R.I.P. Bernina. Welcome, Singer.

I hauled two of my dysfunctional sewing machines to Joy Trott; one my beloved but definitely handicapped Bernina and an older and quite annoying White, to see if anything could be done to keep them operable.

The verdict: yes on one and no on the other. The White works all right but lacks the muscle for what I need. This one I am passing on to my non-sewing daughter to use until she figures out if she eventually will become a sewing daughter - good for light work but don't ask too much of it because it won't carry the load.

The No Decree goes to Bernina (sob) - it's not going to sew for me any longer and I'll donate it to Joy to use as a parts machine, should she ever see another of that age that might need a piece or two.

When I made the decision not to pour anymore money into the Bernina, Joy came to my rescue once again by allowing me to take home different sewing machines until I could find the one that is good enough to pick up where my Bernina left off. Luckily, this took just two attempts. I knew as soon as I threaded up the first one, a very cool looking retro Dressmaker, it was not THE one. Ugh. The second and what came to be the last one, is that Singer I saw weeks ago. Joy allowed me to bring it home, I set it up on blocks so the rocker arm wouldn't hit the desktop I use to sew on, threaded the machine and sewed away. Ahhh, success! This baby will plow through the doubled and tripled seams without a hiccup.

Today I returned to Joy's to pick up the sewing table that goes with the machine. My next step: move my current sewing desk somewhere (!?), rewire the Singer to its original sewing table and get sewing.

A side note: I was able to look up the Model Number on my Singer and found out it was made in1947! How cool is that? I'm in love.

Zaz and Moe. Zowie!

Love Fabric? Love Unique and Creative Wearables? Then check out Zaz and Moe, Susan Delsandro Hellier's website for wearable art. 

I was wowed when I came across her booth at the Yarmouth Clam Festival Craft Fair. The creative designs of her skirts completely took me by surprise with their unique approach to creating a woman's skirt. The simple cut of the common a-line skirt are a backdrop to the cut-through designs (there must be a formal name for this technique, but I don't know what it is), which are hand stitched to the backing fabric. In fact, Susan hand stitches her skirts entirely without any machine work. I get a mellowing and calming feeling about how she approaches her craft by avoiding the "machine." 

Susan had other items in her booth but I can't remember what they were - her skirts loomed large in my memory, I guess. But you can check out her website and see for yourself. I urge you to do that!

Quick Note on Today's Freeport Community Market

For anyone looking for Yo Momma's Aprons Strings or Anne Bonny's Booty on this perfectly lovely Maine summer day, please note that the market hours have been tweaked a bit:

Start: 1 PM
End: 6 PM

This is to accommodate the showing of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" on L.L.Bean's Discovery Park. This is free to the public and, from what I saw of the setup last week, looks to be quite a production. A perfect summer's evening entertainment after our perfect market day.

Come and experience a full day's entertainment in Freeport today.

Time for Aprons and Portland's Picnic Music + Arts Festival!

Long time, no Sew.

A week's recovery after the Clam Festival quickly turned into three weeks of almost zero sewing. I think I managed to get two aprons completed fairly quickly during that first week, still being in that sew, sew, sewing mode. But then came two weeks of working my regular job during the day (my usual hours being from 4-9 PM) and all good intentions to keep up a reasonable sewing pace quickly went out the window. I pooped out once I get home after working during the day and was lucky to manage a few chores before hanging up my apron and calling it a day.

Now that those two weeks of working days are over (hallelujah!) it's time to step up production. August 28th is the 3rd Annual Picnic Music + Arts Festival in Portland and I have some serious catching up to do. In the non-sewing interim I went a bit crazy and did some serious fabric ordering so will have no lack of fun and exciting fabrics to choose from when I get back in the swing of things.

I'm ready now!

Yo Momma’s Apron Strings at the Yarmouth Clam Festival

Aprons on display.

Holy Aprons, Batman!

That ClamFest was one heck of an experience. Prior to this event, Zoe and I sold our wares at local Farmer’s Markets and a very few (two, I think) holiday craft fairs, which were nothing to prepare us for what we were to encounter at one of the premiere craft fairs of the state. We had been given advice and warnings that this is a non-stop, hectic three days and to be prepared, whatever that meant. Well, we found out exactly what that meant and if it wasn’t for the advice and aide of our two neighbors: Allison Bramhall  (festivefish.net) and Arlene Reny Mayhugh (handmade stoneware and pottery), we would have had a much more difficult experience.

