Berlin's Whimsy

Deconstructed. The Reinvention Skirt.

Well, on the list of inexpensive back-to-school clothes, this one has to be at the top. It's made from two t-shirts I found at Goodwill for less than $5 total.

I used Mayamade's Reinvention Skirt pattern. I made a similar skirt last year, but Mayamade's pattern offers some very creative and useful ideas (the frilly border on the bottom of the skirt comes from her pattern suggestions). She also includes an idea for a headband made from the t-shirt leftovers. There are so many possibilities with this technique!

I went for a "deconstructed" look, with exposed seams and such. If I were to do it all over again, I would add two more exposed seams down the front and back to pull the look together a little more. I used my serger quite a bit for this project but it's not written for sergers----you can use your regular sewing machine for the whole thing.

My daughter loves it and I plan to make more!

Swiffer Cover Sewing Pattern

Swiffer Cover Sewing Pattern

Materials:

·        Basic sewing supplies (machine, thread, scissors, iron, etc)
·         2 pieces of terrycloth material (eg. towels), at least 12 x 14” each
·         2 large and colorful buttons, or velcro
·         Tracing paper

 How to:

On a piece of tracing paper, copy the dimensions of the cover using the measurements provided. Using your pattern, cut out two pieces of the fabric. 

Fire up your sewing machine and your iron.

Pin the fabric right sides together. Beginning on one long end of the cover, sew around the entire cover using a ½” seam, leaving a four-inch opening for turning. Due to the bulk and nature of the fabric, it will slide around a lot while sewing so be sure to reset the fabric into place here and there.

Using scissors, clip off the corners to eliminate bulk and clip diagonally into the inner (don’t clip the seams, however!).

Turn the cover right side out, using a chopstick to get into those difficult corners. 

Press the cover into shape with a hot iron. Press the seams under where the opening is.

Topstitch around the entire cover ¼” inside the edge, thus closing the opening where you turned the cover. Topstitch five horizontal lines along the bottom of the cover (this gives the cover shape).

I use buttons for attaching my cover but if you’re leery of buttonholing on terrycloth (and I wouldn’t blame you if you were!), you could use Velcro for attaching the cover. For the perfectionist, you could place a square of stabilizer beneath the buttonhole area for stabilization of the buttonholes----but hey, it is just a swiffer cover, after all…!

Now try your swiffer cover on. Pull it up snug. On the flaps, mark the placement of the buttons and buttonholes----again, you want the cover to be snug, especially if you will be using the cover wet. For example, I placed my buttons 1 ½” from the edges.

Hold your breath and sew two horizontal buttonholes corresponding to your marks and your button sizes. Sew on your buttons.

Put your swiffer cover on and ooh and ahh with delight for now you can swiff your floors in style!

**Note: This cover is reversible. To make it so, place buttons or velcro on both sides of the flaps.

Swiffer Cover and more.

 
I still do more than just cook and bake around here. Sometimes.

That Swifty Swiffer cover in the new Mason-Dixon knitting book looks fabulous but I recently found that I needed a cover fast (I can't stand those throw-away swiffer sheets) and sometimes knitting feels oh so slow...

I whipped up this Swiffer Cover in less than an hour. I used a bargain towel set for this one, but thrifted towels would work great, too! 

A little cutting, a little turning, a little button-holing and voila! A new Swiffer cover! If anyone is interested in the actual measurements and/or a pattern, let me know...

Also, I was immediately inspired by the homemade dish matt idea I saw around the blogs and from A Handmade Home. I used the remainder of the bargain towel set to make one. What a perfect way to show off a fun fabric for the kitchen!

Midsummer is... Cool Pickling

A fine addition to barbeque and spicy foods...

Pickled cucumbers in a new Pyrex find!

I'm a rebel.

 

I admit, whenever I go through a phase like I'm currently in, I feel a bit embarrassed. It's my cotton/utility knitting (and now crochet) phase---the kind that produces dishcloths galore and other little crafty items for the household.

I think it was around this time last year that I knit up those Mason-Dixon Ball-band Dishcloths like crazy, as if some cotton-eating alien creature might drop from the sky and gobble up all the Peaches & Creme before I could whip up another dishcloth.

But there's a side of me that worries about not fulfilling my "artistic" potential----worries about a lack of producing projects out of the newest organic yarn or the latest trendy craft book... For relegating myself to crafts-----even if they are necessary crafts that hands have been producing for centuries.

 

And I ask, what does craft mean?

Recently, I visited a cute little shop in a nearby tourist town. She carries so many fun handmade items, as well as materials to make your own. No, there isn't any Peaches & Cream there---rather, she carries Amy Butler decorator fabric and high-end craft stuff. The owner told me that she was laughing about a comment she overheard earlier in the day: a customer had walked through the door and said, "Oh, it's a craft store." The owner now was musing over that comment, "I'm not a craft store----I'm a fun store!" She went on, "I don't like the term 'craft' and I don't want to be labeled as a craft store."

I wondered about that---how the term craft means so many different things to different people. My ex-husband always turned his nose up at craft. I think crafty meant frumpy to him.

