Karla's Cottage

More sewing?? Yep, another shirt!

Some long time friends, and Birdsong Peeps, suggested that we do a "boho" clothing workshop.

I am NOT a sewer, but was ready to tackle the shirt project that Lorrie Scott had featured in the Gilded Journey

But, it turns out, I didn't have to. Sweet Nora loves to sew, and happily did about 90% of the job for me.  What a nice surprise!!

I had cut up two of my husband's old shirts and was going to sew them together as the directions layed out, but Nora went a step further and custom fitted the pieces to me so that the duster was exactly my size.

I made some pockets and had vintage lace ready to add.

But she did all of the hard parts.

Tami had brought some sewing to do too, she was adding doilies to a runner.

A lot of the day was spent in me looking for the pile of mother of pearl buttons that I had set aside to add to the shirt. I swear, sometimes my studio is a black hole. I set something down and -poof!- gone.

Finally, I gave up and dug out more buttons to use instead.  I added them to the duster and felt like I had made a major accomplishment, since I am not a thread and needle person. Thanks to Nora, I only did the minor jobs on the piece, she whipped it up and made it wonderful!

What a nice day.

If you'd like to turn two, old shirts into one amazing duster, you can find the instructions in this beautiful book. Oh, and by the way? I have a chapter in the book too.  My story is about crafting a travel journal. The book is just lovely, and I hope to make many more of the projects inside.

Painting with thread

Happy 4th of July weekend!  I thought I’d post a little bit of red, white, and blue for the holiday.

I seriously dislike sewing, but have been attracted to anything embroidered lately and wanted to try some myself.

So, I called it "painting with thread", to ease the pain I feel when I mess around with a needle and thread.

I had a favorite shirt, washed so much it was soft and faded, comfy and cozy.  It is perfect to throw over a tee shirt with jeans. But I had worn it so much, it was stained in multiple places, like it had been splashed with coffee at some point.

The speckles of stain dictated where I drew the design.  

Apparently, I'd splashed myself pretty good, because there were dribbles all down the front.

The vines were drawn with a kid's washable marker.  I didn't worry about covering it completely, knowing it would disappear when I washed it.  The drawing was just a guideline.

My main worry is that the thread will go away when I wash the shirt too.

The back looks pretty awful, and while there are many, many knots, I doubt if any of them are secure in the right places.

One thing I figured out about embroidery, is that it doesn't go quickly.  I worked on this piece here and there for over a month, it isn't like zipping through something by gluing it down and moving on.

When the stains were covered, I added mother of pearl buttons and I thought I was done.

But then, I decided that I'd like to try to do a rose.

Well, none of it is perfect, and it all seems bumpy to me, but I still like it and will wear this until the threads probably come out when I wash it...

I  hate to admit this but I kind of enjoyed the work.  Maybe I will have another to keep by my TV watching chair to piddle around with during evenings while watching shows.

Sewing (yep, I was SEWING!!) a duster from two shirts

If I can do this, anyone can.  I am not a patient, or even very good seamstress. But sometimes I need something and that do-it-yourselfer attitude kicks in, or I simply see a piece and feel like I have to give it a try. Like this duster.  The design is one of the many, pretty projects featured in the Gilded Journey book that I was honored to have my travel journal tutorial in too.  

Here is the photo from the book of Lorri Scott's duster.  Hers was so inspiring, that I was compelled to see if I could replicate it, and her instructions were very easy, even for a novice sewer like me.

   Beth wanted to make one too, and offered up a stack of white dress shirts that her husband no longer needed due to a job change.

The shirts in the photo look like they are linen, and we were going with a cotton/poly blend, so I knew ours would be a bit different.  But we figured that anything you added a ton of lace to would have to look good, right?

Once mine was all put together and I had plenty of lace sewn over my hideous seams ( I really am a poor seamstress), I decided to dye it. The poly blend fabric wasn't going to grab the color very well, but I'd hoped that it would take well enough to take the edge off of the harsh white and tone the shirt down to go better with the vintage lace. And I think it did just that.  

