Owen is asleep . . .

. . . and Sterling has taken Asher and Myles to the museum. Ahh. The peaceful quiet of a rainy Saturday afternoon. I really should be sewing away, seeing as how I only have a few more days until the bazaar. I just couldn't help my urge to have a little photo shoot with some of my creations. (Last time, I didn't take many pictures so I was sad when my owls all left me . . . :)

Here is a sneak peak of some of the goodies that you will see if you come to the bazaar next weekend.

As you can see, some of the projects are unfinished. I guess that I had better get back to sewing! :)

We sure hope that you can make it. If you can't, don't fret! Jeremy and I will soon be making items similar to these available in our shop.

But I don't know how you are going to get some of Stephenie Higginbotham's yummy cupcakes or see Colett Yarro's beautiful artwork in person . . . humm, you better just come!! :)

For the LOVE of fabric!!

Dear Bloggers,

My name is Zoe Jacobson, and I am a fabriholic. I know that this may come as a shock to many but, I assure you, the signs have been there all along.

Symptoms of this disorder may include:

A) Extreme giddiness at the arrival of a package of fabric. (i.e. bursts of joy, jumping, and strange faces.)

B) Desire to roll around naked in fabric . . . but with clothes on will also do.

C) Urge to fold fabric over and over again until it is "just so". Then, placing the fabric on a shelf, drawer, table, bag and henceforth referring to it as "My Precious".

I am not ashamed to admitting my weaknesses, while others may cower and desire not to show their face.


It is like I am always trying to tell those in my support group, "Acceptance is the first step. Don't be afraid to embrace your obsession!!"

And so, to lead by example-

My name is Zoe and I LOVE fabric!

Wee Wonderfuls

. . not to steal Hillary Lang's website name or anything! I just think that this phrase best applies to anything small and cute that has to do with these tiny little people that come into this world.

Recently two of my friends gave birth to little girls. (Of course, girls girls everywhere except in the Jacobson household!) I LOVE creating for little girls so, I found these cute little projects.

Actually, my friend Jeremy (who shares many creating passions similar to my own . . . who really really needs to get a blog so that she can share her talents with the world) had the pattern for this jumper and gave me the idea for the onesie. (humm, and the onesie. I will pay you back Jeremy!)

And so, in my Amy Butler Lotus fabric, which I know that you have seen before because I love it and happen to have a lot of it, I present, a jumper.

Jeremy had this pattern. I usually steer clear of patterns because I find it so less confusing to just throw things together in my head. However, Jeremy convince me that I could do it (and also taught me that apparently, how you cut your fabric does matter . . . on the straight and what not).

Of course, it was to be expected that mistakes would be made. Originally the ties in the front were suppose to be knots, as pictured.

But Zoe, being the anxious-to-get-it-done girl that she is, decided to do it all one night into the wee hours of the morning. As a result, the button holes are too big (and apparently going in the wrong direction).

Fortunately, Jeremy and I were able to come up with the cute solution of connecting the straps in front to make a bow. Awww, so cute! :)
The other project I have lovingly named Little Bird.

This one was really simple and fun to make. Plus, I got to add those cute ruffles to the bottom that just make you want to squeeze those little baby tushes!

Anywho, I just wanted to share these projects with any of you who might be looking for some wee wonderful ideas! :)

Chair Makeover

So, I did this project a while back and I wanted to share it with my blogging buddies. I inherited this chair from my mother-in-law a few years ago and it has sat, quietly waiting in the corner of our playroom, for a makeover!

One day, I found this picture in the Crate and Barrel catalogue. I loved this chair, but not the price! Humm, you can tell where this led me . . .

I went to Home Fabrics (a fabulous CHEAP fabric store) and bought this fabric for . . . . $3.50 a yard!!! Can you believe it!? I think that the batting cost more than the fabric but overall, the whole project cost me under $50.

I started off with the ottoman, which I thought would be easier and better to experiment with. It turned out to my liking! :)

At this point, I decided that I could take some pictures, as it didn't look like a total disaster! LOL!

Next, I traced out a rough outline of the chair body onto my fabric and cut it out. I pinned it, right side out, to the chair so that I could make any adjustments, make sure that the fabric was straight, and trim off any excess fabric. It was important for me, with the print of this fabric, to make sure that the lines were all lined up.

