wienerdog tricks.

How I Hate to Wait for Things and How I Am Waiting for Zippers and How I Wait on Purpose

A Craft Debt '11 Update

I am at a bit of a standstill on two projects: both of the pillows for me [#5] AND the two bags [#2 & #6] that I swore a couple of posts ago were my First Priority Projects. And here's the thing: I'm not stuck creatively. They are all projects coming along swimmingly in terms of function and color and the weird combining of strange old pieces of fabric and such that any regular human would have put in a boat and floated off to some Other Country's Landfill long ago. But I heart them all.

I just don't have long enough zippers.

Go to the store and get them, You Say.

That's the thing: that's not how we roll here at WDT. We (and I mean the Royal We) wait until the pieces it takes to put a nifty something together all appear before we run to the store. Even when we are in our car tempted to pull into whatever Zippers for Cheap store may or may not be just a handful of blocks away from Our place of work, we keep driving. We don't go in. 

Instead, we dig through our Monstrous Stash of culled-as-we-go bits and pieces of notions and when we come up short, then we hit the thrift shops in high hopes of the Just Right zipper and when we go there and there is nothing but a Sea of 6" Closures, then we wait.

We wait because we have found that the tension of waiting and the tension of Only Using What We Find causes curious, interesting things to happen as we make. Sometimes the Just Right Zippers never do appear and so we tackle the envelope closure-d pillow or we start to experiment with snaps.

Right now we are waiting.

And in some ways it might seems strange, what with wanting to get those pillows onto my bed and cover up the fugly floral that is currently gracing the top of my (purchased with a christmas gift card) super expensive sheets, but that's how we roll.

And usually the commitment to just sit tight means that Oprah herself (or whoever IS in charge of the universe) drops in our lap the Zipper of Our Dreams.

Or at least a one-day haul like this:

You will be the first to know when when the zippers arrive. Right now we are waiting.

Craft Debt '11 No. 1: The Big Ol' Linen Headboard

This is a Craft Debt 2011 Update.

It's completed: the Linen Whale has gone on home. For better or worse, I delivered my pal's fabric-covered headboard today with a lot of "just sort of scrinch it over here and you won't be able to see that one part if the sun's out. . ." She is terribly gracious and was very thankful and happy. Mostly: we're both just glad to have the thing finished and in place.

It really is, actually, pretty cute. 

The Pumpkinhead "helped" as you can imagine.

This project was a re-do of a store-bought, fabric-covered headboard that my pal bought with the big hopes of a nifty, high-end upgrade. We headed out to a terrific remnant shop and she bought heavy weighted linen to give the headboard a cuter, more substantial, less fake-micro-suede look and feel. And then I took the original cover and seam-ripped the behookus out of it and used it as a pattern to make another, more attractive version of it from the gorgeous coupla yards of linen.

I love a project that involves me saying things like, "Sure! I can probably figure that out . . ." This one was only tricky because 1) We added piping. Piping we made. Piping that felt like being squiggly when we wanted it to be all calm and straight and 2) I went at it like I always do: fast and furious and (therefore) full of mistakes I woud later need to fix. I'd like to introduce: Me. Hi. Have we met? I seem to have one creative process only, regardless of the particularities of what I'm taking on. In this case, it worked perfectly (since I don't otherwise have the First Clue about how to Make a Fabric Headboard Cover). So I just dove in and tweaked as I went. Um, for a year.

Anyways, thar she blows. All delivered and in place and pretty much just the amount of wonky that makes it all made-by-a-friend but not the level of wonky that makes it on-the-way-to-the-Goodwill-once-the-friend-drives-away.

Craft Debt 2011: The Sub-Project of a Current Project

In order to truly tackle my current project, I have come to the realization that it's time for another round of some clean up of the Craft Debt. I tend, as you may already know, to promise projects (sometimes to others; sometimes to my own self) faster than I can actually pull them off, hence my constant state of craft debt: projects that I am somewhere between 3 and 72% completed. 

Now, I don't have an inner problem with the idea of undone projects--I like to have 6 or 39 projects in play at once, but sometimes it causes Creative Clutter and I have to catch myself back up.

Here's this year's list:

1. Fabric-Covered Headboard for Pal: "If I buy a fabric-covered headboard from Target with its nasty faux-sued cover, will you make a new one outta the fancy linen we will go together to a fabric remnant store to find?" Yes, I said. Of course I will. And I did. But then I didn't finish. The thing's been leaning up against my piano since forever. Project begun: some time last year. I hate to think of which month, but I think it was frighteningly close to spring. Solid. Why is she still my friend again? Oh, I forgot: my mom pays her. Right. THAT'S ALL DONE

2. Book-ish Sized Purse/Bag for my buddy who already gave me these darling birds as trade. Luckily she's a longtime friend, otherwise: Really you haven't done this yet? Discover the right color vintage upholstery fabric in the stash: Check. Sew the flippin thing: Not-Yet Check. THAT'S ALL DONE

3. Footstool Cover for the Library. Did one last year and swiped the heart-shaped footstool on my way out the door to do the next. It's been glaring at me since. 

