Blanket statement

I think I was in the fifth grade when Mrs. Austin taught us the rules of writing little English compositions:

K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple, Stupid.

We all laughed...because our teacher said the word "stupid," but she wasn't joking.  It really is nothing but grand stupidity to overcomplicate things in life.

If only I could have figured this out before living a third of my life!

Since I believe that it's never too late to learn something - especially a life lesson - I am sharing with you a little something that I think is one of the best baby gifts you can give, because it is just so simple:  A personalized blanket.

I have made many, many blankets for my friends and their babies over the years because my reasoning is that there is always something you can do with a blanket.  It's always nice to have one to cover the baby carrier when you go out in the cold or the rain.  It's always nice to have one handy when you are visiting a friend so you can throw the baby on the floor to play with the dog.  It's always nice to have one in your car so you can have impromptu picnics (or cover up tee-tee soaked car seats 'til you can get home and start the de-urination process - not that I'd know anything about that).

Blankets could possibly be - after love - what make the world go 'round.

That's why I was super excited to stumble upon a few of these the other day in my random browsing:

How much do you love the prints from Dwell Studios?  It makes me wish I were abstract enough to design fabric, or rich enough to own a bolt of everything that pleases my eye.  This cotton jersey is so soft, and I just love how modern but still simple and pretty the floral medallions are.  And that fushia binding really takes the pale pinks to the next level.  It reminds me of the color of blueberries when you cook them down and make a jam of them...just juicy and sweet and delicious.

I think adding a beautiful monogram or name, possibly with a birthdate below, would be a great gift for any new parent of a precious little girl!  And it's 100% cotton so it's easy to toss it in to wash and dry to get it ready for the next outing.

If you're looking for a baby shower gift, you might consider the old multi-purpose blanket.  Because it's not handmade, I can't sell it in the Etsy shop, so if you'd like to give one of these a home, you can pick it up now!

So Simple.

Choices

Monogram $20.00 Single or Full Name $20.00 Monogram/Name and Date $23.00

Mono (FML) / Name / Date

More Cape-ers.

I have a special buddy in Mississippi who is turning 3 this month and I happened to know he was seriously into pretending.

And since he's a little boy, I kind of figured he'd like to pretend to be a superhero.

And I also figured that being a superhero shouldn't be limited to a specific character.

So I turned him into his own superhero:

It's Super MattMan, y'all.

I knew that because his daddy works at the Co-Op, he'd appreciate a little John Deere Green in his costume, so I used that in a nice, poly gaberdine as the cape proper.  For the "M" shield, I simply created a pattern for both on paper and then cut them out to trace onto yellow and red cotton.

The cape is approximately 24" long (I guessed at a measurement to span from the nape of his neck to his knees), and is wide enough to be appropriately showy and flowy without being twirly.

Want a cape for your little superhero?

Let's talk colors, initials and lengths.

Buy your Cape Now:
$17.00 + $3.00 S&H

Color Requests

Initial + Measurement

This is si-wii-us.

We're not much into superheroes at our house.  We tend to run more on the Fairy/Princess side of pretend than the Super/Bat/Spiderman side.  Not that Lilah isn't exposed to those things...her father is the youngest of three boys, so he makes sure that she's well versed in all the things little boys would like, too *so that he has an excuse to buy new toys to play with* And actually, she is so good at playing with boy stuff that all the little boys at daycare are in love with her because she is the only girl who will go play cars with them - or so her teacher says.

That makes me proud.

And a little bit nervous.

Anyway, in the midst of the playing princess/doctor/mommy, we sometimes have to stop for a wild game of the best little superheroes I know:  The Wonder Pets.

Or, as Lilah calls them, "The Wunner Pets."

There's Lenny.  He's a "winnypig."  There's Tuck.  He's a turtle.  And there's Ming Ming.  She's a duckling - with a speech impediment.

They go on adventures in their "Fly Boat" to save baby animals, extolling the virtue of team work.

And they wear capes.

So guess who wanted one?

Yep.

And guess who made it?

Yep.

Y'all are so smart!

