craftastic

What I really owe you is a confessional about why I abandoned my blog this winter. It can be summarized in one word. Knitting. This winter I finally succumbed to the lure of gorgeous wool. It started simply with a little orange hat for Marlowe, and before i knew it, I had hats for the whole family and then some, and a few other small projects. But that's for another post.

We're in purge mode around here, and hubby tossed a pile of Tshirts on the bed that he wanted to get rid of. He knew I probably wanted to do something with them besides trash; good man. I have a bunch of towels waiting for their transformation into rags, so I didn't need to cut the Tshirts up into rags. So I did what I've been wanting to try for a long time, make Tshirt yarn. (I'm not going to go into a tutorial. Here's a good one.) The short of it is, you take an old T, cut it into a long strip, and give a good tug so that it curls up.

Here's the first shirt transformed. The strips were too big (1 1/2" to 2" wide--I was very unscientific), and the largest sized needles I had were size 13. I need at least 15 for this yarn. Probably 17. I couldn't go very many rows, because it was just too cumbersome.

The next shirt, I turned into thinner strips (probably around 1" to 1 1/4" wide upon cutting). And size 13 worked fine.

it helps if you have a Tshirt without side seams. Because the seams will show through. If you're fine with a kind of fraying, funky look, I suppose that's fine. It didn't stop me.

I can't wait to dig into my stash of Tshirts! This is going to be fun knitting for warmer weather.

The day before St. Patrick's Day, I realized that Ellis did not possess a single item of green clothing. And since these things are sometimes important to kindergartners and I never know what kind of theme-y thing they might hype up at school, I thought we better make a green shirt fast. He's going to need Tshirts for summer anyway.

So while at Target, I picked up a simple white T and meant to get the same for Marlowe, but there were none white in his size, so I got him green. Thus, I introduced Ellis to tie-dye. I have some green dye in my stash. (remember this?) And there's nothing more awesome than stirring a pot of dye. Thankfully, I managed to restrain myself from dyeing everything in sight. With Marlowe's shirt, I tried reverse tie-dyeing with bleach. I think I left it in too long, though. Oh well, they both ended up with fun green shirts.

Ellis was extremely proud of his.

That was the day we went to the zoo.

I know I've already shared on Facebook the magnum opus that is the Halloween costumes that I made, but I need to plunk it down here for blog posterity.

when it came time to deciding on costumes, I wasn't sure how I was going to top the utter cuteness of last year's Man with the Yellow Hat and Curious George. Then one day Ellis decided that he wanted to dress up as the Cat in the Hat, so that was the decider, I would make a costume for him for Halloween. The obvious accompaniment to a Cat in the Hat costume is Thing 1/Thing 2. So Marlowe was going to be that. To be honest, though. I wasn't feeling it. Too obvious, too uninspired. So then, I thought, well, what about The Goldfish in the Cat in the Hat? Could I do a Goldfish costume?

Thus began the great quest to figure how to make a convincing fish. I scoured the internet for some design inspiration and came across this simple octopus costume idea on Martha Stewart. So that was my springboard.

The fish costume is in two parts: the body suit and the hood/cape thingy.
.

The bodysuit was pretty straightforward. I used his jammies as a guideline. And velcro up the back. I incorporated fins onto the sleeve. The hood/cape has a lining so that i could stuff it a little and make casings in the fins for some pipe cleaner. The gave the fins some stiffness and bending capabilities for a fun Suess-y flip. I made a couple of pockets on the neckline of the bodysuit to thread the ties of the hood cape through to make it more comfy and secure for wearing.

The whole thing is made out of nice, comfy soft fleece.

The Cat in the Hat costume was much simpler. Again using fleece, i made a black body suit with velcro up the back for ease. Using his jammies as a template. then the white belly and sewed on red, felt bow. I made a casing and put some elastic at the neckline so that it would fit snugly, but comfortably. The tail is from a set of stripey tights from Target, stuffed with polyfil and a pipe cleaners. I added some strips of wide elastic at the foot, so that the leg would cover his shoes. Got some white gloves at Target, and made some whiskers from pipe cleaner. The Hat was donated by a friend who just had happened to find one at the thrift store. This made my job a LOT easier. I was not looking forward to that millinary foray.

The Sew, Mama, Sew blog is definitely one of the best sewing blogs/forum/fabric shops out there. I love this site!

Well, it's back-to-school month, and they are offer a real motherlode of a giveaway: a brand new Husqvarna Viking serger machine.

And even though the chances of my winning are about as slim as both my kids sleeping all night all by themselves in their own beds, I may as well try. Because isn't hope part of the human experience?

This year I'm facing a peculiar sewing challenge. Over the past year I've just sewed less, faced with a busy life of toddler and preschooler and a sewing/fabric setup that is a little frustrating since our move. Last year I got a bunch of pants/jeans for my growing like a weed 4yo (now 5yo). I got them a little on the large side hoping we could bring them out for the fall, too. Well, they didn't make it. Hardly three months later, the knees of these pants systematically shredded. I was kind of frustrated because between his grandma and me, we had gotten him good, new jeans with the expectation that they would last. I've patched and patched all his holey knees, but even that's not going to last long before he starts looking like a quilt. So I'm bracing for a big sewing challenge of creating the sturdiest boy pants ever. A serger would make this go a lot faster.

