a p p a r e n t l y

Growing up in the 70s, Free to Be You and Me had a permanent position in the five-disc record changer. I wanted to run like Atalanta and know why Ladies First is not always such a grand idea. I never knew Rosey Grier as a football player; I knew him as the deeply-voiced man who sang that it’s all right to cry.

I can’t see a little boy carrying a doll without singing in my head, “When my friend William was five years old…”

My own son, who is nearly four, is currently into all things on wheels, with a particular love for the movie Cars. But he’s open to new ideas, and so when a group of friends suggested a craft-along in which we each make some sort of doll or softie, I joined in with some reserve. I’d exercise my crafty skills, and hopefully Apparently Jr would discover my latest project with great enthusiasm.

I was wrong. The eventual conversation went like this:

Apparently Jr: What are you making?
me: It’s a doll. I’m not sure yet if it will be a boy or a girl.

(pause)

Apparently Jr: I don’t want it.

And that was that. No amount of gentle suggestion or funky attire has changed his mind, and so the doll remains mine until such time as I give it away or put it up for sale in my Etsy shop. I’ve come to think of him as Seymour, but he clearly needs a hipper moniker.

Mr. Apparently upgraded the memory in my MacBook, so the reduced workflow to transfer photos off my camera and onto the web means the posts should now happen more quickly.

October, of course, meant Halloween. Apparently Jr. was fairly adamant that he “just wanted to be me,” and no amount of gentle persuasion could change his mind. He was pretending to be an owl when I floated the idea of an owl costume, and once the enthusiasm spanned a week I felt sufficiently confident to start sewing. Inspired by Asher’s hat and Alphamom’s tutorial, I marched off to Old Navy and bought a pair of brown fleece pants and a brown tunic. A stash of upholstery remnants yielded the perfect material for “feathers,” and Mr. Apparently’s old brown sweater, long ago felted for future crafty purposes and in storage under the bed, became a simple hat with felt appliques. While I wanted to create the pupils from black felt, Apparently Jr insisted that large black buttons be found, and eventually I came across the perfect pair at the Woodstock Flea Market. And so, my little owl:

The brilliant woman behind Meatloaf Creations is an actor and also married to a photographer, which means they go all out with brilliant concept Halloween costumes. This year they recreated the Super Mario Bros. video game, with the kids as…oh hell, I have no idea who all the characters are, but they looked fantastic! And the baby of the extended family was Toad, who required a puffy white hat with red spots. I found a baby beret pattern that fit the bill and added felt circles:

photo by Joe Orecchio

And for a young lady in the neighborhood who was to receive a fairy-princess costume, her very own fairy-princess wand:

I’m starting to get into embroidery, or at least I’d like to be better at it when called upon to do so.

I actually spent most of this week working on a crescent-shaped shawl (Ravelry link) that I knit much of while we were on vacation, but right now it’s in a big messy heap waiting to be blocked, so no pretty visuals. I’m also finishing up a warm wool hat that I started last winter, as I need the needles for a custom knit hat for a sweet little boy in the neighborhood. In true shoemaker’s-children-go-barefoot fashion, my own son’s new winter hat will have to wait until the others are complete. But don’t feel badly for him; he has plenty of mommy-made hats.

In fact, here’s a sneak peek at part of his Halloween costume:

On Thursday, a lovely friend contacted me about making some felt food for her nephew’s upcoming birthday. I love making felt food, but in a cruel twist of parenting, my son isn’t very interested in it. So I particularly enjoy custom orders of felt delicacies. Here’s what I packaged up for the little man this afternoon:

My favorite part is that the friend in question is one of the owners of Two Smart Cookies, a charming cookie shop in St. Paul, MN. So although she didn’t request cookies, how could I not whip up a little box with her logo on it?

Seriously, if you are in the Twin Cities (my former home), please stop by the cookie shop and have several for me!

Robyn Love's Message to the Universe

Please don’t expect this to be a thorough recap of the World Maker Faire NYC experience, because it would be absolutely impossible to have seen the whole thing in 4.5 hours with a toddler. But what we did see was spectacular, and even the kid – perhaps I should say, especially the kid – had a blast. Some top-of-mind thoughts:

We went on the first day, right when it opened at 10am. I’d recommend this for most large scale events, particularly those populated by enthusiasts and semi-professionals, as everyone’s spirits are high on Day One. The sun wasn’t too strong yet and all the vendors and makers we visited were excited and high-energy. We headed first to the craft pavilions, taking a quick look at some of the vendor booths in the BUST Craftacular…but I’ll confess that I wasn’t too excited about looking at more handmade soap and silkscreened tees. You know how I feel about silkscreened tees.

