belle epoque

In addition to showing you my second and third PIF Exchange giveaway items, I’ll tell you about two other blogs I love that you probably already know about but *just in case* you don’t.

First of all, Green Kitchen. Michelle is a huge inspiration- in addition to obviously being an awesome mother to ridiculously cute children (something that impresses me more and more the longer I am a mom), she is a multi-talented artist and artisan. Her work is just beautiful, and she is so generous about sharing it on her blog. In a very well-thought-out plan to garner more readers (and she really should have millions), she’s promising even more tutorials in addition to her already chock-full content. I used her most recent, very clever one, to make a neat wrist pincushion out of some vintage ribbon I got at the Alameda Flea Market last year

It looks to me rather like a tiny fairy princess pillow. It was such fun to make, and as I find blanket stitching one of the most calming and satisfying hand-sewing tasks, it was just what the doctor ordered for a quiet crafting evening. Head over to the tutorial if you want to make one yourself!

It was from reading Michelle’s blog that I found out Heather Ross had started a blog. And like her totally addictive fabric, her online journal Weekend is beyond charming. From there, I found out that Starlit Nest was carrying every colorway of Heather’s new Mendocino fabric line. Since I’m rather psycho about Heather’s fabric, I decided I just had to have the package of 10″ squares in every single colorway and pattern. Since I totally stink at putting together fabrics, even ones in a line designed to go together that are already cut to size, to make anything patchworked, they have been arranged and rearranged on my craft room floor and then put back in their envelope. I thought making something out of just two of them might get me going on a bigger project, so voila the Mendocino Lavender Pillow

I quilted the front to some batting by stitching around one motif in each row

And backed it with a piece of unquilted fabric

Then I stuffed it lightly with polyfill and added several generous handfuls of Sonoma County lavender (grown and dried by my friend’s father), and blind stitched it shut.

Please pop over and comment on my last post if you’d like to join in on the PIF exchange and get your hands on this pillow! It’s gone!

I was so excited to read on Ali’s blog about the Pay It Forward Exchange that appears to be making its way around the crafty blogosphere. Of course I commented immediately, given that I adore her earrings and I also really like the idea of PIFs in general. So, here are the rules:
“Pay it Forward” Exchange:
Here are the rules: I agree to send something fun, cute, and nice to the first 3 blog owners who post a comment on this entry. In turn, those three will post this information and pick 3 people they want to send something to and so on. Unfortunately, due to postage costs, I can only pay it forward within the United States. If you are interested in participating, be one of the first 3 blog owners to leave a comment!

You have to promise that you will then post about this on your blog, link to me, and then send something to the first three people who comment on your blog so that this continues. When I have the first three to comment I will email you a request for your shipping address and I will send out something that I hope will make you smile!”

I’ve been feeling like making a few things just for fun- i.e. not gifts, or necessities for me or the wee one, and a bloggy exchange like this one is a perfect excuse to go ahead and do that! So I made one of the PIF items today- an appliqued tote with a silly catch phrase embroidered using the nifty alphabet function on the Bernina


I’m in the midst of gift two, and have ideas for gift three. Please comment if you want to play along!

Another reason to be happy about returning to San Francisco? Being here for the opening of Jamie’s new store and craft studio, Urban Fauna Studio. You can get a sneak peek at the glory and goodness that will be there by clicking the photo below

photo courtesy of Jamie
If you live in the Bay Area, it will be more than worth your while to be at the opening:
Urban Fauna Studio
Fiber Boutique & Craft Studio
Grand Opening: Saturday, August 30
1311 16th Avenue (between Irving and Judah)
San Francisco, CA 94122
Ph. 415-664-1267 Store Hours. Friday – Monday 10-6:30 PM and by appointment
And the goodies? Major:
Demos for Needle Felting, Weaving on Mini Looms, Spinning and Pom Pom Making.
Goodie bags filled with samples and treats for the first 75 customers who spend $10 or more–donors include: Interweave Press, Sublime Stitching, Vermont Organic Yarn Company, Monkey Sock Monkey, Red Sheep (an exclusive knit pattern written for UFS!), Fishcakes, Artgirlz, Girl On The Rocks and more!
A Gift Basket Raffle!
Free cupcakes and treats for our visitors!
Free 15% off coupon to all our mailing list subscribers.

