Chronically Uncool

Tetris fabric - new and improved!

2009-11-09T10:15:00.004-06:00

Remember when I released the Tetris fabric design file under a Creative Commons license? I was secretly hoping that people would not just use the fabric, but also take the idea and run with it. And so they have! Well, at least one person has.

Jennifer has made some improvements to the design (wider repeat, better edge treatment, 58" width) and a coordinating fabric to match!

She has released her files under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license too! Or you can purchase fabric through her Spoonflower profile. All the details are on Jennifer's LiveJournal page. (Note: Jennifer's Spoonflower account is completely separate from mine, and what she does with her commission from her fabrics is totally up to her.)

So far my lowly original version of the file has raised almost $40 for FIRST. Even if that's all I make from sales, I'm glad I decided to donate it to a good cause. I wonder how many robot parts that will buy for the kids?

Also, there are far too many people with the name Jennifer-Jenny-Jen in my generation. Really.

Procrastination: Nature or nurture?

2009-11-05T16:30:00.005-06:00

For those of you keeping track at home, Henry is already five and a half months old. He's huge. He's eating cereal and fruit goo. He can roll over from front to back if he's really motivated. And his nursery is still not exactly finished. It's very close to being finished, but I have one more craft project that's been stalled since before he was born. I'll get to it soon, after I finish the dress I'm making for my work wardrobe (must be done a week from today!). And the Tetris dress. And the raincoat to practice for the green wool coat. And the silk dress to go with the green wool coat. And the Frank Lloyd Wright dress. And all these dresses. And especially this one, with the vintage table cloth in my stash. And that Charley Harper daylily applique skirt I've been thinking about for a year or two. Speaking of applique, that's what this post is really about: Applique, my mother, and procrastination.

Here's what Mom has to say about the nursery she designed and her first quilting project, back in the proverbial day:

When I found out I was expecting, in 1977, we had just moved to [a small town in the middle of nowhere, Illinois]. For our new home I had selected all the latest colors and wallpapers, including a Peter Max interpretation of rural life in orange, green & golds to match the Harvest Gold appliances in the kitchen.
For the nursery, I chose wallpaper with a white background and farm animals patterned so that they actually looked like embroidered pieces. It made the selection of a baby quilt a snap! The color palette was similar to that in the kitchen, but the hues of orange, yellow and green were paler. Dad's family has a long tradition of quilting and handwork, but I had never tried it. I traced the animals to cardboard patterns, then to fabrics which exactly matched the wallpaper. Green gingham curtains finished the room and provided a border fabric for the quilt. I machine embroidered the completed pieces to the white fabric for the quilt top, but I did all of the individual piece embroidery by hand.
It was an ambitious project and it was not completed by the time your sister arrived in October. I continued to work on the quilt top as I carried you, in 1979, and your brother in 1983.
My sister-in-law, your Aunt Susan S., took the finally completed quilt top and marked it, assembled the layers, quilted and bound it. She also embroidered the heart on the quilt with my monogram and the entire span of the quilt's production cycle, 1977 - 1985. I was able to hang the quilt in the wall in the nursery until we moved your brother into a big boy bed and changed the decor to Lego Robots.
Sometimes creativity takes a long time.
MOM

So she started the project in 1977, the last baby in the family was born in 1983 and the quilt was finished in 1985. I'm feeling much better about my one minor unfinished nursery project. It's nice to know where my creative insanity comes from. Whether it's genetic or learned, the source is the same. Thanks, Mom!

Tetris fabric is available on Spoonflower!

2009-10-27T14:36:00.006-05:00

I have made the Tetris fabric available throught the Spoonflower store. You can buy the Tetris fabric here.

I thought the world needed Tetris fabric. Erin's Tetris dress has brought the fabric design to many, many more people than I ever could. The response has been very enthusiastic. Thank goodness Spoonflower now offers an easy way to share it! I can share the fabric through their store and get a 10% commission on all the yardage that is printed and sold. However...

I feel a little squicky about profiting from the design, so I will be donating my proceeds to FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). FIRST is a 501(c)3 charity that offers programs for kids in science and technology. And by programs, I mean robot-building competitions! And Lego competitions for little kids! And scholarships! I wish we had those programs available at my school when I was a kid. (My parents sent me to nerd camp one summer, but there were no robots or Legos involved.)

Thanks to Erin at A Dress A Day for hosting the file up to this point (and actually making a dress out of the fabric). Thanks also to MissBlackPepper at Etsy who helped me with the design.

An actual sewing project!!!

2009-10-22T11:02:00.004-05:00

This dress is my new favorite! I made it for Ben's wedding, and I think met all of my goals for the project. I was still sewing the buttons on a few hours before the wedding, but it was worth it.

This dress is a frankenstein combination of the bodice from the Cloud Dress ("Vintage" Vogue 2960) attached to a flared eight gore skirt (recently out-of-print Vogue 7910, view A). I'm amazed that I got the vertical seams to match at the waistline. Surprisingly, it wasn't that difficult!

The fabric was is my stash. It's a washable cotton so I wasn't worried about Henry barfing on it all night. This fabric has been in the stash for a couple of years. I don't even remember where I got it. It's a substantial cotton with a soft (brushed?) surface texture. It's more orangey-red than it looks in the outdoor photos. I have plenty left. I thought about making a matching jacket, but I didn't have that much time to work on it.

Ok, so I didn't get pictures of the dress when I wore it for the wedding. These pictures were taken the following weekend, in a rush to get pictures before the sun went down. Things are much more wrinkly and lumpy than they could be - never mind the stupid bra strap that is making an appearance in the picture. Just getting this project finished was a triumph. The fact that I was able to get pictures at all is truly amazing. Keeping up with a five month old baby is a challenge!

The Tetris Dress is a reality!

2009-10-22T10:12:00.004-05:00

I still haven't made MY Tetris dress (yet), but at least someone has made one!

You must go check it out: http://www.dressaday.com/2009/10/finally-tetris-dress.html

Erin at A Dress A Day used the design file I shared to have her own fabric printed at Spoonflower, and she made the dress! Great job Erin!!! Thanks for making my dream a reality!

I'm still here

2009-09-28T15:34:00.003-05:00

It's been a rough few weeks, but I've almost recovered. Henry's gotten into the habit of having a few 2-3 oz snacks during the day, and then bellying up to me for the all-night buffet. I guess it's good that I don't have to stress about pumping a ton of milk for him, but the sleep deprivation reached epic proportions in the last couple of weeks.

I got into that horrible trap of failing to keep up with everything, and then trying to prioritize and cut myself some slack, and then realizing that the things I put off really had to be done to meet basic levels of sanitation. And so I found my self scrubbing the shower at 6:30 AM because I couldn't stand the thought of exposing an overnight guest (asleep in the next room) to three months of shower funk. I shouldn't have been surprised when the tiredness and sinus headaches I attempted to ignore earlier in the week morphed into a raging ear infection. The good news is that while both ears were infected, only one eardrum burst. Yay.

