Carpet dying and skirt sewing

It's been a while since I posted, and I failed to memorialize several projects in the time I have been off line, so here goes.  I decided to try another carpet, and this one was huge.  I think it was about 9'x13' and I am pretty sure it's wool.  David told me it was nuts to do this, because of the work involved and the possibility of the results being disastrous.  Well, it was a ton of work, but it actually turned out pretty well.  Too bad about the lawn though, which unfortunately has died.

Before:

After:

Here are some skirts I made out of round table cloths.  They look really cute on.

And here's a swivel chair that I fixed up and recovered, with help from David.

Eventually, everything connects. --Charles Eames

David and I put together this chair, and I think it turned out pretty cool.  It's sort of like something you'd see at Anthropologie, except two people spent about a month making it.  Originally it came from my sister Kathy, and it was pretty beat up with no upholstery.  Just a shell.  I think it was my mom's before that.  David cut wood for the seat and back, and I covered it with foam and the needlepoint and old Mexican blankets. 

We're working on several other chairs.  The hard part is finding the right fabric, which is CRUCIAL.  Bad fabric means bad chair. I am on the hunt for some 50s fun stuff right now.

I'm also working on dying a couple more rugs.  This one belongs to a friend of a friend.  She didn't like the color, and she like the other rug I dyed, so I am doing this one for her.  It's huge.  It's also wool instead of silk, so that could change things a lot.  We decided to go with indigo blue and emerald green, so it should be interesting.   Notice how the lawn is dead in the back yard...that's the only way this kind of thing can be done.

Finally, in this last paragraph I am going to do some philosophising.  For the last last 4 months we have had a gift shop.  Much of what is in the shop we have either made, found, fixed, or a combination of the above, and it's been a lot of fun.  Some things have worked out really well, like the chairs and the dyed carpet and the boho jewelry, and some haven't worked out well, like the big, colorful 40s-looking jewelry.  I definitely want to make more of the things that are popular, so I am adapting.  What has really been fun has been learning that all these random skills that I have acquired over this lifetime have all come together to do these things.  I learned how to dye and sew and staple and glue from making costumes over the years.  And it has all come together to make this stuff that we are selling at Twig.  I have even become somewhat of a lamp person--with a lot of help.  I have learned a lot from Mickey, our "lamp guy" and from David, who successfully fixed an old switch on a very cool lamp. 

I watched a movie about Charles Eames on Netflix, which is where I got the quote, "Eventually, everything connects."  That's exactly what I have been realizing lately.  You just keep trying things, learning things, making things, and after about 50 or so years it ALL CONNECTS.  Too bad it has to take so long, and maybe for other people they will get there quicker.

I was also going to write about how you have to persevere when it seems like a lot of things are dragging you down, but meh, maybe another day.



New Sewing Machine

It seems like whenever I sew something it's always something really thick and heavy duty, like fur, suits, bags, belts, hats, etc.  I was constantly breaking needles and just wrestling with the machine to get it to go.

So, I google around to find out what kind of machine would go through heavy fabric, and I kept reading about the Pfaff 130, which is a 50+ year old machine.  Perfect!  I don't care about fancy stitches or anything. I just want to go straight, zig-zag, but most importantly go through THICK fabric.  The Pfaff 130 uses a large needle and has a 1.3 amp motor.

I got this one off of Ebay, and had it cleaned at AAA Sewing and Vacuum.  After a few glitches, like trying to figure out how to thread it, and adjust the tension it took off like a champ.  Almost too fast.  This machine flies.  And it purrs like a kitten at the same time.  Then it stopped!  It just stopped in the middle of a jacket I was sewing.  (I'm making a double breasted jacket look like an Austrian jacket for Sound of Music.)  I took the machine back to AAA, and apparently the way to fix a machine like this is you put it in the car, drive 10-15 miles, take it out of the car to show the sewing machine guy--and then it magically works again.)

Here's the machine

And the jacket

Also, David and I fixed up these two chairs for the store.  They both are covered with mid-century fabric that I happened to have, and I think they look great.

Finally, here is Barbara and Russell's golf cart that we borrowed and decorated for the Patriot's Day parade.  Kinda cute.

Here's the machine:

February is for building and reflecting

This month we have made some big progress and lots of changes at the store.  It's taken this long (2 months) to build inventory and rearrange the store to the point where it feels like a real store.  We have had a lot of people comment that they really like the feel of it.  We're adding new things every day: vintage belts and buckles, beautiful hand blown glass, hand woven tablecloths and napkins, screen printed cards, fun t-shirts, vintage items such as pictures, dishes, and...coming soon...some mid century chairs that David and I have restored to their former glory.

Here's the front of the store right now.  It changes constantly, thanks to Barbara Pierce, who is amazing at merchandising and arranging.

Here are some of our new things...

We're shooting for Thursday

It looks like Thursday is a realistic day to open.  Johanna and Martha bossed me around all day to get the place organized and ready.  It's looking pretty good.

We also had tons of help from Mike, David, Kathy, Irene (Nicola's mom), Laurie, Tiana and Torii.  Thanks to all for folding t-shirts, tagging things, painting, nailing, moving, assembling, dis-assembling, photoshopping, etc etc.

Also, thanks to Genny and Mandy and Johanna for this awesome ad:

Almost there.

We're getting really close to having the construction done, and I am getting a little nervous.

What was I thinking?

The house is over-flowing with merchandise.  I sure hope people still have a lot more Christmas shopping to do, because we have gifts.  And cards. And Christmas ornaments. And fun books. And jewelry. And a boatload of very cool t-shirts.  All we have to do is tag 'em, carry everything over, set it all up, open the doors, and see who walks in.

What could possibly go wrong.

I just started a Facebook page, and I am working on the website.

Here's what it looks like inside:

And here are some earlier stages of constuction:



Costumes

I have been sewing costumes for the high school plays since my daughter was a freshman 8 years ago.  It's so much fun.  I get to make really big sparkly over-the-top things and people want them and go ooh aah and I get to see them on stage.  That's the good part.  The bad part is looking for the right pair of shoes at the Goodwill for someone, or making ten indentical tunics, and even that's not so bad.

I also got hooked up with No Square Theater - Lagunatics, which is a local theater group that does a summer show and a spoof about Laguna Beach in the fall.  I did Rocky Horror Picture Show for them, and a bunch of other things that involved goat costumes, aliens, nude statues, elephants, a rhinocerous, etc.

Turns out my husband David is REALLY GOOD at making props, too.  He made a magic mirror for Beauty and the Beast, a dead deer for A Lie of the Mind, and now he is working on a magic cane.

Here's a club he made out of a stick and foam. It's going to be used by Jack in the Beanstock to kill the giant.

And here's a dress that Cinderella will wear to the ball.  I added the sleeves and blinged it up.  This dress started out being a quincanera dress that someone donated to the high school, and when our daughter's friend Genny saw it on the floor she said, "Hey, that's my old dress!  I sold it to someone at a garage sale."  I guess this is a really small town.

Also, the witch's dress.  It started out white, I dyed it blue and added a bunch of bling.

Last but not least, I made this "Beatrice hat" (from the royal wedding) for a guy to wear in the drag number in Lagunatics.  When he came out on stage the first time wearing it, I heard someone in the audience whisper, "Beatrice" so at least someone got it.