Tuesday, March 12, 2013

The Great Scissor Catastrophe of 2013

I haven't sewn anything in a few months, and tonight, I was haunted by one of my vintage patterns. Simplicity #2863 from the 1950s . 


I'm all geared up ready to sew this thang.  I even picked out a really cute lilac satin fabric (it was left over from sewing dresses for my sister's wedding). It's easter time and I have a few nieces that would look adorable in this cute little dress.  

So.... All geared up, my pattern is pressed, my fabric is washed and pressed, the pieces are pinned to the fabric...and then...

MY GOOD FABRIC SCISSORS ARE GONE!

Seriously, gone.  I had them not even yesterday while I was working.  So I tear my work area apart, I look behind everything,  I pull out cabinets that haven't been moved in months.  I am on my hands and knees looking with a flashlight behind and under my desk.  I even go through all of my husband's leather working and man tools.  They are nowhere! Up and walked away.  Disappeared.  Poof.

Okay, So I am getting really frustrated at this point.  Well, angry, and poor Brian is trying to stay out of the way of a rampaging redhead.  

Finally, I give and decide that I'll have to use another pair of scissors.  And here's where the real fun begins.

1)  My Paper scissors.  --- Absolutely crap.  They cut paper amazingly.  I couldn't even gnaw with these things.

And here are the other contestants:


 The spare extra pair for random bits.


 The coupon scissors.

The haircut scissors

The kitchen scissors


All of these didn't cut fabric, but I am a stubborn woman, and I will find a pair of scissors to cut this pattern out, TONIGHT.  After some more digging in the kitchen drawers.  These are what I find:



Cheap kids safety scissors probably from when my husband was of the age to use them.  But, guess what, they worked.  And they worked good.  I finally got my pieces cut out, and then I realized that it's really too late to sew, as I have to be at work early in the morning.  So instead, I spent this last half hour writing this funny post.  

That was the great scissor catastrophe of 2013.  Tomorrow, I am going and buying another pair of good fabric scissors, and this time I am going to attach them to the desk with some string, that way I'll never loose them again.



Saturday, March 9, 2013

Are you ready for the Apocalypse? Or maybe just some cool art?

I have a lot of vintage patterns, and on those patterns are some really cool fashion drawings straight from the 50s. 




I can't really draw, but I can alter stuff! So this is a concept I have of doing on the actual aged vintage irreplaceable patterns. Most of them are missing pieces and I don't want to actually make the dresses of them anyway. I just love the art, and being a Fallout fan, it seemed to pop right into that genre. So, this is my first attempt at some altered artwork, and this is on a copy of the original so I didn't actually mess it up.




Here's another stroke of inspiration I had too.  Many of my patterns don't have all the pieces, They have lovely artwork, so why not frame them?  This is a little boy's shirt pattern behind a fabric covered mat inside a wood frame.  I personally wanted to go with a linen mat and a shabby chic white frame.  I think either way looks fine.  I will defenetly be decorating with these, sometime.  

And the ones I don't like will also be going up in the shop, at some point. 

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Black Kiss-Lock Purse

After completing Monday's KissLock, I felt I could do better.  What makes everything better? Bigger does. So I made a bigger, rounder, puffier clutch.





I received this fabric for Christmas, and really didn't have a plan for it.  Nothing jumped out at me except for the high contrast colors.  I knew I liked that, and I wanted to play off of that as well.  I started embroidering the black parts with red a few weeks ago, before a clutch was even planned.  Embroidery is hard! Not physically or mentally hard, just dull and I really have to force myself to get in a stupor to do it. I finished what I did because I was feeling mopey and thinking hurt my brain.

While I was out shopping, JoAnn's had this sale going on, and those big black kissers where staring at me from the shelf. How could I resist those shiny plastic bulbs?  And thus I was inspired.  Big black knobs, black and red fabric I have no plans for.  Voila!

I did learn from my previous encounter with metal frames that I needed some poof and some stabilizer.  I returned to my trusty teacher, Google, and was rewarded with this amazingly handy tutorial from Lisa from UHandbag. It's a very good tutorial, easy to follow and to alter to fit my needs.  I really only used steps one and two, but those are the best steps.






Monday, January 14, 2013

Kiss Lock Purse Frame Coin Pouch, something interesting?

      New year, new you, blah blah blah. So, in all actuallity it is the new year, and it is the time to try new things and shake it up a bit.  The first bag of the year that I wanted to create, was going to be a challenge. Something small, simple, that is seen everywhere, but how are they made?  I'm talking about the little snap coin pouches, similar to what my greataunt would keep her cigarettes in.  I didn't even know the name of the little frames or where I would begin to start designing a pattern.  I've come to find out that they are called "kiss lock" metal purse frames.  Looks like the little knobs are kissing. Heh. 




          And to start on this adventure, what the first thing that I do? Google it. "Snappy lock frame thingy" didn't really help find a tutorial or anything. But I did find a helpful blog, Sew 4 Home, that had a quick tutorial for something similar in concept.  I admit, I really only used the free pdf pattern and then cut it down, because my frame was way smaller than the tutorial's.

         I am on a red kick lately, so my fabric choice was surprisingly easy.  I don't know what it's called or anything; I received a big box of remnants from Jo-Anns for Christmas. The piece I had was about a 1/4 of a yard, so I couldn't do a big bag or anything. Anyway, perfect fit with the antique brass looking frame.  

Here are the results of about an hour of sewing/cutting/googling.



I think it turned out nice.