posts tagged ‘creativity’
come out, come out wherever you are!
[ my striking green dress. I adore this color! ]
Oh dear… I vanished again from Blogland for a bit! I have an excuse though: I spent my weekend testing a super secret, new pattern from this lovely lady. That meant locking myself in my “sewing room” for a few days, unplugging the computer (well, not really–I listened to a lot of podcasts and music!), and drinking lots of tea to stay alert. hehe! I wish I could show you the finished garment, ’cause it’s super cute, and as with all of Sarai’s designs is quite flattering and has that vintage vibe that I love so much. I promise, once she officially launches the new patterns, I’ll show you!
[ the red, cashmere sweater I refashioned--two years after I got it! ]
What else have I been doing? Well, to be honest: lots of creating! I altered a red cardigan that has been in my pile for almost two years (tutorial coming soon!), whipped up a skirt last week as well (the gray one in my fall sewing lineup), finished altering and hemming this dress, and have cast on a snood on my knitting needles. You may remember earlier this year I said I was knitting a snood, but I never said it was finished to showed any photographic evidence. Mostly because it was one of those projects that just crashed and burned–due in part to selecting the wrong sort of yarn. This time I grabbed something a bit more suited, and have been happily (if not slowly–I find larger needles are hard to manipulate in my smallish hands!), knitting for a half hour or so in the evenings. I hope to have some pictures very soon of the finished piece!
So, my dears: what have you been up to?
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Posted to: creativity, knitting, sewing. | 22 lovely thoughts
pictured charm
[ click for a larger view. ]
I’ve been collecting frames for the past months, with the intention to liven up a big, blank wall in our living room. It’s huge, beige and boring. Today I finally pulled out the stack of frames, boxes of photos (both family and found images I’ve bought at antique shops over time), and some scrapbooking supplies–determined to add a bit of personality and color to our “problem wall”! I thought it would be fun to show you all how I did this, especially since it’s both easy, colorful and inexpensive (the latter being the catchphrase for most of my decorating!). I know it’s a take off from the usual fashion-centered fare here, so I hope someone will find it useful!
[ click for a larger view. ]
To do this project you’ll need: a frame (the picture area being larger than the photo you intend to frame), a snapshot or old photo, scrapbook paper (old wallpaper, wrapping paper, etc. would work just as well. Just realize these tend to not be archival safe; a concern especially for older photographs), stick on labels (optional; mine are from the Martha Stewart line of scrapbooking supplies), ruler, pencil, pen, and scissors.
[ click for a larger view. ]
Begin by measuring the photo area of your frame and measure out on the backside of the scrapbook paper. An easier way to do this is just remove the paper insert that comes in many new frames and trace it. Cut out.
[ click for a larger view. ]
Measure your photo, and mark where you would like to center it on your piece of scrapbook paper. I positioned mine slightly above the horizontal center mark, to allow for a label. Attach the two top photo corners. I found this worked best when the photo was slipped into the corners.
[ click for a larger view. ]
Attach the bottom corners.
[ click for a larger view. ]
Attach the stick on label. This is totally optional, but I thought added a bit of charm to the piece. You can write something in, or leave it blank!
[ click for a larger view. ]
Slip the entire piece into the frame, secure the back on, and find a wall to add a bit of color and fun to! I’ve also done this with a handful of other photos and love how it sets the pictures off, without the fussiness of using a mat (or annoyance of cutting your own!).
[ click for a larger view. ]
I hope you enjoyed this! I’ve been pumping out loads of budget-friendly decorating ideas lately. Especially Christmas ideas. We just found out last week that Sailor Husband’s family is going to be celebrating both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in our little apartment, so ideas on how to add a bit more festivity (we don’t have many Christmas decorations yet!) on a shoestring have been my newest brainstorm! hehe!
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Posted to: creativity, playing house, tutorial. | 29 lovely thoughts
project snippets
[ click for a larger view. ]
This has ended up being the week I babble on about my various projects, hasn’t it? Oh dear! I promise I have more interesting stuff next week–including a new interview! I swear this week has been all about catching up–especially on my blogroll. So for now, I thought I’d show you two things I worked on over the holiday weekend…
Knitting progress first! I cannot believe how much I’ve knit in a little over a week on this cardigan; especially since I had to rip out about 30 rows at one point. (Lesson learned: reread the instructions to make sure I know when the increases are supposed to start.) The back is completely finished and the front right is being wrapped up. I do need more yarn though. Which makes me a bit nervous since I doubt I’ll be able to get the exact dye lot again. But oh well–worse comes to worse and I’ll just through it in some dye afterward and see what happens! (I know, I’m taking such a “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” approach to this. lol!) I love how soft the yarn is and how quickly it’s knitting up. The pattern looks intimidating but it’s quite simple. Now ideas of finishing it by the time the weather cools off are starting to dance through my head… lol!
