July 18, 2008

market day

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Last night my brother-in-law Brian asked me, "Have you found your focus yet?"  I can't tell you how excited that question made me.  See, he is an artist and the phrasing made me feel really officially artistic.  I have indeed found my focus for the next batch of goods and here is the starting point.  Out with the florals, in with the geometrics!  I am looking to make a simple line of bright, modern, easy to wear, easy to wash, easy to layer pieces in a combination of knit and cotton.  I can't stray from my mission to be gentle on the earth by repurposing in-existence textiles, but I am also smitten with new fabric designs, so it is a combination effort.  Here is a halter dress that begins it all.  Alexander Henry fabric found miraculously at Jo-Ann, combined with a robin egg blue cotton from The Fancy Tiger DIY boutique in Denver. (Sorry there isn't a link.. it seems I have a new version of typepad and I can't quite figure that out right now:)).

I have been invited by some very talented local ladies to sell at their booth at the Farmer's Market tomorrow!  It will be my first time, and I get so nervous for people's response, but the market is so cool this year that I can't pass it up.  Plus, who doesn't love passing a morning with coffee and crafty ladies in the shade of a tent on a parking lot??

PS. Sorry for the hiatus.  I have been in major vacation mode.  Reading a bunch of other blogs.  Doing tons of yoga.  (By tons I mean three times a week:)).  Sewing and not photographing and not posting.  Plus, have I mentioned the RV?  We are owning it timeshare-style with some other friends, so many weekends we are up in the hills.  Like this:

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What?? That doesn't look like camping?  It is a whole new era.......RV RESORTS of America here we come!

May 07, 2008

from my spring line...

A ladies cotton blouse, both superbly ruffled and superbly yellow, became a gorgeous toddler shift.
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May 06, 2008

late post about an early morning

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Here is Imogene hunting for eggs on snowy Easter morning.  She is wearing a dress that I made according to a new pattern that I am still fussing with.  I cut the dress portion from the softest vintage sheet.  I made the bodice from a brown corduroy that has a sort of damask brown-on-brown print to it.  The straps are from Amy Butler  polka-dot fabric.  I liked the final dress quite a bit, mostly because the dress part sort of flows and billows and rubs around your legs as though you were running through the laundry on the line.  It took way too much time though, and I sized it incorrectly at first.  So now two exist, but one has been given to my friends' daughter.  What I can't wait to see is the two of them in these peace loving frocks down by the river this summer! 
Here is Enid on Easter morning.
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She is wearing an adorable blue checked coat that I 'rescued' from the thrift store for a dollar and a half.  When I see handmade apparel  like this, I can't help but buy it because it just seems to have a sense of unique value.  I see it on the rack, then I think, "what if I could make something like this?  But someone already did...and its so cute...and it would have taken forever...and somebody else probably inherited it and they didn't see its worth and they brought it in with a bunch of cruddy Corning ware...but I can honor that first woman's work once again...I should just get it...even if she only wears it once"  Luckily, it is not a budget breaking hobby.  Now if only I could find more jackets like this...
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My friend Lauren found this for Arlen way back in the fall.  He has worn it so many times, as I am sure a whole other family of boys once did too, and it still looks good.   Its like the Montgomery Ward of the sixties made it their mission to sell only indestructible blends of polyester.  One would think that there would be more around.  I love this jacket.  My favorite iteration has been with the Beatles t-shirt and distressed dark jeans.  Rocking.  That's Arlen.  Hair and all.  When Lauren gave it to me she said that she would like it back if the baby in her belly was a boy.  Well, not so long ago Winslow was born to Lauren, so the jacket has a new wearer.  All he has to do is gain more than the eight or so pounds he now weighs.  (Denise, if Lauren had had a girl, I was so going to package this coat up for the Beast.)
So there is a story with this picture and this is how it begins.
"Arlen, Omi hid a basket in the living room for you.  Can you find it?"
Arlen returns with this small basket of coasters that usually sits on an end table.
"Oh Arlen! You found a basket! Can you find another one?"
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Arlen returns with this.
"Another one basket", he states.
"Yes, yes! Can you find another one?"
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"Alright Arlen, you found it!"
"It has candy."

