Saturday, March 16, 2013

Yummy Yarn


There is a beautiful yarn shop that is walking distance from our house in Eugene. It is trouble. I had spent some of my birthday money on some chunky alpaca yarn. These beauties are not cheap.  I never pay this much for yarn, but I wanted to use good thick yarn so it would a substantial piece. Plus it is something good on the hands to work with. I have wanted to make a nice piece for me and hubby for awhile. I am going for a hat in the navy multi-colored and large cowl for me in the emerald. It is chilly here today and I think Ill get busy. I know spring is in the air, but we will use these for years to come.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Embroidered Patches

I wanted to add some detail to my Scrappy Beginnings. So, Ive been working on these colorful embroidery boarders while I am waiting for spring to happen outside my window. I love these color combinations. Ive just got to do the other panel for the other side of bag. I stuck with the crazy notion of what ever I feel like goes with these bags. Reminds me of a sampler or vintage crazy quilts, except in modern colors. I havent embroidered in awhile. It is quick and simple, but yet creative and carefully planned.  Ive decided to work more in embroidery because I am not stuck behind a sewing machine. Sewing is a rather isolating task/hobby. I am trying to not isolate myself as much.

Knots

This fabric "yarn" has been in a ball of knots for a few months now. It is destined to be a large container basket/ bowl. Its is a bit how I personally feel. My brain feels knotted up, not sure which way to go. I had have had a harder time than I expected. I miss green grass and blue skies. There is nothing quite like home and yes I miss North Carolina. Oregon is a beautiful state and feel fortunate that we are here. I just wish I could feel more comfortable here. I wish I could untangle my brain so that I could relax.
I have kept this yarn near my bed for a couple of months, it was tossed aside when it got tangled while crocheting a basket/ bowl. I got frustrated so there it stayed. I decided to untangle it in hopes that it will help me relax. It took me way longer than I expected and actually ended up cutting it, which equals failure to me when untangling knots.
Iam thinking of this as a metaphor, a soul needs untangling, sometimes it takes way longer than expected and sometimes ties/bonds need to be severed or altered. I wonder if I will have to change or what I need to let go of. All that makes me rather sad. So did completely untangling the knots in the fabric "yarn". When it was done, a part of me wanted to unwind the two large balls and tangle it all back together.

Monday, March 4, 2013

All in the details

I love a sweatshirt, I dont particularly love how boyish I look in them. I was in the dreaded wal-mart the other week , looking for cheap yoga pants, and I was thrown off course by this huge display of $3 Hanes sweatshirts in the middle of the bathing suits. It's spring ya'll! I grabbed up this awesome blue and brought it home and stuffed it in the drawer . I got ready to wear it the other night and decided that the rounded neckline had to go. I went for it with the sharp scissors. I wanted an off the shoulder with a low v-neck. After holding it to myself to decide how wide to make the cut, I  smoothed it out on the table folded in the center (shoulders together) and cut straight lines. I never drew a line, I just went for it. I have very very very sharp heavy long dress making shears that made this beautiful neckline cut possible through 4 layers.
I would recommend penciling your lines in, using a ruler and cutting each side separately, if you dont have baller scissors like I do.

As soon as I cut it, I put it on to see if it was as I planned. Perfect. When I put it on I noticed the seams on the shoulders were pulling apart because I had cut the ending knot out. Not so perfect. I thought for a moment about grabbing the same color thread and fixing the seam. Then I remembered seeing awesome embroidered sweatshirts on Pinterest. Oooh and this.
I found my favorite color, salmon peach, and went for it. I knotted the seams back carefully. and then did a super easy dot dash pattern. I may add another color row, but I wanted to wash it to see if it rolled up at all after wash and dry. I am concerned that the embroidery will get "eaten" by the roll that normally happens on raw edge fabric. 
I love it now and hope that dosent happen. I love that it is kinda girly and screams "Look at me, I make stuff, and I think I am awesome!"
 I am tempted to go buy more $3 sweatshirts. I will not, but you should! This was super easy and maybe took me 20 min to make. It could take all day if I kept elaborating on the pattern. Great future gift idea too! Super cute for kiddos stuff too!
Hell, I could put a bird on it if I wanted to! Imagination is the limit!
Okay enough exclamation points...

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Wallet made

I ve been on the wallet hunt, I have a very large designer leather wallet. It is not really practical when you are thinking about camping and taking backpacking trips. I wanted something smaller and thinner. The ones that are typically that size are for boys or childish. I have been on the hunt with no luck in the retail world, so I decided to make one.
 I found this lovely bi-fold wallet tutorial by Modest Maven through a Pintrest rabbit trail search. I was super excited that it didnt require anything of me that I didnt have. I used velcro instead of the snap like the tutorial suggests. I did feel that the bill lining part was not quite the correct size. I ended up cutting a 1/2 off making it 4 x 9 and it still rolled over the edging. Otherwise the directions were super easy to follow and make a perfect size bi-fold.


I was able to make this one in about 1.5 hours (while eating lunch) I am sure I can do it faster if I wanted to churn them out. I know that one side of my card slots got out of line. This purple fabric I have had for ever and have 6+ yards that I got on clearance at Mary- Jo's. It is not a quilt weight cotton. Its very stiff but not very thick. Other than cotton, I am not sure how else to describe it.
The super awesome stripe fabric is a Kaffe (which I am unable to find on his website :-P ) the stripe is rather thin. I did use stabilizer on both pieces of it. I would like to make this again with a zipper coin side.
Can wait to start using this awesome wallet!
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