My New, Old Sweater

Today I was going through items in my closet that I don't wear anymore.  I have a huge bag of things to donate.  There was one sweater though that I didn't necessarily want to get rid of, but I never wear it.  I decided to make a few changes to it this morning so that it's wearable for me.

I got this sweater near the end of 2006 at a Betsey Johnson sample sale while I was an intern on the design team there.  I was actually given a lot of items for free because I helped out with the sale.  A few of them were not necessarily my style to begin with (although most were amazing).  I believe I wore this sweater twice in the last four years.  There were just a few things about it that were not "me" so I didn't feel comfortable wearing it.

The gathering at the neckline was pretty, but I didn't like the satin drawcord or the buttons covered in the same fabric. A few of the buttons had fallen off anyway.  It was a sample so they were not stitched on very well to begin with.  The neckline and sleeves were finished with a knit rick rack that had tiny sequins stitched into it.  I pretty much just don't wear sequins.  I don't love the color either as I hardly wear pink so I thought if it wasn't so monochrome I might enjoy it more.

I started out by cutting off the rick rack and the sequins.  It was perfect actually as it was originally constructed as a finished rib and the rick rack was stitched on around the edge with a blanket stitch.  All I had to do was cut off the rick rack and pull out the blanket stitch.  I didn't have to finish anything or mend the rib edges.

I've seen a few sweaters recently that had mismatched buttons and I really loved the idea so I decided to try that concept out here.  It also was the best solution for me as I didn't have a set of 12 matching buttons.

The most time consuming task was sewing a new drawcord.  I used a cotton material with a light floral pattern.  Drawcords are easy to make, but they take time because it involves a lot of tiny folds, ironing, and a careful steady hand to sew a straight line on the edge.

The changes were simple and pretty quick, but overall they made a big difference.  I'm excited to wear my new, old sweater!
-Kira

There is a cow on my wall

This weekend I finally did the craft project involving my little Value Village cow friend.  Here is how it turned out...

My plan was to just spray paint him and be done with it. The original surface was really glossy so I sanded it beforehand, but I still couldn't get the paint to stick well in certain areas.  It chipped off really easily so I knew I needed to try something different.  I sanded over the paint so that only the areas that were sticking well stayed.  Then I cut out small pieces of scrap fabric and lace and decoupaged them on my cow.  I made sure to cover the areas where the paint didn't stick well during my process.  I think it turned out even crazier than I imagined, but I like it that way.

I also put artwork on the walls in my studio (finally), cleaned the room, and organized my mess.  I will show you photos of the room later this week!

-Kira

P.S. This project is posted on the Project ReStyle flickr group.  There are a lot of interesting projects documented there.  You should check it out!

Paper Crowns

 This weekend Jeremy and I attended a Twelfth Night themed party.  We were supposed to wear a crown and were encouraged to make our own.  I decided to go with subtle paper crowns as I had no idea how into it people would get. 
I started off by measuring our heads.  Apparently my head is larger.  Then I drew the crown shapes in Illustrator, printed them on card stock, and glued the ends together.  It was a very simple process.
Jeremy asked that his not look "girly" so I made him a very basic crown with just one center point.  We added Blazers logos because he is such a big fan and the colors matched what he was going to wear.

 It's really quite hard to take a photo of the back of your head.

I wore this clip in my hair and I had a bunch of blue fabric left so I figured why not make a crown that matched?  I pinned the fabric up on the wall and took the below photo of it.

I didn't even iron it.  You can actually see the wrinkles in the crown.  It was a quick project so I decided not to care.

I filled the crown form outline in Illustrator with the polka dot print from my photo.  Then I printed it out and assembled the crown.  It seemed a bit too plain for me so I stitched a cluster of buttons on the side.  I backed it with felt so there was structure behind the paper to stitch through.  It was a simple, quick, and fun project.

I was loving our crowns until we arrived at the party and realized that most people went completely over the top with theirs.  There was a lot of gold spray paint and glitter involved in many of the creations.  A lot of people tried to make the tallest crowns they possibly could.  Some even had crowns lit up with LEDs.  I wish I had photos to show you.  There were so many impressive creations at that party.  Maybe next time we won't be so tentative. 
-Kira

My first finished knitting project

My friend Karen and I took a knitting class back in November.  Since then I have started a few projects, decided I didn't like them, and quit.  I finally actually finished one.  Usually I only wear knit accessories that my co-workers and I design.  We do not have any knit cowls currently in our line though and I really wanted one. So I decided to make one. 

