The Pretty Penny

Amazing Idea (whose is it?)

I got this amazing idea from some other blogger and I can't for the life of me remember who.  

These are recycled paper grocery bags sewn cleverly into mailing envelopes.  So smart.
I sewed a big batch of them over the weekend with all of the bags I've collected from when I forget my reusables.  My etsy store is set for a good while with recycled mailers and I'm pleased as punch.
They are two ply so for cushion a folded up plastic bag can be inserted between the layers.  I love it.
If anyone knows where this was originally posted, please send me a link.  I'd love to post it here.

What I did with the rest....

Just a quick show and share about this simple skirt that I made with the rest of the wood grain fabric the I used to make my husband's laptop cozy a week or so back.   It's just a little elastic waist skirt but I really like it.
I embroidered a squiggly loopy free form line on the bottom and some butterflies to make it a little more fun.  As if a wood grain skirt isn't ridiculous enough.

Ah well... these things make me happy.

Beach Blanket Bingo

My jewelry is all about the beach lately, sand washed pebbles, striped beach balls, blues and blacks and whites.  I guess, really, it's all about the pacific coast, which is much more rugged and rocky than the placid Atlantic that I grew up with.  This weekend I'm off to Malibu to do a little more research.
I leave you with the first in a series of pieces with beads covered in vintage silk.  This one has the look of Chinese lanterns or beach balls, I can't decide which.

I wish that I could get you a better feel for that silk.  I love it so much that cutting it causes extreme anxiety. 
Have a great weekend

A Very Cozy Computer

My husband generally does not ask me to make things for him.  I think he worries that if he doesn't use it, my feelings will get hurt or it might be that he has nightmares about knitted cellphone covers. 
Well, I was very happy when he actually came to me and asked me to sew him a cover for his new macbook pro.  He loves that durn thing so much that I think he might jump in front of a moving bus to save it.

Well it couldn't be too cutsie so I ordered this woodgrain fabric which seems to be just subtle enough to suit him and absurd enough to suit me.   It's padded with a pretty lightweight batting.  I think it turned out pretty well and best of all...he actually uses it.
Oh and a fun factoid... men don't like it when you refer to their laptop cover as a cozy. 

Tiny World Terrariums

Here are some tiny terrariums that my daughter and I made last weekend. 
Inspired my Made by Mavis and all of those other Etsy sellers who make lovely terrariums, I've been keeping my eyes peeled for interesting jars.  I finally found this cute round marmalade jar (right) and patiently waited for the marmalaide to disappear.

We made little accessories for our moss gardens out of polymer clay.  My daughter decided to make a birdbath, which I think is pretty ingenious.  Yes you do see a worm in her jar. We found it in the moss that we collected and in a week moment I let her add it to her jar.  I thought it looked pretty cute in this picture but based on it's lack of movement post photo, I think it might be.... well you know. 

I opted for a little more of a minimalist jar with only some mushrooms and some stones.
The moss we got during a nature walk through our neighborhood.  I just brought a plastic baggie and a teaspoon with me and had her be the look out while I quick scooped up moss here and there.  I think that if I keep them moist the moss will fill in a little more which will be nice.

How To Plant a Natural Grass Easter Basket

In a fit of spring fever, my daughter and I planted the grass for her easter basket too soon.  Now the basket needs a serious haircut before the easter bunny comes and finds it too full for treats.

You have just enough time though, even if you procrastinate a few days, you'll have enough time to plant the seeds and watch them grow.
You'll need to go to Whole Foods or some other health food store and buy about one quarter to one half cup of wheat berry seeds.  Before you plant them, you'll need to soak the seeds overnight in some tepid water.
Put an old plastic shopping bag wighout any holes inside your easter basket and fill it up with soil.  I find that it's easiest to fill it with soil before you trim the excess bag off because the soil will hold the bag against the walls of the basket.  Spray the soil until it's good and moist.
After the seeds are good and soggy, spread them on top of the moist soil in the basket and then cover them with just a dusting of moist soil.
Place them in a nice warm sunny place and you can almost see them growing they grow so fast.

I like to take any leftover seeds and plant them in unexpected places around the house.  Seeing grass growing in my bathroom or kitchen gives me a happy springy feeling.

Stop By and Say Hello

I've been so busy busy busy, getting ready for Silverlake Art Craft and Vintage, getting enough stock together and thinking about displays that I haven't had time to post any new jewelry to my shop.  I have plenty of fun ideas knocking around though and plan to spend some time today doing assembly

If you are in the Los Angeles area, please stop by my booth and say hello this weekend.  There's no admission and there will be a lot of other cool things to look at there.  You'll know me by the bright pink leather jewelry and friendly smile.

Reusable Lunch Bag Tutorial

I have a little bit of a fetish for the traditional brown paper lunch bag.  From the amazing origami of how it folds so small and yet holds so much to the anonymous and simple brown exterior. 
Goodness knows I haven't used one since I was a kid, they're just so wasteful.  I've been wanting to make myself a reusable lunch bag for a while now, hoping that if I have a cute handmade lunch bag that I'll be more inspired to pack myself healthy and nutritious lunches when I go to work.  As silly as this logic sounds, these things actually work for me.  