This photo is from before I dyed the piece, and I don't think you can really tell the difference in the pictures, but in person, it is just enough of a change.  The lace itself took the dye better than the shirt did, yet, some more than others. I'd expected that, different fabrics soak up dye in various ways.  I could've waited to sew the trims on after I dyed the shirt, but I like that mismatched dyed look. 

Here is an in progress shot, you can see the glaring white a little better in it. And tell that the laces were a bit more creamy to start with.

The trim was all vintage to start with, but the dye ages them even more.

All of the buttons were replaced with an assortment of mother of pearl ones.

Ahhh, you can't go wrong with vintage lace, can you?    Although, I wish I'd fitted the shirt to myself a little better. Basically, it is a one size fits all type piece, but I'm a little short, and this was stitched from a couple of men's shirts, so it is a bit voluminous on me.  Which is okay, but if I make another, I will find shirts that fit me a little better to start with.

And I'll try to slow down and pay more attention to what I'm doing.  (Did I mention the bad seamstress skills?)

I kind of sewed the sleeves on inside out.... Since they are way too long for me, as most sleeves are, I will wear them rolled up anyway.  The original dress shirt's seams are double stitched, so it doesn't show that the fabric is inside out, unless you try to button the cuffs, which I won't be.

Thanks, Beth, for the shirts and lace collars to play with! And thank you, Lorri, for such a lovely project to try to emulate. 

If anyone wants to try one themselves, I highly recommend the book.

Beautiful grand fairies and beautiful cloaks

My sister-in-law, Terry is a talented person who is happy to share her skills.  When I was admiring her work on the dozen or so costumes that she had whipped up for the Grand Masked Ball that she hosted on Halloween, she offered to make cloaks for all of my girls.

At the holidays, when you know how swamped everyone is.

So, the big girls and I, plus Sugarwings and Dewdrop spent some time finding just the right fabrics.  That led to nice days out together and good bonding time.  I was slightly overwhelmed by the sheer volume and weight of the fabrics (7-1/2 yards each of exterior and lining!!) for the teenager's capes and couldn't imagine trying to make them myself.  But Terry is a pro and spent many happy hours creating costumes for her kids' high school plays (all the parts, not just her own children) and is an expert in this type of sewing.

The cloaks arrived in time for Christmas and were as pretty as can be. 

They were the hit of the night when the boxes were opened on Christmas Eve.

Plus, they are plain old, ideal for swirling and twirling in. 


And when you put one on, you feel mysterious and beautiful.

 

But what could I do as a thank you? I decided to do a Sugarplum Fairy painting of a sprite in a cape, and use Terry's own granddaughter as a model.  That little one has hauntingly beautiful eyes!

Terry is a major art collector, she owns paintings from artists who hang in the National Gallery.  

Yes, intimidating!

So, I kept it simple and turned my whimsical, little piece into an ornament.  I had a vintage picture with a domed glass and thought that would work well to turn into something to hang on a tree.

I did a small painting, cut it out, glued it onto chipboard covered in gold paper with a glittered snowflake added to the background for dimension.  Then, I frosted the "fur" with mica flakes, and the wings with fine, crystal glitter.  With the domed glass, I had space to add a nice, sparkling rhinestone to the magic wand.

The same gold paper is on the back, and the edges are glued shut and sealed with glitter velvet ribbon. The same ribbon is looped as a hanger and secured with a bit of flocked gold paper. (the glue is still wet and showing in this picture, oops!)

Before putting the original painting in the frame, I scanned it to make a few Christmas cards, and this piece for my own tree.

For now, it is tucked into a feather wreath that is hanging on the mirror.

I know that Christmas is over and I should be dismantling all of the decor.... but I'm just not ready to let go yet, are you? 

