carrie girl

baby stuff!

my dear friend katy is having her first baby next month, so i wanted to make some things for the wee one. after receiving a big box of adorable fabric and a request to make bumper pads, a blanket and a crib skirt i got to work. i found an online tutorial for the bumper pads and the blanket, but the crib skirt was more of a challenge. after this project i am happy to say i am no longer rusty, and definitely want to keep the sewing momentum up.

i made 24 linen ties for these, and that was more of a mental challenge than a physical one. the one thing that i have a hard time with in a project is repetition. i get bored really easily and want to move on to the next part, but some things just have to get done. i powered through the turning right side in/pressing section with a bottle of wine and the bachelor (yes, i'm watching it this season...and i am a little ashamed).

the back of the blanket is that soft minky fabric. i will die a happy woman if i never have to use this stuff again. i don't have a walking foot or a serger so stretchy fabric is not my friend. sewing it together required a lot of patience and few choice expletives. i made this blanket on the larger side so that the little one can use it into the toddler years, but there was some left over minky and elephant fabric, and since i am obviously a glutton for punishment, i made another smaller blanket that can be used right from day one.

this is the back of the crib skirt. i did a box pleat with the elephants on the insert. this is the part of the project i was most proud of. i finished all of the seams with my overcast foot using the serging stitch which made all the difference. it felt really finished and clean. i had a great time working on this project, and i can't wait to meet this babe! i just hope he/she likes elephants...

chair re-do

life has calmed down a bit, and because this is my last full week of summer i've been trying to get some projects finished that have been on my list of things to do before my life becomes all about first grade. last year i received my grandparents amazing mid-century dining room table, and it came with four chairs in dire need of recovering. don't get me wrong, the orange velvet definitely reminds me of meals at grandma and grandpa's house, but i just don't think it goes well in a brooklyn apartment.

i used some echino japanese linen i got from brooklyn general and put a layer bamboo batting under for a little extra padding. 

 

 

we need to get our artwork up on the wall, and get some extraneous furniture out of the apartment and we will be pretty close to settled. moving is such an exhausting task, but i also love the opportunity for change and reinvention it provides.

finished chair!

 

the cushions are finished, and just in time to be loaded up and hauled to brooklyn. after packing the first few boxes yesterday it really started to hit me that we're leaving. ugh. i will really miss this place. 

i used alexander henry's heath in gray, which is actually more of a tan. it looks a little funky but neutral enough that i won't get sick of it. this was my first time with covering cushions, and the piping was quite a challenge. but it is a big step up from the "before" look.

i had been looking for a chair like this that i could fix up without really doing any upholstery work. after i brought it home i realized that it stunk of smoke, and i had to replace the foam inserts as well as the gorgeous mustard vinyl. i ordered the foam and fabric and gave it a go. i think it will fit in perfectly in the new apartment.

suitcase re-do

whenever i go thrifting, i always look for vintage items to use in my craft fair set up. i am particularly drawn to old suitcases, but more often than not when you open them up they're pretty gnarly either with stains or just an old smell. a couple months ago i bought a small blue suitcase in pretty good condition, but it has been sitting at the foot of my bed since i brought it home. last weekend i finally decided it either needed to be re-done or banished back to goodwill.

 

i opted for the re-do. i started by ripping out the insides and then using them as pattern pieces for my vintage fabric. i used spray adhesive to get the main parts of the fabric to adhere to the top and bottoms which made smoothing it out much easier, and it stuck well to the cardboard. i sewed side panels, reinforcing them with interfacing, and used fabric glue to adhere around the sides. i secured the flap that covers the hinges with fabric glue as well as the staples i saved from the old lining. my fingers were covered in glue and i lost a few brain cells with the spray adhesive, but i'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

my friend, alexis, had a birthday recently, and she pretty much has every carrie girl item ever created so i needed to come up with something different. i've been wanting to try this tutorial for fabric covered moleskines since i first saw it over on a beautiful mess. it was quick and easy, and now i need to make a bout a dozen for myself. the tote bag is from old navy, and the button is from a batch of my vintage fabric pin-backs.

now here's a little talking heads to get your weekend started off right.

vintage fabric buttons

after rediscovering my love for the badge-a-minit button maker while making these, i decided to have another go at it. i have quite a stack of vintage fabric scraps that are too small to be made into anything significant, but too large to be tossed. i figured some covered pin-back buttons might be the way to go. i'm waiting on some packaging items from etsy, but i'm hoping to have these up in the shop soon. i'm thinking they'd look really cute on a spring jacket or tote bag. 

