Indie Craft Experience 08

I had a super cool crafter day. We went to the Lucky # 7 Indie Craft Experience at Centienial Park in good ole HOT Atlanta GA! Last night we had a huge thunder shower and I was afraid the weather would be gross for the show, but it was beautiful, a super wilty 105 ish and I felt bad for the vendors at the show but man what a great event.

The first booth was the welcome station were we picked up a muslin totes with excellent swag. Our next stop was at the Craft: booth. I ordered a subscription and received a copy of the magazine. We stopped at the Janome booth and received a free Kwik Sew Pattern 3133. Perfect hat and tote pattern and then entered a raffle for a free sewing machine. I purchase 3 screen printed tee shirts from three different booth and a ceramic spoon rest to replace our recently broken one.

The green "shiver me timbers" came from Firefly Designs
The red pig tailed skull came from Bunnyorama
The pink tee with the monkey came from Sheriff Peanut

Desi got the cute robot from Fatty Cakes I will get her to post where all of her other stuff came from.

FYI for artist:
I had a difficult time listing all of you great crafters because some of you guys did not actually tag your products so I can stop by and shop online. Luckily the organizer created such a great info pack that those of us with time and a good memory will be able to figure out where we made our purchases.

Other FAV booth were Sublime Stitching, when am I going to have time to do that!! and Katy Dement , the paper lady.

Event Critique
First, it was easy to find, look for the tents, I did not see a lot of signage but the tents were a dead give away and then I saw the signs, parking was not bad although a bit pricey at $10.00 bucks. We were there right at 11:00 so we were able to find a parking space that was shaded -- super PLUS. We did not hit any traffic but we came down Lucky Street.

I stumbled upon this event by luck through my Atlanta Printmaking Yahoo group and I am happy I did but I never heard a single radio ad for it. That said, it appeared to be fairly well attended.

Their web site is well done and so is their event brochure. The brochure is informative with a map and a list of vendors and their web info. I know I will spend some time visiting all of their vendors online in the cool comfort of my home. There was a wide variety of different crafts, a great bit of recycled items that sparked my interest, although I did not want to lug around a air plane made of aluminum cans from Waldenour (their shop is local so I will visit them soon).

I will certainly join the ICE Atlanta mailing list and spread the news. I also hope to join the Atlanta Craft Mafia. I hope they are sponsoring some thing closer to the holiday when I can go a bit more wild in my shopping.

Thumbs WAY up to all the crafters and I can't wait to visit you online.

Favorite Things Lunch Bag

I had a lot of fun putting together this cute lunch tote. I used the new Posh line from Moda and the pattern is by Favorite Things. The instruction are clear and easy to follow. I think on the next one I will extend the flap. I added yo yos on this one to fancy up the front. I think I may add a inside pocket too.

In my opinion, this bag is also the perfect size baby bag, a couple of diapers, wipes, a bib, a dangle toy and you would be set.

All in all it is a good size lunch bag or an on the go baby bag.
Here is their photo, is is a bit spiffier than mine.

Upcycling & The "Critter"

Wow, Talk about March Madness. I am barly recovered from the Original Sewing Expo and the Georgia Quilt Council's Spring Conference but I had to start playing with my newest toy for recycling.

My company creates trash, we recycle the cardboard and the office paper but what am I supposed to do with the fabric scraps? I save them, they can't be trash! Last fall I started looking for a solution for reusing the scraps of fabric from my sewing projects and from the first rip on each new bolt of fabric we get in. By luck and providence I went to a paper making workshop at the High Museum of Art, I asked the teacher, Katy Dement, if I could use fabric scraps for paper, of course! ONLY I need a very expensive piece of equipment called a Hollander Beater. Thwarted by the expense I started a search for a less expensive version, I found a great Yahoo Group and an awesome artist, Mark Landers, he makes a machine called the "Critter" and he will ship this handmade work of art, which is also a Hollander Beater, all the way from New Zealand. My "critter" arrived in December, just in time for me to ignore it until NOW!

Last week the weather was warm enough to play in large quantities of water and scraps of paper and fabric. Here are some shots form my first go around. I am completely the novice paper maker who tries to ski the Alps on her first go out. I dumped the carefully weight 2 pound of multi colored fabric scraps into the machine filled it with water and waited for the magic.

What I got was 8 - 10 hours of watching my poor machine struggle, clogging up and stalling, while making a lovely bunch of goop. The goop did make some pretty gray paper but I was frustrated. My great Yahoo Group helped me through, with out telling me I started a bit big.

I emptied the machine and filled it with a lot less stuff, about 3/4 paper and then a bit of fabric scraps. I picked one color for all the scraps, Red- Pink. This time the machine munched happily away at the scraps and created a beautiful pink pulp in about 3 hours.