May 05, 2008

enid turns one

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Enid turns one tomorrow, but she already had her first birthday bluebird party over the weekend so you see her here in the robin egg blue birthday dress I made for her, looking oh-so-cute, and flashing a toothy grin! I saw the fabric at a super cool shop in Denver, called the Fancy Tiger, late Saturday afternoon when Mandy and I stopped in after our day of shopping the Paris Street Market .  An hour from home... five o'clock in the evening...I could tell it was going to be a late night.
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I maybe would/maybe wouldn't have been so determined to make this dress the night before her party, but the little shop also had these adorable vintage fabric covered buttons that sort of demanded to have a dress to be sewn onto.
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I really like the look all put together.  It's kind of traditional because of the gathered neck/full skirt/flouncy sleeves, but not in a Suri/baby-Burberry kind of way.  (Is it that Tomkat's style really doesn't resonate with me, or might it also be that the high price tag makes me simultaneously desire  and feel the need to scorn those plaid dresses she sports in US magazine each week?) As afore mentioned, I am in love with the color.  And I made the pattern myself, from scratch, which lets me know that I am indeed learning as I am going.  Not so much in that it is a wonderful-easy-to-duplicate pattern, but in that I am starting to be able to design from a vision, without modifying/changing bought patterns, and the end product resembles the vision fairly closely.
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Here is Enid trying to woo her little boyfriend Owen with her matchbox car prowess.  Thank you Heather for the beautiful pictures!
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Finally, the whole fam getting in on the candle blowing action.  That's Imogene's head in the foreground. She arranged a strategic spot for both blowing assistance and cake dissemination which unfortunately left her facing awkwardly in the wrong direction for the family photo.   

April 13, 2008

best of 2008!

I was super lucky to have been nominated Best Found Fabric Clothing Line by the editors of the Rocky Mountain Chronicle!  The article is so very complimentary- the editor made me seem like my ultra cool future self, you know, the one that I hope to one day become:)
You can see the online version here!

And so I have been super inspired and super busy.  Here is a glimpse of one mini mini mini dress from my spring stuff modeled by one of my cutest fourth graders ever!  Its made of a vintage chambray and lined with some Amy Butler cotton.  Even the zipper didn't daunt me! The back is really interesting as well- I will post more pics of that later.
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March 27, 2008

A Garden Gala Sale

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Mandy and I have put together a plan to host a sale!  I think the very best part of our idea are the vintage cocktail dresses we plan on wearing to the Friday night part of the part-ay!

Also, I was on the receiving end of a huge honor today!  More to follow on that.

March 02, 2008

finally something tiny and cute again!

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Its for sweet little Enid, and I dare say she made a smashing debut in it at Jen's baby shower last weekend! I've been playing around a bit with making my own patterns and I quite like the proportions on this dress.  The straps are wide and the bodice is corduroy which both appeal to my sort of practical nature. Undoubtedly, however, the most lovely piece of the dress is the pink panel featuring a sweet, flower-gathering squirrel.  My bff Mandy found this most lovely vintage teal towel on an outing to the thrift store together.  She held it up and said, "Esther, look!".  I think I responded something like, "OMFG", but I am not sure and it could have also been that I just stood there with my jaw hanging open, because that is the cutest thing I had ever seen.  It was seriously a simultaneous joy inducing and nerve evoking experience to cut and sew that thing.  And now, 'voila'!

November 26, 2007

afternoon shopping

I had a super nice thrift store outing with my new teaching partner and bff Mandy.  We had a meeting with our sister school across town, and in the hour after the meeting and before our nanny heads out, we shopped around a little.  It was really fun to go out with someone who has the same appreciation for good finds and the same humor for random crap, plus it was a bonus to be there without the three kids in tow:).  I found all these things!
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I was so inspired by Emily's post  about her shopping trip, that I thought I would do the same.  Even though I swore I wouldn't be tempted when Mandy wanted to walk through the textile/linen section of the store, I was tempted, and I bought this fabric.

