Tag: Christie Sommers

Upcoming Exhibition + P.O.S.T Event!

We are excited to be participating in Philadelphia Open Studio Tours again this year! We have some fun things that we have cooked up for you on October 3rd all day at Art Star (11-7pm)

1. Opening of “Tastes Like Broken Dreams” a solo show by Brooklyn based painter, Mauro Baiocco.

Mauro’s first solo exhibition at Art Star will feature a charming array of “Naughty but Nice” animal portraits. Yeah they may look cute and innocent on the surface but these cuddly animals have issues. The show will feature an all new collection of acrylic and ink paintings of Mauro’s cynical and bitter cast of furry friends. We will be celebrating the opening all day long during shop hours. Come ready to day drink with us, as we’ll have a boozy beverage or two to offer guests! Can’t make the opening? No worries, the show will be up in our gallery space through November 22nd.

2. Trunk Show / Make + Take with Christie Sommers of West Oak Design

Art Star artist and regular blog contributor, Christie Sommers of West Oak Design will be set up with a collection of her latest designs for you to shop. She will also be providing a FREE DIY Stamp Make + Take all day long!

Guests can make a wood block stamp perfect for hand printing fabric, or creating your own stationary. Cut your desired shape out of foam sheets and mount to wood blocks. A variety of paper + stamp pads will be on hand for testing out your creation. Christie will provide instructions and everything you need to make your own one-of-a-kind stamp that you can take home for free!

No registration is required. Just come on by and get to craftin’! Did I mention boozy day drinks?

3. Pop Up Studio with illustrator, Julia Lemyre
If you have stopped by our shop on a Saturday this summer, chances are you met our employee, Julia! Well, she is not only a super awesome shop helper, she is also an incredibly talented illustrator. She will be bringing along a selection of her original works and prints for you to peruse and shop.

Like I said, all this is FREE to attend and no registration is required. Bring some friends and come hang out with us! We will be open from 11-7 and can’t wait to see you!

September 8, 2015
Make This: Cold Brew Infused Water

Photos and Tutorial by Christie Sommers

I don’t know about you, but when it’s this hot out I need something refreshing to drink and anything sugary or sweet is just no good. Here’s a little cold brew herbal tea recipe to enjoy all summer long, and you don’t have to heat up your kitchen to make it.

You will need:
*a large pitcher or jar
*spring or filtered water
*fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth
*large wooden spoon
*clean scissors or herb snips
*fresh herbs (suggested combos listed below). Anyone can grow fresh herbs, whether you have a garden or sunny window ledge. I highly recommend buying a potted herb plant over the prepackaged cut herbs from your grocery store for the obvious reason that you get more out of a living plant. They are very easy to care for. The more you cut and use them, the healthier and more abundant they will be. Packaged fresh herbs are fine if you’re really not a plant person.

Start by cleaning your herbs well. Let them soak in a bowl of cold water for a bit and swish them around to remove any soil. Rinse.

Place herbs in pitcher.

Bruise herbs with the wooden spoon to release the oils from the leaves. You basically just smash them with the spoon.

*The more herbs you use, the stronger the tea will be. Because we are cold brewing, your tea will be very subtle. If you prefer stronger tea, add a cup of boiling water now and let steep for about 5 minutes before adding your cold water to fill.

Fill the rest of your container with spring/filtered water and place in your fridge. Let steep overnight. The longer it steeps, the more flavor your water will have.

You can filter out the herbs when you pour yourself a glass or just leave ’em in there if you don’t mind snacking on them;)

Your tea will keep for about a week in the fridge.
Enjoy!

Some herbs/combinations to try:
Lemon Balm & Rosemary (used for this tutorial)
Lemon Thyme
Mint
Chamomile & Lavender
Hibiscus & Raspberry Leaf
Ginger & Basil

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Christie Sommers is the designer and maker behind West Oak Design. She handcrafts small batch and one of a kind goods for home, women, and kids in her Wyndmoor, Pa studio.www.westoakdesign.com

June 18, 2015
Make This: Fabric Storage Bins

by Christie Sommers

I have way too many “things” in little piles all over my workspace. It was time to do a little organizing so I made some storage bins and bowls in various sizes to store loose buttons, bobbins and more. They have really brightened up the place so I’d like to share them with you:)

You will need:

-a pencil compass
-scrap paper
-fabric (one outer and one liner)
-fusible interfacing (you want something very rigid, I recommend Pellon Decor Bond Fusible)
-an iron/ironing board
-a sewing machine
-scissors
-ruler

You will need to draft up a little pattern for this one. I made a bin that was 6.5″ in diameter and 4.5″ high. To figure out how long to cut your rectangular pieces you will need to break out the calculator… or your brain. To find the circumference of your base, multiply the diameter by 3.14. The circumference will be the length of your rectangular sides.
In my case: 6.5″ diameter x 3.14= 20.14 ….
Use this calculation to make your bin in any size.

