cristae

farewell to blogging

2011-07-18T15:12:00.002-05:00

“She came tonight as I sat alone, the girl I used to be…
And she gazed at me with her earnest eye and questioned reproachfully;
Have you forgotten the many plans and hopes that I had for you?
The career, the splendid fame, and all the wonderful things to do?
Where is the mansion of stately height with all of its gardens rare?
The silken robes that I dreamed for you and the jewels in your hair?
And as she spoke, I was very sad for I wanted her pleased with me…
This slender girl from the shadowy past, the girl that I used to be.
So gently rising, I took her hand, and guided her up the stair.
Where peacefully sleeping, my babies lay innocent, sweet, and fair.
And I told her that these are my only gems, and precious they are to me;
That silken robe is my motherhood of costly simplicity.
And my mansion of stately height is love, and the only career I know
Is serving each day in these sheltered walls for the dear ones who come and go.
And as I spoke to my shadowy guest, she smiled through her tears at me.
And I saw that the woman that I am now, pleased the girl I used to be.
- Author Unknown

Owls

2011-06-05T21:39:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I was asked to do a comission project: a mobile for a nursery. A friend of a friend wanted one and... long story short now I'm making her one. I'd never made any owls before, only birds from the Spool pattern. But I found some super cute illustrations of owls for inspiration and made my own pattern and came up with this! Here is my test bird and I think she turned out so cute.

I just did an outline of the body with an elliptical shape on the bottom so it can sit. The wings are quilted and then hot glued onto the body, as are the felt eyes and beak. It's a great way to mix and match fabrics.

The mobile is for a boy and I was sent fabrics they had picked out. Just a word of advice, if you ever do a comission piece, always have the person pick out their fabric. There is no chance you will ever agree on colors, patterns, anything. Trust me.

I had never balanced sticks in a tier pattern before. That was an interesting learning curve. I finally realized that each stick needed a tripod of fishing line to balance, at least the way I did it.

I made 3 extra owls for a diaper cake they wanted to decorate. And then a flat version for a bib decoration.

I really am satisfied with how they came out.

Now I know what you're thinking... You should sell these! Sorry, I've had enough owl sewing to last at least a year. But let me encourage you to make your own stuffed creatures--it's really a lot easier than it looks!

Smocked Dresses

2011-05-27T21:24:00.003-05:00

I decided to try using elastic thread to make a smocked/shirred dress for my daughter to wear this summer. I followed Dana's instructions from her blog MADE. Both versions I made were from tank tops that don't fit me very well. This blue one was too big for me, and is consequently too big around for my daughter. The yellow tanktop is too small for me, and the dress came out too small for her too!

Using a tank top instead of starting from scratch made the project take less than 45 minutes to make. I am not kidding, start to finish was under 45 minutes--and that was the first time I'd ever used elastic thread in my machine!

Just cut off the straps, turn down the top edge, do your shirring, make a big hem, then sew the straps back on only much shorter. Super easy! And super cute! Can you believe I haven't taken a picture of her in it yet?

I ended up giving the yellow one to a friend whose daughter is smaller than mine. And the blue one looks fine, she just has some room to grow.

I'm really contemplating making a shirred dress for myself, but I'm trying to figure out how to prevent it from looking too juvenile. Any ideas on an adult version?

Painting

2011-04-18T09:00:00.000-05:00

I was teaching Gustav Klimt's portrait art to my junior high class last fall and was inspired to paint a family portrait just for fun. When I was teaching my students, I really stressed Klimt's style of blending the person with the background. So I had a little fun with this one. Can you tell I was lazy and didn't want to paint the rest of the table?

I looked up some old fashioned family portraits for inspiration, this was one of my favorites. I staged a photo session to use for reference. I wanted us to look like an old-fashioned family, but not from a specific time period. Just sometime in the 1800's. I wore my wedding dress and put a huge comforter underneath to poof it out. I might try another family portrait in a couple of years in another artist's style. Maybe N.C. Wyeth...

Color Workshop

2011-04-11T09:13:00.000-05:00

Our guild hosted another workshop on the most popular topic in the weaving world: color! Our instructor was Ruby Leslie and her topic was how weave structure effects visual color blending. We all brought our own loom set up with a specific weave structure (all different ones) and then had a round robin weave-a-thon so that everyone got to weave each of the different structures.

Ruby did an excellent job explaining the different structures and their effects on color. The possibilities really are endless since you can change your vertical (warp) stripes and your horizontal (weft) color. She has done an incredible amount of sampling and research and was highly qualified to teach on this subject. I learned so much!

We were able to take home all of the samples we wove. Here are the two versions of plaid that I just loved. I would never think of putting these colors together, but they really are a beautiful combination. As much as I hate hot pink, that one stripe really brings it together!

This sample was really fun to weave. It is an 8-shaft advancing twill pattern--something I can't do on my 4-shaft loom.

This is the weave structure from my loom, called "bumberet". I had never seen anything like it before. It forms a sort of chain in rows and looks really nice with lots of warp stripes. My weft in this was just the medium green.

If you ever have the chance to take a weaving workshop, don't pass it up! You get so much knowledge and extra tips. In addition to all the workshop information, I learned how to tie a weaver's knot (very helpful for my next project). And I learned how to stop weaving in the middle of a project to cut off what you've woven and then be able to start right back up again. Those two tips were worth the price of the class!

Sewing with Handwoven Fabric

2011-04-04T08:25:00.003-05:00

Here are a few highlights of my process. The main problems with handwoven fabric come from its loose and unstable state compared to store-bought fabric. First of all, the edges ravel almost immediately after cutting and so they must be secured as soon as possible. I have used a serger before on handwoven, but those were all rather straight edges. I cut out a test piece, one part of the sleeve, and serged it. As you can see in the photo above, compared to the pattern, it has been skewed out of shape by the serging. I was actually able to stretch it back into the right size and use it, but it was a good indicator that serging was out for this project.

I would highly recommend using as large of a table for cutting as possible. I used to just lay fabric out on the floor to cut, but that is a huge pain--mostly for your back!

I ended up doing two things to stabilize and secure the edges. After cutting out all of the pieces, I fused very thin interfacing strips along every cut edge. This worked wonderfully to prevent the fabric from becoming pulled out of shape, and it kept the fraying to a minimum while I was working with it.

Here you can see how different the fabric looks after pressing, compared to unpressed. It was extremely shiny after pressing. Because of that, I did as little pressing of the finished garment that I could.

The other finishing technique I used was to cover all the raw edges inside with bias tape. This makes the inside look very clean and neat, and it prevents any sort of fraying. The only drawback is that the already somewhat bulky seams are now bulkier. Surprisingly, it's not visibly noticeable, only when you're wearing it do you notice.

My other tip for the day is: follow directions and stay-stitch the neckline! I don't know about you, but I always skipped stay-stitching. It seems like such a worthless step if you're going to sew it anyway, right? Well, remember my stretched out/wonky neckline on the brown version of this? I did not change the pattern at all, I just stay-stiched it and my neckline came out perfect. Live and learn!

Do you have a sewing tip that's either a short cut or something you've learned cannot be skipped? Share it with us!

Inheritance Dress

2011-03-20T16:45:00.003-05:00

It's finished and my entry form is submitted! Whew!

I'll post details about making it soon. Below is my artist's statement.

I feel the need to make clothing that tells a story. When I wear a garment, I imagine places I could travel to and adventures I could have in it. In my Inheritance dress, I can picture myself climbing ancient trees somewhere in Europe, maybe I’m sailing the Mediterranean… Although I might imagine incredible adventures about this garment, I will still wear it in my normal, everyday life. Clothing that is made to wear in everyday life, yet has a unique and extraordinary quality is what excites me. I could make an evening gown, but I couldn’t wear it whenever I felt like taking a walk down the street. I find myself embracing Anita Mayer’s idea of wearing something magical and unique every day.

There is something magical about the word inheritance. It conjures up thoughts of finding a hidden treasure; like a gift of something ancient. At first glance the fabric seems plain, but it has a surprising subtlety of iridescence that gives rich depth to the cloth. Like it could have been from a royal robe unearthed after centuries. For me this ancient gift takes the form of a new life through faith in Jesus Christ. I have recently been studying with my church Paul’s letter to the Colossians and this passage had an impression on me: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Being so immersed in making clothing, I am always intrigued by the role of clothing in the Bible. During our discussion, we talked about the ancient custom of putting on a new garment when receiving an inheritance. Believers in Christ have been made God’s children and thus receive His inheritance, so we put on the new clothing of serving Him with joy. When I wear this garment, I want to be encouraged to show compassion and kindness, no matter what adventures life brings. I want to be reminded of the hidden beauty of God’s kingdom and my identity in Him. That is the real story being told every day.

