refashioning

This post is long overdue! I have been procrastinating on my sewing AND procrastinating on my blogging too.

Actually I’ve been procrastinating on almost everything… just this afternoon I got caught up with putting a pile of things away in the file cabinet. Even with as little as we file, I had stuff in the pile from last September!

But anyway. I wanted to share a couple of dress refashions that I have been working on lately. Both dresses came from Value Village. I think I bought them last fall. Both were ill fitting but made from awesome print cotton fabrics.

The first one, a long lightweight black and white cotton dress, was quite big, with strange wing sleeves (the kind of thing I imagine was supposed to hide a bigger woman’s upper arms?) and a pocket full of used tissues and throat lollies. Ugh! But hey, a pocket! And it was an easy fix.

I cut those wings off (sorry, I didn’t photograph it first, so the above left picture is a bit of a re-creation) and wore it the first time pinned over a simple black dress because it had no straps yet, with a denim jacket to hide that small problem. The following week I cut 2 long strips of fabric from the wing sleeve and sewed them into a flat tube. I wasn’t sure if I would use the print fabric side or the trim side (which matches the trim on the front of the dress) so I gave myself both options. I tried it on and chose the print side and sewed the straps onto the dress. I was in such a hurry that day, finishing sewing the dress in the last 5 minutes before I needed to leave for work, that I actually left the long tails inside the dress for months before I committed to the straps for real. Yeah, procrastination. I did have to narrow the bodice area slightly with a line of stitching down each side, but the dress fits OK. I always wear it over the black dress anyway because the strappy style is not work appropriate as it stands (and I think it might be see through!) but I love this dress so much!

This picture (below) was taken the first day, right after I bought the dress, after I cut the wings off.

Now, for the other dress. I might have shared this picture before. This was the original dress and my initial plan for it. It was a really cute  dress, soft, made from Indian cotton, but the bodice was made for a girl with very small boobs. Very small. Which is not me. So the plan was to cut off the bodice (which is just tucked in to test the effect in the picture below) and to make a new bodice out of a tank top. It was a good plan. It would have worked I think. But I had trouble finding a tank and then I chickened out and the dress went into the project basket for a few months.

Then Value Village gave me a gift – a second dress, identical to the first, the same size even. I thought it would look better with a new bodice made from the skirt of the second dress. If only I knew how to make a flattering bodice. hmmm… I couldn’t be bothered actually learning how to do that. So back into the basket went both dresses.

I eventually got the courage up to cut off the old bodice (“ruining” one of the dresses) and tried on the skirt again And then I made a decision. It just didn’t sit very well as a skirt. It wasn’t full enough. But since I had two skirts to work with…  I looked up patterns for full gathered skirts (inspired by Zooey Deschanel in this adorable music video – sorry friends, sharing yet again!) and found that the two skirts together would be the ideal amount of fabric to make a lovely full skirt (tutorial here). Especially since the fabric is very lightweight. I cut the bodice off the second dress, then cut down one side of each skirt, preserving the zipper on one of the skirts. Then I pinned them together and sewed them into one big tube.

Now if I was patient and more invested in my sewing I would have sewed the lining and the skirt separately. Or at least done a French seam. But I am lazy so I just sewed both layers together. The lining will fray, I can tell. I am probably going to regret that laziness… -shrug-

I used a method for gathering that I found online. Basically you couch over a cord with a big zigzag and then pull the fabric on the cord to gather the waist. The tutorial is here. I had a hard time with it because of my aforementioned lazy sewing skills and lack of patience, but it was a very effective method for gathering.

I made the waistband using the waistbands from the two old skirts. I sewed them together to create a wider band and sewed it over the gathering. I did the first side by machine and then hand sewed the inside down. It covers all the gathering mess (and it was a mess! because I’m lazy and the fabric was slippery).

And here’s the skirt! It works well with the wide elastic belt that came with one of my winter sweater dresses. I wore it with a grey tank and a cardigan and it was pretty good for work. Maybe about an inch or two longer than it needs to be, but I liked wearing it. There are some loose ends to tie up (frayed ends) but for now the skirt works. And that’s good enough for me.

