After a week (a week!) of nursing sick children I thought I would have a couple hours to sew on Saturday morning, but of course then I got it.  crap.  I had grand plans of conquering an actual pattern: simplicity 3835 (any advice welcome–has anyone lined this? can anyone tell me how to line this?).  There were some angry and rushed attempts at garment making in high school with very homemade results, but now I’m ready to learn for real.  These pj pants are from Amy Butler’s book “In Stitches” and were dead easy.  Like sewing drawstring bags for your legs and about that flattering–when she says wide leg, she means wiiiiide leg.  I have been meaning to make them ever since I found this fantastic sheet at a thrift store long ago. I think the idea of making pajamas from sheets came from soulemama.  And when you are wearing them it really is like you never got out of bed!  My sick self stayed in these pants all weekend long. I did manage one little project (from soulemama, the book).

another pair of pants! though much, much smaller and from a shirt.  There are many more of these planned for the summer months.  They are easy and comfy and just right for the playground.  I have grand plans for making my kids’ clothes too.  It doesn’t help seeing this and this and this.  But I don’t have a clue as to how to sew clothes (unless it resembles a drawstring bag) so mostly I’m just dreaming.

I’ve been looking for some kiddy size chairs recently because we have one chair and two kiddies.  I was getting a little frustrated because I couldn’t find anything, much less anything vaguely stylish. Then on Saturday at Vinnie’s there they were.  It was Saturday–the place was packed, there were little kids everywhere and it was well past noon.  How is it possible that no one scooped them up?  They did look a little shabby and there was a $15 dollar sticker on each, so I guess that is a deterrent.  Fifteen bucks is a lot for a little chair and I carried one around the entire store convincing myself it wasn’t.  Turns out it was for the set and since I decided I was spending $15 anyway, I took the lot.  This is much more than you need to know about any shopping experience, much less mine. But hey chairs! with a cool vinyl print–can you even get that nowadays?

Other things:

I was lucky enough to be short listed in the 2nd Annual Softies Awards. You can vote here (if you are related to me, you have to vote for me).

The drawing for my sewing book will happen on Monday (um midday? naptime? somewhere around there central time), so if you’d like to put your name in the hat please leave a word here (if you are related to me, you may enter, but really you should call instead).

Another post about another artist, because there’s not much coming out of my studio these days and what is coming out comes out very, very wrong.  I picked up this book at a thrift store a while ago because I recognized the author’s name.  Eugene Ionesco was a playwright in the sixties who wrote in the style of the Theatre of the Absurd (thanks wikipedia).

The story is not so absurd, just a little silly.  Thankfully it’s not like his other plays: “Ionesco’s plays depict in a tangible way the solitude and insignificance of human existence” (thanks again wikipedia).  In the story, Josette’s mother and father are lying in bed tired and hungover (it’s always nice to read a book where the parents are real, instead of cheery cheery and never busy) and her father tells her a silly story about a girl named Jacqueline.

Everyone and everything Jacqueline knows is named jacqueline.  Really not the best story–the father is hungover, cut him some slack–but the illustrations are fantastic.  The colors are muted, but the pictures are still psychedelic.  Etienne Delessert is the artist and a quick search on amazon came up with a couple of books he’s illustrated and I know this book is the first in a series he did with Ionesco.  Anyway, I just think his pictures are great and wanted to share them with you.

more here and here if you are interested.

These beautiful alphabet cards were made by Ida Pearle.  There was a flurry of activity on the designy crafty blogs a while back when this set of cards came out.  And every time I saw pictures of her work I got excited because I knew someone who knew her.  Sadly, when picking up and washing up is most of your day this is as exciting as it gets.  So you can imagine how thrilling it was when the artist herself came to my house.  She (and our mutual friend, hi bill) ventured deep into the midwest just for a visit.  We had a very nice time in spite of the ridiculous amount of snow and then rain and hail and then more snow.  And I’m happy to say miss Ida Pearle is a kind and generous person as well as a talented artist.  She uses paper with the most amazing patterns in her collages.  And though I don’t really know how to talk about art, I know that hers is very much alive.  So go to her website and look at all her beautiful pictures.

After a big sewing jag, I plant myself on the couch. And try to avoid thinking about all the things I told myself I would do after all the sewing was over. Unfortunately not doing things gives you more time to dream up new things and remember even more things you said you’d do. So while I haven’t been here I’ve been furiously writing to do lists. Most of them involve pretty boring spring cleaning stuff like, clean out the spice rack. woo hoo! The glamorous life of me! But I dug out my old sewing to do list and added some new stuff to it (and crossed things off!). I realized last weekend, that had it not been for this blog I don’t think I would have made nearly as much stuff as I have this past year. I have my own little cheer squad here. Who wouldn’t want that? So thank you, thank you to everyone for your comments. They have pushed me to learn more and make more and think more creatively about what I am doing. I’m coming up on my 100th post and the 1000th comment, both are ridiculous and exciting, so there will be a giveaway soon. Until then, I thought if I actually posted my to do list, I would be motivated to do some of it. Feel free to share some or all of your “to make” lists in the comments.

The chair doesn’t have anything to do with this post. It’s just a bomb chair I got for $5 at the dig and save (how come no one told me they had furniture?).

to make

plush airplane or maybe helicopter

patchwork dolls with patchwork faces

animal dolls with mustaches and clothes and patterned all over (one down!)

modern felt book

dress for me, and a shirt and if those work then some pants

pillowcase pants for my kids

hats for everyone

hem all the curtains in the whole damn house

make all new throw pillows because I can’t stand looking at the ones we have any more

mend the enormous pile of clothes to mend

quilts, plural

clean up the hole my studio has become (aids in the making of things)

more sewing books

a nicer, cleaner website

*edited to add*

pajama pants from amy butler’s in stitches

three blind mice

the dish and the spoon

recover chairs, plural

stamped placemats

cover tin cans with linen (damn you, cotton friend)

another house mobile

robes for the kids from vintage towels