Today ended up being a snow day at the store, so instead I got some sewing work done.  I have tailcoats on the brain today, as I just finished making a set of tails for A.J. Machete.  They are gearing up for wedding season, with lots of custom tailcoats and suits on the books; I’m helping out with some part time sewing on several of their projects and can’t wait to see pictures of some of the special occasions that feature their custom clothes.  These images showcase one of A.J. Machete’s tailcoats that was made for a beautiful vintage bicycle themed wedding in Santa Monica last summer.  I found these lovely images on the Style Me Pretty wedding blog, with photography by Sights and Sounds.  I am loving the color palette and all the vintage details, especially the millinery work on this lovely bride’s hat!!  To see more, visit Style Me Pretty.

The 4″ squares are a perfect showcase for your favorite drinking glass.

I’ll be listing these to my Etsy store soon, stay tuned!

My latest creation for the table top: embroidered leather coasters. So far, this is my first completed set; the coasters are reversible with decorative stitching around the edges. More color combinations will be coming soon, which I will be posting to the Etsy shop…though this is going to be a busy week so it might be another week or so before I can revisit this design concept.

I’ve been busy sewing lately, and I’m just now getting around to photographing some of my latest creations. For starters, I’m currently obsessed with fabric napkins in all sorts of colors and prints. After a recent survey of our friends, Mark and I realized that most people out there reserve cloth napkins for special occasions only. Why not do the eco-friendly thing and have some fun cloth napkins that you can use on a daily basis, and just throw them in with the rest of your laundry? (they really don’t take up much space in the wash!)

Stay tuned, as I will be posting a variety of napkins to Etsy in coming days…..

I’ve been making my own purses for years, but this leather bag takes my handbag history to a new level. I used hidden magnetic closure on the outside pockets and at the top of the bag, decorative accent stitching details throughout, and I absolutely love the bright divided liner that I used inside!

And last but not least, some pillow love!! I think I have an obsession with making pillows, as each square represents a new canvas for me to decorate with trims, stitching, and a variety of colors. I have many more pillows that I will be listing on Etsy in the days to come.

The leather pillows below are some of my favorites; the decorative stitching uses a variegated thread, and I love the organic nature of the curves on a raw edge of a leather hide.

TAXI is a new eclectic mixed-use development in Denver’s RINO district. My husband Mark and I have worked together on several curtain projects in this space, and I took a few fun pics of the space after installing some curtains a few weeks ago…

TAXI currently houses over 40 creative businesses on the 1st and 2nd floors of this modern “landscraper”, and is also home to many other creative individuals in their 3rd floor living/loft spaces. They have their own pilates studio on site, as well as the gourmet Fuel Cafe. Visit the official TAXI website for more info on their Work/Live spaces and the new building that will begin contruction this fall.

The TAXI design utilizes the modern beauty of raw industrial structural components, leaving “the bones” of the building exposed and accenting details with intense pops of color throughout. The pink-hued shot above is looking out a pink plexi window in one of the hallways.

The most recent curtain project that we completed was in Kyle Zeppelin’s corner unit (above). Kyle has worked closely with his father, Mickey Zeppelin at Zeppelin Development throughout the concept and construction of TAXI1 and TAXI2, and has been doing sales/leasing for the finished spaces at TAXI, as well as working on the new TAXI3 development.

These curtains cover a wall of clothing closet space, as well as laundry/utility space. I think they make a strong visual impact on cleaning up the visual clutter that they are now masking, as well as serving to soften the strong architectural elements throughout this loft space. I did all of the sewing in this project, while my husband did all of the custom metal fabrication in order to hang the curtain track in this open closet space (above). I think we make a great team, as we combine our individual skills in metal and soft goods fabrication in this project!

Now, we go back to 2007 and my first project at TAXI. Phase 2 was still under construction at the time, while I sewed and installed this super long curtain in the conference room. You can see the skyline of Denver through the pink fabric band that runs vertically throughout the curtain.

Exterior views of conference room curtains.

The image above was taken in 2007, after the curtains were installed, but before the final finishing details of the contruction were completed; notice the difference in 2009 below. Visit the TAXI website for more great images of this unique building.

Yesterday was a very crafty day at my nest, as the creative juices were really flowing. It’s been awhile since I’ve done much with hands-on projects that I was beginning to wonder what happened to my inspiration. Photography has been my only creative outlet lately, as my blog has reflected. Well, get ready because I’ve got a number of projects ruminating at the moment, so the next few months will likely be busy with handcrafted goodies.

I tea-dyed this blouse yesterday. Originally white, it had been on the sale rack at work for awhile and had gotten a little sun-damage staining. It just so happens to fit me, so I took it home in an attempt to save it. I actually prefer the tea stained vintage look, as it suits the details of the blouse as well as my disinterest in wearing white. (and you can just barely see the sun stains now)

This first piece of the “Label Hoard” project is something I actually completed several weeks back but had not yet photographed. I have been collecting labels from clothing for many years now as I’ve cut up my own garments, worked on costume alterations, and just general scavenging of friends’ labels when they need a particularly itchy tag cut out. It’s going on 10 years of collecting now, and I had not done anything with my collection until recently. I have several more ideas for label collages, which hopefully I will get to sooner rather than later. Label donations to the art cause are gladly accepted

This picture frame represents the spark of creativity that I got last weekend when Mark and I browsed through the new Rocky Mountain Home and Design Center on Floyd Hill. I was inspired by some of the furniture and rugs, which is giving my ideas to customize the upholstery on my leather couch and to make my own leather rug (see below). I bought the frame above for a steal, and put one of my random pictures of old, rusty, abandoned scenery for good measure.

I can’t take credit for this idea, but I love the simplicity of it. I simply bought basic flat thumbtacks and used superglue to attach a variety of buttons. Haven’t had a chance to integrate them into my bulletin board just yet, but soon, soon! Original idea was circulated in the blog world from: In The Tweeds.

This is a start of my patchwork leather rug…I got a good start on sewing together a bunch of scraps yesterday, but I have to put this project on hold while I do some paying sewing sidework over the next few weeks…though I’m itching to get back to working on this big project as soon as possible!