Daisy Janie

before & after | Army jacket.

*color change is only b/c of camera operator goofiness.

The before pic before this before pic should really show my son on Halloween 2009, when he wore it as a zombie Army dude. We picked it out at an Army-Navy store, and I knew I'd be staking this one for my own eventually. 3 years later...

Sort of out of season for my northern hemisphere friends, given that summer is hot on our heels. But maybe some southern hemispherites can use it to adapt a lightweight, canvas jacket.

*sorry for blur. took this in March 2011 and never looked at it until the jacket was already in the 'after' stage! Damn camera operator!
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The jacket fit great across the back and in the shoulders, so I focused on taking in the sides and sleeves to give it a more feminine line.

• I took about an inch off of the width of the sleeves - straight marking, straight stitching. Kinda like debulking.
• I tapered the sides with a sort of hourglass-shaped stitchline that ran from the armhole to the bottom edge of the jacket.  
• I added a vent opening on both sides of the jacket. It's about 5-1/2" long. See below. (Thanks for the vent terminology Betz!)

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To create a vent opening like this one, carefully take out the seam stitching in the desired length. (You may want to add a reinforced stitch where your seamripping comes to an end.) Press the seams so they lay flat. Stitch down one side, pivot, make a stitch or two at the top of your opening, pivot and stitch down the other side of the slit to finish it.

I'll be repurposing an old jersey sheet for my next project!
What are you up to?

J picked out this Airborne patch when we bought the jacket. I left it on there - reminds me of him!

quilt layouts created from typepad avatars.

Just messing around. Warming-up my brain and nimbling-up my fingers for the week.

Anyone else out there who has thought for years that these placeholder typepad avatars look like fabric swatches???

grommets make everything better.

Banged out a couple mending projects from the pile I shared recently. This top and a pair of pants that now has new buttons. I was bummed tho when I tried on the pants b/c they are much snugger than last year at this time! I guess when your buttons pop-off a pair of pants, it's a sign that you need to move the extra-sharp cheddar cheese and cashews from the bottom of your food pyramid.

See my notes below on this top...

The plunging vee-cut in the front of this top did absolutely nothing for me. It has a serged edge, so I didn't think simply stitching the vee together would look right. Grommets! Yay!

I added 5 grommets to both sides of the vee, using a fusible interfacing behind them to stablize the jersey fabric. With thick leather cord, I created a laced effect through the grommets. Added a couple beads that I had on-hand - the only ones with holes wide enough for the leather.

When I tried it on, there was a funny pucker at the bottom of the vee. I just added a dart to that spot - no more pucker.

The first time I installed the grommets, I didn't use interfacing. BIG mistake! I put it through the wash, and all the grommets popped out of their holes. Was kinda funny! I just unthreaded the leather, removed the failed grommets and re-did the whole thing after fusing the interfacing. S'all good now!

knitting | beginner's homework.

Allowing myself to be bombarded by beautiful images, art and hand-crafted projects for so many years has taken its toll. I feel empowered and motivated to do things I never, ever thought I would want to! Knitting is a prime example. I have a vase full of my grandma's needles, but I was very indifferent about learning the craft. For quite a while now, my friend Betz has been a huge source of knitting inspiration, from her personal projects, to her organic fabric line Stitch, to her patterns, and our random conversations. Recently, I felt like I was going to burst if I didn't learn how to knit!

I started a beginner's knitting class at my local yarn shop, Yarn Gallery. I'm only 2 classes in and have nothing to show but these 2 assignments, but I can already feel my fingers getting twitchy for the next project to try! I haven't mastered knitting and talking just yet, and I have a long way to go to get consistent stitches! Heck, just keeping stitches from dropping by accident will be nice! But, man, I love the possibility!

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sewing | tech cover made from repurposed feedsack.

J and I whipped, whipped, whipped out this tech cover for M's birthday on Friday. In like 30 minutes, from choosing which feedsack to done! M's wallet is made from a repurposed moneybag by Rikkianne at chakrapennywhistle. In the spirit of black shoes / black belt or brown shoes / brown belt, now M's accessories coordinate! He's one hip dude ('coursin I already knew that...).

