Making It One Day At A Time

I have a lot of crafty supplies and WIPs hanging around the house and taking up space. It's finally time to start using them to make awesome things!

[craftystation]

Just in case anyone was wondering, I am still around and making things, although photographing and posting doesn’t usually happen.

Lap quilt made from old jeans and pants, using Elizabeth Hartman’s Lisa the Unicorn block that I altered to be a horse, backed with fleece. 

[supportnotlflcatlon]

I made these Birkenstocks for my brother for Father’s Day and I actually did some decent documenting of the process for a blog post! I don’t do tutorials and I don’t consider this to be one, but there should be enough information here to get someone started who is new to the process!Happy making! jasikanicole.com ♥️

[beezeeart]

A quick video on how I store/organize my patterns.

[supportnotlflcatlon]

My crafting, like my feminism, is intersectional

Hey all! This is a piece that I wrote for the Sewcialist’s blog about how maker life intersects with race, ability, economics and gender, and I thought I would share it here, because…TUMBLR! Thanks for reading!

My crafting, like my feminism, is intersectional. No pieces of who I am or what I create exists without the others. My blackness is in every loop on my knitting needles, my queerness infused into the hemlines of my me-made garments; my whiteness, my understanding of how to balance myself between cultures that both belong to me, is woven into the threads of every fabric I have chosen to bring into my home. Although I mostly blog about pattern designs and shoe lasts, I think often about how the things I create are intertwined with the ways in which I walk through the world. Bringing up these sticky conversations in the midst of a pattern review sometimes makes people uncomfortable — crafting is a respite for many, a way to release and get away from the hard realities that exist all around us, so they don’t necessarily want to read about how angry I am about the cultural appropriation depicted in the latest Alexander Henry print. But for me, there is no break — I don’t get to escape from my skin color, my cultural identity, my sexuality, because they influence everything I do, whether I want it to or not.

My crafting, like my feminism, is intersectional. Just because I have complaints about how white supremacy and the patriarchy affect me and my crafting doesn’t mean I am without my own privileges. My feminine tastes, my gender, my body shape, all of these things are validated when I thumb through patterns at Joann’s, dress after skirt after blouse perfectly suited to my liking and my sizing. I don’t recognize it as luck. It’s intentional. The sewing world, the world at large, has been set up to confirm my body’s presence in it, to make me feel comfortable participating in sewing, an activity that I love so dearly. I haven’t had to break the mold, haven’t had to yell and fight for my body to feel seen, for my bust to feel accommodated, for my curves to feel recognized, for my gender preference to match up with the designs available for my body type.

But because I have a wife whose identity on the gender binary is tenuous, and because I like to make things for her (I’ve started to describe making as my love language), I have had the tiniest glimpse into what it feels like to travel around in a gendered world that is not quite made for you. The first garment I ever sewed for her was a button down shirt, a men’s pattern. She liked the boxy shape depicted on the cover of the envelope, liked that it didn’t have darts to accentuate her waist or her bust. Not all women want their boobs to be pushed up and their waist to be squeezed down. At this time in my sewing life I had little experience with fitting adjustments — I thought you just took the side seams in and in and in until it fit perfectly, until there was nothing left to take. When I completed the shirt, it was huge on her, she was lost in it. The design was obviously not made with her body in mind. So I took in and in and in at the side seams. But now the sleeves were disproportionately huge. So I took the seams back out out out. In an act of desperation I added some darts in places that made no sense. I felt proud of what I had done but curious about why I had to work so hard to make the garment right for her when I was able to make patterns fit me right out of the envelope with relative ease. She wore the shirt a couple of times as a show of gratitude, but she was never comfortable in it. Eventually we gave it away. I am much better at fitting now. I have since made her jeans, shorts, tons of button down shirts using a better pattern, and approximately 379 pairs of joggers. But I make her the same things over and over again because there is so little available that suits both her tastes and her body. It’s not a complaint; I understand that my wife is part of a niche market. It’s just an acknowledgement. A reminder that in some ways I fit into this world more easily than others do. Which is, again, a privilege.

