Prepping for our Daughter's 3rd Halloween... she wants to be an owl (for now)

So our daughter wants to be an owl for Halloween, at least for now... There were a couple of weeks there where she wanted to be a snoopy dog, not sure where she picked this up, I'm assuming school. But now she is adamant about being an owl. She also wants to wear a pink tutu from her dress up box as part of her costume. And so the other day, while over at her Grandmother's house, they made this owl mask together! Pretty cute.  So now it's up to me to tie the mask and the tutu together with some sort of other owl element.

So here's a round up of some options.

Here's a cute

DIY owl Dress

And these DIY Wings I've been wanting to make for her since she was a baby. Plus she could wear these wings for dress up for many years to come, whereas she would outgrow the dress by next year if not before. (AND If I make them in some neutral colors then her brother could wear them at some point too!)

And another Owl DIY dress

So for now, I think I've settled on the wings. I just have to make sure they will work for her school party.  I'll keep you posted!

(ps, here's a nice article about keeping Halloween magical for the little ones!)

Make yourself a dress- with these fun patterns and tutorials

I've busted out the sewing machine this week to whip up some handpainted pillows for my studio shop (hope to have them up by the end of this week!) and in the process I've been thinking about sewing dresses for myself once again... So here's a little round up of my favorite pins. Which one would you make? I would love to make the portfolio dress- it would be a fun challenge to say the least, not to mention a great go to dress, love the pockets! Check out more DIY projects on my pinterest Board.

Above: sorbetto dress

simple tunic

shirt dress tutorial

portfolio dress

no sew top

Weekend Project: Slipcovers!

With the start of a new year comes the desire for a makeover. Be it your wardrobe or house there are some fast and easy solutions out there. I love slipcovers, they are an affordable way to achieve a big change!

Above: My parents gave us a new glider. We love it.  When picking it out for us, my mom, the amazing decorator/ seamstress she is- mentioned that we could break up some of the overwhelming brown by covering the matching glider ottoman.  I dug through my stash of fabric (leftover from both my mother and sister's projects) and after many cell phone pictures sent back and forth... I decided to cover the ottoman with this blue fabric. It has a nice small white paisley print and I am going to top it off by adding a white nautical- rope trim around the middle of the slipcover- you'll see. During this process I also decided to cover the seat cushion with this red and orange print. (click on image to view it larger) I've been taught that having a variety of different size prints in a room is ideal. Plus I love how both fabrics go with the throw blanket on the back of the chair. SO this weekend I am going to finish this project by making a slip cover for the ottoman!  Below are a few slipcover links I found inspiring and helpful.  What is your weekend project?

Make a slipcover for your ottoman with this design sponge tutorial

The Nester: has a fun chair slipcover tutorial!

And for some inspiration- Pink and Polka Dot posts a Friday Featured Slipcovers each week!

Fabric Yard Sale Sat 10-3 In Freeport Maine!

Tomorrow/ Saturday I am participating in a Fabric yard sale from 10-3 at Cotton Weeds Quilt Shop, 541 Rt 1 in Freeport Maine! I will have my own booth and today I am busy measuring and pricing the loads of fabric I am selling from my sister and mom's fabric stash! (I will look like a fabric hoarder or a woman closing out her fabric shop! Should be comical.) I will also be selling buttons, ribbons and sewing odds and ends such as zippers etc. ALL for Cheap Cheap!

Hope to see you local MAINE folk there tomorrow!

Fabric, Trim & Buttons oh My!

This week I opened up a new Section in my Grayday Etsy shop for the home!
The Supplies section will offer a collection of fabric in various yardage, as well as trim, and a smattering of vintage buttons! Each day this week I will continue to add to the section. So Feel free to follow me on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook to be kept in the know with immediate updates!

The 6th Month bump & DIY Maternity Dresses

Behold the 6th month bump for those who've been asking for an update! We just had our 6 month appointment with our midwives on Friday, where we chatted about new developments- ie all the kicking and movement, we also listened to the heartbeat and munched on some banana bread. The kicking has been so intense lately one night my resting arm was kicked right off of my stomach and then another night my whole belly moved in two different places- yup there is a little person in there... it's really sinking in!

Yes the bump has been getting pretty majestic of late and thus the desire to make my own maternity dresses and tops has been growing right along with it.

In a previous post I shared some styles from popular clothing websites that I could adopt for my own maternity dresses. The material will be linen- a natural linen color and a gray- at least. Something that breathes well during the hot summer months and can be easily layered over jeans etc come my last trimester in the fall.

