Making Your Own Fabric Box

I love cloth covered boxes but they are either expensive, the wrong color, or the wrong size. BUT I found Joel Dewberry's book,  Sewn Spaces:  Fresh and Modern Project for You with a fabric box tutorial.  Yes!   I have a closet  full of fabric--literally.  (Go see pics of the cleaned up fabric closet here for proof of my addiction.)  Why buy them when I can make them AND actually use some of the stash.

Since I have an aversion to following directions, I made some changes in the pattern.  Here is my first prototype.  It bears almost no resemblance to Joel's other than that both are fabric and squarish. I did, however, follow his basic pattern.  The fabric is a Joann's wool remnant and buttons are from my old button stash.  I love the old man leather buttons on one side.

 And the big old round ones on the other.

Joel's box was smaller and had ties at the top.  I needed something a bit bigger for my sock collection aka future sock creature collection.   I decided to go with button loops at the top and midway down.

This was a pretty quick project despite my changes--an evening of work.  I will definitely be doing more with corduroy, denim, and a few pieces of decorator fabric I have.  Some changes I will probably make in the future:

• Make the sides a little shorter.  This is a ten inch square on the bottom and the sides are 10x12.  Joel's base was 7x7 and the sides were--ummm, I forget.  I think 7 as well.  
• I'd also use something heavier than the Pellon ultra-firm stabilizer or, at least use a double thickness of the Pellon.  I want those sides to stand tall, and I want to store heavier things in them.  
• I might put more buttons down the sides to make it more solid, too. 

I  have a few other ideas to try instead of the ties or buttons.  I'll have Prototype II up soon hopefully.  It is good to be sewing again!

I'm Blaming My Blog Absence on the New Kindle

It's the Kindle's fault that I have gotten little done to blog about since Christmas.   It is so freaking easy to use!  It fits so easily in my purse! And, when I'm reading in bed, it's so easy to hold!    That last one was what caused me to start lusting after my husband's Kindle.  There I was lying next to him in bed getting sore wrists holding onto a fat book while he was holding onto that skinny little Kindle.  I guess all the hints at reading time paid off.  He got me one for Christmas.

So far I've read eight books including The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I've been wanting to read the Tolkien books again for a while.  They were as good as I remembered.

I'm watching prices of books carefully, however.  $9.99 is my limit.  (Now, should I put off getting my book club's selection until too late, I may have to break that rule on occasion.) I wanted to read Watership Down again, but they want $12.99 for the Kindle Edition while one of the new paperback versions would only be $4.50.  In fact, you can get it used for a penny on Amazon!

There are many, though, that are reasonably priced or free.  Free is great and lots of the classics I love are free including The Tale of Two Cities--just downloaded.  Downloading them from anywhere at any time is amazingly liberating.  I was waiting for my daughter to come out of surgery and playing around finding books on the Amazon site!  Yeah, I could have done it on my laptop, but the Kindle is so much easier to carry and the battery lasts forever as long as you remember to turn of the search connection.

I'm ready to get this new addiction under control now.  Back to the remodeling of the master bathroom!  Within two weeks I should have pictures up with the finished --yes finished-- project.

Reusing Old Couch Cushions

I mentioned in another post that I saved some old couch cushions to recover.  I thought I could use one for meditation and just have them around for floor cushions.  They turned out to be more difficult than I thought because my traditional "take the old cushions apart for a pattern and to reuse the zipper and the cording" did not quite work this time.  The material covering the edge cording (which has another name I have forgotten at the moment) was incorporated into the side material.  That sounded like such a great idea!  A real time-saver! As it turned out, it was very difficult for me to figure out how to sew this all together. I gave up twice.  The cushions made their to the garbage area on two frustrating occasions.

Then, I was going through the Feisty Stitcher and noticed that she had a cushion that was sewn to the outside--very simple.  I was using denim that matched the furniture I covered in the four seasons room:

Denim would fray nicely--the perfect look for a rustic kind of fabric!  Here they are!  I'm still working on the edges.  I've been picking out the edges for that frayed look.  It's a nice boring job to do while watching television.