All was going along swimmingly until we discovered, upon putting up our brand new, super-dooper King Goliath canopy (I wasn’t going to take any chances with nasty, rainy and windy weather on this 3-day adventure) that the company had sent an extra canopy top instead of the sidewalls. ARGH! With thunderstorms predicted for the next day we scrambled to come up with a solution. To make a long and stressful story short, we managed to get our sidewalls in time to safely enclose our tent in time for the last overnight. In the meantime, we used our extra top and borrowed sides (thank you, thank you Karen Marsden of Bowdoin Baking Co.) to keep our aprons and jewels safe.

A sampling of Zoe's lovely jewelry.

So, my impression? I loved it. Will I want to do it again next year? I definitely do want to do this again. When I hit my bed after that first full day my inclination was to answer no to that question. I was totally exhausted and the thought of two more days was daunting. However, I somehow gained my sea legs and was able to zip through the rest of the fair. Due in part, I certain, to generous the hits of Zoe’s iced coffee.

I do want to mention again how grateful we are to our immediate vending neighbors: Allison and Arlene. Their gentle advice and loaning of a bit of this and a piece of that helped to see us through that first bumpy day and their welcoming spirits made us feel at home and in the company of friends. 

Zoe and I are forever grateful.

Next up: fabulous finds at the ClamFest. 
Stay tuned.

Yo Momma's Aprons Strings at the Yarmouth Clam Festival.

Just a quick post today.

Zoe (Anne Bonny's Booty) and I are setting up our space at the Yarmouth Clam Festival today. Three days of selling and do I have enough aprons and headbands ready for the hords? I have no idea but I have a feeling the answer is "NO!".

I've been sewing steadily, so much so that my poor Bernina gave up the ghost. I borrowed a machine from a neighbor that wouldn't cooperate either so ended up making a late night trip to meet my daughter in Freeport for a hand-off of my old machine. While the old White isn't as perfect as my Bernina (in its prior incarnation, that is) it gets the job done.

My daughter, Nyla, came to my rescue on Monday and we set up a headband production line, managing to increase my total dramatically.

I've made new signage for this sale. Here's a sample:

 I'm off!

Ann Arbor Farmer's Market - Wow!

Ann Arbor, Michigan. Year-round farmer's market.

I was visiting family in Michigan a couple weeks ago and was determined to visit a local farmer's market for a variety of reasons, though what I was most excited about was the opportunity of seeing what other markets have to offer. The best option was 20 minutes away in Ann Arbor. This town clearly values their farmer's markets as there is a permanent structure dedicated to sheltering their vendors, which I was told was built by the WPA during the depression. How cool is that? It was set up as a "T" shape with vendors up and down all the sides (though I notice there were a few spaces empty for what reason I didn't ask).

Being the apron maker that I am, I zeroed in on a vendor who sews and, to my delight, discovered she made unique children's clothing using - get this - vintage aprons as focal points. I wish I had taken a picture of her work as it was beautifully inspired. She used the accent pieces from handmade aprons and transformed them into accent pieces for a child's dress. Simply lovely.

Michigan is the land of cherries and our timing was such that the native cherries were everywhere and imagine my joy when I was able to find an organic option. Super fresh cherries and organic to boot. Man alive! And some vendors had the sour cherries, which are incredibly delicious when made into cherry pie. I remember my mother pitting these tart cherries with an antique cherry pitter and using them in her pies. I haven't had a homemade cherry pie since my childhood and if my family weren't such cherry wimps and if I could get my hands on a cherry pitter, I would have tried my hand at a pie. Somehow the prospect of hand pitting cherries put me off that idea...

Cherries, cherries everywhere!

 I discovered I have great fun visiting other farmer's markets, especially markets in other states. It's fun to see the local offerings and look to see if there is space for me. That would be fun - to be a traveling/visiting vendor to markets all across the country. Hmmm, I think I'll ponder that one a bit.