Polka polka, who wants to polka?

For some reason, I got a hankering for a specific pair of shoes. This happens to me often, where I get it in my head that I want something very precise, and then can’t quite find exactly what I’m looking for (at a price I’m willing to pay). In this case, it was a pair of red, white polka-dotted low wedges. After much searching, I found a perfect pair on the Anthropologie website, for $238.

Unfortunately, the price is a bit too rich for me and I didn’t want to wait for them to go on sale. But I couldn’t find anything else anywhere that would satisfy my craving, so I took matters into my own hands when I saw a pair of red suede wedges at Nordstrom Rack the other day, for $23.

The Supplies:

I already had some white acrylic paint and textile medium, although I’m not sure if the textile medium is completely necessary for this project.

I also used a ruler, a paintbrush, and some hole reinforcers I bought at the grocery store. You know, those adhesive circles that people use when the holes they punched in the edge of their paper tear through.

To make sure that the paint wouldn’t bleed and to figure out the optimal distance apart for the dots, I used the backside of a piece of scrap leather to practice.

That little paper triangle that you see above is the guide I made for the dot distance. I could’ve drawn a grid if the material was more forgiving, but instead I made myself a little equilateral triangle and marked the center of each dot with a white colored pencil using the corners of the triangle. Then I placed hole reinforcers centered around each mark. This was actually the most laborious part of the process.

I mixed the acrylic paint and textile medium in approximately the two parts paint to one part medium recommended on the bottle, and then proceeded to paint. It ended up taking three coats until I was happy with the opacity.

Finally, after letting the paint dry thoroughly, I removed the stencil, and was left with polka-dotted shoes.

r

You might notice that the outline of the dot is raised from the removal of the labels, but I’ve since remedied this by brushing the nap of the suede back down.

Overall, I’m really happy with how these turned out. I intend to spray them with suede protector before I wear them, but otherwise they’re done!

Capsule Design Festival

Last weekend I attended the Capsule Design Festival in Hayes Valley, just a few blocks from where I live. I’ve been to the previous two incarnations of the event, and enjoyed them both, but I think that this one was the best yet. Though the weather didn’t really cooperate–it was chilly!

I bought a few fabulous things, including a feather choker/headband/wristband:

A print by a local artist, Hannah Stouffer, called “Animal Kingdom.”

(Photo from her site, where you can buy this print and a few others.)

And new glasses! They were kind of an impulse buy, but I’ve had the same glasses for about four years now, so I figured a change was due. Plus, I just thought they were really cool. No photos yet, as I’m getting my prescription put in them.

I also had my picture taken by a local street fashion blogger, Fashionist, which you can see here. I wouldn’t normally have a good answer to the “What inspired this outfit” question, but for once I actually did.

Maker Fair!

I haven’t made much lately–I just haven’t been feeling like it for some reason. My own lack of motivation didn’t keep me from wanting to go to the Maker Fair last weekend, though. It was held at the San Mateo fairgrounds, which is about 20 miles south of San Francisco. Since I sold my car and exclusively drive a scooter, I had not yet gone on the highway or driven with a passenger. To get to San Mateo, one can take the “scenic” route, through the towns on highway 82, where the top speed is only ever 45. So, not nearly as scary as crossing the Bay Bridge or driving 75 mph with the maniacs on 101. Steven was visting, though, so I also had a passenger for the first time. A few days before he got here, I practiced with a friend of mine, but she probably weighs around 100 lbs, so it was a bit different with Steven on back. We drove around town on Saturday, which was his first time on my scooter, and I got a feel for scooting with a larger passenger, and then on Sunday we zipped on down to San Mateo for the event. After we went to Bay to Breakers in the morning. It was a busy weekend.

My only regret is that we didn’t get to spend more time at Maker Fair. Next year I will definitely try to go to the first day, so that I can see some of the presentations and events. Both of us really enjoyed what we did get to see, though. I didn’t take nearly enough pictures, but I found the whole event really inspirational. Since I started writing this post a couple of days ago, I even started a few projects!

First we scoped out the weird/cool contraptions and machines outside.

The giant head behind Steven and the mechanical dragon was a guy who stuck his finger in his nose if you powered him by running on his giant hamster wheel.

Then we headed to the Swap-O-Rama Rama, where we both dug up shirts to have silkscreened. These aren’t the best photos, but you get the idea. Sorry for cropping mine, but my hair and jeans were a mess.