I'm glad they survived two near trips to the garbage.  I'm really pleased with how they turned out and the many uses I'm finding for them.  I love that I can just stack them up in a corner and grab one or two or three to use as needed.   I use one to make meditation time more comfortable and for some yoga things.  My book club is going to be watching Babette's Feast next week.  (Don't you just love a book club that will watch movies, too?)  These cushions are going to help provide the extra seating in the man cave, too. 

The Feisty Stitcher: Sewing Projects with Attitude by Susan Wasinger

I am not supposed to be on the computer right now.  I promised myself to spend more time doing projects and less time computing.  BUT:  I just read The Feisty Stitcher (while using the elliptical trainer--I'm not wasting any time) and had to post about it.

I have never wanted to do even half the projects in a sewing book before.  I wanted to do almost every single project in this one.  It's all about utilitarian sewing and, yeah, they  all have a bit of attitude.

I borrow a lot of books on sewing from the library.  Sometimes I am impressed enough with a couple of projects to buy the book.  This one, though, is special.  This one  really justifies buying it.  It's going on my Amazon wish list.  Take a look at this link to Amazon.  Then go borrow it from the library and see for yourself. Let me know what you think please and thank you.

I am five minutes over my limit and really have to go.  Sorry if there are errors--I'll fix them later.  Have a great day!

Sock creatures 24 and 25 of the 30 are here!

I will apologize now for the quality of the pictures.  I am having the worst time with the new Cybershot camera.  I keep accidentally moving the top piece that changes the picture mode. (Does anyone want to buy a slightly used camera?)

In any case--here are the newest sock creatures.  This first one was to have been a smaller version of the pig I did the last time.  Being cheap, I was trying to save a small piece from the top of a sock.  Lessons learned:  1.  You can't change the length without changing the width if you want the shape to remain the same.  2.  You can work with your "accidents" by moving in another direction altogether. This one is, as the painting teacher used to say on the PBS channel, "a happy little accident."  My pig turned into a very nice head.

I like the simple X for the mouth.  Another happy accident was that I forgot to round off  what would have been the back of the pig.  The straight line left what I turned into ears.  (You can just see one on the side in the picture.)  The monkey would be hanging upside down on a vine on the socks, but it works this way, too, for a sweater.  She's also a gymnast--see that awesome split below.  A very small,  pig-headed gymnast had to be named  Petunia Retton. (Y'all do remember Porky's girlfriend was Petunia, right?)

The next creature came from the socks the size of the tiny striped ones here.

Who knew they made tiny, brown-striped, old man socks?  No wonder they were on sale at the sock outlet.
I had the carrot button left over from some long-ago project.  I don't know what I was thinking going with the traditional pink/red bunny eyes on a completely nontraditional striped bunny.  Things I make late in the day seldom make sense, though.  The mouth is kind of lost in the picture, but it is just an orange inverted V.  I had the WORST time getting it even. In any case, this is Fiver, named after the little rabbit in Watership Down.   If you've not read the book, you really, really should.  It is one of my all-time favorites.  Just thinking about it now makes me wish I had a little person to read it to. 

Five more to go!  I will get there yet.

Two New Sock Animals

These are sock animals rather than creatures.  I got both of them from Daniel's Stray Sock Sewing Book--the first one, not Stray Sock Sewing, Too. Here is the lovely white rabbit. 

I love the way the head came out and the frilly neck.  The body, though, is lacking something.  It's just misshapen and I cannot figure out what to do about it.  Next time, I'm going to cut it at the point where the legs go on and sew legs in separately.  Still, he has a beautiful face!  He gets to stay.  

