Wings

I made the girls some new skirts last week.

They're wraparound skirts

that are a little bit messy in the back.

The girls wore them out in the garden today

and morphed

into butterflies

or fairies

or butterfly-fairies

or whatever.

And flew.

Whee!

Breaking it down for you in the next post -

see you then!

P.S. No park today - blah weather. We stayed home to bake cookies - and blog, of course. Bah.

Resolution.... sort of

Hello old friends!

We've been busy with house projects this weekend, so all my creative energy has been channelled into painting one bathroom and ordering blinds for our living room. Also, our old camera (the D40) has gone to stay with my parents-in-law for a while and I am learning to use our new camera (the D5100). A lot of funny, dungeon-dark photos resulted before I realized that I shouldn't have been such a coward and actually changed the settings.

I wanted to do a quick follow-up to that housekeeping post - the one about copyright stuff. Thank you for all your helpful and informative comments. Whenever I am faced with these could-possibly-be-legal issues, I always email an old and very dear friend who has studied law in both Singapore and the US and then enjoyed an illustrious editorial career in a very well-known publishing firm. He has talked me through publishing, licensing, copyright, patenting and other murky things that plague me now that I have a blog. We had a nice chat about what to do with those Someone Copied My Entire Tutorial situations, and What Happens When You Give The Someone Fair Warning And Get Ignored dilemmas, and What A Pity The Internet Isn't A Kinder Place musings. The result of our conversation was that I got a clear enough head to file a DMCA complaint with the blogging platform in question and the infringing post was removed the next day. I was surprised at the efficiency of the whole process. It was a resolution in some ways, but isn't it a shame that it had to come to this?

Also in recent days since that housekeeping post, I've gotten quite a few emails from folks who've linked to my posts and then weren't sure if that was OK with me. And so I want to say this: the vast, vast majority of my wonderful readers and browsers and visitors have delightful blogging etiquette, and I thank you all for it. I also want to say that if your copyright has been infringed upon, there are things you can do to resolve  it. Thank you, Zencrafting, for a wonderful post on Intellectual Property, and Cassi, on whose post I first saw it, and to Sonja, who reminded me of it.

And finally, because I don't want to leave you on such a somber note, here is a lurid photo of something completely impractical that I've finally finished!

More tomorrow! No, wait- tomorrow we're going to the park. And Wednesday we're going to the park, too. And also Thursday. Oh well, I'll find some time amidst our manic summer schedule to share it. See you then!

What I'm Reading This Week

The expression on the face of the boy on the right says it all.

I can't wait to actually build some, but I'm busy with sewing projects now, and being outside a lot. So for now, I'm just reading and coveting and planning.

I'm also faced with my annual summer dilemma: 

1. Sew and craft more because the light is so much better (than icky winter) for photographs for the blog                  OR
2. Sew and craft less because the light is so much better for playing outside and going on adventures with other, small humans.

I'm leaning deliciously towards (2). What about you?

Ockham's Razor for Bad Print Purchases

When, all things being equal, the other explanations fail.

(Popping back here between child-chauffeuring engagements) - Good morning, all! On hindsight, I thought I should elaborate on this demented cartoon and Ockham's Razor. Every now and then, while digging in my fabric stash, I come across some print fabric that begs the question, "What in tarnation possessed me to pay money for you?" And there are also times when I'm in a fabric store to buy muslin or solid duckcloth and come away with some bizarre print fabric that wasn't even pretty. Again, that same question. In the past, I've explained it away with 

• Well, I thought it would make a nice dress for a girl (not mine) but they grew up before I had the time to make it.
• It didn't look this bad under those florescent lights.
• Purple, brown and neon green was the go-to color combo of the er.. vintage era. Or some era.
• I was low on endorphins (and taste) that day. Everyone makes mistakes.
• I was having a bad-eye day.
• It was the children. What with all the whining, I could barely think - I just grabbed whatever.
• It was on sale! (I use this one a lot)

And then the other day, it occurred to me that there was another explanation: simply bad fabric. And I mean baaaaaaaaaaaad fabric. So I drew this to help soothe the consciences of other remorseful bad-fabric victims around the world. It's a conspiracy. Very few things aren't. Do you see the shears of the accomplice bolt, raised in victory? See, this what I mean.

Catch Me and My Crazy Morphing WalletTotes on SMS!

Zippered wallets

that turn into

totes

See?

