Is Somebody Singing?

Enjoy~


Chris Hadfield on the International Space Station and Bare Naked Ladies (on Earth) debut their collaboration "Is Somebody Singing".

I'm having an AWESOME week!

First of all, I can finally see the sun again!  Yay!  Up until this past week when I go to work it's usually still dark out, and when I leave work at 4:00 pm it's already dark again.  But the season's are changing and I can literally see a light at the end of the tunnel! 

Of course, I had to spend a couple of hours shovelling snow off my roof to make sure it doesn't leak inside, but that's a very small price to pay~

On top of that I made an appearance on a local TV show doing crafts!  I was shaking in my booties but I tried to embrace the experience and just went for it.  I was so nervous and shy that I didn't take any photos of what went down and there's no online link but I've been asked back again, so if I return I'll get a little more guts and take some photos and do a post.








We made Valentine's versions of my Personalized Tea Bag and Heart Bookmark projects.

And thirdly....not only is one of my projects in a new e-book from allfreesewing.com, I made it to the front cover!  Whoohoo!

Check it out and download your free copy now~

How's your week going!  Aren't you glad spring is almost here?!?!?  (I know it's going to go back down to -30 by next week but I need to live in the moment when the weather is like this or I'll go crazy.)

Healthy and Pretty Air Freshner

Do you have a bunch of these things laying around?

I know, I know, they're very, very bad for you.  But I only just found last year and I haven't bought any since.  I figured there must be something I could do with the empty ones though so I kept them.

I also had this roll of washi tape laying around that I didn't know what to do with.

So I put the two together and got this!

Then I filled it about 1/3 full with essential oil and the rest with water.  Plug it in and you have your own, healthy, air freshner, that looks a little different than everyone else's.

I wrapped the tape around the edges but there's an opening in the back so that if I need to check if it's empty or not I can still see inside.

I think this whole project took me about 3 minutes to complete.  Don't you love projects like that!?!?

Lacey Top

Do you ever look through your closet and wonder what the heck you were thinking when you bought something?

I found a t-knit turtleneck top in a drawer that I purchased as a layering piece for under a tunic I made.  But when I put it on the whole thing reminded me too much of Robin Hood, so I've never worn it.

So, as usual, I got out my scissors and made it into something new, and much nicer!

Here's what you need to make your own lacey top:

Materials:
T-knit top
wide elasticized lace (mine is 6 3/4" wide)
standard sewing kit
sewing marker (not shown)

Steps:
1) The first thing I should've done was iron my top, but what I actually did was turn it inside out and cut off the sleeves.

2) Next, decide what you want your neckline to look like and lightly mark it out with an erasable pen or pins.

3) Cut along the lines.  Mine is a boat neck so it looks like this now:

4) You can skip this step if you want but if you're anything like me and raw edges drive you a little batty, just go ahead and serge or zigzag your edges, turn them, press them, and sew down.

5) Tack the edges at the top of the shoulder together. Don't worry if it doesn't line up perfectly.  It's going to be covered up in lace right away.

6) Now the fun part!  Get our your lace and pin it to the sides of your top, wrapping it all the way around the top of the shoulder, creating a sleeve opening.  I didn't have enough lace to just go straight up and down so I angled the back piece into the side.  Make sure to start your lace about a half inch lower than your hem so that you can turn it under (later).

Play with the placement of your lace and come up with the most flattering lines.

Sleeve

Under sleeve

You can never have too many pins!

7) Stitch down your lace, sewing close to the edges.

8) Don't forget to go back and turn your hem and sew it down.

And that's it!  So easy!

Oh! and here's one more tip!  If you want to take it one more step and make it a little more sassy (aka: sexy) cut out the fabric underneath the lace along the sides.  That way you'll have peek-a-boo sides without showing off too much.  I'm hoping to wear mine to work so I'll just leave it as is but for you more adventurous girls... go for it~

*This lace is very similar to the lace I used for my boot socks so I'm going to answer the question that kept coming up with that project....I was very, very lucky and got my lace in the bargain bin at my local fabric store.  Look in the elastic section, lace section, embellishments section, or the bargain bin at your store.  I can't tell you exactly where to find it because it's often a speciality item that isn't carried regularly.  I have also seen it at Wholeport Crafts (link on the sidebar, and no I do not get a commission for any sales there, it's just the only place I've seen it online.)

I think it looks prettiest with contasting lace.  What do you think?  What colours would you put together?  Leave a comment below~

This project was featured here:

  

Proud to be Canadian (and a little Geeky)

OK, today's post is completely off topic but I'm pretty excited about it so I figured you might be interested too...

Have you been following @Cmdr_Hadfield on Twitter?  He posts the lovliest photos from the international space station, plus he's Canadian so I like to support him~

It's entirely possible that I've been slipping his name into conversation too often lately because a friend of mine recently sent me this link: http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/webcast.asp  along with this note: "Something tells me you'll be interested in live streaming this".

What? Commander Hadfield and Captain Kirk chatting live through space?

I have no idea why my friend thought I would find that exciting~

The Canadian Space Agency is hosting the live chat today at 10:30 EST HERE or on Ustream HERE.

Commander Hadfield is also releasing a new song with the Bare Naked Ladies (another group of awesome Canadians) on Friday on CBC music!  It doesn't get any more Canadian (or geeky) than that!

Update: Also on YouTube HERE.

Drapey Blouse

Remember way back in December when I told you about some pretty McCalls patterns I wanted to try?

 Well, I made another one....

It's just a plain jane blouse for work but it's kind of pretty.  I made view D from McCalls 6651.  I wanted to give it a test run with some cheapy fabric before I went for the super drapey short sleeve one in the large pic below.

You can see the leggings (McCalls 6173) I made here.

Next up will be this gorgeous jacket:

McCalls 6657

What's on your list of things to sew?  Leave a comment below~