Whew! We got this bad boy up just in time for Christmas.

Hullo daaaaaarling

 

I've made a few alterations to the bird decoration. Let's call it evolution.

I was distractedly cutting material for the new birds and then I found more scraps to use so I cut those out. And then there were the scraps in the cupboard I hadn't opened for ages, so I cut out some more...

I now have 50 of these birds.

50 one-of-a-kind, handmade birds.

If they don't sell, I'm going to make a short film about one woman's decent into bird decoration induced insanity. It will be called "A film starring me".

Bye bye birdie

 

I'm making Christmas decorations, lots and lots of Christmas decorations at the moment. This bird is one of several hundred million* one-of-a kind, entirely individual, handmade decorations that I have made over the past few days. I plan on selling them at the Victorian Heritage weekend this year.

Jules is my man-on-the-ground when it comes to pricing, and he tells me they'll sell for only $5.00. FIVE BUCKS! I was hoping for ten...

Just look at these eyes... don't they speak to you? Specifically, don't they say "$5 is not enough. You want me. You WANT me. Hand that nice lady $10"?

 

 

*Artistic license.

Commissions rock

 

I've had a run on commissions this month and they are all for lovely people and lovely babies. Yay!

The material above is for a dress for a brand new precious little tot. Her mum is a friend of mine from high school and I'm just so pleased to be making this dress for her daughter.

The denim is stuff from my stash, and the yellow cotton with the unusual tree print is Japanese and total gorgeousness. The pattern I'm sort of, kind of, a little bit using is from the 1920s. I suspect I'm making it hard for myself, but if it turns out how I imagine it in my head, it'll rock.

Keep your fingers crossed for me....

The hard sell

Check out this baby! Baby hoodie that is. And it's for sale!

Size 2ish (could fit a 1 year old with sleeves rolled up, could fit a little 3 year old), made with gen-u-ine 80s fabric on the inside, new cotton on the outside. The buttons are probably from the 70s - doesn't matter when they were made though because they are HOT.

Email me for the price. You know you want it.

Birthday season

Everyone we know is turning 2 - ok, not everyone - and that means lots of gifts.

This year I am trying to make or thrift all of my clothes (except knickers because EEEEEEWWWWWWW), and I figure why not gifts as well. (I could take this opportunity to bleat on about how I am saving the planet by doing this but actually we're as poor as church mice and we enjoy spending the money we have on frivilous things like food).


On Sunday, Remy's darling friend Poppy had a party so I whipped up a little skirt for her. It's just two long rectangles of material bashed together with some elastic at the top but man if it didn't look cute. The denim is an op shop find and the apples are from my stash.



I also whipped up this skirt using the same method but it's about twice the size I thought it would be. Luckily I know a cute wee thing who will fit it.

A suitable craft project for an invalid.

Upcycling an old Karen Walker tshirt into a cushion cover, also making use of that denim you got as a bargain from the op shop.

1. Cut out the denim roughly the size of the cushion. Cut the tee however you like. Take everything to your mother to have her cut it all again, but this time more cushion-shaped and with straight edges.

2. Ask your dad for a hammer. Navigate around the massive gaping drain he has recently dug in the back yard to fetch the hammer from the shed. Thank god you didn't fall in the drain and dirty your last pair of clean(ish) pajamas.

3. Count the number of snap button thingies you have. Divide this number by the number of sides of the cushion. Curse your expensive-yet-clearly-inadequate girls' school education and work it out on a calculator.

4. Sit the piece of tshirt on top of the denim and make wild stabs at where the snap button thingies should go. Snip the fabric, grab the hammer, and damage the tiles around your parents' fireplace by hammering in the first button. Quickly scan imagination and come up with story about a small earthquake. That happened while they were overseas. Before they had the tiles installed around the fire. Oh shit.

5. Take everything outside very quickly while your mother is putting the chickens away in the coop for the evening, and before she can see what you have done. Preferably move everything in front of your toddler who immediately wants to help because hammering stuff is What He Lives For.

6. Negotiate hammering in the 600 other bloody snap button thingies with a 23 month old maniac holding the hammer. Kiss the ground when you get to the end and have lived. Turn to your child and check that he has also lived. Congratulate yourself on avoiding an awkward conversation with his father.

