art party with the girls!

Marcy Patterson Grudzien, Christie Minervini and I have been getting together for "art party" for a few years now. Sometimes other friends join in the creativity. Inspired by something I saw a while ago, we made these fabric necklace/collars embellished with flowers and buttons. Each of our designs always turns out different, and distinctively "us".

After a little lunch on the deck, my sweet husband put my darling boy to sleep, while the girls and I headed into the studio. We chose denim for the backing and wool for the front of the crescent moon shaped neckpieces, and added a little interfacing.  One tie seemed too small, so Marcy came up with the idea to use three, and we all hopped on board!

Marcy learned to make these recycled wool and acetate flowers from one of our crafty friends, Jenny Clare, using a wool jacket or pants with a lining. You cut concentric circles, alternating wool and acetate. Using a match or candle, singe the edges of the acetate carefully, they react differently to the flame. Notice how the green one is more cup shaped and lettuce leaf edges, while the black turned brown.

 Layering the circles on the neckpiece and stitching on the button in one fell swoop. We only had four hours for this event!

Ooh, I'm so excited to wear mine! Christie's looks marvelous, I love the colors.
What do you think?

{this moment}

inspired by Amanda Blake Soule at soulemama

a lovely moment from the week to enjoy and savor

{this moment}

Inspired by Amanda Blake Soule at soulemama:

one lovely moment from the week to savor

April and August recycled pattern collages

While searching for the ultimate summer dress, I found some cool studio artwork here on etsy. It's made with vintage sewing patterns. Some on on canvas and some on wood. The colors are great, and I love the compositions, with parts of shapes on each one. There's a sweet little card you can frame yourself too...

Helen works in the paper industry, so she must see a lot of paper. Sewing patterns do come on the most interesting stock. It's a bit like tissue paper, but sturdy. Ironing it is fun because it gets so smooth. The kraft color has always appealed to me, along with the mechanical quality of the markings. And it's so much better when it's all smooth than when the pattern pieces are all refolded to try to fit into the tiny envelopes!

recycled denim jean skirt - flirty!

Just posted these in my etsy shop, I have several made from old pairs of jeans, and want to figure out how to post the sizing. Any thoughts? They ride really low on the hips. Measurements are about 3-4" smaller than your actual hip measurement. This weekend I wore them with leggings and a long shirt, tucked in, so it was quite cozy. And the pockets! I could go on and on about how I adore pockets for holding things like camera, phone, hankie, paper bits, lip balm, cash, keys, etc.  It's nice to have belt loops for a cool belt or scarf.

And this outtake from our photo shoot is a perfect glimpse into my reality.

The sleeveless turtleneck is a very large black cashmere sweater with the sleeves removed and side seams taken in a bit. It's exactly what I had in mind when I started the project. That makes me so happy!



When I was teaching in GR at the UICA for Artworks, one of my students wore a skirt like this one day, and I loved it and was inspired. It's been through a year or two of R&D and it's still at the front of my closet.

Armour sans Anguish recycled doily dress and more...

This is an ethereal, modern application of old, handmade doilies and lace. There are several versions of this custom dress in Armour sans Anguish's etsy shop. Here's the front:

The photos are great and even the shoes are fun! While perusing the shop, I discovered that Tawny Holt, the creative genius behind Armour sans Anguish, was featured in the gallery of Sweater Surgery, a great little book that keeps coming up into this realm. It's worth checking out. The cashmere tank is sublime and now I am dreaming of a tutorial, so I can make one of my own in hot pink (of course) cashmere. Thanks to Kris at Resweater for turning me on to the book, and my local library for procuring it for me to borrow!

Here's another sweet combination of recycled goods on this little tank called snowblink:

I think it's the sequins that give it just the right bit of WOW and make it seem new and modern. And the names, how fun!

Now for some olive green cargo pocket shorts and my newly thrifted robin's egg blue Born wedges, I could be dressed for a sweet lunch date in the city on a hot summer day. If only the city wasn't so darn far away... So for now I'll dream of a trip to Tawny's studio out west and a week-long crafty camp of sewing recycled clothing! Anyone else want to go to such a camp?

a little creative dress revamp tutorial - sweater and dress to sundress!

It was a lucky day of thrifting. First the sweater caught my eye, with it's metallic thread. Then I saw the dress and had to double back to scoop up the sweater. Here they are after a run through the washer and dryer.

After trying the sweater on, to see where I wanted it to fall, I added 1/2" and cut it off. The dress had some darts, so I just cut it off below those.

In order to get an even seam, you divide each piece into four parts and pin. Then pin them with right sides together and stretch as you sew, so that the stretchy sweater is the same length as the not-so-stretchy skirt. Here's what it looks like:

So I did all this and tried it on. Not right. The sweater wasn't quite snug enough around my rib cage, so I cut it off and cut another piece of sweater, about 4" wide, and made a loop that fit just under my bust, and could still go on over my head.

Max came to check it out and thought it look like it would work. I redid the pinning in four parts on both sides of the loop, attaching it first to the sweater top and then to the skirt bottom, matching seams at the sides. My serger made fast work of the whole project! Still it needed something else, so I found a belt I had started last summer but never finished and serged some t-shirt strips onto the sides and it was good!

And then I added a little pocket for my phone, handkerchief or snacks!

sweet giveaway at Progressive Pioneer!

