Leggings are popping up everywhere, and I love how fun they are! It's like having crazy pants and leisure pants, all built into one. Below are some of my favorites to buy, or if you're feeling crafty, here's a list of DIY leggings patterns to show you how to make your own leggings!
P.S. now I've got silly ZZ Top stuck in my head. When I was about 7, for some reason the She's Got Legs video translated for me "what it meant to be a woman". Lacy socks + heels. I saw the video and thought, I've got socks like that! I ran and put on my sunday school ruffle socks and a pair of my mom's heels, and wore them around the house thinking, So this is what it feels like.
P.P.S. speaking of heels...i am SO excited...I just spent the most amount of $ I ever have on a pair of shoes, and bought these PINK swedish hasbeens. I've wanted some for forever, and I couldn't resist 20% off via A Cup Of Jo with code ACUPOFJO.
being a crafty person with lots of patterns scattered all over the place, i've been trying out and testing all sorts of cloud storage for my knitting and sewing patterns. the main things i look for are: ease of storage/accessibility, and the ability to access the files from any computer.
Evernote
I've been using a big fan of Evernote for a long time now, and is probably one of my favorite programs/sites ever. it's terrifically useful at instantly clipping something from a website (photos + text) and automatically adding it to your evernote account with the website intact. you can search, tag, organize, and even view by thumbnail.
Some of my favorite things about Evernote:
web clipper instantly files away any picture + text + link I want from any website
attach PDF files (patterns) right into your note, beside the picture of the pattern, and link to the site
browse your patterns by photo, which opens up your attached PDF or text pattern, or search by any keyword
share any evernote folder with others
free account has unlimited storage space, but you can only transfer up to 55MB per month (I've never come close to this)
sync's with your phone, online, and programs on all of your computers
Dropbox
I'm a little late to the Dropbox party, mainly because I thought there were other programs out there that offered cloud storage with more storage. I decided to try it out though, because one area where Evernote lacks some usability is when you're working with a work-in-progress file, and for handling documents other than word, excel or PDFs. since i've been creating digital sewing patterns, across multiple computers, I always need the latest file easily accessible and ready to update in my editing program.
Dropbox does this flawlessly because you actually have a folder on you computer which is constantly syncing with all of your other computers, the web, and your phone. it makes the process seamless so that even though I'm switching between computers, I'm still accessing the same exact file, like magic. i don't have to remember to sync or update or backup. Starting out just using it for my works-in-progress, I've started using it for almost all of my files.
with Dropbox, you get 2GB of free storage, but you can do all kinds of things to increase that to up to 16GB, like take a tour, let them know you're a student, or connect with your social media. also, here's a signup link, where you'll get an extra 250MB added.
recently i started using an online inventory management program for my craft etsy business, called Craftybase, to track all of my inventory and materials. for years i've been looking for an online 'cloud' solution to track my finished products, as well as my materials. google spreadsheets was my temporary solution, but i knew there had to be a smarter system out there. then i heard about craftybase. i've had an account now for a few months and it has been pretty amazing.
overall, Craftybase does exactly what I want it to do. it lets me track my inventory to the level of detail that i set. it's online, so if i sell an item, i can login to CB from anywhere and see if i can relist. it's smart - materials link to inventory, which link to sales, which link to expenses. it's pretty and well-designed. it's constantly improving. it's new so there are still some quirks, but Nicole and Nathan and awesome (they read your suggestions and questions, and implement them!). so, overall, i'd highly recommend it if you're into things like organization and wanting to track inventory. now on to the more detailed review...
craftybase lets you enter and track your materials (down to a single seed bead, if you'd like), number of finished items, sales, expenses and contacts. i only use it to track my inventory, materials and sales....and leave all of my accounting and bookkeping aspects to Outright.
