05.26.10
Posted in Crafts, Embroidery at 11:22 pm by rachel
When we lived in Paris I picked up a few vintage linen dishcloths at a flea market. What was unusual about them was that they had never been embroidered, so I did some internet research and created my own simple monogram to match the classically simple red-stripe design. Check out that project here.
Embroidered dish cloths are old school, literally. In the time period I study (late nineteenth-century France) girls learned how to embroider, knit, and sew in school. They also learned basic reading, writing, and math skills, but until the twentieth century the curriculum for girls and that for boys were drastically different. Not cool. What would be cool is if everyone learned needlework skills and science. Can’t we all benefit from using both sides of our brains? This fall I’m giving a paper on one woman’s interesting educational theory for girls during this period. Maybe I’ll try to justify spending more time crafting as part of my “research.”
But back to the dish cloths: When it came time to celebrate my soon-to-be sister-in-law, Kendra, I thought I’d give her a French monogrammed dish cloth as a gift for the occasion of her bridal shower.
Since working on that first project I’ve discovered a fabulous site with vintage embroidery patterns that you can find here. I browsed around and came across a script alphabet that I think I prefer to the one I used on my own dish cloth.
Check it out here. See anything missing above? No W – this is actually quite common in French patterns (words that use W’s are only recent additions to French). I suppose you could just put two V’s together… Taking a look again, there isn’t a separate I or J, either. I guess you would use them interchangeably? Luckily I only needed the letters K and B this time.
After downloading the above file, I used the screen capture function on my computer to “cut” the letters I needed and then lined them up in Preview to create my custom cross-stitch pattern.
I then embroidered the initials onto the dish cloth, not worrying too much about finding exact squares, although it was fairly easy to do so on the thick linen.
Voilà. A little touch of everyday French elegance.
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04.27.10
Posted in Crafts, Decorating, Kids, Sewing at 5:28 am by rachel
Jax got a new bed last weekend and after a quick sewing project, it is now also a secret hide-out!
Ingredients:
Bed: IKEA Kura
We weren’t fans of the blue, so we built it with the white side of the boards showing.
Fabric: IKEA Vitaminer Rand, 100% cotton
Curtains are attached to the bed with Velcro Décor Tape
Basic Construction:
1. First I hemmed the bottom of the entire piece of fabric I used. This helps insure that the stripes will line up, since the bottom seam will be identical on all curtains made from the fabric piece. Next, I held the fabric up to the bed and decided where I’d like it to hang, and marked what would be the top of the fort curtains. Adding 2 inches for the top seam allowance, I cut the whole strip of the fabric so it was even in height.
2. I measured the length of the bed (75 inches), divided by 2 (37.5 inches) and added a 1/2-inch seam allowance for each side, which meant I needed two panels 38.5 inches wide. I measured and cut two such panels from my hemmed piece and sewed the side seams. Ironing before pinning and sewing makes this process go smoothly.
3. I sewed a 1-inch seam into the top of the piece (the red band in the photo below) and then pinned a strip of velcro (the soft side) along the entire top seam on the right side of the curtain. I sewed the Velcro to the fabric along each edge of the Velcro, including vertically at the ends (picture one big, long, rectangular seam on top of the Velcro).
4. After wiping down the wood, I attached the self-adhesive side of the Velcro in a strip onto the inside of the bed frame.
5. Voilà, the two curtains attached to the bed using the Velcro strips. I somehow ended up a couple inches short (I say 1/2-inch seam allowances and then don’t actually measure) but I find it doesn’t matter at all. You can play around with the curtain placement and keep them open by stuffing the corners into a space you make with a finger in the Velcro (my method) or by wrapping it around the top frame a few times (which looks more like a valance).
In action!
6. Finally, I feel compelled to note that the top of the bed is completely open and we remove the curtains entirely at bedtime. Jax is a pretty calm sleeper, but you never know if there could be some sort of entanglement risk at just 19 months…
The beauty of this project is that it is inexpensive, easy, quick, and open to interpretation. You could add appliqué elements to make it look like a castle or a fruit stand, change striped curtains for starry blue ones, or get the child involved in making it into any kind of structure he imagines. My sister even had the idea of suspending several yards of fabric from the ceiling and around a hoola hoop, to make it into a circus tent. As time goes on, we are sure to play around with some other ideas for Jax’s bed. In the mean time, we’ll be playing in our new striped fort.
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04.19.10
Posted in Hudson Valley, Kids, New York Life, Yarn Arts at 8:23 am by rachel
Yesterday Jax and I went with friends Amanda and baby Grace to the annual Sheep to Shawl festival in Sleepy Hollow. It’s an event held at Philipsburg Manor, a 17th-century Dutch farm which now serves as a living museum, with a working mill, cows and sheep, and costumed tour guides who are actually really quite fun to speak with.
