This past Saturday, L.A. held it’s second Renegade Craft Fair.  I’m lucky enough to have been to three of these shows now… Both years in L.A. and earlier this year to Austin’s first Renegade Craft Fair.  Every time I’ve been energized by the creativity flowing through the air.  The fairs feature local crafting guilds, national and local sellers and live music.  From my experience seeing the fair in two different cities, even though a few sellers were in both locations, the event has a very distinctive vibe that it draws from its own local talent.

Sadly, not everyone has access to a nearby Renegade and even if you do, the vendors are always diverse, so I thought I’d share some of my favorite artists from this week’s visit so you can have your own Renegade party on your computer.

Bunny Butt Apothecary: With a name like Bunny Butt, you’ve got to love it.  They have a wonderful selection of tasty smelling soaps and lotions.  I bought a bar of their Mango Lassi, which smells just like… well, mango lassi.  It makes me want Indian food in my shower.  I also adored their Currant Obsession whipped cream body lotion and Swing Low Sweet Lemongrass soap bar.

fomato: There is always an abundance of paper crafters at alternative craft fairs.  I really like most of the playful cards they create, but I’m rarely compelled to buy anything.  Fomato cards is the first booth that broke me of the habit.  Their cards are whimsical and a little strange.  It’s not often you can send a birthday card that teaches its recipient to beware “herbal tea“.

Chez Sucre Chez: I’ll admit it… I don’t actually remember seeing these guys in person at the show, but as I was browsing through the artists on the Renegade website, I stumbled across these awesome embroidery designs.  I’m a sucker for anything with song lyrics on it and these simple pieces have lyrics from The Smiths and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.  Oh, she has reusable sandwich wraps and cross stitch kits as well, but I’m still drooling over the former.

In Timid Nation: Unfortunately she doesn’t have anything in her shop right now, but you can see a lot of her work on her blog.  Laura was displaying cuddly plush gnomes with removable hats and beards like these at the show.  Once you see them, it’s hard not to fall in love with the little guys.

Jenny and Jimbob: I bough a pair of cleaver earrings (dubbed Serious Cleavage) from Jenny and Jimbob at Renegade in Austin and wear them on a fairly regular basis.  They always elicit a reaction, especially when worn on first dates.  Even at Renegade L.A. a few people complimented my choice of ear wear.  Each set of earrings or necklace comes in a little homemade matchbox with a cute clever name and adorable graphics.

Late to the Revolution: So you’re listening to some jams on your iPod (or if you’re super retro cool, your Walkman) and you start thinking… there’s got to be something out there to make me even more awesome than my oversize headphones already make me.  If this happens to you on a regular basis, or ever, you should check out Late to the Revolution.  She makes crocheted cozies for headphones and even adorable crocheted hats with the headphones built in!  Is your mine blown yet?  Because mine was.

Make Shop Live: I saved my favorite artist for last.  Make Shop Live creates absolutely awesome stuff from recycled materials.  One of my favorite creations was a little address book made using those postcards tucked into magazines.  They already have the fields for name, address, phone, etc.   The covers are crafted from Metro Cards and expired gift certificates.  How creative is that?!  Their website doesn’t do their work justice so check out the events page and try to catch them in person if you’re on the West Coast.

Are you a craft fair junkie like me?  If you know of any crafters that get you excited, let me know in the comments.

In the not-so-distant past, I posted a Fantastic Friday blurb linking to Prudent Baby’s bias tape tutorial.  At the time I thought, maybe I’d get around to it in the distant future.  I’ve been pretty happy with just buying the premade stuff and not having to fuss with it.  So what changed my mind?

Noodlehead has this tutorial for turning cargo pants into a messenger bag.  I just so happen to have a pair of cargo pants with an inconvenient rip that would look odd even if I mended them.  I absolutely love the look of the patterned bias tape she uses on the front flap.  The pattern adds a pop that the solid stuff just can’t do.  So last night I pulled out some fabric I’d bought in the remnant section of Jo-Ann’s and tried out the bias tape tutorial.

Now, this isn’t just a review of the tutorial, because that worked just wonderful.  I want to share a tip I discovered on my first try making bias tape ever.  It started with a little gadget envy.  In the tutorial Jaime, zips through drawing perfectly spaced 1 7/8 in. lines on her parallelogram with a bias tape rule.  I started spacing dots on my fabric with a regular old ruler and after the first few dots I realized:

a) This was really tedious.

and

b) I cannot consistently find 7/8 of an inch on a ruler.

The combination of these two dilemmas almost convinced me that I needed to wait until morning and buy a spiffy bias tape ruler.  Luckily, inspiration struck.  I’ve made a habit of keeping cardboard shapes in different sizes around so I don’t have to measure again if I make a project several times (because of problem b).   I figured I could just use this same technique to make my own bias tape ruler.  I measured a strip of cardboard 1 7/8 in wide and then cut on a diagonal 1 7/8 in from each end.

I even diagrammed it for you.

You can make different rulers for different bias tape widths.  That wonderful bias tape tutorial tells us the formula, so for single fold 1/2″  or double fold 1/4″ bias tape, you’d want your ruler to be 7/8″.  See…

Single fold bias tape (1/2″): 1/2″ x 2 – 1/8″ = 7/8″

Double fold bias tape (1/4″): 1/4″ x 4 – 1/8″ = 7/8″

I still haven’t ironed mine closed (cue longing for that beautiful bias tape folder), but if you’d like to keep that on the cheap as well, check out this tutorial.

My bookmarks list is filled to bursting with crafty tutorials, but I’ve been so busy lately all I’ve had time to do is sneak in a few rows of knitting between episodes of Top Chef  (Okay, maybe I haven’t been all that busy).  This week I finally decided to commit to crossing a project off my to-do list.

I had a bunch of this Beatles fabric leftover from a project for a friend and I just love the look of the gathered front.

Inside view:

This was my first time installing a zipper, and it went surprisingly well considering I realized after installing it, I was holding the fabric on the wrong side of the presser foot.  I’m a little sad that you can’t see the zipper tabs since they were cut from another Yellow Submarine fabric and featured all four guys in their psychedelic get-up.  Ah, well.  I’ll find a better way to use that next time.

This project came from Noodlehead’s Gathered Clutch Tutorial.  The instructions were super easy, especially with all the pics she provided.  It also introduced me to her whole collection of equally-alluring tutorials.  I think next up is the Li’l Cutie Pouch or the Messenger Bag from cargo pants (I have some sitting in my sewing box in need of repurposing).  All of them are simple and creative, so if you sew, take a look!