Upcycle Update

I haven't been sewing much, because for some reason at 9:15 every night my body has been going into a coma and I fall asleep, ne'er to be seen again until 6:30 when the evil ones come in and jump on the my head and the clink of the coffee cup on my bedside warns me of impending doom.  I've been feeling quite joyful and peaceful, lately, too, so maybe it's all that happiness that's wearing me out.  Not sure.  Also, been working a lot.

BUT I have been drooling over a few holiday catalogs (the usuals:  anthropologie, garnet hill, sundance, j.crew) whose clothing I cannot afford.  Plus, I have a genetic aversion to buying expensive clothes new.  The craving is still there, though, especially for all the bright, sparkly things in fall line-ups this year.  I want I want I want!  Me want sparkles!  I'm like a fish that way.  Bright, sparkly, hook, frying pan.  That's me.

So as the girls were taking their bath last night and E. monitored election results (yay for Hickenlooper!  Yay for Brown!), I attacked with scissors and a rotary cutter a sequined evening gown my grandmother sent me last year and sewed these big sequiny flowers onto an Old Navy tee.  Took about 12 minutes.

Sparkly!

That seems to be my pose, the arms akimbo thing, eh?  You must be weary of it.  How about another shot?

Hard to give you a close-up without it being a total boob shot, but here we go:

Boobs!

Anyway, you can feel bad for the sequined gown if you like, but it was totally Falcon Crest--big shoulders, shaped like a sack.  It deserved to get hacked.  Plus, it's a ton of material and will service many reJuJu tees in the future, I'm sure.

I think this gives me awesome professorial pizzazz, don't you?

I almost wrote pizzass.  Which I also have some of.

Make Shirts From Shower Curtains

I love bossing you guys around.

Here's another shower curtain shirt.

Sorry again for the bad photos.  My mac enables me to both work much harder than I used to and be really lazy at blogging.

Anyway, picked the shower curtain up at a yard sale today for a buck.  Had these pretty cut-outs on it and so I just copied this shirt, which you may remember:

It's a good style for layering with cardis and the like, and you can whip it up in about fifteen minutes (I'm wearing mine to E's gig tonight--Hankfest 2010!).  Plus, you can say you made it from a shower curtain.  It's like a wet t-shirt contest without the wetness.  Awesome.

Getting Along

Hey there, friends.

I'm getting along.  It's the third week of the semester already, and I've survived Nolie's school being closed for ten days, E. getting completely ripped at a baseball game, three soccer practices and two soccer games, one of my best friends being hospitalized for a horrible leg-break (you wouldn't believe her story if I told you), E. getting the stomach flu, Nolie having a fever reaction to immunizations, countless faculty meetings, a wretched trip to the urologist (I'm fine, though I don't know if my hoo-ha will recover), a backyard campout with four dogs, six kids, and six sleepless, drunk adults, and a bunch of other crap I won't bore you with.

When I say I needed a chocolate milkshake today, I mean it.  I finished that thing in about thirty seconds.  The rip in my heart mended just a wee bit as a result, so it's worth whatever cardio nonsense I have to do to make up for it.

I have been finding the need to sew and make a few little extras here and there.  Seems like the more stressed I get, the more I make stuff.  When I'm happy, me no sew.  I haven't had time to take good pictures, though, so I'll just show you these crappy pictures and you'll have to use your imaginations.  Imagine me brilliant and gorgeous and without eye wrinkles, would you?

This one here is a brooding photo I took on the mac at night, so the light is creepy.  I'm not intentionally frowning and pulling back my cheeks:  it's just all I could muster at the end of a long day.  Focus instead on the headband.  I got joshed for trying to look like the Karate Kid the other night, but I think what that person meant to say is that this was a gorgeous piece of headgear.  Next.

This is not intended to be just a picture of my knock-knocks but rather of a shirt I embroidered ages ago. It's not backwards in real life.  It says, "I Roll Fat Bobbins."

I crack myself up.

I also made that necklace.  I thought I was hot shit for wearing two things I made at the same time.  Next.

Less of a boob shot on this one.  Trying to get a shot of the denim beaded cuff, but it turned out too dark.  Here's a wee close-up:

Also, who ordered those under-eye wrinkles?  Were those in the J. Crew catalog?  Did they come from Amazon?  I don't remember paying for those, and yet there they are.

Cue the violins.  Here's the piece de resistance:

That's right.  Bucking bronco jammie shorts.  You may now die and go to heaven.

Enjoy this brilliant post.  I'm off to teach class.

I'm Taking a Break

Not from blogging.  You would never be so lucky!

Nope, I'm taking a break from reJuJu.

See, I haven't been interested in sewing for weeks now.  Knitting either.  Which is pretty weird for me, yeah?

And I've been thinking, maybe it's because it became something else I had to do.  Another item in a long to-do list.  The stores needed stuff to sell, and I had to make that stuff.  Needed, had to.  Not my favorite words, always.

I've also been thinking that it's because I started thinking more about what I thought would sell than what I felt like making.  I know it shouldn't have affected me, but it just sort of quashed my creativity.  I don't totally understand this, but it happened.

For example, this crazy ruffled tee is probably too out there to sell in either store:

It's a little rugby-meets-beauty pageant.  But I really liked making it.  It felt silly and creative and exciting.  I haven't felt that feeling in a while.

The new semester is starting, too, with lots of new projects on the horizon.  I feel reinvigorated by work and don't need to grasp at other career ideas so much (not that reJuJu was a career.  More of a career-fantasy, maybe).  The kids are playing soccer and having playdates and starting school.  I like snuggling with Eric and watching Tosh.0 at night.  I want sewing to be something I get to do and not something I have to do.

I'll miss that little bit of spending money I earned, but in the end, if I'm choosing between how I spend my time and how I spend my money, I guess I'm more interested in time.

I sound a little defensive.  I guess I'm afraid of quitting, and part of me feels like I'm quitting.  But mostly I know I'm not.  I know I'm just taking a break, giving myself a break, and that's just the right medicine.

Birthday Clara

Like every other sewing mama out there, I'm in love with the book Weekend Sewing, which contains the pattern for this "Clara" doll. This one's for our buddy Scout, who's celebrating her third birthday today. Pretty cute, yeah? And made her in an evening or so. What's not to like?

(H/T to Dandelion Bones for first cluing me in to Weekend Sewing, and this great pattern :)).

Side thought: Clara also does not have a neck, like some other anorexic turtles I know.

Double side thought: The Dalai Lama would say I've developed an attachment to that particular criticism, at this point, and that I should find a way to let it go. Dishing it out, taking it, yadda.

Also, I think we need a new camera. What do you think?

Pillowcase Dresses...

And finally, little pillowcase dresses, good for summer, swinging, and twirling...