Sweatshirt Refashion

Last trip to the thrift store, I picked up this for 60 cents:

I brought it home and told my husband I planned to refashion it.  He asked, "What's wrong with it now?"  Well, nothing, really.  But it could be so much BETTER, right?  You know I'm right.

So I set about picking out the applique, one stitch at a time.  Nice idea, except that the central stitches go through ALL the layers, and are TIGHT.  So, I gave up.

And snipped off what I had been able to free, feeling an awful lot like that awful kid in grade school who ripped the wings off bugs just to see what would happen.

I dug through the stash to discover some quilting scraps to coordinate, and cut out a delicious bird shape:

Finished product, which is WAYYYY better than before, if I do say so myself:

And finished product being enjoyed almost as much as her first taste of Chef Boyardee (don't shoot me for the canned pasta--it was Monday!)

Sweater Pants

Started as a crewneck from the local Value Village:

Cut out a pair of size 2 elastic-waist pants:

Warm and snuggly for if the weather EVER gets cold around here. Stripes only match on the back, but considering how tough it was to squeeze the pants out of this size sweater, I'm thrilled they match at all!

This is what's left:

Am pretty sure I can work out some kind of apron-crossback-tunic-top for M out of this. I'll get back to you on that.

Winners!!

Thanks to ALL of you who entered--what great wishes! I was so inspired by the number of you who are planning to scale back and bring the Refashion Love into the rest of your lives. We're working at our house to do the same thing: buy less, reuse more, and enjoy what we already have.

Like these buttons!! Congrats to the three big winners: one grab bag each from this awesome stash. They are:

frankie

Shell

Alissa

If you'll each send your snail mail address to design (at) prettyjaneclothing (dot) com I'll get those fabulous buttons off to you tomorrow!

Thanks again everyone, Happy New Year, and may all your wishes come true in 2009!

35 Before 35

A number of other bloggers have composed lists of Things to Do Before One Turns 35. As my 35th will come in September of the dawning year, now's as good a time as any to make MY list and then endeavor to complete it in the next nine months. Lofty ambitions, to be sure.

Again, these aren't resolutions--we all know how I feel about those. These are GOALS for my 35th year of life. Hold me to 'em, folks!

My list:

1.  Organize the master closet--oh, the shame!

2.  Get back into my size 4 pants I bought a month before I got pregnant this last time--the tiniest size I've ever worn, and it only lasted a few weeks!

3.  Make some clothes for MYSELF.

4.  Display Pretty Jane in a solo booth at the Inman Park Festival.

5.  Set up my bookkeeping the way it OUGHT to be lest the I R S come knocking and find shoeboxes of receipts.

6.  Publish an eBook.

7.  Complete 500 sales in my Etsy shop.

8.  Take a great vacation with my husband--again.

9.  Repair the leak under our kitchen sink that has been making me insane for five months.

10.  Send my sister the most amazing gift package she has ever received, to make up for the fact that I am a crappy, crappy gift-giver and she is the greatest.

11.  Teach my 100th student in my sewing classes at Beehive.

12.  Have my little company featured prominently on some really famous blog.

13.  Lose the extra 14 pounds I'm still carrying around since our baby was born.

14.  See our eldest perform in her first school play.

15.  Buy a minivan.  Say what you will, I've embraced the minivan.

16.  Design one really great tween dress.

17.  Cut back on sugar--I think it makes me ornery when I have too much!

18.  Get back to running--I'm so out of practice that thinking about running makes me short of breath.

19.  Give myself permission to relax each night with a novel for a few minutes.  It's my way of sharpening the saw, but it feels so indulgent that it must be wrong, right?

20.  Have a weekly date with our oldest so she won't enter her angst-ridden teen years thinking her mother has forgotten her.

21.  Print out the best of our digital photos and create an album to display in our living room.

22.  Begin some sort of really cool summer tradition for our family--everyone has holiday traditions, but we can do better.  Suggestions graciously accepted.

23.  Incorporate my business, and admit to myself that I am an Entrepeneur--well, Momtrepeneur.

24.  Get business letterhead. And matching envelopes.  Oooh, yum!

25.  Always shop Etsy first when gift-giving opportunities present themselves.

26.  Take my vitamin EVERY DAY, and not just when I remember to.

27.  Have an ENORMOUS yard sale and finally, finally win the war against the Garage That Ate Atlanta.

28.  Drink more water.

29.  Have the ring my parents bought me as a 30th birthday gift reset so that I'll actually wear it.

30.  Call my grandmothers, while I still have them.

31.  Visit my sister before she has her second baby.

32.  Keep the flowers in the terra cotta pots on our front steps alive, so that for one summer, just one, my husband won't "tsk" me all season long.

