Thread

I am overrun. Thread is everywhere. The little plastic organizers that my mom bought for me when I first started sewing just don't cut it anymore.

After some thorough web browsing, here's what I did.

I searched the basement for a spare picture frame, dug through my dad's scrap wood pile, and grabbed some golf tees and spray paint from the store. 

I cut a piece of scrap wood to fit inside the picture frame that I found. Then I drew a lot of straight vertical and horizontal lines. I spaced them about 2 inches apart. I recommend using a lever for this part unless you want to display uneven, slanting lines of thread on your wall. 

I warmed up my hot glue gun next. Since I seem incapable of any kind of finesse or cleanliness when using the silly thing, I opted to take this particular step outside (positive note: I only burnt my fingers twice). I then glued the golf tees, upside down, where the lines intersect. 

At this point, my brother and his friend wanted to know what I was making. When I told them, they thought I said "bread poker." Why you would need to poke bread, I haven't the foggiest. 

Time for paint! I did a few thin layers of red spray paint. The golf tees make it a challenge to get all of the angles a uniform color, but it is not impossible. I only got a little bit of paint on my hand in the end. 

There's the finished project. It doesn't hold all of my thread, but it definitely cuts down on the clutter. I think it looks pretty cool too.

A Short Post About a Short Dress

I saw this dress on Pinterest and fell in love with it. Linen is great for hot Indiana summers, and the flowy cut makes it look so comfortable and relaxed.

I made a trip to the fabric store, but wasn't able to find what I wanted (Okay, I'll be honest. I couldn't find the price I wanted). Luckily, Goodwill is in the same parking lot, as is a Salvation Army Family Store. Very dangerous area. Here's the dress I found:

It's several sizes larger than I wear which makes it perfect for altering. I also love the color and floral pattern. All I did was gather the neckline, add some pleats to the waistband in the front and the back, and gathered the dress a little bit before sewing on the black band on the bottom.

So there it is. A short post about a short dress.

Book Clutch

Have you seen these? Clutches made out of books. Awesome.

Here's how I made mine.

Step one: Find book

I couldn't stand the idea of chopping up a good book, but found a couple of Reader's Digest books that had great covers and terrible content (abridged versions of stories that were mediocre at best when they were released).

Step Two: Destroy Book

I had to break out the X-ACTO knife. It was easy enough to cut the endpaper right between the cover and the text. I'm sure I'll use the paper for something else later.

Step Three: Make Insert

I wanted lots of slots for cards (there's a membership card for everything), some space for cash, and slots for my dumb phone and IPod (put them together --> ta-da! Smartphone). I found a lacy zipper to keep it closed. Lots of math and one late night later, I had the insert finished.

Step Four: Put it all Together

I did a little research about what kind of glue would work best. I briefly considered hot glue, but didn't like the idea of lumpy, stringy glue all over my book. Don't even get me started about the burnt fingers. 

Clearly, I am not a hot glue master, so I decided to try using Mod Podge. I slathered it all over the endpaper on the cover and then (after quickly snapping a picture), put the insert on top. I did the same for the other side. To hold it together while drying, I borrowed some shims and clamps from my dad. The Mod Podge has held up pretty well so far, very sturdy stuff. 

Step Five: Flaunt

All done!

Tulle Attacks

It's been a busy couple of weeks around my house. My youngest brother got married.

It was a pretty big deal. 

My other brother was the best man, my mother took care of the flowers, my father did his best to keep the groomsmen in line, and I was a bridesmaid. Oh, and I made the flower girl dresses. All six of them. 

Yes, I am partially responsible for the small army of fluffy white dresses that bounced down the aisle, warming up the crowd for the grand entrance of the beautiful bride. 

There wasn't a pattern that matched the vision that the bride had for her herd of attendants, so I improvised. 

I started with this pattern from McCall's. Simple, fully lined, tank dress. All I needed to do was add a tulle skirt to match the bride's. Cutting out all of the satin and lining was a piece of cake. 