I freehanded everything about the design, so I'm not totally pleased with the size.  It's too wide, in my opinion.  But I got lucky finding the right colors of fabric; I just went and picked out some costume satin at Wal-Mart (Oh Happy Day - they are leaving the full fabric department in my closest Wal-Mart, according to the lady who cut this fabric for me!) and got to work trying to recreate Lenny the "Winnypig's" blue cape, because she needed that one first.

Needed.  First.

So one down, two to go.

Hmm...maybe now is a good time to really start talking about the difference between "Want" and "Need."

Piping

Piping isn't just for medical labs and bakeries.  It is a fun little additive that can take a nice sewing job and make it a little extra special.  While you can buy piping at your local fabric store in a rainbow of colors, sometimes what you really need is something that is an exact match for what you're working on.  Sometimes, you need to make your own, which is what I did with Chef Seanna's little apron.

You remember my supercute butterfly apron for sweet Miss Seanna, right?  Well, because I added the contrasting top to the bib of the apron, I really wanted to have some sort of special border for it; a regular seam line just seemed so...blah.

So I considered running out to buy some fun piping when I spied something out of the corner of my eye - a ball of yarn.  Why I end up with balls of yarn at my house, I don't know.  I think there is a part of my craft brain which is constantly pretending it can do things like knit or crochet.  I would like to inform it that this is simply a lie and it needs to get with the program and stop buying yarn.  Except for this one time, when it came in handy.  Because to make piping, you really only need a piece of yarn or thick string and a piece of fabric.

You can see the piping detail a little more clearly in this photo.  Now, technically, you are supposed to cut your fabric on the bias, as if you were going to make bias tape, so that it would work around curves.  But I knew I had no curves to work around, so a straight piece of scrap cloth would be just fine.

It is so easy that you're all going to do a *facepalm* right at your computer.  Are you ready?

• Cut a piece of fabric about 3/4 of an inch wide by a little bit longer than you need it to be.
• Cut a piece of yarn/string a little longer than you need it to be.
• Wrap the fabric around the yarn/string.
• Using your zipper foot, place foot against the side of the yarn/string and sew a straight stitch, encasing the yarn in the fabric.
• Voilá, piping.

I hope that didn't hurt your hand or your face too bad.

But now you can all go out and start adding matching piping to everything!

I got ya covered.

I know that a lot of you really loved the nap mat that I made for Lilah and would be interested in one for your own little ones, but I think it fits more into the "bed roll" category and as such might not be practical for a lot of daycare situations.

Anyway - As I was doing my grocery shopping over the weekend, I ran into WalMart for some sundries and realized that, even though it's not quite mid-July, it is BACK TO SCHOOL TIME at all retail establishments.  Well, except for Hobby Lobby where it is also already HallowThanksMas...but I digress...SO:  I noticed in the back to school section that they had those little red and blue blocky nap mats and just kind of wondered out loud if I could possibly create a nice, cushy cover for one of those - you know, something to make it a little more plush, a little less brick-like - that could be personalized and removable for easy washing, perhaps THAT might be a good option for all you folks looking for the brick alternative.

And then Lilah said, "Mommy, who is you talkin' to?  Is you talkin' to yourself?"

So we went away from that section of the store before she could point out any more of my "special" traits.

But I am interested to know if you might be interested.  And if so, perhaps one of you would like to be a guinea pig and get one at cost for me to have the practice of making it?

withpinandink@gmail.com

UPDATE:

I have a willing guinea pig.  If it is successful, they will be available in August!

Inspiration: TLC

Have you ever just gotten into a groove of doing things so well that it was hard to pull yourself out of it to complete another task?  I find this happens to me a lot.  I like to think it's my artistic temperament shining through.  I mean, famous artists had "periods" all the time.  Most of them were associated with color.  Like Picasso's "Blue Period."  But not me.  Mine are texture periods.  I have been heavily into a "woven textile" period lately which means I just want to stay chained to the sewing machine.  It matters not that there are people waiting on graphically designed items.  I can't think in that mode because I'm all about the pin. 

It's been so much about the pin, that I can't even seem to get myself to a computer to write about most of the things I've been making!  Part of my posting tardiness comes from the fact that I started a new job about 2.5 weeks ago at a print shop, so I guess most of my "ink" needs are being currently fed by playing every day with copiers and plotters and the ancient, behemouth, industrial paper cutter.  But rest assured that I have been super busy making this and that, trying to come up with my own patterns for things so that you can buy the stuff you see here and so that all the crafty goodness will leave me alone and let me sleep at night instead of dancing around giving me dreams of fabric swatches and the ways that I should construct things.