 For a first finished project it turned out well.  It is actually something I will wear and that is better than probably my first ten sewing projects.  It is also a perfect first project because you just knit a rectangle and there is only one seam.  I'm not sure what my next project will be, but I would like to figure out how to knit something other than a rectangle.  I would also like to know more than a basic stitch.  There is a lot left to learn.
-Kira

Christmas gift wrap

 I like pretty, simple things.  I also like funny things.  Those two combined make our gift wrap for the season.  Two years ago I made our gift tags by taking an image of Will Ferrell in "Elf" and replacing his face with Jeremy's.  See Jeremy as Buddy the Elf here.  This year I decided to go with a similar concept, but I picked an image of Ralphie in "A Christmas Story".  I personally think it's hilarious.  If you don't get our humor then that's just too dang bad!

Jeremy drew an elephant on his white elephant gift.  I thought it was a pretty cute elephant.

 Oh, and before I forget...Merry Christmas!  We did pretty much all of our family celebrations yesterday.

-Kira

DIY Christmas Gift #2 - personalized mugs

Hi friends,
I'm excited to show you my second homemade Christmas gift of the season.  Click here if you missed the first!  I was excited to hear that with my first crafty gift post I actually had friends who created jewelry/dessert stands as a result of my post.  I'm glad to hear it was useful!

This second gift I gave to some of my friends at work.  The idea was not my own.  I found the tutorial on the Design Mom blog.  It was very easy to follow and I only deterred from the directions a little bit based off of my available supplies.

My first step was buying mugs.  I think going to Goodwill or some other thrift shop would be a great idea for this project.  I found these cute mugs in the $1 section at Michael's.  I really liked the graphics that were on them already.  I planned to just fill them with candy and give them as gifts as is until I saw how cute, easy, and cheap it would be to monogram them.

 

 Then I purchased my pen also at Michael's on a different day.  I would suggest buying the mugs and the pen at the same time, but when I bought the mugs the project wasn't on my radar yet.  They were out of the Black Pebeo Porcelaine pen that Gabrielle used so I purchased the Black Pebeo Vitrea 160 pen.  I'm not really sure what the difference is between the two besides the baking instructions are slightly different.  Just follow the directions on the pen!
I also didn't have transfer paper to trace my letter on the mug, but I did have a bunch of charcoal sticks in my art supply box so I just rubbed one on a piece of paper and used that as a transfer.  It worked like a charm.

The pen tip is about the size of a sharpie, but it's much more brush-like so it would be very difficult to get tiny detail.  Also the rounded mug surface (and the handle in the way because I am a lefty) made it really hard to draw my lines straight so I decided to embrace it and make them look more "hand done."  If you are a stickler for straight lines I would suggest using a stencil or outlining the letter with tape first.

Once you are done drawing let them sit for 24 hours and follow the baking instructions.  After I took them out I cleaned them off and filled them with bags of candy.  This is the final product:

I had a lot of fun making these and I think they turned out great.  Next time it would be fun to try it on mugs with a subtle print in the background.  They would be great party favors!
DIY Christmas gift #3 will be posted in a few days.
-Kira

**I have been getting a lot of hits on my DIY Christmas gift posts.  If this post helped you please comment and let me know!  

DIY Christmas Gift #1 - accessories display

I have been working on a number of homemade Christmas gifts this season.  Some of them are turning out really great, but I can't post them until after I give the gifts.  I don't want to ruin the surprise! In this case I already ruined the surprise (it's hard to keep secrets from my twin sister even about her own gifts) so I figured I may as well post it!
My sister and her friend Nicole have a business making cute hair accessories for little girls.  They often sell at craft fairs so I thought I could make displays for their clips as a fun practical gift.  Becca, Lauren, and I were sharing craft project ideas and Lauren told me about a way to make a cake stand out of plates and glasses.  This seemed like the perfect concept with a little bit of modification to work as clip holders.

Basically I just went to Value Village and Goodwill and found plates, bowls, and glasses that I liked.  Then I picked up epoxy at Michael's.  I washed and dried all of the dishes and decided the layout that I wanted.  After that I very simply applied the epoxy to the glasses and stuck them to the plates.  Then I put books on top while they dried.  So simple!
I think they will make a fun and dynamic display.  Have you been working on any crafty gifts this season?
-Kira

**I have been getting a lot of hits on my DIY Christmas gift posts.  If this post helped you please comment and let me know!   

Decoupage, and a little bit of sports talk...

One of the Christmas projects I am working on involves using the decoupage technique.  I haven't done it since I was a kid so I thought before working on gifts there should be a practice run.  I bought two little white ceramic bowls at Goodwill and used scrap fabric.  One thing I would change for the next round is to use lighter or brighter colors, but it worked and nothing is falling apart so it was a success!  I will probably use them to hold spools of thread.  My sewing stuff is pretty disorganized.

