The Ongoing Quest for Fabric and the Shirt of my Dreams

This past week, I found some really great fabrics for a few projects I've had in mind.  Above is my newest fabric additions.  The past couple times I've went, I've been really drawn to the "artist series" of fabrics they are carrying.  Last year I bought some of this fabric by Heidi Grace.  My usually crafting style doesn't really feature too much fabric that has busy prints.  I'm usually drawn towards small prints and not too overall distracting from the main color.  However, I often really find great fabrics with lots of color and big prints, but can't usually find a good use for them in my day to day sewing.  Maybe I'm just plain in my choices.  Or maybe I just prefer small prints.  Anyhow, I have yet to use the yard I got of this fabric, but I love it. 

Speaking of of big prints, I absolutely loved this one I found!  It's very similar to fabric that Ikea offers.  I like the flowers, birds, and nature inspired designs.  I'm definitely planning at least one pillow and another very exciting project with this one!

This fruit fabric definitely has a retro vibe going, but I think it will be really fun to use for kitchen textiles.  Maybe a few pot holders and kitchen towels?  It also would make a really nice and graphic pillow.  (Yes, pillows are a new favorite thing of mine.)

The whole reason I even went to the fabric store wasn't to stock up on fabric (which kind of happened anyway), but to find suitable shirt material.  Last summer, I made a few sewing goals.  The goals included making a dress (I even bought 2 or 3 patterns) and making a blouse.  I didn't make the dress (I did cut out 80% of the pattern pieces) and I made a few attempts at a simple tank with shirring.  The tank wasn't really what I wanted.  I think it might have been okay, but the fabric just wasn't right.  It seemed  little too stiff.  It seems to be really difficult for me to find the type of fabric I want for my shirt.  I like my summer shirts to be pretty thin, soft, and usually a simple print.  I have a few shirts I bought that have the exact material I want, which just seems to be 100% cotton or a cotton/silk blend.  But the only fabric at the store that's even close to the same feel I want, is either too silky or the silky/polyester/see through material.  All the 100% cottons are really stiff, even after repeated washings.  So I guess my question is, where can I find suitable shirting fabric that is lightweight and in nice prints?  

Until I find it, I figured I should start practicing.  So the top 2 fabrics in my new fabric stack and the purple gingham (which is almost the exact feel of the fabric I want, just not really the ideal print) are my practice fabrics. 

The pattern for this shirt I found last year on the Sew Mama Sew.

I love the the style of the shirt and the pleated details of the back.  Why isn't it easier to find shirts like this one in the stores?

So, I'll be practicing with my fabric and keep checking the stores until I find "the" lightweight summer shirt material I want.

Finding, Buying, and Assembling...with a surprise

Last week, Kinsey and I headed to Ikea with hopes of finding "the perfect" desk/worktable for each of our craft rooms. We both were currently using a 6 foot folding table that was good, but was a little un level in the center and looked rather temporary. We hoped to find something that would give us room to work, but wasn't quite as long. The longer the table, the more clutter and other things were on it.
Here's my current set up.  Note: I usually have much more stuff on my table, but I was in the middle of a massive craft marathon the day before, so I cleared everything off for more room.



I found this option minutes after we first walked into the showroom section.  (I love the curtains to the left of this desk.  If they were a little thicker they'd be great for our house!)
I liked the drawers a lot and it was around 2 feet shorter than my current table. Also, I thought the white color would look nice against the light aqua walls.

I thought I was set.  Now we just needed to find a suitable desk for Kinsey.  We walked into the desk area at Ikea and were a little overwhelmed with all the options.  If you're at all familiar with Ikea (and really, who isn't?), you know that you can customize your perfect desk - tabletop, legs, shelving, drawers, etc.  We found a basic top - light pine and about 47 inches in length.  Then I found that this little drawer shelving fits perfectly under the desk as a replacement of a side's legs.  
Kinsey loved this and liked the idea of some storage for his inks, pens, and collage materials that were really close at hand.  I fell for this combination as well.  The original desk I found was nice, but was quite long....much longer than what I had wanted.  And the drawer shelving was too good to pass up.  All my sewing notions just a pull drawer away?  Yes, please.

Here's our new desks in their packaging.  I love their flat packaging.  It means even more goodness can fit in our hatchback.

So on to the assembling! I will say that the "Micke" drawer has the most small parts I have ever seen with an Ikea piece. It was a little overwhelming, but we love putting things like this together!



Less pieces= almost ready for crafting!


Yeah! Drawer together! Last step: Time to put the tabletop and legs on.


Wait - what's that big hole in my table top that is discovered of course after I just screwed both legs in and am in mid turn to set it on my finished shelving drawer? Yes, my brand new tabletop has a hole the size of a half dollar.


Really.  I don't really want to return this.  Ikea is 70 minutes away.  What to do?

Luckily,  Kinsey was okay with the idea of putting some wood filler in the spot and using it in his room.  He was planning on putting a plastic cutting mat on his desk top to begin with so a little dab of wood filler wouldn't make a difference.  Crisis avoided.  Here's my new desk set up. 
Now, I just need to get the rest of the room in better order!

Summer on the Porch

A little bit ago, K and I went to Ikea to look around for a desk for his art studio. We came across their outdoor furniture section and fell in love with this four piece set. After carefully making sure it would fit in our hatchback, we set our sights on setting it up and all the great meals we'd eat out on our back porch. I must admit, I bought the set really for the bench seat. I've wanted a good bench for a while, and loved this one. The entire set cost what I've seen just a good wooden bench cost. The large chairs are really comfortable as well.


The bistro like chairs didn't come with the set. But did come from Ikea as well.


My favorite seat.


A shot at dusk.

A little bit from our past weekend....

This past Monday (in case you didn't know by now, our "weekend" is Monday and Tuesday!) we took a trip to the Baltimore Ikea. We went not really having any big purchases in mind, just a few small items and maybe just to look around. We've both been really liking one chair in particular the past couple of trips to Ikea. The "Poang" model. This chair has been around for a while and at first neither of us were really crazy about it. It just looked, well sort of uncomfortable. One day, we sat in it and realized we were wrong. Very wrong actually. It's quite comfortable and actually has a nice shape. So we ended up finally buying one. We opted for the straight black one and hope to make our own slipcover for it. An extra $89 for a green cover didn't seem like a bargain when this one was just $28. I didn't have a chance to take a picture of ours (it's rather dark right now) but here's the one from the Ikea website. Ours is just like this one, except our wood finish is more brown.



This past Christmas, Kinsey's parents gave us a really nice down comforter. We hadn't used it yet, because we haven't had a chance to make a proper duvet cover for it. We found two really nice covers for only $12 each. One is a light blue with circles, and the other is a green and white pattern. This one is on our bed now:





Kinsey's bread of the week was Challah. Here's a before and after shot. This was my favorite bread to date that he's made!





So good!