Alina's Adventures

The birdie diaper clutch.

A work in progress which started as a gift for Isla but then I decided the colors were all wrong. The inside lining is a geometric flannel and the main fabric is a light gray sailcloth which I can't find anywhere anymore (that's what happens when your primary fabric source is the thrift store bin). I haven't decided whether to add snaps, velcro, or ironwood buttons for closing. If you'd like your own diaper clutch and have an idea in mind, try to custom order at my y.so.str8 shop- I love the challenge of bringing your vision to life.

5th Street Vintage Market.

I almost spent more than I earned at the 5th Street Vintage Market this weekend. It was beautiful and chock full of fabulous vintage frocks, old books, records, trinkets, and collectibles. 

One of the hardest parts about selling handmade goods for me remains picking a price and sticking to it. When someone likes something, I find myself so happy that I slash the price into shreds for the satisfaction of seeing a person with a y.so.str8 goodie going home. Everything happens so fast that it's hard to keep track of what you sell if you operate on a cash-only basis (as I do). Super grateful to Monica for her half-sandwich and general kindness.

I've been trying to go through my goods and make note of what I sold.... I do remember that the fairy tale bonnets went to two lovely little kids. Made from upcycled sweaters that needed a new raison d'etre, the bonnets were created from a design based on the fairy tales I share with the kids. 

Working with cashmere for bonnets and winter hats is lovely because the awful itchiness of wool hats as a young child sticks fresh in my mind. Wherever the little red riding hood may be, I know she isn't itching when she wears her bonnet.

The green lacey bonnet went to a little girl with a head full of beautiful black curls which peeped out around the lace. 

I kissed a number of handmade cards bye-bye. I also sold my old friend, the two-faced doll, as well as a funky grate-full packet for a young lady whose mother wanted "something creative and different for Christmas". I think the doily bib also found a home. (Boy, I would be easy to rob....)

Astri's star ornament.

What I sold is dim in my memory. But what I got is fresh. Dani Beach's itch for kitsch landed me with a dress straight out of my wildest 1970's daydreams. I stocked up on soap from The Left Hand- the scent of vetiver still lingers in my car. I also discovered some lovely old books from a vintage dealer impacted by Hurricane Sandy, and found myself the proud owner of a knit star ornament made by Astri Snodgrass, who has way too many talents up those sleeves.

The next 5th Street Vintage Market will take place in March of 2013. I'm so grateful to its organizers and planners who did the legwork of making it happen and bringing a little more awesome to Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

DIY rose petal dryer bags.

My sister brought organic dried roses for me from Boulder, Colorado- and I haven't felt much like drinking rosehip tea lately. On the other hand, having a baby with sensitive skin makes dryer sheets and fabric softener a no-go at the castle. So I decided to make rose petal dryer bags to make the laundry come up roses. Simple and oh so sweet.

SUPPLIES

dried roses and petals
wooden spoons (or a hammer)
muslin fabric scraps
reddish thread

Rosebuds tumbled onto the table top. The dried roses were still intact, so I took out a few wooden spoons and asked the kids to "gently crush" the roses into smaller pieces but not into a powder. I've found that the more descriptive my instructions, the more satisfaction the kids seem to get out of the task.

There's something marvelous about the integrity of a dried rosebud- the way you can see it's individual figure and shape in the drying. Max did not want to "crush" them, so he studied them as the girls took to the tough task of crushing and whopping.

As the kids crushed the rosebuds, I found a few scraps of muslin fabric and cut them to the size of 3" by 3" squares. Then I put them together wrong sides facing each other and basted them using my sewing machine. I left a spoon-size opening for flipping and stuffing. I was also very careful to backstitch and secure my ends.

Then I flipped the little 3"x 3" baggies right sides out by pulling them through the opening. The kids used a kitchen spoon to fill the baggies halfway with rose petal crushings.

Finally I rolled in the opening and used an ornamental stitch to close and line the entire dryer bag- because there's a difference between laundry that smells like roses and laundry covered in tiny pieces of roses.

The almost- final result.... The I-still-need-to-cut-loose-threads-and-clean result... Each one can be thrown in the dryer about ten times for a strong rose scent. After that, they make great baby doll and dollhouse pillows. If you'd like a few of your own readymade, visit my etsy page and make a custom order request. I'd love to fill your day with roses.

The diy necklet.

My kids don't like coats. Or hats. Or all those other things that keep them warm in important place. Over time, I've learned to adjust to the disdain for movement-inhibiting winter clothing by improvising my own creations. One of my most important toddler adaptations- "that which solved many problems"- is the necklet. 

Milla has inherited Micah's necklet, and she wears it with pride. I can throw it in a bag along with hats and mittens and know that it keeps her neck and upper chest warm without putting on a full coat or a turtleneck which will make her feel too hot when we go back inside.

