Elements Of My Childhood

When I was young, my mom and my nana made a lot of my clothing. My mom sewed and my nana crocheted. A while back, my mom gave me a bag of what remained from my childhood. I carefully washed each piece, but that's as far as I got. Since then I've just been moving them from one area of the house to another, planning to eventually photograph all of them for posterity. Well, I finally got around to it. I went to Joann's and bought some white muslin fabric to use as a backdrop, laid it out on the living room floor, and carefully placed each dress, coat, skirt, and sweater in the middle of the fabric, one at a time, until I had photographed all of them. As I was styling each piece, I realized how much love and care went into making each of them. All of the dresses my mom made had pockets in them. One of them even had a little appliqué turtle sewn on the front, near the collar, like a Lacost alligator. Each button had been carefully selected. Each sweater edge had been expertly finished. Each lining lovingly sewn. Even the dirndls, a traditional German dress, which came from my aunt and uncle in Germany had been sewn with great care (albeit in a factory, but well made none-the-less). No detail was overlooked, from the appliqués to the buttons, to the matching aprons and decorative edging.

And now comes the slightly difficult part, letting them go. I know it's just clothing, but it's also a little piece of my past wrapped up in love and happy memories of feeling special and pretty, as every little girl should feel at some point. But it's time to pass them on. I'm giving them to two very dear college friends so their little girls can feel special and pretty.  Who knew a carefully selected button or a delicately stitched sweater edge could be so powerful. Thanks Mom...Thanks Nana...for making me feel special and pretty.

The Heirloom Harvest Dinner: Part 1

I've been wanting to write this post for about a month now. I'm not sure if it was the idea of blogging about such a monumental experience or just laziness that has caused me to put it off until now. Probably a little of both. But I really wanted to give this experience the props it deserved, and I knew that was gonna take time.

It all began with a quick trip Zach and I took to NH in mid September for the third annual Heirloom Harvest Dinner at Josh and Jean's (Zach's brother and sister-in-law) farm in Stratham, NH. We drove up on a Friday afternoon and home again the following Monday morning. It was a whirlwind trip, to say the least. But what an amazing weekend full of new experiences, gorgeous weather, delightful people, and delicious food. Because the dinner was in the barn of the house Jean and Josh live in, my camera and I were able to get a behind-the-scenes look at everything that goes into making this dinner possible.

Rumor has it Saturday morning a bunch of volunteers showed up to clean out the main part of the barn in preparation for setting up tables for the dinner Sunday evening. Zach and I had work to do, so we headed off to Panera Bread in the morning to work on our laptops. When we got back later in the afternoon, the barn was spotless. These volunteers are amazing! And fast! You can see the barn is ready for tables here...

Speaking of volunteers, they were coming out of the woodwork all weekend. People were scurrying about all day Sunday setting up tables and decorating the space to the nines. Then more volunteers showed up late Sunday afternoon to serve the five-course dinner to all us lazy, non-volunteering folk. In fact, this event is so popular, they actually have a waiting list for volunteers! What a fabulous "problem" to have. It's really encouraging to see how passionate people are about local food.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. So, as I said, Zach and I got back to the farm in the afternoon to find the barn clean and ready for decor the next day. Since everything was done for the day, we all decided to go check out the pigs. Here's Jean and Josh with their happy-as-a-clam pigs.

Then we went for a walk in the woods down to the pond. The light was beautiful.

That evening, we had dinner with some of Jean and Josh's neighbors and friends. Since we had already set up the tables on the second level of the barn, Jean suggested we eat dinner there. So all fourteen of us gathered around and enjoyed a delicious spread of homemade casserole, roasted eggplant, mixed greens salad and a decadant desert from a bakery in Boston. And lots of wine and beer too, of course. Everyone was so generous and lovely.

After dinner one friend brought out his stash of paper lanterns. I had never seen anything like them before and grabbed my camera as we headed out across the street and into the dark field. By now it was around 11PM - perfect for lighting things on fire. Everyone got a lantern and we passed around a lighter to light them. Then, one by one, we released them into the sky. It was a magical evening.

Stop by tomorrow for the second installment of our barn dinner weekend experience, where I'll share lots more photos.

And the award goes to...

Me! See that lovely little green box over there? To the right. Under the Awards section. It looks like this:

Yep, that's my very first blogging award. Tammy from Small Pond has graciously awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award. Yeah, I'd never heard of it either, but I'm super excited to have received it. But it's not all rainbows and unicorns. From what I've learned, there are certain rules and regulations the recipient of such an award must follow.