my favorite things
you always know what you have on-hand and when you need to place an order for new materials
you can see trends in sales, what you've sold the most of, and which items are your most profitable
you can see at a glance your costs for materials per unit and see where you can save on supplies
everything is customizeable to the level of detail you prefer - only want to track products by not materials? no problem
help determine how much you should charge for an item by seeing your costs at a glance
Craftybase one-time account setup
so, here's how i use it. first, i set up my account
1. painstakingly enter all of my materials. i'm obsessed with organization so i logged every. single. bead. for weeks i sat in the middle of a pile of beads, counting, entering, counting, entering. you only have to do this once....afterwards just add new items when you buy them. (tracking materials is optional, so you don't have to do this if you're not concerned with this level of detail).
2. import in all of my current items from etsy. this part is simple - just link up your etsy account and click 'import'. done.
3. for each made item, you can create a 'batch recipe' where you log how many and what materials it takes to make that finished product. you only need to do this once, and again, completely optional but highly recommended in order to link your materials and projects.
4. go through and add your inventory for your finished items. each time you add a made item, CB magically decreases your material counts that you set up in your 'batch recipe'. neat!
Maintaining your account
so, that was the tough part. after that is out of the way, maintaining your account is super, super easy.
1. import your etsy items regularly. simple as a single click. this will tell CB if you've made any sales, added new products, or had any fees.
2. when you physically make an item, click the 'add a made item'. if you've setup your batch recipe, this automatically subtracts from your materials (my favorite part!!)
3. anytime you make a supplies purchase, you'll need to enter it in.
all in all, Craftybase does take some work to setup, but for me, it's completely worth it. it is a new program, so it's constantly evolving and changing. there are some bugs and quirks here and there, but the team is very responsive and quick to fix things. they also really listen in the forums, and will add new features that you suggest if they think it makes sense for the whole community. it's also exciting because who knows what kinds of fun things there are to come. if you've tried out craftybase, let me know what you think!
i'm always looking for new ideas on how to gift wrap my christmas and holiday presents, especially diy and handmade ideas that involve recycled or upcycled materials. every year, since I fly home for the holidays, all of my gifts get wrapped post-flight while I'm sitting around my parent's house and generally in a very crafty (aka stir-crazy) mood. as a result, my gift wrapping gets very creative and sometimes very bizarre (my gift tags are never directly addressed....they are always from fictitious characters, and figuring out the recipient usually includes some sort of riddle or guessing game). I try to only use things that I find laying around my parent's house to wrap things, but still try to keep things pretty. And over the years, I've come across many online tutorials to help spark my creative wrapping.
generally, my presents are wrapped with the only 2 large scale paper-ish items that I have laying around the house -- kraft paper and tin foil. i'm a kraft paper addict and always have at least 5 rolls on hand. you never know when you're going to need it. tin foil makes unusually sparkly wrapped gifts!
these plastic bag pom poms are genius! this completely fantastic bow is made from.....a regular ole plastic shopper bag that you get from the grocery store (!!) i have a ton of these piling up and this is an excellent way to recycle them. they look amazing (and goes great with kraft paper.).
tie it all together with beautiful red and white bakers twine (above). ........and a few more of my favorite upcycled gift wrapping ideas include this bow tutorial from a magazine page is so, so clever and pretty! (via How About Orange). Jess also makes these mini-bags, made from an envelope and covered it beautiful tape. also one of the most adorable things i've ever seen!
And finally, Ed Emberley has the most ADORABLE website on how to turn your thumbprint into a cute little creature. Design*Sponge steps it up a notch and uses them to make your own tags.
now that we've finally had a glimpse of warm weather in NYC, i'm completely thinking about summer dresses, gauzy shirts and pretty shorts. in addition to finishing up my projects from last summer (arg) i wanted to look for a few shorts patterns. initially inspired by this post at refinery29, a simple high-waisted shorts pattern + a fun print can turn into a million summertime outfits. i especially love the last pair of short over there all the way to the right.
