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A few weeks ago, I went to the Salvation Army Family Store on Rising Sun Ave in Philadelphia while I was out of town visiting friends.  While looking for furniture, I found what appeared to be a lovely end table.   It ended up being a closed sewing machine cabinet with a Franklin De Luxe Rotary Sewing Machine, probably from the 1920s, and still in working order!  For $52, I could not resist and still live with myself.

I only have the parts list with me right now.  It’s still waiting in Philly for me to pick it up and take it home.  I cannot wait!

Satin stitch has to be my favorite embroidery technique.  Of course, it takes up the most floss and the most time, but I think the returns warrant the extra effort and supplies.

As I promised here, I would show you a thrifty project soon.  I’m using one of the $1 pillow cases and “coloring in” the designs, which are slightly faded and printed a little inaccurately, with my beloved satin stitch.  It is still in progress…but here it was a couple weeks ago:

And here is a few pictures of it tonight, after a few days by the pool, a train ride, some other snippets of free time:

This fabric is so kitschy and cute.  It reminds me of the Beatles’ movie “The Yellow Submarine.”  When I finish an area large enough, I’ll frame it.  I’m not doing the entire pillow case in satin stitching!

This post makes my cat, Misty, so sad, she can barely keep upholstering.

I just received this email from the Washington DC Humane Society (WashHumane) and it breaks my heart, as a cat owner, an animal lover, and a human being who believes right over wrong.

“Our humane officers need your help to solve two cases of cold-blooded animal murder. In April an innocent opossum and her ten babies, just days old were stoned to death in an alley behind 1026 16th Street, Northeast, DC.  A month later an innocent cat was brutally murdered in the same neighborhood.  The young feline was also found stoned to death, this time on the 200 block of Maryland Avenue, NE.  In both cases the animals’ bodies were surrounded by rocks.

The Washington Humane Society is now offering a $1000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction for those involved in either case.  These innocent animals were killed for no apparent reason. Anyone who could commit such crimes also poses a risk to the entire community. National studies show that individuals who commit these senseless acts of animal cruelty are seven times more likely to commit other anti-social acts such as violence towards people.

WHS will pursue the perpetrators of these crimes relentlessly; these heinous acts cannot go unpunished. But we need the public’s help. We need someone to call us. Someone who saw something or knows something that would help our animal cops solve these two cold cases.

Our Humane Law Enforcement Department investigates more than a thousand animal cruelty cases each year. Our small team of officers works  tirelessly  day and night protecting the animals of the District.  If you would like to support our HLE officers please donate to the JUSTICE FUND today.  Washington Humane Society officials are asking anyone with information to contact the Humane Law Enforcement Department at 202-BE HUMANE. All calls are confidential. The $1000 reward is made possible through a special fund called the JUSTICE FUND which WHS has set up for this purpose.”

For more information about the Washington Humane Society, the Justice Fund, and other fights against animal cruelty, go to: http://support.washhumane.org/site/PageServer

I recently went on a “spending spree” in my neighborhood thrift stores.  Our little corner of DC is lucky enough to have three right along the same street within 4 blocks or four-tenths of a mile of each other (I will list them at the end of the post)

So here is my haul:

And here is how much everything cost before the tiny amount of sales tax.  Click to enlarge:

Two embroidered table runners
Two matching pillow cases
Six polystyrene balls
One sugar canister
One whisk
One round table cloth
Three cake pans
One pot (for fondue?)

…and my shopping spree was a total of $13.60 before sales tax!  And yes, the package of polystyrene balls were free, given to me as lagniappe because I was a new customer to one of the thrift stores.  That is just lovely!

Also, I’d like to point out that the whisk, which I got for a friend who is looking to feather her nest, is longer than my forearm.  She can make a dinosaur egg omelet with that whisk now.

I cannot wait until the next Fourth of July to make a USA map cake with this pan.  It still had the glue from the packaging.  I don’t think anyone had ever used it.  What a pity.

This other cake pan is pretty nifty.  It’s a bundt pan that is especially tall, and it also has a cover with a handle.  I don’t think the cover is meant to aid in baking, because most other pans like this online seem to describe it merely as a carrying device.  But if anyone has any idea what to do with it, I would appreciate any information greatly!

This chrome sugar canister, from the “Lincoln Beauty Ware” line, is just too awesome.  I love that fifties look, and after a little help from Bar Keeper’s Friend, it cleaned up nicely inside and will be quite functional.

I still cannot get over the prices of the embroidered table runners, 2 for $0.49 each.  At least the stitcheries will have a home where someone appreciates them.

Then there is this sweet long round table cloth, appliqued all over with grapes and vines.  Some parts are discolored or stained slightly, but I plan to cut this up for projects anyway, so that’s no bother to me.

