Quick update

I don't have much time to talk, but I finished the blouse. In the picture at the right, you can see what it looked like earlier in the week before I began changing it. I didn't do a whole lot to it, but I think that it will work really well with the overall costume. I cut out a decolletage window and seamed it up, and added small black lace all around the edges to dress it up a little more. I also added a deep 4 inch lace to the cuffs. Below, you can see it finished. On the right you can see that I had finished both the overskirt and underskirt, but I think that they could both use a little extra. I bought a ton of tulle and will be adding it to the hem on the red skirt. The black skirt will be getting black lace trim at the bottom. Depending on what kind of time I am working with I might also add some embroidery to the red skirt.

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, but we haven't had sunny weather in quite a while, so getting decent pictures on black fabrics hasn't been too easy.

Sketches for my Halloween costume

In my post day before yesterday, I mentioned my halloween costume and my inspiration. Here are the sketches I did. They aren't the best quality since I took them with my iphone, but I will get around to taking better ones.

baby blanket and another project finished

I'm slowly chasing down all of my unfinished projects and completing them so that my pile is diminishing. I have finished my first ever sewn baby blanket. I've done several crochet and/or knitted blankets, but this is the first one I've done since I got my embroidery machine. It was essentially problem free until the very end. I realized as I rounded the last corner on the binding that I was about three inches short. So I ran out to the craft store, and of course they were completely out of the color I needed. So I pulled apart one end of the blanket and sewed it again about 4 inches shorter. I am very thankful that I got my serger working again because it made the task infinitely easier. Here is the finished project!

Halloween costumes are blogging inspiration

I've been meaning to get back to blogging all of my projects for a while but I'm always so tired at the end of the night. This project in particular is so big that I definitely want to document it, and hopefully it will help me to continue on.

I decided to do a neo victorian goth inspired costume this year. It isn't accurate to any time period, just a picture in my mind. My inspiration was this makeup from Illamasqua, which I will be recreating. I have all of the supplies to create the look except the eyelashes because they required multiple sets which would have been too expensive. I bought a couple of pairs of other false eyelashes which I will cut up to try to replicate.

Yesterday I made the hat for the costume. I knew I wanted a mini top hat. I saw some people online who had made them from felt, but I wanted more of a luxe look. I also wanted something that looked sturdy and real, rather than something thrown together for the costume. I started out by buying mesh wire form from Hobby Lobby. You can find it on the aisle where the polymer clay is. I also got plain black felt for the frame work, some violet colored velvet from the remnants basket at the fabric store, and some feathers. I also used some items I already had for decorating.

I started by using an oval shaped plant dish to trace out the approximate size and shape of the hat. Once it was cut out I used the end of a sharpie pen to fold up the edges evenly all around so that no sharp edges were showing. I then traced a similar hole in the center, and used a ruler all around to make sure it was even. I cut out the center and pushed back the edges the same as the outside. I cut a rectangle of the same mesh and pushed the bottom edge down at a 90 degree angle so that once it was slipped through the hole it could grab on. I used a glue gun both on the seam up the sides of the top, and under the brim where they connect. As the glue started to cool I pushed it through the mesh to make sure the pieces connected. The top of the wire hat is cut down about half an inch all the way around and folded flat at a 90 degree angle to support the top. I cut another piece of mesh to match the top of the hat, and glued it down the same way I did the brim.

At this point I cut out pieces of felt and covered the metal frame. I wasn't too woried about doing it neatly because it would be covered by wire. Because velvet is so delicate I wanted to make sure that the frame work would not show lines through, so the felt added extra padding. Once it was completely covered I added velvet. I learned that you have to be very careful with the glue gun and velvet because if any gets on the velvet it pulls up the nap when you peel it off. I ended up with a few bald spots, which sucks. Since it's my first try at millinery I won't be too hard on myself. :) The order that I covered the frame in was: brim, then the top, then the outside of the top. I made sure there was plenty of fabric on the brim to fold under, and then added one more panel on the bottom to cover the seams.










And the finished product with all decorations:

Baby afghan finally complete!

I started this afghan for my bosses baby slightly before he was born at the beginning of September, and now it is finally done, hooray!

It is crocheted in a soft Hobby Lobby baby yarn in acrylic, of which the name escapes me at this moment. I will edit to add. It seems like it took forever! It was not the crocheting that was a pain; rather it was the blocking, stitching together, and repairing where my scissors got a little too close. It was the first time I had ever done more than a cursory blocking job. I created a grid on a large piece of cardboard and blocked about 12 at a time.

The patterns for the blocks can be found in the book 200 Crochet Blocks. I would have to disagree on the 200 part, as many blocks are repeated with very slight variations, or only color changes. None the less, it is a great book. I especially like the blocks that have circular motifs. Maybe some day I will be crazy enough to do a full size afghan. :)


One last pic of my baby modeling the new baby blanket:

Halloween pics a little late

Well, I've been on a hell of a hiatus. Part of it is the shape my house has been in after our mini-flood and all of the work we have been doing, part of it was my lack of creative endeavors for a while, and part of it was being too tired all the time to get much else done.

But, here I am! I have actually started a lot of new projects due to holidays and birthdays, so I will have stuff to post about. And I am making a pre-new year's resolution to post at least three times a week. Even if I don't have a project finished, I figure I can come up with something craft related. So - on to the Halloween pics.

As you can no doubt see, I was Tinkerbell for Halloween this year. I made the dress and the wings. The dress was made with out a pattern, thanks to my trusty dress form. I

had a more complicated design started but I ran out of time and had to go with this. Let's just pretend I haven't gained weight and you can't see the tummy, m'kay? There wasn't any chance of hiding anything in that paper thin fabric, though. The wings are made from a frame of 12 gauge wire, which I hot glued a thin organza t o, then painted over. I also added crystals.

Dyed dress...or maybe a skirt?

I finished my ombre dyed dress today and discovered that its not really a dress. I think it wants to be a skirt. I didn't realize until hubby took the picture and I looked at it that this makes a totally unflattering dress. The problem is that the shirred yoke at the top is not long enough to fit from the top of the bust to the ribcage, so it flares out much further than it should and makes me look very wide. I might use it as a skirt instead. However, I really don't like the length this way.

If I hem it, I will hem off most of the lovely dye. I'm thinking it might need to be re-done. I think it needs another darker band of color along the hem line anyways. The color washed up much lighter than what it was wet. Even after sitting for over 24 hours, it seemed that a lot of the color washed out. I'm trying not to be dissapointed as it was my first time dyeing with these products and it was a lot of work. I ordered all of my products from Dharma Trading, and I used fiber reactive dyes in plum, wisteria, and seafoam.