The aforementioned handkerchief
I mentioned on a previous screamything post that I was entering a slight manic phase. I’m not sure that’s exactly true but I have 3 brazillion projects right now.
I was in Peidmont Fabrics the other day when my hand reached out for this gorgeous Liberty of London cotton lawn print. I mean look at it?!!! Doesn’t your heart go out to it? However, my hand trembled and quaked as I check the price tag at 37.00 a yard. Instead of a dress then, I bought a tiny bit and made some handkerchiefs. Raise your hand if you think I am nuts.
Then i made a tiny one. Raise your hand if you have changed your mind.
The handkerchief goes really nicely with the pair of delicate rose colored with pearl trim spats I just made too. 
Layering and latte at 8:30 pm
Madness, I tell you.I’m sitting here doing like 45 things at once. Emailing, researching for interviews, thinking about fabric, worrying that I should go home (i’m in a cafe), and thinking about all my millions of projects.
It’s suddenly all about layering. In fact one of the projects I would LIKE to be doing soonish is developing into an absurd amount of layering.
Starting with a swatch of fabric. freezer paper stenciling it, then adding stitching wth embrodery thread arounf the boarder of the stncil so that it look like a patch sewn on., scan it and manipulate in photoshop. Hhahahaha.
Why is my brain working this way? why not just MAKE A PATCH? Or do the whole damn thing in PS? Anyone? Anyone?
Calling all Bay Area residents! Cool fabric Alert!
I stopped by the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse today to drop off some donations (read: lame old fabric). And I nearly passed out when I saw that they had, for 6 bucks a pound, super awesome silk tie fabric clearly I haven’t been in there for a looong time). If you’re a quilter especially you should go check it out and consider the merits of a silk tie quilt, it would be snazzy and well dressed at all times.
“Tie Silk is Back for one Final Engagement
You love tie silk, we love silk, everybody loves tie silk. The East Bay Depot has gotten in its final donation of glorious silk swatches. Thousands of samples with bright colors, designs, and patterns. This time we have extra large samples in addition to our usual packs of rolled sqaures. Bulk priced at $6.00 a pound.”
Also! Major alert! they have 5,000 empty toilet paper tubes! Woot!
Where do you buy your fabric?
Were do you get your fabric?
I think we all have our go-to local fabric store - for me, the big chain store is Joannes. Joannes is fine for cheapish everyday fabrics. The Joannes near me recently closed and so I had to journey to a nearby town to go find one but that one is a SUPERSTORE. It’s huge and has a way bigger selection of fabrics and notions and I’m pretty excited about that.
There are a couple of smaller non chain fabric stores near me that I frequent often as well. But what about other sources?
Tiny neighborhood shops. You can search online for small shops. Yelp is a good way of finding them. I found Happy Stop Fabrics right in my own neighborhood this way!
Upholstery shops are another great place to check out. Upholstery weight fabrics are fairly easy to sew with (depending on what you are making) and you can discover great finds there and besides they often have a spectacular remnants bin. And don’t get me started on the notions…
Cheap ready to wear shops. Think Target or Dress Barn. If you find some crappy dress made out of lovely fabric buy the largest size they have and cut it up!
Thrift and vintage stores are next on my list. It takes a bit more time to rummage through these shops and you’re unlikely to find actual yardage. Still, reworking an old dress (think huge prom dresses and the like!) made with great fabric into a shirt or skirt can be rewarding. Thrift shops tend to be cheap too which is a plus.
Antique marts - you know those larger antique stores that have many vendors all selling in one spot. You just might find yardage in one of these places and if not then you will definitely find some great vintage pieces of clothing. Don’t be afraid to cut up old clothes for fabric!!
Online is of coucrse your next good bet, I could go ON and ON. There are a TON of fantastic online shops. reprodepot.com, fabric.com, hancocks-paducah.com, sewmamasew.com to name a few. And here are a few more: fabrictales.com, nuno-plus.com , reproductionfabrics.com , purlsoho.com, craftyplanet.com and (one of my favs) superbuzzy.com .
Search engines are your friends when it comes to searching for fabric. You can try all kinds of searches, be specifi or vague, you never know it might work! You could try: ‘fabric remnants’, ‘quilting fabric with bees’ or ‘alexander henry fabrics on sale’.
I don’t know anything about buying fabric wholesale but I bet that is an option.
Where are your favorite places to buy fabrics?
This is cross posted on blogher.com.