33.  Publish a series of sewing patterns, available for download.

34.  Convince my husband that another baby is a GOOD idea.  And SOON.

35.  Chill out, for heaven's sake, and realize that my life is so far beyond my expectations that even if I accomplish NONE of these things I am blessed beyond all measure.

OK, only nine months to go!  Keep me honest, everyone.

Give Me An Inch--And A GIVEAWAY!

Stupendous holiday, we had.  Hoping the same for you.  All illnesses seem to have passed, and I have learned a valuable lesson: if I take a break from blogging, it is exceptionally hard to return.  So here I am, in the nick of time, ready to saddle up this horse for another year.

Christmas saw our family of five renting an SUV and traveling to my mother, then my in-laws', then home for my father to visit at our house, all in the space of 5 days.  Hectic doesn't even begin.  But our children were showered with amazing gifts, and we two were drenched by our families' generosity, and it was wonderful as always to have those days away together.  Sleep schedules be damned, right?

Aside from all the Christmas booty that awaited us with each visit, I was crazy delighted to sit and watch my husband and his mother go through some old things she's collected over the years.  Not because I cared all that deeply whether he found the grade school photo album he's sure she's got stashed away, but because in my mother-in-law's house there are many rooms--and many closets.  And much to my father-in-law's frustration, they are all FULL TO THE RAFTERS with items his wife has been keeping for more years than anyone can count, lots of them passed down to her from her mother who has been keeping them..well, since she was alive.

Out of the chaos (which included two pillow cases full of "ironing" that my mother-in-law admitted were two years old!) were these treasures:

Handed down from her mother, to my mother-in-law who doesn't sew but couldn't bear to ditch them.  And now, with just a nod and a word, they are MINE!  Mwah-ha-ha!!

And, if you play your cards right, some of them could be YOURS!  

In celebration of the dawning New Year, I'm paying these beauties forward and giving away THREE GRAB BAGS of vintage buttons, still on the cards.  All the grab bags are assorted, my pick, but they'll all be equally awesome.  Some of the cards are torn and incomplete--I'll hang on to those and only send y'all complete cards with fantastic illustrations like this:

And this:

Leave a note in the comments with your New Year's wish, and I'll use the random number generator to pick THREE winners on Friday, January 2.  Feel free to enter as often as you like, as long as you include a new wish for the New Year each time you enter.  Winners will be posted before Alabama plays in their bowl game Friday night.

Roll Tide, people, and good luck!

A Week of Gratitude, Day 4: Work I Love

Taking the WHOLE week off to spend time with my amazing family. Am auto-posting a series titled "A Week of Gratitude" while we're off doing cool stuff like baking, digging out the Christmas decorations, jumping in piles of leaves, making final visits to the playground before the weather gets too cold, visiting with the relatives, taking looooong drives all in one vehicle, singing songs loudly, and anything else we can think of. Be back in a few days! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. This year, let's be glad of all we have...

Day 4: Work I Love


I got into this business completely by accident.  My husband and I were driving around one evening before our second baby was born, thinking and talking and worrying a little about what it would be like for me to stay home with the kids.  He pointed out that if ever there was something I wanted to do, some work I wanted to do from home, a business I'd like to start, now was the time--no opportunity cost, lots of "free" time.  I told him the only work I could do for eight hours a day unsupervised and be expected to not tire of and not shirk was sewing.  He thought that sounded fine.

So we jump into it, back-assward, as they say.  No business plan, no business experience, no real idea of what it would be like or look like or how it could possibly work.  We were clearly blessed more than once with opportunities and breaks that we couldn't have gone looking for and that were fundamental in getting us this far.

And the best part is, I wake up every morning and get to take my twelve second commute downstairs to my studio, and do work I truly enjoy while having the freedom to stop for PB&J with my kids or leave early for violin concerts at school or tend to sick children if necessary.  My family is still top priority, and my work is something I look forward to and think about when I don't have to.  It's such a colossal blessing, one I didn't know I was missing until I found it.

Who knew?

Fabric Shop OPEN Online!

I'm delighted to announce, just in time for Black Friday, that I've gotten the beginnings of my new by-the-yard fabric shop open via Etsy. We're building an independent URL bit-by-bit, but I have all this yardage burning a hole in my pocket, so we've opted to launch through Etsy at a small scale now and then expand over the next few weeks and months to a new site. Will keep you updated, but in the meantime, please visit

Whipstitch Fabrics

over at Esty and check out the selection!!

Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, but most importantly, please comment below and give suggestions for what you'd like to see as we grow.

Take care, y'all!

