6th graders are a joy.

Luckily for me, I have an abundance of 6th grade girls in my life.

I haven't written in a while, but I am going to skip right past catching you all up... since I am not so sure that anyone noticed the lack of posts except my father! :)

I wanted to share two things: the gifts I made for my sister (6th grade) to give to her friends for Christmas, as well as some of the joys of teaching.

Part one: Super Shawls.


Back in 2008, I made my sister a furry shawl for her birthday. She gratified my creative venture by wearing it all the time, and apparently her friends began to try it out and fell in love. Christmas 2009 rolled around with a plan in her mind: she asked if she could purchase three personalized shawls for her friends.


Armed with cuddle fur fleece, polar fleece, and some scrap felt, I came up withe these quick-to-make and comfy gifts.



I was well pleased with them. I even liked the back side, which featured the stitched outline of the flower on the other side:


Part two: Sugary Science Club

I barely felt motivated to post during the last few months, largely due to the bad quality of my old camera and the feeling I had that talking about my teaching job needed pictoral accents. Luckily for me, I am the proud owner of a new Nikon(!) and can now post pictures.

The girls I teach are amazing and so amusing. I could regale you for hours, but I will content myself to share some evidence of the fun I am having via these shots from today's Science Club.


Our activity of the day was nutrition-focused, in keeping with a recent focus at school on healthy choices. We measured out the sugar content of a few favorite snacks in teaspoons and were shocked and appalled to see the sugar we are eating! Then we made "sugar warning" posters that I can't wait to put up!





Essentially that's what I'm up to these days. You can't seem me anywhere here...but I was behind the camera, in my lab coat! :)

In other news, I am addicted to Christian rock these days. Matt Maher, Chris Tomlin, and John Waller, mostly. I think its improving my overall mood, so I am thinking it's one addiction I don't need to kick.

In hopes I will be posting more soon,

Papermoon

A Bag for Anna.

Yesterday's project: a bag for my dear friend Anna, six months late.



She'd given me the color scheme in January, I'd apologized and promised it was coming by Valentine's day, and I had been making excuses and looking at the fabric ever since... until yesterday.

I got up, ate my breakfast*, put on a dress and some pearls (I am more productive that way), whipped up a little seltzer-with-vanilla, and got down to business.


I used the same oh fransson pattern I have before... it's easy and effective.


I like it. I may make myself a wallet in the same color scheme.



-Papermoon

*cream cheese on whatever I can find seems to be the summer favorite

Darnit!

I finally got around to darning my jeans yesterday, after four months of putting down on each daily 'to-do list' I wrote. Procrastination, anyone?

I shouldn't have dawdled, considering how easy it is to do. Before yesterday, I'd only darned by hand (a pain). With my machine, this quick denim rejuvenation was painless and satisfying! I feel like I have three new pairs to wear!

Here's how to do it:

Before you start, round up your hole-y jeans, your sewing machine, some matching thread (or go nuts with some funky colors! Your choice!), some pins, and a thin, somewhat stretchy, soft material for reinforcing. I used some scraps from a pair of my sister's jeans which we'd just turned to shorts. I would also recommend shirting, thin corduroy, or even polar fleece–which I hear works very well. On to the process.

First, locate your holes and worn areas. (Mine always seem to fall apart at the inner leg on the left side. Consistent problem...odd.)



Second, turn your jeans inside out and cut a patch of your reinforcement material to fit the worn area. Make sure you encompass the area right around any holes you have–the area is likely very weak. (Look for buckling, fraying and super-softness.) Pin on your patch.



Third, put a denim needle in your machine and set it for a darning stitch, inserting the proper foot. (In case you don't have a computer of a machine like I do, a darning stitch should look something like 21 or 32, shown below. Darning is basically weaving–your stitch should feature many small stitches running into each other, close together. I used 21, figuring the 'zig zag' would favor my slightly-spandex jeans a bit better.)



Fourth, darn that business! Run the stitch over the fabric to cover the weakened area. When you're done, tie your knots, cut off any lagging patch corners, and turn your jeans right side out! VOILA!


Alright... your turn! Go make new clothes out of the old! A recession-era pastime...and a lot of fun.

-Papermoon

some summer dresses in mind...