Also, I would love to be able to create more unique, fun Tshirts for my boys. Because we all know that there is so much more out there for girls. I'm scared to sew with knits without a serger. Yea, yea, I know it can be done. But it could be done more easily with a serger.

So this is why I would love to win the serger: to sew clothes for my boys more easily.

I have a little back blogging to do, since I didn't get a chance to blog out VBS before we went on vacation.

I was in charge of crafts. And I feel need to reinvent the curriculum. I want the kids to take home something that their moms will like to look at and won't feed Clutter Monsters or get thrown in the garbage out of Clutter frustration. And to me, the curriculum does do just that. It certainly doesn't spark any creativity. I just couldn't do essentially busywork with the kids. Okay, soapbox over.

What I came up with was more Art-y than Craft-y, but that was fine. I also had to come up with something that would work for 2-12yos. Now, I pretty much owe everything to The Artful Parent blog and MaryAnn Kohl books. Both fantastic resources that I utterly depend on in my daily life. So I basically got all my ideas from there. I was happy with what I came up with.

Day 1
This was actually really practical. I ordered a bunch of blank canvas totes from the internet and had the kids decorate them with fabric pastels and markers. Then they had a handy bag for carrying around all their VBS detritus, and a useful souvenir of the week, too. We just used Marlowe's at the library yesterday.

Day 2
Bubble wrap printing. I though this would be great for the younger kids. I tried to think of another printing project for the older kids, but nothing was really working. I have to keep things pretty simple due to limited time and resources. So I ended up doing this for everyone, and they all loved it! I let the older kids squirt their own paint on their paper plate so they could experiment with color, but the youngers just chose one color.

Last year I collected old Tshirts from around church, and we use those as art smocks. I slit up the back, and we do a quick safety pin. Works really well. I also have dish pans full of soapy water right at our work station for quick cleaning of hands. We protect the tables by taping down plastic party tablecloths.

Day 3
I figured I could pass off wax resist paintings as magic to the 1st graders. I was unprepared for how excited the older kids got over this. I didn't even try to do the whit crayon part resist with the 2-3yos (maybe at home--but in that setting, too chaotic). They stuck stickers that they could paint over. I made several cups of liquid watercolor, and that worked pretty well.

Day 4
This was perhaps the awesomest yet. Tissue paper stained glass. Perhaps a bit more intense on the setup end of things. We taped down contact paper sticky side up. The kids then stuck the tissue paper on and we covered with contact paper. Then the older kids decorated with sharpie. (See this book a la Artful Parent) The kids loved this and really got into it.

And I loved covering the windows with their finished project.

Day 5
For the last day, we needed something super easy, quick,and simple. Beads + lanyard. The perfect campy craft.

I was really happy with how things turned out. I don't have any background in art--heck, I never even had an art class in school. But I've learned a lot from the blogosphere and my personal interests. I loved making a creative space for the 40+ kids that week. There was such great variety.

No, no funky seersucker pants this year. But I have been making some fun stuff for our vacation. (We leave tomorrow!! yay!)

For Marlowe:

When Ellis was 2, I got two blank Tshirts at Target, always meaning to freezer paper stencil them. Never got around to it, and he wore those shirts blank all summer. Always felt bad about it.
Well, now Marlowe is 2, and I got him two blank Ts at Target, bc he needed a couple extra shirts. And this time I got around to it!

I did an applique squirrel on one, and a freezer paper stencil of wind turbines on the other. I love the funky birds of the Jay MacCarroll print Germania. I'm using it in every thing, so sorry for the deja vu. :) I'm a little bummed my stencil got a little smudged. I ended up with several layers of paint.

Also for M. I was doing a lamination project for E (see below), so I wanted to do something for M to feel included. I laminated a bunch of pics that I got printed out at Staples, and stuck magnetic tape to the back of them. With a magnetic dry erase board, he is set. (He will NOT be getting a marker!)

For Ellis:

This is project I'm most excited about.

E loves writing words! He's constantly asking us how to spell things. He can't read yet (he just turned 5!), but he's doing a lot great preliteracy things. I made these sheets for him in the Mac Pages program. Pictures of things relevant to vacation, with the words, and a space for him to write the word. I printed them at Staples and got them to laminate them. He can write on them with dry erase marker now! They turned out awesome! I'm so excited about it!! I think he'll love these.

I was hanging out with a friend yesterday, and remarked that I hadn't sewn anything since February. Crazy! I just haven't.

