Holiday Shopping Begins

Clutch Progress

I'm happy with how the bridesmaid clutches are turning out. I'm working off a really simple pattern by Keyka Lou that I found on Etsy. Here's the making of the prototype:

Pieces cut out and ready

Finished interior


Cute little guy

I liked my little prototype, but something wasn't quite right with the fabric. It wasn't luxe enough and the print was bugging me. I'm a little sick of Damask-inspired prints. And what these pictures don't show are some serious alignment issues at the seems.

So I chose to move to a solid by using a dark, espresso-brown velvet as the exterior. The inside is a floral cotton print. Here's a sneak peak of the six bags in progress:



I just need to insert the lining and other end of the magnetic snap... and then, Presto! I've got me part of a bridesmaid gift. Hopefully I'll have the finished product up tomorrow.

'Bout Time

Brenda, aka Aesthetic Dalliances, is about to have a baby any day now and I've been focusing some craft energy on her unborn.

I just shipped off a care package to London-town via pony express because International FedEx is attainable only by kings and gentry. So who knows when this will actually show up! In short, I'm taking a chance by posting this right now and ruining any surprise.

Snuggie: it's a backwards robe for a baby

Biggest challenge: finding masculine baby fabric that's not ugly

I first noticed this on Ali's* Black Sheep Knits (and Sews too!) and fell in love with it. Turns out the pattern is in Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones. I love Butler's books as they're easy to follow for the novice.

But as most of my projects go, I find something to mess up. This time it was the button holes that were supposed to act as delicate little belt loops. In what I've now termed the 'ingenuity phase' of all my projects, I came up with an alternative belt loop that was not delicate, but hey, it's industrial strength. There's a funny little patch on the inside, but the yet unborn won't mind especially when I promise to spoil him.

Back belt loop

* Aleks, the artist formerly known as Ali is grown up and a serious 2nd-year law student, 'Ali' is forever five years-old and helping build elaborate blanket forts in my parent's basement. I can't move on.

Shazam!

It's a ring pillow.

I was hunting around JoAnn Fabrics (which is my prefered way to spend a Friday night these days) on the lookout for some goat's milk base to try my hand at soap making and I also came across this pretty purple fabric that matches the bridesmaid dresses. So I had some fun with it and made a nature-inspired ring pillow.

The gold-tie needs a little finessing (or replacing), but I thought the leaves were cute. The button sort of looks like tree rings.

Incidentally, you can't really see much of the purple fabric in these pictures

Photographs and soap

I found Anna Williams via 100 Layer Cake, one of my favorite wedding-related blogs. She has such beautiful work.

from her France series

I love that staircase, from her People series

from her Interiors series, also on Marthastewart.com

Upon closer examination, I also recognized some of her interior shots from Martha's* Home Tours. I don't think she shot this one, but I really love the Country Cottage one.

But back to 100 Layer Cake. I admire their style and ideas a lot. They have this simple recipe to make your own soap as favors. I want to try the lavender oatmeal this weekend. I'll take pictures if I'm successful. I have some pretty brown bakers' twine that I've been wanting to use.

photos via 100 Layer Cake

Trendy birds

Our family Christmas tree growing up was pretty motley. My parents have an old TV box full of mismatching ornaments, which is a lot considering this box originated from the era when TVs were still designed as if it were a piece of heirloom furniture. Half of these ornaments were broken, but all were required to hang on the tree. This rule even applied to the clay or melted wax ornaments we would make in school every year.

When we were younger, my brother and I would seek out all of the gaudiest family ornaments and place them at the front of the Christmas tree to irritate the mama bear. There was a lot of competition for this mantle of honor, but we would usually pass over my respectable collection of unicorn ornaments in favor of the birds. All of these birds were crafted from elaborate plumes, laboriously sought after by our dog, and needed several branches for support apiece.

Over the years, my mom has started gifting us bird ornaments in retaliation. I have a healthy collection that's growth rate has escalated ever since they've become a commodity in the Target Holiday department.

So why are birds so trendy? I have no idea. They're on every piece of stationary I see now.

Here's the really sick part: now I think birds are cool. And I think this bird mobile is the coolest.

---

via Spool Sewing

A makeover story (Part II)

OK, so the first pillow I made for the bench was ugly -- really, really ugly. I'm not going to show it, but it was the wrong size and the fabric wasn't doing much for me.

But, I found much cooler fabric and I'm more excited about attempt numero dos. It's from Art Gallery Fabrics, which is decidedly more awesome than the deep discount bin at JoAnn Fabrics.

---

A makeover story (Before)

I continue my enterprise of craftiness with the bench by our front door. At the moment, it serves as a storage place for a basket of mittens and a sock monkey; so while very necessary, it's safe to say that this area isn't living up to its full potential.

To help spruce it up, I'm constructing a pillow for the top to make it more of a bench that someone might use instead of throw miscellaneous decor (gourds?). This will hopefully come in handy when it comes time to pull out the Sorels for snow season.

---

The Offender

The Pattern (Amy Butler's Stiches)

The Material (cotton-linen blend)

Ready to baste to the muslin

DIY + a trained electrician

I have only a rough idea of what we're going to do for our reception centerpieces, but this much is known: it will involve putting some untamed-looking floral arrangement into vintage blue mason jars. My mom and aunt have hunted down about 30 of these things, which leads me to wonder what I'm going to do with them afterward. Here's a really awesome idea via Design Sponge:

---

This takes care of 4 out of 30...

Long time, no see

For the last month or two, my life has been utter mayhem -- I've moved, changed jobs, planned a wedding shower for my best girlfriend, visited the bro in Colorado, and have been juggling some new freelance work. Phew. I somehow survived and only had a couple breakdowns of note.

When my daily routine gets out-of-whack, I tend to drop the ball on some things, namely this blog (and exercising). But now I'm back and ready to stick to my plan of posting regularly (and lowering my cellulite to body mass ratio).

Lately, I've been wanting to get back into sewing. I started to learn about a year ago and that totally fell by the wayside (another 'dropped ball'). I recently started visiting the blog of one of my childhood friends, Black Sheep Knits, and have been re-inspired to start learning again. She's made the coolest quilts. She's good:

Craft o' the Day

I subscribe to Martha Stewart Craft of the Day email list. This way I can get awesome craft ideas that I'm never going to do... unless it's near a holiday, in which case I'll probably subject my girlfriends to the result in the form of a gift.

One of my many New Year's resolutions is to cut down on the number of plastic bags I take, especially in this day-and-age of double-bagging a loaf of bread that is already in its own bag. I thought the Green Tee from today's email was pretty cute and not plastic.


The only change I would make is to swap in an "I Star Chi." tshirt created by Naz Hamid and Andrew Huff, because Milton Glaser forgot the Midwest.