Oh Baby!

Happy Independence Day! Happy Birth-Day Jack! p.s. Computer crashed, blogging from phone for next few days, more regular posts by end of week, wish me luck :)

Garden Shed, I love you!

My garden shed.  You know, where the clippers, mower gas, and Spanish moss are stored!

Shed, I adore you.  You please me.  When you were brown, you were sad.  Now you're blue.  With some green.  And you are fun to look at from the kitchen window, all winter long.  You make me happy, garden shed!

You are adorned with my old broom-flying-witch-weather-vane piece that blew off the chicken coop and broke in a wind storm.  You have a vintage mermaid float attached to your eve, the twin of the one I gave Kirsten, after we found them 13 years ago in a thrift store.  Your good luck horseshoe came all the way from England when my best friend in fourth grade visited her grandma and brought it back for me.  Your galvanized bbq table turned potting bench delights me.  You are the best blue garden shed. 

I love the bird house next to you.

I love you blue bench, by blue bird house, by blue shed. 

I especially love you.  Old green rockerless, rocking chair.  A gift from my mama, 16 years ago.  When I was newly pregnant for the first time, young and secretly terrified.  Before your rockers were broken, you held me, rocked me, while I held him, rocked him.  My boy.  Now 15.  No longer rockable.  And you remind me.  That he is still my baby.  Still my little boy.  And I love you green chair.  You held me.

New Labels and Baby Gifts

An example of my new homemade labels!

Hello and happy Tuesday!  I have several posts I am working on editing and here is a short fast one for ya! 

Last week, I think it was Monday or Tuesday, I stayed in my pajamas all day long.  I wasn't feeling top notch and I figured instead of laying in front of the boob tube and watching Fuel TV all day, I would get to work on my already-should-have-been-done atelier labels for all the fun stuff I have been making.  I am not certain that this is the final design but I like what I am seeing so far.  My new sewing machine, the one the boys got me for my Winter Solstice/Christmas gift, has over 80 built in stitches and 120 stitch functions!  woot woot!  It's not anything too primo or over the top but it works just fine for I do right now AND it has the entire alphabet! 

Anywho, since winter I have been meaning and intending to make these labels so I would have a way of marking my territory, so to speak.  Now when I sell an item I have made or when I gift a handmade item to a friend, its orgins will never be unknown!  My handmade goods will go out into the world with a way to be identified and it also adds a tinge of charm.  Here are some of the other examples:

  These are the three types of vintage fabrics I used this time.  Different fabrics next time!

The plan for my next batch of labels will be to make several that are very long, each word after the next, so I can sew them up the sides of inside seems or along edges.  Sometimes your product doesn't allow for a big "inside" label and I will show you what I mean next.  Also, I will be trying to sew the words onto twill tape and I will let y'all know if I have success with that later.  Here is one example, of an item I have been making, that could use a long narrow label, instead of a big fat chunky one.  Warning to all of my pregnant and expectant momma friends- close your eyes if you want some of your Mother Blessing gifts to be a surprise! 

Reversible bibs in vintage fabrics!

See, a bib would benefit from having a long skinny label sewn up one side.

The other way I have been using my labels is like this:

On vintage fabric baby jackets!

Another

This little jacket should fit up to a three month old, easily, although it looks tiny here.

Close up of label inside baby jacket.

The baby jacket is not my own pattern although now that I have worked with it a bit I am considering drafting my own version.  I am thinking more of a kimono style with ties that wrap around to the front....

This patter is from the book One Yard Wonders by Rebecca Yaker, in the section Outfit your Small Wonder, and the pattern was designed by Anna Buchholz.  The bib pattern is also from this book and although I do not have the designer information for this particular one, it is a very universal pattern and you could find it practically anywhere.  I have made or am in the process of making several items from this book and I would highly recommend it to any sewers out there who: A. are short on time but love to sew, B. who have a buttload of fabric laying around and no idea of what to do with it, C. like to make gifts and are fresh out of ideas!  I have made the kids messenger bag for Jasper and am currently working on the folklore bag for myself using some amazing burnt orange/brownish leather I got from the thrift store and whose past life was as an awesome 1970s Taiwanese trench coat!

Sew your hearts out, label what you make, and do what makes you happy!