4. Another Footstool But This One's For Me. I covered it once, but I'm over it. I've moved on. I've cut the new cover, but I need to sew it. Okay, so this one's not really debt, but it is bugging me to have it undone and crowding up my Upper Room, so there's that. THAT'S ALL DONE

5. New Pillowcovers For My Room. Okay, this one's for me too. (Maybe it's time for another round of Sew Sew Selfish. Sure. Sure.) My current bed pillows are covered in some fabric that must've been named Floral Ugly. I've started the new pillows and they're wanting to be finished.THAT'S ALL DONE

6. Some Nifty Teatowel Bag for my buddy who handed me this totally sentimental Australia tea towel ages ago and who I said I Would Love to Make Something For You Out of This and I haven't yet and whose tea towel is languishing in my cupboard, nodding at me knowingly every time I open it.

If I tackle this stuff, the place might actually start to look cleaned up.

A dear friend walked upstairs with me this morning and heard me say--for the 412th time since she's known me--I'm working on cleaning the place up . . . and she said, "I think you need a poster at the top of the stairs that says that."

Not a bad idea. Not a bad idea. 

Craft Debt #7 (Desperately Cute Kitchen Apron): CHECK

(Craft Debt Update.) My goal: REALLY cute Kitchen Apron that will make her sigh from disbelief at its cuteness when she puts it on to cook.

Mission Accomplished, Tom Cruise. 

I think you already know this about me, but I love me the apron. They never get old for me. I've made and remade and re-envisioned the basic vintage apron that The Chicken served up in her first book and the straightforward instructions for this apron have been worth the cost of the book for me.  So yesterday I was at it again with this little number:

Don't think of that as a blurry photo: think of it as an action shot. It's windy here today.

I found this little retro 70s scrap some time ago and knew it wanted to be an apron and it FINALLY came to me--the person who would embrace it, I mean. And the fabric combo. Got to use a scrap of my Dick and Jane word-omatic scrap too for the pocket and some mini-ric rac I've been hoarding like a tiny squirrel with a tree:

Have you made an apron for somebody lately? It's a super satisfying 2-hour-ish undertaking that will make you happy to drive to the post office to send it off. (And THAT is saying something--especially from a postally-challenged person like me.) And I'll be thinking today about how happy my friend from Texas will be when she skips out to her mailbox and finds this there waiting for her. It will be a little chunk of love, delivered.

The Hand Off: Craft Debt Item #2--finally.

(Craft Debt Update.)

So this is a biggee, because I've been sitting on it For. Ev. Er.  Okay, for a couple of months. But still.

So here's the messenger bag I finally pulled off for my friend Anthony:

 The strap is a car seatbelt which we fit to him--he can adjust it once it's clicked on. Pure genius--his not mine. He picked this one up at a junk yard and I just sewed it in.

The bag is lined with a navy & white polyester plaid-ish pattern and a bright yellow polyester divider so that's got two sections (his request). He wanted the bag "funkier" (which is easily the worst thing ever to hear from a lifechanglingly talented artist), so I had to wait a bit for inspiration.

We'd had a great conversation months back about the way that people ask him of his art What Does It Do? (And then they suggest things like putting a clock into his art so that it'll sell. Classic.) And he's shockingly the kind of guy that doesn't deck them when they say things like this.

So I decided to make him a bag that was the answer to that question. It's a bag that Does. Think activity bag from your childhood. Think Dressy Bessy and Dapper Dan.

It's got lots of zippers and buttons  

(The front: . . )

(The back: . . .)

(And on the inside of the flap. . .)

The prince goes up to meet Rapunzel . . .

 

And the Wolf eats Goldilocks. . 

 

Yes, I made the thing for a grown man--luckily, he's just the sort of grown man to  get a big fat kick out of it. 

I fully expect to see him riding around town on his bike with it flung over his shoulder. Can't wait to spot him.

Go Ahead and Ruin It, Ginger (Craft Debt Item #6: CHECK.)

(Craft Debt Update.)

The surprise, I mean. I'm going to ruin the surprise. Because I finished this bag last night for my friend in the NW and immediately stood up from my table (after hand sewing on that eye-rollingly cute vintage button) and said aloud to my Sewing Machine, Ro. That's easily the cutest bag I've ever made.

(Ro was annoyed. She wanted more credit. Whatever.)

And I know I'm ruining the surprise for my friend, but I also know that she'll get over it and understand that I am officially more of a Maker than I am even a Gift Giver because as soon as I make something, I just want to stand on my roof, watch for people to drive by, flag them down and then TALK ABOUT IT.

But my friend Dawn understands me. So that's positive. Plus, when she sees her name typed here, I know she's going to stand up right on top of her expensive office chair and hoop out loud to her writer friends and make a big show of it and feel generally happy before leaving for a light lunch at the company cafeteria. So that's positive too.

Two more action shots of the inside:

If this were Art, I'd call it Celebration of Brown Polyester. Excellent.

Craft Debt #5 (REALLY big pillows): CHECK.