Pattern making

2011-03-03T09:06:00.002-06:00

I'm trying pattern making again. Of course I'm self-taught so it's all a guessing game and past results have not been pretty. Ah, the challenge! This time is different because I'm using a shirt/tunic that I own to "rub" the pattern from.

I absolutely love this tunic. It goes with everything. It can be dressed up or down. And best of all, I can nurse the baby in it because of those handy buttons in front. I can't remember if I've ranted on here before about how my wardrobe pre-baby was all pull over dresses and, well, that just doesn't work when you're nursing. So this was a great find last summer and I want to duplicate it with my handwoven fabric.

Making this pattern has been very time consuming. In the picture above you can see the three different versions of the front bodice, from left to right, 1) traced from the flat garment, 2) traced on the dressform, 3) combined the two and retraced on the dressform. I was checking and rechecking the measurements--"measure twice, cut once" turned into measure 50 times, cut once.

Here is a "mock-up" that I made to check my pattern fit from fabric I had laying around. It came out surprisingly well with one major problem. As you can see in the above picture, the neckline is completely stretched out and wonky. And the button placket is not centered at all! Sometimes I will make the buttons off center on purpose.... this was not on purpose.

The best thing about this pattern is that it isn't precisely fitted. The back has a tie that cinches and makes the front tight. That made getting the fit right a lot easier.

I still haven't gotten the neckline quite right. I'm wondering if it was the bias tape stretching it and because I didn't stay-stitch it like you're supposed to. Any thoughts on getting necklines to behave?

Stay tuned for the handwoven version of this... it's in progress!

Cloth

2011-02-25T10:37:00.003-06:00

I wish you could reach through your computer screen and feel my cloth. It is by far my favorite thing I've woven just because of the sumptuous texture. It drapes beautifully and feels like a textured silk. All 3 1/2 yards of it!

Washing it was different than I usually treat handwoven items. I have sewed with machine made tencel fabric before and so I knew that if you let it drip dry it feels like cardboard. But if you put it in the dryer--voila!--it turns into the loveliest softness.

I tried to capture the iridescence in this picture. I can tell the fabric is a little warp-faced (meaning more of the warp is showing than the weft) since the brown is definitely in the "background" and the blue is dominant. I still would have liked a darker coffee brown better, but it's too late to fix that so... stop thinking about it, right?

Now, on to the sewing!

Fabric!

2011-02-02T12:12:00.003-06:00

Winter has been busy! I've begun a new weaving project which will end up being yardage for a garment to be entered in this garment contest at Handwoven magazine. Whew... I'm worn out just writing about it. Considering I started working on this before Thanksgiving, it's taking longer than usual, although Christmas kind of got in the way of working on it.

I wanted to share some of the things I'm doing differently with this project to help it go more smoothly than the tartan did. First of all I got myself a lamp to clip on the loom, as you can see in the picture. Don't underestimate the importance of lighting!

This is a shot of the main cloth, it's one of the treadling patterns from a German Bird's Eye (in Marguerite Davison's book). The warp is this bold royal blue (the closest thing I could find to what I wanted--still not happy) in 8/2 tencel. The weft is a medium cardboard brown--the only brown tencel I could find anywhere! My original color ideas were completely different and I'm still not completely satisfied with this combination... but I didn't want to bore you with my 3 month thought process on colors. Do you ever have difficulty picking color combinations? Do you have trouble finding the color, that elusive perfect shade that does not exist? I do.

One thing that I learned from weaving the tartan cloth was making sturdy selvedges to prevent warp threads from breaking. Here you can see this green 5/2 perle cotton on my selvedge. I put a good 1/2 inch of it doubled up so there is no chance of the tencel being rubbed and snapped. With a 30 inch wide warp, this is essential since it will be drawing in to around 27 inches.

The other plan for this project is that I will be able to tie on to the warp threads again after I cut off the fabric. Basically that means I won't have to take each thread and put it through the reed and the heddles again, I'll just have to tie a new thread on to the old ones. Another reason why I chose the German Bird's Eye pattern--it has 5 different treadling patterns. In the picture above you can see what you get when you do the plain weave treadling. It's sort of a plain weave with a group of 3 every 1/2 inch or so.

Kilt

2010-10-17T07:44:00.005-05:00

It's finally done. Woven and sewn by hand. I have to say I'm actually pretty excited that it came out so well. I really was not expecting it to. I wore it to the Weavers Guild meeting last week and they snapped these pictures for me. (Yes, matching those stripes was pretty tedious.)

I would never have been able to sew it correctly if I hadn't been able to borrow a book from a fellow guild member--thanks Wendy! The Art of Kiltmaking by Barbara Tewksbury was wonderfully written and easy to follow. I have to say two things about using the book: 1) I think she is a little basting-happy. Pins work just as well for about half of the times she has you baste. 2) I am very glad I was working with my fluffy handwoven cloth and not some finer machine woven cloth--none of my stitches show because they just kind of get covered up by the yarn. I am a horribly messy and inconsistent hand-stitcher and it would look pretty awful if you could see all my stitches.

I also got to wear it to our annual dance performance at the Renaissance Festival. Let me just say, this skirt is absolutely amazing to dance in. It swishes really high and twirls wonderfully--every girl's dream right? I took the baby with me and she had her own "wee-kilt" and bonnet to wear. She was the star of the show of course. Her kilt was made as a gift by Wendy, it's in the Campbell tartan in case you're wondering.

I am so glad I spent all that time to make this kilt (2 months!), but would I ever do it again? Probably not. If you're interested in making your own kilt, it's very straightforward to sew. I would definitely sew one again, but I would buy the cloth instead of weaving it. The book estimates that a first-time kiltmaker will spend 40 hours sewing one. I think I did it in around 20 hours. (Maybe it's because I skipped all that basting!)

Do you have any projects that took forever, but were worth it in the end? Or not worth it?

Tartan Cloth

2010-09-14T21:39:00.003-05:00

Yes, I am finally done weaving my tartan cloth. All 6 1/2 yards of it. Every night for the past week I've said to myself, I'll get it done tonight. Well, I finished it this morning. I just had to take a crazy lady picture because I really was going a little crazy thinking it would never be done. Between color changes every inch or so, warp threads snapping constantly, and a teething baby... let's just say it was not progressing very quickly.

Here it is before I cut it off of the loom. I think this is the first thing I've woven that I am completely satisfied with. The picture doesn't do the colors justice.

Now the loom looks sad and empty, but I'm only half way through. Now I have to tackle the daunting task of tailoring a kilt out of the cloth. You might not hear from me for a few more weeks, but definitely check back because I have to have it sewn before October.

Tartan... the beginning

2010-08-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

I have just jumped off the diving board into the deep end of a huge project that I've wanted to weave for at least three years.... tartan cloth! I designed my own tartan based off of my triangle shawl, since I like the color combination so much. My family name doesn't have a tartan, so I figured making one up was even more fun. It wasn't until after I'd designed it that I realized most tartans are symmetrical. Oh well!

At this point I have all of my warp threads measured, chained, and they are threaded through my reed on the loom. All 900 of them! I'm only half way through the set up process. Next I'll be threading them through the heddles to set up the twill pattern.

My goal is to have it woven before my group dances at our Renaissance Festival the first weekend in October. Ideally, this will be a kilt. But I don't have high hopes since the fabric might be too thick to pleat and wear without sweating to death. We'll see how it turns out I guess. I'm so excited!

Pouches

2010-08-17T10:02:00.002-05:00

I have been a busy bee working on all kinds of projects, which is why I haven't had time to post recently. These are going to be Christmas presents for some friends of mine this year. They are from a wonderful and super easy tutorial I found on noodlehead. She did an excellent job with the instructions. The only trouble I had was with the zipper end-covers getting sewn down. But by the fourth one, I was a pro!

The fabric strips on the front of these was a handwoven sampler that I cut up. I originally used the sampler as a practice weaving in my kids fiber art class last year. I wasn't sure what it would become, but I thought it was the perfect accent on these pouches.

This golden twill pattern is the same project as the green diamonds, only woven in a different order. Lots of weaving patterns will give different results depending on the order you raise the threads in.

If you're a sewer, this project is perfect for fabric scraps. You can create all kinds of different effects by mixing and matching. Mine are very subdued, but you could definitely do some bright and spunky ones.

Coverlet

2010-07-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

Remember last year about this time... I had just put a project on the loom at Missouri Town (a historical site I volunteer at). Well, it's finally finished. I stitched the two halves down the middle to make one big blanket and hemmed the two ends.

