Stole

This is the stole I've been working on for my mother's ordination, sometime this year (she knows where it will be hosted, but I haven't heard on when it is yet). It is ok... I started the pattern completely from scratch, and I've realized that I've hit a wall in terms of what sewing I can just pick up without really learning. The draping is a little skewed (when worn normally, the ends tend to come in together around her knees when they should fall straight-looking), but since her robe (which she'll wear at the ordination) has shoulder pads, I'm hopeful that that'll solve the problem, at least a little. And maybe someday I'll actually start taking sewing classes, and I'll learn how to drape for real.

Part of me wants to just start the whole thing over because of the draping issue, but I know that I don't yet have the tools (physical & mental) to really make an improvement on it without simply tracing the pattern of one of her other, more professional stoles, and I just don't have the time right now to get it started again completely from scratch. It would probably just end up on the sidelines for a long time unless I REALLY pushed at it over winter break... but again, I can't learn the skill that quickly. So, impasse. C'est la vie.

Drawing to Drypoint

In my printmaking class, we worked on drypoint etchings a couple weeks ago, etching with an etching needle (or screw, or seam ripper, or...) into a piece of plastic, then using ink to print the lines that we etched.

I found this fish drawing (marker & pen) in a sketch book that I was working in last spring. I was pretty pleased with the effect of the markers back then, and with this new medium, I thought it might be interesting to see how the marks translated. I traced the outlines of the fish with the etching needle, then selected an ink color (I tried using green and blue together at first, with mixed results, and ultimately settled on the blue). I purposely didn't clean off all of the ink I applied to try and recreate some of the feel of the original drawing.

I'm pretty pleased with the result, it's not the 'exact same', but it's a pretty decent translation!

New Fabrics

1. This is actually a twin-size sheet I found at the thrift store, it's just so cute! Pink and white stripes, with a grasshopper pattern all over. I'm thinking either an apron or a little girl's dress, I would make a dress for myself but I don't think I have enough for a loose skirt.













2. This was an accident. I spilled bleach all over a pair of brown cords, so now they have pink splotches all over. They'll get used whenever I come up with a purpose for them...

SNEAK PEEK!

I'm not telling you what it is yet though!

In this business of show, you have to have the heart of a lion, and the hide of an elefant.

Earlier today I saw a very cute elephant on etsy, and it made me think that cute elephants might be within my stuffed animal reach. So, I threw together a pattern, scoured my bins for fabric that would be elephant friendly, and got to work. His (her?) eyes are gold, I might've been able to sew them with brown thread instead of using buttons if I had wanted to work on the project for longer than I did (this was about an hour, hour and a half of work). I thought about adding a tail on the butt-end, but then forgot about it when I was actually sewing the pieces together. Whoops... And, yes, I realize that the back side of the ears is the side usually facing out/forward, and the inner ear is usually the hidden side, but I took a little license with elephant genealogy for the sake of visual contrast. The tutu thing was a whim.

If I make another elephant, I think I will need to remember to place the tail in before sewing, and I'll want to move the trunk up a little bit, it looked fine when I was drawing it out, but on the finished product is mildly confusing where the head/leg/trunk all fit together. I also ran out of stuffing near the end of the stuffing process and had to take batting and rip it apart to simulate stuffing. It stuffs up pretty sturdy in the midsection because of this, but really.. there is nowhere within ten minutes of my apartment that I would be able to purchase stuffing, and a little sturdiness in the middle is mildly appropriate- it IS an elephant after all. Also the back leg is thicker than the front. Didn't pay close enough attention to my home-made pattern there.

Apologies on the flash in the second image.

A Blanket, made some time ago

I made this blanket quite a while ago now, it started as a way to play around with some skein ends that I had floating around, and ended up turning into a blanket with all different weights of yarn, a couple of granny squares when I learned how to make those (my first is in here!), some of the yarn dating back to my older brother's baby blanket... I thought the design would be nice for my friend Chris W., but unfortunately he and I are both very busy and I haven't had a chance to get it to him yet. If you still want it, it's yours!

A Rug!

A red rug to match the red walls. Some friends moved, and we all know I loooooove making moving gifts (I do!), so I pulled together a rug to match the walls they painted red in their basement (also living space. not storage like mine). Because really, who likes to wake up and walk all over the cold linoleum and freeze their little toes off?

Thursday: Centipede!

Wednesday: NARWHAL!!

Self-Imposed Project

My new self-imposed project: a stuffed creature every day, for a week. Some will be good, some will suck, but I'll probably learn a thing or two in the process. Particularly, as stuffed creatures are something I haven't really spent a whole lot of time on in the past. And so, I present Monday and Tuesday to you (sorry for the icky flash):

MONDAY:


TUESDAY:

A blanket

This is just a dark blue afghan, with stripes on one side and edging of kiddie rainbow colored yarn. I made it because I was bored... It's sitting in my big blanket bucket right now, and anyone who wants it can have! Not quite big enough for a bed, but a good size for snuggling with or wrapping around yourself on a couch.

HEY HEY AMERICA!!

