{this moment}

One extraordinary moment from this week that I want to savor and remember.

What inspired you this week? Share your link in the comments.

Inspired by Amanda Blake Soule at soulemama.

while we're on the subject of recycled clothing books...

First discovered at the library, this book has some great ideas. It pushed my thoughts about sewing clothes in some different directions. Take two things and put them together to make one rather than getting rid of them and buying something new. I made many dresses, and continue to make more! The recycled T-shirt tunic is based on the same concept as the maternity tanks I was making a few years ago.

gnomes driving a tractor with handmade felt hay bales

This lovely tractor and trailer was a birthday gift from a dear friend. The gnomes were my birthday gift to little f, and one of the more intense needlefelting projects I've taken up yet. While the shredded paper from one of his gifts made great hay it was getting everywhere. When he opened the box with the shreds, he called out "hay" and didn't even notice there was another gift from another dear friend, it was quite hilarious.

At any rate, I pulled out some wool felt and got busy. For each bale, I cut out four rectangles, 2"x1" and two squares, 1"x1" and whip stitched them all together with a little stuffing. It went into my mending basket and into the bathroom so I could work on them while little f was in the tub.

The galvanized tub was outside, and in my attempt to reduce consumption in our house, I brought it in and scrubbed it out. Now we use less than half the amount of water in his bath each night. That means our pump runs less and we use less hot water. He likes it better b/c he gets a full tub! It does mark up our tub a bit, but it's starting to rust a bit anyway. A towel could go under it, but I haven't made that happen yet and a little baking soda takes off the marks pretty easily.

this moment - fishing at twilight brook

One extraordinary moment from this week that I want to savor and remember.

What inspired you this week? Share your link in the comments.

Inspired by Amanda Blake Soule at soulemama.

making toys out of all kinds of things...

"Meems, I need a trailer for my tractor."

Hmm. After thinking about it for a while I came up with this solution. A small wood crate from his little kitchen tied up with twill tape which was left over from something and hanging on the bulletin board. It works out great, b/c he can put all kinds of things into it and pull them all around. 

Since then, he has received a beautiful wood tractor with a trailer that swivels and everything, but he loves to play in his two tractor farm.  A pile of shredded paper from a gift is the "hay". I also made him some bales of hay out of felt, but we haven't tossed the paper shreds yet. Today might be the day, as it is all over the rug.

The shirt was revamped, with a big denim star cut from a old pair of jeans stitched over the "cutesy" motif on the front.

{this moment}

One extraordinary moment from this week that I want to savor and remember.
What inspired you this week? Share your link in the comments.
Inspired by Amanda Blake Soule at soulemama.

a fabulous new book about thrifting, recycling and sewing!

Once in a while you find a book or a person that is totally inspiring. That happened to me recently, when I discovered Jenny and Re-Sew, thanks to my crafty friend Kris over at Resweater who is hosting a giveaway for the book. Soulmates, I'm telling you! How incredible to know that rather than being odd, as I always imagined people thought, there are many more people who love the same things I do and they are all extraordinary! In honor of this realization and to help spread the word about this cool book, here's another giveaway, a tutorial this time. It's inspired by the concept of the book, and is for a sweet little zippered pouch. 

To enter, leave a comment here.
To enter again, become a follower (1st timers only on this round please).
For another entry, blog about it or share it on facebook.
For yet another entry, become a follower over at Jenny's blog, thewildcards.com
And finally, if you buy the book and comment here, you get five entries!

Comments will be open until next Friday, March 11 and will be announced on Saturday!


Everyone who responded will get a copy of the tutorial for the "zippy" pouch!

what I'm working on now...

You can see I have a little helper for this project! It's a wrap skirt that I have had for a while but not worn much. I modified the hemline, cutting off a bit and serging it more evenly. Then I decided it needed pockets. And it seemed fun to have one pocket that was somewhat hidden, in the same fabric as the skirt. The other pocket is a great screen printed fabric I got on etsy a while back.