2nd Hat ... Still Learning, Obviously

After some thought and several rereadings of the pattern instructions, realized what I had done wrong on the first hat ... it was like a slap ... read the darn directions.

So, picked two shades of red fabric for hat & lining, recut and started sewing. Everything was going gangbusters (I used to have a boss who said that all the time ... not sure what brought it to mind today), until I got to the point where I'm connecting the top to the brim ... uh-oh ... the top is quite a bit larger than the rim.

So, after very little contemplation, I realized they were real serious about those wide margin sewing lines on the pattern itself and in order for (at least this particular pattern) to work, the sewing lines are going to have to be transferred to the pattern.

Well, at least the fabric was really cheap, as once again, tossed it straight to the garbage. I've no doubt I'll start again soon.

Pretty In Pink Bracelet

For fun, put together another one of the scrunch, bunchy bracelets. Basically, a loop of chain (in this case, 4 times the size of my wrist), beads set on head pins and attached with jump rings and scrunched up with silver elastic cord. I like these

I listed this one in my Etsy shop ... dirt cheap. I'm not trying to sell these for much, as the truth is ... I'm still learning.

Pretty In Pink

First Hat /// A Learning Experience

Hats have been calling me. I've collected a couple hat patterns and thought, with all this fabric hanging around, I ought to give it a go.

Selected the pattern and cut it out. Selected the material and cut it out. Was proceeding right along ... all the way to step five ... and WOOPS ... this isn't quite right. I don't think I've understood the instructions because there is a hole in the top middle of the hat. WOOPS.

Tossed it all out. I've give this another go when I'm ready to be a 'more better' job at reading and understanding the directions.

Blue Detachable Collar Thingie

In my 'scarves' container (actually 2 containers now) I've a good half dozen of these winter (I assume knitted) scarves. I've picked them up for a quarter each (my max for this type of thing) because I like the softness of the texture. One ended up on the chest at the end of the bed where I looked at it in passing for several weeks (yes, behind on housework). Anyways, found myself thinking how these would look as a collar against a black turtleneck.

Moved the blue one from the bedroom to the studio. Cut a section of the circular scarf and then cut it open. Ironed it down onto a piece of fuseable web. Using newspaper, created a simple detachable collar pattern. Cut the blue scarf as well as a piece of cotton lining. Roughly sewed it all together. Didn't go to finish details ... was not worth of that and hadn't really intended it to be a finished piece ... or would have chosen better lining.


Well, it stands a little more thought. The fusable webbing has flattened some of the wonderful fiber effect adherent in these scarves. I also don't like the way some of the fibers hang over the edges ... gives it a 'shedding' look, although they are 'not coming loose.

I'm going to leave this on the sideboard for awhile to give further thought to either this idea, or contemplate what else to do with these scarves.

Tuscany & Bordeaux Zipper Pulls

Several of my beaded pieces sold yesterday on Etsy. So, this morning, thought I'd sit down and make a couple new items to put out there .. holiday season coming up and all.

I'd picked up a pack of lightweight silver chain last week. And, since I hadn't managed to get it put away (still sitting on the side table), it became the selection of choice. I have two drawers of hanging type ornaments collected from yard sales). I keep saying I should do something with these ... so opened up the 1st drawer and without looking, stuck my hand in and pulled out a package (everything is stored in seperate little bags). Well, the selection ended up being a little bag with small silver pendants that came from loops that hang around wine botles. Took out two of them and put the other 4 back in the bag/drawer. Moved over to beads, and once again, I was drawn towards the sea blue & greens. Something so calming about these colors; plus they look great up against silver.

Pulled out the findings and put together the Tuscany Pull. Then moved on the the Bordeaux pull with the same assortment of beads, just a few more on the brownish side.

Red Tamborine

A few days back I placed a seek ad on the local FreeUse Group looking for unwanted/unloved String Instruments and Tamborines .. working or not. Received just one response, which we went and picked up this morning. It's a wonderful Red Tamborine. Different from the other two .... it's adult sized, plastic, without a face plate and has wonderful clear sound.