I tried to find out the White Rabbit's name from Alice's Wonderland.  Apparently, it was White Rabbit.  That just won't do.  Someone thought it was Herald, but that, according to someone else, was his job not his name.  The spelling makes that kind of obvious.  I'm going to use it for my white rabbit's name anyway. I like the name and the spelling so this guy is Herald. 

This little pig was done almost exactly as Daniel's version.

I gave mine a curly tail.  I can't imagine why Daniel didn't.  A pig just has to have a curly tail!

Isn't that a great face!  You create a ball with the end of one sock and pull the top of another sock over.  (As I'm looking at the picture right now, I'm thinking those ears would make great horns.)    The idea of putting in balls of stuffing for the legs and sewing them in place was interesting.  It worked well, but I think I might try stacking circles of felt or fleece the next time.  It will be easier to create uniform shapes that way.

These are numbers 22 and 23 of the 30 I should have completed long ago!  I really want to try a few more of these pigs.  There are a variety of ways to do them in the book. There is also a fish made in much the same manner.  I want to try that too.  Now if I could just create a few extra hours in each day! It's nice to get a few things finished, though.

The new job is just sucking up my time.  Without a dedicated desk/phone/computer, I still have to do a lot of the work at home.  I'm not good at setting boundaries, though.  I tend to keep working way longer than I should.  Good news is that it is a year-long grant!  I'll be finished on June 10th!!!  (Lesson learned here is to be sure the place of employment actually has room and equipment for you before taking on the job.) 

Sock Creatures #18, 19,20, and 21 have arrived

I've been playing around with new ways of sewing the limbs on and some pointy ears with this bunch.  Daniel's book, Stray Sock Sewing:  Making One of a Kind Creatures from Socks has a technique for rounding the head I wanted to try.  I am trying to eliminate the no-neck look on some of my creatures.  Daniel's method of gathering and sewing the head into a ball seemed like it might work, and it was better. Al Bino shown below does have a nicely rounded head and some definition in the neck.

His legs just didn't look right so I sewed them into what looks like a kneeling position.  He does look kind of cute that way.

Here was the next try:

I do like this one named Phee Lexa after Felix the Cat whom she does look a bit like.  I am fond of the pointed ears and the cutesy sweater.  I ordered a bunch of different eyes from CR's Crafts online that I used on this batch.  I found this company when surfing the net looking for different kinds of eyes for my creatures.  These were the owl eyes.  The have lovely swirling lines through the gold-colored area.

I'm doing a bit of hand embroidery as well as hand sewing some of the head and limbs on this batch.

My next one was a royal pain.  I HATED IT!  Because I was putting a growler in it, (the thing that makes a mooing noise when you turn it upside down and then back),  I thought the torso needed to be longer. It ended up looking just plain misshapen.   I just could not leave it like that so I took scissors to it cutting out an inch or so in the mid-section and sewing it back together.  She's wearing a tutu to cover the scar.

She's actually much more attractive in person.  She's  Anna Catlova.

For the last one,  I sewed crescent shapes into each side of the head in addition to using Daniel's gathering method for closing.

I think this one was the most successful in getting some curve from head to neck..  Since she's got sculls and crossbones on her arms and chest, she is Lydia the Tattooed Baby named  from the song, Lydia the Tattooed Lady.

Nine more to go!  Then I can do some in other fabrics.  Do go take a look at CR's Crafts.  There are so many fun things.  In addition to a bunch of different eyes and a couple of growlers, I got a doll's wig  and some of the nerdiest little glasses.  Now I've got to figure out how to sew on ears and a nose to hold the glasses up.

The 16th and 17th Sock Creatures AND pouches

I decided to try a few pouches after coming upon the 3 Bears  tutorial for a "boxy pouch."  These are my first ones, and I will admit they need some work.  However, they are usable. I do apologize for the pictures.  They need some work as well.  The new camera is proving to be a challenge.

This pouch should have been rectangular.  I didn't have a zipper long enough, though.  I did, however, have five shorter zippers so this boxy pouch really is boxy. 

