Feature on a Blog

I had a short feature in a blog by Elektra Jewelry Design. She was so kind to feature me, so I thought I would put up her Etsy Mini for good karmic returns. Check out the store and look around. Perhaps there is something you would like for yourself, and it is never to early to start some holiday shopping! Have a great weekend. I will be back to the blog on Monday with the weekend recap.

Hoping For A More Productive Day

Lately I have set goals and not met them as far as production of pants has gone. I love all the new fabrics I have bought and really want to get them made into pants, but things have been standing in the way lately. I was on track to get a ton done on Monday, but found I was out of the thread I needed, so I resorted to more cutting and less making. Then on Tuesday, I went to fill in all the thread gaps I had at the fabric store. A quick trip to the fabric store is like trying to stop the world from spinning. I always end up browsing the aisles even though I say I am only going to run in and then out with only what I need. In my browsing, I always end up with more in the basket, that then turns into a cart, than I really need at that time. What can I say, I am a fabric addict. I am hoping for today to be different. Aside from doing the laundry, I have tried to remove any things that will get me off track by doing them yesterday. I had tutoring at 826 yesterday, made all the phone calls I needed to make, and did all the net surfing I could to try to get it out of my system. Hopefully I can settle in to get some great sewing work done today. With that, I am off to plug in the iron.

Supplies Run

I worked on the purple pants yesterday. I got the fabric all ironed out, and folded for cutting, and then cut to only find out I could not sew them up. In all the recent supply runs I have filled in all the gaps for colors of thread, or so I thought. I went into the thread pile to find that I had only three feet of purple thread in the color of the pants I wanted to work on. *SIGH* So, I moved on and worked on ironing out, folding, and cutting another pair of pants in a beautiful light blue. This fabric also has the binding on one side, but the delicate shade of blue was also too good to pass up the day I bought the fabric. It has great little daisy type flower details all along the design patterns. I also like that the gold embroidery on it is a more subtle shade of gold and less bright in spots. It looks almost antiqued. So, on the plate for today is a quick run to the fabric store for more thread. I am also going to hit some thrift shops to look for certain supplies I need for making some of my holiday gifts for family this year. I am trying for once to start my gift making now, so I am not a crazy person come December. I find making stuff for the eldest niece is getting tougher and tougher as she starts to get older, and the thought of her being too old for toys made by her Aunt just gets to me. I need to go and visit them sometime this year while they are all still little and not too cool for me. Well there are many places to get to and my feet and BART only travel so fast. I will leave you with a quick picture of the blue daisy fabric for the other pair of pants I am cutting out.

Inspiring Weekend

This weekend I decided to recharge the creative batteries. I went with my husband and a friend to the De Young museum to see the Chihuly exhibit. It was full of beautiful glass works, and it was nice to see someone else who seems to love vibrant colours. He also has a very whimsical view it seems, and his love for natural forms was also something I connected with. Below is a picture of his glass ceiling. It was a great piece and seemed to be a gigantic "I Spy" picture made of glass. If you go to the above link, you can see pictures of the entire exhibit. I highly recommend it to anyone who can see it when it comes to your city. Pictures just do not do this exhibit justice. It is something that must be experienced in person.



After that, I went with my husband to see Lewis Black in Berkeley. It was a great night. The show was really funny and rounded out my day nicely. On Sunday, it was back to finishing work on some pairs of special order pants. They are finally finished after much wrestling and wrangling, but I think they came out beautifully.

Yesterday was filled with house cleaning. I have let it slide for too long, and it really needed to be done. I tackled it all yesterday. Who knew such a small apartment could take so long to clean. It is great though, and I love having a sparkling clean house. Now, I can mess it all up with pants making! I have some great fabrics I bought a week or so ago and some older ones that I can finally get to. Today I am going to work on the purple moon flower fabric that I have. While the sari binding is only on one side, I could not give it up. I thought it was too pretty of a pattern and colour to pass up. Here is a quick picture I took of it. Hopefully I can get these made today and photographed tomorrow. It is all weather dependent on that. I want to get them up for sale by Thursday though. On that note.... off to iron this great fabric out to get it ready to cut!

To Do Today

Toady I am hoping to get a lot done, only, in a quiet fashion. My husband is working from home today to try and get things done. His office space is shared and therefore very loud, so he is using the house today to try to get more done. This means that machine work will be limited today. I have that special order pairs of pants that should be finally done today. They have taken a while, but I am learning a lot about working with cotton knit fabrics. I am beginning to think that I like it.... I know, crazy but true. I was so petrified of working with it when I took on the project, but through diligent study and trying out different solutions, I think I am well on my way to working effectively with this type of fabric. Who knows where this will lead in the future! I am also slowly getting my hairfalls done. I did some research looking at other sellers of hairfalls as well yesterday and felt better about my lengthy making process. I did not understand how some people got their falls done so fast and why they looked so different. Upon further looks, I found that these sellers string yarn onto hair ties and do not much else where as I braid almost all the yarn I place on the ties except for the few "highlight" yarns and metallics that I use to make them look more dread like. Hopefully the hard work on these will pay off for me. Time will tell. Well I am going to head into the work space and try to get some great work done.... quietly.

