Discover NYC when everyone is away

The city is so nice and quite on the weekends now, so we have been having a great time checking out many different spots in the city.  This past weekend was a trip to the Museum of the City of New York.  Here were paintings by ANDREW BERRIEN JONES, an artist from the West Village. 

I was just mesmerized by them.  What a simple concept, to capture these beautiful details.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.  

Camo Ribbon Belt

I am something of a personal seamstress/designer for my friend Jen.  I love it when she comes to me with an idea for something that she wants but cannot find.  She LOVES camo, and wanted a fun ribbon belt for jeans.  

This is what I made for her.

This cuff makes a statement

I made this for a birthday gift.  

This is a 4" high cuff made of faceted glass beads, round glass beads and shells.

It may be a bit heavy because of the glass but it really does dress up the arm when wearing a simple summer shift.  

Wearing two will give you Wonder Woman powers. 

re-purposed shower curtains

This thing, the blog I mean, is like exercise.  You do it for a bit and it feels great.....then you stop for a day or two and bang!  It is three month later.  However it is not as if I haven't been busy so I am going to post a lot of stuff all at once.  For now I wanted to show the way for me to use up tired shower curtains.  Some of them are made from a nice sturdy cotton and after numerous washings they have a great faded look.  So just cut off the grungy bottoms and there you go, nice yardage for large MARKET BAGS.

I also use the nylon liner as a liner for the bag that way if any spills happen then it will be easy as pie to clean up.  

These are quick, cheap, easy and a great way to recycle a huge piece of fabric that one would otherwise throw out.  

Tank Top Jeans Necklace

 

After a little break from taking a trip out west I am back with a clear head and a lot to do!

I really wanted to finish this necklace and put these beads to good use.  The black beads are faceted glass that came from several different vintage necklaces, the large blue beads came from Paris and round lapis beads used as center accents.  

The color comes off much better in the second picture!

Winter hat has a new identity

This was a really fun project.  This hat was given to me with a request to make it into a handbag.  It was handmade by my client's mother and she really wanted to put it to use all the time rather than seasonally.  

After a few attempts at integrating this ribbon (which happen to go PERFECTLY), this is what I ended up with. 

a cinched drop carry all with an adjustable strap that can go from wristlet to over the shoulder.   Enjoy Clarissa!

Great with a tank top and jeans.

To detract myself from the fact that I am not keeping up with my yoga I thought some new accessories would be a great way to brighten things up.  

As soon as I saw this Lanvin necklace it reminded me of a piece of my Mom's that I have been hanging on to.

There are two white enameled pieces that came from a necklace and the little "birdie" black and white bits were vintage earrings.  

They are a bit chipped but I love the tracery quality and it reminds me of garden furniture from the 70's

....but I am not so sure about the contrast of the black and white, but I do love the big blue glass beads (I got these in Paris), so I am definately going to keep those.  

Might have to ditch the white pieces and do something else with them. 

to be con't.....

Gift of Love, con't

......and here it is.  I stitched the olive jersey in, using a raspberry colored embroidery thread.  It is nice and thick and adds some texture, as well as color.  Of course because I am paranoid about it going thru the wash I added another round of stitching.  

After a few rounds of washing, not too bad.

Giving a Gift of Love

I wanted to make this shirt as a birthday present.  I saw this technique on Alabama Chanin's site (which I love, check it out www.alabamachanin.com) and figured I would try it.  I got a shirt at Old Navy for around $3.00, input the phrase on the computer, picked a font I liked and printed multiple copies until I found the size I wanted.  You can see below how I cut out the individual letters and placed them on the shirt.  I put a little piece of double sided tape to keep it secure, then carefully and patiently outlined each one in a soft leaded pencil.  

I wanted to outline the letters instead of pinning them to the shirt because it would be easier to move the shirt around when cutting them out.   Here is the shirt with the letters cut out with the other piece of jersey behind it to showcase the letters.  Now I just have to stitch around the letters to secure the jersey in place.  Once I am done I will post the final piece.

Just wanted a new jacket!

We had a warm day today and that always inspires me to clean out my closet.  With that I mean, what can I take that I never wear and then do something to it, so I will start wearing it.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but I never stop trying.  

Here is a brown jacket that I always enjoyed but it was too stiff looking.  I had a shrug from Old Navy (which I never wore) and the color matched great.  I took the sleeves of the jacket and replaced them with the bell sleeves from the shrug.  

I then took the wrap around belt from the sweater and covered the seams to finish it off.  

This was a success and I love it.  A bit more funky and comfortable, perfect for me.