mark your calendars, peeps!

i'll be back in town june 6-7 for the FIFTH ANNUAL RENEGADE CRAFT FAIR in McCarren Park in scenic williamsburg, brooklyn. please come and say hello! it's really the craftiest event of the year, and my personal favorite. you won't be disappointed, i promise. i mean, if nothing else, the Treats Truck is there, c'mon!

then i'm staying through the following weekend and teaching FIVE FANTASTIC CLASSES, all in brooklyn. spaces are limited, so sign up now!

skirt patternmaking workshop @ home ec
wednesday june 10 6:30-8:30pm $50
learn how to draft your own pattern for an A-line skirt with darts!

crochet away @ treehouse
thursday june 11 6:30-8:30pm $50 (includes all materials!)
it's a crash course in the basics of crochet, not just for winter anymore...

top/dress sewing workshop @ lena corwin's studio
saturday june 13 11am-4pm $125 (includes lunch!)
we'll use Built by You #3835 (pictured above) in this intermediate sewing intensive.

embroidery workshop @ treehouse
saturday june 13 6-8pm $50
make a sampler of 12 key stitches, and you'll be stitching on everything you own!

t-shirt sewing @ home ec
sunday june 14 11am-2pm $50
make your own t's! i'll show you how to sew with knits; it's not as hard as you think.

for details, full descriptions, supplies needed and to register, click on the links to each individual venue. hope to see y'all in class!

and don't forget: to keep your finger on the pulse of indie, DIY and crafty events all over the country, be sure to peek at the SAPLINGS blog every now and again...

new banner

see xine? it really is almost finished! i am such a slowpoke... it's actually even farther along than this; might be done tonight in fact.

still loving the new studio, and gertie approves too...

at last!

it's been well over a year since i began working on my book, and i am finally allowed to spill the beans on what it's about: PATTERNMAKING. yes! it's called Design-It-Yourself Clothes; Patternmaking Simplified. that's the cover up there, and i am so pleased with everything about the entire experience of writing my first book! most of all though, i am thrilled that it will help people be able to sew exactly what they want to make, and it will fit! pre-made patterns just can't fit every body precisely, just like factory-made clothing can't. the book is arranged by clothing categories: skirts, t-shirts, blouses, dresses and pants, and there are detailed step-by-step instructions on how to make patterns for each. first you make a basic, and then there are spin-offs made using the original pattern. once you've got the basic concepts down, i show you how to stylize them so that you really are designing your own clothes. it will be out in september, but you can pre-order it on amazon now! (sorry for the even-more-than-normal exclamation points, but i just can't contain myself!)

new studio

i am enjoying working in my new (albeit temporary) studio here on the farm. it's what i've always dreamed of: a separate building (i.e. not in the house) and the computer is NOT there to distract me. it's really cute and the perfect size, and i can see ponies and guinea hens and baby squirrels and birds and bees and cats all going about their daily activities as i'm sewing. it even has its own deck, where gertie likes to sunbathe. remind me to take some exterior shots! i'm working on embroidering a long-overdue header for this here blog. it's nearly done so you'll see it soon. i'm also gearing up for Renegade which is fast approaching on June 6-7 in McCarren Park (Brooklyn). check out the vendor list!

cupcake festival

last weekend, in between house-hunting, i went with my friend/realtor jenn to the 1st Annual Gardiner Cupcake Festival. it was a quintessentially perfect country small town celebration; i totally felt like i was in stars hollow! unfortunately i'm too big for a donkey ride, but i had fun eating plenty of cupcakes and checking out the sights...

forty new babies

yesterday i had 31 passengers in my car. one was wearing a blue polka-dot sweater, and the other thirty were safely and snugly tucked in a cardboard box:



they are three-day-old baby guinea hens and just about the tiniest and sweetest things ever. i got them settled into their new home, and they seem to like it so far... they sleep in a mass of entangled necks and legs, keeping warm under the heat lamp. it was very cold last night (36 degrees!) and i was rather worried, but they were all doing fine this morning.

for now they are in a separate box from the ten baby chicks that came to the farm last week, a motley crew of assorted size and color:



i can't wait to watch them all grow up!

spring shop update

little by little i am posting new spring pieces to the shop! it feels really good to finally have some new work for sale, as the shop has been filled with wintry crochet hats and old spring (still on sale!) clothes that i am just so tired of looking at. and yet they say we should not forget the denizens down under, but i just don't want to keep the cold weather gear in the shop year round! what's an etsy seller to do? i wish we could put items in special sections and not have them on the main shop page too, but it's not the case.

anyway, i am really into the smock tunic style (top row), which is the same one you may remember from this incident. but i am making a bunch in lighter-weight fabrics and with shorter sleeves for spring/summer. i wear mine all over town and people keep telling me they love it, so i'm taking that as a good sign!

may embroidery

due to overflowing the april embroidery class at treehouse (we had a great time! that's us above), we have added another one this coming week:

embroidery workshop
wednesday, may 6, 6:30-8:30pm $50
learn 12 basic embroidery stitches and make your own sampler to use as reference in decorating everything from jeans to pillowcases! all materials included.

register here.

naturally

shockingly, i have been remiss in showing you my projects for craft stylish over the past month. april's theme was crafty by nature, and there were so many fab ideas for reducing, re-using, and re-styling you'll just have to take a look! my own contributions included two more t-shirt re-do's (one involving no sewing at all!), a hanging crochet planter for a terrarium, a hand-stitched eyeglass case, and a recycled twine doormat.

also, wendy, the winner of the contest used one of my tutorials for her entry! i met wendy last year at the alabama chanin workshop. her prize was a Yudu screen printer and she is one lucky girl... way to go wendy!