I want to share with you right now a little inspiration that I have picked up from my mindless television watching.  Can I just tell you how confused I am by what has happened to The Learning Channel?  It used to be wedding story, baby story and shows about the body - sort of a "Discovery Channel Lite."  I'm pretty sure these days, though, that "TLC" stands for "THAT LOOKS CRAZY!"  People who eat cornstartch and foam padding?  What???  People who are enormously fat and in love???  People who have huge "members"!!?!?!?  Hoarders!!  Little People!!!!  Washed Out Having Too Many Kids!!!!!!  Big Brides!  Little Brides! Lots of Brides and One Husband!!! Hoochie Babies!!!!

Whose reality is this channel portraying, anyway??? 

And I say all this yet I can NOT stop watching.  It is like all the best train wrecks all on one channel.  Seriously - if Bravo would give TLC the Housewives franchise, I'd be all set to watch that one channel for all my "At least I'm not them!" needs!

But my latest favorite has GOT to be the UK import show, "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding."

Because hoochie babies and dramatic brides were awesome separately, so they MUST be gonna rock together!

If you don't know what I'm talking about, thank your lucky stars or go immediately and hit up Google for the 411.  Because it is taking a toll on the way I look at fashion, and I'm already formulating some great ideas that I hope you'll see here soon based on the images this show produces.  For example:

This reminds me of my favorite Elton John song: "Hold me close now, Tiny Stripper..."

 

Ruffles and a bedazzled heart, anyone?

I do love to see hats making a comeback, but maybe not the ones from "Moulin Rouge." 

Someone just couldn't pick a favorite color with these dresses.

And finally, the ever classy corseted back with big bow on the bustle.  Which we actually have seen in more recent fashion!!!  And of all these color combos, the black and pink is fairly classy.  Go figure.

So what on earth - you must be wondering - is my inspiration from these things?  Am I seriously about to start dressing my toddler in a stripper suit and bedazzling 1980's era prom gowns?

I'm seriously not into stripper toddlers, BUT I am into some of the shapes.  The ruffles.  The bows.  The extraneous details that take the dresses from being ridiculous to "straight up redonkulous."  Everyone likes to have something that is just a little bit "too much" sometimes, right?  And let's all face it:  These chicks are all dressed like at least one of your Barbie dolls from 1983.  Right?  See??

  We're conditioned to love this type of absurd showy style. 

So I'm going to channel my inner gypsy/Barbie-lover and see what happens.  I'm kind of excited. 

And maybe a little scared.

If anyone sees the toddler in a stripper suit...take me down.

Craft for a Cause

I went to college at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and spent 8 years there obtaining my degrees.  At the time of my graduation from graduate school, I planned to find a job locally and remain in Tuscaloosa.

I short - I loved that city and planned to have a life there.

We are no strangers to tornadic weather in Alabama, and so when some crazy storms started blowing across the south and into my home state on April 27, I was marginally concerned.  Alabamians know the drill, and I knew that Birmingham weather man extraordinaire James Spann was on the job, people would be well informed.

I never expected to hear that much of my second hometown was completely and utterly destroyed.

For a quick glimpse at just how massive the destruction was, you can visit this slideshow at weather.com to see some before and after shots provided by Google Earth.

To see just how massive the monster was which did all that damage, please see this video, taken dangerously close to where the tornado was traveling.  This person was insane, but this video is nothing less than captivating.




Because we were planning to be in Alabama for a few days anyway, I added an extra day to the trip so that I could go down to Tuscaloosa and offer my meager assistance in the recovery efforts.  Checking the facebook "bulletin board" for volunteers and donations, I found a group searching for people willing to take victims from the hotels where they were living to Temporary Emergency Services to pick up supplies.

I got anxiety the closer I got to the exit.  Everything out by the interstate is so perfectly normal, and you'd never know that five miles away is massive, total destruction.  When I got into town, I met up with Sean Wrench, director of a group out of Syracuse, NY called "Forsaken Generation," who had requested the help in giving people rides.  After several minutes of conversation, it was decided that we would instead go on a mission to find exactly how many displaced families were in the hotels and find a way to get supplies brought to them instead of having to constantly find ways to get them to the supplies.

