wienerdog tricks.

All Done.

A Too Many Gifts Month update.

One completely finished messenger-style bag for Baby Pumpkinhead's teacher (It's actually the very one I used for the pattern. You know: multi-tasking.):

One completely finished Tote Bag-Made-Out-Of-Her-Son's Jeans for the big Man Boy's teacher:

   

One Can't Believe I Actually Had Black (Which Is What She Wanted) Polyester Genuine Article Purse for Small Man Boy's Teacher:  

That quilt I was working on a bit ago:

  And these--for the two School Secretaries Who Run the Place:

 

So I'm all done. 

Well, you know, (mostly) all done: finishing the graduate's laundry bag (serious, normal college kid gray on the outside; lime green polyester seam binding on the inside); next in line is finishing up the birthday bag. Then I guess I really will be done.

For now.

Back to the Junkyard & Finished Teacher Gift #1

So I went back to the junkyard and hit the Junkyard Jackpot.

Seatbelts! Here's Mike, my Seatbelt Supplier. He's nice. He is cutting seatbelts out of cars for me before he crushes them.

And here's Finished Teacher Gift #1 (a messenger-style bag with Seatbelt Highlights) 

 

And, as always, I like the insides even better than the outsides.

 
Mike called back today to say he pulled 19 more for me, so it looks like I'm heading back to the junkyard. Nowhere else I'd rather head back to--all that trash waiting to be made into something wonderful.

An Untidy Update

Turns out that even though I mostly post in terms of start-to-finish projects, I don't actually work that way. So here's the update (from top left, clockwise):

Teacher Gift #1: Cut, 1/2 sewn--waiting on brown thread that I didn't find somewhere and that doesn't break every 32 seconds and orange thread for the seam finishing.

Teacher Gift #2: Cut, 3/4 sewn, wonking like crazy for some reason that I'm trying to figure out, bothersomely-not-mismatched-in-the-way-I-like-it colors that I'm still staring at--waiting on inspiration.

Teacher Gift #3: Cut, 3/4 sewn, weirdly floppy and maybe begging a side-panel redesign. Yeesh. Waiting on red thread for seam finishing.

Teacher Gift #4: Mostly finished--waiting on a trip to the junk yard to pick up the salvaged seatbelts that are (hopefully, I mean according to Mike the Salvage Yard Guy) waiting there for me.

Birthday Gift #1: Cut only.

Graduation Gift #1: Um. Let's not lie. I'll probably go shopping for it.

Wedding Gift #1: Not even started. 

There you go, friends. More soon once I go buy thread in 86 colors.

June: Too Many Gifts Month

I know you're with me.

Everyone is graduating. Everyone who helped everybody else graduate needs to be thanked. And other people are getting married. And then there's Father's Day.

Some people even have the nerve to be born in the Wedding Graduation Teacher Appreciation Father's Day Gift Giving Month of June.

The nerve.

So over here at then Hendrix house I will be sewing my fingers bloody, frantically trying to thank and praise and congratulate everybody who needs to be thanked and praised and congratulated. The running tally so far:

Graduation Gifts: 1

Teacher Appreciation Gifts: 4

Wedding Gifts: 1

Father's Day: 0 (He's getting store bought this year. There's no way around it.)

Birthday Gifts: 1

Okay, so maybe 7 doesn't sound too bad. (Wait--no. It does sound that bad.) But 6 of these need to happen before the middle of the month. Right.

Stay with me, Goose. I'll be sewing. And talking all about it. 

And please feel free to top my Gift Month Realities with your own--I always love to hear what you all are up to at your machines.

Best/Easiest/Longest-Promised Birthday Gift Ever.

(I know I'm sewing for myself right now, but I made this when it was still December and have been holding on to show you until I actually GAVE it to my friend. Which wasn't easy.)

I have been threatening/promising this gift for years. My dear friend Bonnie has a deep, deep family truth posted on her fridge, and I have said forever that I would sew it on a pillow. (Because the wrong words are ALWAYS sewed on pillows--things like DELICIOUS HARMONY and PAIN-FREE OBEDIENCE and PERFECTION UNLIMITED and stuff like that.) So here's hers:

"Don't sweat the petty things.

Don't pet the sweaty things."