Here are the thrift shops I visited and a little about them:

American Rescue Workers Thrift Store: 1107 H St NE, Washington, DC 20002
Pros: cheap prices, lots of selection, friendly people
Cons: no credit or debit cards, i.e. cash only

Salvation Army: 1375 H St NE, Washington, DC 20002
Pros: Standard SA Thrift store, nice people, half priced clothing on Wednesdays
Cons: Standardized SA prices…almost nothing will be less than $0.99, and a lot of things are priced $1.99 just because of the category they’re in, regarless of condition. Also, when you find something without a price tag, they can’t sell it to you; they have to send it back to headquarters and it may be redistributed somewhere else in the area.

Mike’s Thrift Store: 1425 H St NE, Washington, DC 20002
Pros: Great finds if you dig, very low prices (most things are a dollar), and Mike, the owner, is a very nice guy who reads while you shop.
Cons: You have to dig to get to stuff; there is a lot in the store, but it’s piled on top of piles on top of piles.  NOT a good place to take a kid, because they would probably break something in the tight spaces, might get hurt, etc.

PS: Stay tuned for a project that has come about from one of these thrifty finds.

I was recently commissioned to make 13 table runners for a wedding coming up soon.  Each 13 inch wide, 7-foot runner will go on a 5-foot round table, so it will drape 1 foot over each side.

Here are three draped over my banister.

The print is so pretty, she could probably get away with not having a centerpiece on her tables, in my humble opinion.  But I’m no wedding stylist.

One table runner needed a seam because I did not want the bride to buy an extra yard of fabric for just one table runner.  The rest of the runners were cut in multiples of four from the 60 inch wide fabric.  Here’s the seam where they join.

I really enjoyed this project.  I also love the idea that my work will be amidst such a happy celebration as a wedding!

I recently organized my sticker collection, mostly leftovers from my childhood, and I found some rad stickers that I probably got as a promotion from Scholastic Books or Troll.  I have no idea what I’m saving them for, or what you might use them for, but I scanned some and put them up here for your personal use.

You have to love a dog on a skateboard.

I think the only thing better than a dog on a skateboard is a FISH on a skateboard!

But if you’re a traditionalist, here are some fish in water.

This glam flamingo drinking a cocktail seems a little adult to be a kid’s sticker, but you know, it was the 90s.

And finally some junk food.  Between skateboards, hot colors, and junk food, that about sums up the icons of the illustrious decade.  I’m kinda surprised there is no pizza on this sticker!

I have more of these, but I could only scan so many on a rainy morning before the day began.

I suddenly have the urge to rollerblade and wear a shirt with different colored sleeves.  I wonder why!

I know there are about a million tutorials out there about these little round fabric wonders, but I thought I’d put in my two cents too.

Making yo-yos, like all sewing skills, takes practice to get it down and get your own feel for it.  But here are some starting points.  First, you don’t need anything fancier than:

1. a round, traceable shape like a bowl, plate, canister, etc
2. a pencil or pen (I really don’t see the point in using a fabric pen with air-erase or water-erase ink; you are only cutting on the traced line)
3. thread, whatever kind you like using
4. a needle; again, your choice.  I like size 10 embroidery needles

I use a canning funnel to trace my circles.  The wide end is 5.5 inches across, which makes a yo-yo approximately 2.75 inches in diameter.

To start, as with most handsewing projects, cut a length of thread 20-30 inches long.  Thread the needle and double the thread so the ends meet.  Tie a knot at the ends.  Now, with the wrong side of the fabric facing you, fold the right side of the fabric over about a quarter (1/4) inch.  The smaller the fold, the better.

You will only hold the fold with your fingers and your stitches.  You will not be able to use pins or anything else.  But you only need to fold down a little bit at a time.

Try to keep the fold as even as possible.  If the fold is very uneven, the yo-yo will not be round and the center will not be the same height.  Also, keep your stitch length as even as you can by sight (see below for how long your stitches should be.  Go around the entire circle like this.

This next part is VERY IMPORTANT.  When you come to the knot where you began your stitching, you must draw your thread through the back to complete the “In-out-in-out” pattern of the stitches.  This might be the most overlooked part of yo-yo making, but it guarantees that the center will lay evenly.

Now, probably the most fun step of all, gather the thread and form the yo-yo!  Be careful not to pull too tightly because, depending on what kind of thread you are using, it may snap and undo all your careful, even stitching.

I usually make my knot on the flat side because my projects usually hide this side anyway, but you can also make a French knot in between the folds and hide it in there.  Knotting the thread on the flat side also anchors the gathered part to the center (or off center if that’s where you want it for a stylistic look).

Now I’d like to add a little bit about stitch length.   The yo-yo above (also in the picture on the left below) had relatively short stitches, about 3/16″ each or 3/8″ for an in/out pair.  The big stitches, on the right, are a little under half an inch each, or under a whole inch for an in/out pair.

