yarntherapy

week 13 - easter eggs

I narrowly avoided another total failure this week. I attempted these dyed Easter eggs from Martha Stewart (there are a ton of very cool ideas on her site!) and they didn't turn out well at all. The lace absorbed the dye and it just looked like a blurry mess. I think the lace needs to be polyester, not cotton - then it would act as a more of a barrier.

Luckily, I tried the eggs earlier in the week, so I had time to come up with something else. Once again, I hit the fabric stash and dug out some more felt. I also have lots of trim & rick-rack hanging around. I originally thought I'd make little Easter baskets for everyone at work, but then I realized just how much work that would be. So I decided to do just one treat for my girl Katie instead.

I played around with doing a Peep shape, but it looked weird, so I just went with the classic Easter egg. I traced the outline, stitched on the trim, and stitched around the outside before I trimmed the edges. I intended to use my pinking shears but couldn't find them at the time - of course, they were sitting a couple of feet away!

 

 

 

I was too lazy to sew on a button by hand so I used scotch tape and my sewing machine! This is a great technique for sewing on lots of buttons - just drop your feed dogs and adjust the zigzag width to your buttons. You can sew right through the tape, then peel it off. You'll probably want to give the needle a quick rubdown with alcohol when you're done, to clean any adhesive off.

 

 

All done! I filled it with Robin's Eggs - mmmm, I love malted chocolate! - and left it in Katie's dressing room. She loved it! I really should make more things to give away as gifts - I love the ego boost :-)

week 12 - fail

Well, I guess it was inevitable. This week's attempt was a total failure. :-(

I've played with inkjet shrink plastic before, so I had no reason to think that this project would be problematic. I made a bunch of key rings using some travel photos and they came out looking great. This time, however.....

I had some fab Alexander Henry fabric in the stash, with cool graphic images, so I decided to scan them, then print them to the plastic and cut circles to link into a bracelet once they were shrunk. Here's the fabric:

 

 

So cute, right? So after some fiddling with new drivers (I haven't scanned anything in ages!) I printed a couple of versions with varying color levels - the color intensifies as the plastic shrinks, so you have to print it at a lighter setting.

 

Then I cut circles - about twice the diameter of the desired finished size - and punched holes in each side:

 

Then into the kitchen and the toaster oven. For the life of me, I could not keep these things from curling and sticking and generally misbehaving. Just ugly. I tried everything, and I hovered over the oven with a wooden spoon to try to keep things contained but it was really ugly. I cut the yellow/orange circles larger, thinking that the smaller circles may have been the problem, but they weren't much better. The plastic also doesn't shrink evenly, so the finished item isn't a perfect circle no matter how hard you try to cut a perfect circle in the first place.

Here's the ugly aftermath:

Yeah.

I salvaged a couple of the larger ones and threaded them with some gold ribbon -

 

- but that didn't help much. Oh well.

When I used this shrink plastic before, my shapes were irregular - flowers, architecture details, etc. I think this may have helped with the curling issue. I was able to get a really nice, flat finish on a few pieces by immediately pressing them with a tailor's clapper and letting them harden and cool under it - the clapper is solid wood so it gave a bit of weight and a smooth surface.

Still not sure what happened, maybe I'll give it a try again in the future. I may try to get hold of a heat gun, it seems like it would be easier to control the shrinking process that just sticking them in the oven.

week 11 - alabama chanin t-shirt

Oooh, this one was so fun!

I've had Natalie Chanin's Alabama Stitch Book for a while but haven't made anything from it yet. I love the philosophy and there are some fun techniques, but my aesthetic is more polished and finished than the slightly raw and rough style of Alabama Chanin's pieces. I needed to figure out how to make it work for me, because I LOVE me some hand stitching!

Enter the awesome Etsy Labs and their weekly craft nights. I squeeeeed when I saw that Natalie Chanin herself would be leading a workshop. The fact that these workshops are on Mondays is great for me, and I was really happy to have one that I really wanted to go to.

The Etsy offices are really cool, and the lab space is lovely and full of light. There were all kinds of folks who attended, with varying skill levels. Natalie herself was super sweet and talked about her work and commitment to sustainable living. She discussed the materials she uses (organic cotton jersey and button/craft thread) and demonstrated some of her techniques. Along the way there were lots of charming Southern stories and practical advice (like always "loving" your thread to keep it from tangling - and to infuse the project with love!)