Don’t neglect places like ebay or etsy to lok for fabric yardage or remnants either. Also, just go ahead and use a search engine to search for’vontage fabric’ or ‘antique fabric’, you’ll be surprised at how many small site yoiu can find selling fun fabrics.
Sewing velvet - to buy a walking foot or not?
I bought this great green velvet as a remnant at the discount fabric shp near my house. it was so pretty and I made this lovely pair of spats with it.
They turned out so cute that I went back and bought two new colors to try out. But this time I am having a hell of a time sewing with it. It’s sliding all over the damn place and making me crazy. The only advice I could remember about sewing with deep pile fabrics was to place tissue paper between the layers or to buy a walking foot.
I attempted the annoying tissue paper trick with mostly crappy results so I headed off to y local Bernina resaler to get a walking foot.
The walking foot for my machine is 125.00$. Um, ouch! I was almost willing to plunk down my money for it though but the sales clerk basically told me not to and that I should persevere with the tissue technique. And so I walked out… but now, I am sort of annoyed. I understand that she was trying to be helpful and to save me money. The outcome, however, is that I spent all weekend freaking out and beating my head against the wall and sewing wonky seams all over the place.
So should I just go back there and FORCE them to take my money? Does anyone have any other tips or tricks for sewing with velvet?
Woman, 34, gets vote of confidence from new bra.
Over the weekend I went to M@cys and had a bra fitting and bought 4 new bras, matching underwear and a camisole. OMG!. What a difference a good bra makes. I love pretty bras and it has been sooo long since I have had one (oh, about 2 years…).
I was so disturbed by the difference between the nice new ones and the horrible old thing i was wearing that I had to change into a new one after I bought them. I would say that the new bras reduce my boob size by like 30%, which is great for me since I can’t deal with big boobs.
The bra fitting was… not what I expected. I thought the lady would be all ‘OMG! you need to be wearing a 42 F’, or something but no, I am a plain old 36 C just like I almost always am. So what the deal with everyone accidentally wearing the wrong sized bra is, I have no idea. I’ve often wondered just how people could be getting their bra size so totally off.
I’m extremely happy with my new bras. I got one hilarious leopard and red lace one, a black shelf type one (like where the cup part isn’t a triangle it goes straight across), another black with mesh one of those and a tan calvin klein one. Now I am wondering why I didn’t buy the hilarious little skirt that went with the leopard one. Why do I always show restraint at the wrong moments?
Let’s do a little comparison shall we?
I took this picture in a victorias secret 38D. I bought this when i was 15 pounds heavier and my boobs were still huge due to baby having. As you can see it’s is just so totally WRONG in every way. I can not stand the whole new fangled molded cups deal. Shit, why not just get a bullet bra and be done with it people?!
Oh, speaking of… I would totally buy a bullet bra and they ARE available for purchase!!! Check out this site: Vicki’s Bras. Their bras are custom made and VERY reasonably priced. They also have nipple enhancers in case you are wondering.
Here is me in my super comfy nursing bra from Blue canoe. it is a 38D as well. I don’t want to dis Blue Canoe because their bras a so super comfy. This doesn’t look horrible and in fact is sort the natural way my boobs are shaped.. and that’s a good thing. Also in it’s favor you can’t see it.
And here is me all trim and nice in a new bra. I just like to have smaller bobs and this bra is comfy and achieves the desired results, on the down side this bra isn’t really made for t-shirt wearing as you can see the outlines of it. But I’m trashy enough to not really care.
Me and my boobs wish you a happy day!
PiF winners! I totally forgot!!!
Oh Hai! I’m flakey! The winners are
Jen of Volatile Gas World and
Maggie of ‘Stop! Take some time to think…’.
I’ll email to get your addresses. Now, Jen I certainly have some good ideas of what to send but Maggie I don’t know at all. So I will have to go read her archives to get an idea. I think that’s a lot of fun. I like to try to guess things that people will like althoug how spot on I ever am is debatable… but the fun is in thinking about it.
DIY design and manufacture (sort of)
The explosion in the past few years of the craft and DIY space has been amazing to watch. People can craft in their spare time and then use the internet to reach a broad audience of like minded people. Consumers want unique items that really meet their needs in a way that mass produced things can not.
The problem I sometimes have is that everyone is using the same pool of materials. The internet makes the world a smaller place and I can acquire fabrics or papers or whatever from anywhere… and so can everyone else. What you come up with out of this mass pool of materials is still unique and creative and one of a kind. Still though! I want to see MORE uniqueness and creativity in the form of materials as well.