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But I love it!  And it might be made into some holiday gifts for some friends.  I am super excited because Mike was into the idea of making presents with the kids this year.  It will be so great to do some crafting as a family.  Not sure exactly what yet, but it has to be something Arlen won't eat, Imogene won't want to make pink, and Mike can contribute to as well.  Also useful to the recipient.  Or at least darn cute.  Maybe something a la these ornaments  I found on a new blog read for me by Jenny in Kansas. I also bought two books.  One about a sweet rabbit that can read (a skill that so excites the other animals that they kiss one another, as well as kiss the little rabbit twice! hooray!).

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The other book is a collection of stories called Parade which I have seen used in later editions as a text book to teach reading in school.  This book has absolutely beautiful illustrations which use gray scale plus one additional color for really gorgeous results.  It also has really hilarious and really non pc stories and poems in it.  Some of the stories, like this one about Yonie, don't even quite make grammatical sense.

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I also love this little pitcher which I can't wait to fill with flowers, it's just a matter of deciding which ones...... hmm... maybe a paper white bulb to force in time for the holidays?

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Also I would like to share these pictures of our tiny hike yesterday. First a family photo:

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Next, a photo of my looker-of-a-husband, Mike:

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And here we see Imogene and Arlen holding hands and pointing out interesting sights to one another. (Honest to pete- no prompting!)

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Also here is a peek at our thanksgiving at my parents' house.  Primero, Arlen in a turkey hat.

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A family photo with Oma and Opa.

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and finally, sweet little Enid sleeping in my old crib.

