On vacation...

Perhaps I should have warned you, we were on vacation for a couple of weeks!
Can you tell where?

Bean mirror/cloud gate?

Intelligentsia coffee, mittens, building with gold on the peak?





CHICAGO!

Envelope Clutch Tutorial!

This is the project I sent to Mara in her care-package. I typed it out on my old typewriter ($.250 at a church garage sale 9 years ago- still works perfectly!), which looks great- but unfortunately I forgot to type it out on the computer as well, so she had to send me the instructions... oops.

So, first, cut out your pieces.

1. 3 envelope shaped pieces- 12" along bottom, 18" high (think on folding it in thirds, so the peak should be 6"). Lining, interfacing and denim or something stiff.

2. 14"x 2" Strap

3.  Pocket

4. Strips, varying widths, 18' long

All the pieces

Next, fold your straps as shown in the photo, then fold in half and sew closed. Leave the short edges raw. Fold the pocket in half, right sides together, and sew almost all the way around the three open sides,  leaving enough space to flip it right side out. Press and top stitch just one long edge.

Folding the strap, preparing pocket

 Pin the pocket to lining.  If you put on middle third, top of pocket points up to peak.  If on bottom third, top of pocket points DOWN!  Sew pocket to lining, leaving topstitched side open.

Place pocket

Sew pocket on to liner. Mind the direction!

For the front of the purse, we will use the string quilt method.  Place your first strip right side down on the denim, just off center.  Sew, leaving 3/8" seam allowance.  Flip it over and press.

Starting the strip pieced quilt

 Take your next strip and place right side down, raw edge aligned with raw edge of first strip.  Sew, then flip second strip right side out and press.  So now your first strips just be neatly sewn under on both sides, and your second strip has one neat, one raw edge.  Repeat these steps until you reach one end, then go to the other side from the first strip.  You could also just start on one end, I was just taught from the middle....When all your strips are done, trim the excess, using the lining as a template.  Optional extra would be to topstitch the strips down.  I find it just looks a bit more polished, but it isn't structurally necessary. 

Second strip

Third Strip

Fourth Strip. Continue this way.

Trim the edges

Almost done!  Place your lining right side up.  Place strap so the raw edges are about 1cm past the raw edges of lining (strap is on top of lining, not hanging outside).  Place the main part on top, right side down.  You now have a purse sandwich, with the folded strap as the filling.  Pin around the edge.  Starting at the strap, sew all the way around the edge, 3/8" seam allowance, and finish about 3-4" before you get to the strap.  Clip the corners so that they are not bunchy.  

Purse sandwich, how to add the strap

again!

Flip right side out. Press.  Topstitch just the shorter side.  Now fold your envelope purse into thirds, and sew starting at a bottom corner, going up the side, around the point, down the other side.  Don't topstitch the very bottom of purse though.

Top stitch the bottom (short straight side)

Fold, sew up sides and topstitch around peak

Take a ribbon long enough to wind around the purse a few times, and sew just about the peak.  Sew a cute button on top of those stitches and Voila! Vous avez fini!

Add button and ribbon, rickrack, lace etc.

The only problem with this purse is that as a stay at home him, I generally have way too much stuff to carry around. It's fun to make though, and sometime I will use it!

what to do with these toilet paper rolls?!

Toilet paper rolls have to pile up in everyone's house (it can't just be us, right?).  I have a dazzling array of them sitting on a shelf in my bathroom awaiting the promise of being transformed in some super fun art project.  Most of the time they don't...but alas, this time JP decided to take charge and initiated this crafty session with his girl.  (I even saw the idea up on pinterest on his computer - he would deny it though).

They began with making monsters using up our scrap paper, felt-y bits and ribbon.  It was a use your imagination-go-crazy sort of session.  The second thing they created were owls.  JP depressed the top middle of the paper roll, which resulted in two little owl ears.  They coloured them in, added eyes and glued all sorts of accessories.   

Voila!  The fruits of their artsy afternoon together while I spent a glorious hour knitting on the couch, dropping in on their conversation.  Of course, we have many more rolls to make a whole village of owls or monsters....

Enburi Festival

While JP was in Korea this weekend coaching hockey, Szerafina and I made the most of the winter weather and local festivities.  We did a lot of this, walking and digging our way through the snow piles.

Here are some photos of The Enburi Festival.  Enburi is a well know celebration, distinctive to this north eastern region that we live in.  In traditional Japanese folk culture, people believed prayer and dance performance brought a rich rice harvest.  This is a modern rendition of the ancient ritual of honouring the sacred rice crop - the most important crop in the country.

Horses are also important figures in this region.  Thus, the dancers wear decorated horse head caps to symbolise rice harvests where peasant and horse become one.