Words to live by from George Carlin. Excellent. (And particularly helpful as life guidance when you have 3 boys like she does). So here's the final product. 

The back (and yes--I couldn't help myself. I sewed yello ric-rac into the seam. If you haven't done this, try it. It will make you ric-rac happy.)

I won't lie. I'm going to make one for myself that says, "Touch your own and not your brother's." 

Elf Work Update

Here's what I've pulled off so far:

Clockwise from top left: journally binder cover for 9 yr old Man Boy (that's fake woodgrain fabric. Totally excellent); little notepad thingy for girl party I'm going to tonight; cooking apron for 7 1/2 yr old Man Boy (um--yes it says HAWAIIN BEER. He went nuts over this old, strange shirt when he found it in my pile. What's a mother to do but make her son's dreams come true? And no--he didn't even notice that it said beer.); stack of christmas garlands for the Relatives; Christmas apron for the Mother; And a tiny little doll quilt for the 20 Month Lady Baby (used this tutorial and a cloth diaper for the batting.) 

Also, made this for a gift and am totally keeping it for myself:

 

The other side:

 
If you're looking for a quick-to-make gift for a sew-lover, I highly recommend it. And if you're really pressed for time, make 3000 of these like I have. Strangely soothing to glue, plus they're darling.

Good luck out there. 

Sewing Party Report

So we hit it last night and here's the report . . . 

First, the Thanksgiving garland. I won't lie: I'm officially obsessed with these. This is ONLY the beginning. I've got about 5 in the works for Christmastime. And those are just for me--I haven't even STARTED the ones I just might make for gifts. Or I might make 38 and hog them all for myself and my house will look like a crafty 70's used car lot at Christmas. Maybe I'm okay with that.

 

Face shot . . .

Plus, I started on the first day of the rest of my Glue Gun Life with these.

And yes, as she has already said by offering this brilliant idea, there's no tutorial necessary. Step #1: find monstrous hoard of buttons you are currently squirreling away for some Sewing Apocalypse.  Step #2: start gluing them to whatever paper clips you can scrounge up in the house.

What I already told the Good (Enough) Woman when she asked about the garlands, I repeat here X 1000 about these button clips: This is the closest thing to mental ward occupational therapy I've ever done in my Making Life, and I can honestly say that it was drug-inducingly calming. Wow. If I ever yell at my kids again, I'm just going to walk zombie-like upstairs and start gluing buttons to paper clips. Call me if you need me, I'll just be upstairs for a while.

And while I was garland-ing and button-clip-ing, my friend was making these from this book:

They are so cute, I almost passed out and fell down the stairs. Shoot.

She also made a garland out of this same brown and white polka dot polyester, but I don't have a picture of it because she asked me to sew part of it and I effed it up (sorry for the phoul phonetic) because I sew everything at the speed of light and then rip it out and sew it again and she sews everything slowly and doesn't have to rip, so she thought I sewed faster than her but really she didn't know about that whole rip-and-resew part of my Creative Process. 

See, not only are we making stuff, we're Getting To Know Each Other Better too. Excellent.

Bliss(es)

1. Finishing my Thanksgiving Apron and Getting the 7 yr old Man Boy to Model it:

 

No, there is not a single turkey on this apron--but I made it for Thanksgiving and my little sister is making one from another chunk of that funky fruit fabric for our own private sew-along. And yes, I got that fabric at a thrift store. Did you really wonder? The back:

 

 

2. Getting a thank you picture from my fave 3 yr old for the bday purse I whipped up for her:

 

3. Finding this rad glob of almost-purplish pink polyester--3 or 4 yds at least--at a thrift store this week (I think old polyester might be my love language):

 

4. Working on Thanksgiving and Christmas garlands. (Sooooo satisfying.)

 

5. Making homemade pretzels with the (aforementioned) 7 yr old Man Boy

 

because he got this book from the school library (Mom, I saw it on the "new books" shelf at the library and I RAN so nobody would get it before me. Classic. The boy loves to cook. He totally has an apron in his Christmas future.)

 

6. Dirt cheap garage sale fabric for Christmas gifts. Woo Hooo!

 

 

7. Raising goofballs. 

 

(A requisite cave man shot from the 9 yr old Man Boy at the rib joint where we ate last week).

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.)