If you've ever read the Kirsten series of American Girl books, it's about Swedish immigrants in 1855, and one of them talks about her mother weaving the coverlets for their beds and thinking that the idea of quilts is strange. So that's what this coverlet would be, a scandinavian type of bed covering.

It's just the right size for a child's trundle bed. Now it's on display in the downstairs bedroom at the tavern. The best part is that it looks like it belongs in the room. It looks just as old as the actual artifacts. It feels good to have completed a project.

Warped

2010-07-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

A loom always looks better when it's dressed. I finally got my first project on the new loom and started weaving today. I had forgotten how fast the actual weaving part goes once you get past the set up. I already have two towels done!

I'm using an "undulating herringbone" pattern that I've been wanting to try for years. I'm so pleased with how it's coming out--and I didn't make any threading mistakes, hooray!

Of course, now I'm already planning two more projects. And these are much more complicated than towels. More on that later.

Christmas in July

2010-07-06T09:25:00.006-05:00

My first loom was given to me by a woman in the Weavers Guild who had seven other looms in her house. She'd gotten this one at a garage sale for $200. The story was that it belonged to someone's great aunt in Alaska, then went to the niece in California, then somehow to another relative here in Missouri. It hadn't been used in at least 40 years. It's solid cherry and works well, but has some annoying glitches that need to be fixed by someone who knows what they're doing. I wove 3 or 4 projects on it, but they were all narrow--scarves or belts. (I didn't weave the one hanging on it.)

This year, my husband told me I could start looking for a used loom for my Christmas present--the type I wanted to weave yardage on, a Swedish style loom. I started looking around and within a month found this one. It is exactly what I wanted, a Glimakra 4-shaft with a 40" weaving width. If you look closely, you can see it's set up differently than my old one, which is an American style jack loom. If you ever are interested in buying a loom, I would highly recommend getting a used one. There are lots of people who think they're going to weave and never end up using a brand new loom. I paid less than half the price of a new one for this loom.

There are several perks to a Swedish style loom. First of all, a lot of things are adjustable including the bench height, the beater height and position, and the treadle (pedal) height. All that adjusting makes it easier on your body while weaving. It also has cloth heddles instead of metal ones, so no more "clank-clank-bang" noise--very important since I'll probably be weaving when the baby is asleep. Also, it's set up to produce a finer cloth with a tighter weave structure, which is what I'm wanting to do.

I've already started warping my first project: towels. Yes, towels. I never thought I'd waste my time making something like this, but I needed a quick sampler project that I wouldn't mind if it got ruined just to figure out the mechanics of the loom. I had a hard time resisting the urge to jump in and put a 40" wide, 5 yard long warp on right away. But then I actually started thinking about Christmas presents and decided to kill two birds with one stone and do a sampler project that would work for presents too. Thus, Christmas in July, for me and my relatives who will receive the towels. I'm also going to try a new pattern called "undulating herringbone" that I've been wanting to do ever since I started weaving. Hopefully I'll be posting woven towels on here in a month or so, if the baby is cooperative and lets me work on it!

Have you ever made a project that you weren't interested in? Did it end up being worthwhile or not?

skirts

2010-06-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

This is the first skirt I ever made. It is an airline blanket that I took with me to the Cornerstone Music Festival, back in the summer of 2001. It was extremely hot and, out of desperation and a newfound hatred of shorts, I sewed this skirt with a sewing kit someone from the next campsite had. It is probably still my favorite skirt even though it looks pretty junky. It's certainly gotten enough wear these past nine years! (wow, I'm old.)

If the airline blanket skirt is my favorite, my brown circle skirt is definitely second favorite. I found this vintage brown linen at a garage sale about four years ago and made my first circle skirt. As you can see, the hemline is very uneven, in fact it's not really a line at all! I did not really know what I was doing and so the sides are shorter than the front and back. But, if you know me, you know that doesn't bother me one bit. I think this is the main reason I've stuck with sewing for so long. When most people would get frustrated and rip something out, I would just say, "eh, it looks fine" and wear it. I have definitely come a long way though...

Here's a close-up of the tie and button to keep the opening closed. (notice the sloppy stitching)

And here is my next attempt at a circle skirt, which as you can see has an even hemline--hooray! I think this one is only two years old. But it doesn't get worn as often because everything goes with brown, and not everything goes with this blue.

So, the point of this post is two-fold:

1) Don't let yourself get overly frustrated if you're learning to sew. If you are, do one of two things, either stop sewing and come back to the project some other day (I do this a lot!) or just say to yourself, "no one else will notice this mistake, so I'm not going to care." and just leave it. (I know I'm making some of you cringe.)

2)I absolutely love and adore circle skirts because they are extremely easy to make and they're very full without having gathers. So I thought I would post a simple tutorial here sometime before the end of summer. Believe me, if you make a circle skirt, you'll fall in love too!

Do you have a favorite skirt? What style is it? What makes you love it?

wrap skirt

2010-06-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

A friend and I went in together and bought Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing. This skirt is from the book and is actually on the front cover. I really like how it came out, and it's perfect for summer.

Unfortunately, I have to say that the pattern's instructions are not written correctly. The directions call for 6 panels of the skirt for the medium size--well, that does not fit around my waist, much less overlap itself. Of course I just got some more material and cut out 2 more panels. I also had to lengthen the waistband/tie. But I can see a beginning sewer having a real issue with this. I'm sure Heather Ross knows what she's doing. It seems like a lot of patterns get written wrong in the editing process of a book or magazine--how frustrating!

Have any of you run into this? Do you ever find yourself reading a store-bought pattern and think the people who wrote it were on drugs? I do!

dream-dress

2010-06-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

I got this dress from Anthropologie as my birthday present a few weeks ago. I almost didn't buy it because it was strapless, but there were secret little straps hiding in a bag clipped to the tag! And it's in linen!

My usual reason to go to Anthropologie is to get inspiration for clothing designs. I have actually only bought something from there one other time, and both of these things have been on the sale rack. But my philosophy on expensive clothing is: if I would spend lots of money on the fabric and hours of my time trying to make it and then fail--then it's worth it to spend a little money for a nice piece of clothing. And this dress is definitely the type of fitted bodice and full skirt style that I've been trying versions of for years and never getting right.

Another great clothing philosophy is that you can always find something sort-of-okay and alter it to be better and unique. I did this a lot in college with thrift-store finds. Two of my favorite dresses in college were both from the maternity section, and all I did was take them in to be fitted. Have you ever altered something that wasn't great and made it a favorite?

What are your "clothing philosophies"?

matryoshka

2010-06-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

Yes, these are knitted nesting dolls! I randomly came across a book in the library

called Itty Bitty Toys. It has wonderful ideas for knitted toys and they are very straightforward. I couldn't resist making these cute matryoshka, and they were incredibly fast to make. The best part--the baby was entertained by watching the knitting needles!

dirndl variation

2010-05-31T08:00:00.000-05:00

This is another project started during pregnancy and not completed until after the baby was born. In hindsight, I don't think my belly would have fit under the waistline, even though I made it higher. The way it turned out reminds me a little of a regency-style dress.

My mother-in-law bought me the amazing fabric at a store in St. Louis--it's a linen and silk blend. Just heavenly in texture! I would make everything out of this if I could. The pattern is from Folkwear, a traditional Austrian dirndl that I changed a lot to get this result.

What is a dirndl? Basically a type of dress that is sleeveless and buttons in the front with a full skirt, although there are several variations on it. I fell in love with the style while watching Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. I'd really like to make one with a dropped waist like she wears in the movie.

Here is a close-up of the main alterations to the pattern. I added in a lot of width to the bodice front so I could make these nice pleats. I also tried a hand-made button hole technique learned last summer at the weaving conference--it worked really well! The light purple edging and button holes are done using the blanket stitch, which is very easy. I also didn't make the skirt very full. It's basically an A-line with pleats in the front.

chinese-style robe

2010-05-24T20:39:00.002-05:00

This project was actually started last summer as something to wear during my pregnancy, but I didn't finish the embroidery until the week after the baby was born! So now it just needs a belt to cinch in the waist. The material is blue linen with a white linen facing, and then just white cotton embroidery thread.

The pattern, from Folkwear, was extremely easy. I did do a few things differently than the instructions though. The trim is supposed to be a thick band of contrast material, but I turned this to the inside as a facing and just left a thin piping edge showing. The overlap of the robe is traditionally fastened with "frog" closures, but I couldn't find any--and I was snapping so many onesies on the baby that I thought snaps would work well, and they do! The belt was also an addition to the pattern. The best part about this is that I can easily unsnap it to nurse the baby. (Alas, much of my wardrobe is unwearable right now because of the need for nursing access.)

