The Simple Poppy

Stash Construction

 

    This has to be a quick post because we had a foot of snow last night and already our internet has lost its pulse for hours only to be revived for probably a ridiculously short time. All I can say is that I spent all yesterday, during the icy blizzard looking at real estate in Athens, Georgia. Man, were the houses adorable. How I miss you, the South. Wait for me, as soon as I can wrangle up a good job and hog tie my man up and throw him in the moving van, I’ll be there!

    Alright, enough silliness. As I have mentioned before, as a crafty (like a fox, yo!) artistic person, I have to get a hold on my supplies, or my stash. I haven’t got a problem with anything but fabric at this moment. My pledge to myself was not that I wouldn’t buy any new fabric, since I like to make my own clothes when I can and if I need something (or it has been sent down from on high to tempt me) I will buy it. But it was that if I need to make something and I can use my stash if at all possible, I will. My ultimate goal is to be stashless. I know that this is considered a great sin in the crafter’s world, a world where countless dressers and bookshelves are turned into permanent condominiums for glorious yarns and fabrics. I find that while pretty to look at, it is completely overwhelming to me. I mean, I love wood, but I wouldn't want to have a  pile of mahogany to look at and fawn over without actually making it into something. Same with fabric. I wouldn’t mind having on hand some wonder fabric I was compelled to buy, along with a few supplies, but I don’t want to be hoarding enough fabric to whip up enough burial shrouds for the population of a small village.

     So this is my first installment of my Stash Contruction. I plan on posting items I’ve made from my stash under this category until I’m stashless. First up, keeping in mind what Miss Minimalist says about modules in my mind, I sewed some little drawstring bags for my toddler's toys. I don’t like to keep her toys in the original boxes because they often take up more space than is necessary, and they don’t hold up well. I used to use Ziploc bags, but I haven’t bough plastic bags in. . .3 or 4 years now, so I needed some other recourse. Enter the stash.

    Everything came from the stash even though aesthetically I would have much preferred linen tape for the drawstring as opposed to polyester ribbon, but ribbon is what I had. Below is what I'm trying to corral.

 

 

    So far these bags have been great. We aren't losing so many tiny pieces under the couch because they have a good place to go rather than a dump site. Also, this makes it far more difficult for the toddler to take the toy bag out and dump its entire contents on the floor like a kind of toy Armageddon and then casually walk away to play with a damn shoebox. Yes, this way she has to choose a bag and open it. So much better.

 

    I'm going to make more for my eldest's legos and I'm even thinking about doing some for their socks and underwear. I find that their drawers seem to be barfing these items up everywhere - might be handy to keep them enclosed.

    Keep warm!

 

Linky, Linky

 

    Hoo Boy. This week got away from me. There's a lesson in there that I should listen to. Sorry about the light posting, but I have a few good posts slated for next week that I hope will redeem me.

    Every week I come across the wonderful, strange, and some just plain goodness on the internet. And I don't always share it, but I should. I'm not restricting myself to passing along any one kind of link, these are all over the place. Because seriously, who really only thinks about minimalism or environmentalism ALL THE TIME?

 

 If you like to make any of your own skincare or household cleaners, you should check out Crunchy Betty. She even has free, printable recipe cards of some of her best recipes.

25 Freen Printable Recipe Cards - Merry Early Crunchmas!

 

Barb at Happy Simple lets us know that we too, can shoo the guilt monster away after reducing our commitments. Might need some help on that.

Feel the Guilt and Say No Anyway

 

 

Sticking it to the man, the minimalist way, courtesy of Miss Minimalist.

 A Short Guide to Consumer Disobedience

 

 

I LOVE this idea - forgoing the giant, twee, diaper bag for an adorable and simplified little kit. It makes so much sense and if you can sew a straight line you can probably make this.

Making On-The-Go-Baby-Change-Kits

 

 

If you are ever feeling like a lowbrow, tv watching, car driving, stationary, good for nothing who will never attain the lofty and high ideals of the minimalist gods, read this post! It's a totally refreshing and honest perspective from The Everyday Minimalist. I have to say this is my favourite post ever of hers, because I can almost picture her shrugging and saying, "So I'm a minimalist. No big deal."  I like that she doesn't feel that being a minimalist somehow makes her super special. Or incredibly self actualized. Even though she probably is :)

Is Minimalism Just a Fad?