My crafting, like my feminism, is intersectional. I’m trying to get out of the habit of saying things like “oh, this project is a piece of cake to complete!” and “it’s so easy, anyone can do it!” because, yes, another acknowledgment, a reminder: the world is not made up of people with the same abilities that I have. One person’s “easy” could be another person’s “crying themselves to sleep at night out of utter frustration”, for any number of reasons, all of which are valid. The whole slow fashion movement is based on a certain set of privileges that not everyone has. The money, the time, the brain capacity, the skills, the physical ability, the comfort — it’s not available for everyone, even if they appreciate what the movement stands for and want to take part. Some makers only buy organic cotton and natural dyed fabrics because they want to be mindful of the impact that their art has on the environment. Other makers shop at Walmart because it’s the only way they can financially accommodate their therapeutic crafting and their need to put food on the table. There is room for all of us; the definition of what a maker is doesn’t have to be squeezed down down down to recognize only people who are doing it in the ways we consider “right”.

My crafting, like my feminism, is intersectional. I recognize the privileges I have as a cis woman making clothes for herself based on patterns that are easily available, affordable, and within her size range. But I also recognize how that privilege goes out the window when I go to a hardware store to buy materials for my next wood working project. When asking which aisle the screws are on, I am condescendingly told by a smirking man that “screws actually come in different sizes? So, like, it would help to know which type and size you’re looking for.” As if I wasn’t actually going to be using them myself, as if I had NO idea how screws work. I am offered help when carrying cumbersome things to my car and even though I politely decline, I am still followed out of the store all the way through the parking lot just to “make sure you’re okay!” I am petite, but I am strong, yet no one trusts this. I wasn’t taught how to work with tools and machines from anyone in my family because they never learned themselves, so a few years ago I taught myself by reading a book called The Handbuilt Home written by Ana White, a woman who builds her own furniture. I don’t want to have to shop at the big box home supply stores for materials, I would rather support small hardware businesses that thrive on local support, but the Home Depot three miles away is the only place I have found that employs women on the floor, not just the cash registers, the only place I’ve found that allows me to toe that fine line where I can ask for help without being patronized in the process.

Amongst older knitters, I make it clear that no, my grandmother didn’t teach me how to knit. And my mother didn’t teach me how to sew, either. When I was growing up, they were too busy being single parents to enjoy the free time and disposable income that often comes with recreational crafting and deliberate artistry. I think of them whenever I am luxuriating in my craft room, a space larger than any bedrooms my family ever occupied growing up. I make enough money that I can buy fabric that I don’t need, can splurge on the expensive embroidery floss, can purchase more yarn than the pattern calls for, just in case. But I am always wondering what kinds of things my mother, my grandmother, my father could have created when they were younger if they had had more money, time and support. I grew up poor, knowing that my parents wanted me to be better off than them, knowing that they wanted my life to be easier than theirs. I am, and it is, and I try not to forget what modest beginnings I came from. But it is so easy to ignore the pain of past yearning- yearning is not a pleasant state. The freedom I have to create is a constant reminder of the distance between me now and me then, between my parents and myself. It makes me feel guilty and proud all at the same time. Both in and in and in and out out out.

My crafting, like my feminism, is intersectional. I seethe when I see a wall of cotton novelty prints that only features white faces, because I want to see my likeness in them, too. But I also have to check myself after automatically cringing when I walk by a shelf full of acrylic yarns, which I presume to be “cheap” and not worth a second glance; being able to afford more expensive yarn is a privilege that I often take for granted, which I find very interesting considering that when I first learned to crochet as a child, I had no idea that yarn could be made from anything other than synthetic fibers — cheap yarn was all we could afford, and so it was all I knew. That distance, again. Of course, now I know much more. Like how recognizing yourself in the world of crafting doesn’t look the same for everyone. Like how your socio-economic status, the color of your skin, the way you walk through the world, your culture, your gender identity, the people you love, your size, your ability, your mental, physical and emotional health, your religion, all affect what, how and why you create. I don’t see myself in shelves of fabric depicting all white faces, and others don’t see themselves in a $20 skein of yarn.

