Alpha finally has a Wolfpack Satchel

Finally got around to finishing my own Wolfpack Satchel today.  A couple changes to the design include a few smaller layered pockets on the front in addition to making it a lined bag.  Just a way to try out some different techniques and hone those sewing skills.



orange/pink poppy - old Marimekko pillowcase
pink/grey/blue swirl - old maternity top
denim - my old jeans



back of satchel

hot pink - old showercurtain

the whole thing - and a reminder that I
need a better camera







pretty little bits

I was never a girlie-girl.  I never had Barbie dolls, I had a BMX bike.  I played little-league softball for 10 years while many of my friends took dance classes.  I never took dance classes and it was probably for the better.  Have you ever seen the video for Blind Melon's "No Rain"?  Ummm, yeah.  You get the picture. 

Much of my adolescence was consumed by me obsessing about if I was feminine enough.  Constantly comparing myself with my peers that could pull off wearing pink and looked totally natural with their spiral perms and scrunchies.  I am a natural redhead (with freckles!!) and well, it's pretty much programmed in my DNA to not ever be able to wear pink.  As far as the spiral perm and scrunchie?  Ever heard of Little Orphan Annie?  And before you say, "But, Molly Ringwald...."  SHUT IT.  

Luckily I grew out of all of that.  Not the red hair and freckles, I still have all that going on (thank goodness!) - but the awkwardness of it all.  I came into my femininity in my mid-20's when I discovered that I have a passion for underwear.  I love all different styles and have a vast collection.  I don't care if you are wearing grungy work-clothes to clean out the garage, if you have on some cute and matching undergarments, you are a goddess.  I always say that one day I want to be a burlesque dancer - I think it's mostly because I would have a justifiable reason to spend a lot of money on awesome lingerie!!

A while back, I ran a load of laundry and forgot to put a chemise in the lingerie bag before washing.  Well, let's just say that the chemise was kind of eaten sometime between the rinse and final spin cycles.  A sad moment, indeed.  And being the freak that I am, I kept it.  I don't know what I was planning because it was bad and not on a seam.  I just loved the colors of it - a pretty coral with beige lace edges. (Oh yeah, sometime in my mid-20's I also figured out that I can wear peach and coral).  I ended up shoving it to the back of a dresser drawer and forgot about it.

That is, until I recently read a blog that had some hand-made silk flowers sewn on the front of a purse.  The color of the flowers was exactly the same coral of my long-forgotten chemise.  I quickly figured out how to singe satin and started making little flowers.  Then I had another idea.  I got out my trusty glue gun and started gluing the flowers to hair clips and the rest is history.  I glued a few to some pins as well for a cute brooch, but I prefer the hair clips.

Thinking these may be a really cool thing to do custom for prom/weddings/etc.  Couldn't you just see a bunch of bridesmaids with funky hair clips to match their dresses?

I don't know about you, but wearing a pretty little flower in my hair is almost as rewarding as wearing some cute underwear.   I said almost.

cheers!
A★

CoffeeCozee

Had some scraps laying around and decided to throw these together.  I think they turned out really cute - hope my sister-in-law likes them because they match her netbook bag.

yellow - old placemat
green print - vintage sheets

I might just have to make one of these every time I make a bag - too good of a way to use up those scraps!

cheers!
A★

I could get so much done....

I have decided (after a grand total of 3.5 hours of fitful sleep) that I could get SO much more accomplished if I had a league of minions to boss around.  Think about it...I could just assign all the mundane tasks (that pretty much devour my day) to them and it would give me all the time I need to do the important stuff.  You know, like SLEEP! 

Damn, I am going to have the worst freakin' bags under my eyes tomorrow.  Guess I'll have to hold off on my new Facebook photo shoot.  And I was really perfecting the "pout-while-holding-the-camera-slightly-above-me-while-simultaneously-smashing-my-boobs-together-and-pretending-I'm-not-taking-my-own-picture" look.  I really had that one nailed.

Insomnia is a big piece of shit and I want to punch it right in the gullet.

cheers!
A★

Not much to report...

I have been catching up on side stuff that I promised to a few people (pillow covers, etc.) so not a ton of exciting stuff to share - I did come up with a kind of scarf-ish thing that I am still not 100% sure on - but I'll share it anyway. 

I had a few of the same t-shirt laying around (leftover stock from the days when we had a skate shop) and since they were too small for anyone, I decided to cut 'em up because they are soooo soft and there is no way I am going to fit into an XS anytime soon.  Or ever for that matter. 

This was very much a "fly by the seat of your pants" project - just kind of sewed strips together until I had the idea for a scarf and then it went from there.  Here's what I ended up with:

Well?  Would you wear it? Ideas?  I had kind of thought of sewing it into a cowl-type scarf but figured I could come back to it.

Another thing I did in the past couple days was finally figure out how to make silk singed flowers....all I have to say is....EASY!  I repurposed an old chemise that lost the battle with the washing machine and got ripped .  I want to make a bazillion of these.

Seems that recently a lot of the blogs I read are showing pics of their workspaces.  It's funny because somehow I assume that they will have fancy studios or separate rooms dedicated to crafting with all their little bits and endless supply of materials organized perfectly - and they don't.   They are just like me, carving out their own special corner of a spare bedroom, attic, whatever.

I love my workspace.  I claimed a corner in our walk-out basement and I can sit and do my thing in seclusion or while the kids play in their play area - and it's right next to the hubs' "home office".  As with everything in my life, it's a work in progress.  I am constantly rearranging and reorganizing my stuff to fit best in such a small space (all my fabric is in bins in the laundry room).  A while back, I scored my table off Craigslist - it folds up and rolls (and the folding chairs store inside it!) so when I am done, I just fold it up and roll it over under the shelves. One of the things I love most is all the natural light I have during the day.  It's becoming a favorite place for me - will be even better when I figure out a new chair situation.



