Scholarship Contest

Hello everyone! In addition to my sewing and designing, I'm a high school student, which means that I'll be going to college soon..! And that means scholarship applications... So, if you'd like, feel free to read my scholarship essay that I posted here.
It has to do with shoes and podiatry stuff. It was rather fun to write :)

Footwear University Scholarship

So please read, and tell me what you think!

xoxo, Charlotte

DIY MacBook Air Laptop Sleeve

Since every student in our school now has a MacBook Air, I figured that I needed to create a sleeve for it to protect it's fragile body. (I'm typing on it now actually to create this post) After looking at multiple blogs and tutorials to try and find the best MacBook/iPad/Electronic Device case, I mixed and matched a few together to get this:

Pretty slick, huh? I had to text a few friends to decide on the fabric choice, but I'm glad I decided on this one. It's pretty nice. :)

Have a nice day!

xo, Charlotte

A skirt and a dress

A few weeks ago, I created (with the help of a 10 cent pattern from McCall's) a high-waisted (and when i say high-waisted, i mean high-waisted) skirt. Which can be worn with a nice white tank top and a cardigan so it conforms to the school dress code. (Stupid dress code. They didn't have one of those in Germany -.-) Well anyway, I haven't worn it into the social judgement of my peers yet (aka School). But today, I created another work of art which I probably won't wear to school either. But for the reason that it is extremely light-weight and more for summer than for Fall/Winter. Here some pictures:

Though it looks like a dress, it's actually a skirt.

Here's the dress in its dress style.

And here it is, skirt-style.

This little beauty was actually of my own invention. (wow, I know)

And how I came across the idea was by buying some fabric and just wrapping it around myself. Yep, that's how I design.

two more, up for sale!

I made two more I.D. wallets yesterday, and put them on my Etsy shop. So if you'd like to buy one, please don't think twice! :)

*Oh, and did I mention that the money made from selling these wallets will go towards a wonderful, absolutely amazing cause? Yep. All the money will go towards my trip to Germany next year as an exchange student! A good cause, if you ask me. ;)

xo, charlotte

New Etsy Shop!

So I decided that I'd like to start selling those little I.D. wallets that I've been making and posting about previously.

So, of course, I set up an etsy shop, which then sat there for about a month, with nothing in it.


Finally I get up enough motivation, and find the time, to finish one and list it.

Approximately 4 hours later, it's been sold. Fast service, or what?!?

(It was my aunt that bought it, though, so I guess that could be considered cheating...)  :)

But if you'd like to check out my empty shop, you're more than welcome to!  Here it is: Legit Crafts on Etsy   Hopefully I'll have more items in there soon.

xo, Charlotte

NeW fAbRiC...

It was a great day yesterday. Look what arrived...

I got some fabric on a whim, as a late Christmas present for myself. I got it from fabric.com, because it had all the fabric that I wanted, but I prefer to order from etsy. Fabric.com just shoves messily folded fabric into a plastic bag and ships it. Etsy stores aren't as commercial. :)

xo, charlotte

Happy New Year! (and another i.d. wallet)

Well, it's officially the New Year...3 days ago...but better late than never!

So, I forgot to take pictures of this I.D. wallet which I gave to my friend for a Christmas present...so she kindly took pictures of it for me. :)

This one also has the newly-invented strap on it. I found an even better way to do it (after I made this one), rather than sew through 24 layers of fabric.... :) You can find it here.

Did you know that on January 23, 2012, the Chinese New Year changes to the year of the dragon? Well, if you didn't, now you do. :)

xo, charlotte

Another I.D. Wallet

Remember that Cross Country team I mentioned in one of my last posts? Well, even though the season's over, we still have little parties from time to time. :)  This time we had a Secret Santa gift exchange, so I whipped up a little wallet in approximately 2 hours. No biggie. :)

Of course, the only zipper I had left was red, and I had absolutely no red fabric (and I hate the color red). So, I used other-colored fabric that had bits of red in it, so it's sort of matchy, but not super matchy-matchy. ;) Look at that random quilting...so fun to do... :)

And guess what? This time I added a wrist strap! I guess I'm getting inventive. (:

Well, that was a short post, but short and sweet, right? :)

xo, charlotte

Cosmetic Bags

With all the excitement of the holidays and traveling downstate in a rush, I forgot to take pictures of the cosmetic cases that I made for my aunt and grandma...so they kindly took pictures and facebooked/emailed them to me. :)

I can't remember where I got the tutorial, but if I find where, I'll update this post.

These were really easy and fun to make, and I learned how to do those special corners!(sadly, i don't know what their real name is....)