I think I'm back on track now, thanks to lots of help from family and friends. I even had some baby-free time to work on the dress for Ben's wedding over the weekend. It's a frankenstein dress, with the top from the Cloud Dress (V2960) attached to a flared eight gore skirt with some nifty seaming that makes a kind of inverted pleat effect (V7910-A). There will be pictures of an actual sewing project soon!

Today I Am 30

2009-08-25T15:45:00.004-05:00

My thirtieth birthday doesn't scare me. What can 30 do to me that 29 hasn't done already? I'm already soft and saggy. I already have gray hair. I already have aches and pains, and geezerly worries about my 401K and declining property values. Twenty-nine was a big year for me. As a matter of fact I got so tired and overwhelmed that I declared this blog dead. And yet I'm finally starting to feel like I have my shit together. I have accomplished many of the things on my list from last year.

My biggest project for the year was growing a new human in my belly. I did weird things to document the event. I can't quite believe I'm still growing Henry with nothing but my magical boobs. He's twice the size he was when he was born. I made him from scratch! (OK, Matt contributed a microscopic bit at the very beginning, but in terms of mass it was all me.) 14+ pounds of baby! Unbelievable! And he's charming too!

Henry and I had a great summer together. It was almost exactly like I imagined it. I didn't sew quite as much as I hoped to, but I spent more time on excursions with my friend *A* than I expected. We went to the botanical garden, the zoo, Grant's Farm, and Citygarden together. She was my motivation for getting up when I was trapped under a baby in the recliner. She also helped me see the fun in putting Henry in ridiculously cute outfits. Thanks for a great summer *A*!

Henry derailed many of my plans for projects and added some new projects to my list. Things from last year that I still need to work on:

Reclaim more of the yard from the snakes, and build out the rest of the design for the front of the house that I sketched ~~three~~ four years ago.

Master the art of exiting a car in a skirt gracefully, without sliding across the seat and getting a one-cheek wedgie. Why is this so difficult for me?

Tear out the nasty beige carpet and refinish the hardwood floors. Seriously. Henry will be crawling soon and that stuff has got to go!

Find ways to make my prematurely silver streaked hair striking instead of unfortunate, and stick to my resolution to never dye it. This is getting harder for me. I'm afraid I'll be all silver by the time Henry starts school and people will think I'm his grandmother. But I'm shifting my wardrobe staples to white/gray/silver instead of ivory/khaki/beige. Does that count?

Make a coat. I'm giving myself one more month to lose a little more baby weight, then I'm going for it! First a raincoat, then the green wool coat!

Make another swimsuit. Next spring!

Make a Charley Harper-inspired dress. I think the Charley Harper dress will require me to learn applique (hopefully from my mom). I also want to make a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired dress. I already have the fabric...

Sew more silk, nice linen and nice cotton instead of crappy fabric. I'm weeding the really crappy stuff out of my stash now and only buying fabrics I really love - no matter how much the clearance pile calls out to me.

I still need to finish a couple of nursery projects, including a guest post from my mom. I have heaps of fantastic border prints to make into dresses. Lately I've been fascinated by the design possibilities of stripes...

Back to work, back to daydreaming

2009-08-19T12:32:00.001-05:00

I survived the return to work. I'm getting used to my new routine, with early morning feedings, daycare dropoffs, and endless pumping at work. Can you believe Henry is already three months old? He's huge! And check out that quizzical eyebrow!

I finally finished reworking the disaster that is Simplicity 8125 (aka the shower curtain fabric dress) into a wrap skirt. My plan was to complete the outfit with a simple top made out of the extra orange cotton and a very simple unlined bolero jacket out of the extra white floral fabric. Then I realized it might be just a little too matchy-matchy for me, so I stopped after I finished the skirt. Pictures coming soon.

Now that I've sorted out Simplicity 8125, I've started pondering what to wear for a wedding in October. (It's my nephew Ben from Matt's side of the family - the one who made the nightstand for Henry.) Since I have so much time to ponder during my commute on the train, I've been obsessing about it. The line between pondering and obsessing is a very thin one for me. Here are my thoughts:

- Not too fancy. The wedding is outdoors at a lake in Southern Illinois, so my dress shouldn't be too fancy. Ideally it would work with the sensible-yet-fabulous ankle strap wedge heels I already own - a black pair and a brown pair.

- Fun to dance in. There will be dancing at the reception, so I'd like something swishy or twirly. I'd also like someone to dance with me (hint, hint!) so that my dress can swish and twirl, but that might be asking too much. I suppose I can act my shoe size instead of my age and join the flower girls for spinning and running around on the dancefloor.

- Not too far from the mainstream. This wedding is in a very small town with my husband's extended family and neighbors - the kind of thing where many people may know "of" me but don't really know that I'm a little odd. I'm pretty sure I'm "that girl that married Murl and Shirley's youngest" to most of the people in this crowd. If I make a spectacle of myself it may haunt Matt's family for years. And of course, there will be pictures. I could be "that girl that wore the ridiculous dress with a big petticoat to Ben's wedding" for the rest of my life. I could handle it, but I'd hate for anyone else to have to defend/explain my weirdness in my absence.

- Flattering on my post-baby body and accessible for nursing. My weight is holding steady now, with a couple extra pounds at the bust and an extra 10-15 at the lower belly and hips. I suspect that my cave-woman body is holding on to this fat as insurance against a long winter with a shortage of mammoth meat. I also suspect my body will hold on to it as long as it believes that Henry's survival depends on my fat stores. Damn you, hormones and evolution! Get with the program! I can't wear an empire waist forever!

Here are two patterns I really want to add to my collection. Even if I don't use them for Ben's wedding, I definitely want to make them soon.

Marfy 1654
I think this is a nice simple pattern to get into the Marfy pattern experience. The patterns are so much more interesting than the Big 4 pattern companies! Marfy always gets a difficulty rating of "Expert" because no written instructions are included. I think I can handle this one even without instructions. The skirt is just begging for me to use a fantastic table cloth from my stash. It has a very bold floral border print that is oriented toward the corners. It will be perfect for this pattern! If the pattern fairy is listening, a size 44 would be just right and it's OK if it doesn't arrive in time for my birthday. I can be patient. I understand it takes time for things to be shipped from Italy.

Vogue 1086 - Tracy Reese
I love this one! The reviews say this one is super low-cut, but for once that might not be a bad thing for me. I think I might be able to make it work for pull-to-the-side nursing access by leaving it low in front but adding a few tiny decorative buttons and loops to keep it decent until it's time for Henry to eat.