I’ve been a big fan of Jamie’s since I met her before Maker Faire 2007. She is an incredibly talented person who caps it all off by being super productive as well! Not only does she make beautiful hand-dyed roving and divine yarns, she’s the mastermind behind Bizarre Bazaar San Francisco and Indie Craft Gossip, not to mention an incredibly nice person. I’m looking forward to supporting her creativity and incentive by shopping at Urban Fauna Studio, and I hope to see you there too!

HMB and I are back from our first transcontinental trip together in one piece! I already miss my family, all the extra hands and home cooked meals I didn’t have anything to do with (other than to eat them), but the blow of returning home was cushioned by many things including Moondoggie, my sewing machine and some really fun packages waiting for me.

I don’t write often enough about the blogs I read and love- probably because I assume you guys are already reading them. But if you don’t already read Jodie’s blog Ric-Rac, I highly recommend adding it to your bloglines (or what have you) forthwith. Not only are her dolls and softies absolutely adorable, the stories she writes about them are perfectly charming, and the stories she tells about herself? They make me giggle out loud. I get such a lift every time I read one of her posts. One of my super fun happy pieces of mail was something I ordered from her etsy shop. She is very definitely a pro! It was packaged so sweet

And even better when opened

And the perfect project for returning home jetlagged (and worse, with a jetlagged baby who was convinced that 3:30 am was wakey time), but with a serious yen for getting back to crafting. So now I’ve got a new addition to my birdy corner in the craft room.

Welcome friend!

Even though I’m her mother, I have to admit that HMB does not hold the monopoly on cute in Moondoggie’s family. There are some good genes in that gang, and her closest-in-age cousin is an absolute doll. So, what better for her big birthday coming up than a Black Apple-pattern rag doll?

Reading Emily’s brilliant wee book, of course
I fixed the mistakes I made in the one for Miss S-embroidering the face rather than painting it, in case the babe wants to lick or chew on it, and doing a better job of basting on the arms and legs so they’re a bit more even. I also used the nifty alphabet function on my beloved Bernina to sew the recipient’s name into one of the stripes on the back of the dress. I won’t show you that since I make it a policy not to overshare on family member names without permission, but trust me it is cool.

I love this pattern so much. It is simple but with so much room for personalization and variation. If you do it in bold colors and patterns, babies go nuts for it! Happily I know a number of wee girls I could give these to for the holidays, so if the mood strikes me I have a perfectly good reason to make it again and again! Hopefully you won’t get bored of me showing them to you.

And while I’m thinking about cute gifts for babies, did you see this over at The Purl Bee? Gosh, do they know how to make me want to buy gorgeous yarn and knit. I might, at some point, attempt that cuteness, but probably with scraps of random yarn I’ve got rather than Koigu, since I know better than to buy expensive yarn. I am impatient and never do finish my knitting projects. They end up partial skeins and unravelling half-completed mittens/scarves etc all over the place. I haven’t quite accepted that sewing is really my thing, so I will probably not give away all my yarn and knitting books, but I’m probably getting there…

I realised when plotting my Mamadrobe for fall, I need some new accessories to go with it. Jewelry making was one of the first crafts I learned (after embroidery), but I get kind of bored of what I can make for myself. So, what to do? That’s easy-acquire some jewelry that makes me feel enthused and excited and thrilled! Enter Ali’s line Designalicious. I know I’ve written about her work before, but she’s doing lots of great new stuff so if you’re looking for a few pieces for fall, look no further!

I had my eye on these at Renegade

but the baby was being kind of fussy and it was loud and overwhelming and I hadn’t had enough sleep so I whiffed on buying anything. Thankfully when I came to my senses Ali still had a pair! And because she likes me (you do, right Ali?) she also sent me this super-neat little zippy bag:

How cool is that? Next time I see her I’m going to ask her for tips on free motion sewing…

Unable to stop with the one pair of wide leg lounge pants, I used the rest of the cute flannel I bought at Joanns for the baby to make coordinated loungewear for one of my dearest friends instead (sorry baby). She lives far away, but I wish that I could join her for tea and cookies every day

I know, I’ve been taking kind of crappy pictures lately, sorry. The pattern on the flannel is darling teapots and cups and cookies. I made the pants cropped and used pink grosgrain ribbon as a drawstring, and pink bias binding to hem them. I also appliqued a little teapot to a soft tank from Old Navy to match:

I’m sending these off on their way wrapped in sparkly pink tissue paper, and I hope she wears them while relaxing with a cuppa and something sweet!

