Wabi Sabi Threads

White Christmas

I'm in my town 50 km away from Madrid, and Xmas has just passed. We have a great time exchanging gifts, eating and getiing along (well not always) with the family.

We did indeed have a white Christmas. We have a snow storm and communications by road are really bad. It's not that it snowed so bad. I think it's more of not being used to it. So I'm stuck here, with no USB to share pics with you. I'll try to solve it as soon as possible.

Velma Bag in silk

Ok, this year I'm not getting together with my sister for Xmas. We go to my mother's house on different dates. The good thing about this is that I have given her gift already and now I can share it with you.

The picture is lousy but the handbag has turned out great. I have used an Amy Butler pattern. Instructions are very detailed, altough I have changed a bit the process because I used silk for the outer and inner panels and I interfaced both, heavely on the outside. You can get a closer look to the wonderful silk fabric.

I'll try to get a better picture soon.

Buttons, buttons...

I'm in a big quest for mini buttons for dollmaking. Any help is welcomed.

Last week I bought online some buttons and zipper from Dressmaker Details (Masterstroke Canada). I bought Sew-Thru Button Assortment Pak 1 & 2. So now I have 300 buttons in 30 different colours. This buttons are "exact size replicas of those used on original Barbie® doll fashions; the originals were scaled large enough for small hands to use them, so they are actually perfect for larger 18 inch dolls too." I think they are tiny enough!!! They also have assortments of Shank Buttons, at that moment I didn't think that I needed them, but since that happen I have found out a great quantity of useful ways to use them... maybe next year. On next year's list I have also added the Gold Mine Accessory Pak: "Includes 3 different faux diamond brooch-like buttons, 2 belt buckles, a miniature pair of scissors that really open and close". All packs include a dress pattern and remember that prizes are in Canadian dollars.

I also got myself a Zip It! Pak ("Eight 65mm long metal locking YKK zippers"). And then I remembered that I don't know how to sew zippers, so another quest began: The Quest for the Zipper Tutorial. I found a great tutorial on sewing zippers onto a doll outfit with lots of pictures at TinyZippers. And guess what? Tiny Zippers is an online store that sells tiny zippers, different models (including separating zippers) and tons of colors. They also sell doll buttons, in many colors,and awesome buckles. You can buy the quantity that you need. So more things to add to my next year list! And don't miss the tutorial on How to sew a doll dress, from start to finish!

Ilisha Helfman's buttons come from the dollhouse world, they are in 1/12th scale, but the larger ones fit really well in larger dolls. These are tiny and very very nice. I had some for a year or so that I like so much that I don't know where to use them. They  are the top of the cake in mini buttons, at least of what I have found so far. Pictures on the wesite don't make those buttons justice. I have ordered a few and would post pictures when they arrive. Unfortunately she doesn't have a catalogue, but she is very friendly and if you write an email to her she´ll tell you the what she have in stock and you can pay via PAYPAL.

Another place that sell mini buttons is Minidolls, they have it metalics, in wood and in plastic.

And a tutorial for Perfecting the Button. Instructions on how to split a plastic button!!!

Do you have more links? Please share them with me

Catching up

I just remembered that I haven't done my contribution to A month of Softies. I have problems understanding the meaning of Hang-up and Claire was kind enough to post a Clarification on her blog. So now  I don't have excuses. On the personal side of life, Claire has just bought a house, so Congratulations!

Everybody who is into illustration knows about Illustration Friday, it has been around for a while and was the inspiration for A month of Softies. Now it has released a new website that includes forums and is a great place to visit. Last week theme was Adoption and I just fell in love with Tania's Rabbits, Leontine's Nightmare Children, Charlie's Bears, Kim's Cats and of course Penelope's Trees. I think that it was a great theme, and most people found it was a tough one, so I'm sure that is a great pick.

Almost done...

... with my Xmas gifts. And next Friday I'll be able to show them here!!! I haven't made a lot of things, but I had so much real life boring work that Xmas gift have consumed all my crafty time.

I had a lot of projects popping in my head this last month, and the nice thing is that I have been able to keep a list in a notebook, so they may even become reality.

I have to catch up with my blog reading too. Last week I was able to read some entries from Mimi's Blog. There I found the wonderful dolls by Julia Lothrop This picture was taken by Mimi at RISD Alumni Holiday Art Sale. This is a description of her work:

Most of the fabrics are vintage. The blue guy on the left- his boots are made of old kid gloves, embroidered. The green fellow in the middle- his pants are leather. And can you see what is hanging behind it all? It is a wall of faces.

I just love them!!! Unfortunately she doesn't have a website yet. So I asked permission to Mimi to use this picture. I hope to make her work a bit more known online!!!

And don't forget to visit Mimi's Holiday Inventory 2004 she has great stuf for sale. I love her bugs, but I have spent too much money already so I'll have to wait until the 2005 Inventory.

Time flies

A month has passed already and the 2nd Knitting Meetup took place yesterday. We missed Sabine the founder of the group. She wrote me telling that she was going to the meetup, but I didn't have time to answer until late on the afternoon. I hope that she didn't thought that anybody will show up, because at the end Urraca and myself showed up.

Urraca has also a weblog (in french) about knitting, and left an awesome link to a Japanese Illustration site as a comment to my last post. I loved it. I think that it's a must see to those interested in illustration so here is the link again: Kodomo

We have a great time but again more talking than knitting. And I want to be proud of knitting in public.!!!

Chirimen

I'm in love with Japanese Craft Books. A couple of months before I found about weblogging  I was crazy about Chirimen Crafts. Some Chirimen links (In japanese)

History of maman's handicraft:A site with lot of pictures and comments in Japanese.

ChirimenZaiku

Waffle

More pics and tips (in japanese of course)

Tips, and pics and links to amazon.co.jp... in japanese

... and more pics

As I don't speak a word of Japanese my reviews on the sites can't be very interesting, but they have lots of eye candy... enjoy!!!

I bought my first book of Chirimen at the wellknown Kitty's Oriental Craft Shop It's more expensive than buying at Amazon.co.jp, but at Amazon you have to fight against the languange. Or have a Japanese friend help you, just in case that you have one. And at Kitty's you can browse the books and see if they are what you are looking for. My fav this week is a book on Knit Bags, take a look!!!

And of course I'll have to make a new years resolution about learning japanese, I found this dictionary  that has pics and sounds...although very limited I love it. I'm learning to say doll in japanese !!!

oh Xmas

I keep working on my Xmas gifts on my spare time, wich is not much due to an overload of real life work. It's very frustrating working on Xmas presents, because:

a) you can't show pics here

b) keeps you away from working on other crafty projects

But I can't complain, because I will have some good presents, like my Blythe...

I've been working on several Xmas gifts while staying at the country. I can't show them because it may ruin the surprise.

I had sewn this unevenly stuffed small pillow that will eventually become a Blythe duvet.

Blue Embroidered Silk

I went again to the silk store to buy some embroidery silk for making a Xmas present that would keep me busy for a while. Keep you posted.