Wedding pillow

I made a (clearly very late) wedding gift for Abby and Chris, and I finally finished it and mailed it off. The first time I saw this old transfer (which I got from Floresita's vintage transfers on flickr) I immediately knew that I would use it for a Chris and Abby wedding pillow. They are both cat lovers who also have the best collection of antique everything. I used the coveted bird and wave fabric for the back:

I think I have to use my last remnant of the bird/wave fabric for my very own pillow. I like using the black piping for the edges.

And that is all I have to show for my crafty old self right now. As I recently mentioned we have had illness after illness around here in 2009 (nothing serious, and I am always thankful for that) and our latest bout has been with THE CHICKEN POX!

My poor little guy came down with the chicken pox in the middle of spring break, during a big annual music festival (South by Southwest). Needless to say, I did not get to see any bands. There was a fever, and a lot of waking up at night, and not a lot of sleep for mom or dad. I had intended on getting Harlan vaccinated just before kindergarten, but in a way I am relieved that he got the virus out of his system, since now he will not have to re-vaccinate himself every twelve years. I can not imagine very many grown men remembering to vaccinate themselves, and getting chicken pox as an adult is really horrendous. While Harlan was sick I heard from many friends who got the virus in their teens, their twenties, and even during law school finals! Lucky for us, there were enough parents around who wanted their toddlers to get the chicken pox too, and we were invited over to their homes. Harlan is such a social butterfly, and he hates being cooped up inside (no pun intended). I know some of you may be floored by the thought of intentionally getting your kids the chicken pox, but I can definitely see the benefit of it. I had it when I was thirteen, and let me tell you, I was way more miserable than Harlan was with it at three (which was really no walk in the park either).

So, we are all in a period of relative wellness (I know it's just a matter of time before my allergies return. I just finished a second round of antibiotics for an ear infection) and I am trying to catch up on work. At the end of April I am going to be selling at the Funky Finds Spring Fling in Fort Worth, so come check me out!

On the mend

Have you heard the one about the disappearing blogger?
Tea towel made as a surprise for a friend

When it comes down to it, I really can not do it all. As much as I, and every other mother I know wants to, it's just not possible. So there are choices. And they need to be prioritized. When I began this blog I did so in the hopes that virtually keeping track of my projects would help me finish them, and help me stay in touch with other bloggers who enjoy making things, baking, and taking photos of their accomplishments.
Pants made for Harlan this month. They were not intended to look like M.C. Hammer pants, but they kind of do.

What turns out to be possible, is that I eek out precious bits of time to make things (without keeping track of anything,) I bake things constantly (despite theoretically being on the Weight Watchers points diet,) I sit down to read my favorite bloggers' blogs, and keep in touch with them through commenting on their blogs, and I continue to take photos on a daily basis.

detail of pocket. Train fabric from Leslie.

When it comes down to my own blog, life seems to get in the way most of the time. Since moving to Austin a year and a half ago, I have not gone more then four weeks without any allergy symptoms. I do not mean a few sneezes and watery eyes either. We're talking sore throat, coughing that ends up in loud fits of gagging, partial to total loss of my voice, and completely blocked nasal passages that force me to sleep sitting up like the elephant man did (for some reason the one thing I always remember from the super tragic movie is that he had to sleep sitting up due to his messed up breathing issues). Do I sound like an old kvetcher, ready to move down to Boca yet (I wonder how the allergies are down there)? To add to all this glory, the state of being allergic so often has generally lowered my immune system and made me more vulnerable to infection. Since November, I have been fighting a sinus infection that has given me fever and chills, and body aches and exhaustion. It took me three months of living like this (with two brief periods of feeling well mixed in there) to finally stop and consider that maybe it wasn't just allergies that were bothering me. And now, on a ten-day course of antibiotics, I feel like a new woman. I am also seeing an allergist about taking weekly shots to stave off allergic reactions. I'm telling everyone this because I have basically been spending the last couple of months just going through the motions. There has not been enough time to get work done, let alone blog about what I am stitching while laying on the sofa with my eyes propped open. And now I feel that I am coming out of a tunnel and hopefully rejoining the land of the living.

