Sunday, April 28, 2013

Fabric, Two Ways

Even though I didn't make it to San Francisco for PR Weekend this year, I thank all the ladies for sending their mojo eastward while they were busy drinking mimosas and buying fabric.

This weekend, I sewed for myself for the first time in ages.  I just haven't felt like it; it's not as though I've put personal sewing aside to work on the crafty sewing.  But Saturday afternoon, with a pile of work on the table, reproaching me, I pushed it aside and went to the fabric shelves.

They've been neat and tidy ever since I got my new shelving unit.  Even when the rest of the room looks like someone's been dumpster diving, the fabric shelves have looked good.  Fact: they still do, there's just one roll missing.  (I have to be neat somewhere, I guess).

A while back, before I left work, Andrea showed me this free pattern she'd found, the Tessuti top.  I was a little skeptical - it looked a little shapeless.  But some of the examples she showed me were cute, so I downloaded a copy of it which has been sitting on a table in my living room ever since.

Andrea got down to it and made the top almost immediately, and it was way cuter in person.  It doesn't have a lot of shape, but it doesn't make you look shapeless, if that makes sense.  And don't we all occasionally need something cute that drapes but doesn't cling?

Friday night I taped the pattern together, and considered my shelves.  There were a few fabrics that called out to me, but I chose this NY print (purchased at Mood a year or two ago, I believe in the company of Elizabeth).  It originally was going to be a dress, but I decided that the knit was too soft and t-shirty to successfully make it as a dress.  And I hate when I make something out of a fabric that I love and it just doesn't last.  This didn't have dress staying power, so I decided to use it for the Tessuti top.  Since it's only one pattern piece front and back, I could use a large swath of the print  uninterrupted.

I only changed one feature about the top - I absolutely hate just turning edges under and stitching on knits.  There's too big a chance that it's going to ripple or stretch or do something unspeakable that will make me not wear it, or have to cut around it and end up with a bigger neckline.  So I made a binding, which went on quickly and looks much cleaner to my eyes.

There was a good bit of fabric left over.  Considering the size of those single pattern pieces, I was surprised.   KwikSew t-shirt?  Tank top?  I thought about making a tank to wear under the Tessuti, so there would be no inadvertent flashing, and I had figured out I wanted to combine my leftover print wtih a solid aqua remnant that I had, but when I looked for the fabric, it wasn't there.  (Actually, I can't find any of my knit remnants, not just the ones I recently gifted to Andrea for her super secret project).

So I decided to go for a top that I've made before, but not for a while - KS 2694.   I wasn't sure if I'd have enough fabric, but I went for it, and somehow I did.  Even enough for sleeves.  Once again, I banded the neckline instead of turning it under.

So there you have it.  One fabric, two completely different looks, and two tops in one weekend from someone who hasn't sewn for herself in about two months.

Now if I could just find three spools of black thread, I could coverstitch these babies and call them finished.

Bear Factory

The most popular items by far at the recent craft fair were the tweed teddy bears.

The photo here shows me close to the end of the day, but by 5:00 when we shut down, all I had left were two small ones and the big (display) bear sitting on top.

There's another show coming up in mid-June, and the potential for one in May, the day before Mother's Day, so I decided I needed to get cracking on some more little critters.

Which of course means that next sale, something else will be totally popular and I'll go home with a box of bears, but they'll go eventually - they're cute, not too expensive and very cuddly.  Who could say no, at least for long?

I've got 8 of them in progress right now.  What you see piled up there on the table (yes, sharing the table with Lily the Sewing Room Cat) are 8 bodies, 16 arms and 16 legs.  Somewhere in the room is a bag containing 16 ears, and in a ziploc bag on my desk are 16 black button eyes.

After that photo was taken, I added labels to their bums, and embroidered their noses and mouth.

Hopefully before bed tonight I'll get to add ears and eyes, though at this point, I'm not too hopeful - just realized it's nearly 11:00.  Somehow I lost an hour or two this evening.  I'll make it back tomorrow; no playing in the garden when I should be sewing!

More later.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Embroidery Revisited



This past summer, due to the unbearable heat in my workroom (when the AC only takes the temp down to 85, there's a problem), I took up embroidery for the first time in about 20 years.  It was actually the first type of needlework I ever did -- I remember a pagoda-like structure embroidered on yellow satin with turquoise and red sewing thread when I was about 5 -- and it turns out it's still a favorite.

It also appears that my color palette hasn't gotten any more restrained during that time.

The only problem with embroidery, for me, is I find a really fun design and execute it and then I look around and think, "What do I do with it now?"  It's fine when I'm embellishing an existing garment or I have an idea from the get-go, but usually the idea is "cute design, let's embroider it and think of something to do with it."

