Patchwork Underground

Here’s a fun little project I’ve been meaning to post for a while now.  I made these in several colors since the first ones I made in purple.  I had to edit out my face in this picture because I looked super silly.  Don’t laugh!

These earrings sell themselves.  They’re big, they’re light, you can make them to match any outfit and they use up those pesky scraps you’re saving for no reason.  What more can a girl ask for?

Materials you’ll need to make these guys:

• scraps of ribbon, lace, cord, sequins or what-have-you
• ear bobs
• a 1.5″ x 1.5″ scrap of felt
• matching thread

Get er done:

1. Cut out your 1.5″ x 1.5″ square of felt.  (Excuse the pic, it’s Oregon and it’s February.  Light?  What light?)

2.  Choose your trims.  Be sure to vary the lengths of the scraps so that they hang in tiers.  Finish the ends of ribbons by cutting across them on the diagonal; the bias edge doesn’t unravel.  Knot the free end of the strand of sequins or else they will fall off one by one at inopportune moments (been there, done that).  Don’t shy away from using something you think isn’t that fabulous - if it matches in terms of color, it will probably look awesome once it’s mixed in with your other “conversation” trims.  You’re aiming for an interesting mix of textures.

3.  Knot your thread and whip-stitch along each piece of trim so that it is secured along one edge of the felt.  Stitch them at slightly wonky angles if you want them to flay out like the ones in the first picture.

4.  Wrap the free edge of the felt around the whip-stitched edge so that your stitches are hidden.  (The action is a lot like rolling a cigarette or a sushi roll.)  Whip-stitch the free edge down.  Continue stitching to the top end of the earring and draw the felt inwards with a few stitches so that it purses shut and you can’t see the free ends of the trim inside the felt casing.

For an optional wrapped texture wrap the remaining thread around the felt itself.  Wrap towards the top and knot.  With a needle, pass the free ends through the mass of felt.  Remove the needle from the thread and trim the threads that peeks out on the other side flush with the felt.

5.  Stitch the ear bobs to the top of the earrings.  Make sure that there is NO GAP in the circular link on the ear bob - thread can pass through really small places and your earrings will wind up on the ground!  If there’s even a tiny gap, push the link closed with a pair of pliers.

All done!  Enjoy.

You should NEVER do these things.

Here are five former bad habits of mine, for the world to see, in no particular order:

1. Not pinning.

Just like, not at all. Ever. Why?  Because pinning is for wussies. If things didn’t match up, it was because I wasn’t trying hard enough. (Never mind paying attention to the direction of my pins in relation to the seam - Pins? What pins?) When I started “experimenting” with pins, whole new worlds opened up to me.

I try to just laugh about this now.

2.  Winding more than one kind of thread onto a single bobbin.

I know, you only have so many bobbins. But when you do this – and you already know who you are – eventually you get to the break in the bobbin thread and it WILL snag and you WILL regret it. You’ll curse yourself for doing this to yourself (again) but then you’ll go ahead and do it about 100 more times before you finally knock it off. No one knows why.

3.  Smacking the presser foot down HARD.

It does make a satisfying noise. And you look like a badass to the uninitiated when you do this. However, the first time I did this in a professional sewing space I was almost crucified. Smacking the presser foot down is hell on the machine and wears out the lever mechanism faster. Doing this on someone elses’ machine is like flipping them the bird. Doing it to your own machine is suicide.  Don’t do it.  *Gently* and gracefully guide the presser foot lever to the down position.

4.  Never changing the needle

You only need to change it when it breaks, right?

5.  Trusting commercial patterns.

Pattern paranoia is healthy.  When I first started sewing, I blindly followed the instructions that came with commercial patterns. It said press, I pressed. It said baste, I basted. It said spin around 5 times and…you get the idea. I think it was Kathleen Fasanella at Fashion Incubator that said that sewing instructions for the big three – McCalls, Simplicity and Vogue – are written by sadists. I couldn’t agree more. Read their instructions if you want to know the least efficient, most painful way to possibly sew your pattern together.

