Halloween 2015

October has got to be the most exhausting month for sewing. This year our kids were old enough that we really didn't have a say on what they were going to be. In some ways it made it easier. 

Cam was adamant about being a S.W.A.T. officer. The helmet has been in the dress up box for years and the vest was borrowed from a friend. Nothing homemade at all.

Haley tried to convince Clara to be Elsa from the Frozen Fever short because that dress is gorgeous but she wasn't having it. She insisted on Minnie Mouse which is a much easier costume. The shirt was from Goodwill and just needed the collar to be swapped for a white one. She also had a simple Circle skirt with a double tulle and an elastic waist. The ears were from Joanns.

Since she saved so much time on the kid's costumes she went overboard on her own. Haley and B have been wanting to do Mary Poppins for a while so this was the year.

Note to Haley: Today you said that next year you are reusing an old costume. I know come October 2016 when we are in the crazy place again, you'll change your mind and make something ridiculous but I'm putting this on record, only the kids next year.

Haley's Dress is a combination of 3 patterns for the corset, inner bodice and rest of dress. she used chiffon on the outer dress and did a self lined satin inner bodice with spaghetti straps. She threaded red ribbon through a lace trim for the accents and had stitched the bows on the skirt.

Haley used painter's tape to mark off the stripes and used fabric or multi-surface craft paint to make the jacket fabric. The pattern was from the 80's. Other accessories were pilfered from her Mom's costume closet. 

Ruben has been wanting to be Rainbow Dash for months since he saw a friends doll. He didn't even see the show until he got sick last week and I really needed to work on our costumes. Both boys are in love. My sweet and easy going husband agreed to go as Apple Jack. You can't tell in this picture but I did paint apples on his butt. Ru's costume was inspired by this one

Ash also made it easy on me and insisted on being Link from Legend of Zelda; Skyward Sword. I made him the tunic two years ago and he didn't want me to make a new one so I bought his a sword from Black Swan Armoury and made him a scabbard for it. He also got some boots from Old Navy and ears made of masking tape. 

I went as Princess Zelda which was the costume that took the longest. The dress is a Lady Skater by Kitschy Coo with gold painted trim. Everything else I used a game screen shot to copy.  

I hope everyone had a great Halloween. It was fun but exhausting to get everything done. I was very grateful for the extra hour of sleep that night.

Austin Craft Riot Summer Show!

Earlier this year, we applied to become members of a local craft collective called Austin Craft Riot, in order to grow our little sewing venture. Well, it has been a whirlwind of learning, product portfolio building, sewing room time and it all culminates THIS WEEKEND! Holy cow, I’m so nervous!

Ruth isn’t nearly as nervous as me, which is why we make a good team. Anyway, Hammer and Thread, along with 70 other local Austin crafters, will be presenting the Austin Craft Riot Summer Show, this Saturday and Sunday, August 16 & 17 from 11-6 both days. It’s $2 per adult to get in and FREE for kids. In addition to the awesome vendors, there’ll be a huge kids activity area with arts & crafts, games and prizes.

Hammer and Thread will be selling our famous lounge pants, recycled hoodies (yes, the Lil Blue Boo pattern!), 3 sizes of snack/sandwich bags for your kiddo’s lunchbox, our NEW belts and NEW adventure pouches. The pouches slide onto any 1” belt and can hold whatever treasure your adventurer finds along the way.

I know our blog has been very quiet lately, and now you know the reason. We now have an Etsy shop, a Facebook page and an Instagram account (@hammerandthreadshop), too!
If you’re in Austin, please come see us and say hi!
 
 

What I made this weekend

This Saturday I had a baby shower for a baby girl and a birthday party for a 5 year old boy. Since I had procrastinated all week watching Breaking Bad with my husband at night, Saturday morning I grabbed a cup of coffee and hit the sewing room.

For the baby shower I made a 3 tiered skirt using my serger to do the gathering. It was a breeze. Too bad I don’t have girls or I would be cranking these out regularly.

I also threw together an oversized flannel fox blanket with some handmade bias tape.

Then for the 5 year old I made some old man pants. I picked up some ugly old thrifted plaid pants and used the Parsley pattern to make a much cuter pair of pants with some bright turquoise pockets.

Not bad for a morning sewing session.

Hammer and Thread in person

Last September, we attended our first ever craft fair here in Austin. We had been discussing this for a few months and finally the timing worked out for us to sew up a large amount of our Lounge Pants and design a set of reusable snack bags to sell. We attended 4 fairs between September and December and it was a good learning experience for us. Two of the four events had major weather issues and the other two were very small. All in all, we did not have the sales success we had hoped for, but we now understand the logistics involved in selling our wares. Here are a few photos from our booths.

This is the set of snack bags we designed. Sandwich, snack and cupholder size. The cupholder bag had a fold-down top that holds it open for easy snacking.

Ruth cut a hammer and thread stamp and we stamped the tablecloth and shirts for us. We even made a pair of lounge pants for our boys. I whipped up a quick half apron for money management.

Our first ever booth inside a kid’s playplace.

 

Our second fair. This one was outdoors and a huge thunderstorm blew in causing the organizers to cancel the remainder of the event. Here’s the lovely booth before…

 

…complete with custom, homemade lounge pants racks…

 

…a beautiful stamped tablecloth, with our name in iron-on vinyl cut on the Sillouette…

 

…and after…everything was soaked. We tried to wait out the storm, but as other vendors and ALL the customers ran for cover and then left, we decided it was time to throw in the (very wet) towel.

 

Our third booth at a small store front event. Complete with Ruth’s youngest as added cuteness to draw in customers.

 

Our fourth booth. You can’t tell, but it’s about 15 degrees in this picture. Needless to say, the only customer we had was…

Santa Claus, himself. He, and hot cocoa, helped us stay warm that day.

Doodle book for Daddy

The daddy in our family doesn’t golf or fish, he doesn’t ride bikes or wear a tie so we have had a hard time with homemade gifts in the past. But the Daddy in this house is a major doodler and Asher is a huge fan of art and they will sit together on the weekend and draw pictures for each other. So this year for father’s day we decided to make daddy a personalized sketchbook.

This was a easy one to do in an afternoon. I took off the covers, put a couple layers of Gesso on them and then let Ash paint to his heart's content. Once that was dry we used sharpie paint makers to finish it off. Then I put the covers back on. Easy peasy. Just for fun I also took a digital flipbook.

Happy fathers day

New Shoes

I recently found a cool pair of shoes at old navy marked down to just $1.99. Sadly they were to small for Ash but for that price I had to get them anyway. Turns out they were the perfect size for Cam but I still wanted something similar for my kiddo.

I bought another pair of shoes from Target and used a Pentel Gel Roller to doodled all over them.

I’m thinking about coloring them in with my Inktense pencils but that might be over doing it. I might just save that for the next pair.

A little bit of Noodlehead

One of my friends recently adopted a baby boy. I knew that I wanted to make one of noodlehead’s divided baskets and I was especially excited because it gave me an excuse to use some fabric from the Architextures line. I fell in love with this fabric at QuiltCon a few months back. I was thrilled to see a line that is definitely boy and not babyish at all. The bricks aren’t part of the Architextures fabric line but I felt that it fit the style and theme really well.

This was my first time with the divided basket pattern and I’m really glad I picked this one up. I’ve always been interested in the geometry and construction of my products and this one was not a disappointment.

I also whipped together one of her diaper pouches cause they are great to throw in your purse or at your husband when he takes the baby.