Air Oeuvre's Mohawk Preview Video

Rob and I went to Pass-A-Grille beach a few days ago. He flew the Mohawk; I took video and photos. The Decemberists' The Legionnaire's Lament is featured on the video. Go check it out at airoeuvre.com or here.

Wella.

My father's mother was born in 1925 in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico to Jacinto Ponce Villanueva and Casilda Medina.

Her name was Emma.

She was a small woman with bright eyes and interesting hands, both of which she passed on to me.

She had a knock-out smile.

She was a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a seamstress, a crocheter, a cook, a jewelry-maker, a gardener, a strong-willed woman.

From Aguadilla, to NYC, to Ybor City, to Ocoee, she touched many hearts with her sweetness and light.

My brother and I called her "Wella," short for "abuela."

She passed away Friday night with my dad, his wife, my brother, and myself at her side.

We take comfort in knowing she's in a much better place, and we will remember her always.

Good news - Bad news

The Good News!

wendywears one-of-a-kind handbags are now available at everything but the girl, a unique boutique and gallery, located at 430 Central Avenue in Sarasota, Florida. I'm very excited! This bag, among others, is for sale there.



What other exclusive wendywears items will be offered in this boutique? You'll have to check back here or visit everything but the girl to find out :)

and now for...

The Bad News

We've experienced a good amount of water damage to the inside of our house and possessions recently. It has occured mostly in the rooms which house most of our stuff. On top of that, a large piece of glass shattered into a million pieces in our workspace - cutting my husband, ruining the LCD display of our MacBook Pro, covering the room in varying pieces of glass, creating just a huge mess. The glass is 75% cleaned up. The next task will be figuring out how to salvage our laptop (if possible - repairs are expensive!) and our other property that was damaged by water.

The Sky Lark

New kite from Robert at Air Oeuvre. Check out the website for specifics.

Lesley's shoulder bag and today's outfit

The "Lesley" Bag
Materials:
+ powder blue men's corduroy pants
+ thrifted crazy floral print curtains
+ vintage powder blue cotton curtains
+ white sheets from Wella's
+ thread

Yes, I'm still enjoying making fabric yo-yos as you can see. Tip: save the flat-felled seams from your discarded, dismantled jeans/pants; they make great purse handles and headbands when braided together.


I'm wearing...
+ black blouse and white linen eyelet tank (from Paris from my dad & stepmom) - and the black top is too tiny! darnit.
+ vintage "Glance Bond LONDON" all cotton skirt with thin self-fabric belt, recently found at CASA Thrift Store
+ tan airwalk flipflops
+ hair in need of a cut, badly.

My personal carry-all.

This is a design I created, inspired by a project idea from a 70s publication of Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing, which I HIGHLY recommend. I think this is my first completed project using fabric yo-yos! How I love them!

This bag perfectly accomodates a 1" binder packed with ideas and sketches, a thick fashion magazine, wallet, keys, and a whole lot more.

Materials:
+ vintage grey/yellow textured curtains
+ crazy floral print curtains
+ powder blue cotton curtains
+ powder blue corduroy pants
+ brown corduroy pants
+ red eqyptian cotton sheets
+ black lacey trim
+ black bias binding

This took me weeks to complete because I'm so picky. I'm quite pleased with the results, though. You may see more of these in the future. And of course, if you want one, contact me and we'll work out the details :)

thrifted ethnic shift dress

After a trip to the CASA Thrift Store - which is my new favorite - I found this bold print shift/thing in the underwear section. After seaming-ripping everything, I discovered the name Comatex S.A. along one selvedge and that it's 100% cotton.

I'm going to remake this into a more flattering dress for myself. I need a simple all cotton dress! I'm using Butterick 6341 for the neckline and sleeves and McCall's 2094 for the dart placement.

I drew up a new pattern on white paper and started a muslin. I have a feeling that it is going to be too big, and if that's the case, I'll re-draft and re-cut everything. Stay tuned for the final product. I promise it will be modelled in a prettier place.

I'm officially a cake decorator.