Hope to have some new things to post up here soon...stay tuned.

cheers!

A★

butterflies...

There have been a ton of positive responses to the new stuff posted up at Etsy - THANK YOU to all of my amazing friends/family who are promoting it and standing behind what I am doing.  This is so "all of a sudden" but feels 100% RIGHT. 

Was contacted by a very creative and talented girl I know who is out there taking the fashion world by storm....She mentioned some sort of "collaboration" between the two of us...interested to see what kind of things she has in that pretty little head of hers.  She has the best attitude and her energy is INFECTIOUS.  I have a feeling I can learn A LOT from her :)

More on the worktable right now...hopefully some new stuff by the weekend.  Working on a new idea for a bag plus a couple prototypes for some things that might be part of a "urban utility" series.....

My brain is going a bazillion miles a minute.

Oh, and Wasteful Wednesday was a wash today.  Garbage men came WAY early so I didn't get a chance to get out there and pick - but I was able to get rid of a cute Ikea chalkboard easel that I put out at the end of our driveway for free :)


cheers! A★

New stuff in Etsy Shop

Finally got a few Business Casual shirts up at Etsy - a few of the Limited Edition STAR WARS shirts, plus a couple other new ones. 

More on the way....

cheers! A★

Sista's got a brand new bag....

My sister-in-law has been very subtly hinting that she *needs* a bag for her new netbook.  Subtle by carrying it around wrapped in a hand towel and shoved in a reusable shopping bag.  Unacceptable, Amy.

I followed the Just In Case design - made a few small changes and even ended up utilizing scraps from an old pair of Amy's jeans.

I added a smaller roll-up for power cords or whatever else you might not want scraping against a netbook. 

Happy Birthday Amy - hope you enjoy your new bag!
cheers!
A★

Wasteful Wednesday - Don't be Trashy

My house has the best location if you ever want to get rid of stuff.  I don't mean dead bodies or illegal drugs (that was the people who lived here before us).  I'm talking about still usable but unwanted things.  We live on the Autobahn main street of our subdivision and you have to drive by our house to get to the main roads, so sometimes it takes only a matter of minutes for someone to pick up and haul away whatever gem I have decided to display with a "FREE" sign taped to it.  I like knowing that I am not contributing to the landfill but I also know how stoked I get when I see something awesome out for the taking.  That is why I love early Wednesday mornings (I am also a big fan of Garage Sales - more on that another time).

In our neighborhood, Wednesday is Trash Day.  The glorious day where everyone drags their weekly accumulation of post-consumer waste to the end of the driveway so that the nice men in the big green truck can come take it away to garbage heaven the trash dump.  It's also the day that I drive around early in the morning like some weirdo lurker in my 20-year-old Suburban to see what is up for the offering. It literally amazes me what people throw away.  I really feel that most of the time, it's because they are just too damn lazy to figure out another use for a perfectly good item - or to write FREE on a piece of paper and slap some tape on it.  And I am not judging (OK, maybe a little) but the further you go into our sub, the bigger the houses get.  I find that the people who live in these 3000sq.ft. houses are the people who are throwing out the craziest stuff.  Can you say WASTEFUL? 

Before I go any further, let me just say that I am not a Hoarder.  I will never BE a Hoarder, I do not condone Hoarding.   However, I do occasionally watch Hoarders and all it does is make me want to clean my house, which I already have a compelling desire to do pretty much every waking moment.  I live in an 825sq.ft. house - along with my husband, our 2 and 4 year old boys and our dog. There is no room for any extra STUFF - so if something is coming home, it better have an intended purpose.  A place for everything and everything in its place.

I have scored a practically new outdoor Rubbermaid storage cabinet, a sweet Powerwheels dune buggy, end tables, shelving units, and so much more.  Most of it requires a pretty good cleaning, sometimes I modify things (I am not afraid of power tools) and I usually end up throwing a coat of paint on it just for good measure (and decor purposes - I'm matchy matchy, you know). 

I get my kids involved - they drive around with me and get super excited when they see big piles of trash.  I am trying to use this as a tool to teach them that recycling things is the way it should be.  If you have a need for something, look around and you will probably see an item that will fill that purpose.  Not everything works this way and it takes thinking outside the box, but it's pretty cool to have someone comment on your one-of-a-kind retro orange end tables and be able to reply, "Thanks! I got them out of some one's garbage!".

I will be posting my Wasteful Wednesday finds here so you can all marvel at my awesomeness - or how ridiculous my neighbors are.  Either way, should be fun.

Oh, and there was nothing good in the trash this week. Sadness.

cheers!
A★

Just In Case....

It's no secret that my mother-in-law is a clutz.  While amazing in so many areas of her life/personality, the woman is seriously accident-prone.  I'm not kidding, she even managed to run herself over...with her own car !!(she's fine - thank you for your concern).

When the time came for her to get her new netbook, all I could think about was that she was going to somehow break it/drop it/step on it/run it over.  So, I went to work making her a handy-dandy PADDED carrying bag...you know, Just In Case.

cheers! A★

Business Casual?

My kids are super cute.  And I'm not just saying that.  They really lucked out in the gene pool and are some handsome little fellas.  And what makes a cute kid even cuter?  A handmade-super-hip T-shirt with a fabric "necktie" sewn on.  Cuteness overload.

I wonder if this could qualify as "business casual"?

Business Casual - Special Edition Holiday 2010
made with vintage Star Wars fabric

cheers! A★