I am, admittedly, one to judge a book by it’s cover.  I mean if it’s crap inside, I’m not reading it, but I’m still happy to look it at (luckily I have discovered the inter library loan system and now am not broke with a house full of poorly written, pretty books). This is the picture of a cover of the book called Book Quilts 1700-2010. Kathreen wrote about it on whipup and I’ve been itching to get my hands on it ever since (it hasn’t been released quite yet). I mean just look at that quilt on the cover!

Magda at bohemian girl made some monotype butterflies with her son, painting a design on one side then folding it in half to print on the other. We followed suit with some butterflies of our own a few weeks ago, but now that spring has stalled a bit we may need to make them again.  The mask she made in the same manner for carnival and I just can get over how eerie and beautiful it is. (Magda also has quite a nice etsy shop, if you didn’t know)

I loved the double wedding ring design the first time I saw it, but always thought it was a little too old fashioned for me to make for my home. Denyse Schmidt, of course, made a super fantastic modern version called the single girl quilt, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been a single girl. So when Molly posted this photo of her friend’s quilt I was in love all over again. They took this very traditional quilt pattern and made it super modern. It might even be a little too modern, but a few prints thrown in the mix could even it out for me. Go check out the post, because Molly has some nice thoughts on this modern/traditional juxtaposition in design.

And one little awesome baby coat rounds out this week’s things on the internet that are awesome.  It’s a poncho! It’s a jacket! It’s two! two! two mints in one! It’s the crabby baby jacket, designed and skillfully executed by Lisa from Mama Uses Needles. I’ve always said that baby clothes should have no arms and finally someone heard me. This poncho pops over the little one’s head and then you just zip it up the sides. genius! and cute to boot.

hey everyone, I wanted to post today, but my computer is having some issues. Sorry! too bad mr. muscles up there can’t fix it. I’ll try to be back tomorrow with some awesome things on the internet.

It seems that all anthropology and jcrew are doing these days is slapping things on t-shirts and calling it couture, then charging 60 bucks for it (see here and here if you don’t know what I’m taking about). I mean come on people, we can make this stuff.  Look!  I just turned into my mother before your very eyes! Shopping with her was awful (sorry mom) because no matter what I picked out she would say, “oh, you could make that.” Not necessarily me, I was 12 years old, but “one” could make it.  No “one” ever did, of course. Until 20 years later.

So anyway, a while back a friend invited me over to slap some things on t-shirts and call it couture. I came up with this braided number.  I think it actually was inspired by an anthropology shirt, but I can’t remember which one. I bought two 5 dollar shirts from Target and washed them both, one shrunk up really weird (only on one side–that’s what 5 bucks will get you) so I cut that one up. I started at the bottom and cut spiraling up to the armpits. The strip was super long and was about an inch wide. Then I cut it into three equal pieces and braided it.

Then I pinned it on, starting from the bottom and going up around the neckline, then back down the front and then I hand sewed that sucker on. I was watching a movie while I did it, so it’s a little uneven, but you can’t really tell when I wear it. I’ve got more anthrocopies (awesome word coined by the angry chicken!) planned, but that baby up there? he is just all over the place these days. So maybe you look to these people for inspiration while I go chase him down:

• Amy’s anthrocopy
• Dorothy’s winter to spring dress
• And there are just a ton of t-shirt refashion idea on Made By Lex (her blog used to be titled “My Mama Made It”)

This year I am determined to cut into the ridiculous amount of fabric I have amassed in my basement. It’s not there just to look at, right? It’s there so I can make the clothes and quilts and toys that my family needs instead of buying all that crap. So this is probably going to be the first of many matching family ensembles.

I don’t know how all those bloggers out there take beautiful pictures of their kids while showing off the beautiful clothes they have on at the same time. This is the best photo I got and it was the last of about a hundred, and really it’s not that great. But you get the drift: one long sleeve shirt, one short sleeve, and one pair of leggings.

all made out of this geek chic fabric I found at the thrift store a loooong while back. It is so perfectly seventies: the stripes are brown and this sort of rainbow confetti, meshy stuff (my daughter calls them her sprinkles pants). It’s a knit that has sat on the shelves waiting for me to learn how to use my serger. And guess what? I learned how to use my serger! A gracious friend taught me how while we made the 90 minute shirt together.

She made the long sleeve version and I made the short sleeve, but hers was so cute I ran home and made the long sleeve one. Of course I didn’t read the directions, screwed it up and the sleeves are too long, but that drooly baby really couldn’t care less.

Now my daughter wants to know where daddy and mama’s matching shirts are. Sound of music here we come!

This coat has been a long time coming. I started it right after I finished making my son’s coat–high off success I suppose–but it stalled soon after when she tried on the rough draft (umm, what do you call the outer shell of the coat, a mock up?) and said, “ewww, I don’t like it.” So it sat in a pile for a loooong while. Then I started looking around for something to line it with and couldn’t find anything big enough to line the whole coat which bummed me out, so it sat some more. I decided to hell with it I would just patch together different sweaters to line it even if it makes it look extra handmade.

Really I probably shouldn’t have lined it. I wanted to just use fabric from my stash (because seriously the stash has to get smaller) and everything is, but the coat doesn’t hang right at all. The pattern is from Carefree Clothes for Girls, which I was really excited about, but I’m not super happy with this pattern (I combined the short coat shape with the long coat length). It’s raglan sleeve, which I love, but it different from the other raglan sleeve things I’ve done in that it has a seem down the top of the arm. So there are four pieces for the sleeves and they are sewn separately to the front and to the back and then the front and back pieces are joined by sewing down the top of both arms. I think this takes away the ease of raglan sleeves and gives the coat extra bulk it just doesn’t need. Oh and I added in seam pockets, which doesn’t help with the bulk issue either, but they’re handy.

Because I didn’t really like it, but didn’t want to abandon it I slapped on some ruffles a la j.crew so I would like it more. And it worked. My daughter was anxious for me to finish it, but damn if those sew on snaps don’t take forever to sew on.  While I was sewing on all those snaps my daughter danced around excited for it to be done, then she tried it on and hated it. It is a little big and hangs weird, so I don’t really blame her. But still. Maybe next year she’ll like it more. Until then she’ll wear it to church because her mother will make her.