If I made another one, I would probably use a looser, more drapey fabric. The linen is a little stiff.

Bird Mobile

2010-05-03T13:24:00.002-05:00

This is one of the few hand-made things that I thought would be worthwhile for a baby. The birds were amazingly easy and quick. The branch is cut and hung easily too--this one is from our crabapple tree. I really like the organic shapes of the branch and birds together, whether a baby knows what they are or not it's nice for me to look at!

The pattern is from Spool and there is a huge flickr pool of ideas.

It was really fun going to my favorite fabric store (Sarah's in Lawrence, KS) and picking out all the different colors. I bought fat quarters of every color and only used about 1/6 of each piece, so I'm trying to decide on another project to use them with.

This bird is one I made for a friend who just had her baby. The two-color combinations are endless.

Here's a picture I took of what the baby sees lying in the crib. And to my delight, I actually caught her looking and cooing at them the other morning--yay, it works!

And if you don't know any babies to make them for, I thought they'd look great on a Christmas tree or even as a wall decoration in the house. (I'll probably be making more of them at some point for one or both of these purposes.)

Do you know of any super-quick-and-easy projects like this? It seems like good ones are hard to find.

Excuses...

2010-03-31T15:03:00.003-05:00

I really do have a good excuse for the long absence:

Our daughter, Galena Rose, was born March 13 at 2:17 pm, 8 lbs 6 oz, 20 1/2 inches long. We've been pretty busy just enjoying her company.

I do have lots of projects to post about, so hopefully I'll get to that soon.

Student Projects

2010-01-21T14:07:00.002-06:00

My fiber art students (at the homeschool co-op where I teach) have just finished weaving their drawstring tapestry bags. They had a lot of fun with the color combinations of their stripes, and the bags all came out beautifully.

The project is from a wonderful book, Kids Weaving, by Sarah Swett. All you need is a piece of cardboard cut to the size that you want your bag. The best thing about the project is that the bag is woven all in one piece around the cardboard, and the drawstring slits are woven in--so there's no sewing or finishing needed besides tucking in loose tails of yarn. The book has a lot of other great beginner weaving projects too.

This bag is almost done, she's just beginning to make the slits for the drawstring to pass through. The students much preferred using a tapestry needle to weave, rather than just their fingers. Several girls have already started making another bag at home, they enjoyed it so much.

During the work time in class, students also took turns weaving on a rigid heddle loom. Everyone had a chance to practice using it, and the result was a pretty blue and white scarf that will go to the winner of the drawing.

World Crafts Village

2009-12-26T15:10:00.007-06:00

Every year for Christmas, my mother-in-law asks me what I'd like from World Crafts Village, a nonprofit organization that supports artisans around the world by selling their handcrafted products. Most of the artisans are combating poverty, and World Crafts allows them to recieve fair trade prices for their work. I really enjoy reading the short descriptions of each group that makes a certain item. They have all kinds of stuff from all over the world.

This year I asked for some embroidered Christmas ornaments from Yunnan, China. I love the blue on white. We don't have very many ornaments for our tree yet, and these are really nice ones.

I'd been wanting this Turkish bowl set for a few years and was so surprised to receive it. I have a thing for handmade bowls, not mugs or plates or anything else--just bowls. I love the colors and detailed designs on these handpainted ones. (They're so nice, I'm almost afraid to use them!) The information that came with the bowls said that they're the type people have used for thousands of years to serve finger foods to guests, such as olives, nuts, and dates.

This tote's design is called the "Doors of Aceh", which represent the opening of Indonesia to the rest of the world. I'm planning on using it as my "mom purse" after the baby is born, since it's a lot bigger than the one I use now. I think the common theme in what I like about ethnic designs is the complexity and attention to detail. Most of the textiles and pottery of modern America is so plain and unadorned--it makes me appreciate the intricacy found in other culture's traditional style.

So, if you're into handmade stuff from other countries, or need ideas for presents--this is the place to go. They have items for any price range, I think the most expensive thing is the $200 Turkish area rug with a Mount Ararat design on it--amazing. (Maybe I'll save up all my Christmas money for that one next year.)

last-minute presents

2009-12-26T14:41:00.003-06:00

I made three pairs of these slippers for friends that have cold wooden floors in their houses. I looked at a few different slipper patterns and ideas, but ended up making my own pattern and figuring out solutions to various problems that came up.

They are surprisingly easy to make and, since I did 3 sets of them and am now an expert, I'm hoping to put together a tutorial to post in a few weeks.

This is a close-up shot of an upside-down slipper. I wanted to show the sole, which is covered in a thin layer of silicone. I read online that it's a great way to make the slippers have traction, so they won't slip on smooth floors. I was a little unsure about spreading silicone on a nicely finished slipper, but it works wonderfully!

While we drove to St. Louis to see my husband's family for Christmas, I decided it was a good time to knit these fingerless mitts for a friend of mine. She has four children and mentioned once that she can't wear gloves because she's always dealing with carseat buckles and zippers and things she needs tactile ability for. So I thought she could at least keep her wrists and palms warm with some fingerless mitts, even if her fingers are still exposed. I used the Lovisa pattern from ravelry, but changed a lot of it. I made them shorter, used only one color, added ribbing at the two ends, and actually had to start over with 10 less stitches than the pattern because they were huge. (I must have had the wrong gauge or something.) But they came out nicely.

We had a white Christmas here in Kansas City, it's been snowing for two days now. I wish I could get a good picture of it. There's just nothing more contenting in the winter time than to knit or weave by the fire and watch the snowflakes coming down in thick flakes outside.

Christmas Projects

2009-12-06T16:15:00.005-06:00

Here's a few things I've been working on for Christmas presents. First, a wrist pincushion using an offset square that I found a sewing tutorial for on Planet June's blog. (She gave excellent instructions!) This is for one of my co-workers who does a lot of sewing for Missouri Town. It was an extremely easy and quick project, and I really like the unique shape.

Next, a pillow for our annual Weavers Guild gift exchange. This year the theme was rectangles. I'd seen a pillow in a department store last year that was decorated with strips of different ribbons, and of course I thought, I could do that! The gift exchange can be anything sewn, woven, felted, etc., and I chose the easy route this year. If you're going to weave something, it's much better to have extra from an earlier project, since last-minute weaving doesn't really work.

Also, these baby oxen are a present for my other friend from Missouri Town (the ox-driver). I'm using the lamb pattern I made last summer and will eventually give them needle-felted horns and spots. I'll be sure to post a finished picture.

Of course, I have at least 4 other projects going that need to be finished in the next two weeks, so hopefully they will get done in time!

Do you have any great handmade Christmas presents that you've either given or recieved?

Christmas Cards

2009-11-20T15:28:00.004-06:00

Wow, it's been too long! Sorry about the lack of posts lately. The only thing I've been working on is printing Christmas cards. I usually carve a lino-block and use it to print my cards every year. It's so easy and rewarding, and fun to come up with a new design. I also like the not-so-perfect look of the prints, it gives it an old fashioned effect.

As far as lino-blocks go, I definitely recommend the sturdier, thin gray material over the "easy-cut" thicker, usually tan material. The easy cut is thicker and definitely cuts easier, but is extremely easy to break in half when you're handling it during printing.

For some reason I usually go with blue for Christmas, but this year I picked green because that's what I had the most paint of. I like the way they turned out. The only thing I would change is that I forgot to reverse the bird! I meant it to be printed facing left, but forgot about the reverse effect. Oh well.

Books

2009-10-26T15:25:00.005-05:00

It's time for some awesome book recommendations. I've been finding several amazing books lately that are just too inspiring not to share.

Weekend Sewing: More than 40 Projects and Ideas for Inspired Stitching, by Heather Ross
I usually get my craft books from the library first, to make sure I want to splurge on buying them. This one is definitely worth paying for. There are so many great ideas for projects in here and they range from beginner to advanced. The amazing thing is, even the beginner projects caught my interest. There are just too many cool ideas to pass this one up. I even liked her suggestions for setting up a sewing space, which I finally have room for now!

Woven Treasures: One of a Kind Bags with Folk Weaving Techniques, by Sara Lamb
If you are interested in weaving, this is the book for you! She has some amazing projects to try all different types of weaving. There are two reasons the projects in this book are so great: 1) They are all bags, so they're useful, giftable, and straightforward to make. 2) Every project is done on the same loom: a rigid heddle loom. This is the perfect starter loom, very inexpensive and easy to use but with a wide variety of potential projects. I can't wait to try some of these bags!

