Practical, beautiful...but alas! not waterproof...

In times of haste, I make mistakes.
No joke.
I've locked my keys in my car three times, all under times of duress. Once: on my first day of my (unpaid) intership. Another time: trying to get across town to do a video interview in south Austin. Yet a third time: just discovered that I had to write about an escaped Utah convict who vanished from the prisons decades ago and was now living a secret double life in my town.
So this project suffered the consequences of my hastiness - I was pitching a tent in the Mount Hood wilderness during a camping trip. We were fast losing daylight, the rain was coming down, and I had this adorable, embroidered little pocket snuggling around my cell phone in my pocket.
Next morning: I wake up in a panic, chimes from a pre-programmed alarm ring, I frantically look inside for the phone...and it's outside on the ground. Drenched.

The pocket dried out, but let's just say I need to invest in cell phone insurance. Immediately.
(crafting notes: the yellow embroidered fabric came from a $3 oversized shirt from the Target clearance rack. Big yoke-style neck hole, ugly sleeves...I cut it up to make a bag [what else] originally, and made the cell phone cover out of a scrap of that. Inside I lined it with pink felt, and then attached an embroidered ribbon, scavenged, of course.)

Hoodie goodness...

I spent the summer of 2005 in Duluth, Minn. It was three months pocked with Lake Superior boardwalks, swimming in one of a 1,000 lakes, deep green forests and cheese curds.

At the end of the summer, I came back with a T-shirt with the slogan: "Oh, to see what Bernie has seen," crafted by a talented and creative fellow intern.

I wanted to wear the shirt more often, and reconstructed it into my first hoodie project.

Here 'tis:

(it's hard to take photos of clothes when you lack a live model...or roomates)

Vintage parents...

These are two passport snapshots of my parents in their 20s. They were leaving Taiwan to study in New Jersey, and I've always wondered about their journey. The background is a fabric remnant (broke the embargo!) of a bunch of free scraps that I picked up at a garage sale. At least I didn't spend any money. But now I have even more of a pile of upholstery and wallpaper scraps.

Faux strapless shirt...

This was a beautiful print dress, but the top was way too tight, and I saw the dress passed up on the dressing room rack.
I cut off the sleeves and the high neck, and then added a couple of darts in the front and hand-sewed an eyelet hook in the back.
For awhile, the shirt stayed in my closet because it was too hard to pull off as a strapless, especially since I was worried it would end up around my waist.
But hooray for sales at Ann Taylor Loft: the canary yellow cardigan was a perfect match to the shirt's print, and it helps cover all imperfections.
So here's the combo!

Minnie mouse skirt

This used to be a thrift-store dress with a massive white collar and buttons, but I chopped off the skirt and trimmed the top with a yellow ribbon.
Too much like Minnie Mouse? Or like a 1950s schoolteacher skirt?

A gift for a fellow crafter!

I'm pleased with this one — the fabric was purchased during Memorial Day weekend when I went to Cool Cottons with my sister.

I remember the store co-owner asking us, "What are you going to make?" as she unrolled the bolt. And this print — birds and flowers in dove gray and blue — was so pretty we said we just wanted it to look at.
For some reason, I'm in this bird phase: I'm drawn to bird motifs and sketches everywhere. I told my friend, the recipient of this tote, that maybe it's because my natural nesting habits are kicking in....eep!

Scattered kind of day..

It's been one of those Saturdays where I only have energy in short bursts. Like reading a book one chapter at a time, or eating snacks randomly throughout the day.

I promised myself that I would only do projects that use my scrap fabric, because I have way too much. I did go to Hancock Fabrics, and bought some zippers, a cardboard cutting board (on sale) and some $.99 remnants..those don't count.

So I came up with this little bag, probably one of many in the future. I've got to find a quicker way to dispense the growing pile of fat quarters, leftover bag scraps and secondhand clothing that's building up in a corner in my room. A fabric embargo for now...but let's see how long that lasts.