Ginger Hendrix, Writer

"Sew Like a Maker" Over on Skillshare

All my teaching dreams are coming true: 1. I got to dress up like a goof. 2. I got to teach people how to sew with abandon. 3. I got to play with video. (At one point, I had a mini tripod stuffed down my shirt.)

Oh, apparently I only have 3 dreams.

Here's my 2-minute trailer for the class: 

Trailer for "Sew Like a Maker" on Skillshare.com from ginger hendrix on Vimeo.

Skillshare has a free 14-day trial for all their classes, but then this class is considered a "premium" (oooohhhhhh) class and so it will require a membership for you to take. I've got 25 spots for free enrollments: just enter the super secret code FAYSEWS.

You can enroll in the class here: http://skl.sh/1zpaU6Y

Yay. 

Introducing Mary Lou Stevens Reed

I realized that I could save GOBS of cash this Christmas if I just MADE SMALLER STOCKINGS. Omg I have been using stockings meant for giants for years now. And they're annoyingly expensive to fill. #momproblem.

This 26 minutes video offers up step-by-step instructions for making a lINED Christmas Stocking...plus you get to meet Mary Lou Stevens Reed, in her first cameo appearance in one my teaching videos. She's a keeper.

 

Dear Tara (About Your Ottoman Questions),

Tara the Faithful Reader asked a good question about my last post:

 

Do you have a pattern you went off of ? . . . I have an ottoman DESPERATELY crying for a face lift (or should I say a cover-up)!

Here are my quick thoughts about making straight-line projects like ottoman covers.

I think the trick for these kinds of projects is to try to think of them like they'd be if they were flat--not 3D anymore, but 2D. Or this: I try to think about how a thing would look if it were filleted, like a fish. If I see it flat, then I can think about how to put it back together. 

 (This lovely image from www.sandysteelheaders.org)

The ottoman is really just two long strips sewn together (one's the bottom gathery one; one's the long flat one) that are then attached to a square (the top of the ottoman). I literally threw fabric over my ottoman and cut the piece out just a little bigger.

1. One big square: check. 
2. One long flat one for the sides--then cut into 4 that match the widths of each side and sewn back together so it makes the corners nicely.
3. One (even longer) flat one that you then pleat for that looks. (I just fold it under as I go on the machine.)
4. Attach the to long ones together.
5. Then sew those two joined strips to the square--which is really just four straight lines with some turns in the middle.

No pictures for this, but maybe that helps. Sew on, Friends! And remember: everything can be filleted and then re-constructed. Hazzah!

Thing for Me #2: Scrambled T-Shirt Scarf

A Sew Sew Selfish Month Update

K. This isn't a tutorial because if you're a monkey with a pair of scissors and a piece of bone and some thread, you can make this. (Um, rotary cutter with ruler and sewing machine are handy, though, I won't lie.)

Step #1: Find old t-shirt that you keep in your drawer because you love but you never wear because it has some weird stain on it or it rides high or it's just very 80's and looked cute in the 80's but you really shouldn't wear anymore but you can't make yourself throw it away. Get that t-shirt. In fact, get a couple of those if you want it long-ish, or just one if you want it short-ish like mine.)

 

Step #2: Cut it up into 6 inch squares. (Hold on to the squares that include the finished bottom edge of the shirt(s).)

 

Step #3: Scramble the squares like you'd like them.

 

Step #4: Sew the squares together all funky--with the seams showing on one side, then the other, like that. Sew them in pairs, then sew the pairs together longways.

(Note to the perfectionist: you'll have the best luck if you line up the middles, then sew out to the edges)

 

 

 Step #5: Sew the finished bottom edge pieces to the ends.

 

 

Step #6: Show off.

 

See? I told you you could do it. And if you get stuck, just email me--or find a monkey, give him a pair of scissors, a piece of bone, some thread and an old shirt and see what he does.

 

Yes, we should remember. But we don't.

A few weeks ago, I invented this. In my mind, I mean. I was driving and thinking, Wouldn't it be great if I could get an email reminding me when I was going to fall headlong into the PMS Pool of Irrational and Unattractive so that I wouldn't have to panic every month? Then I thought, EVERYBODY NEEDS THIS and then I start writing the business plan. It was only going to take a small bank loan to get the thing off the ground.

Then I found out that somebody else thought of it.

 

This happens to me a lot.

 

There's a HITCH though, because the Somebodys who thought of it are apparently of the non-PMS-experiencing persuasion. That is, they're a bunch of somebody's boyfriends. And they've devised their site as a sort of Weapon of Mass Self-Defense. As in, "Find out when your girlfriend's PMS-in so you'll know why she's such a hag!" and "Don't be caught off guard!" and "Dude--know you'll why she's just that way!" 

 

Well, that's my translation.Here's their actual pitch:

 

 

I find this both highly annoying--and yes, I have Bonafide PMS as I write this and they would say that's why I find it so annoying but that is NOT why I find it annoying because if they were actually women they would know that you're never annoyed during your pre-bleed days by things that wouldn't normally completely annoy you it's just that you're actually able to SAY how annoyed you are and to FEEL more deeply than usual what you would otherwise already feel and it's not because we're hormonal that we feel these things we would feel them anyway.

 

Let's just say that PMS Buddy is not my buddy. . . plus I'm afraid of the junk mail I might get if I sign up.

 

But I need a reminder because every month I have a tiny little self-reflective breakdown about why I am the way I am. And to actually remember that this is hormonally induced would be terribly helpful.

 

So here it is, girls, a tutorial with the likes of Us in mind: Set Yourself Up a Personal Email PMS Reminder So You Don't Think You've Lost Your Ever Lovin Mind or That You're Always This Fat or Angry: A Tutorial.

 

For reals.