Week in Review......

So... this is my first "Week in Review".  I've set my goal of updating the blog three times per week, or else I just "let it go" sometimes for months!!!

So, what I've been up to this week......

Mostly?

1.  Dancing. I've had the best sales week EVER on etsy.  I've almost surpassed my MONTHLY goal for August (which I thought was aiming too high, btw,) and it's only the 11th!!!!!!!  Mark me down as "Surpassing my Teaching Salary" please!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

2.Sticking to my task list.  I strongly believe this is one of the reasons for my success.  I'm making sure to take the time not only to create my goods to sell on etsy, but also to promote, discover marketing ideas, research, and tweak current listings.

3.  Embroidering for SewEcological.  My Harry Potter Sweaters have sold like gangbusters this week.  8 so far, with many messages flying back and forth to customers about what they are thinking about ordering.  I think the fact that I've upgraded to a higher quality sweater (from Land's End or Woolovers) has really pushed the fact that this is the best quality you can buy!

Ready to Ship in my shop!

4.  Sewing for SewEcological.  I had the fun idea of sewing old boy scout patches onto cotton and corduroy this week, after researching on Google Adwords (tutorial here) that Hipsters search for scarves on a regular and high traffic basis.  Aren't they fun?

Cadet Blue Cordurory "Hipster" Scarf

Red Cotton "Hipster" Scarf

5.  Listing and working on SEO for Rotifera.  I made bunches of earrings, hair clips, and hair combs this week, as they seem to be taking off!  I also created links within all my matching listings for easier shopping for the customer!

Button Earrings!

Threaded Hair Combs!

 6.  And finally...... I've been spending loads of time packing orders, making promotional goodies, marketing on facebook (SewEco on FB , Rotifera on FB), and just enjoying the fact that my decision to go to work full time for myself, and quit the world of public school teaching is PAYING OFF!!!!!!!!!!

Right now, I'm the happiest gal on the planet we call Earth.  (I HAVE been watching a lot of Star Trek....)

Live Long and Prosper, Ya'll!

♥Rose

The Sunday Six

It's time for the Sunday Six!  This is the day I feature the blogs I've been lurking in all week, and show off their talent so that you too can see and read with your coffee in the morning!

 1.  One of the best loved blogs in the crafting world, Angry Chicken has a broad focus- foodiness, crafting with her kids, sewing.... the list goes on.  Amy Karol is a very talented woman, and her posts are always full of humor, injected with joy, and full of love.  Her Bend the Rules books are awesome.  She also does some awesome work with aprons, and runs a second site Tie One On.

Go on, go time waste.  Lots to read with Amy.

2.  Until Wednesday Calls.  Wednesday is her daughter, so she gets some crafting in when she can.  It really is a bright, crisp blog with tons of ideas and tutorials.  I found it early this week, and I've been lurking through the archives.  Check out the tutorials for little girl clothes, great barrettes, and finger puppets.  Almost makes me with I had a daughter to make little skirts and hair bows for.  Almost. 

3.  I know I've featured A Lemon Squeezy Home before, but you know that I can't resist a good Pride and Prejudice project.  And she made these awesome pillowcases for sleepovers this week that I have to make a couple of for my boys.  She has such amazing taste!  Not that I'm tasteless, but my taste is kind of blah.  Must be a holdover from the early 90's grunge music I listened to so much of...  I digress...

LOOK!  Christie teaches us how to use Picnik to make printables!  I soooooooo want this frame on my wall.

And! the awesome sleepover pillowcases I want to make-

4.  Another new blog to read!  If I keep this up, I'll have to get up at 4 am in order to read all the blogs I love so much.  I was attracted to Cubic Dreams because she makes lovely upcycled garments- something I want to begin doing soon.  But I stayed for the images, and lunch ideas, and well... the list goes on.  Go over and read and take a look at the beautiful photos.  Read, stay awhile.  Peruse the archives.  Leave a comment.   Just beautiful.

5.  Mushroom Villagers.  Another blog that I discovered this week.  Yes, she does grow mushrooms.  Which is cool enough on its own; but look at all the wonderful sewing she does!  So many ideas of things to make for my boys!  Backpacks, coloring wallets- just so awesome.  I wish I had that type of ingenuity.  And check out her new craft space!  soooooooooooooo jealous.

