Sewin' It Up

It's true that once you own a house there's always something to be doing. When we first moved in, we looked at the vertical blinds in the bedroom and knew that eventually they would have to go. Apart from anything; there was one slat missing and, even though it was toward the side, there was always that chance that the neighbor would get just the right angle and be able to see my nakey butt running between the closet and the bathroom. Husband finally agreed with me on a fabric choice (he picked it because it's dark and manly, I picked it because it looks like chocolate) and the choice to do a double curtain so that we can let the light in by opening the darker set. Of course, that also meant wrangling 2 extra 7ft curtain panels...always fun for somebody who is 5'3.5" on a "tall" day. I've been meaning to post this picture all week, seeing as they were actually completed and hung last weekend, but I've been slacking. All I have to do now is take care of the drapery weights at the bottom - but my nakey butt sure is happy to no longer be running the risk of unwarranted exposure.So, my other sewing project that I wanted to accomplish this week is a shirt for my Miami/South Beach vacation (we leave in 3 days!) Since we went on the new house/bathroom remodel/vacation budget, I've been really good about not buying much for myself in terms of clothing and all that. However, I figure that going on vacation to a beachy place requires some new clothing. The problem I've been having though is some serious disappointment in the fashion that's in stores right now.

Firstly, what's up with the denim right now? It seems like everywhere has either skinny leg or flare. I have short legs so skinny leg jeans make my legs look like carrots, while flared jeans make me look like I'm wearing an oversized lampshade below the knees. This did mean I was able to find some boot cut (which is what I wanted in the first place) on clearance, so I guess I'll consider myself lucky on that one. On the top side of things, I seem to be finding a lot of neon colors. Perhaps if I pair a bright orange shirt with some skinny leg jeans, I could be mistaken for a radioactive carrot.

Don't get me wrong, I did find a couple of cute outfits, but resigned myself to sewing a new shirt with some of the fabric that I always seem to be stashing and not using quickly enough. Well, here it is...and you may have noticed it's not so much a shirt as a dress. I swear I used the pattern correctly but how it ended up 6" longer than I anticipated is beyond me. Yes, I could shorten it, but I actually like it as a dress so I'm saying to hell with it and keeping it as is!

Blast from the past

It's official, my new vintage Etsy store is open. I wasn't really planning on opening a second Etsy store (I know, one is hard enough to keep track of sometimes!) but I had a major find last week with a whole batch of vintage sewing patterns that I was able to purchase. I knew that it wouldn't work to just put them in with the rest of the Organic Stills stuff, so my husband says to me "well, just open a vintage store then". That's how Yores was born! Yes, the name is a delightfully dorky double-entendre, but I should hope you expect nothing less of me.

It has to be said, I am somewhat in love with this dress/camisole pattern. It's definitely got a classic summer style. I'm sad that I missed out on buying the fabulously retro jumpsuit pattern, but I will try to be quicker off the mark next time around.

The whole vintage shop thing has got me really excited in general and I spent the weekend rummaging around for additional things to list in my new shop along with the sewing patterns. So far I've found some pretty housewares that I'll be sharing with the world as soon as I can get the research done to date the pieces I've got. I'm no Jonty from BBC's Cash In The Attic but if any of those adorable Cash In The Attic boys want to come over and help me out, I certainly wouldn't complain!

Don't bother me, I'm crafting!

I think I've been firmly entrenched in my crafting bubble over the last 2 weeks. While I had made a bunch of things for the last craft fair, when I really started thinking about the upcoming craft fair this Wednesday, I started panicking...just a little (ok, a lot). My biggest concern was that I just wouldn't have enough inventory for a building with 2,500+ tenants. So, I put my head down and got to work, even creating my own little excel spreadsheet (I'm a big nerd like that) to track inventory with. As of last night, I have 109 items!!

While knitting and crocheting up a storm, I realized that my hands might fall off, so next thing you know I'm sewing scented sachets, eye pillows, purses, and doing holiday penguin rub-on transfers to candle votives. I'm very proud of my insane achievement though and excited to get to show it all to a bunch of strangers on Wednesday!