I decided to use the sinful and yet coveted brown paper bag as my model and I even embroidered the word yummy on it as a as sort of inspirational message to my self.  If you'd like to make one too, all you need is...

a 13"X 21" rectange of heavy weight cotton canvas (I think that brown linen would look very brown paper bagish too)
a package of red 1/2" bias tape
red embroidery thread or pearl cotton
red sewing thread
a cute button

First cut your square of canvas and then lay it flat on a table.  Next, recklessly scrawl your inspirational message diagonally across the rectangle in chalk pencil.  If you don't like the way it looks, of course try again but I think that for this project, it will look coolest if you don't try too hard to make it look tidy.

Now embroider directly on top of your messy scrawl with your embroidery floss or pearl cotton, I used a backstitch because It makes a nice unbroken line and goes relatively fast for embroidery.  

I'm showing you this picture of my leather thimble.  I love it.  They are a great way to avoid sore fingers when embroidering or sewing something really tough like canvas or leather.  If you don't have one you should consider going out right now and buying one.

If you like you can also add a few free hand pieces of fruit to your design.  I added some cherries as an afterthought and I think that they look pretty cute.

When you have all of your embellishments in place, go to your sewing machine and zig zag the bias tape across the top edge of your bag following the directions on the package.

Now with right sides together, sew the two  short sides together using a straight stitch and a quarter inch seam allowance.  You will now have a  tube.  

Take your tube to the ironing board and press your seam open.  With the right sides still in, press your tube flat, with the seam in the center.  Carefully press the two sides flat (yes, even though  it's still inside out, this is the beginning of it's brown paper lunch sack shape)

At this point, I zig zagged on top of the back seam of the bag, to give it the look of the pinked edges of a paper bag.

Now sew up the bottom of your bag with a straight stitch and a quarter inch seam allowance.
Take your very cute but not quite done bag to the ironing board and using your best effort, press the bottom seam open and flat, seems needless and silly but believe me, it's necessary.

Now turn your bag right side out.  You will notice that the sides pull inward.   Good.  You need them to do that.

The next step is to square the bottom corners by pulling them open and pressing them flat the opposite way.   That is, match the pressed and folded side of the bag with the bottom seam of the bag and press it flat.  You will have two triangles poking up like doggy ears.  On each triangle, make a mark three inches from the corner on each side and draw a line from one mark to the other.  Zig zag around the triangle that you've marked off and do the same on the other side. Tack each triangle down to the bottom of your bag with a few stitches.

Now go back to your ironing board and make two accordion style pleats on each side of your bag, using the original sides that you've pressed inward and the other pleats extending upward from the corners of the flat bottom of the bag.  This might require a little fiddling with, what you want is a bag that folds flat the same way that a paper bag will.

Once you've accomplished this,  sew a loop of the bias tape to the center back seem of the bag and your cute as a button button onto the front.  Now you have your nifty and durable lunch bag.   As you can see, the embroidery becomes almost abstract once it's folded around four corners.  I happen to love this.  If you don't, you can easily make your embroidery a little more tidy and centered.

I did contemplate adding a handle for easy carrying but I sort of felt that this would ruin the brown paper bag quality of it. I won't judge you if you decide to add one though.

Hope you enjoy your bag!

My Awesome New Purse!

I'm so proud of myself!  I just finished this purse a few days ago and have been getting lots of compliments on it.  My daughter even said that it was so good it even looked like it came from the store.  This is a high compliment from her as she gets a lot of handmade gifts from me and I think sometimes yearns for store-bought plastic stuff from Target.
I used this Awsome Free Pattern and you should definitely check it out if you are looking for a new springy purse.  The best news is that it's designed to be cut from just a fat quarter so assuming that you have some fabric in your stash for the lining, it can be made for less than ten dollars!

Easy Peasy Yarn Dyeing

I've been pretty obsessed the last couple of days with finding the perfect orange yarn to crochet some embellishments that I needed to complete some jewelry for my store.  I'm sure it's out there but I couldn't find just the right kind of yarn in just the right color. 
I was adding food coloring to frosting for my daughter's birthday cupcakes when I realized that if I wanted garish orange mohair yarn I only needed to make it myself.  Duh.
It's easy to forget that things like dying yarn are so easy to do yourself so I thought I'd share my very simple formula with you. 
 
I just took an old pickle jar and filled it almost to the top with hot tap water.  I added fifty drops of yellow and eight drops of orange food coloring and a glug of white vinegar.
Next I got my little twist of yarn good and wet and put it in my food coloring mix.  As a little experiment I put in some washable wool and cotton yarn too.  I let them sit for maybe fourty minutes and then rinsed with hot water until the water ran clear.
They all took the dye great, the washable wool getting the darkest and the mohair staying the lightest.  Of course, you'll have to use natural fibers, polyester won't take any dye. 
If for some crazy reason you are looking for something more subtle than bright tangerine orange, just add less dye and soak for less time, you know, experiment and have fun.