Craftster folks ROCK!!

oh, i am so so late posting this. so so late.

a little while ago i got an AWESOME surprise in the mail! the amazing twiztidblood organized a bunch of craftster members (all folks who've been in ATC swaps that i've organized) and they all got together and sent me ATCs and good wishes! it was SO INCREDIBLE of them. honestly, i was all teary eyed when i opened the envelope, it was such an amazing thing for twiz to organize, and for people to send me their love like that.

twiz sent me multiple goodies, and i actually missed two things in these pics - a note card and a sticker.

she sent me this pretty feathered bird card/page


and this gorgeous koi page/card


and fabulous ephemera, and the ribbon that everything was wrapped in (i was too impatient to take pics while it was all still wrapped!)


that alone would have been an awesome surprise!


but there was also this fabulous ATC from spookshowbaby

(i love that it's a woman LATCH HOOKING! how awesome is that?)

and this beautiful ATC from karin_, who also sent some awesome ephemera along

(aren't the colours fabulous? i love the pink!)

and a whole BUNCH of ATCs from audio-astrophysics!

(such an awesome picture, i love her! she looks so proud of her somewhat creepy muscles!)


(two amazing amazing and truthful quotes!)


(at first glace, it's a pretty card, but when you read the words... ha! i love the contrast!)


(lookit how sassy she is! and those gloves are incredible, i totally want them!)

and a fabulous acrylic card from SewHelpMe

(i love her acrylic cards! and rhinestones always make me happy!)

such an awesome get well/thinking of you package, and it honestly meant so much to me. i have the ATCs in my binder, all on their very own page so that i can look at them all together.

i haven't been on craftster very much lately, and i've been missing it and all the swappers and my mod girls, but i just haven't been able to handle it. i'm having a really hard time focusing and getting things accomplished in general, always feeling like i'm so behind that i'll never catch up, and as much as i love it, craftster's the worst for it. i'm at the point now where i can have ONE focus per day, that's it, whether it's posting here, making a phone call, going to the grocery store, whatever, just ONE thing, or else i get all flustered and overwhelmed and anxious. there are too many aspects to craftster - i get all stressed out about swaps, about mod duties, about keeping up with my swap friends and the mod girls, about actually posting things that i've made, etc, etc. so really the fact that i'm so late posting this is a prime example of why i can't handle craftster right now! it was so so amazing to receive this package full of love, and being told that i'm missed as much as i miss everyone myself.

i'm really glad that i'm finally posting these, i've been feeling really bad about the delay.



in other new, tomorrow is HANDMADE NATION!!!!!!!

i am so so so excited!

i was DETERMINED to make myself something new for it, because it's been oh so long since i've sewn for MYSELF! in addition, i realized that in all the years i've been working with vinyl, i've never made myself a purse. isn't that ridiculous? i've always just received them in swaps, or even, the horror, BOUGHT purses. but i did it!! i made myself a purse! i'll try to get pics up of it soon. and then, because i still had time before my sister came over for help with wedding skirts, i made myself a skirt! two, actually! (i'll only wear one at a time!). i have a huge stack of skirts and dresses waiting to be altered into skirts that fit me, and i managed to make/alter TWO of them today! one was very simple, just chopping off the top and adding elastic, but the other was more complicated and turned out super cute! obviously, sewing was today's focus! i definitely pushed too much, my back is currently screaming at me, but it was really nice to feel like i accomplished something. and now i have a non-boring purse and skirt to wear to the screening!

have i mentioned that i'm really really really excited about the handmade nation screening?!

i'm also really excited that the venue changed, because i was NOT looking forward to driving to the yuppie west side, i'm so happy that it's in east van, which is totally my comfort zone. that worked out really well, now i just need to find my copy of the book!

Fabric Friday - flowers!

i'm feeling awfully crummy, and i'm all doped up on pain meds, so i won't try to babble away.

here's some eye candy in the meantime, and hopefully i'll be able to get caught up soon!

this is super yummy, i found it a few weeks ago. hand silkscreened in hawaii

i'm not fond of the super cheesy hawaiian prints, but this one's a bit more subtle.

and a vintage calico, with a poppy print.