I am truly in love, no more clogging or stalling. Apparently overfilling the "Critter" is a bit like over filling the washing machine, nothing really gets done and you end up starting all over again. I set up a station to pull the paper and started making my second batch of hand made paper. I did a second tub of mostly white office paper, bye bye packing slips and used envelopes. Look how pretty you are when I recycle you.

You might ask, "What does she intend to do with all this recycled paper?" I think some of you will start to see upcycled thank you notes in your orders and I may start making some blank cards. Right now, I am working on making nice paper, getting a semi studio set up outside Making paper is a messy bit of work. Stay tuned for updates!

Bamboo, Baby!

Oh, I love that Panda Cord. Feels like butter; sews like a dream; washes and dries beautifully. It's light-weight, perfect for spring clothes. And it doesn't shed the way cotton cord does. What's not to love?!

Plus I love this little Ottobre pattern (1-2008-2), "Susette" sash pants. DH thinks my result is weird, but since when is he the baby-fashion-police? We'll see what my DD thinks and what DGD thinks.

These pants were pretty easy to put together. The directions were helpful, but of course, Ottobre never gets carried away with directions, especially for something straightforward like this. I made the lower part of the pants first, using 1/2" elastic in the pant hems. I made belt loops out of 1.5" strips of fabric. I just folded them length-wise toward the center, then folded again to hide the raw edges. Then I top-stitched it - blended right in with the cord. I made the yoke and attached to the slightly gathered lower part of the pants, sandwiching one end of each belt loop into the seam. I top-stitched to upper end of each loop to the yoke. Lastly I inserted the waistband elastic in a channel, rather than directly on the fabric, as suggested by Ottobre.

That's the only thing I'm too wild about. I used the elastic I had on hand. It was left over from a bra project and I'm thinking it was meant to be the shoulder strap. As a waist band, it's no good - rolls and folds - yuck. So I need to run to the big box fabric shop and buy something better for baby pants.


The sash is made from two cotton fabrics - aqua heart fabric and striped cotton. I think this will be the perfect birthday outfit for DGD since her birthday is St. Patrick's day. Now she needs that little "Maya" blouse to go with the pants. I plan to use one of the two fabrics on the sash.

Actually this is one of the best issues of Ottobre yet for girly stuff. I'm looking forward to making several things from this issue for my 2 DGD's. DH has refined his critique since I started this blog - says he's just not too fond of that pattern. I still love it.

UpCycling - Better than Recycling

At one of my Yahoo groups there has been a great discussion about UpCycling or using trash to make something even better. There are a lot of great artists who incorporate this idea into their art, Pablo Picasso pops into my head as one.

This past weekend we were gathering up our recycling to make a trip to the center and my DH mentioned he (me) would need to get his office gifts into order, in the past he has given tins full of candy. Earlier this year, like 2 months ago, I offered to use my SUPER COOL newest toy, a Grand Mark AccuCut, to make the boxes for him. As we were breaking down stuff to put in the truck he said, "Can't we use some of this cardboard you get fabric in for the boxes." I responded that the AccuCut would crush it, but I had an idea that the cereal boxes and the cola boxes would work. AND they did!! so here is some UpCycling for the holiday.

Merry Christmas world. Hopefully folks will keep these around after the holiday as a novelty piece but since DH works at a very environmentally conscious place I know if they end up trash again they will be recycled.

Cleaner, Greener, New Year!

In the spirit of handmade gifts, I have been giving my friends homemade cleaning products! What does cleaning have to do with sewing? Well I do believe most sewists (clean, can't call them sewers!) have some common traits. We all love fabric. We all love good food. We all love making things, whether it be dinner, clothes, quilts, cleaning products, etc. We all love being at home mostly because that is where our hearts are and our sewing machines.



A sewing sister showed me this book Clean House Clean Planet and now I am obsessed with making the perfect smelling, perfectly green, absolutely cheap, cleaning product. I do love being at home with my 2 girls and I want my home to be a haven and a safe respite from the crazy outside world. These products are made with common household ingredients, mainly baking soda, vinegar, and casteel soap. They are non-toxic and won't bleach the clothing I work so hard to finish. They are scented with essential oils. My latest is a mandarin and clove scented all purpose spray. It makes my kitchen smell delicious! Best of all, they really do work. The soft scrub type product is fabulous and I don't have to worry about traces of it left in the tub harming my kids.

So why not give the gift of a clean, green house this Christmas? You can add a little apron to your bottle and if really motivated, machine embroider the ingredients on it! Have a clean, green, and perfectly non-toxic Christmas!

Save the World Shopping Totes

Wow this month is CRAZY. I finally finished up the directions for the first official Some Art Fabric pattern, inspired by my DH. Every time I make a bag he wants to know if it is sturdy enough to be a shopping tote. Finally, I can say yes. These bags are big, hold a bunch of groceries and get comments from every one I meet. I have a great time looking for food fabric.

If you get a chance to make one please send pictures. We are thinking about having a contest, another first.

Pattern available at the shop.