The small stitches make tighter gathers that lay flatter, but the hole is bigger.  That’s always the case because there is more fabric bunched up in a smaller area.  The big stitches make less gathers, but they are larger, and since there are less layers of fabric pulled together, the hole is much smaller.  Compare below; small stitches on the left, large stitched on the right.

And the thickness of the yo-yos are different.  This is more a tactile difference that doesn’t come across with pictures, but if you can see it, the smaller stitch yo-yo is thinner (on the left) and the big stitch yo-yo has a thick center.

I hope this is helpful for any novice yo-yo makers!

I have finally finished the bouquet for my friend’s wedding, with its flowers and experiments seen here and here.  I am so excited for her to receive it (not to mention the wedding itself)!

Here is the bouquet partially finished, so you can see the architecture of the stems (which are wire coat hangers wrapped in floral tape).

And another shot while it was still half finished:

Finally today I made the last yoyo, covered the stems with green fabric, and made the handle.

Now here it is in motion to give you a sense of the whole thing.

Although the true goal of this week is to finish any works in progress, i.e. ones that have been started already, this skirt has been started in my head since January.  I bought the fabrics in New York City; it was $1/yard for the solid orange I used as the lining and $2/yard for the print.  And regardless of the price, this is one of my all-time most favorite prints.  I’ve had dreams around this print in which my whole house is wallpapered in it.

I did not use a pattern, which is more and more my style these days.  So often with patterns, I have to make adjustments for size anyway, or I have want to make something slightly different than the pattern’s finished product, so I end up doing my own thing anyway, as well as wasting a lot of time and effort meticulously cutting out and ironing the tissue paper pattern pieces, pinning, etc.

After you’ve made just a few completed sewing projects, I encourage anyone to try to make their own things without a pattern.  It’s so liberating and it’s not so difficult once you get over the mental hurdle of intimidation.  Also, I have found that it’s pretty much the same success rate, so if something doesn’t work out without a pattern, chances are it wouldn’t have worked out with a pattern either, because perhaps my skills aren’t honed enough, my workmanship was sloppy, because I cut corners (which I would have done with a pattern anyway) and so forth.

There are countless lessons online, books on the subject, and yes, patterns to follow, so I will not bother with a full tutorial.  Honestly, I have too many projects to finish!  But without further ado, after the jump, I will present some tips and tricks to make this skirt.

Read the rest of this entry »

This week, I’m trying to finish all Works In Progress so that my workroom can be in better order.  First up: a lime potholder.

I chose a lime because I got a ball of green yarn and a ball of white yarn in a Salvation Army sewing and craft grab bag for a dollar (along with other goodies and yarn).  But if I had pink and yellow, I could have made a grapefruit.  If I got peach and beige, I could have made a cantaloupe.  The possibilities are endless!

My mom used to make seemingly thousands of these potholders.  She made oranges, lemons, limes, and watermelons.  I wonder if it had anything to do with Dad’s love of fruit slice candy.

When one got dirty or singed, she made new ones.  I’ve seen them in almost every thrift store and rummage sale I’ve been to, so I bet that a lot of moms in the second half of the 20th century were doing the same.

Here’s a vintage pattern for a watermelon potholder, slightly different than the kind Mom and I make.  Also, Hannah’s grandma made one with love for Hannah’s website.  But it’s sold out!

Made By Hannah's Grandma!

The way my mom and I make them is pretty straightforward.  We are not crochet pattern readers nor pattern writers.  Basically, we single or double crochet in a round, increase the stitches if the shape is curling up like an ashtray, or stop increasing or redo some rows with less stitches if the shape is wobbly and won’t lie flat.  But this project is pretty forgiving, since folding it in half will take away some of the wobbliness or curling tightness.

If you would like a pattern on how to make a round crochet shape, check out the free vintage pattern here.

I made the light green circle with 14 rows of double crochet stitches, about 10 inches across.  Then I added just one row all the way around of white double crochet stitches.

Then, for added insulation from heat, I added some acrylic felt.  The felt had to be trimmed down to less than the half-circle the round makes.

Now, this is acrylic yarn and acrylic felt, so it might be prone to melting at high heat and should not be used by extremely high flames.  But this is pretty good when you need to shield your hand from a hot tea kettle handle or a cookie sheet out of the oven.

The “peel” of the fruit slice closes the two edges of the folded half-circle.  I just used single crochet stitches, drawn through pairs of the holes of the white stitches.

I started at one side, stitched a row, then made the loop using about 10 chain stitches.

After the loop was made, I went over the row again with single crochet stitches and ended the row on the end where the dark green started.

Then I sewed the seeds on both sides.  You could also sew the seeds on before crocheting the circle shut, but sewing the seeds through all the layers helps to anchor the folded shape and the felt within it.

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