Another marvelous cuff!

Here is another cuff I made last night for my daughter's friend's 10th birthday today.  I am trying to go without buying any store made gifts for a year.  We'll see how that goes when my son turns 13 in June but for now I am happy with the results.  I also used more of the old-book-pages-stiched-together wrapping paper I blogged about last week.  Reuse!  Repurpose!  Yay!

In love with cuffs!

There is either time to sew or time to blog and I know which I would prefer but I have to share my latest passion.  My attention defecit disorder serves me well as an arty grrl.  This week I decided to finally make these layered fabric cuffs that I found in a Quilting Arts magazine.  It was one of those Gift ones that they do every Winter.  I have had the pages floating around for at least six months now and I came across them on the balcony the other night and started then and there.

I took at least four fabrics with complimentary colors but different textures and tore them (crtitical for the look I wanted) into strips.  The bottom strip has to be the biggest and the softest.  I don't know about you but I don't want burlap rubbing up against my skin all day.  That's right, burlap.  I used oilcloth, burlap, old linen napkins, Indian cottons, mesh, lace, wool felt, you get the idea.  I had to play with each one until I got it right.  Then I sewed on Sew-On Snaps in black from my neighborhood fabric store.  Well, that's a lie.  There is no longer such a thing as the neighborhood fabric store but you get the point.  I know I could have come up with some really cool closure but I wanted to wear it right now!

I loved the first one so much I made 4 the first night.  After it was done I thought it was missing something so I took this great leather that I had gotten at Mecca, which is a local materials exchange for artists in Eugene, and I sewed it on too.  MECCA is all used supplies waiting to be repurposed.  I am happy , happy , happy.

Best birthday wrap ever!!!

Ayla had a birthday party today and I knew I wanted to give her friend a handmade gift so she found a design she wanted and we made a stuffie together.  I cut out the pieces and did the sewing and she did the stuffing.
 I didn't want to deal with digging through Xmas wrap for some birthday wrapping paper plus it just didn't seem right with my handmade gift.  I thought about what could I repurpose.  I love that reusing things in new ways concept.  I have a stack of old books they got rid of at the library at work and I knew I could find uses for them..  I saw the stack sitting there, picked the biggest one, an old book about birds, and it became clear.  I took two pages out (sorry bibliophiles) and stitched them on 3 sides on my sewing machine.  Then I put the stuffie in the package and stiched up the remaining side.  We added a bow made of vintage ribbon and a handmade card.  It was gorgeous.  I am definitely doing this again!

Up all night sewing....

Last night I stayed up until 1:30 finishing (I hope) the shirt I made of my mom's photo.  I used fabric paint to paint her sweater purple; it's the color of lilacs, which always make me think of her.  Then I sewed on some tiny buttons and stone beads.  I knew I wanted to put words on it but couldn't decide just what so I waited.  At about 11:30 it came to me.  I don't know any stories about my mother's childhood but I look at the photos all the time and wonder what she was like.  This is what I added to the shirt: "this is the story I don't know but can't seem to forget."

The fabric paint was messy and I made a big mistake on the second letter so I had to reconsider how to approach it. I got a small paintbrush and dipped the brush in the paint and lightly applied the paint to the stamps, one letter at a time.  I couldn't repair the first part so I restamped it on a different piece of fabric and stitched it on with lilac colored thread.  It gives it a little texture and dimension which I like and I have to remember it's not always going to be perfect. I love it only now it's too warm to wear it.

I am loving the sunshine today and thinking I need to finish the shirt I made of my mom.  She died when I was twelve and it took me years to deal with that.  Now that I have I want to honor her for inspiring me to stitch.  She was the one who taught me how to embroider.  I was supposed to be making those day of the week dischclothes for my hope chest (my father referred to it as my hopeless chest until I was 30!) but I never finished one single towel. 
In college I started patching peoples' jeans for them because we were all poor hippies who couldn't afford new jeans.  I discovered that I loved to sew and I loved playing with fabric.  I would go on Dea tour and people would give me their jeans in Minneapolis and I would sew them on the way to Alpine Valley in Wisconsin and then return them when we arrived.  No one had a pair that was like anyone else's.  I still do jeans today.  It wasn't what my mom had in mind when she taught me to hand sew but I use it all the time. 

I took a long sleeve black thermal knit shirt and decided to embellish it.  I used an old photo of my mom from the 40's and copied it onto iron on tranfer paper.  I ironed the image onto a piece of old cotton pillowcase that had been my mother's.  Probably from her own hope chest.  Then I hand sewed on a piece of vintage lace around the image.  After that I machine sewed the whole thing onto the black shirt.  It needs some color but I am waiting to be inspired before I add more embellishment.