vintage Tilly

The dog gets a bed, and another bed and another...

I have been making beds for our new dog Jenny.  During the three trips I made to Petsmart in a 24 hour period, I determined that one thing I would not be buying for Jenny was a dog bed.  The orthopedic style, the flat kind with egg crate foam inside is just too easy to make.  For less than the price of one such bed at Petsmart I was able to buy three egg foam mattress pads at Target.  The way I sized and cut them, I was able to get three Jenny-sized beds and have leftovers.  She likes them on the floor and they are easy enough to put up on a chair for her afternoon nap.  (I know, it is hard to believe, we have only had her for three days and already she has favorite places and routines.)  They are now scattered throughout the house.

Using some fabric from my studio, the top is fleece and the bottom is cotton fabric.  I used two layers of foam. 

 

Another benefit of the project?  The really nice barrel-shaped zippered heavy plastic bags that the foam came packaged in. 

They have already been put to good use.

Cashmere Hearts

There is nothing better than repurposing something that wasn't new to begin with. 

More than once Abby has told me that I like cutting up her clothes.  She's right I really do.  Her clothes have great textures and embroidery.  And when certain pieces weren't brand new to begin with, I don't feel guilty taking a pair of scissors to them.  I have my eye on the  fine-wale floral corduroy jacket she wore to school today.   I can be patient, she will grow out of it eventually.   Last summer I made a great bag out of a pair of her embroidered jeans that had amazing pink flowers on the legs and pockets. 

The sweater was Abby's, bought at a rummage sale two years ago and worn faithfully by her until recently when she grew out of it.  She was the only elementary school child I knew who wore cashmere sweaters..I hate to think of how I am warping her future tastes for the finer things in life... 

I threw the sweater  in the washer and dryer to felt the fiber up.  And then I began to cut.

Even after felting this cashmere feels wonderful.

A quick trip to one of my embroidery floss cases to pick out a color (really messy!).

After stitching up 90% of the heart, I then stuffed it with lavender buds that I bought through eBay and stitched each one closed.

  One heart led to another heart...

...Until there were three, ready to hang in a closet, get tucked into a a drawer, sitting in with a yarn stash to keep away pests or to all-around smell great.

An Apron For Becky

I made an apron for Becky. 

My friend Becky is retiring, even though she is way too young to retire.   A mutual friend came up with the idea that an apron would be the perfect thing for her to represent all of Becky's husband's hopes of renewed domesticity (which is funny because Becky is quite domestic).

I went into my studio and began to pull some fabric out.  I have to remind myself that this part of the process is best done quickly, because, well, I'll have to show you why..

But first, assisting in the creation is my new sewing machine, whom I like to call Vicki.

This is what I initially pulled together in the studio:

This is the finished apron:

There is little in common between the proposed and the end product. Once I thought I had my fabric palette, I quickly, and without realizing it, changed my fabric choices and how I was going to use them. 

This is a part of the creating that I am getting used to, to remember before I begin a project that the end result could most likely bear little resemblence to what I originally intended.  And that's OK.  Too often I would agonize over the possibilities instead of just beginning and CUTTING THE FABRIC! Certainly there are projects that need a little careful agonizing over, but there are too many fun things just waiting to be made through the use of careless creativity.

 

 

Be sure to have some careless creativity thrown into your day.

Gifting

When I read in the Wall Street Journal just before last Christmas that apparently people don't 'give gifts' anymore, they 'gift' things I thought that it had to be a joke.  Apparently not.  Since then I've heard the term more and more.  It is part of a larger trend in the English language that turns nouns into acceptable and usable verbs. I think it is a silly word, right up there with embellishing.

Today my sister and I went out to lunch in Chestnut Hill to the Solaris Grille to celebrate our birthdays (both in May, but she is much older than me**).  We had a great time and a great lunch now that we are all not SICK anymore from random viruses that anyone could have gotten sick from and it was only coincidental that my sister's family was sick from the same type of virus just before we all got sick.**  I gave my sister a bag that I made especially for her birthday.   

I made it out of handwoven linen (that I wove).  The brown grosgrain ribbon is vintage, as is the wool needlepoint canvas, and the green silk velvet ribbon.  The handles are a pale pink.

I wanted to the lining to be interesting too so I used vintage linen handkerchiefs (in mint unused condition) and more brown grosgrain ribbon. 

Note the custom detailing with my sister's name

- it re-gift-proofs the bag, which my sister assures me would never happen since she loves it.**   Part of me was tempted to keep the bag, cut off her name, but that would have been wrong, very wrong.**

I did tell my sister about this blog so HELLO BETH!  I showed her my blog earlier today and as I was scrolling down the page, she said 'Stop!  I see 'typhoid Mary', you  wrote about me!'.  Yes I did.

And what might you ask did my sister gift me for my birthday? (see ok, I tried using it and didn't like it)  Why a wonderful gift certificate to my very favorite yarn shop, The Tangled Web.  I'm not sure yet what yarn I'm going to buy, but I'm having a great time just thinking about all of the possibilities.  It has to be something special.  And I have a 20% off frequent buyer card to use with it!

My sister and her family leave tomorrow to go back to Santa Fe and I'm going to miss them.***

**I told my sister about my blog and now she reads it.

***It's the truth and I'm not just writing it because of  **.

Not very inspirational

Today is the last day of school for two of my children.  All 2 1/2 hours of it.  How can I celebrate the last day of school if they are only in school two hours?  I don't know.

Anyway, both children had wonderful teachers this year and I wanted to give them something special so I decided to make them these bags that are a mix of new and vintage materials.  And they have really cool handles.  No problem, I'd have them done weeks ahead of time. I said that weeks ago.  Last week (it was a busy week) I said no problem, I'll have them done by the weekend.  Yesterday I said I'd have them done by last night, after knitting group.  I even decided that I would kick everyone out at 8:30 to get the bags done. 

Then I decided that if I wasn't finished by 11pm I could always run out to RiteAid to buy some gift cards.  That thought made me feel good. 

By 12:30am I was faced with some harsh realities.  The outsides of both bags were done, one bag faced completion.  But both needed, onced finished, EMBELLISHING (I love how that word sounds both fancy and ridiculous at the same time). 

I faced defeat.  And a late night trip to RiteAid.

Then I had a revelation.  Somewhere I had a box of 'emergency gifts'.  My mother's advice would pay off!  I found two pieces of jewelry complete with gift boxes.  I was saved.  I wrapped them in (unused of course) vintage linen hankies.

Two end of the year teacher's gifts - check.

I can't say the word

Yesterday and Thursday I began (and finished!) a new project!  A sewing project.  I don't know why, but I hate to use the word that properly describes what I did - embellishment.  No wait, I do know why.  Watching too many craft shows on tv.  And hearing phrases like:

"those sequins and feathers really embellish the toilet paper cover beautifully!" or "the gold braid fringe embellishment adds something very special to the sympathy card!"

There's something about embellishing (ooh look, I used the word) that has a 'once there, there's no turning back' mentality.  I suppose the alternate definition of embellishing could be 'the ability to enhance or really screw up something'. 

I took a shirt, boring me has 5 of the same shirt in different colors:

And some fabric:

And with a pair of scissors made this:

And ended up with this:

I then used the flower vine to embellish the shirt on the front:

And the back:

I'm praying that I don't end up like the crazy craft ladies on television.  But I can't worry about that right now, my eyeglass case looks a little bit bare and I need to grab my glue gun and some sequins...