One day I might do things properly. You never know.

But probably not. I just don’t like sewing that much.

btw, I am borrowing a friend’s machine until she moves this month. So I have a deadline on some hemming I have been putting off. Better get on that soon!

Jo:)

my absence

Hey there,

Long time, no see.

I have been all over the internet the last few weeks – just not here. My last post got the attention of a company in the UK that makes art prints, and they started following me and “reblogged” my post, which means they took the beginning part of it and put it on their blog with a little link that lets people continue reading the post here on my blog. Nothing wrong with that really – except that now I feel like I’m sharing my Project Life (ie my LIFE) with all kinds of random people looking to buy art prints in England. And that really bothers me – especially since my content has nothing to do with their business! I feel like I’m being used. It’s really bothering me to think that any time I post a photo here, I might be contributing to a blog for a business that I know nothing about and do not support in any way.

Now I know the internet is all about this kind of thing. At least I’m getting credited in this case. There are plenty of web pages that are just lifted straight from other people’s blogs. And what’s the difference between people seeing my life in this blog vs seeing an excerpt of it on someone else’s blog? I don’t know, but it’s still creeping me out a bit.

So that’s why I haven’t blogged for a while.

I wish wordpress would allow people to opt out of having their content reblogged. I don’t think I want to have a private blog because I like to share my links on Facebook when I post something that I think will interest certain friends. I don’t want people to have to log in to see what I’ve written. I don’t think they’d bother.

By the way, I would also love to know why I had 50 views of my “new old fence” post on April 16th, with 32 referrals from Facebook. Especially since I only have 58 friends on Facebook and most of those people saw the post when it was new, over a year ago. What the hell? Every other day I have 0-9 views.

Blogging is a strange public-private enterprise. I think of my audience as being my family, my good friends, a few other friends who see a specific link on Facebook, and a few random people who have found me because of a shared interest or a comment I have left on another blog (Hi there, people I don’t know! welcome!)

I don’t know how I would cope if this blog was actually popular! I don’t know…

Anyway, I share my Project Life pages on instagram at the beginning of each week when I finish them. I’m not sure if I’m going to continue to share them here as well, or in what form. I’m not sure that any of you who follow me here ever cared about my PL pages anyway! I am OK about sharing crafts and refashions and stuff like that, even with the art print people, so I guess I will try to document some of that.

I’m actually working on a refashion right now. Well, kind of working on it… I’ve only had the guts to make a couple of cuts so far. But I think I have figured out what I want to do now, and I’m almost ready to go for it. I’ll snap a few pictures for you and see you back here in a few days (??) with a new skirt!

Jo:)

March, Project Life

I have been on the internet a LOT lately, and I have been keeping up with my Project Life, and I have been posting my PL spreads (and other random awesomeness) to instagram every week (I am joblackford if you want to follow me – I have posted 1250 pictures there since I got my iPhone last summer!) …I just haven’t been blogging…

…because I’ve been watching New Girl. And reading about New Girl. And commenting on wonderful New Girl recap/review posts by Katie at Nerdy Girl Notes (she says everything I would want to say, but she writes it better than I ever could). And watching GIFs of New Girl on tumblr. (And trying to figure out what the point of tumblr is (I think it’s all about indulging your obsessions)). Yeah… I really like New Girl. And it just keeps getting better and better. (!!!)

If I had more space in my Project Life there would probably be a New Girl review or picture for every week… I think I only mentioned it twice in 4 spreads, which is pretty good considering how much I’ve been watching it!

Anyway, here we go – 3 weeks of March, plus a bonus:

Week 10. My friend Laura came over to visit with her baby, so pictures of Felix took over the left page completely. I love taking photos of babies! I added the sticker to the left after I did some online shopping. Because he really is.

I also included 2 photos I took at work. I took an instagram of a pile of condoms because we have had someone putting condoms in library books. A lot. Specifically one book on teen sex, and the Boy Scout Manual (be prepared!). And I photographed the first display I worked on. Brunch with hubby (and sunshine) and then he went on a business trip.

