skirts, embroidery and more king cake

i decided to make 2 practice skirts before i made my mardi gras skirt in case i messed up.  i found free instructions online that looked pretty simple.  i ended up  altering them a little bit per usual.  the end result was that the skirts are reversible!! this was exciting to me especially since it was a happy accident.  so now i have 3 handmade skirts...not sure if i'll keep the first two or sell them. 

i also finished another embroidery as well as a strawberry king cake from Antoine's.  i'll take a pic of all our king cake babies next time.  I kinda feel like i'm playing the game Life except my babies won't fit in my pink car.  and i don't get to go to millionaire's row at the end.  well....maybe, we'll see.

this collage features a plastic package from a vintage headband.  this was a gift from a friend.  love that people see old garbage and save it for me!  i also used a friendship pin from the forth grade.  yes, i still have all of them and no i'm not a hoarder.  the pic of the guy is a vintage estate sale find- it came from a instructional knitting booklet.  he thinks he's such a player and it cracks me up.

happy new year

a little, uh hummmm, late.  i've been settling into the new year by rearranging my studio once again, feeding my new embroidery addiction and replenishing my inventory.

i've been living in my new city for 6 months now and it's starting to feel like home.  there is still SO much to discover.  it's the kind of city that i think you never get to see everything because really there's that much good stuff going on!  i've been eating my heart out and now need to get my work out back on in a serious way to keep up with all the eating.  i went from the Christmas holiday right into Mardi Gras season and that means King Cake!  it is so delicious and there are so many different ones to try.  and since it's a limited time i have to keep eating to try them all.  ok, so you get that i'm eating ALOT.  onto the crafting....

i woke up super motivated yesterday and have been on a crafting high ever since.  i even went to joann's to get some Mardi Gras costume making supplies.  i started a mask and a headband and got fabric to make a skirt.  i'll post pics as soon as i'm done.

i got several items cut out and ready to sew--i tend to do things like this in bulk- sewing, cutting, etc.   since i was on such a craft high i decided to tackle making a collage clutch since it is an organic flow kinda process.  here's what i do:  i sit down with my HUGE basket of scraps and just start pulling ones i think go together.  i usually end up with a maybe/back up plan pile as well.  then i iron and cut them all to size--well a little bigger actually.  THEN comes the process of laying them out in the order i want to sew them.  i get them sewn and then cut the bag shape.  i pick interior and pocket fabrics and then i'm ready to sew the bag pieces all together.  it's a LONG, fun, creative process that results in a fabulous OOAK bag!  like this one i made this morning.

this particular bag has 17 pieces of fabric sewn together to make the outside.  kinda impressive, huh??