Sewing up a storm

I bought my sewing machine a couple of months ago.  It's beautiful and amazing.  I bought a Husqvarna Viking Emerald 203.  Yes, it was expensive...but since I'd been given a lot of birthday money for turning 30 (apparently everyone felt sorry for me), it didn't cost too much out of pocket.  I could have bought a cheaper machine, but I decided that if I was going to sew, I'd better do it right.  This machine is so helpful because it is electronic...seriously, even this sewing "dummy" can use it.

So, I bought this miracle machine in June.  Since June, I've made exactly one window panel, which technically isn't even complete because it needs lining.  So, basically, I've done nothing.  This past weekend, the creative juices started flowing.  

We desperately need window dressings in our kitchen.  We have two huge windows that are uncovered right now.  This is a problem in two ways: First, the sun is shining through in the evening making the kitchen so hot when I'm trying to make dinner.  Secondly, our rear neighbors can see all the way through our living room to our front door at night...not good.  Before we moved in, I had some custom blind companies come in and give me estimates on Roman Shades for those window.  The lowest price was $800...for two windows!  No thanks.  But hubby found a tutorial on making Roman Shades on YouTube, and it really didn't look too hard.  So, I bought the fabric from Joann's and made plans to make them...someday.  

This past weekend, I started working on them.  It really wasn't that hard.  I also found this awesome website with step by step instructions on how to make them.  You can also buy the hardware you need as well.  I found most of what I needed at my local craft store, but there are a few things I will have to buy from the website.  The link is here if you are interested.  Well, as it turns out, they are not that hard to make.  I've completed all of the sewing on both shades; all that remains is adding the ribbing, weight rod, pulley cords, and of course, mounting.  I did both shades in my spare time this past weekend.  Here's a pic of one of the completed shades.  

It's kind of hard to tell the color from this pic, but the fabric is a grayish, greenish, taupey sort of silk.  It's hard to describe, and it seems to take on different color traits when it's next to different colors.  I still have a lot of this material left (due to a rather large math error...oops), so I'm also going to make some curtains for the little window above our kitchen sink.   

Well, not only did I complete that project, but I had one more in mind.  My mom and dad bought Juliet a little toy kitchen to put in our kitchen so she can play in there while I'm cooking.  It's supposed to be delivered later this week.  She absolutely loves to open my apron drawer, pull out my apron and put it on, so I decided to make her a little apron to wear while she's playing with her kitchen.  I bought enough fabric to make a matching one for myself.  I took the opportunity yesterday while she was napping to make hers, and then I made mine after she went to bed for the evening.  Here's a pic of the aprons.  

I especially love the brown ribbon that I used for the waist tie.  I was really nervous about hers because I had to draw her pattern on tissue paper.  There are a couple of errors, (not going to lie) but on the whole, for my first attempt, I was pretty pleased.  

I still have some projects to complete, but I'm pretty satisfied with what I did this weekend.  I really want to finish these shades and get them up.  I'll definitely be posting pics of that when it's complete...can't wait!  I feel so domestic!