Readjustment and Rainbows

My week began with this. It's a good thing. At least I keep repeating those words in my head. She LOVES school. I'm the only one crying about it and I feel ridiculous for it. Well, M is pouting a bit too, but she's 3.

Now that K is in school, M might soon realize that she's the only available victim recipient of my kid crafting/sewing efforts. Also the guinea pig when something fun arrives in the mail. Like rainbow hair tinsel!

Adrianna is celebrating birthdays tomorrow with a rainbow party! We can't be there, so we're sporting rainbows on this side of the world. I hadn't heard of hair tinsel until Adrianna posted on her personal blog about it. Since then I've seen it in malls but haven't cared to spend (excessive) mall dollars on it. Last week I saw that our friend Kyra had found it for DIY purposes so I went searching for it and found it here.

Once you open the package, it's a hundred 36" long strands clamped together at the top.

They're designed to be washable, blow-dryable and flat-ironable. Since my investment is exactly 12 cents a strand, I'm not too worried about how long they'll last. It'll be a fun experiment. I'm certain that my application skills are not expert, but I'm excited about how they look on squiggly wiggly M and looking forward to trying it on K when she gets home this afternoon.

Applying them is easy-- the hardest part is getting the kid to sit still. You're just plucking a strand from the pack, picking one strand of hair to tie it to, and tying a snug double knot. It's definitely fiddly and fit for a DIY enthusiast. I'd love to hear your thoughts and tips if you're more of an expert!

I've been asked to apply them to 'Punzel next.

That is almost alll of the craftiness that existed around here this week. Mostly cleaning and sorting and figuring out our new schedule. Which makes me even MORE wishful that I could show up at A's house tomorrow for the party. She's been previewing the party food and decor on Instagram (@adriannaappl) and it looks way fun!

Newly Obsessed with Jewelry-Making

I haven't been this interested in jewelry since I first discovered Claire's in... 4th grade? I've had a few short-lived flings with jewelry-making but none have lasted all that long, for much the same reason that I wasn't all that interested in sewing until a few years ago-- I couldn't find supplies I was excited about working with. But while I was visiting Adrianna in her parent's town in July we went for a walk in Winchester's downtown shopping/dining district and found Potomac Beads.

I didn't realize until I went looking for a link for this post that there are a bunch of locations-- good news for me since that means there are several that are closer than hiking back to see Adrianna's parents, even though they are super nice and might let me hide out there for a while. :)

So I can't speak to all of the locations (yet), but this one was most impressive. We were in hang-out mode more than let's-blog mode, so these photos are just phone pics. Here's Adrianna contemplating her findings choices.

There are lots of options strung and hanging on the walls, and individual beads and findings available in a long row of tables like this one, in those little cups. And two layers of roll out trays underneath. You could spend a week just looking.

Any sort of craft supply in a rainbow-ish sort of display is a winner to me. Or, um, us.

I loved that there were multiple sit-down-and-work stations in the store, and we were happy to run a few doors down to grab coffee and a snack and come back to get to work.

Something that came up in conversation - you wouldn't know unless someone tells you that beads on strings for sale are "temporarily strung". You could attempt to use them that way, but whatever it's strung on isn't likely to work well for much. Even if you just want them all in a line, you've got to re-string them.

I fell in love with these square agate (I think) beads. I was obnoxious about my new love, too. I told Adrianna, who was still shopping: "You can look all over but I already found the coolest beads in the whole store."  If she didn't stick her tongue out at me, she should have.

I knew I wanted to make a necklace that was long enough to put over my head-- avoiding closures. They had plenty of 'em, I just wanted to keep it simple.

I strung them and knotted in between individual beads and in groups of 2, 3 and 4. So they wiggle around a little, but not much.

When I had asked the super helpful saleswoman what type of bead cord to use, she took me to a display of these. And I was in looooove. I've not seen this at big craft stores, but then again, I wouldn't have known to look for it until she told me about it.

Not only did I like that the cord was available in several thicknesses and made of sturdy silk and in beautiful colors, but check out the NEEDLE. It's flexible and the cord is attached securely to it already-- in such a way that it's sooooo easy to string the beads without the beads catching on the eye of the needle, a problem that ended several of my previously mentioned flings. I chose a handful of colors to bring home and use with the existing supplies I have from said flings. 