Truck pants made for Harlan last month, using really expensive black stretch denim that I got in NYC to make a skirt for myself with. I have no idea why I blew it on these pants. I guess I didn't realize that one could not get similar fabric at local fabric chains like Jo-Ann's.

Moving to Austin may have given me massive allergies that will require weekly shots for a very long time, but honestly I fucking love it here. Winter with the sun shining almost every day, and warm enough weather to play outside is really the antidote to a lot of things in my book.

I recently just managed to get some of the vintage pillowcase dresses up in the shop. It was not easy to get fantastic photos of the dresses due to their being white and flowing. I'm working on getting better shots, but for now, click on the photos and check out the detail shots which I think came out quite nicely with my macro lens. Also, check out the new sleeper sets and romper dresses.
Long-sleeved onesies are still available for a couple more months too!

3 is the magic number

Once again I've been a bit scarce around blogland for the past month. After Maker Faire (which went really well by the way, see here and here for a couple of shots that are better than my own) we had Harlan's third birthday to celebrate, and then I dove right back into production mode for the upcoming Blue Genie Art Bazaar, which is a three week long sale of items made by local artists.

With less than twenty hours a week to devote to working, blogging is put on the back burner once again. Here are a few shots to keep all my dear readers in the loop!

Harlan's third birthday on Nov. 1:
I think this is my only photo pose. Every photo of me since Harlan was born looks exactly like this. Here is the birthday boy being asked to pose:


We had a little party for Harlan and some of his pals at a place filled with inflatable jumpy houses. Some of them were so large that they had slides and ladders (inflatable too) inside them.



I updated my deer and tree applique designs. I'm now hand dying the blanks in vibrant, more "punchy" colors, that come out somewhat variegated. Instead of hand painting each shirt, Joe drew a deer that I'm silkscreening (and I added a small batch of a big bad wolf version). Silk screening goes a lot faster obviously, and it feels great to be able to produce the clothes a little faster than I was doing so before. Lastly, the tree appliques remain the same except that there is now only one tree per shirt.

I am making most of the trees with my traditional ric-rack, and leaving some with raw edges for a more "manly" look for little boys who don't rock the ric-rack.

This shirt is Kelley green, although it looks more yellow in the photo:


These little romper/dresses are new too, and come in a variety of colors:


Also new are these sleeper sets. The hats will be sold with the nighties (don't these things remind you of Sweepea?)


I really love the way blue dye came out, but it shows the most variegation of any of the colors I've tried so far. It's a bit trickier to work with and I had to scrap a pretty big batch of blanks unfortunately.
I'm hoping to put some of these in the shop, but that is pretty neglected these days as well. If you are interested in a particular size or design to purchase, feel free to e-mail me and I'll send it to you instead of putting in the upcoming Art Bazaar. I'm also making some great stockings with the woodgrain fabric, some Japanese import fabrics, and some linen ones with the deer. I hope to post again soon, but if not, please know that the comments you all leave and the e-mails you send really mean a lot to me.

Almost Famous

Rachel Hobson of Average Jane Crafter interviewed me for her column on Craft Magazine's website. Thanks so much Rachel, you rock!

The dress is a sample that I made recently, but there should be about twenty unique dresses in time for the Bizarre Bazzar at Maker's Faire. Each dress is made from a vintage hand-embroidered pillowcase, and is fastened with vintage buttons. This is my first step away from hand embroidering items myself, and moving into producting garments that can be made faster, but are still special and different from other items usually found in children's clothing stores. As many of you have probably figured out by this point, hand embroidering isn't exactly fast, and therefore is not very cost-productive. I hope the dresses are a hit!

Vintage Chicken Scratch Apron Giveaway!

Last weekend while doing some vintage-goodness shopping, I came across these two old aprons with chicken scratch embroidery on them, and could not resist. Once I got home, I remembered that I don't even wear aprons very often, and I knew that one of these lovelies deserved a home with someone who could really appreciate it. Since chicken scratch is all the rage in crafty blogland these days, I just know there is someone out there reading this who will want one of these aprons. Leave a comment saying which apron you want (I only will give away one) before next Tuesday, and a week from today I'll have Harlan draw a name at random from a hat. Be sure and comment with a way that I can contact you via e-mail should you win :)

Another cute mid-century kid's chair was scored here in the great state of Texas:

Also in crafty goodness news: New curtains for Harlan's closet, sewn from Ikea fabric (forgive the lousy photo).

