Monday, September 29, 2008

I really love making pin cushions!!!!!

To me they are a great gift for the ladies. I think they are wonderful little things of beauty and there are so many variations.One of my favorite pin cushions are the little mushrooms(that is what I call them) from How about orange, made recycling a 2 liter soda bottle cap as the base . I first made these last Christmas as little gifts and it was very fun thinking of each person's personality and incorporating it into a little pin cushion. These are very non- seamstress~ top of the dresser type pin cushions. Everyone needs a little cushion for random little straight pins, safety pins and such that come on clothing. A while back I came across a tutorial on craftytpod for a pin cushion needle sharpener. She mentions another bottle cap pin cushion tutorial (that looks fun too)in her post as the perfect size for this little sharpener. So I decided to stuff my mushrooms with very fine steel wool and came up with these fun little dandies.
It was yet another super fun way to put off making "important stuff "for the Maker Faire. I think they are perfect gifts for anyone you know who does needle work!
I also made lots stuffed with good ole fluff~ just like pooh( for my burger).

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Blogger lockdown/flower apron sneaky post

I am sort of on restricted blogger use at this time, due to my long list of must makes for the Bazaar bizarre.

I am sneaking now to show you another naughty thing I did which was finish this custom apron for the owner of Blue House Flower Farm, she sells her fresh cut flowers every Saturday at the Sunset Valley Farmers market. Her beautiful bouquets range from $3- $30 and are absolutely the freshest flowers in town . I usually get a small mixed bunch and it will last clear till the next bunch arrives ( a week or longer).
Anyway the apron was super fun to make and I really just adore it. The skirt is a vintage three panel piece that I have been hanging onto for nearly a year ( it was waiting on its owner to request an apron). I made a special little embroidered patch with the words flower farm...
~and placed that in front of an appliqued blue linen house and an appliqued
small flower garden

I also appliqued a small bunch of cut flowers on the pocket as well.
~The decorative pink buttons are vintage

It was a sweet color break for me away from my fall color binge I have been on lately. OK gotta boogy ...this is already too long
thanks for looking

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

the procrastination ends here


I was given this award by my dear cyber friend at Apron strings and the Ties that Bind
Quite an embarrassingly long time ago(sorry JD) I just could not get up the doing it bone...(was that dirty?) any way here it is ,you have to answer each question with one word ( I did no want to use names)
1. Where is your cell phone?questionable
2. Where is your significant other? bed
3. Your hair color? mochai-sh
4. Your mother? hot
5. Your father? missed
6. Your favorite thing? color
7. Your dream last night? strange
8. Your dream/goal?breadwinning
9. The room you’re in? common
10. Your hobby? living
11. Your fear? anger
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years?Texas
13. Where were you last night? bed
14. What you’re not? mathematician
15. One of your wish-list items?huh
16. Where you grew up? South
17. The last thing you did? stretched
18. What are you wearing? pajamas
19. Your TV?friend
20. Your pet? protective
21. Your computer? Ernest
22. Your mood?sleepy
23. Missing someone? daddy
24. Your car? daddy
25. Something you’re not wearing? bra
26. Favorite store? confused
27. Your summer? 100+
28. Love someone?many
29. Your favorite color? all
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? "drive"
this was very difficult for me....lets see how my seven will do...if they do(don't strangle me guys)
Mama sings the blues
Multi crafty
apartment carpet
average jane crafter
live mom
me myself and kai
creative ramblings

Speaking Of the Holidays

I Took The Handmade Pledge! BuyHandmade.org

Speaking Of the Holidays I wanted to mention The Handmade Pledge. It seems like I have always tried to make most of my gifts for the Holidays (I have always been the "artist/poor" family member). I suppose it started when I was a kid. Most kids are encouraged to make things for gifts. Then along comes the teen years and all artistic expression takes a back seat to academic achievement; and we begin to buy everything. Since 'Art' was Academic for me, I was allowed to keep on making things for gifts, and gracious family members "smiled and said thanks Chas". Well times have changed I now have family members requesting handmade gifts and people I don't even know asking me to make gifts for their loved ones.
Usually, for me it is those closest to me that reap from my laborious paws (and those who are willing to pay for my services). I do,however, still buy some gifts (I could not possibly make all our gifts) but I try to buy handmade or at least local. There is this great online Pledge site called I took the Handmade pledge.

They list 3 great reasons to Buy handmade
* Buying Handmade makes for better gift-giving.
* Buying handmade is better for people.
* Buying handmade is better for the environment.
So for Those of you wanting to try to bake and make your way thru the holidays there is all sorts of help out there on-line. There are plenty of great sites to buy Handmade like etsy, dwanda, I shop indie, and meet me at mike's
where your can pick up one of thes Super cute pendants for a song
From recipes to, decorating tips to sites that teach you how to make easy fun gifts.
A great site dedicated to giving you the hows and tos to make your own holiday gifts is
Handmade and Homebaked.
Amy cluck of Pepto girl Industries has been working incredibly hard to bring Holiday gift tutorials to the crafty masses This Holiday Season


I mean I have a sort of holiday decoration aversion (due to over exposure as a child; sorry mama but it is true) however homemade decorations like this nifty little candle could make a born again holiday decorator out of me yet.


* (my added personal reason ) The fourth reason to buy handmade~ gives holidays meaning again!

