elsie marley

This year I am determined to cut into the ridiculous amount of fabric I have amassed in my basement. It’s not there just to look at, right? It’s there so I can make the clothes and quilts and toys that my family needs instead of buying all that crap. So this is probably going to be the first of many matching family ensembles.

I don’t know how all those bloggers out there take beautiful pictures of their kids while showing off the beautiful clothes they have on at the same time. This is the best photo I got and it was the last of about a hundred, and really it’s not that great. But you get the drift: one long sleeve shirt, one short sleeve, and one pair of leggings.

all made out of this geek chic fabric I found at the thrift store a loooong while back. It is so perfectly seventies: the stripes are brown and this sort of rainbow confetti, meshy stuff (my daughter calls them her sprinkles pants). It’s a knit that has sat on the shelves waiting for me to learn how to use my serger. And guess what? I learned how to use my serger! A gracious friend taught me how while we made the 90 minute shirt together.

She made the long sleeve version and I made the short sleeve, but hers was so cute I ran home and made the long sleeve one. Of course I didn’t read the directions, screwed it up and the sleeves are too long, but that drooly baby really couldn’t care less.

Now my daughter wants to know where daddy and mama’s matching shirts are. Sound of music here we come!

Yesterday morning was rainy and crummy. My daughter wanted to do a project, “I’ll go in my room and when you think of a project for me say ding-a-ling-a-ling.” so I came up with this (rain on a rainy day: my creativity knows no bounds). I cut out a raindrop shape for her to trace and my son was in charge of the tape. She wanted to make a rainbow, because where there is rain there are rainbows, and my son made a sort of deconstructed rainbow (up there on the right). He also wanted to know where the umbrella was, so we made one of those too.  Now that it’s sunny, my daughter wants to know when we are going to make the sun.

That there is some 100 percent of the finest acrylic crocheted up into one spiffy pillow. It’s scratchy as hell, but it’s this fantastic neony pink so it came home with me. I love the old lady thrift store. I also went to the dig and save the other day, but the light these days is crap so I’ll show you some other time. I get sort of paralyzed by the craziness of the dig and save, so never feel like I’m really taking advantage of it’s awesomeness. People have hooks and plastic gloves and determination to Get Shit! for $1/lb, so I mostly just get out of their way.

This is a crazy easy project. Just iron down some freezer paper on a shirt and slap some yellow paint on it. It’s a super springy shirt that I copied straight out of this japanese craft book. I don’t own the book, but it looks like it has some awesome patterns in it. As with most japanese craft books the shapes are so simple and the fabric choices so spot on you want to make everything in it, but then dammit it’s just not as easy to follow directions in japanese as they say it is–even if there are lots of pictures. I’m working on a japanese pattern right now and it’s slow going. It’s yellow too actually. We need some yellow here in the grey midwest, but if this 50 degree weather will stay I won’t complain about the grey.

and here he is showing off his matching yellow star undies.

I finished the hexagon bathmat that I started a while back. Thanks in part to Alice from futuregirl. She saw the photo I put up of it and emailed to say I might be following the chart incorrectly–I wasn’t joining the hexagons as I went a long and there was a little dot in the chart that said I should be. Not only did she explain how to connect the hexagons (or whatever motif) as you go, but she downloaded the pattern I was working with so she could better explain it to me. Thank you Alice! And thank you to everyone for reading and supporting me and all the crafty bloggers out there. Even if we are only making silly bathmats, I think all this creativity is doing the world some good. And speaking of helping, if there is anyone out there who knows of a good “how to read this freakin complicated japanese crochet pattern” website could you shoot it my way? because my next project isn’t going so well.

Oh, one more thing about the bathmat. It might look a little off because it should have another row of 6 hexagons. I ran out of white yarn and just could not be bothered to go get more. Also these yarn leftover are killing me. I found a few scrapy (is there a yarn equivilant for scraps?) projects but it’s not as easy as using up leftover fabric. I now understand the allure of pompom making.

I use bleach. I know I shouldn’t, but it just gets things so damn white. I do clean just about everything else with baking soda or vinegar, because they clean just about everything else. But when you have been potty training a certain little boy for over a year (there’s something that’s not so much fun to celebrate) bleach it is. Also, I’m a little sloppy and tend to splash the damn bleach on my shirt, only of course when I am wearing one that is A.) new or B.) my favorite. So after seeing all of Amy’s fabulous bleach pen projects in her new book, I thought I’d rescue a couple of my shirts.

Here is the before picture of the first shirt I did. It looks a little weird because I ironed some freezer paper on the inside before I remembered to take the before shot. I know is just a cheapy target shirt (that describes 80% of my wardrobe) but it fit me well. So of course I had to splash bleach on it.