Another Feedsack Top, part of Simplicity 2590

2009-07-27T18:35:00.003-05:00

This is another top made from vintage feedsack fabric. I had two matching sacks to work with this time, so I decided to do a test of the bodice on Simplicity 2590. My measurements have changed significantly and I've never made (or worn) anything with fluttery sleeves, so this was very much a stab in the dark in both size and style. I cut a size 16 (B 38), which was ok in the bust and waist, but terrible for the sleeves and armholes.

With and without a tie at the waist. The thought of elastic creeping up my poochy post-baby belly wasn't appealing.

This top is actually the top half of a dress pattern I thought about making out of white linen. I'm glad I did a trial run before I cut into my linen. The pattern also calls for elastic in a bias tape casing at the waist, but I skipped that part. Other than that I sewed the pattern according to the directions. I even used the specified width and length of elastic for the neckline this time, unlike the last feedsack top. Unfortunately, the armholes are huge on me and the sleeves don't just flutter, they FLAP. If I make this again I'll fold out at least two inches of fullness from the sleeves.

The giant flapping sleeve and the huge gaping armhole!

It's wearable, so I guess it's not a failure. Maybe I'll fix it, or maybe I'll save it until I get the inevitable fat arms to match my thunder thighs. The best thing about this top (aside from the vintage cherry fabric) is that this was a super fast project - only two evenings! I love sewing dresses, but I think I might be getting hooked on the speed of sewing separates...

In other news, Henry is changing so quickly! He's much more entertaining now, making faces and all kinds of noises. His favorite place to socialize in on his changing pad. He and Matt have all kinds of silly conversations there.

Burda 8347, The Feedsack Tank Top

2009-07-16T21:07:00.002-05:00

I needed a little instant gratification, so I decided to make a super-quick shirt from a pattern in my stash and a piece of fabric in my stash. The pattern is Burda 8347, View B. The fabric is a vintage cotton feedsack in a cheerful yellow floral pattern. It was pretty quick and easy. Applying the elastic casings at the neck and armholes was a little tedious, but I was still able to complete this project in less than 24 hours. I think that's a record for me!

The pattern called for silky fabrics, but the feedsack worked just fine. I was able to make the shirt from just one feedsack, but it was a tight squeeze on the layout. I didn't have room to cut the bias strips for the elastic casings from the feedsack (and I don't have the patience to cut those myself anyway), so I used one package of white bias tape instead. I also used skinny elastic cord instead of the flat elastic, and I ignored the pattern guides for the length of the elastic pieces. My choices with the elastic came back to haunt me.

When I tried on the shirt without the elastic inserted, there was plenty of room in the bust and under the arms. (It's a little snug in the belly right now, but I'm still dropping the baby weight so I didn't want to cut it much bigger.) After I put all the elastic in I realized I should have made the elastic pieces longer and therefore looser. As you can see in this photo, the whole thing creeps up and bunches under my arms. I may replace the armhole elastic with longer pieces, or I may just cut it and leave it in the casings. I think I can live without the elastic at the armholes.

This was my first time working with a vintage feedsack fabric. It reminded me of my Aunt Joan, one of my dad's nine siblings. She has a great sense of style! When they were growing up on the farm, she would make of point of choosing the nicest feedsack prints for the family's wardrobe.

I have another feedsack shirt project in the works - this time I have two matching sacks to work with!

Here are my boys checking out the trees... What a pair!

Simplicity 8125 - Wearability: FAIL

2009-07-01T19:08:00.005-05:00

I love the idea of Simplicity 8125. It's an adorable 1960's empire-waist update of the classic Butterick Walk-Away Dress (Butterick 4790). It's clever. It's forgiving on my post-baby body. It's quick and easy to make, and requires only fabric, thread and a little bit of ribbon for the hidden back ties - no interfacing, bias tape, buttons or zippers. And it's reversible! You just cut out the pieces, sew the front darts, match the two layers up and sew all the way around, leaving a little opening to turn them right side out. Even with a one-month old baby hanging on me all day and night I managed to make it in just a week or two. That's pretty quick for me!

The fabric was a remnant of the fabric I used to make a shower curtain. Ok, in truth I didn't have quite enough of a remnant for the dress so I raided the bathroom for the shower curtain. It was a lot easier to find another shower curtain I liked than to track down more of this fabric from JoAnn's two or three years ago! The fabric is a sheer white with white flowers of varying degrees transparency. This was my first time working with a semi-sheer fabric. I had to be extra careful finishing the big dart because it was visible through the sheer parts of the fabric. I used a screaming orange broadcloth for the reverse. I really like the way the sheer mutes the orange and the orange makes the floral pop. Unfortunately the fabric combination is the only redeeming feature of this little sewing experiment.

The dress was absolutely adorable on my dressform. The two hidden ties (at the underarm and hip) held the front of the dress in a lovely skimming A-line shape on Barbie. The wide ties give the bust a little definition while letting the back piece hang smoothly from the mid-back, skimming over the big ol' butt. On the dressform I was a little concerned about the really deep armhole. Even when the front and back pieces were tied tightly at the bust, the armhole created by the overlapped pieces looked like it would be deep enough to show an inch or two of bra under the arm.

The trouble began when I wore the dress. Before I was even done with the picture-taking, the dress was starting to shift around. The deep scoop neck allows the shoulders to shift from side to side. The under-bust ties kept the sides of the dress closed, but didn't prevent the back or front from riding up. I had it tied on pretty snugly, and it still didn't stay put. In fact I had the ties tight tight enough that when I sat down, one of the hip ties ripped right out of the seam. I did a quick repair job and headed out for a lovely Pampered Chef party hosted by my friend *A*. Pampered Chef parties wait for no one!

So my first (second? third?) clue that the dress was a disaster is that no one at the party asked me about it or commented on it (except *A*, who knew I was wearing one of my experiments). I mean really, if someone showed up in this weird orange floral dress at a gathering of crop pants, flip flops and T-shirts, wouldn't you wonder what's up? No one had the nerve to ask about it, so I'm pretty sure I was in the realm of "If you don't have something nice to say...". It's a good thing this is my Summer of Wearing What I Damn Well Please or I might have been a little self-conscious.

The real trouble with the dress began when I had to sit down. The deep armholes allowed the shoulders to pop up and then flop forward, gaping at the neckline. Then when I stood up the back of the dress stayed pulled forward, making the back hemline higher than the front. I spent the whole evening with various parts of my bra showing, tugging at the dress to get it back to where it belonged. So annoying!

This dress is bad enough that it must evolve or perish. I still like the fabric combination very much. I'm going to do a little creative chopping to try to make an empire-waist dress that works, if I can make the armhole and bust fit snugly enough. If that doesn't work I'll default to a simple skirt so I can still enjoy the fabric.

This picture is from a couple of weeks ago, when Henry was about one month old. I can't believe he's already six weeks old! I'm halfway through my maternity leave!