Now a message to the Trail Blazers...
You are breaking my heart right now.  Six losses in a row?  What the h-e-double hockey sticks is going on with you guys?  Let's come together as a team, play defense, and make some shots.  It seems so simple especially for a team with as much talent as you have. If there is any positive from tonight it is that we at least have Joel Przybilla back.  Ok...seriously, pull it together.
And a message to the Oregon State Beavers...
BEAT THE DUCKS! If you don't win I will live, but seriously wouldn't it be cool if you won?  It would.

Have a great weekend!
-Kira

Almost ready for Christmas

Our tree is almost finished.  All I have left is to find a tree topper.  I'm not sure what I want to get though.  Most people I knew as a kid had an angel.  We had a teddy bear holding balloons.  I don't think I want either of those.

I also made a little orange wreath.  It was inspired by the large green wreath Lauren made.  It was so cute and easy I decided to make one for myself.

The last thing we need is stockings to put over the fireplace.  I want chunky cable knit stockings.  Hopefully I can find them.  If you have ideas on where to look that would be great.  So far I have had no luck.
Christmas spirit is pretty fun!
-Kira

Being productive this evening

 Hi friends, so you know how I started an etsy site just over a month ago?  I pretty much stopped working on it the moment I started, but I updated it tonight!  There are lots of new items in the shop and I have much better photos this time around.

  Thank you to my lovely friend Melissa who let me borrow her daughter and her camera this afternoon.  Also, thanks to my beautiful model Claire! xo

Now I just need someone to buy a headband.

 -Kira

A Christmas post...already...

This weekend I learned something new.
My friend Becca invited me to come along to a Christmas crafting event at Anthropologie in the Pearl District on Sunday.  Basically, they invite you to help work on the decorations for their holiday displays.  At that event I learned how to finger crochet.  I had never heard of it before.  It's more of a knit stitch than a crochet and apparently it's taught to children as an introduction to knitting.  It's really easy to pick up and is extremely quick.  The only limitation is the width is four rows so the result is a narrow chain.
I could try to give you a tutorial, but let's be honest, a tutorial by me would be useless.  I have no idea how I would accurately explain it and I would make is sound way more complicated than it is.  This is the easiest to understand tutorial I found on the internet with photos of every step.

These are some of the chains I have made so far.  I plan to stitch them together and make a long multi-colored garland for my Christmas tree.  Yes, I plan to get a Christmas tree.  First time ever in my adult life.  I am definitely more excited than Jeremy is about it, but he seems willing enough to go along with the idea.
I may make a few garlands and put a couple up on etsy.  I seem to get a lot done when I'm watching a Blazers game as horrendous as the one against the Lakers Sunday night.  If they play more of those I will have more knit chains than I know what to do with.  For the sake of my team and my sanity I hope that is not the case.  Anyway, more Christmas decoration updates to come.  I plan to make a bunch of things.
I'm off to Seattle tomorrow morning for a work trip.  I have to get up at 4am, yikes!
-Kira

Halloween Night

Last night was so much fun! I really enjoyed decorating for Halloween.  This was my first year attempting it.  We had around 60-70 trick-or-treaters of all different ages.  Some of the little ones were afraid of all of the spiders I had hanging from the top of the entryway and a few of the teenagers were freaked out by the shadow of my dress form in the window.  Parents and children alike were appreciative of the decorations.  It was definitely a success! 

I couldn't get a single photo to do the decorations justice.  I tried taking pictures during the day and in the dark.  All of the spiders were too small to be visible in the photos.  They were certainly the coolest part.  I wish I could show them to you.  Here are a few photos:

 You can see a few spiders in this one.  They were hanging everywhere!

 Our little family of mice.

 The green glow.

I hope your Halloween was as fun as ours!
-Kira

P.S. If you're interested this is a link to all of my posts dedicated to decorating for Halloween this year.

Awesome things from today

Today a few great things happened.
1. I had a surprise visit at work today by my friend Emily and her family.  I got to meet her sweet little baby Audrey for the first time. 
2. Our boots arrived in the mail!
3. I got so much done after work today including laundry, got started on the Halloween decorations, created a business card design for my sister, and the big one...
4. I finally set up my etsy account!  I shared with you back in May that I was going to do this so it has been a long time coming.  Take a look and tell me what you think.  I am totally open to feedback on how to improve.  I tried so hard to get decent photos, but without a nice camera it took a lot of work.  Soon I will make a button for the blog so you can easily get to my etsy site from here.  The above image is my etsy banner. I took the background photo with my HTC Droid Incredible (it is better than my point and shoot camera).