Cookie Factory

Yesterday I got rather wrapped up in working on my promotional items that are going to fellow Etsy shop Simply Sarah's Paper Perfections. I decided to stick with my two favorite things, Asian style items, and kitsch. I morphed the two into the following promotional item: felt fortune cookies. I got the idea, but had no clue what to write as my fortune to people getting them at the craft show. Should I just put the same content as my business cards? That seemed rather boring. I mulled over this for days, and finally when on a fabric buying trip, I stopped for lunch at a Chinese food place. In my fortune cookie, I got my answer for what to write inside. "Fabulousness in dress will send desirous eyes your direction." Thank you whoever wrote that one at the factory! So going out to the lovely Sarah are 60 of these handmade felt fortune cookies with my shop information. Look for them at the Seafood, Music and Wine Festival in Panama City Florida. Also look for Sarah, or if you aren't in the are check out her Etsy shop liked above. Here are some pictures of my cookie making day.


Cookies being assembled and glued together.


Close-up of an unfolded cookie.


Sixty finished felt cookies.

Productive Weekend, Trying to Carry That into the Week

I got more done this weekend than I thought. I was trying to keep off the machines, since the hubby needed quiet while he worked on his programming for work. I ended up working on a personal project but also on many things for the shop. On Saturday, I went to the knitting group I have become a part of. It is put on by Knit-One-One, a local knitting school that I will one day take some spinning classes from. I have learned to knit from a very talented friend, and am working on my first project. It is, of course, a scarf for my Grandmother for Christmas. I am hoping I will get it done in time along with all the other gifts I have to make. I then spent some quality lazy time with the husband. He even took me fabric shopping! He is a great man! I found some great fabrics and am really excited to start cranking out some new pairs of pants with them. They are truly gorgeous.

On Sunday, I did my normal domestic duties such as shopping at the Farmer's Market and picking up the other groceries at the store. I finished the laundry that is always supposed to get done on Friday, but always seems to not get done because of my working on pants items! :) I worked on some promotional items for the store that are going to be given out by a fellow Etsy shop Simply Sarah's Paper Perfections at a craft show in Florida. I hope it gets some new people into Fabulous Pants. I also worked more on braiding the purple falls I am working on for the store. They are super long! I really am liking this pair, and I hope that they find a good home soon when I get them onto the store. Hopefully they will be up in the next few weeks. They do take a long time since I braid almost all of the yarns that are attached on the bands. Pictures to come soon.... I promise this time!

Well it is time to get back to work on these promos. I also am down right determined to get the pants that I am working on for a special order done. They are made out of a different kind of fabric I have never used before for these pants, so they are taking a really long time. I really want them done though.... the person they are for has waited very patiently, and they need their pants. I just want them to be perfect. Hopefully this pair will make me gain some confidence though, and hopefully I will branch out further with the pants line because of this. If I do, they will be named after her! Off to work, and I hope you all have a creative day.

New Choli - Blue with Triangles

Short entry today because I need to get down to sewing early. Today is a tutoring day at 826, so I need to get a ton done this morning before I head into the city. I thought I would just post a quick picture of a newly added blue and gold triangle choli that is up in the store. Right now there is only the medium C/D-, but there will be a large D/DD up soon as well. For now, I hope you enjoy this new fabric, and I promise more creations soon in the store. I have so many ideas, and I am finding that my hands just cannot move fast enough to accommodate them all. I am happy though to have this type of a problem! :)

Three Day Weekend Refresh

So I planned on working all weekend, seeing as I thought the husband was going to have to do the same thing, but that was not the case. I ended up doing some more final settling into the apartment. It seems like I will finally have everything just how I want it, and then it will be time to move! :) I did get some pants items done this weekend. I updated some of the language on the website, and I also posted the blogs on the front page. If you are a new reader to the page due to these updates, welcome! I hope you enjoy keeping up with all that is going on in the studio. So after rearranging furniture, stacking books in different configurations, and slogging through computer work, I am ready to tackle some more pants items on the sewing machines. Today, I am working on a couple pair of pants for a special order that was placed a bit ago. I had to find the perfect fabrics, and I think I have settled on them. I am devoting today completely to this order. I want to have them totally finished by the end of the week. I do have to learn some new serging techniques for these pants since I am using some different materials in their construction. Hopefully my learning curve is not too steep, and I can get them done in fast order. Someone has been waiting patiently while I craft my magic, but I hate making people wait for things! Well time is slipping away, so I will sign off and update you all again hopefully tomorrow!