I had a boring old green t-shirt with me, and I chose some lavender jersey from the scrap pile. I decided to do a bit of reverse applique using one of the stencils from her first book. It was pretty down and dirty - I traced the stencil to the right side with a Sharpie (at Alabama Chanin they typically use airbrushed fabric paints) so the marker became part of the design. I lined up the fabric behind the stenciled area, pinned, and began outlining with a running stitch using the only thread within reach, which was brown (not my first choice, but it was a very crowded workshop!)

 

Once the designs were all stitched, I went in with small, sharp scissors and trimmed away the inside of the design area, leaving an 1/8" wide border. Then I went to the wrong side and cut out each individual applique:

 

All done! And since it's green, I was able to wear it for St. Patrick's Day! :-)

 

The workshop was really fun, and I left with Natalie's new book, Alabama Studio Style, which she kindly autographed for me. Now that I see that you can do this kind of stuff but keep it a little more polished looking, I look forward to tackling a larger project - maybe a skirt? Stay Tuned!

week 10 - do not disturb

Well, full disclosure - while the main embroidery on this was finished in the allotted week, I didn't get around to finishing it until a few days later. Oh well.

So, this week I made a "Do Not Disturb" sign for the dressing room door at work. We've been taping up signs scrawled in Sharpie for ages and I've been wanting to make us something prettier!

 

So, a scrap of Aida cloth, a 4" wooden hoop, a bit o' floss, and this very cool alphabet generator: voila! Best cross stitch tip I can give is to always run a basting stitch along the vertical and horizontal midpoits so you can easily center your design. I've already removed it here, but you can see an example in this photo. I did the little flowers freehand, and I am really in love with the lazy daisy stitch at the moment.

To finish off the back, I tried to do what I usually do with hoop frames, which is to turn the raw edge inside and glue it down with rubber cement, then glue narrow ribbon on top of that for a clean look. Well, the Aida was too thick and also weirdly impervious to the glue, so I wound up just trimming the fabric close to the hoop and brushing rubber cement on top to seal it.

I was going to use some ribbon as a hanger, then I remembered this tutorial for making twisted cord, so I took some matching floss, taped it it to my desk, and twisted away:

Wow, that came out looking really cool! Here's the finished product:

week 9 - last minute needle case

I had to play lots of catch-up after getting home from vacation (did I mention that I spent an extra day in Mexico because my flight was canceled due to snow in NYC? Tragic, I tell you!) I had a couple of projects that had immediate deadlines, so I was busy working on those instead of thinking about my weekly project. Once again, I made it to Sunday without anything planned. It happened to be Oscar night, not that I had anything in particular planned, but after a long week it sounded like a good idea to just sit on the couch and watch the festivities.

I decided to hit up the interwebs for ideas, and I googled things like "quick easy crafts" and guess what? Craftzine actually has a category for quick crafts! I found this cute little pattern for a needle book - which, let's face it, doesn't really require a pattern, but I liked the idea of appliqueing some fabric to the front, and I have tons of sewing-themed fabric that I got when my friend Michael weeded out his stash. I keep thinking I'll make pincushions or something for Christmas gifts at work, but that clearly hasn't happened yet.

Anyway, I chose some bright pink felt because I wanted something that would be easy to find when I need a needle, and I had matching fabric with a fun ruler print along the selvedge. 

 

 

Nothing fancy, but it was a fun little thing to do while watching the painful spectacle that the Oscars has become (I would really like to have words with whoever thought it was a good idea to play "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar" when Kathryn Bigelow took the stage.....) There were a lot of cute things that popped up in my Google search - I can see a mom with snowed-in kids taking to the internet for things to keep them busy.

I'm also pleased that my trend of using materials I have on hand is continuing! I will find my way to the back of the craft closet one of these days!

playing catch-up - weeks 7 & 8

So, once again - this project is not working quite like I had hoped/planned. The crafting is definitely happening, the blogging not so much. I have a few weeks to update you on, so here we go!

Week 7: Playa Del Carmen Halter

   

I finally got out of winter weather and headed down to Mexico for a few days. I've had this fabric lying around forever, I can't even remember what I originally bought it for. I've also had Amy Butler's Cabo Halter pattern for a while. It's been a long time since I've made any clothes for myself, so I thought this would be a fun addition to my vacation wardrobe.