Ben's Nightstand/Bookshelf for Henry

2009-06-11T18:35:00.003-05:00

My nephew Ben made this awesome nightstand/bookshelf for Henry's nursery. It's perfect for all the little board books in Henry's library!

The design is based on a piece of furniture I found on the Target website. Ben had only a single picture to guide him on the design, and it turned out exactly the way I hoped it would. Awesome job, Ben! And thanks also to another nephew, Mitchell, for lending Ben a hand. There are some very talented guys on Matt's side of the family!

Speaking of guys, I recently realized that I'm way outnumbered at home. Here are Matt, Henry and Otto napping together while I started on a sewing project.

The sewing project is Simplicity 8125 (in the shower curtain fabric with ORANGE for the reverse). I abandoned my plan to start with wrap skirts because I've already lost most of the baby weight. Today I am wearing pre-pregnancy jeans, comfortably, with only a tiny bit of tummy pooch and muffin top. Woohoo! Hooray for breastfeeding and long walks at the botanical garden!

Nursery Curtains - Finally!

2009-05-31T15:55:00.002-05:00

You'd think the curtains for the nursery were really something special, based on how long I've been trying to complete them. In fact, they are almost as simple as curtains can be. And I still had to have help to finish them. Here are the nitty-gritty sewing details. Can you believe I finally have a sewing project to post about? It's been ages! (Feel free to skip to the baby pictures at the end if you don't give a rat's ass about my sewing projects!)

I decided to go with a plain cotton in a slightly softer shade than the butterfly on the quilt. I had planned to do my usual style of curtains, using curtain rings with clips to hold up a rectangle of fabric. Matt wanted grommets, so I decided to try them. Unfortunately the only grommets I could find were metallic, which is not what I wanted for the room. I wanted white, to match the curtain rods, crib, and other accents in the room. I finally found white grommets at JoAnn Fabrics, but they are plastic. I think they turned out OK.

The fabric is cheap cotton broadcloth from JoAnn's, on sale for $1.50/yd. The grommets were ten bucks per package of eight before I used up some of those coupons JoAnn sends me every week. My MIL Shirley helped me work out the spacing for the grommets. At the time I only had three packages of grommets for my four panels, and it wasn't quite enough. Luckily I was able to pick up one more package so I could use eight grommets per 45 inch wide curtain panel.

Grommet package, reinforcing, test piece

I used a three inch wide strip of something stiff (from the curtain section at Hancock's, $.99/yd) to reinforce the top of each panel, as suggested on the back of the grommet package. It is not iron-on; it's sewn in as part of the folding over the raw edge at the top. The grommet package included a template to trace the circle to be cut out. I found the template to be too small. The grommets didn't quite cover up the cut edges of the small holes, so I cut the holes a little bigger than the template. The two halves of the plastic grommets just snap together, no hammer required.

I got the grommets done on the first panel, and the top edges reinforced and finished on the rest of the panels. My mom finished the project for me while I was at the hospital with Henry. She also managed to conquer my heaps of laundry and tidy up my house. Thanks, Mom!

If I had to do it over again, I would choose fabric that's a little bit heavier so it wouldn't wrinkle so much. Other than that, the curtains are perfect! Thanks again to Mom and Shirley for helping!

In other news, Henry had his first real bath yesterday!

Henry!

2009-05-25T15:22:00.001-05:00

Henry arrived at 1:06 AM on Wednesday, May 20! Seven and a half pounds, twenty inches, with lots of dark hair and a strong pair of lungs.

Henry and I are in good shape. Labor was not too long and not too awful. Breastfeeding is going well and I'm feeling good.

I have lots of finished projects to post (fantastic pillows appliqued by mom, yellow curtains with grommets, nightstand built by my nephew Ben, etc.). I hope to get out and about to mooch some free Wi-Fi later this week.

Baby?

2009-05-15T09:02:00.001-05:00

Not yet, but today is my last day at work!

In case you were wondering...

2009-05-08T09:20:00.001-05:00

I'm still pregnant. And crabby and impatient. I'm due in a week.

And no, I haven't finished the curtains for the nursrey, or anything else!

Summer Sewing with a Plan!

2009-04-29T16:38:00.001-05:00

Same delusions, now with more detail!

My mind is still productive, even if my body is no longer capable of multitasking. It seems that finishing up this whole gestating thing takes all my physical energy. I still haven't finished the curtains for the nursery. Whatever.

A few more sleepless nights have further defined my plans for sewing my post-partum summer wardrobe. I'd like to get obsessed with sewing projects to make the last few weeks of waiting pass more quickly, but I'm a little hesitant to commit to making anything truly special. I have no idea what my measurements will be or how fast they will change. I'm not even sure that the whole breastfeeding thing is going to work, and I'd hate to put a lot of effort into clever bodice modifications if I don't need to. Solution: Start with easy wrap skirts, move on to adjustable wrap dresses, and then go for the spiffy dresses, working from the most adjustable/forgiving pattern to the least adjustable.

Curses! Foiled again! I had nice descriptions of my plans for each pattern/fabric combination all written up and Blogger ate it when I tried to tidy up the formatting. I don't feel like re-typing it, so you'll have to use your imagination. Here's what didn't disappear...

------------------------------

I have big plans for Simplicity 8125 (above). Not only is it an easy-fitting empire-waist wrap dress, it's completely reversible! I'm going to use its potential for being reversible to put some scraps from the shower curtain fabric to use. The fabric is a white mod-ish floral with varying degrees of transparency. I'll use a solid cotton in a bright color for the reverse so the white flowers really pop against the shades of color that show through the sheer areas. I'm thinking about coral, turquoise, orange, green or basic black (not actually the fabrics in the picture above - those are candidates for the wrap skirt). Any suggestions?

------------------------------

----------------------------

For Simplicity 2590 (above), I think I'm going to modify it to be separates. I'll make the tops longer and skip the elastic. Instead, I'll make a matching fabric belt/tie to gather the waist. I'll use the smooth hip yoke and the elastic waistline for the skirt. And I'll do it all in white linen lined with white batiste! I know, the white is impractical for taking care of a barfing, pooping baby. But! I can also use the skirt as a swamp-ass-proof slip under The Fluffer when I'm wearing swishy dresses. And a cool white blouse or two will be a useful addition to my wardrobe of brightly-colored wrap skirts. I like the tie-neck halter, but I don't think it's very compatible with nursing bras. I can't decide if I'm girly enough for the fluttery sleeves, or if I should go with the gathered short sleeves and risk the sausage arm effect. Opinions?

--------------------------

I had a nice explanation about my choice of a three-color plaid instead of a two-color gingham for Vogue 8353 (above), but it disappeared. The important thing is that the plaid one is just a practice dress to make sure I like it before I make it in a two color vertical stripe - maybe navy & white, so the dark navy solidness created by the tucks at the waist creates the illusion of an hourglass?