Gift bags for Birdsong and free images

Every year, my gift bags have been something different.  This year, I found a sale on heavy duty canvas tote bags with free shipping, since I was buying other supplies there at the same time.

 And when I saw this- yards of rosey fabric at Victoria Trading Co's outlet store for a DOLLAR, I knew just what I wanted to do with the bags.  But the fabric was a little too gray for the natural canvas, so while I was dying silk, I dyed it too. 

I dyed some of these cut, silk velvet scarves too. Yummy!  These are available in white from Dharma Trading Co, where I buy all of my fiber reactive dyes.

This is the original robin that I used for the bags (and the Birdsong 5 button, although I didn't use the words on the bags)

And here it is doctored up with some faded sheet music behind it, and the reds changed to pinks.  You can use the image yourself by clicking on it to open in a larger window, and saving it to your computer from there.

I knew I wanted to print an image from a vintage card onto fabric, sew it onto a square of this floral fabric and create a pocket on the bags.  But.... not only were my sewing skills not quite up to par, my machine was not behaving as it should.  It could be that I sewed too much glittered tulle with the machine, I can see where that could mess up the innards. 

So, I used pinking shears to cut everything out, and fabric tack to add them to the bags, then embellished with millinery and ribbons using more glue. I'd say the pockets are sturdy enough, but I doubt if I'd put anything too heavy into them.  My plan was to put a list of sponsors in the pockets.

Both  sis,Terry and bro, Randy are into steampunk much more than flowery birdies, so I made this design for them from 5 different pictures I got from the Graphics Fairy.  

It was pretty complicated to do, but not that bad. I found a guy on a bike, erased the bike with the cloning tool on picmonkey, then added a raven using 'upload your own backgrounds', after that, I layered some clock faces, light bulbs and other pictures with backgrounds, and faded those, tinted it all sepia, then used 'clone' to erase part of the man's leg so that it appeared to be behind the bird. After that, a little coloring in with eye tint, and it was done. Oh, and I drew the halter with a narrow, black line from 'drawing' and a yellow dot.

If you'd like to use this image I made up, feel free. Just click to enlarge in another window and save from there.

My buddy, Lori, got a custom image too, done in the same manner, but in a more romantic style.

I'll share her too, grab this one if you'd like also.

Over all, though, the bags were the same birds and floral fabric.  I like the way the colors look in the room.

 

Serendipi-TEA at The Whitmore Ranch Retreat classes

Classes at our Downton retreat in TX were just as fun as the rest of the weekend. Cassandra offered a velvet purse kit in pink or tan, I chose tan, and packed a lot of old lace to add to my creation.  (including the salvage I'd trimmed off my kitchen curtains when they got torn while blowing around on a very windy day)

I was slightly dreading the production, because of- ick!- sewing- but once I got going, it wasn't as hard as I thought  it would be.  Cassandra had the bag and liner pre-stitched, we embellished the bag, put them together, sewed on the clasp.  It was sewing optional in a lot of areas, we could use glue on some parts. But, I dove in with needle and thread, and conquered my fears. 

My skill level is not high, and I didn't change that.  But, when I dropped a camera and phone into the finished bag, they didn't fall through, so I guess I did okay.

She had great supplies for us to use, but I had an idea about how I wanted it to look.  

This is her example. Lovely as can be, isn't it?

And while I tried the embroidery and beading, I knew I'd never master it that fast, so I stuck with what I knew.

My first step was placing different lacy bits on the bag to see what I liked, and then it grew from there.

One trick I did pick up was making a ribbon rose.  I want to make more of these!

And I did just a little bit of embroidery, using some vintage metallic thread, and I added a few crystal beads from a necklace I'd bought at Canton Flea Market.

You can see I didn't do much of that.  I discovered that embroidery is hard enough, but throwing in old, metallic thread, was crazy. It kinks, twists, and it was trouble.  Still, I was pretty dang proud that I actually stitched something.  