The craft activities, on the other hand, were not busy yet and loads of fun. The kid and I made a bottlecap ring by fitting a spider button and some sparkly beads into a pre-assembled blank and covering the whole thing with ModPodge Dimensional Magic. AND, they gave me a little bottle of ModPodge to take with me. Yay for sponsors.

Lion Brand Yarn, Red Heart Yarns and a knitters guild (I missed the name, sorry) offered yarn and needles to anyone willing to sit down for a lesson. The knitters guild even had lovely rosewood needles from Lantern Moon, which was delightfully generous. Lots of people were learning to knit! And crochet. And cross-stitch.

Xyron encouraged people to decorate picture frames with stickers and even gave me a Magic Sticker Maker, which is a neat little device that makes stickers out of any flat paper shape, but googling reveals it to be a discontinued product. So I’m not going to get too attached to it. Did I mention it’s totally cool? We have 19 feet of stickability remaining…

Martha Stewart Living’s area encouraged you to cut out and attach to a stick one of the giant orange butterflies featured in the October issue. The big monarch butterflies people carried all around the fair lent additional color and whimsy to the day.

So yes, the craft pavilions were well worth a visit. Everyone was so friendly and generous, including my favorite BurdaStyle booth, who offered one-on-one instruction to make a drawstring bag on a sewing machine. I didn’t have time to do this, but they sent me home with fabric and ribbon to make my own. Thanks as always, BurdaStyle! (And thanks also to Lion Brand for the huge tote bag into which I put all this crafty stuff.)

As we left the craft areas, we ran to the Clif Kid folks, who encouraged my little one to decorate a recycled-cardboard hat with all manner of googly eyes, stick-on letters and pom-pom aliens. This was a perfect activity for kids, and they of course sent us away with samples of their new chocolate chip organic Zbar, which turns out to be pretty tasty for a packaged snack. Score another one for marketing/branding goodwill ambassadors!

Also of note was fiber artist Robyn Love’s Send a Message to the Universe, in which she yarnbombed a rocket with squares knitted and crocheted by over 100 different people. Including me and several knitters in our neighborhood. And now that the Faire is over, the piece and extra squares have gone to Lion Brand, who donated the yarn, to be made into blankets for Warm Up America. Lovely.

Oops, this was not meant to be entirely a craft recap. But I do commend the staff behind the now-online-only CRAFT Magazine for making the most of its second-tier status next to the robot enthusiasts, arduino programmers and fire-breathing-bicycle operators. Next post, the MAKE portion of Maker Faire…

Earlier this summer I discovered the lovely website of online fabric shop Hawthorne Threads. The site itself is so far superior to most fabric shop web sites that I started using it as a reference, and I’d find myself there whever browsing for fabric. The shop’s owners are located in upstate NY, but the shop itself is online only.

I signed up for their email newsletter, which they send weekly to announce new fabrics in stock. They also have a weekly giveaway and the occasional Facebook-only contest. I entered one of these and surprise – I won six fat quarters of the (then) highly-anticipated Far Far Away II by Heather Ross. A package arrived two days later, and I’ve been pondering for two months what exactly to do with it.

The felt case for my double-pointed needles has been looking a bit the worse for wear, and so I improvised a quick needle case with two of the pieces. In fact, I even made a travel case on the fly, since my needle case was turning out wider than I needed. I’m considering recovering my small ironing board with two more. That leaves two…what to make? (Do you have a favorite sewing project that uses fat quarters or small pieces? Tell me in the comments!)

Thanks to Charlie and Lindsay at Hawthorne Threads for a most excellent prize. Any guesses as to which shop will receive my next big fabric order?

I’m behind on sharing my crafty output, as I’m slightly frustrated with my photos lately…

Two weeks ago we visited friends at their country house upstate. This upholstery fabric just kept saying “table runner,” and something about “country house” insisted “table runner” as well, and so I made this lovely table runner with matching coasters. It’s about 4 feet long and the panels to the left are all blues.

Another custom order of two pincushions became three because that’s what you do when your mother likes your stuff. (In general, I tend to include little presents in with my orders.) I’ve started packaging them in handmade origami boxes and plan to update my Etsy listings with photos of the boxed pincushions. I still love this design and would make nothing else…except they aren’t selling. That’s okay – I will use them!