Two (newish) online sites are providing help for that form of start from scratch creativity, Ponoko and (still in beta) Spoonflower.
Ponoko is a service that lets you design 3d items from a variety of materials. You can design a wooden table and they will manufacture it for you and then, free of charge, you can set up a shop on their site to sell it to other people as well. It’s a wonderful ‘green’ approach to manufacturing as each one made is going off to a good home right away!
Spoonflower is a husband and wife team fabric printing company. You create your own fabric design and they are reasonably priced and offer swatches, fat quarters and fabric by the yard.
Jessica Rosenkrantz of nervous system design has created this lovely fan using Ponoko. You can buy it on Ponoko as well!
Kim Fraser from Spoonflower upkeeps the Spoonflower blog.
Shopworthy has blogged about making a backpack for her son out of fabric that he designed and was printed by Spoonflower. So cute!
SF Bazaar Bizarre You Bazaar! Vendor Interviews
Hey! So, I’m interviewing all the vendors for the upcoming You Bazaar in SF. My first one is with Hae Eun Park of Planet Tokki.
The fair is November 2nd at the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park and is focusing on hand made Plush Art. Here is the description from the web site:
You Bazaar! will be on November 2nd 2008 from 10am to 5pm at the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park. You Bazaar! will feature 30 select craft vendors selling quality handmade wares and a series of rotating workshops throughout the day with some of your favorite plush designers. While we would like to use this event to promote plush art we welcome all crafters to apply for a vendor space. This will be a fun family friendly event to kick off the Plush You SF Show, opening Friday, November 7th 2008 and excite customers for the holiday shopping extravaganza Bazaar Bizarre San Francisco on Sunday, November 30th 2008.
Go on over to the SF Bazaar Bizarre blog to see my first interview. I can guarantee that you will fall in love with Planet Tokki and it’s creator, not only is her plush art divine but the complex and detailed background of Planet Tokki will make you giggle and swoon.
Be sure to come visit the You Bazaar! Fair on November 2nd!
I can has cheezeburger book
Originally uploaded by not halfway there
I love the new I can has cheezeburger book! I got a preview copy because my sister is cool.
I may keep it in my car to be Jack’s car book. Plus, it will cheer me up if I need it while wrassling a baby.
* The book’s official website is http://www.lulzftw.com (Twitter is @lulzftw)
* Book public launch date is 10/7/08
* We has a facebook fan group! http://icanhaz.com/lulzftw
* The Founders of Icanhascheezburger.com and Editors behind the book Eric Nakagawa and Kari Unebasami will be in San Francisco from 9/20-9/28.
They are available for interviews and if you’d like to schedule one, ping me back. We are investigating meetup opportunities in other cities too. Ping about that too!
* We have a number of upcoming book related events happening, so please ping the Facebook group or watch us on Twitter for updates.
9/21 - Lap-Pop - An Asian American Bloggers Showcase!
9/27 - LOLzoo - A photo scavenger hunt and Lolzing at the San Francisco Zoo
How to build meditation labyrinth in your backyard.
We did it! The labyrinth is built, mostly!
Read my previous post about our planned labyrinth here. We chose a spot a little closer to the Container house as the labyrinth ended up being a bit bigger than I thought. I _think_it ended up being about 16 feet across each spiral.
We spent two days hauling rocks and gently arguing about how to lay them out. At the end of two days we had a perfectly laid out 5 Auspicious clouds labyrinth with one layer of rocks denoting the walls. All we have to do is fill out the walls with more rocks and get gravel and sand for the pathways.
How to build a meditation labyrinth using only some beer, a golf cart and a few river rocks:
Step One: get beer and a big flat space: 
Okay seriously… I read around on the internets to see how other people did it but didn’t find a whole lot. So, just now, in searching for the site that was helpful I found a couple more that look good, here they are:
KT weed wacked and we raked and moved large obstacles form the area.
We started out with a rope with tape marked every 18 inches. Rebar staked in the center help the rope in place as we used inverted tip marking spray paint to mark the perimeter.
Of course, I picked a complicated none standard design for the labyrinth. The design has 5 spiral arms and so we marked 5 lines at 72 degrees (aprox) and along each of these lines we marked each 18 inch segment with the spray paint.
I had decided hat we would draw each spiral arm from the center out and that seemed to work fairly well although I believe the engineers in the group did not agree. One of the best parts of this was seeing how my friends all differently went about working on this large group project. I think we all did pretty well for a group of horrible OCD control freaks. 
