Category Archives: crafts

fabric warehouse

I didn’t mention in my earlier post that there is a whole bunch of tassels etc. at the fabric warehouse. I joked to kathleen that I would go there for ALL of my tassel needs, but after thinking about tassels a little more, I DO have tassel needs. perhaps more significant than the next person. the joke is on me!

fuzzyfez1 Yay!

anyway, while I’ve got this wee post about fabric stores, here is the short list of what I’m going to think about buying (like the wording on that statement?) at joann’s over thanksgiving weekend:

  • pinking shears
  • cutting mat
  • patterns (vogue and mccalls on sale)
  • cordory or broadcloth
  • potentially a cocktail dress fabric
  • dress form, if the one that is on sale for 80 bucks is actually adjustible enough to handle my very large personage

There’s a cutting table for sale too, but I’d better not get too crazy. I have a hard enough time fitting everything that is currently in my apartment into my apartment! a cutting table would be a DREAM but for the amount that I sew, the floor will suffice.

heck!

here’s another couch mock-up. heck! it’s so hard to pick a strategery!

newpurplecouch

severe dorkitude

this weekend I have a number of engagements, but the most long-standing is my date with reupholstering my couch. I reupholstered our couch in spanish harlem – michelle and I got to work with a bunch of denim and a staple gun and my sewing machine and made our tweedy couch into a thing of sleek beauty. it was horrible. it took FOREVER (like, more than 1 evening) and was a big old pain in the keyster, but it was so beautiful when I was done.

the couch I’m using now is a hand-me-down from my stepfamily – maggie bought it new in the 90s, which explains the hunter green navajo print, and then sarah used it for a while, and then it sat on her (enclosed) front porch for a while. As I have a no-moving-the-couch policy currently (it’s WAY easier to ditch the couch when you move), I am not ready to commit to purchasing a new one for hundreds of dollars. and even though I swore up and down I would never reupholster a couch again, in the interests of re-using a couch (aka keeping it off the street) and not turning 30 with a couch covered in sheets (v. collegate), I will cover this old used couch that I have.

I was going to cover it with this fabric:

fabricswatch

but now I’m not sure. it’s beautiful fabric, but it’s awfully busy. it won’t match my orange tweed recliner. and it stresses me out to worry about matching patterns so neatly when I sew the whole thing together. Sat. I’m going to stop by the Fabric Warehouse in bellville to see what they’ve got, and hopefully there will be lots of some cheap, light colored (non blue) decorators fabric with which I can reupholster my couch. Currently the couch is wrapped in some lavender sheets and that is pretty great. I would also like white, but as I enjoy eating chocolate on the couch it might not be the best idea. Ideally I want to get something that will match my beautiful dream fabric so I can cover old pillows in it. (I plan to reuse old smooshed bedroom pillows as the pillow bases. this is one of the reasons I categorized this post under buy vs. make.)

EDIT: after talking to a coworker who has her first degree in interior design, she suggested the busy busy fabric for the body of the couch and black for the cushions. and if that’s too busy adding additional throw pillows on the couch with black or white fabric. HMM. she is totally talking me back into it!

anyway, here is the dorkitude: tuesday night I went home and made these sketches (on graph paper liberated from a prior employer) of my couch to estimate how much fabric I needed. I’m so glad I did it because now I know what I’m in store for. but, yeah. Very Dorky.

couchdork1

couchdork2

my crafty heritage

Here some photos of the crafty goodness that we were packing up at Gramma’s house. This is, quite literally, the tip of the iceberg. I have boxes of heirlooms coming my way and I will take more photos of them later to share.

Gramma made all of these:
weaving1

She started weaving at the senior center. her dad wove, too, here is his loom: Continue reading

silk skirt: check!

got my skirt done! YAY.

silkskirtfront

Continue reading

darn cool links

this is totally awesome: modular radiant heating strips for use anywhere in your home.

I’ve been shutting off the powerstrip that juices up my tv, radio, and dvd player, as well as unplugging my microwave, but this power strip will shut off everything that is plugged into it if you turn off a governor appliance, like, a lamp. very easy for people to do.

after talking about it for about 3 months, I just purchased green power for my home. I wanted to do 100% NJ based wind b/c I don’t use much electricity so I can afford to pay the additional 5 cents/kwh, but instead signed up for the option with 1% NJ solar. My decision was made entirely on what local NJ energy renewable I wanted to support.