For the second one, I resorted to my usual habit of changing the rules.  I tried to keep the rectangular shape by sewing the zipper in the center and sewing the corners at 1- 1/2 inches rather than the three inches used by 3 Bears.

Lessons learned:  First, I need to use a heavier fabric or use a stiffer interfacing to make it sturdier.  The first one had some light  iron-on interfacing and the second was a mid-weight cotton.  Neither one is really heavy enough, though.  Second, I really need to try this with the longer zippers that were suggested.  I'm just going to have to get to Joann's this week!

On the sock creature front,  here is the first one.

It came about because I wanted to use up some of the scraps, and I do like those little red button eyes.  (I really do need to figure out the new camera.  These pictures suck.) I have named her Skye Bleu Pynk.

The second one is a combination of ideas I found in Stray Sock Sewing:  Making One of a Kind Creatures from Socks by Daniel.

Is she not adorable?  I really should name her after Daniel, so, continuing in the new style of mutilating names and the spelling of names, this is Dan'E-ella.

Weekend Sewing Complete and Then Some!!

My house may need some cleaning, but I did finish the weekend sewing projects.  First, I finally got around to replacing the too-short handles on the slouch bag.  It is now perfect!

This bag fits around the body perfectly.  It's from Akiko Mano's book "Linen, Wool, and Cotton."  As I mentioned in my previous post on this bag, the only problem with the book is that does not come with an errata sheet.  That is an easy fix, however, if you know where to look online for the necessary changes.  My original post about this bag has the online source.  I love the book.  I love the projects.  I don't love having to find out the hard way that there are errors in it.  'Nuf said.

The next bag is from "Simple Gifts to Stitch:  30 Elegant and Easy Projects" by Jocelyn Worrall. It's the bag on the cover.

The alternating stripes were more than I could resist.  I was worried that this bag wouldn't be big enough, but the size turned out to be great.

Look at the number of books, etc. this thing holds!   It makes a great library bag.  I know this because it had it's first trip there today.

I think I like it better in the fabric on the book cover.  While I love the pink fabric, the irregular stripes don't show the alternating stripe patterns as well.  I followed the pattern completely--a novel idea for me.  (Okay, okay, ALMOST completely.  The handle fabric is not going in the right direction.  I just didn't want to cut into the large piece fabric to make the handles, so I used a leftover piece going in the other direction.  I have another piece of matching floral fabric.  I want to make another bag using the stripes and floral.)

My last project for the weekend was to do another of the oh-so-late sock creatures.  I did TWO!  These two are numbers 14 and 15.  I am truly halfway there!  I used baby socks.  Instead of being easier as I thought it would be, it was harder working with smaller socks.  Here's the first one.

She's actually quite small except for the head.  That's why I've named her N'Se-Phyllis.  Things learned from this one:  I need to put the eyes farther forward and/or make them larger.  Or, maybe I could sew a line across under the eye area to push the snout down.  It's hard to see the eyes with that big snout.  She's much like one of my previous ones, just smaller.

As so often happens when I have housework to do, I decided to keep working with some of those little socks.  I wanted to try doing some antennae.  That word looks so weird, I looked it up to be sure it was right.  Yes, that is the plural for antenna.  I also wanted to try some octopus-like legs.  So, here's what was born of the venture:

I could only fit four legs on.  I am really happy with this guy.  He's definitely a true creature, a Cycloptopus.  He's named after the cyclops in the Odyssey, hence he is called Beta Polyphemus.

I'm enjoying the heat immensely!  If summers were about two months longer and always this hot, I might consider staying in New York when the hubster retires.......naaaahhhh.  The only time I've ever liked snow was when I was sitting in a ski lodge next to the roaring fire in front of a huge picture window waving to the children as they trudged past on their skis.

I'm hooking up to:

Deep Creek, A Novel by Dan Hand

I should be finishing off the thirty sock creatures, but I found a book at the library that looked interesting.  I was browsing the shelves to find books for my 93-year old mother which is not an easy task.  Her interests have become more and more limited.  They're down to modern day romances set on ranches--only ranches.