i've had my eye on this shorts pattern at burda for a while. it's about as simple as it gets. no waist-band, convenient pockets, high-waist. yes, they are meant for wool and to be worn in the fall...but maybe they could be easily adapted to a nice cotton for the summertime.
the next pair of scalloped floral shorts, also inspired by a burda pattern are just completely adorable. they are one part chloe and one part nadinoo. to make, you'd need to remove that skirt flap (ugh!) from the original burda pattern, and then use something like this scalloped hem tutorial to add a little flair.
and finally, there are lots of great vintage shorts patterns floating around on etsy, ebay and online vintage pattern shops. this is my favorite pattern - simplicity 5511 - with four really cute styles. the picture on the right is the pair i made a few summers back (view #2) and i want to try a few more styles and fabrics this summer.
following an internet cookie trail, i came across this tutorial for a minimalist tote bag that i ADORE. my whole life is carried around in a tote bag every day and I'm constantly in search of one that's as pretty as it is functional. this one is perfect!! Designed by Rene Solkesz, you can find the full tote tutorial over at Design*Sponge. AND, it looks like Rene has a wonderful blog full of inspirational sewing ideas.
this DIY necklace tutorial tells you how to make a necklace with beaded fringe. it's super easy, and you only need a few supplies, which you can pick up at your local craft store, like Michael's.
every year, I try to make almost all of my holiday gifts, or give something handmade by others. handmaking gifts means you have to get an early start, so i'm starting a handmade gift series, featuring some easy tutorials for things you can make yourself to have your gifts ready by the christmas season.
for the first post in the series, i'm making a geometric beaded fringe necklace, perfect for women. read below for the full tutorial, or pick a beaded necklace up from the shop, if making one is not your thing.
Materials:
to start, you’re going to need the following. you can pick everything up at your local craft store, like michaels.
* round nose pliers
* wire cutters
* chain - cut to 28” long (or your preferred length)
* beads — probably 2 colors. or lots. go crazy.
* head pins (little wires with a flat end)
* eye pins (little wires with a loop at the end)
Tutorial:
next, sketch out your design, based on how many beads you can fit onto each head pin. here’s one i did with a simple geometric colorblock triangle design, with 18 beads fitting on each headpin — a total of 7 pins.
next, start adding beads to your head pins.
then, after your beads are on, take your round nose pliers, bend the top of the headpin to a 90 degree angle. (beads aren’t in the photo here, but they would be in your project.)
next, take your round nose pliers, grab the tip of the end of the head pin and rotate in the opposite direction of the bend, forming a loop.
then close the loop all the way so it fits snugly against the base (you don't want it slipping off of your necklace!)
once you finish adding all of your beads, you’ll have a bunch of beaded sticks. now, take an eye pin (the one with a loop on one end already) and start threading them through (horizontally) each of your beaded sticks (vertical ones). make sure to put a bead on the eye pin in between each beaded stick that you have, so that they are space apart appropriately.
now, make a loop at the end of your eye pin, just like you did for the head pins — so that you have a loop at each end of the horizontal pin. now, thread your chain onto each of those loops at either end of the horizontal pin. close the loops tight so the chain doesn’t come off.
that's all! layer it on with other necklaces or wear it all by itself.
check back next week for the next gift guide tutorial.
looks like i'm a bit late on this one, but I just stumbled upon the showstudio site featuring sewing patterns for several fashion designer pieces. I think my favorite is this sharp, tailored kimono-inspired jacket by alexander mcqueen. check out the other patterns too, including Yohji Yamamoto, Maison Martin Margiela, John Galliano and others.
this weekend, i worked out a new crochet pattern for a new necklace, which is aptly halloween-appropriate, but i could see wearing it year-round just as well. the pattern is for a crochet skull, which i made into a layered chain necklace, but the possibilities are really endless with this guy. the pattern is below - or if you're not so inclined, you can always pick one up from the shop.