The first stop was the all-important sheering of the sheep demonstration. The 17th-century trimming scissors made us a little nervous, but this woolly sheep got his winter coat removed without any harm.
The last time we went to Philipsburg Manor the cows were all inside, so it was fun to see them grazing in the field.
The sheep herding demonstration was one of the most exciting for Jax.
“Dog. Doooooog.”
Next up was spinning: I learned in chatting with this guide that we’d only see knitting and weaving in the 17th century, as crochet hadn’t been invented yet: Crochet arrived in the States in the mid-19th-century and it had only been developed in late-18th-century France.
The dying of the wool was done in boiling water over this open flame.
On the left, onion skins are dying the wool a bright yellow. On the right is a deep red produced by tree bark.
We took a quick stop into the mill.
Weaving demonstration
The guests of honor! Jax was so excited to look into the barn and see these guys. He kept shouting “baaaa!”
Then one sheep stuck his head out and yelled “baaa!” back. I don’t know if Jax ever thought that would be coming.
A tour of the stable
The walk back
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04.02.10
Posted in Sewing at 11:29 pm by rachel
I’m up working on some new spring friends.
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04.01.10
Posted in Crafts, Green, Kids, Kids Crafts, Sewing at 8:27 am by rachel
I love that in France the fish is the symbol of April Fool’s day. Back in high school my French teacher went all out (as she did every day, for that matter), sneakily taping a paper fish to someone’s back and seeing if they caught it before class was over. During our time living in France, I noticed that a lot of the Easter/spring candies were in the shape of fish in addition to eggs and bells. I wonder if the symbols all became associated with Easter, or if the fish takes on new meaning for the Christian holiday (fish on Friday during Lent perhaps?). In any case, I have fully embraced the fish as our springtime emblem.
With fusible interfacing and an iron, it took me about 5 minutes to enbellish this shirt last night. I was going to zigzag stitch around the borders of each fish, but I’ve got job applications to write and a chapter to finish, so this will do for now!
Pause for quick photo…and…he’s off!
Because Jax loves fish and all things water, I thought I’d perfect my recycled crayons method using an ice cube mold we picked up at IKEA. Now, the tray said “for water only” but I thought it would still work well for crayon melting since the oven is only set to “warm” for this project. I had tried this with a heart mold for Valentine’s day but neglected to grease the mold first, so I thought that would solve my problems this time.
The greased mold with broken crayon bits
After 10 minutes, they started to melt, but I soon noticed the bowing of the tray was going to pose a problem…
Some spillage, but using the potholders to weigh down the sides, I straightened out the mold and let the crayons cool and harden this way.
And then the removal: disaster as I carefully popped the fish out. Only two fish survived with tails (out of twelve).
The mold didn’t fare any better with the greasing, either. Oh well. We can always remelt and try again with a different mold. In the mean time, we still have some fun multi-colored ovals to color with!
Happy April Fool’s Day!
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03.31.10
Posted in Baby, Crafts, Sewing at 9:58 am by rachel
Here’s a new take on the tag toys I’ve been churning out: a sensory experience in the form of a patchwork flower.
I guarantee you have enough stuff laying around to make one of these: The petals are made out of scraps from other projects and old clothes. Even if you don’t have many scraps on hand, you could use a felted wool sweater, an outmoded pair of corduroy pants, a torn camisole, a stained tea towel, a pillowcase who’s lost his match… you get the idea.
You just cut out the petals free-form and sew as you would a pillow, with right sides together (I didn’t even pin anything). Turn inside out, sew once on the outside to close the hole, and attach to two circular pieces (made in the same way as the petals) with a big round of stitches on top. I made the circular pieces in the same way as a tag toy, attaching the ribbon pieces so that they come out of the seam in the circle.
The coolest innovation for this project was the idea of using not only different textures of fabric, but filling them with different materials as well. Two of the petals are filled with those clear window plastic things you get on envelopes from your telephone/cable/electric bills. Just cut out the middle of the “window” and stuff inside a petal or two. It gives the petal that crunchy sound many baby toys have. I also made a couple of them extra thick with fleece.
I made sure each side had a variety of colors, too. This is side one, with a red houndstooth fleece center, and that pink petal is satin.
Side two has a center cut from a pair of jeans I don’t wear anymore. I used a sewing machine to keep it all together, and didn’t mind the scrappy look of sewing on top. If you want to have a more neat finished product, embroider all the parts together with pretty thread and a more steady hand.
It’s a floppy toy, just like the tag blankets, but I could see doing a stuffed version as well, maybe with a stuffed center or a few stuffed petals, too. It was fun just experimenting with it all and not worrying too much about matching things perfectly or lining it all up symmetrically.
Yesterday I sent this off to my sister Monica, who is due with my nephew tomorrow. Hope he’ll come out soon to start exploring the many colors and textures of the world outside the womb!