6.  Over at MADE this week, I found these book bags that I have to make some of.  I'm sick of searching under beds for lost library books.  Anyone seen Diary of a Wimpy kid?  I may have to pay for that one.

So, now you can blame me for losing time in blogland.  I have to run!  Happy Sunday all!

Working with Cashmere...and a purse fail.

Good news and bad news.  Let's get the bad news over first.  My orange purse that I dreamed would be perfection, luscious, amazing, superfantabulous, extraordinary? 

None of those adjectives seem to fit the bill.  I'd go with....blech.  The beaded embellishment of my vision looked ridiculous on it.  The construction was mediocre to say the best of it.  I blame the super thick wool, the lack of handbag construction experience, my cruddy old cheap sewing machine.  Whatever.  Here is the vision....  A long rectangular bag with a half moon flap, lined with vintage linen, and embellished with the most beautiful beaded dangly thing I thrifted..  this thing:

The dangly thing-y doesn't really go with the shotty craftmanship of the bag.  I don't know if there is any saving of this orange monstrosity...  give me a fricken' idea already.  I'm fresh out. 

Pointy edges, too short of a flap.  Blah.

Extra thick felted sweater + older cheap machine = crappy construction detail.  Blah.

But on an up note...

The cashmere creativity train has pulled into the station.  With two of the lovliest color of cashmere I have found to date, I made four things:

Cashmere Cowl with coordinating thrifted cotten lining

Cashmere Fingerless gloves in progress...

Cashmere Scarf of gorgeousness...

You want to touch it, don't you...

And this, the crowning achievement of an old Daniel Bishop Cashmere Sweater.  Possibly the thickest I've ever seen...  Cabled and ribbed?  This scarf is 6X thicker than any cashmere object I've ever touched.  And like a cloud.  Soft as butter...  I don't know if I can sell it, other than it is not really my color...

OMG!! 72" of luxury right there.

And one more pair of cashmere fingerless gloves, in a classic combo of linen color and tiny cables....

So, as artists, whether we are knitters, sewers, upcyclers, whatever... We take the good with the bad, right?  And sometimes the bad is very, very bad.  But the good can be very, very soft. 

Off to work!  I have a pile of cashmere and wool that needs work.

And- everyone give a shout out to Rex; he found me some lovely pieces that could become my very first design involving wool suiting... Any ideas?

The Sunday Six

So, here I sit, with my 11 stitches, with nothing much to do the day after Christmas...

I'm enjoying the blogosphere... Join me for some sewing, knitting, and crafting inspiration that I've discovered myself looking at everyday with my coffee.  I'm looking today for ideas on what to spend my Jo-Ann's Fabric and Barnes and Noble Gift Cards on.

1.   I wanted to give a shout out to my beautiful and crafty cousin Dawn, who has started her very own craft blog- A Few Good Yarns. She is a knitter/crocheter, and has a great eye for classy and fun designs.  I can't wait until she posts about her crocheted baby hats with interchangeable flowers.  Stop over there sometime, and give her a holler.  She's good people. (Except for the cooking of Lima Beans, which I can never agree with.  If there is an maligned green food that deserves its reputation, this one is it.)

2.  My go-to place for tutorials for one of a kind items and excellent photography of her seedlings...A Lemon Squeezy Home. This is one of her outstanding tutorials that I've been meaning to make for weeks now...

3.  Over at ISLY (I Still Love You), I found wonderful upcycled lovlieness, and even bought commercial rights from her to make her braided jersey necklaces for my Etsy store.  (I know, I know- where are the necklaces, then?... I've been a bit obsessed with wool upcycling right now.)

She has recently made cashmere mittens.  Such a lovely shade of orange!

4.  Over at Wardrobe Refashion, you'll find a group of contributors who'd pledged not to buy any new clothes, only refashion what they had or what they had purchased at thrift stores.  Some creative ideas over there, although the site is closed to further contributors now.  I hope they change their minds!

5.  For those of you who've been living under a rock, or are not knitters- Stephanie Pearl McPhee aka "The Yarn Harlot" is one of the best knitting/crafting bloggers; no wait- best blogger out there.  Read what she has to say.  She is freakin' hilarious.  Go, laugh.