In short, I became the "local" who could drive Sean around to all the places he needed to talk to people to procure food and other supplies for these families.

It was a pretty amazing experience - talking with hotel front desk clerks, hearing stories, meeting a few of the survivors and brainstorming with Sean about getting their needs met.  And even though all I did was offer some information, some ideas and an afternoon of chauffeur duty, I know all that ended up getting 150 people a reliable source of food and supplies for the duration of their stay at the hotels.

When I finally got to see the damage first-hand...well, I feel like somehow my brain kind of turned off.  I don't feel like I really saw it.  I think it was simply too massive for my small, insignificant brain to process destruction on such a major, extreme level.  Reports that it looks post-apocalyptic are not exaggerations.

So I wanted to do something else for the city that taught me much more than how to analyze literature or block a scene; how to conduct a small counseling group or eradicate -isms in the world.  I want to give something more than just my services as a driver to a "real" volunteer.

That is why I created these garden flags that I hope you all will consider purchasing.

They are made from ripstop nylon and laminated canvas.  They are approximately 13" x 18" and are $10.00, with every single one of those dollars going to Temporary Emergency Services in Tuscaloosa.  Shipping and handling is $3.00, and for $5.00 extra I'll add  your last name or "Roll Tide" or "T-Town Never Down" to the flag in black.  Don't forget that I can take your credit card via Square, so just contact me at withpinandink@gmail.com if you'd like to buy one.  I won't put them on etsy because I don't want to have to pay the fees and lessen the donation (the square fees are much less), so if you have friends who might want one, please be sure to send them here to check them out!

I know that with the Mississippi river now swelling to massive levels and swallowing riverbanks and towns in it's path, that we will soon have to turn our attention to more hurting people; more families who have lost everything; more of our brothers and sisters in need.  So if you don't want a flag, please consider donating to the Red Cross or Salvation Army so that those people can be helped out, too.  If you don't want a flag but want to help Tuscaloosa, or any of the other cities affected in Alabama, please check out Give Tuscaloosa or  The Governor's Relief Fund.

Inspiration: Vintage Mom

Aprons are making a comeback in a huge way.  I think in addition to wanting to return to a more self-reliant and healthier lifestyle, people are craving some of the kitschy accoutrement of those lifestyles.  Garden gloves with cutesy rubber boots for tending your organic raised gardens and backyard chickens and of course, perfectly printed aprons with cute designs and monograms while baking your own breads and serving a fine meal at the table for your family.

In short, everything is so up in the air these days with the environment and the economy and it's nice to pay homage to the glory days.

McCall's alone has 24 patterns fit for the family, and several of them are clear throwbacks to your grandma's apron.  But I don't want to just be retro.  I want to go straight to the source, and as I was cleaning out my laundry room the other day, I got just the inspiration I needed.

I never got the opportunity to meet my husband's grandmother, but from all accounts she was quite the character.  I get the sense that she was a no-nonsense kind of person and she lived a no-nonsense lifestyle.  However, it was a proper no-nonsense lifestyle, with dinner parties and before dinner cocktails and baked chicken dishes and in that kitchen with a cocktail and chicken dish was a lady in an apron.  And for whatever reason - perhaps because of the his love of entertaining or his one-time shunning of a second piece of her baked chicken, my husband's grandmother decided to gift him several of her aprons.

There is a blue chiffon one that was always a hoot to see him wear, but the more utilitarian of the two I know the whereabouts of is this chartruese and kitchen print half apron.

 

Definitely needs a wash.  And an ironing.  But to be how ever many years old it is, it is in remarkable condition!  It has great, deep pockets on either side that are part of the apron's design, which to me equals a stronger construction than a patch pocket applied to the front.

I summoned my best Google-Fu to try and find out the history of Fifth Avenue Aprons by Mussalem, but only had luck finding some age-old listings on eBay.  So the search continues for information on this brand which I can only assume is somehow related to Saks Fifth Avenue, but I have no proof of that.

