Calamity Kim

National Apron Day is May 10, 2010

Celebrated the Monday after Mother's Day, National Apron Day is a yearly celebration dedicated to preserving a fun, nostalgic way to display your favorite apron.

Wear your favorite apron all day long!

I will be doing an apron giveaway here on May 10 to celebrate this fine event so tell your friends and be sure to bookmark the date and come on back here to enter to win!

Share the button:

Check out the apron links on my side bar - I borrowed this image from Apronicity which links to all good aprony things!

I'll try to get a button made for the calamity kim apron giveaway and post it here soon.

Have a great weekend!

cxo, calamity kim

chickens & monkeys oh, my!

This is how I feel right now. Finishing up Chicken and Monkey themed aprons. There are more monkey shines here  I really love this artist's work. Simple,  folk art monkeys. Ya gotta love it. Natalie- yours is in the mail. Monkey Girl- not quite, but almost done. Smoochie...trailing in 3rd position....back to the sewing room...

Getting a Fabric Fix

I was reading Miz Amanda Button's Blog and loving her cutest creation- a sun dress for her niece made from tattoo fabric and I happened to see where someone left her a link to a cool fabric site called: Cheap Threads

cha cha cha

They have super cool badges and patches and buttons and subversive and sublime embroidery patterns, too!

I love it! 

Go check em out.

Have some fun!

oh, and they take Pay Pal

teehee

Windbreak

Windbreak, originally uploaded by lovelymisselvis.

As I was sitting at the pattern book table at the fabric store today I realized that I was looking for something different.

Something Vogue and vintage and sophisticated.

I saw a pattern made with a gorgeous jersey type of fabric.

Maybe jersey with a texture.

It had lovely roses on it and the bodice was gathered and then there were pearl buttons and it came out in a full A line skirt.

I didn't even look at the model's face. Her dress was too lovely to look at anything else.

I thought long and hard about buying the pattern but with a sigh, I turned the page. I had a flash of cold reality and I knew that even if I could have managed to make this very tailored and fitted dress it would have to be a lot larger than the tiny one the model was wearing and it would never look like that.

I wanted to buy the dream though.

Then I saw the Vogue hat pattern.

You know the one with the huge, impractical brim. Just like one of the Aunt's in Practical Magic.

I know that I will get that pattern on the next sale and I will make some of those hats and I will make some big giant velvet roses to go on them.

I can pull off a hat.

I have dreams of wearing hats to tea parties.

Hats to rodeos.

Hats to sail.

Hats to shop at the Paris Flea Market.

There is the right hat for every occasion.

Just as there is an apron for every occasion.

Now my aprons are not practical.

They are about fantasy and favorite stories and movies.

They let you live in a dream just for a moment, before the dirty dishes call out to you..."wash me!"

When I lived in Asheville there was the coolest consignment shop on Merrimon Ave called The Enchanted Forest.

You could always find a gorgeous vintage dress or jacket or sweater or hat or belt or shoes... I felt the magic when I shopped there.

The spirit of the owner's or the cool chicks who worked there..I dunno but It was always a lovely experience. I would go maybe once a month on my day off and stay for several hours..trying on this and that and dreaming of who I would become in those clothes. Who wore them before me? Beaded sweaters, so tiny. I used to be tiny.

It's just the dream that is so appealing. Carolina at Neo Vamp was discussing it on her Blog- selling the dream...That's what good salesmen & women do. They show you how wonderful the ______ is and then tell you the price. This can be you behind the wheel. This can be your kitchen or living room or garden. Small pieces of the dream. That's what makes everyone happy.  My newest dream is to make and sell aprons, quilts, dolls and everything I create without having to forfeit my integrity or design or scrimp on fabrics or time. I don't want to make 100 of each thing. Only one. That special one. Then you know that you have the only one like that in the whole world. Magical. Special. That's treasure. Will you use it and love it or do you wrap it up in tissue and only take it out every now and then to look at it? I make my stuff to be used. It may not look practical but aprons can still be functional...even when they are just art.
Like this apron by Danny Mansmith .....

You can visit his blog- Scrap and his Etsy site for some more awesome stuff...I like his style...he has an eye for fashion....

Please pardon the pun, it's late and I have visions of aprons dancing before my sleepy eyes.....I'll be back with more tomorrow...sweet dreams...

a new art apron

With the temperature going down into the 40's tonight we have the windows open to the fresh air and I am happily sewing away on a new art apron...wanna see?