Enter the scrap bag.  And hamper.  And another bag or two.  In addition to embroidery, I'm also a fan of patchwork, but I'm a terrible quilter.  I may have the patience to embroider sugar skulls until the cows come home (now there's a picture), but I can't quilt to save my life.  So I pieced around each embroidered image until I liked the effect, then I backed them with batting and muslin, and machine-quilted all all the seams.

Then I dug around and found suitable backing fabrics and turned them all into envelope-back pillow covers.  They look very snazzy with my new labels, and you can either buy a pre-made pillow form for them or use a pillow you already have.

These were out at the craft show and a few of them sold.  The rest of them are in the Etsy shop, waiting for someone to love them.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Judging by the smile

it went well.

Anyone who knows me knows just how much I love having my picture taken.

As in some days, I would have gone under the table rather than face the camera.

But on other days, despite frozen feet, you feel just too damn good to be camera shy.

And apparently that came through.

Note to self: only have cameras around on really good days.

Second note to self:  have more really good days.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Surviving the Craft Show

Saturday dawned bright and chilly - way chillier than I was hoping.

On the other hand, the rain had stopped and when I checked my email at 7:30 a.m., there was no message saying the show was being postponed, so the worse we could expect was cool breezes and some boggy ground underfoot.

The show is held in Woodland Cemetery, which is a beautiful old cemetery not far from where I live.  The entire front section is just open ground (so we're not actually selling our wares amongst the graves).  Behind where we were is the cemetery itself, loaded with blossoming trees and looming Victorian angel grave markers.



We loaded in at 9:00 a.m., which felt really early, but it took more time  than expected to set up, and with over 100 vendors participating they had to stagger the arrival times so we didn't all end up there at exactly the same time, clogging the narrow roads and tripping over each other.

A nice piece of luck - I ended up back to back with two other vendors I've worked with in the past, so I had someone to talk to throughout the day as the crowds came and went.

But they mostly came.  These photos were taken around 10:00 a.m., after I was mostly set up, but before people really started arriving.

After the fact, I'm not completely thrilled with my set up - the baby clothes and pillow covers on the line seemed like a cute idea and a good use of my limited 6x6 space, but with the wind the way it was, most of them spent the day flapping into the next vendor's space.  Good thing she wasn't doing anything similar!

Quite a few friends (and ex-co-workers) showed up to be supportive and frequently to make purchases.  Thrilled as I was to see them, I was even happier when complete strangers bought things!

It was a good day overall - it gave me a chance to see what sold and what didn't, what attracted people, even if they didn't make a purchase, what was ignored (not much) and pointed out to me that I'm going to have to find more tweedish fabric because apparently I'm going to need to make more bears.

Way more.  And soon.


The bears were the biggest seller of the day, by far.  And while I'm not totally surprised, I was hoping for a more even sell with some other pieces making more of a showing.

The other big seller was my discount basket, and that was full of small quilted bags and mini cosmetic size bags that I've made for years and that I'm absolutely sick of making.  I reduced the price on them to get them out of stock and, thankfully, most of them are now gone.

There's another show coming up on June 15th down at the 30th Street train station.  Because of the price and the size of the spot involved, the organizer suggests pairing up with another vendor.  I did just that with one of the sellers who was behind me (she makes really fabulous one-of-a-kind jewelry) and we'll be out there selling our souls that day.  Hoping for better weather.

I'm pretty happy with Saturday's results, though.  I went in with an optimistic number for sales and a realistic number, and I came in somewhere between but closer to optimistic.  For my first time out, selling face-to-face, that makes me really happy.

I certainly more than paid my table fee, which is the most important, and then spent part of my take on a 10x10 pop-up tent for the next show and any future ones where I might want to look a tad more like I have my act together.



Surviving the Craft Show

Saturday dawned bright and chilly - way chillier than I was hoping.

On the other hand, the rain had stopped and when I checked my email at 7:30 a.m., there was no message saying the show was being postponed, so the worse we could expect was cool breezes and some boggy ground underfoot.

The show is held in Woodland Cemetery, which is a beautiful old cemetery not far from where I live.  The entire front section is just open ground (so we're not actually selling our wares amongst the graves).  Behind where we were is the cemetery itself, loaded with blossoming trees and looming Victorian angel grave markers.

We loaded in at 9:00 a.m., which felt really early, but it took more time  than expected to set up, and with over 100 vendors participating they had to stagger the arrival times so we didn't all end up there at exactly the same time, clogging the narrow roads and tripping over each other.

A nice piece of luck - I ended up back to back with two other vendors I've worked with in the past, so I had someone to talk to throughout the day as the crowds came and went.

But they mostly came.  These photos were taken around 10:00 a.m., after I was mostly set up, but before people really started arriving.

