Encroachment

My husband and I are crafters, makers... hands on people.

I do a lot with fabric, paint, concrete, wire and metal (on a very small scale) and sometimes beads. There's other stuff but it's minor in comparison to those.

Hubby does a lot of electronic stuff, works with wood sometimes, and is a great photographer. Oh yeah, and I like photography a lot too. He does a LOT of stuff on his computer and he is nuts about RC aircraft.

We are both introverts and REALLY non-traditional. In fact, he called me a "hippy" once because he considered it a complement.

Why am I telling you this? Well, we have an encroachment issue. Although, I'm not as worried about it as you might think.

Our living room has seating for about 4 or 5 people, theoretically. Realistically, only two people fit comfortably. That's because of all the supplies, and equipment (and the cat and tiny dog).

We used to make fun of how I always had my favorite chair set up as a little craft pod. All around me there are all the things I need to keep me engaged without needing to get up repeatedly. You see, the cat and dog think I am the place to sleep so every time I get up it's a whole thing. Mostly, I keep crayons and sketch pads and things like this close to hand. Plus, always have my chrome book close to hand... and a kindle and a phone.

Then, we set up some bookshelves in the living room too and I stowed a few of my craft supplies there... the ones I use a lot.

There's a small amount of overflow in the guest room but it's mostly just folded dyed fabric awaiting use. Oh wait, then Hubby set up a big workstation in there. Well, can't have that out where the cat can get into it and it's not like we have constant guests, right? Yeah, I mean, it makes sense. Harder to get to the ironing board though...

The dining room already is a craft room. It's mostly mine but we treat it as a communal space since I have a huge cutting mat and lots of nifty cutting and shaping tools and Hubby likes those. Plus, the workbenches make assembly easier. Sometimes it takes a month to get a table saw moved back outside even though it was supposedly just moved in there for the night but whatever.

Then, I turned into a giant harpy and got mad that Hubby didn't spend any time with me when he got home at night since he just went directly to his room to work on his stuff. After he decided that I might have a point, he moved his play desk to the coffee table in the living room. It's the kind that pulls up and forward to make it a good surface to eat on and stuff. Well, it turns out it makes a nice desk too. It's in front of the futon and so Hubby kind of has like the world's largest desk chair now.

I think you can see where this is going. We are gradually turning  the house into a giant craft space with a bathrooms, kitchen, and bedrooms. But here's the clincher: I don't care and I'm pretty sure Hubby doesn't either. Oh sure, we beat the chaos back from time to time and the paths between the projects get wider for a bit, but the fact is, we love our multiple craft zone dwelling.

It may not look like your living room but it's our natural habitat.

Squish Book Saga Part One (The Adaptation of an Idea)

I have always loved Smash Books. Those books that you take forever to fill with art and poetry and lists and color and texture and which help you to do your own self therapy; art self therapy. I've always thought it would be good and so cathartic to work out an issue through art to learn something about yourself through brushes and pencils and markers and so on...

My beloved and ultra creative and talented sister, Janet, offered to teach me and some of our other sisters about making smash books so that we could explore this intentional creative therapy for ourselves. I jumped right in and rapidly discovered that working outside of your preferred medium can be a right bastard of a struggle.

I decided I would like to work on a project to learn to "speak my truth". This means something different to each person but I mean to open my throat chakra and allow myself to speak up and be heard instead of just sighing a lot and feeling trapped and hurt when I am not understood or heard. Your intention could be anything from wanting to learn to eat to live and not reward yourself with food to letting go of old hurts or addressing how you feel about abuse you suffered or letting go of anger.

I began my book like this:

I started with a book of my choosing (it was suggested that an inexpensive book like a composition book would be fine and perhaps preferred so that's what I chose.)

I glued two pages back to back through out the book to make the pages more sturdy with a glue stick successfully. (So, I've got that going for me.)

I gilded the edges of the pages blue using an acrylic paint because I had it on hand and because blue seemed the right color for the project. The color of the throat chakra is blue.

I was supposed to put a book mark or ribbon in after every 8 pages. I didn't like that idea and I was struggling to find a way to accomplish it in a way that was comfortable for me. I guess I didn't see the purpose and there probably was a good reason for them but I didn't ask because I am an incredibly stubborn person. Really, really stubborn. Trust me.

I decided to skip the ribbons for now and work on a page. I was just looking and looking at that book day after day and nothing was coming to me. I decided to gesso a couple of pages to make them good surfaces to paint on and I even tinted some gesso with acrylic paint.  Still nothing.

