#RockYourScar CHD Photo Contest

CHD.

I use to know nothing about what those three letters stood for, but now I know all to well.

This week, being Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week, those of us who know all to well have one week where we get to speak out and share what those three letters mean to us.

Congenital Heart Defect.

CHD.

What they have come to mean to me is …

Courage.  Hope.  Destiny.

This week we get to celebrate the courage of these heart warriors.

We get to spread hope to those just meeting theirs.

We get to help shape the destiny of these special hearts by spreading awareness, to find a cure.

This is my special heart warrior. 

And she is rocking her CHD and her scar!

Mended Little Hearts, an amazing CHD organization, is having a #RockYourScar photo contest.

I would love it if you would vote for Aubrey!!!

You can vote for while you are logged onto Facebook here: http://bit.ly/1ggzY3a)

Of course, the crazy crafter wheels in my brain started turning as soon as I read about this photo contest.  I wanted to make her a shirt that would show off her scar, but not be provocative in anyway.  I also didn't want to buy anything new.  It was a perfect opportunity for a refashion.  I found this almost too small heart shirt that had a rip in the collar.  I thought it might be cool to just simply sew a zipper into the center where her scar is, so she could show it off in the picture. 

I put some interfacing on inside of the shirt, then cut down a slit for the zipper.  Pinned it all into place and top stitched over it.  I fixed the hole in the collar, too.

You saw the finished product in the picture at the top!

I hope we win!!!  

I, of course, couldn't stop at the shirt and had to make the CHD Awareness Ribbon, too.  

Now we can hang that year after year during this special week.

Thank you to those of you who have already voted and shared the contest on your page.

It's YOU GUYS who ROCK!!!

Rockin' my heart strings!!!

CHD Awareness Ribbon

National Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) Awareness Week is February 7th-14th.  

As most of you know, this is a cause that is near and dear to my heart.

My daughter was born with two very serious CHD's called Tetralogy of the Fallot with Pulmonary Atresia.  She required heart surgery at birth in order to live.  At 7 months old they did a full repair, closing the hole in her heart and placing a pulmonary artery (or conduit) from another child in her heart.  She will require more heart surgeries throughout life to replace the artery as she grows out of them.  We have been so fortunate with many years of good health between surgeries.  There is so much hope for these children in the future.  50 years ago a child like Aubrey would have most likely died early on.  With continued research and medical advances, children like my daughter can live long, normal lives.  Although, not quite ready for prime time yet, micro robotic surgery is on the horizon for helping avoid opening the sternum for open heart repair.  Stem cell research has opened the doors toward a possible cure.  Organ donation continues to save lives like my daughters.  There is so much hope for children and adults living with CHD.  Raising awareness and educating people on what it means to live with CHD will enable us all to work together towards finding a cure.

I will be wearing my red and blue with pride this week!!

I felt inspired to make a ribbon of my own to decorate and show my pride and support for CHD to the world.  I plan to hang this on my door every year.  I have a secret motivation behind making this … which will be revealed shortly in another post.

Here is my giant CHD Awareness Ribbon:

I made this using bendable wire I found in the floral decor section at Michaels.  I formed the shape first, tied it together in the center with a small piece of wire to anchor it.  I cut 1 1/2"W x 5"L stripes of fabric and tied them in a single knot onto the wire.  I used corduroy red and blue fabric.

I love that it looks like several red and blue ribbons that make up one giant red and blue ribbon.

I can't wait to hang this on my door to show my support for CHD.

But first I must use it for one more thing ….

You'll just have to wait and see.

Greener Pastures

I finally get to share with all of you the last of the fabric art pieces I made for Christmas.  My poor Mom and Brother have been sick most of December, so we didn't get to celebrate my sons birthday or Christmas until just this last Friday.  Here is a look at the gift I made from my Mom.  I call it "Greener Pastures".  It was inspired by my Grandparents, her Mom and Dad.  My Grandmother loved cows, my Grandfather loved seagulls, and they both loved the ocean.  As a kid, my Grandma would always take me to walk the dog near near where the cows grazed in the fields.  I remember having a conversation with her once about what she would want to be if she died and could be reincarnated.  She told me she would be a cow.  I must have asked my Grandpa the same question or maybe she told me he would want to be a seagull, I'm not sure.  I just remember us joking about how if I ever saw a cow with a seagull on its back after they left this world I would know it was them.  For some reason, this conversation has stuck with me for all these years.  I was probably under 10 when we had this talk.  I finally decided to breathe life into this image I've been carrying with me for 30ish years.

I hope you like it!

Moo!

Squawk!

RIP Grandma and Grandpa.  I hope you found your Green Pasture over the ocean together.

A Whale's Tail

I took my favorite sewing machine in to be serviced just after Christmas.  They've been holding it hostage for 2 weeks now and I'm really starting to miss it.  I have two other machines, but one is a serger and the other is an industrial, which can sew just about anything, but I prefer my Kenmore for most apparel projects unless it's heavy duty fabric.  I've been searching around for some knit and denim refashions to do, but in the meantime, I did some cheap and easy "screen printing".  I'm not sure what you call it when you don't use an actual screen.  I'm going to go with ghetto screen printing.  

I am so lucky, not only to live in such a beautiful town so close to the great Pacific Ocean, but also to have such an awesome landlord who owns sports fishing and whale watching boats.  He is very generous with letting me get on the whale watching boat from time to time, free of charge.  One of the many perks of living in this little complex.

