New Fabric/New Find Friday #105

Whew is it Friday again?! It has been busy around the Designer Jules house. We are preparing for baby number two which makes all things harder for mama. The first trimester sickness makes me go to bed at 9:30 every night which makes for less time on the blog and in front of the sewing machine. It really just makes days fly by faster than I would like.
I wanted to get this Friday post out today so that I don't feel like a total slacker.

These two fabrics are just ones I picked up while I was out a while back. I love the pattern and colors of the fabric on the left. I was never really one to like these darker fall colors but the orange on the brown with the green is to die for. The fabric on the right is another example of purple that I don't mind. When it is mixed with blues and greens. I thought at first that this could be used for a boy but now I am thinking it is a bit more girly with that purple in there. A sweet little print that could be great in a quilt.

Here you can get a better idea of the colors on the fabric. I hope that in a few weeks my energy will be back and I will be back to the three blog posts a week, until then please bear with me.

Have a great weekend!

New Fabric/New Find Friday #104

These fabrics are actually making me hungry! Just looking at all of this chocolate brown fabric makes me want to grab a piece of chocolate. I was on the lookout for some neutral fabrics that would be good for nursing covers and thought brown is a safe gender neutral color and a lot of women love to wear brown and black.

The three fabrics on the right are what I purchased to make covers to have in stock and ready to ship. I have yet to make all of these but they are cut and ready to sew. I think there is a pattern there for every type of woman. The far right for the sophisticated woman who is used to business suites or just loves houndstooth. The one over to the left is for the woman who likes more patterns in her life. The third is for those women who love a little fun. The last fabric with the red dots I just bought in a fat quarter size but isn't it so much fun? Those red dots look like cherries to me. I have no idea what I am going to do with this fabric but that never stops me from buying extra I don't need when I am at the store. ;)

Here they are all stacked up. Now they are reminding me of a hamburger. Am I hungry or what?! Crazy.

Well I hope you all enjoy your weekend.

Something Pretty To Wear While Cooking

So I don't really cook. I mean I make meals for my family because we need to eat but I would not say I cook. I put chicken on a pan to bake, make rice, and boil some veggies....sad. I would love to have more passion and desire for it but I do not. I would rather sew or even clean. When I do get around to cooking a lot I love to wear aprons, you can just wipe your hand on it and not worry about your clothes. I cut a bunch of aprons out of fabric that I had on hand and here are a few that I had a chance to sew.

This apron actually sold and it takes me back to retro sixties kitchens with pink and green. The pink fabric on the waist and ties is a pink polka dot fabric.

I still have this apron and it is perfect for Valentine's day tomorrow! It is a brown fabric with pink, yellow, orange, and white hearts on it. I coordinated it with brown and white polka dot fabric.

Finally I made this one out of this fun bold pattern with the coordinating black and white dot. I love these color and how bold they are against the white background. It sort of reminds me of artwork during the Pop Art movement. Those bold posters that look like they are from the comics. This apron is sold but I would be happy to make one just like this again! I think it is just so fun.

This apron will be featured again hopefully with the two children aprons that I made to go with it.

New Fabric/New Find Friday #103

I am always on the lookout for shirts and camisoles to layer with shirts and dresses that are low cut in the front. I have a whole drawer full of camisoles but some of them are just not cutting it anymore. They make me too hot, they are too low in the front, or I have to keep pulling it down because it bunches around my hips. When I was pregnant I couldn't wear some of them because as my belly got larger they would not fit or just ride up my belly. I saw these Halftees and was so excited to find an option to make dresses more modest but not add bulk around my waist.

Here are two images from their site. The one above is the tank top under a dress and the picture below is of the long sleeved lace shirt under a dress. Two totally different looks.

I wanted to post this testimony from their site as well since I have not gotten one for myself yet.
"I can't say how much I love these! I can make almost any dress or top modest now, without feeling bulky and being able to nurse my little one easily!"

That is really all of the reasons that I can not wait to get one for myself. Check them out HERE. Now I have to figure out which ones I want to buy. Do I get the tee-shirt, the 3/4 length shirt? Off to figure that out.


I am not receiving anything from Halftee for posting this New Find.

Personalized Napkins

Right around Christmas I had an order from Etsy for eight napkins with initials on them. I was so excited about this order because this was my first big order for napkins. It was like a new adventure making sure they were all perfect and mailed out quickly so that they could be given away and/or used.

Here is the whole set. I have no idea if I even paired the last four up correctly or if that is a family of four. I have no idea if these were going to be given as gifts or used at a Christmas/Holiday dinner. I like to imagine that this host used them as place cards/napkins and then gave them away to their guests at the end of the night. How cool would that be?!

 Here they are close up. This is the font example that I had on Etsy and I like the way it looks on the napkins and it gives it that spray painted stenciled look. I would like to try playing around with different fonts but I would want to make sure they are thick enough to show up when printed. The font color is black but I have a ton of colors and would be happy to make a set of these in different colors.

I was just thinking with Valentine's Day coming up I should maybe make a set of napkins with screen printed hearts on it. Maybe I should make a set of napkins like my kitchen towels for different holidays. I would have to make a set of two matching napkins for each because hopefully no one dines alone on holidays. ;)

I am excited with how they turned out and I can not wait for my next order of personalized napkins.

Black and White Cover

Last Monday I talked about the two E shirts and today I am showing you the cover that their mom got for herself. She had baby number four right before Christmas and needed a new breastfeeding cover. She wanted something neutral since she was not finding out what she was having and this is the fabric she picked. This fabric would go really well with any outfit and it has a nice pattern to hide spit-up but isn't too over the top. I hope she likes it!

I have a few more covers in neutral colors that are cut and need to be sewn. I wanted to make more of them in blacks, greys, browns and yellows to be purchased for those who want something a bit more neutral. They can be easily given as a gift this way if they are neutral.

Medicine Case

If you can remember back to last Friday's post where I talked about the laminated cotton fabric, here what I made out of two of the three fabrics. A friend needed a medicine/makeup travel case and wanted me to make her one for her holiday travels. I was excited and nervous because this is something that I have yet to do, but I was willing to try. I gave her some fabric options and she choose the pattern you saw Friday (and below). We talked about what she would need, how big it should be and how it should function. Here is an image (silly camera turned it sideways) of the finished case from the outside front. Notice the sheen on the fabric, that is the laminated cotton. It closes with a Velcro strip across the front and I made sure to match the pattern of the fabric so it looks good when closed.

Here is the open case with the two pockets. One side has a white mesh pocket for her syringe and medicine vials that she will have to show to the TSA people at the airport. She wanted them visible so she did not have to take everything out. Looking back I could have used a clear plastic instead of the mesh, you live and learn. The other side is a pocket for her alcohol pads and anything else she might need or want to have that is not something that anyone will need to see. I again tried to match the pattern that is on the front with the pattern inside. This was one of my first time doing zippers in something like this and I was so proud of myself when I figured out and made it work the first time! And the pattern matches! Whew!

Here is a side view of the case, I put a little bit of padding in the case so that the glass items would have some cushion while traveling. It was a lot of fun to figure out and I think it works well for what she needs. I am not sure that this is something I want to make over and over but I now know I can do it.

I was going to make a set of something like these for a friend when she was getting married but I was so afraid of making so many (like 10) and screwing them up before her big day that I told her it would be best to buy them. After making this I know they would have been too expensive to make, but that I could have done it and I didn't need to be so scared. Lesson learned.