After the fact, I'm not completely thrilled with my set up - the baby clothes and pillow covers on the line seemed like a cute idea and a good use of my limited 6x6 space, but with the wind the way it was, most of them spent the day flapping into the next vendor's space.  Good thing she wasn't doing anything similar!

Quite a few friends (and ex-co-workers) showed up to be supportive and frequently to make purchases.  Thrilled as I was to see them, I was even happier when complete strangers bought things!

It was a good day overall - it gave me a chance to see what sold and what didn't, what attracted people, even if they didn't make a purchase, what was ignored (not much) and pointed out to me that I'm going to have to find more tweedish fabric because apparently I'm going to need to make more bears.

Way more.  And soon.

The bears were the biggest seller of the day, by far.  And while I'm not totally surprised, I was hoping for a more even sell with some other pieces making more of a showing.

The other big seller was my discount basket, and that was full of small quilted bags and mini cosmetic size bags that I've made for years and that I'm absolutely sick of making.  I reduced the price on them to get them out of stock and, thankfully, most of them are now gone.

There's another show coming up on June 15th down at the 30th Street train station.  Because of the price and the size of the spot involved, the organizer suggests pairing up with another vendor.  I did just that with one of the sellers who was behind me (she makes really fabulous one-of-a-kind jewelry) and we'll be out there selling our souls that day.  Hoping for better weather.

I'm pretty happy with Saturday's results, though.  I went in with an optimistic number for sales and a realistic number, and I came in somewhere between but closer to optimistic.  For my first time out, selling face-to-face, that makes me really happy.

I certainly more than paid my table fee, which is the most important, and then spent part of my take on a 10x10 pop-up tent for the next show and any future ones where I might want to look a tad more like I have my act together.



Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Thread Ball

Why is it that when you're working flat out, doing everything right, doing everything you can to get as much done as possible, your machine decides to do something evil?

We've all had threadball, right?  That nasty snarl of bobbin thread on the underside of your garment, letting you know that you've been a lazy slob and not cleaned out or re-threaded or changed your needle recently?  The basic warning by the machine that if you take care of it, it might - depending on its mood - take care of you.

Has anyone ever gotten interior threadball before?  I was sewing along and all of a sudden I heard this weird, muffled crunching sound.  The machine didn't stop sewing, but it . . . lurched, kind of the sewing machine equivalent of a balky shopping cart wheel.  

I stopped.  I raised the needle, took the fabric out.  Bobbin thread seemed fine, stitches were holding, but when I looked at the machine itself, the hook thing (the one that goes up and down and that I can't remember the name of because I'm still traumatized) was crooked.  It was almost leaning up against the side of the case, instead of being straight in the middle.

I could have called my repair guy, who would have picked it up at 4:30, taken it to work the next day and then brought it back by this evening,  but I didn't want to wait that long.  I also didn't want to take a cab 15 blocks to a crappy neighborhood and drop it off on the chance he could finish it by dinnertime.  

So I got my handy screwdriver and opened up the front of the machine, a place I've never gone before.  Lo and behold, wrapped around some interior working that I have no name for, was a big ball of thread.  How it managed to do that, and yet not come unthreaded, is a complete and total freaking mystery.  I steeled myself, got my surgical implements (Kai embroidery snips and tweezers) and went to town.  After about 10 minutes of painstaking tweezing, I got all the thread.  Everything still seemed to move properly, but the hook was still a little sideways.  Holding my breath, I took hold of it and bent it back to where it should be.

And it works.  

I still think she needs a checkup, but now I can wait until the weekend.  

Whew.

Busy Busy

The Go West Craft Fest is this Saturday (weather permitting; right now it's looking like it might rain, in which case it will occur on Sunday).

Needless to say that has meant frantic sewing, cutting, swearing and maybe the tiniest bit of imbibing to get me in line for the event.

The worst part is the finishing.  I get things 90% done, get a bright idea and start on the next item, blithely saying, "Oh, I can knock that [whatever it is] out in 10 minutes when the time comes."

Well, the time has come, and now I'm stitching labels on items, making and adding bow ties to 8 stuffed bears, running the lint roller over everything before it gets boxed up, taking photos and wondering where, oh, where I put the cash box and receipts from the last show I did.

It's somewhere in this house.

Let's not talk about the state of the house.  I'll clean it after the craft show, I promise.

I leave you with a few goodies from the upcoming weekend.  Those that don't sell will be listed in my Etsy shop within a day or two.

Fingers crossed that there's not much left to list and I have to start making all over again.


Sunday, April 14, 2013

My little corner of the farm

Friday was my last day of work.

Tonight, reality is starting to sink in.  It's a pretty damn good reality.

In addition to all the other things I need to do to get the Useful & Beautiful up and running, there will a lot more gardening going on.  (I didn't calculate this move to occur in April on a whim!).

