Simple Interrupted Stitch

More softies...

Friends at the Beach
Originally uploaded by Perlin Perlin

I got to finish the Bear softie today and took a shot of "Bear" with "Bud".

Now that "Bud" has a friend, he doesn't seem quite as weird as he did when it was just him.  When I finish "Nelson", it will seem downright natural to have all the cats reproduced as little fabric dolls!

I'm nursing a headcold, so I'll just let the photo speak for itself...

Merlin's new shirt!

Merlin's new shirt!
Originally uploaded by Perlin Perlin

So I'm still unclear on how to use Typepad to post, but so what...Flickr works for now.

Made this the other day, I'm not sure it is so bust enhancing in real life, I think it was just the way I took the picture. It was a very fun material to work with and I wish I had more of it! I had bought it from Superbuzzy, the last bit they had and when I went back to look at their other knits the other day wasn't so into the other ones they had. I can't say enough how different it was from the knits I've bought that were for the US market (whether they were made here or overseas). This knit was so soft and was two layers, which adds a nice heft to it without being too bulky and I think also allows the knit to drape better.

Up next will be the start of some Xmas presents, but since some people in my family know that I have a blog, I may have to make myself some stuff so I'll have something I can talk about!

We are experiencing some technical difficulty...

If anyone looked at this blog in the 15 minutes prior to me writing this post, you saw a gigantic blow up of Marla's shirt photo that was pretty astounding!

I'm trying to figure out how to post photos from Typepad instead of from Flickr and your continued patience is deeply appreciated...

Homemade t-shirts...

Working the homemade t-shirt!
Originally uploaded by Perlin Perlin

The primary job of yesterday was to start to move all fabric out of my room and into the spare room. The sub-job of that job was to breakdown the fabric into two main groups...'fabrics I'd like to use first' and 'everything else'. The first group gets to go onto open shelving, the second group into paper bags.

I'm reading/skimming the book "It's all too much" and the take home message is that if you have too much stuff in your space then you probably aren't using your space for what you want to use it for. This is definitely true for me and many sewing projects just don't get off the ground because I either forget what I wanted to do, or I can't find all the parts in a timely manner.

So today, with the beginnings of a nice sewing system coming together, I sewed two shirts on the serger. The first is in the photo and is sleeveless. This is the fabric that eagle-eyed thrift shopper Ms. Romero saw at Thrift Town that day...Thanks Kaija-Leena! The stripes really are that bright... The second one is a more muted blue and I put some sleeves on it. I messed up many times (sewing plus beer equals mistakes!), so I'll try it on tomorrow just in case there is heartbreak waiting in the wings...

More "Bud"

Tuns
Originally uploaded by Perlin Perlin

So I know I posted about this yesterday, but this picture has really been growing on me...it's way WAY too much orange cat, but it's so great at the same time. The "Bud" has been hanging out on the couch, but is so intense to look at. He's got so many of Buddy's features and yet has a fixed stare, deep and piercing... He's great and really weird at the same time.

I've had the experience twice now of making softies and had similar feeling both times when I put the eyes on. There is something about putting eyes on an inanimate object that gives it life, or even dare I say it...a soul. After I made the first one, a felt and fabric red elephant, I instantly understood the prohibition of some traditional cultures around making images or representations of actual life. The Amish don't put faces on their dolls and I would bet money that it's because someone one time put some eyes on a doll they made and said "Whoa!" After I put the eyes on the elephant, I kept staring into them and I got a little god-complexy like "I made this and it's looking back at me!" With "Bud", the eyes are really the most intense part and they just look at you, expectantly...

Merlin's birthday present...

Softie Bud
Originally uploaded by Perlin Perlin

I made Merlin a replica of Bud and it came out surprisingly like Bud himself. It's probably the little bit of orange on the head, which is pretty much Bud's trademark. There is something about the proportion of head/ears/eyes that must register as "cat" to Bud and Nel. They both respond to it in a different way than they respond to most things. They're sortof like..."my brain says 'cat, but not cat'...what gives?" and they have the same reaction.

Up next are Bear and Nel, they are both cut out and Bear's pretty far along although at this point that still means little stuffed arms and legs in a pile. It's a little weird to look at...

Melissa's bag

Melissa's bag
Originally uploaded by Perlin Perlin

The bag is done and I'm happy with it. Hopefully the puff-factor will diminish as she uses it; I think putting stuff in it will help.

Happy Birthday Melissa!

Now that that's done, I want to get done some of the unfinished shirts I have in the fabric pile. I did one knit from a Built By Wendy pattern that looks good but just needs an elastic around the bottom hem. Why that is taking so long, I'm not sure, but I think I am intimidated about sewing the hem into the knit on the sewing machine. The serger has been a real revelation about how to sew knits, but so far I just do a rolled hem with the serger and them I'm done...no hemming!

Onward!...

I can finally stop talking about my sister's bag!

bud dismount
Originally uploaded by Perlin Perlin

Two posts in one day? Woah...

Anyway, I did finally finish my sister's Pleated Beauty (P.B.) bag, but had a terrible time taking a photo. I'll try to get one tomorrow when I can get some natural light. I think it came out pretty well. It feels a little puffy on the inside (that would be because I used a double layer (!) of cotton batting). Note to self: less may be more in this case.

It's funny because I was just thinking how the P.B. bag seems to have more steps now than when I was first making a few last spring (perception not reality), and then I had a hearty laugh because I want to make the Weekender bag next which involves some wild type of sew-in interfacing and making your own cording! Ha! Not a project for the multi-step-phobic, Ms. Perlin!

Bud was very helpful today, spending most of it on the bed on top of his favorite blanket, the orange plaid one. He really does blend right in with his little orange self. Nelson spent most of the day under the group of bikes in the spare room. Merlin had to work half the day which was really too bad. I enjoyed the day off just working slowly on the bag and watching Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox story. I can say that I've now heard enough "Mr. Cox" jokes to last an extremely long time...

western hoedown!

western hoedown!
Originally uploaded by Perlin Perlin

I was excited to see that the theme this week on the awesome fabric blog True Up was Western! Actually, when I bought this recently, I secretly hoped that she would do a Western week. I have a lot of interesting old fabrics, but I'm drawn most to wools and polyester (go figure) and don't have that many cotton prints.

The size of the hoedown is pretty big (maybe 18" by 18"), the image is in a barn and even has a fiddler, but I just couldn't get a good photo without losing the detail. The rest of the 44" width is a background of the blue in the shirt streaked with the green and purple.