After training for more than six months, my title has officially changed to "cake decorator." I've been learning how to create individual and large desserts and how to ice/decorate cakes, cookies, cupcakes, etc. I'm enjoying myself because I can express my creativity through the designs and color schemes I encorporate into these goodies!

relaxed to skinny

My mother bought these Gap jeans for me about 3 years ago at a thrift store. After shrinking them, it became apparent that I needed to lower the waistline. I removed the waistband, replaced the zipper-fly with velcro, and tapered the legs (and added some length to the legs, with slits on the sides). The skinnyfication was not as hard as I thought it would be. Overall satisfaction with reconstruction: 7 out of 10

new bag for April and Peter

click on the photo to view more photos


April and Peter are about to have a baby. This is the bag I made for them to carry around their baby items + personal stuff like wallet, cell phone, keys, etc. It took a long while to complete because I was making it up as I went along.

materials:
floral curtains
blue table runner with neat raised pattern
striped bedsheets
vintage button from grandma's button tin
blue satin ribbon
batting
blue bias tape
acrylic felt

textile art, thrift, and gift

This is my first attempt at this "photo to textile" representation - I sewed a bunch of fabric scraps to a piece of muslin then stretched it all over a wooden frame. The photograph I interpreted is one of a golf course by Christop. This is a present for my boss who loves to play golf.


Recent offerings from Salvation Army Family Thrift Store:
>>> "Xhileration" red denim shorts that fit great
>>> "Lux" turquoise cotton tiered peasant skirt with tulle trim
>>> "Symphony Classics" vintage shirt dress (shown below, click for full view)


Recent gifts include:
>>> "Predictions" light brown mary jane/ballet hybrid (shown above)
>>> vintage leather purse (shown below, in midst of workspace)

dress #1 prototype

(Check out all the full-size photos, and please e-mail me with any feedback :) I don't have many people around here for second-opinions.)

I want to make a dress! I have a beautiful blue patterned pillowcase I'd like to use for the body and a large rose/pink fabric napkin I want for the upper portion.

Inspired by suzdeth's tutorial for a smock top, I started working on this mock-up made of bed sheets a few days ago. Of course with a pillowcase there's only so much fabric to work with, so to get used to this, I cut out 2 pieces from the sheets that are the same height as the pillowcase and half the width of the pillowcase when seam-ripped and laid flat.

I think this design would look at lot better if the main part flared out from the top band instead of going straight down. Does that make sense? Right now, it's just a straight tube that's gathered at front and back to fit the top band. The pillowcase I plan to use is patterned so perhaps that will distract the eye from unslightly bunchiness? I don't want to put a contrasting belt all the way around because that would take away from the pattern on the front of my pillowcase for final version.

Questions:
1) Have fabric ties in the back?
2) Make flared instead of straight?

If I make it flare out, I will have to add fabric panels of some sort to extend the sides of my pillowcase pieces - but I rather not :-p

Changes that will be implemented for my final version:
>> longer shoulder straps by an inch or so
>> add a lining (these white linens will be the lining)
>> might add another panel to the bottom and tack on a few horizontal layers of black lace

Air Oeuvre is online!

My husband has launched Air Oeuvre, a sport kite design company. Wholesale is in the works, but for now he is selling them directly. At least, go check out his handy-work. We've been using our new Pfaff for sewing the kite sails. I inspired the sail pattern and did up the website. His brother, Steven, helps with framing the kites with carbon rods. One of his latest customers, Frazer Worley, took these photos. Check it out!

Abstract Flower Brooch and Thread Collection

I was inspired by mollychicken's tutorial for simple fabric brooches. I made this one (my first) for my mother recently - hopefully she got it in the mail! I plan on making more of these soon, and also hairclip versions.

