Jeans

Won't my mommy be so proud of me? I actually sewed up the holes in my jeans all by myself. Now, I love the look of distressed jeans, and I've been known to walk the backs off my pants until they reach that perfect level of disrepair, but I don't like cold air seeping through the legs of the clothing that is supposed to protect me from said air. Not to mention that there is a fine line between distressed and needs to be thrown away. So, I grabbed the interfacing and the sewing machine and patched up the holes in my jeans. Each  hole got a couple of zigs and zags. I may have to go back and reinforce further, though. But, the jeans are good enough to get me through the cold of December. January may be another story. 

Applique cardigan a la Anthropologie

This cardigan cost me $3 at Target, and the fabric was something that BLady was gonna get rid of last February. The fabric as a whole is a bit intense, but cut down into separate motifs, the individual flowers are quite pretty.

I don't know if this actually looks like something that Anthropologie would sell, but I did see some tees in there this summer that were just pieces of fabric appliqued onto the neck. The edges weren't finished, which made me think that I could do this project.

After sitting in pieces for a couple of weeks, it only took me one evening to put this together.

I cut out the different motifs that I liked and then ironed them onto some sheets of Underwunder.  Then, I laid them out on the cardigan and ironed them on. Finally, I sewed them onto the cardigan to make sure that they didn't end up coming off in the wash. I sort of haphazardly sewed them on. I followed the edges some and also sewed down the middle of some of the bigger pieces. I'm hoping that what it lacks in finesse, it makes up for by being eclectic.

Tell me what you think! Would you wear this?

BLady's Flowered Sandals

Today's post comes from BLady who has been doing her own craft projects lately. When she sent me the pictures of these shoe clips she made and attached to a pair of sandals she got last year, I wanted to go out and make a pair for myself.


When BLady, Megs and I were in Dallas shopping a couple of weeks ago, BLady kept commenting on all of the sandals with floral embellishments. She was right - there are a lot of shoes like that out there right now.

Flower shoes by Schizi on Polyvore.com

Items in this set:
Product: Naya "Atwood", $120
Product: Guess "Akera" Sandal, $60
Product: GB "Ruffle-Up" Sandal, $50
Loeffler Randall 'Brynn' Sandal - Nordstrom
Badgley Mischka 'Randi' Sandal - Nordstrom

To make these, I first cut squares from organza, five for each flower, and pinned them together. I cut the squares into circles because cutting them together made them more uniform in size.


Then, I carefully singed the edges with a lighter. This took a little practice to make sure that I didn't melt too far. I layered them just a little off center of each other and sort of alternated left/right. I stitched them together in the middle and added three crystals. Then I just added the shoe clips. I found that attaching the clips a little off to one side makes the flowers line up with the shoe better.


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If you don't have a pair of sandals hanging out in the bottom of your closet, you could get one of these pairs.

Jessica Simpson 'Vida' SandalReef 'Slingshot'

New bedroom

I have had the same duvet since I graduated from college. It's from Ikea, and I love it, even with the bleach spots.

My headboard is really three hollow-core doors that I painted pink before applying a crinkle paint technique. The pink is a funny story - little Bro worked at Ace Hardware and brought me some returned paint. It took a little doctoring with other leftover paint, but I ended up with my doors. Previously, they served as a room divider. Now, my apartment is too small to need a divider.

I'm realizing now that my bed set is really a story in itself. The throw pillows matched my living room curtains until one stormy night when the rain came in and I washed the curtains, which faded a bit. BLady made the pillows and the curtains for me from $1/yard fabric from Walmart. I bought all the fabric they had in this print without any plans to make anything. It's nice how these things work out.

My bed is handmade as well. My parents made it for me before I moved to my college apartment. It is a platform bed based on an Ikea model. But, I'm pretty sure mine is a lot more sturdy because it's made with lumber and steel, and much more precious to me for all the hard work.

Now that I've given you the history of where I sleep every night, I'm going to add that I'm ready to change it up. The bleach spots bother me a bit sometimes and my coverlet is starting to get holes in it (the ravages of sunlight and time?).

I spotted this quilt over the weekend while shopping with BLady and Megs:

http://www.westelm.com/products/b518/?pkey=cduvet-covers-quilts

Then, today when I was catching up on blogs on Google Reader, I spotted this:

http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/05/before-after-stefanies-brooklyn-limestone.html

If I go with the gray quilt, I'll still need a duvet cover for my down comforter. I can't survive with that during the long WI winter. But, I'll probably make one myself, especially with these easy instructions at Craftzine.

Heart garlands

Instead of your traditional valentine card, I sent a bit of home decor. It was fun talking to everyone I sent one to and hearing where they hung up their garland. I'm selfish - I kept two and put one in my apartment and one in the window at my office at work.

It was a very simple process:
1) Grab a stack of magazines from one of the many overflowing piles. The Anthropologie catalogs were definitely my favorites
2) Pull out all the pages that had pretty designs
3) Create heart templates out of card stock. This helped me group the hearts on to the page and make the best use of pretty patterns
4) Start cutting. I freehanded some hearts as I got more comfortable
5) Lay out the yardstick and start putting rows of hearts together
6) Start up the sewing machine and run the hearts through. I found that it was easiest if I kept the hearts spaced only a couple of stitches apart. You can see in the picture above what happened when the hearts weren't propped up by their neighbors
7) Stick in envelopes with a note for friends and family. I put aside a few to share with etsy friends, too

The little sister

Hello Hello! I'm Megs, the little sister in this blogging trio. I'll be visiting the Table on a regular basis to share my craftings!

Lately, I've been working on completing a quilt made out of my younger bro's old, torn up blue jeans. A recent bout of unemployment led me to start up an etsy shop to sell cute clothes for little munchkins (check me out at www.etsy.com/shop/megiepiedesigns). So, expect lots of sewing projects from me!

My (brand new) day job involves a lot of numbers. I'm a senior accountant with a hedge fund administration firm, so I craft to keep myself from dreaming about dollar signs and financial statements (it has happened...I've dreamt about playing Minesweeper, too!!) The new job means my craft time is back to being limited to nights and weekends, but the plus side is that I'll actually have money to buy supplies!

I'm probably the least crafty in the family, but considering how amazingly talented and creative CaraB and BLady are, that's not saying much. I hope to bring a little humor to the blog as I often do silly things like sew an entire quilt inside out and my projects sometimes end up looking like a hot mess. The important thing is to have fun!