Spring Break Excitement

Ah, spring break!  I use the term "spring" loosely here since the first few days were icy and freezing!!  I was not off that week, but the kiddos and Branson were.  We usually don't plan any trips for spring break mainly because I try to save my days off for the summer.  Anyway, I did spend a day at home after I woke up with a migraine that made me sick to my stomach.

That day, we had a bit of excitement...our house was almost broken into.  It doesn't seem like that big of a deal now, now that more time has passed, but I was terrified.  I kind of pride myself of being pretty tough, take-charge-in-the-face-of-danger kind of person, but you honestly do not know how you will react in that situation until you're there.

Around 10:30 ish in the morning, the girls were watching cartoons (did I mention it was FREEZING outside??) and I was in my sewing room, petting fabric, trying to feel better.  Dayna was heading to a b-day party around noon, so Branson was out getting a gift card and running a few errands.  Two men pulled into the drive way, one got out and came to the front door.  Mind you, the girls and I are in pj's, the lamps are on because it was so overcast/dark outside, and the TV was on.  One guy rattled the front windows a few times, I'm guessing checking for a dog? or to see if someone would come to the door?  I don't go to the door for people I don't know, especially in my pj's!  Anyway, he got back in his car and they left.

A few minutes later, they came back, backing their car into the driveway.  I told the girls to go to the bathroom and lock the door, keep quiet, do NOT come out for any reason.  Honestly, I wanted to hide in there too!!  I ran back to the window in our laundry room, saw the back of the car, and ran to the counter to write down the license plate number.  I have no idea what made me do that.  I called Branson at this point, told him I thought someone was trying to break in and he told me to get off the phone and call the police!  Well, sure, DUH!  Before I could dial, I heard the screen of my back kitchen window being cut by a box-cutter.  My stomach dropped.  I went to the kitchen drawer and got out the only weapon I could think of....my Pampered Chef meat lifters.  Those suckers are heavy and look like mini pitchforks.  I went right up to the window he was trying to get into and screamed "I'm calling the police!!!"  Thankfully, it scared the crap out of him and his buddy and they ran.  I don't know how I had the seconds that I had, he should have broken the window by the time I got there.  Maybe he was taking his time, trying to be quiet, or maybe he thought he heard me talking?  I don't know, but THANK GOD he stopped trying to come in.  He is a lucky guy too....because that meat lifter was ready to sink into his chest.

I called the police after I yelled and they got to my house in a few minutes.  We have 2 deputies that live on our street which helped response time.  About the time they showed up, I remembered the girls.  I was so caught up in just keeping those guys out that I couldn't think about them.  They were so good!!  They stayed quiet, Emma took her kindle fire into the bathroom and was emailing her friends, which kind of cracks me up!  I don't think they really knew what was going on until they came out.  I am so proud of them!

I didn't cry until Branson got home, and only then I just got a bit hysterical......until I saw Dayna about to lose it.  She is a sympathetic crier and cries every. single. time she sees me cry, so I held it together.

Branson left the house with the girls, took Dayna to her party, and brought home a shotgun.  I didn't want to leave the house unattended, so I stayed behind.  Brave?  Nope, just didn't want my stuff getting stolen!  Cuz I just KNEW the first thing they would try to take was my sewing machine!! Or my OOP, HTF, VHTF collection of fabrics!  Here we are, a week later, and the criminals were arrested yesterday while trying to break into another house about 10 miles away, idiots.

The deputy in my neighborhood told us that bands of burglars have been really hitting our town hard.  LOTS of break-ins, random selection, different men but all connected together.  They are connecting with each other on Facebook, of all things, posting about what streets are good to hit, if people are home, etc.  They are selling the stolen goods on FB too, avoiding pawn shops, which makes catching them so much harder.  Our sheriff department has a few undercover deputies that have friended these people on FB and have been able to track their movements.  I'ts just crazy....stuff I had never even thought of until last week.

If you're still reading, sorry for the long post!! The only crafty photos I have for this post is to show what I was working on the rest of the day, after all the excitement...ruffled zipper pouches!  We are having a ladies meeting at church the first weekend in April and I have a vendor table....so I made about 35-40 pouches for the event!  I've got about a week left and still have so much to do, but super excited!

Ruffle Pouch Addiction

So, I cannot believe it's been 2 weeks since I last posted anything?? wha???  This month is whipping by and I cannot keep up.  I am so excited I have a whole week off next week to spend with the hubs and my girlies!!  We have a few little things planned, but mostly just to chill and enjoy the time together.

Work has been hectic...I recently got a promotion and with that a ton of added responsibilities.  It's nice on one hand and hard on the other.  I'm thankful for my job, it funds my  fabric addiction  hobbies, ahem!  I am trying to be good, but it's so hard with all the lovely fabric coming out, gah, kill me now.

Some fun stuff I have been working on lately is little pressies for my girlies.  They are always in need of chapstick, pencils, pens, etc so I made them each a ruffle pouch for their stuff.  I am going to fill their stockings with all kinds of goodies to put in them to keep in their backpacks.  I may be more excited about it than they will be :o)  Sorry for the crappy phone photos...if you follow me on instagram, you've already seen these (sqragan).

 I made this one for me...because I ♥ AMH fabric!!

 this one is for Emma

this one is for Dayna

There are several more ruffly goodies I made up for them and need to get a photo of...cannot wait for Christmas!