I just stumbled onto wiki how and it looks neat.

and writing that down reminded me of this really incredible illustration of how a sewing machine works.

I know I’m late to the party, but I don’t want to forget about these fancy modular flooring tiles. miyo vinyl flooring and flor carpet flooring (which are recycleable and available in recycled/natural materials). and I wonder how they’d work with the modular radiant heating?

also, crafty: I’ve added a few new links to the sidebar. adorn magazine is a wonderful new publication that my birthday twin and good friend linda works on. this is love forever, west coast crafty, and paper dolly girl are all crafty blogs of old internet crafty girlfriends. I love it! they are full of inspiration and I know they’ll keep me honest about my crafting. and by keep me honest, I mean: KEEP ME CRAFTING.

recharge on the whole buy vs. make

I thought this was pretty interesting:

a seattle dancer wears the same little brown dress for a year and then after her project is over she commits to wearing only handmade and recycled clothing for a year.

it really reminds me of all the sewing I have to do in order to maintain my buy vs. make concept. and it helped me to make an adult decision regarding this coming weekend: some of my crafty girlfriends and I are planning to drive up to warrensburg for the worlds largest garage sale. Afterwards I wasn’t sure if I should drive home or if I should stay in albany. the idea of an 11 hour driving weekend for just 24 hours of garage saleing seems so silly, but after reading all of the little brown dress journal I think I’ll go home sat. night and on sunday will clean my room and sew a skirt. I have an office party to go on 10/7 and I’d love to have something new and nice to wear. and with all the work I’ve been doing I’ve been way off track on the goals of keeping my house clean and sewing my new clothes. hopefully I’ll be able to get with the program on sunday and get some stuff done!

in other craftastic and recycled clothing news, swap-o-rama-rama looks like an all around good time. I’m hoping to make it to the next NYC event on 10/8. I love it!

knitting. the beast that won’t die.

even though I’m still putting the corn baby to bed, so to speak (don’t worry Joy! I made the larger size in anticipation of hot summer weather, so hopefully the bambino won’t be too big when you finally receive your very late shower gift), I am still thinking about things to knit. It’s awful! gramma once told me that her favorite part of weaving was the planning, and I know she meant the cool math that she did to come up with her beautiful patterns and to do the “impossible*” but I love the planning most too. I love looking at yarn and patterns and touching them and thinking about them. So today I ended up buying two patterns! argh! it started when a friend of mine linked to the orangina tank (which is very cute) and I continued browsing her patterns and saw this very cool sweater (I prefer the long sleeve version, and I’m thinking about using andean silk because it’s way cheaper and also looks lovely. It’ll be a lot warmer b/c of the alpaca content, though. Something to keep in mind. And then when I went to buy the sweater pattern I came across these crochet hat patterns which are in styles I’ve been trying to find for AGES. I can sort of crochet, so I bought that pattern too.

So, yeah, I know, more projects in the imaginary queue. but at least I’m not buying yarn for these projects! the reason for that is this off-the-top-of-my-head list of projects that I already have yarn for and/or are in various stages of completion:

  • I owe a very cool lady this chemo cap, and I also need to figure out how to cable correctly. Doh.
  • God, I still have this eyelet skirt on the needles. I always tote it to the beach with me b/c the yarn is cotton aka not a hassle to knit with. but it’s a Lot of knitting. Hvae I mentioned I always have to size my needles down to get gauge? even more knitting.
  • I have the yarn for the cheesylove sweater too, and I’ve always meant to make it. you know how these things go! it’s awfully cute, though. I love it. even if it is super cheesy. and not only will I learn how to make a sweater but also fair isle hearts!
  • I also have the yarn for the sitcom chic cardigan. I secretly wonder if the raglan shoulder shaping will do my figure any good, but shoot, I have the yarn, and I can always use a cardigan.
  • Speaking of cardigans, I have the yarn and pattern for the sweet mary jane cardigan. I love the bed jacket shaping! it’s cute and classy, and I have to admit that the photo really sold me on it. it looks SASSY.
  • I’m also still working on those regia ringel socks that I started over a year ago. Ahem. But! I did finish the first one and start the second! that’s something, no?