Above is a little brainstorming I did the other night in my sketchbook. (click on the image to view larger) 

I'm excited for this project. And after my little sketch session I have a better idea on how to sew theses without a pattern. Next step: purchase fabric then sew! Stay tuned, as I will share the final products along with a little "how to".

A curtain, fit for our King bed

With each apartment arise fun new challenges usually surrounding storage and the like (especially if one of you is an artist and the other an avid outdoorsmen- you have a lot to store!)

Our Bedroom is one area that keeps evolving! First, back in April my mom and husband made a king headboard! And now something new.....

Background: Since we live in the downstairs of an old Victorian that once was a single family home, we have a door in our bedroom that leads out into the main hallway. With two windows to the right of the bed, and a closet and radiator at the foot of the bed.... placing our king bed in front of this door was our only option.  In order to make the bedroom more cozy and to have it feel like a contained space, my mom ever so lovingly made us a curtain that we hung over the door.

tah dah! The final result, more cozy and more like a finished/complete room!

Next on the to do list: window curtains and a light fixture update for our ceiling light! Stay tuned!

ps: detail shot of the fabric- on the headboard and of the curtain.

A Mother's day gift, belated

I found this vintage antique grain sack on Etsy- it had the letters N and J on it which are the initials of my maternal grandparent's first names. They passed away a couple of years ago... And so I thought this lovely letter coincidence would make a nice pillow for my mom.  I went to a Marshall's home store and found a large down pillow for my project for only $19!  I sewed a seam at the "top" in order to have the initials reside towards the bottom of the case. Then I hemmed the bottom and flipped the ends under to make an overlapping flap as the closure of the case, avoiding any zippers, or buttons and making it easy to get the pillow in and out for cleaning, etc.

I gave it to my mom as a belated Mother's day present- during our Memorial Day weekend- visit. Here it is on a chair in their library.

Above a picture of the grainsack in it's original state as seen in it's etsy listing. Check out grainsack's etsy shop for other fun vintage linen finds!  As you can see this grain sack was VERY long- so I have enough fabric to make a second pillow, or to use in my couch redo project! I'll let my blog audience know what I decide to do with the remaining fabric!

Making my own dresses for summer- maternity style

As I've mentioned before- maternity shopping can be a bit of a downer with an often limited or boring selection or over priced merch. So far I have remedied this with buying solely maternity pants and buying more tops at H&M or forever 21 where they offer long tank tops and flowy blouses. Anywho I always knew that I wanted to take this "growing" opportunity to make my own dresses for the summer. So I've been gathering inspirational images and wanted to share at the for front of this creative endeavor.

These three dresses are from Modcloth a website which offers fun and unique clothing and accessories at a variety of prices.  So- why not just buy these dresses and call it a day? Well I'm not really sure how big I am going to be during the heat of the summer and frankly I want to give this whole dress making thing a shot! PLUS I have a lot of fabric lying around so this is a cheaper option and a good learning experience!

This coral dress is cute and flowy and to make it- I would start with a skirt shape and simply make a collar for it with a button or tie to fasten at the neck in the back.

And a classic sundress shape- make a full skirt and make an elastic high waist! Of course there's more to it than that... but it's a start.  I might also "upcycle" a few older dresses and skirts for this project. OR I might take some simple linen and silkscreen flowers around it to make it more interesting... anywho I'll keep yah posted!

NEW on GRAYDAY.etsy.com

A steam punk inspired- corsage!
Seamstress corsage.
Two hand painted pillows- 3 more to come in this genre! Still assembling! Here's the link!

Orange you glad you're in my kitchen?

Over the years I have ripped out pictures of yellow and green kitchens with large faded built in book shelves, crazy hutches, deep sinks etc- and put them in my dream kitchen file in my larger "home ideas" file... And now, although still renting and unable to paint, I have found myself with a blue and orange kitchen! It's the Orange Kitchen Aid we registered for two years ago that really set this whole thing in motion! Then came the Martha Stewart recipe box and matching flour and sugar canisters. Thus the color theme was set. So naturally when we moved in I made orange curtains with turquoise bows! How did this happen!? And now, after Christmas I have some new Orange elements to add to the mix, it might be beyond my control at this point!

(above sit our new antique Lobster salt and pepper shakers next to our ISIS Ceramics teapot.)

The second orange present of the season- a funky vintage orange swan, surly something one would never see in the wild, but only in our kitchen! It holds the random power cords- for my camera and ipod, since all computing takes place in the kitchen.