On our expedition we saw several whales.  Fin Whales, which are very uncommon at this time of year.  They are also the second largest animal on Earth.  We also saw at least 4 Grey Whales.  It is their normal migratory season and they are out in droves right now.  We saw 200+ dolphins in all directions at one point, too.  Our ocean is thriving in Manhattan Beach.  Great Whites have recently moved here making our beaches their nursery.  The water has been crystal clear and I'm seeing very little garbage and run off debris along the beach and in the water.  The plastic bag ban seems to be helping, as I haven't seen a bag floating in the water in quite some time. It's just lovely here this Winter.  Here is a photo of the back of one Grey Whale and the fluke of another.  They generally come up for air 3 - 5 times in a row and then they will take a deep dive and go under for up to 25 minutes or so.  When they do their deep dive, that is when you see their fluke, which is the tail of the whale sticking up  out of the water, like this one below.

I was thinking to myself, maybe that's the whales way of flipping us off .. giving us their whale middle finger … lol.  Telling us to "Fluke off!  We're trying to eat and swim here people!  Mind your own business!" I had a good laugh to myself over this and I decided to turn it into a shirt.  Because … well … I'm a weirdo!

You can make your own ghetto screen printing shirt just as I did.  You can create your own design and it is pretty easy to do.  All you need is a shirt, some freezer paper, an exacto knife, cutting mat, pencil, fabric ink, iron, sponge, and an idea.

Start by drawing your picture on the paper side of the freezer paper.  Then start cutting it out with your exacto knife.

Here is mine all cut out.

Get your shirt and figure out where you want the design to line up on the shirt. 

Save all the pieces you cut out, so you can use them to trace if you ever want to make the pattern again.  

The cut outs also come in handy when you are trying to line it all up on the shirt, too.  I used mine to make sure I had every thing center and aligned, so it wouldn't pucker when I ironed it to the shirt.

I pinned it down to the ironing board, so the paper wouldn't shift.  Now I'm ready to press it to the shirt.

Use a hot iron with no steam.  I moved the pins out of the way as I went.

The freezer paper is now fused to the shirt and it is ready for ink.

But first, I wanted to make a shirt for the kids, too.  I used the cut out piece of the whale tail to trace another tail onto a new piece of freezer paper.  Easy peasy this time.

I'm not adding "fluke off" to the kids shirt for obvious reasons.  I did mine on the back and I'm doing theirs on the front of the shirt.

Here is the one for Bayne.

And here is the one for Aubrey.

Now we are ready to print.  I put styrofoam and a pillow case inside the shirt to prevent leakage to the other side.  The foam helps make ink application easier by providing a soft, forgiving surface to work on.  I didn't have a sponge brush, so I rummaged around and found an old partially used make up foundation pad to use.  It worked great.

Here they are with all the ink on.  I let them dry like this over night.

When they are completely dry, rip off the freezer paper.

The ink needs to be set with a hot iron for 3-5 minutes.  You can also toss them in the dryer to heat set them.  I'm a paranoid freak, so I do both.

Here are the finished whale tail shirts!

I even added a little whale tail to the front of mine.

 I really love how the kids came out.  I want to make one like theirs for myself.  I like how mine came out, too.  I think it was good to go with the blue shirt and blue ink to make it more subtle.  There are a lot of puns in there.  If I'm the only one laughing, well … that's fine.

There is a Whale Fiesta coming up at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and you better believe we will be there in our awesome whale shirts.  I love attending fun events that spread ocean awareness.  I grew up on the beach in Santa Barbara and at a very young age learned a great respect for our ocean and all of it's inhabitants.  We all have to work together to ensure that our oceans stay clean and thriving, so future generations can enjoy the beauty that this vast body of water holds.  It connects us all.

Next time you see a whale fluke, you just may wonder … did that whale just flip me off??

Maybe.

Maybe…..

Starlight Affair

Here is another piece of fabric art I made, but this one I did for sale.  I needed to earn a little bread for Christmas and since my bags don't seem to generate any income, I thought I'd list this bad boy and see if it sold and it did!

This is a little piece I call Starlight Affair.

Just a couple dolphins in love, meeting under the moonlight.

I used fabric I already had.  The ocean was made with old jeans.  

I really have fun creating these pieces.

In fact, I've decided that I am going to switch gears and try to start selling my fabric art, rather than apparel or accessories.  

It's hard to sell a bag.  You can go to any Walmart or Target and get one cheap.  People don't seem to appreciate the uniqueness and quality that goes into handmade apparel/accessories. It takes a tremendous amount of time and materials and I never really "profit".

I think these pieces are more unique and can last a life time if cared for properly.  I think they are a little different from what anyone else is doing.  I love that I can reduce, reuse, and recycle all of the little fabric scraps that I save from other products.  Rather than contributing to the landfill, I can use them to create art.  I'm hoping this avenue will lead to more success.  

I love sewing and creating.  You just can't stop me!  Eventually I will find my niche.  I'm hoping fabric art may be it!  

Pretty soon I will have more pieces for sale to share with you.

I hope you like my piece!

Fabric Art for Family

This year my goal was to hand make as many gifts as possible for the family for Christmas.  Not only for financial reasons, but because to me a gift from the heart is special.  My time is the most valuable thing I have, so I figure putting my time into a gift, rather than money is just as good.  

This piece of fabric art I made for my Father and Mother in Law. 

Whenever they mail us gifts they always address themselves as Jackson Northwest, us as Jackson West, and the family on the East Coast, Jackson East.

I wanted to make something simple and home-y.  I used scrap fabric that I save from other projects.  The only thing I had to buy to make these was the canvas I applied it to at the end.

I thought this would make a perfect gift for my kids dad, too.  So I made him one that said Jackson West.

I have more fun making fabric art. 

You may be seeing many, many more of these in the future …. 

;)