You can find the thread here. I'm sure there are lots of other sources, I'm just sharing the one I'm familiar with. The company has no idea who I am or that I'm sharing their links, I'm just sharing because I was really, really excited about this. But you already knew I'm a total craft nerd. Nothing new there.

So this necklace is my new fave, and seems to work with about 75% of my highly fancy daily wardrobe. The silk thread is so sturdy that kids tugging at it doesn't scare me at all.

Adrianna and I both seem to be sudden jewelry enthusiasts at the moment and there may be a few "easy jewelry" tutorials coming. Things that are not complicated to make AND work with the whole mom job thing.

SK8R Dress

So I'm not really sure why, but apparently this kind of dress is called a skater dress.  Are they ideal for skating?  I would think there would be too much potential for a london/france/underpants scenario.

Regardless, I decided to be all "street" for 5 minutes and call it the SK8R dress!  (Don't worry, it won't last long.  Anyone who calls themselves "street" and writes "street" in quotes is definitely not "street".)

(sidenote: my college roomate's little brother got his girlfriend "in trouble" and told me he hoped it was a boy so they could name him N8.  He wanted to know if numbers were allowed on birth certificates.  And this, boys and girls, is the number one danger of engaging in premarital sex.  No 17 year old should be responsible for naming another human.  Thankfully the good Lord in his infinite wisdom saw fit to bless them with a little girl, who ended up with a very normal name spelled in a traditional way.)

I briefly entertained thoughts of paint splattering my own fabric until I ran across this fabric at Girl Charlee and decided to take the easy way out.  My girls are in need of some simple knit dresses, so I thought a skirted t-shirt was the way to go.

I would stick to the easy and comfy racerback dress, but my older daughter can't wear sleeveless things to school on her out-of-uniform days, so we needed some options.  I'm kind of digging these simple cap sleeves.  I tend to go for a gathered puff sleeve, so it was fun to do something a little different (as if that fabric wasn't different enough).

I think she likes it.  She smiled, said thank you, and proceeded to wear it continuously for 4 days.  As handmade things go, that's a winner.  Actually, that's a winner for laundry too.  Maybe not so much for smelliness though.

Now I'm off to make another one for big sister.  And maybe a baby one too.  And the one requested by her babysitter.  And the one I was thinking of making for myself.  I may have started something here...

Sew in Tune: Born in the USA

    Hey, I'm over at Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy today sharing my tutorial for the Sew In Tune series.  A bunch of bloggers have already shared musical-themed tutorials for boy clothes, so go check it out!  What a cool idea for a sewing series, huh?  Of course, as you know, I don't have boys.  So you'll just have to use your imagination for mine.  Suspend your disbelief on those puff sleeves.

My musical muse?  The Boss, of course!  Who else is there?

I made this for my oldest so she could pass it down to her sisters, and only belatedly realized that she's the only one who can claim the statement "born in the usa" with any honesty.  I guess we'll have to find a loving home for this shirt later, as I wouldn't want my other two daughters to get embroiled in any presidential viability scandals.

   

These again

Much like last year, but this time these are for my own kid. (Also, I didn't spring for Prismacolor set to send to kindergarten.) Another thing K can add to the list of things that make me a mean mom.

As luck would have it, I've made a loooot of drawer stickers this year. And on certain combinations I have a little extra room and some scrap vinyl to use up. So I added name stickers for both of my girls to that available space. And now they have enough of these to label every item from now until grad school.

If you're a DIY-er looking to make these, I suggest:

- using "outdoor" vinyl. The indoor stuff isn't sticky and flexible enough. I get the bulk of mine here because I love the by-the-sheet selection. We're now affiliates, too.
- leaving some room between each row of type. The first time I cut them I used the "duplicate" button to maximize the number of names I could fit into the space. The result of that is a ridiculous amount of weeding. This is already a fiddly task, and leaving some space in-between the rows means that the negative space sticks together and peels away more easily.

If you're on the lookout for the Spoonflower news I mentioned at the end of this post, it's going to have to wait until after Labor Day. There's been a bit of a delay in conversation with the help desk, and the task is too involved now to dive in before school starts. So-- after Labor Day. But it's worth the wait!