The necklet solves the problem of keeping a warm, woolen scarf around the neck of a child who is more likely to remove it and use it as a jump-rope or hanging vine. So I thought I'd share a super-simple necklet tutorial to help you get started. Of course, if you'd prefer to purchase a ready-made necklet, the y.so.str8 shop will be happy to accomodate your neck-warming needs this winter. Custom orders are encouraged.

The primary ingredient is old, tattered sweaters made from wool. It's a great way to keep the cashmere and let it brighten another year.

My necklet tutorial was sketched out last night by the dim, wavering light of a campfire but I hope you still find it useful. Hopefully, it brings a little campfire family time spirit your way.

To print this tutorial, click on the image, save it and then press print. If you'd like to purchase the necklet pictured, stop by the y.so.str8 shop at etsy. Custom orders are encouraged and delivered in less than two weeks- just in time for the December holidays.

The Wendell Berry card set.

Now available for the grandiose price of two Happy Meals at my etsy shop. I don't think I will ever create it again, which makes it unique, one-of-a-kind, and all that good stuff. Share Wendell with someone you love.... because his statements are so true that they don't lay the groundwork for a debate or an argument, merely for an affirmative and shared nodding session.

Making beanbags with the girls.

Micah and Milla helped stuff fabric bean bags with beans for me. It's hard not to spill the beans.

But little hands cleaned them up just as quickly as they had spilled them..... The girls selected a fabric for their bean bags from the pile.

Help with the tiny details led to the creation of Milla's vintage sheet bean-bag.

Micah's secret flamboyance emerged in her fabric choice. "The flowers are dancing," she insisted.

The handmade feather headdress-headband.

Continuing our frolic with feathers back in the sewing room led me, as usual, to an unplanned place. A simple headdress became a headdress-and-headband combo with a button to boot.

It's always fun to find a way to use natural wood buttons as accessories or flourish on a piece. I felt like an ironwood button would add extra salvo and signify courage for little Micah's headdress.

She cooed and whispered when she saw it- walking carefully across the room as if entering Narnia.

The heart warms by rapid degrees when they love what you make for them- when it becomes something they use in their imaginary worlds of play.

Then she tried it on as a handbead that ties at the nape of her neck, leaving a small fabric "tail" reminiscient of actual native headdresses.

The ironwood button fits perfectly. If you hanker after your own natural, handmade, handpainted ironwood button as a sewing embellishment, for doll eyes, for gift-wrapping panache, or to add to handmade holiday hair pieces, stop by my y.so.str8 shop and and pick up a few. They are made from tornado-tumbled timber which would have otherwise been relegated to our city landfill. 

Handmade holidays time....

A little lavender owl satchet makes the perfect gift for almost anyone.

And my hands have stayed busy creating new things every day. If you'd like to purchase some of the crafts and creations you've seen on this blog, take an online stroll over to my y.so.str8 shop. And feel free to contact me about custom orders for the holidays- I love to try and make your visions come to life.

Crafting a tribute to Charlie Parker: A feather for Yardbird.

A feather for the Yardbird.

Crafting often begins with a person in mind. In this case, the person is a jazz musician who always played as if a feather lit his cap. So the green vase holds an eternal feather for Charlie Parker, who changed the language of jazz so we could continue to speak it. What keeps Charlie relevant is his influence on the development of bebop, particularly with respect to rhythm.

A little meat for your gristle. The earliest, preformal type of jazz, also known as the "cakewalk" style, relied on the half-note pulse. The rise of the ragtime style brought was tied to the syncopated half-note. In the New Orleans style, syncopation gradually divided the pulse until it emerged as the even four in Louis Armstrong's music. But the rhythmic basis of Parker's bebop is an eighth-note. 

"Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art."
                - Charlie Parker 

Charlie leaned on Lester Young's flexible use of the 4/4 pulse and a more freely moving rhythmic impulse in creating his melodic lines. But he also imported the urban, southwestern blues idiom popularized by Count Basie's orchestra as the emotional and even technical basis for his work. 

Listen to "Parker's Blues" (below) which Charlie recorded with a young Miles Davis and you can't miss the blues behind the movement.

 

Parker's Mood (mp3)

The sax never runs of things to say- and ways to say it as emphatically as a livid woman in high heels rapidly crossing a room. To learn more about the Bird and his influence on jazz greats including Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, take a pee at his website.

 

The possibility of a micah dress.

As usual, my sewing modus operandi falls in ye old "balls to the wall" category. No pattern, no vision, just going on an inkling which one hopes will bloom.

Micah likes her Micah dress. And she makes a perfect muse for iron and lace, the steel magnolia, the southern fray of manners, conventions, and kamikaze kindnesses.

Even with all the fluff- and all that worship at the altar of pink princesses- Micah is anything but frivolous. The micah dress offers only the pretense of classic femininity with none of the symmetry or predictability that makes conventions so comforting to our parents and their generation. There is nothing as satisfying as sewing a one-off and watching it take flight.