DIYthing

Happy Mother’s Day! The joys of being a mom - I have 2 myself that are not so small anymore (15 and 16) and one on the way!

Have you ever thought about recycling daddy’s shirt into a dress for your little girl? The photo above is just that - luvlug on Etsy does just that. She recycles old men’s button downs into little dresses.

The pocket on the front of the shirt has been repositioned on the left hip of the dress for your little Busy One to fill with all sorts of little goodies.

by: Wendy

CRAFT CON 2008 will be in San Francisco in just a few short weeks - April 4-6, 2008. The applications are now live! It will be held in Brava Theatre in the historic Mission District. If you are new to Craft Con, it was born in 2007 as Craft Congress in Pittsburgh. The launch event was very successful with over fifty indie craft show organizers from across the US, Canada, as well as the UK. This event seems to be a great way for indies to share their experiences with others in regards to business development for the craft community. So if you can make it, you should hurry and register - there are 250 seats available for this year’s event.

Do you ever wonder about the process of printing? Printing has always facinated me - the smell of the ink - the touch of the paper - the old handcarved print blocks. There are a few people who still take pride in hand carving each block for print. A shop by the name of “Tugboat Printshop” in Pittsburgh and owned by Paul Roden & Valerie Lueth still hand carve each print block.

Visit them at:
www.tugboatprintshop.com
www.tugboatprintshop.blogspot.com
www.tugboatprintshop.etsy.com
www.flickr.com/photos/tugboatprintshop

Kate Karchner of OhSoSuite has started a new column here at DIY City entitled “I Heart Paper.” We have launched it today on our new DIY City Blog. Kate’s idea is to give paper artists of all varieties a visual voice and a way of introducing themselves to all you DIY City readers.

First up, Kate interviews Cheryl from ScotiaMade paper goods, based in Halifax, Novia Scotia.

We will also have other bloggers joining us with regular posts on the new blog. So stay tuned.

The DIY Salon with the Church of Craft - NYC Event

Thursday, March 6, 2008, 7:00 - 10:00 PM

Join MAD and the Church of Craft for a night of hands-on art-making, music and refreshments in celebration of the Museum’s current exhibitions Pricked: Extreme Embroidery and Cheers: A MAD Collection of Goblets. Local do-it-yourself artists will demonstrate their personal skills and help guide you in creating your own projects. Techniques will range from unconventional embroidery to button-making to fiber text and many other contemporary twists on classic crafts. In addition to do-it-yourself workshops, the Salon will include hand-decorated snacks and live DJ. The DIY Salon is a free event, open to the public with all
materials provided. Guided tour of Pricked: Extreme Embroidery at 8:00 PM.

The Church of Craft is a non-denominational organization that promotes a connection to humanity, a love of life and proactive spiritual practice through the art of creating.

Participating artists include:Cal Patch, Alison Shanik, Iviva Olenick, Mary Izet and Callie Janoff, who will each provide instruction for the beginner to the advanced creator. DJ Brett Webb will spin all night and Elaine Cohen will serve up artistic treats.

Call 212.956.3535 - Education Department with any questions.

jeansweddingdressback300, originally uploaded by St Vincent de Paul Society SF.

OutsaPop posted this wedding dress today over on DIY City community - The denim wedding dress was made for “Discarded to Divine” -Discarded to Divine is a recycled clothing design competition hosted annually by this charity organization. Recycled Fashions - Renewed Lives -Donated clothes transformed into one-of-a-kind couture creations, auctioned to benefit the poor and homeless.

Who is OutsaPop you might wonder - “I´m a crafty fashionaddicted girl from Espoo, Finland. I´ve studied clothes making for four years and graduated in 2000. My studies included pattern making, sewing, fabric printing, fashion drawing, ect. Nowadays I´m most into customizing clothes for myself and making my trashion inspiration books. The future of fashion is in sustainability. Repair, reuse, recycle.”

See the whole story.

Little Shout out for Faythe over at Handmade Nation - They are selling Raffle Tickets to raise money to keep production going. Jump on over and help them out by buying a few tickets or donate a few items so they can sell in their Etsy Shop!

Handmade Nation the book is in the design edit phase, Faythe has been getting to see mock layouts - which I’m sure is very exciting. Cris has been working hard on the editing of Handmade Nation the documentary.

We are so excited for Faythe and are eagerly awaiting the release of the book and the documentary!

Well the dust has settled a bit and Deb and I are back at it full force. We have started planning our New Orleans issue with lots of great DIY resources and designers on the list!

DIY City mag News:
We will feature a new desinger from the community weekly on DIYthing - today is Mergirl that sells over at Smashing Darling! From dressed up to dressed down and throw in a little fun - Mergirl has the outfit sure to please. So if you up for a little shopping and you are in Chester, Connecticut stop by Mergirl.