This time it's all about fairy cakes and tea cups and birds and roses...The chenille side is like frosting on a cake! I am still working on the pockets then it's a waistband and ties and after a few yoyo's and buttons and bows she'll be all done! I wish I could make these faster but they take about 3-4 days depending on the laundry, grocery shopping and walking the dog and Fred time I have to spend...The roses are just gorgeous - they are a Spanish rose by Michael Miller. The cupcake fabric is Martha Negley and I love her color ways- lots of aqua and brown and peach and they are just wonderful to work with- hard to find though! At least here in Sarasota- only Alma Sue's has it in stock. That's the shop where the sweet Mennonite women are always quilting on a quilt stretched upon a  big rack. She is getting in so much fabric it is stacked to the rafters! The shop has one whole wall dedicated to Kaffe Fassett too!  I just thought I'd check in- we don't really celebrate St Patrick's- if we had the kids here we would or were where our friends are...and since we don't drink beer- it just isn't a big ta do. But, I hope you all are having fun...

Tomorrow it's out with the bunnies! Yippee! I have a few paper mache chicks and rabbits and I do love some Easter eggs and baskets sitting around...I wish I could see the grandkids gathering eggs- maybe someday..maybe I can talk them into video taping it! Hayden (in the kitty suit from Halloween) will be 1 on April 4 and he is running around chasing the dog and Austin (with the rose)(who will be 3 on August 21st)....they live in Clarksville which is just too far! I do get to talk to them almost everyday though, so that helps..but still...if they were here Austin would be sporting one of those rabbit costumes at Target!

I think they are adorable! The kids in costumes!  Do it while they're young and won't remember or be traumatized by it! LOL! Anyway- I will be back hopefully tomorrow with a new apron to list and something worthwhile to discuss- I know, all of you aren't as fabric and grandbaby obsessed as I am...but I can't say I am sorry...This kid here is as cute as a cupcake in a doll house if ya ask me! How do you resist these sweet faces? Geez.... 

Friday WIP

I was showing these pictures to Amanda...it is a jean skirt I started last year and never finished! i wanted to wear it to Marie Antoinette but I never finished it and then I never saw the movie! Now it will be out on my birthday!! Yippee! and maybe I can indeed get a second chance! I will try, that's all I can say! I recommend this Book by Rosemary Eichorn called Fabric Collage if it's something you feel like trying! I got her book years ago from Malaprop's in Asheville! I loved to walk there from my apartment on Cherry Street, past the lovely Catholic Church and Civic Center and Library....From Malaprop's I'd usually walk down to The Earth Guild and then over to Lexington Ave for some Fun at The Mast General Store and the LOFT (lost objects found treasure). I miss Asheville and it's funk. Back to the sewing room- it's raining and gray and a nice day to play!!

Super Cool Spaced Out Robot!!!!!

Super Cool Spaced Out Robot!!!!!, originally uploaded by calamity kim.

I was just playing.   again....

spaceboy

spaceboy, originally uploaded by calamity kim.

Dig those Jet Boots he's wearing!

WIP

WIP, originally uploaded by calamity kim.

This is the fabric collage that I am going to make the witch's cape from. She is my version of the Wicked Witch in Snow White. Next I'm going to do Red Riding Hood

Finishing what I started

As I walk into my sewing room and wonder where to begin I realize I have started so many projects that I could be busy everyday until Easter! It's hard to know where to start with the Holidays coming, do I start gifts? No, I need to finish baby quilts and class projects and purses for some nice girls I know, and aprons and dolls for Farm Girl. Glad to know I'm up early and gettin the worm! It's funny when your biggest challenge is to get off the computer and actually "do" something. Last night Fred said,"too bad you can't get paid for all the time you're on there"! I laughed, but I think the Flickr and blog obsession has taken a lot of the free out of my time and I need to get busy doing real work. He set up a wireless thing in the house this weekend. Yesterday, I was doing my laptop thing in the kitchen where the sight of the dishes waiting and the un-opened pile of mail were calling to me; it didn't help me find the usual zen I get from surfin the net. Maybe that was his secret plot- to give me freedom to roam the house with my wireless and see what I've been neglecting. Oh, I am a BAD Housewife! Shame on me! Well, I don't care I need my daily alone time with my bloggie friends and their  lives. Just to connect to other people who love to make stuff and collect stuff and value old, vintage things. View this photo So, among my many projects I have a dress form that I want to cover. I have seen them covered with old quilts and I have a quilt topper that I bought from eBAY but every time I get it out to cut it up, I just can't.View this photo So the dress form stands bare and I can't use it to model  favorite aprons or pins.View this photo I keep picturing the one I saw at Persnickity Cats & Co, a great place to shop if you are ever visiting Sarasota, and I want mine to have that same worn out quilt look but perhaps with softer, shabby chic fabrics.View this photo I want to paint the wood base and top aqua and then antique white, then sand it and wax it for some charm.

One day I would like to also finish this old quilt top and make it into a real quilt. I always wonder why they didn't finish them. Did they think it wasn't good enough? Did they get too old or go blind? Or did the next, better project pop-up and pull them away before they could finish it. So that's this weeks mantra: finish it! finish it! finish it! View this photo Before the next, better project comes along. Happy Sewing!