 

 

 Who doesn't like to end something by laughing? If you do, and your humour is weird, do go and visit Gary and Elaine. This is for all of you who have ever picked up a catalog and wondered why the hell there was a giant bowl of broken twigs and a round glass ball on the coffee table or some such other decor nonsense.

Catalog Living

 

Enjoy your weekend!

 

 

 

Bits and Pieces

    It's rainy and cold here on the East Coast. Last week we had humid days in the 90's, and now this. Sigh.

 I just purchased this  set of books written by well known minimalist bloggers around the net with some (or all? not sure about that) of the proceeds being given to Kiva, a micro-lending company, so basically a really good cause. And because it's promising to be rainy all week, and I now have lots of reading material, that's what I'm going to do. I'll be letting you know how I like everything.

Dropped off all my culled books yesterday at a used bookstore. It  was a mildly frustrating experience. My books are in excellent condition because I'm weird about that, the woman even commented on their good condition. After a good 45 minutes of her looking through them all and checking some prices on them while we shuffled around the small shop with the kids in tow, she offered me $75 in store credit or $37 in cash. What? I was a little angry at myself for not asking if their "buy back" policy had strings attached and annoyed that she didn't mention it. After all that I just took the money because I'm not about to buy $75 more in books after purging all that I had.  If I had more time and space I would have done it differently, probably selling them on Amazon for far more than I got, but since space is at a premium and I absolutely don't have the patience to not only list the items but to then send them out individually, dumping them all in one place was a good alternative.

 My luck didn't hold out with the potty training. Little Red Chili is doing really well, but when she's tired, which is about half the day, now that she is refusing naps, or mad and screaming, she pretty much loses control. Why am I telling you this boring mom stuff? Well, it's a good segue in my next topic. Sewing.

I have realized that Little Red Chili definitely does not have enough pants with all these accidents happening. And I have many,  far too many bins of fabric just moldering down there in the basement. So I'm making the intention to sew at least one thing, small or large, for us or as a gift, every week until my stash is under control. By under control I mean almost non-existent, but I'd settle for one small bin rather than the embarrassing number of bins down there now. Ultimately, I'd prefer to be stash-less, purchasing only what I absolutely know I will use immediately, but anything less than what I currently have now would be better and the girls both need clothes for the cooler weather - now is the time.

I'm off to make soup to combat the rainy cold blues and then read some (hopefully) inspirational material about people living awesome lives with a lot less!

All photos from: http://www.sxc.hu/

(Blasted!) Room Shoes

 

  Anyone who has ever made something has been there -it could be cooking, sewing, drawing, carpentry- that moment when you are pretty sure this...this THING, whatever it is, will not work out. And you sit back, heave a pained sigh, and wonder whether you should, indeed, soldier on and finish regardless of less than desirable results, or just chuck it and put it far, far away from yourself.

    I am having one of those moments. I have wanted to make "room shoes" for a long time. We don't wear shoes in the house at all, but sometimes I have a hankering for a little more structure and warmth than socks can give. Enter the Japanese "room shoe." This is a shoe worn inside, essentially a slipper, but less frumpy. There are many incredibly cute Japanese patterns for room shoes and now I've tried two of them. The first time I made a room shoe. Yes, singular. It was at the point where I had made one and tried it on that I knew I'd made a grave mistake. My foot, inside the room shoe, looked like a flattened, but giant, cloven hoof. It was shapeless. It was puffy. It was disgusting. It did not look anything like petite Japanese feet in shapely slippers. I was so disappointed. I was also resolved to try it again because I want these these shoes. 

    So, after last week's incredible colds, teething, night-waking, nap-boycotting, yelling, thrashing, de-cluttering upheaval, and sniveling to myself in bed while watching Fawlty Towers, I finally sat down to bang this out. And I got to almost the exact same point when I realized that this too was going to be a big old failure. Dang.

    I cannot even bear to post pictures. I had taken out some of the padding because last time they were so overly padded it looked like my foot was being swallowed by a pillow. Now they look deflated, sad, limp. And they don't fit. I know Japanese patterns run small because Japanese people run small, my aunt tops out at 4' 10, and I think she's pretty average. This pattern seems huge and it's a medium.  I might, might try to salvage this once my frustration is forgotten, but for right now, I'm on to other things.  I certainly hope others are having more success with their sewing than I am right now!