 

We had 24 hour access to the craft room, so Guncle Randy and I took advantage of that. We hung out til late every night.  I made not only Cassandra's bag and our other pretty project from Molly, but TWO snippet rolls and a little make and take from Waxahachie.

This is a teensy, plastic trophy, and we were given paints to tarnish it up.

Guncle Randy had been wanting to make a steam punk bird like the one in this picture, for quite a while. I made the base of it for him one night after I finished my purse, and he found a cool, old bit of some sort of twisty metal to turn into a base next time we are together. 

And that isn't all I got done!  We had a second project for the Downton theme. Molly's necklace is a lace collar.  Here is her example. Lovely, huh?  It was also a glue/stitching optional project.

I chose glue.  

Both pieces were a nice challenge, not my typical style. I wanted to be able to make them look like I made them, but still be true to the theme, since the projects were so pretty and well thought out. 

For this one, I darkened the cameo with markers and paint to age it a bit.  And added some sequin trim from a shredding flapper dress, that Sissy shared with me.

Basically, the rest of the layout was the same as Molly's.  She had hand dyed the lace for us, and it is the prettiest pink.  I might foof mine up a bit more, like hers is, I liked the pink fluffy flowers she had added.

Here is a little bit of one of the snippet rolls I made. I'll have more pictures of it after our swap in June at Birdsong 5.  The rest of it is a surprise for its intended owner.

 

 

Birdsong Peeps

The other day, I was invited to craft day at Tami's house.  I was a BAD blogger and took almost no photos.

I started peeking around at her over abundant spring decor and got one little picture of this detail, then lunch was mentioned and the food was sooooo good, I could only think about that.

(you can see some of her spring pretties here)

Selfish of me, yes.  To put dining above getting some pictures.  Oh, and more selfishness, I did snap a couple of my own project.  Tami provided a table top of fun items to play with. I love these shaggy acorn tops and made mine into a nest for this egg. 

I had just happened to have a picture of a squirrel on the top of my pile of ephemera that I'd brought to work with, and thought with a tail-ectomy it could pass for an Easter bunny, so I cut open the paper mache egg and glued the de-tailed squirrel inside.

Here is the one and only photo I took of any of the friends. And is it a laughing, happy moment like the whole day was? Nope, but at least it shows some of the wonders of Tami's great studio and collections.

I sat next to Beth so she could teach me how to embroider.  We are going to Kim's Downton Affaire and one of the projects is stitching. I knew it would be beyond me, so I asked Beth for a little jump on it, thinking that would help me keep up with the class better when the time came.

But I soon got very sick of filling the piece with stitches and started sewing things to the fabric instead of just doing embroidery.

I was very proud of myself for not resorting to glue, even tho I am a very poor sewer and it was rather torturous.

Even though I'll never be a relaxed and happy stitcher, I still had the most wonderful day hanging out with a group of my Birdsong Peeps. What nice ladies they are and I'm so glad we met! And how generous of Tami to have us all over.  I need to take a turn and have a craft day myself. 

But it will have to be after June. Between doing the banner for Downton Affaire, some major garden remodels, and getting ready for Birdsong, I'm a bit stretched to the limit. Like a piece of bubble gum that has been chewed up and spit out. 

I'm very much looking forward to going to Downton in May (then on to Disneyland with Sugarwings for my birthday) and to seeing all the lovely Birdsong Ladies in June.  Visions of fun with friends keeps me going.

The gifts from Sponsors are starting to come in. Suzanne Wingfield sent these vintagey egg cartons to give to everyone. Last year, she gave me a set to use and I filled them with a kit. This year, I'm not sure how I will use them, but thought they'd be fun to have. 

She also included this silver mesh, which I think will be fun for fairy wings and other embellishments. And these vintage doily placemats.  Sponsor gifts don't always have to be something for the drawing or the Tweet Bags, it was nice of her to think outside of the box (or carton?) and provide some things that will be helpful to have during classes.  It's always good to be able to change out placemats after a gluey project, huh?