Here's the useful part of the back yard, as opposed to the beautiful part.  (Though function can be as beautiful as form, in its own way).  Chicken coop, extension, cold frame (with pea, bean and lima seedlings inside), some random rubble, water storage barrels behind and the compost system on the right behind the coop.

One bad chicken, right behind the coop door.  Enjoying being an only hen.  What kind of flock animal is she, anyway?

The bright green leaves in the left front corner are the blueberry bushes, which are leafing out like crazy.  Once berries start forming, I'll net them so that we get more than the birds.  Between chicken compost and nets, we did really well last year from 4 bushes.  Would love more, but space is really limited.

Have a great week, everyone.  I'll be in my workroom, making that sewing machine smoke.

Leap accomplished


And now the reality of the situation is beginning to sink in.

I have one week between now and the Go West Craft Fest to finish a multitude of partially-finished items.  It's going to be such a treat to work at this full-on instead of in bits and pieces in the evenings or at the lunch table in the office.

Too many projects, not enough photographs, so I leave you with a shot of the grape hyacinths blooming in my back yard.  Such a wonderful, saturated blue.  I need to make something this color.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

It's the little things

I spend way too much time thinking of ways to organize my workroom.  Shelves are fine, if you can be bothered to put the fabric back on them.

Bins are lovely, if you put the right things in them.

Magazine binders are great, but somewhat pointless if the contents are not the same as what's on the label.

In other words, I am a hopeless slob constantly in search of organization.

And today I found one thing that works.

Or at least I hope it will.  There's nothing else in the room that I can think of as a good mis-use for this little doodad, which is made of fairly soft rubber and is meant for nothing in the world but to organize my bobbins and keep them from rolling all over the table, the floor and anywhere else the cats think to send them once they're down.

We went down to 4th Street today, still known somewhat optimistically as Fabric Row.  I had to pick up some buttons, and I remembered the last time we were down there I'd seen this organizer in Zoll's.  I'd thought about it off and on since then but couldn't commit to the $8 that it cost.

Except sometimes $8 isn't $8, it's neatness, no missing bobbins and not stepping on one in my bare feet, which is a pain just short of Lego.

For those who know Fabric Row, there's a new gap on the street: Jack B's, a corner shop so stuffed with fabric that it was more like a rabbit's den than a store, burned last Saturday evening, taking with it the shop next door and a Philadelphia fireman.  Everyone got out safely, except for the captain (and possibly one apartment cat, though Red Paw, Philly's emergency pet rescue, is still searching for her).  We saw the building today, partly collapsed, burned bolts of fabric scattered everywhere.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

One more day

until I'm a free woman and have to face the plans I've made.

I.

Can't.

Wait.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Last Hen Standing. Again.

Somehow, once again, I have an only chicken.

And once again, it's Bonnie.  I'm beginning to think it's a plot.

We lost Gilda to the heatwave last June, and it took me until August or so to find Bertha, a non-laying but gorgeous Buff Orpington to share the pen with her.

The night Bertha arrived, she asserted her dominance - and broader breast - by sitting on Bonnie and squashing her.

I'm beginning to wonder how long Bonnie plotted her revenge before she struck on Monday and tore a big chunk out of Bertha's wattle (the dangly bits under and around her beak).  It didn't look bad, but I knew that there was a chance Bonnie would go after her again; chickens have a bit of blood lust and they're certainly not vegetarian.  I cleaned Bertha up and put some ointment on the wound, thinking that it would make her less tasty, if not in less discomfort.

Yesterday things were fine, and I thought Bonnie had gotten over her snit.  Tonight when I got home from work, Bertha was dead in the coop.  The wound looked like it had been pecked again, but for her to die of that wound it should have looked like the set of a Sopranos episode, and it didn't.  Infection from the first wound?  Age?  Short chicken lifespan that was already disrupted by being attacked by a raccoon almost two years ago?

We'll never know.  The one thing I'm pretty sure of at this point is that Bonnie's not getting another roommate.  I don't care if it wasn't her fault; I'm thinking coq au vin right now, and she doesn't need to push me any closer to the cookbook.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Leap



Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith.

I saw that recently on Facebook, where we get all our pithy sayings and wisdom these days.

It fits, though. As of last Friday, I've begun a two week countdown to my last day at (hopefully) my last job.  Or at least my last office job.

I've made things all my life, for little or no money, because no one ever seems to want to pay what my time is worth. Why am I so much more valuable sitting in a cubicle typing than I am when I'm using my hands and my brain and my creativity to make something?

I'm not complaining.  For the last few years, I've been selling some of my handmade items at a local shop and some local craft shows, and I'm in a larger show this year that I'm very excited about.  And that's been accomplished while treating my crafting as a part-time, several nights a week evening job.

So this is my challenge: what can I do with this business, this thing that I do, if I treat it like real job?

Stay tuned.