OR….

You can just use my dimensions and make the same sized bin.

Cut:
(3) rectangles: 21″ long by 5″ high (1) liner, (1) outer, (1) interfacing
(3) circles with 3.25″ radius (1) liner, (1) outer, (1) interfacing

You will iron on the interfacing to the backside of the outer fabric.
Take the shiny adhesive side of the interfacing and line it up to the back of your outer fabric.
Iron on holding firmly for 6 seconds to establish a good bond.
Do the same for the circular outer fabric.

Now you will sew the side wall (rectangular piece) to the base (circular) for both the liner and the outer fabric.

Pin as shown.

Straight stitch the liner wall to the liner base

Do the same for the outer wall and base making sure to place the fabric “right” sides together, right side being the printed side that you want to see on the outside when the bin is done.

Line up your two ends of the rectangular piece and stitch up the side wall. Trim

You should have two pieces now (liner and outer) that look like this….

Cut into the seam allowance around the base so that the basket sits evenly when assembled. Take care to not cut into your stitching.

Turn the liner inside out and fit (right sides together) into the outer piece.

Line up your seams and pin all the way around

Sew all the way around leaving a small section about 1.5″ unsewn. You will turn the whole bin right side out through this hole.

When you turn it right side out, use your iron to get all of your seams looking nice and clean.
I liked how it looked with a little of the liner as a trim at the top.

Top stitch all the way around and be sure to carefully seal the opening with your top stitch.

Toss in some sewing notions, or whatever bits you need to wrangle and enjoy!

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Christie Sommers is the designer and maker behind West Oak Design. She handcrafts small batch and one of a kind goods for home, women, and kids in her Wyndmoor, Pa studio.www.westoakdesign.com

April 18, 2015
Naturally Dyed Egg Tutorial

Tutorial and Photos by Christie Sommers of West Oak Design

Here’s a fun little tutorial that you should be able to do for under $5… unless you use what you already have! Just about any vegetable, fruit or herb that will stain your clothes, will stain an egg. For this tutorial I used red cabbage and blueberries for the blue, and turmeric powder for the yellow. My original intention was to make a nice set of color gradient ombre dyed eggs but it didn’t exactly work out that way. I was able to somewhat achieve that effect with the blue ones, but the turmeric eggs seemed to stay about the same shade. If you’re looking for perfect, evenly dyed eggs, this may not be for you. I personally love the earthy mottled effect you get from using natural dyes.Here are a few suggestions you can try:

RED/PINK: beets,hibiscus tea, frozen or canned cherries, pomegranate, paprika
YELLOW/GOLD: yellow onion skins, chamomile, turmeric, chili powder
BLUE/PURPLE: red cabbage, blueberries (fresh, canned, or frozen), grape juice
GREEN: spinach, dill

*NOTE last year I used curry powder for the turmeric…. my eggs tasted like curry. If you’re into that.. go for it!

For the blue eggs I used:

– 1/2 dozen hard boiled white eggs (to hard boil: cover eggs completely in cool water, bring to a boil, remove from heat and let sit covered for 7 minutes, then place in cold water to stop cooking process, drain and set aside in the fridge until your dye is ready)

– 1/2 head of red cabbage cut into 1″ chunks

*I had some blueberries in the freezer from last summer that were looking freezer burnt so I tossed them in too.

– a large stock pot

-mesh sieve or cheesecloth

-4 cups water (distilled is recommended but I used tap water because that’s what I had and it worked out for me)

*a lot of the resources I checked recommend using vinegar but when I used it last year, all of my eggshells became soft and weird… so I left it out this time and the shells stayed in tact.Start by adding the water & cabbage (& blueberries if you have ’em) into your pot and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat to low and let simmer for at least 30-45 minutes. You will notice the liquid becoming opaque and the cabbage will start to look drained of its color.

At this point you can strain the solids by pouring through cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer.You can reduce the liquid at this point making it more concentrated, OR proceed to the next step.

Place the dye liquid into the fridge and let it cool.For an ombre effect:

Place all eggs into the cooled dye liquid and place back in the fridge

Every 15-30 minutes, remove one egg from the liquid.Otherwise, add all eggs to the dye liquid and let sit refrigerated until they reach the desired depth of color.

