I finished up one last apron and then put my apron fabric away for a little while. Even though I was having a ton of fun making them, I want to have something to do in the fall. Once the store closes, I’m sure my work hours will be drastically reduced (if not eliminated all together!). With the savings I got on the fabric, it makes sense to save these aprons for a rainy day.

(Plus I was getting tired of having to clear away my sewing gear every night at dinnertime.)

I think this latest apron is my favourite so far because of one tiny little adjustment I made to the pattern. It uses the same pattern I used to make my mum’s apron and the same fabric used to make Meredith’s apron but, instead of making the ties as indicated, I made extra bias tape, changed the order of seam binding so that the outer neck was bound last, and lengthened the binding so that the extra bias tape formed the ties.

Love it, love it, love it.

Yesterday’s find of street art from the May 1968 Paris protests inspired me to make my own version of one of the posters for my bedroom. What better daily affirmation than “La Lutte Continue”?

Here’s how I did it (with tips on how to get similar results without the use of a vinyl cutter)…

(Warning: I’m a bit of a hack when it comes to graphic software so, if you know of a less kludgy way to do something, go for it.)

Supplies

• 16 x 20 stretched canvas (I got mine at Michael’s for $5 or so)
• 1 can of spray paint in the colour of your choice
• black vinyl
• transfer tape

The only tool you’ll need is a utility knife; a vinyl cutter and brayer are optional.

Start off by painting the canvas with your spray paint. While it dries, you can prepare the artwork.

If you have a vinyl cutter:

Open the original image in Photoshop, select the black areas using the Magic Wand tool, making sure that “Contiguous” is deselected in the tool options. On the Paths palette, click on Make Work Path then, from the File menu, select Export Paths to Illustrator. Save the .ai file to your hard drive.

Open the .ai file using Illustrator and clean up the image, replacing lines/paths as needed. Resize the image to fit your canvas.

Send image to the vinyl cutter.

If you don’t have a vinyl cutter:

Print out the original image. Using a photocopier with enlarging capability, copy the printed image, enlarging it to fit your canvas.

Tape the enlarged image to the vinyl on all four sides. Use your utility knife to cut around the image, cutting through the vinyl (but not the backing paper!) at the same time.

For all:

Weed the vinyl using your utility knife so that only the image remains on the backing paper. (See Photo 1)

Cover the image with your transfer tape, as in Photo 2. Go over the image using a brayer or other similar device (back of a spoon, your thumbnail, whatever).

Carefully remove the backing paper from the vinyl and apply the image to the canvas. Turn the canvas face down and go over the entire thing with a brayer or brayer-like device.

Turn canvas right-side up and, being oh-so-careful, remove the transfer tape. (See Photo 3)

Hang it on the wall (Photo 4).

Be inspired (not shown).

Despite getting a number of things done, this morning’s To Do list might just be getting longer. Yikes!

• sew Meredith’s apron
• deliver Meredith’s apron to Bob
  
• mail Mum’s apron
• sew other red/black apron
• laundry, laundry, and more laundry
• try out new fabric dye crayons on dishtowel
• clean up dog yard
• pull weeds by wooden deck
• trim rose bush
• cut vinyl decals for club gift basket
• figure out a way to incorporate French poster into room decor

I did pick up a jumbo envelope to mail Mum’s poster but the post office will have to wait until tomorrow. (I can never remember if padded envelopes which obviously contain SOMETHING require Customs stickers or not!)

I tried out my new Pentel fabric crayons on one of my linen tea towels, using a modification of my Fetterangus design:

And, thanks to Illustrator and the vinyl cutter, I’m half way to getting my La Lutte Continue artwork for my room:

And, of course, I’ve added all sorts of chores to the To Do list…

• vacuum dining room (especially the little bits of thread from sewing aprons)
• design artwork for the Spawn’s vinyl/canvas project
• register Tighe and Rogie with the UKC

Back to apron work!

After working another six day week, I have finally arrived at my day off. As if that wasn’t enough to make me giddy, I actually have TWO days off in a row. Rather than sitting around, relaxing by the pool or something equally lazy, I made myself a To Do List:

• sew Meredith’s apron
• deliver Meredith’s apron to Bob
  
• mail Mum’s apron
• sew other red/black apron
• laundry, laundry, and more laundry
• try out new fabric dye crayons on dishtowel
• clean up dog yard
• pull weeds by wooden deck
• trim rose bush
• cut vinyl decals for club gift basket
• figure out a way to incorporate French poster into room decor

As you can see, I’ve finished up Meredith’s apron. My friend, Bob, had asked if I would sew an apron for his friend, Meredith. He looked at my Cindy Taylor Oates pattern, considered both my apron and my mum’s apron, and then asked for a few modifications. He liked the neckline of the ruffled apron but preferred seam binding to rick rack. So, I made the ruffled apron without the ruffle and trimmed it with contrasting seam binding. It’s a little bit shorter than the other aprons but still fits nicely.

