New Bag

It was raining cats and dogs yesterday so I let the girls rot their little brains a bit and watch a movie. While they turned into mini couch potatoes, I came up with a new bag. It's the biggest bag yet and is verging on luggage. I reinforced everything with heavy interfacing and quilted it. So it will hold everything and keep it all safe. It has an interior zipper pocket and two deep leather pockets on the front.
I found an old leather coat like one Bad Babs had when I was little. It had some great leather buttons that I saved and used one on the front flap though I opted to use Velcro for the actual closure. I fought against Velcro for a while, but in the end decided that it won out for practicality. Next I will try a zipper AND the Velcro, just in case you have stuff that needs to be EXTRA safe and twice as hard to get at in a hurry.
It occurs to me that this would only be the case if you did not have kids in tow, as all my purse has in it are gum wrappers, cracker crumbs and last weeks art projects from story time at the library all marinating in leaking sippy. Hmmm. Foul, I know.

My new purse

And the little critters who left me alone enough for a few minutes each night to let me finally finish it. PH and I have often lamented the sorry state of women's handbags. There are too many rhinestones, studs, gold latches, useless-decorative pockets, extra handles and patent leather parts for me to feel comfortable with. I don't want my purse looking like a cheap hooker. Not even with my new hair, it still is not me.
So I decided to make myself a test purse and then, if it worked, make it a flagship purse, one I really wanted to carry around flaunting it's happy existence without all the standard purse-deco, clutter garbage. The front panel is hard felted merino in blues and greens and silvers with a lot of sashiko mermaid stitching. The pocket on the front panel came from the leather coat I used on the back panel. This is truly and unsale-able item due to all the hours of stitching involved in it's subtle decoration.
The back panel is an up-cycled suede leather coat, and the inside is a fantastic flannel print with old cars and the appropriate accessories for traveling around in such ancient vehicles. I wish I had taken a photo of the fabric before it went inside the bag.
This is a close up of some of the stitching and (shame on me) my logo embroidered on in flashy red and white. I am a fame whore just waiting to be recognised :)
When I went to school for ceramics I would have called this red and white mark my 'chop' and stamped it on the underside of all my works as a signature of sorts. Somehow, even with the switch in mediums I still feel like this makers mark is important. Maybe even more important in a world filled with cheap, mass-produced goods where the items aren't even seen by the people whose names appear as the chop or brand.

Felted Cuffs, the next generation

I had some scrap pieces of felt from making larger things and decided to make more cuffs. I love wearing big jewellery and mostly can't afford it. I have some issues with all the leather cuffs out there too. They are a bit boring. In any case, I sweated over making this felt and I don't intend to waste any. So I went out and found some glass beads and shell buttons and did my best to blind myself sewing into the dark of night to satisfy my craving for felt that sparkles. Imagine satisfaction in blinding yourself. I should be locked up!

Felted Stag Head.....?

Yeah, who knew. I was asked about a year ago to make a felted stag costume for my step-father in law. I said sure. The deadline was not for a year, LOADS of time. Naturally I didn't think anything more about it until the mad halloween scramble hit our house in September. At which time I also needed costumes for two small girls. Luckily for me the girls found princess costumes at a thrift shop and were quite happy for me to do nothing other than their make-up. I was pleased enough to be a witch for the third year running. Sadly for me (though a relief to him) I didn't have time to make or find Boss Hog a costume. I was thinking of Sherlock Holmes for him but will have to save that for next year.

I did manage to drag him outside to pose in the stag hat before we sent it off. It was about three degrees outside and the only white shirt he had was thin linen. Boss Hog was a soldier and let me pose him for about 15 minutes before the camera battery died and I let him go back inside. I am a cruel and unusual task master, no?

