Last winter we went on an amazing trip to Kauai. When we went the kids were 5, almost 4, and 1 at the time. They remember some things, but not too much. We try to tell stories about it and look at pictures from when we were there, because I’m guessing we won’t be back for a long while. That’s where these pillows come in.

Kauai is a teeny island with one main road that goes almost all the way around the island. When you are driving one way the ocean is on your side and when you turn around and drive the other way the mountains are on your side. Most directions include one or the other to help you find your way. The Hawaiian for this is mauka and makai:

– Mauka (mow-kah) means on the mountain side of the road.

– Makai (mah-kigh) means on the ocean side of the road.

The big kids each had their side of the car (the baby was in the middle). That mean one kid was mauka and the other makai. They would have argument about which was better and rub it in if they got the good side. Of course once we turned around and went home, the other one would rub it in. Some days the mountains were the favorite and other days it was the sea.

I’m not super big on souvenirs (except we got a hula girl of course), so I made the pillows, hoping it would help the kids hold on to  a bit of Kauai. The mountain is a simple green triangle. And yes it has snow, shut up it looks good. My first idea for the ocean pillow was to make it look like this, but when I sewed it up, it looked like a blue santa hat. I was working on these pillow right after I made this potholder and I was getting into the polka dot as neutral thing–as you can tell with the ocean pillow. I really love how it turned out: the day side, the night side, and polka dots all over the damn place.

and the winner is…Avital, who said:

I’ve got a roll of tyvek that my construction working husband brought me home from the garbage pile at a construction site, and I need to make some things with it. I was a little daunted by its whiteness, and it actually never occurred to me to try painting it. duh. I am not to clever sometimes. I make a lot of things out of felted wool sweaters and old t-shirts, and thanks to Maya’s inspiration I rescued a stack of coffee sacks a while back and have been making buckets from her pattern and then branched out into other things with burlap , and it has been great fun. I’d really like to win a copy of this book, so fingers crossed!

Get that tyvek out! Avital, if you’d send me your deets I can forward them on to Wiley Craft (elsiemarleyblog@gmail.com)! Thanks to everyone who entered. Please do check out the book, it really is a good one.

 THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Reinvention: Sewing with Rescued Materials is a beautiful new book by Maya Donenfeld . You are probably familiar with Maya’s blog, MayaMade, where she writes about parenting and making with the seasons. Years ago, Maya sent the craft blog world into a sewing frenzy when she came out with the burlap bucket pattern and for good reason: it is simple, beautiful, useful, and recycled.  So too is every project in her new book.

Each chapter in the book is dedicated to a specific material: linen, burlap, jersey, wool, denim, tyvek, and vintage. The projects are, yes, made from recycled materials, but they don’t scream, “I’m recycled!” like say, a pop top vest would. They all subscribe to the same natural aesthetic, even the most seemingly unnatural of materials, tyvek.  When my copy of the book came I was immediately draw to this chapter, because I’ve always loved tyvek, oddly enough, and I was excited to see someone else out there did too!

I chose to make the color block zippered pouch, but after painting a bit of tyvek I was less than thrilled.  I used a silver metallic acrylic paint that ended up looking a sad gray and the blue was nice, but it brought out the texture of the tyvek more than I wanted. It is actually a nice effect, sort of like a faux leather, but it wasn’t what I was after.

Maya suggests painting the tyvek or simply drawing on it with a permanent marker, which of course makes sense as tyvek is as much like paper as it is like fabric. I picked up my ultra fine point Sharpie and went to town. The leather-like effect I got with the painted tyvek made me want to use some actual leather. A few snips from a vintage, buttery leather jacket and I had the makings for a fine recycled zip pouch.

I didn’t use the exact dimensions she specifies for the pouch, but the patterns in this book are meant more as guidelines. Maya even says, “…ultimately the size, shape, and color of each rescued piece informs the final outcome. If you listen carefully, the fabric will tell you what it wants to be.”  This tyvek envelope told me to draw a geometric pattern on it, then sew it to some leather and attach an aqua zipper. Sewing the tyvek was easy, just like sewing paper, so use an old needle in your machine. It was my first time sewing with leather and that was simple too. My machine didn’t know what was going on when I tried to sew the tyvek to the leather, and I had to help it along quite a bit.

Maya also suggests leaving a bit of the original printing exposed, “..so that its reinvention efforts are not forgotten.” I think this quote sums up the book nicely. You get to make all these wonderful pouches and hampers and poofs from old materials, but hidden in these newly sewn things are little reminders of what they once were.

The lovely people at Wiley Craft have offered a copy of Reinvention to one of my readers. Please leave a comment telling me about your favorite recycled material to be entered in the drawing. The giveaway will close Wednesday May 9th at noon central. I’m sorry but this giveaway is only open to US residents. Please follow along with the rest of the tour to see more of this lovely book!

I’m guessing instagram friday is a thing. Seems to fit with the lazy blogger friday vibe. Here is a bit from my week:

I am elsiemarley on instagram or webstagram, if you want to follow along online. Happy Weekend!

1. Fiyel Levent  2. Made by Rae  3. Clever Charlotte  4. Tea Collection  5. Babushka Girl  6. Figgy’s  7. Magpie Patterns  8. My Poppet  9. Wink Handmade  10. Ida Pearle  11. Threadbias  12. The Wildwood Flower  13. Vistaprint  14. Not So Mellow Designs  15. Re-New  16. shiny happy world

First the sponsors of KCWC need a round of applause! There are so many wonderful shops, artists, and bloggers up there who helped make kids clothes week a success. Often when I am looking around online shops–for fabric or patterns or just nice things–I instinctively say, “Oh, that costs too much, I’m not going to buy it,” but then I stop and remind myself that most of these are women like me, working hard to make and promote handmade goods. Rather than thinking of it as just buying something, I think of it as, in part, donating to the handmade movement: creating beautiful things with thoughtfulness and intention. You are also helping out a young entrepreneur. Everybody wins!

1. color theory top  2. rabbit pajamas  3. train flashback tee 4. urban duck hoodie  5. obscure animals alphabet t-shirt  6. alligator pants  7. sandbox pants, flashback tee 8. dino flashback tee  9. peek-a-boo stripes  10. quiet cats lazy days skirt 11. t-shirt to dress refashion  12. I’m on a boat  13. sunki dress 14. gray boy shorts 15. cloud hopping tee  16. sleepover pajamas

Everybody won this kcwc with all the fantastic handmade clothes that got made this week. With 600 participants, the flickr pool was overflowing with beautiful garments everyday. I could almost feel the creative energy of all of us sewing together, even though we are scattered across the globe! Even if nothing turned out the way you wanted, or everything didn’t get finished, or the pants are a leeeetle too tight, I hope you are inspired to make more clothes for your children.

I would love it if you told me what you thought of this kcwc: what could be better? what you liked the most? what more you do want out of kcwc? what is the worst bit? Anything, I want to hear it all!