(at least i think they look like poppies!)


pretty much all i've managed to do this week has been some listings in my new vintage etsy shop, so be sure to go check them out!

here's some of the things i've listed, or will be listing soon -

Silk 10yd Skirt and my sister the sewing genius!

you're wondering what the fabric was that was so distracting yesterday, right?

silk! mmmm, silk. gaaah, silk!

my little sister is, as usual, incredibly overbooked and frantically busy. about a week and a half ago i took pity on her and asked if there was anything i could do to help her. she's finishing up several custom projects, including several weddings, and still needed to finish her own costume for a big annual costume "ball" that friends of hers organize every year. considering that a lot of her clients are within the same social circle, she tends to really go out with her costumes (plus, she's like i used to be, when i had the energy - any excuse to make an elaborate outfit!) she asked if i would make her a gathered belly dancing skirt, commonly called 10 yard skirts, because the bottom tier is 10 yards around. it was something that i could do without her corset making expertise, plus i have a ruffler foot, so it would take me much less time than it would her.

i, in my typical procrastinating way, left it to the last minute. not entirely on purpose, because this has been a pretty crappy week, but i could have started the first steps on wednesday or thursday, but didn't. i kept thinking "it's just a skirt. how long can it take?"

a LONG LONG time!

first, math is so not my strong point. since i was using the ruffler foot, i needed the gathering to be about the same amount for both lower tiers. i added up the total length, considered that i had 3 strips that long once i'd cut them, and then figured out how long each tier should be. it took me way longer than it should have, but that was partly because i couldn't find a calculator and everytime i sat down on the computer to use google (i love using google as a calculator, i'm a geek, i know!), i'd get distracted by other things. plus, i tend to forget how many breaks my body needs now. you'd think i'd have learned, but i'm in subconscious denial or something.

anyway, i wanted the difference between the layers to be x2, so the final measurements were 86" for the top tier, 172" for the middle tier, and 344" for the bottom tier. not quite 10 yards, but pretty close.

the fabric she had was a 6yard length of sand washed emerald green silk. GORGEOUS. (sandwashed silk is sometimes called sueded silk too) she found it at value village for $5 or $6. she has amazing luck finding fabric at value village!

so super gorgeous, super soft, and super duper slinky and slippery. i had to pin every 1/2"-1" all the way along the selevedges, and even so, it didn't cut straight. the last time i sewed with sandwashed silk was cutting up my parent's worn out shirts to make barbie clothes, at the height of the sandwashed silk trend - late 80s, early 90s!

eventually i just went with it, because there was nothing i could do. luckily with a skirt like this, minor curves are minimized by the gathering anyway. the ruffler foot worked super slick once i had the setting and the stitch length down, so that was awesome.

this morning she came over, and we realized that the silk had really stretched from the weight of the gathers, and the skirt was way too long. blegh! i had to unpick the waistband and redo it and the buttonholes 4" lower before i could put the elastic and the drawstring through.

but i got it done! and it looks amazing. i went through 3 needles (i used fine sharps needles, but even so, the silk seemed to dull them really fast, and the fabric pulled once they were dull), and a crapton of thread, but it turned out gorgeous.



none of the pics i took managed to show the colour perfectly, so just imagine a super deep emerald green, okay?





it is so so full! it doesn't look super bulky, since the silk is so thin, but it billows out fabulously behind her when she walks fast.



i'm really happy with it, but slightly rethinking my plan to make myself a knee length tiered skirt....


while she was here, i took some pics of the custom corset and chemise that she finished up this morning. (she made an awesome period accurate pair of bloomers too, but i didn't get a picture of them)


(we were in such a rush to take the pics, we forgot that the chemise seams and hem hadn't been pressed yet, so ignore that!)











isn't it gorgeous? her corsets are AMAZING! the amount of work that goes into each one is mind boggling. she does have an etsy shop, if you'd like to see more of her corsets,but she keeps selling them locally, so there's only a few left in her shop. i keep telling her she needs to take pictures and show them off more!

