What I found in my closet on my day off

Buy this here.

I suppose the title of this sounds rather frightening, but really, it's not so much so. I was cleaning out my spare room / craft room on Friday because the school I teach at had a snow day (hurray!) right before winter break (now we have 17 days off in a row, woo-hoo).

I came upon this corset top I had painted several years back, meaning to list on etsy, but never did. Somehow it ended up shoved in a giant, bottomless plastic bin in my giant, bottomless closet. I forgot its existence.

Then I found it. I popped it on Daisy, and found that it looked pretty good. She's a size medium, and the shirt is a large, but she's been known to fit into smalls and larges as well.

So anyhow, the corset is now on sale in my etsy shop, along with another t-shirt I found in the back of the closet.




Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking. Must've been a crazy year.

Buy this here.

Hippie wiener dogs... harbingers of peace? And books for sewing without patterns

These are a creation from my slightly twisted mind. I dunno why I find wiener dogs even half as amusing as I do, but there ya go. These shorts are the product of one too many nights spent deep in thought. Too bad a wiener dog peace sign was the only result. Ah well.

Anyhoo, I have one in my etsy shop here though I can make them in any size and different colors if the desire is there. Could be on a shirt, too. That oughta confuse someone....

So I have several books I've found on sewing without patterns. I'm really not a talented seamstress, but I can sew straight lines and pick cool colors, so that works out well.

Here are some books I've found:

Threads for Heads by Lauren Clay: This one is the classic on hippie patchwork, but it's written by a girl who did the whole thing on a copier and with spiral binding. She only prints them up once in a while, but you can google her and find some copies occasionally. Worth the $30, even if it is full of grammatical errors and typos! She's such a sweetie in her writing, and you can tell it comes from the heart.

Vivienne Colle's Make It Yourself Boutique: Not sure where the heck this one came from. I was searching for no-pattern clothing on paperbackswap.com, and this book popped up. It's old and the clothing is "boutique fashions" from the 60s, which means a lot of terrycloth skirts and tent dresses, but it's totally retro and no patterns are required! I think this one got lost in the mess of books out there, but it tells you how to use recycled fabric, clothing, and trims / buttons in new clothes. Ooh.

The Illustrated Hassle-Free Make Your Own Clothes Book and The Son of Hassle-Free Sewing by Joan Wiener Bordow and Sharon Rosenberg: Well, I haven't read these yet as I just ordered them from amazon, but hear they're classics that were first used by hippies in the Haight. Lots of directions for recycling clothing and for no-patterns stuff.

Sew What! Skirts: 16 Simple Styles You Can Make with Fabulous Fabrics by Francesca DenHartog: Teaches you how to make patternless skirts. The layout of the book is cute, and the skirts come in many shapes. Fun stuff.

Sew What! Fleece by Carol Jessop: Same as with the skirts, but for polar fleece. I think a lot of these would work with felted wool as well, if you wanna go more organic.

So there ya go. Dunno how my sister-in-law does all her book reviews on her blog without going nuts. I'm already there on the five or six books I just did.

Now I must go tend to my crazy dog, the neighbor's crazy dog who is currently here, and the two psychotic cats.

Rainbow Brite Size 0 to 18 Small to Plus Size

So this is my newest creation, which I just put up on ETSY yesterday. It's a Rainbow Brite retro 80s, hippie paneled skirt. Modeling it is my most recent acquisition, a dummy / mannequin named, aptly, Daisy. She was delivered yesterday to my old address, and I got a note from UPS saying someone at my old place (I moved out from it a year ago) had signed for it. Thankfully, the leasing office had signed for it, so I popped Riley the wonder dog into the car, and we went to go get Daisy from her cardboard prison.

I took a bunch of new pics and updated my ETSY shop with them, figuring a dummy would indeed make it all seem more professional. So there ya have it.

Anyhoo, I'm proud of this skirt for several reasons. a) It fits from a size 0 to a size 18. That's a big variety. b) I French-seamed the whole thing because I don't have a serger and wanted to make this skirt last forever. c) I love the colors.

You can find the skirt here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=18751944

Intro and Grateful Dead Dress

Here's where to get this!

So, here's a blog about me and the stuff I make. I'm a school teacher, and I enjoy making things in my free time. I guess blogging about it and other things that occur would be a fun thing to do. We'll see how it pans out because I'm kinda slow on the uptake on these sorts of things.

My first featured thingy here is a pink Grateful Dead dress. It's a size three, and the dress is new, though I took the tags off to wash the dress after printing. I carved the blocks for the Grateful Dead prints myself out of that white rubber carving block stuff and used them to stamp the pics on the dress. The dress is reversible, too, and the inside features green, white, and pink stripes that you can see at the ETSY link above.

ETSY is one of the greatest things I've ever seen. :0) Such cute things on sale there, and everything's either handmade or vintage. Dressing ETSY helps you stand out in a crowd and supports artists!