*This method can be used for any of the vegetables, fruits, or herbs listed. If you would like to try this with the turmeric powder, Use 3 tablespoons turmeric to 2 cups of water and boil until the turmeric dissolves (this is the ratio that worked for me).

Your naturally dyed eggs will have an soft matte color. You can brush a light coat of vegetable oil on them for a nice shine that will really make the color pop.Hope you give this easy & inexpensive technique a try!————————————————————————————————————————————————

Christie Sommers is the designer and maker behind West Oak Design. She handcrafts small batch and one of a kind goods for home, women, and kids in her Wyndmoor, Pa studio.www.westoakdesign.com

April 3, 2015
Christie’s Mini Weaving Tutorial (on a “junkmail” credit card loom)

Tutorial and Photos by Christie Sommers

You will need:

*An old card of the un-needed variety… pre-approved credit cards, price club cards, your old West Coast Video card… Just make sure it’s nice and firm, no flimsy paper ones.

*A variety of string/yarn/twine. In this tutorial I am using a thin cotton cord for my warp (I’ll explain soon). For my weft I am using waxed cotton cord in black, thin gauge yarn in green, and more of the white cotton cord I used for the warp.

*scissors

*quilting needle (not shown)

*ruler

*pencil

*toothpick, wooden skewer, or short section of brass tubing

Chances are, the card you are using is 2″ x 3.5″. Turn your card sideways so that the 2″ side is at the top and the bottom. Start by marking every 1/4″ across the top and bottom (see pic). After all of your marks are made, come back with your scissors and make a small cut in each pencil marking. Cut about 1/4″ into the card each time trying to be consistent.

You will now begin to lay down your weft. The weft is the base that you will be weaving in and out of. I started in the top left corner bringing the thin cotton cord through the first cut from back to front. Bring the string down to the first cut in the bottom left corner, wrapping around the back and coming back up through the 2nd cut on the bottom left corner (see pics).

Continue this motion wrapping back and forth until you get to the end. You will have a tail hanging from your starting and end points. Make sure these tails are at least twice as long as your needle.

Now you are ready to start weaving!

I threaded my quilting needle with the black cord and wove under one, over one from left to right. When you come back for your return pass make sure you do the opposite of what you did on the previous pass. If you went under the warp on the last pass, go over the next time. It sounds more confusing than it really is… see pic.

Continue for as long as you’d like before changing colors.

To change colors/yarn simply trim your previous weft (black cord) leaving a tail that is at least twice as long as your needle. Begin weaving the next color through starting on the opposite side of the previous weft’s “tail”.

Continue weaving and changing color/yarn as desired until you simply cannot fit any more rows. You can use your needle to push each row up to the top so they fit snugly together.

You’re probably wondering what to do with all of those little tails hanging out of the sides of your weaving. Some people leave them as a deliberate design choice. For this weaving, I am tucking these little tails in for a nice finished edge.

To tuck: starting at the top left, thread the first tail onto your needle. Tie the tail to the first string of warp and slide the needle down through the loops of the weft carefully trimming the tail and letting it slide back slightly into the loops so that it is hidden.

Once all of your tails are tucked in, you can stop here or add fringe if you like.

For the fringe: Because this is such a small weaving, I am going with a very simple fringe. Cut seven 4″ pieces of the green yarn.

Thread the first one onto your needle and run the needle through the bottom left warp loop.

Line up the ends of the 4″ piece of yarn and tie it into a knot, sliding the knot snugly up against the bottom of the weaving before tightening.

Repeat across the remaining white warp loops with the remaining 4″ yarn pieces.

Do a final trim across the bottom of your fringe.

Finish your weaving by lining up a 8″ piece of black string with your toothpick/skewer/tubing and thread it through the top warp loops. Tie a knot in your black string & you can easily hang it on a nail. Heck, you can even use a longer string and make it into a necklace… go nuts.

You’re finished!

Once you get the hang of the simple act of weaving one over, one under…. take to the internet or your local library and research some new techniques!

*Disclaimer: I am not a trained weaver. I am self taught. Most people start with the fringe first and work their way up. Starting at the top works for me… so that is how this tutorial goes;)

Enjoy!

