Remember this photo of my Inspiration Wall in my Studio?
This is a that’s been added to the , and I’ve been following the pool ever since. I’m always looking for and collecting things that inspire me. They got on my mantle, board or in a notebook (one of MANY!). But I love looking at other’s inspiration boards. I love the and love even more that there’s now about the creators of these inspiration boards.
Lately – I’ve been inspired by raw edges.
I love this piece on the cover of the latest . I love this magazine. I could tear the whole thing apart and hang it all on the wall. I love the garments in the feature article. If you have a chance to pick it up, it’s worth it. Lovely.
I read this really wonderful article about DIYers and the difference they are making in the world. They aren’t screaming from their soap boxes, they are just doing. Quietly, they are changing the world, one project at a time using found items, re-purposed items and making things new again (I can’t seem to find the article, if you know which one I’m talking about – let me know so I can link to it).
I think if I try to change everything in my life at the same time, I would go crazy, so I try to change at least one thing a week. Once it was switching to phosphate free laundry detergent, then fabric softner, then not using the dryer. I’m using Happy-Sacks instead of plastic bags. I bring my own bags to shop with, even to stores that aren’t selling groceries. I use old clothing and bed linens for sewing projects. And I read blogs and learn about other ideas.
My favorite today, and OH-SO-OBVIOUS!!! On – there’s a . Of course, why are we buying plastic? I’ll never buy another plastic shower curtain. Bad.
So – another small step today. And this has another thing brewing in my mind…
Is anyone in the Western Ma area interested in participating in a ? I’m going to see if we can get one started here. I’m looking for interested folks who can volunteer to help sort, lead workshops and organize. Email me – zannestar(at)luckystitches(dot)com if you are interested in learning more or want to help out.
I noticed these little almost a year ago, but put off buying them as I still had my bulk purchase (from Costco) of re-sealable plastic bags. But now my bag stash is out, and well, you should by now know of my love for recycling and re-using, so I’ve started buying these wonderful, lovely, fabulous Happy-Sacks. I use them for snacks and sandwiches. They are lined with a heavy nylon making them easy to clean. They come in (aka eye candy). And what I love even more, they come from a . Cool moms doing cool things. I love that.
Working on this wedding dress reminds me of how much fun I had at our wedding. I thought about making my dress, but I couldn’t find the time (I loved the dress I found anyway…). It was so much fun, a fabulous little party with close friends and family. I smile when I remember it.
The dress is coming along beautifully. It is a surprise – so no pictures to give it away, but the shapes are really amazing. (insert giddy mad scientist giggle here…)
This week is Pillow with Appliqué week. First, everyone made patterns, either on paper or just freely cut out their fabric.
Next, everyone will learn how to insert a zipper. I love this part. I have a favorite way of inserting zippers, so much so, I don’t follow the sometimes super lame instructions provided sometimes in patterns. I pretty much follow . After a bit of practice, they look really good.
We are all finally home. Iz recoved quickly from her Pneumonia and Rob brought her to meet me in the city. She loved it. We didn ‘t get to do as much as we had hoped, but we did eat wonderful food, walked, rode the and and almost fell backwards as we tried to see the top of the . We wish we could have stayed longer and visited with more friends, but next trip.
It’s been a busy few months and I’m hoping to catch up on, well, everything. After the stress of working a J-O-B and being away from home while Iz was sick, I am now sick. Perhaps it’s a sinus infection, I am exhausted and argh. I’m sitting on the couch, a wonderful blanket, 600 channels (of nothing) to choose from and my friend the lap top. Hot tea is brewing and after cancelling a private instruction session today, I’m hoping to bounce back and be as good as new tomorrow.
To get ready for my trip, I did a bit of pampering. A little snip here, a little snip there and a date with a bottle of the white stuff, and I have a new doo! I was hoping to swing to while I was in the city for a little mani-pedi, but no time. It’s my favorite place for this sort of thing.
The last few weeks have been productive for the HomeSchool Sewers (could be a band – no?) We made FABULOUS Fabric Belts and the warmest and oh-so-lucky Winter Hats.
The grown-ups got around to making some Lucky Winter Hats too. Meg’s (the one on the left) is made from and old felted sweater. These are just too cute!
I’m bummed that I had to cancel my private instruction today. We’re working on a wedding dress! EEEK! Have you ever felt so inspired by something things just start flowing? Libby has a beautiful vision and design for her wedding dress and after we spent a bit of time mapping out the execution of her dress, we got busy. Using fabric from my stash and hers, we started draping for part of her outfit. I love draping. I love patternmaking too, but draping really allows you to feel and shape fabric around a form. Very different from drawing lines on a paper to get the same effect.
