Crafting with Purpose
I’m excited about being able to use my humble shoe making skills to help create my friend, A’s shoe design vision for Sole Hope…an incredible ministry she began just a few short months ago determined to put closed toed shoes on the feet of African children and adults who would otherwise suffer from terrible conditions caused by being barefoot. The challenge has been to make a shoe that the woman of Ndola, Zambia can duplicate with their own resources so it will have a sole made of the hundreds of spare tires that are just lying around. To find out more about the story of how this all began or to find out how you can help please visit Sole Hope’s website.
cookin’ up some happy colors
I had forgotten how fun it is to work with dye. The past couple of weeks I have taken a hour or so to play in the kitchen and cook up some new colors on some boring white baby onesies. Have I mentioned I’m not a fan of white? Well, at least, not in clothing. Yes, gotta have a few pieces of go-with-anything white but if I’m going to pick out something that I love it will not likely be white. So, when it got hot around here with summer hitting us full force I realized that my little baby girl was living in onesies all the time. You can’t beat them for being simple, cool and comfy when it’s baking hot outside. However, they do fail in one area…style. They are boring…at least the ones we had on hand were. Sure, I could go searching at the mall for some pretty ones but do I really want her wearing the same thing every baby on the block is wearing? No…not when I can have some fun making her some at home. So I got out the dyes and put the pots on to boil and had some great mad scientist fun creating pretty colors. Color wasn’t enough, though, I had to put the icing on them with some simple, fun & folksy applique.
I went a little crazy once I got to dyeing (remember I mentioned the whole mad scientist thing!) so I have plenty and have listed these in my Etsy store with more to come. Didn’t I say I forgot how much fun it is to dye things?
Might As Well Face It…
I’m addicted to wool. 
I can’t stop FELTING!!! Oh boy, with a new baby on the way my crafting dream to-do list is growing leaps and bounds. There are so many things I want to make for this little girl and now that I have my new serger I am having such a hard time not just sitting behind it all day long.
Here’s my latest recycled wool sweater creation. Little bluebird recycled wool longies size 6-9 months…
On another note, Lucy over at Attic24 has made an amazing advent calendar that is making me wish that it wasn’t already December 12. Maybe next year. Gotta go check it out if you can…love it!
Little Dresses For Africa
So, we have all been MIA for a long time now. It’s not that we haven’t been crafting, just too busy with life and the blog has been a bit neglected because of it. Each of us are homeschooling our children and so fall has been a whirlwind of activity as we trade the lazier days of summer for more scheduled days. Kelly, Jen, and I, along with our friend, K, all pull our resources together once a week and co-op our schooling. Each month we work around a different theme or area of focus and this month our focus has been on “Serving Others”. We took a day to hike, play and do some clean up outdoors and we have worked on creating pillowcase dresses to send to Africa through Little Dresses For Africa. Such a great mission project has been going on with this organization and we really wanted to get involved ourselves. So last Wednesday we sent a total of, I think, 20 dresses to Africa and we’re working on some more…they are quite addicting. Here’s a sampling…
I “expect” I shall make a shabby chic PURSE…
I had this shirt that had some pretty fabric but upon wearing it got the dreaded comment, “Are you expecting?” Uggggggghhhhhh, did she really just say that? So, needless to say, I won’t be wearing that shirt again but really hated to send it to a new home. What’s a gal to do?
Check it out….now I can wear it with confidence!
Godspell Returns
I posted a few weeks ago about finishing up a project working as the costume designer for a local production of the Broadway musical, Godspell. Well, I’m back at it since, due to popular demand, we are running the show once again in just a few short weeks…June 19-21. If you are in the area and missed it the first time you won’t want to miss it again. I can’t wait.
The costumes were, for the most part, made up from many trips to the thrift store and lots of refashioning/upcycling. Sleeves were cut off of sweaters to make legwarmers, lots of slashing, safety pinning, Sharpie scripture writing on blue jeans as well as hand painting on jeans, adding sleeves, removing sleeves, making arm warmers from stripey socks and “jewelry” from old wool earwarmers. It was great fun to come up with a slightly crazy, boho, vagabond look for the characters and I’m enjoying a second chance at creating a second set of costumes for each one for future shows. While I thought this job was behind me, I’m looking forward to seeing it run as long as it continues to bless.
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Shoulder Bag Tutorial
I find a lot of inspiration from the tiny happy blog. This is Melissa’s tutorial on making a shoulder bag, you can find it here. It’s a great small bag that’s easy to put together. If I make another I will add some length to the body of the bag because I need a bit more space to carry around all the things my family needs. The pocket is from a pair of butter yellow corduroy pants that I used for Claire’s skirt.… and again a vintage button.
The Girl Skirts
I have been working on some summer skirts for Sierra and Claire . I have found for the 3/4 year old that a bed skirt is a perfect knee-length with a provided hem. This one is a nice soft blue cotton, the width can be chosen depending on how much swing is wanted and then I add a double waistline because I like the way it looks and fits. The large flat section of a bed skirt that normally lays under the mattress can also be used for lining skirts or other projects. Our local fabric outlet store sells them for a dollar so it’s a great way to use/find fabric. For this skirt I added a tea dyed maternity sweater no longer needed for some charm.
For Claire I found a beautiful butter yellow pair of corduroy pants for a quarter. She’s still small enough so that I can just use a pant leg turned on its side for the main body of the skirt. Some Ralph Lauren print for contrast and a vintage flower button from my grandmother’s collection.
“Here he comes to save the day!!!”
In an effort to provide play /dress-up clothes for my children, I have tinkered with making super hero capes.
Capes are pretty interesting and it is something that you can be really creative with. Check out this one I made for a birthday gift….see picture below.
I found just the right “silky” skirt from my favorite thrift store and then sewed on felt for the fun image. Use your imagination. Simple pictures could include initials, lighting bolt, cross, tree, flower, crown…and the list goes on! You could even add extra details like sequins or renaissance-ish hood. I finished my cape with a simple velcro closure. This serves two purposes—1) Easy dress-up for little hands to do themselves and 2) With the velcro, it would rip apart and keep your child safe if he ever got entangled in a tree or such.
Up, up and AWAY!!!
