OMG, OMG, OMG...my book!

I've been tinkering with the idea of writing children's books for a while. I always felt limited and stifled by all the information out there about how difficult, if not impossible it is to break into children's literature. Well, I never thought about becoming the next JK Rowling, just an author of children's bools. I wrote and illustrated one for my 2 year old son and decided to put it into print. I can't say how exciting it is to see an actual printed copy.

The cover

Two inside pages

The back cover

 I got this one printed on CVS.com as a photo book and just loved it. The cost is prohibitive ($12 each,) so I found an Amazon company to print it cheaper (<$5) and post it on Amazon.com. I'm in the process of setting that up and will post the final results when I get them.

Today's Project - Pattern Weights!

I've been doing a lot of sewing lately and as such, I use a lot of paper patterns. The problem with that is all the pinning, which tears the paper. I like to have all my patterns on template plastic, so I can trace easily around the pattern, then pin and cut it. However, I've been doing projects that are too big for template plastic and have been forced to use large pieces of paper.

I know I'm behind the times, but I recently discovered pattern weights. I've seen them in the fabric stores all the time, but they are so expensive and you only get like two and I needed more. I looked at a bunch of pictures online and in several Etsy shops and came up with my own.

SO easy to make. I bought a box of 25 of the biggest and heaviest washers at Home Depot (maybe 2 inches across with a 3/4" center for less than $8), wrapped ribbon around sets of 3, and tied the ribbon in a knot. A lot of the ones I saw wrap ribbon around the washers so that you don't see any of the washer, but I didn't find that necessary and I kind of like the look.

So, if you're in the market for pattern/sewing weights, just make them yourself. These worked awesome.