Also completed: one green striped cotton knit hat, one mustard and teal striped wool knit hat, six tassels and a bunch of quick capes for preschool. As fall approaches, I’m starting to knit again. Can’t wait to finish a pair of gloves (Ravelry link) – for me!

I had a respite from hats for a week or so, but several custom orders have come in this week and so it’s back to hats! (It’s fine; I love creating them.) The patchwork bucket to the left is for a little boy in my neighborhood. I didn’t meet him until I placed the finished hat on his head, and luckily it fit perfectly and looked cute!

A friend who loves bunnies made a comment on Facebook that I should make hats in a bunny toile print, and as I just happened to be visiting her last weekend, did I show up with one? Of course I did. (This was the mystery fabric acquired during my trip to Vermont.) I used Lotta Jansdotter’s hat pattern, which I should have remembered caused great problems the last time I sewed it; the crown ends up being far too high for the hat, which perches on top of the head like a lampshade anyway. So I trimmed it down a few (that’s right, a few) inches and it turned out quite cute! The lining is a dark brown with tiny cream polka dots. If you look at them very closely (in person, not in the picture – I would be very impressed if you could see them in this photo) you can see that the dots are actually tiny diamonds. I find them charming.

This morning I finished an Amy Butler Blue Sky hat for myself in Patty Young’s Luna Moth fabric. I trimmed the brim down by about 1.5″ so it wouldn’t be quite so sail-esque as the one I made last summer. I can’t wear that one, the prettiest hat I’ve ever made (Kokka cherry blossoms), because the wind lifts it from my head and blows it away! So I’ve lengthened the crown to make this one fit more snugly and shortened the brim. It does feel a tiny bit “wicked witch of the west,” but I always wanted to be her when I was a kid, so I’m okay with this look. Update: It’s just not working on me, so I’ve listed it in my Etsy shop!

After days of fiddling with the pattern, today I started a wide brim hat in Anna Griffin’s Isabelle Baroque Medal (the same fabric as this pincushion) for a lovely woman in the neighborhood, and tonight I cut the pieces for a patchwork hat for one of our friends “on the computer,” which will include bits of the Luna Moth because I just love it too much not to share every last piece.

Strangely, the selvedge of the Isabelle Baroque Medal fabric claims it is Le Poulet, which it is most definitely not. Have you ever seen a mismarked selvedge?

More pictures to follow…

My crafty little enterprise has gotten some attention online this week! First I was invited to participate in a curated collection of beach-themed items at Indie Artisans, where you’ll find some lovely paintings, clothes, jewelry and other handmade goods including my first hat for ladies.

And then I just received a note from Mary from LEFTZ, who let me know that my first pincushion-in-a-St-Marcellin-pot is featured in her Whimsical Wednesday: The Art of Sewing collection. I’m delighted to be in such good company, thank you!

UPDATE: Laura from CurryKayDesigns has featured my Blue Vines hat in a treasury of cool blue summer items. It’s a good week for Etsy!

A large number of views on my patchwork toddler hat lead me to gnaana, reflections on raising multicultural children. They have some lovely things, too – check them out!

Mr. Apparently and I went on a lovely trip to Vermont, where we stayed at the incomparable Windham Hill Inn and drove all over the southern part of the state in search of the unique, the antique and oh yes, fabric and yarn. Armed with his trusty iPad, we were able to search out local yarn stores on the fly (or rather, in the rental car) and even found two incredible houses-converted-to-stores filled to their attics with fabric.

Not until this trip have I observed firsthand the great divide between quilters and modern sewists. Each of these shops was stocked with hundreds, if not thousands of cotton fabrics, on bolts and in neatly tied bundles of half-yards, fat quarters, charm packs and jelly rolls. (If these terms mean nothing to you, scroll down for a glossary.) Yet almost nowhere in these shops were the modern cotton fabrics I have come to know and love. Let’s not even get into designers (often the dividing line between modern and traditional); the patterns and colors alone displayed a serious commitment to traditional American quilting. I am coming to terms with the sad truth that unless one lives in a teeming metropolis or is a dedicated internet shopper, it’s not easy to find fabrics that appeal to a modern sensibility. Thank [your chosen deity] for the internet. And that I live in NYC with a high-speed web connection.

Don’t worry. I managed to support the local economy nonetheless. In the charming village of Wilmington, I spied a bolt of Valorie Well’s Sole in the attic of Norton House, and along with some argyle, various dots and a few lovely reproductions based on fabrics discovered at Old Sturbridge Village (the school field trip destination of my youth), easily passed some sort of secret “free piece of fudge with purchase” threshold.

