Friday Favorites, Episode 35

Almost didn't get to this today... got sidetracked by a clothing reconstruction that's taking longer than I thought it would. But I'm taking a dinner break now, so here goes...

First up is Dollar Store Crafts, featuring this shoji screen made from bamboo and shower curtains, and an easy how-to for customizing an iPod with a clear plastic cover and scrapbook paper. ( I think I'll definitely have to give the latter a try, as the silicon cover I've been using since I got it is leaving it kind of grungy.)

Second is Whip Up, which had a tutorial for a Viking-style shoe and a tree stump trivet (that's really made from felt.)

The newest site I've found is Craft:G33k. Loved this Tardis tissue box cover! And she also posted a link to this "teh yarn bukkit". (For the uninitiated, it's a takeoff of the LOLCats.)

It's been awhile since I've posted anything from Crafting a Green World.... mainly because, for some reason, the feed's stopped working on my Bloglines and I missed a bunch of stuff, thinking that it was just quiet due to the holidays. :-P But I did enjoy this article about digital vs. traditional scrapbooking. And, though it's not from this week, this was a good reference post on all of their eco-friendly fabric finds from 2008.

Two other random favorites, since everything else came in pairs. I really liked Antoinette's most recent men's shirt refashion--think I'm going to have to borrow this idea sometime! And this rather stunning wrap skirt was originally featured on Weekend Designer, but there were some copyright issues so it got removed. But you can still drool over it at Assemblage.

Ok, back to the sewing room-- I'm determined to finish that shirt recon today, since I absolutely have to do muslins for bridesmaid stuff tomorrow morning!

Friday Favorites, Episode 30

Happy day-after Thanksgiving!! Appropriately, most of my links this week are for Christmas stuff.

First off, even though I'm not buying anything today, I have a list of eco-friendly craft supplies, courtesy of Crafting a Green World. I'm kind of drooling over the bead collection. And wondering how my crochet friends would feel about yarn hand-spun from the seller's wedding dress...

Some fun decorations at Dollar Store Crafts. The first is Christmas ornaments made from those little metal wrappers that tea lights come in, and the second is a recycled cd decorated to look like peppermint candy. Yum.

Ok, so this one's not exactly Christmas-y. But I loved these "fairy lights" made from Christmas lights and recycled egg cartons at Whip Up. I'll have to find an excuse to make those sometime...a party, perhaps? I also had to take note of their list of tutorials for baby crafts--I think I have a couple of years until the next wave of babies, since it seemed like half of the women I know and their sister had a baby this past year, but I'm always scrounging for ideas (and ways to avoid the headache that is Babies R' Us!) so this should help.

Moving away from the holiday stuff-- I really liked this Dresden petal handbag tutorial at Quality Time. Not only cute, but a great way to use up those pesky scraps. And, well, this one really isn't crafty at all. But I also had to bookmark this list of music of interest at Angry Chicken. Because music feeds creativity, and I'm always looking for ideas of bands to hunt down at eMusic. Mmmmm, indie bands.

And with that, I am off for a night of movies and craftiness of the Christmas ornament variety with some of my friends. Ciao!

Pillows!

So these are the pillows I mentioned in my last post, for the girl whose room my Bible study is re-doing. I was given the fabric on Sunday night-- basically, it's lining fabric, but it was the right color and not very expensive. I wasn't sure how well it would hold up though, since it's such lightweight stuff, so I had to doctor it up a bit.

First step: Turn it into quilted fabric. I used the varigated thread left over from serging the sheer edges of that plum skirt I recently fixed and some scrap batting that was courtesy of my quilter mother. Drew the lines on with some chalk first, and that made it a lot faster--especially since the lines were 3" apart! Seriously, I was able to quilt an entire pillow's worth in about 45 minutes. I would have finished that part on Sunday night, except the machine I was using (not mine) stopped taking more than a couple stitches at a time. In my slightly brain-muddled state, it took me till the next day to figure out that the problem was the machine had become partially unthreaded! Doh!

