Thrifting, upscaling and restyling

Finally!  The week away from my usual routine, scheduled months ago, is here. As I type I’m snuggled in a luxurious hotel suite, near a mountain range where raptors are migrating.  Really, for me this is the best! Early afternoon into sundown today will find me on a mountain promontory watching for raptors riding currents over the Appalachian range. 

I’m  always on the lookout for the beginning raw materials I can upscale into statement pieces for my wardrobe or home. In preparation for this trip I visited my favorite thrifts shops and made 3 great finds.  Here’s the inventory:  One oversized men’s plaid shirt, one 90’s-era blazer that was about 3 sizes too large but well constructed and fully lined in a soft, crushed taupe linen, and a cute ballet flat. 

After some time with the sewing machine and hand needles they’ve been restyled and updated.  I put casings slightly above my natural waist in the shirt and the blazer and pulled drawstrings through to ruche in the fullness.  A sporty elastic drawstring was chosen for the plaid shirt, and I rolled the too-long sleeves to make a shirt jacket. This will be perfect for cool spring weather.  For the linen jacket I inserted a light brown velvet ribbon for a drawstring then knotted it to hold the gathers and finish off the ends. For the too-long, too-full sleeves,I removed the button plackets at the cuffs and inserted an elastic casing making blousy, bracelet length sleeves. The ballet flats were adorned with bead clusters from a deconstructed necklace and pink velvet ankle laces were pulled through the casing loop at the heel.

TaDa! 

White Pizza

A weekend evening and as good excuse as any for pizza.  I made a bechamel sauce with fresh grated reggiano parmesano, garlic and nutmeg.  I topped a thin prebaked crust with a generous ladling of sauce, sprinkled steamed chopped spinach and another light grating of parmesano. After 10 minutes in a 400 degree oven, this is what we have for our pizzafest.

Backpack Style

We’re having an unseasonably warm day in western Pennsylvania and spring fever has struck!  Next week is a prime time for seabird and raptor migration and I can’t wait to be in the thick of it. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has ‘Birdcast’ which follows and predicts the migratory patterns of birds. For such an outing, a backpack is essential. A place for binoculars, camera, log and reference journals, snacks and water!h

I’m going to create a bespoke bag for this spring. The ideas are percolating; I’ve made a preliminary sketch of essential pockets and clips and straps and such, as well as pulled out some ephemera for inspiration. I know there will be painting and inking of the canvas and also some yummy butter-soft brown leather accents. Come back again and see it take shape. This is going to be great fun!

Simple pleasures

A shaken iced tea with the tiniest bit of sugar. It really is the simplest of things that can elevate the everyday to the sublime. I found my stainless steel shaker in a thrift shop in Maryland. It’s cap is perfectly domed to create froth and chill the tea with the addition of a few ice cubes. An simple beverage made into an event!

Something new

It’s been 5 years since I posted, and it’s time to begin again. This is an interesting chapter in life and there are many stories to tell. This blog has been a record of my life as a maker of things and lover of beauty, and will probably continue as such. I hope you’ll follow along and I welcome hearing from you, too. 

This winter I was invited to a party - a corporate affair asking for elegant and classic, light on the ‘sexy.’ I chose a vintage black lace knit St. John skirt suit with a teal silk camisole. What was needed was a bespoke accessory to tie the two solid colors with a bang! I created a clutch purse using layers of quilted canvas with inked floral drawings and an Egyptian Green Ultrasuede lining. An inherited brooch (my dad’s gift to Mom on their 1st born’s wedding day in 1971) was added as an accent. Here’s the finished purse:

Quilt magic

Cut fabric apart then sew it back together. Repeat.

 
In the 1940's in the coal region of Pennsylvania, my mom's friend Sue made a number of cotton scrap quilts tops. Sometime in the 1980's she gave two of them to my mom. They had never been completed and were in a bin with a quilt top Mom appliqued for me, but didn't complete before her death.  I've been looking at these and visualizing them made whole and useful.  The 40's quilt top had many fabrics throughout that had not held up to the years and so the structure of the quilt top had failed.  I spent an afternoon cutting the squares apart, and then cutting the salvaged squares into four 2 inch pieces.  Now, I am sewing them together with solid colors as exclamations bisecting the 4 squares.  We'll see where this goes.  I'm thinking I will use a dark neutral as sashing between groups of blocks, but I may just work out the colors and values and join the blocks directly to each other.  My vision for this is still evolving, but I love the energy of the small prints, complex plaids and naive florals.

Presenting Scrappy Cat...

Scrappy Lamb has a new friend.  Another cuddly friend made of cotton boucle with bamboo rayon fiberfill, Scrappy Cat has features cut and sewn from felted wool scraps and has joined the lamb in his pen.

Sometimes a project just is too much fun to stop with one.  I love the feel of the cotton boucle in my fingers as I am stitching it, and the rich textures and colors found in my bag of wool felts and vintage button twist delight, too.  I hope these friends bring a smile to your life, as they have mine.