Gingercake

Postings and Plans

Yeah!  I just finished posting all my vintage linens in my gingercake shop.  That baby is sorely neglected since I love to thrift but don't really love to list.  I don't know why- etsy has made listing a LOT easier.  It's just all those dang tags!!!  Etsy shop ladies know what I am talking about- right??

These 2 awesome pillowcase sets sold quickly!

I just read this excellent post on thrifting if any of you are interested.  A great read and really good tips.  It is true that small town thrifting can be A LOT more successful especially for vintage sheets and retro finds.  Cute kid clothing?  Not so much.

Cal is a great companion at the thrift shop although I admit that my time is pretty short.  Another reason I rarely go into the clothing section- he just doesn't have the patience.  Once he has found his .50 cent truck/ army man/ sword/ tractor, he is ready to go!  But I have plenty of time to cruise through the sheets, crafts & knick knacks.

Here are 3 adorable 40s/ 50s apron patterns I found some months ago~

If only I looked that cute in an apron!  And here is some amazing fabric that I thinking about making an apron from.  I have 10 yards of this fabric!!

The fabric actually came from another vendor when Karen and I did the Fleatique last summer.  It was her mother's and although I wish I could use it myslef, it is just not going with my turquoise, yellow & red thing I have going on in my kitchen.  

I also regularly find bunches of rick rack, elastic, bias tape, and fabric that I use for trials and kids clothes.  What about you?  Are you visting your thrift store?  

My VERY BEST FIND EVER were these 2 chairs that I realize I never shared here...

Those are 2 original Charles Eames/ Herman Miller chairs.  I bought them for $2 each about a year ago.  I knew they were valuable but not until I got home and looked up their history did I actaully feel guilty for paying so little for them.  

Honestly, Cal and I usually find a whole lotta nothing at the thrift store but some days seem to be non stop treasure!!  Check out my shop if you are interested in any of these items (ahem- not the chairs though!).

Lastly, next week I am going to try the Kids Clothing Week Challenge again!  Who wants to join?  I need to make some PJ pants, shorts and simple dresses.  NOTHING fancy- just a couple of easy useful things that I have been putting off and need to be done!

 

Floor Pillow for the Reading Nook

The girls have a reading corner of their room.  My husband built them shelves and the light is wonderful.  The only problem was you had to sit on the floor to read!  There isn't room for a chair.  

Problem finally solved when I bought some new walk in the woods fabric from Amy's shop.  The prefect fabric for a floor pillow in the reading corner!

I have loved seeing the granny squares pattern floating around on Pinterest.  Especially the adorable and sweet ones by Jesse!  The original post about them can be found here.  I increased the block size to 5.5" to fill the 24" pillow.  

On the back I used a super soft high thread count cotton and again used Erin's method to put in the zipper.  I love that method!  Such a nice and professional touch.  The heart shape with the tag is my only delima.For now it is blank since I couldn't think what to put on there.  Do I embroider "love mom?"  Or elsie suggested I say "reading is fun!"  Or my name and the date?  Not sure for now.  Any suggestions would be welcome!

I actually bought 3 of these 24" pillow forms since they were on sale for only $9!!  So more to come eventually.  Hope you all are enjoying a lovely first day of spring.

Almost Spring Dress

Anne has grown out of all her dresses.  Growing like a little freckled weed!  Yesterday I made her one to celebrate day light savings time!  She loves it except all the trying on she had to do.  "I have to put it on AGAIN??"  

I based the dress on this one from the mini boden catalog.  I knew it would be simple to do the pleat in front and A-line shape.  That cute bib was so simple too.  

The fabric is a vintage 60s that was given to me by a 90 year old friend.  It is pretty and light weight.  I fully lined the dress which made everything come together.

If I were to do it again, I woud probably make a zipper in the back.  The keyhole is kinda big but it was easy and I didn't have a good zipper to use.

I was thinking easter dress for this one but she is not sold.  She says her easter dress needs to be MUCH fancier.  We'll see about that!  But, she will consider it as one of her options :)

Cal's backpack

When I picked up Cal from preschool on Tuesday he actually asked me to make him a backpack. WHAT??  He is not interested in my sewing for the most part- except actually the machine itself.  He likes that a lot!  So we came home and I fawned all over him and we chose fabrics together (aka I picked out the fabrics and he happily agreed).  In a couple hours we had a cute backpack!  This morning, we walked the girls to the bus and I took pictures of him.  He was so proud.

