Label Conscious

   It is my first "Roaring Lion" label to be put into an item!!! The reveal of what I made will have to wait, as the recipient hasn't gotten her gift yet.

Upcoming excitement

It would be no exaggeration to say that I love picking out the fabric for a project just as much, if not more, than the actual project. I have a whole collection of new fabric that has arrived this week which means a whole collection of new projects to complete. Here is just a sampling of my newest fabrics......

Coat Rehab

I have had this navy coat forever and have kept it around because I have a sentimental attachment to it. But do you notice the ridiculous velcro blocks instead of buttons? I have not worn the coat for several years for this reason. Recently I came across the coat in my closet and had an idea. I thought if I could rip off the velcro I would then be able to put buttons in their place. I could resurrect it just in time to wear it this spring. I searched on-line and in fabric stores and just could not find the buttons I had envisioned. I was looking for something that would be able to complement the yellow piping in the pockets. I finally decided I could only find what I wanted if I made them myself.  I used these to make my own fabric buttons. For the fabric I used scraps I pulled from my stash, since I would not need that much material. I followed the simple instructions included in the kit, and in about 5 minutes, with no sewing involved, the buttons came out just like I wanted.

Next step was making the button holes. The buttons, at 1 1/2" were larger than the button hole foot on my sewing machine. Not to be deterred, I thought if I could some how piece two button holes together I would have a large enough opening. The first attempt at my "solution" did not show much promise.

But, having just bought myself a titanium seam ripper, I was prepared to painstakingly rip the whole thing out and start again. The second time went much better and  produced what I had envisioned in my mind.

I repeated the "double" button holes four times, being careful that the two holes slightly overlapped. I did this so that when I opened up the button hole I could rip through the seam in the middle and maintain the integrity of entire button hole. After sewing on the buttons.. MAGIC... I have a brand new coat

with, if I must say, some really cool buttons

Argyle Invasion

When my roommate after college started planning her sister's bachelorette party, I eagerly awaited the theme. I have enjoyed many a St. Patrick's day with these sisters, and over the years we have been all decked out in various costumes (think ridiculous yet awesome) , so I could not wait to find out what was in store for us to honor the upcoming nuptials. The theme was announced as a bar crawl, in the spirit of 9 holes of golf, and we were assigned to wear as much argyle as possible. Instantly I thought of some fabric I had being admiring for awhile and I had idea. I would make matching clutches for everyone, and in argyle no less, for the perfect addition to everyones' outfits! So I set about making 14 clutches using Noodlehead's gathered clutch tutorial. I even scored a pink golf cart ribbon on-line and the design all started coming together.
The first gathered front panel sewn....

And then one panel became 14 panels...

The maid of honor suggested I add a wrist strap; so everyone has less chance to lose the clutch during a night of drinking.  

Sewing that many purses was great practice for straight seams and adding zippers to an item. A bad habit I have is that of procrastination, and I waited way too long to finish the project. This meant I had to skimp on the interior purse lining by sewing an unfinished seam. Not something too noticeable, and it allowed me to make it to the party on time (I finished sewing at 5pm the day of the event, just enough time to shower and arrive 15 min late to the party). Here are a couple of shots of the final product in action, during what was an extremely fun night!

ps- The magic of the Internet allowed me to find thigh-high argyle socks, helping secure my win of "best dressed" for the evening :)

So it begins....

I can not think of any better way to kick this blog off than with the following post. This past Thanksgiving weekend it's yet another Kopitzke game night (they are legendary, as an FYI). It is the wee hours of the morning, and Lindsay and I are the last ones standing. What better time to discuss the dreaded "five years forward outlook"?  As we try our best to compress all the time we have been apart into a few brief hours of conversation, we cover what we would prefer to do other than our current day jobs. If there is anything I can count on Lindsay for,  after 18+ years of friendship, is that she can push me to achieve the amazing. More than once she has told me to keep a journal, and write down all those crazy things that make up my life. I have always loved how Lindsay captures those iconic quotes on cocktail napkins and scraps of paper to later report back to her own thick archives of journals. I have several started attempts, and for each of those few weeks I see it through, I love having them to reflect back on. But now there are even bigger plans in the works. 1- There is the internet and all its magic. & 2-We both have a larger world dominating plan than just a journal. So here is my first step into all those great ideas and plans we made in Tammy's kitchen in November 2010.  Lindsay, and I love you more than words can ever adequately express. I think its no surprise that when I thought of the perfect (-totally published in our high school yearbook front cover famous-) picture I wanted to use to kick off "The Roaring Lion" that there was none other than a lion in the background. May the Roaring Lion and Pinkerton Hall begin their successful world domination. -your forever FDA