-------------------------

McCall's 5898 (above) is one for The Fluffer. My plan is to make it up in this lightweight linen blend with an embroidered floral border at the hem. For nursing access, I'll use snaps to secure a flip-up front bodice to the waist and side seams, hidden behind the midriff "tied" section. The bodice lining and/or breastfeeding-friendly under-bodice panel will be made from yellow batiste. I'm ridiculously excited about this one. I hope I get it done before summer is over!

-----------------------------

---------------------------------

I'm a little undecided about Simplicity 3744 (above). I think my fabrics are right for the pattern, but I'm not sure the dress shape will be kind to my poochy post-partum body. I've had this fabric (cotton with 3% stretch) in my stash for this dress for a long time, but now I'm having doubts. This one is at the bottom of my to-do list. What do you think?

Maternity Leave Delusions and Summer Proclamation

2009-04-17T15:50:00.007-05:00

Baby Henry is due in four weeks. These days I'm not sleeping so well. I'm tired, but I never get comfortable enough to get really good sleep. Instead of counting sheep, I ponder what my summer on maternity leave might be like. I haven't had a whole summer without work or school since 1996, and even then I was working pretty hard at having fun - my definition of "fun" was working very long, hot days at the barn and preparing my horse for the show circuit.

My plan is to take a full 12 weeks off for maternity leave, as allowed by law. Of course, that time is mostly unpaid because I don't have much paid personal leave saved up. Endless doctor appointments and surgery for infertility issues will do that to you. The double-whammy is that all that surgery and testing wasn't covered by health insurance so our savings account was totally drained by medical bills before I even got pregnant. Whatever. I'm sure it will all work out. We'll just be poor for the summer. And even poorer when we have to start paying for childcare in August when I go back to work. On top of that, I'm a little worried that I might lose my mind. I don't think I'll do well with sleep deprivation and being trapped in the house all day with a tiny helpless stranger and leaky boobs that smell like the cottage cheese production room on the Prairie Farms Dairy factory tour. At the same time, I'm terrified that I might like staying at home so much that I won't want to go back to work. Sigh. This is what rolls around in my head when I'm not sleeping. I must make it stop or I'll never make it through this last month of waiting!

Lately I've forced myself to start envisioning a lovely summer at home with a healthy angelic baby, a helpful husband, good books, sunshine without humidity, bigger boobs, a rapidly shrinking belly and a nice tan. There will be long strolls with Henry to get ice cream in a handmade waffle cone on Main Street. There will be breezy afternoons on a picnic blanket, reading library books while Henry naps in the shade. We will go to the art museum to soak up art and free air conditioning on really hot days. Henry will nap in his stroller when I take him to the botanical garden to sketch or do quick watercolor paintings. We'll have a little baby pool in the back yard for Henry to splash around in, and for me to cool off while tanning my pasty flab. When I have a project to post on this blog, we'll stroll down to the Bread Company and mooch some free Wi-Fi. While I'm on Main Street I'll pop in to Ben Franklin to pick up any sewing notions I might need for the next project. Most of all, there will be many, many swishy sundresses and effortless, unobtrusive breastfeeding everywhere we go. Right? Right! (If you think otherwise, please don't burst my bubble yet. I'm sure reality will set in soon enough.)

I always do better if I set a goal and declare it publicly, so here is my proclamation for the Great Summer of Maternity Leave:

WHEREAS, I will be without cash flow but not without inspiration or time;

WHEREAS, I will have the freedom to wear whatever I damn well please, be it sweatpants, muu-muus, or sundresses and big floppy hats;

WHEREAS, I haven't actually sewn anything since the Swimuit Experiment last summer;

WHEREAS, I have a massive stash of cotton fabrics and notions in many colors, prints, and weights;

WHEREAS, I have dozens of patterns I have not yet sewn up;

WHEREAS, I enjoy the challenge of modifying patterns to suit my form as well as my function (i.e. breastfeeding);

NOW THEREFORE, be it resolved that this will be The Summer of Fun Dresses - most of which will accommodate breastfeeding in public.

There will be bold prints and happy colors! There will be swishy skirts, worn with and without The Fluffer! There will be ingenious hidden snaps and modified bodices! There will be soft linings made of cool cotton batiste! There will be border prints! (There might also be a really cool picnic blanket project with oilcloth/tablecloth fabric on one side and sturdy cotton on the other side, and a couple of snazzy diaper bags.)

So far, my late night thoughts have resulted in do-able ideas for each of these patterns:

But first I have to finish the curtains for the nursery. Stay tuned for details!

The Great Pumpkin Coat

2009-04-16T09:40:00.005-05:00

Would you ever wear a big orange suede coat? What if it came with a matching clutch purse and suede pumps? What if it was a birthday gift from your father? What if the cut of the coat was perfectly on-trend and complemented the fashionable dress silhouette of the day? Would you wear it, even if you risked looking like a giant pumpkin and/or drawing attention to yourself? Would you hide it in your closet, waiting for an appropriate occasion to present itself or wear it all the time for no particular reason?

These are not hypothetical questions. The Great Pumpkin Coat really exists. It was perfectly trendy in 1961, but it has hardly ever been worn by its owner - even when new!

The coat belongs to my mother. She says it's not orange, it's "apricot". Here's The History of the Apricot Suede Coat, according to Mom:

My father was an executive with International Shoe Company in St. Louis* until he retired after 42 years. Although he was in the Men's Division, my shoes always came home with him from "the office", usually 4-6 pairs stacked in their boxes and tied with string. It was always a surprise to see what I was supposed to wear each season.
Dad also had many contacts among the suppliers of materials for the shoe business, and for my fifteenth birthday he surprised me with a 3/4 length apricot suede coat, a clutch bag to match, and (of course) matching pumps. It was the '60's and the style of the coat was flared like an "artist's smock" with a black taffeta lining.

Although it was a truly striking ensemble, I really didn't have many occasions to wear it. I did take it to college and it has remained with me through many moves in my life. When you asked for it recently, Jenny, I was amazed and truly pleased. Seeing you in it last Sunday made my day!

MOM

* My grandfather's office was in the heart of the garment district on Washington Ave., very close to where the City Museum is now. He was married to my stylish grandmother. With his connections in the garment industry and her eye for style I'm sure they were a couple of snazzy dressers in their day! --J

This spring I've been wearing The Great Pumpkin Coat in all its orange suede vintage glory. It keeps my big pregnant belly covered, even now in my last month or so. I would never have considered it if I wasn't pregnant, but now that I've worn the coat I think I might keep it to wear this fall (but only when baby Henry is not within spitting-up distance). It's one more thing my pre-pregnant self would never have considered that has been a pleasant surprise.