Carefree Clothes for Girls, by Junko Okawa
Okay, so I haven't actually seen the inside of this one (or the next one) yet. But they just came out in English, and what I have seen of this one looks so fun to make! I'm expecting my first girl and I just can't wait to make her some dresses.

Felting for Baby, by Saori Yamazaki
How cool is this? I just love felting, and what better way to satisfy the urge to felt than a nice small project for baby! I'm sure the gifting possibilities are endless with these projects too.

Happy reading!

Gallery Show

2009-10-22T16:59:00.003-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I've been moving into a new house and getting ready for this:

I am so excited to have a gallery show! The silk paintings I made are very large and it just doesn't seem right for them to only hang in my house. If you are in the KC area, come check out the gallery for First Fridays in November!
Here is another of my panels and the write up for the show.

Suspended Narrative
Stories in Silk and Oil

Delicate silk paintings flowing with soft lines contrast with hard edged oil paintings and prints with intense color combinations. On the surface, the artwork created by Christy L. Berry and Steph Toth Kates seems curiously dissimilar at first glance. But dig a little deeper and the connection becomes clear. Both artists collect visual imagery from familiar stories and guide the viewer into a reflection of their personal connection with these tales.

Kates draws her imagery from fairytale and myth. Like myth, her paintings seek answers from a confusing universe, but on a more intimate level. They are interior landscapes – delving into remote inner corners where body and conciousness combine, exploring ideas of the body as a universe and a home. Inhabiting this inner expanse are animals familiar from children's storybooks along with cells, veins and neurons lifted from medical diagrams.

Berry’s silk paintings also reinterpret familiar stories. She draws her inspiration from Biblical passages – capturing fleeting moments in dream-like condensed images on voluminous silk panels. The women in her silks are both a self-portrait and a universal figure forming metaphors concerning the soul. Colors and lines flow and evoke the sense of an unexpected memory.

Stories twine throughout this exhibit – sometimes recognizable, sometimes just touching on a familiar cord but always inviting viewers to explore and impart their own memory, dream or experience into the narrative.

Updates

2009-10-09T07:33:00.004-05:00

It was such a busy day at Missouri Town that this is the only picture I got of the weaving project. Unfortunately, you can't see the front where the pattern is. It was really fun demonstrating; there were so many people interested in the weaving process. The hard part was remembering where I was in the pattern sequence while talking to people. Needless to say, I had to unweave several times! I only got half way done, but when I finish and take it off the loom I will post more pictures. (Note the shawl and arm-warmers, it was chilly!)

Last week, my younger students felted balls and sticks and sewed them together to make little animals. This one is still getting its face stitched on. They had a lot of fun with it and were surprisingly good at the sewing part.

Here are students needle-felting. If you are looking for a super easy way to embellish, try needle-felting. It's instant gratification and no mess. The kids loved the "stabbing" motion, and thankfully only one needle was broken!

Close-up of a face in progress. She's felting very safely: foam underneath the project, pencil to hold in place (not fingers), and stabbing straight up and down.

And lastly, we spent all day Tuesday making apple butter. If my husband wasn't so motivated, I don't know if I would do it every year, but the end result is always worth it. This year we actually made twice as much as usual, which means more to share with friends!

Mother-In-Law's Dress

2009-09-24T07:35:00.000-05:00

A few months ago, my in-laws came to visit and I was wearing this dress. My mother-in-law liked it so much she asked me if I could make her one. She wanted a few things different like the color and thickness of the material and the length of the skirt and sleeves. It's such an easy pattern that I agreed.

I didn't end up finding the right fabric until we visited them again in St. Louis and we went fabric shopping together. There is this wonderful little fabric shop in Kirkwood called Sew It Seams. I was drooling over half of the fabrics in the store--lots of linen-silk blends, tencel, fine wools, and cool woven structures like herringbone. We decided on a lovely sage green tencel twill that fit both the requirements: it had a good drape and it wasn't see-through.

The printed pattern is one I borrowed from an Anthropologie blouse about 3 years ago. I'm very pleased I was able to use the print blocks again, and they're still in good condition despite being carved from the easy-cut stuff which typically breaks easily.

The hard part of this dress was the printing of the design. It's a little nerve-racking trying to line up each one and print the whole hem and sleeves evenly. It also took me longer than I remembered.

The finished product. It would look much better if I had a picture of her wearing it, but I got a call from her yesterday that she'd received it and it fit quite well. If I get a picture of her in it, I'll have to post it.

Just a note on sewing for other people: If someone wants a very specific thing made for them and it's fitted at all--good luck with that. I have had several experiences making fitted bodice dresses for friends that went very wrong and were very frustrating on both sides. It probably attests to my lack of sewing skills to fit people other than myself, but I would caution anyone considering a complex project for a friend. I agreed to this project because it was not fitted, was a very loose shift dress, and because I had made the pattern before and knew it was super easy.
Do you have any interesting stories about making things for other people?

Student Felting

2009-09-19T16:49:00.003-05:00

I teach art at a homeschool co-op and this year there was enough interest to offer a fiber art class. One of the first processes we're doing is felting. The students hand-felted a small sample piece in class first. Now we're doing a group felting effort on two large pieces that will be cut apart to make slippers or bags.

I laid out the wool at home on bamboo blinds (hardware removed), put a support cloth on either side of the wool to keep it stable, and then rolled it all up to take to class.

Usually 3 layers of wool roving is laid out, alternating the direction of the fibers. This roving seemed extra fluffy and thick, and I have a track record of making felt too thick, so I only did two layers.

At class, we went outside to the parking lot, unrolled the dry bundles and sprinkled hot, soapy water evenly over the wool. The bundles were then rolled back up tightly and secured with twine. Here are the girls taking turns felting with their feet.

The basic idea is that you step on the roll up and down one side, then turn it a quarter turn and step some more. Keep turning and stepping and about every 10 minutes unroll it and flip the felt before rolling it back up, to give even pressure. You can also sprinkle on more hot water to help the shrinking process. When it's good and felted, take it off of the cloth and dunk it in hot water, scrub it and mash it around to give it a final sturdy finish.

Things I learned from teaching this:

teenagers get bored of manual labor quickly
talking is distracting from learning good felting techniques
an hour is not enough time to felt a large piece

I took the rolls home and finished the felting myself, which didn't take too long, maybe 3 hours. The felt actually came out quite nicely, except for a few thin spots.

Weaving 101: Starting to Weave

2009-09-05T09:20:00.007-05:00

No matter what pattern you're weaving, you usually weave what's called a header in plain weave for one or two inches. This spaces out your warp threads evenly and can be used as a hem later. Here I've woven the header in the same cream as the warp.

My shuttle is ready to start the pattern in blue. A shuttle is what carries your weft thread back and forth through the shed (see previous post). It should be easy to throw through the shed with one hand. They come in various sizes and styles, but this one is a pretty normal model.

(I read that the word shuttle is original to weaving and later came to stand for anything that carries back and forth--such as a bus shuttle or a space shuttle. Interesting!)

Winding the bobbin is the same concept as when using a sewing machine, only you're probably going to do it by hand. Depending on how thick your yarn is, you'll have to stop weaving periodically and refill your bobbin. If you're weaving with more than one color, you'll probably have two bobbins in two shuttles going at the same time.

Here I've started weaving the main pattern. I haven't even gotten more than an inch done and I can already tell there's a problem with a certain area. Thankfully most of it looks quite pretty.

Squint your eyes when you look at this picture and you'll see what the pattern is supposed to look like.

Compare with this picture--I'm not just missing a thread here, it's also a skip in the pattern.

At this point, you grumble to yourself and rethread the heddles to fix the pattern. Bleck. Interestingly, this is the first time I've had to correct a problem this bad.

There won't be any more Weaving 101 posts until after October 4th. After I fix the pattern mistake, I'll save the main part of weaving for the Missouri Town Fall Festival. If anyone is in the Kansas City area, come by and see me demonstrating weaving the first weekend in October.

whoops

2009-08-29T16:10:00.001-05:00

My apologies for the pictures with no text, I had a blogging goof!

Weaving 101: Checking Pattern

2009-08-29T08:00:00.001-05:00

The last part of the pattern set up is called the "Tie Up" (not to be confused with tying on). The tie up is diagrammed in your weaving pattern, it's the little square box with X's in the corner (see previous post). It tells you which shaft of heddles to attach to which pedal, or treadle (tred-le). This picture shows the treadles. The white strings coming down are detachable and you use these to determine which treadle will operate which combination of heddle shafts. All that means is: it makes your pattern come out.