Same goes with the sizing and the cover photo on commercial patterns. Every time, I wondered why my finished product didn’t look as cute as it did in the picture and why it was always too big on me even when it was the “right” size according to the pattern. When I first started sewing, I didn’t even know what a muslin was. Now I make a muslin of my pattern before I cut into my fashion fabric every time – and I always end up making significant alterations at that important stage. Imagine that!

If you sew or press your clothes a lot then eventually you’ll need to clean your iron. Why? The tap water you use in your steam water reservoir starts to calcify and/or oxidize and you start getting whitish and/or reddish crud in your steam water - and it will leave a giant stain on whatever it is you’re ironing. If you’re like me, first you will cry. Then you will consider replacing your iron. Then you will turn to the internet to figure out what to do.

Turns out all you just need to clean your iron.

First, buy a big bottle of bottom shelf white vinegar, like this one:

Fill your reservoir with it and turn the iron on. Steam the heck out of a fluffy towel or rag until there is no vinegar left in your reservoir. Then do it again or until you feel confident that no more whitish/reddish crud is coming out of your iron. Then flush it with water a few times to get the vinegar smell out. Done!

Note: Open a window because it is going to be FOUL in there while you’re steaming all your vinegar out. I’m pretty sure it isn’t bad for you but it is very unpleasant smelling and feels really weird to inhale. Not recommended.

I was so excited when my good friend and craft compadre, Lara, agreed to do an interview with me this week!

So who is Lara?  Well, when you look up “Earth Mama” in the dictionary Lara’s picture is there.  She is a fierce felter and fairy-maker who keeps a ridiculously cute house and raises these adorable twins of hers on magical home-cooked meals and awesome camping trips.  E-mailing questions back and forth, Lara confessed to me that she’s been “floating on a sea of inspiration” lately, and it definitely shows in her blog, A Mountain Hearth and at her Etsy Shop.

Ok, without further ado - the Interview!

————-

Q: What do you create?

Lara: I create handcrafts inspired by nature, from mostly natural materials and some found objects. With wool I make needle felted wall hangings, wet felted pouches and containers around rocks as forms, needle felted animals, whimsical creatures, and seasons dolls for nature tables. With shells, stones, and gemstone chips I create necklaces. With acorn caps, silk flowers, wool, pipe cleaners, and wooden beads I create tiny seasonal fairy dolls. I make magic glittery wands out of dried teasel stalks. I also love creating fairy houses with my children in the woods, our yard, and at the beach. I have busy hands, and I’m always creating something.

Q: When and how did you decide to pursue your craft as a business?
Lara: I seem to be the most inspired when I am creating things for other people or a specific purpose (I can tend to be rather utilitarian in things I make for myself), but over the past year I have been making a lot of things for the sake of making them as an outpouring of creative energy. It started to seem logical to try selling some of my work to help recoup costs of crafting materials. I began selling my fairy dolls at my daughter’s Waldorf school store, and people were really loving them. Then I sold some felted mermaids to another parent at the school, and it felt really good to have someone like my handcrafts so much that she wanted to compensate me for them. My future goal is to create a modern homestead and have some home based business ventures going to help support our family, and selling my crafts began to weave into this vision. I was inspired by Patchwork Underground’s Saturday Market booth and Etsy store, as well as the Etsy stores of the handwork teachers at the Waldorf school. It’s a wonderful on-line community of crafters. So, once I got my craft room set up in our farmhouse this winter, I opened my own Etsy store, and I’m really enjoying it!

Q: How did you come up with your business name?

