Baby Anglerfish! & Yes That

baby angler fish

And I have loved thee, ocean! And my joy
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be
Borne, like thy bubbles, onward: from a boy
I wanton’d with thy breakers-they to me.

Here’s the thing. I knew I wanted to make a baby angler fish bunting quite a while back. You can easily see why. This little piece is up for sale on Etsy.

Baby Anglerfish! & Yes That's A Glowing Lure!

Baby Anglerfish! & Yes That's A Glowing Lure!

 

This little critter is made from an uber-soft velveteen and lined in one of my favorite formal lining fabrics: a slipper satin, deep purple for this application.

And oh yeah. That is a real glowing lure. I mean COME ON, of course!

Baby Anglerfish! & Yes That's A Glowing Lure!

Fins are constructed of a waxed cotton – which makes for a leathery feel and a translucence by light.

Baby Anglerfish! & Yes That's A Glowing Lure!

I knit a little cozy for the lure bulb, which is lit with a battery:

Baby Anglerfish! & Yes That's A Glowing Lure!

Fully-lined pockets. Because you know how babies need pockets:

Baby Anglerfish! & Yes That's A Glowing Lure!

Teeth: a 10% wool. I needed some ferocity but everything needs to be really safe and soft!
Baby Anglerfish! & Yes That's A Glowing Lure!Happy fishing!

 Baby Anglerfish! & Yes That's A Glowing Lure!

awwwww yeah, sew-a-long part deaux!

gimme-slack

Are you all ready for another great sew-a-long? This time we’re making pants. Fabulous, stylish, super-fly PANTS!

I received wonderful series of compliments for my last sew-a-long – a very meticulously constructed plaid flannel shirt. One “student” said she literally never looked at her pattern directions as my written instructions and photographs (there were about 250 of the latter) showed her everything she needed to know. w00t!

This go around, things are a little easier. And if you like, a lot livelier!

A New Sew-A-Long - Gimme Some Slack!

Tomorrow I will be posting the supply list for this endeavor. Our first day sewing will be June 1st 2014.

In the meantime, you can help other people find this sew-a-long in a timely fashion, by posting the badge to your own blog, or sharing via Tumblr/Twitter, Facebook (you can “Like” my page for updates), et cetera. The more people who participate, the better this sew-a-long will be, as I will be making corrections and additions as per feedback. Seamsters in the future will stumble on these posts and be glad for them!

You can also subscribe by RSS to either my sew-a-long feed (in which case you will see all future sew-a-longs when I post them) or just the feed for the Gimme Some Slacks sew-a-long! If you’d like another subscription option, email me and let me know. kelly AT hogaboom DOT org.

To post this badge on your site, copy the text below and paste it into your WordPress widget sidebar (or whatever blog software you use). You may also save these to your own computer and upload to your preferred hosting space. Feel free to link back to https://kelly.hogaboom.org/category/sew-a-long/!

 

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D.I.Y. = J.O.Y.

Say It Isn't So! #DIY JOY

Our “new” hi-fi, tested immediately upon re-assembly. Ralph put on Hall & Oates because he is not an asshole.

Say It Isn't So! #DIY JOY

Say It Isn't So! #DIY JOY

(a little of the “Before” piece)

A few years ago we picked up one of these Magnavox record cabinets from Freecycle. It was one of those… well, people who know furniture could describe to me the construction and materials, as wood and furniture products aren’t my specialty. Not too glamorous, built well-enough, handy for listening to vinyl or the radio. You know what else, these cabinets have that feature where you can stack multiple records and it will play them through. This is rare to find today, but a feature I really enjoy.

I don’t remember what made me think we needed another one of these pieces when we spied one at Goodwill. I do know I’d long wanted to refinish a record player and take it out of the assy-brown region, and I liked the lines of the second piece more than the first. We dragged another home for $20, swapped the decks, and put the first one back out to Freecycle.

As we contemplated refinishing this piece I looked around at a lot of paint and surface options. I became more and more interested in using oil-based paint, which has so many advantages. We used a Glidden Porch & Floor paint and even as it still cures I’m so thrilled with the depth of color and the hardness to the paint. I guess I’m a little worn out from years of living in eight-layers-of-latex rentals.

Much like my sewing work, I enjoy playing with color and seemingly dissimilar styles and patterns. For the main color of the piece, I used Granny Smith Apple and for the sliding top, Early Morning Sun. Just so you know, of course, the colors look different whether looking at my monitor, or at the paint chip by my side, or the actual piece of furniture – which is very green despite my bush-league photo efforts, here.