Week 11 we had some sunshine again. We like it when the sun comes out. We usually have a lot of clouds. I added my week in review over the top of the sunny park pictures – they also show the progress being made in our park renovation. I went for a walk with a friend, and her daughter wore her princess cape over her raincoat – too cute! You gotta love 3 year olds. This was the week when the cherry blossoms started coming out. I got an amazing reflection in the glass doors in the break room which I instagrammed. We had another bad day at work – everyone was out sick or on vacation – even our substitute called in sick! We are already short staffed with 2 vacant positions, so it was BAD! But then again, it’s only books. No one dies if we don’t get our work done. So we worked really hard and everyone chipped in to help and we were OK. But it was an exhausting end to the week.

I took a photo of my lovely purple purse, my lovely purple bag (which Space gave me), and the shimmery purple cocktail dress I found at Goodwill, which I need for our upcoming Alaska cruise. I posted a story about a very drunk guy from Alaska on Facebook, and did a screenshot to save re-typing it. dblcam is a new app from the printstagram people that take a photo from your front and back phone cameras at the same time and makes a diptych. Kind of fun. And St Patricks Day meant corned beef and cabbage twice – a potluck at work and dinner with my mother in law.

This spread (above) is not about a particular week – it’s a “currently” kind of thing – the general stuff that’s going on that doesn’t necessarily feature in our weekly highlights. I started with the what we watch on TV card, because we love TV and we watch a few shows every night (yes, we still watch broadcast TV). I thought that listing off the shows we watch each night would be interesting, especially since right now a lot of our favorites are really good. I missed a couple of favs and included a couple of shows we really don’t care for (but watch because they used to be good or because they’re in between other shows we love). I’m not loving the TV card to be honest. It was my second attempt and it doesn’t really go with everything else, but it’s fine.

The photo of our house is from last spring, when the garden looked awesome. The photos of me at work are from last year’s Library Snapshot Day. I get to take photos for that event which is coming up again in a couple of weeks. I included my schedule because it is regular and simple. Hubby’s work life and calendar are scary and I don’t really get to see it. His job is insane. I was able to take screenshots of both of our commutes from google maps. His has recently changed for the worse, so it was something I wanted to record in some way. His days are insane. Food often gets featured in weekly spreads, but I thought it would be fun to name our favorite places to eat out. We don’t often go to movies or events and we never go to shows or concerts – our entertainment is eating out on the weekends. Pictures of Mimi Pug were an afterthought, but she doesn’t get as much space as she should. I had to set aside the picture I planned to use of hubby self-checking-out our groceries but we do that every Saturday morning, so I can use it sometime.

And finally, week 12. Last week. Not a lot going on. I kept it pretty simple. Laura is back at work, too soon, but we missed her. And yet already it feels like she was never gone. I got the chance to take her picture in the regular Wednesday night spot (where we did her baby belly pix) with her son AND her husband! So that was too good. And I loved the shot I snuck of her snuggling Felix, so I couldn’t leave that out. More blossoms. Blossoms everywhere! which I love! Road works everywhere too, but they’re making progress. We got a freshly paved intersection (at long last) and a new sign and street trees. I took an instagram of my pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) but forgot my leftovers. And 3 panoramas, one rainy, two sunny, for the 1st and 2nd days of spring.  We had almost every kind of weather last week – even hail!

I did some more online scrapbook shopping so I have some new patterned papers (finally picked up 6×6″ paper pads) and new alphabet stickers, for variety. Sometimes I keep it simple – just printing a 3×4″ photo or an instagram faux-polaroid style. Sometimes (like with the blossom week 12 photo) I trim it a bit small and let the back of the card behind it show as a thin border – the pink hearts worked perfectly with this picture. It cuts down bulk and waste too.

I need to get more pictures of my friends in my PL. Especially the crazy crew I work with! If I don’t have a chance to get photos with them soon I might use photos we’ve taken in the past (Halloween, the princess party, Harry Potter mystery night, fire drill day, the day 5 of us wore purple) and make a spread anyway. Right now there are several people missing who really should be featured in my pages. I’ve also thought about snagging pictures off Facebook of all of my friends who have recently become parents. They deserve a spread – so many cute kids! and so many of them beautiful brown hybrid children (hopefully that doesn’t sound wrong – I just love mixed race babies!)