Here are some of the other feedsacks we considered. Love the Guaranteed Analysis above!

A few years ago, our block and the block behind us had a group garage sale. (We live in an old neighborhood, and all the garages are detached from the homes and accessible via a shared alley.) I wandered down the alley to say hi to my neighbors and see what other fun things they had for sale. This sweet, older woman, who lives behind us and whom I had never met, had her garage stacked top-to-bottom with bins of every kind of old linen, sheet or textile you could imagine! She sets up at antique shops and such. I had no clue! I bought these feedsacks from her, and I haven't seen her since. :(

a man bag? yeah, kinda.

To most, this Yellowstone bag would appear to be ideal for shopping. Yes? To my betrothed, who is kinda unconventional & easygoing and who chooses not to overthink things that don't need to be overthought, this Yellowstone bag is a gym bag. He doesn't use a gym bag like a traditional gym bag so zippers, pockets, mesh and other hooplah aren't necessary. I didn't want to inject myself into the casual relationship he has with whichever re-usable grocery bag is closest (yikes), but I really wanted to sew a more manly gym-grocery bag that he might or might not use depending on proximity. And so I did.

The "gymery bag" below is made with Daisy Janie's Pinstripe fabric, from the Shades of Grey organic fabric collection. Find a retailer here. Also available from Daisy Janie's retail shop.

For the exterior, I used 1 full-width piece of fabric, 22" in length. I cut 2 panels, 18"w by 22"h. You could use fat quarters if you don't mind turning the orientation vertically. With the remaining strips of fabric, I made the 2 straps. The interior is also made with 2 18" x 22" panels.

I used a basic box bottom tote design, with squares in each bottom corner marked at 3-3/4". 3" would have been plenty! Here's a tutorial for making the box bottom like I did, and here's another tutorial for a more elaborate bag using another box method.

Below:
The gymery bag is lined with organic cotton/hemp blend canvas. Not a fan of interfacings if I can avoid it.

idea for simple Advent calendar.

If you need a last minute Advent calendar idea, this might help. I'm not going to give a detailed step-by-step b/c the pics do a decent job of providing the general idea, which is: loop string through treat bags, hang treat bags from dowels, hang dowels on strings on nails, done.

Treat bags are gently tugged to remove each day. My son had already pulled off today's, bottom row on the right. The little circle tag is left behind, which can be reused to wrap gifts or for next year!

Except for the treats in the bags, I used only supplies I had on-hand or that I could create.

Supplies on-hand:
- 2 dowel rods (you could also use cardboard tubes)
- ribbon
- butcher's twine
- Scotch tape
- double-sided tape
- hole punch
- scissors

Supplies I created:
- 2-inch circle tags (doctored-up clip art from MS Word - downloadable below!)
- treat bags with my own festive design (use wrapping paper or tissue if you like)

Helpful - 2-inch tag punch (but you can cut the tags with scissors, too!)

half-moons design above is (c) Jan DiCintio.

Above:
The pieces of paper I used to make the treat bags were approximately 9"long and 4.25"wide. I folded them in half lengthwise, folded & taped the sides, and folded the top as shown. I cut all my treat bag strings about 17" long.

Below:
I added double-sided tape to the edges of the dowels and to about 8" lengths of ribbon. I wrapped the ribbon around the ends of the rods to give them a finished look as well as to keep the strings from sliding off the ends.

Click here to download the 2-inch circle tags below. These are clip-art motifs from MS Word that I altered, put into a 2-inch circle and re-colored. I do not claim any sort of copyright on these, but they should be used for your personal use only nonetheless.

show-n-tell | The Cashmere Shrug via Project Upcycle.

This Fall, the incredibly creative Betz White has been on a blog tour with her two new video series on Craftsy:  Project Upcycle and Fab Felt Holiday. Betz is an author, fabric designer, pattern designer, green crafter extraordinaire as well as a dear friend. I'm excited to be part of her interweb travels for Project Upcycle and to be sharing such a stylish re-fashion!