I wish I’d gotten more of this fabric, as I like it even more now after making something with it- I was very tempted to keep these for myself but I resisted (that is how good a friend she is). As Moondoggie will tell you, I have *way* too much fabric as it is, and need to seriously downsize. So I’m trying to make creative use of my scraps and find good projects for my long lengths of fabric so I can make way for new things. I’m a shameful hoarder, and ever fearful that I will use a wonderful fabric for the wrong project and regret it, then find the perfect project and never be able to find the fabric again. I have to tell myself “there will always be more fabric” every time I get panicky about it. For example, thanks to Free Spirit discontinuing Lightning Bugs and Other Mysteries, I will now probably NEVER use my goldfish, bicycle and gnome fabric because I can never get it again. Bah.

HMB has a little friend (the first fellow baby she ever met), who is only 3 weeks older than she is. We ran into them when Miss S was wearing her kimono pjs (too cute to only be worn to bed), and the wee man’s father commented, “I thought you might have made those- I didn’t recognise them from the same Gap stuff all the other babies are wearing.” At that moment, I knew that I had to share the handmade baby clothing goodness with them, so voila:

I used the same pattern as the kimono pj pants, but bigger. I forgot to mention in the last post about those–contrary to the directions, if you make them, you’ll want to hem the pants (and the sleeves) *before* you stitch the inseam together. Unless you have a super tiny “free arm” on your machine, there is no way you’ll be able to fit those tiny openings on there to stitch them. Also, the length of elastic recommended for the waistband is much too large– the waistband doesn’t gather at all if you use the recommended length, so I’ve gone about 1.5 inches shorter than recommended. If you can measure the baby you’re making them for, all the better- cut the length to fit him or her snugly as opposed to going by the book.
The onesie is one of our favorite Little Bundles from Old Navy (they are so high quality, soft, long lasting and inexpensive, MUCH better than gerber, target or Gap ones. They also come in cute patterns if you’re so inclined- the latest girl ones have birds embroidered on them!). I used Heat’n'Bond light to get the applique on there, then used the super cool blanket stitch on my sweet Bernina to stitch it on.

Side note: how long have owls been the thing? Owls were *everywhere* at Renegade. Personally, I love them, and have two different prints of owl fabric as well as my own little owl cartoons I scribble everywhere. I’m hoping they don’t go “out” in the crafty world anytime soon.

Another baby thing I made awhile ago and didn’t have time to share with you- Goccoed party favors for a baby shower to welcome another new friend for Miss S:

I mixed my own pink ink using red and white in a plastic baggie, and used a clip art image of a little girl and her dog, since this baby girl has joined a family with a beloved pup who I know will be her favorite partner in crime.

I got the blank canvas bags from Dharma Trading, which has wonderful, inexpensive blanks of all kinds for printing and dyeing and other textile adventures.

HMB and I are getting organized to go on a big trip early next week, so I may not be around much until the end of the month. But I will try to put up a tutorial or some kind of treat for you lovely readers before we go!

I finally finished my matching pajamas, using the Wide Leg Lounge Pants pattern from In Stitches (Amy Butler’s equally awesome book for grown-ups). As every other blogger who has made them has noted, they are indeed WIDE. But oh my goodness seriously comfy. I couldn’t get my self-timer/camera/baby situation organized to take a picture of us together, but here is a little peek at what they look like on me

I trimmed the bottoms with the same polka dot flannel I used on the baby’s jammies, you just can’t see it here. I slept in them last night and didn’t want to take them off this morning. I worried the flannel might be sort of stiff or too heavy for such a lot of pant, but it drapes and flows very nicely and doesn’t bunch up when you toss & turn.

