Adele Sew-Along Day 1

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Welcome to this Sew-Along!  This is my first ever Sew-Along so I'm crazy excited.

The Adele was one of my first pattern ideas.  She's been around from the beginning and is still one of my favorites.  

I love the concept of a Sew-Along.  I couldn't possibly fit every idea I'd like to in a PDF file, they're stuffed full as it is! This gives me a chance to show you some variations on the pattern, upcycle a little and share (and receive) tips and tricks that can be used with other patterns as well.

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A Dog Silhouette Pillow on the Cheap and Easy

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Here is a dog silhouette pillow I made similar to those I've seen in decorating magazines. 

My pillow was super quick and easy to make using a painters drop cloth and permanent markers. 

I'll show you how but, first...meet Jack.  
Fifteen pounds of completely adorable,
totally out-of-control dog flesh.  

It was much easier to find a dog silhouette by googling "dog silhouette pictures"  than to get Jack to sit for a picture.  I enlarged the view and used a little cheat I've done before.  I taped my drop cloth fabric
over my laptop screen and very lightly traced the image with a fine tip marker.

I'm not recommending this...I'm just telling you how I do it...
it's your laptop...

I traced, removed the fabric to a flat surface and filled everything in with black markers -- how easy was that?  I like the "drawn on" look, myself.

Back at the computer, I typed "Jack" into a document, enlarged it to fit and cheated again by tracing directly from the screen.

I will say this all works best when done in a dark-ish room.

I drew a border with a marker around the edge.
  

There you have it -- 

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Make your own Pattern Weights

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It all started when I googled "pattern weights" and was asked by Amazon to "compare prices from $9 at 8 stores" for these. . .

Seriously, from $9...I think that means starting at $9.....for 4 pattern weights.  According to my calculations that's (hold on while I get my calculator) $2.25 each. 

Not I, said the cat.  So I set out to make my own. In minutes I had a half dozen ideas off the internet but none as easy as a suggestion by a friend to use butter knives.  She said she could still remember her grandmother holding down tissue patterns with them. Because I didn't have handy what I needed to make my own, I used my knives for a couple of weeks.  They worked out great and I would probably still be using them if my husband hadn't started questioning why there were never any knives in the drawer. 

Plan B, break down and go get what I needed -- the biggest washers (nuts, what ever they're called) I could find.  Eight of them for $5.  That's way more like it.

I bought the biggest my local hardware store had.

 I ripped lengths of my favorite cotton prints in strips about 3/4" wide.

 A dot of hot glue held the end in place so I could start wrapping.

 I wrapped the washers all the way around until I overlapped 

the spot where I started.

Then, put a line of hot glue across the end of the fabric and 

tucked it into the hole.

Cute!

 ...and they work almost as well as a butter knife.

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The "Annie" Dress

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This adorable dress could be Ruby Jean's favorite.  It was the dress that started it all -- the first original pattern that made me think I might have something to offer other sewers.

 This is the perfect pattern to using when upcycling a men's shirt.  The front of the men's shirt, used for the back of the dress, gives the dress a cute button detail...

The "Annie" dress is great for beginners!

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