When I am frustrated with a project, but not frustrated enough to pour a big glass of wine and watch some trashy tv, I make pillows. We have a lot of pillows. Tell me I am not the only one who does this. Do you turn to simple projects to make you feel better when you are failing miserably?

The fabric for the new ones are, from right to left: some ikea fabric left over from the crib bumper, plain old random blue fabric (some of which is half way to being shorts for my son), and this awesome drop cloth print by Jay McCarroll.

One more too, because that Wiksten tank I'm trying to fix is looking pretty Becky HomeEcy. This print is by Geninne who did a lovely line of organic fabric for Cloud 9.  I fell for it when Erin made this top (it seems the wiksten tank is haunting me).

It's not all wine and finished projects in these parts. Trust me there are plenty of half done--half assedly done--things shoved in various corners of my studio. This afghan is not destined for one of those corners (I hope). It is actually coming along quite nicely.  I fell in love with this vintage afghan that Miss Rachel from Smile and Wave picked up at her local thrift. I had been looking around for crochet patterns I could use to make a blanket for my son, but nothing seemed right until that blue number popped up. A commenter on pinterest pointed me to a pattern on ravelry called the Vintage Fan Ripple Stitch Pattern, which turned out to be exactly the same as the original afghan. I went out and bought a bunch of yarn the next day.

I liked all the blues in Rachel's blanket, so I stuck with that and threw some gray in for good measure. Ravelry came to the rescue again when I ran out of the light blue yarn I was using. The heathered light blue was by Berroco Vintage, which I had in my stash, and when I went back to my local yarn store for more they were all out. After a look on the interwebs, I discovered Berroco didn't even make that colorway anymore. Luckily there was someone on ravelry who had two skeins of it for sale! I don't know why the two rows of light blues look different in the photo--trust me they are not. Oh also there are more nerdy crochet details on ravelry. 

The other half done project is not coming along as nicely. The first time I made the Wiksten Tank it was nice, but it was a smidge small.  So I cut a medium this time. Well turns out the first one wasn't small, it was just that the material I used didn't have any give to it. The medium is too big everywhere and if I try to take the sides in, the wide set straps make me look, umm, beefy.  I can't shove it in the corner because this fabric was expensive as hell. So here's my plan: I'm going to cut this tank apart, cut the small from it (a little lower down), and then add a band of color to the bottom. What do you think? I picked up some navy linen that I think will work. I'm hoping it won't look hackneyed.

Last winter we went on an amazing trip to Kauai. When we went the kids were 5, almost 4, and 1 at the time. They remember some things, but not too much. We try to tell stories about it and look at pictures from when we were there, because I'm guessing we won't be back for a long while. That's where these pillows come in.

Kauai is a teeny island with one main road that goes almost all the way around the island. When you are driving one way the ocean is on your side and when you turn around and drive the other way the mountains are on your side. Most directions include one or the other to help you find your way. The Hawaiian for this is mauka and makai:

- Mauka (mow-kah) means on the mountain side of the road.

- Makai (mah-kigh) means on the ocean side of the road.

The big kids each had their side of the car (the baby was in the middle). That mean one kid was mauka and the other makai. They would have argument about which was better and rub it in if they got the good side. Of course once we turned around and went home, the other one would rub it in. Some days the mountains were the favorite and other days it was the sea.

I'm not super big on souvenirs (except we got a hula girl of course), so I made the pillows, hoping it would help the kids hold on to  a bit of Kauai. The mountain is a simple green triangle. And yes it has snow, shut up it looks good. My first idea for the ocean pillow was to make it look like this, but when I sewed it up, it looked like a blue santa hat. I was working on these pillow right after I made this potholder and I was getting into the polka dot as neutral thing--as you can tell with the ocean pillow. I really love how it turned out: the day side, the night side, and polka dots all over the damn place.

I'm a little late with the last post of the week, sorry. Yesterday was so dark and rainy we couldn't take any pictures (hence the wellies).

the fabric: this awesome star fabric is from JoAnn's country club collection. I only remember the name because it's hilarious. The fabric is a really nice bottomweight print, which I have the hardest time finding.

the pattern: half pants pattern letter S from Happy Homemade vol. 5 I've made the pants version of this pattern before--here--but added all kinds of piping and pockets.

the sewing: I made this pattern last summer, but never got around to finishing them. Ever do that? Well the half finished shorts don't fit this year, but I liked the pattern so much I traced a bigger size. The pattern is nicely tailored and the tiny pocket is adorable, even if it's totally useless.  I have to say, these skinny star shorts are pretty much the bomb: simple, long, good for school and play. I think this would work well for boys too, maybe in a size up from what they normally wear so it's not so, so tight.

Each day in the flickr pool has been better than the last. On this, the final day of kcwc, your handmade clothes are pretty much blowing my mind. Check out these amazing garments:

1. yoke dress for kcwc

2. striped dress

3. robot baseball tee with rainbow stripes

4. organic cotton pj's

Sometimes the idea is much more exciting than the actual outcome. But still matching, stripy pants and shorts are pretty cute

the pattern: same as these pants, letter o from Happy Homemade vol 2 in two sizes. This was totally the wrong pattern to use for the shorts, but the perfect one for the pants.  The idea I had for the shorts was something more like this, but then I got all wrapped up in saving the pockets from the original pants (see below). The front pockets were nice, slash pockets, but the back ones, I discovered later, were fake. It was a waste of time and energy and screwed up my plan.

the fabric: those pants up there. They were mine, but I felt like a fool every time I walked out of the house in them.

the sewing: I didn't intend to get two garments out of one pair of pants. I was only going to make shorts and really to make the shorts I wanted to make--bloomers with a contrasting band--I shouldn't have made the pants. Oh well. The little pants turned out super cute and the shorts are fine, I guess.

The flickr pool is bursting with amazing garments, many of them upcycled ones. Of all the discussions on flickr this week, my favorite has to be the one about all our mistakes and straight up sewing failures. Late at night, when I'm screwing up every possible way, it's good to know I'm not alone!

1. pinafore made reversible 

2. top naii

3. raglan tee

4. stripe and color block top