The best part was that Acrobat snuck back after we all left an RE-DID much of it. Hahaa.
We hauled rocks from the river bed to outline the walls and we will fill in with the more eventually. If you can get free materials like that I highly recommend it. Have you ever priced rocks? They are expensive! Sand and gravel will mark the path and a friend has just offered some pretty sounding paving stones as well. Which is great because I was originally envisioning paving stones but then did the aforementioned pricing…
September is flitting by so I need to get back up there before it gets to cold and the rains start
UPDATED: PiF giftie from Bebellyboo and 3Giraffes!!! And new DOUBLE Pif contest!
Originally uploaded by not halfway there
I got the best package in the mail form bebellyboo last week.
Check it out:
Chocolate cookies, book for Jack, toy for jack (i’ve been wanting one of these but never managed to buy one), 2 awesome fun fabrics (mermaids! fashion girls!), and some fabric pastels and fabric pen.
All very cool and totally stuff I get myself. I think Bebellyboo and I have been reading each other since right before our babies were born. There was some point when I was pregnant when I was terrified and desperately looking for other people in my same situation and people just ahead of me. So Bebellyboo was right where I was and also crafty and fun and although she does occasionally claim she is taking a blogging break I always know she will come back.
*Updated*
I received my PiF gift from 3Giraffes this week! It’s pretty cool. One is the mood magnets. My bathroom door is metal so this will be perfect for that. Except why is there no “Frumpy” option?!!? I’m screwed!
Okay, the other thing is this book “embellishing techniques and projects”. I would never buy this book for myself, although I do not know why because I LOVE IT and have had a great time looking through it. the projects are cute, the style is fun and it has real actual useful information about sewing and craft tools and materials. And I’m not sure if the model shown through out the book is the author, but either way she is totally cute and the blue shoes she is wearing on page 66 make me die with envy. I have been looking for blue shoes in just such a style for EVA. not that I have anywhere to wear them…
WEll that was off topic… moving right along… here is a picture of the gift!
Thank you 3giraffes!
*updated*
SO!
I will now hold a DOUBLE PiF contest because I’m a sucker for going to the post office.
To enter leave a comment. Er… on Monday I will pick TWO WINNERS (!) with a random number generator and that person will have to tell me their snail mail address (muahahaha) so that I can send them a little gift.
then, unless they are super grumpy, they should hold their own contest.
so leave a random comment please!
Creepy zombie stepford dentist
I really don’t mind going to the dentist. I’ve a had a few fillings but they were so long ago that I think they were all done by our family dentist back home, in high school.In college I had my wisdom teeth out and it was totally horrific and traumatizing but for the last 6 years or so I have had a great dentist that was near my job.
But I’m not working anymore and don’t have my own insurance and I have baby attached to me so I figured I should get closer dentist. I went on yelp and looked at a few and then just picked one that had lots of good reviews.
I called to make an appointment and said ‘for a check up’ but what I meant was a cleaning not knowing that there was even such a thing as a check up. wtf is a dentist check up?! Stupidly I take Jack with me. The office was weird. They offered apples and coffee in the waiting room. The receptionist smiled too hugely and was WAY TOO PERKY. She offered to ‘take me on a tour’ (wha?). Each exam room had a TV. all their stuff is digital GUSH GUSH we’ve all worked here forever. we love kids, the dentist has kids, blah blah blah.
All this has made me super nervous. why is she smiling at me like that? The dentist comes in and has DEAD EYES and a huge smile and fake eyelashes. I’m even more creeped out and Jack starts screaming whenever the dentist touches my mouth.
they have some horrible device like a pen that is a camera connected to the TV. so I have to WATCH while they poke around in my gross GLISTENING mouth. EW.
Then they had these cheek spreaders (hahahah). I had to hold my lips and cheeks out of the way while they TOOK PHOTOS of my teeth. omg. if this is dentistry of hte future I want to go backward in time.
It was awful and they told me that I need to have EVERY SINGLE one of my fillings replaced and that I need a night guard.
ORLY
and they make me sign a piece of paper stating that all the work they ‘recommend’ will cost over 3,000$.
Blink Blink
And I had to pay them 150$ for this stupid ass check up. I’ve NEVER had so much as one penny trade hands at any other dentist. HELLO I have delta dental.
So, wtf? I feel pissed, all I wanted was my teeth cleaned and I was forced to go on some little space cadet odyssey with these assholes. Check up… ugh! So, Should I just go have them clean my teeth?OH!That’s the other thing… the dentist doesn’t even DO the teeth cleaning?! an assistant does. again, WTF?!
