Announcing The Stashbusting Sewalong 2014

YEAAAAAA!!! I feel like there should be confetti raining down the page like the snow does in Wordpress.... You guys loved the Stasbusting Sewalong so much we decided to bring it back for another year!! Cause, lets face it... we barely got started on decreasing those stashes... So I'd like to welcome you to, drumroll please....

THE 2014 STASHBUSTING SEWALONG!

There may or may not be a new button... we're working on it.

The 2014 Stashbusting Sewalong is a casual sewalong whose goal is to encourage us to reduce the size of our stashes by looking to them first. Every month has a fabulous theme you can choose to participate in if you need or want some focus to your sewing or you can just join us in pledging to destash in your own way. However it's done, as long as you use up that stash fabric you're doing great! We know we're in it together, and we know that others will be cheering us on as we go. There's nothing like working together to bust a stash!

Here's how you can join us!

• Leave a comment on this post with your pledge: "I, _______,commit to using ____ pieces of stash fabric in 2014. Additional option: I also commit to not buying any new fabric/patterns/ notions except for _______ until ______." Please include your blog if you have one.
• Post on your blog (if you have one) about your commitment! There's nothing like accountability and public shaming to get us to use up fabric that's been lingering in our stashes. Please share the link back to this post so others can join in if they want.

• Join our Flickr group (continuing from last year so lots of inspiration already there) 
• Join our Facebook page (coming soon)
• Follow our Pinterest StashBusting Headquarters (all new posts and any other useful info goes here)

We decided to keep the monthly themes from last year so you can see what each month holds on our Stashbusting Headquarters Page. But knowing everything that's coming is boring so we're adding a new facet to some of the months this year.  

The Curating Challenge!

Curate: to select, organize and look after items in a collection

This year along with sewing up what we've already accumulated we're going to do our best to bring a more thoughtful approach to our fabric/sewing stash so however big or small it is, it will be a beautiful whole instead of a mountain of madness. That way we will better control the stash instead of it controlling us.

Photo source. 

Now for some changes, Cindy is a school teacher plus she has gone back to school to learn more about sewing (lucky duck) and her life has gotten much busier. This year she'll be running our Stashbusting Facebook page, doing her own stash busting, and doing some guest posting for the series. Yes, people, we're going to have guest posters this year!! I for one, am very excited about getting to hear from others and seeing what they come up with for our themes. This way we'll hopefully still have one post a week to keep us in the stash busting mood yet leave time for me to tackle some more complicated sewing projects.

I think that's it for now. If you have any questions please ask. I'll be announcing January's theme and Curating Challenge on Monday. If you participated in Stashbusting 2013 remember to go Here and enter for the end of year prizes. With that a poem just for you!

Welcome welcome

One and All!

Will you fail 

Or will you fall?

Fabric's near

And Fabric's dear

Will you sew it up this year?

End of Stashbusting 2013!

Happy New Year Stashbusters!! Hurrah!!!

Can you believe we’ve made it through a whole year already? It seems like just yesterday Cindy and I were emailing back and forth about this great idea for a sew along that would last the whole year and now we’ve completed it. I don’t know about you but I’m pretty proud of us and of all of you! 

To wrap up the Stashbusting Sewalong 2013 we want to celebrate our achievements with some recognition and prizes!

1. To The One who Sewed the Most Items

2. To the One who Sewed the Most Yardage

3. To the One who Bought the Least Amount of Fabric

4. To the One who Accomplished her Stashbusting Pledge (this will be a drawing from all who did)

And finally, as a thank you to all who took the pledge this year, we have a $20. gift certificate from EmSewCrazy open to all who took the pledge no matter how much stash busting you got done…

To Enter: 

Hop on over to Cation Designs and leave a comment on her post listing how many items you sewed and how much yardage you used from the stash. She’ll tally it up and find the winners for categories 1 and 2.

Leave a comment here with your Stashbusting Pledge and how much of it you accomplished along with how much fabric you bought. I’ll be sorting through those entries and finding the winners of categories 3 and 4.

To win the $20. enter through Rafflecopter.
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Let’s share and celebrate our achievements as we head into a new year! Happy New Year everyone!

Psst... I'll be back on Friday to announce Stashbusting 2014!

