rostitchery

hiatus

as you can probably tell, i'm on hiatus from this blog.  i will not be adding any original content for the foreseeable future.  when i can, i will happily share links that i find around the internet.  in the meantime, please surf around the blog--there are almost 8 years worth of material here, much of which has been buried in the mists of time.  :)  hope to see you again soon!

being a beginner

this post was originally published here on 10 january, 2005.  i repeat it every january to help us all get off to a good start for a new year.  enjoy!

the beginning of a new year brings with it a host of new seamstresses who received their very first sewing machines for christmas and are ready to get started on their sewing adventures.  it can be confusing at first, there are so many choices to make and so many ways to do things, and it seems that many people give up really quickly because their things don't seem "perfect".  i'm hoping to fix that.

the first thing i ever sewed on a machine, using a commercial pattern, was a skirt and top that i made when i was in 8th grade.  it was a peasant top with raglan sleeves and an elasticized neckline, and a 12 gore skirt with waistband and back zipper.  my mother showed me how to thread her sewing machine, gave me a book on sewing, and left me to make my own mess.  this was the result (click to enlarge):

now, before we go any further, please take a moment to notice all the flaws.  seriously--look it over carefully, get a pen and paper if you need to, make a list.  i'll wait.

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so, what's wrong with this outfit?  why, nothing of course.  :)  i wore it with pride for several years, i got many compliments on it, and i always felt beautiful when i wore it.  this outfit was so popular that other girls paid me to make outfits for them too--even one of the teachers hired me to make an outfit for her daughter.

but why did i just put you thru this???  because, now you will appreciate this picture even more, this is the inside of the skirt, at the waist where the zipper joins the waistband (please please click and enlarge, i don't want you to miss anything):

now let me give you a few more details about this outfit.  when mama took me shopping for fabric, the store didn't have enough of the red fabric on one bolt to make the skirt, so i bought some from a different bolt and it wasn't the same dye lot and the reds don't match.  i alternated the panels because i thought it wouldn't be so noticeable (but you can clearly see the two different reds, look again at the enlarged pictures).  i didn't know what interfacing was, so i skipped that part on the waistband.  mama couldn't find the zipper foot, and i didn't know how to use it anyway, so i put the zipper in by hand.  i was in a hurry to make the outfit, so i didn't read the part of the book that mentioned edge finishes.  all the seam allowances are still raw (and they haven't raveled yet, lo these 30 years).  i was also in too much hurry to learn how to gather, so i just pleated the ruffle, by eye and not by measuring, and cut off what was left over.  and please notice that the hooks and eyes are sewn on, badly, with baby blue thread.

the top is much better.  ;)  the lace is not stretchy, but i didn't stitch it on until after the elastic casing was complete, the neckline doesn't actually stretch.  the hem is 1/2"--1/4"--3/8"--1/2"--etc.  and in the same hurry as with the skirt, i skipped the casing on the sleeve hems so instead of being puffy, they are droopy.

however, i DID read the part about pressing each seam as i sewed it--i'm pretty sure that is the main thing that saved this outfit from that "loving hands at home" look.

what's my point???  it's just this:  not knowing how to do something is no reason not to do it.  just make something, learn as you go, before you know it you'll be teaching someone else all the tricks of the trade.

i LOVE this outfit, i am still proud of it, proud enough to show it to you here, proud enough to show it in person to anybody i can trap long enough to show it to them.  whenever i look at it, i hear the song i listened to when i cut it out, i smell the detergent in the laundry room where i sewed, and i feel my heart pound with joy the way it did when i tried it on for the first time.  this outfit made me love myself in a way that i never did again until ella was born.

i could still fit into this outfit before i got pregnant with ella.  hey, this summer i might even wear it again.  just because. 

oh, and that sewing machine?  i still have it, and i still use it.  it makes some of the best buttonholes i've ever seen.

extra-secret santa-ing

every year, a group of local friends has a secret santa swap.  i’ve written about it before—it is one of my favorite things we do all year. 

this year, one of the questions we were asked to respond to in a thread on our private bulletin board was, “what have you always wanted that you don’t have now (think big!)”.  my recipient said “a reusable advent calendar” so i determined to make that happen.

the thing is, i didn’t want to sew it, because in order to be useful this year, i had to deliver it two weeks before the deadline for the swap, and if it was sewn she’d know who it was from.  so i decided to throw her off my track.  i decided to make it using materials i scavenged from rudi’s art supplies:

 