Of course, my zippers were too short, and the lining was too big, etc. etc. but it was a fun project! :)

xo, charlotte

A Lovely Combination

Seafood Chowder + Almond Milk = What I did on Christmas Eve Day... :)

Ever heard of almond milk? Well, I'll just say that it's interesting, and then you can make your own conclusions if you think it's a bad interesting or a good interesting.  It was a fun process, though. First you get to blanch the almonds, then wait 8 hours while they sit in water, blend, then squeeze through a cheesecloth. Then you get to try it, and remember that you forgot to add sugar so you have to blend it, and squeeze it again... :)

Also today, there was a little rivalry between two families in a seafood chowder competition, ours and another one (which i won't name because i don't want to ruin their reputation because they lost). I made mine and we had a taste-test which resulted in a tie, so with the tie-breaker.... i won! :)

They were very different chowders though. Their's was had tons of different ingredients and more fishy. Mine had fewer ingredients and was creamier. I personally liked mine better, but I'm kind of biased...

xo, charlotte

Handmade Vera Bradley Wallet Knock-offs

So, I found this amazing, awesome, super-duper fun tutorial to make Vera Bradley-like wallets. (You can find the tutorial here: ThimbleAnna's Blog)

I tweaked the tutorial a little to make them have rounded corners (instead of square) so they'll look more like Vera Bradley's.

I made the first one for my sister for her birthday.

The 2nd one I made for me. :)

And here's the cake I made for her (and her friend's) birthday. I only had one decorating bag left, so i was limited to two colors. they wanted pink and blue, but it looked like baby colors to me, so i changed it to pink and purple. Now it was only girly colors....

xo, charlotte

do. Good stitches {a Charity Bee}

Back in June or July, I was looking at virtual sewing bees and wishing I could be in one. I went to tons of different websites looking for a way to sign up when I finally found it.

do. Good Stitches. 

I signed up on their little document and waited, and waited, and waited, (i admit, i actually signed up again, thinking my first one didn't go through....)  :/   Finally, about 2 months later, they had enough people to start a new group! We were called "Trust" and we were benefiting "My Very Own Blanket".

Ok. Long story, short, We started in September, and have started 3 quilts, one of which is already finished! :) Each person does 2 blocks per month, and there's 10 people. 5 of the people have more commitment than I do, so they get to assemble the quilt top, design a back, and sew together the finished quilt.

Here's my September Blocks:   (Card Trick Design)

And the finished quilt:

October Blocks:     (Greek Cross Design)

And my November Blocks:     (I called it 5 stripes...very creative, i know)









I think I love the November blocks the most. The dark gray and blues look so modern....and legit.... :)

Anyways, if you think that you'd like to do this, you can sign up at the do. Good Stitches homepage on flickr.

xo, charlotte

1st quilted quilt ever--done!

yep, I finished my first quilted  quilt, ever. I've made two other quilts, but I just tied little knots of yarn through all the layers to secure the batting.

this time, though, i actually attempted quilting--machine quilting. Hand-quilting will be for a different day... :)

i had tried spray basting, since i wanted to get this done in one day, and didn't want to invest 1-2 extra hours pinning it... it worked really well!

this quilt was meant to go in our living room (the blue back went with the walls). i had started the quilt before we got new furniture though, so the black and white doesn't really go with the new brown furniture. i made the binding brown though, so maybe it'll look better.

this pattern was from Elizabeth Hartman's book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork, it was called snapshots. probably because the little black and white squares look like a collage of pictures... :)

i'm so excited that it's done though! only one more quilt to finish before january 1st...
the next quilt i have to finish though, isn't as pretty. it looks like a rainbow threw up...
 i had no color scheme, so i'm brainstorming how to make it look better... :)

(maybe i could separate the blocks a little by adding white strips between them.)

(or i could alternate a "puking-rainbow" block, and a white block...) 

any suggestions?

xo, Charlotte

Giraffe Headbands

This is a total coincidence. I didn't mean to post about those adorable little petite lap giraffes before posting about my giraffe headbands.

Since my cross country team is so great, I had the idea to make all of them headbands--well, all the girls at least. I didn't want to give them to the boys because:
a. they would lose them
b. they would make fun of them
c. they wouldn't wear them
                 or
d. all of the above  <-- definitely this one... :)

Anyways, I went JoAnn's, picked out some nice anti-pill fleece in giraffe and orange prints, and tried to race my way through making 18 headbands before the regionals meet.

Why giraffe? Well, as you know if you read the previous post, i love giraffes. and i think that cheetah prints are overused. (cheetah was my other option).

Why orange? Well, it was also hunting season, so the bright orange helps with that....and it's also one of our team colors... :)

Well, I finished them...yes, it was the night before, but i still finished...and everyone loved them...i hope... :) (oh, and i also embroidered everyone's name on them... had to try out all the nifty features on my new sewing machine!)

xo, Charlotte