Last of the Christmas Gifts

I managed to recover from all the hacking and coughing, shivers and aches in time to finish up the last few Christmas gifts...

I took a photograph which I traced for this special little embroidery for a
friend who started our local sewing group, Tubs Anonymous (cause we all have
tubs of fabric at home and the local quilting guild had already taken the name,
Prairie Strippers).  I glued it into the frame on Christmas Eve and covered the
mess with some ribbon glued to the back.

My brother hates hugs and touching of any kind so of course
I had to make him this fabulous design from Sublime Stitching.

I love all the felt birds designed by Susan of Downeast Thunder Farm
 and was very happy to get my
Grandma's favorite bird made up for her tree.

The not nieces and nephew have started playing imaginary games like "King"
so I thought I'd make some dress up clothes! I hacked the Tumble Tee pattern for
the make the princess dresses. I used this tutorial for the gathered skirts and cut the front of the Pink
Princess's skirt in thirds to add the lace panel while leaving the back in one piece. I just sewed some
costume necklaces right on so they wouldn't loose them.
The knight/king/warrior costume came from the dollar store and a large piece of purple velvet I cut
into a cape shape and sewed onto the shoulders of the breastplate.

Welp that's about all I've gotten done for the rest of 2013... Stay tuned this week for the wrap up of the Stashbusting Sewalong 2013. We actually have some neat little prizes for those who have participated.... And hopefully we'll have all our ducks in a row and we'll be announcing the details for STASHBUSTING 2014!! Watch out fabric we are coming for you!!

PS. The Fabric Elf chose a winner for my Christmas fabric giveaway! Thanks to all those that participated. The Fabric Elf and I loved hearing your special Christmas memories!

Congrats Sandra! Your package will be in the mail soon.

Hope you all have a great time celebrating and I'll see you in the New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hello Friends,
  Here's to a belated Merry Christmas and an early Happy New Year. I hope everyone had a lovely time celebrating with family and friends and these last days of the year go well with you. I'm trying to recover from all the germs floating around and prepare things for a great new year. Oh, and relax with friends and family...
  I'm so thankful for all the new sewing friends I've made through blogland and sewalongs and look forward to another great year of sewing with everyone.
  I'm especially thankful for Jesus, that he came to earth and gave us a reason to have Christmas. That at the end of the year we celebrate the beginning of something so mindblowingly huge that our world rocks from His impact to this day. Selfishly I'm most thankful for the strength and guidance he has given me and all the wonderful places I have ended up because of him.
  So, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
               Happy Sewing,
                                 Emily

Top 5 Hits and Misses and Reflections of 2013

My Hits, those "favorite creations, most worn or most loved" seemed to match with my misses, those "sewing fails, UFOs, worn once or complete disasters".  So I decided to collage them together.

Hit: Maxi Red Velvet A neutral color allows it to be accessorized and it's simplicity means I can were it anywhere.
Miss: Maxi Tiramisu I only wore it a few times because it was big, heavy and too odd of a design.

Hits! I've got a basic straight leg trouser pattern that I love.
Five pairs of Espresso leggings that are seeing tons of wear.
 Lastly, an almost wearable muslin for a bootcut jean. I just have to make two alterations to the pattern for a perfect fit.
From there I can use it for some skinny jeans.

Misses: The green pants are very wearable as pajamas or lounge wear not the elegant trouser I was going for.
Pink was a vintage pattern that I played and played with. I think they'll be cut up into something else this year.
Half Miss: Navy cords were very wearable but I copped out of a fly front for a side zipper and it has given me nothing but trouble. Next time I'll knuckle down and insert my fly front and if I use that heavy of a corduroy, I'll narrow the leg width.

I'm going to interject here and say, "Nanner nanner, Mistress of the Jar! I tried one leggings and four different trouser patterns this year. One of which is now a TNT and another is two alterations from being perfect as well. No trousers were bought by me!"

Hit: the striped knitted sweater was finished the end of last year but I've worn it TONS and always get compliments. So far the wool has shown little sign of wear.
Miss: This sparkle knit sweater was never blogged. I experimented with a vintage pattern and I just feel like the results are messy. I wear it very infrequently.