I wasn't sure about the fit on this - I think I remember reading a review on PatternReview that said the bust shaping was a little lacking for a bustier figure. I anticipated needing to adjust and/or add darts but surprisingly when it was all done it fit perfectly! In fact, the only alteration I did need was to take in the center back seam, and this may have been partly necessary because my fabric had a bit of stretch to it. It will be interesting to see how it fits in a fabric with zero stretch - and I did like this pattern enough to make it again.

As far as the pattern goes, it's quite well written and clear. One really nice detail is how the directions specify the points where the garment can be tried on and adjusted easily, which is something an inexperienced stitcher may not know. Don't look too closely at my zipper - I don't have an invisible zipper foot, so I did a sort of cheat where you press the zipper open, baste it in, and stitch it using a regular zipper foot. Acceptable, but not my best work.

Final result - LOVED it. Fits great, not too skimpy, very flattering. In fact, it was the first thing I pulled out of my suitcase when I wanted to change out of my grubby airplane clothes. Perfect for a warm Playa del Carmen evening :-)

Week 8 - Beach Finds Necklaces

 

Playa's beaches were restored in the last few months and are now an even more enjoyable place to wander and collect treasures. I came home with a ziploc bag full of shells, coral, and the ultimate treasure: a shark's tooth!

Once again, I was able to use materials I already had - for some reason I had 18 gauge jewelry wire (why? no idea!) and even though I've never done any wire wrapping I figured it couldn't be too hard. I plunged in and this what I came up with:

Shark tooth! So cool - haven't seen one of these since my brief stint in Venice, FL, where they are everywhere.

 

I really liked the color of this shell, and I tried to do an interesting wrap thingie. I stumbled on some cool texturizing when I needed to cover up a couple of bad twists of the pliers. I just squeezed and squished gently along the wire which helped strengthen it as well as make it look a little cooler.

I haven't actually worn either of these yet, but since the weather here is slowly getting beachier, I think I will be sporting one soon!

week 6 - quite possibly the cutest hat ever

Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of joining fiber artist Robyn Love at Wave Hill in the Bronx for an afternoon of spinning and chatting. Robyn is doing a very cool project called House Study/Handmade - using her naturally dyed fibers, folks learned to card & spin and left with a fresh skein of handspun yarn to make a hat with. The hats will be displayed at Wave Hill in March, then distributed to participants at a hat party, with any leftovers going to a local nonprofit.

Robyn had a gorgeous, sunny corner studio and it was a lot of fun watching people as they discovered the joys of playing with fiber. I especially enjoyed the two young brothers who took over the drum carder and created fun and funky batts to spin from!

I made  tiny skein from fiber bits that were left on the table - since the carder was busy, I combined and smoothed them by hand and I think it came out really nicely!

 

I took a skein of Robyn's yarn:

 

I used her yarn for a simple hat, and turned my yarn into an i-cord flower:

I love it! I really want to keep it for myself :-) but I will honor the project and send it off to Robyn - I look forward to seeing it on display!

Oh, and if you've never been to Wave Hill, you must check it out. It's a true hidden gem of NYC.

week 5 - lucky shirt

So, week five was the week before the Superbowl and while I'm not a huge football fan, like so many people I get sucked into the drama of the championship, and of course I had to root for New Orleans. I've only been there once but I do have a tenuous connection with the city due to all the hours my dad spent there when he was at LSU.... that counts, right?

I've been wanting to get away from the flowers and also continue with my use of materials I have on hand - that wasn't a specific goal, but damn - I have a lot of craft supplies around here. Might as well use what I've got, right? I decided to do some embroidery on a t-shirt and after discarding a few dumb ideas, I decided that a tribute to the Saints in the form of a fleur de lis was going to be it.

This little project was almost a bit of a fail. I was sure I had a light grey t-shirt that could use some jazzing up. I was also sure I had some iron-on stabilizer in the craft stash. I was wrong on both counts. I still haven't found that t-shirt, and I must have hallucinated the stabilizer.... So, plan B, I knew I had a darker grey shirt that had an oil stain on the front that could stand to be covered up a bit.