At Country Treasures in Chester, I overheard two women telling a third that they had driven two and a half hours to reach the store and planned to stay all day.  This shop was even larger than Norton House, and yet I had a much more difficult time trying to make a purchase. I was stunned and impressed with the sheer quantity of fabrics, not to mention the enormous quilting machine in the attic, but the colors were just not my palette. It was obvious that the fabrics in the shop had been chosen by the same person; room after room and bundle after bundle presented a unified aesthetic that was just not the same as mine. Mr. Apparently left me to wander, and did I catch him making a purchase? Yes, I did. (Isn’t that sweet?) And did he choose a bundle of Sandy Gervais prints that I had already earmarked as a possibility? Of course he did.

I have a feeling that in the bedrooms and attics of Vermont, thousands of quilts are keeping people warm…or waiting to be found by the next generation.

(The careful observer might spy a little piece of “Cars” fabric in my stack of purchases. I couldn’t resist a little something that would make my son happy. One lovely fabric isn’t pictured, as I’m making a surprise for someone who may read this…could it be you?)

Glossary of Quilting Terms, for the Uninitiated:

A half-yard, is eactly that: a piece of fabric that is 18″ high and the entire width of the bolt.

A fat quarter is made by cutting a half yard in half again vertically to produce a rectangular piece that measures 18″ x 22″. (Many people prefer this to a piece that is 9″ high.)

Charm packs are stacks of fabric that have been laser-cut into 5″ squares. Layer cakes are stacks of 10″ squares.

And jelly rolls are bundles of 2.5″ x 44″ strips that are rolled up to look like their namesake.

One can also find honey buns, dessert rolls and turnovers. Isn’t this making you hungry? I’m going to have to find some cake.

first craft fair booth, 2008

This fifth and final post on the Renegade Craft Fair is two years in the making, and I’ve been letting it simmer while on vacation. (If you haven’t read parts 1-4, scroll down!) My overall summary as a fair-goer is simple this year: yay Renegade Craft Fair, go crafters, good stuff, lots of fun.  That’s the experience I’ve had two of the three times I’ve been there, and I probably would have enjoyed the second year considerably more if I weren’t a crafter myself. I was in search of unique handmade goods that showed talent and originality, and what I found in 2008 was booth after booth of silkscreening.

As an artisan/crafter/maker/sewist, however, the experience and the question it leaves me with is multifaceted: what works at a craft fair (and in the larger world of selling handmade goods), and is that how I want to spend the time I devote to making stuff?

Few would argue that if the goal is to make money, the answer must be “sell goods that are quick and easy to produce at an affordable price point.”

More pieces of the puzzle:

1. From the buyer’s perspective, items should be charming, clever, pretty and/or useful. In a craft fair situation, a reasonable price encourages impulse purchases. (In a shop, price may be less important…but I suspect that the same person willing to buy a $600 handmade wedding dress on Etsy isn’t going to pick one up at the craft fair.)
2. From the maker’s perspective, goods should be fast and relatively easy to produce.

And where do we net out on this for maximum profit?* Multiples. Not sewing, not knitting, not woodworking or needle felting or any of the many crafts that require a good deal of precision and time. But yes, our old friend silkscreening. Because once you’ve created your art and burned your screen, you can print shirts and totes until your squeegee hand falls off. People love t-shirts and onesies. They’re not expensive, and one can actually cover one’s labor as well as the material costs. And this is my theory as to why last year’s RCF was Silkscreen Central: people had figured this out.

See also: Many paper crafts. Digital collage sheets. …printing…multiples.

*Let’s leave out of the discussion for the moment that profit may not be the crafter’s primary motive. For the purposes of this discussion, let’s agree that while many, if not most, makers do so for the sheer love of creating, in a craft fair situation the goal is to sell as many goods as possible.

My particular situation: I love to sew and knit. I create more stuff than my family and I can possibly use/wear/gift. It’s delightful when people enjoy your stuff enough to purchase it, and the cash pays for more materials. My little Etsy shop putters along nicely and my local community has been generous with custom orders. I’m pretty happy with my level of involvement; what I put in and what I get out (both tangible and not) feel balanced.

But once a year I participate in a local craft fair, and then the rules seem to change. The goal shifts to “what can I make quickly and sell at a price where people will buy, so that the weeks spent preparing feel ultimately worthwhile?”

And unless I can find some love for silkscreening or some other printable, I’ve yet to find my answer.