2008 August « life with monkey

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another “what i did this weekend” post

August 24, 2008 at 7:12 pm | In FO, crafts, embroidery, sewing | Leave a Comment

on saturday, i picked this stamp out of my small stamp collection:

and i mixed up some acrylic paint and textile medium and rolled the paint onto the stamp with my brayer. then i stamped a new dishtowel and added some embroidery floss and came up with this:

hurrah!

and today, i pulled a different dishtowel out of my kind of large fabric collection and used it (along with a couple pieces of fabric from the stash) to make a new apron.

i do like to wear an apron while i cook, and goodness knows i get the darn things dirty.

it’s nice to have a spare on hand, especially one with such deep pockets.

i’d say a little something about what i cooked this weekend, but i didn’t shoot any photos, and besides, i have an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to watch before i sleep, and not a lot of time to spare. so g’night!

work in progress

August 17, 2008 at 11:18 am | In WIP, crafts, embroidery | 2 Comments

just started some embroidery.

waste not, want not

August 10, 2008 at 12:47 pm | In FO, crafts, sewing | 2 Comments

also known as “I’m a Big Ol’ Packrat and Can’t Seem to Get Rid of Anything That I Might Be Able to Use in a Future Craft-Related Project”.

well, the fabric stash, she has been lessened. and it’s about freaking time, i tell you what. i’ve been getting tired of looking at some the fabrics making up my “random-what-have-you” bin, and i really don’t want to have to take it along the next time we move. this dress started with a pattern i picked up a million years ago (seems like almost all of my patterns are a million years old), McCall’s 7646.

i was thinning out my herd of patterns and pulled this one out of the box. i have no idea why i never used this pattern. it’s a dress style that i really like, but maybe the yardage required for the long version (6+ yards!) put me off. so i figured i’d make a muslin of the upper part of the dress, to make sure it was the right size for me.

yup. so yay! i’d buy some fabric eventually, and make the dress. but… i really didn’t want the muslin to go to waste. sure, i could pulls out the seams and use the fabric scraps later, but then i thought maybe i could thrown together a dress, using pieces of fabric left over from dresses and skirts i’d made years ago.

and yesterday, i spent the day improvising, while watching season two of Deadwood. first i added to the skirt:

and then i sewed some pieces of fabric over the bodice, not bothering to finish the edges or trim the threads. and i added a couple of big pockets.

the bulk of the scraps were rayon. i’ll be interested to see what it looks like after it’s been washed a few times. the dress is really comfy! i dunno that i’ll necessarily wear it when i’m out and about, but it’s nice to wear around the homestead. i guess the crafty packrat thing worked out for me this time around.

crawfish first, embroidery later

August 2, 2008 at 2:52 pm | In crafts, embroidery, food | 1 Comment

this weekend, the crawfish are cookin’ in long beach.

i forgot to take a photo of my pile o’ crawfish until i’d started eating. if you’ve ever eaten crawfish, you know it’s a messy activity. i’m pretty sure i didn’t get too much of the spicy crawfish brine on my camera.

and here’s the aftermath:

nom, nom, nom.

bonus festival photo for fans of engrish:

now that my hands are clean and my brine-splattered clothing is soaking in the sink, i can get started on embroidering some (organic cotton!) dish towels i picked up at target.

what i really want to do is a little Arts and Crafts style embroidery likethis or this. i have a book on the subject, and a million more places to look on the internats.