In the meantime, I have decided to put to good use some of my fabric scraps by recreating this apron anew for myself.  I think it will be an excellent exercise in pattern creation and tutorial writing.  Besides,  I like to pay homage to the good old days, too.

Plus, I look pretty darn cute in an apron.

Happy Mother's Day!

Here Comes Peter Cottontail, Hopping Down the Bunny Trail...

...Hippity,  Hoppity Easter's on its way!

I had quite a few little things to do this year for Easter, and lo and behold I even got to do a couple of personal items.

Let me just stop and consider for a moment how it feels to actually have accomplished projects for a particular holiday well in advance of said holiday:

:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:

Wow.  That's a nice feeling!

Anyway - so with Easter Sunday coming tomorrow, I wanted to share with you all the cute little bunny things I had a hand in creating this year.

First up are a couple of things I did for the grandkids of the woman who took my place at my old job when I left to have my daughter.  I am used to working on plain old t-shirts, so working on anything "nicer" was a little nerve wracking, to say the least!  But everything turned out great, I think!

These feature the most popular design for me this year, which was the Bunny Alphabet by Planet Applique.  It was just so versitile; it didn't just have to be placed dead center in a t-shirt, as evidenced here.

How precious is this this little Bunny B?  And I never ever would have thought to place it on the skirt of the dress near the hem; it's a great way to get around having a shirt with an emblem already embroidered on (if you don't know if your design can cover it) or if you want it to show.  It's also great to consider if you have a shirt with a stain you'd like to cover that doesn't happen to be right in the center!

We can't forget big brother's shirt!

   

I know these two made quite the pair with the Bunny outfits for the Easter rounds this year!

One of my friends, Kristi, has a daughter who is 3 months to the day younger than my own daughter.  Since her birthday was just two weeks out from Easter this year, Kristi decided to hold an egg hunt in a local park for the party.  It was awesome and the "2" bunny was perfect for the birthday girl's celebration shirt!  And it really shows how you could use this for more than just Easter - birthdays at a petting zoo?  Bunny letter shirts for the guests and a Bunny number shirt for the birthday partier!

And of course, Lilah had to have one, too.  I sometimes feel like that old saying about how the Cobbler's kids have no shoes...I'll be working on things to sell or for gifts and Lilah will say, "Is that MY shirt, Mommy?" and I hate be constantly telling her "Not this one, honey!" 

So I tried to make up for it a little bit by making her an Easter dress this year.  I scored this fabric - the paisley and the purple - at Wal-Mart for just $2.00 a yard, which makes the materials for this dress, including the zipper and the pattern (which I had gotten for $0.99 at Hobby Lobby), that I had to purchase right about $5.00 or so.  The pattern  - McCall's 6269 - was fairly simple, though I would recommend writing down your plans if you plan to do combinations of the views shown on any given pattern.  I had meant for the front to be simply a cumberbund style sash and got confused while I was cutting and ended up with a sash in front and a sash in back because the front bow wouldn't tie prettily.  That was annoying.

But I'd say it all worked out in the end!

So Happy Easter to all you folks who celebrate it!  I'm looking forward to the new projects Spring-time brings!

Talkin' Turkey

Last year, for my daughter's first Thanksgiving, I made a precious little brown velveteen jumper with gold buttons and featuring a turkey applique made from her very own tiny hand print.

This year I was planning to make a new jumper in a different color and tack on her same little precious hand turkey from last year.

But I happened to meet up with a friend for dinner while at a seminar in Charlotte last week, and when I saw what her daughter was wearing, I knew I had to make her something similar.  The best part was that it was a t-shirt dress, and so ended up being about 90% less work than a dress from a pattern!

How cute is this dress?  With it's sweet double ruffle and turkey appliqued from the same print, it was perfect, perfect, perfect for the mild weather we had for Turkey Day this year.

Here is my little applique up close.  I created it on a piece of fleece so that I could simply tack it on  and remove it after Thanksgiving.  I thought the dress was too cute on it's own - plus it's still big - to wear just that one day.  But I just free-handed a little turkey body and feather on an index card and used them as my pattern.  A little yellow corduroy for the beak (and I meant to add a red rick-rack waddle, but forgot) and two mini-button eyes and you're in business!

