Jean Quilts , Llama Pajamas, Titanic Dresses, and upcoming projects!

Rachel: (texts the following picture)

Me: Wow!

Rachel: But wait, there’s more!

Me: How many pairs of jeans did that take?  More importantly…how many needles did you break in that denim (I’m thinking back to the last time I had a denim based project…)

Rachel: 13.  And no broken needles!!!

Me: WOOO! Congratulations

Rachel: I only stabbed myself once!  And tying took just under 3 hours…it was a family project…I even ordered special wide-back fabric

Me: I want to drink hot cocoa and think of fall with that quilt.

LOOK AT IT IN ALL ITS GLORY!

Me: ITS BEAUTIFUL! AND COZY!

Rachel: For my next trick – I’m going to attempt to make a 31 market tote.  And someone on the internet (bless them) has a tutorial (http://jillcataldo.com/how_to_make_a_large_utility_tote/ for reference…though we haven’t tried it yet)

Me: ooooooh! What will you use to keep its shape?

Rachel: They use yard sign frames for the top frame.

Rachel: So I ordered 25…because that’s the smallest amount you could get

Me: Sooooooo….that’s everyone’s Christmas present? 😉

She has one lucky boyfriend!  

It’s been a SUPER busy summer, so I haven’t gotten to visit and have a crafty trouble weekend…which is sad…we’re aiming for August now…which means I’ve had to make my own projects…

Ever find a fabric that you saw and INSTANTLY knew you needed and you need to make something out of it right. This. Second?

2 words, my friends.  Llama. Pajamas.

They are TOO freakin’ cute!!!! (Also – as soon as I posted them I had several requests of “How much fabric do you have left? Can you make a nightie instead?”  I will be spending a fair amount of time with llama in the fabric in the future…)

I used a pajama set I already liked and had as the pattern…my seam allowance was underestimated for the waistband so they ride a little lower than I’d prefer but…since my llama pjs are going to hang out on ME inside the house, I’m not super worried about it.

The fabric store had this adorable tulle/elastic trip I added around the neckline and him of each pants leg.  Normally, I don’t take the time to do fussy details like because my project is generally a thing I need…the next day.  Time was not an issue and thus, I have pretty trim.

On the opposite end of the spectrum – my brother was having a Titanic Dinner themed party and, of course, one has to have the appropriate dress for such an affair (our dinner parties are well known for over the top dinners and costumes…because this is what happens when theatre nerds end up with disposable income.)

So I decided to make this dress:  

Because I am kind of dumb.  BUT unlike Halloween where I gave myself 2 days to make a dress…I had about 2 weeks…

Look at this pretty fabric!

Also – why oh WHY did I decide to do a dress that required sewing, basically, 3 dresses…and 2 of them are out of net.

(Sewing net is the worst. I sewed the sleeves in backwards twice and sewed the side seams inside out…so the dress had french seams because you can’t really SEAM rip net. Fancy for NO REASON…it sure won’t fray, though…)

BUT! The dress was finally finished the night before the party…total of 8 hours of work (not bad for a first go at it…)

My apologies for the dark pictures…it was late…Oscar was really annoyed with me…

Are you done sewing yet???

So what’s coming up next? Rachel is going to be making the structured tote….and ooooh! A gingham quilt! (I love her fabric choices!)

…I have a baby shower gift to figure out (Rachel is going to help me because she is the queen of excellent baby gifts)…and my birthday party is coming up and its Gatsby Summer Garden Party so I need a 1923 summer dress…maybe I should start working on it now…

I leave you with this sign posted at JoAnn Fabrics…and accurate summation of how we feel right now…

Ain’t THAT the truth.

-Caitlin

 

 

We’re Baaaaacccckkkk

Rachel: I almost feel like sewing again…

(2 days later)

Rachel: So, I started a denim quilt top

Other friend: I thought you said you’d never make one of those again…

Rachel: Eh.  Apparently, its been long enough.

