Economy, etc.

I do wonder how come I've had more sales this month than I ever had, at a time when the economy is supposed to be so terrible. Maybe all the relisting I've done has helped after all.

Speaking of economy, I just realized that economizing has helped me lose 10 lbs. without even really trying. I got my dog in June, and I stopped going to the gym because I was walking him a lot and he was a pup and couldn't be home alone too much. No more need for a gym membership... I walk him 5 miles or so a day, every day, even in those horrible midwest winter days at -30*. Thank goodness I have a tough, outdoor-loving dog. He's such a trooper. He rolls in the snow even when it's that cold. It's still too hot for him! So no more gym membership needed. I do pushups and situps at home and that helps round everything out.

Then turns out Mr. Pup is intolerant of most kibble foods, so I cook for him. Then, I cook more healthy foods for me, too. So I save money by not going out, and I get healthier food. Hurray for a slow economy!!!

Speaking of that, I posted an ad or Freecycle.org about needing meat for my dog (freezerburnt was ok). One lady donated SEVENTEEN LBS! A grocery bag full of tenderloin, 2" thick cuts of pork, bags and packages of chicken breasts, beef liver, sheesh. She said they were past their expiration in the freezer and she didn't want to feed them to her family. Wow. Some were a month past the date, but come on, they were frozen. And well-wrapped. And two lbs. of tenderloin. Wow. I love freecycle.

I sold 8 pairs of underwear in the last week, along with a corset, and a t-shirt. It's making my day.

I finally listed my skirt made from the band concert t of The Cure, which is shown above. You can buy it here.

Cold days and slacking off

Here's my new skirt I made last weekend. BUY HERE. It's retro 80s, rainbow, boho, little bit of everything cute, flowery Care Bear happiness. It's a size large, but it fits me and I'm a small. It stretches a lot to accomodate a large though.

There are some things you make and it's kinda like, eh. Then there are those things you make and they make you happy in return. This did it for me, because I loved the Care Bears when I was growing up. My neighbors, my brothers, and I had a Care Bear club in Billy K's treehouse in the cul-de-sac. My mom made our CareBears. I had a Love-A-Lot bear, but it had curly yellow fur instead of pink. The good intention was there, though ;0)

It's so cold here in the Mid-West. I have to keep my bedroom door closed because Marley the crazy cat feels the irresistible urge to pee on my bed if I leave it open.

I try to leave the heat down to 60* most of the time, to save money on electricity (I have electric heat and my last bill was $181 for my little condo), but when I do that and close the bedroom, the bedroom temp is about 52*. Umm, too cold for me.

So, I used my little PayPal account I have from selling my ETSY stuff, and I got this space heater from walmart.com. It looks great, it's cheap, and from the reviews, it seems very powerful. I might even turn the heat down even more if this thing works well. It's on a thermostat, so it turns off when the room is the right temperature. Hopefully it will be cheaper than my main heater and hopefully it won't cause power surges or blown fuses or whatever it is that causes my lights to go out when I'm in the shower with a space heater on in the bathroom (I know, so safe, right? but it's not in the shower WITH me...)

I sold my flames corset, today, which is great.

I have to list a skirt I made, too. It's a Cure skirt (the band). It's pink, red, and black, and it's free drawstring waisted. I made it last weekend, too, so I should have listed it then, but, hey, been lazy...

That's all for now...

Such a long time. Christmas hoodies, etc.

So I haven't posted in a while. It's been so cold here in the midwest that school was canceled in most districts two days in a row. I got Friday off, and Monday is MLK day, so I really have a four day weekend. I just realized that my doggie's multitudes of skin problems are not allergies but a reaction to electric heat and the dryness of it. So I have to keep the heat down at 60*, which he loves, the cats hate, and I tolerate. I live on the bottom floor of a three floor condo, so I was probably heating the whole building anyhow (which is why my electric bill is $170 a month for a tiny condo!!). Now, my neighbors upstairs can pay for their own heat! The I have the "ghetto humidifier": a pot of boiling water on the stove.

Made and sold a few things over break, and I have about $100 in my paypal account now, which is awesome for me. If I just listed things more often, I'd be $500 richer a month, right? Ha. Laziness gets in the way.

I made my first two stenciled hoodies for my brother and my sister-in-law. We have been into making gifts for each other, and hoodies are everyone's favorite thing to wear in the midwest in winter, right? Anyhow, I am abnormally proud of these sweatshirts, so here they are:


The DNA Geek one is for my lil brother. He is a biologist and a self-proclaimed geek. I am telling everyone that you haven't really lived until you've cut a stencil of a DNA double helix. Really.



This one was for my sister-in-law, who reads more than me, which I didn't think was possible. Haha. She blogs about it at: http://openmindinsertbook.blogspot.com/ . The stencil on it was much easier. The hoodie looks better on her than on my dummy.

When I showed people the hoodies, most of them said, "Won't your brother and his wife beinsulted?" or "That's not nice! Who'd want to wear something that said that?" Apparently, they don't know our family....

Thought later I should have kept the stencils and made more sweatshirts and maybe put them in my etsy store. Too late. Threw the stencils away; they were fragile and made of cardstock anyhow. Limited runs, I guess. Not that I think the world is running amuck with self-proclaimed book nerds and DNA geeks, but there's gotta be some.

That's all for now. Maybe I'll post again soon. Haha. That laziness thing again....

(If you do want a sweatshirt like this, feel free to go to my etsy store and convo me, and maybe I can remake the stencils....)

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!