wine and cowboys please

My best friend has twin boys who I adore. Both myself and my husband are only children so I will never have a real opportunity to be an auntie so I have made her boys my nephews and thankfully she doesn't argue.

I'm a pretty good Tia (Spanish for aunt) so when the boys were invited to a cowboy themed birthday party and my BF wanted to make outfits she called on me. Partly because she has no clue how to sew and... ok that was the main reason. She "helped" while I fashioned a mock pattern and by helping she amused the boys, poured me a glass of red and bought me dinner.

A few hours later two vests and two pairs of chaps were complete.

It was a project that was definitely easier done than said...

Coffee Cozy

I tend to sew small on most occasions. Meaning I like smaller projects for the most part. I really like that start and finish to be within the same week or night even. So I tend to seek out projects that I can do quickly and possibly over and over to make gifts for friends and family. The coffee cozy was perfect. Sew4home has a great step-by-step for one that I tweaked for my beginner-ness. I made the Scrap It: Ruffled Hot Cup Jacket with some scrap fat quarters I had laying around and it turned out great for my needs. Most days it sits on my desk under my iPhone, its a great vibration mode muffler :-) But today my iced coffee was way too cold for me so I grabbed and used it. Success!

Pillows

Pillows. Easy peasy as far as beginner sewing tutorials go so this ruffled lovely didn't take too long to finish.

I used Sew Mama Sew's basic pillow tutorial to get me started. Especially thankful for the awesome sizing table. I printed that sucker out and it hangs above my sewing table for quick reference.

Flower detail inspiration also from SMS and their Turned-Edge Appliqué Pinwheel Pillow except I used some scrap felt I had laying around.

 

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Zipper Envy

It seems that of late everything I want to make requires a zipper which is okay except for the fact that I don't have a drawer full of them in my tiny/minuscule crafting space so I have to end up heading to the store and buying one. This completely goes against my 'let's just sew something' tonight philosophy that sometimes hits me.
 
So... after reading and re-reading Sew Mama Sew's Guide to Zippers I finally bit the bullet and bought a bulk set from Zip It Zipper Supply. They're still in transit but I can't wait to have loads of zippers on hand. I got a (2) assortments: (25) 12" in bright colors and (10) 9" in neutral colors- huzzah!!!