And, check out how cute my pregnant friend Melissa is.  She is 21 weeks along and has the dressing for pregnancy thing figured out.  She always looks so beautiful and put together.  Whenever we decide to have kids I hope I can look like that.
I hope you had a fun and productive Monday as well!
-Kira

A Girly Evening

Tonight Jeremy had his friend Tyler over to play old school Nintendo video games.  I headed into the sewing room.  I listened to Damien Rice, watched past episodes of Glee on Hulu and worked on a new project.  I am working on headbands for the Girl's Night Out Event which is in Bremerton, WA (near Seattle) and is a fundraiser for cancer research.  I was inspired by all of the bright pink I saw while doing the Race for the Cure over the weekend.  There was pink everywhere!  It is so inspiring to see all of the cancer survivors out there in their pink shirts during the event.  I don't generally make or wear pink things, but it was a lot of fun working on this project.

 Thank you to my sister Kara for thinking of involving me in this event even if I'm too far away to actually attend.  I hope it goes great!
 Oh, and to get back to the video games for a second, Jeremy couldn't be more excited about the new version of NBA Jam coming out.  To be perfectly honest, I'm pretty excited too.  I think we might have a little party after we buy it.  Let me know if you want to come play!
-Kira

This Rainy Weekend

A while back there was a baby boom in my circle of friends.  The first of those babies are now celebrating first birthdays! A couple of weekends ago we went to celebrate cutie Bennett turning one.  He is such a doll!  On Saturday we went to see little Lucy's first birthday.  I make it a rule to not post pictures of other people's kids on my blog because that is kind of weird, but I assure you she is adorable.  Her hair is finally long enough for pigtails and as a part of her gift I made this little clip for her hair.  It turned out pretty cute.  I think I will make some for a few upcoming craft fairs that I will be selling headbands at.

Today I ran the Race for the Cure.  I planned to do it with friends, but it fell through because of travel, sickness, and me getting there kind of late so I didn't have time to find people. So, I ran alone.  It's hard to feel lonely though when you are involved in an event with thousands of people and you have cheerleaders all along the race doing cheers and giving you high fives.  It was fun and it didn't rain during the run which was really nice.  I'm pretty sure it rained the entire rest of the weekend.  Thank you to my husband for coming along, holding my stuff, and taking me out to breakfast afterward. 

 The thumbs up doesn't make me look like a dork at all.

P.S. the rule about kid photos does not apply to my niece Maleah.  I can at least somewhat claim her.  Have a lovely week!

-Kira

Finished Headbands

This week I finished off a batch of headbands. My friend Carrie was nice enough to take them up to Bremerton, WA for my sister to sell in her booth at the Blackberry Festival, September 4th-6th.  She and her friend Nicole make cute little clips and headbands for girls.  Here are some photos of the finished headbands I sent:

It's Hood to Coast weekend.  Jeremy's team just left our house after running their first legs of the relay.  I have been pretty busy with Hood to Coast prep this week and, as I am a volunteer for the team, I have a shift tonight from 11pm-3am at one of the exchanges.  Yikes.  I will write about the Hood to Coast experience soon.

Have a great weekend!
-Kira

Photos From the Weekend

This weekend has consisted of a lot of movie watching and relaxing which was much needed after the last couple of weeks.  We watched all six Star Wars movies and I worked on wrapping headbands to get them ready for embellishments.  Usually I wrap the metal and plastic headbands in a soft yarn which looks great and is really comfortable.  I also experimented with making fabric covers for the thicker plastic ones.  I think they look pretty nice.  Here are some pictures of my work in progress:

I had plans to do a lot more on Saturday, but I wasn't feeling great so not much ended up getting done.  I am feeling better today though.  Soon we will be going over to Jeremy's parents house for lunch then I plan to come home and clean the house and finally make that iced tea I've been craving.

Below are some photos from the lazy Saturday.  This is Syd trying to share Jeremy's pillow and Roxy laying under the coffee table.

Sometimes the weekends just go by too fast.

-Kira

Headbands

When I started this blog I had been making headbands and was planning to post them on etsy.  I hope you weren't waiting for that.  It hasn't happened for various reasons:

1.  I sold a good number of them and haven't had time to make more.  I would like to build up a good quantity of them so I can update etsy on a weekly basis with new product.
2. I haven't had time to update my etsy profile.
3. I want good pictures of the headbands from all angles on someone's head and I don't think me taking pictures of myself wearing them is professional and I don't think Jeremy really wants to get involved.
4. I have no idea how much to charge for the headbands or for shipping.

But, here are some photos of a few headbands I have done.  Hopefully someday I will get around to figuring out all of the things I would need to do above.  How much do you think I should charge?  At the craft fair I charged anywhere from $12-$24 based on materials and how complicated they were.  I made them all by hand so some of them are quite time consuming.

I hope you all had a great weekend!
-Kira