The Spawn had her first day of classes today so I had no one to model it but here it is laid out on my bed:

I found a Flickr stream documenting the very cool street art from the 1968 Paris “revolution”, including this superb one:

I wonder if I could cut that on the vinyl cutter and create a piece similar to my Eames dots? Might be worth a try, non?

And now I’m off to try and get more items crossed off that list!

While out in Roseville buying fabric for my mum’s Hallowe’en apron, I happened to notice that The Fountains, Roseville’s newest mall, had finally opened. I’d been keeping an eye on this development as it included Sacramento’s first Sur la Table.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the region’s first West Elm!

Last night, we finally made it back out to Roseville before the centre’s eight o’clock closing time and were able to wander around a bit. We didn’t make it to every store on the list so will be sure to go out again to check out Anthropologie, Smith & Hawken, and (maybe) some of the clothing stores.

Until then, I’ll have to pore over the West Elm catalogue I picked up, dreaming of how I’m going to replicate some of the looks in it. Just from last night’s walkthrough, I noticed these easy-to-do-at-home projects:

(All photos from West Elm)

Both of these looks could easily be replicated by papercutting a design out of card. And I can do that! Yippeee!

Another DIY adaptation could be done of this art insert:

The lacquer might be hard to duplicate but maybe a nice porcelain or ceramic tile would fit the bill…

And, given that my wintertime goal is to learn how to knit, I think these pillows are more than do-able:

Hmmm. Maybe I should get a “Learn to Knit” kit before embarking on this project…

Inspired by this instructional post on How About Orange, I decided to decoupage my “change jar” today. My change jar is actually a Vasen vase from IKEA and it just sits there on my dresser. I’d initially planned on using pages from an old Norton Anthology for the decoupage material but, as I’m loathe to harm any book, I jammed out at the last minute and used an old road map instead. The map I chose was one I used on a cross-country trip with a friend. I opted to mark our route on the map with an orange marker before ripping it up.

(All the rocks are souvenirs from various holidays…mostly camping trips but the big piece of red sandstone is from Orkney.)

Other things to do on your day off:

• check out the new stuff at IKEA (even though it’s not new, I’m in love with the Aläng floor lamp in white)
• start making ANOTHER apron!

Last week, I made my first apron using a Cindy Taylor Oates pattern and Amy Butler fabric. After posting about it, my mum asked if I would make her an apron using the Taylor Made pattern but with Hallowe’en-themed fabric. She volunteers at the pensioners’ home and likes to dress up for holidays; she has a Christmas apron but no Hallowe’en apron.

I had a blast making another apron. Besides the reward of having a way cool apron to show for my efforts, I’ve been really amazed at how patient I’ve been with the detail work. Seriously…for this apron, I made five yards (that’s 180 inches!) of bias tape and then stitched that bias tape onto a garment — all without throwing anything against the wall in frustration. That’s a reward of a-whole-nother type…

And so here is Mum’s apron:

And a close up of the fabric:

As I told my mum…it’s bright and cheery despite having dead guys all over it.

Yes, more broke-ass decorating tips…

My latest foray into cheap decor has been trying to create wall art for my bedroom. When we moved into this house, I was amazed at how much wall space there was. Two years on and I’m still trying to fill it.

Here’s the most recent addition:

That’s my rendition of an Eames dots canvas. Here’s an unfortunately blurry close-up:

(Believe me, this one was the best of a bad lot but I really didn’t want to use my flash for the close-up.)

I started out with a stretched canvas from Michael’s and a can of orange spray paint from the hardware store. The canvas was painted with as many coats as it took to leave a nice finish.

In between coats of paint, I drew up the dots design in Illustrator, using a fabric swatch as my guide, and the cut the design on the vinyl cutter. Once the paint was dried, it was just a matter of transferring the vinyl to the canvas.

I know what you’re saying … “But I don’t have a vinyl cutter!”

That may be true but you don’t have to use your own vinyl design. Wall decals are available just about everywhere these days (even Target has them!). Besides the original source for wall decals, Blik, you can also find some really fantastic designs at good prices on Etsy.

Total cost?

Somewhere around $6…five bucks for the stretched canvas and then another dollar in materials for the paint and vinyl.

At book club’s canning adventure, Leigh had brought aprons for people to wear. Now, I’ve never worn an apron but I did that day and I realised “Hey, these apron things are pretty damn cool!”

I resolved to make myself one.

Finally, I was able to fulfill that resolution! I picked up some Amy Butler fabric (Midwest Modern’s green Martini and green Fresh Poppies) and a pattern for retro aprons by Cindy Taylor Oates.

(Check for this pattern at quilt shops.)

It was fast, easy, and looks fantastic. Here’s the Spawn camping it up while wearing my version:

I love it!

One of my favourite bands doing one of my favourite tunes…