As I was writing this piece, someone left a comment on a blog post I had written recently. The post was about the ways in which fabric is whitewashed, and what a negative impact that has on both communities of color and white communities. The commenter fully agreed with what I had written but also mentioned how she, as an older woman, very rarely saw herself depicted singularly in the media, how after a certain age her peers seemed to disappear, her changing needs rarely addressed. It was like her age had suddenly put her in a demographic that was invisible. Of course, intellectually I understand the explicit repercussions that ageism and misogyny have on women in today’s society — I’m an actor for TV and film, so I have seen and felt the pressure to stay small small small and young young young since the moment my career began, and I imagine that I will experience those pressures in even bigger ways as my work continues. But I am ashamed to admit that I haven’t spent much time thinking about the personal toll this disenfranchisement has on women as they get older, yet another divisive impact on a community constantly struggling to make their voices heard.

I can’t fix any of this myself, I wouldn’t even know where to start, but I can strive to make enough room for all those parts of me, and all those parts of you. I want to hear as much as I want to be heard. It takes tremendous effort to be a crafter who is constantly carving out space for all the different people who exist in our world, and the sad truth, what I hope I have demonstrated in this essay, is that the work is never done. I know I don’t get it right all the time and I imagine that few people do, but I can always keep trying. I want to understand our world beyond the privileges and shortcomings that I experience myself, appreciate it through eyes that are not always my own — I can’t escape from my identity, but I don’t want to escape from anyone else’s either. Being an intersectional feminist is a powerful and often humbling movement to be a part of; it has taught me empathy and inclusiveness, and influenced my making in the most unexpected ways.

My crafting, like my feminism, is intersectional.

Anyone else want in? -Jasika Nicole, 2017

[craftystation]

- Maintenance and Mending Monday: Backpack Water Bottle Pocket - 

[ I was busy pretty much the entire day yesterday and didn’t get this out, but it still counts for M&M Monday! ]

My partner’s backpack developed a hole where his water bottle kept hitting the ground whenever he put his bag down, and although sport mesh is available now in fabric stores, I didn’t really want to make a trip just for a small amount of fabric. Instead I used some ripstop nylon that I’ve had, hand-sewing it into place after singing the edges so that it wouldn’t unravel (that worked much better than trying to serge it, and I didn’t want to roll the edges under and sew them just for a patch). Since this was a quick-and-dirty job I didn’t clean up the original hole in the mesh, but that’s an easy fix down the road.

I am really not a fan of hand sewing, but one technique that helped me this time was using my new craft clamps (forceps) to guide the needle. Think of medical people stitching a wound closed - same idea. Sometime in the near future I’m planning on making a few small samplers to practice my hand stitching (which I really need to do if I actually want to start hand quilting smaller projects). Until then I’ll rely on this new method - when I absolutely can’t use my machine, that is.

[craftystation]

- Maintenance and Mending Monday: Sharpening Veggie Peelers

I’ve been trying to figure out if I could sharpen my old veggie peelers for a while, considering that every time one gets dull I just end up buying a new one. We have a small knife sharpener that we bought to sharpen the serrations on the knife of our Skeletools, and after watching a couple videos I decided to give it a try. The sharpeners that I saw people use were ceramic, and the different levels of grit definitely would give a better/smoother edge, but for rehabbing these old peelers this definitely did the trick. 

[craftystation]

Hello! I was sick all last week and got very little done :(  and then this week has been filled with catching up on all the housework and errands that I couldn’t get to last week. 