I cannot imagine how many needles will be broken in attempting to put this together.  I should ask Rachel to keep a count…

Anyway, its been a SLIGHTLY longer hiatus than originally planned but we’ve got lots of interesting stuff in the works!

First, there was the aftermath of the craft show…

Craft Room aftermath

Living room aftermath

I mean…its cleaner than I would have managed to keep things but…well…let’s fix that.  Through the magic of the internet…TA DA

All organized!

Everything in its place!

(Its like I waved a magic wand.  And by “I waved” I mean “Rachel moved a whole bunch of stuff around and reorganized while I texted asking “Hey, did you take those pictures yet?”  That’s what friends are for.)

Anyway, she also found a permanent craft home for Persteamphone!

Doesn’t she look cozy?

Once all of this was sorted out, we took some time to celebrate some birthdays…

LOOK AT THIS BEAUTIFUL CAKE! IT WAS PRETTY AND DELICIOUS!

Experiment a little with some fancier bags…

Now, with vinyl on the bottom for stability and improved wear and tear.

Practice hand lettering while drinking in a friend’s back yard…

AND finding out that, when needed, I can sew 2 skirts for the Renaissance Faire in an hour and 45 minutes.

The only thing that slowed me down was threading the stupid bobbin 3 times.  Stupid bobbin thread.

Now we’re planning the next weekend to get together!  I have a few ideas of some things I’d like to tackle, I’ve been pinning ideas left and right…and I think Rachel’s JUST about ready to put up with me again…I mean, have me visit again.

We’ll keep you posted on all our summertime projects.  (Spoiler alert: We’re totally going to pickle ALL THE THINGS.  And by all the things, I mean as many carrots as humanly possibly because they are my favorite.)

Thanks for being patient, everyone!  We’re at it again!

-Caitlin

First Show Recap: Exhausted and Excited

Me: Today’s mood: I’m spending the day with period British dramas, tea, and no pants, aside from pj pants with mermaids on them.

Rachel: I may go outside.  But the pants are strictly yoga pants

Me:  Approved

Rachel: I will not be crafting for at least a month.  Its going to take me that long to put the room back together.

Me: This is what Oscar looks like.  I look similar, minus the ear sticking up.

So. Sleepy.

***3 minutes later***

Rachel: Look at this travel bag with a sloth-patterned fabric!

Me: Oooh, I like the shape, but feel like it needs a handle…

…That didn’t take long at all, now did it?

So, the short story is we’re freakin’ exhausted.  But we’re also pretty darn happy.  Maybe I should start from the beginning.

Saturday:

I started the day by mumbling obscenities as I rolled out of bed at 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning.  It was something like *unintelligible noises* Craft show *more noises* “Gotta curl my hair *grumble*

Once I was put together and a person, Rachel and I were on the road.  We were so sleepy we could barely put together our coffee order at the drive-through and I’m sure the lovely barista thought we were insane.  We were just REALLY excited.  Also, really overtired.

But we got to the show with plenty of time and then, following my VERY fancy drawing:

Still great. 

We got the booth set up and ready for our FIRST CUSTOMERS OF OUR FIRST SHOW!

Oops!  Well.  We were LOADED in for our first show…one sec…

JUST LIKE MY SKETCH, RIGHT???

And we were ready to go!

Rachel: I…don’t think you need to smile so hard.

Me: I can’t help it.  I have resting nice face.

Rachel: Huh.

*5 minutes later*

Rachel: Now that you’ve pointed it out, its very disconcerting to see that you DO always look like that, whether anyone is watching or not.

There are just so many great details from day 1 of the show that I’m going to try and hit them all and hope I didn’t miss any.

1. Everyone loves Mable, Rachel’s mini sewing machine.  She was a BIG talking point.
2. She was also an important part of my favorite post on the facebook page:

Caption: Fresh dumpling pouches, hot off the press! 