When you push on a treadle with your foot (these are under the loom by the way), it raises whatever heddle shafts you've attached to it. So if you were just doing regular plain weave (over-under-over-under), you would only need 2 treadles: one to raise half of the threads, the other to raise the other half. I'm doing a twill, so I have the 2 left ones for plain weave and the 4 right ones for the twill pattern.

This is what happens when I press a treadle: half of the threads are raised and the other half stay down. This side view shows what's called the shed, it's a nice open space for your weft thread to go through.

Checking the pattern is important incase you have a threading error. I had one thread out of place that I had to fix (I'll spare you the details). This picture shows a close-up with my weft thread after 2 passes through the shed. It's just plain weave and should be the over-under pattern.

Weaving 101: Tying On

2009-08-27T08:00:00.001-05:00

Now that I've wound on all the warp length, I'm ready to tie the front ends to the front beam. Here the picture shows the ends after I've cut the loops, hanging ready to be tied.

Starting to tie on to the front beam. Always start with the outsides so that your beam is held out and won't wobble (it wobbles if you start in the center). Then move in to the center one group of threads at a time, alternating sides. The knot is the same as on the back beam.

Here all the threads are neatly tied across the front beam. Notice the tail length, it's a little bit long, but is easier to tie that way.

Lastly, check the tension of your threads. Tension is very important, so tweaking it until you're satisfied is important before you start weaving. The goal is to get all the threads with the same even tension. I always have trouble with the two side groups being loose, so I usually go back and tighten everything, leaving the sides for last.

Weaving 101: Winding on the Warp

2009-08-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

After all of the heddles have been threaded, the yarn can be tied onto the back beam in small groups. The back beam is a rod that secures the threads, but also enables them to be wound and unwound from the back. This means you can have your threads a lot longer than just the length of your loom frame.

Note how messy this looks, especially on the left side. The threads are all technically in order and going through the reed and the heddles straight, but once on the back side the order gets slightly mixed up when tying onto the back beam. This is not a problem, it is normal.

A close-up shot of how to tie the knot around the back beam. You take a group of threads, bring the group over the back beam, then split the group in half and bring the two halves up and around on either side of itself. Then just tie a square knot. This method will prevent any chance of the knot slipping when you put tension on the threads. (I tried overhand knots once--not a good idea!) It's important that your thread ends are all about the same length at this point, it will make the rest of the process at the front much easier.

Here is the whole loom just before I start winding. The ends of the threads are tied onto the back beam and pass through the heddles, then the reed, and come out the front. You can see there is quite a lot of length to wind on just lying on the floor, still in its warp chain form. When I start winding onto the loom, the thread will move onto the back and be wrapped around another rod.

Here I've started winding on. This shows the back with the threads all nice and orderly going around the second rod. You can see the handle to turn it around at the bottom of the picture. Also note the brown paper being rolled at the same time. If you don't use some sort of paper in between the threads, you'll have major problems. The paper keeps the different layers seperated. Notice that the threads look nice and not messy anymore; they're being spaced out evenly by the reed and heddles they pass through

Periodically when winding on, you have to stop and untangle the threads at the front so they can feed through easily. It was very interesting working with this set of warp chains. You remember I had three separate chains. Well, the group on the left (in this picture the one at the bottom), was perfectly straight--I hardly had to untangle it at all. The center group was pretty good, it had a normal amount of tangles, but nothing too annoying.

Then, the group on the far right (see the top of this picture, behind my hand), was so incredibly tangled and messed up that I spent way too much time fussing with it to straighten it out every few inches. The cause of this is some mistake in the warp cross when I sleyed the reed. It was all out of order and twisting around itself. So, take this as a prime example of the importance of breaking up your threads into different groups, and the importance of the warp cross. If I had one big warp chain and the whole thing was that tangled, I'd probably trash it and start over.

Weaving 101: Threading the Heddles

2009-08-22T16:37:00.006-05:00

Here is the weaving draft for the pattern I'm using. It's a Swedish twill variation from A Handweaver's Pattern Book by Marguerite Davison. This book is a must-have for 4-shaft loom weaving. It's mostly overshot patterns, like this one.

I'm showing you the draft now because this is the first step where I'm using it in the loom set up. To thread the heddles, I follow the pattern of the top strip of W's and diagonals.

Heddles are these metal loops that raise and lower your threads according to the pattern. They sit in the middle of the loom, behind the reed, and are raised by foot pedals.

There are 4 shafts of heddles on this loom, and each thread must be pulled through it's own heddle on the correct shaft, in the correct order according to your draft pattern. This picture shows the succession of four threads in order, each on a different shaft, which will create one of the diagonals in the pattern. The view is from the back of the loom.

Here is a better shot of the threading in progress. You can see the reed at the top of the picture, which is the front of the loom. The threads pass through the reed, then get pulled through a heddle, and are placed out of the way on the left temporarily. To the right I have more heddles to thread. This is the longest and most tedious part of set-up. It's also very important to pay close attention to your pattern and try not to stop in the middle. I think it took me 2 1/2 hours to thread them all.

I'm almost done with set-up!

Weaving 101: Sleying the Reed

2009-08-04T13:35:00.003-05:00

Sleying the reed, pronounced slay-ing, is a short step. The first part of putting the warp threads onto the loom. This is when you need the very important warp cross keeping all of your threads in order. All you're doing is putting each thread into its own slot in the reed. The reed keeps all the threads spaced evenly and also acts as the beater when you're weaving. This top picture shows the end result. (Note that I've tied groups together temporarily on the other side of the reed to keep them from coming back out!)

Here I'm using the sley hook to pull a thread through a slot. I apologize for not getting a close-up shot. I'm inside the office at Missouri Town, which explains the costume. I'll most likely be in costume in all the following shots.

Here is the basic sleying process: first, you take one of your warp chains (that you measured previously) and find the warp cross. Place the cross in your left hand with fingers between each of the four sections of the cross. This will protect it while you're working. Then you can untie your strings holding the warp cross in place, also untie the string at the closest end of the warp chain. Then you get to cut the loop at this end (scarey!). Now you have a lot of loose ends of thread only being held in order by your precious warp cross.

Next, to start threading the reed, take the top thread from your cross and make a small loop at the end. Then use the sley hook to pull the loop through to the other side of the reed. (You can make a great sley hook from a paper-clip by just straightening it out except for one hook at the end.)

One down, 300 to go! It took me about an hour and a half to thread 300 ends through the reed. Make sure to leave a generous tail hanging through the other side, and when you finish a warp chain, tie the loose ends together in an overhand knot to prevent them from falling back out of the slots. An important thing to know when you're starting this step: once you cut the loop and have the warp cross in your hand, there's no turning back. You really can't stop in the middle of this to get up and do something, like use the restroom or answer the phone. Which is another reason to divide the warp chains instead of having one giant chain. Once you finish a chain, you can stop and come back later if you need to.

Are these instructions making sense, or is it really worthless without step-by-step illustrations? I'm just curious.

Next step: threading the heddles, which determines part of your pattern.

Weaving 101: Preparing the Warp

2009-07-29T09:43:00.003-05:00

I'm starting a new weaving project and I thought it might be nice to post the step-by-step process. (I suppose this could be either really interesting, really confusing, or really boring to different people, so be forewarned!) To explain the project, I have to give a little bit of background story first.

This summer I've been working part time at Missouri Town 1855, a historic site with old buildings and a few reenactors (nothing fancy like Williamsburg). I was hired to help mostly with the livestock (you guessed it, scooping poop) and with maintaining the gardens (weeding). But when it's too hot to work I get to dress up and interact with visitors and demonstrate things. I've been doing a lot of spinning, which I needed the practice. So, they found out I can weave. They have a loom that some donator bought, a nice new loom. Nobody has done anything with it. Would I like to do something with it?

Hence my project is born. I knew I did not want to make a boring rag rug (if you've ever been somewhere like a renaissance fest., it seems like everyone's making rag rugs.) So I thought I'd make an overshot coverlet. I'd read about pioneer women in Appalachia weaving them and so I knew they'd probably be a fit for the time period.

So here is a picture of my yarn, the white for the warp and the blue for the weft/pattern. It's a 3/2 perle cotton, which means it's one of the thicker weaving yarns and it's got some sheen to it. I get all my weaving supplies from The Yarn Barn in Lawrence, KS--I highly recommend them for supplies and help.

The first thing to do is measure the warp on my handy warping board. (Actually the first thing to do is all the mathematical calculations for how much warp and weft you need, but I'll spare you that part.) The warping board has these pegs spaced a yard apart so you can measure anywhere from 1 to 10 yards on it. This is not the only way to measure a warp, but it's the way I was taught.

