With a little help from my phone

I forgot the camera. Again. I did remember my daughter, and her bag of goodies to keep her occupied, and the fabric, sundries, and sewing machines. Even the goodies for lunch. The camera? No. So I used my phone and took some photos anyway. Here's some of what we've been up to in the past few weeks... (pause while I load up the photos, so I know what to talk about when...)

Wow, these photos are either too small to see, or, when enlarged, too blurry. Sigh. I'll talk about them anyway. This first one is Roxanne, in her new black slacks and purple top. The fabrick for both pieces was repurposed from mystery fabric. Meaning I'm not even sure where it came from. Maybe I should call that rediscovered fabric.

This skirt is really cute - just in case you can't tell... We found a couple of yards of this black kitties on black background fabric. Very fun. Then, we had the brainstorm of combining it with some black fabric, alternating panels for a skirt. We were hoping there was enough of the kitty fabric for two skirts, but we only got one. Still we liked the alternating panel idea enough that when the calico fabric went on sale this weekend, I picked up some in a different black on black pattern. (no more kitties to be had)

The final photo is Roxanne's son, Casey, in a tunic that we made for him. The fabric is rather canvas-y with a tribal kind of design on it, and shells (yes, shells) sewn on here and there. We're making Carl a tunic out of it, but his isn't quite finished yet. Casey's took a little adjusting, but we got it finished this afternoon.

With the promise of pictures soon...

Friday, Roxanne and I worked on refilling the basket of things-to-be-sewn-on-Sundays. It was fun to go through a portion of each of our stashes and the piles of patterns, and consider the possibilities. Then we pinned and cut and folded and repinned and not always in THAT order.

Cutting things out is not my favorite part of sewing, usually. I like to have a stack of things ready to grab and throw at the sewing machine. There have been many a production line at my house, I'll tell you. Still, playing with the fabric, and considering the possibilities IS fun, and we enjoyed it. We came up with a few fun outfits, and I'm happily awaiting their construction.

Today, for instance, while Roxanne did some (more) cutting, I worked on a sewing a top (one of the two pieces left in the basket from our summer cutting spree), a really cute skirt, some pants and another skirt for Roxanne's closet. All of those pieces are from fabric that has now been used instead of stored. Creatively envisioned into new purposes. They all have a place on this blog, and will be featured as soon as they are finished and photographed. In fact, there are several pieces in that basket that will find their way here, in the next few weeks.

jumper finally finished

Yeah, I know, I don't look all that excited. Still, this FINALLY got the button holes and buttons this past week, and I even put it on so Roxanne could photograph me in it. For any of my SCA friends who sneak a peak... yes, this fabric does look suspiciously like one of my tunics. I bought a lot of it. It must have been cheap. Counts as repurposed though, because this dress is definitely not SCA garb. It has also been sitting around in my stash for years.

Roxanne and I took today to cut out a bunch of new projects. The project basket was down to two things. We'll finish those, have no fear, and one of them should eventually be posted here. Several of the new projects as well. Hopefully, I'll be posting here more often!

Artisan Advocacy

I've been thinking a lot lately, about my place in the world, and work, and work that would feel more like... living. I know I love crafting and sewing and making things, and I want to share that love, so the making things - and the loving of it - isn't lost. I have been feeding my own needs, lately, by sewing with my cousin Roxanne, and we have both enjoyed both the creating, and the therapeutic companionship. I just keep thinking, there should be more. More sharing, more people, and more crafts.

Then I went to the fair. You know, the fair. All those categories for competition, and not many competitors even enter. Well, there was a pretty good showing of quilts and photographs, and some elementary school displays. It disappointed me. I thought, gee, why didn't the talented kids from Gadsden High School enter into the floral design category? We have a culinary arts program, why don't they have some entries? Heck, where is anything made by, well, me? Why are they not here? What would it take to get them here? My answer: some artisan advocacy.

I'm not sure what it should ultimately look like. I'm not sure where I go for answers, or even for research so I can make up my own answers. I know that there are artisans out there. I know there are other people who like to make things, whether or not they can, will or even want to make a living from it. I also know that creating and/or fostering a community of such artisans will make all of us stronger as people, and as artists, and help get "the word out" to people who are interested in learning to create as well. I'm poking my nose and my fingers into some various places, hoping to get hints, clues and pointers. Dona Ana Arts Council is one. Southern New Mexico State Fair is another. If anyone reading this has any ideas for me, I would sure appreciate them.

