Manic Pop

Packing for a long Memorial Day weekend trip to Michigan! (With a terrible cell phone photo.) Lots of photos to come from that, I'm sure. We're heading to Old Fashioned Days, plan on Hoffmaster State Park, and perhaps a short Grand Rapids jaunt. We'll see what happens. Should be fun!

Perhaps it's a little early since Arthur died less than a month ago... but it ended up working out that we adopted new kitties just in time for my birthday (May 9th)! Meet PERCY!  And BEATRIX!  I'm sure these little crazies will end up in photos somehow. They're about 10 months old and they had apparently been at the PetsMart shelter since December, which is right before we found out about Arthur's cancer diagnosis. These cats were actually found by someone as kittens on the South Side near 95th. The mom was nowhere to be found and the kittens were on a porch of a house that was apparently going to be demolished so the shelter took them in and nursed them. Days later, the mother appeared - an all black cat with Maine Coon-ish fur, looking for the babies. They took her in too and she began to nurse both Percy and Beatrix. After they were weaned from her though, the mother wants NOTHING to do with them which is odd to me because as kids when our cats

So I found this semi-disgusting pair of shorts at my favorite thrift store in all of Chicago (oddly the mustard square-neck t-shirt paired with it is from there too!)   Dorky.  I actually saw recently over on Annika's blog from  The Pine Needle Collective  (who I follow and I think is super-adorable!) that  she  had found a pair of " skirt shorts " and was asking people on her blog what she should do with them.    I fell in love with the color and style of the pattern even though they're golfers.  To me, it was a no-brainer as to what I was going to do with them - make them into a skirt! This is super-quick and can be done in about an hour or so. You can do this with virtually any pair of shorts.  First, rip open the seams with a seam-ripper up to the rise of the shorts.   Next, I pin together the vertical seam where I just ripped it to align it to a straight hem.   Pinning from the rise, align pins where you intend to sew. You

Ah! So excited that I finally finished my SPACE DRESS! I had been working on it far too long for how simple it is, but with generally a little over 40 hours a week and still a modest social life... things don't get done quite as quickly as they did in college. This pattern is loosely based on a dress featured in a Summer 1967 Simplicity Pattern catalog (see the "Modern Miss on the Move" photo. Originally, I had designed a built-up neckline for this dress and then decided I didn't like it. Instead, I created a semi-wide neck version.  I also decided last-minute while pattern making that I wanted a third color stripe. The result is slightly garish, but I am not afraid of that!  My design aesthetic is always vintage inspired, usually full of contrast colors, and simple silhouettes. This dress is quite indicative of what I do other than re-vamping fun vintage finds. I prefer simplicity versus over-designing and simple, washable fabrics. This dre

I spotted a woman wandering around Chicago with one of these bags sometime last month. I couldn't stop looking at it... For a bit, I actually thought it might be a cardboard prop... but it's really a REAL bag! And much roomier than it looks. Taipei-based design duo Jump from Paper came up with these bags one day while designing their dream bag and wondering aloud if the 2-dimensional drawing could come to life as a real bag.   The bags all play with perspective and it literally tricks your eye. Seeing one in person, it's much, much large than it looks. Many of them can fit a laptop inside of them! I'm in love with this slightly cartoonish alternative to any other bag I have seen recently. Such a unique and fun idea! I'm going to find a way to get one. Learn more at: www.jumpfrompaper.com

So dummy me never got "before" photos of this dress before I made it my own size.  Believe it or not, this dress was about 3-4 sizes too big for me when I first bought it at a thrift store. I was this close to putting it back on the rack when I realized I was dumb to pass it up. So I took it home with me. $2-ish?  I typically think of it as "too patriotic" but with my new favorite cardigan (haha) it tones that feeling down a bit.  Originally this dress had cap sleeves. I totally could have edited them to make them fit on the dress but I actually am a huge fan of sleeveless dresses. That and perhaps I was too lazy to edit the sleeves. All I did really was turn the dress inside out and fit the side seams of the dress to the curve of the mannequin which is sized to me more or less. This dress is a nice, slightly stretchy polyester to it lends itself well to being fitted. Overall, I am so glad I didn't pass up this dress - I love the