Danielson

Getting Ready

Rachel — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:14:49 GMT

I have not been creative in the “sewing sense” for some time. I did make that shirt for my friend for the show “Pippin” and it turned out really well. It turns out that the shirt was for the main character. Didn’t know that. Pretty cool. He wears it under a vest, but who cares? Still cool.

Doing some hemming of pants, sewing badges on all my little girl scouts’ vests who’s mothers don’t know how to sew, and GETTING READY TO BE A ROCK STAR! That’s right. Once and awhile, I take off from being a super mom and I get to play with my brother’s band, Danielson, and be a rock star. This festival is called All Tomorrow’s Parties and it’s being curated by the creator of The Simpsons, Matt Groening. I can’t wait! I’m taking off for NJ next Saturday to get some practices in before the big show.

It’s funny how Joanna Newsom’s name is all high-lighted. I made my own adjustment to the next picture.

There. Much Better.

I’m breakin’ out my shoes, ‘cause here I come!

(John Fluevog made these shoes for our latest costume.)

Love,

Bruce Springsteen And Danielson

Rachel — Sat, 02 May 2009 00:43:30 GMT

I laughed so very hard while I was watching this. For those of you who don’t know, the band Danielson is my brother Daniel’s band and I have the privilege of being a part of it. Enjoy!

Love,

Happy Birthday Daniel!

Rachel — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 01:04:18 GMT

Today is my eldest brother Daniel’s birthday. I wish I had some fun pictures of the two of us when we were little, but alas, I don’t. He didn’t get his birthday present on his birthday, but hey, it will be an even bigger surprise when he opens it in the mail. I was trying to think of something thoughtful to make him. He and his wife, Elin, just bought a beautiful house and they have been working very hard to fix it up. They are both artists and their home reflects their individual taste. Here is Daniel with his son Lukas.

Daniel has a “listening room.” Most of you will say, “What on earth is a listening room?” Well, it is a room where you listen to music. My brother is a musician and he lives and loves music. So, instead of a “man room,” it’s a “listening room.” It’s a very nice room. The walls are a really nice mid-blue with light wood baseboards, molding and crown molding all around. There is also a huge fire-place in one wall. The speakers are perfectly positioned. I knew that he was receiving a new brown leather couch for Christmas for this room. This got me thinking.

Now, I don’t know if this is the couch he got, this is just to get your imaginations working properly. Obviously this couch needs some pillows. That would be a very simple, yet thoughtful gift for my brother’s listening room.

I had this idea to incorporate his Lamb With The Seven Eyes into his new pillows. (Finished Project here.)

His couch is chocolate brown, his walls are blue, and the adjoining open room has orange walls. Sounds crazy, I know. But it actually looks really good. I talked to Mary and we came up with the perfect combination. I ordered the fabric from Spoonflower (of course!) and last night I sewed him two pillows. Here they are. (Notice my couch is draped with chocolate brown fabric to get you in the mood?)

And of course if this pattern and the orange is a bit too intense for some of their more conservative guests, I added a softer side to tone things down. FLIP! I know some people who would maybe even do the double flip, but I’m not going to point any fingers.

Et voila! The awesome birthday pillows! Happy Birthday Daniel! I love you!

Love,

Merry Christmas Ma Soeur

Rachel — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:28:21 GMT

My sister Megan has been such an incredible sister to me. She really is my best friend. We call each other, “ma soeur” which means “my sister” in French because we took a French class together in high school and completely goofed off. It kind of stuck.

Megan has been with me through thick and thin and has been part of the backbone of Mamma Made. She is an incredibly gifted designer and brings forth so many amazing designs for Mamma Made. She and her husband Jed have written a beautiful Christmas song I’d like to share with you that is also a part of the Sounds Familyre Christmas Album this year. May you all be filled with joy as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

And here is Megan’s song entitled, “Cradle Song.” I love you Megs!

Love,

Hush, Sweet Baby At Sounds Familyre

Rachel — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:40:29 GMT

As we are all getting ready for the holidays, I would like to invite you to visit the Sounds Familyre Blog where friends and family are posting a new Christmas song each day (original or classic) available for free download. You can even download and print out the artwork for your own “A Familyre Christmas - Volume 2." In case you missed last year’s “A Familyre Christmas - Volume 1” album, you can still go and download it with the artwork for free. How’s that for Christmas spirit?

And now I will leave you with “Hush, Sweet Baby” by Rachel and Jon Galaxy.