... from another time!

i was at vogue fabrics the other day, just taking a gander and picking up a pattern i've been wanting.



i couldn't help but get distracted at look at basically EVERYTHING in the store, as usual. i had a painstaking battle with my willpower over a bunch of vintage menswear buttons (my willpower, thankfully, won). i must have touched and admired every piece of venetian lace and let's not even talk about the remnants i managed not to buy.

in any case, the best part, as usual, was looking through all the patterns and catalogs at the fancy things i would never make and don't need. i became extremely fixated on the summer offerings in the butterick's catalog from their 'retro' section. i think i might order some of these!



my new life plan, in which i toss all trends to the wind and embrace my love of high waists and secretary blouses, is really making me feel pretty. not that it's so important to enjoy one's reflection at all times...but it is nice! :)

-papermoon

anthropologie-inspired headbands

anthropologie is a great source for research.

i love to window shop there and get ideas, especially for crafting fun gifts for friends.

a few weeks ago, my friend leigh admired these headbands, which fetch a mean price of anywhere from 32.00 to 38.00.

i decided to whip up my own version for her birthday.








i just put together some fabric flowers with bead accents, sewed them onto a fabric strip base, and then attached them to the headbands with a series of tight thread loops. they looked adorable in her hair this weekend!

here are a few detail shots.

sorry about the blurry one. i think i need a new camera.

make yourself some! spring has sprung!

-papermoon

i've been busy and i will soon be busier!

hi all!

i have been very MIA, my apologies. i have been a busy bee, preparing for a trip i am taking to san francisco-- leaving today. first time out there and i'm excited!

i will start the week with my lovely friend cassie (not to mention her brother, ben!), stealing as much of her day as she has left over between and after work hours. i am excited for the reunion-- for the last four and some years we have seen much more of eachother than her move out west has recently allowed. it will be great to catch up and see what her new chapter is like.

once the weekend hits, i am very excited to be getting in a visit-- and a baptism, no less!-- with my san francisco cousins! i have never visited with them in their home territory, and i can't wait. i get to meet my littlest cousin, and catch up with the rest of the troop, whose company i so completely enjoyed at the november wedding. it is nice to have some relatives with such a comparable experience of siblinghood (a parallel family of six kids!) to mine.

i have been sewing like a maniac so that i can bring presents, which is my way. i am very pleased:
for baby, a baseball bib:



the last two bags in the series i have been showing you:




for my grandma (who is visiting, too) a little travel jewelery case:



i didn't know what to whip up for the boys, but i found (alas, didn't make) some great gifts:

a reporter's notebook for my encyclopedia brown loving cousin, a nice compact moleskine set for the oldest of the family, and bananagrams for everyone, in the guise of a gift for my uncle.

hopefully none of them are reading my blog too much so the surprise won't be spoiled... but at this point i think they are probably too busy to check before i will see them, as my cousins emma and elizabeth are singing at the inauguration today!!! so totally exciting. i have been up all morning and sifted through the channels enough to hear them and to see that they caught elizabeth looking lovely in every song! nice job guys!

in any case, i am still in my flannels and glued to the tv. my stomach hurts terribly from the 5 cups of coffee i've had, and the two eggs and three pancakes i ate for the occasion. i am praying the snowflakes won't upend my flight patterns. i can't decide if i should be lazy, and take a cab, or cheap, and take the el...

later!

-papermoon

foiled!

woke up early with serious plans to get myself to the vogue fabrics in evanston, but my view was snow snow and more snow... and regardless of how severe it is, it's just too much for me if i'd be lugging a bunch of fabric/notions around in it.

luckily, i love snow, so it doesn't really put a damper on things. at all.

AND... i made scones. mmm. i love the joy of cooking. and heavy cream.

off to another bag! can't say i'm not looking forward to another day snuggled in front of my machine.

scones and yesterday's bag.

-papermoon

the most satisfying tutorial online.

hi there!

i wanted to share a lovely online tidbit--probably the best sewing tutorial and print out pattern i have ever used, to date. with a gorgeous outcome.

i don't actually include oh fransson! on my list of 40-blogs-i-read-every-day (because i am not a quilter), but it's a really great one. i wanted to make some purses for a few of my cousins as gifts and i decided to give this 'margaret bag' a try because hers looked so pretty. and WOW--she included a pattern, a step by step pdf with pictures, and a materials list. the ocd girl in me was positively giddy.

and... the results of my first one were awesome. it only took 4 hours! (!) the pleats are so pretty and the pockets are so cute inside.

i can't wait to make another one today.

