T-shirt Decon: IndyMojo Style

A little Stitch Witchery @ 2am and here's what I came up with...

Read on for the How To:
Step 1. Gather your shirts.
For this project you're going to need 2 L or XL shirts.
And, because I'm planning to rock this little number out with the Mojo crew...



Step 2. Stack & Snip
Once you've chosen your two colors/shirts, just stack them and snip off the sleeves on either side, the collar from the top, and any excess from the bottom so that you're left with four pieces of 20" square fabric.



Step 3. Arc! Who goes there?
Cut a gradual arc from the bottom left corner up through the upper right corner of the shirt. Then, take your waist measurement (ex: 30") and divide by 6. Then measure down and across by this number at the upper left corner. Snip it right off. (This will ultimately become the waist band of your skirt)



Step 4. Come Together, Right Now
Lay it out all pretty, in alternating colors.
Now turn it over, and pull out the Singer...



Step 5. Assembly Line
Match up your edges and go to town.
This step is pretty much a no brainer, right?
Good, let's move on...



Step 6. Tulle Makes it Allll Better
And, because I'm feeling funky, we're adding a couple layers of tulle to this puppy. Fun, right?!
Turn your skirt inside out. Now fan fold the tulle to create some pleats and whipstitch it to the interior of the skirt. Careful! The tulle wants to stick to everything... including your thread.






Step 7. Cheater Edging/Stitch Witchery
I know I've divulged that I'm a bit of a cheater when it comes to sewing... and nowhere is it more evident than right here, kids.



Stitch Witchery is my best friend.
You cut the fusable webbing to the desired length, sandwich it between two layers of fabric and iron for 10 seconds. The only thing more awesome than that? Stumbling across some silky blankie edging at JoAnne Fabrics last week! So I reverse-hemmed the waistline of the skirt with the black edging. This serves two purposes: (a) it gives the skirt a nice polished look, and (b) it keeps the itchy tulle away from your skin at the waist band. Trust Me this is a good thing!

Viola!
Finished Skirt!
No picture for you today, kids!
You wanna see this one, you'll have to come hunt me down.
I'll be at Howl @ the Moon tonight!

Bacon Flowchart

Bacon = A Little Slice of Heaven

i know... i know... I owe this place an update.
I've been all sorts of crafty lately, but I can't post it until Monday
Presents are surprises people!!!

They Grow Up So Fast these days...

You know that lump you get in the back of your throat when you're trying desperately not to cry? The one that accompanies the tears threatening to spill over as you walk away?

Yeah. I got that today...

All week Isabelle's been telling me she's "nervous, but realllly excited". And after last nights' Back To School Nite she was just "Reallllly Realllly excited, Mom. Not nervous at all. Not anymore". Until this morning. Rob and I walked her in, one of her tiny little paws in each of ours, and I couldn't let go. She looked up at us and she had tears in the corners of her eyes and her nose started turning suspiciously red (it happens. we get rudolph nose in my family when we cry. it's not pretty) and I nearly lost it. But after about 2 minutes she squared her shoulders, hung her new princess backpack up on a peg and took a step forward. She's braver than her Momma; I was rooted to the floor.

Check out the classic First-Day-of-School pose (above) I'm pretty sure your can chronicle my (and my siblings') life by 12+ years of pictures just like this. I had to do it


And next year? Next year Baz will be doing this to. ohgodimnotready...