7. Take a break to watch game shows on telly.

8. Muster enthusiasm to finish project. Tell yourself that you'll whip up the rest of the cushion after the child goes to bed.

9. Feign extreme pain/breakdown/minor amputation/mental retardation in effort to convince your mother to finish project for you. Suddenly remember that this technique has not worked on her in 31 years when she is starts to ridicule you.

10. Take all parts of the unfinished project home with you and swear that you will finish it. Soon. Consider taking cunning photo of the front of the cushion to make it look like it is finished so that you can blog about it. Fail spectacularly and blog about it anyway.

Selvedge

 

My mum gets Selvedge, a fabulous magazines for us creative, fabric-loving types. There's no way I could possibly afford it - without a subscription, they're 20 quid a pop. Excuse my back-of-an-envelope maths, but I calculate that with the New Zealand dollar the way it is at the moment, that's about 20 kazillion bazillion dollars each. Maybe you know of a cheaper way to get them?

Just check out the covers - pure art in themselves. I want!

 

 

Break in transmission

Um, I can't get my camera to work. Damn! I have photos of the bunny rabbits WITH heads on. Hopefully it'll be fully functional tomorrow.

It was another booming day in the shop. God I'm having such fun there. I am a little worried that I will come out of four weeks of full-time work with NO money though... I want to buy everything in the shop myself. Every single thing. Actually, funny story, a woman was in the shop looking for a gift for a newborn and I was showing her different options. After about 5 minutes of showing her absolutely every single thing (she was hard to please), she looked at me and said 'you're very excited about this'. Hahahaha! Yes, I am very excited by super cute teeny tiny baby things. Thanks for noticing. Now buy something very expensive and really make my day.

Talking of exciting things, follow this link to see my darling partner Jules on telly this morning. He's the one in the black t-shirt printed with what could be mistaken for green breasts, but what is actually two wine glasses.

Warning: Dismemberment may offend more sensitive readers

 

I'm taking total advantage of my grandparents this week while they visit. Grandad has been on gardening duties (photos to follow because the work he has done has to be seen to be believed - this man doesn't just have green fingers; he has MAGIC fingers), and Nana has been on sewing detail.

Aaaaaaages ago, I picked up two lots of pure wool fabric from one of the local op shops but, true to form, had no idea what I was going to do with them. Then I found a cute, cute, cute patten for a toy rabbit. Never having made a toy, I was pleased when I got most of the way through two of them by myself, but I stumbled when it came to stuffing them and putting them together.

Nana is a wizz at this sort of thing so, hopefully, these poor little dismembered rabbits will be whole rabbits in no time at all.

 

Blue roses and the 1940s

Even if I do say so myself, this dress totally ROCKS.

The design is based on a vintage pattern given to me by my grandmother, that I think is from the 1940s. The pattern that is, not my grandma.

It's made to fit a baby somewhere between 6 months and 12 months. The dress is entirely lined, so no precious baby skin will come into contact with nasty old seams. The blue roses are from a blouse my Aunty Karen cut out sometime ago and never got around to finishing, and the rest of the fabrics are new pure cottons (including the lining which is lawn, sweet sweet lawn).

 

 

It's in The Frog Prince right now and retails for $120.

Steam is my style

 

I'm continually surprised and delighted by just how friendly and generous the people in this town are.

Yesterday morning I popped into Steam, by far the best little cafe in town, and brazenly hit up the owner for some coffee bean sacks so that I can make some cushions. To my astonishment, she not only gave me two sacks but she called Remy cute and raved about how darling Jules is.

I could get used to this kind of treatment!

 

The woman has a problem

At this blog, I do my very best to appear in control, sane, normal if you like.

But the horrible truth is about to raise its ugly head; you see, I'm a woman obsessed. Totally and utterly obsessed.

I can't help it, everywhere I go I see them, I want them. I dream of finding piles of them in op shops. I'm especially obsessed by hunting vintage glass ones.

Oh buttons, how can I resist your siren song when some of you look like this:

Material mania

Timaru is about 80kms north of Oamaru but I think it's a funny old place; there are more people there than in Oamaru, but it seems to lack soul. Having said that, it has a bumper crop of op shops (thrift stores).