Instead I found Deep Creek by Dan Hand.  What a great book!  I didn't want it to end.  It is historical fiction set in the Idaho-Oregon area from 1886 through 1892.  The story is built around an actual event, the murder of thirty Chinese miners.  Using the racism of the period, Indian land grabs, excessive power of publishers and land barons, along with the ensuing social intrigue, Hand develops a well-balanced and fascinating look at a period in our history that is too often overlooked.

The characters are solidly constructed and fascinating.  This alone would make it a great book club selection.  Nature vs. nurture theories of human development are tested throughout.  Yet, Hand also looks at how a single event can override all.  One wrong choice might leave damage capable of destroying one's life and affecting future generations. 

My one complaint is that in a few places (very few) the book does not move from one scene to the next well.  In some cases, I felt disoriented before realizing that this new paragraph had moved on to another subject.  These few changes within chapters felt like places where a new chapter should have begun.  Hand's chapters, however, move back and forth in time from the  murders in 1886 to the attempts to solve the crimes and bring the murderers to justice.  The places that I found problematic would not fit with that.

All in all, it was a great read that I heartily recommend.

Steig Larsson's Newest Book, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest"

Normally I don't read stories about spies and corporate greed. I'm also wary of foreign books because sometimes they don't translate well.  Larsson's trilogy managed to overcome my usual disinterest in the genre and translated exceptionally well.

I read the first book in this trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,  after a member of my book club raved about it.  The story lines and characters were well developed and interesting.  I liked the second one,  The Girl Who Played with Fire, even more because it more fully fleshed out the characters as well as providing a fascinating and well written story.  This last in the trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, is a more than fitting end to the set.     

I'd read a negative review before getting this last book in the series that made me nervous about investing in the hardcover as soon as it came out.  I HATE it when a book doesn't measure up in a series like this, especially when I've paid a lot for it.  In some cases, it becomes blatantly obvious that an author has pushed to finish a commitment rather than create a good story.  In the end, however, I felt this book was the best of the three--and I liked the first two a lot. The reviewer's summation, as it turned out, was flawed rather than the book.  It contained information that was factually incorrect.

These books are not just episodic stories using the same characters.   Each one builds on the last.  The first two leave you wanting and needing additional information as should be expected of a trilogy.  More in-depth answers come with each book.  While the individual books certainly stand on their own, the second and third provide  information that make you more fully understand and appreciate the first.

I love the characters Larsson has created.  Throughout, Larsson uses these people to prove that sometimes what we might view as flaws in individuals are, in fact, more clearly defined as differences.  He creates an understanding that these "flaws" often have positive influences not only for the individual, but for friends, family, acquaintances, and society as a whole.

I'm glad I went ahead and purchased the book as soon as it came out.  It was well worth the price.

Local Happiness Project Group

I just signed up to organized a local Happiness Project group based on Gretchen Rubin's book by the same title.  The book is filled with simple truths about how we sabotage happiness and daunting-yet-doable challenges to make life better.  Working at a project such as this one, though, is a long-term endeavor.  I think I might better understand issues and achieve more success through discussion and accountability.

Officially it has one member right now--me.  I want to be sure people are truly interested in taking on the challenge, so I haven't specifically asked friends or family to join.  I have found that people too often agree to join some activity because they think you'll be hurt if they don't.  However, I find it's far more uncomfortable to have people not show up or slowly stop showing up at meetings or activities they've said they would participate in than if they had just said no, thank you.   Ah, there is a good topic for discussion at some future group meeting--saying no.  It's easy to say yes and much harder to carry through on the promise. Carry-through in and of itself is another challenge many of us have.

Okay!  I've got the topics.  Now all I need are a few members.  Wish me luck.  If anyone else is already doing this, let me know how it is going.