A plain denim skirt made from the Sew What! Skirts book that I bought a loooong time ago. Yes, it's another photo that doesn't do the subject justice. The skirt came out really cute, but no one is around to help me take a photo right now, so it's just me, the bathroom, and the lack of tri-pod.

Going in the mail tonight is a wedding gift for some friends who got married back in June. I actually had completed the pillow on time, but I was waiting for the second piece of the gift to become finished (it's something Joe made) before mailing it. I hope the recipients are not reading this before they get the pillow. If so, sorry it's so late! The fabric in the background is the same fabric I used to back the pillow with.

French knot details on bride-kitty's dress:

Some vintage 40's rayon crepe fabric that I'm going to make my next super lightweight TX style skirt with:

I'm a little unsure of how it will look once it's on me. It may too shear, and too unflattering, but I'm going to finally take the plunge and cut it up. I've had it sitting around since I got in Portland way back in the day.

I've Been a Bad Bad Blogger

Last post June 1st? Eek, the summer went so fast. A month-long trip to NYC and having Joe home with us here the rest of time made the days just fly by. The only items I made over the past couple of months were a ton of shirts for Parts & Labour on S. Congress. They're a really interesting boutique that only sells locally made items. I've also had a bunch of custom orders that I have worked on in place of updating my long-neglected blog. The only thing I made for myself this summer was this skirt:

Oh, do you like those shoes? I put them on for the photo because they were the last extravagant purchase I made before quitting my last full time job. Remember that scene in Sex in the City (the series, not the film) when Carrie realized that all the money she spent on shoes could have been used for the down payment on an apartment? I think that that might be a semi-universal epiphany (and by semi-universal I mean professional urban single women obviously). I like to remember the days when no one had heard of Suze Orman, and it was perfectly reasonable to blow money at Barney's and on cocktails instead of using it to pay off credit cards and save for the day when one might actually have a child and have no use whatsoever for 3" red suede platform shoes that were handmade by some little white-haired shoe-master in Italy.

But back to the skirt. Does it look vaguely familiar? That might be because originally it was a sun dress that I was working on. I could never figure out how to line up the bodice with the skirt, and so the bodice that I sewed a few months back is now being scrapped. At least I got one cute new thing to wear out of it. *Note to self- always make a muslin version of any new pattern before using the good stuff.

Of course there have been about a hundred things that I have been meaning to blog about, but I have come to realize that a more realistic approach for me will be to post about one thing each week. That's my "new year's resolution" for this upcoming school year (yes, I still think of time in terms of school years. I suppose that I will think of time this way for a long time with a teacher husband and a child). Here are some snapshots from our summer:

Dreamy days at the beach:

A boy and his love for baby lions (t-shirt made with transfer paper and access to flickr) and old tractors:


A visit from Joe's mom, and a dinner out at the Biergarten in Wahlburg:

Look! He's a little boy already:

Hot

So it's been hovering around 100 degrees here lately and I'm trying to embrace it as best as one can. Maybe if I pretend I'm one of those people who loves intense heat, I will actually become one. In the mean time, I had my bread party last weekend. Some friends came over and brought different items baked from the bread book. I made the almond bostock which is basically rolls of brioche with almond paste swirled inside them, along with orange flavor and grated orange peel and almonds on top. It was maybe one of the best things I've ever eaten, especially since we had it while it was still warm.
I also baked two plain loaves of brioche, and I just ate a slice of one with some Nutella and sliced banana on top. I guess the diet is officially off.

Katie made two focaccia, one plain and one with thin onions and salt. I could eat it all day long basically (with almond bostock breaks in between).
Harlan actually went up to this first and clamped his teeth around the edge of it. As Katie put it, "it got the toddler seal of approval." Kelly brought some pecan cinnamon rolls and they didn't exactly taste like crap either: Let me tell you, all that was left of these was a few pecans and some crust. Dr. Ruth made the light bran, and I have to say I think I may switch to this loaf for a while (I've been making the light wheat each week for sandwiches, but this one has a bit more heft to it): Jenifer made an awesome cheese ball with some fresh feta from a local organic farm.