And here is the after. Yes, I am trying too hard to look cool, but it’s not easy to take a picture of yourself without trying a little. I read the directions for this project after I actually did the project (smart), so I didn’t realize that Amy uses a smaller tip over the bleach pen to get a thinner line. That would make your design look a little crisper, I think, and better overall, because really I’m not fooling anyone: it looks like I drew on this shirt with bleach. But it is a slight improvement over the before and I can leave the house in it without feeling like a total slob.

This is the second shirt I did. I know it’s hard to see the spots, but they were smack dab in the middle and very hard to disguise.  I wanted to do a color wheel shirt, much like this one modeled by the lovely Martha (I could not find another photo of it on the internets anywhere). I’m pretty crazy for the color wheel right now (like this print I love). I feel like it’s a grown up version of the rainbow, which is very big in our house at the moment. I was never one for rainbows, but they are growing on me.  Anyway, the shirt. I wanted the circle to be wonky and off center and partly off the shirt, but the bleach spot dictated where it would go and it ended up just a tiny bit off, which makes it look more like a mistake. Really there are tons more mistakes, but I don’t care, I love it.

I borrowed this stuff from a friend of mine that turns all acrylic paint into fabric paint when you mix it in. It’s made by Golden and called GAC 900 fabric  medium. It works pretty well as far as I can tell. You just mix it 1:1 with the paint and you’re good to go. I think I should have used a little less paint and more of the fabric medium stuff because the shirt is a little stiff in parts, but it’s been through the wash a few times already and looks great. Though with all that bleach on it (the pinky color was made with a bleach pen) I’m sure I’ll wear a hole in it quickly, but i don’t mind really, I’d like a reason to make another shirt like this.

Sorry, I was going to post this on Tuesday but the week just got away from me. This week’s things on the internet that are awesome aren’t things, but a few site that I’ve found to be particularly fantastic.

The first is a fairly new site devoted to talking about creativity called Make and Meaning. A lot of craft is done in public way now, thanks to the international stitch and bitch that the internet created, and there are a lot of new issues to talk about.  Some of my favorites so far are the article on crafting and irony and blogging and mediocrity. This site is run by a fantastic group of people (futurgirl, sister diane, dudecraft, to name a few) so I’m sure we are in for many long and lively discussions.

One of the things I miss most about my life before children is reading the New York Times, Sunday especially, but really any day will do. Now I’m lucky to read one article online. But the one I did stumble upon this week led me to this blog about creating zero waste.  Granted the author of the blog is a little on the crazy side (all white house!) but she presents her way of living in a compelling way.  In a letter to whole foods she asks them to “give [us] credit for [bringing] home jars and bags…not just grocery bags: some of us have graduated from the grocery bag level.” I think it’s time we all graduated from the grocery bag level.

The last site is a blog run by my friend MaryJo. She is an amazing seamstress, knitter, crocheter, mother, canner, farmer, business woman, and about a thousand other things.  She has spent this last week on her blog talking about the tools of the (sewing) trade. And they are awesome. I bet you don’t know what this is:

but you always needed it. Go see find out what it is here and see other three here: pattern weights, from the doctor’s bag, bias tape makers.

Your stories kept me laughing all weekend long, thank you! If you haven’t read the comments go check them out–there are some crazy boy antics in there. Now for the winners:

• allison waken Says:
  February 18th, 2010 at 2:31 pm e
  Just yesterday I caught my 5 year old ready to ride down the stairs of his brothers bunk bed on his skateboard. I think they just like to make sure I’m on all the time ;)
  Love these belts. I am definitely going to try to make one – hopefully some day soon!

• ~Heather Says:
  February 19th, 2010 at 8:10 am e
  When my sons were in utero my cat used to sleep next to my belly and when she purred my little guys would move around in response to her deep, lulling sounds!
  I think the plaid belt would be great for any season, on winter jeans or summer shorts! ~H

So Allison gets the wood grain belt and Heather gets the plaid one. I’ll email you to get your addresses.  I hope they fit your boys!

Thanks to everyone who subscribed (or followed or whatever). And while we are talking about RSS feeds, let me put a plug in for google reader. It really is a fantastic way to read all the blogs you follow. Pip had a post a while back (edit-sorry I forgot the link!)about all the cool stuff you can do with google reader and it’s very good so just go read it, so I don’t have to say it all. There is also a “share” feature there that I’m curious about:  You can share posts (from other blogs) that you find interesting with all who are on your sharing list. Does anyone use it? I have some sites I’d like to share with all of you (google reader users or not) but I’ll save that for tomorrow.

Wow! There has been such an amazing response to the boy belt tutorial! I think there must be a lot of boys out there running around with their pants falling down–no more!