After the fabric was adjusted, I unpinned it and cut the stuffing out to match the pieces. I then re-pinned the fabric, with the stuffing, to the chair, wrong side out, like so -


I sewed these piece together and trimmed off the excess fabric. I basically followed the same steps for the whole chair.



You can see that I traced the curve of the arm so that I would get it right when I sewed it. Nothin' too professional!! LOL!

For the bottom, I decided to sew the outer flaps on first. I basically took the rectangular measurements and then sewed them separately, with an iron on interfacing to give them some stiffness. Then I added them to the main body.


One thing that I regret is that I did not make these pieces wide enough. In the end it didn't really matter but, I wish that I had had the patience to undo them and make them wider so that they would be closer together at the edges.


My last step for the main body was to put together the inner panels on the base of the chair. I didn't hem these pieces because I decided that I was going to staple them to the bottom of the chair. When all four sides were sewn on, I turned the fabric right side out, put it on the chair, and closed up the edge of the slipcover by hand. Then came the stapling.

For the cushion, I made a simple pillowcase-like slip cover. Don't you love my professional terms here! :) LOL!

All in all, I am proud of the final product! It doesn't quite look like the Crate and Barrel chair but it was a heck of a lot cheaper! That works for me. My kids love the chair too, theY have already turned it into a fort, a slide, and a trampoline. :)

Friendly Tote Tutorial

I say friendly because, hopefully, this tote is not too hard to make. I have been making these totes for a while now. A few of my girlfriends wanted to learn how to make them so I compiled this lovely tutorial. :) We got together and had a sewing party/a.k.a. Girls Night Out. I think that there was more eating and sex talk then sewing but it was a great excuse to get together!

Anywho, I have put the tutorial here for any who would like to try. Please let me know how it works out for you!

Friendly Tote Tutorial

Looking forward to . . .

In all of the Christmas chaos, I forgot to mention a few of my favorite gifts. My dear mother gave me some gift certificates for a couple of online fabric stores, Sew Mama Sew! and Reproduction Fabrics. I have been searching these websites since Christmas - trying to find a way to limit my purchases to somewhere under $300!!! There is just sooo much amazing fabric out there. I think that I might be a fabric junky. I think that after I post this, I might just go searching for some kind of anonymous support group to help me through my addiction! :)

Yesterday, I finally narrowed down my purchase at Sew Mama Sew!. I am so excited for Denyse Schmidt's new pattern, Single Girl, to arrive!!

Let me just tell you, I saw this quilt and could not get it out of my head. I LOVE it. I haven't actually ever made a quilt via a professional pattern before, but this is just the thing to pull me out of my late funk. I am going for it. Yep, forget housework, forget exercise, forget the laundry - as soon as that pattern arrives, I am gettin' my scissors out. So, stay tuned for great things ahead.

I present . . . a bag.

Well, it seems only fitting, given that it is "Bag Month" over and Sew Mama Sew!. What's more, they are also having an awesome contest!! I cannot pass up a contest . . . as most of you might know. LOL!

This was actually perfect timing because my sister-in-law, Megan, just gave birth to the precious little Ronan. A couple of months ago, when she saw the totes that I made out of Amy Butler's Lotus fabric, she commented on how cute she thought the fabric was. Right away a vision of this diaper bag came to my mind and I thought, "Hey, I could do that . . ."

This was actually a first for me. Most of the bags/ purses that I have made have been pretty basic. This one required a little more thought and . . . dare I say, elbow grease!!

I started off by sketching out a pattern. With a lot of wrestling, seam ripping, and bent needles, this is what I came up with! A quilted, messenger style diaper bag. I am actually rather proud of it. :)


The reason that I say "wrestling" is because I used a super thick interfacing so that the bag would be really sturdy. It is sturdy, but bending that stuff inside and out was not easy. I was soooo grateful to have my Necchi! Man, that thing is seriously a workhorse!

Here is a picture of the interior of the bag. I would like to point out that it actually has a zippered pocket! This was also a first for me and something that I never could have done without Autum's awesome tutorial!

I made a couple of slip pockets for things like a cell phone, bubble gum, and lipstick. (You know, all of the essentials!) I also made a bottle holder because I don't know about you but, having a leaky bottle rolling around in the diaper bag is not a good thing.

My sister-in-law is a wee little person (which I think is cute)! So, I made an adjustable shoulder strap so that she could fix the bag to her height.

