Sewn For My Sis

Sewn For My Sis
Originally uploaded by Green Kitchen.


birthday_skirt
Originally uploaded by Green Kitchen.


champagne skirt
Originally uploaded by Green Kitchen.


Vintage Sheet Skirt
Originally uploaded by Green Kitchen.

My favorite model and sewing muse, my sister. You've probably seen some of these photos before (here or in the Wardrobe Remix pool), but I wanted to make a group post to see them all together. It's about time for another round of sewing for her, maybe some shirts or a mini dress now that she's wearing things above the knees. I've also been wanting to make one of these, which would combine my love of yarn and fabric.

I sewed the skirts from a self-drafted pattern based on the "Tourist Trap" from Sew What! Skirts. The dress is McCall's M4369 tailored for a streamline fit.

The dress is new fabric — it's dragonflies. The pink skirt is vintage, the bubbley champagne skirt is new fabric, and the green and blue floral skirt is from a vintage sheet. I did a quick search trying to find the names of the new fabrics, but couldn't easily find them. If you know what they are, can you leave a comment so people who are interested can find out?

Teacher Gift

teacher_gift
Originally uploaded by Green Kitchen.

Worked from 11pm to 1am late last night on this spread from an end-of-year memory book for my son's pre-school teacher. I've used this technique for several gifts and have enjoyed it every time. I choose photos, size them in Photoshop, print and cut them out, and draw/paint a background for them. It's really fun and relatively quick. It makes for an inexpensive gift, which can be quite nice when you have lots of parties to go to. Remember the first one that I did? I also did one of a brother and sister in a boat, sailing the skies as pirates. I heavily "borrowed" the ship design from a fellow blogger, which is why I've never shown it here. My excuse was lack of time. I needed a cool boat and I needed it THEN. I figure it's ok if I'm not selling it, right? Sheepish crafty secrets revealed.

Bedroom Wall

wall
Originally uploaded by Green Kitchen.

I've been busy sewing curtains for our little cabin in the woods. I'm gathering up a bunch of photos from my sister to do a WIP post about it soon. This photo is of our current bedroom wall. It's a typical example of how I don't finish projects around the house. Hopefully this won't be true up at the cabin. This wall has been like this for several months. Seems like it will be awhile before I get everything framed. I have a couple other pieces I'd like to add. Click on the photo to get to flickr where I've added notes on all the pieces.

I Heart the Etsy Guy

kanzashi
Originally uploaded by Green Kitchen.


etsy
Originally uploaded by Green Kitchen.

The Maker Faire was great — over-stimulating — but, great. Bethany, Sonya, and I spent most of our time socializing with as many crafty/fashion folk as we could find, like: Nancy, Claire, Susan, Tricia, Moxie, Brookelynn, and Missy; while Blaize took my older boy around to check out all the fun kid stuff. Beth and I got books signed by Lotta. We also said hi to the Etsy folk who were real nice and crush-worthy. I think this is a sign that I should finally open an Etsy shop. For starters I've got a bunch of extra kanzashi hair pins from back in my craft fair days. Then, there are the lampshades. I've never told you about the lampshades, have I? Anyway, it might help twofold: by cleaning out some of the craft area, and enabling my current affair with fabric. What do you think?

Maker Faire: Who's Going?

I know a few crafty blogger types are going to it. Anyone else? I'm not sure if I'll make it, but want to play spot-the-blogger if I can.

A huge thanks to all you generous folk who commented on my last post. It was fun as much as it was scary. OX

Always Let Them See You Sweat

gorilla_me
Originally uploaded by Green Kitchen.


frolicking_me
Originally uploaded by Green Kitchen.


me_and_h
Originally uploaded by Green Kitchen.

Before I get into my rant, let me direct you to my glue-set zipper tutorial over at Sew, Mama, Sew. I got both of these wonderful fabrics from Kristin's online shop. Don'tcha love 'em?

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My admiration and appreciation of the people I know and love went up exponentially today. I've been putting off taking a photo of myself in my latest sewing creations because I knew it would be painful at best. We don't have a full-length mirror, so I was expecting a rude awakening. Well, let me tell you, it was a RUDE AWAKENING. I had to call up Bethany immediately afterwards for some talking down and to tell her how awesome her photos are. If my sister was home I would have called her, too — again, awesome photos. I guess all my years of letting myself go —not caring what people think, expecting the world to love me as-is or not at all — have caught up. The Spandau Ballet hair cut that I gave myself isn't helping any. Note to self: Don't cut your hair when in a bad mood surrounded by screaming, annoying children.

Now what we have here are the best of the photoshoot, the silliest of the silly. Believe it, or not, these are not the photos that highlighted my ham-sized arms, or the ones that showed what could be, but isn't, an eight-months-pregnant belly. While taking the photos I followed Bethany's suggestion: to think something silly. Alicia P. had a similar idea. I took it further by doing something silly, too — this helped, I think. Then, the best trick of them all, I hid behind something cute — smoke and mirrors, right?

Apparently I'm OK with showing my silly side, or my sweaty unshaven underarm side, as it were. This is, in part, a direct response to one blogger's idea about good marketing being something where you hide all the work that goes into something well done — the never-let-them-see-you-sweat method. Of course, this unnamed blogger is hugely popular and will probably be the next Martha, so I guess she's right, if financial success is your goal. I just don't have "good marketing" goals. I've been in that industry and it's something I'd like to avoid as much as possible. Bleh.

The love part of this post comes in with the appreciation of all the nice things my husband says to me. That man is a saint, I tell ya. I can be my stinkiest no-bath-having sweat-pants-or-baggy-overalls-wearing self and he will tell me I'm beautiful, that I look cute. His son is learning well by him, a future good mate for sure. As I got dressed for the photoshoot my son said, "That looks nice, mama." That's the best full-length mirror there is.

Hippie-potamus Generation

hippie_potamus
Originally uploaded by Green Kitchen.


cat_of_super_colors
Originally uploaded by Green Kitchen.

I missed the date, but had wanted to post these funny knit critters for my birthday because they are the same vintage as I am. The patterns are from a supplemental pamphlet from Woman's Day magazine, April, 1968.

Check them out, there are more:

Cover
Pages 2-3
Pages 4-5
Pages 6-7
Page 8

Also, thanks so much for the birthday wishes for my boy. Seems like this year is going to be short on craft and long on kid chasing. I'll try to make up for it with photos of my crafts-of-yore and other tidbits. I'm still sewing clothes and wrote up a glue-set zipper tutorial for Sew, Mama, Sew, which I believe is going live tomorrow.

First Birthday

c peeking
Originally uploaded by Green Kitchen.

I didn't get a chance to post a birthday photo yesterday for this wonderful little guy because I was recovering from a night of mastitis. It was a bit ironic as I recalled the 24 hours of labor exactly one year prior. Eleven pounds two ounces of sugar puddin' goodness and worth every push. Happy birthday, C. I love you so much I can hardly stand it.

Speaking of mastitis, did you know a potato poultice can help? A grated potato applied to the affected breast can relieve symptoms — in my case it instantly stopped the feverish shivering. I've used both the potato and the cabbage remedies before, both with success. In addition, I take hot baths and express with the electric breast pump. Rest is important, too.