wienerdog tricks.

Why I Wish I Had Moved to New York When I Was 19.

Because I think my real calling may have been in costume design. Don't think Merchant Ivory films; think that guy on Project Runway who was really good at the drag queen outfits and missed the finale because of his inclusion of human hair into the design mix. Think him. 

I'm at it again right now. Let's just say that if I thought gluing buttons to paper clips was life-centeringly relaxing, then gluing blue felt stars to big white stretch LADY underwear is just as good. (Probably wouldn't have made good christmas gifts, though. Right.)

And because as I typed that I realized you'd never believe me, I took this shot:

Dressing up in tights is about one of the best things I ever do in my free time. I've volunteered for a kooky youth organization for many years now and they invite me out to do goofy skits for their leadership every so often. So I'm heading to Colorado for a retreat. (100 women, some solitude time, and me in tights. Standard women's retreat stuff.) I'm going as WonderPerson--she is like Wonder Woman, but she doesn't want to be limited by the gender-specific name. You know how it is.

Write this note to self: Remember to purchase multi-colored tights to fashion costume of self-imagined superhero for personal good times.

You'll thank me.

Current Happiness-es

1. This old polyester which arrived in the mail from a super nice BPF who understands that I am a sort of POLYESTER RESCUE STATION (kind of like the people who give a home to abandoned shelty dogs when their owners move or something) and that I would find a purpose for its little polyester life. 

--which, I have to say, I already have and will be keeping you all posted on my plot to use this yardage along with some other I've got to make SLIPPER CHAIR COVERS. I know: you can't wait. Me neither.

2. I hung these. 

 And that's positive. (Totally velcro-ed them to the wall. Classy.)

3. I've started working on drafting my first pattern. And I have to say that it's more addicting than quilt crack (which I tried shortly before Christmas). 

It's like taking your best sewing idea and turning it into a PUZZLE--which for this most-of-my-life Only Child in the backseat of every car we ever drove doing them, is actually amazingly satisfying. Plus I'm workin on it the old school way with tape and paper and scissors. And I love taping and scissoring. It's all up there with gluing. 

That's the update. What are you guys up to?

Gonna Stuff These Now And Hang Em Over The Door

 

How I Do That

 

I'm getting a lot of great questions about the words that show up everywhere on the stuff that I make and remake, so I thought I'd give you a little heads up about how those words are showing up there.

It's because of this kooky secretary's stamp set that I picked up at a garage sale years ago. It came with a numbered set that I since can't find and there was a few little tiny stamps that said 1950, 1951, 1952, and 1953.

 I just spell a word backwards and then set it in this little base with some Official Typesetting Tweezers

 

And then I stamp it a with this. 

   

I do this a bunch of times (partly because it takes me a bunch of times to get a good one and also because I sometimes go back scavenging for words for other projects):

Then I cut it out

 

I like to do it all in this order and then sew it so that it will fray because I am Pro-Fray. Other people are not--and those Anti-Fray people could just stamp it with more space around it, do some ironing work that would probably require a combo advanced degree in Astro Physics and Home Ec and then sew it down fraylessly. 

But I'm all into the effect:

So, tips in summary:

1. Use permanent ink, then do a little heat setting. I didn't take pics of this part because it would be me running down to the dryer and throwing my big sheet o' stamps in there for 10 minutes or so on high. And because I don't have a WDT Staff Photographer, I didn't get a shot of this. 

2. Stamp onto nice soft cotton. I actually am no pro stamper, but I do mine on soft old bedsheets and it seems to allow the desired effect (and the ink doesn't squish into the cracks, so you can read the word.)

3. Plan on stamping your word on a seperate piece of fabric a bunch of times so that it's okay if you screw up on the stamping. As it turns out, you've got to hold your mouth just right, flex some special tendons in the top of your fingers, press down hard and sort of rooooooolllll through the stamp. And this fancy method takes a bit to muster and then master. So let yourself screw up on some old bed sheets and you'll have a better time than you would if you sewed up a pretty little something and then gave yourself one shot on a finished piece. You might cry if you did it that way. And by You, I, of course, mean Me.

There you have it. Stamp on, Wiener Dog Tricks Bloggish People Friends (my dear old WDT BPF's). More quetsions? Just shoot and I'll do my absolute best to explain my strange workaround to your legitimate crafting question.

Get to Know Me

This is the wall above my desk. I'm just saying.

