(like the rod stewart song)
i'm an elder millennial living in the bay area who loves dark beer, the environment, and sewing for the tiny humans in my life.
anyone hoping to get a kindle for the holidays?
i got one last year from victor and thought i would share a tutorial for making a simple case for it.
being an aunt is pretty much the greatest thing ever.
i show up a few times a year with gummy bears and some new books, spend an hour building an awesome lego castle while drinking my sister's beer, let the kid stay up 15 minutes later than they normally would, then drop the mic because i just nailed it.
aside from Legos one of the activities I like to do most with the girls is sewing. Today I'm going to share my tips on how I (attempt) to make it a tear free process for everyone.
remember the birthday bunting i made the girls? well a few years back the girls and i made a holiday version.
it started with a trip to bolt fabric boutique to pick out a few fat quarters of holiday fabric...
a while back i was watching maya and as bedtime was approaching i said it was time to put on her pjs. the kid lost it. turns out she had never heard anyone refer to pajamas as pjs before and thought it was the funniest thing ever.
today i am going to share a three non pajama patterns that actually make great pjs.
after six years my longchamp finally died on me last january. however I had been preparing for this day and already had a successor picked out that was unique, reflected my quirky personality, and big enough to hold a laptop: the merchant & mills oil skin bag.
whats that you don't know about merchant & mills?
i'm nothing if not predictable.
a coworker recently had a baby boy. so guess what i made him?
have I mentioned lately that the bay area has the best weather?
then again i spent the first quarter decade of my life in the mid west and northeast, so perhaps i'm easily impressed.
since i no longer need cold weather gear, I've developed a fondness for what i call 'san francisco scarves' or infinity scarves made from cotton.
a little while back i shared ten tiny sewing tools i love. while adorable those little things aren't the only tools i use. so today i'm going to share ten more that are also essential.
maya has developed quite the fashion sense, we're calling it 'ragamuffin chic'. (see her second birthday tunic in there?)
can we talk about how handsome my cat is?
if you can draw yourself away from that face for a moment you will see he is wearing a purple polka dot bow tie, made from fabric left over from maya's spunky polka library dress. today i'm going to share a tutorial on how to make your own cat bow ties.
these skirts satisfy two of my sewing resolutions: busting my stash and sewing more patterns.
i was doing what i always do when planning a project: sitting cross legged on the floor, patterns on my right, stash on my left, a mason of a triple rock porter in front of me pulling together various combinations and seeing what might work. when i came across this pairing of a lightweight cobalt eyelet and the sunday brunch pattern from oliver + s i paused:
remember that awesome fabric combo i came up with for maya's second playdate dress? well i had a fair amount of fabric left over and i was at a loss for what to make with it.
then i remembered the book report dresses i had made a year earlier. maybe the cut of the pattern that worked so well with the busy and bold ikat would also work with the tessellation print.
each time I think I've blogged all my past projects another one surfaces. here is another one i found.
i was so smitten with the library dress pattern from oliver + s after making it first as instructed for maya, then with a zipper modification for nora and etta's back to school outfits that it wasn't long before i made two more for nora and etta, this time from a simple purple polka dot cotton.
quick post today
a little while back i whipped up this stuffed owl. admittedly it was inspired by the cat nip toys i made fitz around the same time.
my parents are huge hippies, i mean we belonged to a tofu co-op for a good part of the '90s. combined with the fact that they had my sister abby in the mid-70s one has to imagine they dressed her in some pretty funky stuff.
sort of like these goldenrod cords i recently made a friend's baby.
hope everyone had an awesome turkey day! mine consisted of putting my cat in a purple polkadot bow tie, frying one turkey, smoking another, and chopping wood.
as an american it's my duty to support the economy on black friday, so in this post i'll share some of my favorite small business sewing shops.
why do i love small sewing shops?
happy turkey day!
v and i are spending the holiday in wine country with our good friends colin & christina. the boys are outside chopping wood and smoking the turkey.
today i'm going to share ten sewing tools sewing tools I'm thankful for. nine are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand!
today i'm wrapping up the series on my favorite home made gifts by talking about things you can make for housewarming, hostess, and girl friends.
continuing my series of my favorite homemade gifts today with gifts for babies and new moms. (want to take revisit my past posts? you can find my favorite kid toys and accessories here, my favorite little girl apparel gifts here, and my favorite little boy apparel gifts can here.)
first off the obvious: who doesn't think of a onesie for a newborn gift? here is neela in her put a bird on it onesie from the lullaby layette pattern from oliver + s
yesterday i posted about my go to gifts for little girl apparel and today i'm going to post about apparel gifts for little boys.
until a few months ago i had never made clothing for a little boy. i had gotten by sewing gender neutral baby stuff and toys whenever necessary and didn't have any desire to change my approach. why sew for boys? i've got this girl thing down and it's really fun.
but when our friends had a baby boy back in june i knew it was time to get on with it and set to work on my first boy project. since then i've developed a few favorite boy apparel items i turn to when it comes time to make things for the little dudes...