Stroller Bag

I saw the greatest stroller bag on Rae's blog back in September, and commented on how I didn't know I NEEDED one of those, but as soon as I saw hers I NEEDED it. And not just in the lustful, breaking-the-tenth commandment kind of way, like, I really saw that I could get a ton of use out of it.

Then a few weeks ago, I saw this link over on Wardrobe Refashion and checked out the details on Julie's blog. Great pattern, seems pretty easy, and just the shape I was going for (with some minor alterations).

So here we have Baby O's new stroller bag,

from some Japanese canvas I've been hoarding for over a year.

I switched it up with a button closure at the top of the handles,

and did some contrast topstitching on the side seams and at the handles.

It's pretty roomy, and has an interior pocket plus a cell phone pocket out of the lining fabric. I love this one, but admit it has gone through some iterations before getting here, right the way I like it--including three duds. This final product, though, is just what I had in mind, despite the frustration of all those false starts. Am inspired to make even more!

Am thinking of reusable grocery bags in this shape...

Happy shopping, everyone!

Plans of My Own

Fabric and patterns for my winter wardrobe.  Nursing has brought out the Jessica Simpson in me, and I truly can't arrive at my in-laws with June bustin' out all over.

Wait, was that another overshare?  Oh, dear.

Ten Things I Love Right Now

Leaves changing

Tiny baby hands

Fresh bread coming out of the oven

Playgrounds and parks, one last time

Learning who my daughter is becoming, bit by bit

Hearing music through the house--played live, and with verve

A clean kitchen

Catching up with faraway friends and learning only geography keeps us distant

Family movie night on Fridays, all of us together on the sofa with fresh hot popcorn and a PG rating

Waving goodbye in the crisp mornings, looking forward to some peace and quiet.

Sort of.

Hope this is the start of a great week for all of us!

Sublime Motivation

I'm constantly surprised to see how motivated I am to accomplish things simply by maintaining a blog. Did anyone else ever think that would be the case?

I thought, as many people do, that blogs tended to be self-involved rants of angry people with bad grammar. I've learned that this is not the case, and I'm so, so thankful to the following writers and crafters who taught me that a blog can be an amazing place to exchange ideas, make friends, and learn more about who we want to be and where we want to go.

I have found myself these last few weeks writing more, sewing more, planning more, designing more, and being increasingly inspired to share it all here, and I credit so much of that to the other crafters and bloggers I read each day.  OK, maybe some of it is new baby energy, but a lot of it has to be these blogs.

Check these out for a little inspiration of your own!
Angry Chicken

Wee Wonderfuls

Posie Gets Cozy

Finslippy

Julia

Made

Anna Maria Horner

Made by Rae

SouleMama

Sugar City Journal

Thanks, ladies!

Brother and Sisters

Last post: the Corn Fabric.

This post: Some background.

First, you'll need to know that I'm a lot of different people. I taught school for a long time, theatre and English. Most recently, I was an archaeologist. Really. I have a graduate degree and everything. Wrote a thesis and was offered big fellowships to fancy schools. I studied acorns, mostly--I'm not making this up. My focus was paleoethnobotany, which is just a swanky way of saying that I like food, and I like learning about how food was used in prehistory. And there is simply no way to study prehistoric food in the Americas without studying CORN.

I have some pretty strong feelings about corn. Even as I type that, I am well aware of how crazy cakes it makes me sound, but there it is all the same. I feel powerfully strongly about CORN. So when I saw this fabric with my friend Erin four or five years ago at Jo-Ann, I had to had to had to grab two yards of it. I guess I intended to make a blouse for myself? But this is a much better use of this particular print.

Brother-Sister Outfits.

I used to be one of those moms who sort of "Ewwww"ed when I saw or heard of brother/sister outfits, but maybe that's because I never had a brother, or because sister/sister outfits are so easy and obvious, or because I didn't have any boys. It might be because most of the time when you find a brother/sister outfit set, they're insanely traditional and usually involve smocking and insipid embroidery and probably lace and ruffles (for the brother AND the sister). Not really my style, and not something I aspired to put on my children.

But CORN brother/sister outfits?? Well, now. That's a WHOLE different story.

A quick overview:

For O, a teeny tiny little button-up shirt. No cuffs, since he's still too itzy bitzy; the sleeves are open at the ends. But it does have a shirttail hem and a structured collar, lots of menswear detailing.

And it looks so great under these babywale chocolate overalls. They have a sweet button closure at the crotch for quick diaper changes--this kid can make some poop, it's like Chernobyl in his pants half the time.  I think the red flannel lining and the teeny pockets really make the whole outfit.  And I should point out that this shirt represents the first (and maybe only) time I've made a garment without a pattern of any kind--I totally eyeballed the whole thing.  So, if he tries it on and it doesn't work, E gets new clothes for her dolls, I guess!