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Christie Sommers is the designer and maker behind West Oak Design. She handcrafts small batch and one of a kind goods for home, women, and kids in her Wyndmoor, Pa studio.www.westoakdesign.com

March 20, 2015
Christie’s Paint Chip Wall Art DIY

Photos and Tutorial by Christie Sommers

You will need:

*paint samples from your local hardware/paint store
*a circle punch (found in the scrap booking section of your nearest craft store). I used a 5/8” punch.
*a glue stick (I prefer Elmer’s Craft Bond)
*a sheet of card stock (this is what you will glue your circles to)
*ruler
*pencil
*a picture frame if you would like to display your finished project

Start off by punching out your circles. For my 4-1/2” x 7” collage I used 161 circles. Arrange your circles by color in 3 piles: lightest colors, mid range, and darkest.

Take your piece of card stock. You are going to draft out a grid so you can line up your circles nice and straight. Because my circles are 5/8”, I went up one side of the card stock marking every 5/8″. Repeat on the other side of the card stock and you now have the start & finish point of each line.

Once your lines are drawn, start at the bottom of your card stock and glue a random mix of your darkest circles across the first line.

The next row will be placed between your pencil lines. Place the first circle of row 2 between the first two circles in row 1 (see pic). Every other row is staggered giving you a fish scale pattern.

Continue gluing rows, going from dark to light, until you reach the end of your desired finished project.

If you want straight edges, you will need to do some trimming. I trimmed off the two sides and top of mine. The bottom of my collage will give you an idea of what it will look like if you decide not to trim the edges.

Let the glue dry for at least 10-15 minutes before trimming.

To trim, I used a straight edge ruler, an X-acto knife and my cutting mat. If you don’t have a cutting mat/x-acto… you can take a ruler and line it up along the edge you want to trim, draw a pencil line marking where you will cut, and simply trim with scissors along your pencil line.

Frame & enjoy!

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Christie Sommers is the designer and maker behind West Oak Design. She handcrafts small batch and one of a kind goods for home, women, and kids in her Wyndmoor, Pa studio.www.westoakdesign.com

March 12, 2015
Christie’s Hand Stitched Bowl Tutorial

Photos + Tutorial by Christie Sommers

You will need:
-cotton clothesline
-quilting needle (you can use a regular sewing needle with a thimble but a larger quilting needle is best for passing through the thick clothesline)
-embroidery thread, yarn, or string in color of your choice
-scissors

Thread the needle with colored string of choice and tie a knot at the end.

Use as much thread as you can manage. No more than 3′ should suffice. You can tie more thread on when you run out.

Start by coiling the clothesline between two fingers as shown.

Insert the needle into the center of the coil passing through the layers of rope and exit as shown.

We will be using a blanket stitch for this project. Wrap your working thread behind the needle from right to left.

Bring the thread back over the needle from left to right and pull the needle through.

Repeat going around in a circle, entering in the center, until you reach the first stitch.

If you want a bowl with a wide flat base, you can continue the flat blanket stitch going around a few more times until the base is as wide as you like.

At this point you will be rounding up to give your bowl a curved shape.

To achieve this, you will be inserting the needle straight through the clothesline from front to back rather than from the center out. See pic.

Continue with the blanket stitch inserting the needle through the clothesline from front to back until your bowl is as large as you like.

You will most likely run out of stitching thread as you are working. To add more, tie a new 3′ length of thread to the tail of the previous working thread. Place the ends together as shown and tie in a knot.

For the next few stitches, Insert the needle Between the coils instead of through the rope until your knot is hidden.

Once you pass the knot, continue stitching through the rope until you reach the desired bowl size.

Tie off your working thread and then snip the clothesline, You’re done!

As you can see from the next photo, the placement of your stitches will determine the design of your bowl. For the black bowl, I spaced my stitches out and staggered with each layer, essentially placing new stitches between the stitches on the previous level. For the red bowl, each new stitch was placed right next to the previous level’s stitch. Play around with stitch placement to see what you can come up with.

Enjoy!

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Christie Sommers is the designer and maker behind West Oak Design. She handcrafts small batch and one of a kind goods for home, women, and kids in her Wyndmoor, Pa studio.www.westoakdesign.com

February 26, 2015
Christie’s Herbal Conditioning Rinse Tutorial

Tutorial + Photos by Christie Sommers of West Oak Design

Here is a miracle rinse to tame the driest of winter hair. Don’t be afraid of the vinegar… I promise you won’t smell it in your hair after your shower. The acidity of apple cider vinegar smooths the hair cuticle and leaves the frizziest hair looking shiny and healthy and feeling incredibly soft. Try this herbal rinse as a treat for yourself.. or your valentine.