Ok, well, if you got to the end of this long long post, thanks for reading!

I’ll try to update more often so the posts are not so long.

Jo:)

Project Life weeks 8 and 9

I haven’t updated in a while, so this post is going to be fairly long. And two thirds of the way down there’s going to be a bit of a New Girl spoiler, so beware if you care. 

I rearranged my craft ottoman the other day. I’ve been acquiring supplies, little by little. This is what it looks like inside… I’m using 2 loaf pans, a Japanese wooden box and an old cardboard box that held card blanks to contain everything, with a wide mouth jar for my pens and a plastic letter sorter inside one of the boxes to divide some of the labels and stickers. Mimi thinks it looks alright. All I can see when I look at this picture is the tangle of laptop cords… oh, how I hate cords!   

I have been staying up to date with my Project Life pages, usually working on them on my Monday off. What I get behind on is taking pictures of them and sharing. I’m usually excited to show off when I’m done, but it’s usually early evening by then and the light is gone. After this weekend that won’t be a problem any more – daylight savings time is upon us! yippee! I love long summer evenings.

week 8… a busy week at work and a tricky week for me to craft into a small spread.

On the left side I was a bit distracted by the back sides of the patterned paper I used for the previous week. I liked the yellow grid and the colorful herringbone designs, so I decided to use them. But I didn’t want to adhere this week’s material to the back of the cards, and they were a bit too strongly colored, so I put my photos on tracing paper to create a translucent background. I thought that was pretty clever! I thought to use vellum, but what I had was tracing paper, so that’s what I used.

I had a lot to say about this week, but I decided to add it over this picture of my pile of crap (representing how messy this week was) and I used a handwritten (CK Becky) font over a ghosted white background. You can read it easier in person, but it takes a little effort. That was my intent. There’s some stuff there that’s boring, some that’s a little more private. The big pictures are from work – we got a new break room floor over the long weekend and I liked the picture I took of it (sunshine!) but the long weekend also made for a horrible day at work catching up on all the books returned while we were closed (don’t return books to a library on a long weekend if you don’t have to… please!)

I used writing directly on photos on the right side, used my first fake hashtag caption (#ontheblog) to be a little trendy, taped a happy instagram to one of my favorite photos, and listed all the delicious fishy things I ate on Saturday on a  Liz Tamanaha designed card. I don’t really think the card goes very well with everything else on the page, but what the heck. And I didn’t have photos of the first seafood meal, only the second one, so it made more sense just to list everything. Hubby took the picture of me wearing my new t-shirt because I couldn’t get a decent mirror shot.

and then week 9:

(spoiler alert: I included an image from New Girl season 2 episode 15)

I mixed things up again this week – some writing on photos, simple photos with a digital text caption, some layered labels and washi tape and patterned paper.

I like to take a photo of my whiteboard calendar at the end of the month, so I added that in as a week (and month) in review card. The food is very typical of what I eat and I left lots of white space to add notes about where the food came from – I was quite pleased to be able to say who made the bread and some of the toppings. I got a shot of hubby while we were waiting for our food at one of our favorite weekend lunch places. I liked the picture of him better than the picture of the food. And I love taking book pile pictures – showing what I’m interested in right now, and reminding everyone how awesome the library is. I love that arrow paper. All the papers are from the Studio Calico scrapbooking kit for February.

And this is where I get a bit embarrassed by how much I love New Girl… I watched so many episodes this week that I had to include the photo I took of the season one DVD. I found the other image online – someone included one of my favorite quotes from the show with a screenshot of “the kiss” – I couldn’t resist putting it in.

“Yeah, I mean, I saw through space and time for a minute, but that’s not the point!“

btw I had no idea how many people made fan art and fan videos and fan fiction for their favorite tv couples… and I learned some new slang this week – to “ship” means to desire a romantic relationship between a fictional couple. A lot of people ship Nick and Jess.

