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April 30, 2006
clutch
I've been seeing a bunch of nice clutches around and about lately, so I decided to make myself one. The nifty fabric is from Joann's, the flower is from corsage and something like corsage, and the design is my own. The corsage is a pin because one day I'm going to come across a piece of woven ribbon that would look perfect sewn across the front. If you have anything you think would fit the bill, I'm always up for swaps. :)
Posted under Sewing/Fabric Crafts at 04:46 PM | Comments (9)
April 29, 2006
dotty apron
The April theme for Tie One On was yellow and white, which by some cosmic coincidence is the color scheme I used on my redesign about a month ago. So, I knew I had to make an apron to match the site, which called for scallops and dots.
The scallops are off a curtain from Sew Easy by Jane Cumberbatch, which was put out by Barnes & Noble and now seems to be out of print unfortunately. I should've followed the instructions more carefully, though. The bit of pucker is because I forgot to leave a little space between the scallops to allow some ease in turning them. Oh well. The dots are from the cover bag in this Japanese craft book. Finally, the scallop along the top is a piece of eyelet lace I ever-so-carefully clipped off the bottom of a sadly stained slip (lace also used on my little sister doll from month of softies).
Posted under Sewing/Fabric Crafts at 01:46 PM | Comments (18)
April 25, 2006
ironing board cover
I really hate my ironing board. It's dingy and flimsy and too small and it bows in the middle. I've been looking around for a new one, but I refuse to buy another flimsy one, and the nice sturdy ones are more expensive than I'm willing to pay at the moment. It seems like it should be a classic yard sale find, some ancient, indistructible ironing board that I will use forever. So, until I find this mythical ironing board, I can at least stop hating my poor current one.
First, I tore off the old cover, and the disintigrating foam underneath, both of which were attached to the particle board base with staples. After trying to pry out a few of the staples, I decided that it would be just fine if I left the darn things in. I put a length of not-too-lofty quilt batting down the center to pad where it bows, and wrapped the whole thing in another layer of batting that was long enough to wrap under the bottom by about 2 inches all around. Next, I flipped it over and used a staple gun to pull it tight. Then I did the same thing with this sweet cotton that was on the sale rack at Joann's (a pink version of the green fabric I used for the fabric envelope from a while back). The old cover had a piece of seam binding stapled over the raw edges to finish, but I didn't bother. It's *much* better now, not just aesthetically but practically as well. I hadn't even noticed how the lack of good padding was making my ironing life harder.
Posted under Sewing/Fabric Crafts at 11:35 PM | Comments (19)
April 23, 2006
felt desk tray
Whew, all done. Here's the drawer organizer, though I think it's pretty enough that you could keep it on your desk. Thanks Lisa and Ali for the suggestion of replacing the rubber bands with pins. I attempted tacks and pushpins before going with the T-pins, which are my favorite at lab and which also turn out to look the best embroidered. I also tried a staple remover, which my sister suggested. It actually didn't turn out too bad, but it seemed a little superfluous without also doing a stapler, which is a little too 3D for this sketchy style I think. Another try with a ruler turned out really bad. The background fabric is another thrift store pillowcase that I fused to the back of the embroidery.
Posted under Cross Stitch/Embroidery at 09:42 PM | Comments (18)
April 22, 2006
finished felt sewing box
Here's the first one all put together. I started out thinking of it as just a desk organizer, but now I'm thinking it's almost a modern take on the sewing box. The fabric in the background is a thrift store pillowcase that I fused to the backs of the embroidered pieces to keep the thread ends safe. For the rest of the directions, you'll just have to wait for the book! Now on to the second one, which really is a desk organizer.
Posted under Cross Stitch/Embroidery at 02:47 PM | Comments (48)
April 21, 2006
embroidered floss
Here's my last one: embroidered embroidery floss. Very meta, as my husband said. This was the hardest one from a design perspective. I tried it three times before settling on this version. Kelly from Buzzville was the only one to guess correctly, so she gets the office supplies machine embroidery from a few posts back if she emails me with her address. :)
The final projects, two felt box desk organizers, should be done tomorrow, so stay tuned. For those of you who've been asking, this is for a craft book featuring a bunch of craft bloggers.
Posted under Cross Stitch/Embroidery at 08:19 PM | Comments (4)
April 20, 2006
knitting needles embroidery
I'm in the home stretch. Any guesses what the last one is?