The dancers and costumes were quite spectacular, and I found myself becoming overcome with emotion.  I felt the sacredness of the movements, the drumming and chanting of the people.   Rice is still considered to be the most important self sustaining crop of the country. In fact the word for meal is 'gohan' which literally translates to 'rice'.

Szerafina and I hung around as spectator for about an hour before the snow made its way into our boots and mittens.  We opted to find some lunch and hot tea, and ended a lovely day by finding some vintage cashmere scarfs (score for Mamma!!).  

Vintage Kimono Love

Kimono in Japan are magical, ceremonial and worth thousands of yen.  There are many different types of fabric and detailing, but the real deal is always costly. These here lovely pieces are second hand, purchased for the equivalent of 5 Canadian dollars.  They were probably worn as 'everyday' kimono because they aren't very fancy, but i love the prints and feel of each of them.

My big scheming dream is to learn how to transform these beauties into summer frocks or otherwise wearable dresses.  There is also a lot of room to play with extra fabric (the huge sleeves and the bottom) so I can use the extra pieces for purses, quilting....who knows what else!  The creative possibilities are endless and it has me reeling for more, more!  But i'll hold off (promise) until I can figure out what to to with them.

Firstly, I'm using some of the fabric on the clutch that I'm working on (from Nicole's tutorial).  I'll take pictures and post on that soon.  Thrifting in Japan is such a goldmine, as everything is so well made and Japanese typically enjoy turning over their wares frequently.  I'm just beginning to learn about where to find nice fabric and collect ideas on what to do with it.

We Got Mail!

And trust me, that's exciting in these parts.  All those Japanese flyers are tough to read, you know.  This was a perfect little package made for sweet little us with love - from Nicole and Lena!  I was totally stoked to find something in there for me too, a sewing tutorial!

I'm a total novice when it comes to sewing (like I just pick something and go at it, youtube as I go). I'd love to take a proper course or class some day when I'm in the 'Big City' and opportunity presents, but in the meantime, I'm happy enough to muddle my way through and see what turns up.  It takes me a while to figure out the lingo and get the project going (all that cutting and ironing?!) but once I do, I feel pretty smug.  This tutorial is for a 'Entirely Impractical Purse', as Nicole calls it, but i'm super excited to use some of the fabric from the vintage kimono I scored a few weeks ago (more on that in another post).

Szerafina received a Cafe Alphabet game.  It's really versatile and can be worked on in so many ways.  It began as a cutting extravaganza, then morphed into matching the first letter of the pictured word with the upper case alphabet letter.  The activity also comes with the lower case letters, so we worked on matching the 'big' and 'little' letters, because 'They're not all the same!' don't ya know.   It was good practice since Szerafina doesn't recognise all the lower case letters yet.  In the future, we could use the letters to spell out the words attached to the picture.  She (this daughter of mine) was also eager to create the 'healthy!' version of the cafe game, where we draw or cut out our own whole foods.  I like it!

Here I run the risk of veering off into tangent land (because we mentioned the topic of food...and you know, i'm kinda into that). Especially food and children.  If I haven't said it before, i'll confess it now, we're kinda food snobs around here. We like to eat local, seasonal, whole-from-scratch and organic when humanly possible grub.   My day revolves around what I cook for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Add in the time to eat and do dishes...and well, that's a fair chunk of my day.  I believe in it, we live it and it won't likely change. HOWEVER. We love to travel, try foods from all over the world and would never turn something down made with love and soul.  Just the other night we had a hankering for Japanese noodles and these delectable dumplings called Gyoza...and it was the night before our organic delivery box, so fridge scraps were running bare.  What am I saying?  That we do keep an open mind and open heart and don't 'shut in' to live an idealistic life in a bubble.   I think it's all about perspective and thinking 'big picture'.

Another example (because you asked, right?) is that I accompany Szerafina to a parent and child Japanese preschool two mornings a week.  It's fabulous, she loves it undeniably and blows me away with her ability to interact and pick up the Japanese language like it's nobody's business.  The kids, teacher and social interaction (for both of us) is desperately needed.  The catch?  Snack time.  The worst possible cookies, cakes, donuts and crackers are served.  I spent the first two months in quiet anxiety as my 'perfect' girl gobbled it up and everyone wondered if I fed her at all.  I've been able to make some peace with the idea that...a few sugary treats will not spoil my loin fruit.  And the reality is, she eats so darn well at home that the occasional 'fall off the wagon' or 'real life eating' may eliminate later food issues in life related to what's 'good' and what's 'bad'.  All this to say...that the cafe game is based on sweet treats :)  But we love it and it's great for play, a wonderful teaching tool and a reminder to keep it 'real'.

A big THANK-YOU to our girls Nicole and Lena!! We will have so much fun returning the activity love real soon.

Something to look into

I've been checking out this site, and it makes me feel awesome:

http://www.bettymeansbusiness.com/about-betty/