Next step: It needed something. So I got some beaded trim at Joann's (hurrah for 50% off coupons!)-- the color scheme of the room is purple and silver, so I figured this would go well. Besides, adds a little fun that will hopefully make these work well into her teen years. So I spent Tuesday night finishing up the quilting, basting this around the edge, and sewing the actual pillows together. Had a bit of a setback because the bobbin ran out of thread and I didn't notice--hate when that happens! So it took a little longer than I expected.

Finished these up last night with some very creative hand-sewing. I say creative, because I was trying not to stitch the thread over the bead ribbon so it was visible. So I ended up doing this sort of funky weaving in and out between the main fabric and the side of the trim that wasn't basted to the other side of the main fabric. I hope it holds...

Anyway, the woman who started the project loved them, when I handed them over to her this afternoon. Hopefully the girl will too.

On a side note, I have another article up on Crafting A Green World, as of yesterday! So feel free to check it out. :-)

Still plugging away...

Got the panel in S's wedding dress fixed to her satisfaction on Sunday. So next week, the "blueifying" begins.

Spent a little time tonight working on my blouse-- got the facings sewn in, and the cuffs sewn togtether. I hauled my machine up to my room so I could simultaneously chat with a friend on IM, and so was too lazy to go downstairs and press seams and all. So I'll finish this tomorrow, hopefully.

Finding myself getting into a scrapbooking kick again-- figures, since I have a pile of sewing with deadlines coming up! So I'm trying to work some prep stuff in, like figuring out exactly what I need to do to get caught up on my backlog of the past 5 years (got behind in grad school and never quite caught up), figuring out what I need to make layouts of from this year, etc. Will also need to sit down and figure out what I still need to develop for photos.

I'm figuring that I'll just aim to finish the road trip album this year, since it's already mid-October and I have a lot of stuff I need to get done in the next few months craft-wise. Like Christmas gifts for several of my friends. And the pantsuit I want to make before the band concert in mid-December, which will require a muslin being made first. BurdaStyle is having another mini-challenge, this one based on recucling, and I already have a project in mind since I was planning on doing it for a Crafting a Green World article. (I'm working on a miniseries of articles pertaining to clothing refashioning.) And it is something I sort of need in the near future. I also have two more pants I have to make muslins of and sew-- I've had the fabric for one of them for two years now!! And, as of Saturday, I have some flannel-backed satin to make myself some new winter pjs. I guess I just wanted something luxurious-looking but comfortable, and am beginning to feel like just because I'm single doesn't mean I should resign myself to sleeping in grungy flannel with sleeves that are too short! In fact, I sent all the pjs with too-short sleeves to Goodwill! And then there's also the shirt I'm slowly embroidering the trim for. But once I get that done, it'll come together fast. And the fabric I was originally going to make the Eva jacket out of. And so on.

But anyway, going back to the scrapbooking, I'm thinking that I'm going to try and get a little more caught up on that during the couple of months where I'm not working at the garden center and will therefore have more time. Hopefully by then I'll have gotten those wintery things I wanted to make done. And I can work on that in my room, if I get the supplies I'll want to use all set beforehand (like I like to do so that I can just blitz through pages). Which will be good, since I get cold sewing in the basement that time of year and don't want to be down there anyway!

Ooh, look, I'm an author!!

Sort of. Ok, I'm just going to shamelessly self-promote here, because I'm excited. My first post at Crafting A Green World is up!!

The project was fun, actually. I'm not going to say what it was here because then you have to click on the link to find out. ;) I think I'm going to re-do it for myself because I like things a little more funky, but that's ok.

Ok, off to eat dinner so I can get back to work on the Eva jacket...and get myself some hand-sewing for Project Runway tonight!

Impromptu social craftiness (and other stories)

So, as mentioned, had some spontaneous craftiness with a friend who invited me over for dinner on Wednesday. I didn't realize she's as crafty--knew she crocheted, but I didn't know she was into paper crafts too! So we had some fun with that. She worked on a birthday card for her nephew, and I goofed around and made these two. The small butterflies on this one are embosed and then chalked, and the larger one is stamped, heat-embossed, and raised with those foamy glue dots.



