song of the serger

Hats. Since working with Robin on our crafty adventures, I have realized that people fall into two categories - people who love hats, and people like me who would never think of wearing them. Hat people love Robin's hats, dropping everything to make a beeline for our booth once they've spotted us, same as Baxter would try his best to rush along his potty just to chase a squirrel he's spied from miles away. A primal connection that can't be stopped.

Non-hat people, my brethren, chuckle politely when offered the chance to try on a hat they've been admiring. It's just not a hurdle they're willing to leap, and I totally get it. My disinclination for hats stems from my neverending quest to maintain the miraculous creation that is my 'do. Gallons of gel, hairspray, and perm solution have graced my head since I first decided to work against what I was born with, and I'll be danged if a hat, no matter how beautiful, is gonna mess that up. No hat is going to ruin the only fight I've chosen to pick with mother nature.

A funny thing happened, though. Nobody ever told me there is a silent C in front of the world older, and that as one really does get older, the C becomes less silent. And so as I've grown older, I have indeed grown colder, which is why I found myself trying on what winter hats remained at REI this past weekend, all in anticipation of how cold it's really gonna be soon when Robin and I wander around the streets of New York City in search of all the things that fascinate us and fuel our crafty desires. Begrudgingly I entered, into the world of hats.

There is a bright side, though, to owning a winter hat. Now that I have one, I need coordinating other wear, like maybe a scarf and sweater and who knows what else. And that is how I've spent these last two days, sitting at the serger cutting up sweaters and refashioning other people's visions into my own.

My goals at first were simple enough, a scarf to keep my neck equally warm that would at least kinda go with the colors of my hat. But I can only deal with so much drama while walking the streets of New York, and losing a scarf in the city shouldn't be one of them. So I made this scarflette, a neck tube of sorts, that will I hope will be great for both wearing indoors and out. No long ends to mess with, nothing to accidentally get left behind, just a tidy vision of warmth that I hope to wear without worry.



I'd like to say I stopped there and tended to all the other things calling for my attention, but the song of the serger kept me planted in my seat long enough to finish an experiment that had been brewing in my mind forever. A refashioned men's sweater turned into a cardigan, because pullovers make me look like I've stuffed myself in a hamster tube, and I can't pull off the sausagey look as well as Baxter can. One cut up the middle of the front of the sweater, one cut off the binding on the body, and serge serge serge.



I realize it'd probably be a bit much to wear the sweater and scarf together, but that's what today is for, right? Another day, another sweater. And it all started with a hat.

the rabbit and the turtle (part 1)

Tiny chumley's Sunday afternoon started to look like any other after he finished his lunch.  if anybuddy needs me i'll be keeping dad company and taking a nappypoo on the sofa, the jangle of his tags and the pad pad pad of his jaunty trot announced to the entire household.

I settled down in my studio to finish a few crafty projects, and life hummed at the lazy pace it always seems to at our house on a quiet warm afternoon, with voices from the television, clicks from the laptop keyboard, and whirs from my serger all providing vocals to the gentle breezy symphony of cool blowing air from our ductwork.

Minutes of normal passed, til a flash of movement outside my window caught my eye.  What?  I got up to tend to the duties that otherwise would have belonged to the little kielbasa.  If it's a kid I'm so yellin at them for - oooooo, "bunny!", I accidentally blurted out loud when I spied the reason I left my serger.  Uh oh.  There's no such thing as take back once Defcon 1 is declared.  I quickly walked over to the family room to saddle up our missile before he launched himself off the sofa.

lemme at him lemme at him hurry up open the door let's go this way let's go that way over here no over there oh why couldn't i come out sooner lemme at him it's a bunny where'd he go let's go this way let's go this way.  As we searched the yard, Tiny chumley's furious pace hardly let me get a word in edgewise, til finally with the sun beating down on both of us, I had to interrupt. "Sorry baby dog. I don't think he's out here anymore.  Let's go back inside and you can watch for bunnies from your kitty perch."

As his luck would have it, the bunny did come back moments later, and so, as my luck would have it, I put down my sewing and releashed our hound.

mom can u please keep your shoes on because next time we see him i am certain we can get out faster and then i can get him cuz didjoo see how close we got and if i got him will u let me keep him and how come he was in our front yard anyway cuz i have not seen a bunny in our front yard in forever so what is up with today and hey do u want a snackie i could use a snackie but maybe i should wait cuz i don't want to be chasin on a full stomach cuz duk duk says it will make u dizzy and oh u want i should keep u company here cuz methinks i will stay a while and watch for bunnies  didjoo see that bunny i chased he was cool wasn't he i hope he comes back, panted tiny chumley in rapid fire conversation when we came back inside. ooh, can can u please tell dad i will come back to the sofa and keep him company later cuz i am on bunny watch now?

Yes baby dog. 

