Patchwork Underground

Yahoo for the holidays and thank god they’re over.  These are the place cards I made for our big vegan x-mas dinner.  The theme was Rockstar Virgin Christmas.  I like that the Virgin Mary, Britney Spears and Lady Gaga are all represented here.  I made these on a whim at my mother-out-law’s house so they are comprised entirely of sharpie, pen, scotch tape (no white glue!), computer paper, metallic angel cutouts and a few issues of Entertainment Weekly.

(We had 5 people at dinner - the 6th card with Lady Gaga on it is for Elijah, the angel who comes to Passover.  I always like to have a little Passover in my holidays.)

Happy 2010 everyone!

So, I had just finished watching Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance music video (for the I-don’t-know-how-many-eth time) and I was thinking about how hard I could rock it in those 15″ heels she wears in the video.  I closed my laptop and stood up.  And then I fell down.  OW!  My leg was asleep and before I realized what was happening, I rolled over in my measly 3″ heels.  I was in denial for a day or so but eventually I went to the doctor - BROKEN FOOT!

Here’s what a broken foot looks like in a sewing room:

I went thrift shopping to dull the pain - got this awesome vintage Idea Book of Trims….

It made me realize that I heart freaky Kubrick-style ballerinas:

…and glassy-eyed girls in big hats:

I also learned what happens when you give a girl a Buttoneer.

The Idea Book of Trims made me realize that my trims are a freakin’ mess.  I have them in a bunch of disparate bags stashed all over my sewing room.  So, in the interests of organization (and further dulling the pain of my broken foot), I hobbled to the dollar store and bought storage bins.  Voila:

Coming up next: a tutorial for my scrap earrings!  Here’s a sneak peek:

OMG! Hat Making - where have you been my whole life!?

This hat is insane and I love it!  The back story: I was bumping Lady Gaga in my sewing room and testing out a traditional Dresden plate pattern that I found on the internet. When it was done I was like, “OK, so, this is cute and would make a nice pillow or whatever - but seriously now - what would it look like on my head?”

BANG!

I used super stiff iron-on interfacing as the body for the brim, ironed it onto the Dresden plate, hand stitched a rad fake fur lining onto the other side and stitched a doily center onto the middle to form the crown.  I hid the unfinished bit where the brim meets the crown with matching lace so that it just looks like an extension of the doily.  I also hand-stitched wire into the brim so that I can move it all around and change its shape however I want to.  I used tiny stitches everywhere so that the whole thing is REVERSABLE.

Plans for the next hat are already in the making.  This time, I want to actually wet felt a vintage-looking hat together….with feathers and rhinestones and fake foliage, of course.  I already put a couple different millinery books on hold at the library and they should be shipping to the North Portland library for me soon.  There’s a right way and a wrong way to do this thing and I’d like to actually learn how to do it for reals.  Yay!