I've hung it on the wall to await inspiration.

Tuscany & Bordeaux Zipper Pulls

Several of my beaded pieces sold yesterday on Etsy. So, this morning, thought I should sit down and make a couple new items to put out there .. holiday season coming up and all.

I'd picked up a pack of lightweight silver chain last week. And, since, I had'nt managed to get it put away (still sitting on the side table), it became the selection of choice. I have two drawers of hanging type ornaments (collected from yard sales). I keep saying I should do something with these ... so opened up the 1st drawer and without looking, stuck my hand in and pulled out a package (everything is stored in seperate little bags). Well, the selection ended up being a little bag with small silver pendants that came from loops that hang around wine bottles. Took out two of them and put the other 4 back in the bag/drawer. Moved over to beads, and once again I was drawn towards the sea blue & greens. Something so calming about these colors; plus they look great up against silver.

Pulled out the findings and put together the Tuscany Pull. Then moved on the Bordeaux pull with the same assortment of beads, just a few more on the brownish side.

I took pictures of the Tuscany pull, but didn't get around to photographing the Bordeaux until dark ... so those pics didn't turn out so well.

I listed the Tuscany piece over at my Etsy Store for sale. I'll take more pictures and list the Bordeaux piece tomorrow.

http://ctstudios.etsy.com/

Yard Sale Saturday, November 21, 2008

One lone yard sale listed in the paper for Friday, and I headed out. Usually I don't do Friday sales (a girl has to have a limit, you know), but Beau is leaving tomorrow morning early for the LSU game. and it' supposed to be real cold too-boot. And, this one is right down the street.

This must be my fabric week because, for $8.00, I came home with a 3 photocopy boxes and one large (30 gallon size) can full of fabrics. Spent most of the day going through them. I found a variety of receipts and most the cloths seems to be from the 60's ... some great stuff in here. The 'sewer' was quite organized. She (an assumption on my part), had most of the fabric stored in individual plastic bags, which kept them from getting the old musty smell. This should keep me in fabric the rest of my life !

Tamborine ... 2nd, and all is well

The 2nd tamborine has been sitting on the side table for the last few days and I've decided that it's perfect just the way it is ... beads or anything else would be overkill. I've also decided to keep this one for myself ... along with the first tamborine (which I was thinking of giving to Pam). There's a small section of space over the French doors in the studio and these are the perfect size. In fact, hope I can find some more out there on the yard sale circuit. Anyway, this piece is finished.

Yard Sale Saturday

Another small cold front came in last night and dropped the morning temps into the 50's; pretty nice.

Alot of sings up out there and I made stops at a good dozen. The theme for the day seems to be dishes. Most everyone had a good assortment of dishes. If I was still active in mosaic work, I'd have been having to contain myself .... but ....



Todays finds.

• A set of fancy alphabet letters; pretty good size ... I'd say 1" letters. But, the E is missing. Who really needs an E anyways.
• A little black purse. It, in itself is a pretty shoddy purse, but for a quarter, that's a nice 3' of heavy bracelet chain and a decent black leather tassle. Removed the chain and put it in the tumbler as soo as I got home to clean.
• 3 pair of earrings. Think the dangly pair will become part of a zipper pull before the weekends out, the other two are sparkly affairs that are heading for inventory.
• 1 silver conch belt. (I must have a good 15 of these now; hope the reason I keep collecting them becomes apparent soon.

Not an overly abundant day on the finds, but I did have a good time.

Tamborine : Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength

Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.

I choose this particular Dali Lami saying, versus writing up my own. I've been enjoying looking over some of these, as well as some of the Budha sayings.

Added these words to the tops & sides of the tamborine using a black sharpie. United is written into the middle; no particular reason, it just is. Selected and applied a few stencils. Let dry and took outside for a little more silver and a touch of red spray paint. Let set a couple hours and then signed and applied two coats of polyacrylic. I'm considering adding beads or further ornaments ... will evaluate again tomorrow.

