I always get embarrassingly eager and overly excited when I sell knitting supplies to a guy, or teach a man to sew in one of our classes. It’s just so refreshing to see men embrace their creativity without worrying about treading in areas traditionally considered to be all womanly-like. So naturally I’m psyched to see this new (to me!) blog pop up called Man Made: Creativity and the Handmade Life for the Postmodern Male. Really, really loving the content as well as the design. Awesome job, dudes! (And get a load of the killer poster they designed above, available as a downloadable PDF on their site. Totally printing one of these out to hang at the shop.)

Hand-Carved Stamps is a fairly new class in our roster. We’ve done two sessions so far and it has proven so popular we’ve had to add a third one in March. With results like the ones pictured in this post, it’s pretty easy to understand why! The instructor, Elinor Nissley of Krank Press, shows students how to create their own rubber stamps using X-Acto knives and linoleum cutters, and shares advice and examples regarding different stamping techniques and how to utilize them. Students practice stamping fabric and paper, manila gift tags, whatever they like.

I’ve fallen hard for these two examples from the latest session– which happened to be packed with three fellow Home Ec. instructors who wanted to experiment with ways to incorporate stamping into their own work(s). The top photo from our garment sewing teacher Christine Haynes is a gorgeous example of how to create use simple shapes to create impressive all-over patterns. I can’t wait to see how she incorporates stamped fabric into her clothing designs! The bottom pic, from our amigurumi teacher Cheryl Cambras, perfectly illustrates the beauty of stamping– I love the varied opacity of the flower petals, which gives the fabric real dimension.

Awesome work, everyone! To see more photos from this class and others, check out the Home Ec. Flickr pool.

As you can see from the image above, our Homemade for Haiti bakesale was a big, big success! We raised $1,140 on the actual day of the sale, and our friends from the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild kicked in some additional funds during their Monday night meeting, bringing us up to $1,220 for Doctors Without Borders. It was an amazing feeling being able to donate this money today and we are so grateful to everyone who helped lend a hand. If you’d like to take a peek at the sweet treats and fun time we all had, check out the Home Ec. Silverlake Flickr pool.

The bakesale was such a wonderful time. Seeing our community come together like this was truly inspiring, and something I’d like to see a lot more of. So I’m happy to announce that Home Ec. will be hosting bakesales on a monthly basis, to benefit a new charity every time. Our next bakesale will happen on Saturday, February 27 from 12-7pm and will benefit the Los Angeles non-profit animal rescue organization The Mutt Scouts.

Nikki and her fellow Mutt Scouts have helped save countless shelter animals who are on their last legs and in serious danger of being euthanized. Check out their blog to see the good works they do…especially if you are interested in adopting a special animal of your own!

If you’re looking for a quick, easy, and delicious way to help with the devastation in Haiti I implore you to stop by the shop this Sunday for our Homemade for Haiti bakesale. Many, many of our customers, teachers and friends are pitching in to help and we’ll have a ton of amazing baked goods on hand– everything from Browned Butter Rice Krispie treats to Cake Pops to Elvis Cupcakes (banana and peanut butter!). Our friends at Vegan Bake Sale are bringing some dairy-free delights and the incomparable Clare Crespo is dropping off some goodies too! The sale will last from 12-5pm or until we run out of yummies to sell. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Doctors Without Borders.

Hope to see you there…and please feel free to spread the word!

Yes friends, it’s true: Sublime Stitching’s Jenny Hart will be stopping by Home Ec. next week for a fun book signing-slash-holiday party to beat the band! We will be celebrating the release of her latest book, Embroidered Effects, and treating visitors to delicious snacks and surprise giveaways. Come on by, and spread the word!

Sometimes we crafty types just need to take things into our own hands. Can’t find the perfect laptop cozy? Stitch one up! Unhappy with the color of your walls? Paint them! I may be well versed in the whole idea of Doing It Yourself but I certainly can’t say I’ve ever MADE MY OWN COOKING SHOW. But I know someone who has…Clare Crespo!

Clare is a super awesome new friend of ours and the author of two amazing books, Hey There, Cupcake! and The Secret Life of Food. She’s well known for her surreal and crazy foodstuffs and for creating goodies like crocheted watches, snack cake sushi, and more. Well not too long ago she went all Pee-Wee on us and turned her garage into her very own Playhouse, and filmed a kiddy cooking show inside it! That takes soooo much work I can’t even imagine, but man she makes it look like fun! Each episode features our hostess “Yummyclare” making offbeat edibles and having adventures with puppet friends as well as musical numbers from her house band, The Tastebuds! Check out the trailer above to see what I mean. It’s a DIY-ers dream and I hope it is just a matter of time before Yummyfun Kooking is plastered all over our TVs– but until that time you can get your DVD fix here at Home Ec.! We also stock Clare’s Treat Street baking zine (see here for more info). Check ‘em out!

It’s so fun seeing what customers do with our products, especially when it’s unexpected. Check out these bridal shower invites Kelly created for a friend using our Spring Calico fabric! (Sadly we’re down to our last half-yard of this sweet stuff, but we should be getting more in soon.) Really fresh and cute, no?

Whether it feels like it or not (I just saw a girl in Wayfarers and short-shorts) it really is Fall here in Los Angeles, so I decided to decorate our window to reflect the season. I simply took some wallpaper and origami paper scraps and cut them into leaf shapes, stitched them into long garlands on the sewing machine and then tacked them into the ceiling above the window. It makes me smile every time I look at it, especially when they flutter in the breeze.

I’ve spent the last week coming down from a Grand Opening Party high…man what a great turnout! Many thanks to everyone who showed up. It truly was a blast and a half! So many great folks were on hand saying wonderful things about our new space. It was very encouraging, and I can’t tell you what a great feeling that is for a new shopowner. It’s much, much appreciated!

In other news…this afternoon at the shop, I made my very first granny square thanks to our awesome crochet teacher, Cecily Keim. I’ve dabbled in crochet here and there but didn’t always know if I was doing things “properly”—much less what the stitches were called. Cecily set me straight and got me hooking up a multicolored granny square in no time. I’m so excited to try it again solo…my stitches can only get more even in time, right? Anyhow, I’m not the only one with granny square fever, because our Granny Square 101 class sold out in 48 hours flat. (Not to worry though, we added a second session on October 16!) I’ve been a fan of granny squares for a long time, but the lovely Pip from Meet Me at Mike’s (note to self: buy plane tix to Australia immediately) really reignited my desire to learn with her “Granny a Day” posts. Trust me folks, if I can do this, so can you!

Oh and speaking of classes, we have a new Saturday morning class available that’s just for kids ages 8-12! Scrumdilly-Do blogger Jessica Wilson (aka Jek) will be teaching your little monkeys how to stitch up their own custom sock monkeys. Check out the details here.