This is the toddler backpack from made by Rae.  I have lost the actual instructions and now only have the pattern pieces left.  They must have been on my old computer.  After making this I realized that the last time I made one was for Elsie going to Kindergarten.

The blog post about Elsie is here.  That was my second blog post ever and I laughed when I saw my formatting troubles.  She looks so little in those pictures and was so excited about her first day of school.

 It would have been nice to have the instructions and I am sure if I had emailed her, she would have sent me another copy but Miss Impatience decided I could handle it on my own.  No serious problems but I am sure that clever Rae has it all worked out perfectly.  

I added a simple zipper panel to the front.  I used some more of my AnnKelle fabric.  So so cute!  The sides are green duck cloth and the striped is a decorator weight from the Joann clearance section.

Thank you all for your help on my bunny!  I replaced the eye with smaller buttons and I am now playing around with embroidering a nose.  I also bought some BEAUTIFUL fabric from Amy and I am working on another version of the 3 layer clutch.  I don't have that pattern out of my system just yet.  I just love watching it all come together and this Heather Ross fabric is making such a pretty spring version.  What are you making?

Doily Skirt

Last night when instead of making dinner I made this skirt for Anne.  Yes, they got dinner- just kinda late!  The lovely Kelle Boyd of AnnKelle sent me this pretty corduroy 1/2 yard back when I did the handmade holidays series with her.  I realized that it is February and I needed to use the fabric before spring!

I used this website makeagif to make this GIF.  Sorry if it is making you kinda ill to look at it but I thought it was fun and super duper easy if you want to try.  The kids are crazy for it!  

The pocket on Anne's skirt is a thrifted doily that I got for $.25.  I sewed it on and left the top unsewn.  It gaped naturally so I folded it down and tied a ribbon bow to finish it off.  Cute I think.

This skirt is made the super simple way- take a 1/2 yard of fabric and make a tube.  Hem the bottom, cut to the length you want on your girl plus 2" for the elastic casing.  Make the casing and add elastic.  Voila!

Thank you Kelle for such cute fabric!  

Distractions

Today I needed a distraction from pattern writing and Cal and I needed to get out of the house. We paid a quick trip to the thrift store and although I was looking for other things, I ended up in the t-shirt section.  I don't usually shop the clothes since I am a bad clothes shopper in general (my poor mother has experienced this over and over and over!), but since I was looking at clothes to repurpose I actually did OK over there!

Elsie has decided jeans are no longer acceptable in her wardrobe.  In an effort to make it through this stage without so many tears before school in the morning, I bought these nice LL Bean tees at the thrift store ($3 each!) and used the Lil Blue Boo Leggings pattern that I already bought last year.  That is one easy and quick pattern!  

I know I could have gone to Old Navy or Target to buy leggings very cheaply but those places are pretty far for me to drive and the Goodwill is only about 5 minutes away.

She's stylin and I had a break from the computer screen!  The shirts were extra large so I just used the existing hem.  When I make this pattern again, I will make sure the knit is more stretchy since she had trouble pulling them on.  Once they are on though, they are mighty cute and comfortable!

Crazy and disheveled little sister wanted to get in on the picture taking action...

There was plenty of left over fabric and I used a new grey tee shirt and a green thrift store tee shirt to make a quick dress for Anne.  I used this tutorial as inspiration.  The seams on the outside are genuis since they hide imperfections and I like the look.  This was REALLY fast and the result is great.  Knits are very forgiving and easy with the right tools.

 and here she is in rock star pose (which I guess is just mad face)...

and finally some freckles and whispy orange hair to go with your coffee this morning...

This dress is a great beginner project.  The hard part would be making that tee shirt top and it is already done for you since you just cut up a plain tee shirt!  I used my ball point needle and just a regular straight stitch.  No need for the serger with either of these projects.  Also, be sure to try that lettuce edge hem!  That is so fun and easy!  Just zig zag along the edge and you get that darling hem.  

I hope you feel inspired to try something new!  Let me know how it goes!