Specs:
+ multiple layers of materials from the following sources:
- suede scraps someone gave me
- egyptian cotton sheets
- cotton landscape print
- backside of stretch denim jeans
- fabric covered button from grandma's stash
- vintage sky blue cotton curtains
- brown cordouroy pants
- brown embroidery thread
+ about 4" across
+ 1-1/4" steel nickle-plated pin back



And as you can see, this is part of my thread collection. I have a lot of wooden spools (most with little/no thread) that are up for grabs if anyone wants to trade me something for them :)

About two years ago on eBay, I won an auction of thread and small sewing-related knick knacks. I haven't bought a lot of new thread; this photo shows mostly someone else's old things.

ridiculous shirt made cute

My grandmother-in-law knows a "plus-sized" older woman who loves crazy prints and crazy designs. I got a heap of her clothes. This is first reconstruction from this stash.

I removed the 3/4 length sleeves. There are three tiny pleats at the shoulder, on the front, hidden under the collar. This causes some puffiness. I applied red, double fold bias tape to the armholes. Taking in the sides proved to be a bit difficult; twas my first somewhat successful altering of a woven fabric garment with a zipper in the back.

It's my new favorite shirt. Click for larger image.

My first "wedding" cake.

My friends Sandy and Renee were married this evening, and I made them a small simple wedding cake. Click on the image for more information.

dress, dresser, and dressed up wingback

Last week, I spent a few hours with Jackie one day and with Oma and Opa on another day. I ended up leaving with all sorts of neat things, like...

+ 3 80s leather shoulderbags with gold accents and neat metal closures
+ 1 wingback (?) chair that she lovingly reupholstered
+ 1 secondhand yellow/pea green curtain panel (same color as our living room wall) which serves as a cover for the chair
+ 1 secondhand dark wood night stand with tiny drawer
+ 1 secondhand dark wood mini-dresser that matches a large dresser I already have
+ 1 tall gold desktop clock with chime and glass dome cover
+ 3 pieces of fabric, with printed pieces/instructions to make 2 dolls and 1 country cow apron

Here is the little dresser. It's only a few feet tall. My grandmother crocheted the orange and green mat.

Earlier in the month, I wore this robe/dress thing. I'm still wondering what I will do with it (sell, reconstruct, keep?). Click for full-size picture.

squirrels and magnolias

Sitting at the computer desk and looking out the bedroom window, I notice a squirrel in my front yard that is working its way down a tree and INTO my mailbox. I grab the camera and make way out the front door, tip-toeing ever so quietly out into the yard. But darn-it-all, the little bugger has already run off and up the tree. Did he snatch a little magnolia blossom for himself?

Spanish, Chef hats, and ice cream

04.21.06

Today at work when my boss made a telephone call to a customer to ask a question about her cake order, he discovered that she spoke mostly spanish and not enough english (for him). After he hung up with her and tried to find someone who spoke her language, I reluctantly came forward and offered to call her.

Despite my completion of four high school spanish courses, I am not confident about my ability to speak spanish. To escape any possible embarrassment, I secluded myself in the boss's office to make this private phone-call; no one else would be able to hear my attempts to communicate with this woman. Before I dialed the number, I recalled a few words that I needed: Hablo español pequeño. I scribbled a couple of other spanish words on a piece of paper as well.

I called her. We communicated. It was the highlight of my day. During our conversation, I apologized for not knowing how to say what I wanted to say - I was upset with myself for not remembering words like "what," "when," and "how many!" - but we got through it. It felt special, to work hard at this simple task of communicating, and understand each other in our own way.

04.20.06

+ "off-the-clock" antics at work - found some disposable chef hats in the boss's office and well, as expected, I put them on and waited until someone found me and joined in on the hat wearing
+ had a nice ride home from work listening to the Black Eyed Peas - really loud!
+ gave away some fabric via the local Freecycle - she was so happy!
+ visited with my mom and enjoyed reminiscing while sipping a ColdStone Creamery Smoothie

art museum, sail patterns, spring cleaning

03.30.06 - visited the Tampa Museum of Art to admire the selected works of Maurice Sendak and Keith Haring
04.02.06 - collaborated with Robert on the sail pattern design for his kites: the Mohawk and the Spike
04.03.06 - clearing out the clutter in the house and listing non-fiction books about pop culture on Amazon.com
- went to Treasure Island and got some good video of Rob and T.C. flying their matching Mohawks
- currently obsessed with looking at cat pictures at Flickr.com, especially those of Jimmy Leo