Anyway, I liked using one paper to unite the two related cards and all the arrows reminded me of cupid and of chaos (the kiss was a wonderfully disruptive element that has provided a lot of conflict and humor to subsequent episodes). I was able to use my film strip washi too, although I had to add some white card scraps to stop it being see-through.

I used the awesome wood print paper for my spring collage, and the extra wide ombre washi tape from the Studio Calico kit worked quite well on kraft card to back the strange sunset light photos in the top right corner. I guess I didn’t have much to say on the right side of the spread. The pictures speak for themselves.

Well, that was the end of February. It’s just a snapshot of what’s going on, but it’s fun to create. I am amazed at how many other things I could be putting in if I had the space – more photos, ephemera, more stories. I keep a planner/diary (which I just realized I haven’t been updating this week because I closed it and moved it out of sight) with lots more details about my days, so this album is a place to be visually creative and combine the events with images that I love.

Jo:)

crafty brilliance – 2

I’ve been on a crafty brilliance roll… I think I solved my gift wrap storage problem!

Again, like with the card I just posted about, I have been soaking up online inspiration a lot lately (I had a cold last weekend so I spent a lot of time sitting on the couch surfing the web!) and somewhere, possibly on Pinterest, I saw a picture of gift wrap being held against the side of someone’s closet with a cheap wire closet shelf (the shelf was parallel to the wall).

I have tension rods. I have gift wrap. I have a closet. (I have pretty dresses!)

We have used tension rods for all kinds of storage uses around the house, especially back when we lived in rented tiny spaces. For example, we used them to create overhead “shelves” to hold bulky but lightweight items in our Japanese apartment.

I got 3 from the basement and used one to help hold the rolls up on the baseboard. The other two hold the wrap up against the wall. The inspiration image I saw had the wrap resting on the floor, which is fine, but I hate the pug hair dust bunnies that gather on our wood floors, especially where something touches the floor, so I opted to keep the floor clear. It also makes the closet feel more spacious and makes me happy.

I will probably move these rolls back towards the back of the closet behind the dresses, or possibly move the whole thing to the other side of the closet behind my hubby’s raincoat where they won’t be in the way. I have a couple more rolls of wrap in my giant craft drawer which might get moved here too. I went a bit overboard with wrap this year. I usually try to only keep 2-3 rolls on hand.

By the way, the big white thing in the right side of the photo is my 3 part foam core board which is a cheap reflector and also the backdrop I use when I photograph my Project Life – I take the foam core board out and lay it down on the table on the back porch where there’s more light.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this simple little idea. Maybe it will spark a solution to a problem you’ve been having.

I just realized I could have used the tension rods through the roll centers if I’d wanted to create a wrap station on the closet wall, assuming I had enough tension rods for the number of rolls I had and assuming the closet was wide/deep enough. Sometimes you just have to let your brain put random ideas together to get solutions to your problems.

UPDATE: I found the link! It was on Pinterest. The pin leads here to Family Handyman’s advice on DIY holiday storage…. number 4.

Jo:)

crafty brilliance – 1

I needed to send a card to my mother in law for her birthday so I took what I had on hand to make this:

 

It’s nothing too fancy. My MIL doesn’t really notice or appreciate crafting very much so I wasn’t going to spend a lot of time, but I still wanted to send her something nice.

This was the formula: left + middle = right!

(yeah, I could have added the + and = signs to the photo in photoshop, which would have looked cool, but apparently I’m too lazy!)

I love the flower card. I picked up a pack at a grocery store in Hawaii and I’ve sent it out quite a bit. And so has my sister in law! I laughed the first time I received the same card from her that I had just sent to her. Total coincidence (except of course that it was her local grocery store where I found it). Anyway, that’s why I didn’t just use the flower card to send to MIL. SIL is her daughter, so no doubt she has also received the same card once or twice from each of us.

