I’m Still Around

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I’m still around, I promise! I haven’t been doing much crafting though because quite simply, my craft room here since isn’t quite right. I can’t pinpoint what doesn’t feel right about it, just that I don’t find it super conductive to actually working. I did finish off a skein of yarn the other day in a project I previously thought was completed, and I did cast on a new knitting project the night before last with some of my more precious yarn. I also finally sorted out a ton of beads and selected more to be culled from my collection, which were donated yesterday to thrift along with a few stacks of other items. I have more I would like to let go, I just have to decide what. Some of it is yarns I likely won’t use- those will probably get returned to Micheal’s for store credit when I go into town again.

I’ve also been adding some books to my shop. I don’t have room for physical copies and I would rather read digital ones, so I’m slowly putting my remaining books up for sale. Right now that’s trade paperbacks of comics. The comics don’t have a shipping fee- the price includes media mail shipping to CONUS. Actually all of my books I have listed have no shipping fees and prices are low to help them move quickly. If they don’t sell in a reasonable amount of time, they’ll be donated to thrift.

I’m hoping to get some new handmade items up in the shop soon. I’ve made a few items but haven’t gotten around to listing them yet so that’s next on my list. I can think of at least 2 new necklaces that need to go up that are a lot of fun!

PS – There’s an extra coupon you can use at checkout- just enter LSG into the coupon code box!

Some New Craft Books!

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I’ve been sick with a terrible cold the last few days, but when I heard the local Friends of the Library were holding a book sale at our local library, I ventured out not once but twice to see what I could find. I felt like death but still went to look for new craft books. New craft books created a big pull to get out.

I was a little disappointed they only had 3 small boxes with craft and sewing books and magazines in them, but I managed to find these 7 to take home with me.

books1 books2 books3 books4And the best part is I paid an average of $0.40 a piece for them! They are all in pretty good condition, just some cover or dust jacket wear, and they all have some cool patterns in them.

I also got two cook books and a Gnomes book for my friend Tracy who little did I know was actually looking for that book! The cook books are on chicken and making stews and soups, two things we enjoy, and the Gnomes book is an art book, which after flipping through it, is pretty amusing.

I haven’t gotten much crafting done the last few days since I’ve been sick, but here are a few items from my shop you might have missed!

These are all handmade by me, and unique in that they won’t be made exactly the same every again. And who doesn’t love a unique handmade piece?

This first one is my Curse of the Sea Witch necklace. You can purchase it for $14.99 here. It features glass seed beads and crazy baroque freshwater pearls in two colors.

sea witch

This dyed orange turquoise butterfly set is super pretty and ready for Fall! It’s $16.99, and made up of stone butterflies, dyed orange turquoise, small crystals, and large vintage Japanese acrylic beads. The central focal bead is glass.

orangebutterset1

I hope you’re all having a great day today and are ready for the weekend! Happy Friday, and see you next time!

Tearing Down McCall’s 5330 View B

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italfabric-110x110Years and years ago, I had this fun (yet rather odd) novelty fabric. I was on a food-themed fabric kick, and decided to make a skirt. This is the fabric I used, along with McCall’s 5330 View B for the pattern. Its got bread, pasta, olive oil, cheese, grapes, and a few other things, with text in Italian. The pattern I decided to use was one I regretted afterwards, as my weight at the time gave me more of a belly than was good to have (is any belly good to have?) and the three box pleats at the front of the skirt accentuated the bulge. It just was not a good fit or a good style, and now that I’ve pulled it out of my closet at my mom’s, I’m also seeing what a fantastically bad job I did at sewing it. :sick:

Tonight I continued on my trek through my old sewing, tearing it almost all the way down, ripping out all the seams except for the center back one because it actually looks okay and I don’t think I’ll need to rip it out to make any real modifications. I did have to rip out the zipper though as I’ll have to re-size the waistband dramatically so it had to come off too.

I tried the skirt on before ripping it apart (but did I take photos of it before? Nope.) and its at least 2 full sizes too big, and those pleats in front are really uneven and just badly done. The plan is to take off about an inch from each edge of front and back at the sides, remove excess fabric from the waistband, cut a second waistband piece to sandwich this piece with and cut interfacing to match for added stability. I’m also going to redo the pleats, but not box pleats- just normal pleats- I don’t know what you would call them, so I can at last make them look good and even without a lot of fuss and bother. Either way, I am hoping to add another wearable skirt to my wardrobe before the weekend is over, though I’m not quite sure what I will wear with it. I do have one black tank top I think.

shelf

 

I also did some work on cleaning up and organizing my craft room Wednesday night. I bought (from Closetmate) a 6 foot shelf with the hanger rod below it and installed it all by myself. I’m especially proud of this because I only screwed it up a little, kind of smashing one of the wall mounts with the hammer, and setting another one about 1/3rd of an inch too low so its not really doing much unless I put some serious weight on the shelf. I’m currently waiting on some file boxes to arrive so I can organize my patterns that are for sale and stack them neatly on the shelf, along with all of my beading and sewing books and catalogs.

As of right now, the shelf has all of my books, but none of the catalogs on it, and that huge pile of clothes on the end of my sewing table are temporarily folded and stacked on the other end of the shelf. I’m hoping to find some plastic hangers for cheap at the thrift store this weekend so I can hang up the clothes I have listed for sale, as well as the clothing that are in various stages of repair or being re-made.

I’ve also spent some time in there doing some dusting and general cleaning, as the window doesn’t seal properly and a lot of dust and dirt ends up all over my beading table’s back edge.

Something New!

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boxToday is all about something new. :angel: I got two packages in the mail today, both of which I am pretty excited about. The first is a box of 60 sewing patterns, mostly unused, that I picked up for under $20 including shipping. I had a quick look and it appears they are all 1980’s patterns, but there’s a few really cute ones in there. I’ll be going through them and sorted out the really small ones first as its a crazy mix of sizes and adding those to my shop. I definitely need to pare this box down to more manageable proportions! I honestly do not have room for 60 more patterns in my stash! Do you think I have a pattern buying problem? :whistle:

My other package I received today was a collection of 7 Time Life books on sewing. These are older books, but the internet led me to believe they have some great resources inside them and I picked up all 7 for under $20 total. The spine of one is a little damaged, but it appears to be from age and not rough treatment. Overall they are in very good condition. I can’t wait to get a minut to flip through them all. :sideways:

I also made something new, but you’re waiting until this weekend to see it. I was able to use that bright Kelly green cotton broadcloth (the really cheap stuff I bought by mistake instead of Kona cotton) to make something that turned out great, and with the help of a calculator I found online, I drafted the pattern completely on my own. I love how it looks, and its going to be perfect with my red and white floral top I made last week. Hopefully my cheap sunglasses arrive before the weekend because they’ll be the perfect accessory to my outfit. 🙂 I’ve also got another top I plan to make soon that will go great with it (I hope). The fabric for that top should arrive later today, and maybe I’ll get started on it this evening.

I keep toying with the idea of replacing all my store-bought clothes with me made stuff. Of course before I can do that, I need to master a few things, such as pants and shorts, and of course I need to make more stuff that I can actually wear with other stuff. I think half of my clothes I can’t really wear at this point because I have nothing that matches them. As I might have said before here, I’ve gotten crazy with the prints and need to work on creating some simple solid-color pieces to pair with them. Some people can pull off two different prints at once, but I’m pretty sure I am not one of them.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Until next time. :heart: