Had a DIY Moment

I tend to go to museums to get gifts for my mom. Museum and Historical Site visiting are things she and I like to do together, in addition to eating out and the occasional spot of theater or other cultural activity. So when it came time to pick out her gift, I thought I’d go over to the Asian Art Museum of SF because I don’t think she’s ever been in a museum quite like this before. I figured I could find something there she would like just fine. And I did, a beautiful scarf made of silk kimono fabrics.

And then I had a moment that all crafters will recognize, in which I thought to myself, “You know, I think I could make this myself.” That do-it-yourself urge can pop up at any time. And thus this gift was born (which is prettier than the ones in the store anyway):

The scarf and pins were made from nine different pieced silk kimono fabrics, beautiful pieces from my collection. Oh yes, silk kimono fabric is now something I’m collecting from various places, a fabric obsession kicked off two years ago when I joined the quarterly club at Ah Kimono. I’m pretty sure they think I’m crazy from the number of times I’ve changed my address since joining. No matter. I will accept this with equanimity if I can continue to receive regular packages of this beautiful fabric.

The scarf features such fancy things as French seams and asymmetrical folding/piecing, and coordinates shades of purple (my mom’s favorite color) with gray and black. I was going for “elegant.” I won’t say I made it without error, but it’s close. My purpose in the seaming I did was to give some shape and structure to the scarf because the fabrics are nothing if not slippery. It looks best when ironed within an inch of its life, which I wouldn’t do well with, but my mom’s a lot more conscientious than I am about things like ironing.

I also made two coordinating flower pins out of silk fabric. There are a lot of tutorials out there about this process, but basically you cut out varying sizes of circles from your fabric, lightly singe the edges of your silk circles so they won’t fray too much, then you sew the layers together, pleating and ruffling to create the shape you want. I made covered buttons for mine to finish them off, and sewed clasps on the back. I made the first one as a test and then another one for my mom. Both turned out well, so I got to keep one for me!

So there you are. This is the *only* gift I made this year, because I just couldn’t manage to do any more than that with everything else going on. Sometimes, though, you gotta give in to the DIY urge when it hits.

Things I’d Have Made If I Weren’t Moving

I love fall. I love fall crafting. I love the holidays. I even like baking during the holidays, and I normally don’t bake. But this is not your typical Thanksgiving post because I am moving and all my fabric and yarn is boxes. Not bitter at all, no sirree, not me.

I’m sure all of this will work out wonderfully once my stuff is safely in a new place, and I can start to get on with my life. At the moment, however, I’m in the lamenting stage. Today, instead of stuffing myself with potatoes and … well, stuffing, I will be shlepping boxes and furniture. Oy vey. Big round of applause to my brother, who has volunteered to help with this madness. But enough of my whining (or whinging if I were British).

In any case, my blog reading has made me want to do some simple fall-themed crafts.These things you see here. Ok, granted the two from the Purl Bee are not simple, and one could be DIY but isn’t, but they are all pretty and I’ve been wanting to make that table runner for over a year. Besides, I have fall-colored yarn that really needs to be used up, and a foot-high stack of felt from a moment of sale-price-related weakness.

From L to R, top to bottom:  DIY Yarn Wreath with felt flowers on BlogHer (wonder how much yarn this takes?!); Linen Thanksgiving Napkins from the Purl Bee (I predict this would not be simple given my usual arguments with bias tape); Felt Leaf Potholders from Design Sponge (yay! simple!); Autumn Garland from Bird for Bread Studio (ok I’m divided about this. I like the thought but hand-forged metal leaves aren’t in my budget); Felt Flower Bouquet from Creative Jewish Mom (I could totally do this, and then the cat couldn’t eat the flowers); Thanksgiving Appliqued + Quilted Table Runner also from the Purl Bee (this looks totally up my alley, but I’d probably do it in a less-laborious manner).

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving! Hope yours was awesome and filled with people and food you love.

The Observer

My demon cat, Callie, doesn’t like anyone but Jeff and me. For whatever reason, she loves me and indeed, will let me flip her over and scratch her tummy (most of the time). In fact, she follows me around watching me when I do things. I don’t know what I did right with her (aside from eternal benevolent patience), but this is a frequent sight when I’m doing things. I was just looking through my most recent batch of Ah Kimono fabrics from my fabric club, and I looked down and there she was.

And the fabrics are rather amazing too, right?

Can I tell you how FRUSTRATING it is to be literally a week away from finishing two big projects using my kimono silks, and yet be unable to finish because I cannot get out my sewing equipment yet? GARGGHHHHHH. For real.