In crafty news, I made a cupcake for Mae's birthday The pattern is from here.
We finally got some wicker chairs and a table from Ikea for our balcony, and I made a couple of seat cushions for the chairs. I've also been working on a sun dress with some of my coveted Folklore fabric. Here's the top of it shown upside down: Like the ric-rack around the top of the bodice? I'm going to add some to the hem as well. There is one big problem however. I cut my fabric and patterns super carefully, and sewed every single seam with the same seam allowance, but that shit just doesn't line up properly.
Notice how the vertical seams don't line up? I kind of tried it on and it seems like it should work out to fit O.K. if I go ahead and insert the zipper, but I feel like I'll know that I screwed it up. However, if I rip it up and take in the couple of inches along the front of the skirt then the floral pattern won't line up. I am stumped.

In shop news I'm adding a banana cowboy on a green background. He's kind of always been everyone's favorite and I think the green makes him look extra special.


A few nights ago we went out to a biergarten in the middle of nowhere and it was super awesome. Even though I'm not a big beer drinker, they did have the Widmier Heffewiesen that I always liked back in Portland, and a polka band really hit the spot. To make things even better there was a plethora of Texas glamour grandmas getting their groove on on the dance floor. There was one super old guy in a full-on Tyrolean outfit and I kept hoping he would ask me to dance, but all the old biddies kept getting to him first. Check him out in the left corner:

More Bees & Bread

This Saturday my high school class is having its 20th reunion (thank you to the lady from the park who acted shocked when I told her and said I looked 29. I guess the face lift really paid off) and I'm sad to say I won't be there. Yes, I'm one of the few people out there who loved her high school. I had dedicated and interesting teachers, and really cool friends. I should mention here that I didn't go to public school. My school is a pretty well-known private Brooklyn school that does things like have Bertolt Brecht Day, where we ate German food and performed his plays. We had a smoking lounge too, and you were allowed to smoke in front of the school, but if you were in 7th grade, you had to go around the corner to smoke so no one would see you (the school goes k-12). Mike Diamond from the Beastie Boys was a senior when I was in 8th grade and he would throw french fries at us eighth graders who dared to try and smoke in front of the front door with the seniors. It was good times all around, and I hope to make the next reunion.

Yes, more sporadic posting I'm afraid. I've been working on designing the new Rose & Duke line (entirely sewn from scratch children's clothing, that won't be sewn entirely by me for once) and researching manufacturers. Aside from that, there's been a little more stitching going on for Abby:


I bought the blank tea towel fabric from reprodepot, and sewed some ric-rack along the bottom edges. I also got some great amigurumi patterns from a new friend over at Ravelry (I sent her a really good Japanese pattern book for her to copy from in exchange for the patterns she designed and sent me copies of). I made a marshmellow man and a sour apple.

The apple is missing his leaf and the marshmellow man is supposed to be a cupcake, but I think he looks more like a toasted marshmellow instead. He reminds me of the marshmellow man that I got as a gift when I bought something from Chet and Dot.

MY OVEN SUCKS. I have a thermometer in there, and sometimes you have to turn the heat to 550 to get it to reach 450 and sometimes you have to set it at 420 to get to 450. There's no telling what will happen once you put the bread inside. In addition, my dough rising is pretty incosistant as well. I don't know if it's the crazy Texas weather which changes so quickly, or if something else is going on, but half the time the dough is nice and wet and it rises perfectly and looks like this
and when it comes out this wet and flat on top, the bread comes out like this This is the light wheat bread by the way. I've also tried the olive bread and my favorite, the Chris Kimball (of Cook's Illustrated) sandwhich bread:
This is super tasty, but like all the other loaves- not very tall. I have no idea how to get a taller loaf so that one can eat a more normal-sized sandwich.
I also got a wild hare and tried my hand at homemade orecchiette (which is a bitch to remember how to spell) because the recipe in the recent Italian issue of Gourmet sounded sooo easy. While it wasn't necessarily difficult at all, it took forever. I spent half of a nap (Harlan's nap) cutting and pressing each little piece together. It tasted really nice with some Romano cheese, chopped parsley, and oven roasted tomatoes from the Whole Foods olive bar. The texture of the orecchiette was soft but not sticky or slimy. I think however, that I will continue to buy it from now on instead.