Limbs and head flopped out to sleep. Looking d-e-d.Filed under: Do it, Love it | Tags: Art Institute, Brancusi, Chicago, Klee, Leger, millennium park, painting, sculpture
My Mister and I scored a membership to the Art Institute of Chicago, many thanks to my sister.
We finally took a stroll through the new section, The Modern Wing, which opened in May while we were off getting hitched. It connects with a magical bridge to Millennium Park.
Inside, I recognized this young lady right away, from a childhood subscription to Highlights magazine, where I think I first saw anything about modern art.
Then I started noticing other ladies I liked the look of, doing my favorite things. If Klee’s girl is dancing, Leger’s is reclining with a book.
And Brancusi’s is snoozing.
Look at her beautiful face—
I am putting away the turtlenecks.
Enough already.
I leave for Philadelphia Saturday morning for the weekend, and when I come back, I don’t want to deal with the heaviest winter woolies.
So there. I don’t mean the sweaters, or the flannel PJs. The down jacket remains a wardrobe staple. It’s only March, for crying out loud.
But the turtlenecks are going away until the days are shorter than they are long.
I had popped into a “new” thrift on my way back from an assignment, since it was lunchtime and I’d had my eye on the spot a while. Had a red vintage Hawaiian dress in hand and red slippers with fur pom poms on the toes when the phone rang. Assignment desk calling with a new job to run out on.
Big news for my neck of the woods. So much for that.
In the end, I have a closet so full already of things selling on the etsy, and stuff waiting for little fixes.
A la — waiting to become a cap sleeved tunic
And this one you already know about —
And this one, the seams cut so it’s ready to work as fabric for another top—
Also this silk sweater set, still too big—
Not to mention the stuff in a bin under the bed I haven’t decided about – whether to sell or adjust. All for the best, really.
Filed under: Do it, Gifted it, How to do it, Made it, Sewed it, Thrifted it | Tags: gift, maternity, refashion, Salvy, surgery, t-shirt, wardrobe refashion
This surgery makes a cute maternity top with hip sash from a small plain T-shirt and a giant logo-printed shirt. You use the logo shirt as a sort of pocket for the big belly.
Make sure the top T-shirt fits the top of your lady’s frame. 
Measure where the belly starts to protrude (right under the bosom) and mark with chalk. Carefully cut across the front (only the front) of the shirt. To open the sides up, measure about an inch away from the T’s side seam on the front and cut.
Figure out where you want the logo to go.
Cut across the giant T right below the arms, and slice up the back to open up the fabric. Fit the logo into the front and trim accordingly. The logo fabric should hang down below the hem of the plain T a few inches.
Chop off the hem of the giant shirt. 
If you have room, chop off a few inches at the bottom of the giant shirt and put that fabric aside to reuse the finished hem.
Gather the logo. 
With a long basting stitch, baste the top of the logo piece and along the sides. Pin the center top of the logo piece to the center of the plain front. Pull the gathering threads until the it fits. Pin. Baste in place if you like.
Fit the sides. Pull the gathering threads on the sides of the logo piece, too, fitting the fabric along the base T’s sides. Pin. Baste if you like and sew into place. Sew the top, too. (I used a wide zigzag.)
Finish the bottom. If you chopped off the hem of the giant T, pin roughly the center back of it to one side of the shirt. Pin along so you have a sort of sash at the bottom, easing so the sash ends up longer than the shirt. Remember the front of your new shirt is a lot bigger than the back. Stitch.
Filed under: Do it, Finished it, Gifted it, How to do it, Made it | Tags: baby, Big Poppa, Biggie Smalls, freezer paper stencil, gift, t-shirt
My dear friends are getting a baby in a few weeks. So of course we made them some presents. The bebe gets a blanky, a giant square of a blanky crocheted from fun Hobby Lobby yarn in circus colors. Mama, like me, isn’t into pastels and is convinced the most unisex color of all is red.
Mama I adore, but Poppa is my colleague and original tie to the family. And since we’re not particularly into indulging the demands of teeny babies, Poppa — our loyal date to summer rock and roll concerts, our link to Boris and the Hold Steadies — has our sympathy and especial love.
Poppa also has fab taste in music and a demeanor best described as generally nonplussed. At any rate, he’s not into pastel schtuff either, and wasn’t likely to receive any special presents at this weekend’s bebefest, so we made him one to treasure.
And he did love it when we called him, at the shower, Big Poppa, comme ca:
Really. My mister is loving freezer paper stencils since watching me craft a Halloween costume from a yellow t-shirt. We were Pat Hughes and Ron Santo of WGN’s The Pat and Ron Show, and since Pat – the literal play-by-play broadcast man is so very boring, I had to invent his costume and dress him in a t-shirt of one of the show’s sponsors, Square D, (Part of the Power of Wrigley Field).
But I digress. Mister saw the custom Square-D shirt and became convinced we could copy the method. So we fought over WHICH Biggie Smalls song to print onto a shirt. He voted for the “One More Chance Remix”, featuring the opening lyric, “First things first, I Papa,” and continuing in a filthy manner.
It’s not that I vetoed, it’s only that I had to cut out the letters and “Big Poppa,” as in, “I love it when they call me”, would be easier to chop out of freezer paper and also would fit better across Poppa’s front.
Anyway, enjoy the effect of a freezer paper stencil. We used this velveteen finish paint from the JoJo if only because it was the only black finish available in the small bottle.
I’d buy it again specially since it worked very simply; you wait until the paint dries, then hold your very steamy iron about half an inch away and watch the paint rise and get a velvety texture. Plus it comes readily at the JoJo.
If I had Poppa’s shirt to do again, I might have the Mister cut out the other parts of the design. Maybe we cut the wrong negative space???
Anyhoo, my how-to is here.
Filed under: Do it, Fixed it, How to do it, Love it, Made it, Refashioned it, Sewed it, Thrifted it | Tags: how to, leopard, refashion, ruffles, shirt, wardrobe refashion
This top started out as a thrifted nightshirt with a plain front and a bottom rounded bottom edge. Which I promptly cut off and then hemmed up the shirt edge. Those scraps stared at me for months until I figured it out: Ruffles for the front.
finished close up of ruffled front
Making ruffles is really easy with t-shirt strips, fabric strips w finished edges, or in this case, fabric tubes made from scraps.
slices of fabric removed from bottom of original shirt
Either fold the strips in half, lengthwise or measure the halfway mark.
slices of fabric folded in half
or measure strips in half
Cut straight down the middle.
cut fabric in halfFold each piece in half, lengthwise, wrong sides facing, and press.
fold and press in half, wrong sides together
Sew each strip, wrong sides together, close to the edge.
stitchI ended up with four tubes, two long and two short.
4 stitched stripsTurn the tubes, so the right sides are out, and press them with the seam in the center back.
flip tubes right sides outBaste down the middle of each tube.
baste down the middleFold the top and bottom edges over and stitch, by hand or machine.
finish endsLay strips out on the shirt. I decided to do three, and combine the two short pieces into one long one.
strips laid outPin the top of each strip to the shirt neck. I pinned the right side of the top strip upside down at the V point of the shirt.
pin strips at topThen gather the strips by gently pulling the underthread of the basting. Pin as you gather. When you get to the bottom, fold the edge under.
gather strips and pin in place
All three are pinned and ready to be sewn.
strips gathered and pinnedStitch down the center of each strip.
stitch pinned strips in place
As if leopard could get better!