PATTERN
Gauge, yarn and hook size are not critical. I used a G hook with Peaches and Creme cotton yarn, but you can play around with different yarns and hooks to get different sizes.
Crown:
-CH 2
-2 SC into 2nd ch on previous row (2 sts) CH 1 and turn
-2 SC into each ch (4sts) CH 1 and turn
-3 HD, 2HD into last ch (5sts) CH 2 and turn
-1 HD, 2 HD into next st, 1 HD, 2 HD into next st, 2 HD into next st (8sts) CH 3 and turn
Eyes:
-2 DC, CH 7, SL into 3rd st (center of face), turn and slip into first st on chain, turn, CH 7. DC into the 3rd st. 1 DC. CH 3 and turn
Nose:
-SL into 1st st of chain, SL into next st of chain, CH 5, SL into 5th st of chain (after the center), skip a dc, DC into next st. CH 1 and turn
-SC into each st (8sts) CH 1 and turn
Mouth:
-skip first st, SL st into next 5 sts, on the last 2 sts remaining dec 1 sl st (6 sts) turn
-CH 5, SL st to last st, CH 1 and turn
-SC across 5 sts, SL st at edge of bottom jaw
Abbreviations:
SC = Single Crochet
HD = Half Double Crochet
DC = Double Crochet
SL = Slip (stitch)
CH = Chain (stitch)
Break yarn (leaving a longish tail). weave yarn through nose, and tidy up the eyes by weaving in any loose chains under eyes (if necessary).
now your skull is ready to be attached to a long chain for a necklace -- or use it as decoration!
about 85% of my clothes come from thrift stores. which means about 40% of those require some sort of tailoring before i can wear them. most of the time, it's just a simple hem. and i'm usually left with a nice band of fabric. my favorite thing to do with it? double it up and make it into a tie belt (to wear with the skirt or a different one).
here's my latest one made of this gorgeous silk skirt that was really, really long.
i cut 2 strips...each the longest i could get out of the fabric: 39.5" x 9". then i sewed the short ends together to make a REALLY long piece. then folded the whole thing in half lengthwise (right sides together), stitched around the edges (leaving a hole to turn. then turned and stitched the hole closed.
the yardage on this skirt was pretty fantastic, so i was able to get a really, really long belt that i can wear wrapped twice and tied in a knot (kind like an obi belt). or i can wrap it once and tie it in a big floppy bow. the same can be done and worn as a floppy bow scarf.
this summer, my friends and i had a huge tie-dye party. wanting to steer clear of any typical tie-dye, grateful dead looking garments, we opted to use indigo dye and japanese shibori tying techniques to get some unique looking patterns.
we did A LOT of experimenting on designs and found out by trial and error the ones we liked the best.
the dye
we used two types of dye. RIT dye (front) and this indigo kit (back). in the end the colors were a little different. the RIT was more of a navy blue, and indigo more…well…indigo. the indigo kit also is a mixture of dye plus soda ash which we think helps keep the color after mulitple washings (this could be made up information).
and the process for each is different. with the RIT dye, you simply leave your garments in the dye for 30 to 60 minutes, rinse and dry. with the indigo kit (below), your dye is actually lime green (underneath the top layer of bubbly blue) and you dip your garment in for 1 minute, and it turns lime green as well. then you open it up, and let it oxidize for 20 minutes, during which time the indigo slowly turns blue.
after using both, we really liked the indigo kit much better than the RIT dye. you could see your results after a few minutes, the coloring was better, and we're guessing the color is going to stay in longer after washings. plus it was pretty fun to watch it turn from lime green to blue.
the wrapping
wrapped around a stick
this method is done by wrapping your garment around a stick, then wrapping the outside of the gamment tightly and closely with string. it produces a twiglike etched print, and also an hombre like dye print (a gradient shading). i wrapped this one horizontally, but you could also do it vertically. whichever end you start wrapping around the stick is going to be your lightest, and the end will be your darkest dyed. it produces a design like this:
accordian fold between 2 wooden slats
this method you start at one end and fold your fabric back and forth, accordian style. then fold it accordian style lengthwise. put flat slats on both sides and tie it tightly with a few strings. some variations:
*make your accordian folds perfect and you'll get perfect rectangular white blocks on your fabric.