Fabric Friday! er..... Saturday!

i'm late! you knew that already though, right?

the funny thing is that i remembered yesterday, i was just so busy fighting with a particular fabric, i didn't have time to take pictures of OTHER fabric and upload them!

however, i'll blog about that fabric later tonight, i'm still uploading pics. here's some simple, easy to sew fabrics instead!

they're both vintage woven fabrics, both a bit heavier than quilting weight, but not quite as heavy as home decor. they'd be perfect for a more structured dress, curtains or a knitting bag, something like that. they'd make awesome pillows too, but probably wouldn't hold up to the wear of upholstery (not that i have nearly enough for that anyway, sadly!)

for the moment i'll just hoard them, waiting for the perfect project to find them!











funny how i ended up falling for the purples and blue again, huh?


for more eye candy, check out True Up's post about spandex fabric (which totally makes me want to go buy more - i love spandex! it's so great for tights) and rickrack.com is continuing with the roses theme for Feedsack Friday, and this week they were BLUE roses! lovely! blue roses are my favourite i think. i love how they're unexpected....

Wordless Wednesday

a quick catch up!

hi!

i know, i know, it's been pretty quiet around here!

i've been feeling pretty crummy, so i haven't been up to a whole lot of crafty stuff.

i also promised my dad that i'd make some cushion covers for his boat, which i really didn't want to do. they're big and awkward and it's tough to control the vinyl pieces, so they make my back and shoulders ache. however, he does lots of things for me, not the least of which fighting with my disability company when i don't have the energy, so i of course said i would. that meant that i felt guilty doing any other sewing, when i should have been making the cushions, but i was totally procrastinating, so i ended up not sewing anything at all! i finally finished them up on friday, and realized i'd procrastinated for over a week, avoiding projects that took less than 2 hours each. totally ridiculous, i know.


i did get a little bit of other sewing done, secrets for friends (that are still in progress) and some sun bonnets for Caring Hearts, since it's that time of the year (though you'd never know it by the weather today!)/

the bonnets are soooo cute. so sweet. i got these two sets of 5 done, and i have more in progress as well.


yellow cotton eyelet








a little bit of elastic in the back


blue cotton eyelet, lined with a cloud patterned poly-cotton blend






i've been doing too much thrifting, and i've been having ridiculously good luck randomly finding things that i'm looking for, and i've also been going through my storage area, sorting out vintage goodies that i no longer need. i'm opening a second etsy shop, and hope to get some fun stuff listed soon!


(it's technically already open - and full of patterns! i'll do an official grand opening sale once i get more listed, but in the meantime - 20% off all patterns when you mention my blog in the note to seller!)



yesterday was father's day here (i assume it's different days in different countries, isn't it? i know mother's day is!)

we had a really nice day. my sister was down in the states for a wedding, but my brother came out and my parents, my brother, and i went out for brunch. later in the afternoon, after much drama, we went out on the new boat.

it was really fun, and was the first time i'd gone out with them. my dad bought a smaller boat last month, and they've all been out on it constantly, but i haven't been feeling up to it.

a few weeks ago my dad found another boat (on ebay, of all places!), and he and my mom road tripped down to utah last weekend to pick it up, so this was the first time we'd gone out on the larger one. we didn't go far at first, but it was really lovely. very VERY bumpy though, and my body was not at all happy. we had to dock to go pick up my brother's girlfriend from the bus stop, so i went home then, after about an hour on the water. i came home and slept, and woke up this morning feeling very very horrid. hopefully it'll pass soonish.

my dad driving the boat


the dash is AWESOME, it looks like an old school video game!

(the boat was made in the 80s, obviously!)

and a few taken just as we left, when we were still going slow enough that i could take pictures - i didn't need to hold on!

Fabric Friday!

this weeks fabrics are a bit simpler than last week's, but still oh-so-cool.

this one has awesome texture, and the black lines add even more visually. i love the pop of the red and blue together. it's a medium-heavy weight cotton, perfect for a bag.


this one is actually a homemade pillowcase that i found, so it's a quilting weight cotton. i love the geometric print, and the pops of red. the pillowcase has a red diamond appliqued at the hem, so someone else obviously loved the pop of red too!





for more friday goodness, be sure to check out Font Friday on poppytalk! i looove fonts, and poppytalk found the coolest ones!