Market Sewing

I love Seattle for many, many reasons, but one of the reasons close to the top of the list is the sheer volume of farmers markets. While some of them are seasonal, you can find a farmers market in this area 365 days a year. During the summer, I try to go to the Kent farmers market every Saturday, and today I saw something new.

This is Dominic Muren. He founded a project called the Humble Factory, and as part of that has created the Production Cycle, a bicycle that has a sewing machine attached that he rides to local farmer's markets. While at the farmer's market, he makes a bag from scrap fiber materials from the Seattle area - like coffee bags - and trades that bag for information on other scrap fiber sources in the area.

He is in the process of building a website that will make this information public so that other artists in the Seattle area have access to these same fiber sources that would otherwise be discarded.

He's personable and easy to talk to, and that machine is freaking awesome. It's a Singer Featherweight machine that has been modified into a treadle sewing machine. He built the housing and did the modifications himself and I love that the housing and machine can be transported on a bike.

I think these ideas are pretty cool and I love the idea of using castoff materials to make something valuable. It's the reason I joined freecycle, after all, and I know in a place like Seattle, there are fiber sources available and a community of people who want them, I just don't know where they are or how to get them.

If you are interested in hearing more about this project, or want to give him some information about fiber castoffs availability in the Seattle area, check out his website, http://www.humblefactory.com/, or the blog, http://www.humblefacture.com/

pardon the jittery camera.....

Toasty Hands, Thankful Heart

I have spent the weekend sewing. It was blissful, glorious, and so incredibly relaxing. I was able to catch up on 2 backlogged projects people had paid me to do back in September right before I broke my arm, and do a little sewing for myself. I was able to use some of that creative fog swirling around in my head - making things a little clearer. I am so thankful to regain both the time to sew and the physical ability to use my right arm again.

I finished this bag for a repeat client - the specifications were hers, and I think it turned out really crisp and awesome.

I made some placemats for another repeat client - and then was in a hurry to leave the house and forgot to take a picture. D'OH! Nothing too complicated there, just basic 2-sided placemats. She wanted Christmas fabric on one side and fall fabric on the other. I did feel that I was channeling Project Runway and Tim Gunn a little, since I had some trouble with my original idea and ended up having to rework it a couple of times. ("Make it Work!!"

The other thing I worked on was just for me. I work evenings at various sport events to earn some extra money, and I generally work the ticket booth for football and soccer games. I can be there for as long as 4 hours at a time, and the weather this week turned really cold and wet. I can't wear gloves to work the ticket booth because I can't make change, and in addition, the palms of my hands tend to run really warm and I can't wear gloves for long without ripping them off. But I did want something, since my wrists and arms get cold, so I have been contemplating fingerless gloves for some time. The problem was that all the online tutorials I could find were for knitted or crocheted gloves, and I can't do either of those things.

Last night while I was working the ticket booth, I just sort of rolled the idea around in my head (between drunk and smelly parents buying tickets for the game). The problem was that I wanted thumbs on the gloves. It would be easy to just sew a tube, or sew a tube and cut a slit for the thumbs, but I wanted actual thumbs in the gloves. I had a bunch of jersey knit I had gotten for free off of freecycle a few months back, so today I pulled it out and just started playing with it.

One of my biggest concerns was that I have had very little luck with knits. My mom's machine ate knits, so I never sewed with it growing up. In addition, I do not have a serger, which seems to be the accepted and easy way to sew knits. But the fabric was free, it wasn't like I was going to be out any money, so I just jumped in.

I ended up with these. I may have made 4 pairs already. I love them. Everyone is getting a pair for Christmas. Easiest Christmas Present Ever.

I like that they have long thumbs and long hands, so they can be folded down or up, depending on what you need, and the sleeve end can be folded or scrunched as well. I also like that they are t-shirt weight, which is light enough to wear easily and still stay warm. They could also be worn underneath a heavier pair of gloves without any trouble at all. I am a little proud of these. I may make a bunch and try to sell them. I looked on etsy, and as far as I can tell, there is nothing quite like these listed. If nothing else....I am both trendy AND warm. I can't decide whether or not to do a tutorial. I have the pictures for it, but am going to let the idea roll around for a while before I decide.

Tied and Muffled

I have a box of 5 or 6 men's ties. My dad doesn't wear ties and I don't really know a lot of people that do (farmers mostly think ties are dangerous) but I really like men's ties for some reason. I have picked up a few from time to time at the thrift store with the idea of using them for handles on bags, like I did with this one on the left. The only problem with that is that ties are generally cut on the bias, so they stretch a little bit.

I have been thinking about ties though lately, and the other night got the idea to make one into a scarf. I didn't know exactly how I wanted to do this, but did decide to make the back out of silk or something soft like that. I didn't take a picture of the before tie, but it was an awesome, very retro '70s tie that was chocolate brown with daisies and butterflies on it. Very manly, I know. I ended up with this....which is not a great picture, but is the closest you will get to seeing me on this blog. Here is the scarf (scarflette??) untied and hung up with the remainder of the gold silk as a background:
I started by splitting the tie up the back and taking the stiffener out of it, then ironing it flat. That was the point that I realized that a tie is VERY wide at the bottom. There's a lot of fabric in those things! I debated cutting it down, but decided not to this time since I liked the lining and didn't want to resew the ends. I may do this on a different scarf. I then pinned the flat tie onto some gold silk that I found in a drawer and cut out another tie shape of gold silk and one of polyester batting. Then I layered them together, sewed the two long sides and turned it inside out. Some handstitching on the ends and I was done! I used some of the buttons my mom brought me over Thanksgiving and put a buttonhole on the other end and tried it on. Nice and warm, but very smooth against my skin. I am not a huge fan of fleece scarves and I really like the way this one feels. Any thoughts? I have a few more ties and I am thinking of making some for the shop but would love to know what you think first.