                                                                          

Denim Skirt - Reworked

  They're a  little out of focus - but great for an 8 year old wielding a dslr!

     I finished my skirt. I added four darts, two in front and in back, a narrow strip to the bottom to make it long enough, and took off the pockets. Now it's just a plain denim skirt rather than a fabulous, cargo- pocketed linen skirt. I'll be trying that again when the weather is warmer and I have some linen.
    I like the length because it is so warm. Then I started falling over every single baby gate in the house. Which is a big problem because I have to cross a baby gate approximately 1,623 times a day. I might end up having to pin my skirt up between my legs like a grape crusher from the days of yore and go around wearing a giant, balloon looking loincloth hiked up around my knees.

I put a lapped, hand pricked zipper in because these look so nice. They look even nicer when your hand sewing skills are better than mine.

 

    The skirt was certainly long enough unhemmed, but most emphatically too short when hemmed. And not cool dorky, with striped socks, cat eye glasses, and doc martens (am I totally dating myself here?) but  ill fitting Cat Lady dorky. With capitals. Because we all love lower case cat ladies. My esteemed sister has been and would like to be again a lower case cat lady. Anyway. I cut two strips, one matching the front, the other the back , plus seam allowance, sewed the sides together, turned them and attached them to the bottom of the skirt. Then I top-stitched it.

   

    I had to add fairly big darts to pull in all the extra fabric around the waist, and actually had to take them out and make them longer after the first time because there was still excess fabric. I think they could have been even longer, but at that point I was DONE.

    This is the first clothing pattern I've drafted from a Japanese sewing book and I'm really impressed with how well it came together. The actual paper patterns I've used have turned out well, but I was a bit worried about not having a pattern. I didn't need to; any problem I had was my fault, and the end product has really great lines. I will definitely be making more skirts from this book.

Denim isn't Linen. Sigh.

 

  I had originally wanted to make this skirt exactly how it is pictured in this gorgeous, Japanese pattern book for skirts. Then I just got antsy to make the skirt and pulled out some denim. I figured it would be warmer and I already had it on hand, both excellent points as it's in the 20's, and I'm not going out just to replenish my linen supply, as worthy a cause as it may be.

    So I'm happy drafting this skirt. There are no patterns in this book, just directions on how to draft the skirts using your own measurements. Then I get to the sewing part, which I'm less adept at, but everything is coming together; it's not a difficult pattern. I start on the pockets, which aren't necessarily easy, but I sew on one and  try on the skirt.  

      And wow,  I look like some weird, military, Eastern Bloc version of Mother Hubbard, who is trundling down a dusty road with, perhaps, a Kalashnikov rifle, as well as some doggie treats hiding in the enormous, storage pockets on the sides of her unfashionably colored denim skirt. Gah. Even The Simple Man, who is usually very diplomatic , nay, even encouraging, when it comes to my sewing, ventured some raised eyebrows and a tentative, "Aren't those pockets...a little big?" Ya think?

    And that wasn't the only problem with it! I drafted it to be low slung because I never draft anything to my waist. My waist is so high that if I actually wore anything on it, it would give new meaning to the term "mom jeans." I am the original empire waist. So the skirt is low riding, intended to be worn with a cool belt. But that won't be possible because my feeble sewing machine cannot sew through the multiple layers of denim needed to attach belt loops. So the waist is way too big and must be taken in and pulled up, which now means that the skirt hemmed, will be a high water and not an ankle skimmer. Dang.

 

    Friends, I'm ripping those pockets off. But not before taking some photos for posterity. I have no idea why the pockets look so cool and lend just that touch of edginess to the skirt, but on me they scream, "CAT LADY! CAT LADY!"  Maybe I'm too much of a gnome to pull off big pockets. Could be the denim. Could be those Eastern Bloc genes (kidding! I mean, it could be, but I think not) Could be I didn't draft it right because I missed something in Japanese, and I don't read Japanese.