Hits: Lots of fabulous tops this year! If I had to choose just five of them it would be these: Cabarita,  Beauty, Camo Fluff, Vibrant Tunic, and Nautical Stripe.  Two were made with my TNT knit top pattern and the other three were patterns made with my measurements.
Miss: My Sew Weekly Top started out as a vintage pattern was cut down and still didn't fit me correctly. I already passed this baby on.

Without any scientific study my top patterns for the year were:

• Cake's Hummingbird Top (I made 3 and am loving the camo print one now that the cold weather has come)
• Cake's Red Velvet Dress (I've made 4 dresses 2 for me and 2 for Mom, and one more is planned.)
• Cake's Espresso Leggings (I've made 7 pair and they're in constant rotation.)
• Built By Wendy Sew U Home Stretch knit top pattern (This is my TNT set in sleeve pattern and I've used it at least 6 times for myself and twice for others this year)
• Lastly There have been two children's patterns that I've used quite a bit and have many more plans for. The Parsley Pants and the Tumble Tee. Both simple, both gender neutral, both easy to customize and alter.

Blogging has been so beneficial in helping keep a record of my projects; to helping me think through my choices and discover more about myself. After doing this round up my Top 5 Reflections are:

• When I start with an idea and follow it through I can come up with some beautiful things. My gut leads me well.
• I'm a real baby when it comes to putting in fly fronts........
• Making a list of projects helps me keep from getting overwhelmed by fabric and patterns and allows me to pick up something quickly when I find a few moments to sew.
• A warm turquoise is my magic color! 
• I need to let my time online inspire me and not let myself get sucked into Happiness and Creativity Killing Comparison. I also need to get off the computer and go create more.

Inspirations post here.

So what have you learned this year? Do you have a magic color? Do you ever get HCKC? I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season and has a Merry Christmas!

Top 5 of 2013: Inspirations and Goals

Ooh I'm so excited to take part in this! What a great way to think back over your year of creating. Crafting a Rainbow has been one of my favorite reads this year and I've really enjoyed her thoughts on color. I decided to start with these categories since they took the least photo collaging this late at night. :)

• Top 5 Inspirations: What books, people, blogs, trends etc motivated you this year?
• Steph of Sewing Cake  Seeing her build a sewing business from the ground up and developing her own better system of pattern making has been truly an inspiration.
• Those Who Make  I love relaxing to these videos and if I'm feeling a slump they're sure to reenergize me. The photos are pretty amazing too.
• Handmade by Carolyn  Beautiful work, beautiful photos. They challenge me to do better without discouraging me with their perfection.
• Cation Designs, Heather B, These ladies posts always bring me a smile if not a great belly laugh. 
• The Japanese Sewing Books blog and Japanese style. I really, really like it... or I just really really like moo moos. The jury's still out on this.... :)
• Top 5 Goals for the New Year
• make some menswear, preferable one of Thread Theory's  ( I have skinny brothers)
• get a better handle on my colors and understand/find my style
• (more of a wish) sew myself something from a Japanese sewing magazine or book
• work on building a cohesive wardrobe. I know this is something that will not happen overnight but I'd like to head that direction.
• use up the stash so it ALL fits on the shelving I already own.

The Christmas Elf Gets Merry Giveaway!

Merry Christmas all you sewing fanatics! 

This is the Fabric Elf speaking! I’ve hijacked Em’s blog today because she’s busy finishing up Christmas gifts now that she’s finally quit being sick. Lame, I wish elves got sick days. How come there’s no rest for us poor old elves? All the work we do, sneaking in fabric, 

sorting shelves, 

deciding which projects should be next, bring fabric cheer… Oh yeah! That’s what I’m doing right now!! 

I had a good rummage through Em’s stash while she was coughing in bed and came up with some beautiful bits of vintage fabric that she’ll never miss. 

Some are bigger chunks some are smaller. I dare ya to find them anywhere else! Oh yeah, some buttons too… cause I know you all are suckers for buttons! Muhaahahahahahaha, (cough) I mean, Peace and Love to All! So anyone anywhere in the world can have these delightful goodies by entering this swanky giveaway dealieo below cause us fabric elves are up on our technology! Yeah!

a Rafflecopter giveaway