Kids Clothes Week - Day 2

I've been wanting to try making some of these super cute reconstructed kids tees for ages but I've been a) terrified of working with knits, b) terrified of non-pattern sewing and c) too busy. Since I had a full evening last night to myself (yay for the mr.'s band practice nights!) I thought "what the heck, I'll give it a shot". I have a tub full of thrifted tees and knit scraps, so I just went for it and to my great surprise it turned out better than expected! My sewing is still a little wonky, I'm still working on not pulling the knit while sewing but for the most part I was able to iron out any puckering. I started by cutting of the sleeves and collar. Then I cut the diagonal section out to make it look like a raglan style shirt. I used the pieces I cut as templates to cut new pieces and it worked perfectly. My only wish is that I had, had a few more knits in girly colors to make this a little more girly. Adding the ruffles at the bottom definitely helped with that though, even if they don't really match. Best of all, the big girl LOVED it! Success. She wore it to school this morning over jeans. It's totally her style, a little kooky. I'm going to try to get to the thrift store today for supplies to make a few more.

Kids Clothes Week - Day 1

I was able to get some not so stellar pics of what I made last night before the storms came. Ah, I absolutely love this time of year! I spent an hour sewing last night and made some great progress! The first two pairs of baby pants had been sitting around my studio for months, all finished except for putting in the elastic. I did that in about ten minutes and had two new pairs of pants for the babe, woohoo! The sweater pants I made from the sleeves of a couple of thrifted sweaters. This is a great tutorial on how to make them. The first pair I simply made a casing for the elastic from the bottom band of the sweater. The second pair I used some rib knit I had in my stash to make a waist band. Not sure which I like better, I'll have to see how each stays put on the babe before I vote on which is better. I have NO idea what I'm going to make tonight and that's kind of exciting!

New Prints in the Shop

All of these new prints are now in the shop! More goodies tomorrow.

In other news, over the weekend we made a trip to the animal shelter and fell in love with this used kitty, all 20 pounds of him. He came home with us and has settled in like he's always been here. I have a feeling he's going to be a wonderful studio companion and you'll be hearing lots more about him.

Kids Clothes Week Challenge

I've been so very out of the loop the last few weeks and even months that this completely snuck up on me. The super wonderful blog Elsie Marley is once again hosting a Kids Clothes Week Challenge. This time for fall and winter clothing. It's really simple, you just spend one hour each night for a week sewing something for your kid or kids. It's really amazing how much you can get done in a week by just carving out that time. And since I haven't been able to sew anything for my own munchkins in so long I'm really looking forward to this. I didn't have time to really make a plan for what I want to accomplish but I've got lots of fabric and lots of patterns in my stash already. I'll just start sewing and see what happens! I'll share what I come up with as I go along. Also, keep checking the Elsie Marley blog all week, she's doing a giveaway everyday to celebrate. Annnnnd there just might be a little June Craft giveaway on her blog later this week too! She was so kind as to ask if I'd be would like to participate by donating an item and of course I was more than happy too! More on that as the week progresses. That's it for me for now, I'm hoping to be back later today with a few things for the shop.

Thanks Renegade for the Memories

It's really hard to put into words how awesome last weekend was. It was a magical weekend. Yes, it was exhausting and so much work but in the end it was a blast! The weather (after a little rain Saturday morning) was absolutely beautiful and the people came out to the fair in droves. I mean, it was PACKED the entire weekend. And to top it all off I got to spend the entire weekend with my two bestest Chicago buds. They were amazing and took care of me with coolers packed full of goodies, put knitting into my nervous hands, bought me sangria and made me laugh all weekend. I really don't know what I would have done without them. I couldn't ask for better friends or better booth helpers. It was like we were on a camping trip all weekend! And all the awesome customers I got to meet, everyone was so super nice. I really wish I had gotten more pictures of the entire fair and some of the really incredible booths. It was so busy though I just didn't have time. All-in-all though it was worth every minute and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I've spent this week re-cooperating and catching up on full-time job work. I had planned on getting the Etsy shop updated with new prints but not sure that's going to happen. Maybe tomorrow, or maybe next week early. I promise it'll happen soon though!

September Background

I hope you'll forgive the lateness of this background. The past month has literally flown by, the days seeming like hours and the hours like minutes. The culmination of months of hard work is finally this weekend and I couldn't be more excited! And a little relieved that it'll be over soon. I plan on taking a little break from making things after it's all over to focus on some personal projects... But don't worry, any leftover inventory will be stocked in the Etsy shop next week and oh, there's some wonderful new things!


One new thing that will debut this weekend at Renegade is a 2011 calendar print. It's a limited edition digital print in a larger 11x14 size. It's printed on a beautiful french Speckletone paper and I just love it. There are two colors to choose from and next week these will hit the Etsy shop as well. So, this months desktop background is inspired by that calendar and there are also two colors to choose from! I also omitted the calendar this month since it's so late in the month. What do you think? Do you prefer your backgrounds with the calendar or just the background? As always click the size you need to download the file. Enjoy!


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Red Version
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Renegade Sneak Peek

Hi all and Happy September! August went so fast, I can't believe it's already turning into fall and Renegade is literally just around the corner. I've been slaving away in my little craft corner of the world every night after work but I thought I would give myself a brief respite and share a few sneak peeks with you.

I was super honored to be asked to participate in a little gallery show that the awesome folks at Renegade are putting together. The show is the "Hoot Show" and they tasked some super amazing artists with creating a unique owl themed piece to showcase. This is also a contest, the winner gets their booth fee refunded, woo hoo!

I sent my submission off yesterday and drat I didn't take a photo of it before it got packed up. The piece that will be displayed in the Spotlight Gallery is a super kitschy wall hanging that I made based on this design. I loved the way it turned out and I hope all you Chicago folks will stop into the Renegade Gallery and check it out! I'm super excited to see all of the other entries next weekend. I also printed up a super limited edition of the design on paper that will be available for purchase in my Renegade booth.

And here's a few other little designs that I've been working on that will also have their debut next weekend. Now... back to work!