The oil pant is so glossy it gives you a blurry-photo optical illusion in this photo:

Say It Isn't So! #DIY JOY

For the speaker re-cover, we looked through a few of my stash supplies and couldn’t get over how much we liked an Anna Maria Horner velveteen, which I’d found on sale for $15 a yard. I used a half yard with no waste, ripping on-grain then finishing by serging in case we ever decide to (carefully) dismantle and wash the velveteen.

So the total project cost a little under $50. $20 for the record player, $20 worth of paint and thinner, and $8 for fabric (we did not need to buy brushes or sandpaper as we had them already). However, I always think these cost estimates are goofy. They never include how much time one spent on a project, and don’t include the “hidden” costs like – how we had to buy a full gallon of paint in order to get the color we wanted. Anyway, we had a great time and I learned just a wee bit more about paint, color, and design.

Say It Isn't So! #DIY JOY

is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment

I’ve spent so much of the last dozen years in near-constant company of children you’d think I find them quite unremarkable as companions; but in fact, they are a special type of experience to me, still. I often feel uncertain, and think I am supposed to be providing them more food, more cuddles, more baby-talk. However I have very little to offer on all these accounts – sometimes not much for my own little ones.

The girls visiting tonight are, as per usual, excited about our life and they explore it frankly. They are enamored of our home; they enjoy my mother’s property next door, with the witchy garden and koi pool and fire pit. They are excited our children do not go to school and they are enthusiastic about Nels’ lemonade stand (he spent all day out there; cheerfully greeting, pouring, mixing – and when alone, singing songs and saying, “I’m a winner!” to himself).

In the evening Ralph leaves for a meeting and the four children and I venture out to our favorite little walk along the harbor. Within a few moments the younger sister N. sits behind me on my bike, completely at-ease with a grownup she’s never met before. She has a wicked sense of humor, very dry – a lot like my daughter. She is pretty in a winsome, Scout-from-To-Kill-A-Mockingbird type of way. Her sister is a real beauty, clouded blue eyes and long lashes and dark hair falling across her clear brow. They are very composed little girls and quite game to shift bikes back and forth when we are joined by another child on foot, woefully protesting the unfairness of not owning a bike. Phoenix, for the first time, rides my X with Nels on the back while I carry N. I feel a sting of pride. A little later my daughter rounds a corner too fast and ditches the bike too, falls right over although she and Nels are very good at dumping bikes without being hurt. Phoenix gets up and dusts off. “It’s not a maiden voyage of an Xtracycle if you don’t fall,” I tell her cheerfully; she brightens up.

The children know where to look for animals hidden here and there in the hot, muggy wetland – we find all sorts of creatures, including many centipedes criss-crossing our path, a long-toed salamander (rare for our area of Washington), and a small nest of nubbly purple-pink rodents. The children entreat me to take photos with my phone although in the case of the little baby nest, I don’t want to get too close.

Long-Toed Salamander

Rodents Of Generally-Expected Size

***

Back at home the visiting girls stay until the last possible moment before they’ll be late getting home. They keep asking about my sewing and my sewing room. Finally it occurs to me they might like some of Phee’s hand-me-downs. I step into the closet and begin pulling out this and that, garments my daughter has grown out of that haven’t found a new child. I hand over a few things then start straightening the hangers, lost a bit in preoccupied tallying of my children’s clothing needs. A moment later I turn to find one of the girls still standing, expectant, hoping for more magic to be pulled out of this dark and dusty little closet. The girls try on the garments and one of them, the older one, brightens up considerably at Phee’s leopard-print-and-lilac-rose dress. She changes into the frock then skates into the kitchen and twirls; the dress suits her even more than it did my daughter.

Giving clothes to children is funny. The kids have to like the clothes and then who knows if the parents will let them wear them. And then there are the unintentionally-comic requests; a friend of my daughter asked me to make her a Justin Bieber t-shirt. As if you can’t find one of those for $5 at Walmart! Still, I am gratified to think these particular garments will find another happy home. All told, the girls left with the Blue Dragon Egg Jacket, the Bleeding Heart Dress, the Rayon Tiered Leopard Dress, and Blue Goth.

(A retrospective:)

Happy As A Clam
Supermodels
Up Close, Flowers, Leaves, Vine
Pensive At The Coffee Shop