Bag when you need it -

wallet when you don't. 

Quick background - I remember being fascinated by these bags as a child. All the airlines used to give these out as gifts to passengers - rectangular  solid-color vinyl wallets that turned into thin ripstop nylon bags when unzipped. Does anyone remember those? They've always been on my to-do list, not only because I love anything that looks like there's magic involved, but for the challenge of sewing yet another bag with all the raw edges tucked away. 

And then there's Jessica Jones' incredible fabric - home dec. weight, modern, gorgeous, gorgeous prints (and you know I don't say that often). 

I thought, with summer coming, I'll need a few of these to throw in the car, or in my purse, for emergency farmer's market shopping, or emergency swimsuit-containing, or emergency library visiting, or emergency anything, really. And then it hit me - why be confined to rectangles? I can do round! I love round.

I think I'll make some for the girls' teachers when they say goodbye for the school year - solid canvas wallet that they can draw on with fabric markers, and a funky print bag inside.

Make some with me?

I'm sharing the tutorial for these Crazy Morphing 

WalletTotes on Sew Mama Sew today! 

Update 2021: Unfortunately, the Sew Mama Sew (SMS) website is no longer active. However, you can still access this free tutorial, as well as my other tutorials which had been featured on the SMS site - see this more recent post for details and links. Happy sewing! 

Remaking the Reisenthel

UPDATE: This is a recreated post. Not sure if I'll ever get the original post back, let alone the comments. I thought I'd stop waiting and just repost it, for the sake of the folks who've written in to ask about where I got the hardware for the basket and for those who've come over from How About Orange and found absolutely no sign of any basket here anywhere. So er... welcome, new readers! And here is that post again.

We've had some nice sunny days at last, and I'm finally done with my cold, so we've been out playing. Much better than being indoors, blogging. But I've finished a very summery project, and I thought I'd pop back here to share. 

Now that we have established that I can make a reasonable from-scratch facsimilie of the Reisenthel carrybag, using bits and bobs from the hardware store, I thought we'd also do the shortcut version. 

Before

After

Better, yes?

I was somewhat pleased to find this version in our local Sam's Club for $12.98. 

I say "somewhat" because the prints were generally not inspiring, and the workmanship even less so, but the frame was aluminum and of roughly the same size and shape as the Reisenthel's. When I saw it, I cheered and thought I'd buy one and give it a makeover.

So I went at it with my seam ripper, and saved the original pieces both as a quick pattern and to reinforce the new fabric. The dimensions were a bit off, so I had to make some darts in the original fabric pieces to give it a better shape. The outer fabric is Jessica Jones' Dusk Tulips in home-dec weight, and the lining is black duckcloth. The frightening zebra-print nylon packcloth is sandwiched between them, hidden forever.

And now I have a new basket for my sewing room - I shall use it to lug fabric and patterns and cutting implements upstairs to the living room and back again. Much better than carrying them all in my arms and dropping pointy things on the stairs along the way. 

Incidentally, I don't know why I can't get enough of those Reisenthels. With this remake, I now have three (only). Is it an illness to keep wanting more and more? Or just good taste?  

Catch Me and My Treasure Bags At The Summer Soiree!

Got fleece?

How about far too much ribbon?

Me, too.

Well, then - turn them into fun little pouches!

My girls think they're treasure bags.

You can keep them subtle

or make them summery

and even patriotic -

-you're limited only to what crazy colors you have in your winter stash! Make them in team colors! Make them with monograms! Make them to match your outfits! 

And, unlike my usual projects, they're fast and easy! 

See- this is all you need:

I'm sharing the tutorial today on Aimee's Summer Soiree - a month-long collection of ideas for things to do with your kids in the summer.

Head over to Home Spun Threads for the Easy Version Tutorial!

Then come back here for the Even Easier Version:

Step 1

So take the pattern and cut out the same pieces. 

But flip each side piece into the portrait orientation

and use the base pattern to cut curved corners:

Step 2

Cut out the ribbon casing pieces and snip 1.5" off each.

Step 3

Lay the ribbon casing pieces on the side pieces and sew them on as with the regular fleece pouch.

Step 4

Place both completed side pieces (from Step 3) together, wrong sides out, and sew all around their sides and base, in a continuous U-shape. Trim the tops of the side seam allowances.

Step 5

Turn right side out

and thread ribbons through the ribbon casings.

All done!