I think I will just go back to my old 40 miles a way dentist. and I’ll write a shitty review on Yelp for these weirdos.
Sew Baby Wonder Jacket pattern review
I purchased the wonder jacket pattern quite a while ago and have finally tried it out. MAN. It is CUTE. and EASY. and FAST.
I really like how each size has it’s own pattern paper. I would have been seriously annoyed it I had to use chalk to size it. This one is size 2.
I used some left over black fleece that was Vim’s (I think left over from his scary-ass bunny costume). And I took apart the very first thing I ever sewed with my crappy kenmore - a blue corduroy ‘body pillow’ pillow case. I was pretty proud of it then but since I no longer use the comforter that matched it I figured I was in the clear to rip it up. I also used the cute bunny buttons that I bought for Vim (i can’t remember why I bought them).
It;s kinda pimpin’ with it’s shawl-esque collar, dontcha think?!
I am planning on making Jack a ’smoking jacket’ version. Black velvet with pink tie material will look outrageously awesome on him I’m thinking.
I recommend the sew baby wonder jacket pattern. The look and feel of this jacket are so easily altered by the materials, I guess that is true for anything… but I really like the way his jacket turned out. It’s cute and cozy for him and I feel pleased that I was able to make it.
I’ve started a new one already with this baby wale corduroy and some brown minky.
My next project for jack will be a pair of pants made form this fabric… heh.
Woman’s button tin fantasy turns to hell on earth
So there I am, sorting through my fantabulous button tin and what happens? My kid wakes up. Goodbye buttons! But then we are peacefully playing upstairs and I think, “Surely I could just open this one and sort out the little boring ones”. So I do.
And then I turn around for ONE SECOND.
And all hell breaks loose as Jack grabs the tin and not only turns it upside down but done so in such a ‘flingy’ way that buttons go into every single crevice possible for button kind. Then the rampaging starts. As I am frozen to the spot in utter horror he takes the opportunity to bend over and spaz his hands in the buttons while shrieking with joy. Then he starts running around and little buttons are stuck to the bottoms of his feet and make little clicking noises. Its hilarious but is such a disaster than I am almost in tears.
I’m racing around trying to gather buttons back up and he is flinging them everywhere making lunges for the tin I am trying to refill and doing a tiny godzilla tap dance of joy every time he moves.
Things will never be the same. Buttons are lost for sure and I see three still over by the dresser right now.
This was on Wednesday I think. So then, yesterday, he and I are in the baby killer craft room and I am sorting through my fabric stash and I come across one of those bags of pom poms that you can buy at Michael’s. You know when you need like 5 pom poms but can only find the HUGE BAG of 1000. So I think, “hahaha, it would funny to give him this bag”. HAHA. Indeed. Now it looks like a clown threw up in my craft room.
Yesterday I was struggling with my addiction. My mind was on buttons as you know and I was itching to try making my own fabric covered ones. So my sponsor happened to call and I confessed my thought crimes. “How can I justify buying one more craft tool? “. I whined. And instead of the voice of reason she’s all, “oh that sounds awesome you should totally go get that!!” Thanks Mom.
Someone else’s grandmother’s button tin
How weird is it that my great grand kids will be able to look me up online? Will there be an ‘online’ at that point? Or will it be more like having to dig up the archives of the 8 track tapes in a dusty treasure trove of personal effluvium in an outdated medium. I mean, if someone were to hand me all the film reels from even my mom’s childhood I would have to try fairly hard to find a way to watch them.
You want a WHAT projector? you mean like those things in movies where the round disks of film whirl around and there’s a lightbulb?
Maybe we’ll all have given up on this internet insanity by then and we’ll be back to bicycling to the local green grocer to pick up our preserves. or whatever.
I mentioned in a recent post that I have my grandmothers button tin. I loved the button tin when I was a kid. Do all kids love a button tin? Do they all love to pick through the colorful buttons just admiring the colors adn the feel of them?Maybe imagining where they came from or things we could use them for?
The thing is, some jerkwad took all the good buttons leaving the all the very boring ones behind. It’s okay, whoever did it will get their comeuppance in HELL. So what did I do? DUH! I went online and bought someone else’s grandmothers button tin. it satisfies my hearts desires. I have started sorting by color. but I COULD sort by size or usefulness or type (shank, 2 holes, 4 holes, extra fancy) or by project. I can reorganize these suckers every damn day if i want. so maybe I will.