I wanted to include this super cool quote I found on Facebook so I glued it in the book and stared at it for a while. Nothing. Just crickets, man. Zip. Zilch. I was starting to get angry with the book.

This didn't seem right so I just walked away from the book for a day or two. Then, I talked to Janet. Did I mention how super awesome she is? Not even kidding.

Sometimes what you really need to do is explain the issue out loud to someone else to come up with the solution. That's what I did.

Paper is not my medium, I realized. That's why I've been getting rid of all my decorative paper and scrapbooking stuff. I had so much and it never got used. HOWEVER, it's pretty clear I love fabric. I have drawer after drawer and bin after bin full of fabric. I love to dye it and sew it and stitch things to it and glue things to it and paint it and embroider it... FABRIC IS MY MEDIUM. It's how I express myself.

So, how do I do a Smash Book type project with fabric? That's the project I'm going to share with you; my "Squish Book". I've already started.

I'm going to need 16 squares of fabric of the same size (I picked squares of 12.5 inches but I don't think it matters if they are all the same or if they are the same shape even. That was just my choice.) and I'm going with all cotton fabrics because I like working with cotton fibers. I didn't choose the same weaves or weight or density for all of them. They are all a bit different. Some are just plain undyed and unbleached muslin. Some are fabrics I tie dyed. Some are quilt fabric I really liked.

I picked 16 squares because it makes a 4 by 4 layout and I can make that into a wall hanging easily. It would be just over 4 feet by 4 feet square once all the piecing and finishing is done. Not 100% that's the way I'll go but it's why I figured the sizes and numbers. I could also sew them all in a banner like prayer flags. That might be cool too.

The same way I glued pages together to make them sturdier, I overlocked the edges of my fabric on my sewing machine with just whatever thread I had in the machine. Turns out it was just an off white general purpose thread which worked fine.

Some of the fabrics are more flimsy so I might iron some interfacing to the back of them. More on that later.

Next time, I'll talk about how I tackle the "gilding" of my "pages" and a few other things. I'll try to post some pictures too.

Meet the Fabric Piranhas

Did you miss me? Sure you did. I really need a sarcasm font.

Well, it's been some time now since I've posted and it's mostly because I had nothing really significant to say. Well, some would argue I never do but they don't count (at least not to me).

I've been collecting patterns lately. No, not specific patterns; more of the variety that are sort of "starter" patterns. They come in books with names like "The Magic Pattern Book" and "BurdaStyle Sewing" and "Basic Black. The books all have sets of basic patterns and the instructions for altering them in several ways. That has the effect of providing you with many patterns for the price of the book. It's also supposed to encourage you to add in your own alterations and style to really make each "basic" garment into your own special thing.

I like the idea because I am someone who never actually sews something together the way the instructions would have me do and I can't follow instructions for projects without embellishing or editing them to suit my experience or materials or desires. I don't even cook strictly to the recipe except for bread but that's not cooking so much as chemistry... well, and I'm careful when I can too.

The patterns either come as a really wacky looking pull out section that has a billion lines crossing over one another in different colors and will make you blind, or on a CD or a download. The first kind has all the pattern pieces labeled and the book tells you which pieces to trace out on paper and cut out. You never cut the pullout, you just trace the pieces you need and use your tracings. This allows you to pencil in design changes before cutting and you will still have all your basic pieces intact to start from again if you want to go a different way. This way, your altered pattern pieces can be kept and used again. The second way is one not for the faint of heart. Using CDs or downloads means you print the pattern pieces on letter sized paper and piece them together and then, theoretically, you use them as the pattern. I say nuts to this. I piece them with minimal tape, trace out my pieces onto large sheets of tracing paper, pattern paper or doodle paper and then take the printout apart, mark an "X" in red crayon on the printed side and reuse the paper printing on the other side for the next printout. Trust me, if piecing all that paper together tries your patience, you do not want to try to use it as a pattern and I can certainly not see reusing it.

It's worth the effort for the money you save to have the exact pattern you want/need but it's time consuming I admit.

I've made a few things using these types of patterns and I enjoy it a lot. I am getting ready to make a cape from the "Magic Pattern" book this weekend (we'll see how far I get) and maybe even a hat to match.

