To christen the new camera, I had to make a camera strap for it. Or rather, recover the Nikon strap that came with it. I really loved my old camera strap in Zain Liberty of London. Rather than remake that one (which I considered), I thought it best to have a fresh start with a fresh new fabric. I knew the fabric needed to be rather dark, as it would probably get a bit dirty. The reproduction fabric I chose from the Regency Collection was the perfect fit. The print is so unusual and I love the mix of black with bits of odd pink, green and blue.

I had to refer to my original blog post about making my first camera strap to refresh my memory on just how to do it. This project is so easy and the results are totally satisfying. I love the final step of sewing through the strap around and around in concentric rectangles. I just used the edge of my presser foot as a guide for the spacing, which is why my sewing looks so straight.

I am now quite bonded with my new Nikon D90. It’s a heck of a lot of camera, so I have a lot to learn still. My latest discovery was learning to customize the picture controls. I keep the manual beside my bed, so I can dip into it before I fall asleep.

Last year I got Andrew’s dad & grandfather some fishing lure for Christmas. These jigheads have a super sharp hook, so I thought it would be cute to sew up little fabric fish from scraps and safely hook these little guys into them before wrapping them up. It was something I did at the very last minute, but I think it looks so cute!

For some other ideas, I thought I would just point you in the direction of my holiday posts from last year, since I can’t really share this year’s ideas just yet.

• a simple linen apron, you can’t go wrong
• every year I pick one thing to make multiples of, last year was the year of the snap coin purse
• for some quick wrapping – sew your gifts into paper
• easily personalize your handmade items with a typewritten fabric label
• another great use for scraps – patchwork potholders
• family photos are a great way to mark the end of the year

A couple people have mentioned to me that they’ve made some of the French Chocolate Granola for gifts. I personally think food gifts are awesome.

It might be a bit ridiculous to even mention this project, I mean we’ve all cut the legs off a pair of jeans before to make jean shorts. These particular jeans have really special significance to me though, so I wanted to document them as they went into their next phase of life. These were my first pair of Seven Jeans and I bought them at Barney’s. It was the first time I spent that much money on a pair of jeans and they were the beginning of my little denim collection. These jeans looked so great that my friends Angela and Cassandra also bought the exact same pair. I wore mine to death and have repaired them dozens of times, the denim is pretty thread-bare now. I thought I could get at least one more summer out of them as shorts though.

The one little detail I added, that I think is pretty sweet, is some lace trim around the cuff. Just use the zig zag stitch on your machine to stitch along the edge of the lace. The legs of the jeans have gone into my ‘denim box’ for a future quilt made with all different denim. (inspired by this and this.)

Liberty of London Summer Challenge : Project #1
Camera Strap in ‘Zain’ Tana Lawn Cotton

My first Liberty of London project is a simple one, but damn, does it ever make me happy. When I got my Nikon camera last year, the first thing I wanted to do was make myself a new camera strap. I cringed every time I looked at that black and yellow strap.

I planned on making a new strap from scratch and this is likely one of the reasons why this project was so slow to get off the ground. As I thought about where I would get all the right hardware to do this properly last week, I realized that it would be much much easier to just re-cover the existing strap. Sometimes there’s no need to go building something from scratch when you can just hitch a ride on something that works perfectly fine.

How could I resist having a posh Liberty of London camera strap? I chose the print called ‘Zain‘, which seems to be perfectly suited to being a camera strap, don’t you think?

Since this project requires only a small strip of fabric (approx. 4″ x 20″), it hardly seemed painful at all to cut into this precious fabric. I cut the fabric along the selvedge so that I could use the finished fringe as my exposed edge. I ironed fusible interfacing on the back to make it a bit sturdier. Next, I pressed a small fold along the two short sides and then put a layer of ‘Steam a Seam 2′across the back of the fabric. I carefully wrapped the strip around the existing camera strap, overlapping the fabric with the selvedge edge showing. Using a hot iron, I pressed the fabric covering the strap to activate the ‘Steam a Seam 2′ and glue the fabric to the strap. The last step was to sew/quilt concentric rectangles along the length of the strap to secure the fabric to the strap.

I’m so happy. It’s the prettiest camera strap I’ve ever seen and it will be perfect for Paris. We leave a week today!

I made this pink dress ages ago. It’s from a 1960’s pattern that was a bit too big for me, so I sized it down to fit me. In my re-sizing, I didn’t take the neckline into consideration and made it a bit too small. With the mandarin collar, it not only looked too small, but it felt really uncomfortable.

In all these years, I’ve only worn it a few times which is a shame since I just love the pink stretch cotton fabric, the button detailing and the sleeves. In order to refresh this dress, I decide to cut the entire collar off. When I think about it, I don’t even like mandarin collars!

I tried the dress on and marked a new neckline with chalk. When I took the dress off, I refined the neckline to be symmetrical and cut away that tight mandarin collar. Rather than create a new collar, I thought I would just do a simple bias tape trim. Unbelievably, when I looked in my stash of fabric, I found the scrap fabric from this dress and there was enough to make my trim from it. It’s nice to know that my scrap hoarding comes in handy every ten years or so!

Now, I’m totally excited to wear this spring perfect dress.

