thrifty sunday: you are my sunshine

Friday was great: playdate replete with teeny tiny cupcakes and on the way home, a surprise meet-me-for-lunch message from one of our best gals who was breezing through town on her way south. After some rice and beans and a margarita, I stopped into Goodwill to look around, blatantly milking my baby-free afternoon for all it was worth. 

Three treasures came home with me, totaling $9 and some change. Considering I would've paid a lot more for just one of them, I feel like I scored. 

1. Little wooly vest for George, for when he's feeling like a cultural anthropologist: 

The middle section of the vest is not symmetrical; this detail eluded me until just now. Anyway, I feel like he needs a graying pony tail and some hornrims to really complete the sensitive adjunct professor look.

2. Amazing homemade wallhanging that immediately went up in our bedroom:

It's pretty big, like maybe 18 inches by 18 inches, and fits beautifully on the wall that I often wake up facing. I've tried several other pieces of art there, and nothing ever worked. Clearly, the wall was biding its time until I found the perfect piece.

3. The sweetest ever, can-you-believe-someone-got-rid-of-this crewel work wallhanging:

I have my suspicions that the same person is responsible for both this and the above piece, and if that is indeed the case, I would like to call this woman (assumption, sue me) up and thank her from the bottom of my homemade-loving heart. This one is a little smaller -- maybe 9 inches by 14 inches -- and the lines are sort of wonky, but that only adds to its charm. As with a lot of things that I find at thrift stores, I wonder how someone saw fit to give this away. I imagine it being lovingly worked on after bedtimes by a long-haired lady in high waisted jeans, then hanging in a nursery circa 1978. I figured that it would be expensive, considering its awesomeness/similarity to something one might find at Urban Outfitters, but I turned it over to see the price, which said $3.99! Easily one of my all-time favorite thrift purchases.

Happy shopping and happy week, you guys!

nooks and crannies

For Christmas, Nathan's parents got me a bias tape maker. Forever, I've had one of those fiddly ones you use with an iron and I never make any bias tape because I wind up with burned fingers and a wonky finished product. Well, not any more. Sort of. I used my present for the first time last night, to finish a little quilt, and I definitely need some practice but it worked much better than the old method, plus it took about a millionth of the time.

Using this sweet book, Scandinavian Needlecraft, for inspiration (I wasn't up to copying the embroidery pattern and using carbon paper or whatever), I made a little light blanket to fuel my dreams of moving into a house that has nooks and crannies in which to snuggle and sleep. Just look at this picture and see if you can imagine a nicer spot to wake up in the morning:

Of course you cannot.

The green and blue pictured is lovely, but I had some peach gingham in the garage.

And some blue pique shirting, and some dark, sagey green flowers.

See, I told you I needed some practice. But, infinitely better than storebought.

Already used for snuggling.

And abandoned for play.

a shirt for papa

I'm not a sew-and-press kind of seamstress. I rarely use an iron while I'm sewing and most of the time I don't even use pins. I don't interface the things I'm supposed to interface and you know what? It usually works out just fine. But I'm also usually sewing for a baby. It's been a long time since I sewed something I would consider wearable by an adult; the patience and the time both elude me. For Hanukkah, though, I wanted to make something special for Nathan. He wears his clothes until they're threadbare and buttonless and torn at the knees, and we don't always have the money to replace the stuff he's worn out.

The pattern is McCall's 6044 and it came together very easily. I've never had much luck with collars, but wouldn't you know: pressing your seams and using pins actually helps. Huh! Note: the ghetto homemade label.

The only frustrating or difficult part of the whole endeavor was putting on the snaps, and there were two casualties. The pearly tops cracked twice, but the snaps were already stuck on so I just let them be. I got a blister using the blasted pliers, but it was worth it to avoid sewing twelve buttonholes. When, oh when will shirts that close with velcro become fashionable?

It looks super good on him and I'm totally pleased with the end product. Now that the pattern is cut out and I've worked through it once, I can make him a whole wardrobe of western shirts. Any volunteers to attach the snaps?