    Whatever it is, I was going to throw in the towel I was so frustrated. Especially after doing all that work. But I'm not - I'm going to take in the waist, take off the pockets, and somehow find a way to make it longer even when hemmed. Dang again.

Keeping Warm

    We've been trying to keep the temperature pretty low, especially at night. I'm not going to say how low, because I'm totally ashamed that it isn't lower, but it's as low as I can put it without some of us being all whiny. And it is cold. We live in a rowhome (if you're fancy or want to sell your house, it's a townhouse) that's connected to other houses on each side. I think these houses were built in the 20's or 30's and apparently, there was no such thing as insulation back then. We have very poor insulation here and our neighbors just moved so we aren't getting any heat from that side of the house right now either.

    The Simple Man and I aren't opposed to sleeping encased in many layers of clothing. Pumpkin is a different matter. Like many children, she is adamantly and vociferously opposed to wearing a hat. Especially to bed. Luckily she runs very hot. But I still made her a neckwarmer to wear to bed. I'd call it a cowl, but she thinks I'm saying "towel" every time I say it.

   

 

I desperately wanted to knit one (or several) this winter. I spent many hours on Ravelry downloading awesome patterns only to discover that my new knitting skills are not up to par. In fact, I have yet to knit anything well, not even a dishcloth. Then I remembered seeing a sewn cowl somewhere and decided to just  resort to the sewing machine, and it came out pretty well. The exterior layer is denim and cotton print, the inner layer cotton batting, and next to the skin is a white cotton knit. I go in there at night and she's got this thing pulled up over her face, so I'm guessing she likes it.

The Stash Busting Commences

Fabric toy bucket. I didn't use interfacing, just batting, so it's foldable when not in use. As if that will ever happen.

Little Red Chilli's toys were getting out of hand. I keep a small pile of them downstairs for immediate distraction purposes and they were all over the place. I considered a basket, but decided against that based on the destruction she wrought on a certain overpriced rattan chair. I'm also trying to not buy any unnecessary plastic, or else I would've fed my addiction to those plastic Rubbermaid totes that are on sale everywhere after Christmas. They beckon you with promises of organization until you have 15 of them in your basement, filled with junk (or fabric), and your husband is staging an intervention. Not that I know anything about that. Ahem. So I took the opportunity to dig around in those totes, er, and do a little stash busting at the same time. I have a Japanese craft book filled with home sewing ideas and I made a little fabric bucket out of their pattern.

Last year my mom brought Pumpkin some fabric to make doll bedding for her cradle. We never got around to it, so this weekend I did some frantic ravaging in the aforementioned totes and found it. We made a very simple quilt and pillow. It turned out well and she was happy. 

               

 

Now if I can keep up this level of productivity, those dang totes might be empty sooner rather than later and it would make The Simple Man very happy. Because, you know, there would be more room for tools. Which we need. We need a lot more room for tools in this house. Definitely. Lots and lots of tools.

The 2010 List

    I'm not making any resolutions. That doesn't mean, though, that I don't have ideas about what I want to accomplish in the new year, particularly since I don't have a tiny baby this year. So I'm going to make a list of what I'd like to do and learn this year, with the emphasis on making my family's life more sustainable. And making things. I like handmade.

Potatoes, peanuts, and sweet potatoes from last year

Sustainability

1. Worm composting bin (The Simple Man thinks this is gross, AND the basement is his domain, so I don’t know if this will work)

2.Use cloth bags for bulk and produce

3.Start making my own soap - I've done this before and it came out great, but I haven't made any in years

4. Air dry laundry when possible

5. Use the French Intensive gardening method  on my yard, which is a meager 10 x 12 

Crafting

1. Learn how to knit better

2. Grade all my sewing patterns for my size so they'll be ready when I want them

3. Make myself an entire wardrobe

4. Use up my fabric stash - I know a lot of people love their stashes, but frankly, I just feel like it's more "things" and it makes me anxious. 'Cause I'm weird like that.

Really, I also want to learn woodworking and make a...bench, but I'm having a hard time getting around my fear of power tools, especially after working in a shop with a girl WHO CUT HER FINGER OFF with a bandsaw. Also, every time I mention this desire to The Simple Man, I can see that he is secretly amused, presumably with the image of me actually trying to make something, and it puts me off. Maybe this year.