For reals. I found some fabric and trim in a box in the basement awhile ago that belonged to Mike's grandma. There was some crazy fabric that will probably end up in the dress up bin (you know, someday, when Mim wants a dress up bin), some crocheted lace, some ribbon, and some really cool, vintage-y florals. Also this:
{Published in 1976}
I've been meaning to make some headbands (or rather, embellish some I had), so I decided to use that fabric (which is perfect, since I like things with meaning so much). And so:
{I did my hair so I could take some self-modeled pictures, so I had to post this picture, despite the Creepy McCreeperson face I'm pulling}
A note about the headbands themselves: I spray painted them. They were originally black, tortoiseshell, and clear.
{The texture on the headband is because I sprayed the paint on really thick so it would do that crackled, rumply thing it does that I usually do on accident. Then I did a light coat over that after it dried.}
Number 2:
{Simple foldy flower, then glued a pearl on. About the pearl- I always salvage all my old jewelery that's broken. I can't remember what happened to the necklace this used to be a part of, but now I have a bunch of big fake pearls to use on stuff.)
Number 3:
No picture of it on my head (big sigh of relief from everyone) because I didn't do it until tonight and the lighting would not be normal. The little metal bit comes up right behind my ear and used to be a part of the necklace I wore to my senior prom. The ribbon was one of the grandma finds. You can see in the background where the paint got a little drippy on the underside. I'm excited that now I have headbands. The other ones I've made are all fabric and reversible, which is nice, but I love that I can pull these on and off and they stay in place- even though the yellow one, which is thickest, gives me a headache after too long because it squishes my big head. Worth it.
Mike and I (really just Mike) removed the closet door when we moved into our house because he was refinishing the bedroom floor. It's been two years, and we haven't put it back on. For the first year, it was mostly just laziness, but this last year it's been a conscious decision. Here's why:
{Funny story- You know that laundry basket you can see in the reflection? It had been next to the closet, I thought I had moved it out of the picture. Ha!}
The door with the mirror on it goes out into the hall. You couldn't have the closet open and the door open. The doors kept banging into each other, it just bugged me, more reasons...etc... I didn't like it. The inspiration for the new closet door struck awhile ago. It was this post on Ruffles and Stuff. (By the way, I sure will miss Disney's posts. What a talented crafter/sewer/blogger/photographer.) I saw that shower curtain and realized that the same thing would work for my (teensy tiny) closet. And so...
I used an old king sheet. Cut it up, used as many of the existing hems as I could, and hung it up on a 2$ tension rod from WalMart. I'll probably add some trim across the top ruffle, like Disney did, to hide the unfinished edge there, but first I have to figure out what trim. I like it. And my husband's one concern, closet accessibility, has been resolved:
It squishes down most satisfactorily. More pictures! I took it outside today for an official photo shoot- I'm not going to lie, I wanted to copy Disney's pictures of her shower curtain. Mine are not as good.
{Don't you think the bottom looks like the train on a wedding dress? Don't you think I'm crazy for waxing poetic about an ex-sheet?}
I love these shirts from Garnet Hill. I also love almost everything else in the catalog. Seriously. I keep a hard copy inspiration binder and I ripped out probably half of the pages in the latest GH catalog, and that was me trying to tone it down. Anyway. These shirts are great. They're also 44$. Forty-four dollars.
So, I went to Walmart and got two 2$ tees. One in my size, and one XL to cut up (because I figured, hey, for the same price, why not get more fabric?). I cut out a bunch of flower shapes first:
I cut the shirt into strips, folded the strip in half, cut that into segments, then cut these little shapes out. I wanted them kind of elongated in one direction, since I'd be gathering them in that same direction. Soon I had quite the little pile:
Some of them turned out pretty crazy, but that's ok. You can't tell once they're on the shirt.
Next, I did a gathering stitch down the middle, going long-ways. I did some singles, but mostly doubles, like the one pictured above. Then I gathered by pulling on my bobbin threads. After it was gathered, I pulled the top threads to lock that sucker down. After I had gathered all of them, it was time to place them on the shirt. I put on the shirt and pinned the leaves in place, as guidelines. Also, to make sure I didn't have any leaves pointing anywhere awkward (you know what I mean). I chose to hand sew most of my flowers on. I started with my machine, but once I got to where they were really close together, I switched, because I'm sure my machine (which is a monster and only goes moderately fast and super fast- it stalls if I try to sew slowly) would have gone crazy and gotten away from me and sewed everything down flat, when I wanted the same loose, almost ruffly look of the Garnet Hill shirt. So. I sewed by hand. Then I put it on, realized that my buxomness caused it to look more sparse than it did lying flat, so I took it off, cut, gathered, and applied more fabric flowers. And then...
(It is unexpectedly hard to take a decent picture of yourself in the mirror. Or I am uncommonly bad at it.) I love it. It's not the same fabulous green as the one from Garnet Hill, but for an eleventh of the price, I'm cool with that.
The other day I took all my little accessories down in the living room and redistributed them. I set up my mantle, but it needed something else. Then I remembered this little thing in the basement:
It's from when I was first learning to use my jigsaw (this picture was taken after I fixed it up a little bit). It was the smaller rough draft of this monogram. Then I thought of this wreath, so I decided to wrap this guy in twine.
It took about 15 minutes, plus burning all of my fingers a million times (is there such a thing as a glue gun that doesn't just keep getting hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter...?) It was just what my mantle needed, though.
I also did another little twine type project after I did this. You know those wine jugs that PB had awhile ago? The ones covered in hand-knotted jute? (I couldn't find a picture online, but I did find them in my catalog) Well, I have some old cider or vinegar jugs that I found in the basement, and the bag around these (from IKEA):
Some slight modifications to the bag, and ta-da! See it in the background? Those are my sands in front. Geologically cool sands. Ooids, garnet sand, and a bunch of little shells.