This brings me to the title of this entry. My bestie coined the term Fabric Piranhas to describe us. We will reuse every scrap of fabric we can get our hands on and often buy clothes at thrift stores just for the fabric or as a base for some other garment. I shamelessly buy sheets to dye other colors and experiment on. Several yards of 100% cotton for $3-$4? Yes please! I am not at all ashamed to say that my ottoman is wearing a little more than one pair of my husband's cast off jeans. Don't even get me started on t-shirts!  My beloved SIL shared this site on Facebook today and now I have a whole new stack of projects to do: 39 Reuses for T-Shirts

I am fairly certain my well meaning friends and sisters have effectively rendered me immortal because, with this much to do before I die, I will simply not be able to, maybe ever.

Okay, Let's Get Started

Even though I fully intend to sell the daylights out of my Etsy wares (so be warned), I thought it might be fun to share an experiment I did.

I like to play with fabric.  Right now, and probably for a while to come, I'm into dying it.  I also sew with or without a store bought pattern.  I love the way it feels and acts and what I can make it do. My favorite kinds of fabrics are made from plant fibers but, of those, my hands down favorite is cotton.  There's just this one tiny problem.

Dying cottons takes time and patience and I have no patience.  I'm learning though.  I find, more often than not, my patience is rewarded, if not with what I expected to happen, at least something I still find interesting.

I'm going to start off our relationship with a gift.  I'm going to show you how I ice dyed a piece of cloth and what happened.  I like to call this "The Black Star Project".

I gathered my supplies:

Tulip Dye Powder (red tie dye and black immersion dye - the kind you use to dye a whole piece of cloth or a garment one solid color - I got both at Walmart.)
An Oil Pan (clean and brand new from the Dollar Tree - guess how much it cost)
A 45 x 45 inch piece (more or less) of washed and dried unbleached muslin
LOTS of ice (I have an ice maker but if you don't you want to get a bag or make a bunch in advance)
A kitchen garbage bag


So, here we are.  You and me and an oil pan and some muslin.  It's not an enormous pan and it could really be just about anything non-metal that you want to use that will not ever be used to eat out of again. It could also be any shape that suits you.  I picked this because I had a plan I wanted to try out.  You just need enough depth to contain the ice once it's melted.

I wanted to try a tie dye pattern I must have done a million times by now.  It's supposed to make a spiral design on your cloth and I've had good experience with it.  You just lay your cloth flat, poke your fingers down and pinch it right where you want the center of the spiral and start spinning.  You might want to pat it down to keep it flat with your other hand and coax the corners to lay nicely along the outside edge.

Now, it doesn't look like much.  You can kind of see how it's all twirled into a spiral shape, right? Normally, for a traditional tie dye, you would bind the spiral into a tight little bundle but we don't need to do that here because we're putting the dye on a bit differently and it's not going to go flying everywhere like it does from those squeeze bottles you use for regular tie dye.

Now, just heap on the ice.  There's no rhyme or reason to it.  No guidelines.  No rules. I generally just try to be sure it's enough until I can't see the cloth and it's an even layer. Even that is just my preference. More or less, flat or heaped in a mound, tiny cubes or crushed, they will all change the finished piece and are totally up to you to choose and play with.

Now for the die.  The black dye I used was this kind in the picture.  It's the kind you use to make a big bucket of dye to submerge a piece of cloth in to give it an all over solid color.  The other dye was actually a tie dye refill packet for fushia.

What looks red here is the fushia powder.  The really weird kind of grey powder is actually the black dye.  It looks so odd because it has a larger proportion of fixative in it than the fushia does.  I don't know why and strangely, it doesn't bother me that I don't.

Okay, I have a cat and maybe you have kids or a spouse or occasional guests or a tendency to drop stuff into your dying projects so I set the whole shebang into a kitchen garbage bag.  This also keeps it from drying out which is important too.

24 hours (a whole DAY) later, it looks like this.  You can kind of see the icky black dye all around it and it looks like it's just swimming in it.  How is this gonna look anything but gross?  I poured off the liquid dye so I just have a soggy cloth in the pan. Then, I literally dumped the cloth from the pan into the washer.  This turned out to be a very unwise move as then I had to spend 5 minutes quickly mopping dye off of the top of my washer and drier.  I set the washer to rinse and spin and double rinse in cold water. I even threw in a couple of sacrificial towels to help it agitate better and to keep the washer from going off balance. After it was rinsed, I just washed it like I do all my other cottons on a regular warm water cycle with a little detergent and an extra rinse. I didn't even peak to see how it came out.  I was feeling pretty virtuous about that.

Is this what you expected?  It's not what I expected.  Not at all. It took me a couple of days to decide if I even liked it. Now, I think it's pretty cool.  There are some closeups of it in the listing in my Etsy shop http://etsy.com/shop/thecoppercoloredcat .

I hope you enjoyed this.  Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.