Sew-A-Bration of Womanhood

Have you been following the Sew-A-Bration of Womanhood over at the Shaffer Sisters and Call Ajaire's blogs?  Well, they were nice enough to ask me to participate.

The purpose of this series is to celebrate womanhood and our "common threads"....seriously, it's amazing when I read posts from bloggers all around the world, we really do have way more in common than we have differences.  If only sewing bloggers ruled the world....

Since the theme of this is to sew either for yourself or someone you love, I realized that I had the perfect person to sew for.  If you've read my blog, you know I sew for my youngest daughter, Julia.  Well, I do have other children, so today, you get to hear about my older daughter (and former middle child until Julia came along) - Melissa.

Melissa was born at 2 pounds 2 ounces.  Surgery, etc.  Weighed about 1 pound 13 ounces at one point.  But, literally from the get-go, this kid wouldn't give up.  See, Melissa is a fighter.  A competitor.  One of the absolute hardest working people you will ever meet.  And, one of the nicest.

Melissa was a gymnast her entire life.  It really defines who she is.  Now, she's graduated college with a degree in exercise and sports science, works as a certified personal trainer, and a gymnastics coach.  The kid works her butt off.

Melissa is engaged.  Yes, she is.  To a super-nice, just plain old good guy.  Aren't they cute?

So, I decided to take this opportunity to celebrate the day when my child will be starting her own house/home.  And, since she lives currently in my house, she seriously has no "house stuff".  So, I thought I make her some.

I started with the Divided Basket Pattern by Noodlehead.  Really, who doesn't need some containers in their life?  I knew that I wanted to use some very cool fabric - it's called Comfort Words from Yuwa.  It has a whole bunch of very positive expressions and words on it, and I really thought it would be perfect for just about anywhere in their house.

I also wanted to make some things for her kitchen, so I made these as well:

Have you ever made an oven mitt?  Well, I hadn't until this project, and now I'm going to be making a TON - super easy, and now I've got no excuse for having pitiful potholders/mitts in my kitchen.  I just used a tutorial I found somewhere (which I lost the link to...sorry!) - but putting the band on the bottom was an absolute bear, so I think I'd put it together differently next time.  The towel is a purchased one with a strip of fabric sewn on - how ridiculously easy?

To me, there's nothing that celebrates womanhood more than the anticipation of starting a new and exciting chapter of your life, so I'm glad this gave me a little bit of a push to make something for my older daughter!

Thanks to the Shaffer Sisters and Call Ajaire for asking me!

Here's the list of folks participating - definitely, go check out their blogs as well!

The Life Of A Compulsive Crafter | Serger Pepper | House of Estrela | sewVery | Our Busy Little Bunch

Modern Handmade | Golden Rippy | Sew & Tell with Mama Eggo | Shawnta Sews | Fishsticks Designs
Ali Cat & Co | Paisley Roots | Like a mother | Giggles & Beans | Call Ajaire
Shaffer Sisters | I Married Superman | A Jennuine Life | If Only They Would Nap | Once Upon a Sewing Machine

Naptime Creations | Pattern Revolution | Two Many | Rebel & Malice | Simple Simon and Company

SewingSober | Handmade Dress Haven | Daisy Chain Creations | Swoodson Says | I'm Feelin' Crafty So Cal Sewing Mom | Keep Calm and Carrion | DandelionDrift | The Crazy Tailor | Max California 

Falafel and the Bee | Lexi Made | Winter Wonderings | Kid Approved | Scientific Seamstress
Becca DuVal | Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop | The Berry Bunch | Little Kids Grow | leighlee
Feathers Flights | That's-Sew-Kari

Scraps...

I have a big tub of scraps under my sewing table.  Yesterday, my 19 year old son told me about a friend of his - another 19 year old - who, although he's kind of a hipster, he's cool.  (Quote from the son).  This 19 year old boy has apparently got himself a sewing machine, and is teaching himself to sew.  He's making backpacks.  So, my son left the house with a box of fabric to take to this kid and to get himself a custom made backpack. 

See, we sewing moms are cool!

While going through my scraps, I came across a pretty large piece of Happy Robots from Kokka by Nancy Wolff.  Her art is so cool - I loved this fabric right away.  The scrap in the scrap bucket deserved more than relegation to the bucket, so I made up this:

I used the Divided Basket pattern by Noodlehead.  I've got several versions of this basket in my "favorites" section in Flickr, but have never made the basket up.  Really, the trip to the fabric store to get the appropriate interfacing and fusible fleece took longer than making up the pattern.  I highly recommend it - it goes together beautifully.  There are a couple of spots where there was quite a bit of bulk (hence the tiny pleat in the front that I'm way too lazy to pick out) and I'm sure if I owned a walking foot that it would have been helpful. 

I see many, many more of these in my future.  What a great way to present a teacher's gift, a baby gift?  I'm keeping this for myself.  Julia is not happy about it, but tough!