Ruffled Zipper Pouch Tutorial

So, I know there are a TON of tutorials online for making pouches, purses, cases, etc.  I'm just adding one to the list :o)

Isn't this fabric yummy??  Aunt Edna by Denyse Schmidt...love her!!  By the way, what is up with how much the price has gone up for her fabrics at Joann's??  Used to be $9.99 a yard and not always on sale so you could use a 40% off coupon and get it at a pretty decent price...now it's $12.99 a yard and always 30% off, making it $9 a yard and you can't use a coupon, very shifty, I tell ya!!  Anyway, hopping off my soap box!!

Materials you'll need:

1 ~ 7" zipper (I have recently started buying my zippers at Zipit on etsy.  The quality, price, shipping are unbeatable)

2 ~ 8"x6" outside fabric

2 ~ 8"x6" lining fabric

1 ~ 3" x 18" strip for the ruffle

2 ~ 8"x6" pieces of batting (could also use interfacing but I used what I had on hand)

1.  Fold over and press 1/4" of the ruffle fabric along the long side of the strip.  I hate frayed edges...it just annoys the crap out of me.  I hate how it ends up looking so ratty...so this is my solution :o)

2.  Once you have both sides pressed, start folding your pleats/ruffles.  I pin both sides because I don't like my ruffle looking all shifted when it gets sewn down...picky, aren't I??

3.  Layer ruffle, outside fabric, and batting.  Sew down ruffle, along the top and bottom of ruffle.  I pin the crap out of the ruffle and then don't pin it down, not sure why.  Pin it if you want to :o)

Sometimes you have to let out the last ruffle just to lessen the bulk on the side seams.

4.  Lay your zipper, face down, against the outside fabric.  Check your zipper placement to make sure you like how the pouch will open.  I like my pouches to have the zipper open to the right, close to the left.

Lay the lining fabric, print side down on top of the zipper.  Pin in place.  

5.  Using your zipper foot, stitch along the pinned portion of the zipper, removing pins as you go.  Go slowly, making sure the fabrics don't pucker and shift.

6.  Once you're done with the first side, repeat with the second side.  The outside fabrics will be right sides together and the lining fabrics right sides together.  Your layer will look like this ~ lining fabric, zipper, outside fabric, batting.  It was a little tricky to get a picture of the layers.

Here is the layer again top to bottom ~ lining, zipper, outside fabric, and batting.  Pin in place.

7.  Stitch down.  Careful of shifting fabrics!  If they every make a zipper/walking foot hybrid, that would be awesome!!

8.  Trim excess batting above the sewn line.  This will help eliminate the bulk around the top of the bag.  

9.  Just for an added touch, you can top stitch along the zipper. Use the zipper foot and pull sides apart as you stitch.  I pull pretty tightly since fabrics like to shift under the zipper foot.

9.  Here we are!  Ready to put the pouch together!  Unzip the zipper about halfway.  You will hate your life if you forget to do this!!

10.  When you start to line everything up, you will need to make sure your zipper sides push downward into the lining fabric. Do this to both sides, and pin all the way around.

Push the zipper down into the lining of the pouch.  It gets all funky if you don't.

Everything is pinned and ready to sew together!

11.  You're going to leave a 2" hole in the bottom of the lining fabric.  Start stitching about 3 inches from the corner.  I back stitch when I start and at every corner since I seem to be pretty hard on these pouches!

CAREFULLY sew over the zipper ends...I have snapped many a needle at this exact point.  Not safe, my friends, not safe!

12.  Once you sew all the way around, trim up the batting edges, clip the corners, and get your bag ready to turn inside out.

13.  Turn your bag, pushing out the corners.  You can either slip stitch, or machine stitch your lining opening.  I just machine stitch...again, hard on pouches!!

All done!!  Here it is, all ready to be filled with goodies!!

I'm crushing big time on the color grey at the moment....you'll have to forgive me if all of my sewing project have grey in them these days!

Ruffled Pouches

I have been seeing ruffles everywhere lately...all over Pinterest, blogland, catalogs.  I love ruffles!  If you've never ruffled before, it is just too easy to pass up!  I recently made a camera strap slipcover with a ruffled front, and I have to say I love it!  There are many ways to ruffle, but the method I like the best is to simply set your sewing machine tension to the highest it will go and the stitch length to the longest and then just sew your fabric!  Because you've changed the settings, it will ruffle as you sew.  No basting stitches to pull (and break as is the case most of the time with me) or worrying about pulling the threads out of the fabric completely.  If you want your fabric more ruffled than what you get, you can still gather it and scrunch it together...but what I like is that your thread STAYS PUT!  So, give it a try and you'll be glad you did.

Thursday I spend the day with my sis-in-law just playing with fabric and I made a couple of pouches and a bookmark for my nose-in-every-book-she-can-get-her-hands-on Emma :o)  She was thrilled beyond belief and swiped it before I could get any pics of it! 

My new make-up bag...not a big fan of the raw edges...they just become so messy SO fast!!

New change purse...HAD to finish the edges here...couldn't help it!

Anyway, I plan to do some other variations of ruffled pouches in the future.  My husband saw my ruffly goodness and asked me..."so what's with the ruffles?"  He doesn't know they will be a part of my living room curtains in the very near future....insert evil laugh here :o)