I needed 300 ends of warp that were each 5 yards long. So I stood in front of my warping board and strung the yarn on for 5 yards and counted in twenties to 100. (I would recommend traditional Irish music for this activity--it gives a good beat and keeps you from getting bored.)

Here is a very important picture: the warp cross. It is the only thing keeping your strings in order, instead of in a big-huge-giant-awful mess. As you are measuring the warp onto the pegs, these two pegs at the top are close together and towards the beginning of the length. You always go over one, under the next and then opposite on the way back (yeah, that makes no sense I know)--it's pretty much a figure-8 concept just on a larger scale. Even if other stuff goes wrong when you're setting up the loom, if you still have your warp cross then not all is lost.

Here I've finished measuring 100 ends and before I can take it off the pegs, I've tied it several times with a contrasting string. This prevents it from getting tangled immediately, but more importantly, see how I have tied around the warp cross and just before and after it to make sure it doesn't get lost. If you don't tie anything else, tie the warp cross!

Here is my warp chain, just taken off of the pegs by starting at the bottom looped end and crocheting it onto itself with your hand as you slide it off of the pegs one by one. This helps keep the yarn from going crazy and it makes it a lot shorter and more manageable. Since my warp cross is tied securely, I can pull it right into the crocheted part. Because I needed 300 ends, I made three of these groupings of 100. Take my word for it, divide up your yarn unless you're doing a belt or scarf or something really skinny.

This whole process took me about an hour. When I wove 8 yards for my skirt out of really fine yarn, it took a lot longer. My next step is to start putting the warp onto the loom, which I have to do at Missouri Town. So check back for the next installment of weaving 101, and I'd love to hear your comments/questions.

Baby Gift

2009-07-16T08:00:00.001-05:00

My friend is having her baby in the next few weeks and I thought this lamb was so adorable, I just had to make it. The pattern is from an old issue of Martha Stewart Living.

The baby's name is Lydia, and in the Bible Lydia is a dyer of purple, so I made it in purple herringbone wool. I'm not sure if I like the ears embroidered, but it's kind of too late to take it back out, oh well.

The pattern is very easy and quick. The only downside is working with such a small size and lots of curves. But I've never made a stuffed animal before, and it was pretty straightforward.

I thought it looked so nice next to my blueberries!

Triangle Shawl Weaving

2009-07-09T08:00:00.001-05:00

Our weavers guild was given a triangle loom a few months ago, and no one wanted to take it home, so I did. I had some yarn that I'd received as a gift and there was just enough to make a double shawl, or poncho.

If you've never woven before, starting on a triangle loom is really fun. It's called continuous strand weaving because there isn't a separate warp and weft, it's all one yarn weaving onto itself. Because of this, there's no set-up time--you just start weaving. And it goes pretty fast, one shawl only takes about 12 hours total. (that's nothing compared to a normal weaving project!)

Here's my finished poncho, it's very warm and soft. I wove a double shawl, one right on top of the other on the frame, and then crocheted the top edges together before taking it off the loom.

I wove this one about 3 years ago at a class at Missouri Town. It's just a single shawl, and the yarn I brought to use worked out just perfectly for this beautiful plaid effect. I'd really like to duplicate this plaid in a kilt some day.

If you're looking for a quick and relatively easy weaving project, I would highly recommend triangle loom weaving!

Nerd Fest Report

2009-07-01T19:31:00.004-05:00

The Midwest Weavers Conference was awesome! Here we are in the cafeteria (at Grinell College, Iowa) nerding it up, looking at wool yarn samples. My roommate is the lady on the right, she grew up in Scotland and is incredibly interesting.

I took a two-day workshop with Anita Luvera Mayer, a pioneer in handwoven clothing. She's been weaving her own clothing since the 60's. This class was specifically about edge finishing and how to join edges without making a seam. We made a huge sample booklet while she lectured and told stories about her life as a weaver.

This is one of her current pieces that was in the gallery. She took all these old lace doilies and dyed them, then appliqued them onto the robe. She's also done a ton of beadwork on it.

She was very energetic and inspiring. A no-nonsense lady. I liked her right away and my favorite thing she told us was that there's no right or wrong way to do something in regards to sewing/weaving, if it works for you, then do it! (She's wearing white gloves because the security guy wouldn't let her touch her own piece without them.)

Here's a good shot of the back of one of her robes that was in the fashion show. She had all these square silk samples and dyed them and sewed them all together.

She's also quoted as saying that she wants to wear something unique and wonderful every day. She really puts her heart into her work, and only makes it for herself. She teaches workshops all over the country and also leads at least two fiber tours abroad a year.

Very inspiring!

(I couldn't figure out how to post more than 5 pictures at a time, so there are 3 posts about the conference that all go together.)

Gallery Highlights

2009-07-01T19:00:00.000-05:00

The gallery had mostly things that couldn't be in the fashion show. This vest was an extremely fine weave with subtle texture. Very exquisite fabric.

This was a reversible patterned scarf. I've never seen a pattern like it before.

Someone upholstered this bench with hand woven fabric! The craftsmanship is inspiring, it reminds me of the arts and crafts era. They won a prize for it!

Close up of the bench fabric. It's called pique (pee-kay). I found out it's very hard to weave.

A tapestry made completely of sewing thread. I can't even imagine how long this took.

Fashion Show Highlights

2009-07-01T16:57:00.009-05:00

Backstage at the fashion show, we were all admiring the fantastic woven creations. Here is Daryl Lancaster wearing her evening gown--stunning!

This girl was a student at the college, helping with the lighting. They convinced her to model a piece titled "warrior princess", it's handwoven armor. I thought she pulled it off wonderfully.

A handwoven cape--looks so warm and elegant. This lovely model wove it herself.

Me in my skirt. After the fashion show, there was a reception in the foyer outside. I was bombarded by people admiring my skirt and asking questions about it. The most frequent comment was something like, "It just flows so well" or "I love how it drapes".

Here is an upclose view that shows the iridescent fabric better. You can read more about how I made it here.

The best part about the fashion show was getting compliments from famous weavers. I don't mean to brag, but I was floored that women who I've admired immensely were so excited about something I made.

Oh... and I won first place too, that was unexpected!

Nerd Fest

2009-06-25T08:18:00.002-05:00

I'm off to a nerd fest. A weaving nerd fest to be exact. The Midwest Weavers Conference in Grinell, Iowa is this weekend and nine of us from our weavers guild are going.

The most exciting part is going to be taking a workshop from Anita Luvera Mayer. She is well-known for her fabulous woven garments.

I also get to be in the fashion show with my woven skirt!

I promise I'll post all about it when I get back.

Draping Experiment

2009-06-05T08:23:00.003-05:00

I recently came across a brilliant idea for making your own custom dress form out of duct tape. I successfully convinced my husband to wrap me in duct tape (while he was watching a basketball game) and voila! it's really easy! And cheap! I would highly recommend investing in some duct tape and a few hours of your time for this great tool.

Of course I immediately had to use it for a project, and I've always wanted to try draping. I actually have no idea what you're supposed to do, but I just used common pattern sense and tried it. I have attempted making my own patterns tons of times, but all in the flat form--and not one of them has really worked (except for skirts.) But this was pretty successful. I had an idea for a dress and just pinned some scrap fabric onto the form and drew the lines I wanted for the neck, then cut it out. Then I moved on to the bodice, and on down. Now, I did have to make a first version and then tweak a second version in the scrap cloth. But once I was satisfied with it, I cut it out of the nice fabric and sewed it up--very successful, at least compared to my previous attempts at making patterns.

Here is the finished dress on the dress form. I wanted to use some old lace on it, but it looked hideous, as you can see, so I took it off again.

In the back I put a ton of pleats for the skirt's fullness. The only problem I ran into was that the dress was higher on one side than on the other at the waist. If you look closely at the first dress form picture, you can tell that my right shoulder is significantly lower than my left, and I ended up taking over an inch off of the right shoulder seam. Weird! I have never had that problem before and I wonder if it's because of making the pattern on a dress form of myself.

The finished product, I'm very happy with it. I finished it just in time for my friend's wedding. This picture was taken after wearing it all day, so there's wrinkles from sitting down. The material is a linen/bamboo blend herringbone twill in dull gold and cream.