There was a ton more at the fair, including a lot that we didn’t get to see due to time constraints (including the presentation of Tricia of Bits and Bobbins!). Some of it is covered in this video from ThreadBanger, though:
http://www.threadbanger.com/episode/THR_20070525

Haramaki!

Aren’t these bellywarmers the cutest? Pingmag, which looks like an interesting site, brought these to my attention via an article touting the function and fashion of haramaki. A while ago a friend of mine mentioned that back in the early 1990s she was fond of wearing her sister’s “unit,” which I had never heard of. She explained that it was a leftover from the fashion of the 1980s, and that it was really good for layering for warmth without the bulk of extra sleeves. Whatever you call them, now I want to make one!

It looks pretty simple, but here’s a tutorial that seems easy to follow.

Scarflette

I refer to this project as my collar or scarflette; my partner insists that it’s a mantle. Whatever you call it, I love how it turned out. It was a long time coming, though. I bought the yarn months and months ago after I fell in love with it online. It’s from www.studioloo.com, and cost far more than I usually spend on yarn, but I decided that I had to have it. The problem was, once it arrived I didn’t know what to do with it, other than admire its handspun/hand-dyed goodness. Plus, I was just afraid of screwing up such a loveliness, since with the flowers it didn’t seem like it would rip out well.

I don’t know what changed, but last week I just plunged in, grabbed some needles and started knitting without a pattern. I made it up as I went along, in fact.

Excuse the corny bathroom picture. At least I have an excuse for the camwhore angle–I was aiming for my neck!

Close-up:

I knew from the beginning that I would need to line it, as wool on my neck drives me crazy with itchiness. So I handsewed on a liner made from fabric from one of my favorite resources, SCRAP.

If only more of my projects turned out so well. To those that don’t, I say the following:

Pillowry

Good grief. I spend way too much time just looking at the internet-offerings and not nearly enough time contributing. Because, as we all know, the internet is starting to lack in content, and my posts could make all the difference. But seriously, I have been meaning to post for forever, it’s just a matter of taking pictures of my projects, uploading them, and writing some frothy blather (what a disgusting and delightful phrase).

I’ve finished several things, including my Duro-esque dress, a reconstructed shirt, a refinished coffee table, and some throw pillows. Right now, however, I’m only prepared to show off the pillows. They were made to complement the lovely new couch that we bought recently, our very first non-thrifted, non-Ikea piece of furniture. Don’t worry thriftstores, I won’t be forsaking you anytime soon.

We bought the nubby blue silk at a local fabric warehouse, and originally intended to use a different contrasting fabric for the back, but halfway through I changed my mind and dug out this vintage upholstery fabric I’ve literally had for years. I really love how they turned out, and I’m inordinately impressed with my pillow-making skills. It was my very first time making my own bias tape and I never could’ve done it without this continuous bias tape tutorial. My Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Sewing also came in extremely handy for both cording instructions and general pillow-making tips. Oh, and also, when he wasn’t busy sleeping and making sandwiches, Steven’s help was essential for measuring and pinning.

With no further ado, my pillows!

(Psst–I also made the one in the middle, from a Thai silk panel someone once gave me. It needs some fixin’, though, as the panel wasn’t meant to hold up to anything more than ornamental use.)

Yeah, that’s a zipper-pull, but I bet you can’t see the zipper to which it is attached. Why? BECAUSE IT IS INVISIBLE, duh.

Project Progress

From the looks of this blog, you wouldn’t think that I’ve been doing much craft-wise, but I really have. The projects, which I’ll try to photograph soon:

1. Last night I finally cut out the pieces for the Duro dress I mentioned in my very first post. When I’m using one-of-a-kind vintage fabric, cutting is kind of a traumatic step for me because it’s the point of no return. I put it off until the urge to create is overwhelming, and then just dive in.

When I was cutting last night though, the foremost concern in my mind was how to stop my pesky cats from crawling all over the fabric and under the pattern. They LOVE the crinkly sound of the pattern paper and insist on playing with it, so while cutting I had to work around Delicious (smaller pest) and Adventurous (I’ve never met a ruder pest). Their only redeeming quality is their collective cuteness. And sometimes I’ll end up with a funny picture of them. (I promise that this won’t degenerate into one of those “cute pictures of my cats” blogs, though I will admit to a large weakness for cute overload)

2. I combined a thrifted red and black men’s flannel with a long-sleeved black tee to create a cute fall top. I haven’t taken pictures of it yet, though.

