5 posts tagged “sewing”
Just a quick note to say that I discovered OutsaPop earlier and thought it was worth a look. There's been a "reconstructed fashion" trend the last few years, but I find that most pieces in most of the books that have been published on the topic lately are just eccentric and unflattering, particularly if the book is aimed at high school girls. You have to be sixteen to get away with dowdy "art clothing."
That's not the case with OutsaPop, the brainchild of a Finnish fashion grad named Outi; most of the stuff showcased here is actually wearable and current, and plenty of tutorials are linked.
[via Haute Macabre.]
One of my long-term favorite crafty/fashion/artsy blogs, Red Lipstick, ceased publication yesterday. I'm disappointed! I haven't been following a lot of blogs lately, but I've started to get back into it, and it was a blog I was definitely planning to catch up with.
Staceyjoy's second-to-last post at Red Lipstick was about Weekend Designer, a site I think a lot of crafty types will want to check out -- sewing patterns for recent runway items. Many of the patterns are simple -- skirts, blouses, and accessories made mostly from squares -- but some are as complex as jeans or tailored vests.
I'm not sure whether you will actually wear a caftan after you make it, and I think I might put some waist darts on that pencil skirt; even so, it's worth more than a look. Their tagline is, "It ain't rocket science." You'll learn a lot about drafting your own patterns if you do some of their more complex projects. They seem to be taking the mystery out of sewing as much as Threadbanger aims to, but with less of an indie-rock vibe.
I'm not sure where else this has been featured lately: I'm keeping up with WhipUp and not so much with CRAFT, these days. Both are good, but about a year or so ago, CRAFT started to focus a lot on local craft shows & other stuff that isn't of much interest if you don't live in [insert hipster-friendly metro area *here*], along with a lot of patterns for sale (great if you're the person selling them, not so much if you're interested in free tutorials). A lot of the same free tutorials show up on WhipUp first. That said, I always enjoy CRAFT when I do get around to checking it out.
(Creative Commons photo of Chanel boutique in Paris by Flickr's wallyg.)
Oh, dear. So now my fiance, who I have depended on to be the Hauler of Stuff throughout our relationship but particularly since our car accident (he wasn't very injured, and healed quickly), has hurt his back.
Worse, he has no idea how! It's been bothering him mildly on and off for the last week. He drove 90 minutes each way on Thanksgiving Day, sitting in an uncomfortable folding chair most of the day in the interim, then on Saturday and Sunday, he exhibited at a convention where he also sat all day on uncomfortable chairs.
He takes stuff into the con, too, but the thing I can think of that is most likely to have injured him is his Tub O' Original Art For Sale, which is so heavy that I can't even attempt to pick it up without pain. (It's several hundred sheets of bristol board, around 12x15ish.) Don't know, though. There was no moment where he did something and then thought, "I shouldn't have done that."
He has lots of good drugs from the doctor, two days off work, and a heating pad that I lent him after his appointment this morning.
On top of all this, as mentioned in my last psot, my dog has been sick this past week. Not too horribly sick, but she had a bladder infection and a yeasty ear infection. She's still being treated for both. $400 so far; I took responsiblity for half of it. *groan*
I found the missing library book I mentioned in that post. It was right where it should have been, in my stack of library books on the part of the bookshelf that I reserve for them, only I couldn't see it. It was between two larger books. I was looking at the spines, and the book I sought was pushed back a little, so the spines of the larger books met around it! You could only see that it was there by looking at the stack from a different angle.
Button Angst
And now, to the title of the post!
The other night, as a Present To Me, I ordered this purple cashmere v-neck cardigan and the matching tank that you can see in the picture. They were on sale ($60 total), and I like to be warm in the winter. It isn't here yet.
I've heard some bad things about this year's Target cashmere (like, "it's thin and itchy"), so we'll see. Last year's was great. Eucalan wash -- I use the lavender version -- helps soften most protein-fiber clothing, and you can also use a bit of diluted hair conditioner on cashmere to soften it further, as long as you can stand the conditioner being against your skin.
It seems as though the buttons will color-match, but they look whitish in some of the photos, and it's difficult to tell whether they match or not. They might have picked up a flash reflection, or they might just be light-colored buttons.
I love the intaglio/lens/cabochon buttons made by Winky and Dutch, which are a picture under a clear dome set into a metal backing and which the company itself seemingly only sells to merchants. Some time ago a friend's cousin added an entire set of their pin-up girl buttons to a sweater she had de-and-re-constructed for herself.*
It looked really cool, but the buttons themselves are pricey, as buttons go, and not all that easy to find. I'm more likely to buy something in person than to mail order it. For example, somewhere -- still in the mess of boxes from my last move -- indifferently packed by the worst movers ever, and not labelled -- I have W&D barettes, the "Sad Puppy" design in a hair-pin setting, from a shop I used to go to. Their other jewelry is not too difficult to find.
So, I noticed that ReproDepot has been having a sale on the W&D buttons, which they sell at a decent price to begin with, most of them in two sizes. It seems like they might be trying to sell through their remaining stock. The selection has decreased over the last few years; they used to carry many more "sets" than they do, IIRC, and a lot more single-button designs.
The problem is that my sweater, assuming I even want to replace the buttons on it, has five buttons. I don't like either of the Sci-Fi collections enough to buy one; I wanted the Robot or Tourism collection. No robots to be seen, and they only have a few of the Tourism buttons, one of which doesn't really match the others.
I was going to get London/Tokyo/Hollywood/Miami, all of which have blue skies, but the only other one available is Brooklyn Bridge, which doesn't. Pegasus would have been OK as the fifth match, but it was unavailable in the smaller size, about 1/3" or so, that I needed. This is the size for "shirt" buttons. There is a larger size, more like 3/4", which would work for stuff like chunky handknit sweaters. I have at least one or two of each, but not enough to work for this project.
Some searching took me to EQuilter, which has tons of cool stuff and seems to be the only other regular online merchant of these buttons. They have a larger selection (with a few more designs at the "previous page" link), but they only sell them in sets of three -- usually three of the same button, but sometimes three thematically linked buttons -- or in larger sets. They do have the robot set.
They charge, however, much more than ReproDepot does. The buttons I wanted are around $1.50-$2, depending on whether or not there's a sale, at ReproDepot. They break down to over $3 each at EQuilter, probably because they only sell the larger size (it seems). This is a lot more than I want to spend on potentially putting wacky buttons on a sweater (even $1.50 is possibly excessive, but I've wanted to do this for so many years that I was willing to go for it).
End result: I bought six Tokyo buttons from ReproDepot for about $1.50 each. The other one I really liked was London, but I didn't think that mix-and-match would work unless each button was different, which I couldn't manage with ReproDepot's current selection. Since the sweater is purple - if I use it on that - the Tokyo design both seemed like a better match for purple and more appropriate in terms of color scheme. (Purple and sky blue seems more "Japanese" than "British", right?) Obviously, I bought one extra button "just in case."
It being Christmas, and having already bought the sweater set, I had to completely ignore every other thing I want from ReproDepot. (At the last link, it's the Ayumi Uyama felt animal kits: I like the deer, rabbit, dog, and duck, in order of preference. The Minigurumi kits are all pretty adorable, too: they look like designs from a book I have, Mame Wanko, which is all about tiny fabric dogs and their accessories.)
A Mysterious Yarn-Related Project
The other crafty thing I ordered lately was Lang Mille Colori yarn in color number 68, a sort of earthtone mix. Mille Colori is a self-striping wool/acrylic blend. #68 is on color chart 2, at that link, the strip on the far right.
This is for a mystery project for which I wanted a relatively tough self-striping yarn, worsted or bulky, with non-garish colors and thin, rapidly-changing stripes.
I looked at a bunch of Berroco yarns: Keltic (stripe pattern too long and subtle), Jasper (composition made me worried it would pill, didn't see an appropriate color scheme, stripes also too subtle), and Foliage (the only color I liked for the project had been discontinued, plus I was worried that the spin was too loose/uneven -- it seems that Foliage is basically Berroco's version of Kureyon). I nearly chose Keltic's "Argyll" or "Tartan" colors; my friend memorably described most of the other colors as "week-old stale vomit" -- ouch. I considered Noro Kureyon (too uneven) and Big Kureyon (not the right colors for this project), and Rowan Tapestry (DK weight, too drapey).
I found Mille Colori in a weird, serendipitous way... it kept popping up in Google Image Searches, then also popped up when I did a search on "self-striping" and variations of the term at the site where I almost ordered some Keltic.
I hope people like this thing when I'm done with it, because I really have agonized over the yarn. If it goes right, it'll be a free pattern. If not, I will cry real tears of tears: I've been planning it for months, and I'm putting off another project to do it, and as I mentioned a few posts back, my last attempt went really wrong.
