In a fit of desperation I cleaned my sewing/craft room today.

The trouble with a cluttered sewing room is that I loose inspiration.

The trouble with a clean sewing room is that all I want to do is make something!

To get my make-something-now fix, I made a pocket for a friend of mine preparing for an Amsterdam vacation. It’s a credit-card-sized hidden hanging pocket that is sewn into the inside top band of your pants or skirt. You can safely carry your credit-card and extra cash while having your hands free for shopping and taking pictures.

When my daughter traveled to Europe a couple years ago, I put one of these nifty little pockets in each of her pants and skirts. She traveled happily knowing her credit card and a little extra cash was safely stashed.

This nifty idea comes from the May 2002 Threads magazine article written by Marcy Tilton. Check out Marcy’s article on packing tips.

Are you looking for a plan for all those plastic grocery bags?  

If so, check out this cute, quick and useful crochet project.  The designer, Cindy, at My Recycled Bags offers us this pattern free!  Thanks, Cindy!

Thanks to Shirley at the Yarn Lover’s Room for the link!

I can’t help myself!  I jump from one crafty medium to another.  One minute I’m elbow deep in polymer clay when I’m suddenly blindsided–sidetracked–by a lovely piece of cotton batik.  This happens to me at the most inopportune times.

The cotton batik begins a sewing frenzy of sorts.  The cotton batik becomes a skirt.  Still obsessed with fabric and perusing JoAnn’s Fabrics, I happen upon a green and pink tie-dye that’s just what my daughter wanted!  So I make another skirt which I posted about last time. 

Now that I’m on a skirt roll, fabric swatches still flipping about in my mind’s eye, I decide a nice crochet edging would look lovely on the next skirt.  So I start poking around on internet crochet sites for some crocheted edging inspiration.

And it happened again.  Total sidetrack!  I came across a vintage cardigan pattern at Yarning With a Hook .  Ginny made her’s in red and it’s lovely.  And I just HAVE to make one too!  You can find the pattern here.

Now I’ve given myself permission to place this cardigan ahead of the skirt with crochet edge.  I’ll get back to the skirt later.

Here’s my small progress toward the cardigan.  Can you see the diamond shapes appearing?

Sewing projects call me from time to time.  This week’s siren call was a skirt for my youngest daughter. 

A while back we made her a black and white batik skirt similar to one she purchased last year.  It was fun and quick to sew.  She wanted another skirt with fabric of a green and purple mix.  So here’s the finished skirt from some great tie-dyed cotton I found at JoAnn’s.

The mottled green at the yoke edge and hem is a cotton from Hobby Lobby. 

There are a few weeks of summer left yet.  Maybe I’ll try another one.

I’m thinking I want to try one with a crocheted lace at the yoke and hem edges.  In my imagination crocheted edging seems nice without being to frilly for casual wear.

If you have suggestions for a crocheted edge please leave a comment.  Thanks!

About a month ago I saw some carved lapis lazuli beads in a beading book.  I’m sorry I can’t remember which book now.

 

Since seeing them I’ve been obsessed with a burning desire to make my own carved lapis lazuli beads.  Perhaps you can relate to this obsession? 

So I pulled out a favorite polymer clay recipe book, Polymer, the Chameleon Clay  by Victoria Hughes, made a batch of imitation lapis clay and made the beads you see here.  Although not yet sanded and polished, I love the color!

Now, I have never carved anything before.  Hence, my newest hobby(!)  Perusing my local Hobby Lobby, I found a speedball handle and #1 V-shaped fine line cutter used for block printing.   

Before baking the beads, I faintly scored some of them where I planned to do the carving with the edge of my tissue blade.  After baking I used the handy-dandy speedball v-shaped cutter.  What a wonderful tool!

I was happy to have the scored beads for my initial learning but now I feel confident I can carve the un-scored beads just fine.

After more fine sanding and polishing I’ll post the finished results!

For a photo of real lapis lazuli click here.   

My youngest daughter is home from college this week and in the mood to sew a new skirt.  First she found the fabric on sale at Hancock Fabrics.  Then she decided it would be a fun skirt. 

But her favorite skirt is one she purchased last year at Kohl’s.  Our pattern stash held nothing remotely similar.  So, we used the Kohl’s skirt to make a new pattern for our collection. 

The next problem was choosing a binding for the yoke and hem.  She knew she wanted a white binding.  Do you know how many shades of white there are?  There were several “white” muslin pieces in our fabric stash.  But not one that she liked. 

Solution:  Dye the muslin bias strip with tea.

Well, I’m finally posting the next stage of the polymer clay imitation jade beads.  They have been baked but not polished.

After baking, small round flecks are present giving interesting texture that imitates the organic variations in natural jade. I hope you can see that in the photo. This flecking is due to the Fimo translucent (#00) present in the clay mixture.

The necklace strung as you see here is too short.  I’ll have to lengthen it by adding about 6 more small yellow-green lentils or by making more space between each of the beads.

We will see which method I am in the mood when I get to that step!  Right now I like increasing the spacing. 

Today’s clay play revisited two imitation jade clay mixes.  The recipe is from Victoria Huges’ book, Polymer: the Chameleon Clay (© 2002).  

From the darker green mix I shaped several lozenge shaped beads.  I ran the clay through my pasta machine on the thickest setting, cutting circles with a ¾ inch cutter.  Using three circles for each bead assured beads of the same size.

  

Using a piece of glass, I shaped the bead into a squatty bi-cone.

  

Standing the bi-cone vertically on its tip with the glass, I flattened the bi-cone.

Since the flattened bead seemed larger than I wanted, I coaxed the flattened bead into a somewhat lozenge shape using my fingers and the flat edge of a blade.

Next, from the yellow-green mix, I made smaller round flattened beads.  This time, after passing the clay through the pasta machine and cutting circles, I used only 1 and ½ circles for each bead.

The yellow-green bi-cone was flattened with the glass into a nice round bead.

The colors will change somewhat after baking, but here is a possible arrangement for a necklace.

And here is an earring possibility.

When I get them baked and strung, I will post a photo of the finished set.  

Bead color inspiration is everywhere!  Color combinations in nature are a favorite source for all artists, crafters, and designers. Another simple place for color combination ideas is in your closet.   

I bought a scarf to wear with a particular skirt and jacket.  Liking the color combination as well as I did, I decided to use the colors to make some polymer clay beads to wear as well.  Since I am on the swirl lentil kick right now, that’s what I made.

Here’s the photo of the scarf and the clay colors I mixed.

The darker blue was used for my base bead.  Jade green, golden yellow, light blue/translucent mix and the white/translucent mix were rolled into snakes.

Next I pressed a piece of the golden yellow snake next to a piece of white and translucent cane and put them through my pasta machine a few times to slightly blend their edges.  I did the same with the light blue and jade green snakes. Using a bottle cap, I cut circles from the golden/white and light blue/jade green sheets.

I pressed these circles to opposite sides of my darker blue base round bead and rolled them gently in my hands to make a smooth round ball.  Using these general instructions for swirl lentils, I formed the swirl lentils you see here.

One bead has no darker blue showing at all.  The sharper contrast is gone but I still like the end result.

When I want to practice a new polymer clay bead technique I’m sometimes in a quandary about which color combinations to use.   

I have used the color combinations in a scarf I like.  Color combinations from magazine ads that catch my eye are good too.  And there are times that I just pick up left over polymer scraps from previous projects. 

Today I found another source for color palette play—ColourLovers website. Check them out and have some fun!

  

Thanks to Polymer Clay Notes for sharing this site!