And this one is mostly stamped, using markers to color the different parts. I also embossed a swirly border around the edge. It was fun... now I just have to think of what to use them for!




Also made some pretty serious progress on the Eva test jacket this weekend. Did the sleeves and flaps last night, as well as the outer edge of the collar. Today I cut out and sewed together the lining, then sewed the facings, lining, and collar on. So this is basically what it's going to look like...

...though as you can see, I still have some work to do on the lining. And the actual hem, for that matter.

Learned some important lessons from this one:

#1: For the next one, I need to lengthen the lining some so that I can make the jacket longer. I had to cut up pretty high for this one, and it's not going to have much ease to it.

#2: At the size I cut this at, it's not going to button. Though I think this one will be fine without doing so. I thought it would, until I put in the linings and facings and added all that extra bulk. Will have to consider whether to cut a size up and make the next one like that, or to just do an unbuttoned jacket.

#3 While I like the bias cuffs on this one (though I have no idea if I actually did it right), I don't think I'm going to use them for the suedecloth.

Also today: worked some on my CAGW article project, and ordered myself a back issue of the July '08 Burda World of Fashion mag so I can see if this is a system I can handle. Figured a $15 test would be better than dropping the $80 to find that I can't figure out pictureless directions at all!

One final thing I'm pondering: In a small attempt to cut down the size of my stuff (since I have limited living space), I'm considering changing my recipe storage system. Right now, I have them stored in a big bulky binder. (Two, actually--one for things I haven't tried yet torn from magazines, and one for the ones I've actually made and liked.) I'm considering switching to the recipe box thing, because they're much smaller. (With a backup on the computer, of course.) So for you cooking types, I'm wondering-- how do you store yours? If you use a recipe box, is it obnoxious to sort through? And since I have half of the keepers typed up on the compy already, should I just stick with my printouts in a binder? Questions, questions...

Just a song...er, post...before I go...

Have to keep this brief, as I'm leaving for the beach tonight and still need to eat dinner and finish packing. I just got done work. But here's what's going on in my crafty life right now, sans pictures:

1. Yes, Mom2fur, I did get the Sadie done on Friday night. More details will be forthcoming, as will pictures. For now, I will say that it fits me perfectly (no alterations! Yay!), and that organic bamboo jersey is so comfortable it's like running around naked, but without getting arrested for indecent exposure. I want some more. The tricky part will be finding it, since I bought it at a going out of buisness sale at Hancock Fabrics, and Joann's is totally behind the eco-friendly times on this. At least it is here.

2. Speaking of eco-friendly, I've been asked to consider being a writer for Crafting A Green World. Which is both exciting and scary--exciting, because I guess that means they think my writing style is solid enough for a blog that gets wider exposure than my humble abode here, plus then I'll get to research all sorts of crafty fun. The scary part is trying to figure out what on earth I'd write about, at least to get me started! (Suggestions welcome...)

3. I haven't really had any time to sew this week yet. But I'm not being a bum, really! I spent some time on Sunday afternoon and evening sticking down a few more pages of photos for my road trip scrapbook. And last night, I started work on cutting out a stencil-- one of the knit shirts I'll be making soon calls for embroidery on the neckline trim, and since I'm making it in a plain cream, it kind of needs something to keep it from boring me when it's done. So I'm adding some embroidery to it, and the stencil is to help me position the designs. I don't want to freehand it, because, typically, the design I saw and liked is complicated. (Ok, I'll admit it... I blatantly stole it from one of the Lord of the Rings costumes. But most people probably won't get that, so I can just revel in my secret geekiness.) I could do the machine embroidery, but then I would have needed more fabric to sew those pieces before cutting the rest of it out, and this was stuff in my stash, so not happening.

Next post, hopefully: an actual picture of that oh-so-comfy new tank top!