The Archives
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09.10.08Crafts We Can Believe InWe hope you'll humor us for a moment while we diverge ever-so-slightly from our regularly scheduled programming... From the "Crafters for Obama" badge that's been on our site since Julie Ree created "Crafters for Obama" back in January, you've probably noticed that we're supporters of Senator Barack Obama's campaign for the Presidency. We believe that his leadership can help our country move in the right direction. We've been personally affected by many of the tough issues that are facing our nation, and many of our friends and family have also been directing impacted by the poor economy, lack of accessible and ...
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07.13.08BlockedWe got the book Lotta Prints by Lotta Jansdotter (who also wrote the very-popular Simple Sewing book) when it first came out. As you know, Josh has gotten really interested in printmaking, especially screen printing, so this book had perfect timing as an impulse buy. We're not going to bother to review the book, since both Average Jane Crafter (aka Rachel) and Diane (of CraftyPod fame) wrote great reviews already, but we thought we'd share the first results from a project in the book. This was Sarah's first attempt in, oh, seventeen years or so, at printing using a linoleum block. ...
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06.28.08Tutorial: Adirondack Chair ReduxAs promised, here's the step-by-step for making over your very own crummy plastic Adirondack chairs into something fun and unique. We had some of the classic "computer monitor beige" chairs that were leftover from our past lives in Santa Fe where you just get used to everything being brown. Somehow, all brown stuff just doesn't fly now that we're back in Portland, so red and blue polka dot chairs seem much more appropriate. We're really enjoying our new and improved chairs. Hope you have fun with this! 1. Locate some old plastic Adirondack chairs, and clean them well (you don't what ...
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06.23.08Extreme Makeover: Plastic Adirondack Chair EditionNow that it's (finally) sunny here in Portland, we've been furiously spiffing up our backyard so that we can enjoy hanging out outside. Our old crappy "computer monitor beige" plastic Adirondack chairs (that were our living room chairs when we spent a year living in a converted Santa Fe blacksmith shop---but that's a story for another time) have been resurrected. These look so awesome with super funky blue and red periwinkle polka dots that we're thinking this revamp may deserve a tutorial. (It's pretty simple, really...) What do you think? ~S & J
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06.01.08Party OnThis weekend I went to a party for an old friend of mine (like, we went to preschool together, old friend) in celebration her graduation from medical school. I actually got to see a bunch of people that I hadn't seen in ages---including a friend of my who (thanks to Facebook) I recently found out lives down the street from me, a gal that I thought I didn't like but who actually seems pretty cool (funny how we get so much less judgmental as we, er, "mature"), my favorite high school teacher (English) and the German teacher I was terrified ...
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05.29.08It’s Gotta Be the ShoesIt has taken me ten days, but I think I am finally able to discuss the shoes. The combination of frustration, old shoe funk and the massive loss of brain cells from working with Shoe Goo had rendered me unable to rationally explain why and how I made these things and their deeper meaning (not really, they don't have one). I had been thumbing through the most recent issue of Craft Magazine a while back and noticed that there was an article on making shoes using an old pair of Chucks. Honestly, I thought this was pretty sweet, but wanted ...
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04.09.08Creative EnergyJosh's screen printing has really piqued my interest. So much so that since he made his first screen, I had this vision in my head of a tree. I couldn't quite get my head around what that tree would look like, but I had been messing around with a bunch of different ideas of trees and being slightly obsessed with looking at tree silhouettes online. Weird, I know. Anyway, I finally found the image that I was looking for---in the wonderful book Neubau Welt. This is the description of the book/CD: My house, my pool, my horse, my Learjet, my Mercedes, ...
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03.28.08Big Printin’Sarah made me a lovely Burda raglan sleeve knit T-shirt (8827) for the Christmas Day Blazers vs. Super Sonics game, where the crowd was encouraged to wear red. I didn't have anything red to wear, so she whipped this one up for me (it literally took her like an hour). Let me say that while it is really comfortable, how often does someone need a plain bright red shirt? If you are me, not often. I must admit that I love t-shirts with things printed on them. I am not much for the logo wear, that acts has expensive ...
recent posts
- Sewing Heritage: More Stitching Up Old Glory
- Train-Inspired Screen Print
- Sewing Heritage: Stitching Old Glory
- A Little Late to the Whole Apron Thing
- Wear a Dress Week & Another Amy Butler Lotus Dress
- Run With It
- Sewing Heritage: Women, Sewing & the WPA
