Day fourty six: kitchen jungle

Sometimes all it takes is one glance to know what I want to sew from a fabric. I love when that happens :) One of my precious jungle friends sent me the sweetest birthday surprise package containing an adorable jungle themed fabric. The moment I laid my eyes and hands on it I knew: an apron! This came as a surprise to me since I don't even wear aprons. Obviously, this was supposed to change :) 
Luckily, I stumbled upon this free pattern which seemed flattering and classical enough for my taste. I skipped all the fancy loops and buttons and used just the measurements and the arm hole cut. The jungle apron was quickly finished: clean and crisp, ready for a test drive. Three days and one casserole later I finally admitted the obvious: the top part of the apron was too large for me. This realisation was followed by a heartfelt internal struggle between sewing a simple dart in front (2 min job + messed up animal print) and tearing the whole thing apart to readjust the sides properly (at least an hour, but no deformed animals). Those of you who know me might be astonished to hear that I actually tried the dart option at first :D It didn't last though. I just couldn't stand the way it messed up the jungle, so I ripped up most of the seams, deepened the arm holes and adjusted the straps. There! Happy me and happy animals :)

Day twenty seven: giraffe in the wind

I know people sometimes complain about all the fabric leftovers and have hard time figuring out what to do with the scraps filling up their drawers, shelves and corners. Well, I'm not one of them (so far) - 'my scraps' inspire me. For instance, two tiny pieces of the giraffe fabric in my mind suddenly materialised into a tote and a make-up bag. I started with the tote, as I was impatient to try out the window concept and to see the result.

When the bag was ready and all the windows closed, I invited Mr Giraffe to accompany me on the balcony for a quick windy photo-shoot. He even wore his fancy tie for this occasion :)

Day twenty six: cute and cuddly

After spending half a day choosing Christmas fabrics (and then doing it all over again after my virtual shopping cart magically emptied itself) I'm ready to admit: having no choice sometimes can be easier than having too many options. If we lived in a world where there is just one kind of Christmas print, I'm sure we would all just take it and make the best of it. But instead we can (and we do!) spend hours and hours browsing and wondering until some of us just end up overwhelmed and overinspired and/or broke :] Anyway, I have done my best to scrap a bit from everything: I'll have my trees, my hearts, my candles, some dwarfs and an occasional reindeer, so I should be all set for seasonal sewing. While I'm waiting for all that to arrive (oh my) I spend my days creating these cute zip pouches and dreaming of all those friendly-looking forest creatures entering our home. 

Day twenty three: owls and foxes

How about two birthdays every year? Yes, please :) Since we do celebrate our name days, I feel like having a 1.5 birthdays every year, but I still wouldn't mind having one more day to embrace all the love and joy in the world (oh yeah, I'm a birthday spirit, a huge fan of flowers, gifts and surprises, both give and take). But these things happen! For instance, one of my friends is officially entitled to celebrate her birthday two days in a row since she was born on one day, but her birth certificate states it was the next one - as unbelievable as it may seem, a  bureaucratic mix-up can eventually lead to something good. This friend of mine has a soft spot for owls and foxes. Since the 'double birthday' is coming up, I went into the fabric shop hoping to find something foxy or owly there and imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon this adorable fabric featuring both animals and an occasional hedgehog :) Splendid! And after sewing a cosmetics bag I still have enough fabric left over to make a smaller bag or a pencil case for the birthday girl's daughter.

Day twelve: your friend giraffe

So I went hunting (like women do) and returned home with a pile of delicious fabrics and 100 ideas for new projects. The safari-themed fabrics had 30% discount and I just couldn't resist the giraffes - such adorable creatures. I decided to dedicate my next reversible tote to them :)

Day eleven: a horse with no tail

This is a story about amazing women and somewhat unconventional animals.

Soon after becoming a proud owner of a sewing machine I came across this website: it was the first page I bookmarked in my "Sewing" folder and I keep revisiting it. The amazing lady behind this site is Dana from Austin, Texas and I truly admire her energy and way of doing things with such ease and creativity. Her tutorials are splendid as well, so I decided to make this reversible tote. It sure needs more fabric than a cosmetics bag, so I looked critically at my thinning stash of sewing materials and chose two animal-patterned pieces of fabric. This is where I must mention another wonderful woman: my friend Irina who has been an amazing help and inspiration to me since the very day I decided to buy the sewing machine. She is Mrs Crafting in our circle of friends, so she gave me a very good advice about the machine itself and provided a pile of fabrics from her collection for me to start with. Thanks a million, dear!

I specifically remembered having a piece of linen with horses which would be just perfect for my fist tote. And it was only after I had already cut it when I suddenly realized: wait a minute, those are no horses... where are the tails!? And then I leered at the other part of the bag featuring blue and orange deers and decided to go for the psychedelic zoo theme :) The result is goooood and reversible.