handmade – Teresa Coates

20 July 2014

Settling in and sewing

It’s been two weeks since we moved in and the house is still a crazy wreck, a mix of our things and what the owner left behind nearly a year ago. It’s a weird situation and one I wasn’t quite prepared for, tbh. The carpets won’t be cleaned until the first of August, every room has to cleared out and cleaned, and the garage needs to be re-arranged to fit all of her belongings that are still here.

There might be boxes are strewn throughout the house, half-open and rifled through, but the sewing area is nearly finished. There was no way anyone, let alone the carpet cleaner, was going to convince me to wait any longer to set it up. My soul needs it too much.

When days are rough and I feel the nervous energy zipping through me, I can sit down at my trusty old machine, run a through seams through it and suddenly feel much better. Yesterday was one of those when I just told life to suck it ’cause I need to sew.

So I whipped up this little prototype of a pincushion (more will be coming to the Etsy shop as soon as I can start really really sewing again). Made with a denim bottom and pieced vintage feedsack prints on top, I think I like the way it turned out.

What do you think? Cute? Silly? Sellable? Or back to the drawing board? feedsack pincushion

8 October 2013

Cooling Down

I have lived most of my life in the Pacific Northwest where autumn rolls in dramatically with heavy rains and a sudden drop in temperatures. I’ve wrapped my annual body clock around that change, but here we are in October in SoCal and still wearing tank tops and getting sunburnt on the weekends. My body can’t seem to figure out that it actually is fall. But where’s the cold? the rain?

For example, this was last Sunday, October 6. High of 90°F at Disneyland. Seriously? This is fall?

Disneyland_Oct6

Of course, if you ask my fellow Californians, the ones who lived most of their lives here, they’ll tell you it is definitely fall. The temperatures are cooling down (into the 70s? oh brr!), the morning marine layer is more common, the leaves are beginning to drop. So I guess this is how fall rolls in down here, gently and with sunshine. I like it.

Quilt Market is just around the corner, though, along with both of my children’s birthdays, and into the holiday madness of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve. I needed something to convince me of these changing seasons, so I decided to make myself a scarf. Robert Kaufman Fabrics has these lovely new Mammoth Flannels which are soft and warm and, if you ask me, they are the perfect colors to get me in the mood for fall.

scarf_fabric

I was able to get my hands on a small swatch of Carolyn Friedlander‘s new Botanics collection, a fabric that just was calling out to be tagged up with the flannel. The color is Curry and it makes me want Indian food every time I look at it. But I digress, back to making scarves…. I simply cut a couple of width of fabric strips (about 8″ wide), sewed them together, flipped it and topstitched. Bam! A scarf!

scarf
scarf_on

Now I don’t really have an excuse to complain about the A/C being on high everywhere I go. I don’t have to be cold in the grocery store anymore because I have a lovely new cotton flannel scarf.

It’s like having autumn wrapped snugly around my neck.

28 June 2012

Hexie Love!

Ta-dah! It took a little more time than I’d hoped, but it’s finished. And lucky for me, the sun was shining this evening, so I sat outside to do the hand-stitching. And in the end I had this cute little hexie pouch, perfect for carrying myriad bits and baubles.

I hand-stitched the pop of green, from Michael Miller‘s Cotton Couture collection, on the inside and then used that same green to make a little tab for the zipper pull.

And that’s my very favorite part–the zipper pull! First I ironed some of the stiff fusible to one of the hexies, whipstitched the green part into the inside of that hexie, then laid another on top and did a little ladder stitch between them. Turned out lovely, if I do say so myself.

And I love this Kate Spain fabric even more now. She has a new collection called Serenade out now that I think I’d love in-person just as much.

I may have to make more of these to put in the shop. Thoughts?

23 May 2011

It’s a Giveaway!

I’ve participated in plenty of blogger giveaways, but always as the one hoping to win (which, in fact, I have been lucky enough to do twice!). Now it’s my turn to give back as part of the Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway Day. There are a five hundred-odd blogs participating, and just for the price of leaving a comment, you’ll be entered to win. I’m offering up a brand-spanking new wallet that I made just for this giveaway. It’s made from both re-used and new fabric. The outside is remnants of a linen blouse with pintucks that I used as inspiration for the padded quilting that runs in the opposite direction. Inside are two pieces from the new Spring Street line by Carolyn Gavin and a colorific polka dot that I used for the trim, too.
You can win this totally one-of-a-kind wallet by leaving a comment. Tell me what you like about it, or what you’d like in another version. Or tell me what you think about the new Strawberry Patch quilt I’m working on:

The Strawberry Patch quilt is coming together slowly thanks to all that patchwork.

You have until Friday to leave a comment. Like Crinkle Dreams on Facebook for an additional entry. I’ll be choosing a winner on Saturday, shipping on Monday. I’ll ship it anywhere in the world, too. The U.K., Malaysia, Easter Island… it doesn’t matter where you live. (I’m probably jealous, anyway, if it’s outside the U.S. and warm.)

Not loving this one? Check out the others in the Etsy shop.

18 April 2011

Now @ Etsy

I keep saying I’m going to do it, that I need to do and I finally have. The first batch of goods available via Etsy went up today. By Friday I should have at least one quilt up there as well as some more wallets. It’s a start.