I can't be trusted...

 ...with an electric iron.  Really.  Trust me with a library, a car, a group of children, a sharp object, or even a large group of children with sharp objects, but do NOT trust me with an iron. Back in this post I promised to tell you about the old rug's burn mark. Here's a closeup:








As you've figured out, I do a lot of crafts at my house.  I do my own version of multi-tasking that I now call "scattertasking".  That means I do many things at once and don't pay attention to the small details like turning off the iron when I'm done or putting it down where it can cool appropriately.  So bad things happen when I use an iron.With the rug incident,  I left the iron on and someone ELSE knocked it off the ironing board.  Team negligence.

Can you believe this one? I did this all by myself!

















I rarely use my iron for ironing clothes but instead use it for melting stuff like plastic bags, or adhering sticky stuff onto fabric (like Wonder-Under or Craft Fuse or Misty Fuse) so that fabric can then be melted onto another layer of fabric.  All this melting and burning and sticky stuff leads to many many many ruined irons here.  This is where the Barn of Opportunity comes in. I never never never buy irons. They come to me in the Gift Shop at the Barn.  If my insurance agent is reading, please know that I now restrict myself to those irons with the Auto-Off feature.

I think a lot about planned obsolescence in these types of small appliances.  I learned a lot from Annie Leonard and her video (and subsequent book) called The Story of Stuff. Take some the time to watch the whole video and you may learn something new, but for now, here is a clip of the full length video that tells about planned obsolescence. With electric irons,  it may not be about fashion, or having the latest, greatest model, but how many of us think about having an iron repaired when it's so darn easy and cheap to simply go and buy another one?  I get around the issue by using someone else's cast off iron.

And at our house, when the sticky, burned, encrusted irons are no longer desirable to one person... they are used to melt wax either off or onto some other person's skis. 

I've got to go now.  I smell something burning.

At long last, the Fashions

I haven't forgotten! Just a wee bit busy with a few other things. The Altered Couture fashion show at the Frontier on June 15 was pure entertainment.  There were designers who were 9 years old...

Designers who were teenagers, and designers who weren't teenagers!  There were drag queens and grandmothers. All of the artists spent $30 or less at second hand stores for their materials. A panel of local judges gave each design marks from 0-10.

 I loved this design, which had a sheer black fabric on top of a  hand-painted flower design.

 Susan Perrine created the incredible dress out of childrens board books.  Here is the artist with her model.

And the Bowdoinhamers: our friend Sara Cox posing after the show with her model, Georgia Ahlers.

You know when Sara's creations appear tame, that you are in a wild crowd.Head to toe, lovely.

And here is the show's host and creator, Christine DeTroy, with another young contestant.  I imagine Christine was pleased with the show.  The 25 designers:
 
Christine DeTroy, Rose Edwards, Patricia Boissevain, Angela Ann Alderete, Ruth Connelly, Shon Rivera,  Emily Weir, Elica Edwards, Donald Edwards, Hannah Herrick, Laurie Sims, Isaac Atkins, Kim De Vries, Catherine Worthington, Marji Greenhut, Molly Blaisdell, Susan Perrine, Aura Ever, Joe Swain, Sara Cox, Rebecca Hammer, Barbara Kay, Crank Sturgeon, Chana Boone.

And the winner was: "Crank" Sturgeon, whose creation appeared to be mostly made from camping equipment.  He stole the show. To watch a 4 minute video of Crank's runway moment, complete with amazing sound, check out this video from the Frontier Facebook page. ( If it doesn't load, try searching for Crank Sturgeon Altered Couture and you'll find it). Thanks, Brigid, for joining me for a very fun evening out. Next year... let's see some Barn of Opportunity fashions out there.