To thank you for all your kind words and links I thought I’d giveaway a few of the belts I made, because as you can see they are not keeping any pants up around here. The skinny plaid one and the wider wood grain belt are up for grabs (for a better picture look here). If you’d like to enter tell me a funny story about a little boy you know–a brother, a son, the crazy little boy down the street. There is always one who tried to fly from on top of the refrigerator or covered himself in crisco or skiied down the basement stairs. If you can’t think of a story, just tell me which one you’d like. And if you’d like to be entered twice you can subscribe to my blog (and tell me in your comment) or link to the belt tutorial on your blog or tweet it. Or all three if you’d like, but I’ll only love you more–just 2 entries max per person! I will pick two winners (pick a winner!) on Monday morning, February 22 CST.  Good luck!

My middle son is jumpy and crazy and skinny and tall–all of which make his pants fall down quite often (if he is wearing pants that is), so I thought I’d make a belt for him. In honor of Celebrate the Boy month at Made and Made by Rae I  drew up a pattern to share with all of you.

The finished belt is 1 1/2 inches wide and adjusts to fit waist sizes of about 20 inches to 24 inches. To make a different size take the waist measurement you want to use then add 8 inches: the main fabric will be (waist size + 8)inches by 3 1/2 inches and the lining fabric will be one inch shorter.

Materials:

• one piece of fabric cut 30 inches long and 4 inches wide, preferablly cut parallel to the selvege, but as long as it’s not cut on the bias it will work out just fine.
• one strip of canvas or denim (or something that is a similar weight) 29 inches long and just shy of 1 1/2 inches wide.
• three snaps and snap setting tool
• one 1 1/4 inch D-ring
• scissors, pins, iron, sewing machine

Steps:

1. Fold your strip of fabric in half the long way (wrong sides together) and press.
2. Open the fabric back up and with the right side down, fold the top edge down 1/2 inch and iron, then fold the bottom edge up 1/2 inch and iron.
3. Set your strip of canvas or denim on the bottom half and fold both short ends over it and press
4. Miter your corners: fold the corner diagonally, so it makes a right triangle where the middle of the longest side (the hypotenuse if you paid attention in geometry) of the triangle lies on the point where the folds of the short end and the long side meet. This makes much more sense if you just look at the picture. And this is just how I do mitered corners, of course you can do it any way you know how.
   
5. Sew all around the belt anywhere from 1/8 inch to a 1/4 inch from the edge–whatever looks best to you.
6. Pick one side of the belt to be the right side (the one that will face out) and put that side down. Slide the D-ring onto the left end of the belt, fold the end over it one inch and sew down. Sew back and forth a few times to make sure it’s secure.
   
7. Now for the snaps (I used heavy duty snaps for the wood grain belt, but there are a lot of options out there). With the right side down again and the D-ring to the left, attach the top part of three snaps: the decorative part on top and the male part (for lack of a better term) of the snap on the right side of the belt. The snaps should start about 1/2 from the end and be about an inch or so apart.
   
8. 6 inches to the left of the last snap attach the bottom part of the snap: the female part of the snap should go on the right side of the belt and the very bottom piece of the snap should go on the wrong side  (the side that will face in). This seems wrong, but it’s not. The belt will go through the D-ring and then fold back on itself and snap.
   
9. Find some pants with belt loops and try that sucker out!  Look at you, you just made a belt!

Variations:

• To make a skinnier belt, your fabric strip should measure 30 x 2 1/2 inches and the lining should be 29 x 3/4 of an inch. Then just follow the directions for the wider belt.
• I thought it would be nice to have a fabric buckle for baby belts (yes, it’s ridiculous I know, but so are baby sneakers and I bet you have some of those) so the metal doesn’t jab their pudgy tummies, or if you don’t have a d-ring around, or if you’d just like to make a cool fabric buckle, whatever, this is how you do it:
  Cut a piece of fabric that is 6 x 2 inches (for the skinnier belt, cut 4 x 2). With right sides facing sew the ends together, so you have a small fabric ring, then fold both the edges in (wrong sides together) to meet each other in the middle. Fold in half again and sew. It’s easiest to sew with the loop going up over your presser foot than the other way around. Attach the fabric buckle just like you would the D-ring, making sure the seam is hidden under the fold and the nice side is facing out.
  
• Buttons! Sew button holes where the snaps would go and then sew some buttons on.

There are so many other things that can be done with this belt: topstitching, grommets, snaps all around, a matching mama belt! If you make one from this tutorial (or any other tutorial of mine) remember to add it to the elsie marley flickr group.  And please add a photo or two to the Celebrate the Boy group on flickr too!

Go Boys!