Wednesday, June 8, 2011

I love sewing

So lately I've found a new hobby that I really enjoy and that is sewing. My sister-in-law Renae, does a lot of crafts, so that's what somewhat inspired me. I usually will copy something she makes, but will make it my own somehow. Also my mom is very handy with the sewing machine and can whip something up so fast. She always fixed my school dance dresses to make them modest. I would tell her kind of what I wanted then she would make it. She's awesome. Then my friend Kelsey and I always talked about how we wanted to sew dresses and skirts and anything we could think of. So during a Thanksgiving sale (I think), my mom was in town and we saw that Target had a sale on sewing machines, so we got one. I didn't really use it at first as I had NO idea what the heck I was doing. Then my roommate and I wanted to make matching Christmas vests for our roommates, so that was the first time I actually got it out. Caitlyn did most, well all of the sewing because I was scared that I would mess them up somehow. The fabric was absolutely ridiculous, but that's what made it fun. Then during Christmas time I went home and my mom took me to Hobby Lobby and we got 20 patterns or so because they were all $1. So thinking that would get me in the sewing spirit, we got a whole bunch and it pumped me up. While I was home we got some fabric to make a skirt (which I haven't made yet) and fabric to make a purse. We made the purse and that was hard. My mom helped me a lot on it, or just showed me what to do, and then I would do It. My friend shawna was over that day, and she literally sat right next to me every step of the pattern. ( I was trying to be creative and use pattern for sewing instead of just using every step of the way. ha) We sat at my table for hours and at the end of the day and help from my mom, and moral support from Shawna, we made a pretty cute purse. Then when I came back from school I wanted to make skirts and Renae showed me a lot of sewing blogs with tutorials. I soon fell in love with step by step tutorials because I quickly learned that I cannot follow a pattern to save my life. I am not educated in the "sewing language" and I don't understand what they are trying to tell me.

Anyways.. the moral of this long story is that I love sewing, and I wish I would of shown more interest in sewing when I was younger. Maybe one of these days I'll take pictures of everything I've made and post them.

 But this post is to show my last project that I made. I wanted to make my dad something for fathers day, and what better to make than a tie? It was the perfect present because he wears ties everyday to work. I found a pattern at Joanns and it looked simple, but once I opened up the instructions I knew I was done for. Ha. But I tried hard and I finished the tie. I didn't like how it turned out, so I found a tutorial online. The only thing about the tutorial is that the tie is done strictly by hand stitching. Well, I gave it a try and after a couple days of working on it, and watching you-tube to learn new stitches, I finished the tie and it looks like a normal tie.

This is what the tie looks like. There is a lining inside and everything. (Hope you like the ghetto background. It was either that or green carpet.)




This is a close up of the fabric.

So, happy early fathers day to my dad. Hope he likes it, and when I go home this summer I will have to take a picture of him actually wearing the tie.

Monday, June 6, 2011

I finally caved in...

I blame this whole blog on my friends Kelsey and Mallory. 

After several months of telling me, well practically begging me (like I have an interesting life or something) I finally got a blog. It took me about 1 month to even really consider having one, and then the past couple weeks Mallory and I have been trying to think of a good "blog name" and finally we came up with one. We came up with so many ideas, then would shut them down so fast. I said I had to have a good name, or I wasn't going to make it. So then after about a solid 2 hours of talking on skype, we came up with "Joyefully". My middle name is Joye (yes, spelled with an E) and we thought it was creative and cute. Now here I am, writing my first post. 

I somewhat regret making this blog because that means I have to update it, take pictures of what I am doing/making, and somehow get creative with things. But then there is some part of me that is happy that I made one because then my other friends who don't live here in Utah, or my mom, or who ever, can see what I've been up too and maybe it will even get me to actually start taking pictures. (Usually that is Kelsey's job--love you Kels. ha) So we will see how this goes. I think it will be fun, but I already have no idea how to work things on here. Hence the no color and lack of pictures or anything. Hopefully that will change soon...