The aqua and orange card is really neat. It came from Target. The line included stickers so you could add a printed/embellished greeting but Target didn’t have them. So I have been trying to figure out how to add cuteness to the plain cards – luckily my Martha Stewart labels from Staples have a matching orange color. I think the whole thing worked out pretty well. I’ve been soaking up a lot of layering/embellishing inspiration from the internet which has obviously been bubbling away in my brain and waiting to come out in a flash of creative brilliance ;)

I thought you might like to see this really easy project. It would work really well with a card that you got in the mail that you liked – cut elements from the front and add them to a plain/simple card that you have. Cut and paste. The original card was designed by a pro, so if you cut and paste part of it onto your own card it will probably be a good design.

Jo:)

 

 

Where I craft…

Some people on the Studio Calico forums were comparing their “small” craft spaces (here) the other day… looking at the pictures I realized that most people are spoiled rotten! hahaha!! their small rooms were very generous and crammed with all kinds of craft supplies (so much so that they made my minimalist skin crawl) …so I decided to photograph my crafting space, which is the Japanese low dining table where we eat our meals and the storage ottoman next to it.

I’m well situated with the dog on the sofa behind me (or on the “throne” of cushions on the loveseat in front of me on my left) and the TV in front of me, because I like to listen and half-watch TV (often the Discovery channel, as seen here) while I work.

I can leave the ottoman open and reach in to get anything I need, or I can move supplies up onto the table. There are a few supplies that I have stored in the dining room sideboard – mostly things I use in my day-to-day life, but less often as craft supplies, plus a few things that are too big to store in the ottoman. Luckily we have a small house so nothing is ever far away, and I need to stretch my legs every now and then anyway. I have a kneeling bench that keeps my legs from falling sleep too quickly but I try to get up and change positions a few times every hour.

I took this picture today as I finished up this week’s Project Life spread. So this is real life. I usually put things back in the ottoman as I finish using them so it doesn’t get too messy.

My Studio Calico scrapbooking kit (the only kit that was available to buy this month if you weren’t a subscriber) finally arrived the other day. I decided to get the scrapbook kit and one of the add-on collections as a way to get some cool patterned papers and embellishments. I don’t have space to store 12″ wide papers though, and I have no intention of using them for large layouts, so I cut them all down to 4×6″ and 3×4″ yesterday.

Aren’t they cool?! Each paper is double sided, so I have them scattered to show both sides. Some of the patterns are directional, so I cut them to get horizontal and vertical version (which yielded one less 4×6″ card per sheet but left me a strip 2″ wide that I can use as an embellishment). I’ve left most of the papers at 4×6″ for now – I can cut them in half as I need them.

This is what I made today. I used a few of the papers from the kit and the top left card is also something that came with the kit – the back of some kind of packing card. The reddish letters are from the kit too (Sn@p stickers by Simple Stories). Most of this week was dominated by 3 week old Felix, who is the cutest little guy. I met him twice this week, so I included 5 photos of him. (One of the photos is hidden under the card of his mother holding him. I made another flip up card with a washi tape hinge.) The picture on the bottom left is backed with the snake card from last week – luckily the colors toned in really nicely with the pages so I didn’t have to add a background paper when the photo came out a bit small.

I have been using my Project Life pictures to practice for my Jessica Sprague photo editing lessons. All of the Felix pictures were adjusted for white balance and exposure in Adobe Camera Raw. I worked with the pink and yellow photo of MJ’s party too, but not much could be done to adjust for that bright yellow table cloth!

Please don’t tell on me for snagging an image of Downton (not Downtown, stupid autocorrect!) Abbey from the web. I had to include something after last night’s season finale. I almost got up and snapped a picture of the TV during the happy moments at the end. But I didn’t want to get distracted. And then came the shocking ending that left me reeling! ugh! What a cruel way to end the season! And apparently this was the episode shown on Christmas Night in the UK. I don’t know if I could forgive the show for that… I understand that actors want to move on, but I really wished they had ended on a happier note.

I am experimenting with adding more embellishment on my pictures, but I’m not sure that I’m very good at it. I don’t have a lot of embellishments to add anyway and I don’t want the pages to get too thick, but I’m also wondering if I am more of a “clean and simple” person. I’ll keep experimenting – using simple photos when I have less time and playing with papers when I have more time and energy.

Thanks for visiting!

Jo:)