* The same girl, who supposedly didn't even particularly like me, gave me this great pair of black Doc Martens oxfords that I wear to this day. They were almost new, but she was moving and wanted to travel light, packing most of the stuff she was taking into her soft guitar case around the instrument itself. The shoes were too weighty and bulky for her to take. I still think of her gratefully every time I wear the things... and last I heard, she was doing OK.
First of all... the lack of posts around here is illusory; I've been working on filling in the archive with content from my old blog. I also wrote a FAQ, but haven't posted it publicly and wanted to look at it a lot more before I do. (Sometimes my sense of humor doesn't read well on the internet.)
Last night I actually went to the craft store and spent money, which is notable for two reasons. One is that I never have any money. The other is that I don't usually go anywhere alone, particularly since that car accident a few months back, and since nobody ever wants to go to the craft store with me, I haven't set foot in one in a while.
So, this was a trip to Jo-Ann Etc, where they're having a big sale. I went in armed with the usual 50% off coupon from the mailer. Nothing I bought was earth-shattering, but I thought people might like to come along with me for the ride anyway.
I was looking for this fabric, which I saw there a year ago, couldn't afford, and haven't been able to find in a store since. It's by Alexander Henry and it's called Star Sign. It is my number one fabric crush. One day I will get a yard or two of this fabric and make a tote bag or pillow or quilt or something, and then the madness will end. I'm not even into astrology; I just like the style of the illustrations. (I borrowed these photos from Cia's Palette, to avoid direct linking.)
Can you see and feel the cuteness? CAN YOU? At any rate, I struck out again this time. It doesn't seem like they've restocked any "hip" novelty prints (Alexander Henry, Michael Miller, etc) since last year, alas. It's a good thing I picked up "Mini Calaveras," below, at that time, in a pink colorway: I could only afford one yard of fabric, and I was looking for something to line a small purple bag with. "Mini Calaveras" has gold glitter accents just about everywhere that looks yellow in the scan. I didn't pick up the pink and white "Flora de los Muertos" faux-lace pattern, either, and I regret it.
I still haven't lined that bag, primarily because I now want to use the pink "Mini Calaveras" in a much more visible manner. It's so cool that it would be a shame to hide it. I think Alexander Henry is my favorite fabric designer.
But the subject of this post is supposed to be last night's trip, and all I'm saying is that they didn't have any of these fabric designs that I was looking for, so I left the fabric department and headed for patterns. Butterick patterns are on sale for 99 cents, but it happens that all the patterns that interest me right now are by Simplicity. I looked at a few pattern books for a while, then moved on to yarn. Well, I detoured in scrapbooking and beading, but wasn't really into looking at those supplies last night.
I have a serious lack of basic, plain, worsted-weight, solid-color yarn in my stash. There are amigurumi I've wanted to make and/or design, but I haven't been able to do anything about it due to the sheer scarcity of appropriate yarn at my disposal. I wanted to take advantage of the sale to remedy that. Unfortunately, I was completely unable to make up my mind, and running out of time, so I ended up with a skein of ecru Red Heart Soft and another of Mushroom brown Wool-Ease. Not very exciting at all, but appropriate for things like bunnies and deer and Totoros.
Knitting needles and crochet hooks are mostly 40% off, but a few were on clearance. The clearance needles were Jo-Ann's store-brand tubular plastic needles in very large sizes. They normally go for about $7-10, but are currently less than $2. They have #17, 19, and 35 for sure; not sure about 15 and 50. I've needed some #19 needles for a while, to knit a single small project, so I picked some up. I don't know how the quality is, but since I'll only be using them for a few hours, I'm not too concerned.
Sugar & Cream kitchen cotton was on sale for $1.79, so I picked up three balls. I've wanted to make some washcloths for a while, not because I enjoy washcloth knitting (dear god, NO), but because I like the finished product. When I finish these, I probably won't even post them here, because they're really not the sort of knitting you brag about much. My favorite pattern is the plain, diamond-shaped garter stitch one with a square of eyelets around the edge, because the first knitted washcloth I ever had - made by a relative - was in that pattern, and I think it has an elegant simplicity, as utilitarian household items go.
I bought this yarn because I have it in an unbleached shade, but the pattern is so mindless that I can't actually bring myself to use that color... YAWN. I made it in a purple/berry blend a couple of years ago, and that was tolerable because I at least got to see the color blend happening. Solid beige yarn requires something much more difficult, maybe a lace swatch.