3. The triangle pouches were a BIG hit.  They were also fun to throw at Rachel when it was quiet (Rachel: You didn’t even say “Think fast!  You just said “TRIANGLE!” and then hit me in the forehead) (Whatever.  One should always be ready for a rogue triangle pouch)

Be right back.  Taking brownies out of the oven.  BECAUSE I’VE EARNED THEM!

Ok, I’m back.

4. Rachel’s family coming to see her!  It was like she had a fan club!  They were so lovely and so supportive and took so many family pictures.  Its just great, you guys. SPEAKING of fan club…

5. “You don’t know me.  But I know you…..” WE HAVE A FAN!  She was great!  A friend of a friend who started reading our blog, and boy did we have a great time chatting with her! (You know who you are.  You totally get a shout out.  And I’m leaning toward Rachel’s Rogues if we need a name for our fans, but am undecided.  I’m working on it.)

6. Another friend: “I want to buy everything…”

7. Rachel thinking ahead and ordering box lunches for us, which were DELIVERED to our booth.  Which is amazing.  I feel like we were so spoiled by such a great first show experience.

Day 1 got us about 60% of what we hoped to sell for the weekend, so we were pretty happy.  (We may also have taken turns holding our cash returns and fanning ourselves with them.  We have NO chill.)

We rewarded ourselves with some burgers and wine for dinner and went to bed at 8:30. Because being that socially interactive is exhausting.

Photographic evidence.

Day 2 was WAY less early (No early bird specials on Day 2, and it opened an hour later.  Thank goodness.)

Similar, but with a few important changes…

Also, during our burger feast we discussed some of the pieces that we thought would really move and hadn’t, trying to come up with a reason why.  One of those items are these super cool dice bags that Rachel and I have been tweaking since she originally found a small bag pattern to try and make them more useful.  Finally, I pointed out we had a bunch of leftover key-rings and we, if we could find small clips, we should add those to a few of them and see if they sell.

Wouldn’t you know it, we sold one right away in the first hour!

Thanks to the beautiful weather, the second day was slower, but we had other friends and my husband come visit (YAY! Thanks guys!!!) and we were able to meet with a bunch of the other vendors (WHAT A LOVELY GROUP OF CRAFTY PEOPLE!  SERIOUSLY!), walk around, and enjoy the show as patrons as well.  Rachel and I took turns walking around…I did not go home empty handed…

So many talented people.

We also met the goal Rachel was looking to meet for the day!  So THANK YOU to everyone who has been reading and came and has commented and just…it was pretty great.  Rachel, because she is great, also offered me my pick of remaining stuff as a thank you for helping!!!! (She did not need to give me anything.  But I had my eye on a clutch…)

Mine mine mine…

Before we knew it, the day was over.  We packed up (with some help from Rachel’s boyfriend.  AWwwwwwww…;)) and we were out in 35 minutes.

We may have high-fived in the parking lot on the way to Rachel’s car.  Sort of a stunned “We actually did it.”

So where do we go from here?

Lots of friends who are not local were asking for an online presence.  Rachel has an inventory to work off of now, so that’s going to happen,  but we need to do a little research to find the best place for us.

Rachel has also been requested by smaller groups of people where she lives to do Pop Up shows with her remaining inventory. (How cool!  How high fashion!) So she’ll be doing a few of those, too.

Lastly, this experience has NOT scared us away!  So, we’re going to do another show in November, if they’ll have us back!  (We think they will.  We’re pretty great.)  We also have some info on other shows that seem like a good fit for us.

I’d like to close this chapter, on our first adventure to do our first show, with the following:  Each show done by this particular group has a tote bag for the weekend with a quote or saying on it.  I picked up the one for this weekend and gave it to Rachel as a congratulatory gift.  This was a monumental amount of work and a huge risk.  There were a lot of “What ifs?” around doing it.  Rachel makes beautiful things.  Any time you make something, create something, DO something and put it out there for the world to see, there is risk involved.  Not just monetarily (JoAnn’s coupons will only get one so far…) but also for your heart.  We have been successful and we are very thankful for it. So…the next time there’s a risk in front of you, or a chance to be taken, especially when you’re making something you love, remember this:

Creativity takes Courage.  Be Brave.