*make your accordian folds sloppy and you'll get a pretty curved bamboo stick design.
*use wooden slats on both ends before tying and you get more white in your rectangles.
*skip the wooden slats and just tie up your fabric and you get a lot more dye that seeps in (i.e. more color, less white).
it comes out a little something like this:
according fold tied with strings
for this one, i accordion-folded across a shirt, starting with the bottom corner and going diagonally up to the top shoulder. then tied it over and over with tight strings. it produced this:
wrapped pebbles
for this method, tie rubber bands around single rocks, with all of them clumped together...and final rubber band around the base of all of the wrappings. this one produces a circular design:
flag fold
this one isn't exactly shibori, but more of a free-style. wrap your fabric up like you would fold a flag, then tie strings tightly around the 3 corners. it produces a pretty design with circles and blocks of color. not a before photo on this one, but here's the finished product:
after everything, we realized one of the best techniques for getting even color and producing the best effects was folding accordion-style, and experimenting with different tying styles (with slats, without slats, neat accordion folds, or messy folds) to get varied results.
if you sell things on etsy, or other handmade/vintage shops, then you're familiar with the one burdensome task of keeping track of your inventory, your expenses and reporting your taxes. i am such a spreadsheet person that the thought of keeping track of everything actually excites me. however, after about a month, i wanted to kill my spreadsheet. after doing a little research, i came across outright, which turns out to be the best thing ever. it's so simple, yet so clever. you just introduce outright to your paypal account, they make friends, and you never have to do anything else ever again.
first, in order for this to work completely automated, i make sure that ONLY my business transactions go through my paypal account. no personal purchases, no personal money in. i use my account to make all of my supply purchases, pay my etsy fees, etc. i also requested a paypal debit card, which i make all of my in-store purchases, post office mailings, etc. you could also have a separate credit card that you make business-only charges to.
second, outright meet paypal. paypal meet outright. login to outright and connect to paypal. every transaction through paypal gets imported into outright and once you define a transaction into a (tax) category, outright learns and then automatically assigns future transactions in the same manner.
that's it! then outright gives you reports, tells you how you're doing in sales (income vs expenses; by customer; by month, etc). and at tax time, they give you a handy printout that has all of your expenses, income, etc, all categorized for you and even tells you how much you owe (quarterly). magic!
one other thing...i also learned about shoeboxed when i signed up for outright. for the 1% of my expenses that i can't buy on my paypal account/debit, i take a picture of the receipt, upload it to shoeboxed, then outright also imports my shoeboxed expenses (and has a link to the receipt). so, if i ever need to pull up the receipt, i have an electronic copy of it.
the pattern for this coiled crochet medallion uses the bullion or roll crochet stitch. it's pretty fun to do, but takes a little practice before you can do it in one easy swoop.
the pattern and instructions for the little coiled medallion necklace is below...or if you're not so inclined to crochet, you can find the crochet necklace in the shop. bullion stitch instructions
the actual bullion stitch is done by wrapping your hook 5-10 times (start small for practice) somewhat loosely, but very evenly. insert into your foundation stitch, wrap once, pull through foundation st. wrap once and pull through all of your loops. wrap once and pull through last loop.
PATTERN
*size C needle
*small thread
you can use any size hook and yarn/thread that you like. the smaller the daintier!
Round 1 - create loop (to knit in round) and dc into loop 10 times
Round 2 - ch 3 st, then into each dc, do 2 bullion 10-loop stitches
tie off end and weave in ends. attach to a chain and you're done!
**Pattern is for personal use only - not to be reproduced for sale, nor to make items for sale**