The "M" is for the word MAKE that I am cutting out of old polyester and sewing together to hang on the wall of my newly overhauled working space. (And also that's an old tv tray that I've got hanging as a magnet board--terribly cheap and terribly handy).

The pattern sleeve is for a pile of t-shirt refashioning that I'm doing--and thanks to clever her, I am now using a sleeve pattern piece to do this better. (That's because I watched this over on her site about making a dress from a man's shirt--and it's a super cool photo tutorial.)

Ro is in for a service and gone from home for two days. Weird. 

I talked to those moms again today about living a creative life and told them all that we need--as moms and just as regular humans--to really live a life that includes making. That we talk in the mom culture about making and creative projects like they are something we let ourselves do as a treat, like a pedicure of something--but that we wait until we're right up on the edge of meltdown mode before we claim it. And that it's better to just claim it and live the way we're suppose to live: as makers. And they had wonderful questions like "How do you have time for that?" "and "What do you do about your kids and your husband needing your attention?" and "What if you don't have space?" and "What if you don't have money?" and "What if you don't have any clue where to begin?" And I talked and talked and they listened and nodded and it was all just all-around lovely. 

I could talk about Making all day.

This One Has a Special Pocket

I made another one of these cash envelope system wallets because I wanted to try out the 4-slot design (instead of the big old 6-slot design).

 

 
 And also because I wanted a place to stash this (so I crammed it in that little denim pocket):

 

Because sometimes when I'm shuffling around with my cash and the people behind me in line are drilling eyeball holes through the side of my head with their can't-u-just-use-a-debit-card-like-the-rest-of-us stares, I flounder a little. Just internally. 

And so I am putting the note in the special pocket so that I can take it out and remind myself at any time I might need to.

Also, I wanted another shot at labeling my categories, and I'm even happier (if that's possible)with these:

 

And also since I figured out the little change in the design difference between the 6-slot wallet and the 4-slot wallet, I've updated the tutorial so that you can make either one. And I named them: The "Skipper" (he's the big guy) and the "Gilligan" (his little buddy).

Right: : Where was I in the early 70's? In front of the tv.

I've Been Meaning To Tell You

About my chalk boards. 

Not about hanging them, just about having them.

 

Anyway--I have a little tv/homework room (hmmmm--interesting combo. Right) that I have covered in chalkboards, all found at thrift stores and weird public auctions. 

I like chalkboards for these reasons:

1. They're totally FIND-ABLE at thrift stores and weird public auctions.

2. They take up a lot of wall space. This is a real decorating key for me because I am such a treasure-hunter but I really shake and shiver to spend more than about 4 and half bucks at a time. And so buying anything--even used--to cover a big chunk of wall space is really a challenge. I am forever in a thrift store with a big framed something art-ish, saying to myself, Do I like it 9 dollars worth? And so I am forever the girl with one tiny picture smack in the middle of a big wall. Cute. Real cute.

3. If you feel like it, you can write on them. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't. I tend to even like the look of them when they're blank. When you do write on them, they're terrific for menu plans and chores lists and also happy seasonal greetings and reminders or even story-boarding about Jackie Robinson when you are nine and your dad is helping you on the report that is due.

 

4. If you're particular about color, you can re-surface them with black chalkboard paint. My really with-it friend who has such good taste that sometimes I can still taste it when I leave her house did this. And the effect was really, actually, quite stunning. I, however, am currently embracing schoolhouse green in my tv room. 

5. As a tip, you'll want to buy a decent eraser. Do you have one yet, Ginger? No, and that's why Jackie Robinson is still up there. I have this dream eraser on my list of future happinesses to purchase for myself.

And that is all that I have been meaning to tell you about chalkboards.

Apron for Baby Pumpkinhead

This is what I made today--just what every almost-two-year-old needs:

 

P.S. Love your responses to my call for Regulars. And you can throw your name up into those comments any time and I'll put you on the Regulars list. Because that's how we ROLL [embarassing grown-up lady airquotes] around here.
 

Norm!

 

I'm looking for my regulars. I love hanging out here with all you WDTBPF's and I'd love to post a list of regulars on my nav. I know some of you are living over there--but if you hang out here, just post a comment with your blog address. 

When I see my blog listed on somebody's nav, it just gives me a happy, glowy feeling--and I'd love to share that.