[ click for a larger view. ]
Another little project I did was embellish a white tank top. I’m only so-so on how this one turned up, but though the concept was worth posting about. In all honesty, it’s the tank top and not my embellishment that doesn’t work. I just grabbed a cheap tank that is really tight to do this with, and tight plus frilly stuff doesn’t work, at least in my opinion. I think I didn’t realize how tight it was until after I finished. Oh well. lol. But basically, I just cut a bunch of 1 1/2″ wide bias strips out of some lightweight silk and seamed them together to create long tapes. The ruffle was gathered and zig-zagged to the neckline (twice. I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t rip off in one of my super klutzy moments!), and the rosette I gathered and stitched together by hand. Pretty simple and easy! It’s cute (I wore it to our friend’s house Sunday evening with a polka dot skirt), but I still am not a fan of the super tight tank. But maybe that is just me. lol!
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Posted to: creativity, knitting, refashion. | 27 lovely thoughts
twitchy fingers
![08.24.09 [twitchy fingers]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3070/3851416823_01808881c3.jpg)
[ click for a larger view. ]
We had a tiny preview of (hopefully!) autumn weather this past weekend, which was a real treat! Breathing in the cool, clear air (not much of the oppressive humidity) got me thinking about fall and started my mind wandering towards the possibilities of knitting.
Granted, I haven’t touched my knitting since early this year (when I finished this sweater and made a small 40s snood), but there is something about the last days of summer that brings to mind knitting. It seems so like the perfect fall activity! Over the weekend I pulled out all my 50s pattern booklets, reprints and internet print-offs, trying to determine what project to knit up. This is perhaps the hardest part of the knitting process for me; I can be so indecisive when it comes to which design to go commit to! I ended up narrowing it down to three designs, brought them up for a vote, and decided that a cardigan would be most practical (winning out over a waist-tied cardigan and jumper-style sweater). The final design is a modified version of the “Diagonelle” style from a 1939 reprint booklet from Iva Rose (it’s this one if anyone is interested). I wanted shorter sleeves since I only wear long sleeves a few months out of the year, and it seems most practical to my current climate requirements. The one element that really sealed the deal for me on this design is the sweet collar! You all know I am a sucker for cute collars! hehe!
![08.24.09 [twitchy fingers]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2562/3851416689_0f3fab9bfc.jpg)
[ click for a larger view. ]
So, I haven’t officially started this project (and I daresay it’ll take me months and months to finish!), but I ordered some gorgeous-looking yarn (in cherry red!) from Knit Picks and am dying to get started! I admit, the long directions (spanning 1 1/2 pages!) for the cardigan look a bit intimidating (as well as keeping track of the pattern throughout to create the diagonal design throughout the body of the cardigan), but I’m determined to try something more complicated than my previous project. Here’s hoping, though, that my yarn choice was correct for this project. The booklet unfortunately only lists the yarn name (which I unsuccessfully Googled), so I had to determine by the gauge and needle size the correct weight. Keeping my fingers crossed…
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Posted to: creativity, knitting. | 16 lovely thoughts
hat-mad
[ click for a larger view. ]
This is a bit surprising as I don’t consider myself a hat gal (not like a certain fantastic lady!), but lately they have been occupying quite a bit of my imagination and sketchbook. Not just the errant hat doodle I shoved in the corner of a page, but entire pages of ideas and jotted down notes. That, my friends, is when you know it’s moved from a “one day project” to a “very soon project”. It means I’m slowly girding up my courage to venture into a heretofore unexplored area!
Which, isn’t quite the truth of the matter. I took a millinery class years ago–I think it was after I finished high school. The class was held at a local fabric store, and focused on learning how to block felt forms. I found it fascinating and fell in love with it straightaway. My teacher’s enthusiasm was catching too, and I spent much of the day dreaming about how I’d like to make hats! Except for the one little catch: blocking tools (forms, steamers, etc.) are notoriously expensive. So obviously that didn’t happen. lol! But I’ve kept a keen interest in the art of millinery, even though I haven’t been actively involved in it (nor it seems an avid hat-wearer).
[ click for a larger view. ]
I spotted an adorable little hat on Ebay a few weeks ago. I think it was from the 50s, although there was no date on it. But it was a pretty basic style: a shallow pillbox with felt flowers are the front and sides of the hat. I decided to make it in black like the original (mostly because that was the only color of felt I had enough of!), but embellished the flowers with black sequins and gunmetal gray beads when I attached them. I think it makes it look a bit glamorous! For basic construction ideas of how to put this together, I referenced this Threadbanger video. If anyone is interested, I’d be happy to post the little pattern pieces for the flowers…
[ click for outfit details. also a side view of my hairdo if you're interested! ]
I’m quite happy with how this looks, although I feel a bit funny wearing a felt hat when it’s still in the dead of summer here. So I think it’ll get more outfit-time once the temperatures drop a bit. In this collage I’m also wearing a skirt I made from a vintage pattern last week. I had to do a bit of wrangling with this one, as the lovely “waistband” that drew me to the pattern in the first place, wasn’t a proper waistband at all! Instead it was a separate belt, so I adjusted it so it was a waistband. (Less pieces to loose. lol!) I made it out of a cotton jacquard weave, which I at first thought was a floral design when I purchased it but was a rather geometric pattern instead. But no matter–it still looks suitable for the pattern!
Whew–enough rambling! lol. I hope you all are having a lovely Wednesday!
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Posted to: creativity, outfits, sewing. | 43 lovely thoughts
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