Sew Fussy

So much craziness up in the house this month! While I am once again – or still? – sick, some very interesting things have been going on for (my husband) Bill. Earlier this month, he and some students put together a submission for a project in Korea. He was doing a lot of research on inflatables, and I was intrigued by many of the images I saw during the week-long charrette.

First, check out the hastily converted indoor-garage/studio (complete with students, children, dog, arch. models, random junk that has nowhere else to live, even a crib that never got put together…) If you think it’s cluttered now, you should have seen it just a week earlier, literally floor to ceiling with boxes that are now in storage.

The first guy is from the University of Houston, the other flew in from Harvard, and there were a few more students working from Boston. One thing I miss about architecture is the high intensity that comes with almost every deadline. These guys worked like machines, pretty much non-stop for a week. It was nice to have that kind of energy around.

It was also nice to think a little about architecture again, as it’s been such a long time since I even cared. Once Anya was born and I quit my arch. job I pretty much lost interest in the field. I think I’m too impatient for buildings. But still, I found myself drawn to some of the websites and images that Bill came across doing research for this project.

This LED lit Burble is pretty awesome… it’s even more amazing in action, so go to the Haque website and scroll down to see a video of it in motion. Seriously, it’s a must-see.

More inflatable structures from a company in the UK called Inflate. I really enjoyed looking through their portfolio even if it was hard to find (click on the lower right corner text within the image.) I hate navigating through flash sites.
I would love to play inside any one of these…

I finally managed to send out ONE of my owed “pay-it-forward” items a few weeks ago. Florence in France (Sensoussi) was the lucky (ha) recipient of a blue wool scrap-style pocket scarf I made. I still owe gifts to two people, but I’m working on it (Amy, Angie, ahem!)

Anyway, Florence sent me pictures of some of her recent sewing that she says was inspired by my Betsy Ross retro coat (which I posted about last month.) I love all of her stuff! I want that black wrap shirt. She has some cool furry things in her blog that I also like. See the Sensoussi blog ,translated.

Back to scraps again, the scarf I sent Florence was made from rectangles of blue wool jersey fabric serged together. Very simple. Some of the rectangles on the scarf are disguised pockets, I think there were three pockets total. Florence, you must let me know if you use the pockets!
At the same time that I made the pocket scarf, I also made a few others using larger scraps that I had no immediate use for. I made two multi-colored scarves like the one below and even my picky Bill liked them enough to wear one in Mongolia last month (where it was 30 below or something crazy like that!) The smaller, all-pink version belongs to Anya.

As somebody who has to empty her sewing room trash bin almost daily due to large quantities of fabric waste, I am constantly trying to dream up ways to use the scraps I produce. For example, my bountiful scraps were the main reason I started making nursing pads and cloth menstrual pads. I especially hate wasting pretty hand-dyed scraps and organic wool scraps, and I think these reusable products are a good solution. Don’t ask me why I’m posting photos of a bunch of little fabric circles.

I also wonder if there is some way to reuse the lint from the dryer when pre-washing organic cotton items. It sounds nasty, but the lint from the organic cotton is beautiful and light-colored and fluffy, not a nasty gray. This site warns not to use highly-flammable cotton dryer lint for stuffing items (which cancels out plenty of my ideas!), but offers up some other… well, interesting suggestions. Check out that “dust bunny!”

But none of my ideas have been nearly as artful and creative as those of Luisa Cevese, whose work I stumbled upon a few weeks ago. What an interesting concept, to take these beautiful scraps and laminate them (I guess that’s what you would call it) and use the resulting fabric to make new things. I just think it’s really cool.
Other types of Luisa Cevese recycled scrap items are available for purchase at nonchalantmom.com – you should have a look around the whole shop, because I’ve found some really inspiring things on the Nonchalant Mom site. Placemats and floor mat shown below, but there are also baby bibs.

Since I mentioned pads in the beginning of the post, I should post about two new sizes in the Moonbow line. There is now a petite size and an extra-large size, both shown below. The extra large size is around 12.5″ – 13″ long, the petite size is around 7.5″ to 8″ long. I should be stocking a range of pads on my site sometime this week.