I think that is enough airing of the hair shirts. suffice it to say, I have a lot of things all lined up and I want badly to do them but most of all to plan plan plan and buy yarn and if only I could spin straw to gold, I’d also be able to wish all my pretty yarn into these pretty projects. sigh.

*note to gramma’s impossible: she wanted to weave us all checkerboards, but someone told her it was impossible with the type of loom she was using. She sure showed him. she did the math and figured it out and busted through it and they were the coolest travel checkerboards ever. additional sidebar: I definately got my crafty stubbornness from my gramma. she is so cool.

dinner

csa dinner last night: I steamed the chard and ate it on corn tortillas with salsa and spreadable laughing cow cheese. yum.

chard wraps

today I also have the roasted wee potatoes for lunch, but I have to eat after my dentists appointment b/c they are full of garlic.

also, tiny little sneak peak for tonight’s festivities:

new skirt

a couple of weeks ago I attended a Mary Kay training weekend featuring our dynamic national sales director from Louisiana. I knew there would be people wearing suits there (the MK directors receive suits, and senior consultants get red jackets) so I wanted to wear something I felt comfortable and classy in. So what’s my (common) response to a dress occasion? make something within 48 hours of attending, natch!

ta da!

new skirt

I used the same pattern as my birthday skirt

here’s a close-up, so you can see how brilliant I am at pleats.

pleat close-up

(hee! seriously, patterns are MY FRIEND. they might not be as punk-rock as seeing something, going home, and whipping something up, but they help make your clothing so beautifully and the sewing goes so much faster. and with much less cussing. not NO cussing, but much less.)

the skirt took about 2 1/2 hours to make, and I worked on it Thursday night after work (I drove up to albany on Friday night and hemmed the skirt, and we were out the door on Sat. AM for the event by 8AM).

in the buy vs. make: I’ve got the new skirt, but I also stopped by target and purchased 4 new plain tees and 2 tank tops. but that’s all acceptable things to buy, I think.

working from home makes my 4 day week even better.

Yesterday, in the course of our office expansion to the space next door, oil and latex paints were used and stank was created and we all went home around lunch time in order to avoid bloody noses and other chronic health effects. you’d think, wouldn’t you, that a company including a bunch of environmental professionals would be able to avoid this kind of workplace hazard? not so much. my eyes were dried out and my nose was burning by the time I left. it was teh yuck!

so even though it’s not really approved by the company, we all worked from home. which was amazingly wonderful: I got a lot done quickly, because I wanted to go to the post office and the library. I have a theory that mgmt recognized that maybe we’d get more work done alone at home than we would in the office when we could take breaks to bitch together. The hardest part about working from home was not doing the things I REALLY wanted to do, including: the dishes, make cupcakes, try on my dresses for the wedding I’m attending this weekend, and sew a new skirt for post-wedding brunch. the last one was especially hard to avoid. But I did it!

I do wish, however, that I had tried on the dresses yesterday afternoon. I’m wearing the dress I sewed for paulina’s wedding last year, and when I tried it on last night I found out that I hadn’t finished the side seams well enough and they’ve split open as the fabric has worn and frayed. luckily I’ve lost some weight since I made it, and can stand to take the whole thing in about an inch and a half all around, so tomorrow morning I will sew up the sides, trim the frays, and finish the seams very very nicely. oh, my kingdom for a serger! though truth be told I don’t

(I would just wear my silver dress, but I have a harebrained scheme to match matt! and he’s wearing his new tan suit! it was so fun to accidentally match gibson when we were at paulinas… so unless he can’t get the pants hemmed on the tan suit and HAS to wear his charcoal one then I’m sticking with the green, despite having to repair it…)

[[EDITED: matt can’t get suits hemmed in time, so charcoal suit/silver dress are good to go! yay, I get to wear the gorgeous jewelry my friend susan makes!]]

observent readers may have observed that I’m taking tomorrow off and will be tripping down to MD for wedding and a happy weekend off in a fancy hotel. we’re sharing a suite with mariss and kelly! I am so excited!

what homemaking means for the weekend of May 6 and 7.