Spider Shirts

Last spring, when Roxanne and I were contemplating our summer list of projects, she said she would like to sew a few things for her 2 year old grandson, who she is helping to raise. She and I got to thinking about that, and realized that her two nieces also had little boys who needed some summer clothes. In all there were 5 boys, age 5 and under needing play clothes to run around in for the summer, and 3 "Moms" who didn't need to spend a lot of money on those clothes.

Out came the ideas, and the scraps and odds-n-ends of fabric. All told, we made about 20 pair of shorts, and around 15 shirts. One idea we had was to take the ends of pant legs, cut off of Carl's bought pants before they were hemmed, and use those to make shorts. It worked really well, but they were kind of short, so we sewed a band of another fabric to the bottom, to lengthen them. We made a couple of pair in brown twill, with bands of a heavy, off-white calcutta cloth. We did another couple out of denim. Those shorts turned out to be really cute.

Another find was about a yard of this spidery fabric. One of Raine's first favorite things was spiders. She moved on when she was about 5, but the fabric was still sitting in my stash. It made two, cute and simple sleeveless button up shirts. I edged the armholes and neck with different colors of bias tape, to make the shirts different from each other. What? You noticed that one of the shirts has the bias tape on the outside? Yeah, well sometimes things get backwards and/or upside down. In this case, I thought it looked cute, and I left it. Found buttons from my stash, and went to town.

Found gown and tunic

Well, Roxanne and I finished a couple of found-fabric pieces today. It is satin-y fabric, slick and slippery. The colors we found were jewel tones of burgundy and royal blue. There was quite a bit of the burgundy and not much of the blue. At the beginning of the summer, we cut out many items, most of which have been sewn up, now, but there are still a few things in the basket.

The first item from the burgundy fabric was a nightgown for Roxanne. I had a piece of flat lace that we could use for an embellishment of the neckband, and we made a very simple, long gown with raglan sleeves, gathered into a neckband. The second was a tunic top. The bodice of the top is made of the blue, and the neckband and body of the tunic are out of the burgundy fabric. The tunic is sleeveless.

Both of these garments have neckbands, and the one for the tunic had a curving kind of key-hole shape. It was a challenge, but we got it put together. On the gown, instead of sewing the outer layer of the band on first, we sewed the inside layer on first, and then folded the outer layer down for the finishing seam. It worked well, to be able to finish that seam in that order, instead of the other way round, where if you sew on top, there are places that you miss underneath, and if you sew it inside, the thread isn't where you want it on the outside of the garment.

I got pictures of the gown, but when Roxanne tried on her tunic, we found it was too small around (so I didn't take her picture in it). Does that mean it isn't useful? NO WAY! We will probably work on some embroidered embellishment of the neckband, and then donate it to the women's shelter. I did get photos of the gown, front and back, modeled by Roxanne (Hi Roxanne!), who is very happy to have a new nightgown.

My Challenge

So, I finally figured out my personal, creative challenge. I've been looking for it. I've been hunting for it. I've been gazing longingly at the challenges of others. Of course my challenge was here all along, like they are. I just couldn't see it for the trees. Or maybe the sewing...

So, what is my challenge? To make something useful from found fabric. Yeah, you already know this if you read my other blog. Still... challenge, meet blog readers, blog readers, meet challenge. Now, play nice.

For this entry, I'm going to talk about something I've already made that fits into the found fabric challenge. See, I told you it is something that I was doing anyway, but not keeping a record of. Now, I'm gonna.

My first found fabrics were some knits that I inherited from my mom. She had gotten the piece I used to make sheets, or maybe curtains for our travel trailer, which isn't around any more, either. I looked and looked for a lightweight cotton knit sleep shirt this summer, and finally made one. Roxanne (in case you don't know, Roxanne is my cousin, and we sew together about once a week, and we both love it!) and I also used the various knits from this stash to make her a gown, to make her grandson some pajamas, and to make t-shirts for her grandson and her 4 nephews.

I'll see about adding photos of some of those other things as I can. My sleep shirt - with matching shorts for lounging - is a light, minty green with dots and flowers. Just perfect for sleeping through. And, yes, my lovely model is better known as an office chair.