The coat and envelope clutch are in mint condition. Unfortunately the matching suede pumps are no longer around. I don't carry the purse, but I wear the coat frequently. It's a showstopper. It hangs very nicely when unbuttoned and makes a much more slimming vertical line than you might expect based on the volume of material. I rarely button it because when it's buttoned it makes me feel like I belong in a road construction zone. Besides the traffic cone/barrel effect, the placement of the lower button is like a cruel joke meant to draw attention to my temporary outie belly button. I just keep it unbuttoned and it's all good.

Just to be extra-clear, I did not make this coat; it is a vintage garment. However, I've seen many vintage patterns for coats in this style. The full shape of the coat makes perfect sense when you consider the fluffy dresses the coat was intended to complement. In all the pattern illustrations I've seen, the coats look kind of rigid. Maybe they are being supported by the petticoats and dresses, or maybe the pattern illustrators made them look stiff to show the design details more clearly. Consider the era:

Dress patterns from 1961, the same year as the orange coat. These are already in my pattern stash, waiting for my waistline to return!

Coat patterns that are very similar to the style of my mom's vintage coat. Don't they look just a little too stiff in the illustrations?

I can say with certainty that the orange coat isn't stiff at all and hangs beautifully. If you're thinking about making an easy-fitting coat to wear over big dresses (or a big ass, or a pregnant belly, or whatever!), give the patterns from the early 1960's a look and try to see past the stiffness of the illustrations.

P.S. Mom, the coat would look great on you for this fall. It's as comfortable, flattering and striking as anything you might find at Chico's or the mall. I'll hand it over, just ask!

Guest Post: Matt and His Mower

2009-04-10T17:40:00.009-05:00

Matt bought a junked commercial mower and fixed it up. He's handy with metal and mechanical stuff. Here's what he has to say about himself and his project:

I grew up on a farm in southern Illinois - not the big farms in the Mississippi River bottoms or the huge farms of central Illinois. My family has a small 160 acre farm that you need a full time job to support. My dad worked as a union heavy equipment operator and mechanic. When his work was good my sisters and brother did the farming after school. Being the youngest, I was too little to help much.

When work was slow (like it was through most of the 1980's) Dad repaired other farmers' equipment. I can remember there always being something in Dad's shop - a tractor, combine, anything that was too old to get parts for or the farmer couldn't afford to fix. Sometimes Dad traded his labor for the farmer's livestock. Anyway, the point is I was always watching him tear apart junk equipment and put it back together again in working order. I can remember taking apart Stompers, those little AA battery powered 4x4 trucks, and taking the motors out of one that worked and putting it in one that didn't. If it didn't fit I'd take my knife and cut and modify it until it did. That was in the 3rd grade.

All of this brings me to my current project. About a year ago the company I work for was getting rid of a bunch of old equipment that was either a safety hazard or was not worth sinking the money into fixing. In this pile of equipment was a mower that had seen better days. The mower is a 2004 Ferris DD dual drive walkbehind commercial mower. It had been mistreated by several years and several different people as part of a fleet of mowing equipment. It was basically treated like a rental car. We all know how we treat rental cars! It had been serviced regularly so the core components (engine, hydraulic pumps, and wheel motors) were good, but everything else was in bad shape. The deck was pretty bad because it takes the brunt of all the use and abuse. Knowing that a new mower like this costs around $5500, I thought that I could refurbish it for much less and have a mower that would last for many, many years. I bought the mower for $200.

The first task was the mower deck, It required fabricating a new section on the left side. it was worn down from jumping concrete curbs, hitting fences, and banging off of anything that had to mowed around. My dad cut out and welded in a new section of the deck, it was heated up and bent around to factory angles and he added in extra protection in the form of a 1/2" x 2" steel skid where the heavy wear occurs. It looks like it just came from the factory. You have to look under it to tell that anything had been rebuilt. I did the light welding. The grass shield that it had on it was metal and was bent so badly that I threw it away and decided to make one from scratch. I decided to pattern it off of the new style grass shield from a 2009 mower which is made from thick rubber instead of metal. I knew I could make the metal parts and thought I would just buy the rubber part of the shield. That was until I learned that the rubber part alone was $125 - not in the budget. What I did learn is that mud flaps from a semi-truck are made from the same rubber and can be cut and molded for about $7. Problem solved.

The problem with growing up on a farm with welders, cutting torches and enough tools to take apart just about anything is that when you move out you no longer have access to them. I've lost track of how many times I've started to do something and then realized that a 20 minute job in Dad's shop is now a 8 hour exercise in futility. Unless I wanted to spend 4 hours driving every weekend I had to find a way to cut and weld a little closer to home. Enter my friend Brandon. He lives less than five minutes away and was gracious enough to let me use his welder and shop. Problem #2 solved.

With access to a welder and some tips on sheet metal from various cable shows I was able to fix rips in the sheet metal for the belt covers and fab up the metal parts to the grass shield. Some things could not be repaired and had to be replaced such as the front tires, bearings and lots and lots of bolts. Those were my biggest expense. While disassembling the mower many of the bolts were rusty to the point of almost not being a bolt any more. So I replaced anything that would come in contact with grass or possibly make it hard to take apart again with stainless steel bolts. I know that this is overkill. The 1/2"x 2" steel skid was overkill. BUT the problems it had when I bought it will never be problems again. Once the machine was all apart the rest of the project was fairly straight forward. Cleaning out grease, sanding down rust, fixing hydraulic leaks that were "fixed" before by adding more fluid.

When it came time to primer and paint I wanted to get the exact color of the original machine. That was until I learned that it was almost $20 for a rattle can of factory paint. Again farm knowledge to the rescue! I thought that Ferris mower red and Case-International tractor red were pretty close. I sprayed the first coat on and it was a almost perfect match. At $3.75 a can it WAS a perfect match. All the plastic pieces were painted black with paint that actually etches to the plastic. For everyone with Little Tykes play stuff that has faded I highly recommend it.

The only real setbacks came in the last week. I had the plastic pieces painted early on and had them sitting on shelves in the garage. At some point the fuel tank fell off the shelf and landed on the engine and punctured a hole right in the middle of it. A new tank is about $90 so I went to AutoZone praying that they had something to help me. Salvation came in a little tube for under $3. After patching the hole I was so excited to get the project done that I started assembling right away. I connected the deck to the mower frame. (The deck had been done and sat all winter in the garage - sorry Jen.)