One thing that I really needed to figure out was a way to keep our catnip and spider plant away from our cats (we’ve had the plants locked in our bathroom since we brought them in more than a week ago). I figured this was the best time to use a ball of hemp twine that was leftover from when I made macrame jewelry years ago. I crocheted up two of these hanging planters (generally following this pattern), figured out where a stud was in our ceiling, drilled some holes, screwed in a couple ceiling hooks, and finally hung the plants. The cats are now confused, but they can’t reach them! Success!

[ecoslo]

Hump jumpers and jean-a-ma-jigs... oh my!

Today I’m sharing a tutorial / tip for the Finish-A-Long! 

In chatting with friends recently, I realized that not all of them were familiar with one of my most indispensable sewing tools: the “hump jumper.” (Apparently, it also known in some circles as a “jean-a-ma-jig.”) It’s a tiny tool that I got for about $2 when I first got my sewing machine at my local sewing machine shop. I have heard that some sewing machines come with one, too!  Its been with me through thick and thin – and has the battle scars to show for it!

So, what does it do??

Basically: the hump jumper allows you to bridge your sewing machine foot over a hump or thick part of a seam. See in the photo below how the foot is trying to climb over a hump?

Just add the hump jumper underneath the sewing machine foot, and it creates an even base. The machine can then get through thick layers smoothly, without anything getting stuck. (Yes, seriously.)

Let’s say you want to top stitch through lots of layers. Here’s a quilted panel (patchwork, batting, backing), with a zipper attached and double layered zipper tabs. It’s pretty thick!

I used the hump jumper to get started at the end, by just placing it under the sewing machine foot. As you sew, it moves along with the fabric so will fall away to the back. I also picked it back up to get over a thicker seam (of patchwork), below. 

I also use it in the same way to finish off the pouch corners around zippers, where it gets really thick. 

I use a hump jumper whenever I am making bags, pouches, wallets – or even sometimes when I making a quilt blocks that have a lot of seams meeting in the same spot, and becomes really thick.  The hump jumper has a thicker side and a thinner side, so you can use the size that you need to match the hump that you were trying to get over.

I hope this tutorial / tip is helpful! Let me know if you are a regular hump jumper, too!

Thanks to the Finish-A-Long hosts for all the hard work! And, good luck with your finishes for the last quarter of the year! 

[beezeeart]

A quick video I put together to help explain how darts work in plush patterning. I plan to do more on different subjects. Next on my list is gussets, but it will have to wait until I have more time

[ecoslo]

Fair Isle sampler: Since I finished my mittens, I’ve been working on other knitting on the bus rides to work. I wanted to try designing my own Fair Isle type designs, just for fun. So I started just playing around with graph paper to make repeats - then knitting the motifs up, one by one. (I’m using yarn that I got when I started knitting from Michaels, which was very inexpensive and mostly acrylic.) 

It’s becoming a long tube, which I am thinking I might just cut (“steek”) and knit up a plain backing square and make into a pillow. Or, I could make it into a circular pillow - if I can figure out how to knit a circle. I’m not sure yet! It’s been fun to knit this sampler in the meantime, anyhow! (and Ollie likes it, too!) 

[craftystation]

- Maintenance and Mending Monday: Plumbing, Again???

This was a few weeks ago now, but the recurring leak in our shower needed fixing, so I pulled out the washers that I had for this purpose and got to it. Unfortunately, it led to a downward spiral of me just having to replace one of the stems because the packing nut would not budge no matter how much WD40 I sprayed in it.

The upside (?) was that I had a chance to use my “shower” crayons to take notes while I was working there. I couldn’t actually find shower crayons anywhere in-store, but I did find these “washable” large crayons. These are absolutely fine for my fiberglass shower walls (and sealed tile, but probably avoid grout just in case!), and it wipes off really easily. Now I can take notes in the shower of all the things I need to put on my to-do list - that I usually forget the moment I step out of the shower!