6.  And, last but never least- I am Momma, Hear me Roar.  She does everything from embellishing old shoes to give them new life, to designing clothing.  I love her designs, most recently her upcycled T-shirt hat for toddlers has made it onto the to-do list.  My seedlings would look so adorable in these. 

So, go waste some time.  Surf the interweb/net/blag/ whatever.  Drop me a line to let me know what I'm missing.  Drop me a line to let me know what you'd like to see next week.  Just drop me a line.  Even a :) will work.  :p

Upcycled Skirt to Apron Tutorial

As promised, something to work on this weekend.

A lovely unused skirt becomes an apron.

Have any old skirts laying around that you never wear, don't look good on you, or are just the wrong size?  Hmm.. I have all of those.  Instead of donating them, I've been chopping them up to make aprons.  Most of them already have a waistband, shaping, and a hem!  If I get really lucky, there are pockets...

So, a few words of wisdom to start out with:

1.  Only use skirts that are mostly cotton for aprons that will actually be used to absorb things.  Fancier skirts make fancier aprons- cocktail party apron anyone?  (I don't know anyone who still has Bridge parties, or I'd suggest one of those...)

2.  The smaller sizes 0-6 make lovely aprons with a single side seam cut.  Cut both for larger size skirts, and you have two apron fronts, or use one side to make a bib for the apron.. Still working on that idea.

3.  I use bias binding in this tutorial- it really saves me time- but you could just as easily do a double hem on the sides of the skirt.

4.  Let creativity rule- this is a very basic apron.  Think of all the fun pockets and embellishments you could make!

So, first things first-

 You'll need-
1.  Skirt in question
2.  Extra fabric * if you're cutting up both side seams, you could just use the back of the skirt....
3.  Double Fold bias tape * or hem up the sides.
4.  Scissors/Rotary Cutter
5.  Pins, Sewing machine...

Steps:

1.  Cut the seams.

2.  Cut fabric for pockets, if desired.  I cut a long rectangle, fold it in half; right sides together.  Then sew all the way around it, leaving a small opening for turning.  Turn right side out, press, and sew onto skirt, with folded edge as the top of the pocket.

4.  Attach double fold binding to the side seams.

 

5.  Make Ties.  I've chosen to keep the original waistband intact.  So I cut ties twice as long as I'd need so they can wrap around to the front.

6.  Fold them in half, long ways.  Sew all but one short edge, and turn right side out.  Press.

I turn all my ties with a giant knitting needle.

7.  Attach Ties.  I do this just inside the bias tape on the wrong side of the apron.

8.  Wrap around yourself, make some tea, and enjoy your upcycling craftiness.

 Go- get busy!

Inspired.

 I'm sure you peruse the blogs, looking for ideas on what to make, right?  I mean, I will spend HOURS looking over blogs at the beautiful things folks whip up, and am so inspired.  By the time my 3 cups of coffee are gone on Saturday mornings, I bust a move and try to replicate what I've seen.

I'm not always successful, but here are a few inspirations that have been sewn up on my cheap Brother sewing machine into things I am proud to gift to my loved ones.

The first comes from Luv in the Mommy Hood, where she made the "Infinity and Beyond" Flannel Scarf.  This thing very nearly made it into the "I know I should gift this, but I think I need it."  No one would ever know if this joined the Cashmere throw that I had to keep, or the jersey necklace (post coming soon!) that became a staple of my wardrobe.  Right?  Right?

My pictures suck, I know- click on that link above to see someone who actually knows how to handle a  camera.  Photography must improve if I want to start this Etsy business, but I digress.


Next came the Flower in my Hair from Trey and Lucy.  I tried.  I really tried.  But, for some reason, I could not replicate her beautiful flower exactly.  I'm still happy with the outcome though, made for a sister in law who adores purple.

 I've included both a barrette and a pin on the back.  Wear it in your hair or on your purple coat, sis!

And last, but not least- I made this beautiful scarf with the combined inspiration of many, many sites.  I can't wait to see her face when she gets it.  It is just sooooo her.

I know, I know.  Dress for success.  Or shower at the very least...

 So there it is.  Everything I've sewn for Christmas so far.  Run over to One Pretty Thing and get inspired.  They have foodie crafts too.  Stay tuned for that.  I'm going to try my hands at hot chocolate on a stick, people!

Check in this weekend for a tutorial on how to upcycle an old skirt into a cute apron!