3. Steven and I re-finished our coffee table. A leftover from our old roommate, it was a large beat-up wooden desk from which the legs had been removed. We took off the old finish, put on a new one (white), added short silver legs, and replaced the handles on the drawers with industrial silver ones. It turned out pretty good for our first furniture project, although there are some flaws that kind of bother me. It’s a great improvement, however, and I think that it’ll look cool with the new couch and chair we purchased last weekend (our first non-Ikea or thriftstore furniture!). Stay tuned for pictures.

4. Until we get our new furniture in about six weeks, almost everything in our living room is either thrifted or left by our former roommates. This includes a large, very comfy, but atrociously ugly denim sofa (old roommates’) and a thrifted office chair. Extremely unfashionable, but then so is our budget. The only reason the office chair is still in our apartment is that it used to be Steven’s desk chair, but he replaced it for something more comfortable and upon moving it to the main room discovered that our cats love to scratch and climb all over it. We figured that this was a much better outlet for their destructive tendencies than other furniture, so we kept it, but its days are now numbered. Knowing that removing a scratching device without replacing it with an enjoyable alternative was a bad idea, we built the cats a scratching post this weekend.

We scrounged wood of the perfect dimensions from the apartment’s parking garage (free), bought some nails and 200 feet of sisal rope (~$10), and built a structure that the cats couldn’t even wait until we were finished with to begin using. It’s always nice to get such enthusiastic and unequivocal reviews.

Tutorial Re-Run

I posted this tutorial for converting a t-shirt to a long-sleeved hooded shirt over a year ago on Craftster.org and in a livejournal community or two, but I decided to re-post it here in the hopes that someone who hasn’t seen it before might find it useful. It’s the first (and only) tutorial that I’ve made, so let me know if you have questions or suggestions.
The original inspiration for this project came from a boys Cub Scout t-shirt and some thriftstore fabric that I’d had laying around for awhile. The fact that the colors and themes perfectly coordinate (the fabric says “hold that tiger”) meant that I had to put the two together somehow, and this is what I came up with.

1. Start with a well-fitting t-shirt (or start with one that is too big and re-size it, but that’s been covered in many other tutorials), a couple of yards of t-shirt/knit fabric, and a separating zipper long enough for the front of your shirt. Alternatively, you could use a long-sleeved t-shirt for the extra fabric. If you have one, it also helps to have a pre-made hoodie on hand to use to make your patterns for the sleeves and hood.

2. Using a seam ripper, carefully remove the sleeves from your t-shirt.

3. Lay your already-existing sleeves flat on a piece of newspaper or pattern paper and trace around them to make your sleeve patterns. Make sure that the sleeve opening size of your pattern is the same as the sleeve opening size of the t-shirt from which you just removed the sleeves. Don’t forget to add 5/8″ on each side for the seam allowances!
*Note: I got all fancy and added ribbed cuffs to the bottom of my sleeves, so I made the sleeves shorter than I otherwise would’ve and didn’t hem the ends. If you’re not adding ribbed cuffs be sure to make your sleeves long enough and hem the ends before you sew them into a tube. If you do want to add ribbed cuffs, this link is very helpful*

4. Lay your sleeve pattern flat on a folded piece of fabric and cut out your sleeves. Mine ended up looking like this:

5. Fold each sleeve in half lengthwise and sew up the arm seam, creating a tube. Then pin your sleeve tubes to the t-shirt’s sleeve openings, right sides together, and sew.

You could stop here and have a long-sleeved tee, but continue on to add a zipper and a hood.

6. Take a ruler and measuring tape and chalk and mark halfway down the middle of your shirt, then cut up that line on the front side only.

7. Put in your zipper. I am not going to give instructions on this because I proved myself completely incompetent at installing a separating zipper, even though I’ve put in many zippers before.

8. My hood is lined so that you can’t see the wrong side of the fabric at all, because I think it looks nicer this way. To make a lined/reversible hood, take your already-existing hoodie and lay it flat and trace around it to create a pattern, or just enlarge and use mine:

9. You’re going to need to cut out 4 pieces of fabric from the pattern you just created above. On your folded fabric, cut this piece out twice.

10. Sew along the top and back edge of each pair of hood pieces, creating two hoods.
Wrong side:

Right side:

11. This may be a bit confusing, but I’m trying to make it as clear as possible, so bear with me. Right sides together, place one hood inside the other and sew along the front edge, like so:

It should look like this after you turn it rightside out:

12. If you want to have a drawstring in your hood, add buttonholes or grommets on the sides of the top hood fabric layer before you continue with this next step, and when you stitch the next seam, start about an inch from the front to leave room for channel for the drawstring. Add an additional seam around the front of the hood to create the drawstring channel, and thread your string through the holes.

