The politics of clothes

After seeing a review in Bust Magazine, I have been reading Elizabeth Cline's "Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion". I realized that although I am very careful about what I eat (buying organic and local as much as I can) I buy clothes in all these places that are feeding into the problem of cheap labor, lower quality and disposable clothes. It is definitely going to inform my fashion choices from now on.
Today I found that one of my favorite vintage dresses has the ILGWU label and that made me really happy.

Taller de bordado at home

Teaching myself embroidery techniques...
Since I can't be in Chile for Karen Barbé's workshop, I am trying to make a sampler of my own looking at her pictures.

Thread conditioner with velcro top

After watching Jenny Hart's Embroidery 101 video for Kin Community I wanted to try using Velcro to separate embroidery floss threads and also try using thread conditioner. I must say I was very happy with both. The conditioner really smooths the floss and the Velcro helps untangling the threads. To make sure I didn't loose the Velcro piece I attached it to the top of the thread conditioner box with Krazy Glue. I use Krazy glue a lot...

Mexican oil cloth bibs

When I lived in Austin, one of my favorite places to go was El Interior in Clarskville. I wanted to buy the whole shop. The weekend before I left I made two stops: one at Allens Boots to get the gift I promised myself (real Texas-made cowboy boots); and one at El Interior to stash up on tons of Mexican oil cloth and some little gifts for Antea.
You can download the template for them here.
I made some double-side bibs for when she starts eating solids which should be soon. She will be 6 months tomorrow. It feels I never lived a day when she wasn't here.

Make your own boo-boo pack

Yesterday Antea bumped her head on the crib railing - her first boo-boo! I didn't have an ice pack in the house so I came up with this boo-boo pack using rice as the filling.
I used the Lansinoh milk bags for the inside pouch with the rice because they have two seals (safer than plain ziplock bags).

 

Fill the bags about halfway with rice. Lay them flat, remove the excess air and press the seals closed. 

Place in the freezer.

 

They are ready to use after a few hours. Place them inside a cloth bag and hold it over the boo-boo.