Bits and Bobs

Those crewel kits you have in the shop are tempting me...

I am becoming obsessed with vintage (60s-70s) crewel work.


(This one I found finished at the Goodwill.)


(And this one I LOVE. It is hanging on the wall of a friend's home. I want to try and make a copy of it.)

I also found a bunch of vintage brochures at the Goodwill for crewel kits.

It all took me to the Permin of Copenhagen website. There is quite a bit I am not into here (viking needlepoint anyone?) but I am enjoying their monthly free graph download. This month - a sweet little Santa needlepoint by the fire. Also giving me ideas about designing my own crewelwork advent calendar. Hmmmmmm...

Did you guys get to see The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Oh. My! I am sorry we didn't get to go together. It really was Fantastic.

Happy December!

Did I miss something?

Just stumbled across Clothkits via an email from Pallant House about their upcoming Henry Moore textile show. And I'm in love! (So good I am thinking I must be late to the party.)

I think they have quite a history (founded in 1968) in the UK - am I right Sam? They are great.

I'm thinking about sewing up one of these.


Cloth Kitty Ragdoll Kit

Do you think my girls would freak if I got them one of these instead of the American Girl dolls they are begging for? The clothes! ack!

I am also thinking of these corduroy smocks for the girls.


Babycord Funky Chicken Shift Dress Kit

The kit comes with "printed fabric, lining fabric (plain or ::sigh:: Liberty), beautiful shell buttons, top quality sewing thread and simple, illustrated instructions. All beautifully bound with a satin polka dot ribbon."

Oh my order trigger finger is itchy!

(Coincidentally I had stumbled upon Jane Foster and her fabulous house about a week ago. And here she is a designer for Clothkits! Do you know her blog Sam? It is right up your alley.)

Making Adjustments

Oh! Time to make her the Poppy Doll. Could we find it if we look together? I'd like to make things for the girls this year. But oh that search for time. I need to make adjusments.

Speaking of adjustments and, your Better Homes & Gardens peek, I was reminded of this on my shelf.



The timing was right as I have returned to a Built By Wendy top I cut out at least a year ago. Maybe two. It is out of a corduroy I bought with you at the Cotton Shop. I sewed it up. And it doesn't fit. It is the first thing I have made for myself since high school. Needless to say I was disappointed. I've been pouring through books on adjusting fit.



Do you have a go-to for this subject. The Wendy books are actually pretty good on this. But I am thinking of ordering this too.

In the meantime, BH&G is entertaining me.




p.s. Love BFG. and let's talk about sewing for the holidays when we (gasp!) see each other Sunday!

Fox-y

So I abandoned the papier mache idea for a Halloween mask and went with something I knew better:



I sewed this up using a wool felt base and layers of scrap. (For D I fashioned a hounddog mask in the same way!)

Hope you guys had a wonderful and safe Halloween! xo

Sweet Dreams

One of my favourite things to sew for the girls are PJs.

Will be adding this pattern from Oliver and S to my list.

found via inchmark journal

Tokens of my affection

Two years ago I made a pledge to myself to not buy them anything for Valentine's Day. I hope that little tokens (made with love) will express the sentiment better.

The first year was pendants - inspired by Carol

Last year - t-shirts with appliqued fabric hearts.

and this year, these - with a little love note tucked in the pocket - were on my "to do" list.


pattern courtesy of mollychicken


Happy Valentine's Day!

Back2School

Not wanting to wish away summer - but also realizing September is coming fast - I thought I would post some back to school inspired ideas over the next few weeks.

{Hey Sam - counting down the days 'til Kindergarten? ;) }

I originally spotted this reuseable sandwich mat, over at The Small Object.





they are so good - the reminder from the New American Dream's enewsletter was welcome. Full instructions can be found here. Must add these to the end of summer to-do list.

More info on waste-free lunches courtesy of the New American Dream website (I love this site!) can be found here.

Organic Fabric on True Up

Have you discovered the all fabric all the time blog True Up yet? It's fabulous and Kim has recently been posting about organic fabrics, here is a taster...



Amenity Home
Oliveira Textiles
Rubie Green
Mod Green Pod
Harmony Art

All Fabric, All the Time

If I had to write a list of my favorite things I think vintage fabric would be at the top, closely followed by coffee and donuts...yum, donuts...but I digress. I like the idea of making use of something discarded or used rather than buying new and I love all those retro prints.

I have challenged myself to use vintage or organic fabrics for all my sewing projects so I'm feverishly on the lookout for new sources. So you can imagine my delight when I came across True Up, a new blog completely devoted to fabric written by Kim Kight, of Dioramarama fame. Best of all, Kim is a huge lover of vintage fabric and thanks to her I’ve already found a couple of alternatives to Ebay and Etsy.



These two fabrics are from Antiquefabric.com. After I bought the Lions and Zebras Seersucker, Kim featured it as a Daily Swatch – one of my favorite parts of the blog. But even more fun is the Buck Rogers Flannel I picked up. It’s hard to find prints for boys in vintage fabric and this one is truly fabulous!

make it new

I have been very inspired for a little creative redo as of late.

Loving this dress refashioned from a button-down shirt by cathy (from a tutorial she found via moki and her school of craft, originally on crafster)





(another shot here)

and this skirt



by melissa of all buttoned up.

It feels like time to spring-clean our closests and outfit the girls for summer at the same time!

Lunch-A-Go-Go

This was my big gift giving push last holiday. I made lunch bags for each of my neices, nephew,and friends' littles and partnered them with a cute Sigg water bottle ($15 and up at reusablebags.com) You can find how to make your own, and other lunch bag ideas here along with other great gift ideas as part of Sew, Mama, Sew!'s Handmade Holidays: 30 Days of Gifts to Sew.

Recycling Wool Sweaters

In the November 2006 issue of Martha Stewart Living there was a beautiful a and inspiring article on woolen gifts made from felted sweaters (page 152). Since then I've been on the lookout for 100% wool sweaters while thrifting. I've acquired a small but satisfying collection of mainly cashmere sweaters usually costing only a couple of dollars each.



You only have to feel the softness of these sweaters to immediately think of making stuffed animals. Here's my first attempt.




There are also lots of people on Etsy making excellent use of wool sweaters. Here are some of my favorites:


Lullaboos from Margaret Wyngaard




Little Owl Grey by Chet and Dot



kitty girl 8 from Mimi Kirchner

Tenfold Organic Textiles

I've been looking for an online source for organic fabric for ages. Well after much research and many wholesale and ugly, hard to use websites, I finally found one and I'm pretty excited. Tenfold Organic Fabrics operates out of Seattle, Washington and Nelson, BC Canada. They offer 100% naturally dyed organic fabrics using such plants as onion, indigo and turmeric. You can buy yardage and they also sell fat quarters by the bundle. Their website is easy to navigate and friendly AND, wait for it, they take PayPal!



I started out by ordering a swatch book and the fabrics were just lovely. I received my first order of 4 yards this week and I couldn't be happier. It's a little pricey at $20 a yard but I'll take what I can get for now. They sell many other products so check them out.

I'm still on the look out for a source for organic linen and hemp so if you know of anywhere let me know.