Little Blue Dress

This is actually the third dress I have made from this pattern. I love this pattern so much. It calls for a zipper down the back but since I like not to be squeezed into my clothes, I make it a bit generous and forgo the zipper altogether. It is super easy to make and easy to wear. This one was made in a mad fit of alone time the other day when Boss Hog took the girls to the beach. I had to raid my stash for something that might work and this is OK, but a bit thin. I always try to avoid making things that need slips.
Then since I am not usually a head to toe pattern wearer I felt I must break up the pattern with a belt. (Boss Hog took one look at this dress and said he had just about bought me a package of paper napkins in the same print, how lovely) In any case, I had a bit of fabric left over from the cape I made the other day and thought I would whip up something wide and corset-y to make this dress easier on the eyes.
It is just a five inch swath of corduroy (double sided) with heavy iron on interfacing on the inside and four elastic loops on one side to attach to four buttons on the other side. Since it was such a surprise sewing afternoon I didn't have the buttons I would really like so I layered nice little shell buttons over the last of my big black buttons. I wanted the size of the big ones but they were too ugly on their own. I tried just using the four "real" buttons, the ones actually holding this corset together but it looked unbalanced so I added the four fooler buttons across from them and I think it looks better and more substantial.

Felted Cuffs

I felted and felted and felted and when I was done I still had pieces of unused felt left over. You know the little pieces that are too small for most anything. But still you feel that all the work it took to make that felt should not be thrown away. So I thought a minute and came up with felt and fabric cuffs. I love cuffs. I usually love leather cuffs and can't afford the truly great ones. Not to mention the tiny town factor. I am not a fan of driving for two hours to browse in shops in nearby towns. If I have a spare two hours I would rather spend it solving problems and finding new ways to do things than driving. Call me crazy.

I made about ten different cuffs with different fabric and felt colours and decided to wear this one. It is subdued for me ( I have to work not to leave the house looking like an Easter egg) but I like it and have been wearing it a lot. Yeah!

The down side is that my sewing machine is packing it in. Too much sewing on a pretty inexpensive machine that I bought just after Eden was born. I really have my heart set on a Bernina. Postmodern Hausfrau has one and I have used and loved it. They are hard to find though unless you are willing to buy new and sadly, though I am willing, I am not able to spend that kind of cash right now. If anyone has a sewing machine recommendation to pass along I would appreciate it.

Felted Hair Bands

These hair bands were really fun to make, like little felted collages. I made five that are all roughly similar and love them immensely. However...(ominous tones) I look TERRIBLE in a hair band. I have a long, narrow face and need all the bangs I can get to not look like a forehead monster. I would like to blame this on a genetic abnormality that does not allow for head band wearing but Bad Babs is a total head band devotee.

I have never seen my dad in a hair band so maybe I can yet blame this on his side of the family? (he only has brothers and I haven't seen any of them sport a head band either, so it's possible that they all have the same problem {since neither of my uncles will ever read this, I can reveal that their actual problem is baldness which makes them de facto forehead monsters without hair bands}).

Felted Hair Clips

So here are a few of the wet felted hair clips I made for selling at the Farmer's Market in my wee town this summer. My mom (Bad Babs) and dad were up for the long weekend and Bad Babs came to the first farmer's market with me for morale. It was pretty good relative to the Mayfair market I had done the week before, but still not stellar. Even the market manager warned that all weekends would not be as busy as this long weekend so not to get my hopes up. Not too cheering.

But it was nice to see my town in a different way and meet some new people. I actually think I might have made a new felting friend that was hiding right here in my town. I don't know how else we might have met each other, so for me that connection was worth the chilly morning spent outdoors (perhaps not worth it for Bad Babs who nearly froze solid?)

Fine Friends

One of my dearest friends, dark cloud blue sky, sent me a bunch of very old dress patterns a few years ago and now that the girls are not getting up at all hours I have finally had a look through and found one that I love. It is meant to be a nightgown, floor-length and with a bow at the empire waist (you know I could not have that). Or, alternately, worn mu-mu style with no gathering at all. I have found that I am way to short to wear a tent so I ruled that option out right away. The only thing the pattern lacks is pockets but I will add some the next time I make it.

I think I lived almost exclusively in dresses last summer and since all I can think about at the moment is the end of *&%@! winter, I am working on my summer wardrobe. This dress is perhaps also a bit short. I think it would benefit from a great slip rather than more length though as the problem is mainly evident in the bending over. Since I am the only one here who picks things up off the floor, I do rather a lot of bending over. The pins are from, of course, Postmodern Hausfrau. She is the source of all my fashionable accessories I noticed, since I was actually looking for another knitted pin that she sent me and, lacking time substituted these sweet pins, but did in that search find two other pins she sent me in years past. And I found another two pins from dark cloud blue sky.
Really, I have the greatest friends.