Buggirl's Increasingly Strange Tokyo Tales...

In an attempt to clean over the last few days I started madly stashbusting...which means my craft room is a mess but that I'm a bit more myself.
( Quilts? Maybe? )

A parade of cute fabrics behind the cut...and teh filthy shop.
( On, Echino fabrics, I love yoooou. )

It should be noted that I am a self-taught crafter. I didn’t come from a sewing home. Sewing, knitting, and the existence of God were just things we didn’t talk about at the table. If you wanted to know about such things, you learned them in on the street, thank you.

 It should also be noted that had I had the patience for learning about sewing and knitting at a young age I had AMAZING resources to do so. Both of my grandmothers were quite crafty. Grandma Christina sewed many of the toys and dresses of my youth and Grandma Leah (although having some issues in regards to colors and yarn quality) was a technically strong knitter…but I didn’t have the patience when I was young enough to learn from them.

 My mother has taken up knitting as my craft bubble has expanded here in Japan but it didn’t come easily. In her own words:

 “Watching me knit is more fun than TV. I think I am in the category once called Educable Mentally Retarded when it comes to skills needing hand-eye coordination. The synapses have no interest in connecting and go off doing other things.”

Her early adventures in learning to use to the sewing machines (yes, multiples) I left at the house involved trips to the machine shop where the staff marveled at the number of sewing errors that could be made by one person. In addition to delicate hand-eye coordination, my mother, smart as she is, isn’t highly skilled at visual problem solving either. Luckily, I have these skills. My background is in art and making stuff, and working with my hands.

Don’t think I was always a good sewer. I wasn't. I was a lazy “that will do” sewer with no clue about the special needs of various fabrics or how to construct or when to change a needle. I had visions my hands couldn’t carry out. I made a few simple things (elf hats…my god did I make an inane number of elf hats one year) and a few rough costumes for Halloween and Anime conventions.

I didn’t own a sewing machine for my first 3 years in Japan. I didn’t see the need. I wouldn’t have known where to buy one.

 

( Sewing blather )

 

I went to the 100 yen shop today and wandered until the DIY tutorials and such came together in my head with the cheap supplies I might be able to buy.

I picked up a hanging organizer (for the drilled dowel) and a plastic craft sheet (two layers of plastic with corrogated plastic between it).

I went home and found some of the scraps from all my projects and some black grosgrain ribbon. I ironed the fabric, cut it, at then stitched the ribbon down every inch and finally stitched the organizer. I turned the fabric right-side-out and top-stitched on three sides. I cut the plastic to size and slipped it into the fabric pocket. Then I closed the open side with some scrap bias-tape and stitched it around the wooden dowel.

Today I went to Immigration to finalize my visa extension (another 3 years) and my unlimited re-entry permit. After paying for that, some bills, and 47,000 painfull yen in the start of this year's pension fund gouging I headed home for more crafting on my "going to immigration" day off.

I'm starting to see the end in sight...when I move I'll have to make a few sets of curtains and look into getting a kitchen table, and before I move I need a new-to-me rangetop (propane, but city gas like I have now) and probably a new-to-me microwave. 

I think I am nearly done with the craft/furniture frenzy. I have two projects to finish and one more seat to cover and I'm done.
( pictures )

No one should go to an Ikea three time in 24 hours. It does something to your soul.

I do have more stuff corralled into bins.

I have a drapery system that has, in the past, hidden the crap under this table...which used to be in a bunch of different shaped cloth/wicker/whatever containers...and bags...and such....In the new place I hope that all of those plastic bins, above and below table, can go in the "from the waist up" raised closet in the tatami/craft room.( Progress and fabric )

Banged up clock I fished out of the trash a few years ago:



It actually looks much worse in person but I've been using it for years.( After and bonus craft. )

My apartment goods are getting revamped.

I fished this out of the trash a while back. For years I've just thrown different silk scarfs over it and used it as an end table. Over the last few days I've given it a makeover. I've ended up with something that is 70s kitchy...but if I grow tired of it I can always throw a silk scarf over it.
( 70's kitchen colors ahead. )

The papers went through all right! Yay!

On Monday I pay for everything with the new apartment. Ouch but good.

This weekend I've been looking over my furniture and figuring out what needs make-overs.

Today I tackled some of my kitchen stuff. I have a set of shelves I rescued from the trash shortly after I moved in here.I scraped off a bunch of Doraemon stickers from Coco when I first got it (most of them at least) and used it as is.
( Before and After )

I am planning "money-saving time-filling stash-busting" redecorating adventures. I'll probably be painting and decoupaging my night stand (which i got from the trash a few years ago and I7ve been covering with various silk scarfs for years) and making a new tissue box cover (as I use a different shaped tissue box than the last time I made a cover...) so this is a tutorial I don't want to forget.

http://thesmallobject.com/stenopad/wordpress/?p=534
http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-to-decoupage-fabric-onto-furniture.html