Anyway, here are the colors I chose: Swimming Pool, Summer Splash, and Beach Ball Blue. They go together pretty nicely, and they will go with my bathroom gear. Erika at Red Shirt Knitting did some "garterlac" cloths with what looks like the first two.
The store was about to close, so I only had time to pop into the embroidery department to pick up a pattern I've wanted for a while: Clover's "Animals." Clover's patterns are made for their punch embroidery tool, but they're just heat-transfers like any other embroidery patterns, so you don't necessarily have to use them with the tool. I like Sublime Stitching's patterns as much as the rest of the kids do, but these Clover patterns are also very appealing, have a different, quirky line-drawing style, and are maybe not as hipster-trendy. They're identifiably craft products from Japan, with the cute style that implies, but you can probably actually buy them at your local store! (Or you can, indeed, buy them at SuperBuzzy.) This pattern retails for $3, so I used my 50% off coupon on it and got it for $1.50. Almost everything else was on sale!
No time, alas, to look at buttons and patches.
Total spent? About $15 for 5 balls of utilitarian yarn, a set of #19 needles, and an adorable embroidery pattern. This satisfied my desire to add a few little new things into the mix, without completely breaking the bank.
Here are the other embroidery patterns that I know of in Clover's line: Kitchen, Garden, and Flower. (All the Clover embroidery pattern pics are lifted from the Hancock Fabrics site.)
Have you gotten any craft bargains lately?
I spent some time at a bookstore tonight, and the evening would have been bland if I hadn't found this book:
A reviewer on Amazon said that it came out in the UK last year, but it's new in the US. This is a book with features on a bunch of people who run well-known craft blogs and small online shops, but who have not received a lot of book coverage or become the go-to people when craft book writers want to talk about crafters on the web (Jean Railla, Megan Reardon, Leah Kramer, Jenny Hart). I'm pretty sure they are not in the Austin or Portland "Craft Mafias" (Super Crafty, DIY Network's Stylelicious). They're people like Hilary from Wee Wonderfuls and Maitreya from CraftLog, blogs I really enjoy. (Also, the girl who does One Good Bumblebee: I'm so sorry, but I can't remember her name just now.)
In the book, the crafters talk about things like their personal histories, what inspires them, and what sort of workspace they have. You will be able to see that there is a wide range of women (and they are almost all women) aged about 25-50. Each person profiled also contributes a pattern: there is a bookcover, a utility tray made of thick felt, a cute tissue cover that looks like a house with eyes, and so on.
I don't actually own this book, and I wasn't able to spend more than a few minutes looking at it tonight, so I can't give it a fair review. All I can say is that I was impressed with what I saw: it looks really promising. The only thing is, it seems like the focus of the book is largely sewing-crafters, so just about all of the patterns are for small things to sew.
Last year, I spent a lot of time looking at this book, but ultimately didn't review it:
To be honest, I felt that this book should have been called Organizing Your Fantasy Craft Space, because it quickly becomes apparent that the women profiled are not average crafters. These people own companies... and I'm not talking about small online shops, I'm talking about companies that make products that you buy at the craft store. Suze Weinberg is profiled here, for example... this is a woman who's had full page ads in rubber stamping magazines pretty much since there was such a thing, so of course her workroom is a showplace. A lot of suggestions in this book are impractical for actual organization, and a number of popular crafts are given short shrift. Some of the crafters involved in it have workspaces that are pretty, but don't seem extremely functional... more like a decorator's idea of a way to make a room look like it belongs to a person who creates things.
I mention this book here because I think The Crafter's Companion is, in its photos and descriptions of the workspaces of crafters who may have small businesses but are not too far removed from the average crafter, a lot more useful and accessible in this regard. There are some similarities in storage systems between the two books (I really had no idea how many people who work with fabric a lot just stack their fabric on shelves), but The Crafter's Companion probably has more to do with your real life. Or mine, anyway.
Incidentally, has anyone seen The Crafter Culture Handbook? Given that I haven't been totally in love with the spate of "alternacraft" books in the last year or so (Craftivity, Bazaar Bizarre or vice-versa, AlternaCraft, etc), will I like it or hate it? The library doesn't have it, and I haven't seen it in a bookstore yet. Amazon reviews are few and completely mixed, suggesting that you've probably seen the stuff in the book online already, if you hang out on teh web.
And if you didn't hang out on "teh web," how is it that you are reading my blog right now?