Tiny chumley's boring Sunday was starting to look a lot like Funday.  :)

(to be continued)...

make it: doggie vest harness

Doggie harnesses that fit well on a doxie seem few and far between, so imagine my delight when I discovered yesterday that McCalls offers a harness pattern similar to the ones I've made for Baxter. Finally, I can make the harness in wiener sizes other than kielbasa for all his tinier friends! To inspire would-be sewers, here's a picture of Baxter in one of his harnesses that I turned into a costume for last year's wiener festival. The harness itself is made with hand dyed corduroy , and is further embellished with removable dragonfly wings made on the serger and sewing machine.

Know of any other cool patterns for doxies? Made something cool already? Seen something cool that you'd like to make or wish you could make? Spread the joy and share it here!












update 8/09/2000: Hey thanks to Lindsey for finding another pattern, KwikSew 3517.
Check out what she made, it's super cool!!

get crafty: simplicity 1808 (doxie not included)

So, I'm a little bit blurry on how it all exactly happened, but I think the prequel goes something like this. Last summer, I started buying a few thrift store shirts to frankenstein into something new.  As summer turned to fall and fall into winter, the pile languished. Then this spring, somebody I know got a new sewing machine.  Then patterns started popping up on my pinterest feed from the somebody I know who got a new sewing machine, and I liked what I saw.  I started hearting. Then I created a make folder.  And then, I clicked. And then I fell, hook line and sinker down the makey rabbit hole, lured in by what is now the story of my life on things I find on Pinterest and elsewhere, a sewing pattern that had been discontinued. The Lisette Portfolio Dress/Tunic to be exact, Simplicity pattern number 2245.  Discontinued. The fact that it had been discontinued only made me want it more.  The little square detail and cute roundy neckline that's not on the new and improved version, the mid panel piece that made nice front pockets for carrying goodness knows what.   It would be so pretty in the linen I bought forever ago from the garment district in NYC.  Oh how could you be so cruel as to discontinue this pattern, shopping gods?  If I'dve only found you a couple years earlier, I would have been able to buy this pattern at Joann's for a dollar on a good sale day.  But now, if I wanted to make it and be part of the cool girls club, if I wanted to scratch that festering giant creative itch by getting the pattern off ebay,  it was gonna cost me a small fortune.  So, I better darn well get my people pattern sewing skills in order before I do that.  And that is where we begin this summer's ongoing crafty story, because, well, you may not be aware of it, but almost everything usually make and sew is done with my own intuition, my own newspaper drawn patterns, and my own sewing rules.  Taking the time to patiently interpret someone else's instructions and cut out precise pattern pieces, marking dots and making notches?  Uuuuuuugh.  Buckle up people, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

Project number 1 on the Road to Lisette finished up a couple of weeks ago with a dress for little miss Sarah (Simplicity 1787).  Trust me, if they had this in an adult size, our story would have ended here cuz it's close enough to Lisette 2245 to make me happy. But they didn't. And I'm not sure this would linen up as well as the 2245.  And it seemed like a good idea to start with a kids dress anyway, because little miss sarah and her mostly still stick straight body would be much less of a challenge to fit than me.  Skills Improved: cutting and marking patterns, consistently sewing with a 5/8" seam allowance, following almost all the directions, setting in sleeves.

Today's project, Project number 2, was fueled by another Pinterest encounter from a post a person had made a year ago.  A giant schlumpy 2XL unisex souvenir T from madwilly's, henry gumption's and my trip to the beach,  transformed into something smaller and way more flattering with the help of Simplicity 1808, and some additional piece work. Yeah, I didn't realize until I was beyond the point of no return that tiny chumley and I would be coordinating twinsies if he ever wears his h r d puffnstuff dud when I wear this tee, so, there's that.  And even though I have a serger, I didn't use it so, no peeking on the inside.  But all in all, a superfudgeable keeper pattern with very happy results!  Skills addressed: transferring a pattern to freezer paper, working with knits, using a pattern sized to my high bust size rather than regular bust.  Skills regressed: following directions (I read zilcho and just made it the way I saw fit to make it).










Well, if you've read this far and you're still awake, congratulations, because I know this post is rather rambly.  And if you don't sew, you might also be feeling as tiny chumley has been feeling these past couple of days.  Waiting for something interesting to happen that involves a super cute little dachshund.   And I promise, tomorrow, we'll be back to regular monday wednesday friday cuteness programming.  Happy Thurday, friends! :)

the nose knows

hey this is new. how did that mailman leave this without me barking at him? maybe i really should let mom clean my ears. anyway, i hope it's for me.





(sniff sniff sniff) dirt. (sniff) red dirt. yes, wait...i detect a definite southern aroma. it's.. a little peachy..(sniff) georgia. i wanna say this package is from atlanta.

now, what are these things and more importantly, can i play with them?





rats. duk duk just informed me that the box says Atlanta Sewing Supply and that these things are serger thread cones, whatever that means. ya think I can take them to petsmart and trade them for rawhide?