Love,

Danielson: Idiot Boksen

Rachel — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:16:51 GMT

Music by Danielson Famile. Video by Tom Eaton. Shown on Pitchfork.TV.

Love,

Easter Lamb, The Final Photo Shoot

Rachel — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 02:36:53 GMT

Love, Rachel

Sewing the Easter Lamb Dress Together, Day 7

Rachel — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:23:40 GMT

WARNING! THIS IS A LONG POST!

I promised to be a bit more detailed in the construction process on my Purple Easter Lamb Dress. So here we go!

The Lamb is embroidered and all of our dress pieces are cut so we can begin to put the bodice together.

I sew the two back pieces to the front and I do the same to the bodice lining pieces.

Time to put in the zipper. I decided that I want to do a "hidden" zipper. They are kind of fun to put in.

The white lines represent center back. Stitch the right side close to the zipper.

Now we iron over the other side and lap it so the center back lines meet. We are going to stitch the left side and catch the other side of the zipper underneath.

Zipper all tucked in there.

I'm sewing the lining to the bodice now. Right sides together!

I like to under-stitch the neckline of the bodice. This is when you stitch on the lining side with the seam faced towards the lining. When you press the neckline seam, it will be very crisp.

Trim the neck seam away to get rid of the bulk.

This is the neckline seam from the lining side. Crispy!

I line up and sew the lining along the zipper.

Our bodice is ready for our sleeves!

This sleeve pattern is very cool. Watch how it comes together.

Fold in half and sew the seam.

Press seam open.

Fold sleeve in half. How awesome! Instant hem!

Sew your basting lines on the sleeves for gathering.

Line up your seams and pull gathers to match sleeve placement to the dress.

Stitch sleeve on.

Serge and tuck in extra threads. Must have a clean inside!!!

Believe it or not, we are almost finished! It's time to gather and stitch the skirt to the bodice and hem.

I sprayed the bodice and rubbed off the white chalk placement lines.

Here it is! Our Purple Lamb! (Notice the bodice is still a bit damp from my spraying!)

Ahhh!!!! I'm very excited. This week I'm getting together with my models to shoot the dresses. I will share the results with you when I get them! Come get your Easter Lamb!

Love, Rachel

Easter Lamb Dress, Day 6

Rachel — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:35:53 GMT

Today is the day we will finish one of our samples. I am going to put together the teal size 8 sample first. I want to keep this design very classic and simple because the lamb is the focus of the garment. Even though the dress will have very clean lines, I also want to add some soft details to keep the flow of femininity. I am going to do this with a small white piping which will separate the bodice from the skirt and also through the sleeve.

I am inspired by the sleeve on this vintage dress. It has a nice curve to it and is very pretty.

Here is our finished product. I had my daughter Rosemary try it on for you to get a glimpse, but it really is too big for her. This sample is a size 8 and she is really a solid 6. In this photo you can still see the white cross lines from the centering of the lamb.

And here is our Teal Easter Lamb!

I know that was a quick post and I didn't really go through the process of sewing it together. I hope to be a bit more detailed in the construction process with our Purple Easter Lamb. I just wanted to get this one done! Finally!

Love, Rachel

Easter Lamb Dress, Day 5

Rachel — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:19:31 GMT

I feel like I can name this post "Day 5" because even though my last post was technically progress, now I actually feel like I'm making progress. What a crazy whirlwind of back and forth. I'm so very pleased with how things have turned out after all. The truth is that I love it much better than the version I was struggling to create and I never would have come to this conclusion without going through all the frustration that I did. Before I share with you our Easter Lamb, let's see the ridiculous amount of trials I had to do for this project:

When looking at the white lamb on the dark fabric I realized that there really isn't a need to have black outlining. It already looks sharp. The trouble is that I need to have defining lines to separate the legs and tail. I am able to get a "shadow" effect by using a gray color. I also chose to change the stitching style on these parts from a thick "outline" stitch to an softer more subtle "satin" stitch. I really like the result. You can still see all the detail in the lamb, but it looks softer, sweeter with the more subdued lines.

Let's see it close-up.

I enlarged the halo a bit so that the purple accents stand out a bit more. I also used a metallic gold thread which really pops from the fabric. I tightened up the shadow lines within the body and I'm really pleased with the outcome. This is very exciting and I leave on this note...

FINALLY!!!!! Time to start sewing the dresses together!

Love, Rachel