-Caitlin

P.S. The blog is going to take the rest of the week off, then we’ll be back next week to talk a little about the creative process and some of the stuff we’re looking at doing next.  Thanks for reading so far and stay tuned for more! ❤

 

 

The Hand Sewing Home Stretch

The show is next weekend!!!!

Rachel is finishing up foldover clutches:

Round, happy, birds.  ❤

Then moving on to big tote bags (samples below – these Rachel made for my mom and I):

This is my mom’s

This one’s mine (I love a bird motif…)

Additionally, this has proven to be a great way for Rachel to get some half-finished projects done and added to inventory, including a fleece tie blanket and a baby quilt.  Our goal for the show was to have a wide range of priced items, some small items (Triangle pouches! Earbud pouches!) that anyone could pick up to go with their purses and some middle of the road items (clutches.  SO MANY CLUTCHES), and a few big ticket items, for people who really need a Remade by Rachel quilt (you know who you are.)

Also, thanks to some great friends and coworkers calling dibs on a few things pre-sale, Rachel got herself a little reward:

ISN’T SHE CUTE?!?!?

This will serve for on the spot finishing at the show.  We’re going to take turns being out in front and helping people, but, for when a break is needed, this handy little machine will be in the back as we finish up some inventory.  Its always nice to see the maker in action.

Naturally, a sewing machine this adorable needs to be named…

Me: Which one did you get?!?!

Rachel: I found a deal on the citrus one and was able to use a coupon!

Me: AHHHH! I’m so happy for you…

Me: You should name it.

Rachel: Hmmm…

Me: Sugar…Sweetie…Esther

Rachel: Haha

Me: Zippy

Me: Speedy

Me: Aries, sewing machine of war and portability

Rachel: Yuuussss

Rachel: Joan?

Rachel: Joanie.

Me: Awww, Joanie…

Me: MABLE!!!

Rachel: Mable the derby sewing machine…

Me: Like Gravity Falls

Rachel:  YES!! Bright colored sweaters! Agreed!

I see a resemblance, don’t you?

We also had a business/pre-show planning meeting and have come up with our early bird special (shout out to Rob for figuring out the best math), started working on our booth layout (also shout out to Rob for making a plan for it), and I got hand sewing handed off to me!

I really love this fabric.

This evening its just me, the dog, some Mystery Science Theater 3000, iced tea in a mason jar and hand sewing.

My view for the evening

Needless to say, Oscar dog is NOT impressed with my handywork.

Why, exactly, aren’t you paying attention to me? – Oscar

What am I doing blogging when I have more clutches to finish?!?

-Caitlin

Check, check, and double check

Me: One of my friends sent me this Snapchat

Rachel: Lol.

Me: I’m going to sing to woodland creatures to see if they’ll help you.  Stay tuned 😉

Rachel: Haha.  So if there are rats hanging around outside the apartment trying to get in, it’s because now they want to help sew?

Me: Yup!  Watch for them to be holding needles.

Rachel: Another place to farm out my hand sewing! Meanwhile, my progress:

Look at how cute all the triangle pouches are!  And there are a TON of them!

I’m ready for my close-up.

Now that Rachel’s done with all the triangle pouches (Except for the hand sewing the rats are helping with, of course…)  She’s moved on to clutches.  And its really hard for me to say which one I like best…

I want the grey birds with yellow on this one…

The paisley Darth Vader here…

And the feathers in the upper right.

 

There will be bigger fold-over clutches coming soon.  Oh!  The quilts are also coming along!  She’s finished the binding for both quilts…

I go with the rainbow quilt, can’t you tell?

And even had time for a few make-up bags, too!

No big deal.

I,  personally, am exhausted just BLOGGING about it, and she did all the hard work!  We’re really heading into the home stretch now.  The show is a little less than a month from now, but we’re in a good spot.  We still have to put the finishing touches on the display, create a special order form (since, primarily, her specialty is t-shirt quilts, we want an option for people to request pricing for one), and start coming up with a timeline for the day of the show.

