Sunday, September 27, 2009

Embroidering and parties and oh so much fun!

Hip Stitch hosted a birthday party this afternoon - 10 girls, including one very special birthday girl! The girls embroidered book covers, and I was blown away with their natural talent! The book covers were already made, out of simple canvas. The girls got to choose their design to embroider from a selection of iron-on patterns out of Sublime Stitching.

They choose designs of dogs and ice cream cones, cupcakes and moons. After a short instruction, they got to work. They took a break from embroidery to eat birthday cake (peanut butter cake, which was fabulous!) Below is the birthday girl, who came decked out in - what else - a princess dress.
Another project they did was to make a bookmark by collage-ing fabric scraps onto cardstock paper, then painting on fabric stiffener. They whizzed through this craft!

And on the topic of embroidery, after getting charged up after seeing Robyn's work, this is my 1st completed project, which was delivered to Dagmar as a late birthday gift - a perfect choice for her, as she makes me the best lattes I've ever had!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

So here's how this story begins.....today was the make your own dressform class in the lounge, which I'll get to in a moment. I wanted to attempt this at home before the class, so I could know what was going on, even though I didn't teach the class.

So one night this week, I recruited my husband Dan to help. (Ignore my junky kitchen in the background) Needless to say, this was a very amateur attempt, with a guy who just wanted to get this whole experience over with so he could watch baseball. Poor Dan - the things he does to support Hip Stitch!So on to today's class.....Sharon Hatcher was our class instructor. She was amazing! We had a full lounge - 8 of us total. We started with a pile of packing tape:
And started in an assembly line, taping each other's backs. Yes, those are garbage bags we're wrapped in - haute couture at its finest!
We quickly wrapped ourselves, layer after layer......

And voila, a finished wrap! (Lovely Lisa modeling hers)

Here's my finished form:
I'm maybe going to paint it, or put on a coat of Mod Podge....something to give it a finished, somewhat creative look. All in all, this was a fantastic class, and one we're planning to do again. Every gal who sews should have her own custom-made dress form!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Look at what's for dinner, along with lasagna:
From Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, this is Focaccia with Onion and Rosemary. My family is going to bite into it in about 5 minutes, as soon as I'm done with this post. I'd better type fast.

Here's a skirt that Dagmar gave me about a year ago, picked up at a thrift store. It was a very large size, but the fabric is great. I finally got around to taking out some panels and turning it into a wrap skirt. Love, love, love it.
Robyn is inspiring me to embroider. Check out what she's been doing. I'm getting going on some projects!

Friday, September 4, 2009

Woo Hoo - A night out on the town!

Alright, so it was nothing like college, where I could easily stay out 'til 4 a.m. But it was a night out, nonetheless.....7 of us met at the the Guild, to see Handmade Nation, last night. What a great movie. I'm so inspired about creating, living my life with sewing as a priority (yes, family is up there, too), buying locally-made goods, support local crafters. An all-around fun evening. The movie got out at a little after 8; we stood outside the theater and talked/dreamed/reviewed the movie. By about 8:30, it was time to go back to our lives - some had babies to get home to, some had just sleep to get home to. Not like 20 years ago....!

Jen wore a skirt she made out of Heather Ross fabrics, Peg wore a Decades of Style dress made out of Amy's fabric, I wore Lila Tueller's Funked Out Peasant Blouse, Diana had a purse she designed and made.....it was just so darn fun!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Bear with me.....

......as I re-format the blog again. Just searching for a good fit. Ellen Benson came a few weeks ago and did a photo shoot for our website/blog. She's awesome!! We'll be adding to the website in the next few days.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

A few more

how about this one.....
or this.....
Aren't they marvelous?!