First Rule: I have to thank the person who gave it to me and link to their blog.

Done!

Second Rule: I'm supposed to share seven things about myself. Okay, here goes...

1. Strawberries are my favorite fruit.
2. I love rabbits.
3. I don't have any wisdom teeth. They weren't removed; I just don't have any.
4. I've never broken a bone.
5. I do my best to follow Jesus.
6. I'm a bit of a perfectionist.
7. I don't tan very well, which is just as well since it makes your skin wrinkly and leathery. Unfortunately it means I have the complexion of a milk jug. Oh to have golden skin that doesn't wrinkle. It's a conundrum.

Rule two, done!

Rule Three: Pass along the award to fifteen newly discovered bloggers and tell them about the rules that accompany said award by leaving a comment on their blog or linking back to your post about the rules (if you write one.).

Rule Three is gonna take a little longer to accomplish. Stay posted.

A Bird For a Skirt: It's Finished!

The skirt is finally finished! Doesn't Barbie look fantastic!?

Here's a quick recap...

Barbie painted me this lovely bird:

And in return, I made here this cute little skirt:

I'd say it worked out pretty well for both of us. You can read more about it here, here, and here.
Anyone else working on any fun projects? Anyone else trade skill for skill?

A Bird For a Skirt: Day 3

I made a TON of progress on the skirt over the weekend. If you missed the first two posts about the skirt, you can view them here and here.

When we last left off, I had just finished the pleats on the skirt front (step 3).

Steps 4 - 6: Pockets!
When you cut out a pattern, your fabric is typically folded in half so you're cutting through two layers of fabric and end up with two of each pattern piece. When I unpinned the pocket facing from the pattern piece, I noticed the fabric must not have been lined up properly because the bottom facing piece looked like this:

so I re-pinned the pattern to some of the leftover fabric...

...and cut out another pocket facing...

then I pinned the pocket facings to the skirt front.

Once the facings were attached, I stitched the pockets to the pocket facings.

You can really see the pockets starting to form here.

Steps 7 - 9: Skirt Back
I stitched the two back sections together, leaving the top section unstitched in preparation for adding the zipper.

You can see in the photo above that I also created the pleats for the back of the skirt.

Steps 10 - 18: Yoke and Zipper
Then I added the yoke, which is basically the waist band and its lining. It consists of one long strip for the front and two smaller pieces, which will be separated by the zipper, for the back. I cut two of each piece for a total of six pieces or two sets of three.

On one set I applied fusible interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric. If you look closely you can see it in the photo above. I cut it about a half an inch smaller than the fabric. 

Fusible interfacing gives fabric some heft, which is perfect for a waste band. It has two sides, a smooth side and a rougher side, which is the side with the "glue" that sticks to the fabric once you iron it. 

You cut out the shape you need, lay it (rough side down) on the wrong side of your fabric, place a damp cloth on top and set an iron over the cloth for about fifteen seconds.  Then move on to the next section until all interfacing is fused to the fabric.

Once the interfacing had been applied, I stitched the two yokes together (fused and unfused). 

Here's the waist band after I attached it to the skirt.

After that I added the zipper. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures. Got a bit distracted by sewing (go figure). After that, all I had to do was add the bottom brown fabric band to the main skirt body. 

Steps 19 - 22 Finishing (A.K.A. Add band of brown fabric)

Barbie had requested that I add some red rick rack between the skirt and the bottom band, so I stitched that onto the skirt first and then added the brown band.

Stay tuned for the big reveal tomorrow!

A Bird For a Skirt: Day 2

I've made some progress on the skirt over the past few days. I find pinning the pattern pieces and cutting them out to be the most arduous part of the process. Probably because it's the one thing standing between me and sewing the garment. It took me a couple hours, but I got it done.

Full disclosure: I actually accomplished this step last week, but haven't gotten off my lazy ass had time to work on the skirt since. But I've developed some momentum that I'm hoping I can keep going throughout the remainder of the project.

Okay, on to the next step, sewing! I attached the pocket band to the skirt front.

Then it was time to create the pleats on the front of the skirt. They were actually really easy to do. It's just a matter of lining up the markings (I used aqua thread) and pressing.

