Thing-a-day.com

One of the great things about having kids is that you can dress them however you want for the first couple years. That is, until they hit about 3 1/2 and figure out that weird hats and leg warmers are not a fashion choice that they will submit to graciously. The solution? Yes, you got it. Have another child! Which brings in my thing-a-day for today. I’ve been enjoying cignoh’s recent posts about reconstructing old clothing. So tonight, not having another project in mind, I looked in my closet for things I wasn’t wearing anymore. The first thing I found was a brand new pair of striped toe socks that I’ve never worn (because I found that my toes dislike being confined). I cut off the toes and hemmed the rough edges to give them a more finished look. They will now be a pair of baby leg warmers for my 14 month old daughter. Sucker.

my friends gave me a tshirt that has a bunch of pandas in various tai chi poses. the sleeves were a little too long and bunched up a little under my arms, so i altered the sleeves to be capsleeves. i matched the sleeves to another tshirt of mine that fit well. i thought that i could just sew under the arms to make the sleeves tighter, but i ended up having to cut off the sleeves and re-sew them onto the shirt because they were angled too high before. it’s probably not that noticeable a difference (besides the fact that they are shorter) but i’m happier with the fit, and the shirt/sleeves are more comfortable as a result (doesn’t pull across the shoulders or bunch up under my arms as much).

before	after

i reconstructed another oversized tshirt today:

i got the idea from 99 ways to cut, sew, trim, and tie your t-shirt into something special (#15, mimi) but had to modify the sleeves to make them fit better and also made the belt significantly shorter.

A collaboration between my boyfriend Craig and myself. He came up with the idea for a mempo inspired scarf and sketched out some design ideas, which I later re interpreted and then silkscreened onto these fleece scarves! We’ve spent quite a few days going over the designs and silkscreening them all and stuff. And today we finally finished all the work and got to take some pictures to show them off! The Japanese Mempo is a traditional armoured face mask found on a Samurai Kabuto helmet. These masks not only protected their faces, but were used to intimidate foes on the battlefield. One of my friends was kind enough to let me take some pictures of her wearing one of the scarves.

i remade a american apparel men’s XL tshirt today:

i got the idea from save this shirt (fit to be thai’d) but didn’t realize until afterwards that the part that is woven through the back is supposed to remain connected to the rest of the shirt. i don’t think it matters all that much though. if i were doing it over again, i would have made the length a little bit longer, but otherwise, i’m happy with it.

tonight i dyed a turtleneck from a creme color to gray. i know that’s totally boring, but it had to be done, and it probably wouldn’t've happened for another month or more (past turtleneck-wearing season), had it not been for thing.a.day…

why not just buy a gray turtleneck, you ask? that’s a good question! i did look for one, but i couldn’t find one that i liked and that didn’t tickle my neck… you see, i have this thing about turtlenecks and can’t usually wear them—in fact, i haven’t worn them since high school until this year… because they tickle my neck, and i used end up having to pull them down off my neck all day whenever i would wear them… but i found a kind that i like… it’s thin and good for layering and the neck is loose enough (but not too loose!) so it doesn’t tickle my neck. i bought a bunch of them in multiple colors, but they were out of gray. so i bought a creme-colored one thinking that i could dye it if i needed to… and i even continued to look for another gray turtleneck, but couldn’t find one… this was like 3 months ago…. and i tend to procrastinate about stuff like this… so it didn’t look like i would actually get a gray turtleneck anytime soon, but today, because i hadn’t made a thing yet, i decided that would be my thing today, and i actually dragged myself to the store after work, bought some dye, and dyed/dried the whole thing when i got home. thank you, thing.a.day! my other clothes thank you too, for now they will have a gray turtleneck companion to keep them company!

also, here is a picture of a scorpion that i took the other day but forgot to upload:

On Day 13…

 I fed myself (yet another salad, and an improvised blt using pancetta for bacon- which works pretty well):

I planned to feed others (lemony “sunshine cupcakes” from William Sonoma Deserts cookbook, frosting forthcoming):

and I did my laundry:

exciting, no?

Ok so I’ve had issues which meant I couldn’t upload my piccies but I’m trying to get back on track. Here are pics for days 1,2 and 3.

Day 1 saw me making a Jack and Sally charm bracelet.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cherrypiepunk/2260358948/

Day 2 was a dress making day. Eighties inspired neon pink leopard print, rar!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cherrypiepunk/2260169975/

Day 3 was all about panties. Big bow behind panties with a kitty theme to be exact.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cherrypiepunk/2260992108/in/photostream/

Thanks to everyone who left me comments of encouragement while I was away.  Will be back tomorrow with more updates.

ok, this took a lil longer than an hour, but that was drying time.  drawing the design with a bleach pen took about 30 min.  this tee is so me now!

My cat Max on a t-shirt.