So there you have it, my first diaper bag. I hope that Megan likes it and that it proves to be as efficient as I hoped it would be.

A Wonderful Surprise!

I have been so busy that I forgot to mention the awesome fabric that I got from Kristin over at Sew Mama Sew! She does these great "Free Fabric Fridays" where you respond to a post on her blog and she picks some very lucky winners. Well, LUCKY ME! I was one of them. Yippeee! :)

I had a million ideas for this fabric. I had a friend who just gave birth to a little girl so . . . of course, I had to make some baby booties first. Now I think that I will make a tote with the rest!

Thanks again Kristin!! :)

Finished . . . finally!!

I had sooo much fun getting ready for this boutique! I mean, buying all of the fabric that I love, creating projects and ideas that I have been gathering, just plain creating!! I loved it! But, right now, my house is a disaster area, my husband is patiently waiting for my full attention, my baby doesn't remember me . . . LOL! Well, that is not really true but, you get the idea.

The boutique was by all means successful, although there were not quite as many customers as we had hoped for. I have several products left over so - I am actually thinking of opening an Etsy store. I am not sure what I am going to do right now. If not, well, I have plenty of Christmas presents!

I almost forgot to take some pictures so I was happy that there was still a bunch of stuff still there when I went back the second day. One of my favorites was the red, blue, and grey tote bag shown in the picture below . . . it was also one of my best sellers. I think that I am going to have to buy more of this fabric to make one for myself. :)


I also made some cute baby bibs, some lunch totes, and of course you can see the bunting I mentioned in my last post.

Also making an appearance were my sock monkey wallets. These were one of my favorite creations from the mini swap. My friend's little boy spent his allowance money to buy himself one of these. It was so flattering to me that he would want it so badly. Of course, I cut him a good deal!! LOL!

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I thought that this might satisfy my need to create but I find that I only have more and more ideas. All the more reasons to maybe do the Etsy thing. I don't know if my husband is going to cut me off though!! LOL! I know, "moderation" is a word that I really need to learn!

For now, the preschool year is coming to an end and so this means crunch time with the yearbooks. I am gearing up for 4 days of wall to wall graduations and late nights on the computer. (Which reminds me, I am now coming to you from my NEW laptop!! :):) I LOVEEEEEE it sooo much! I love it! Thank you Sterling!!) This pretty much did me in last year. I do love designing the pages though and I feel such love for this little kids as I have followed them throughout the school year. Next fall, Myles will be going to the preschool so I will get to make an extra special book for him. :)

Hopefully I will make it through the next few weeks without losing my sanity and gaining 10 lbs!! (Which is also another topic that I need to address - I have been doing sooo bad with Weight Watchers these days. I finally quit last week but, after a week of no guidance, I have decided to go back to the fold! LOL! I just need to dig down and find the motivation and commitment that I need to lose this weight!! Why does it have to be so hard for some people . . . oh, another post . . . )

Anywho - here's looking forward to summer break!! :)

Sewing, sewing, sewing!

If you were to come to my house right now you might notice that everyone who lives here has some sort of thread or fabric scrap stuck to their clothing! This is mainly because I don't have a craft room to call my own - thus, my house turns into project central and everyone has to be a part of it . . . even Owen who has taken to eating the fabric scraps that fall on the floor!

It has almost been like Christmas time around here with all of the packages of fabric arriving in the mail!! I don't think that there is anything better then getting fabric in the mail. Well, maybe getting fabric at the store!! LOL!

I have been sewing like a mad woman trying to get ready for the little boutique that I mentioned earlier. I have about 2 weeks more to get ready. Enough time? I don't think so but, I am going to do my best to get all of my items ready.

One thing that I am doing is bunting. I must admit that this adorable idea came to me from various blogs and websites such as Kirsten's,Posy's and Shannon's. I don't think that many people in my neck of the woods have seen this cute decorating idea so I thought that it might be a hit. If it isn't, I will have a lot of bunting hanging around my house . . . or maybe the outside of the house . . . or maybe on my car! Yeah, I like that!! LOL! :)



As you can see, I do not have much to show for my efforts but, creating is a process that will blossom when you least expect it! (Yes, I did think of that on my own!! He he!)

Anywho, I will have to post more pictures when I actually have something to show you! :)

One project down . . .

