For some time now I’ve been feeling the pull to sew couture for people. Finally, things are beginning to solidify and I should have three full whimsical lady’s ensembles for sale in the next 4-5 days or so. To push myself a bit more I opened Pixxxie Pie & Posie as my 2nd Etsy shop on 5/13/09 and began pilfering my homemade soaps and jewelry therein. Pixxxie Pie & Posie will specialize in whimsical haute couture along with other semi-precious sundries sure to delight those of human stature. The more I thought about it the more it seemed necessary to completely separate the things I make for humans from the things I make for dollies. The Pixxxie Pie Emporium Etsy shop is still alive and well and bit more tidy since things were reorganized….Though I still need to log into it and update my shop message and such. All in do time I suppose.
Above, you’ll see a sneak peak from two weeks ago when this lovely little jumper dress was still in its early phases. It will include a cute little blouse in complimentary shades of green lawn and ivory. Said blouse is also short sleeved and has a Peter Pan collar. The jumper dress and blouse as an ensemble are called “Coraline”. Something about all the buttons I’ve got to place down the back made me think of Coraline (Neil Gaimen book character).
My two other ensembles are called “The Octavia Blush” and “Morigan Le Strange”. If I had more energy I’d have some preliminary photographs of these works as they were progressing….Along with the various expressions that passed over my face as I beat each garment into submission. But my energy is waning. Good news is that I could just snap and stay up all night long and take a few pics of them before they get their buttons and eyelets and hemlines and chokers.
When I’m not sewing I’ve been making soap lately and I must say it is a truly relaxing art form all its own. Even my consort is joining in on the fun. We’re currently making organic all natural glycerin soap (hippy soap is what my mum would call it) and experimenting with different ways to make nice hard, long lasting soaps with long lasting aromas and great texture. I decided on glycerin soap because I find it easy to use and it can be manipulated and prodded into behaving just like lye based soaps. But I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll find it in my budget soon to start making lye based soaps. I love all the chemistry and thermometers and gloves and goggles involved and best of all its something my significant other and I can do together. Sewing is sometimes a rather solitary act. I don’t really need help with it unless someone is crazy and just wants to handle something I hate…like sewing buttons holes and buttons. Soap making on the other hand is something you can involve the whole family in. Your room mate, your friends, your mum and dad…even the kiddies. Mind you, lye based soaps are a bit tricky in that its not so safe to allow really young children to help out since there’s the little matter of caustic soda and the burning sensation it creates when it contacts soft skin. But glycerin base soaps are easy-peasy and there’s no lye to burn the wee ones. If your children are older, like 15+, then its probably okay to have them give you a hand with some old school soap making. Odds are they’ve had some basic lab safety instruction in their science class by age 15+ and can handle putting on some safety gloves and some goggles to help out with tasks like measuring and stirring.
Lye base soaps also have the added bonus of teaching one the lesson of patience since you’ve got to wait around 30 days for your soap to fully cure before you can utilize it. I know that will be the hardest part of the lye based soap making for me: waiting for things to cure. Soap in some ways reminds of fine wine, good cheese or premium ganja: the devils in the details of chemical reactions occurring over prolonged periods of time.
Above is a photo of my bound consort (Vin) hard at work stirring glycerin soap base over a toasty flame. The other photo is of SweetPea and Rosemary soaps getting snugly in their molds and waiting for their next layers. I really like layers.
Other Fun:
Jewelry making is more fun than a jigsaw puzzle to me. Last time I sat down to play with some beads my long time room mate and cohort Jason (whom will hitherto be referred to as Harlancore -see link for his rockin’ papercraft jazz on my left nav) sat down & joined me in the sandbox. Here’s a look at his progression with beads. Now he didn’t create a necklace or even help me create a necklace or anything else for that matter, but I did enjoy seeing his interpretation of bead arrangement along with his continued adherence to a theme of characters sticking their tongues out (a bad habit I still display rather constantly despite my apparent adulthood).