The next night Brandon helped me set the cleaned engine back on the frame and attach the rest of the parts. I put in gas and after about six pulls it roared to life. I cut the yard that evening and put it away proud of how everything fell perfectly into place. Until the next morning. I got up and walked into the utility room and noticed a gasoline smell. I grabbed a flashlight and went straight out the door to the garage. The valve at the bottom of the tank where the fuel line connects was slowly dripping gas all over the freshly painted frame. The paint didn't have any time to cure and was bubbling and peeling. My stomach felt like it had rocks in it. I went to work and put it out of my head until I could work on it that afternoon. Upon further inspection in the daylight the damage was only to a small area and can easily be fixed. My biggest fear was that the patch was leaking but it was dry as a bone. It seems the rubber O-ring in the gas tank had been dry for so long it allowed gas to pass by until the gas swelled it. Not so bad considering its previous state. I still have a little bit to repaint but the mower runs great and cuts awesome.

So, that's it for my guest post. I hope I haven't bored anyone, I know I enjoyed working on the mower and I think its given me enough confidence to get one step closer to my "Blue Baby" - a 1968 Cobra 427S/C kit car!

Great. I'm never going to have room for my car in the garage! If the mower took almost a year, how long will the Cobra take?

Edited to add a link to the special spray paint for plastic, Krylon Fusion.

The Pump Lamp and a Custom Lampshade

2009-04-08T13:34:00.004-05:00

The Pump Lamp is a collaborative effort approximately 20 years in the making. Matt made the lamp and I made (OK, modified) a cheap-o shade for the nursery.

Matt made the lamp as a 7th grader in Mr. Campbell's Industrial Arts class. It required woodworking, sheet metal work and wiring. The handle of the "pump" is attached to the pull cord for the light. To turn the light on or off you have to pump the handle. The "trough" was made from discarded food cans from the school cafeteria. Every kid who took shop class for more than ~~ten~~ twenty years made a Pump Lamp. Matt's brother still has one and still uses it! I'm sure there are matching lamps scattered all over Matt's hometown.

Finding an appropriately rustic shade for the Pump Lamp has been a challenge. I think it should probably have a rawhide or punched tin shade, but the lamp wasn't in use so I never got around to finding one. When Matt declared that the Pump Lamp belonged in the nursery with the simple, sturdy furniture, I had to find a lampshade that would work. The hideous temporary shade had to go. I decided that I didn't want to emphasize the "rustic" style, so I went the opposite direction with a ridiculously whimsical shade.

I used the bubbly dot fabric that didn't make the cut for the nursery quilt project plus a little white double-fold bias tape in two widths. I had never recovered a lampshade before, but it wasn't exactly rocket science. I didn't sew anything, I just cut and glued the fabric to the shade.

The procedure is pretty simple if you start with a simple shade shape and a very busy print that requires no matching at the edges.
- Trace the shade and add a little allowance for overlap on all sides.
- Cut the fabric out.
- Use white craft glue thinned with a little water to glue the fabric to the shade. (A disposable paintbrush is worth it for this step.)
- Use a little more glue (not thinned with water) to secure the edges and the bulky tucks at the corners. The glue will keep the raw edges at the sides of each piece of fabric from fraying. It dries clear, so the edges just disappear into the busyness of the printed fabric.
- Use double fold bias tape to finish the top and bottom edges. I used a narrow piece for the top and a wide piece for the bottom. You could also put a vertical stripe of bias tape along the corners if your fabric doesn't allow the glued edges to blend in to the crazy print.

The Nursery Quilt, Finished!

2009-04-01T16:23:00.001-05:00

My custom Charley Harper-inspired quilt idea is finally a reality!

Thank you, Shirley!

Other posts about the quilt:
The panel printed by Spoonflower
Tweaking the original image
The beginning

Temporary insanity or personal growth?

2009-03-23T13:40:00.007-05:00

Pregnancy is making me do all kinds of things I never thought I would do. In the last few months I've developed a tendency to cry over stray puppies and random songs on the radio. In a couple more months, I'll probably poop on the delivery table in a room full of people. These are strange times indeed. One of the strangest things I've done while pregnant is probably my recent gig as a figure model. Insecure, fat-assed me is moonlighting as a model for artists and art students to practice drawing the human figure. Nude.

Don't worry, no images with this post. :-)

I know this is a topic that doesn't fit under my blog's intended purpose of sharing projects I make. I'm writing about it because it has been surprisingly rewarding and creatively demanding, just like my more tangible projects . I've never done anything like this, and I probably won't do it when I'm no longer pregnant. I'm pretty sure my pregnant self is not exactly the same as my pre-pregnant self. I'm guessing my post-pregnant perspective will be different too, but I doubt that I will regret the experience or sharing this summary of my thoughts about it.

Here's what I've learned about figure modeling:

- It's not about being attractive, it's about giving artists something real and interesting to draw. That means bodies with character are preferred - unlike the bland, interchangeable youthful perfection of commercial models. Lumpy, wrinkly, saggy, hairy, whatever! That's just more opportunity for the artist to develop the skill of capturing details of the human form on paper. Don't believe me? Look at any books on "life drawing" or "figure drawing". The memorable sketches are often the ones with wrinkly skin, or dreadlocks, or "non-ideal" proportion and mass. And the poses are definitely not vulgar or intended to incite lust. Figure drawing is more like a basic anatomy class for artists to learn and practice drawing the proportions of the human body. It's about drawing believable 2-D images of 3-D reality, not inciting libidinous fantasy.

- Pregnant models are in demand! Who knew? Being hugely pregnant automatically made my body interesting enough to get the job (actually, jobs at two different schools for a total of 4 sessions so far), without submitting any pictures or auditioning or having previous experience. A few hours one night a week at $15-20/hour isn't a ton of money, but it covers a few maternity outfits. Regardless of the money, the experience has been eye-opening and very positive. The artists thank me for posing, or tell me I was really fun to draw. One of the instructors said he appreciated that he didn't have to tell me how to pose, and that he was impressed with my ability to hold a challenging pose for such a long time.

- I'm glad I did it while pregnant, because my body is nearly exempt from (self-)criticism. For once in my life, my body is exempt from my internal dialogue and aesthetic critique. The baby is healthy and I'm healthy enough to deliver him, so my body is as close to perfect as it will ever be, regardless of what it looks like. My shape has almost nothing to do with my diet or exercise habits, or being genetically doomed to be pear-shaped. My body has been taken over by a little alien that has caused all kinds of changes in size, shape and skin. It looks this way because it is performing a normal, healthy function. My thunder thighs look purposeful and proportionate now. My abs are the tightest they will ever be, and I didn't have to work out at all! I feel like I'm wearing a pregnant suit over my normal body, so I don't feel totally exposed even when I'm naked. After Henry arrives the flab will be all mine, but for now I'm wearing this pregnancy like a fat suit for a movie role. (Is it still denial if you're fully aware of your self-deception?)