From Progressive Pioneer, Bird and Little Bird, and Sewn Natural

 These foxes are so cute! I entered to win kits to make Mr. Fox and Ms. Rabbit along with a set of felted acorns in rainbow colors from Sewn Natural! Their handmade goods have been featured here in the past, remember the cute dresses and car organizers?

one-of-a-kind recycled clothing from Tatty Tess

 

Oh, the fun of etsy. While looking for a new summer dress, I found some great creative designs. This first one is my favorite, with it's patchwork skirt and sweet little flower. TattyTess has a lot of great recycled clothing as well as a couple of other shops! The ruffle trim on the dress below is so sweet.

 

Oh, maybe I should be dancing in this dress! The hemline is so fun and hot pink is my favorite color. A friend of mine has her answering machine message asking for your favorite color, and it seemed so right to share that! You can find this dress at brokenghostcouture. Same artist, different site with more inspired designs. She has another shop too, that is all shabby chic with doilies and such. One even has a sweet handkerchief hem with vintage hankies and bits of lace. Oh, and the prices are so realistic, it's amazing!

{this moment}

a wonderful wordless tradition inspired by soulemama:

One image of a lovely moment to remember from our week.

patch pants tutorial featured on etsy treasury!

Ooh, this is very exciting! The patch pants tutorial is on the etsy treasury, Learn Something New! I wish I knew how to share the treasury images with you, but I can't seem to figure it out in the limited time available today, so here the link!

{this moment}

a wonderful wordless tradition inspired by soulemama:

One image of a lovely moment to remember from our week.

our new dog

Meet Red, the newest addition to our family. My husband has been waiting for three years to replace his two big dogs. A friend of mine introduced us to her aunt, who is a breeder, and she called us with this opportunity a few months ago. We drove down to GR to see her and fell in love. She's an Irish Terrier. She'll be about 30-35 lbs, and her hair is wiry and short, so it's good for people like me with allergies.

She loves her new home! And there are two very happy boys here too.

Here's her "show" shot!

new and improved longer pants!

These aqua pants were just calling my name on one of my thrifting sprees. They were too short, but I bought them anyway b/c I loved them and they fit perfectly up top. The green velvet were great too, but after I washed them, they shrunk! So, I decided to make them into one pair by cutting the bottom hem and a couple inches off the aqua pair and adding about a foot worth of the green ones. It only took a few minutes to sew the two tubes together and I had time to do a little yoga before naptime was over!

{this moment}

a wonderful wordless tradition inspired by soulemama:

One image of a lovely moment to remember from our week.

what does it take to be a used clothing alchemist?

I absolutely love this combination of words, and it's even better as a title! Let me introduce you to the one, the only Crispina Ffrench! She has found a way to make gold from wool sweaters. Well, not gold in the sense of bars and karats, but in a much more practical sense. It's the perfect description of this amazing transformation.

 This little guy is called a ragamuffin. I discovered them on Crispina's shop after falling in love with the rugs. The original ragamuffin was born in 1987 while Ffrench was in college. You can find it in her book. There are many imitators, as is usually the case when something is really, really good. After I wrote this post, I noticed one on another blog, took it off, checked back with Crispina and am now back to give her the credit she deserves for this great idea! Here's "peanut butter cup the potbelly ragamuffin" who is looking for a good home, preferrably moth-free! So cute and I love this photo. My gram used to use the word ragamuffin, and it usually had something to do with a comb and our hair.

Then there are the warm cozy blankets. I love how this one shows the texture of the sweaters and the circle design. Robin's egg blue is one of my favorite colors in our house. Imagine the dreams you would have under a blanket like this!

As we are in the progress of deciding how to refinish our floor which is on a concrete slab, it seems like rugs are going to be essential. I wish I could have a rug to cover my entire living room made like one of these. The color combinations are sublime! Imagine a loom that would make a rug to fit a 16x20 room, the team of people it would take to make it, and the number of sweaters that would need to be felted. It would be huge! Guess I better sign up for one of her workshops so I can get started. Ha. But really, she teaches people how in addition to selling them in her etsy shop.

Here's a great post and photo of the rug in action, featured by on a set by Sundance!!! I love it when cool things like this happen. Congratulations, Crispina!

{this moment}

a wordless ritual inspired by soulemama:

one photo capturing a lovely moment to remember.

hoodie sleeves make the best pants!

While I loved this plaid hoodie, the zipper broke and rather than attempt the challenge of fixing it, I repurposed the sleeves for pants for little f! He loves them.

ahem, yes, that is my overflowing scrap basket. And thankfully you can't see my next 25 projects, which are all piled on the corner of my work table!

{this moment}

a wordless ritual inspired by soulemama:

one photo savoring a lovely moment to remember

seeing red for the first time

Yes, it's happening. We are getting a puppy in three weeks. She is an Irish Terrier and her name is Red. When we arrived, she was standing on the cage so I snapped her photo. Little f walked up and said "hi doggies" and then we each held one. They are on the medium side, about 30 lbs or so and have wiry hair, so they are good for people, like me, who are allergic to dogs. My request was to give her a dog name and not a "people" name, since she is a dog and not another baby. T was so ecstatic, he obliged. She will be a classroom dog for T's kindergarten class next year. He's a dog trainer too, so it's going to be a fun adventure, and hopefully a very well trained dog! Certainly a well-photographed dog if I'm around. Imagine the shots, boy and dog at the river... boy and dog in the orchard... boy and dog running... boy and dog sleeping...