The Creation of Benjibums: January 2010

So my mom came to visit this past weekend and was on a mission to help me organize my sewing room. She was amazing and bought me some cheap indoor/outdoor carpet to lay down over the nasty tile. That was the only thing that was purchased in the makeover but it is remarkable to difference. Basically we just organized everything and picked it up. I don't know how long it will stay clean but here are the before and after pics.

Before

After

I had been using the white cabinet next to the closet upstairs in my dining room and it had held some of my fabric and sewing notions so it is great to have it actually in my sewing room now.

The closet was just holding boxes full of scrapbooking stuff that I organized and put up in the top cabinet. I brought in some shelves that had been empty in the garage and they are holding my fabric perfectly.

So I noticed the other day that there are a bunch of tiny holes in the duvet cover that was on my bed. I am assuming they got there from Tonka the puppy. So I decided I would make myself a new one. I had seen this pattern for a duvet cover in the book In Stitches by Amy Butler and I decided I would attempt to make it. The only problem was that it was going to take a ton of fabric because it consisted of a background patchwork and then a ton of oval appliqués. I don't have that much money right now so I decided to just not do the oval appliqués. I ended up heading over to Joann's fabric without any idea of what color scheme I even wanted to go with. I was just looking for an inspiration fabric and then I would go from there. At first I was looking in the blues, greens and browns and then out of the corner of my eye I spotted the purple birds. As soon as I spotted them I knew this was the fabric. I loved the birds so much and thought lime green would be a good pairing. Anyway I had a lot of fun picking out the fabric and am pleased with how it all turned out. It actually turned out better than I expected. For the back I was just going to do green and purple strips until I accidentally cut the fabric wrong and am happy I did because I love how it turned out. I used flannel on the back so that it is extra cozy. I also sewed some ribbon to the inside of the duvet and to my down comforter. I can tie the ribbon together and then the comforter won't bunch inside. I was always having that problem with my other duvet cover and it was very annoying. Anyway it was so nice to sew something for myself for once and this was a great project to start off my year of sewing.

The Fabric