Posted under Cross Stitch/Embroidery at 06:57 PM | Comments (11)
April 19, 2006
crochet hooks embroidery
My beloved crystallites, immortalized in embroidery.
Posted under Cross Stitch/Embroidery at 01:25 PM | Comments (8)
April 18, 2006
more embroidered scissors
I'm going to need a whole scissors category pretty soon. This pair came with a vintage Singer sewing box my sister got me for Christmas. The sewing box makes a *perfect* jewelry box.
Posted under Cross Stitch/Embroidery at 12:43 AM | Comments (7)
April 17, 2006
bits and bobs embroidery
There is some debate in the house about whether my cursive writing is legible, so I might redo that part. I seem to recall having trouble with lower case b's when I was in second grade, too.
I'm so relieved these are turning out more or less how I imagined. I think one reason I procrastinated so long was that I was really worried it wouldn't work.
Posted under Cross Stitch/Embroidery at 12:02 AM | Comments (20)
April 16, 2006
embroidered office supplies
More embroidery for The Project. I want to offer 2 variations, one for sewing supplies and one for office supplies, one with hand embroidery and one with machine embroidery, and two different styles to appeal to different readers. After I had enough of the hand embroidery today (will post more of that soon), I was rummaging through my thread trying to pick a color scheme for the machine-embroidered one when I thought about doing it as a kind of sketch. I think it's because I've been digging Obsessive Consumption lately and wishing that I could draw. I'm not 100% sold on it yet. I can't decide if it looks cool and modern or just scribbly. Any ideas on what I could replace the rubber bands with? I like them the least. I'm in love with my embroidered sharpie, though. And of course the scissors.
Big technical breakthrough with the machine embroidery: behold the power of the darning foot. All the tension-weird-loopy-back issues I was having *poof* disappeared.
Posted under Cross Stitch/Embroidery at 12:54 AM | Comments (5)
April 15, 2006
pins embroidery
I really really need to mail my project for The Book off to England this week, and of course I've procrastinated until the last minute. Today is thus "embroider until my fingers fall off" day, which is celebrated every so often here (the last time being the final stages of this cross stitch box). Anyway, here's the first installment.
Posted under Cross Stitch/Embroidery at 04:44 PM | Comments (4)
April 09, 2006
inleaf
Ahh, how pretty are these printed linens by inleaf design? I found the geranium leaf clutch at Elsewares. I also really like her cedar print.
They reminded me of an old Martha Good Thing that I'd forgotten about, leaf prints from March 1999 (thanks Marthadex!) Her site has instructions for a tablecloth printed with leaves.
Posted under Wants at 11:30 AM | Comments (4)
April 03, 2006
Yellow and White (and some Brown)
I love it when a bunch of people spontaneously hit upon the same creative idea all at once. I've been working on this redesign, using the color scheme of my coffee press cozy I made a while back. And lo and behold, what appears in my mailbox, but the new issue of Martha Stewart Weddings. Lordy, what a good issue. One of my favorite features is "perfect palettes" at the front of each issue. This month's is yellow and white and completely lovely. And then, this month's tie one on theme is yellow and white. Now I pretty much have to make an apron to match my blog. ETA: so, I finish writing this post, click on over to see what Wee Wonderfuls is up to, and find that she has also just posted a whole thing about yellow too! ETA again: aha, I see, it was yellow Monday. Who knew? :)
I went pretty simple with the redesign since I've been coming close to my bandwidth limit lately, but I am really happy with it. My sister had a great post the other day decrying the blogger-ification of web design, that everybody's page more or less looks the same now. Of course, she's in the midst of redesigning her page too, so I can't seem to find the post now. Anyway, I'm afraid my new design does not break any new ground, but there's a neat blog design contest going on that might help. The contest even has a whole category for hobby and crafts.
Anyway, more about the Weddings issue. Let's see, I want this one flower girl dress by Flora and Henri for myself. There's also a cute article on making tissue paper flowers, which is conveniently on her website. And you will not believe what a fantastic wedding Lena Corwin had. Oh my gosh, it's So Good. You seriously won't believe it. It was pretty neat reading about her in the magazine and "knowing" her from her site, too.
Posted under Random at 11:54 PM | Comments (14)