Old Capris --> New Skirt

I have been holding out on posting this project because... OK, I forgot I had done this project until I was procrastinating last night by looking through some fotos of my trip to Argentina (aka the homeland for this one). Lucky me, I have a whole new procrastination activity... blogging about the lame-o striped capris that I ACTUALLY used to wear to my job! At a mortgage bank! I can't believe they kept letting me back into the office.

The pants were made of a stretchy denim material that pretty much molds to every curve. Did I mention I got these pants in high-school? Most people who read this blog already know this about me but, did I mention that I'm not in high-school now? Let's just say, a few years later, the stretchy denim isn't so flattering.

Nonetheless, I really liked the stripes and the colors and it was really only the fact that they were TIGHT capris that bothered me. So now it doesn't bother me because the pants are a skirt and I can wear my fancy stripy mini to exotic far away places where I am not as self-conscious about stretchy fabric on my lower half.

The stretchiness is still an issue but believe me, it is way less of an issue.

Wish I could show you how I lined up the extra fabric to fill in the gaps between the leg part. It was tricky making sure the stripes remained vertical but worth the extra effort. And, NO, no one dared me to START with stripes as I began my sewing adventures... but I can see where one would say, "why the eff would you torture yourself like that and possibly ruin your desire to continue learning to sew?" I don't have an answer for that. However, I did not lose my desire, so just CALM DOWN. (Sorry, that was more for me....)

Oh, and the skirt made another appearance in St. Maarten. Not as far away but WAY more exotic :)

Adirondack Roundtable Conference

This was our "conference room":

This is what was outside:

This was the outside of the "conference room":

The beauty of it certainly outweighed the fact that it was a never-ending meeting. With breaks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Free food, and beautiful scenery. I'll take it.

Vote...

As most of the people who read this blog already know.... today, I will vote for the SECOND time ever. I mean, I've voted for the executive committee at CCHS, a resolution to screw over the state and the environment by allowing Pepsi, Co. and Coke to keep billions of dollars that are not rightfully theirs each year, and for Margaritas for election day.... BUT, because I was a silly science geek in RI for a short time in my life, I did not register to vote in NY until this year. When the candidates for freakin President were finally revealed, I figured it was about that time. Plus the constant annoying ringing in my ear that wouldn't go away.

The first time I voted, I had a small anxiety attack. I needed my mom to show me what to do and then I hesitated pulling the lever.... you know, like at the end of a test when you almost get up out of your seat but quickly turn back to your test and scantron to make sure the answer to the question you skipped was properly recorded on the scantron because if not, ALL of your answers get messed up.... Luckily, all was well and I was able to pull the lever with confidence. And when I did, that little "ding" sound sorta made me giddy. Who knew voting would have such an effect on me? Not me, that's fer sher. If you are a skeptic like me, I say to you (in true Mom fashion), "Try it, you might like it!"

I don't know if I will get that same rush this time around because I'll probably be cranky from waiting in line but I guess there is only one way to find out.

Go on... what else do you have to do today? I'll be sacrificing:

a. treasured time spent with my baby

2. gas + the environment (yes, I am registered in NY however I am not registered in my new place of residence.... albany... oops.)

d. time spent on getting these past 2 and 1/2 years into my past already!

What is your poll tax?

ps- are cupcakes synonymous with election day or something?? On way more than 1 blog, I have been dared to devour election day cupcakes.... You?

experimenting with pillow patterns + new digs :)

What a boring pillow, no?

Yeah, I thought so too...

Back when I was a beginner seamstress... (ha! barely...) I would raid the clearance bin at JoAnn's. One day I found some shiny-purple-stripy-polyester nonsense for $2.50/yd. I bought 4 freakin' yards. Walking out of the store I thought to myself, "Who the hell do you think you are?" At least I had tons of room for making mistakes. Oddly enough, I haven't wasted hardly any of it. Just trimmings. The silvery fabric is also a poly blend that I found in the oops-already-cut-it-and-nobody-wants-it bin. These pillows were my first attempt at some serious sewing projects and so cheap to do... I never thought I would like them as much as I do.

This serious of pix are showing the process for just one of my couch pillows. It's a good thing that trigonometry was one of my best subjects in Math 3R.

Cutting these triangles was ridiculous. I had to make sure the angles were just right and that the stripes would line up once I was ready to sew them together... I wouldn't recommend working with stripes when you are still getting comfortable with your machine.

Actually, it wasn't so horrible... Now, getting myself to make sure the RIGHT SIDES of the fabric actually end up on the outside of the pillow cover, THAT'S my real problem.

This point was hard because it's hard to tell from the wrong sides if the stripes line up on the right sides.... because the right sides are facing each other during pinning.

FINALLY. I was pretty pleased with how well the stripes lined up. And I only needed to use my stitch ripper twice!

Below was the first pillow cover I made. No pattern, just started sewing pieces together and ended up with this:
Don't even ask to see the other end! I gave up and hand sewed the pillow form inside the "cylinder" cover. I decided I def need more practice at sewing curves and circles and whatnot. It is plenty obvious in person that this was created by an amateur but DON'T even dare look for the evidence in this picture! It took more time to place the pillow just so and take its picture so as not to reveal how poorly made it is than it did to actually make the effing pillow.

The next two pictures are the "front" and "back" of one pillow (I use quotes because I don't know which is the front and back). Both of these pillows were made from scraps leftover from making the above pillows.

The first one was a bit more on the planned-out side.

You can really tell in the bottom picture... Just started sewing pieces together!!

HONESTLY, I didn't know that the silver fabric would be an EXACT match to my new couch.In fact, I made these pillows well before I even considered buying a couch. Seriously. The couch looked so much more white in the picture online but that's what I get for not bringing my swatches with me to the store.

No, I did not pick out the color for the walls but I enjoyed its crazy uniqueness so much I decided to keep it. I can't even describe how much I love the contrast with the purple too! If you look really closely at any of the pillow pictures, you'll see the green thread making up some of the stripes... wtf, right?

Best part, my sister, mom, and I had so many ugly pillows lying around that I didn't have to buy any pillow forms!! Shwing!

Interested in where I'm living? Check it out for yourself!

Guess who...

Everytime I walk past this place on Lark St., I am reminded of someone. Well, two people.

First, I think about when the bf when he said, "Is that where [guess who] works?" It makes me laugh because I pretend that he was serious.

Then I think about [guess who] and wonder if he/she wants to work there someday.

Doing good things + arts and crafts = ??

Hint: He/She went back and forth in deciding between focusing on health and urban policy... I know this is too easy but this place is a WIN WIN WIN for this.... person. ;)

If only everything were Black and White ...

This was my first gifted project. It was always intended, from beginning to end, as a gift to a very lovely and talented friend of mine. I wouldn't have made it through 3 years of self-inflicted pain and chaos if it weren't for her open ears and kind words. She's so easy to talk to. She's a huge fan of black and white (which explains a lot about her easy going personality) so I used up some fabric that I had originally intended to use for... well, myself. ("All women reserve the right to change their minds at any given moment." -I forget)

Anyhoo, I followed a pattern from this book, thank you very much. I cannot follow directions as well as I had thought. The lining on the inside is... inside-out... and I changed the straps so that they do not tie together at the top... instead, made one strap longer than the other and had it "button" toward the front of the bag. But don't expect to use the button. The buttonhole attachment on my machine does not make buttonholes as large as I needed so I just sewed her right on there through a way-too-small buttonhole. woops.

Hope you like it!

Practically famous by association...

A fellow blogger is one famous dude around this capital region.

Real re-purposing blogging coming soon.