So even if you never comment because you are the shy, retiring type, go ahead and speak up. I'd love to know that you're around. And if you're a regular without a blog, then I imagine you could put up your name and I could just list you. And that would be fun too--because who doesn't like to see their name in print?

Sure, I like to sew. But man, do I ever love to be in a community of people who do too. 

This Happened To Me

I went upstairs to Ro last night when it was dark--after work, after dinner, after dishes, after kids, and decided to sew. I have about 31-gazillion projects sitting in various piles within a leg's reach of my desk but didn't want to make them. Not in the mood--so I picked up a handful of plaid polyester and just started cutting and sewing and attaching a zipper and then GUSSETING. And then this happened:

 

It was wanting to be--in my CREATIVE ENVISIONING OF IT--some sort of ditty bag. Right. Instead, it is a plaid morphy squid-ish thing. I think I might name it . . .

• DELIRIOUS POSSIBILITY (I'm sure somebody has that sewn on a couch pillow somewhere)
• WOMAN COOKS & EATS CRACK THEN SITS DOWN TO SEWING MACHINE WITH DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR
• SLEEP-DEPRIVATION STUDY IN OLD PLAID
• DON'T DRINK AND GUSSET (I swear I only had like two sips of sauvignon blanc)

And I will name it because it will, in fact, never be more than Art since it turns out to have no function whatsoever--what with the zipper opening into nothing and all. Right.

 

In the spirit of telling the truth even when what I make is fabulously ugly and unsuccessful, I'm sharing here. 

There's nothing I love more than diving in without a pattern  (yes, irony since I like to write them; but you know what--I like to write poetry too and I never read poems. Hmmm. Talk to therapist about this behavior pattern.), but sometimes I lose my way. This happened to me last night. Apparently I should have just watch THE OFFICE.

Lucky for everybody, I never do this in the kitchen. Thanks to her and her, nobody starves or chokes around here. So that's positive.

 

True Love, Pajamas & Special Sharing

Today kicks off Sew Mama Sew's TRUE LOVE Month. (A decidedly more others-focussed upgrade from my own Sew Sew Selfish Month.) 

And I've put together a tutorial for a SUPER SIMPLE NIGHTIE over there--so if you're a local Wienerdog Tricks BPF, then go check it out. 

 

Soooo cuuuuute. Guy. Thanks. 

In related Special Sharing:

1. I put up a store. What? I know. I've been scheming about putting out some tutorials to sell digitally, so they're up. Woo Hoo! Or at least my first one's up. It's the tutorial for the cash wallet envelope system that I've been talking about. (And it's begging to be made out of beautiful old polyester.) 

  

 
 2. Those happy little tutorials that have been living on my nav are staying put in the happy little For Free spot. And more will come to live over there (see #3) and more will come to live in the shop (Hmmm: messenger bag, retro toddler apron, old school kleenex box ditty bag). 

3. The Army Bag Knock Off Tutorial is next up.

Good times, friends. 

 

Thing For Me #7: Messenger (Finished!) & Thing For You #2: Cash Envelope System Wallet Tutorial

Hello, People. Yesterday marked the very superduper last day of Sew Sew Selfish Month. So it looks like I've got to start thinking about OTHERS now. Yeesh. But first, this:

I made it, unmade it, and then remade it. 

So now I'm dragging it around full of heavy books and tablets and list-making notepads. And it gives happiness to my insides.

I also made another one of these (the much-loved Cash Envelope System Wallets):

  
And I like it even better because that bottom pocket is functional now and not attacked by the buttonhole and the zipper is also on the outside. Two nifty upgrades.

And here's the part about you: I'm putting the final touches on the tutorial for this project, and I'm going to offering it up as my very first FOR SALE tutorial. (Oooooooohhhhhhhh. That's faaaaaaancy.) It'll be 3 bucks--not bad, not bad.

But before I start selling them, I want to offer them FOR FREE to a big handful of you who are regular friends over here at Wienerdog Tricks. So if you're interested, just send me an email today or tomorrow (gingerhendrix AT charter DOT net), and I will very happily email you one. (I like to share.) Then in a couple of days, the tutorials will be for sale--good plan, good plan. UPDATE: Hey there--I sent a big handful to some of you good WDTBPF's, so if you'd still like one, just click right over here.

I think you guys are great, my Wienerdog Tricks Bloggish People Friends. (WTBPF's).