 

this is one of his spare canvases, which i painted using the nativity silhouette collage project i found at a blog called that artist woman.  i figured if a 1st grader can do it, i probably could too. :D  instead of cutting and pasting on the silhouette, i painted it on.  the star is made from a piece of foam core board i saved from cutting out the headpiece for ella’s halloween costume, i painted it yellow then put some gold glitter over it and a piece of velcro on the back.  i put more little pieces of stick-on velcro all around the edge of the canvas, numbered them, and put a piece of velcro on the top of the manger.  the star moves from day to day thru advent and on christmas day it goes on top of the manger.

i wish i had gotten better pictures of it.  i took this one when it was drying on the bottom of rudi’s easel.  i’ve had to be patient all this time to show it off—if i had posted about it before today, my recipient would have known it was from me!

this was a very simple and rewarding project.  i might have to do something like this for my own family.  that would make FOUR advent-counting systems in our house.   LOL

 

*do you participate in some kind of secret swap?  if so, i’d love to hear about it!  our rules are that the gift can cost no more than $20 and must be made by hand.  there is a kid’s swap in our group too—i’ll show you the gift ella made when we know her recipient as gotten it!

new christmas dresses, part 2

as i mentioned, ella really wanted dora to have a matching dress so that when she went to see santa, she would look christmas-y too.

 

to make dora’s dress, i started with the pattern i use for making her jammies.  i laid it on the fabric and traced around the neck and sleeve, then i drew a skirt freehand that is a similar shape to ella’s.

 

dora’s dress is constructed exactly like ella’s, but since it is so small, i used the sewing machine and a zig-zag stitch instead of the serger.  there is a continuous bound placket in the back neckline to make it easier to get the dress on and off.  the placket closes with velcro.

the belt is some black elastic sewn in a loop, the buckle is made from a gold sparkly pipe cleaner.  she has matching pants made of the same fabric as the dress.

and it just wouldn’t do unless dora had mary janes like ella.  :)  little bits of felt, a scrap of narrow elastic—and some serious reflection on the possibility that i am too old for this—and dora had appropriate footwear.

 

easy way to make a shoe pattern:  trace around the foot to make the sole.  then use some aluminum foil to “drape” the existing shoes and draw the desired shoe shape with a marker.  cut the foil, flatten it out, trace onto paper—cut and sew.

 

as you can see, ella and dora are practically identical—they even managed to find the matching hair bows.  we had to make sure to tell santa’s helpers that despite what they saw, ella and dora are not, in fact, elves, and that after their visit with santa they were coming hom, not going to the north pole. 

 

*we always ask the photographer to take the picture when ella is whispering into santa’s ear.  after all, that is the magic of visiting santa—telling him your secret christmas wishes. 

new christmas dresses, part 1

ella wanted a new christmas dress to wear when she visited santa this year.  the one she has been wearing for the past few years has gotten too small to fit.  but she wanted it to be made of the same fabric santa’s suit is made of, with “fur” trim, and with a santa belt.  and she wanted dora to have a dress just like it.

ta-da!

 

this dress is similar to the magistrate dress from a few years ago, except with narrow sleeves.  to make the pattern, i traced around one of her pajama tops, added length and width for the skirt, and reshaped the neck. 

when you make a pattern such as this you have to be careful not to flare too much or it will have a lot of folds on the side seam.  you also much be sure to measure the same length from the waist to the hem all the way from center front to side seam—the hemline will curve—this is correct.

it is not hard to make this pattern—it just takes a lot of pictures to show the steps. 

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turn one sleeve inside out and tuck the other into it.  fold flat and neat along center front.  lay on a piece of paper with center front on a straight line.

 

square a line across the bottom or wherever you want the waistline to be.

 

measure your desired length on the center line, then move the yardstick and continue marking desired length across.  swing the yardstick when you get to the side seam to create some flare but continue to mark the same desired length measurement.

 

sketch in the hemline.  it will curve.  make sure the hemline is perpendicular at the center line.

 

trace around the sleeves.

 

trace the back neckline (it is the higher one), then open the shirt to trace around the front neckline.

 

add seam allowances.

 

mark the center fold.

 

label the necklines.

 

if desired, draw a new neckline.  i choose to make one neckline for front and back which i call the compromise neckline.

 

label the pattern for future historians.

 

fold your fabric exactly as for the magistrate dress.  for this dress, i chose to align the sleeve with the top fold so that there is no overarm/shoulder seam line.  i traced around it, then i aligned the center front/back with the center fold and continued tracing the skirt.  i removed the pattern for cutting.

assemble just like the magistrate dress.