I quickly realized that I needed a way to keep track of which pieces belonged to which little girl. Paper grocery sacks did the trick.

I serged all of the pattern pieces individually before sewing them together. To get lovely finished arms and necklines without hand-stitching (who has time for that?!), I used this technique. It took a few tries to get it just right, but it was totally worth it. Since the dresses were so small (definitely not what I am used to), it took quite a bit of clipping around the seams in order for them to lay nicely.

Once the bodices were finished, I started working on the skirts. The pattern had a front piece and two back pieces. I cut them out separately for the skirt lining, sewed the front and backs together, and gathered it along the top to match up with the bottom seam of the bodice. I cut one layer of petticoat netting by lining up the pattern pieces into one continuous piece. I gathered it, then stitched the already gathered skirt lining.

I figured I needed at least three layers of tulle to achieve sufficient fluffiness, so I lined up the pattern pieces, marked one layer, moved the pattern pieces, marked the second layer, moved the pieces a third time, and cut. I gathered that giant, unwieldy piece to three times the length of the bodice, then sewed it to in one, continuous circle to the lining/netting. It looked like this:

I looked like I needed a Xanax by the time I was through with all six skirts.

I slit the tulle in the back so the girls could be zipped in and out of it, attached the giant, fluffy thing to the bodice, put in an overlapping zipper, sewed the back pieces of the skirt lining together, and stitched down the bodice lining.

I covered some buttons with scrap satin from the bodice and put them on the flap of fabric that covers the zipper to match the bride's dress. I made the hem on the lining much wider than normal, so no one would trip. The sash is a piece of chiffon that I cut into six pieces that matched the color of the bridesmaid dresses perfectly.

For the final touch, I embroidered the girls' names inside the dresses with blue thread.

That's it. A month's worth of work for one big, beautiful day.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the day so far. Beautiful work by CarisDesign 

The Clock

I work at a daycare, and by the front desk, there is a wall decorated with several painted canvases. In the middle, there is a clock. The problem is that the clock is heavy and likes to fall unexpectedly.

Poor clock. Its numbers are askew from hitting the floor too many times. Time for a change.

First, I took the clock apart. The structure was easy enough to remove, but I had to consult with a higher authority (Google) to take apart the mechanism and found this helpful guide. Using a box knife, I slit a little X in the middle of one of the painted canvases, inserted the clock mechanism through the hole, then put the hour, minute, and second hands back where they belonged.

For the numbers, I used my Cricut and some scrap vinyl. Getting them evenly spaced around the clock face was a little rough, so the time displayed isn't exactly correct all the time, but it's close enough for our purposes.

 

Ta-da! No more falling clock.

Messy Mugs

I like coffee. It's my favorite. It keeps me awake and alert. It's good for reading and time with friends and rainy days and sunny mornings and Saturday morning cartoons and road trips....

SusanNewberryDesigns

Ahem. I digress.

When people know that you like coffee, you tend to be given coffee related items. It's been years since there has been a birthday or Christmas without at least one mug hidden under the wrapping paper. Which leads to this:

Mountains of mugs. It was becoming dangerous to open the cabinet door.

After consulting with the fellow decision-makers of the home (mom and dad), we settled on a peg board with hooks. No ordinary pegboard would do, of course. We had some left over medium blue paint in the basement that dad used for the base coat. I went to Lowe's and bought light blue and bright green paint samples.

I wanted a floral design, so I created a stencil using a plastic 2 pocket folder (I got mine at Staples) and an X-Acto knife. I also made one to use for the vine.

Next, I grabbed a tasty beverage, turned on some dancing music, and started painting. I used a foam brush for this project. The vine was fairly simple, just rotating one stencil back and forth. For the flowers, I had to flip the stencil from one side to the other which meant that I had to clean it a lot more often and got paint all over my hands (not unusual).

