Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Wait, Mr. Postman!

At the risk of side-tracking myself from my Ottobre sewing, I need to talk about hats. As I may have mentioned, Maeve and her Girl Scout troop were earning their sewing badge and are in the process of sewing hats for kids who have lost their hair due to cancer treatment, which they will be donating to a hospital somewhere in the area.

Maeve decided that it is necessary for the hats to be cute as well as functional, so we are making them reversible, as an upgrade from the basic hat pattern. But I got to thinking that maybe it would be nice to try some really cool-looking hats. In the back of my head I remembered seeing a really cool hat pattern made by Nancy Langdon of Studio Tantrum. I looked online but couldn't remember where I'd seen it so I decided to email her to see if she could tell me where to find it and also to ask if it was okay to make a bunch of the hats to give away, since you're not really allowed to mass produce and sell from a home pattern.

To my great surprise and pleasure, she responded to my email right away and offered to have them sent from Germany, where they were in the Farbenmix store. Yes, they're written in German, but it shouldn't be too difficult for me to translate it since I've done that with other patterns. She offered to write a tutorial for me if I needed one, but I don't think it will be necessary - I've used her patterns before and her directions are usually very clear. As a side note: Sabine (of Farbenmix patterns) and Nancy's book came out yesterday and I can't wait to buy it. It looks amazing.

So how happy was I to find an envelope from Germany in my mailbox today, after a particularly stressful day? I felt like I was opening a birthday present and my birthday isn't until Sunday. Yes, I'll probably make one of these for Maeve as a test hat to make sure I've got the hang of it, but the pictures of them look so cool that I was really more excited about the prospect of making them with her to give away. I bet the kids who end up with these hats will be thrilled. Nancy recommends using old sweaters to make the hats, so I may have to go out and scrounge at the Goodwill, but I think the finished products will be fantastic. It may seem silly that I'm so excited about making something that I'm going to give away, but for me that's the best part of sewing - giving it to someone who will love it. I promise to post some photos of them when they're made, before they head off to warm up the heads of the kids who will get them. Hopefully the hats will warm their hearts, as well, and maybe even help them feel better.

No comments:

Post a Comment