LoLLaPaLooZa: Trying to be Original... Just Like Everybody Else

::: LoLLaPaLooZa :::
130 Bands
3 days


Depeche Mode * Tool * The Killers * Jane's Addiction * Kings of Leon * Yeah Yeah Yeahs * Lou Reed * Ben Harper * Thievery Corporation * Snoop Dogg * Rise Against * Andrew Bird * TV on the Radio * Vampire Weekend * The Decemberists * Neko Case * STS9 * Animal Collective * Band of Horses * Of Montreal * Artick Monkeys * Coheed and Cambria * Ben Folds * Fleet Foxes * Silversun Pickups * Kaiser Chiefs * Crystal Castles * Bon Iver * Santigold * Atmosphere * Dan Auerbach * Cold War Kids * Deerhunter * Lykke Li * Robert Earl Keen * Peter Bjorn and John * Heartless Bastards * Gomez *Glasvegas * Frederico Aubele * Dan Deacon * Passion Pit * Zap Mama * The Raveonettes * The Gaslight Anthem * The Airborne Toxic Event * White Lies * Ra Ra Riot * No Age * Asher Rother * Los Campesinos! * Bat For Lashes * Chairlift * Gan Gang Dance * Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybees * The Virgins * Amazing Baby * Portugal. The Man * The Knux * Ida Maria * Delta Spirit * Friendly Fires * Manchester Orchestra * Constantines * Ezra Furman & The Harpoons * Hockey * Mike Snow * Alberta Cross * Hey Champs * Sam Roberts Band * The Henry Clay People * Davy Knowles & Back Door Slam * Cage the Elephant * Living Things * The Low Anthem * Blind Pilot * Langhorne Slim * Other Lives * The Builders and the Butchers * Eric Church * Joe Pug * Kevin Devine * The Greencards * Carney * Thenewno2 * Gringo Star * Ke$ha * Esser * Priscilla Renea * Dirty Sweet * Mike's Pawn Shop * April Smith * Band of Skulls * Ralph's World * Paul Green's School of Rick * Secret Agent 23 Skidoo * Zach Gill * Lunch Money * Frances England * Peter DiStefano & Tor * Q Brothers * Car Bears of Fire * Yuto Miyazawa * Last Band Standing Remix



This year's LoLLa lineup read like a who's who of up and comings rather than the powerhouse of glory bands it seems to have been in years past, and I couldn't have been more ecstatic. On the whole, it contained more pasty UK dudes than a British soccer match. The North Field corralled the Bearded Masses with Love-in session acts like Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, The Decemberists and Andrew Bird. The Citi Stage was a Pitchfork Addicts wet dream all weekend with acts including The Knux and Amazing Baby on Friday; Chairlift, No Age & Lykki Li on Saturday; and Gang Gang Dance and Deerhunter on Sunday. Can you say hipster heaven? And the South end of Grant Park housed the we're-too-cool-to-admit-we-like-them anti-establishment groups: Depeche Mode, Tool, Ra Ra Riot, Vampire Weekend (admittedly one of my favorites!) Snoop and The Killers (damn, Sunday would have been a good day to go...)

Despite being soaked to the bone 10 minutes after arrival, there are definite benefits to having attended the Friday Festivities:
1) It wasn't 100+ degrees in the shade
2) You don't need a more legitimate reason to skip out of work on a Friday than this
3) The Bands (as a whole) were better Friday than any other day of the weekend
4)Port-a-potties were not yet filled to the brim with three days of urban-hipster poo

We were all cold, soaked and overpaying for cheap, crappy beer. But $2 can koozies made it all seem okay. I learned (among other things) the correct lyrics to every Ben Folds song played. I won bets in line for the port-o-lets, and I bore witness to two of the most awesome trades in human history: (1) Bartering swaths of TP for line jumping priveleges at the port-o-lets. *note The only thing that trumps a swath of bartered TP is the girl at the front of the line who brought her own baby wipes. It was a showdown at high noon, I tell ya. (2) Trading one Werther's Original (noted a fine, fine candy indeed by all parties involved) and two lifesavers mints (pocket lint intact) for a quick pull on a fellow concert-goer's smuggle whiskey.

And now, for your general edification, some Do's and Dont's of LoLLa...
DO: Knee-high Rain Boots, Multi-Colored Chucks, Retro 1980's Shades (preferably the slatted kind), White White Wedding Dresses (if you're a member of The Decemberists otherwise you'd just look silly), Sporting this year's Lolla shirt (apparantly this is one of the few venues where this is generally acceptable practice. Usually you'd receive a beat down, or at least scathing, haughty looks for doing this), Sued Buckskins. Seriously. Or dressing like Pocahontis.

DONT'S: Sundresses, Hemp Sandals, Gladiator Laceups, White T, no Bra (ew. just. ew.), Plaid camp shirts (In this girl's opinion, this look was cool for about 30 seconds, but when you're trying to be original, just like everybody else, it's suddenly trite and overdone), Rompers (Really? REALLY?!! How do you expect to navigate a port-a-potty in that overgrown onsie with a 24oz. beer in one hand and your park map in the other?)

I tease. I kid. But secretly I was in heaven.
I'm already plotting to go all three days next year.
I've started my paper chain countdown, have you?