Sorry about the teaser the other day, I was just so excited that I had to share a wee bit. Here are the beginnings of my idea. I’ve been wanting to cross stitch into wood for a while, of course the thought of drilling hundreds of tiny holes (in a perfect grid formation) into wood does not appeal to anyone. Luckily, the workroom possesses a magical machine called a laser cutter. (That statement alone deserves its’ own post)

After a little computer fiddling, I came up with a few very simplistic designs. I hope to refine them much more. These wooden cross stitch pendants are tiny little canvases that you can stitch little designs or monograms into. How fun! I’m just learning about cross stitch patterns, so my first one is just a simple heart. If you look closely, you’ll see it’s not symmetrical.

In my cross stitch research, I came across the site, Radical Cross Stitch which is full of fun, modern cross stitching. I especially love the Banksy cross stitch. Hmm, embroidered graffiti…

Also, the Antique Pattern Library is a huge (free!) online resource for vintage needlework patterns, including knitting, crochet and embroidery. There are hours of fun there.

Of course, now my mind is racing with a thousand ideas and it’s keeping me up late at night!

The last week has been quite a whirlwind of fun activities and nights out. It’s not often that I get to report about things outside the workroom, so it’s been a real treat. Especially since I got to meet some wonderful people and see some amazing art and design.

Thursday night was the opening for the DIWhy exhibit at the Ontario Crafts Council. The show includes 14 artists exploring the many facets of ‘doing it yourself’ and was put together in partnership with Toronto Craft Alert. The show is on until March 1st, so there is still lots of time to check it out for yourself.

You’ll likely recognize Becky’s security envelope project in button form and Shannon Gerard’s Boobs & Dinks project. Other highlights for me were Amanda McCavour’s detailed thread ‘paintings’ made on a sewing machine using Solvy and Miriam Grenville’s embroidery wallpaper.

That night I got to meet Mike and Bianca from Kid Icarus and Studio Number Nineteen. Funny thing is Bianca and I discovered that we have quite a lot in common, including the fact that we went to the same tiny high school in Scarborough!

I’m asking you to use a bit of your imagination for this one.

I’ve been trying to photographically capture the magic of my homemade blackboard with very little luck over the last month. I will do my best to describe it and perhaps you can envision it in your mind’s eye.

This project was done a couple years ago, but since I mentioned it the other day, I’ve been wanting to share it with you. I had originally imagined having a huge blackboard hanging in the dining room. Rather than just painting blackboard paint directly on the wall, I wanted it to be an actual hanging piece. I walked around the corner to the lumber yard (which has sadly since moved away) and requested their thickest MDF, cut down to 6′ x 4′. I chose MDF because of its super smooth surface, normally I’m not a fan. Of course, it hadn’t occurred to me just how heavy this thick piece of lumber would be. Luckily, the lumber yard fellows had more common sense than I and lent me their large dolly to shuttle my heavy load home. Luckily, one of them also followed me home to help heave it up the steps of the porch. I have a long history of lugging heavy things around town.

The huge board was painted with a few coats of black chalkboard paint and then I quickly realized that it was way too heavy to just hang on a wall. Thus, the blackboard simply leans against the wall. If you attempt this project, I highly recommend doing a smaller, more manageable size and forgoing thickness for thinness. I bought a tiny set of twinkle lights from Urban Outfitters and Andrew drilled a series of holes in the blackboard in a random constellation pattern along the top right corner. The holes were then painted in with the black paint. The lights were wired along the back of the blackboard and secured in each hole. Voila! A lovely twinkling night sky in our dining room, upon which we can write our grocery list, draw our Christmas tree and remind ourselves which movies we want to rent next. I wish you could see it in person, my photos don’t capture its charm.

I must wish dear Charlotte, ‘Bon Voyage!’, as she leaves us to go home to New Zealand today. You will be terribly missed around the workroom! Please eat a package of Tim Tams for me upon your arrival.

{NOTE : The type canvases that sit on top of the black board were done by Andrew using Letraset rub on letters. Clever Melinda figured out that they represent our intitials – Karyn, Andrew & Maisy.}

I have to give my brother, Mark, credit this year for coming through on some excellent gift ideas for our parents. For our father, an ipod dock for his newish car. For our mother, pictures of the two of us in a cute digital picture frame.

It’s not the first time we’ve given this gift, but the last time was likely over eight (or more!) years ago. I do know that last time we used film. As we get older and into decades past our Sears portrait years, it’s really special to have these fun images of the two of us together.

My brother’s girlfriend, Jerisse, was sweet enough to do the photo shoot for us. She shot over 200 pictures and so many of them turned out really great. Last time we just set up a tripod in the forest and used a remote control. (Also, lots of fun!) We’ll have to remember to do it again sooner. It ends up being a treasured gift for all of us.

This is the linen apron that saved me.

I’ve been wanting to make a simple apron for Andrew for a while now. I came across a leftover piece of linen in my stash on December 23rd and suddenly knew exactly how I was going to make it. For the tie, I found another scrap bit of fabric. That orange print always reminded me of a vintage kitchen textile. I made a very long piece of bias tape out of it, enough to wrap around the waist twice and tie. Then I cut the piece of linen to a large rectangle, using the selvedge as the top edge. To finish the other three edges, I folded a two inch hem, then folded it in again and made mitered corners. I love the look of mitered corners and when I have some time, I’m going to make some embroidered mitered corner cloth napkins. (hmm.. great holiday gift idea for next year!) To finish off, I just lay the orange bias tape across the top, folded the pretty selvedge edge down over it and sewed the top edge. It was simple and fast and the apron is so lovely.

NOTE TO SELF: More holiday projects like this next year!

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