Fabric

My Week In Pictures

May 17, 2013 By Kirsten Leave a Comment

It’s been a happy week around here involving a new couch, LOTS of fabric-y & crafty goodness and extra snuggles with the littles.

Rather than say {ok, TYPE} it out loud, I’m linking up with Life Rearranged for Insta-Friday. If you’re not on Instagram, you are completely missing out on my super favorite place in the whole of social media! So much visual eye-candy– and a great way to connect with friends.

I’d love to follow you. Click right here to follow along on my weekly adventures. Oooooo…and I just set up a LovespunStudio Shop account tonight {it’s still empty as I type, but it’ll fill up soon!} so click here if you would like to see what’s happening in the shop!

Enjoy your weekend! BTW, I’m taking the weekends off & away from the blog. With only one week of school left, it might end up being more than the weekends for the summer. But we can manage, right? After all, isn’t that what Instagram is for anyway? *wink*

Filed Under: Instagram, Uncategorized Tagged With: Fabric, kirsten, Molly, vintage, zippers

The Hipster Deer Cash Envelope Wallet System Makes Budgeting Fun

May 9, 2013 By Kirsten 4 Comments

Budgeting is a fantastic idea in theory. Well…actually budgeting is a super idea in practice too. But I’m not gonna lie, I get a little bit whiny about it. To be super honest, sometimes I even get a smidge sassy and sulky when I hear the name “Dave Ramsey.” But really, it’s not because I don’t believe in the whole cash system idea. It’s because:

#1 Its a pain not to use my debit card- -because swiping it is just soooooo easy.

#2 Those doggone stupid {excuse my french…you know, because stupid is a “bad” word in the Smith house} white cash envelopes get lost in the depths of my purse and the change falls out! It just makes me all flustered.

So after falling off the cash wagon for a couple months, when Jeremy casually mentioned that I needed to stop by and pull out money from the ATM last week, I huffed and puffed my dismay. I knew that it was the wise decision; therefore, he left me with only one option– to make myself a new “Dave Ramsey-cash-only-budgeting-friendly-envelope-system” wallet.

Some favorite fabrics that I’ve been hoarding, a trip to the store for zippers and a lot of tweaking later? Viola!

I snapped a quick pic the day before yesterday as I finished it up and posted it to Instagram and Facebook– and your reaction completely took me off guard! Apparently I’m not the only one who has been looking for an adorable cash-friendly wallet!

Because of your crazy love for this too– I offered FOUR {in return for their willingness to be my “guinea pigs”} at a huge discount to the first people on my Facebook page to respond that they wanted one while I get this pattern all tweaked and perfected so that I can offer it to you at the very highest quality. I do have these listed in the shop HERE {or click on the “shop” tab with the shopping cart logo up at the top of the page} for preorder. If you decide that you want to place a preorder, please read the product description in its entirety. The fabrics will differ from the fabrics shown, but you can request your color preferences at checkout.

I used this all day today and I LOVED it! There’s nothing more stylish than a savvy smart shopper!

Filed Under: budgeting, Shop Updates Tagged With: budgeting, cash, Fabric, hipster deer, stylish spending, wallet system

Grab-n-Go Fat Quarter Blanket: A Tutorial

October 22, 2012 By Kirsten 2 Comments

Happy Monday! I wanted to pull together a fun, quick and easy tutorial to share with some fresh fall fabrics designed by one of my very favorite designers~ Ann Kelle. Today I’m sharing a step-by-step of how to whip up this fun blanket to take along to football games, the pumpkin patch or to snag for those chilly mornings in the car or bus to school. My eight-year-old son has already pilfered this one so I guess it’s a hit at the Smith house. Before I get on to the nuts-and-bolts, here’s a little heads up that you need to come back tomorrow ready to meet the designer of these fabrics AND enter for a chance to win the pictured fat quarters! Yeah! {See you again tomorrow, right?!}

Supplies: 4 fat quarters, 1 yard of minky and cuddle fabric, 1 inch wide coordinating elastic

Step 1: Arrange the 4 fat quarters in the desired layout, creating a 2×2 rectangle. Pin two FQs together and stitch. Pin the other two FQs and stitch. Pin both pieces together to stitch.

Step 2: Create an applique- optional {it just jazzes things up a bit} I printed out an “S” in a font that I liked, cut it out, traced it on some red felt backwards so no ink showed on the front of the felt and cut out the “S.” Then I traced and cut a brown felt circle. I stitched the “S” on the circle and added very simple line of embroidery before machine stitching the applique to the top of the blanket. Feel free to email me at kirsten@lovespunstudio.com if you need any help with this part.

Step 3: Lay your minky/cuddle fabric out on the floor right side up. Then lay your FQ piece right side down on top of it. Your minky should be a little bit larger than your top piece– that’s ok. Go ahead and cut two strips of elastic 13″ each. Fold them in half and sandwich them along the outside edge spaced approximately 12″ apart. The loops should be INSIDE the blanket sandwich and the ends should extend just past the edge of the sandwich. You can see a bit in the picture below. Pin around leaving an 8-10″ opening for turning right-side out and stitch around the blanket with a 1/2 or 5/8 inch seam. Trim your corners and turn.

Step 4: I like to press everything nice and smooth at this point. It just gives your blanket a more polished appearance. To finish off, topstitch around the entire blanket 1/4-3/8 inch around the entire blanket. I used a green bobbin thread and a brown top thread so that everything coordinated well. Be sure to pin your opening closed first so that you have a nice even seam where you topstitch it together.

Grab it and go! …and enjoy!