Lara: The outdoors and home are the two most important realms in which I live my life, and my crafting really has a lot to do with both. The mountains are very important to me, and they really signify the places I always want to be. Home is also a huge part of my identity with my work of raising children and homemaking approached as a social art. I always strive to create a home around me that is reflective of who I am and the things that are important to my family. To me, the hearth really represents home, nurturing, warmth, and creating. I hold this ideal of a hearth in the mountains, but also like the idea of incorporating the mountains into one’s own hearth wherever that may be. I also noticed that the word “heart” is contained in “hearth.” It’s all about taking what I love and what inspires me, and channeling that into what I am creating.

Q: What does your “average” work day look like?

Lara: My “average” work day (and I write this with a laugh), begins with getting the kids all ready and into Eugene for school. Then I return to a very quiet peaceful house. A couple mornings a week we have a wonderful carpool, and that eliminates the whole drive into town and back. Then I get all the pressing and important chores done, and if they don’t take up the whole time, which they sometimes do, I sit down in my craft room to work on projects. Ideally I have a few hours to be creative. I also work in the evening sometimes when I don’t fall asleep right after the kids do. I tend to have more energy and inspiration in the morning, so that’s when I try to make time for crafting.

Q: What inspires you most?

Lara: Nature. The organic shapes and properties of stones, trees, branches, and streams seem to create their own art. Sometimes I’ll see a rock or a piece of wood and have an idea for something to make out of it, or I’ll just take it home to display all on it’s own. Aesthetically, the things I really like to look at are outside, so I try to aim for that in my crafting projects. I also find a lot of beauty and joy in the Waldorf style crafts made out of wools, wood, silks, and natural dyes, and I have been very inspired by everything I have seen at the Eugene Waldorf School. I really enjoy the seasonal focus and themes, and the seasons tables and fairy creatures incorporated in the classrooms. One of the kindergarten classrooms had a seasons table that left quite an impression on me. The top was draped in beautiful silks with a seasonal scene of wool characters and natural objects, and it was set up on top of some log rounds with interesting curvy shapes
creating a cave underneath large enough to stick your head in, and in the cave were rocks, more draped silks, and little gnomes. It really woke up my fun inner child of crafting. I started learning and teaching myself how to make a lot of toys for my children after that.

Q: What’s your favorite tool, technique or project?

Lara: I love needle felting wool. There is something very soothing about it, and the colors and textures seem to flow really well for me. I like the soft lines and features that can be achieved. It feels like a very versatile medium too. I can start out with a bunch of wool feeling like I could go any which way with it. I like that.

Q: What’s your earliest crafty memory?

Lara: My family was camping out at Lake Ozette on the Olympic Peninsula where I grew up, and my brother and I found this little cave in the roots of a hemlock tree where the lake had undercut the bank in higher water. The bank had a vein of this wonderful gray clay, and we made these little sculptures with balls of clay with tiny hemlock cones sticking out of the top. We lined them up on one of the roots with our mud pancakes and pretended to have a little shop. I was always making things indoors and outdoors.

Q: What the biggest challenge (if any) you’ve had to overcome in pursuing your craft?

Lara: Balancing parenting with crafting time. Raising kids takes a lot of energy, and sometimes I’m too worn out at the end of the day for working on my creative projects. There are always a multitude of things that need doing around the house, so I have to really work on time management and setting aside crafting time as a priority. Sometimes this means I have to just let the laundry, dishes, and cooking sit and try to forget about them while I focus on my creative endeavors for a little block of time. I also feel like I get a lot of inspiration from my children and how they experience nature and find a sense of magic in the world around them.

Q: If you had time, what new medium would you want to learn?

Lara: I would love to work with clay and make pottery bowls and dishes someday. There are some potters whose work I really admire, like Michael Wendt in Lewiston, Idaho. He uses Mt. Saint Helen’s ash in his glazes and local Idaho clay in his work. He glazes patterns on his pieces of local natural features swirled in with the colors. There’s something very grounding and earthy about pottery that I really like. The obstacles at this point are the time for learning the skill and access to equipment. I would want to be able to work on it at home, and that would require investments in a wheel and a kiln, although, building our own outdoor kiln could be a fun project someday…

Thanks, Lara!!!