One last thing on the needles for now and then mostly organization and sewing on buttons to finish everything off. Of course, many pictures from the show to come.... The good news is that the husband and I just started the planning for our bathroom remodel and of all goes well this will be a nice head start on paying for the floor tile!

My first big home project!

One of the things I was super excited about moving into our new home was fixing the ridiculous window treatments that had been left in the house. Every single blind in the place is too long and the blind in our bathroom is an interesting shade of aquamarine that doesn't match anything we own! The first thing was to actually put up a curtain in the living room because it didn't have one. I dragged the husband along to Joann with me and he helped me pick out some gorgeous olive colored microfiber for our curtains and is even the one that found the perfect thread for it! I looked up some videos on how to do tab top curtains and I was ready to go.

It was a 3 day process because attempting to cut and sew a 90" length of fabric that's 54" wide and doesn't press (which is something I wish I'd thought of before going the microfiber route) takes a while. In the end though, I am extremely proud of what is my biggest project to date and one that we look at every day so I can only imagine how much it would have sucked if I'd royally screwed it up! Anyway, here's a picture for you which also shows our pretty new dining table and the centerpiece my mother-in-law gave us a while back that's never had the perfect place to be shown before.I have to love the fact that the sun is poking through in the middle of a hot So Cal October....

Look like I could have bought it!

Sewing is the most recent craft that I started and still have felt somewhat like a novice doing. Although, I feel that my ability status has just gone up after the truly successful venture into wearable clothing for myself! Recently, Joann's had a Firefly Frenzy sale, including 50% off all their red tag clearance fabrics. This led to a minor fabric binge and some pretty apparel fabrics made their way home with me for a very reasonable price.

I would say that it took about 4 hours, half of which was cutting and pinning, to make this top - from a Simplicity pattern (I don't recall the number right now but will include that later). Not only is it cute, it fits and I've received a variety of compliments from my co-workers who didn't realize I made it. My proudest moment has still been realizing that I managed to get the stripes to match up where they're supposed to. Therefore, I feel that this novice has perhaps moved on to intermediate in her sewing skills!

I also made a skirt in the last week which doesn't look anything like the skirt the pattern was originally supposed to create, but I enjoy it all the same. Pictures of that to come soon as well. =)

Possibly the cutest thing ever!

My sister in law, Erica, found out she was pregnant about 3 weeks after I married her brother. Talk about making the parents crazy...a wedding and a pregnancy within a month?! I thought my mother in law's head was going to burst. Anyway, Erica is now 22 weeks along and doing well. She spent the first trimester with a pregnancy induced "tequila type hangover" and is very happy to be out of that phase at least!

Of course, I am thrilled to have a nephew to spoil and make a million things for. Right after I got my sewing machine, I was rummaging in the remnants bin in Joann's to find fabric to practice on and found this. Naturally I was completely unable to resist and figured that one day I'd figure out something to make with the 1/3 yard of adorable. Now, a couple of weeks and a lot of straight lines later, I have accomplished something that makes me, and everybody else around me who has seen them go "awwww". Even my husband came in the room, picked them up and immediately said, "I want some". So, I present to you my Frog Frog Duck baby PJ pants for Ethan.

My first sewn bag!

So I've been very quietly running around getting fabric remnants from Joann over the last week, and practicing sewing lots of lines. A couple of nights ago, I decided it was time to try making something with my new sewing machine that looks like more than just scraps of fabric with knotted thread! While running errands, I had spotted a super cute dishcloth that spoke to me with its' aspirations to become more than just a dishcloth, so I bought it home and made it into my first sewn tote bag. The bag is lined with navy flannel to match the accent stripes, and I used strips cut from the sides of the dishcloth to make the handles. Inverting the handles was probably the hardest part of all this as the safety pin was refusing to cooperate and insisting on opening half way through the process, leaving me with a half inverted handle, a pin that was stabbing me in the finger, and a husband wondering why I had developed a "mild" case of potty mouth from the corner of the room. It's not a neat sewing job, but at least it's a functional item and I am certainly proud! Now I have a cute summery bag to hold my drop spindle and rovings (might as well use one craft to feed the other.)