Ellis and Daddy went camping last night, leaving M and I at home. I was catching up on blogs and got totally inspired by Made by Rae's Spring Top Challenge. I promptly set about trying to come up with a top of my own. I don't know how I got the upcycle bug in my head, too. I googled around and found this tutorial for converting a men's shirt into a girly top. I have a couple of old shirts of hubby's that have been needing some new life. I actually set about to do this tutorial twice, but as I got into it both times, the shirt said something different to me. (I haven't decided yet if I'll post about the first one. Still not sure about it.)

I'm really happy with how this one came out. Yes, it was hubby's shirt--but from Retro Days in high school. It recently surfaced at his parents' house, and I got a huge kick out of it. It was kind of cool, but also kind of only 70's Day worthy. (sorry the pics are so bad--my phone cam)

I cut off the top, cutting from underarm to underarm of the sleeves, so buttoned it's just a tube, essentially. Then hemmed across the top. Four rows of elastic thread shirring.

I turned it around so the buttons were in the back, then added straps.

I love how it turned out. And it's super comfy. And I think it's gone from Retro Day to Vintage-y

My mom came today to hang out and to bring their portable dishwasher to me to have, since ours died. I took advantage of her being here to finish this skirt to wear to a wedding of a church friend this afternoon. I didn't pay a cent for this skirt. The turquoise wool was in my stash that came with a lot of other awesome wool from my great-grandma's attic. And the lace that I sewed on top of it was from a curtain. Like mom said, "You don't need money; you just need clever." I felt really clever, too. The perfect midwinter skirt.

Because it's great blog fodder, too.

Sew, Mama, Sew is one of my favorite crafty blogs. I've been reading them forever. They always have great ideas, tutorials, and, my favorite, handmade holidays!! This month is sewing machine month, and there's a SWEET giveaway of a sewing machine this month.

Anyway, they're hosting a sewing machine meme, so I thought it sounded like a good idea, and needed something to post about since you already know that we went to Ikea for dinner and that Ellis got a new sleeping bag if you're following me on Facebook. meh.

What brand and model do you have?
Janome Sewist 509

How long have you had it?
2 yrs

How much does that machine cost (approximately)?
$200

What types of things do you sew (i.e. quilting, clothing, handbags, home dec projects, etc.)?
All of the above. Everything. clothes, bags, curtains. I sew with heavier weight home dec fabrics, and have even sewn knits on it.

How much do you sew? How much wear and tear does the machine get?
I go in seasons. Sometimes almost daily, others about monthly.

Do you like/love/hate your machine? Are you ambivalent? Passionate? Does she have a name?
It's very smooth. I can sew a ton of layers of heavy material, and it just tromps over them like butter. So it's a real workhorse for me. I did not name it. I think of it as "the Sewist" which sounds sort of academic to me.

What features does your machine have that work well for you?
Well, this is a basic, basic, basic machine. I can do zigzag, buttonholes, and straight stitches. And they all work well.

Is there anything that drives you nuts about your machine?
nope.

Do you have a great story to share about your machine (i.e., Found it under the Christmas tree? Dropped it on the kitchen floor? Sewed your fingernail to your zipper?, Got it from your Great Grandma?, etc.!)? We want to hear it!
I turned in my master's thesis, and the next week bought a sewing machine. :)

Would you recommend the machine to others? Why?
Yes. This is a very good basic machine. It is reliable, extremely easy to use. The perfect first sewing machine. I had major sewing fear before I got this. And the ease of the machine made it easy for me to fall in love with sewing.

What factors do you think are important to consider when looking for a new machine?
I wanted to just get a basic machine when I was looking for this, my first machine. I wanted to know myself more as a sewer before I looked for my features. I think I'd be interested in some interesting stitch pattern options, and a programmable buttonhole. For me, though, I don't need much.

Do you have a dream machine?
I'd like something that could do anything. Could quilt, could serge, could embroider and be very good at the "basics" too.

(read more entries on the Sew, Mama, Sew blog)

The Art Star Craft Bazaar is big ol' annual craft show here in Philly. I don't really know how or where to find craft shows, but this one is pretty huge, and I love going. The first year I went it was sprawled through some parking lots in east Philly somewhere. Now it's on Penns Landing, with live music and a festive waterfront. Actually, the live music sounds like a great idea, but after awhile, I found it loud and annoying. I couldn't hear myself think or the people around me. It was just constant noise.

The funny thing is, I kept running into random people I know. First, there was a whole group of people I know from Covenant. They were more friends of friends while I was there, but I knew them well enough to spot them in a crowd eight years later and give hugs and "so what have you been doing"'s. And what's more, none of them live in Philly, but had converged for the weekend. So that was kind of fun. Then we ran into a couple that we actually met in New Orleans, though we're both from here. They live in center city, and we really need to keep in better touch. Sam and Sarah joined us for a little bit, too, which is always fun. (Sarah took some fun pics.)

It's so much fun and so inspiring to see people's work in real life. I wish I could do a whole report on my favorites. I did buy a cute zipper pouch from this seller, who made really awesome bags with bird designs, and who was sharing a booth with this seller, who did really cool Tshirt repurposing work. Both were really inspiring.