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!

I’m a little late with the last post of the week, sorry. Yesterday was so dark and rainy we couldn’t take any pictures (hence the wellies).

the fabric: this awesome star fabric is from JoAnn’s country club collection. I only remember the name because it’s hilarious. The fabric is a really nice bottomweight print, which I have the hardest time finding.

the pattern: half pants pattern letter S from Happy Homemade vol. 5 I’ve made the pants version of this pattern before–here–but added all kinds of piping and pockets.

the sewing: I made this pattern last summer, but never got around to finishing them. Ever do that? Well the half finished shorts don’t fit this year, but I liked the pattern so much I traced a bigger size. The pattern is nicely tailored and the tiny pocket is adorable, even if it’s totally useless.  I have to say, these skinny star shorts are pretty much the bomb: simple, long, good for school and play. I think this would work well for boys too, maybe in a size up from what they normally wear so it’s not so, so tight.

Each day in the flickr pool has been better than the last. On this, the final day of kcwc, your handmade clothes are pretty much blowing my mind. Check out these amazing garments:

1. yoke dress for kcwc

2. striped dress

3. robot baseball tee with rainbow stripes

4. organic cotton pj’s

Sometimes the idea is much more exciting than the actual outcome. But still matching, stripy pants and shorts are pretty cute

the pattern: same as these pants, letter o from Happy Homemade vol 2 in two sizes. This was totally the wrong pattern to use for the shorts, but the perfect one for the pants.  The idea I had for the shorts was something more like this, but then I got all wrapped up in saving the pockets from the original pants (see below). The front pockets were nice, slash pockets, but the back ones, I discovered later, were fake. It was a waste of time and energy and screwed up my plan.

the fabric: those pants up there. They were mine, but I felt like a fool every time I walked out of the house in them.

the sewing: I didn’t intend to get two garments out of one pair of pants. I was only going to make shorts and really to make the shorts I wanted to make–bloomers with a contrasting band–I shouldn’t have made the pants. Oh well. The little pants turned out super cute and the shorts are fine, I guess.

The flickr pool is bursting with amazing garments, many of them upcycled ones. Of all the discussions on flickr this week, my favorite has to be the one about all our mistakes and straight up sewing failures. Late at night, when I’m screwing up every possible way, it’s good to know I’m not alone!

1. pinafore made reversible 

2. top naii

3. raglan tee

4. stripe and color block top