Now take the hood, and from the outside, topstitch in the top seam from front to back, as represented by the black line. This is just to hold the two layers together.

13. Finally, take your hood and sew it to the collar of your shirt. You may want to remove the shirt’s already-existing ribbed collar, if it has one, before you attach the hood, but I didn’t.
Yes, I accidentally sewed over the tag so it was all askew, but I took out the stitches and fixed it before proceeding.

*To finish, I ironed the preceeding seam towards the bottom of the shirt, and then from the right side, I stitched in the ditch of the ribbed collar-to-shirt seam to hold down the seam I’d just made.*

14. Admire your creation, and try it on in order to show it off for the admiration of your friends, family, acquaintances, cats, random strangers, etc.

It’s probably a good thing that I don’t have a dog.

Otherwise, I might have to make it the outfit that the dog in view “B” is wearing. Doesn’t it look happy about it, though? I have a  feeling that my cats would not be as amused were I to force poofy shower caps upon their little heads. They would probably give me looks like the dog in “A” is giving the camera, which I interpret as, “Why are you doing this to me? Don’t you love me anymore? I still love you…” except that my cats would probably not love me anymore.

I suppose that this is the post in which I awkwardly introduce myself and bare my hopes and goals for this blog, but at this point, I won’t. Instead, I’m just going to jump right in and tell you only that this is where I will divulge the interesting results of my experiments in making my life a beautiful, creatively satisfying endeavor. And here is an example of such.

When my old roommate moved out, she neglected to properly forward her mail, meaning that her magazines landed in my greedy hands, including her August issue of Lucky, which is where I came upon a row of lovely Duro Olowu kimono dress knock-offs.

Admiring them on the page, I thought no more about the dresses until I was at my favorite craft supply source, SCRAP, and dug up a large piece of material that I immediately knew would make a fabulous version of this type of dress. Rather than going out and trying to buy a pattern that I didn’t think would match my vision, I figured that I could just adapt a free kimono pattern from the internets. When I googled “kimono dress,” though, I came across the very inspirational blog Hook & Needles (from which I borrowed the photo of the Lucky article that she used here), and lo and behold, it turns out that I’m not original in my desire to make a dress of this style. There are, in fact, at least two commercial patterns available, McCall’s 5137 and Simplicity 4072 (Erica B. has actually made them both!), but I decided that I wanted neither of these and would make my own pattern.

And so I did. I broke out my huge roll of industrial pattern paper, purchased from what I suspect was a former sweatshop in San Francisco’s Chinatown, my measuring tape, and a ruler, and got to work. But I didn’t use the fabric that originally inspired this undertaking; I instead made a practice dress out of a bolt of several yards of striped cotton I’d bought from a neighbor’s stoop sale for $5. “A practice dress?” my boyfriend asked after I explained the mess I was making in the middle of the living room, “That seems like a lot of work….” As I told him, however, the advantage is that I won’t waste my irreplaceable fabric on my screw-ups, and I’ll hopefully end up with a pattern that I can use over and over. It took me a couple of days of stops-and-starts, but I finished the muslin version of my dress.

What surprised me most about this dress is that the fabric choice really makes the pattern’s influences obvious. It reminds me very much of its humbler origins, the yukata, a casual Japanese summer cotton kimono.

There are a few changes that I will make in the final version. The 7″ side zipper, for example, is too short, which makes getting the dress on and off a bit difficult, but it was the only invisible dress zipper I had at the time. I’ve already bought a longer one for my “real” dress. The waist portion also doesn’t fit tightly enough, but I think that this problem will be solved in the final version by using a stretch fabric and making it a bit more snug. I’ll also probably flare the skirt a teensy bit more and give it a bit more ease. The collar also doesn’t sit quite right in the back, hopefully a problem that will be solved by using a less stiff, drapier fabric.

After I finished my rough-draft, I found out that the kimono dress is actually all the rage right now, at least with A Dress a Day. Isn’t her latest gorgeous? I hope mine tuns out that well!

Now it just remains to turn this:

into a dress. The black-with-flowers is from SCRAP, while the off-white is a stretch satin I picked up at Discount Fabrics on Haight. Wish me luck!