The Cashmere Shrug | Betz White's Project Upcycle via craftsy.com

I have been in awe of Betz's seemingly unending treasure trove of crafting and sewing ideas for quite some time. In particular, her use of thrifted cashmere sweaters in so many projects had me compelled to stash a few of my own on my last closet cleanout... for some future 'just in case' project. When she invited me to try out one of her projects, I couldn't write back fast enough to say that I had "a stack'o sweaters just waaaaaiting for such a refashion!"

Before & After

The Video
I watched the video tutorial for the cashmere shrug on craftsy.com once all the way through, jotting a few notes as it went along. Betz offers tips & suggestions that I was glad to hear before I started cutting! I restarted the video a 2nd time, with all my supplies in-hand. I let it play as I began my sweater reconstruction, pausing if I needed to watch a step again or to listen more carefully to Betz's directions.

The video is divided into logical sections called Chapters, which also facilitates stopping & starting so you can go at your own pace. You can take notes for yourself right on-screen so they will always there for you to reference; you can also post questions, comments or pics about your project for Betz or other participants. How cool is that?!

Betz is easy to understand and follow, a sure sign of someone who is well-versed in her craft! Plus, Craftsy does a great job of getting camera angles that are super helpful for seeing exactly what she was doing. Craftsy produces high-quality video tutorials, and it was a welcome break from some of the youtube tutes I've watched! So nice!

The Cashmere Shrug
Betz's refashion of a sweater into a shrug is a cleverly uncomplicated design - exactly what I like in a clothing reconstruction project! It looks spectacular, and the directions are very straightforward. The project offers a variety of fun stitching techniques, too, like the lettuce-edge and the hand-sewn rosette. The sweater I used was already sorta short and semi-fitted, so I will definitely make a couple more of these to try out sweaters with a different fit to see what kind of result I get. I'd also like to try stitching a lettuce edge all the way around the entire piece for the heck of it! You might find other jumping off points in the design, if you'd like to add a unique variation ~ you'll have to see for yourself!

Project Upcycle
Project Upcycle includes 5 different projects made primarily with thrifted clothing, all of which would make great gifts if you're looking for original, handmade ideas. Learning the techniques and learning a bit more about how to shop for & re-imagine thrifted or old clothing is a pretty awesome bonus! I'm swirling with ideas!

$10 off
You're invited to special preview of Betz's course. Click here and, if you register, you'll receive $10 off the course price! The course never expires, and you can access it anytime! Also, be sure to check out Betz's Fab Felt Holiday preview, too!

Have fun!! Thanks for the opportunity to try out this project, Betz!

To see the other fun stops on the Project Upcycle blog tour:
::  Week of Oct 17th: The Long Thread
::  Week of Oct 24: Inspire Co. 
::  Week of Nov 28 ME!
::  Week of Dec 5th: Lil Fish Studios 
::  Week of Dec 12th: While She Naps 

For all the stops on the Fab Felt Holiday blog tour, which wrapped up last week, visit this post to find all the link love.
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How adorable is this rosette? Love this embellishment!

Fat Quarterly Designer's Challenge.

All those buttons & posies & embroidery hoops I posted about were for the latest Fat Quarterly Designer's Challenge! You can read about my project and process over at Fat Quarterly. I'm kinda in love with how it turned out - soft, feminine (but not overly so), vintage-y and completely unique.

The Gist of the Challenge.
Participants were provided with a Basic Grey Canvas Sampler and were asked to embellish however we liked! Simple enough, right? Right! With the screenprinted decorative templates on each sampler style, the canvas provides just the right amount of direction to get you going. But the canvas is still blank enough that your options are wide open, allowing you to take your project a cajillion different directions.

What would you include in your embellishments?

buttons, posies and the shizzle.

I've got a serious case of the Fridays. I just finished up 2 big projects that have been looming all summer, and I feel so buoyant and carefree that I'm springing and sproinging from every cell! Pure, weightless glee - usually reserved for Fridays. And the shizzle is that I'll get to enjoy two of them Fridees in a row! Giddy-up!

(did you just try to wipe that black dot off your screen? me too, about 5 times!)

These mostly 1940s vintage buttons and the petite flower posies below were part of one project that I poked at for the past week. More on this next week. The other project is that I finished my first quilt pattern! I'm really, really stoked at how it turned out - and there will most assuredly be more about this very soon, too! Remember this sneak peek?