my partner wrote me a love letter and in the middle of it he switched into rick astley.  i laughed so hard i cried.  great idea!

I just pulled this out of my "to finish" pile and finished it up.  I'm kind of happy with it, but not really.


front


top detail


bottom detail

It kind of accentuates my love handles in the worst way ever.  I might try it with some leggings, see if that helps any.  Otherwise, I might take off the skirt part and just wear it as a top.

Once upon a time, I thought I'd convert some pants that were too big into a skirt, thinking I had nothing to lose.  They came out fine, but were still too big, so I let them sit around in my closet to waste away.  One day, I was struck with the idea that I wanted to stencil my favorite childhood tree onto something, and I was reminded of the long-forgotten skirt.  I wouldn't want to stencil something I can't wear, I thought.  So, I recycled the skirt yet again into a bag to carry to school.  I made it around August and only just got around to taking pictures.


The tree is supposed to be a type of Japanese maple (one reason I waited so long to post this, Japanese maples have been a trendy craft theme and I didn't want to impose any more on the board!)  The embroidery says "I can't imagine real flowers," from the e.e. cummings poem "in a middle of a room."  The bag's lopsided in this picture because a very large notebook is currently residing inside.


I misjudged the amount of space I needed at the bottom of skirt when I was embroidering it, so the word "flowers" is really on the bottom of the bag. Oh well. 


A closeup of the tree stencil.  When I ironed the fabric paint, it made the denim around it a little dingy.  Anyone ever have a similar problem with Jaquard?  It seems to be awful every time I use it.  You can't tell in real life at all, though, especially with the sequins obscuring it.  The camera just decided to be unflattering.


Pencil holding pocket.  I never got around to washing the pen marks off from where I marked to sew.  Again, oh well!


The lining.  I think you can make out a coffee stain.


Action shot!

I should have taken pictures when I first made it, but it's been so full of stuff that I never wanted to empty it.  Sorry it's dingy!  It's gotten plenty of love this semester.  I love it a lot!  There's even a secret pocket in the lining because I didn't sew up the zipper.

Thanks for looking!  Comments appreciated!

I don't even know if she comes here a lot, but Tague, if you're reading this, you're a big poopy face unless you've already received.  Sorry about the picture quality.  My digital camera is at least five years old.




I made this whole series of fabric buttons and decided just to give the ones with couples, the tiger-bear-thing and the duck.  I don't know what she's even going to do with THAT many similar looking buttons, but I hope she loves them because I think they're precious.




More fabric covered buttons.




A button shaped like Illinois and the obligatory smiling fruit.  (In retrospect, I should have taken a better picture of the IL. Shucks.)




Some hair bows and a flower hair clip.  They don't look that weird really.  It's just the hair clip making them lean.




A necklace made from a pretty obsolete mini recorder tape and a heart button.


Finally, the envelope.  It's just two pieces of card stock sewn together:

Front:


Back:



Thanks for looking!  Comments welcome (duh.)  I'm really excited for her to get it! (:

you should do the eyeball slicing scene next.  very nice!

if you're super concerned about leaks, you can at least make a giant super long one and secure it on even better with safety pins.  you can also line the bottom of the pad with vinyl or another waterproof material.

those are super cute!  how well do the circular ones fit?  I usually make mine more like a rounded diamond shape.

somebody mentioned a belt, which wouldn't be a bad idea.  i'm about your same shape, but a teenager, so i'm familiar with shirts that style.  i found one that was too cute and on sale to refuse, and what i did was just get a long strip of fabric to use as a tie/belt and tied it in a bow right beneath my breasts so it makes the same shape as a high empire waist.  you can even sew little loops on the sides of the dress to hold the tie in place.

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are you KIDDING me?  I just had this idea seriously yesterday.  I haven't seen anyone with it before!  It looks totally awesome, I might still do it.

[I'm working on a vegan formula now.]

You have to work really fast because the beeswax starts to cool down and then you can't pour in the containers. Every recipe is different, on mine I use cocoa butter, beeswax, rosemary, lime and tea tree oils, baking soda and whatever scent I want to scent it with. I'm working on a vegan formula now. Hope it will work out.

That is amazing!  I'd be so interested in buying some from you.

Unfortunately, I mentioned that it was vegan, so my parents were nervous about eating it (so ridiculous). Well, more for me! I had it for breakfast.

I'm vegan, and I get that from so many people whenever I bake.  I usually don't tell them it's vegan until AFTER they've already had some, so there's no prejudices involved.

Your table / family is gorgeous!  Your son looks completely enthralled, too.