I do have other vintage elements in the mix to balance out this growing color scheme. Here I use vintage tins to house our cooking utensils. This was an improvisation after our glass Anthropologie one was knocked over... sigh. Originally I purchased a whole slew of these to use as center pieces at our wedding reception- to house the flowers. Very Colorful and it's fun to reuse them in our kitchen!
Here are one of our many shelves since our rental only has ONE cabinet. And behind them are the orange curtains.
Since we have two little built in shelves in the kitchen, I have had fun making little scenes on them in order to avoid a cluttered mess of measuring cups etc. Here I have an antique family pitcher, next to a friend's handmade fruit bowl, a family picture and a little ORANGE- esque figurine. And behind all that a tiny painting by my great grandmother- which fits perfectly in the little corner!

Thanks for stopping by my orange Kitchen, next time I'll bring out the tea pot and well have a cup!

Craft Fair Prep

Here is our Banner for our Craft fair booth! And since we have two fairs coming up in Dec, we thought this weekend would be the perfect time to get cracking! I had some leftover canvas and I zig-zagged the edge with red thread, and then Les cut out "Urban" from gray felt, glued it in place while I stitched "knitfits" by hand with this fun blue yarn. Then Les outlined the city skyline and we painted it with black fabric paint. Then I cut a bird shape out of an old red vintage sweater that was in my "sewing" box. And poof our bird! Just like our Etsy shop banner!

Now we just have to have grommets placed in all four corners. Below the banner is one of the three aprons I made. I copied an industrial apron for size and pocket ideas. I made them out of this striped kaki fabric, attached some ribbon, then used the same fabric ink to paint on the letters- Urban with stencils and knitfits free hand. There are three pockets, two large- for all the Scrillah we'll be bringing in, and one slender and shorter pocket in the middle for pens.

Here's a detail of the banner. Once the bird dries (adhered with fabric glue) I will go around the edges with a zigzag red stitch for extra reinforcement and to ensure the knit sweater remnant wont fray. I might also stitch around the word "Urban" with black thread. (From a distance it doesn't read as felt, but rather paint... and we wanted a few different textures on our banner while keeping it simple and graphic.) If you've been to craft fairs you know that a banner is kind of important and the more unique and fun- the more eye catching and as a result- more visitors to your booth!

How to make over a dress form, in case you were wondering!

In Prep for our Urban Knitfits Craft shows, I wanted a dress form for our booth- something that would act as a display and as an element that would transform our booth into a shop.

So I posted an ad on craigslist and the above dress form is the result. I knew that an authentic vintage form would run me $150+++ So I settled for this $40 one and I decided I would transform it myself. Here's a how to! (in case you ever find yourself in the same situation!)

I had a bunch of Canvas fabric around from a pillow project, so I dyed it in our tub with loads of generic tea bags. (I took pictures of the process and I might use these images in an art project down the road.)
I felt that the leg definition- or crotch, was a lot of things- unauthentic to the vintage version, visually distracting as a result and too mall mannequin. So I used some epoxy glue and adhered cardboard to the form.
Once the fabric was dry and ironed, I sewed seems and darts along the larger pieces with my machine, before using some sturdy fabric glue to ultimately glue it in place. Originally I planned on hand sewing the canvas to the form but soon realized I was insane and with some helpful motherly advice, I bought some fabric glue. -Above- is a picture of how I would glue the fabric and then keep it in place by pining it to the form until it dried.

Here is the final picture. I still have one or two things left to do- for example, I might take some sand paper to a few edges and fray the fabric as well as take fabric paint and stencils and add letters and numbers along the neck- to mimic the vintage forms. I decided not to put the wooden top back on, since even if I aged it, it still wouldn't look authentic. I'm not too jazzed about seeing the cardboard so clearly through the fabric, but ultimately I think it's fine. It's finally done to the point that we have been using it for pictures for our etsy shop and we might hang or write "Urban Knitfits" on it to act as another sign for our booth, as well as necklaces or scarves. We are making our banner for our booth this sat, I'll post pics once that's done!

Reinventing your Boots!- A look back

Since it's boots season again and the economy is still super "awesome" I thought a look back on this boot-upgrade post from last fall would be timely! Enjoy


In keeping with my ReINVENTING your Stuff- entries... I thought I would tackle something bigger. First came reinventing your unworn jewelry- and then how to display your jewelry so you DO wear it. And then how to embellish sweaters (more to come in that department btw!) and now BOOTS! That's right.