[scarylullabies]

look i know this is a bit niche, but I would die for the human who wrote this pattern description. maybe you won’t feel the same if you haven’t spent hours and hours reading knitting pattern blurbs by the designer or the designers hype person.

[izzybeth]

no link? how rude :O 

[etriva]

Because I needed it, and you might too.

[oldtestleper]

@propheticfire

[craftystation]

- New Menstrual Pads -

It was time to make a new batch of pads again, and this time I wanted to experiment with using microfleece as the outer layer. Microfleece is apparently popular with the cloth diapering crowd as it wicks moisture to the inner soaking layer, and I’ve seen it used in menstrual pads before. I’ve always been highly skeptical, though, of using synthetic fibers for pads because of issues with breathability. Cotton flannel is the favorite for this, but I have these microfleece squares just lying around from a previous project and I figured this was a good time to use some of them.

You can find a lot of generic patterns for menstrual pads online, the original one that I’ve used (and highly altered) is from Jan Andrea. I liked this in the beginning because the pattern tessellates, so you can cut a lot out with minimal fabric loss, but the actual pattern and wings are really too small (good luck trying to flip those wings right side out and put a snap on them). So this last time I enlarged the pattern and gave it more substantial wings. It still generally tessellates, and if you’re working with a full length of fabric (not just a ~12 inch square) you can get a lot cut out.

The file I made of this pattern was a vector image that I exported to PDF, so if you print it out as-is (100% scale), it will take up the whole page and actually get cut off a bit. Comparing it to the pattern I used in the past, I found that scaling the PDF to 65% gave me pretty much the finished size I wanted, since I serged the edges so I didn’t have seam allowance loss. You can make it bigger or smaller by scaling up or down - I’d suggest cutting it out of scrap fabric and actually fitting it in your undies to make sure the size and wings are ok before you cut a bunch out of your good fabric. 

You can find the PDF for this larger menstrual pad pattern here!

[ In related news, I just found out that GladRags’ menstrual cup, the XO Flo, actually has a kickstarter going on right now for a mini version. If you’re interested in a menstrual cup, now might be the time to try it! ]

[sew-much-to-do]

DIY Knit Your Own Cat Bed

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sew-much-to-do: a visual collection of sewing tutorials/patterns, knitting, diy, crafts, recipes, etc.

[craftystation]

- Maintenance and Mending Monday: Cleaning my iron -

Sometimes the things that you iron over can transfer bits of residue onto the plate of your iron. In my case, the bolt of muslin that I use semi-often has this interfacing glue on a large part of it (WHY????), which then always sticks to my iron and is a real pain to work with. Then my iron ends up sticking to other fabric until I take the time to clean it again. Luckily, I can just spray white vinegar onto the plate, let it soak/sit for a few minutes, and then wipe it off. No need for a special cleaner in this case (like Goo Gone), as the vinegar got everything off.

Next time you get a bit of fusible interfacing stuck on your iron, reach for vinegar!

[craftystation]

iamdawt replied to your post “You thought I was joking but PS I didn’t actually get to the glass...”

I did this with a collection of stamps the other day. But after spreading them all out, I got overwhelmed and then put them back in the container where they're still a jumble of unorganized craft fodder.

I understand that 1000% - I kept putting off organizing these for literally two decades, and now that I started I pretty much forced myself to put them somewhere that wasn’t “out of sight, out of mind”, and then sit down again and finish.

The good news is that now when I think of using beads for a project, this won’t be the stumbling block to moving on because I’d say “oh but it’s such a hassle, I have to pull them all out and then pour them out and search around for what I want”. And as an upside, organizing them so they’re not just a jumble actually freed up two organizing containers!

[craftystation]

You thought I was joking but

PS I didn’t actually get to the glass beads that I wanted to sort, too busy consolidating EVERYTHING ELSE that I had there