Pinning and cutting and pinning and tucking and marking and JOY OH JOY!
Next…I will finish my jeans and other items from my wardrobe plan (that was all put on hold when Iz got sick before I left). I need to update all my bookkeeping (anybody have any tips, argh – this is overwhelming for me). I have to finish up a doll I’m making for Iz’s 3rd birthday (just a few days away!), and I need to finish my Christmas presents and get them in the MAIL!
Pneumonia. Wow, that’s a tough one to spell. It’s even tougher when I call home (I’m in NYC) and learn that Iz has Pneumonia, and I’m a few hours away. Uck. Everyone is fine. She’s on antibiotics, Rob is great, and I’m loving the cosmo I just had while trying to get on the internet in this really inadequate place. I couldn’t connect in my room after ordering “laptop internet service” and guest services couldn’t help. So now I’m in the lobby paying $3 for an hour of internet service. I can’t believe she has pneumonia. Where did she get it? Oh POOP!!!!
So, she’s on antibiotics, she started this afternoon and Rob says she’s already feeling better. I can’t help but feel that I should run home and take care of her, but I’m here working and anyway Rob is taking excellent care of her. Hopefully the fever will be gone by tomorrow and Thursday, she and Rob can drive down and meet me in the city. Did I tell you how excited she is to visit NYC? We’ve been watching Muppets Take Manhatten and she LOVES it! She tells everyone, I’m going to New York City!!!!
This is my very first visit away from Iz, ever. She’ll be 3 in a few weeks. I cried the day I left. But, even though she’s sick, she’s fine. Of course. We talk on the phone and after a minute, she says, “Here’s Dad”. I know, harder on me than it is on her. Whew. Of course she had to get Pneumonia. Of course, and everything is fine. JOY oh freakin’ joy.
I’m going to try to get caught up on emails before my hour ends. Cheers!
Here I am. Right here in NYC. On 7th Ave and 32nd Street. Here’s the view from my room. (picture a little later, upload of image just not happening!) Funny thing. see the tall building on the left. I worked right behind that building for many, many years, at The Style Council.
We had dinner at La Bonne Soup and sat next to a man that plays a DR on ER. I had the best steak hamburger with perfectly cooked fries and delicious wine. I am bummed to say that the rooms don’t come with gratis internet access. Note to self – perhaps find a different hotel next time. Although the rates are great, and the show is right here in the hotel. It’s supposed to snow tonight.
The food was really, really good. Refreshing. I love that we live in Western Mass, but I sure do miss NYC. Imagine, I can go to a completely different place tomorrow for lunch and dinner and still have wonderful food. We took a cab and were there in just a few minutes and got back to the hotel in just a few minutes, not hours.
Ok, I took the train here. As we got closer to the city, I could see the population getting thicker and I thought to myself, why did we move away? I know why. I didn’t want to raise a family in NYC.
We need to visit more often. I figured I haven’t been here for 2 years. Now that Iz is getting older, we need to have regular visits. I love where we live. The nature is magnificent and it’s the perfect place to raise a family, I think. But I miss the city. The city is so much a part of us. We can’t let that go. Visits are good. We can do visits. Many, many visits.
Well sort of I guess. I’m in a mad rush to finish a few pieces of clothing for my trip to NYC. I’m making jeans, which I love and while it’s a lot of sewing, they are not too complicated. I’ve really got my groove on, sewing the muslin in a snap, trying it on, not getting dressed so I can just hurry and finish and try them on again.
(Now, I know some of you do it too, right? I’m not alone when I sew in my skivvies…right? Hello?)
Anyway, I’ve got all my final fabric pieces cut, I serge finished them, applied all the interfacing and twill tape (so the waist doesn’t stretch). The machine is all set, I’ve got my jeans needles, my twin needles, my thread, I’ve wound a bunch of bobbins so I don’t have to stop and wind every few minutes. I start on the pockets and I insert the twin needle for topstitching, and what do you know, my removable spool holder is NO WHERE TO BE SEEN!!!! As is with a bunch of other little goodies from my machine kit. My trustly little assistant must have been digging around, because they were all there a month ago when I used them on a denim skirt. ARGGGH. No doubt they are in a special place. When I ask her where all of mommy’s tools are, I get a blank stare. Clearly I’m using the wrong words and she’s got her own words for them.
I’ve learned not to get too worked up. Part of learning (mommy and Iz), is to adapt to (not necessarily accept) things not going the way we want to.