See I think its all about making something "Feel" new without the cost of buying something new. So I took on my standard brown leather boots. They are about 4 years old, from j-crew, but they needed to be spiced up a bit, to set them apart, giving me a project and something "new" in my wardrobe!
I will admit I did spend about $10 on a few specific buttons and one special needle for sewing leather. I took some ribbon from my grandmother's sewing stash I inherited- and I folded the ribbon in half and sewed it together with a zig zag stitch on my machine. I thought Blue would be different- and would make the buttons POP.
Then I attached the ribbon on to the boot at the top- by folding it over the edge and hand sewing it in place- and then I attached the ribbon to the bottom- again with needle and thread. Then I marked where I wanted the buttons to go- and sewed them on as well. I did NOT attach the entire ribbon to the boot- where it is attached -by the buttons- I think is sufficient. (later- I might reinforce those spaces between- if necessary). And remember it's all about ODDS- in decorating and in applying buttons to a boot- ie: 5 looks better than 4 and I learned for me 5 looked far better than 3!
And Voila! Here is the final product. Kind of different and a little funky.

There are other ways to change your boots- 1) You could sand them down just a bit to scuff them up and then polish them with a different shade of shoe polish- lighter or darker from the original in order to have a greater impact. 2) You could also SEW on matching patches of fabric on to the back of the boots. I have a pair of boots that I bought a few years ago- that came like that, and I think it would be easy to do yourself. 3) THEN there is always doing a little leather work on your boots- using leather tools to punch holes in the top edge of the boot and then weaving in leather strips...etc The possibilities are endless.

4) AND if you are a little nervous to tackle this yourself- you can always take them to your cobbler and get them to spruce up your boots for you- It wont cost nearly as much as a new pair of boots - PLUS its good on the ol environment.

A queen Duvet project part 1

As I mentioned in a post at the beginning of October- I am inspired to make a duvet cover. In the past I made one for a Friend's twin size guest bed, and now, after receiving a queen duvet, I am attempting to make a cover for it- in time for our new england winter!

Above is the inspiration- a quilt from Anthropologie.

Here is the fabric. The blue floral on the far right- was leftover fabric from my sister's headboard. And since one can never pass up free fabric- this was my starting point for choosing the other fabric. I wanted to keep in mind that we have a black wooden headboard (that in the future I might repaint or make a slip cover for). Thus- I didn't want to stay with all dark colors, I needed something to balance out the black of the headboard and go with our orangy and yellow trimmed curtains.

SO- Joann was having a 30% off sale this week and I bought the yellow striped fabric and the blue fabric. Of course I have to pre wash them before I begin sewing to avoid any shrinking and seam separation. I have it easy with this project- since with the duvet I was also given a white duvet cover- so all I have to do is sew the fabric to the cover! I plan on doing some faux quilting techniques where I will sew lines up the dark blue but in a salmon color thread, and sew around the shapes of the other blue floral fabric- making it better attached to the existing cover!

I'll keep yah posted on how it progresses!

The Duvet- For Lesley's room

For those of you that have been following along- I am helping my friend Lesley redo their guest room/office. She wanted a light and breezy relaxing retreat with a beach inspired undertone- which is appropriate given our proximity to the water here in Portland!

So here is the Duvet fabric I am sewing today. It's a nice stripe that is the perfect balance to the bold curtain fabric (see the post of the little envelope pillow I made for the fabric).

I should be able to post pictures of the finished project in two weeks or so- so stay tuned!

progress part 2- the pillow

Here's the progress I have been making on the coral pillow! It's slow going.. So i think next time I will work with fabric paint and see how that treats me...

progress

Progress on the pillow I am embroidering for Lesley's room redo. It's a piece of coral on a striped fabric, with a green zipper and backed with a piece of canvas for the back of the pillow.

The tomato from 4th of July weekend. I put it in a brown bag to ripen- check out it's progress.

Another sneak peak

Here is another pillow I made for Les. I used the leftover fabric from her curtains. (Cool Fabric, huh?) I folded the fabric like an envelope, sewed it all together in a loose manner and attached this wooden toggle button, a left over from those extra buttons you get with sweaters but never, ever use!

Here's the back of the pillow. Very nice and relaxing colors. Perfect for the ocean inspired beachy feel we are going for.

And this fabric with it's rope or shell abstracted shapes will cover the seat of this little rocking chair that Les got for free a few years back. She is going to take it from brown wood to a nice warm white, and this fabric will be a fun addition to the room and to spruce up the chair.  In order to make the fabric wide enough to cover the seat, I simply cut off a long strip from either end and sewed it to the sides. Les will simply staple it to the back of the seat.  This is an example of how to add something modern to a room while also adding a neutral. There is nothing wrong with too much color, as my rooms attest, but it's nice to have a balance.

This fabric also provides a different size print. This is important to remember when decorating- incorporate a variety of sizes when choosing fabric. It helps make the room flow and not make it too visually overwhelming.

More to come, so stay tuned!