 

Months of Vintage Pillowcases and Sheets no longer collecting dust

I finally got all my pillowcases and sheet sets listing in my vintage linens etsy shop!  It had been sorely neglected although I was still shopping at the thrift store and estate sales every few weeks but these babies were just piling up in the corner of my closet.  I love how they all look together listed in the shop...

Go get some good deals if you are a pillowcase lover!  

I edited these in picnik a few weeks ago.  I usually use iphoto or photoshop elements but I wanted to try picnik since I heard it was easy for editing a bunch of photos at once.  It was nice!  Simple too.  I would certainly recommend it if you are uncomfortable with PSE and want to get nicer, brighter photos.  PSE is still much better for making a single special picture look great but picnik works really well for doing a bunch at once and brightening a batch of pictures.

I still have a few more to add and hopefully I won't wait months to do it!  Do you have a fun project to share that uses vintage sheet fabric?  I am thinking about making fabric banners with the leftovers from my sheet ripping day.  I think they will look so sweet hanging around the girls room!  Leave a comment with a project you would do and I will choose one winner to get a sheet bundle from my shop!

Those bundles make me so happy!  I can't wait to hear your ideas!  I'll choose a winner from the comments on Friday November 18th, 2011.  Thanks friends!

Transformation

I keep looking at these bags on etsy.  Today I finally made my move to make my own version.  The weather was rainy this morning and now it is cool and crisp like fall outside.  I am not rushing into winter but seasons changing is nice in so many ways- bring out your sweaters and your boots and all that good stuff.

This large tweedy wool skirt that I bought last year seemed like the perfect candidate for a transformation.

I originally thought I would be able to take the skirt and tailor it to fit me but since it has been a year and no tailoring has been done (seriously, when would I wear a skirt like this?  To pick up my son at preschool?).  Well, today it became this...

Nice, huh?  I like how classic it is and the wool was wonderful and forgiving to work with.  I used the dimensions of Ikat's bag in her description and although I love that big flap she has, this design worked better with what I had.  I only wish I could take photos on the streets of Paris like she does!   Do you want to see a picture of me wearing it to pick up my 4 year old at preschool in the suburbs?  That could probably be arranged...

Color Scrap Quilts

I know I was supposed to be working on the Lola Owl pattern but I ran out of flannel (that is what i use to line the lolas)!  Until I could make it to the fabric store, I started making more of my color scrap baby quilts since my scrap bags were overflowing.  Once I made it to the fabric store, I bought extra flanel to back the quilts and make some owls.  I love how these quilts use up my scraps AND coordinate so well without me having to fret over the combinations!  And I do fret quite a lot about color coordinating:)

First, I made a pink...

Then I made a blue...

and finally another green...

 

I made a tutorial!  I'll post it in the next couple of days.  It's easy and fun!  These 3 quilts will be for sale in my GingercakeSews shop soon.

Cutting into your favorites

I eluded a little to my issues with cutting into my favorite fabrics in the last post.  Since we made up the expression FCA last week, I think we should call this FFHD (favorite fabric hoarding dilema).  I suffer greatly from FFHD and yesterday I finally busted into some of my favorite and made something cute.

Yes, it's the  Kokka Trefle Russian Matroyshka Nesting Dolls.  You have seen this fabric, right?  Who doesn't love Matroyshkas?  I really don't get into all the japanese fabric obsession that some people love.  I admit to being much more into a big floral with bright interesting colors than hedgehogs and mushrooms.  I think all that is really cute but it doesn't inspire me to sew and DANG that japanese fabric is expensive!

But this fabric was worth it.  It was on sale but I still splurged and bought a whole yard- I have had it for months and finally cut into it yesterday.  Cute. Cute. Cute.

You may have guessed that I am now working on a fix up of the Notebook Slipcover pattern.  It doesn't need much except new pictures and I wanted to include how to do this quick notebook cover.  No closure needed and it comes together really fast!  This notebook and a couple other binders are now in the new shop.

Do you have some fabric you are hoarding???  I have to admit that part of the reason I got my courage up to cut into my favorite fabric is that I have a whole stack of Joel Dewberry Heirloom coming in today!!!  Move over Matroyshkas, here comes your competition.  Nothing to get you over an old love like finding a new one!