Filed Under: fabric, tutorial Tagged With: ann kelle, blanket, Fabric, fall, fat quarter, sewing, tutorial

My Favorite Fabric Shops: An Online Guide

May 5, 2012 By Kirsten Leave a Comment

Hi there! I hope you’re all having a happy weekend. We’ve enjoyed the warm weather complete with t-ball games, frozen yogurt, walks and trips to the park. It’s been a joy-filled week around the Smith house overall. I’ll take it!

In other news, a few of my friends have asked me recently where exactly I shop for my favorite fabrics. So instead of pulling together another email reply, I thought it might be nice for me to give you my list right here so that you can hop on over and check it out whenever you want! The truth is, I buy pretty much ALL of my fabrics from online shops. Before anyone calls me out here, I’m sure that some of you spy a few Hobby Lobby deals in my stash and even some cute prints from Joann’s, but overall nothing beats the higher quality fabrics that you can find online (or in your local shop if you have the luxury of living near one!) So without further ado, let me introduce you to my favorite fabric shops~~ in no particular order. Trust me, they are all wonderful or I wouldn’t order from them!

Marie Madeline Studio- I absolutely cannot praise the Long Ladies enough. They are the epitome of sweet and helpful and kind and generous…and well, they just make me smile. Sometimes their prices are a bit higher than I pay elsewhere, but they do have incredible sales a couple of times a year. Just make sure that you subscribe to their blog to make sure that you’re “in the know” when the sales hit! They often host flash sales too– and you have to be quick-on-the-keys to snag your favorite bundles! Highlights: Tanya Whelan, Lecien, Flea Market Fancy, Original Marie Madeline Studio patterns~ Think bright happy floral prints in gorgeous modern colors and you have MMS! P.S. Nana’s dish cloths are awesome!

The Fabric Fairy- I love sewing with knits. The truth is that we wear a lot more comfy cozy jersey knit than stiff cottons. Nothing is cuter than a perfect pair of ruffled leggings and The Fabric Fairy keeps me supplied! (Now if I only had a cover stitch machine…) Also, Meghan is so nice and kind too! Highlights: knits, knits and knits…also great patterns for knits and lycra also now carrying more trims too- they also always include great swatches with every order too!

The Fabric Shoppe- Jody runs a fantastic fabric shop over on Etsy. Seriously, she puts together the yummiest bundles! Her eye candy displays will lure you to dive right in for that first online fabric purchase! Highlights Ann Kelle, Ty Pennington, Tula Pink, Amy Butler, Jennifer Paganelli, and more…

Fabric.com- Gulp! I feel a bit guilty ordering fabric from such a huge online retailer when I absolutely love supporting small fabric shop owners (after all, that’s what I sure hope to be doing one of these days and I want people to shop from me too!), but the fact remains that sometimes you can just get a really great deal on fabric at Fabric.com– especially if you already know what you’re looking for! (Be sure to do a Google search for discount codes before you order! There are a lot of them available.) Highlights: EVERYTHING…if you can find it all! Fantastic prices. Not nearly as much eye candy.

Fresh Squeezed Fabric- Randi is great at engaging her customers and friends with social media. Not only that, but she runs a cute little shop too! Highlights: Moda, Michael Miller, great bundles.

Other places to check out:

(There are more, but I’ll stop here for tonight!)

Do you have a favorite online fabric shop? If so, let me know and I’ll add them to my list. It’s always nice to share a little fabric-happy love, don’t ya think? Now, isn’t it time to start shopping?!

Filed Under: fabric Tagged With: Fabric

Doing What You Love Is Hard Work

March 29, 2012 By Kirsten Leave a Comment

Kirsten at City Craft Dallas Texas Oilcloth Fabric Dream

Me at CityCraft in Dallas, Texas. I'm in fabric-y blissdom! {Summer 2011}

Tucked away somewhere in the back of my heart was this little desire to do something…to dream something…to create something, but I never quite realized it was there. Too many roles and responsibilities in my life competed for my valuable time and attention. And that was ok. In fact, those other roles and responsibilities required laser focus. I won’t ever regret that season.

But my today looks different from my yesterday. Right now I’ve scooped up this seed of a dream and I’m sprinting to plant it in good soil so that it can take root. With the right amount of care it will soon sprout and bloom. But tending to dreams {or children, or marriages, or other responsibilities) is rarely easy. It takes an effort. Intentional nurturing. Late nights. Early mornings. LOTS of coffee. Kidding! {not really}

In short, It’s HARD WORK!

I read about someone who sounds an awful lot like the woman I aspire toward in my Survival Guide one day. She’s generous and kind. She cares about the poor. Her children respect her. Her husband trusts her. She’s a designer {Coincidence? I think not}… her story couldn’t possibly be any more encouraging to me! You can read about her here if you’re curious.

I see a common thread running through her story and mine already: She worked hard. She stayed up late. She woke up early. She was blessed. End of story.

If the story of my life was woven together like hers, I would die knowing that I’ve led a life well lived. That’s worth the hard work I think. No, I KNOW it is. So I’ll keep at it and see where I end up. I hope that you will too.

Some days we will work with tear-stained cheeks. Other days we will bubble over with giggles. Regardless of what each day brings our way, let’s keep working hard for our dreams, O.K.? I promise that I will. Will you promise too?

P.S. Before you ask…this is NOT the new short do. My hair was just pulled back last summer (and it was WAY too flat I might add. Good grief, I was in DALLAS, of all places, with FLAT hair! — where’s a “bump-it” when you need one?).