Reed's Onesies

Sigh. Work's been super stressful, and it has sucked out my creativity. I haven't worked on anything since the pillows, so I guess I'll post a craft from a few months ago. These were my first baby onesies. I made them for my friend Amy's newborn, Reed. I keep waiting for Amy to let me have a photo shoot with Reed as my model. I wonder what they look like on him!

This is the first one I made. The original inspiration came from a men's t-shirt I saw on a guy on a party that looked a lot like this. Serged instead of zig-zagged, though. I'm going to watch for a serger at garage sales this summer. Sewing machines are everywhere. Sergers not as much. Anyway, the green strips were cut from an old t-shirt that didn't fit me anymore.

Same story, little different design here. Doing these on a machine is tricky because it's hard to maneuver without sewing through both sides of the shirt.

For this one, I cut a square from an old t-shirt of mine to make a pocket. Then I trimmed the neck and pocket with a really cute blue and brown ribbon. Lesson learned--stick with things that are stretchy, duh. The ribbon doesn't stretch, which I didn't think about at first, so I'm sure little Reed probably never wore this one. He probably couldn't get it over his head!

This last one's my favorite. The fabric for the circles came from remnants I bought at a garage sale for pennies. I hand-sewed the circles on with hot pink thread.

When I finished, I rolled them back up in their original packaging to wrap and give as a baby gift.

Kate's Embroidery

Kate finished her embroidery project. It looks pretty great! She wrapped it around a frame with a staple gun to make it wall-ready.

Throw Pillows

Last night was craft night, and my project was to recover my living room throw pillows. The pillows were hand-me-downs from my Grandma. I've had them for a few years. They're a little big, but comfy as all get out for a Sunday afternoon football induced nap. The original covers were brocaded and zippered shut. Here's the before:

So I picked up some felt at Hancock Fabrics. I figured felt would be (a) cheap and (b) easy to work with--no fraying. The living room has kind of a green theme. I used brown, turquoise, and green for the felted coasters I made a while back, and I loved that color scheme, so I followed it for the pillows.

I have a confession to make: I've never sewed a zipper before. I stopped taking clothing to the fair as a young 4-H'er before I got to that level of difficulty. I'm only minimally confident of my ability to sew buttonholes. These two problems are usually enough to discourage me from sewing more advanced projects.

This time was no exception. I decided to just do an overlapping open back. But when I finished, it gapped open too much, so I sewed a strip of velcro on each one to keep it closed. Here's a tip. If you only have adhesive-backed velcro, wait until you can buy some regular velcro. My needle got super gummy tacking the adhesive-backed kind onto the felt--and consequently, so did my fingers, thread, and everything else.

Anyway, here's the final project. I'm pretty proud of them.

Craft Night, 1/15/07

Tonight was craft night! We combined it with the Golden Globes to satisfy the fame-o-philes in the group (Kate!). Here's what we did:

• Taina worked on her kids' scrapbooks.


• Sarah brought her current knitting project, a laptop sleeve. She's knitting it on circular needles, and it looks great. I look forward to seeing the finished project. She also wore a splendidly appropriate shirt and brought some tasty cheese curds.




• Jane worked on a Nintendo-themed needlepoint project she found on craftzine.com. It ended up taking longer than expected, so no final project photos, but watch The Things I Like. I bet it will be up there soon.
  
  

  



• Monica made some super cute refrigerator magnets made from adhesive magnetic strips and magazine cutouts. The photos don't do them justice.
  

• Becky worked on placecards for an upcoming party. She brought cute little cardstock squares and at least four different kinds of fancy-shape-cutting-scissors. She ended up not being a big fan of scissor-scalloped edges, so the cards didn't get finished.

• With help from Vicki and Jane, Kate learned how to do embroidery. She's doing a mighty fine job of it, too. I look forward to posting a photo of her finished project. I think she's planning on making it into a wallhanging for her office, and not our apartment. I'm very impressed with how quickly this non-sewer learned how to do very professional looking embroidery.





• Finally, I worked on making new covers for the throw pillows on our couch. I'll post on these separately.

Chicago Art

Last weekend I visited a particularly artsy friend in Chicago. I wanted to snap photos of everything in her apartment, it was all so creative. An old school desk (the boxy kind with space under the seat for text books) held her DVD collection. Empty ornate frames lined the walls. Vintage wallpaper was matted and framed. A surprisingly hip-looking antique quilt hung on the wall. Even her clothes were artistic. She wore fishnets and boots out to the bar, but had a way of making it seem laid back, not trying-hard hipster.

This 3D display was one of my favorites. The building in the enlarged photo was cut out (including some of the windows) and curved to fit in a frame that was smaller than its dimensions. The end results was alive in the way it jumped off the wall and allowed light and shadows to play in the background. Maybe this weekend I'll find a favorite Minneapolis landmark to photograph and see if I can recreate the magic. Not sure if it will look as cool on my white walls, though.

No 'stravaganza for me

Well, as much as I was looking forward to the challenge and getting that "would people pay for my stuff" question answered, I'm not going to submit an application for the Saint Paul Craftstravaganza. I read up on it, and I decided I couldn't deal with all the tax forms and whatnot. I probably should learn a little more about the implications before I sign up for a tax ID number. Maybe when I go to it as a consumer, I'll find out from more experienced folks what it takes.

In other news, I'm hosting another craft night on Monday. I'm looking forward to it. Becky's planning on a cool decoupage project involving wood and vintage postcards. Monica's hoping to start screening Chihuahau t-shirts. My neighbor Mari will be joining us for the first time. She's a professional photographer, so I have a hunch she's a creative type. I'm not sure what my project will be yet. I'm in the mood to start another knitting project. I'm trying to find a good baby sweater pattern.

St. Paul Craftstravaganza!

This weekend I made a visit to Crafty Planet in NE Minneapolis. No purchases (why is everything cool so expensive?) but I did sign up for their newsletter. And today I got my first edition. That's where I read about the upcoming St. Paul Craftstravaganza! How exciting! I missed the No-Coast Craft-o-Rama, but I'm definitely going to attend the 'ganza. Here's the question: should I apply to be a vendor? I've never done anything like this before, but I could use a good challenge, and something to focus on outside of work. I could maybe work up enough onesies before then. The application deadline is coming up super fast--January 10th. But the event isn't until the end of April. Hmmm.....

Fabric wall hanging

I'm always buying old sheets and fabric from thrift stores and garage sales without a clear idea of what I plan to do with them. I held onto this sheet for almost a year before I figured out how I wanted to use it. I bought an old wooden frame from a garage sale for 50 cents. It was already missing the glass and the backing. I cut the sheet to about 2 inches beyond the size of the frame and used a staple gun to stretch it across. Note to self--next time don't be too lazy to iron the fabric first. Wrinkles that don't show up in daylight show up at night when the wall sconces are turned on!