- Standing naked in the center of a room full of artists is not creepy. Really. Sure, the moment when I had to step out of my robe for the first time made me a little anxious, but after that it was no big deal. The atmosphere is very quiet and relaxed and absolutely devoid of body judgment. I typically feel (imagine?) more silent body-snarking judgment on a stroll through the mall than I felt when I was naked under lights in the middle of the studio for the first time. The artists were obviously concentrating intently on getting their lines and shading right, and not looking at me like a piece of meat to be evaluated and compared to some supposed ideal of beauty.

- Posing is not just standing around. A typical session starts with a series of 1 to 2 minute poses, mostly standing up. No one tells the model how to pose, so I have to make it up as I go along. I try to use asymmetry to make interesting angles and curves for the artists to draw. It's tricky because the artists are arranged in a circle or semi-circle, so each one has a slightly different view of the same pose (link only slightly NSFW). I also try to make sure that no one gets the same side of me all the time. I found this book (link totally safe for work) at the library very helpful for preparing to pose. I also flipped through a couple of books in the art section of a big bookstore to get ideas about what makes a good pose. (FYI: Holding a book full of nude sketches in the bookstore may cause creepy dudes to hit on you, even if you are obviously pregnant, married, and tired. Use that information as you see fit!) There are so many ways to pose without being vulgar - and my belly makes such a shadow - that I stopped worrying about fuzzy/pink bits being exposed. I'm no expert, but I think it all comes down to asymmetry, twisting the shoulders/spine/hips to create dimension and muscle tension from any angle, looking comfortable, and an effort to show a gracefully long neck. It's much easier to do all those things for a two minute pose than a 40 minute pose!

- It's great to see the sketches, even from the less-skilled artists. During the breaks I put my robe back on and wander around the studio to see the sketches. The choices the artist makes when filtering or emphasizing details make each sketch fascinating, especially when compared to others in the group. Unlike a photograph, the artist makes a thousand tiny decisions about what to put on the paper and what to leave out. My outie belly button and my odd hairline showed up in almost every sketch, while other unique features were barely represented, even in the longer poses. Sketches are especially flattering because the skin imperfections and frizzy hair that are cringe-worthy in a photograph are automatically filtered out by the artist. My favorite sketches so far are usually done in charcoal, because it makes it easier for the artist to represent volume through shading and tone instead of just line work and cross-hatching. Art students practice drawing still-lifes of spheres and other pure geometric forms to get the shading right. My tight round belly gives them a perfect chance to show their skills, or at least practice their developing skills. Sure, many of the artists have trouble getting the hands and feet right, and most of the eyes are downright scary. You couldn't pick me out of a line-up based on most of the sketches, but it's still amazing how much can be captured by a few quick marks on paper.

- Burt's Bees Radiance Body Lotion makes me glow under the lights. Do I need more glow? No. Are any of the artists going to have the time, the right medium or the skill to capture my light-reflecting glow? Probably not. I do it for the same reason I put on a little concealer, powder, tinted lip balm and extra deodorant. When you're wearing the emperor's new clothes it's nice to wear a little armor too, even if it's only psychological.

To try figure modeling, contact the art department at a college or university directly. I'm sure you will find it much more rewarding and less weird than you expect it to be.

Blooming

2009-03-18T09:10:00.004-05:00

Every time I see my mother-in-law she smiles and gives me a hug and says "Bless your heart, you're blooming!"

It sure beats the typical comments from strangers, which go something like this:

Stranger: "You're pregnant?"
Me: "Yep."
Stranger: "When are you due?"
Me: "The middle of May."
Stranger: "Oh my, you've still got quite a way to
go. You're having twins, right?"
Me: "No."
My internal, unfiltered responses are not quite as civil. I'll leave that to your imagination.
My belly really isn't that big when compared to a room full of pregnant women. I actually look smaller than most of the women in my childbirth class who are due around the same time. Whatever.

Framed prints for the nursery

2009-03-16T13:00:00.005-05:00

Last night I finally got a dose of much-needed instant gratification. (I seem to be doing a lot of frustrated waiting these days.) Mom provided a little shopping karma to get us started. Matt and I completed a nursery project in one night! (Like always, click a photo to go to the album with captions if you don't need the excessively detailed play-by-play.)

My goal was to carry the Charley Harper theme from the nursery quilt to the walls by hanging a few prints above the dresser/changing table. (You can see a row of three in my original rendering of the ideas for the nursery.) Purchasing Charley Harper prints is not in the budget right now. My cheap method was to sacrifice a copy of one of his books, Beguiled by the Wild, and frame a few favorite images. Ideally I would have purchased a used copy to chop up and kept the nice copy that my sister gave me as a birthday gift a few years ago. Unfortunately, I had a severe attack of the need for instant gratification. My copy of the book is now missing a few pages. It's worth it.

Mom and I were at Michael's looking for a crafty item to help her finish her pillow applique project (more on that later) when we found the perfect frames for my nursery wall decor project. I hadn't found any simple square frames around town in the last couple of months. Mom spotted a big rack of 12x12 LP record album frames and 12x12 scrapbook page frames under a 50% off sign. Final price: $4.99 each! I called Matt to double check the dimensions on the pages of the book at home. The pages are a little smaller than the frames, but it's no big deal. Obviously it was meant to be. They had red, black or white frames. Matt said white. I was thinking black. We got four white ones and one black one just to see how it would look. Thanks, Mom!

Back at home I asked Matt to do the honors of cutting out the book pages we had chosen earlier. (I had been having a bad hand-eye coordination day and I didn't trust myself with a supersharp x-acto blade.) We discussed matting the pages too but that sounded time-consuming and expensive. I just turned over the little paper insert that came with the frame so that the plain white paper was visible around the edges of the page, filling in the space between the page and the edge of the frame. It's hardly noticeable, and it was free and already cut perfectly to fit!

We debated where to hang the prints. Our house has super-hard concrete walls that must be drilled to hang anything up. It's a bigger production than just finding a stud or using a drywall anchor, and it's much harder to reposition something if we decide to change it later. Our decision was to first move the dresser/changing table a little closer to the closet door and then center the frames over the dresser. Moving the dresser would give us room to store either diapers or the diaper genie out of sight between the dresser and the wall. Closer inspection revealed that the HVAC vent was in that corner, so we couldn't stack cubes of diapers there because the plastic would block the airflow. The diaper genie fits perfectly. I guess the diapers will be stored under the crib.

Matt wanted white frames in an offset arrangement like a windmill. I wanted black frames in a four-square window pane arrangement. We compromised with white frames in a square, with four inches between frames. I was concerned about the lowest frames being within reach of Henry (or a fountain of pee) during diaper changing time, so we started the layout pretty high above the dresser. Matt checked his measurements for the layout by taping up the paper inserts that came in the frames with very low-tack painters tape. After he was sure everything was marked in the right spot, I peeled off the tape and put the paper back in the frames, white side up behind the book pages.

Ta-da! Cheap, fast, and just what I had in mind!

More posts about my Charley Harper obsession.