with. I learned how to create them from my mother-in-law and decided to put a new section in my Etsy shop. I enjoy putting colors and designs together with wool and silk.
Along with reading, sewing and felting are my hobbies and stress-busters. My mission: finding beauty in simplicity and laughter over a full cup of tea.
