Archive for the 'my house' Category

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Studio Photos (the before…) part 1. the sewing machines.

Published on April 27, 2007 in creative spaces, family, friends, LuckyStitches, my house, my studio, sewing and sewing machines. 3 Comments

Ok – These are the before. Once you’ll take a long look, you’ll understand. It’s just way toooooo dark and dreary! The walls are covered in dark grey and black faux (and , boy do I mean FAUX) wood paneling. YUCK! I want light and bright. To me, it’s just more comfortable light and bright. Dark and dreary makes me want to cry and it seems so cold (not to mention that in the winter it is FREEEEEZING!)

mystudio - 10

So these are a couple of my machines (the rest are in boxes or at LuckyStitches) The one to the left is a Singer 5050. I bought it years ago for my Dad, when I was visiting him and needed to make him drapes. I ended up taking it home. It’s been a great machine since.

The one to the right is a Bernette 238 Serger. Yep. My baby! Long story….While I was in elementary and high school (from 1976-1989), I had saved money. From birthdays, allowance, odd jobs. You name it. I think once I graduated from highschool I had something like $1500 saved. This account had never been touched – I had another account that I used for my paychecks in HS – so this was all mine. I knew exactly what to do. One day, mom and dad took me to the Quakertown Sewing Center (no longer there, I think it is a billards hall…) , I checked out the prices on the sergers and this was the one I could afford. I think it was something like $800+ dollars. Great! That would leave me enough for some fabric too!

I took this baby to college with me. I made clothes for me and my roommate before we would go out clubbing for the night. I made so many clothes with this. Then came senior year. Our project was to design and sew a line of clothing. Everyone loved my serger. My instructor begged me to leave it overnight so others could use it. Big – MASSIVE mistake. Someone broke it. My heart broke! There was no way I could get this fixed. BUMMER! I carried it with me through all my moves. There was no way I was giving this up, after all I had gone through to purchase it.

Then, when Dad was visiting, he took it back to Quakertown and had it taken care of. A while later, it came back to me. AND IT WORKS! I love it. I’ve sewn a few things on it and now that my studio is organized and functioning, I’m sure I’ll be putting my little Bernette 238 to work again.

Handmade Bag Swap – sent

Published on March 29, 2007 in creative spaces, design, my house, Sewing 1-2-3, sewing library, travel, tutorials, Uncategorized and vintage. 1 Comment


I made another little zippered pouch for the Handmade Bag Swap. It’s on it’s way to someone in the UK. It’s small and filled with just a few things, pink irridescent sequins by-the-yard, pink felt flowers that have a fusible backing, perfect for ironing onto something and the cutest rhinestone flower stickers. The pouch is from this wonderful tutorial. The fabric is from thrifted drapes. I’m almost out of it…and everytime I’m out thrifting, I go straight to the drapes and bedding. I did get some great stuff on my last trip, pictures later.

Sewing

Published on November 5, 2006 in chez étoiles, inspiration, my house, projects, sewing and thrift. 0 Comments

I’ve launched a Sewing Series – you can read a little about Session #1 here and I am working on getting the materials and patterns ready for Session #2 – Make your own Tote Bag. I decided to offer 2 patterns (or help those who wanted to design their own…). So I’ll be doing the super basic roomy tote (stay tuned – I’ll post the pattern here after the session). But I was in a local sewing shop – and came across a pair of 6″ bamboo rings…oh inspiration. I googled the rings and bags – to see what was out there…and didn’t find too much (I didn’t look that hard, I have something in mind anyway), so I’ve been busy sketching up ideas and looking through my fabric stash to see what I can find to match the bamboo handles. I did find some wonderul blue/green wool at a thrift store – after I wash it (a musty yucky smell…)we’ll see if the piece is big enough. I was going to use the wool to make a gift. So many projects, so little time.

Note the fab wallpaper. Too bad it is in terrible shape and printed on a nasty canvas textured paper. It could be a cool almost toile. I’ve been looking for wallpaper over here…thanks to Dre. So maybe by this time next year (one can dream can’t they?) I’ll have a new dining room with a new color vibe – maybe one of the walls will be dressed in a new pattern?

Thinking about projects – we had an excellent guest speaker at our business class this past week. Sheldon Snodgrass – great name, cool guy, awesome energy. He put some energy into the class, helped spark a little fire in me and took some of the pressure off the whole “write a business plan” side of things (at least for me…). Sheldon talked about how he can have so many different things going on and it can get a little hectic. Reminds me of me…and my ongoing creative madness with projects. It can get so crazy that all I do is think and think and I can’t seem to get to the do – or I get far enough into the do, that I have tons of started projects…and it takes even longer to finish them. But I think it’s ok. I keep a notebook of projects and ideas. I think it helps to keep the juices flowing. I think it even helps to solve some other creative porblems I might have. When I do finish something, it does feel quite wonderful. So here’s to finishing another bag…