Book bag

Libby Dibby bag makes a trip to the beach.... (It's actually a gift that I gave to a friend, who promptly filled and used it on our outing to the Santa Monica Pier...)

Get scrappy!

Ok. Tonight I put together some of the scrap bags and as I was making them, (weighing them!!!see below) I decided that $6 will get you over 1 pound of this heavy home dec weight cotton, not just a half pound as originally promised. That enables you to get enough fabric for a good range of projects. And with the money you save not buying this at some store... You can go get an awesome book (used on amazon is my trick...) with ideas for patchwork projects...
The image here of the stack is a smattering of what is in one bag.

SAS fabrics

I'm letting you in on a secret.
For a few years now, my favorite fabric shop for (read: random) sewing junk has been this store... SAS Fabrics in Hawthorne, CA. I can't remember if Tori found it first and told me about it, of if I told her, but we were both struck by the signs in the windows proclaiming,
"fabric by the pound!"
I think only crazy textile hounds would find that an exciting process. I mean, why is it thrilling to watch the lady put your yards of some random discontinued cotton onto a scale and proclaim the ridiculously cheap cost? (I have NO idea, but it is)
Add that to the miles of fabric (this isn't where you find Amy Butler or Anna Maria Horner prints, but there is much fun to be had)... The rolls of ric rac, bins of thousands of buttons, and hundreds of rolls of satin ribbon and elastic for $0.50 each send crazy thrills through
me. (you think I am kidding?)

Anyhow, I love this little weird store. It's all the fun of going downtown to the garment district, only in one place, with free parking and ... Well, you get to weigh in everything on the scale.
If you live in LA, you can find it at the corner of 135th and Hawthorne Blvd. in the city of Hawthorne...
Happy hunting.

Crazy-pants

Dear blog reader,
This is to inform you that the writer of this blog has now officially lost her mind. After months of wanting to make pants (not just skirts), and finally learning how easy they can be... -said blogger
drove herself to the edge of reason (and over) by making 6 pairs in a 24 hour period. She is claiming there is some small amount of culpability placed on her two children, The Design Director and Ze Artiste, as they required that they have Thomas the Tank Engine pants (not pictured here for obvious reasons) and Strawberry Shortcake jammie pants made for them... But as for the other 4 pairs... Well, she states that her love/hate relationship with her serger has made her lose the will to discuss the matter any further... Though there was some allusion to the fact that this was done in an attempt to right the wrong of being constantly drawn to tacky pajama pants in the past.

Please accept our apologies.

Last chance for this skirt...

This skirt sold faster than all the other spinny skirts... and it, of course, is the discontinued pattern from Fall Springs.... so I thought we were out for good, until I went sorting through my scrap bags from the other night - and I found a mini-motherload - enough at least to make 2 or 3 skirts.
So I have made a listing for it on etsy.

okay, enough about that. I just posted it, since so many of you asked.

Pants! For me!

Okay. I'm burning the midnight oil a little, but I am freaking out over how cute these turned out! They are a modification (I can't follow directions well and always want to change things) on Amy
Butler's wide leg pants pattern, from her book, In Stitches. They were so easy to make and I have never made pants before...
And I actually had 2 leftover pieces of her fabrics to piece together to make these wide leg capris. Sooooo fun.
It's a little too cold to wear these now, but this is LA, it won't be that long...
I made another (silky) pair in the full length style that I am putting on right now!
I'm going to bed now, I promise...

Bags of Scraps

I had one of my seamstresses drop of 5 ENORMOUS bags of really fabulous scraps here the other night. I'm just dying to do a million and one fun projects with them, but in all reality, I could be sewing until kingdom come before making it through all of these scraps.

So in the interest of sharing the fun and love, I am going to put up a listing on etsy for scrap bags... i.e. 1/2 lb of gloriously fun Libby Dibby patterned scraps for you to play with, sew, scrapbook, glue, etc...
If anyone is interested - let me know. I can also make it biased toward certain patterns or color palettes, like Blue Sky Girl, Hollywood, red/white...

Scrap skirt... Birthday gifts...

Still in my jammies this morning, but at least I whipped this up for the birthday party we are headed to... (don't peek, Jen!) ... Complete with a crooked pocket purse and all!

Book Bags

So now that it's January, I'll have time to post some of the fun projects that have been going on around here... this one was inspired by some of the projects from the first "craft nite" that I hosted last month. I've since made a few of these book bags and I'm getting faster and more pleased with each one... these two were made for my mom and my sister's mom-in-law for Christmas.
My mom's is the longer one (made long enough to fit a Beth Moore workbook... which are always big).

Let me see if I can get together a tutorial... they're so easy....

Happy Everything

What kind of friend have I been to you?
.. not too great - as I haven't even wished you a Merry Christmas or a Happy New Year?
I just got so into my projects, and then the family-ness of it all... that I simply neglected to thank you - who I am so happy to have in my cyber-life - rejoicing with me in triumphs and joys - and encouraging me in the hard times. You've been a blessing to me this year!
Thank you for being my bloggy friend and for reading this humble little scene.

I spent a lot of time this Christmas thinking about another humble scene... about a young mother who was faced with so much insecurity and instability - and it really was a sweet thing to dwell on - to refocus on, as it's so easy to get swept away with all the obligations of the season. To think of God caring enough to give gifts to us and then to wrap it in humble, humble packaging.

...which made me think of "packaging" I have in my life that I want to lighten up on. Maybe to accept more humble means....

I have a list I am working on... J and I yearly sit down with a New Years journal that we started the year before we got engaged... and we read, laugh, and re-read all the lists that we have made over the years - things we've accomplished and things we wish we'd done... books we read - unexpected things that happened... It's a wonderful tradition for us.

This year's lists are jumping around in my head now - and a few lines are in my journal, but for now, they are there. (I'll share later)

As I wish you a Happy New Year tonight, I challenge you to think about the wonderful things you accomplished this year, the ways you grew, the surprises (both good and bad) that shaped 2008 - and not to just lay down goals (LOSE WEIGHT!) that feel rote and sometimes unattainable ... but to rejoice in what happened this year - and to thing of some of the humble, attainable things that lie ahead in 2009.

January is my favorite month. I love the quiet. I love the lack of things on my to-do list. It's a simple month, and often quite a creative time for me. I'm very excited to turn the calendar tonight.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you!