Gift It

Kimberly at bugaboo, mini, mr & me is hosting a gift idea series - Gift It. I'm into starting early this year, as you may've noticed from previous posts. Which makes me think "why didn't I do that the last two years?" And then I ponder that... and remember the craziness of the last two years, which included remodeling and settling a house after my husband set out for a year of work overseas the first year, and the re-settling process when he came home for good last year and THEN getting my wisdom teeth out which led a longer string of yuck that required three rounds of antibiotics. What a Debbie Downer story, right? All of that reminds me to be thankful for the relative lack of crazy. And say a little prayer that the relative lack of crazy lasts. And lasts. And lasts.

Today I'm sharing one of my all-time favorites, a reversible creative play mat. I chose a beach and a garden scene, but there are about a million other ways to go and can be fun for years and will even make a sweet hand-me-down someday.

If you're a long-time reader, you may remember the first version here and the reversible version here.

On one hand, I look at those older posts and think "ouch". In the first one I wasn't yet embracing my role as a storyteller and the photography was much too dark. In the second one you can see some improvement.

On the other hand, I've learned so much since we started, and lots in just the last year. We really jumped in three years ago having no idea what we were doing. I certainly had no idea how much I'd learn and grow and how many inspiring people I would meet, both online and in the real world because of blogging. I'm so grateful for that.

So, back to the play time at hand. If you're looking for fun gift ideas, check out the series, or go to the reversible play mat tutorial!

Help Desk: Sewing For Boys

There's no telling what people will ask of a help desk... until you answer the phone. So to speak.

As far as answering the ringing phone, that's all me for the moment. Adrianna has just landed on the other side of the world and has three kids to get through jet lag and then two to get into their new school routines. My house has a few weeks of summer left before school kicks in.

Crafterhours' Help Desk has gotten a bunch of fun questions-- some that are best answered with an e-mail and others that will be super fun to respond to on the blog. It's the variety of it that makes it so fun. I'm ready to jump in, and where better to start than with the very very first question that arrived about 5 minutes after the Help Desk post went live.

One of the things I learned living overseas was how frustrating it can be to read crafty blogs and not have (remotely) similar supplies available. There was no thrifting at all where we lived, (there was dumpster diving) and every upcycle post that started with "look at what I found at the thrift store in one of my 3 trips so far this week" made me tear up a bit. There were no craft stores either. There was some fabric, but nothing like we'd have found in the states. It's not as if everyone in the states can run down to a craft store, either. Plenty of folks in the US are far from decent thrifting and supply shopping to speak of. But at least there's reasonably-priced shipping in the states.

As far as making the most of available project materials, I'd suggest:

1) Upcycling. While you may not be able to thrift overseas, you may be able to find adult clothing in larger sizes that can be mined for the fabric-- either by locating family cast-offs or clearance rack finds.

kitschy coo  saltwater kids  me sew crazy

2) Embellishment. Using:

Freezer paper stencils. You don't *have* to use fabric paint, regular acrylic paint will do and will lose the "crunch" after a washing. I found it in stationery and school supply stores in Europe after two years of having no clue where to find it. Can't find freezer paper? Contact paper works, too. Or masking tape.

tiny happy    shim & sons    handmade kids

Stamps. Use with fabric markers, permanent ink or acrylic paint. Use 1) ready made stamps, 2) use found objects like feathers, potatoes or fruit, 3) cut stamps from erasers, styrofoam, foam toys.

see kate sew    in between laundry    etsy greek street team  

Bleach. Use a pen, a paintbrush or spray. Create stripes, large lettering, simple shapes.

sugar bee    roar    dawn nicole  

Markers. Fabric markers or Sharpies or whatever permanent markers you can find.

shwin & shwin    iDIY    the 36th avenue

Celebrate the Boy by Dana and Rae offer boatloads of inspiration. As far as an series that's ongoing, it just so happens that there's another fun boy sewing series happening now - Sew In Tune by Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy and Melly Sews. I'd suggest checking that out.

That is kind of a big topic for a first Help Desk post. But the good news is that the online inspiration resources have grown SO much in the past few years thanks to so many people sharing their ideas. The challenge as an overseas (or domestic remotely located) sewist is to clear your mind of all of the things you don't have supplies for and focus on getting creative with what you do have.

Do you have a help desk question? Submit it here! Do you have more suggestions for this reader (who indicated she'd rather remain anonymous)? Leave 'em in the comments!

Don't have a question yet but want to hang on to the help desk thought for later? Pin this!