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for the belt i cut a couple of pieces of leather and stitched them wrong sides together, slipped on a buckle from an belt that i no longer wear, and pieced in an elastic section in the back to make it easy to pull on an off.

 

 

*dora’s dress is similar but since it is for a dolly, it goes together a little differently.  i’ll show you how i made it in the next post!

GraceArt: Autism Artwork By Grace Walker Goad

my friend leisa is the author of the blog leisa a. hammett--the journey with grace:  autism, art, and all the rest.  leisa is the mother of an about-to-transition-to-adulthood daughter with autism who creates a line of mixed-media greeting cards and prints.  grace’s work has appeared in numerous exhibitions over the years, including the cover of the american journal of psychiatry november 2010 edition.

leisa has given me permission to excerpt a blog post about grace’s work, and i hope you’ll click thru to read the rest of the story because here is yet another chance to help someone in a real, meaningful, specific way!

 

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If you've been following "The Journey with Grace" you may be aware that things are seriously percolating with GraceArt--that's the originals, print and card line of my 17-year-old daughter, Grace Walker Goad-- www.GraceGoad.com. The scale got tipped this morning when I said "yes" to our seventh exhibition invitation since May--six since October, all unsolicited. (I was waiting a year to re-rev GraceArt as Grace approaches transition. The Universe seems to have another idea. Yesterday, I got "the memo.")

Quick recap: In addition to her usual annual participation at this Vanderbilt Kennedy Center-based show, GraceArt showed in autism art exhibits in Washington state and in Soho in October. This spring she will have at least three solo shows, two in April and one in May. (I've been contacted about the fourth venue--a local gallery, but it is yet unconfirmed.) The May exhibit will be at the Green Hills Library. And commemorating national Autism Awareness Month, GraceArt will show in Hillsboro Village's new hip Hot and Cold of the Bongo-Javafamily. For three weeks that month, she will also be the featured artist with autism at a museum in Georgia. More details to come as I secure them.

That last invite just came in yesterday morning. Which got me to thinkin': We gotta get busy! And that's where you come in. We broke our budget when we printed our fourth and last batch of GraceArt cards. Our printing costs went up by half--necessitating a small price increase in the cards--plus and we have lots of framing to do before April! I need to recoup those funds to prepare for these exhibits. We will print more cards, but these will be the last set that will be archival inks and papers, and depending on prices, these may or may not be the last fold-over-style cards we print. You can frame these, as you will be able to future ones, but again these are fade resistant. All proceeds from GraceArt originals and prints go into her future independent living fund. Her card line, however, covers the expenses of printing the cards and framing, etc.

Help us sell these newly printed archival-quality cards! We have 50 sets. I've not even assembled them and put them into bags yet, but I will and I'm offering them to you because we need to sell these. (Did I say that already?) So, in a set you receive 8 cards. There are four designs with two of each design. The cards and envelopes are made of archival quality paper and printed with archival inks. You can frame four of them, split them up, give them as singles, etc. You decide.Each set of artisan-made, locally produced (in Nashville) cards by a teen (mine!) living with autism is $25.

And, because I'm so nice and a little anxious to recoup costs and get additional work framed by April (repeat-repeat), if you are in Nashville, I will deliver them to you to save you shipping cost. (Ack! I can't believe I'm doing that to myself!) If you want them mailed, I will foot the postage for the first packages of three. We've had a frustrating snafu with our web design, so I regret we are still not e-commerce at GraceGoad.com. So, you'll have to place your order with me through email: lahammett(at)gmail.com and I will send you a paypal link so that you can still have the ease of paying online. Deal?

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*buy local, buy handmade buyer’s hack: even if you can’t make a purchase, you can help spread the word!  you can share the links on your favorite social networks, and you can even send a GraceArt online greeting card to someone FREE just by visiting the autism society of middle TN website. 

jenny bartoy handmade designs

jenny bartoy is a friend who used to live in nashville and now makes her home with her husband and children on the west coast.  she is the other half of the brilliant team at stumbles and stitches.  jenny has an etsy shop, which means that even though she is not technically local to middle TN, her work is still available to us, in fact to the whole world!

 

here is jenny’s description of herself, her shop, and her work:

 

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I’ve been sewing on and off since I was a little girl, thanks to a very crafty mom and grandmothers. Since having kids, I’ve become passionate about this creative medium.  I’ve toyed with the idea of selling my handmade items for some time. To cover the cost of my son’s preschool tuition this year, I decided to go into business!