You will need:

-3 cups of filtered water (separated)
-1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar
-A few sprigs of rosemary (dry or fresh)
-2 teaspoons of lavender..use more or less to your liking.
You can add just about any herbs you like according to your scent preferences. I added chamomile. This recipe is very flexible
-5-10 drops of essential oil of your choice (I used rosemary & lavender)

*Boil 2 cups of filtered water

*Remove from heat and add your herbs. I use rosemary for its clarifying properties, lavender for its relaxing scent, and chamomile which adds subtle golden highlights. Note: try hibiscus for red highlights

*Let steep for at least 45 minutes. The longer the better. Sometimes I’ll let it sit covered all day.
*Allow herbal tea to cool completely.
*Pour tea through a fine mesh sieve to remove herbs. A tea ball infuser works well too.

*Add 5-10 drops of essential oil to…
* 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar

*Add 1 cup filtered water to the filtered “tea”, then add the vinegar/oil mixture

*Recipe yields 3 cups.
*I fill a spray bottle for the shower and pour the remainder into a mason jar for later.
*I wash my hair every other day and use this rinse every time.

After 2 or 3 uses you should begin to see a huge improvement in the softness and shine of your hair.

Enjoy!

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Christie Sommers is the designer and maker behind West Oak Design. She handcrafts small batch and one of a kind goods for home, women, and kids in her Wyndmoor, Pa studio.www.westoakdesign.com

February 12, 2015
Christie’s Spaghetti Scarf Tutorial

by Christie Sommers of West Oak Design

This is a nice little project to use up scrap jersey knit fabric or an old t-shirt.

You will need:
*scissors OR (a rotary cutter, straight edge, & cutting mat)

*A “tube” of jersey knit fabric. For a no sew version you can cut the tube from a t-shirt. To use a scrap of jersey knit fabric, cut a rectangular strip roughly 16″ x 42″ and sew the two short ends together to form a tube (folded and sewn it will measure 16″ x 21″)

Take your tube and cut into 1″ strips taking special care to leave 1″ uncut at the top.

When you get to the last strip, cut all the way through. This strip will become the wrap to hide the seam or uncut section at the neck.

Gather the scarf and hold at the seam/uncut section.

Tie the last strip to the seam/uncut section and wrap around until it is covered.

When you have wrapped all the way to the end of the seam/uncut section, lift the last loop and tie the end of the wrapping strip to it. Snip the remaining strip leaving about an inch. Tuck the leftover inch under the wrapped section.

Now the fun part….

Hold the wrapped section and pull each individual strip as far as you can. You may need to sit on the floor and place the wrapped section under your foot as you pull and stretch each strip which forces the jersey knit fabric to close in on itself, hiding seams and leaving neat strands.

You’re done! Wear it long or loop it around for a nice looking cowl.

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Christie Sommers is the designer and maker behind West Oak Design. She handcrafts small batch and one of a kind goods for home, women, and kids in her Wyndmoor, Pa studio. www.westoakdesign.com

January 30, 2015
Christie’s Paper Garland Tutorial

Tutorial + Photos by Christie Sommers

Try this inexpensive and easy tutorial to spruce up your place or decorate for a party. Paper garland is a great way to reuse old travel maps. You can also use colored or decorative paper purchased at your local craft shop.

You will need:

*paper….at least the thickness of printer paper, newspaper may be too thin.

*a sewing machine set to straight stitch, threaded in color of your choice

*scissors OR (rotary cutter, straight edge, cutting mat)

*a paper punch (I used a Fiskars 1/2″ paper punch) You can get creative with a vast assortment of paper cutter shapes found at your local craft store in the scrapbook section. Don’t go with anything smaller than 1/2″ because it will be difficult to feed through the sewing machine.

Start by cutting your paper into strips. I cut mine into 1″ strips. Just be sure your strips are larger than your paper punch shape.

Go nuts punching out your shapes.

Do a little math to find how many circles you will need to make the length of garland you want. In my case (2) 1/2″ circles equals roughly 1″ of garland.

With your sewing machine set to straight stitch & threaded in the color of your choice, begin feeding each circle under the presser foot. The feed dogs will take it from there. Have a pile of circles very close by and place one circle right after the other without overlapping.

Before you know it you will have yards and yards of garland!

To store: you can carefully wrap around a piece of cardboard until you are ready to use..

Enjoy!
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Christie Sommers is the designer and maker behind West Oak Design. She handcrafts small batch and one of a kind goods for home, women, and kids in her Wyndmoor, Pa studio. www.westoakdesign.com

January 15, 2015