There was also this cuteness included. Her note to me was in this chick, along with some chocolates that the fairy grand girls and I devoured immediately.

If you'd like to be a sponsor, please email me at:

Karlanathan@sbcglobal.net

I'll add your name to the sponsor list on my side bar with your link and it will be there till the next Birdsong.  If your gift arrives in time before June 1st, I'll take pictures to post on my blog.  (after that I'll be rushed to fill bags before company comes to open them)

And you'll make our peeps smile when they see your gift!

A new view

Before I put away my sewing machine after making hundreds of feet of ruffled, dyed crepe paper, I stitched up some curtains for the studio. I'm not much of a sewer, and don't enjoy doing it.  I don't like to pin things, or iron them like you should before sewing. I don't measure. I just wing it.  And this was such a simple project, winging it was just fine.

Although, from looking at my table, you'll have to wonder how I ever had space to sew these.

Basically, it is a table topper almost as wide as the window,  a square shape that has cut up doilies patched onto it.  The bottom is two ends cut off a runner and sewed to the bottom of the table topper, and a few other doilies were chopped up to add on.

I thought it would be much more elaborate, but when I got to this point, I kind of liked it and stopped. There was a big pile of doilies on the table waiting to be added, but I'll save those for something else.  I'd thought I'd have more of a patchwork, all over design, but I'm happy with just a few small added bits over one big piece.

The curtain was too short, so I hung the rod lower, making the bottom of the curtain hit the sill.  The panel wasn't wide enough, so I hung a vintage, white cotton, ruffle curtain on each side.

Above it, hangs a tea cup lamp made by Shanna Wagner,  two hearts and a kite by Andrea Singarella and Lori Oles. and a pink dotted swiss ruffle valance. 

But I don't want you to think I did this all alone.  I had a helper.

Sugarwings came by to visit and offered to cut up and stitch doilies together. She likes hand sewing, unlike me.  I don't do it unless forced. But she is pretty happy sewing together anything on her desk. When given some embroidered pieces to work with, she really had a blast.

Especially since it was her first day with her new glasses.  These are reading glasses, the same type of drugstore magnifying lenses that I use. 

She has constantly tried to sneak my glasses away from me when she is in the studio. I honestly thought it was just part of her 'artist costume'.  Because for this kid, it's all about the costume for what ever you are doing.

I'd always told her that wearing other people's glasses could give you a headache and she had to take them off. Who knew that these were exactly what she needed and she wasn't just play acting when she wore mine?

I really can't sew very well

Anything I sew is wonky.  Maybe, just maybe, I should break down and measure? 

A long, long time ago, I found this throne at a garage sale, and finally got around to painting it about 18 months ago, thinking I'd recover it then too. 

It did not get recovered til recently, because Sugarwings uses it and she, well, shall we say, is a pig? is not the tidiest kid at the dinner table?  I left the fabric dark so her sliminess wouldn't show as much.  But lately, she has been growing up and being less of a mess.

Still, I worried that a light fabric on the seat was just asking for trouble.  So, I decided a washable slip cover would be the best way to go, but man- those arms were hard to fit the cover around!!

I ended up cutting them out way too big.  So, I fixed the gap with a ruffle made of the fabric on the back of the chair.  I'd cut the fabric off my old dining room chairs that were broken, and saved it.  There wasn't enough to cover the seat too, so I did a mixy matchy thing, and I think this ruffle was just what I needed to make the mix match up nicely.

The whole dining room is now mixy matchy.  After searching here, there and everywhere, I finally found some new chairs to replace the ones that had broken. (by the way, I have a magic driveway, anything at all that I sit at the end of the drive gets picked up by someone. It's fun to wonder who got it and what they did with it, and nice to know that it isn't in the land fill!)