For M, a pretty jumper with gathers and a contrast band on the CORN skirt.

Buttons here and on O's whole outfit are coconut ones Sweet Husband and I brought back from our honeymoon in Hawaii.  I even put in pockets on the side seams for all her fall treasures she's sure to collect on our nature walks in the cool weather.

For our big girl, E, an athletic-styled tee with a CORN applique

All this needs is a little freezer paper stencil for humor--I want it to read, "Howdy, Pilgrim," but I loaned out my brown fabric paint at an inopportune time of year. If only I were good enough to do a teeny John Wayne on the sleeve...

We'll need to get a lot of use out of these this next week to make them worth the trouble I went to, but I am crazy insane in love with this silly print, and can' wait to get shots of all of them in their little matching outfits.  Hoping your holidays are cooling off and that the gifts of America's bounty are soon to be on your table!!

**Just for the record, corn is NOT a theme here.  It is a "unifying element."

Making Progress

Remember this?

Cars and boats are taking shape! Just need to push on through these last few stages and get these bumpers FINISHED. I know we'll ALL get more sleep once the little man is out of Mommy and Daddy's room and in his own (shared) nursery.

Results soon!

Football Season

Alabama football takes center stage at our house from August to January (we hope!). I made my Sweet Husband a seersucker shirt in red and white for the first game over Labor Day weekend, but the details made me a little crazy, and I didn't really love how it turned out.

Too cold for seersucker now, anyway.

So, I altered the pattern and combined it with some details of another that I liked partly and hated partly, and am planning to use some mini-houndstooth babywale corduroy from the stash. I'd better get moving, though, if I want him to wear it for more than the championship game (y'know, the one everyone in my house will be a WHOLE lot happier if we make it to?  that one).

Oh, football.  You are a fickle and cruel mistress.  But at least we can be well-dressed, both in winning seasons and...not-so-winning seasons.  May the latter be few and farrrrr between!

Sandra's Surprises

I've written before about Sandra, from whom I purchased my sewing machine adn serger off eBay a few years ago. I mentioned I'd post about some of the other treasures I located in the boxes and boxes and boxes of things her son included in the sale, and I've let that slide for too long.

So without further ado, just a few of the tools bequeathed to me by Ms. Sandra that I use every day. Maybe, if I plan well, I can post some of the sillier treasures, too, but these were the ones that made me tear up a little when I recognized just how wonderful Sandra must've been.

ironing ham


I've seen hams before, but had never purchased or used them. Knowing that Sandra had one made me think, "This lady was Old School for sure," and it made me wonder if learning how to use 50s era tools like sleeve boards and pants rolls was worth the trouble. Lemme tell ya, it IS, especially if you work with smaller crafts regularly, or if you've ever found yourself hunched over a too-big ironing board struggling to get the cap of a puffed sleeve pressed just right. These bad boys are awesome in teeny situations or on curved shapes, and I keep mine on the end of my ironing board all the time now.

rotary cutters


I knew that rotary cutter were out there, but I assumed they were just for quilters, which I translated as "old ladies with bad taste." I have been so insulated, and as my eyes were opened to all the cool stuff that can be done with quilting techniques, and the work that some of the newer, more modern quilters are doing, I looked into it more. Once I did that, I began to see the real appeal of using a rotary cutter: many, many layers at the same time with no fatigue, compared to cutting with shears which makes your hand want to fall off. I love love love my rotary cutters now, to the degree that I've covered my entire cutting table with mats so I can use it anywhere.

expanding measure


As if I actually knew what THIS was when I dug it out of one of the dozens, literally, of crowded boxes I received when I purchased my Sandra Machines on eBay.  I thought it looked kinda cool, so I figured I'd use it for marking buttonholes and making my pleats even, since that's all I could think to do with it.

About two months ago, one of the children discovered the instructions for this little gadget in the leaves of a book of Sandra's.  Turns out I was using it right, but overlooking some of the other recommended uses: portion slicing and spacing seedlings, to name a few.

bobbin holders

Did anyone else even know these amazing little inventions existed??  I've been buried under stray bobbin threads in my sewing box for years and had no idea anyone had come up with a solution.  They pop right over the thread end to hold it all in place, so it won't unravel and waste a whole bobbin.  Sandra, you genius!

bobbin boxes

And to prove that Sandra was, in fact, either a sewing savant or an EVIL genius, this is how I found the bobbins (the ones that corresponded with the 400 spools of thread I received) organized: in teensy acrylic boxes designed for that purpose and sorted by color family.  I sincerely pray that Sandra used her powers for Good while on this planet, because this level of organization and foresight could take down a lesser nation than ours.