However, the term crafty is becoming a reclaimed term in a more updated way. For the hipster crowd, crafting is cool and crafting is a positive offshoot of DIY and re-purposing. Instead of crafty we're craftsters. It's almost a revolt against the factories and the machines, against uniform and cookie cutter----it's reclaiming our hands' accomplishment. Our spirit isn't too far behind. 

I grew up in the very tail end of a generation that seemed to snub craft. I think that for this generation, craft conjured up visions of housewives fettered to their kitchens and husbands sitting at the table tapping their fingers while impatiently waiting for their meal. Instead of crafting, this generation wanted to reclaim their professional identities and take on the world---to be young forever. That belief wasn't mine because I never lived it-----never was forced to live it. 

I wonder if the interpretation of craft stems from those generational views and experiences----perhaps where we fell in history. Now, craft is hip and it's a new form of bucking the system. Sure we could go down to the corner Wal-mart and buy a generic dishcloth made in China but instead, we would rather make our own. So, given the choice between the old and now this new type of rebellion, I think I'd rather be knitting up my own dishcloths rather than dropping acid and exposing myself to the latest venereal disease. Yeah, that's what my cotton/utility knitting phase is, it's my own rebellion against the system! Do you want to join me in my cause?

Vintage Stitches.

And another.

Vintage Stitches with another little doily design. I rather like this one...

Mini Doilies= many stitches.

Tell me, how do those little old ladies do it----stitch those intricate, web-like doily stitches without becoming cross-eyed? Wow.

I managed to stitch up a few mini-doilies for a couple of my bag designs. They were quite fun to make but I just might need a pair of glasses afterwards. And these, I MUST get some of these---ouch!

Nonetheless, the singular focus to detail and the resulting feeling of accomplishment made it all worth it! I'm pushing up against my deadline for finishing these things...

Some Etsy TLC & Shop Update

I'm putting a little love and attention into my Etsy shop again. I listed a couple cute children's vintage clothing items I found months ago from my Grandmother's stash of old clothes. I absolutely love the vintage smock----oh, how I wish my kids were that little again! I wanted to keep these items but I'm beginning to understand that I cannot collect everything (though I try)...

And, I'm currently creating four more of those large project bags. I'm excited about these bags as I'm using some of my vintage fabric, doilies, buttons, and trim. I think they'll be very fun! My goal is to list them in my shop by Monday, June 9th. You'll see them on the sidebar when they're listed...

A Knitter's observations on Crochet.

 

My last week has been full of crocheting. I finally mastered that little dish sponge pattern and I even made some modifications that just might produce the ultimate in scrubbie dish sponges (I will post the tutorial later on)... Because developing the ultimate dish sponge is truly the answer to all the world's problems, right?! (I write with a smurk & a wink)...

So, based on my very limited exposure to crochet, and with a fairly extensive background in knitting, I have a few observations (my own opinions)....

• Crochet is so much more forgiving to those who make mistakes. (ME). In crochet, if you make a mistake, just rip it all out in wild abandon! There are not all those little loops to replace on the needle. You rip back to where you're happy and find that ONE loop and move on---no cursing, no headaches, just rip and go. I LOVE THAT. In fact, that reason alone might make me a crochet convert.
• Sculpture in stitches. Yes, there is knitted scrumbling, but I find that crochet lends itself to free-form sculpture and creation more easily than knitting. Choose a spot and start stitching----that's all there is to it.
• Flowers. Yes, you can knit flowers but I love crocheted flowers and they seem to be easier to create----more intuitive, I guess.
• Old-fashioned. I'm right smack in the middle of an old-fashioned phase right now-----loving all that is vintage, charming, and cozy. I want to someday recreate the little vintage goodies of my childhood: lace-edged linen napkins & hemstitched pillowcases, doilies, all that good stuff... In addition, crochet just has that old-fashioned look that I love.
• And here are a few other reasons to love crochet: Bella Dia's Cloche and some of these bags, and this hat, too--oh, and TOTORO!

But don't get me wrong, I'm not throwing out my knitting needles anytime soon but I hope to use both knitting and crochet together for future projects. In fact, I love the way they play upon each other----- a knitted piece with a lacey crocheted border is just about perfect in my book...

Also, I found a crochet book that is filled with projects that really appeal to me: Uncommon Crochet. Most of the projects utilize basic materials such as kitchen cotton, jute, and leather cording to create market bags, baskets, and little containers with felted flower tops (I've included a few photos here).

The author utilizes crochet's open stitchwork to allow fun fabric linings to peek out in between the utilitarian look of jute. Not only are the projects wonderful in their combinations of basic materials & fun accessories but there is so much potential for other projects using plastic bag yarn and other repurposed materials.

Alas, many of the projects are still beyond my skill level in crochet but I hope to obtain those skills soon to tackle these fun items!

Fun at the dump.

 

The weekend we went to the coast, we attended an annual tradition at the nearby recycling center (it just might be the coolest recycling center this side of the Mississippi!).They hold an annual bash filled with circus acts, a trash art show, recycling love, and a fashion show. It's all a whole lot of fun.

I'm posting a couple photos from our visit.

I'm off to another interview today. I fairly sure there will be a story behind the adventure, but that's for another day. Wish me luck!