pond_ripple's Fabric Blog

This is the first belt pouch that I made to fit my phone. It's made from these faux leather fabric samples that were in my fabric stash. The sizes are pretty small which meant piecing them together to make the patterns work. This smaller bag is made from 3 separate swatches.  The main part is just a rectangle folded in half and an added strip on one side to make it the correct width. The loop is made very simply by trimming around the raised pattern, folding in half, and sewing firmly to the back half of the main piece. The pockets were done by cutting a swatch in 3 pieces and sewing them one on top of the other in a staggered fashion to the front half on the main piece. Then it was finished by sewing a seam along the side and bottom and turned right side out. The swatches had a soft knit backing so I kept that unlined. The Hydra pin was a gift from my brother :) The second pouch was a design as you go scenario. It's mostly a box with a flap that fits the dimen...

This is the first in a series of posts about my latest project, a fancy steampunk inspired coat. The pattern is loosely based on a Simplicity pattern, 2172, that I have been slowly altering as I go along. Here are a few sketches to show the basic idea for the coat. The Simplicity pattern I'm using; all the new pattern pieces made moving everything to an empty tin box necessary. This is my first sketch when I had simple dreams of adding a hood and maybe changing the neckline. This is a much later sketch showing how I've chopped off the patterned skirt in favor of a pleated and much more dramatic one. This also shows the fancier detachable sleeve option. I honestly don't know how many sleeves I will make. The plan at first was to do the pattern with a few small touches thrown in to make it my own. Adding a removable hood and changing the neckline slightly were quickly followed with making detachable sleeves, and adding a high collar in the back. The pockets b...

I originally found the pattern for the Undercover Maker Mat on Pinterest, and have finally managed to finish sewing my own! It comes from the blog lillyella by Nicole Young and you can see her post and get free pattern HERE . The mat doubles as both a sewing machine cover and a pocket filled organizer to keep all your notions et cetera at hand as you work. This was a bit of a stash busting project, which required a bit of editing from the pattern. This was almost entirely made up of test swatches which are approximately 8" x 8". The obvious thing  to do was try and break each swatch down into blocks of 4" x 4", but since they end up being slightly less than that, I decided to do a bit of fussy cutting to make 2 slightly larger blocks using the unprinted white space to remain attached in the seam allowance. Here is my rough plan of how to assemble my new pattern. The dimensions changed to 20" x 28" for each side before sewing and seam ...

I finished my Cantaloupe Vineyard quilt and I am so excited to be able to show it off! It was a long process, mostly due to me purchasing each of the 3 yards of the quilt top separately to keep within my budget. There was also an issue of some of my batting getting lost in transit over the holiday mail rush. I literally didn't get my last yard of batting until the beginning of February. The center panel is my  1 Yard Cantaloupe Quilt Block  with a yard of my  Richard & Regelwyn Portrait fabric split into two sections on the top and bottom. (If you wanted to do a similar quilt without my cats you can use Vineyard Quilt Tiles fabric instead.) The sides are a design made specially for this,  Cantaloupe Quilt Frame , that also uses a yard of fabric.  This is the finished quilt top. The cats were quilted around just like all the other elements to make them look slightly 3D! A photo from the side. I had to stand on a chair for this shot, and th...