Old Things

They are so beautiful.

I like old things. They are nice.

White, Black and Red

I made myself a new computer bag ages ago and forgot to show it around! Here it is.

White, black and red have been my color story of choice lately. I like it on everything. Even humans! I've been fantasizing about having black hair, red lips and light, light skin like snow white.(or Irene Adler, cough) 
Anyway, the bag. I got the idea when I found this pretty skirt at the thrift store for only one dollar. I don't know what it was doing on that rack because it was of great quality and had no holes. It fit me, but I really had no place to wear it. It was a bit formal for school. I am in love with the fabric and I needed a computer/journal bag so yay! I sewed one.

I made my original brainstorm in my geometry class. I had planned to make it with leather, but the only colored pencil I had in my pencil case was the red one I use for correcting. Lucky I did because I like the red much better! Nice how things turn out like that!

The materials I used were the wool skirt, heavy-weight fusible interfacing, home decor weight vinyl, thread, buttons, and two layers of quilt batting to make the bag nice and soft.
It does have a strap by the way. I pieced it from remaining scraps.

It fits my laptop and also my journal. The two pockets are a nice size for holding my phone and and a mouse and a bunch of my favorite pens. I especially love the soft, warm, vintage fabric in contrast with the clean modern lines.

What are you excited about this weekend? I am over the moon excited about the new Star Trek movie! One of my most favorite actors, Benedict Cumberbatch is in it as the villain. This is gonna be good.

Good on you, Claire

Today my sister, Claire, made cinnamon rolls.

They were soft and gooey and sugary.

They really made my day happy, so thanks Claire!

NOM!

Scrap Fabric Earrings

I recently finished a big project with this pretty wool skirt fabric. I love it so much that I just had to make another project with the lingering scraps. TADA! Light, soft earrings that will make a statement any shape you cut them in!
How to make them:

Things you need:
-Scraps of fabric
-Heavy-ish weight interfacing
-decorative thread
-Earring jewelry findings

Steps:
1. Iron the scraps of fabric to the interfacing.
2. Fold the combination of scraps in half and cut out two identical triangles. (or any shape you want!) Then repeat that again.
3. You will have four fabric triangles.
4. Put two triangles together so that the interfacing is on the inside and topstitch around the perimeter. You can do this a couple of times to emphasize the color or go all out and do fun zig-zags and swirls!
5. Thread a needle with the same contrasting thread and sew a few loose loops going through the triangle and earring loop.
6. After that, wrap the thread around the loop you have created a couple of times so that it is more of a tight string and tie it off. I added a bit of fray check so that it wouldn't slip around. You could probably use clear nail polish if you don't have fray check.

And tada! I just love the combination of the soft vintage fabric and more contemporary lines.

Some Things Are Beautiful

Have you ever seen the movie Hawking? It's a masterpiece in my opinion. I can't really put a finger on what I love about it so much. I just find in inexplicably inspiring and awing. It, of course, follows the early life of Stephen Hawking, the author, professor and inspiration. I respect him so much.
Anyway, this film is very special to me even though I consider myself much more of a spy/thriller/ fantasy type.
I found it on youtube and want to share it, so you should see it and feel the inspiration.
Hawking part 1

Hawking part 2

Hawking part 3

Hawking part 4

Hawking part 5

Hawking part 6

Hawking part 7

Hawking part 8

Hawking part 9

All of the screen shots etc belong to their rightful owners (ie, not me)
So go watch, I dare you to become inspired and create.

Sew a Skirt from a T-shirt

I love the thrift store! There is one walking distance from my house and I like to go there with my sisters on the weekends. It is just too cool that such unique clothes can be found there for such a low price! Well, some of the time, often the clothes are quite frumpy or possibly has some imperfections. I hate that so much nice fabric goes to waste on a slightly ugly article of clothing. So... why not sew those buggers into something cute!? I know this idea is not a new one, but here is my take on sewing a skirt from a t-shirt!

Steps:
1. Lay out your t-shirt and cut off the sleeves and the collar.

2. Cut a six inch strip from the top of the shirt. (this will be the band of your skirt, it'll be three inches when it's finished.) Make sure you cut both sides of the shirt so you can sew them together and make a piece that is actually long enough to go around your waist. :)

3. Even out the sides on the two strips you just cut and sew/serge them together to get a long strip.

4. You'll now have one long strip and a nice big piece of remaining fabric to make the skirt part out of.

5. Take the strip and fold it in half. Then measure it around your waist making is ever so slightly snug, so your skirt won't slip down when you wear it.

6. Mark the piece and unfold it. Sew/serge the piece and refold it. Yay, you know have the waistband!
7. Take the big loop of remaining fabric and make sure it is the right length for you by measuring it against your body. Then set your sewing machine to its longest stitch length and sew around the raw edge.

8. Gather the threads by pulling on them. Evenly distribute the gathers.  (p.s. excuse my hands)

9. Now you can see your skirt taking shape! You will have a lower gathered portion and a waistband. Confirm the gathers line up to the size of the waistband for the next step.

10. Flip the waistband so the raw edge is up and pin the raw edges of both pieces together, lining up the  seams if you can.

11. Now sew/serge the edges together! Woohoo! The skirt is complete!

Don't you adore ruffly stripes?

New York City

I have not been very good at keeping my promise of posting every week! How long has it been? Two weeks? More? I'm not sure, but my only excuse to myself is that I have been quite busy. Last weekend I went to New York City for the very first time to compete in a show choir competition. It was as fantastic as I could have ever imagined. We were so busy, we had very little time for sleep! I came to the city armed only with a very old camera phone to take pictures, so excuse the quality!

The trip on the bus took four hours and was quite rainy. The rain left me sort of sleepy and feeling very content to be on the bus. When we reached the city, I was amazed at the beauty of the city in rain.

The night of the competition was filled with glitter and blurry happiness. My show choir actually placed in the competition which is much better than last year, and the girls group actually got second and will go to Chicago for nationals! Yay girls group!  Their set is the cutest with a pan am airline theme.

The competition started at 10 am and we got back to our hotel at 1 am! It was the longest thing I have ever done. It was really so fun though! The frequent and amazing show cases of the competing choirs really kept it interesting. There was also tons of people to meet. I managed to befriend people from Britain and South Carolina. Our newly formed group had lots of fun and generally got in peoples way while discussing funny cultural differences like sweethearts vs. sweet-tarts, and smarties...Stuff like that. I was really proud of myself for meeting new people because I am not generally super outgoing. The whole competition felt like an episode of glee!

The rest of the weekend was fantastic as well. We went sight-seeing, and went to master classes and a broadway musical. I love to group of people I went with, they are the best sort of exuberant, fun, loud people who are very likely to start impromptu dance parties at breakfast.