Manni-keen, and other FNSI tales

Chunk-e-licious

I invited myself over to Sandra's for Friday Night Sew In.
Our pal Amanda joined us for the fun. She and I made mannequin pin cushions, as presented on DYI Dish.

Amanda's pretty project

This a very easy, and very cute project. I love dress forms, and so does Amanda. It all looked so promising. I even found lovely fabrics and some thrift store finds to complete the mannequins.
Amanda did an amazing job. I did not.
After completely messing up the seam allowances, I produced a chunky chica instead of the shapely lady presented on the DIY Dish tutorial. SIGH!!!!!

Fixing fluffy

I am re-doing it. Yes, I will post it when I am satisfied.
On the up side, we had a wonderful time. I fixed Sandra's rusty scissors, a fluffy dinosaur she wasn't happy with, and I found her a template she needed for another project.
To paraphrase John Milton, "They also serve, who only sit and rip out seams..."
Thank you Sandra for lots of fun, and for taking the photos.
Check out the DIY Dish if you haven't already seen the great tutorials. It wasn't their fault. I didn't do 1/4 inch seams, and if you ignore the 1/4 inch seam, nothing good can happen.

FNSI fun in fotos (mostly)

iPad tote inching toward completion.

FNSI was a fun group event at our house.
I am inching ever closer to finishing my iPad case. Yay! Sandra stitched some bags for family friends. Amanda had a long week at work, so she had some dinner and then she browsed through Pinterest. She also cheered us on.
FNSI was lots of fun as usual.
In other fabric news, Fabricland had a 40 per cent off everything members sale this week. So, I scored some real pure linen.
Hugely expensive at regular price -- as if ever paying regular price for fabric is something I regularly do. I always just look at the linen. But, in that hard to find Tilda doll colour, it had to be mine.

Samdra and her panty bag...

 Hope everyone had a great FNSI. I hope to visit some blogs later on this weekend and see what everyone else was up to!

Amanda on Pinterest

Hello Dollies -- is it a square or chocolate bar?

Sandra's finishes.

A lot of 40 per cent off linen. The printed bit is from Quilt a Bag.

A FNSI flop and a wacky wobble...

iPad tote materials gathered, just not constructed...

 I was determined to make a tote for my iPad for my  FNSI project.
The iPad arrived in my life following a stroke of luck. My son won it, but didn't want it. He wanted money for school. I bought it from him -- the money was going to be handed over anyway, at least I got a cool new device out of it.
It has a leather cover, but I wanted to make a padded tote for it as well, with space for the charger/cord. The main fabric is a dec. weight gingham, the lining is a Riley Blake flannel, the accent fabrics are some stripped linen and an ancient piece of fabric bought to make teachers' presents when my kids were in kindergarten and Grade 3. Yikes! (The technology hadn't even been invented then, and I already had the fabric to make the tote for it. Amazing!) The handles are adorable Japanese ones from Quilt a Bag. I just love them.
See? I was motivated and surrounded by cute inspiration. I got as far as envisioning the design, collecting the materials and doing the measurements. Did I cut? No. Did I sew? No, I did not. Every time I started, I was called away to do something "urgent". I am not even kidding.
Each time I picked up the rotary cutter, the phone rang. I had the ruler lined up, and my mom needed me for something. Eventually, I gave up on the project for the time being. I want to do a good job, but if the planets aren't quite aligned properly, I see no sense in trying to charge onward. Maybe I will get it done on Monday -- Make It Happen Monday. MIHM isn't quite as famous as FNSI, but I have a feeling it might work better for me -- at least for this particular project.

Wobbly, but finished!

I did manage to work on my VERY LARGE Tilda jewellery mannequin. The pattern is from Sew Sunny Homestyle. Just for fun, I enlarged it 400 per cent.
I found a wooden candlestick at Goodwill before Christmas and I had a round wooden plaque. I glued them together for the stand and got to work on the mannequin. I was pretty pleased with myself by the time I had it all put together.
However (you knew this was coming), engineering is not my strong suit. The large size demands some adjustments to the construction. I had mounted it on the stand, glued the wood into the figure and sewed around the opening by the time I realized its centre of gravity is a bit off -- frustratingly -- just a bit. Not surprisingly, at some point this weekend, I am going to do some revisionist construction to eliminate the wobble. (sigh)
Nonetheless, it is something to show for an otherwise wacky FNSI. Here's hoping other people had a more productive evening. I'm off now to check on a few blogs.