Anyway, pockets are all stitched. I’m teaching a hat class tonight, so once I’m home, I’ll rig up another spool holder and other fun devices so I can make a bit more progress.
Wool is good. Felt is good. Blankets are good. Lists are good. This is going on my project list. I found this picture of a felted wool blanket in progress by . I can’t tell you how much I LOVE it.
I love it for many reasons. Using found materials is high on my list and finding things at thrift stores is not only fun, it’s good for our environment.
I love that wool is such an amazing medium. I learn more and more about wool all the time. Needle felting is something that’s on my list of things to learn this year.
And I love blankets. Maybe it’s the drafty and sometimes chilly house we live in, or maybe it’s the comfort of being wrapped in a warm blanket.
It could be a big project. But nice and warm. Maybe I’ll start with a small one, one for Iz to keep in the car.
It was pretty amazing. I still have not caught up on returning phone calls, emails and other correspondence. So if you are reading this and I haven’t gotten back to you, I will, soon, I promise!
We visited a local and cut out own (during which we had of “What are we doing cutting down a tree???”). We decorated it while watching Charlie Brown. It was pretty magical.
PopPop was here for Christmas and with all our talk to Iz about Santa coming down the chimney and filling the stockings and putting presents under the tree, you’d think we’d have been prepared for her reaction. She walked into the living room and stopped in her tracks, speechless. For minutes. We finally broker her silence and started with the stockings which seemed bottomless. Lots of candy. That’s what Santa brings C-A-N-D-Y. From the mouths of babes. (ok – just so you don’t freak out, it was 2 packs of bubble gum and 4 little tootsie rolls – she ate 1 pack of gum and the four tootsie rolls in about, oh – I’d say 27 seconds flat, the other pack of gum lasted 5 days under much duress). Iz started opening the presents, and well, it was just plain overwhelming. The first few were pretty fun, but then ALL the presents under the tree were for her and only she could open them. There were threats of her spending the rest of the day in her room if she didn’t let PopPop open his own presents, or us for that matter. We found that the more chaotic the morning got, the more fun she was having. OF COURSE! What were we thinking by only opening one present at a time?!? The gifts were wonderful, very thoughtful and warm. Lots of puzzles, which is great because the single Elmo puzzle we had for 6 months..well, let’s just say that we could all put it together on the back side. Now we have more Sesame Street, Dinosaur, Solar System and Kitty puzzles than we ever could have imagined. It was pretty fun.
Our tree is still up and the Santa and Christmas decorations are still up around town, Iz keeps asking me, “Mama isn’t Christimas over?” then looking at the Bank Teller or the Cashier, “Christmas is OVER!”. duh
I have yet to finish my handful of handmade presents. They are going to have to wait. Next week I leave for NYC (wooohoooo – it’s been a while), where I’ll be at . I really can’t wait. If you are going to be there- visit me at . I’m helping out at her booth for the week. It will be nice to be back in the thick of it, if only for a week! Stop by and say HI!
I’m working on a pair of corduroy jeans for my NYC visit as well as a bias A-line skirt and a few stylized T’s and turtlenecks:
Fingers crossed I can finish at least the bottoms. Jeans are almost done. I finished my muslin today and started cutting the final fabric. (There’s a jeans class at that starts Feb 3. I am so excited about it. For me – I can’t find great fitting jeans, so making them was kind of intimidating, but let me tell you! They are super fun and easy – but time consuming, and tweaking them to fit proper may take a few tries if you are new to sewing and making clothes. I’m planning on having a serger and a few extra machines with twin needles on them during the class so all the tools are handy for making a rockin’ pair of jeans! – ok – more later…)
And speaking of LuckyStitches, have I told you HOW MUCH FUN I AM HAVING??? I have a – and these kids ROCK, we made scarves and last week, fabric belts!!! I think they are having at least as much fun as I am, but what’s even better for me, they’ve made me realize that I need to just do it, just sit down and try it. I tend to do that with sewing, but with other things, I play it safe. I have to try to remember to try things I wouldn’t normally try – learn more.
That’s kind of my mantra and has been for the past few years. What new things will I learn this year? One year, I taught myself to knit. Another year, I made jewelry. So – with only 354 days until Christmas – what are we all going to learn this year? I’ve already started on one – Making a Pair of Jeans. There’s more… Learning Balance – or at least how to practice balance in my life, Learn to Organize…and IMPLEMENT it! Argh. My is much smaller these days, but still super useful, now if only I could get it to do the laundry.
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