 

can you believe that i almost, for a split second, considered buying this ice bucket with a creepy red eye? this place also had a scary mannequin in an antique wheelchair out front to entice customers to come in. i guess it worked since i spent a good hour going through the rooms, and narrowly escaping a huge case of buyers remorse. instead of the red-eyed ice bucket i got a couple yards of vintage fabric and called it a day.

i'm working on something a bit different lately--a custom laptop/messenger bag for a friend i met at renegade. this project is a bit out of my comfort zone, but i'm having a really great time with it. it is kind of like a big  puzzle that i come home and work on every night. hopefully i'll have some pictures of my progress soon. 

crafting with mom

this little project started out as a small unfinished wood box from joann.  my friend alexis' birthday was yesterday, and since she already has a carrie girl bag and a jewelry wallet, i thought i'd try to make something different. i was in kansas city over the weekend, so my mom helped me stain the box, and when i got back to iowa i mod podged the fabric on the front of the drawers and glued some felt to the bottom of the box (as per my mom's amazing suggestion.)

the fabric is from a vintage napkin that i found at goodwill a couple months ago.  it is a linen blend, so the sides were fraying quite a bit even after ironing on a light interfacing, so i used some fray check and the mod podge will hopefully keep the fabric from unraveling.

it was fun to do a little crafting with my mom--she's a teacher, too, and super creative. i talk to her almost every night on the phone and we always have so much fun together. it's nice to have a mom who is also such an amazing friend, so it was so special getting to spend the first part of my spring break with her. and i know she reads this every day, so, i love you, mom!

brace yourself

  **warning: this post contains awkward shots of me modeling my handmade dress**

yesterday i went to joann fabric with the sole intention of returning two light bulbs that don't fit my ott-lite, and purchasing nothing. well, i got distracted by the  $1.99 butterick patterns and lured in by all the sales...you can imagine how the rest of the scenario goes.

one of the items i purchased was butterick pattern #b5211.  this claimed to be a fashion express pattern that can be completed in 1 hour. i always laugh when i see those because i know it will take me an hour alone to cut out the fabric and read through the directions 5 times. i had some thrifted stretchy denim and a really sweet vintage floral print i had set aside for a quick sundress, so this seemed like a good match.

all-in-all it was a pretty easy pattern, and i didn't goof it up too much along the way.  it was a bit tent-like, hence the belt, but if i tweak the back a bit, i think it could be a bit more flattering. i am not the best at posing for pictures, and i often always cut my head out of the photos that i post on here. this time, though, i thought that headless pictures would look way too creepy, or rather, creepier than pictures with a non-smiling/uncomfortable looking head.  i've got a few more summer-y patterns set aside, so hopefully i can get those started this week. happy monday!

photo shoot

i know how important good pictures are to listings on etsy, so i've been searching online for some tips and tricks for amateur photographers like myself.  basically everyone says to use natural light, and that is essentially the only way to get a good picture. well, as someone who is gone at my job from 7:15 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., natural light just aint going to happen. so, the next best thing (other than quitting my job and sewing/taking pictures all day) is a light box. i'd made one attempt at a light box, and that was sort of a disaster, so i was hesitant to try it again. but, i really didn't have any other choice, so i hit up hobby lobby and office max, and tried with a whole new approach.

it looks very dramatic and space age-y, but it was super simple and i think the results are the next best thing to taking the darn wallet outside at noon for a photo shoot.

 

the photo on the left is what it looks like right from the camera, no flash. i uploaded the picture to photoshop and auto adjusted the curves and voila! there are still some dark shadows around the edges, but i think i can tweak it and get those removed. if not, no big deal.

 

*now that i see these on my work computer (and not on my beloved mac,) i realize that i need to do a better job in photoshop and brighten them up a bit.  also, the room isn't pitch black when i'm taking the pictures...it just looks that way...