-papermoon

my plan for jan!

january, that is.

you see, while i have been back here at my parents', there has been something on my mind about my apartment back in chicago. (besides my roomie, of course!) you would think it might be something sensible... worries over the bills, or figuring out a way to solve the problem of my cupboards getting so warm when we use the microwave, or something like that.

but no.

i just can't stop thinking of what to do with all the plastic bags we have collected.

it's not even a 'green' issue. i just keep thinking that there are endless possibilities for crafting, and it's hard to decide what to go with...

should i make a rug? a purse? 'yarn'? a kite? endless numbers of little men with parachutes? a sculpture?

but today, i think i have found an answer, via MAKEzine.com:



this video is awesome. even if i don't go the route of making a messenger bag, i will be using this chick's plastic-making trick asap. and look how awesome those black garbage bags look!!! possibilities fill my brain: rain hats...shoe covers... plastic covered notebooks(!)

i am so pumped.

24. sewing machines

the twenty-fourth thing i am thankful for: sewing machines.

which is directly a result of the fact that i spent about 10 hours hand-sewing today. dang, those pioneers must have had patience by the bucket load.

off to pack for my holidays! flight tomorrow morning!

-papermoon

skirt in the making.

so, this summer i fell in love with african cotton print.

strangely, the patterns remind me some skirts banana republic made when i was in middle school... only mine are in nicer colors, in my opinion.

in any case, i was really pleased with a skirt i made this spring, so i decided to make another one with some cotton i snatched from the remnants section. i am going to head back to vogue fabrics today, as i am spending halloween in evanston, and try to find some nice inspiring ribbon/ric rac/lacey stuff/pretty satiny fabric for the bottom edge. i made a mock up of a ruffle, thinking i might keep everything in the same fabric, but i didn't really like the look of it. so i am going to go find the perfect edge. maybe just some fuschia ribbon?
we'll see.

i just don't like the ruffles. at all.
thank goodness i didn't get hasty and just smack something on there.

the goal is to have it finished by sunday.

i might want to make a slip to wear under it by sunday, too. woo hoo, silk. or some excuse for silk. :) slips are so funny and antiquated, and i don't think i have owned or worn one since approximately fourth grade, when i decided i hated them. now i think they are a pretty great idea. luckily for me, angry chicken just did a post about slips and crazy underwear. mine probably won't be that attractive or colorful, but i'm excited anyway.

off to do some bella research, approach the thought of showering/getting dressed, trot off to evanston, and fabricize, babysit, and eat too much candy.

-papermoon

PS: am i the only person on the planet who wishes it was colder???

my dream skinny cords realized.

hurrah!
i keep getting better and better at skinnifying my pants. it's pretty easy, anyway, but for a while i was getting tripped up in the crotch area. but not this time! i did a great job, if i do say so myself. i think it's because i changed my method. the last few times, I had put on the pair of pants inside out and pinned in the inside leg for the right shape. it worked, but it was a bit tricky, and it didn't make the legs as 100% even as i'd hoped.

this time, i took a pair of similarly styled jeans and basically pin-traced them. it worked great!
i took a picture after i'd finished one leg, so you could get a sense of the before and after. these used to be my favorite pants in high school: american eagle bell bottomed cords in cocoa.



in order to do the modifications, i started out by cutting the leg along the inside seam. i hadn't done this in other projects, but i had noticed that it was hard to pin the leg flat with the 'bubble' effect the seam produced. this solved the problem.


next i laid a pair of jeans down on top of the pants (turned inside out) and drew a chalk line to get the outline of the leg.

i also pinned the line. i guess i wanted to be extra careful. you could probably skip the chalk line. or maybe the pins. but i like covering my bases.

and then i just sewed along the line, cut off the leftovers, did a little modifying at the crotch after trying them on... and voila! now i have some nice fallish cords that will fit right in my boots or look cute in flats. (or bare feet, here).

yay!

*photo credit to Lora! :)