In other news--gooseberries! My husband loves gooseberry pie and I picked just enough off of a bush planted at my parent's house. Unfortunately, I do not like gooseberry pie, but it's fun to make anyway. One of the best things about summer is berry picking. We're going to get strawberries tomorrow! Mmmmm... my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Anniversary: what I was making last year

2009-05-26T12:15:00.011-05:00

Okay, so our anniversary was May 17th, I'm a little late. But I thought it would be fun to post my wedding dress pictures here. I spent an insane amount of time on this in the winter of 2007/2008. I actually made 2 other dresses before this one (I hated how those came out and they don't even exist anymore.)
The fabric is white linen and the neckline and belt I wove. The dress pattern is Butterick 4827, but I altered it a lot for a different neckline and added very large gores on both sides to make the skirt extremely full.

The belt and neck trim I wove on a 4-shaft floor loom in a pattern called "Murphy's Diaper Weave" (not a cool name)--it's supposed to look like an 8-petaled flower. The warp is white cottolin with green perle-cotton edges. The weft is grey perle-cotton. I think I wove at least 5 yards of the stuff over Christmas break. I had pictures of it on the loom, but I can't find them!

Inspiration:

This was my original inspiration for the dress. The poor picture quality is because it's a picture taken of a photocopy. I found it in a book from the library, Martha Stewart Weddings, that had a lot of cool old dresses in it. This one was from around 1920, when it was in style to mimick medieval type stuff.

This is where I got the idea for the pattern and adding the gores for fullness (Susan's dress from Lion, Witch, Wardrobe.) I think the princess seams are much more flattering than a full/gathered bodice like in the 1920's dress.

This photo is a small section of a Holbein painting. I came across it just before I started making the dress. I just love the detailed pattern on the bands.

I also embroidered my initials on an old handkerchief to put around my bouquet. It belonged to my great-grandmother, and she did the tatting around the outside.

So now I have a dilemma. I have this awesome dress that I spent a billion hours making, that fits me perfectly--and it's white. I really want to dye it so that it won't look like a wedding dress and I could wear it again. But I'm really afraid of wrecking it. Any ideas?

Felt Inspiration

2009-05-21T10:07:00.000-05:00

This fabulous outfit is made from felt! Wow, talk about inspiration. It is part of the current exhibit Fashioning Felt at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum. The artist is Christine Birkle who operates a shop in Berlin called Hut Up.
The amazing thing about her work is that she doesn't sew at all. She uses the shrinking properties of the wool to shape the fabric at the waist, armholes, and neckline.
All I can say is--I want to try this!
More pictures here.

Leather

2009-05-18T15:14:00.000-05:00

About 5 years ago, when I would just splurge on things recklessly, I bought 2 buckskins and made a very ugly dress out of them. Last week I decided to reuse the leather and try making a little bag. I just made up the pattern; I drew it on paper first. It was pretty easy, I even used my sewing machine.

The only drawbacks were some skipped stiches, the thickness of the leather, and it shifting too much under the machine. I used some green linen scraps to line it with. Overall, it turned out nicely, but I don't think I'll use it except at Renaissance Fest or maybe Missouri Town. It's a little too small for an everyday purse.

Does anyone know of a good purse pattern? I am thoroughly sick of my current purse--I've had it since I was 13. So it's time to move on. I've looked for a new one, but the ones I like are out of my price range (over $100). I'd love to make one if I had a good pattern to use--I don't trust myself to make up the pattern.
Have you ever made your own purse? How did it turn out?

Catching Up

2009-04-22T16:20:00.000-05:00

It's been too long since I updated, I apologize for that. I lost my digital camera at Christmastime and that stopped me from blogging--but not from crafting! So I have a lot of catching up to do. (I just got a new camera.)

The most exciting thing I've been working on is this skirt. Unfortunately I only have pictures of the final product, but I started working on this in January. First, I wove the fabric out of birch gray and golden yellow cotton--the gray is in the warp and the yellow is in the weft. The color combination created an iridescent fabric (what I was going for), but the color mixing didn't come out as well as I'd hoped. It's kind of a tan/bronze/green/what-is-that-color-gross!!

Since I wove 8 yards of it (what was I thinking?!), I had to use it for something. I dug out an old skirt pattern I'd made years ago that has 15 gores and is very flared at the bottom. (Fun to spin around in.) I just happened to have exactly enough fabric to make it. I cut each piece out carefully and immediately surged it to the lining, a gray wool suiting fabric. Then I sewed all the gores together, hemmed it, made a waistband, and added a side zipper.

Well, it was boring. I spent at least a month trying to decide on how to decorate the hem. I really thought I would put some fancy golden yellow lace on it. Of course where do you find yellow lace? Nowhere. Then, I randomly found the exact color of lace I needed and... I didn't like it.
In the end I decided to make ruffles with the scrap pieces leftover from cutting. The pieces were shaped perfectly for irregular ruffles. Then I edged the ruffles with some yellow linen to make them stand out more.

The end result reminds me a lot of a Victorian walking skirt.
I hope you can see the iridescence in the pictures.

Sugar City dress

2008-12-31T16:01:00.000-06:00

I couldn't resist making a village frock for my niece for Christmas. She loves dressing up like a princess and a cowgirl. I was so nervous that it wouldn't fit, but surprisingly it did! My favorite part is the blue buttons. Thanks to Sugar City for their adorable patterns!

Alas, I have lost my digital camera, otherwise I would post pictures of all the other stuff I've been making. The only reason I have these is that it was someone else's camera. Hopefully I'll find mine soon!

narnia inspiration

2008-12-18T17:20:00.003-06:00

So, I recently re-watched both of the Narnia movies and was so inspired by the costuming. I really love the dresses that Lucy and Susan wear. Especially this green one, it looks so comfy and beautiful at the same time. I'm trying to brainstorm a more modern version that I wouldn't stand out like a sore thumb in. There is an excellent fan website with a lot of costuming notes where I found this picture. Are there any movie costumes that you would love to wear?

winter sky scarf

2008-12-08T08:58:00.000-06:00

The winter sky scarves for wiksten will be up for sale this Wednesday, Dec. 10!
Jenny did a fabulous job with the photo shoot!

plaid dress

2008-12-04T16:40:00.001-06:00

I've been messing around for a few months, trying to make a good pattern from an old thrift store dress. I bought the original dress something like 6 years ago. It was a maternity dress, and I took in the side seams so that it was fitted. Then, since it was a hideous tan/mauve plaid, I dyed it black. It turned out to be more like a dark mauve plaid, but not as bad as before.

Did I mention this was really itchy wool? And sleeveless? So, why did I love wearing this dress? It's been one of my favorites. So I finally got up the nerve to take it apart and make a pattern from it. Sounded easy, but alas, two months and 4 attempts later, I finally have sort of a good pattern.

It's cold out, so I decided to add sleeves. And I found this cozy flannel plaid and thought it looked like a good holiday fabric (that could easily be "not holiday" as well). It came out better than I expected with the sleeves. I didn't even do a test run of the sleeves, just kind of made it up--that usually means disaster! I got lucky this time. Anyway, I'll be making 57 more versions of this dress since I love the pattern so much. It's just the perfect shift dress for doing anything and it has a lot of possibilities for embellishments, details, and using different fabrics. I even used scrap material I had for the hem and sleeve bands on this one.

Oh, by the way, after I finished the dress and was really proud of myself, I found a Simplicity pattern in my stash that was pretty much the exact same thing. Argh. But I made this one!

etsy shop open!

2008-11-23T19:19:00.000-06:00

Hear ye! Hear ye! Announcing the opening of the cristaemade Etsy shop! Okay, so the Creative Hand Show went really well overall, but I only sold one scarf. So, instead of moping, I'm excited that I get to open my Etsy shop earlier than expected. This is just the beginning; there will be much more than silk scarves going up there, so be sure to check back periodically.

2008-11-18T09:10:00.000-06:00

handspun yarn - throws - handbags - spinning fibers - woven rugs

Creative Hand Sale
sponsored by the Kansas City Fiber and Weavers' Guilds
-----------------------------------------------------------
Friday, Nov. 21, 4-8 pm
Fashion Show at 7 pm
Saturday, Nov. 22, 10-5 pm
Demonstrations all day
--------------------------------------------------
Sylvester Powell Community Center
6200 Martway, Mission, KS

mittens - hats - afghans - blankets - jackets - scarves - shawls - sweaters

If anyone is going to be in the Kansas City area this weekend you should check out the annual Creative Hand Sale. I'll be selling my dyed silk scarves there!

folk princess

2008-11-14T19:10:00.000-06:00

I am getting really inspired from the "folk princess" style at free people. It's exactly the kind of stuff I love to wear: classic style influenced by old European embellishments. I'm going to try an interpretation of the cream and red bodice using a folkwear pattern I have. And I just might get to making myself a coat with some embellishment like this charcoal gray one. (I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't make my own clothes, I think I'd be bankrupt with all the money I'd spend!)