The Red Cross Store has to be the cleanest and best organised op shop I've ever seen. The patterns are in labeled folders, the material is laundered, measured and priced. While it means that you're unlikely to find any treasures hidden in the bottom of boxes, it does mean that the shop smells nice and there is no ambiguity when it comes to paying. I picked up these two pieces of fabric for $2.50 each. A good price seeing as the material is new and there is a couple of metres of each.


I'll use the hearts material for little petticoats under girls' dresses. I'm not sure what to do with the other; it doesn't seem right for kids' clothes but I also don't think I'll make myself anything out of it. I guess that means it's destined for my stash...

I picked up this fabric at one of the antique stores:

I'm planning on using this in girls' frocks as well. I'll use a shocking pink bias around the arms, neck and hem to set off the navy, plus, as far as I can tell, girls around here only wear pink.

I popped into St Vincents as well. I was in two minds about going there because it was out of my way, but I am so glad I did. I hit the motherlode of genuine vintage fabric. Tadaa!



Jealous? I would be if I wasn't me! I couldn't believe my luck. It's actually made up into two curtains but the fabric is a good quality cotton. I'm kind of planning to make little tunics and circle skirts, but we'll have to see. I love it so much, and I know I'll never find anything like it again; the only sensible thing to do is to have it buried with me.

Craft2.0 is over

Craft2.0 was a blast. A few notes to myself for next time though:

1. Don't attempt 'one last thing' at the last minute. And in this 'one last thing' don't try to use three techniques that you have never attempted before and have only read about in books and/or on the internet.

2. Figure out how to get to the place prior to the morning you need to be there. That will avoid walking, missing trains, catching trains, more walking, asking directions from people who don't know where the local gallery is, and getting to your table 45 minutes late. But, you know, it's just a hint.

3. Practice laying out the clothes a few days before and think hard about what the display will look like. A pile of clothes on a table has more than a hint of a garage sale about it.

4. Have confidence in your product so that you don't sound like a dribbling fool when someone thinks you're clever for making what you do.

5. Remember to take photos because the whole thing will be over in no time at all.

6. Remember that the nice people will outweigh the arses at a ratio of 10:1. But also remember that you can respond to the arses in the same manner that they treat you instead of swallowing it down and giving them your best customer service smile. They probably won't buy your stuff, and you won't want to sell it to them anyway.

7. Get proper business cards sorted. There will probably be more after market sales than sales at the market*.

My favourite thing by far was chatting with all the peeps. Even though I don't think my jackets are made for markets (probably just shops and by commission), I wish I had something else to sell because I totally loved talking to potential customers. And it was strangely rewarding to see kids trying on my clothes.

Parenthetically, I picked up a wicked tip on how to do buttonholes after telling a woman about bursting into tears when I ruined a jacket I was in love with via a buttonhole made with a seam ripper... gosh, it still pains me to think about it. But the tip was so great that it will stop me from ever making the same mistake again. Thank you kind lady, wherever you may be.

*Let's pray that this is true and not just one of those things I've made up in my head to make myself feel better; you see, I didn't sell a single thing on the day. But having a goal of just selling one thing totally paid off - now I can comfort myself with the fact that I was only one sale off my target.

Crafty goodness of the 2.0 kind

I've been sewing up a storm these past couple of days, all in preparation for Craft2.0 this Saturday.

Remember this material? Well, this is what it turned into. I originally wanted to match the fabric so there was one continuous pattern, but, duh, there are curved seams all through the jacket so that wasn't going to happen. I settled for a mirrored pattern on the hood, centering the pattern on the back inner, and matching the pattern on the inside fronts.

 

 

 

I was lucky Jules interveened with the next jacket. I had planned to use another, but thinner, stretch cotton in pink on the inside. Jules pointed out that the inner fabric made the outer fabric look cheap (and, damnit, he was right), so I swapped it for some double sided stretch - pink with tiny brown spots on one side and plain brown on the other. The resulting jacket is super soft and the perfect weight for winter.

 

 

You might be able to see the pattern matching on this one. No? I'll show you (because I am so blerdy pleased with myself about how this worked out!):

 

See it? The pattern on the pocket 'blends' with the pattern on the jacket!

 

And I got pretty close at the sleeves too!