The Craft Room: The Whole Story

Hello, friends. Can I call you friends? Cronies? Pals? You know I love you, right?

Like, really, really love you?

I’m ready to prove it now. Are you ready?

*deep breath*

I am ready to show you…the entire craft room. In all its glory.

 

Just keepin’ it real, folks. I have BAGS of foam, waiting to be turned into cute little poufs and chairs and whatever else I can think of to fill. I have scads of fabric waiting to be made into quilts, and armfuls of old clothes waiting to be made into new clothes for smaller people. I have wrapping paper, and detritus from a childhood of pack-ratting…and this is where all the magic happens. But can’t you just see the potential in there? Once the boxes are dealt with? And the fabric is folded? And the kids can be convinced to stop rifling through my gear, looking for their crayons?

I have to admit, I’m a little leery of this room. I’m afraid that by the time I get it Just Right…there will be a new little LoLo, and he’ll swoop in and take over my craft room. Isn’t that silly?? It’s ok…maybe the little LoLo will prefer Daddy’s Den!

(PS – No, I’m not pregnant. No, I’m not trying to be pregnant right now. That is all. Carry on.)

Thing 28: A Little Red Dress

It’s been a little quiet around here this summer, yeah? Just a smidge? I hope y’all have been having loads of fun in the sun…or whatever you like to do in the summer.

My family just returned home from a fantabulous little reunion in north-central Washington, on Lake Chelan. We meet there every summer, rent houses, play on jet skis, go tubing, play tennis after the kids go to bed, and generally enjoy ourselves. (I think the Moms of Young Kids might enjoy themselves the most…there are so many extra adults around, it’s really easy to slip out with our husbands while the kids nap in the afternoons, or after they go to bed. Hooray!)

This year, there were four grandkids in attendance – my two, plus my twin sister’s two. Three of those four are girls. And so….three of those four were in matching dresses.

This was for Ernie, the biggest girl. I had a size 5, a size 4 and a size 3. Quick and easy, and the girls looked pretty sweet in their matching frocks!  They were really quick – I made up three of them in one evening. Just a sliced-off white top, with a red skirt attached. I cut the skirt fabric as long as I wanted the skirt to be, and two and a half times as wide as the shirt. I sewed that into a tube, used the selvedge edge as the hem, and gathered it up to match the top shirt. Easy peasy!)

(I also made two more of these, so the other girls would have dresses to match my daughter’s, for church. So much fun! But it was a busy day there, making five dresses. *grin*)

(The tops were all pulled from the Outgrown Pile, and the red fabric was a Freecycle find last year. I think it’s vintage – there was an old-fashioned tag stapled to it, with an address from Canal Street, NYC.)

The Polo Dress, Part II

 

Do you remember this dress? I first posted about it here.

Here are the front shots, and Ming Wai’s…er….Fancy Hands.

The dress is cute….but even cuter on my niece, who is two. The buttons don’t pop open when she wears it. Heh. Oh well. Live and learn…and next time, decide what kind of seams I’m doing BEFORE cutting out the dress! At least it’s sturdy…with all those nice (seam allowance eating) french seams!

A peek at the new LoLo Craft Room

After a bit of begging on our local Freecycle, a woman came through for me – a table for my craft room! Until I received this lovely Formica (sturdy!) beast, I could not sew a stitch! And now? I sew with reckless abandon.

(Just please don’t ask to see the rest of the room. It’s absolutely dreadful and barely walkable.)

 

Want proof? Here’s another neat find from Freecycle – seven bags of foam stuffing! (This is what I used for that little pouf the other day.) That takes up half the room right there!