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November 03, 2007

capelets & concerns

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capelets!  apparently good for sharing secrets! 
For the fall collection I made three capelets and they are, I do believe, my favorite pieces, plus they appear to be really fun to wear!  The first one that I made is the one you see pictured on Imogene here, with the chartreuse silk bow and brown velvet hood trim.  I made it from a vintage bedspread.  The bedspread was quilted and stopped me dead in my tracks at the second hand store.  It was this bedspread that started the whole fairy tale idea.  Visions of the curtain clothes from The Sound of Music kept coming to me.  When I got it home and spread it out in the sunshiny light, was when I realized that the bedspread had seen better days.  Many, many better days it seemed, lying in the same exact position on the same exact bed, because you could see where it had been creased and the fabric was really, really worn in those spots.  The saving grace was that apparently the bed must have been against one wall because there was an area, along one whole side, that wasn't faded or worn, and that was where I began snipping!  I lined the hood with a velvet ribbon which had a nice effect, but I didn't want to do the binding on the front and bottom edges in the same ribbon because I thought it would detract too much from the design on the fabric.  I ended up making bias tape out of some of the same material which was a pain because it involved first un-quilting the bedspread fabric, and then stitching together strips cut on the bias.  In the end, I loved the way this capelet turned out.  Its in the shop but there is a fairly large sized part of my heart that hopes it goes unnoticed and unpurchased, which would free it up to be worn by Imogene all winter:).  The second capelet, shown here on Imogene's close friend, is also absolutely darling, although it almost had me quitting mid-construction.  I made it from a vintage curtain which was in perfect condition.  I lined the hood with some fake wooly fleece.  It has a certain ice princess feel to it.  The cape itself is lined with a really nice wool suiting.  What does it for me on this capelet is the silk bow.  (The ladies blouse which the silk came from also offered a ruffled collar and sleeve cuffs which will undoubtedly find another purpose soon- gorgeous!)  I also stumbled across a package of three very large antiqued metal hook and eye closures at Joann which I used at the neck opening.  That way you can secure the capelet, and then tie the bow so it looks right! 
Miniavery_cape_2  This is the third capelet and it is really striking with the blue bow against the gray damask type design fabric.  The really great thing about this capelet is that the tablecloth that it was cut from seems to offer some wicking properties that allows liquids to bead up on it- how perfect is that for the rain?  Since I lined it with the wool suiting, it also stays fairly warm under there. 
now for the concerns..... you might like to settle in... or finish reading this post when you're finding yourself feeling philosophical and empathetic.  here goes.  since the launch of chinny chin chin, the blog, and chinny chin chin, the clothing line, i have gone through all these different iterations and permutations and evolutions and just plain changes regarding the scope, format, image of everything.  basically, i blame it on etsy.  no, just kidding, but selling my craft has definitely lent my crafting a whole different dimension.  sometimes i love it and sometimes it feels like my artistry has been tainted.  it definitely feels vulnerable to list items in the store and price them.  its one thing for people to compliment my kids on what i make for them, but its quite another to try to figure out how much someone else would pay for the same thing.  i mean, who knows?  maybe they tell my kids they look cute because they just like my kids.  then there is the time issue.  i don't have a whole heck of a lot of it.  and my time sewing is precious to me.  i love the learning, the creating, the constructing.  even the shopping for fabric at thrift stores and fabric stores is my total pleasure.  but when i look at how many hours i rack up behind the machine before i finish a more complicated piece, it is nearly impossible to think of charging what would be a reasonable compensation per hour.  on the other hand, the thought of limiting what i make to simple, and more importantly, quick, projects is also not appealing.  god bless those men and women who do make it possible to get cute clothes for cheap (sometimes i stand in complete awe at the sales rack at old navy), but i can't really volunteer my time so that other people can get what i make for as cheap as they could buy it at a store.  so what is the happy medium? then there is the image thing in general.  mike and i like to think about where all this could eventually go, and although i do love to dream about it, some of the nitty gritty has me a little stunted lately.  i guess its the whole branding issue.  its asking the question, 'what is chinny chin chin?'  mostly, i think that my clothes reflect me, and my tastes, but that is always changing too.  I am so deeply influenced by the changes in season for one.  and i get sick of making the same thing.  i actually have to force myself to use up considerable amounts of my fabric stash before heading out for more.  what i like is always changing.  then there is this huge conundrum to me regarding the proprietary nature of crafting.  like who's idea was it anyway?  i feel like i often see work that other designers are doing, and realize its so similar to mine.  then i second guess my originality.  then i second guess my fixation with being original. knowing that as common members of society, we are all exposed to the same inputs through the same media, is knowing that as artists, we are likely to come up with similar stuff.  even more likely in a rapidly growing but yet fairly small online crafting community. which then makes me worried about offending anyone by seeming to 'copy' them.  loads of times i have the same innovation as i discover elsewhere and then i am practically paralyzed about what to do.  make it?  not make it? make it for my family but not to sell?  and i really hope not to incur any of the same stress on anyone else by the way.  if you have the gumption to try your hand at any of the ideas that i have, i would rather that you do just go ahead and try and that possibly we become crafting friends through the shared experience. part of the 'copying' issue is trends too.  i like to make things that are fashiony.  well that means reinterpreting pieces or styles that i see around.  i like to add my own changes, but still i can't claim any of it is truly original.  but i don't want to make wacky, 'wow-i-have-never-seen-anything-like-that' stuff.  to that end, i do like "mining" a lot of my fabric from thrifted sources, because it lends a ton to the originality and moreover it adds a 'layer of existence', a term i saw on Melissa's blog which just struck me so deeply. so i guess i feel pressure to keep my blog 'branded' now that i have an etsy shop.  kind of ridiculous i know because when you list on etsy, your stuff stays on the first page for all of about 2.5 seconds, reaching thousands of viewers i'm sure.   but i feel worried that if i am going to grow the business, i will have to keep the blog 'pure'.  especially with the prices i am asking.  i am assuming that people who buy the clothes will visit the blog, at least once perhaps, and they will want to see the theme continued in other iterations here.  so what happens is that i am totally stunted by that.  i haven't shown any of you the robot sweatshirt or the projects my elementary school students are working on in my handsewing class, and why?  because those things are tangents. larks.  not the direction i hope to take chinny chin chin.  but they are loads of fun and would be fun to share.  and then there are the little stories about the common struggles of being a mom and a teacher and a hobby sewer, that i love, love, love to read about on other blogs, but feel confined to do so here.  plus there are the pictures of the kids that i would love to post more of, but who, (besides you mom:)) wants to come here to see my family photo album?  i don't know.  but i hate posting once a month just to keep things looking professional.  so brace yourself, because you know what...?  i think i just convinced myself to post about whatever strikes me and that might just mean posting way more often!  maybe everyday in november like this new and lovely blog called  wiksten-made .  