  • hand wash silk scarves
  • fold and put away dry laundry
  • hang all not-to-be-machine-dried laundry
  • make bed with clean sheets
  • air out apartment
  • transplant sprouty herbs and plant some more seeds
  • wash and put away all dishes
  • scrub out tub and bathroom sink with favorite japanese brand of magic eraser
  • clean up food cupboard in kitchen (incl. eating ends of boxes of crackers to make room for other stuff
  • clean off kitchen counter and scrub clean
  • read in bed with clean sheets, freshly aired room, and drying-laundry-humidifier.

skirt!

this weekend was so fantastic. to start with, on friday I finished my new skirt. It took about 3 or 4 hours, and it came out pretty great, if I do say so!

you can see the pleated detail here, even though I’m very “mmmm, cake” in this photo.

digicam 020

here’s a good idea of the length and backside.

digicam 054

and I’m not sure what I’m doing here, but you can see clearly how comfortable and easy to ear this piece of apparel is (OH! I just remembered! I was showing Jenn C. warrior pose, right before I showed her TKD back stance and we mock fought. ha!):

digicam 057

what a bunch of glamour shots! they’re so funny. and that’s one more skirt I’ve made vs. buying. sweet. I have to say: I would love to be all punk rock crafter and say “oh, I don’t need a pattern” and maybe it’s true, but it is a heckuvalot easier to sew things with patterns. without a pattern it takes me easily 2x as long, because I have to constantly alter as I go along. with the pattern I just suspend my disbelief that it will fit and it all pulls together at the end.

birthday preparations

so, I’m having this party on sat. and I’ve decided to do it at my place. I got most of the big housework done earlier, and then I spent at least a week obsessing about how many people I could squeeze into my apartment, but I’m gonna do it. hey, I live in NJ. either people will come, or they won’t, but I bet that it’ll err on the side of people not coming out from NYC.

so, here’s my to do list for the next few weeks so I can get everything done and ready by sat:

Wednesday
* clean up living room, kitchen.
* take large things to basement storage and neaten up hall closet so I can stash microwave if necessary (aka, if I don’t get a chance to make microwave table)
* wash fabric, cut skirt pieces out
* gym after work for cardio
* to bed at a reasonable hour so I don’t get sick (am feeling illish)

Thursday
* gym for knee before work
* date night with the mister?
* stop at linens and things to get a basket for long socks/etc. for my bedroom
* clean up bedroom – put clothes away, put craft things away, clear off dresser as party prep.
* if time, make yummy treats for coworkers in honor of my bday to bring in on friday. aka, also stop by the grocery store to buy baking supplies.

Friday
* sweep everything as prep for houseguests who will be sleeping on floor
* make skirt (while waiting for houseguests to arrive)
* make treats for party/etc
* gym after work for knee and if time, cardio

Saturday
* grocery shopping
* attend party for friend in afternoon
* get home, straighten up, make crudites, have pre-party picnic dinner with houseguests and visiting family

it certainly sounds exciting, doesn’t it? you may have noticed reference to sewing a skirt above. Yes, against all better judgement I have decided once again to undertake a last minute sewing decision. I didn’t mean to, except I *really really* want a green skirt and I *really really* need a shorter than my knees skirt and I *really really* refuse to go shopping, so I HAVE to make one. I went to the rag shop last night and came home with 3 patterns, 4 pieces of fabric (3 of which are upholstry fabric) and various threads and notions. I hope to get a jump on the setup for the skirt so I can sew it quickly on friday night… HOPE. Dream!

the details

friday night nick called (while I was embarassingly enough watching desperate housewives and putting together my new bedside table) and said “I’m coming over to help you hang heavy things!”

so he put up my mirror,
nickmirror

put up the lamp over the dining room table,

lrlamp

and was agog at how dirty my feet were after walking around pre-sweeping.

karifeet
saturday I woke up tired and grouchy so kicked into action. I started in the kitchen and put up the commemorative american revolution plates.

kitchenplates kitchenplates2

I also sorted through the junk boxes that had been on the floor since I (GASP) moved in, and measured for my to-be-built microwave table.