For my new Etsy shop, I design fabric art and handmade goods for your home and family. I love to work with linen, burlap, felt and modern fabrics. I am inspired by nature, patchwork and clean design.

I upcycle materials whenever possible. Many of my projects reuse fabric that previously had another life, which inherently weaves a story into the project. For example, my burlap art uses coffee bags for a canvas. I’ve found great fun in reusing some gorgeous tie-dyed cloth from Ghana given to me by a neighbor.

I love to create with good quality materials that I’ve thrifted and repurposed. But this doesn’t stop me from splurging on beautiful modern fabrics that I like to pair with linen. I have great plans for the shop. My sketchbook is overflowing with ideas and inspiration: pouches, softies, table linens, fiber art and more!

I am happy to make custom projects. Anything you see in the shop, on my website or my blog can be replicated and tweaked to meet your vision. I also provide patterns and kits in my shop for some of my original designs so you can experience the joy of hand-making the project yourself.

Find out more about my designs, process and latest shop items on my website. You can also join me on Facebook and Pinterest.

I blog about all things creative and handmade at Stumbles & Stitches, a crafty conversation with my friend Angel.  You can find us on Facebook and Twitter.

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*this series has been so popular that i’ll just continue into december!  if you or someone you know would like a feature here, leave a comment so i can get in touch with you. 

rudi aldridge and one child's icon

the featured artist for today is my dear, beloved rudi, whom you all know and love, but whom you might not realize is an artist and creator in his own right.  rudi makes collage works on canvas and he is currently in the midst of a series of 100 works on the theme of water lilies.  his website, one child’s icon, is where he showcases the works in progress as well as the finished creations. 

because i love him, i can’t talk about him very well.  :)  this is how he describes his own life and work:

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I was born 1960 in Wahiawa Hawaii to James and Margaret Ann, a military man and wife. My Father was my first Teacher of Art. One of my earliest memories is the two of us side by side with a coffee table book of Leonardo DaVinci's drawings. We spent many hours painting and drawing together and both he and my mother hung every crayon covered piece of paper I brought home from school. By the time I finished High School in Boonville Indiana , Art had become a large part of my personal identity and with the awards I had won it was part of my outward identity within my home town as well.

I studied art at Western Kentucky University. I started working on paper and what I was producing did not fit well into the academic structures definitions, it was not painting, drawing or sculpture but a blend of the three. However, my work there flourished under Leo Fernandez and John Warren Oakes who gave me freedom to explore and grow.

In 1985 I took a part time job at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center unloading trucks and running follow spots for Rock and Jazz performances. It was my spotlight work that got me noticed and when the staff learned I was an Artist they started pushing me towards lighting design. A year later I designed and operated my first performance, a Nashville only concert By Stephan Grapelli and Vassar Clemmons. Since then my work has been seen by hundreds of thousands. I have designed for Nashville Opera, Tennessee Dance Theatre, Acme Moving Group, Dark Horse Theatre, and countless Music and Video events while on staff with the Tennessee Performing Arts Center and Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt. I have taught Lighting Design and Stagecraft for The Tennessee Governor's School for the Arts as well as Humanities Outreach in Tennessee. I have also managed productions For groups such as Mockingbird Public Theatre and Nashville Shakespeare Festival and took great pride in helping to provide the structure for other artists to create. I especially want to thank Mac Pirkle for the opportunity to create and participate within Tennessee Repertory Theatre. It was there I learned my own sense of narrative and the joy of connecting with an audience.

When you see my work you are tasting the feast of my communion with hundreds of artists- dancers, singers and actors. It is what we shared, what we gave to others that has created who I am as an artist.

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the good news for fans in middle TN is that one child’s icon will be having a holiday open house on saturday, 10 december, from noon-3pm,  so while you’re out shopping for something special, please swing by and see what rudi has on display!  the open house will be at echo gardens, 1210 howard avenue, in nashville.  some of the works will be available for purchase, and rudi is willing to make a special deal for anyone who wants to take one of his pieces home that day.

NOTE:  THIS EVEN HAS BEEN POSTPONED AND THE NEW DATE WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON!

 

*buy local, buy handmade buyers hack:  even if you can’t buy anything at a show, the artists ALWAYS appreciate your presence, so please don’t let your budget stop you from attending a gallery opening, studio tour, etc.  one of the ways you help artists the most is by giving them your encouragement and goodwill.  besides, you can always bring along a friend who is in a buying mood.