Oh yeah.  Gotta figure out what to wear, too.  I’m not so crazy that I need to make my own dress for the occasion…

…but believe me, I’ve thought about it.

Instead, I think we’ll go for cute, crafty, and comfy since we’ve got to be on our feet all day, answering questions about all the cool stuff Rachel made.

Can’t wait to update you on all the quilting!  I know its coming soon!

-Caitlin

A little help from my friends…

I got to visit Rachel this weekend and help work through the GIANT pile of projects.

There are 4 different products in this picture.  In pieces.

Our goal this weekend was to get through as much as possible with the people who were willing to help as we celebrated a VERY late mini-Christmas with said friends. We sure put them to work.  I should start at the beginning…

I left my house to drive the hour and a half to Rachel’s Friday night.  She, wonderful friend that she is, prepped chicken teriyaki with fancy veggies for supper, and cheesecake dessert.  She’s…the best.  So I arrived, we poured ourselves a glass of wine and started our plan of attack (see above picture.)

Our goal for Friday night was for Rachel to clip the corners of the smallest bag type she’d made and for me to match up zippers to the wristlets and purses that were already cut.

Friday Summary:

Food consumed: Chicken teriyaki with fancy veggies, cheesecake, several white chocolate caramel truffles.

Beverages enjoyed: A bottle of rose.  For sharing.  Kind of.

Project status: Zippers matched, corners clipped

TV: Great British Bake Off Season 3 (oh, the humanity!  Oh the sponges!)

We hit the hay and got ready for Saturday.

Saturday morning

 

I woke up…to this

Rachel baked fresh bread, served with cheese, butter, and jam.

Fortified by breakfast, we dove into Saturday’s project: Matching and cutting circles for earbud holders that will be attached to key rings.  Rachel worked on finishing up small pouches..so I got to play with the magical cutting machine.

After a short period of instruction (Me: How do I do this without accidentally die cutting a 5″ circle into myself? Rachel: Umm..don’t flatten your arm through the thing where it won’t fit?) I started going through the fabric stack to pull fabric for the exterior and the lining.

Rachel and I both come from a background where its VERY important to us to conserve fabric and make sure to use as MUCH as possible.  No cut should be done in such a way as to waste material.

HOWEVER

I had to break my fundamental fabric rules in the name of style and adorable patterns with unicorns.  Welcome to the world of “fussy cutting.”  This was an entirely new concept to me, which basically means that you cut your fabric to highlight a specific part of the pattern IGNORING whether or not its the best way to get the most out of your fabric.  This was very difficult for me to do.  But it ultimately makes for a more adorable product.

The fruits of my labor

Then everyone showed up for lunch and party time!

Spicy chicken

Skillet cookie with ice cream

Spicy chicken and chocolate peanut butter skillet cookies! Once the bribe, I mean, lunch was complete we jumped back in!  All the printed labels were cut, the small pouches were turned rightside out and hand-sewn shut (Rachel: It makes a much nicer seam to hand sew it instead of machine sewing it. Me: Thank goodness for working in the costume shop!) and the key ring clips were completed.

All while watching The Princess Bride.  Well, and enjoying each other’s company, of course!

After that I demanded to go out in the sunshine because I’d been inside too long and I was getting a little stir crazy.  A Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher and car ride later, we were ready to jump back in.

So I matched zippers for all the pouches, cut batting, and Rachel sewed a bunch of zippers. (Her zipper-sewing is amazing.  Someday, we will have a “How to do zipper” post.)  We concluded the day by enjoying some ice cream and doing our nails.  Because we earned it.

Saturday Summary

Food consumed: Fresh baked bread! Spicy chicken! Skillet cookies!  Pizza!

Beverages enjoyed: Mojitos all day. With varying amounts of rum. And some fru-fru coffee drinks

Project status: Circle pouches cut, zippers matched, several projects completed!