I put up two of the prints I’ve been holding onto for quite some time in the “dining nook”

diningnook

and did loads and loads and loads of cleaning: ripping through at least 8 more martha stewart living magazines, sorting out craft supplies, and decluttering the coffee and dining tables. I also went through the a/v club (pile of boxes and junk under my stereo table) and made that nice and neat and swept clean.

sunday I spent the bulk of my improvement time (when I wasn’t driving around donating things in the beautiful weather, or enjoying frappes on my way home from dollar stores) hanging photographs. I have a LOT of pictures!

lrphotos3

with close-ups for photodetail:

lrphotos2

lrphotos1

I also tackled the bathroom: nick and I put the shelf on hold on friday night b/c there only seems to be about 1/2″ of plaster before mysterious metal is encountered. So instead I put up my friends elvis and the hoff, and also, the dubious “best drunk award” that matt (and michelle and I) took home from the pgh mardi gras party this year. (Don’t worry Mom: I have it on very good authority that while of of us was exceptionally drunk, we won b/c our costume was SO GREAT but we were dressed as our hosts, and they though it would be self-serving if we were awarded the costume prize.)

bathhoff bathelvis

And, to make my hall complete, I put up the relgious pictures that were found in the dollar store in pittsburgh, one featuring an angel who might be pushing children off of a cliff:

hallpics

not a bad weekends work, that’s for real. I still have so much to do but am in a much better place to feel like I might be able to pull together a party at my casa.

to done list.

this weekend was alarmingly productive, though I still am not 100% to done. of course, this puts me in the awkward position of having finished NEARLY enough to make me sure I can have a party at my place… hrm.

  • kitchen: shelf for microwave, microwave off of hutch
  • kitchen: get rid of junk boxes
  • kitchen: hang decorative and commemorative american revolution plates
  • kitchen: find bread machine and give away [[ this thing is seriously awol. maybe it’s in the basement? ]]
  • living room: hang photos
  • living room: hang art [[ pending arrival of new, non-broken lamp for corner of living room ]]
  • living room: sort a/v materials and clean under tv/stereo tables
  • living room: try to reconfigure stereo speaker configuration so as to afford sideways lampage
  • living room: hang light over dining table
  • bathroom: hang shelf, load up with qtips and spare rolls of TP [[ apparently,
  • bathroom: frame and hang david hasselhoff
  • bathroom: hang elvis
  • hall: hang big mirror
  • hall: hang misc. religious pictures
  • hall: donate big bags of clothes/books and get out of home
  • hall: put all boxes into the basement
  • living room: finish sorting through/recycling martha stewart magazines
  • living room: put away craft things that are out
  • living room: clean off dining table [[ nearly done. I crossed off anyway b/c it’s good for my morale. ]]
  • living room: put away papers from coffee table
  • living room bonus project: replace coffee table with two end tables from basement
  • bedroom: finish putting away craft things
  • bedroom: put together bedside table
  • bedroom: get and use fabric boxes for nylons and knee socks
  • bedroom: take chinese peasant paintings to be framed, hang when received
  • bedroom: clean off dresser

ha, and don’t worry. photos aplenty coming up.

I think I’ll finish moving in this weekend.

This weekend is all about the planning for the birthday party. It might also be called spring cleaning, or even moving in. I want to have a party at my place in 2 weeks, and next weekend I’ll be off to Albany for family party, so this is the only time I’ll be able to scrap my apartment into any kind of non-embarassing, having people over, having places for people to rest their drinks when the boogie-down occurs condition.

you might recall I have a comprehensive bunch of “to do” lists hanging up around my apartment. including those items, the comprehensive (I think) list of things I need to do before my home is party-appropriate is:

  • kitchen: shelf for microwave, microwave off of hutch
  • kitchen: get rid of junk boxes
  • kitchen: hang decorative and commemorative american revolution plates
  • kitchen: find bread machine and give away
  • living room: hang photos
  • living room: hang art
  • living room: sort a/v materials and clean under tv/stereo tables
  • living room: try to reconfigure stereo speaker configuration so as to
  • living room: hang light over dining table
  • bathroom: hang shelf, load up with qtips and spare rolls of TP
  • bathroom: frame and hang david hasselhoff
  • bathroom: hang elvis
  • hall: hang big mirror
  • hall: hang misc. religious pictures
  • hall: donate big bags of clothes/books and get out of home
  • hall: put all boxes into the basement
  • living room: finish sorting through/recycling martha stewart magazines
  • living room: put away craft things that are out
  • living room: clean off dining table
  • living room: put away papers from coffee table
  • living room bonus project: replace coffee table with two end tables from basement
  • bedroom: finish putting away craft things
  • bedroom: put together bedside table
  • bedroom: get and use fabric boxes for nylons and knee socks
  • bedroom: take chinese peasant paintings to be framed, hang when received
  • bedroom: clean off dresser

other things I need to do but are pending the arrival of supplies and/or aren’t that important right now are:

  • put up new lamp by couch (requires new, unbroken lamp to be delivered)
  • cover couch (requires fabric)
  • clean out big closet, including sorting through clothes in boxes and getting rid of things that are too small/old/unfashionable.

so, anywhoo. I might be freakin’ busy this weekend, or, because of the glorious weather, I might be outside and my birthday party might be at a kareoke bar. we’ll see on monday!

List.

Ambitious List of Things to do Tonight:

* wash dishes.
* roast eggplant under broiler, pan fry tofu, and cook in Moroccan tagine sauce from trader joe’s. enjoy with whole wheat couscous.
* do laundry.
* sort blankets/bedding for upcoming girl trip to baltimore, wash if necessary.
* finish framing posters for home.
* hang lamp over dining room table area.
* sort and put away crafty stuff. Make this more fun by separating out planned projects and photographing before restashing.
* tackle piles of crafty things over dining room table. See also pile of crafty things next to my sweet recliner.
* listen to audiobook of “pride and prejudice” while homemaking.
* drink lots of tea so as to stave off horrible cold that project manager passed along. Try not to feel sad that gym is a Very Bad Idea when you’re fighting horrible post-nasal drip.
* go to sleep early.

things I’ve learned lately

1. I am a terrible procrastinator. I think the reason why is b/c I am bored. it’s true. I’d much rather be at home reading the pile of books that I need to get through, or sewing a skirt, or knitting the things that I have promised to people. Instead I am at work for 8+ hours a day and I find myself thinking about books, or looking at skirts online, or drooling over yarns and patterns on the internet.

the key to why I procrastinate is this: I am bored, therefore, I am way more interested in what I’m doing if I have to do it in a crunch/last minute situation.

the catch-22 is that when I’m at work screwing around at the internets, the day takes at least 5x as long to get through as it does when I’m at work actually being productive and getting things done. go figure.

2. I found out I have a very old version of WP installed here. I need to update it, but am a tiny bit nervous about the procedure. It’s an autoinstall from my host, so it shouldn’t be HARD, but these things are never guaranteed to be easy.

3. I cable all wrong. When I am making cables there’s a bar across the bottom of the knit stitch, like I’m holding the yarn in the wrong place before I twist the stitches. I need to consult elizabeth zimmerman about this for sure. of course, my only other experience with cables was this owl dishcloth knit several years ago for my mom, but I DID think it would come back a little better. and I’m even using a brilliant cable needle that my grandmonther gave me that used to belong to my greatgrandmother. I thought it would guide me, in a way, but that’s not really happening. sigh.

knitting olympics!

a friend of mine pointed out the the knitting olympics. how fun! it is wildly tempting to do, but I have to admit that I’m bad at knitting on a deadline. Plus, I don’t really have a functional tv on which to watch the olympics, and that might be key to maximize knitting time.

but if I WERE going to do it, I might actually go ahead and knit the sitcom chic cardigan. I bought the yarn, I just have to get down to it, pretty much.

In other knitting news, I’ve been knitting socks and they’re coming out BEAUTIFULLY. and don’t think these are new socks, I started them just under a year ago and am still chugging away. I set them aside for a long time, and in my move I lost the directions (which I’d customized to my own, long and skinny feet), but have since found them and bring them with me to physical therapy. I’m on the ribbing of the 2nd sock and I HATE 1×1 ribbing, by the way, it definitely is horrible and tedious and time consuming. I can’t WAIT until I finish it and can zip around and around in stockinette.