Connecting the flowers to the vine was a little more difficult. I tested the foam brush that I had been using, but it was no good. Really messy and hard to control. I had another brush hanging around the house, but wasn't happy with those results either. I finally dug an extra cosmetic sponge out of my makeup bag and was able to have a little more control over where the paint was going.

Everything dried without being smudged or walked on by the cats. Success.

 Welcome Aboard!

The Dress: From Tacky to Fabulous

Occasionally, I am lucky enough to find or be given a piece of clothing that is undeniably from a very specific era, that it can only be worn by the most adventurous fashionistas who don't mind walking the thin line between tacky and retro.

This dress was one of those pieces.

Take a moment to soak it all in.

Giant mutton sleeves. Bustle and bow on the backside. Cathedral train. Loads of gathering at the hips. Basque waist. Enough beading to sink a boat.

All things that might be wearable on their own if you wanted to stand out a bit. All together, however, and you're asking for mockery.

It seems a shame to let such a unique dress go to waste. So I got to work.

First thing to go was the sleeves.

Seriously. So much stiff tulle in there, you could use it as a pillow if you didn't mind waking up with the lace and bead pattern embedded into your face.

I saved all of the small pieces of lace and the beads to use for other projects (waste not).

After the sleeves were off, you were able to appreciate the beautiful work on the bodice without being overwhelmed. It had a lovely shape all on its own, but needed straps to hold it up. It's just too heavy otherwise. I chose to go with thin ones using some of the fabric from the train.

Next, I tackled the bustle and the bow. I'm all for retro and reinventing old styles, but is this a trend that we want to revive? No. I think not.

Oh, my, god. Becky, look at her butt. It is so big. She looks like, one of those rap guys' girlfriends.

The front of the dress was a conundrum. I put it on my dress form and stared at it for a few weeks before I had an idea, and it was another couple of weeks of staring before I worked up the courage to take my scissors to it.

Again, nothing intrinsically wrong with it, but my goal is to simplify. I finally decided that I would remove it, creating a high-low hemline. Perfect to show off some really adorable wedding shoes. By removing the middle of the front, I also removed a lot of the overall weight of the dress which allowed it to fluff outward a little more evenly (unexpected bonus!).

The train was the most time consuming item on the list.

Again, very beautiful, but it just doesn't work with everything else. I trimmed it down to a sweeping train and hand stitched the lace back onto the hem. It took forever, but it was worth it.

I think that I'll use the lace and tulle that I removed for a veil.

Here's a few pictures of the finished project. The plan is to sell it on Etsy. I think this would be the perfect dress for a bride with an adorable pair of shoes and a weakness for beading.

 

Rocks and Wire

I'm going to talk a little more about my recent trip out west.

I had a long list of people that I wanted to give a gift from Arizona, but couldn't afford to drop more money on the trip (if I'm honest, the byline for this blog should probably be "I'm broke, and I like to make stuff.")

My solution: Rocks

Yes. Rocks. Every souvenir shop has them. I saw them all over. Not overly special. I got a small bagful for less than $7 when we visited the Grand Canyon.

What makes them special is a little bit of jewelry wire, a pair of pliers, some ribbon, and a chunk of time.

I used 18 gauge wire to wrap the stones. I also picked up the metal clasps to attach to the bit of ribbon that I used to make the necklace.

I like the way they turned out, and everyone seemed to like their personalized gift. What more could you ask for?

Camera Bag

I love my camera. I really do. It's an Olympus Pen. The problem is, I have never been able to find a case to keep it safe on my adventures.

So here's what I did.

I tore apart an old camera bag and used the padding to make a section inside.

The trim is some kind of faux leather that I hand-stitched all the way around. The trim is the reason this project sat in the dreaded basket of unfinished things.






The straps (although I would have preferred a more sturdy material) are convertible and adjustable. If I pull them from the side, I can wear it as a backpack, but if I pull the strap from the top, I can use it as a messenger bag.




I used it on a recent trip to Arizona and it was great. As a backpack it was perfect for some hiking, and as a messenger it was great to take out around town.