And here's my little turkey in her turkey dress.  See what I mean about how big it is?  I modified the dress my friend's daughter was wearing.  It was so cute but without being able to look at it, I couldn't quite remember how it went.  I know hers didn't seem so long, so I'm guessing that her aunt, who made it for her, might have cut off the bottom of the tee before sewing the skirt on.  I just left the shirt completely in tact.  Hers also only had a single bottom layer, while I opted to do a double skirt.  Her turkey was also a little more free-form applique, where I went for the very structured tight zig-zag stitch edge in order accommodate having it act more like a patch.  Her dress looked a lot more boutique-y...Mine looked like ya Mama made it.  But that's ok.  I'm definitely going to get better at it, because this was too cute and easy not to try again for Christmas.

I just need the right fabric for that skirt...

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Pillow Talk

I know it's been awhile since I posted.  It's because I've been sewing.  And learning about natural childbirth for my upcoming Lamaze training.  And sewing.  And scrubbing my house top to bottom to beat Christmas at it's own game.  Did I mention sewing?  Expect a bevy of blog posts in the next few hours, because I've finally gotten some things finished and photographed and gifted and now I can share!!!

This post, however, I am dedicating to the wonder that is a pillowcase.  You saw in my previous post that you can turn one into a dress/tunic/top.  But did you also know that you could turn them into bedding for your favorite little girl's baby doll?

I didn't either, until someone recently asked me to do just that!

The sweet lady who got my job at the university after I quit to have Lilah contacted me recently about sewing up some baby bedding for her one-year-old granddaughter's baby crib.  The fabric she had chosen?  Real, live pillowcases!  It makes sense, right?  I mean, it is bedding, afterall!  And I think the results were just great!

Out of two pillowcases, I was able to make a pillow, a top sheet and a little "mattress cover" for a piece of foam that fills that role.

And of course, how can you resist a little monogram on the pillow for the custom-made bedding??  You can't.  That's how.

I made the pillowcase and mattress cover in the same style as you would a sham:   by having overlapping flaps in back so that it would be nice and neat when full but could be easily opened and taken off to wash if necessary.  I cut the "top sheet" from the open end of the pillow so it would have that nice finished top edge; the other three raw edges were just hemmed.  I then added a little row of the eyelet below the pretty finished edge of the top sheet, et voila!  Custom baby bedding for your princess's princess!!

NOTE:  Be sure if you're using a piece of foam for your mattress and pillow that you cut your fabric slightly larger than the dimensions of the bed; you'll have to have enough room for them to slide in and over the thickness of the foam.  You have a little more wiggle room if you're going to use fiberfill for the stuffing, but you will need to remember that to wash your bedding, you'll have to wash the whole thing, and that can take a while to dry and can get bunchy!!

Keeping with the baby theme, I'm happy to share the next usage of a pillowcase:  Semi-Birth Announcement!

With a little embroidery and a cute ruffled eyelet, this pillowcase becomes a gift for mom to take with her to the hospital (or birth center, or to keep at home!) so that everyone knows what's going on in her room!

I first saw this in some hospital photos of a friend when she had her baby 3 years ago.  I thought it was such a cute idea and was so SO cute in photos.  They had not yet decided on the baby's name, so it just had the "It's a girl!" part, but was still just so fun.  I decided I wanted to gift my own version to a friend who is due with her first baby in just a couple of weeks!   Imagine a pic of newborn Reilly longways on this pillow!!  How cute could that be?

Now I will say that the option without the name has it's own fun; my friend passed the pillow to her sister when she had her daughter earlier this summer, and then used it again when her second daughter was born last week!  Such a sweet gift to share with a sister or sister-in-law or any family member or friend to whom you are close!

You could even do them for friends who've decided not to find out the gender, with a sweet message of "Welcome Baby ______" on a neutral-colored pillow!

They aren't in the etsy shop, but if anyone is interested in a pillowcase for a gift or for themselves, please send me an email at withpinandink@gmail.com.  I'd be happy to make one up in any color combination I can find!!  Price is $18.00 plus $5.00 s&h (or pick-up in the greateer Greenville, SC area; cotton sateen pillowcases available for $25.00 plus s&h.)

So much to do with a pillowcase!  Do you have a favorite project that starts with a pillowcase you can share?  I'm always looking for new ideas (like I don't have enough to do!)