Latest Skirt - Religious Poetry Meets Ransom Note

 Here is my Ransom Note Meets Religious Poetry skirt!  The line along the hem is "All things counter, original, spare, strange," which is is from a poem by the 19th century monk Gerald Manley Hopkins.  (I'll include the whole poem at the end of this post.

 

 

The letters were cut from T-shirts and appliqued on the ruffle, which was then sewn to the skirt.

The skirt was made from other T-shirts and features a pocket and an elastic waist.

 

 

 

 

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Here are some photos from making it:

 

This project represents some growth for me as a maker because I generally only pick fast and easy projects, ones without repetitive tasks or fussy details.   (For me, applique is repetitive and fussy.)  But I asked myself: Why chose projects that as are close as possible to instant gratification?  Why rush to the finish line instead of enjoying the process?  So I decided to give myself permission to set it aside and come back to it if I wanted to.  (I didn't want to.)   I let myself tackle something more involved.  And it's one of the favorite things I've ever made.  :)

 

Pied Beauty

by Gerald Manley Hopkins 

Glory be to God for dappled things—

For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;

And àll tràdes, their gear and tackle and trim.

 

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise him. 

#CoronaCreative

 A sample of some of my creative endeavors....

 

The above headband is designed to match all of my jeans, regardless of the varying degrees to which they have faded. :)

The tops I just added ruffles to, but it's nice because it transforms a tank-top with spaghetti straps into something I can wear in public.  They are SO comfy -- I'm not a huge fan of bras so I love them -- and now they are modest enough to go anywhere.

I hope you've been having some creative fun this summer, too!

A very busy weekend...

Friday = Escape Room - 6th fastest time.... out of 860 teams....

Saturday = Craft Fair and Book Club (not pictured)

Sunday = Anime Convention

Black Top from Old T-Shirts

My Latest Creation!

It covers my tummy (still big after my illness and Christmas), which also hides any jean-like element of the non-jeans-so-I-can-wear-them-to-work pants.

I made it with four pattern pieces, although in retrospect I only needed two, one for the two front pieces and one for the two back pieces.

Yes, not counting the braid that connects the front and the back, this top has four pieces.

This isn't a tutorial, but someday I'll make one.

The photo above was the muslin I made, which actually worked on the first try.

Book Bag: Clothes, Crafts, and CRAZY cool!

The Curated Closet: A Simple System for Discovering Your Personal Style and Building Your Dream Wardrobe
by Anuschka Rees
265 pages

Normally, this kind of book isn't my thing.  I'm just not that into clothes.  But I liked this book because:
A) it was about breaking away from the endless consumerism of buying cheap, disposable clothes and following fads and
B) it took into account the fact that there are many, many different styles and personality types when it comes to clothing and
C) it had exercises to help put the theories in to practice.  (For example, take a photo of what you are wearing every day for two weeks and then analyze what you are wearing a lot and what you look good in.  How does how you want to look match up with how you actually look?)

I thought the book was very sensible, and I am going to recommend it to Arwen when she gets a little older.

Materially Crafted: A DIY Primer for the Design-Obsessed
by Victoria Hudgins (Creator of the blog A Subtle Revelry)
175 pages

I will let the author telling you what the book is about in her own words.

It always begins the same: We see a pretty photo, we click the link.  We read a post that starts with "melt the wax" and we freeze because we don't really know how to melt wax, what kind of wax to use, or where to buy the wax.

We then search "working with wax" online and, upon article after article of technical jargon that often contradicts itself, and is full of unrelated keywords and obnoxious ads.  We get discouraged, downhearted, and quickly put aside the original idea we has to be creative, to make something new and unique with their hands.  And we returned to scrolling through the pin boards, seeing great ideas and dreaming about accomplishing them someday.

Victoria covers the basics of these categories:

• spray paint
• plaster of Paris
• concrete
• paper
• thread
• wax
• would
• Clay
• glue
• fabric
• metal

She also has very simple projects included for each category.  There's some stuff I want to try, like the baskets woven from T-shirts and the concrete planters and the plaster of Paris/lace doily bowls.

Each section is not exhaustive – if you know a lot about what wood or fabric already, for example, you will find them pretty simple, but that is okay.  It's just enough to get someone started using each material.  And the projects are simple enough that you aren't going to get in over your head too much.

That's not the case at all for the next book, though.

Extraordinary Projects for Ordinary People: Do-It-Yourself Ideas from the People Who Actually Do Them
Edited by Noah Weinstein
465 Pages

This book represents the best (or the wackiest) of Intractablesl.com.

Most of these projects I couldn't do because they involved wires and programming something called an Arduino.

  But the cool factor is really high!

• flame-growing jack-o'-lantern
• Star Trek-style bedroom door
• solar-powered ray gun
• amphibious couch-bike
• tree climbing robot
• birdcage dress
• pocket laser engraver
• digital camera Halloween costume – that actually takes pictures
• bike jacket with turn signal
• bacon roses
• vacuum-cleaner bazooka
• solar-powered bicycle

Yes, the more I read the book the more nervous my husband got!  It has inspired me to want to turn our summer family reunion into a family events where we design and build a boat that can break down and fit in the back of a sedan.  I'd also like to make the next-and-bolts chocolate using a DIY silicone mold.

It really made me envy those people who have computers/electrical type of technical skills.  I need to get me some of those….

Fringe and Tassel--Going Out of Business Sale

It's all over on Saturday!

Fringe and Tassel, Lincoln's most famous costume shop, is going out of business and they are selling all of their costumes.  They are open from 11am-5:30pm, and 10-2 (or sold out) on Saturday. 

We had great fun shopping, although nothing is priced and so all sales are negotiated.  Most of the clothing is well worn, so check it carefully.  I enjoyed browsing, and of course, I had to try a few things on....

4-H Fun: Clothes

The fashion design part of 4-H was always my favorite.  Well, not the actual sewing.  Just the design and modeling parts.

Here are some fun clothes made by 4-H members, all from the county fair a few weeks ago.

Now what is the name of that artist?  This dress has some cool swirls inspired by him:

 This dress is actually made of patchwork.  I've always wanted to try that.  I presume that you just sew patchwork shapes to match the pattern pieces.  It would be a ton of work to do it so carefully that the pieces lay flat.

 This just looks like fun.

 Grandma Vlasta made Czech dresses like these for Mom and her sisters to do Czech dancing in, and also made matching dresses for their dolls.

Hope you are enjoying the fair photos! 

My Friend the Cobbler

My friend Marcia makes her own shoes.  Seriously!  She is like that—she’s always doing cool DIY stuff that I’d never dream of attempting.

Here’s the FB page she started for like-minded amateur cobblers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/shoemakingfun/

Hairstyle Note

This blog is kind of my scribble-so-I-won’t-forget notebook.  Here is me right after a perm that I particularly liked.