Yee-ha!

Here's my contribution to A Month of Softies. The fabric is called "Ride 'em Cowboy" – C’mon, how could I resist? Although I have been coveting a certain fabric over at A Bird in the Hand while working on this. The bunnies come with a vintage plastic sheriff’s badge and horse charm.

Chipmunk's ABC

Small pleasures: Richard Scarry's Chipmunk's ABC.










That's quite a party hat!

My Learn to Sew Book (1971)

I love my new book (used from Amazon) – I can’t even remember how I stumbled across it now but it's fabulous. The illustrations and photos are great, the patterns are cute, but best of all is the illustrated index – just super.

Long Beach Antique Market

The third Sunday of the month is the Long Beach Outdoor Antique & Collectible Market. I prefer this show over the Rose Bowl as it's a little less overwhelming and I think the prices are better. I'm developing a taste for vintage plastic buttons and I found some today along with some fabric. Best of all was this magnificent metal tunnel for the car/train-obsessed 2-year-old in my life. We usually make them out of paper so as you can imagine - it went down rather well.

The Cotton Shop

Another of my favorite fabric stores is the Cotton Shop on Artesia Blvd. in Redondo Beach, California. It has the best selection of oil cloth in have found in LA and it’s impossible to walk out the door without a little quarter of something.

Bunny #1

From the Iro Iro Nuigurumi Book: Bunny #1. Made with some vintage skirt fabric I found in Seattle and a couple of vintage flower buttons.

Seattle Skirt Fabric

I was in Seattle last month and stumbled upon a great vintage clothes store – I wish I could remember what it was called. I asked if they had any fabric and the owner pulled out some "skirt bottoms" they had cut off during alterations – sweet.

Camel #1-4, Kangaroo #1.

I’ve been looking for a really simple toy pattern that will allow the fabric I’ve collected, both new and vintage, to be the main attraction. So far I’ve been experimenting with a camel and kangaroo.

Super Lotto

I completely lucked out at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago and won the California Fabric Lotto. All this for $3! I must have used up all my vintage fabric karma – oh well back to hunting for scraps at my local thrift stores.



Here are some favorites...

Fabrics, Laces, Ribbons by the Pound

A fun fabric place to check out in Los Angeles is SAS Fabrics on Hawthorne Blvd in Lawndale. They sell stuff by the pound so you get the idea. The fabric is sometimes hit and miss but it's always interesting to have a poke around especially in the button and trim aisles.

Randy the Donut

What is this you ask? Why, it's a crocheted donut with an eyeball of course. I think it's genius and you should run over to Monster Crochet and buy up similarly brilliant chickens, fruit, and vegetables.

Why Randy the Donut? I named him after my favorite donut drive through in LA, Randy's Donut, although Stan's Donut is worth a visit too.