I also figured I’d share another of my made-up recipes, the price for which is listening to the long story of its conception, as follows: While my mother was here helping me with HMB a few months ago, she discovered that the fancy grocery store near my house had really great specials, and that if you bought what they had on sale, you got a higher quality, cheaper meal than buying regular priced stuff at Safeway or TJs (you all probably already know stuff like this, but I just used to avoid the nearby spendy market in favor of the everyday places). Anyway, since that discovery, I walk HMB to the spendy market and we are inspired by whatever is on sale. Last week it was ground beef, so on Friday we had burgers for dinner. I cannot do burgers more than one day a month, so I was left with 1/2 pound of very good beef. What to do? Make spaghetti with meat sauce (one of Moondoggie’s favorite things). Every meat sauce recipe I could find was really complicated, which is not my thing these days, so I figured I could just make it up with things already in my pantry. And you know what? It turned out delicious. I really don’t care for red sauce, or really, I only like northern Italian red sauce that is more thick, rich and sweet than thin, acidic and tangy. So this comes out more like Bolognese than Boyardee.

Made Up Meat Sauce (as always, you could skip the meat if you just wanted tomato)
½ lb ground beef (i used extra lean b/c that was what was on special)
15 oz can diced tomatoes
8 oz can tomato paste
½ sweet onion, diced
3 large cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried basil
½ tsp dried oregano
a few shakes chili flakes
1T sugar
2T olive oil

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Throw in onions and let cook until translucent. Mush garlic and salt into a paste and put in skillet. Let cook for a minute or so. Add basil, oregano and chili flakes and stir for a minute or so. Add ground beef and brown, breaking into bits as you stir it. Once it is nicely browned, add tomatoes, paste and sugar. Stir to combine and turn heat to low and simmer for 10-15 minutes (about as long as it takes dry pasta to cook). Serve with 1/2 lb whole wheat spaghetti or your choice of pasta!

Hope you enjoy it!

Ok, I have to admit that my wardrobe has been less than inspired the past few months. Every day it is the same- super-sale cotton trousers from Old Navy, Target nursing tanks and flip flops, with a long-sleeved henley and Patagonia vest if it is chilly. Hair in a bun, moisturizer (if I’m lucky), and sadly unpedicured toes (I actually bought a Ped Egg, because my calluses were taking over the world- it sounds crazy but I swear it actually works).

But after getting the latest Hanna Andersson and Boden catalogs I decided that in the fall I would institute a new daily mom wardrobe– just as washable (the minute I put on anything nice, HMB spits up on it, without fail), just as friendly to sitting on the floor without exposure, but, you know, cute. My inspirations are as follows:


So, I’m on it. Skirts, leggings, cute (but comfy) boots and fitted little jackets to cover up the still-required nursing tops (and hold in the ever-present “empty baby house”- Amy’s brilliant description for the belly). I won’t be making the leggings and the boots, but I have a bunch of ideas for funky a-line skirts. Maybe all the same simple shape but with fun details. I’m imagining a black baby-wale corderoy one with lots of decorative stitching in white thread (I’m dying to use those stitches on my Bernina!). Of course I still need to make the perfect A-line skirt pattern. I *love* Sew What, Skirts, but for some reason i keep coming up with a skirt that is just a little too big, or just a little too small in the wrong spot, or doesn’t flare out as much as I’d like. Which means I use up fabric making not-quite-right skirts (yes I have a bolt of muslin, don’t ask why I don’t use it- I think i keep hoping the next one will be the one and I can skip the muslin). I made one I actually like before a bunch of baby weight fell off (a miracle I’d like to see happen again). I didn’t have a chance to wear it so I’m wondering if any of you out there are a size 8/10/12 US and might like to have it? This is what it looks like

And a detail shot of the trim on the waistband and hem

It is made of a heavy almost-canvas cotton and closes with a (slightly wonky) back zip. If you want the actual measurements, drop me a comment and I can let you know (I think it would hang at the hip for a size 8, fit just under the waist for a 10 and sit at the waist snugly for a size 12). Depending on how many responses I get, if any, I’ll choose someone and send it off! It isn’t perfect (sewn while sleep deprived and rushing to finish before a nap ended), but it is free