Tote 12 : Brown Urban Purse

Added in a few more stencils. Took outside for gold spray paint. After a good drying session, applied polyacrylic. Removed the paper and tape.

I want to sew on some kind of button adornment to the front flap. Will select ... probably tomorrow, but maybe not since we need to do some housework, grocery shop, dinner with MIL, etc.

Tote 13 : Blue Jean Urban Purse

Pretty much the same as the Brown Bag. Selected a blue paint to bring the final correspondence to the scraf and stencilled in a pansie pattern, along with some white lid marks. I think it looks great just the way it is and decided against any further spray or acrylic paints. Added a good coat of polyacrylic.

Tomorrow (probably), I'll iron out the scarf and decide how I want to attach it to the purse.

2nd Tamborine -- Still pending personality

Took the tamborine out to the paint box and added a couple spray painted stencils.

Tote 12 / Brown Urban Purse

Continued adding stamps in complimentary colors. Whenever I do the photos on these bags, it seems the pictures are a bit blurry. How interesting ... because they really aren't. It's obviously just an optical illusion with the painting style.

Next step .. A little more spray paint I think.

Tote 13 / Blue Jean Urban Purse

Added a few stamps. Compared up against the scarf that will be used for the strap/handles. It's looking pretty good; just needs a bit more blue ... something in the line of robin egg blue. I'll look through the paints tomorrow for the balance.

2nd Tamborine -Another mixed media piece

This is the tamborine I picked up at the Gardens yard sale yesterday for a dollar. I liked the way the 1st tamborine turned out and wanted to give it another go. Decided to leave it intact, versus switching the the head to paper. Taped off the metal jangles (unofficial name). Selected a slate blue color of acrylic paint and applied two layers to top and sides, inside and out.

Tote 12 - Brown Urban Purse

I'm getting a bit lax on keeping up the details. I did the spray paint on this last Friday and then applied the lettering Friday. Pulled out the paints and stencils and began applying some details. Also brought in one of the Rouse' bags (keep them in the car so I have them for shopping) and applied stencils to that as well.

Yard Sale Saturday, November 8, 2008

I promised Beau I'd be home by 8am so we could leave for the 2:30 LSU/Alabama game in Baton Rouge. So, had to limit my time to the 5 yard sales that were listed in The Gardens.

Finds:

• 2 pieces fabric remnants. Good size pieces in interesting color/textures.
• 3 vintage pairs of post earrings. I really like the silver pair. I've got to decide if I'm going to convert these to post earrings and keep for myself, or turn into a pendant.
• a mans hanging watch. It, of course, does not work.
• a child size tamborine
• a blank scrapbook
• a necklace made up of buttons. I've thought of creating with buttons before and this is a wonderful example. Or, I can just use the buttons; quite a few here.

Tote 13 - Blue Jeans Urban Tote

Did the spray paint on this purse last Friday, while doing the brown purse. Using a black sharpie, added some random budhist poetry.

Pink Applique Scarf ' Lamintated Leaves '

Last month I picked up an instruction/picture book called "Scarves to Make" by Linda Lee. A pretty good book " and I don't give that kind of credit to many.
I'm not really interested in creating scarves from scratch (or rather bulk fabric), but more looking at techniques to alter a few of the scarves of been collecting.
Decided to start on something simple ... a couple pages called 'Laminated Leaves'. Basically, it applique.

• Seleteced a pale pink wrap scarf with silver fibers stitched through as well as a dark pink sheer scarf. Cut some fabric bond to the size of the scarf.
• Cut a sheet of HeatNBond to the size if the darker pink and ironed it on.
• Traced and cut out the leaf pattern. Transferred it 87 times to the dark pink scarf and then cut each of them out ... a quite slow and boring task.
• Layed out the light pink scarf and decided on placement of leaves. Pulled off the backing and ironed into place.
• Selected a few random leaves here and there and cut out the center.

I like how this turned out. The whole idea has great potential. I'm going to wear this a couple times during the week and check out durability. It's going to be a great long ... long scarf end slung over the shoulder while vacuuming ... sweeping ...