Summer Crafts

This summer, I took on a couple of small projects. The first is a purse made from a Nancy Zieman pattern. The pattern was great, but the accompanying directions were extremely complicated. However, I did manage to get a nice purse out of it.

I got a book out of the library called "Sew Darn Cute", and found a pattern for this little craft apron. It's made of canvas with fabric ironed onto it. I've had this piece of flowered fabric sitting in the basement for a year, and didn't know what to do with it. I think the fabric was perfect for this apron. I especially like the "scissor holster", don't you?

I do what Martha says

The latest issue of Martha Stewart Living was waiting for me when I returned from my trip to Paris this month. She suggested making coasters out of old maps and I thought this would be a great present for my friend Mindy since we had just finished a wonderful trip together and because I knew she needed felt-lined coasters because cork sticks to her table's surface. I followed Martha's instructions and just glued a layer of felt underneath the cork. They're not exactly uniform in shape, but they include most of the monuments and attractions that we visited and will keep that table ring-free!

Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco

This year was the second year that the Renegade Craft Fair was held in San Francisco. I loved it last year and went back to see what was new this year. This is a very "crafty" fair with everything hand-made. Most of the vendors are young, and also sell their things on Etsy online. Most of them only have one table of things for sale, but there were over 200 vendors this year, so lots of variety, and some very creative crafts! Some of my favorite things: beautiful letterpress cards and paper products...

...lots of purses and bags of all sizes and shapes - purses, tote bags, etc. There was a lot of Amy Butler fabric and patterns used. The vinyl bags are very similar to the ones that Emily and I made from the patterns in the Denyse Schmidt book. (Hmm....I have some of that vinyl left over!)

I was impressed that quite a few people had hand-made clothes, mostly dresses, and many made with funky fabric combinations.

There are apparently a lot of talented graphic artists out there, putting their designs onto everything from baby onesies, to posters, T shirts, bags, pillows, tea towels, etc....

There wasn't much pottery in this show, but this was one of them and I think it's beautiful!

These were some of my favorite bags - they're made entirely from vintage fabrics (can you tell?!) and they use men's ties as handles, with the tie ends just sewn to the two sides of the bag.
I might have to make one of these myself.

And of course one of the best things about this show is that it was at Fort Mason, which is right on the bay, and it was a beautiful day to be out in San Francisco!

Dress update

Here's Elise Andrade in one of the smocked dresses I made. I love her model pose here.
The dress got lots of love on Facebook :)

Summer Harvests

The wild raspberries are ripening near the State Park where we take Izzy on hikes and last weekend I brought back 1.5 pints. They're delicious and I made a great tart with them that disappeared before I could take a photo of it.

In other news, our garden has expanded. Brian bought some pepper plants and more basil to go with my herbs and tomatoes. He also built this window box (deck side box?) for them out of steel. I think it looks great.

And finally my first tomatoes are ripening. I think these two will be perfectly ripe while I'm in Paris next week, so I'll miss them but Paris is a pretty good consolation prize!

Repurposed

Inspired by these links (lei neckline via WhipUp and flower collar) and the possibility of using up more fabric leftover from the remnants of my fail dress, I "made" this shirt.

Started out by improving the neckline of a rather boring Old Navy black t-shirt:(this project was already a success at this point)
Then I made a bunch of rounded squarish and somewhat-leaf-like shapes. I sewed them together with one running stitch and then gathered them to scrunch them. At first, it was too long:
and looked like I lost part of my lei after some luau drama. I shortened it and it was better:

Brian calls this my shirt with "flair".

Weekend Sewing

A few weeks ago I bough Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing. I was resistant to this book at first, but many of my daily-read bloggers loved it and she was on the Martha Stewart show in a great segment, so I bought it. I used elastic thread for the first time and made bloomers for Sarah's imminent baby girl, plus a cute dress for Elise (Monika's baby and recipient of my first diaper bag creation).
This smocked dress is frighteningly similar to the one Molly is wearing in this picture and it makes me want to try to make the dress that Jedy is wearing in that picture!