I printed a fleur de lis, tried on the shirt in front of the mirror for placement, and traced it with a transfer pencil. Then I ironed the design onto the shirt.....

 

Yeah, kind of hard to see, but I've got sharp eyes. The real issue here? The oil stain I wanted to hide is on the LEFT side. D'oh! I had a mirror image moment - I guess I really should have pinned it in place.

Oh well, the stain isn't that bad and it's too late to do anything but stitch on! I decided to just plunge in and do it without stabilizer or hoop, since the fabric is a pretty thin knit and I didn't want to distort it. I had lovely floss in purple and gold....

 

And I plunged in, careful with the tension so stitches were even and had a bit of give. I heart stem stitch!

 

I kept it simpler than I had originally planned - the gold looked garish against the darker t-shirt, so I called it finished after I did the purple outline. I actually really like the subtle contrast, and it doesn't scream "New Orleans" so it's more versatile to wear.

Here's the only decent photo I got - the lighting in my apartment is so awful it's really hard to get a decent shot:

 

All in all, I'm pretty proud of this work! It's really even and not distorted. It was tricky but not impossible - the lack of contrast between the fabric and the design was harder to deal with than the tension, but as long as I had good light, it wasn't too bad. I used 6 strands, but I really prefer 3 or 4, I think. If I had used fewer strands, I probably would have been able to be more detailed.

And in case you were wondering, I finished it in plenty of time to wear while watching the game to its thrilling conclusion :-) Lucky shirt, indeed!

crafting: A ....... blogging: D+

So, yeah - the project is happening, I swear. I'm just not getting around to blogging about it, which is silly since the whole POINT of the project was to restart the blog!

Anyway, without further ado - I present weeks 4 and 5!

Week 4 - Tipsy flowers:

I had seen this tutorial on Twitter via Ysolde's feed - cute little felt rose hair clips from the Purl Bee. I bookmarked and thought it might make a cute project one day, and then once again I ran out of time and wound up crafting on a Sunday night. I was a wee bit tipsy since it was Kevin's last day at the show so there were the obligatory cocktails afterwards. Luckily, I had all the supplies for these on hand, and they were easy enough that being a wee bit tipsy didn't matter :-)

 

Those I made on Sunday, the next day I whipped up a couple more (but they aren't technically part of 52in52 since they were made the next week!)

 

 

Simple and fun, not much more to say there! I think a cluster of them would be a fun trim on a t-shirt or scarf - I just really love the shape of the finished flower. I thought about jazzing the idea up by fusing some fabric to the felt, or maybe fusing two fabrics together - maybe a thought for the future.

Hmm, week five deserves its own post. Carry on!

read my pins

One of my New Year's "non-resolutions" was to get to museums more often, especially for special exhibits. I am constantly noting things I want to see only to find that the exhibit is over just when I finally plan to go. I was soooo mad at myself for missing the "Fashioning Felt" show at the Cooper Hewitt, especially since I missed it by just a few days. No excuse for that in this city!

So - there are two things that have been at the top of my list and I was determined not to miss. One is the Silk Road exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, but since it's open until August and it's one of the rare museums open on Mondays, I have plenty of time to catch it.

The other one is at the Museum of Arts and Design in its spectacular new home on Columbus Circle (I know a lot of people don't like that building but I love it and the views? Awesome.) "Read My Pins" is an exhibit of former Secretary of State Madeline Albright's many, many intriguing signature brooches, and a little background on her life and how she uses her accessories to send messages. Really cool stuff, and what an inspiring woman.

And speaking of inspiring, the whole museum really blew me away. There are open studios where you can watch and speak with different artists as they work - and the studios have great views of Columbus Circle, so it must be really nice for artists who are often stuck in windowless rooms as they work. The other big exhibit right now is called "Slash - Paper Under The Knife" and it is AMAZING. Like the "Extreme Knitting" show they did a few years ago, this one takes paper as a medium and has artists that take it to places you never imagine it could go. I can't even begin to describe some of it, but I left really inspired and with a few new ideas for 52in52 projects.

The Albright exhibit ends this Sunday, but I believe it's traveling so you may be able to catch it somewhere else. Thankfully, the Slash show will be there until April 4th, and I highly recommend it to everyone. I know I'll be going again - the first thing I did when I got home last night was to go online and become a member of MAD!