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02.19.10
Posted in Crafts, Kids Crafts, Sewing, Yarn Arts at 11:49 am by rachel
The biggest accomplishment of the past weeks has been finishing the draft of my third chapter (only one more to go!), but I also found some time for a couple of craft breaks.
Remember that vintage sweater I framed last year? Since Jax has actually been wearing the thing, I thought it was time for a nursery decor overhaul. I have this lovely quilted doll blanket my Aunt Marge Ann made for me when I was little, and I’ve finally found the perfect use for it:
The new and improved reading corner: framed doll blanket hanging over the dog-bed-turned cozy corner. The alligator pillow is a TJ Maxx find (and Jax fell in love with the animal in Florida – “adiddle” he calls them), and the green velvet one is something I made and thought would add interesting texture. The big white pillow is a fuzzy quilted floor pillow.
I then took an idea from Purl Soho that I’ve been harboring for over two years and added some colorful interest to another blank wall:
Once I blogged about the DIY ribbon tag toys I was making, my friend Cecilia requested a couple – one for herself and one for a friend:
{That little donkey print gets around!}
Here are some in-progress pictures:
I also finished a knit bonnet – my first time trying this pattern and this yarn (big fan of both) – and sent it off to baby Tegan out in California.
Here’s a tip for gifting your yarn work: make a tag the same size as the yarn label and tie them together to the gift. That way, all the info about material content and washing instructions is all there.
Finally, for a totally random travel idea from the daughter of two scientists, you can make toddler snack packs with little test tubes. {Don’t worry, these were never used in any experiments!} My mom gave me a ton of these to organize craft supplies, but they worked wonders during our trip: not only are you only dealing with one serving of snacks at a time, but the twist-off cap can become an intriguing toy for the toddler.
O’s cereal, Cheddar crackers, and Dried Cranberries, ready for take-off
Similarly, if you need special laundry detergent on the go (if you are using cloth diapers or if your tot has sensitive skin), the tubes work well for that, too:
Just don’t try to get these guys through security…Who knows what they’ll think.
And voilà, my list of recent crafty randomness.
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01.26.10
Posted in Baby, Crafts, Sewing at 8:57 am by rachel
I’ve been having fun using up scraps of material and ribbon pieces I’ve collected to make Taggie-like baby toys for friends’ babies. If you haven’t seen one before, check out the professional version here. If you have a sewing machine and can stitch a straight line with it, try making one yourself. I’ve made a couple of small versions as well as receiving-blanket-sized ones for twins born in November.
The tutorial is here.
My creations:
This donkey-covered mini blanket was for friends Meg and Steve’s baby. The fabric is from our old neighborhood haunt, Purl Soho. They’ll let you buy as little as 1/4 yard, which is enough to make three sides of a mini tag blanket {so go ahead and splurge on the fancy designer prints}. Check out the donkey one here.
I like to use at least one side of fleece to create an interesting textural experience, as well as give the blanket some Lose Weight Exercise. The back:
I made an almost identical one for Amanda and Jonathan’s baby, only I used a squirrel fabric for the front. I don’t think I have a picture, but here’s the fabric swatch:
Check it out here.
The baby blankets I made for the twins had fleece on both sides:
My biggest tip is to use a variety of widths, lengths, and textures for the ribbon “tags.” So many versions I’ve seen are matchy-matchy and use a lot of pastel colors. In my experience with babies and toddlers, the more contrast the better. Once you start saving ribbons from various places (handles from fancy shopping bags, packaging for household goods, gifts, trim from old clothes) you’ll be sure to have an interesting mix of colors and textures that will hold a baby’s interest. I use satin, velvet, lace, ridged, and sheer ribbons – whatever I have on hand!
Give it a try and let me know if you have one to show off!
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12.14.09
Posted in Crafts, Yarn Arts at 9:26 pm by rachel
Every year for the past three years I’ve participated in an international ornament exchange. It’s mostly between expat women abroad, but some of us consider ourselves “international” even once we’ve moved back to the states. I’ll eventually post a picture of the hand-made one I sent out, but look what just arrived in the mail from Germany!
The ornament is all lace, made by hand. It looks lovely on our tree, amongst the hand-made ornaments my (French) friend Julie made last year, and the snowflake topper I got last year from an expat in Denmark. Thank you, secret elf!
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12.09.09
Posted in Books & Paper, Crafts at 10:20 pm by rachel
For holiday DIY, or simply decorating blank walls, vintage artwork can add a lot of charm. Check out the Vintage Printable site I just found, where you can download images which are free and in the public domain. Sweet!
Some of my favorites:
Alder Typewriters Advertisement
Santa Claus Sugar Plums
Fisher Price Catalog
Christmas Displays and Decorations
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