But I am conflicted. PArt of me wants to cram them all willy nilly into the button tin (although, at this point, with all my own buttons, my grandmother AND some else’s grandmother I don’t think they will all fit in one tin) . If they are all willy nilly then i have the kids pleasure of sort thing through it and seeing it as a tin of TREASURE. But as a grown up that isn’t super useful. I need them sorted and organized in some way, possibly even in separate containers. Right now all the blues and greens are in an old jam jar. and the sparkly ones with rhinestones are in an old burt’s bees green goddess mask jar.
I’m a magpie and love shiny things and seriously these buttons give my soul a deep down delicious rich feeling. Is it just me? Or does everyone love a button tin?
Closet project not yet done.
But it’s getting close! It’s too hot up in the bedroom during the day to get anything done up there! I swear, that is the truth. It’s not that I am a lazy git and have lost focus that the project is not done…
The small photo is the original disaster area.
Next you can see I have made some small improvements. Two shoe shelves units stacked keeps my shoes all in one place. Before they were just all over the place.
I got rid of so many clothes! Many many bags have gone to Goodwill over the last couple of weeks. I’m so I’m so impressed with myself! So now the two small shelves have a box with purses in it and some pants and sweaters and some folded skirts (not sure why the skirts). Maybe I need to look at the skirts and decide if I want to keep them. I think they are there because I ran out of skirt hangers. then the top shelves have a few larger pairs of shoes, a box of hats, a box of bathing suits, some luggage and some pants tht don’t fit but BETTER FIT SOON, if you know what I mean.
the Blue chest of drawers has bras, slips, socks and hose, and tank tops and gloves. I added another rack of knobs to hang stuff on in between the drawers and shelves. Handy!
Still. the closet is more useful but still boring… hmmm.
FoodProof: a fun new site for recipes and talking about food!
FoodProof is launching today! I’ve been on the beta for this site a few months now and it’s pretty great. I search online for recipes all the time but hadn’t found a good place to keep all my own recipes. And having all my own recipes online is something that I seriously needed. Plus, it’s a good way to share my recipes with other people.
When you sign you you get lots of functionality that is easy to use. So you can post your recipes and share them and look at other peoples recipes as well and recipes have a comment section which is good for asking people questions. You can blog about food too which is nice because sometimes I just have stuff to SAY about food or I want to post a review of a restaurant. The community is helpful and smart, people comment often and post often and that has kept it fun for me. You can also post pictures and videos and search by ingredient.
Here are some good posts:
ye olde chocolate cream cheese cookies recipe from my past
bacon is natures candy post. hahahah so true!
My family’s spinach pie recipe! DROOL.
A really yummy sounding lychee lemon drop reciipe.
Go check it out y’all! I want to share recipes and stuff with you!
I need a bigger plate!
I’m so busy that somehow I am not sure I am getting anything done?!! UGH! Today I have dentist appointment, I swear I have that guilty schoolgirl feeling that I’ll be scolded for my obvious disregard for dental hygiene. Plus, it’s a new dentist and I have to bring Mr. Pants with me. I loved my old dentist… 
guess I have to bring him in a stroller lest I end up having to hold a squirming baby on my lap while getting my teeth cleaned. hahaha. Just letting him run wild all over the office kind of has it’s appeal though…
I made another cute-ass pair of spats. These and the ruffley ones and the green ones are for sale in my etsy shop. Finally! I am like the last person on earth to have an etsy shop.
Go check it out! minniekins.etsy.com
I think that having a good inner lining is essential. I mean, on the outisde you’re all cute and hearty but on the inside you are fucking ON FIRE. Anywho!
I want to see some people wearing spats out there darn it! Oh, I’ll be adding some baby loveys to the shop in a bit, I just haven’t gotten around to getting some good photos of them yet.
Lest you think I have been napping…
I’ve not been napping, okay, except for 15 minutes today… I have also been making some spats. Fancier than my usual ones. I do so love picking fabrics, lining, buttons, etc. these are pretty fun to make with only stress surrounding the buttonholes. Sewing on shank buttons is a total bitch, it makes my wrists hurt.
Thse are from some nice green velvet with white and goldy buttons. The lining is pink fake wood grain from Joel Dewberry. LOVE IT! The backing buttons are from my grandmothers button tin.
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The second pair are black and white houndstooth (canvas duck) with red flannel lining, cute red and black vintage buttons (got ‘em at the oakland museum white elephant last year), and some eyelet lace ruffles (like ruffly underwears. hahaha) on the heels
Both of these are now up in my etsy shop!