I am pleased to announce that after 2 years of staring at the ugly thing that we used to call a headboard, I have finally covered it and made it suitable for living quarters! My mom was just in town visiting and so we went on a fabric extravaganza! I think that I bought too much for my task at hand but I could not decide so, I got it all. I love fabric!

I bought the wooden headboard 2 years ago for $20! Can you believe that?! I got it at a place called Down East Home. For those of you that don't live in the Salt Lake/Utah County area, let me tell you about this awesome store!! They sell scratch and dent Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma and Red Envelope stuff to name a few. Sometimes, you can find the best deals and bargains. Just a month ago, I bought some velvet Christmas stockings for $1 each. Of course, they were embroidered with somebody else's name but you can seam rip it out or sew a ribbon over it. So, this headboard was one of my many finds.

First I hot glued some 1" thick foam to the surface (a trick that I saw on Trading Spaces). Then, I stapled some quilt batting all around the board and the edges. The last task was stapling the fabric piece to the board . . . making sure that it was centered (for the most part!) and straight.

Et Voila! The finished product. Don't pay any attention to the color of the background wall. That is on my next "To Do" list. It doesn't really play well to my new violet/lavender/rose color scheme. I am contemplating even painting it blue . . . maybe. :)

A close up of my handy work. I might also add that part of the reason that it took me so long to cover the headboard was because I took forever finding the right bedding that I wanted. A while back, I had aspirations on sewing the bedding myself. Alas, I am only human (LOL!) and I finally decided that it was more efficient to just buy the bedding. I found some awesome bedding made by Pine Cone Hill. I LOVE their stuff!!

And, I just have to put a good word in for Classic Chic because, I had originally ordered the same bedding through Layla Grace. Well, that was back in September. They kept telling me that it was coming and yet, no package. When I would email their customer service department, I would get the run around, only to discover at the end of the conversation that they were not even looking at the correct order. When I switched over to Classic Chic, they were soooo nice and helpful. They felt bad that it had taken me so long to get the bedding so they even expedited it for me. Maybe Layla Grace does better with other products but waiting 7 months for some bedding just wasn't going to cut it for me.

So . . . anywho. I feel like I am finally catching up with some of my project goals. Isn't it ironic that the bedroom is always the last place to get the makeover?! I will just have to paint the walls, make some throw pillows for the bed, and add a couple of other touches and then I am done! I will have to post more pics when that happens!

Project Central

Hello my long lost friends!! I thought that I was never going to be able post again . . . the way my life has been lately! I have missed my blogging outlet and I am so excited to get back to reading up on how everyone is doing.

As for me, well, I feel like I am back in college with deadlines and anxiety! I have been feverishly working on designing individually customized yearbooks for a local preschool. They need to be finished by the end of May. I am counting down the days until they are done so that I can be free of this pressure. This has been an 8 month long project that I am actually going to be quite proud of when it is finished. I will definitely be posting some pictures! :)

In between my days and nights at the computer, I have also been able to pump out a few projects for friends and neighbors. I am proud to introduce my very first knit stuffed animal.

I got this FREE pattern from the Jess Hutch website. I totally recommend it to anyone looking to venture out in their knitting. The instructions were excellent and the pattern was fairly simple.

I also made these receiving blankets out of the fabric that I bought a month or so ago. I am not the best seamstress but I really enjoy sewing. I think that my problem is that I am always in a hurry so I don't really take the time to slow down and make things truly accurate. That and the fact that my sewing table is our coffee table and my cutting board is our floor!

I have to admit that I got this idea from the website Mahar Dry Goods. I LOVE the stuff that is on this site and some of it I thought, "Humm, I could make that!" Of course, it is not as professional looking.

After I finished the blankets, I decided that I wanted to keep the red one for my little person. The blue one I gave to my neighbor . . . along with the bunny.

Another little project (You can tell where my mind is as these are all baby items!) was a set of bibs for my neighbors daughter. She just adopted twins, a boy and a girl. So, clever me (LOL!) I thought that I would make them boy/girl friendly by making them reversible. I was happy with how they turned out.

I am excited to get some of my "projects" out of the way so that I can get to working on the important stuff . . . like getting my baby's room ready!! I am so excited that the time is drawing closer. Even though three months is a wait, I feel like it is coming quickly!

Well, I guess that I had better get my kids dressed for the day . . . I mean, it is only 11:20!! LOL!