There were 4 chairs at TJMax for $99 each (plus 10% off for opening a card and a cash back bonus for spending that much)

I'd hoped to find old chairs to fix up, but these were a decent price, solidly made, and didn't need a thing done to them besides Scotchgaurding).  Forget about the throne seat, I feel like a princess sitting in BRAND NEW CHAIRS! What a treat!!!

Recovering a lamp shade and some other touch ups

Before Fifi asked me to do a photo shoot for Romantic Country magazine, I was already on a home fix up binge.  I've been making pillows, slip covers, touching up paint, rearranging and foofing.  Good timing for her call!

This bench was brought in from the garden a couple years ago, so we'd have a spot to sit and put on shoes by the front door, and the baskets under it are perfect for toys and kid's shoes.  But I'd never made cushions for it, I've been wrapping fabric around a cushion that didn't match and making do with that.

About ten years ago, I'd found some old, floral curtains in a dumpster (I nicknamed it the "Dumpster of Gold", there was so much beautiful bounty in it!!!). They were just the right fabric for making pillows for this bench.  The top pillow is stuffed with poly fluff, but the bottom one is just a pillow case over that same cushion that I'd been wrapping around fabric before. That way, I can slip it off and wash it after muddy dogs spend time on this bench. Which they love to do.  It's Twinkle's perch so she can keep an eye on the front door and protect us. 

The pink rag rug was one that used to be white, but the white wasn't coming back after years of use. (I don't throw much away) It was still in decent shape, so, I dyed it, along with some  stained tees and other odds and ends. Because when I have a dye pot going, I always feel the need to scrounge around the house looking for other things to dip in it.

I used the liquid Rit Dye in fuchsia, but only a 1/2 bottle along with a 1/4 bottle of tan to tone it down. I think I could have done 1/4 of pink and 1/8 of tan and been happier with the result.

It seems like I've been on the go nonstop for the last couple of years and hadn't really had a chance to nest.  Since I declared this the Summer of Whammy and took time off to simply be a grammy and enjoy my family and home, I found lots of little projects that needed tending to.  Like this lamp shade that I revamped. 

If you have ever covered a lamp shade, you know that with the curved shape, it's hard to smooth fabric down onto.  To avoid measuring, I decided to patch work it.  I took scraps of rose pattern cotton, and brushed the lamp shade with school glue, and brushed some onto the scraps too, then laid them onto the shade.

After piecing in a background of roses, I covered the seams with lace applique bits (picked up on the Enchanted Affaire bus tour in downtown LA for 25 cents each).  And made a bottom trim border from some old tatting over a row of dangly beads.

Around the top, I used some trim from a vintage skirt.  All the lace and trim was attached with Ultimate glue, but I'll bet fabric glue would work the same. School glue wasn't strong enough for this part.

Tah Dah!  Just perfect for the Rosey Room, to go on the $4 Goodwill lamp that Aunt Sandy left behind for me when she left here.

The throw on the bed got a make over too.  It was one that I thought was just lovely, but it sure fell apart fast. The top is sheer with cut velvet roses, and velvet trim. But the backing on it shredded and fell off. I saved the top because it was such perfect fabric and I always thought I'd use it someday for something.

Who knew, that I'd return it to being a throw again?

I came across the piece of fabric when I cleaned out the closet for the Studio Tour and decided I was ready to reuse it. What great timing, since soon after, Fifi made arrangements to photograph the house.  And this was just what the Rosey Room needed.

All I did was buy some stretchy, crushed velvet on sale at Hancocks for $4.40 a yard, and sew it on the back. I am hoping that the stretchiness will help it last longer than the previous lining. And the crushed velvet is soft and comfy to wear over my lap as I watch TV. So, this throw will go to the living room now that the photos are done. The guest room doesn't get used often enough to keep it up there. It's so pretty and soft, I want it in the living room to snuggle under on a regular basis.