Mamma Americana

A New Dress

O.K. so this is my first attempt at sewing clothing and using a pattern. I bought the Simplicity pattern (9784) for a cute pinafore dress for Eleonora when I purchased my sewing machine. The name "Simplicity" gave me a sense of comfort, being a newbie and all. The Reader's Digest New Complete Guide to Sewing was a big help (thanks Joanne!).

It's not done yet. I still have to make the button holes in the back and add two buttons. And throw it in the wash. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Most importantly it seems to fit!

Cicadas and a small Ikea kitchen hack

I wanted to write about cicadas last week, while the temperature was soaring, but didn't get around to it. Over the weekend a storm moved in and cooled things down considerably. As I write this I can only hear a few cicadas singing outside. Not the usual din, but they'll be back at it in no time. 

For anyone who lives in an area with cicadas, they are part of summer's soundtrack. Their arrival means that summer has officially begun. Although it can be irritating at times, I've grown to love their song. Here is a picture of a Tuscan cicada. And you can hear their song too. Not sure if it's the right species, but you get an idea of what they sound like.

On to the hack. I've had this kitchen hutch for a couple of years. At first, I liked the open shelving. The dust finally got to me though, and I decided to cover it up. I couldn't find it on Ikea's web site, so they must not sell it any more.

I sewed up some "curtains" using a small gingham print. Then I sewed some velcro to the tops and used adhesive velcro on the hutch.

No more dust or clutter! Yeah!

This and that

Here are my projects from this past week. Sorry for the short post, but I'm off to the doctor's for a check up in about an hour. 

Pegasus that I embroidered onto Eleonora's hooded sweatshirt. The design is from Andrea Zuil's blog Bad Bird's. I love her art work. She has a free embroidery design available on her site every month.

A little felt bag that I thought the kid needed to go on the front of her tyke bike. She was trying to carry her doll and push herself around at the same time. Needless to say steering was impossible and she was only getting frustrated. Now dolly has a place to ride.

Two journal covers that I made for gifts yesterday. Can you tell that I'm in love with felt? Sooo much fun to work with and sooo many colors! The design for these came from Betz White's book "Warm Fuzzies". Great book with lots of fun projects. 

Have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday.

New beginnings

The old sewing machine that I inherited from Lorenzo's grandmother a while back has been gathering dust. To me, the sewing newbie, a 50 year old machine without an instruction manual is more than intimidating, it's downright scary! So it sat, and it will continue to sit because I have a new machine now. It's a Brother Innovis 80, perfect for a beginner, but it has enough stitches to keep me busy for years to come. 

 

My first project was a tablecloth made out of the cutest vinyl coated fabric:

The design is called Oh Cherry-Oh! I bought it at the Sew Joe Stitch Lounge along with my machine. So the machine went into a carry on bag and across the pond. Glad to have it. We'll save the old machine for heavy duty stuff in the future.

My "new" old sewing machine

Yesterday I inherited a sewing machine that belonged to Lorenzo's late grandmother Maria. It's a Borletti, which is no longer in business. I believe that it's about 50 years old, judging by the info. I've found on the web.

Now, I have no idea if it is in working condition, but I'm honored just to have it. There is still thread in it from the last Nonna Maria used it. 

A family friend will take a look at it for me and see if it needs some work or not. She used to work as a seamstress and has offered to give me some sewing lessons, which I need because I have no clue where to begin.

And now the weather: Fall is on it's way in. We had a massive thunderstorm on Friday afternoon, with hail. Then it continued raining all weekend. This morning the temperature has gone down, it's overcast and starting to feel like fall.

View from our front balcony.

Pretty Kitty Kitchen Towels

I'm really enjoying embroidery at the moment. Here is a set of kitchen towels that I made. There are two more that I haven't started yet. They're from vintage patterns I found on Flickr There are so many cute ones out there, it's hard to choose.

I've had a thing for vintage embroidery since I was a kid, especially of the tea towel variety. Grandma had quite a collection of tea towels and I always loved looking at them. They bring a smile to your face every time.

Dreamy baby pillow and Sun Valley

I finished my first real embroidery project yesterday. It's the "Sweet Dreams Baby Pillow" from Aimee Ray's Doodle-Stitching. The bunny is shown sleeping on the face of the moon. The moon rabbit legend is popular in asian cultures. It's a cute buddhist story about charity and generosity. We see a man; they see a rabbit.

Tomorrow we leave for a week in the mountains. This is our only week of what I consider a real vacation; i.e. no cooking, cleaning or laundry to do. We'll be staying in the Val di Sole (Valley of Sun) area of Trentino. I can't wait to get out of this heat.

This will be the third year that we've vacationed in Trentino. The first year we stayed in Folgaria, high up in the mountains.
Last summer we stayed in Riva del Garda at a lower elevation, as I was 8 months pregnant.

See you in Sun Valley!

Fun with felt

My first attempt at sewing/embroidery was inspired by a project in Amanda Soule's book The Creative Family. It has a simple felt baby block project that I decided to try a few weeks ago. I found some online instructions for a slightly larger version at Canadian Living, and I went with that one. It was a fun first project, and I plan on making at least one more.

Two different views of the same block:

The babe enjoying her new toy.