The theme for this year’s handmade for the holidays gifts was ‘using the stash’. With the exception of some necessary new items, every handmade gift was made with something from my stash or sourced from the local creative reuse place, The Scrappy Elephant.
It started last fall when I got the itch to overhaul my wardrobe. I wanted to find a few basic patterns that I could use repeatedly for a uniform of sorts. This resulted in my spending quite a bit of time perusing patterns online, both the big four (McCall’s, Vogue, Butterick and Simplicity) and indie patterns (so many indie patterns!). I didn’t want a lot of components in the pattern as I’m a lazy seamstress – I’m in awe of you who do these complicated, beautiful garments, but I much prefer something I can make in an afternoon. And so, after a lot of internet surfing and falling down some hashtag rabbit holes on Instagram, I ordered myself Lotta Jansdotter’s Everyday Style.
I aspire to Becky made gifts for most everyone on my Christmas list annually, but this year felt like the first in a while that I actually succeeded in doing that, beyond handing out jars of pepper jelly and pickles and jam. Although this year, I outsourced most of the jam to my friend Daniel the jam god. Between the great canning jar shortage of 2020 and the dire straights of most small businesses this year, it was a no brainer way to support one of my favorite local purveyors while also handing out handmade gifts. Not only is he able to source things like Damson plums, he may be one of the only people I know who is at least as picky about where his food comes from than I am. I know, right? I honestly don’t know why I haven’t outsourced to him before, but I’m totally doing it from here on out.
Continue readingWith construction wrapped up on the sunroom, all that’s left is the cleaning and unpacking. Also, the reupholstering, because you simply cannot put the same old grimy furniture back in the space that you just spent so much money into getting spruced up. But, scope creep meant rolling up my sleeves and reupholstering furniture myself.
There has been a good bit of life keeping me distracted here lately – nothing terribly worthy of putting out on the internet for everyone to read. Continue reading
I may be considered a woman of many talents, but the truth is, there are some things that are beyond my skill set. Like pancakes. And vintage quilt restoration.
Remember last fall when I was hot to find patterns of a particular sort and spent entirely too much time looking all over for them? I had this fabric from my friend Nancy that I just knew would be perfect for a vest. An iridescent quilted satin, it was in a bag of upholstery and other decorating fabrics Nancy dropped off, ample sized leftovers she was sure I could do something with. (Question – do other people who sew have this happen? Where they are given all sorts of fabric because they’ll do something with it?) It screamed vest to me – and in my head, this vest was going to look exactly like one I already had, because the fabric was so similar. Continue reading
I confess that most of the sewing I’ve done recently has been of the boring but useful mending sort, like hemming pants. Knitting is far more portable and therefore conducive to traveling or just occupying my hands while watching tv. Along the way, I’ve actually managed to finish some!
Like most sewers, I have a huge stash of fabric. When our fabulous local fabric shop closed last December, I went in and bought up more fabric than I care to admit for future projects. Sewers, you know how this is. I mean, it was half off or better and some great fabrics! Continue reading
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 