At this juncture, I'd like to point out the importance, as well as the subtle nuances, of pressing. First of all, and I can't stress this enough, your iron is your best friend! Use it throughout your entire project. When you press as you go, instead of waiting until you've finished your garment, the final product will look MUCH more professional and will save you from a world of hurt. Pressing tells the thread who's boss and helps flatten it out so your garment looks crisp and neat, like Audrey Hepburn. It also helps control the fabric, like when you're pinning a hem or making pleats. To press, you simply put the iron straight down on top of the fabric, leave it there for a few seconds and then lift it straight up. Don't move it back and forth, doing so can throw the stitches out of alignment slightly in some instances and can drag the fabric out of alignment too. There are times when you will need to apply your traditional ironing skills (moving the iron back and forth over the garment) but I think pressing works best when you're trying to control the fabric during construction. For a great tutorial on pressing as well as other basic sewing tips, check out this post by Splityarn. It's more geared to the quilter than the seamstress, but there's still lots of great tips.

So there you have it, steps 1 to 3 (out of 22!) of the sewing phase. Next up, adding pockets! Stay tuned.

A Bird For a Skirt

A while back I asked my cousin Barbie if she would paint a bird for me (a Purple Finch to be exact) in exchange for me making her a skirt. Barbie has a degree in Medical Illustration, so it's no surprise she's got some mad skills. Growing up, I remember having a framed watercolor of some ducks she had painted hanging in our dining room. I always marveled at the detail and photorealistic qualities of that painting. Recently, it occurred to me that I didn't have any of her work in my own home. Lucky for me, when I approached her about trading a painting for a skirt, she happily agreed. A couple weeks ago she delivered the painting. It's amazing! I'm over-the-moon excited about it.

And here's some detail shots. Amazing stuff.

Now that you're done swooning, I'll show you that skirt I mentioned above. Barbie selected this adorable Girl Scout fabric by Robert Kaufman, found online at ZeetZeet. She also selected a contrasting brown polka dot fabric for the base of the skirt (sorry I don't have a link for that one.).

For the pattern, she chose a McCall's pleated skirt (pattern #M5591).

She's chosen the skirt pictured on the left (view A). For the main skirt body I will be using the Girl Scout fabric and for the contrasting base of the skirt I will use the brown fabric. Plus I'm going to add some red rick rack trim where the two fabrics meet.

I'm really excited about this project and will be chronicling my progress here, so don't worry, you won't miss a thing! Anyone else working on a fun project?

Such Generosity

Zach and I spent Sunday afternoon hanging out with our friends Seth and Nancy and their little boy Levi. While we were there, Nancy mentioned she had to stop by a neighbor's house for a few minutes to check out her rubber stamp collection. I guess this woman has been rubber stamping for over twenty years but recently decided it was time to let it go. As you can imagine, her collection was quite immense. But instead of selling it, she decided to give it away to friends and family. Nancy was nice enough to invite me to tag along. Knowing my creative bent, she figured I might find something I could use too.

So off we headed up the street to visit the magical land of rubber stamps. Unfortunately her neighbor wasn't there, but her super nice husband was (probably the nicest stranger I've ever met.) and her dog (close second), who greeted us exuberantly on the front stoop. We were given free reign of the collection which had been neatly organized and left for us to peruse in the living room. As soon as we laid eyes on everything, it was like a circuit popped in my brain and I forgot who I was. I just started poking through all the drawers saying stuff like, "Look at this one!" and "Do you think Levi would like this one?" It was one of the most amazing personal collections of craft supplies I'd seen. Not only did this woman have stamps but she also had stamp pads (in ever color of the rainbow), decorative paper (I'm nothing if not a lover of paper.), glue, stickers, grommets and grommet punches. Plus more that I'm sure I've forgotten from the craft-laden haze that fell over me. Looking back on it, I feel guilty for taking anything because Nancy's neighbor doesn't even know me. But I'm going to send her a little package via Nancy to thank her for her extreme generosity. We asked her husband if we could pay for the items but he said no, his wife just wanted them to go to a good home. I tell you...the nicest people ever!

Here's a list of what I got:
- 12 rubber stamps (including a lovely botanical-themed set that almost looks hand drawn)
- 3 full-size stamp pads, plus a stamp pad collection of 12 mini pads in earth tones
- 1 package of mini manilla envelope tags
- 1 Zig glue pen
- 1 package of Mullberry paper

I'm not exactly sure what Nancy ended up with (probably because of that popped circuit and the resulting craft fog), but I know we found a lot of fun foam kid stamps, some stickers (Levi is lovin' stickers right now), and lots of paper and envelopes.

So that wraps up my rubber stamping field trip with Nancy. Have any of you ever scored some great craft supplies? Or maybe it was home decor items or furniture? Do tell!