Well I have found that making gifts and buying from other makers actually gave me back (some) of my lost Christmas (that is my holiday) spirit. It is so easy in these times to get lost in all the stuff; and depressed from lack of funds to buy all the stuff; and super irritated that something that should be a cherished time for family and friendships (especially in a young family 's, such as mine) turns in to the "dreaded Holidays". Sew I am taking back my holiday spirit (one year at a time, mind you) and I am going to try and help my little monster enjoy the Holidays with me not because of all the things we bought for him (or could not buy him)
But because we always make and do fun stuff for the Holidays and have fun giving those things to our closest loved ones...end of rantiness (I know when he is 13 I will look back and laugh a little bitterly at my naive young mama self, but until then I am innocent and I will try)

No market fo October~Maker Faire instead!!

Belle and Burger will be taking all of October off from the Sunset Valley Farmers Market .This is so we can prepare and participate in the the Maker Faire as a vendor at the Bazaar Bizarre. The event will be held on October 18th and 19th at the Travis County Expo Center. We will return on November 1st stocked for the holiday season. Thanks for a great summer ..see you in the "fall




~Hope to see you at the Faire!!!!!!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Blue MamaTutorial, upcycle your plastic jug lids

My gal pal Blue Mama has a superfantabuloso tutorial on her blog Mama sings the blues, all about how to use old water/milk jug caps with fabric scraps to make fabulous decoupaged gems. There are 3 options on what to make, magnets,
earrings or pendants.
What a great way to be green and get your craft on at the same time! I can't wait to make Burger a set of elephant magnets(2 of his favorite things).

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Scandalously Tight Clothes for Curvaceous Women; new shirt designs and other bigger skirts

So I have been trying to get a new design for a 3/4 sleeved "T" out of my head, ever since I got back from bama. I actually took my "The home stretch " book with me, hoping to work on some of her patterns. Maybe I could just read a little, and at least get some knit tips...but I don't think I opened the book even once, while I was there. Finally I managed to make the basic 't' shirt that is in Wendy's book, , during naptime on monday.
I probably won't make too any more unless I alter the pattern a bit( although the little owl was fun).
It was however a great learning experience. Her assembly method smoothed things out for me enormously. I don't use alot of store bought patterns( I do buy them). I often open them and use parts( but they are really hard for me to follow step by tedious step, although Wendy is helping me with my pattern reading skills ), but most often I take a tried and true pattern from an article of clothing that I own and tweek it here and there to get a new look. This was the case with my cap sleeve 'T' that I have been making since I was pregnant.( no I am not prggers here)
The original shirt was a Target T' that I stretched into about7months of big belly. Then sadly It could not stand the strain. Frayed and elastically challenged, I cut it up and made a larger 'T' pattern for the final 5 months of my pregnancy(yes I was pregnant for12months...really, long boring tale ). In the spring of this year I happened upon one of my pregnant 'T's and tried it on and (there was no way in hell I was wearing this shirt mind you) it was WAY too big,WAY to big ...i wish . Anyway I changed the pattern a bit and made a few spring/summer looks from the pattern....way back in march

~These are my latest incarnations of that pattern


I did not know it, but this style is called raglan. A raglan"has sleeves with seams that angle inward for a distinctive sporty look."Wendy tells us. No wonder I love it sew ...I am very sporty. Well, I am a good sport anyway. The Raglan incarnations you are witnessing here are my own design( although Wendy's book does have a pattern for a raglan style 'T' that I have not cut into yet) but I started using her technique for assembly and it just makes more sense.
~ Daddy always said "there's more than one way to skin a cat" (he knew I liked cats). See I am a good sport.
So I made 2 designs
~one with my classic girls in the "V"(imagine sexy boobs here)




This look has a sort of peasant( but not Renaissancey) feel and I made the sleeves a little drapey and flared.
These light plum colored sleeves have pretty,see-through, floral designs~ love that!



Then my fav (this week) the baseball jersey style,in which I just used 2 backs instead of the front and back!(sorry this photo is not PG)I think this shirt needs a little bambi sillohette applique on it, Front and Center


Someone said to me a few weeks ago"you make clothes for little girls" referring to my size choices. So I had to prove that was not true,(kinda, I make clothes for little girls at heart maybe? and scandalously tight clothes for curvaceous women) . I made 2 skirts last week in retaliation, well one was a custom skirt( for the author of the above statement), it is a size 10/12ish
The client had been really lovin' on some vintage button details on another skirt so I put this little bouquet of buttons together for her~ I love them(i hope she does too!).
This fabric is 97%cotton And 3% spandex and is great for skirts(and baby slings). I was a bit challenged in trying to make a pocket that wasn't too competitive with the pattern on the skirt fabric, but also not too boring . It was fun and I am feeling pretty good about the end look.

The other is up for grabs and is a size 12/14. I really love the fabric for these 2 skirts and am having a fall color explosion in my head( and obviously all over these skirts).

I also had alot of fun with this pocket emulating the floral pattern in my applique
OK so that is all for now! thanks for hanging in there through this word stuffed post~

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The winner of the Barrette give-away is....

Sorry for the belated winner draw we had computer melt down this weekend and I forgot about the drawing until Dada said "wasn't I supposed to draw a winner for your give-away yesterday?"


DUH! sorry guys! but it looks like everything is working good round here now so......



The Winner is... Karen!!!! These are yours lady


Thanks to everyone for your terrific comments and some great sites to get your craftspiration going:
~your crafty favorites
heart handmade
whipup
getcrafty
babes in hairland
craftster
Wood & Whimsy
etsy