TV: The Princess Bride, Goosebumps, more Great British Bake Off Season 3

Sunday Morning

I guess this is ok. I mean. If you like fresh bread and egg bake.

Me: *unintelligible noises*

Rachel: You sound like a baby dinosaur in the morning

Me: *more noises*

Rachel: Have some bread.

Me: I’ll be a person in a minute…

After a hearty breakfast, we pressed a few things, enjoyed the pleasure of each other’s company, and I headed back home.

Rachel headed to here parents where she finished(!!!) quilting one of her display quilts and began the second!  I…did my laundry.

We both have great accomplishments.

This week I’m going to try and track down a fun stamp to stamp our sale bags with for the show, so they’re not just plain brown and Rachel is going to keep sewing!  (Don’t worry – she’s making me a hand-sewing pile…can’t wait ;))

I’m exhausted.  She’s exhausted. You’re probably exhausted.  Our wonderful friends who helped with everything (THANK YOU!!!!) are exhausted. Let’s all go to bed and get ready to start the week!

-Caitlin

 

Shipment Received

Text Conversation 2/20/2017

Rachel: The vinyl shipment showed up.

Caitlin: You’re on a roll!!! 😀 😀 😀

Rachel:…

Good puns are never appreciated in their time.  ANYWAY, Rachel got a shipment of glitter vinyl yesterday, which is VERY exciting because, let’s be real, things are better with glitter that you don’t have to vacuum up when it spills all over the craft table then gets in the cracks of the wood and now every project is covered in glitter and NO THAT HASN’T HAPPENED TO ME BEFORE NO YOU SHUT UP!

…

I digress.

She got right to work on this super cute clutch:

What Darth Vader always needed was glitter, am I right?

Then followed it up with “By the way, I have 156 triangle pouches cut out.”

Caitlin: Dude.

Rachel: Dude.

May I say, that’s a lot of freakin’ pouches.

But, they are VERY cute when complete.

And a lovely profile

Feathers!

In other news, Rachel ALSO got contacted for another craft show that would be interested in having her!  Which is very cool.  Unfortunately, its the same weekend as pre-scheduled Sew All The Things and Drink Prosecco weekend…or, as it is more professionally known, stock-pile weekend.  This is where Rachel puts together a bunch of stuff and Caitlin helps do hand sewing.  All the hand sewing. Hand sewing forever. (Makes you appreciate sewing machines, that’s for sure!  But, as Rachel says “There’s just something so professional looking about a hand sewn finished seam.” And I agree.  It just means we have to find something fun to put on Netflix while we work.)

However, she’s on the list for next year!

Now, to decide what our viewing/listening will be while we work.  In the past we’ve gone through the following:

• The Vampire Diaries (Seasons 1 and 2.  When Damon’s eyebrows were the most amazing)
• Central Intelligence (Is there nothing Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson CAN’T do?)
• Westworld (I don’t recommend watching the whole first season all in one go.  We kept looking at each other like “Are you a robot?  Am I a robot?  What color hat AM I wearing? These violent delights have violent ends…”)
• Gravity Falls (I demanded we watch this because I think its great.  Rachel said “Why did this cartoon make me have all the feels??!”)
• Hate watching HGTV shows (Especially EVERYONE on Property Brothers that doesn’t want a house because of the paint color. ITS PAINT! JUST REPAINT IT!  YOUR BUDGET IS $760,000 and you CAN’T spare $35 for paint?!?!)

We’ll see what’s new for streaming this time around.  We WELCOME recommendations for our sewing marathon!

Also, you guys, we had 38 unique hits on this site in the first 24 hours!  And I’m pretty sure only half of them were me making sure I didn’t screw up the template! (WordPress, you are a tricky mistress.)  Thanks so much for checking us out!

Stay tuned, we have an official “Business” meeting conference call on Thursday where we’ll try and figure out what we should have as a logo!

-Caitlin and Rachel