I made a hat!

08/23/2010

One of my favorite kiddos just turned 1 a few weeks ago and I decided to dust off my sewing skills and make this little cap with the pattern from Leila & Ben.

It came out pretty well. I haven’t sewn with a pattern in years and I had a few boo-boos but that’s what the seam ripper was made for!

The first time I turned this right side out the brim was on the inside, between the liner and outer fabric. Oops! Next time it’ll be a lot easier.

And that’s the great thing about buying a pattern – I can remake this as many times as I want with different fabrics. For $6 that seems like a pretty good deal.

I just realized as I was posting this that I bought myself a similar shaped hat a few months ago at Target. I wonder if I could adapt this pattern for adult size …

(Top photo is from Leila & Ben. The rest are mine.)

2 Comments | Art, Art: crafts | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Babies and Elephants

08/26/2009

It seems like every few weeks I find out another friend is pregnant. Does that just happen at my age or are A LOT of people pregnant right now?

The best part of having pregnant friends is, of course, babies! Last week I got to meet 2 new babies!

Mikaelyn:

mikaelyn

and Benjamin:

ben

I had to patiently wait 2.5 weeks to meet handsome little Benjamin. (He lives out of town.) But it was worth the wait! Mikaelyn, on the other hand, I had the privilege of meeting 1 day after she was born. How cool is it to hold a newborn baby?? I’m so AMAZED at the miracle of life — to be able to hold a little bugger that just INSIDE my friend the day before. It blows my mind. God is so awesome!

I sewed Mikaelyn a fleece elephant pillow:

mika_ele1

mika_ele2

Her room is decorated in an elephant theme and I really wanted to come up with a design that was an “M” and also an elephant. (Can you tell I’m a graphic designer?) After a couple of days of searching and sketching, I found this inspiration finally:

mika_ele_insp

I hope she likes it!

mika_hosp1

Jason and I look pretty good with one of these, don’t you think?

mika_hosp2

Though I do have to say, if our future-someday-theoretical baby comes out with a full head of dark hair like these 2 did, I’ll be completely shocked!

I was making the elephant pillow WHILE Mikaelyn was bring delivered so I didn’t pause long enough to take step-by-step photos. However, if anyone is interested, I can draw up instructions. Just let me know!

1 Comment | Art, Art: crafts, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Perfect Jeans

08/05/2009

I have to admit, I’m pretty pleased right now. I found exactly what I was looking for—a pair of crisp, dark-wash, work-appropriate  jeans—at Old Navy on clearance for $7.50. (I don’t even look at the regular-priced jeans anymore.) The jeans were almost perfect. They were about 1/2″ too long and the waistband was too loose. Don’t you hate that about ON jeans? The hips fit fine but when I sat down the waistband flung wide open in the back. After reading this so-so tutorial on bringing in the waistline on loose-fitting jeans, I decided to try sewing darts in the back.

dart1

(Sorry, there was a smudge on my lens … in ALL of these pictures.)

dart2

After that went pretty smoothly, I thought I’d also tackle hemming the bottoms to the perfect heel-length.

hem

The darts don’t lay perfectly flat since the denim is so think. I think a shirt will cover it most of the time, though.

fulllength1

I wonder if I should have made them a little shorter since I usually end up wearing flats. I guess this is my motivation to wear heels more often.

fulllength2

No more “window to the crack” in the back.

fulllength3

1 Comment | Art, Art: crafts | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Third Life

07/25/2009

First it was a sheet. Then it was a curtain. Now, in it’s third life, it’s a purse:

100_6321

I wear a lot of brown but sometimes I wear black so either color purse is out for me. I hate having to switch purses based on my outfit. Lately I’ve been using a white purse but it gets dirty too quickly. The solution: a bold colored purse. Last fall I looked everywhere for a great deal on a jewel blue purse. This year, I decided to make my own by repurposing some materials I had lying around.

100_6323

I’m pretty proud of this little bag. I made a liner out of a vintage, flower-pattern sheet with a zipper interior pocket for little hideaways and 3 custom pockets for my cell phone, lipstick and receipts. The flower broach pin/hair clip is from Target.

100_6326

3 Comments | Art, Art: crafts, Art: modern design | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

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