October 17, 2007

call me the milliner

over eighty years ago a milliner used to live in our house.  my husband found this out by searching online several years ago.  we saw an ad in an old newspaper that invited ladies to a hat show held here at the house!  and now... i am the milliner:)
here are two hats that i made for the chinny chin chin fall collection.
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in keeping with the outfitting-for-fairy-tale-adventure theme of the collection, i tried to prepare tiny acorn inspired hats for blustery days.  i used this vogue pattern but sized it down to fit little heads.  (you can check the store  for exact measurements). the outside of the hats were cut from thrifted wool pants, and the insides are from two different sources: a thrifted dress and some Hancock-going-out-of-business cotton fabric.  i attached the gigantic satiny brown ribbons to each of the linings to ensure the hats stay on the way they were intended.  on the very top of each hat i attached a fabric covered button made with the same fabric as the lining.  i made two slightly different hat shapes: the first, i like to call the autumn blossom design, and the second i like to call the acorn design.  now you can see what they look like on little heads because i have the nicest friends ever and they coaxed their little girls to come be in my fashion show.  today, with the wind and the rain, would have been a nice day to wear a hat such as these, but the day of the fashion show ended up being over 95 degrees, so the girls were dears to wear wool head wear for me!

Miniavery_keely_tweed Minikeely_tweed Minip1030777 Minip1030778 the hats were really fun to make and if you never have, i would say not to be daunted- the pattern easily guided the construction process.  a change that i made was to use some fairly thick sail cloth as an in between layer instead of interfacing, because i wanted the shape to remain 'unfloppy'.  yup, i just used the term 'unfloppy'.  that's because its report card week at school and i have been up to my eyeballs in grading my fourth graders' writing pieces in order to get their report cards done.  i actually have the next two days off as us teachers put in one heavy duty week of before and after school parent-teacher conferences back in september.  AND... my serger is supposed to arrive tomorrow or the next day!!!!! i can hardly wait.  i already have tons of things cut out and ready to piece together- so yeahhhh!  the week before last i also bought a rotary cutter and a big mat and i was feeling really seamstress official and started to fantasize about the time i am going to save using my new tool when i saw what happened to poor Judi !  yikes!  (Judi- the thumb injury doesn't seem to slow you down a bit) (and hopefully the tiny fawn scarf will help)  (i don't know how- i'm just hopin:))

to go with the little tiny hats, i made the little tiny scarves you see in the pictures above.  i listed these in the store a few days ago when i had another tiny twenty minutes to devote to the purveying of my goods:)  two are already on their way to buyers but there is one that still needs a neck!  these scarves are very easy to make and i would definitely suggest trying it out no matter what your sewing experience has been.  they are made in a long rectangular shape (kind of ridiculous of me to mention that, as most, if not all, scarves are made in such a shape, but anyway..) with wool on one side and cotton on the other.  the cotton is for necks young and old, which don't quite like the feel of the wool against their skin.  then there is an appliqué on one end made in the shape of a forest creature (fox, bird, fawn) made from the same fabric as the lining.  finally, there is a gigantic button hole midway down the opposite side so that the scarf can be pulled through.  this is sort of the same way that lots of my dutch relatives always loop their scarves and pull them though the looped end.  kind of nice. no bulky knot. 

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