Etsy Featured Shop - Tinkybelle

After my momentary lapse in getting some new interviews together, I am buttered and on a roll this week! When I found the seller Tinkybelle and asked her to be featured on my blog, I had no clue that she was involved in so many crafts. She currently has three Etsy stores going - one for bags, one for pottery elephants, and the last for owl bags. Each store contains beautiful and unique items, and this seller has a fascinating story to tell so read on and enjoy .
How did you learn to sew?
I started sewing by the time I was 4. My grandmother was a great needle woman, she used to look after us before and after school. She would be doing some sort of sewing, embroidery, tapestry, needlework and we'll all have to sit down and do it with her. Out of everyone, only I remained until the day I left for university when I was 17.

Why did you choose to make bags and do you make other sewn items?
I started making bags in high-school. I grew up in the outskirts of Sydney [Australia]. Back then there were not many shops and when you wanted pretty things you'd have to make it yourself. My mother and grandmother both had piles of fabrics, so I made clothes and bags. Then in High school, instead of getting a job packing shelves or in a clothes shop, I started selling my bags to my friends for extra pocket money. While at university, I was waitressing my way through and hated every second of it, so I started making and selling bags again. Funnily enough it's not the main thing I sell, although there seems to be alot of it! I sew bags, clothes, traditionally jointed teddybears. I also love doing embroidery - crossstitch, tapestry - when I have the time...

What makes you choose a particular fabric?
I choose fabrics for the print design and what I can envision coming out of it. Sometimes I buy fabric for the sheer instant love of it and it can sit in my boxes for years before inspiration for the perfect thing to be made from it comes. Somethings I go hunting for particular weight, pattern, colour to make something I have an idea for.

What do you sell in your Etsy stores?
I sell in my Etsy stores bags, owl bags and pottery elephants. I also have a gallery in Edinburgh [Scotland] where I sell my drawings, paintings and prints. I have my studio here as well and I have a small working bookbindery and screen printing press. I also sell in markets and fairs around the UK.

What do you love about these bags?
I love this range of bags, it's my newest design. I love making things with simple patterns and manipulating it into something original.

How do you come up with the names for the owls on your bags?
My owl bags are named after family members mostly, and some friends. Also favourite characters from books and history.

What do you love about the elephants that you make?
I love that they have a very thrown together look. They seem very easy to make, but in fact the shaping is deceptively simple. I love that everyone of them comes out different although I only use four glaze colours. This is because of the nature of raku firing.

Can you tell me something interesting about this elephant (Andrew)?
The colour results are great. Yellow is very hard to achieve - you need lots of grass materials to create lots of flame. Then when you think the yellow has come through you have to pack the pottery in and let it smoke to get the white crackle effect. Too much smoking you will loose the yellow, not enough and you won't get crackle in the white.

What do you listen to when you're making your bags and other projects?
I mainly have lots of old style jazz - Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzerald, John Coltrane - or straight classical - Rachmaninov, Chopin, Handel... I also like putting in my BBC classic dramas DVDs - Pride and Prejudice, North and South, Vanity Fair. Sometimes, I like working in total silence.

What is your favorite past time when you're not crafting?
I trained as a bookbinder in Florence, so I make a lot of books and restore some. I am also a painter and printmaker. I love screenprinting and woodblock printing. I enjoying dancing and I was a classical ballerina for 13 years, but now I just do a lot of comtemporary. I have recently gotten into the 5 rhythms classes and flamenco. When I am away from my studios, I tend to travel as much as possible. I have recently come back from a trip to Pamplona, Spain to see the Bull runs and, earlier in the year, I was trekking through Borneo for a month with my boyfriend. I tend to bring back, materials, fabrics, inspiration and renewed energy to do my creative works.