I'll show more if I can get my act together enough to get photos of them--Sandra was FULL of surprises.

Orders Shipping Out!

We had SUCH a great time at the trunk show hosted by some sweet friends recently, and now orders are ready and starting to ship out! Just in time, too, since the weather (praise heaven!) has finally started to turn.

Alphabet tees--with some of the letter hiding on the back.

Lots of little girls getting this coat/dress for the fall, in bright shades of corduroy.

Here it is in wide-wale olive cord, lined with a green damask print cotton. So perfect for days that start crisp but not frigid--too cool for a sweater but too warm for a down coat.
Big covered buttons and a Mandarin collar that can be turned down to a mini-Peter Pan.  Lots of room to layer, too.

And in the baby wales, it doubles as a dress over tights and boots when the snows come.

All packed up and ready to go!

I love the satisfaction of putting together an order and knowing just who will wear it. I know it sounds like an ad line, but I really do think about the wearer with each stitch then, and I try to make it something special they'll really treasure. I get a lot of pleasure out of making each piece by hand.

And now--more time to focus on the spring line!! Oooh, I can't wait to show it off. I might be EVEN MORE excited about it than I was about the fall and winter collections, if that's possible. More soon!

Where Did Baby's Bumpers Go?*

After writing about O's applique crib bumpers, I thought I'd drop a little note about what happened to M's pink floral bumpers once they were retired so she can move to the toddler bed.

We found this fantastic toddler bed on Craig's List for a crazy reasonable price (mattress included). Better than Ikea, since it doesn't require a special size sheet, and she has plenty of pink and flowered ones that Baby O won't use. We moved her curtains to over her bed when she and O moved into the same room, and I wanted to reuse the fabric I covered her bumpers with as a comforter.

I ripped the covers off the bumpers, used a rotary cutter to trim them to size, and patchworked them together in sort of a modified log cabin design. The solid pink is the fabric I used to cover the diaper changing pad (which never quite got stitched--I just wrapped it around the pad for two years!).

It's still a little bit of a Work In Progress, but I really like the way the fabrics are coming together, and am so pleased to be able to re-use what we've already got rather than run out and try to find just the right thing at the store--I always have a picture in my head and can never get just what I want when shopping, so I might as well make it happen this way!

*The title is an homage to one of my all-time favorite Golden Books, "Where Did The Baby Go?" by Eloise Wilkin. Did you read that one when you were little? I even love the images of the clothes--soooo 1974.

Ubiquitous Sweater Refashion

For whatever reason, every Wardrobe Refashionista seems to do a sweater refashion of some kind. The most common is the crew-neck-to-cardigan refashion, although I aspire to something like what Sommerset posted about recently.

I bought this oversized red wool sweater to turn into a maternity sweater, back when I thought I'd still be pregnant right now.

It's good quality, and looked great, so considering I was going to cut it apart and adjust it anyway, I went ahead with my plan--just lopped off more than originally anticipated! I needed a new red cardigan, anyway.

Took out some under the arms and at the side seams, and sliced down the center front.

Applying tear-away stabilizer along those edges made it easier to install button holes and to stitch the fronts without distorting the shape too much.

Stabilizer is a fantastic invention--if you're not sewing with it now, go get some and play to see what's possible. It's perfect for doing appliques on tees, to prevent the fabric from shifting. You can also use it along with the scallop stitch setting on your sewing machine, if your machine has one, to do a scalloped edge or a picot edge along the hem of a garment. (Tutorial on that coming soon!)

I stitched red floral embroidered ribbon along the edges I'd cut, to allow me to add buttons and buttonholes through the ribbon on either front panel. This embroidered rib bon is from the stash and has been waiting for a home forever, but since I only had half a yard, it's been tough to find just the right project. Here at least it'll get seen!

I used the rolled hem setting on my serger to give a neat finish to the fronts--I hadn't used the machine that way previsouly and was really pleased with how easy it was to get a clean, professional finish with a little bit of a decorative aspect to it. I stitched the ribbon right on top of the serged edges, rather than wrapping them as I originally intended. This made for less bulk and allowed me to show the whole ribbon without losing any of the design to the backside of the front edge.

Fits well, super warm, and already been to the cleaners. It does need some adjustments at the underarm, but since I currently spend most of my time getting spit up upon, I'm not doing any runway shows, so I'm putting off completing that step. New sweater for me before the cold gets here--am just thrilled with that accomplishment!