I got really restless on the fourth of July this year, I hate the fireworks, and it was a Saturday. I had something else I needed at JoAnns, so I trekked out there, only realizing once I was a block away that they could potentially be closed. Lucky for me, they were Independence Sale-ing instead of closed! I got what I needed, and picked up several patriotic remnants.

When I got home I worked them up into a rug quickly, starting and finishing all on the 4th. I'm pretty set on rugs for myself these days, but my brother moved recently, so I gave it to him. Last I heard (which was, the day I gave it to him) he was using it in his bathroom, where it matched the blue walls, and where he and his roommate hadn't gotten around to getting a rug for yet. I hope it's still working out for them!

Long time, eh?

This is a crocheted blanket I worked on after my friend Lani taught me a pattern for granny squares (the purple squares). I figured out how to make the brown squares by staring at a blanket for a little while and thinking about the different stitches, and then was inspired to work on my own blanket, just to see if I could do it.

My friend Erika moved at about the same time I was finishing up the blankie, and so I gave it to her. It (conveniently!) matches her bedroom color scheme, as you can see in the first picture. The second picture gives you a more close up view of the two patterns that I used for the different colored squares.

Gift Rug Colors

This post is for Mark W.B. and Mark alone, really. I bought some fabric for the rug I'm making you and Ian as your moving gift... These are the colors I picked out, sortof following the Asian theme I got from you, though it ended up going more in the Tibetan Buddhist direction than anything else. Maybe I should throw in a copy of one of HH Dalai Lama's books with your gift?

a dress, i guess

I actually followed the pattern pretty much straight through, though I got lazy on the lining for the back of the top/bodice. Tucks, I still hate doing, though I am good at them when I want a thing to look nice- I recently got a nice (I think, my mom says "it hurts to look at") button up from the thrift store, and I noticed that the tucks on the bottom face the same direction... that is weird to me, I always make mine radiate from the center. I need to take in the armpit a little bit still, it's gappy, but I'll get there eventually. Needed to use my bloggy energy spurt to get this out there!

My computer is still broken.
I never posted A LOT,
but now I just get lazy when I have to think about charging my camera batteries and going to school and using the computers there to upload pictures to my flash drive and then post a new bloggy post...
):

Mac Pillows!

"the lil mac guy pillow is cute as hell," says my brother, of his new pillows he got for his birthday, in reference to the 'finder' icon. I got the idea when my friend J sent me a link to this website: www.throwboy.com. The pillows are all fleece, polyester stuffing. Smallish, but not tiny. They were quick and easy to make, kind of fun too! I just used a tight zig-zag stitch to applique the colors on top of each other.

Skirt

I made myself a green skirt. I've been sitting on this fabric for a while, deciding what to do with it. A couple days ago I pulled it out of the basket to look at it again and decided, after looking in the mirror, that it was a little too busy and bright and intense to make a good shirt, but would work well lower down, as a skirt. I sifted through my stock of patterns and found a good one that's relatively simple, seams on the sides, seam in back, facing at the top, hem on the bottom, zipper on the side, and went to work. All in all it was only 6 pieces to cut out, so cutting (my least favorite part) went really quickly, as did all the seams. The trickiest part was the zipper, but mostly because I didn't happen to have one on hand, and had to trek all the way out to Joanns to get one. And because I was coming from a different direction than usual to get to Joanns, I got myself and my roommate a little bit lost on the way. But it all worked out eventually and early afternoon today I finished my skirt! Sorry the pictures are a little dark and fuzzy, it's hard to take pictures of myself.

Boxers!

My lucky boyfriend got some homemade undies recently. 2 are in the brown pattern (lower in the picture), which I have TONS of, this is the fabric that backed the quilt that I made for my brother for Christmas that I talked about in my last post. Also, one in the Chicago Bulls pattern (upper in the picture). They're alright, they get the job done, the only thing that I didn't do (got lazy) was modify the pattern to create a front flap/opening. So, except that they are a little short, they are kinda like shorts. The only patterns that my mom and I could find that included the flap were either not in stock, or only for special order. And I'm not willing to special order underwear patterns. Also, getting rid of the flap made churning these out E-Z. Just a quick project to keep me busy over my long winter break, that is about to end. ):

Lobster Blanket

I made this way back when my sewing machine wasn't working because I was dying for lack of things to make.. It's really easy, just two pieces of fleece flat against each other, then with fringe cut and knotted together.

On the upside, the only thing that was wrong with my sewing machine was that I hadn't oiled it in 3 years... So that's solved, and now I have a little bit of oil in my sewing desk for use as needed.

On the downside, I made a quilt for my brother for Christmas, but didn't manage to get any photos of it before I had given it to him and gone back to Chicago. So I just have to talk about it. On the whole, I tried to use cooler, darker colors, like browns and blues, to keep it from looking to girly, or too much like something he wouldn't want to use. The design on the topside was simple, rows of boxes, with long columns running the width of the quilt between them. I still don't know much formally about quilting, everything tends to be as-I-think-it-up, so I probably won't get to more complicated designs for a while. On the inside I just used a layer of fleece. And on the backside I used this very art-deco fabric that I inherited A LOT of (more of that later, you'll probably see it in the next post).