Natasha's Bag and Badge!

This is the bag/sling/tote I made for my girl Natasha, for her Birthday!  Happy Birthday Sweetiepie!

You might recognize this awesome orangey-brown leather from this past project:

Yes!  This was a leather trench coat!  You might remember that I cut out the middle part and made myself a leather and blue velvet bag, retaining the belt loops and button front.  I still had the top half and bottom half left over so I made Natasha's bag using up the bottom half.

I used the same vintage army canvas I gushed about using for my own bag.  And I also used a tweaked version of the same pattern as well.

This is the lining and small inside pocket of the bag.  I used a vintage mushroom fabric.  I ran out of "tree wood grain" fabric so the mushrooms were the next best thing.

(Yesterday I did manage to procure 5+ more yards of the wood grain fabric for future projects.  Thanks Mom!!)

A peek inside the finished bag.

Here is Natasha opening the box that had her bag in it.  See the, "What the heck is in here?" look.  She had no idea I was picking her up to go have dinner with our friends.  She got a few surprises this night!

She looked happy when she realized there was a leather bag in there for her!  I didn't get any photos of her holding it but she seemed to like it. 

Did you notice her Birthday Badge in the photos above?  Here is a better view:

And a close-up:

"It's My Birthday & this is My Party!"

Once again I used a vintage milk cap to form the base of the badge, just like I did here.  I scrunched the crepe paper into a ruffled circle and glued it to the back of the milk cap, added "ribbon" to hang down, sewed a nice pin to a piece of felt and then glued the felt to the back to make it a badge.

You could make a birthday badge out of almost anything.

They are fun and festive and necessary so

make some!

Work continues in the Smashing Rubbish Studios!

I have a few more bags in the works, some different styles,one "carpet bag" made from a vintage rug remnant, and more made from oil paintings.

Working on a "Haunted House,"

xox

Jennette

 



Wool Pants

The Felted Blanket Wool Pants, first attempt, are Done!

OK, all you nature school friendz.  Here they are!  The first go round of super thick, warm, soft and felted wool pants cut from an old wool blanket that I felted in the washer.  What do ya think?  I wish you could see and feel these in person.  If I played in the woods every week for several hours I would certainly be making myself a pair, stat!

Here they are unhemmed.  Jasper was not so sure about these at first.  They really are SO thick.  But now they are hemmed and he is getting used to what they feel like.  I think they will be superb when worn with his REI undergarments.  To me they are super soft but his sensitive skin may need the long-john barrier.  I left off the pockets for now since the front ones on this pattern require sewing them into the side seems.  I could see no way that my machine would play nice with that much thickness!  I have an old pair of his cargo pants that I may just cut the pockets off of and attach to these.  They would be cotton pockets but I think it would be OK.  Also, I may use a contrasting felted wool piece to make knee patches but I can add these or pockets any time.  For now he just needs a chance to wear them for a day to see how they hold up.  It was so nice on Friday he wore "regular" clothes to Tracks and Tales.

Here is a back view.  I used the thickest felted blanket I had to try to ensure durability.  I have several more blankets but I am thinking they wont felt up as thick as this.  Which makes me wonder if I can make these for other children and have them last.  I was hoping to make and sell some but I would need to feel good about the undestructiveness of the pants!  I have a load of blankets in the wash now so we will see if they felt as thick as this.  This particular blanket has a nice basket weave type of pattern to it as well that seems to add to its strength.

I used a vintage canvas type material for the waistband and draw string.  We'll see how this holds up too.  The drawstrings are attached to elastic that goes across the back but inside the waistband.  And the elastic is stretched a bit and attached to the side seems where it also attaches to the drawstrings.  Does that make sense?  So the elastic can't move around and the drawstrings finish up the job of cinching the pants on tight enough to stay up.  This method works nicely to prevent losing your drawstrings inside your waistband casing.

So the experiments continue!  All the extra length on these just got hemmed up to the inside so I can let the hem out as Jasper continues to become a giant!  And if they last that long.  I was concerned about the hemming because that doubled again the thickness I was trying to sew through.  But it worked!  My machine complained just a tad but with a little finessing it cooperated.

What are you all making, upcycling, or repurposing these days?

Do what you love friendz!  Make art, create, imagine!

Don't Follow your Head, just Follow Your Heart.

xoxox -

Jennette

 



The Head and the Heart - Down in the Valley (Live at the Mural)

This is The Head and The Heart.

  Here is a mellow version of this song from when they did a free show at the Mural in Seattle.  I was not at this show but I did get to see them busking at The No Depression Music Festival this summer and they just opened for Vampire Weekend which I took Gus to see last week.  Both The Head and The Heart as well as Vampire Weekend were amazing!  I had never been to a show at the Paramount that was general admission and I have been to a lot of shows there.  It was so great to get to stand up and dance and shake my booty the whole time. 

These guys are fabulous!  Plus Charity plays the violin and y'all know how I play/dabble (in) fiddle so I like to see girl violin players, especially in roots, americana, folky-pop music.

Their CD has been playing over and over and over again in my car.  Not because I am too lazy to switch the CD but because I LOVE them.  These are the kind of songs you can belt out at the top of your lungs!  Its SOOO Good!  And my kids like it too.

And they are local!  If you listen to KEXP, like we do, then you have probably already heard of them.  Lucky You!

They have a few local shows coming up in October and November so check them out if you can.  I will be going to the November show since in October they are playing the exact same night as Breathe Owl Breathe and I have had tickets for that for a LOOOOOONG time!I wish I could add every video of every one of Head and Heart's songs here but since I cant you can go over to youtube and check them out.  They did a live in studio for KEXP and all those are super good.  Especially Ghost, which has a great few lines, "One day we'll all be ghosts, trippin around in someone elses home.  One day we'll all be ghosts, ghosts, ghosts.  One day we'll all be found, no longer lost just hanging around.  One day we'll all be found, found, found."

So I hope you have a happy little weekend!  See you back on Monday with wool pants, more bags, a look at my lovely new antique mall space, etc.

Until then, smooches,

xoxo

Jennette