Craft Debt Update.

Really super big pillow covers for my friend Susan who just couldn't say NO to the $5 Ikea pillow forms. (Can you blame her.) Two of em.

She gave me the tiki-esque fabric (I think it was a curtain possibly in its first life) and I put these covers together with not a single scrap left. And I used buttons from my growing button stash.

I've decided that my button collecting has come into my life as a means of practicing Not Hoarding--spending it all right there. Digging for the best ones I've got and then USING them and not saving them for Some Day. Every time I sew on a button I'm saying no to my propensity to hold on to the niftiest thing I've got for the niftiest project I might do someday. 

So sewing on buttons is like a sort of personal life coaching exercise for me. Excellent. Good job being complex, Ginger. 

(I'm about four stitches away from completing the complicated messenger bag. Will post the good news soon.)

Craft Debt: Item #4. CHECK

Craft Debt Update. (Still procrastinating #3. I can't help it.)

I totally pulled off the star-shaped footstool cover 

and gave it my own gingerlove stamp of love

and some peeks of color all around the edges (a different fabric at every peeky corner)

I wanted to get a photo of the hand-off to the librarian, but she was on a break. If this were the 70s I would have said it were a State Mandated Smoke Break, but it's not, so the librarian was probably just sitting somewhere, resting. Actually, I bet you 5 bucks she was somewhere checking her email. That's what I would do if I were a librarian and I was on break. Anyway, the photo would have been Mary the super nice librarian next to me. And I would have been holding a sign over my head that said WILL WORK FOR DISMISSED LIBRARY FINES.

Turns out, by the way, that all you have to do to make a star-shaped footstool cover is to flip the thing upside down onto the fabric, outline it and cut a fat version of the top shape, then sew some fabric around that weird shape. Not hard at all. Who knew?

Craft Debt: Item #3. CHECK.

Craft Debt UPDATE: The baby purse.

It has a happy yellow middle.

I skipped #2. I won't lie. Try sewing for an amazing artist. Go ahead. You try. On to the good news.

I pulled off the baby purse for the Lady Baby who--okay, let's be realistic--doesn't really KNOW I promised her, but still. She needed it quickly.

And now for the action shots:

I'm starting to mess with both the messenger bag and the star-shaped footstool cover. Light candles and put out makeup in front of the Craft Gods, please. Because both projects are challenging my brain parts.

Craft Debt: Item #1. CHECK.

Craft Debt update.

Totally pulled off Item #1 (apron for last year's Man Son's teacher) during somebody's nap. It turned out nice and sweet and homey-looking--thanks to a nice bit of ric-rac. I used the A.C.'s classic vintage apron pattern, which I always have in my back pocket, and I love the look. It's totally cooking-in-the-farm-kitchen happy looking. (She picked the fabric from some swatches I gave her with some choices from my lovingly thrifted stash.)

Here's the ex-2nd grader holding it:

We totally delivered it about 42 seconds before the new school year started. Score.

Craft Debt

I have so charged my gift-giving. And I mean in a WAY worse way than on the old credit-cardo. I mean by way of, For your birthday I'm totally going to make you a ______. This is bad. Really bad, because I'm seriously backed up.

Current goal is to clear my debt. My projects--in order the that I promised them, will shoot to finish them, and therefore procrastinate finishing them--are:

1. End of Year Thank You: Apron for 6 3/4 Boy Man's 1st Grade Teacher (from, um, LAST YEAR). DONE!

2. Thank You to Husband of Amazing Friend Who Watched the Lady Baby While I Worked Last Year: Custom (2-pocket) Messenger Bag with Seatbelt Strap. DONE!

3. You Are So Cute and You Need One Gift for Lady Baby: Small Polyester Purse Tote Thing DONE!

4. I Said I Would Gift to Local Library: Star-Shaped Footstool Cover for Star-Shaped Footstool. Right. DONE!

5. No Reason I Just Like You (Plus You Asked) Gift: Really Big Pillow Covers. DONE!

6. No Reason I Just Like You (Plus You Asked AND You Made Me 38 Scarves When You Were Knitting All The Time Like 4 Year Ago AND You Live Out of Town and I Want You To Have Something to Think of Me With) Gift: Polyester Tote. DONE!

7. No Reason I Just Like You (Plus I Can't Believe I Haven't Made One For You Yet) Gift for Friend Who Means World to Me and Who Lives Out of Town and Who I Was Sure I Gave One to Last Christmas: Kitchen Apron. REALLY cute Kitchen Apron that will make her sigh from disbelief at its cuteness when she puts it on to cook. DONE!

8. No Reason I Just Like You (Plus I Promised) Gift For Friend Who Means the World And Who Is Always Doing Doing Doing For Me And Who I NEVER Come Up With Enough Ways to Thank: Gardening Apron AND Polyester Tote. AND who I really probably promised before all this other stuff but who would say to me Its okay, Hon--get the other stuff done so you don't freak out.

I will be back with updates. In the meantime, please think of me as a poster child for the AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU CRAFTERS.