Jayne Hat

"A man walks down the street in that hat, people know he's not afraid of anything"

The story: I got a series of messages from a friend saying "Help me!" And a picture of a scary dude in a gas mask.  Weird.  Turns out she was in a knitting emergency and her boyfriend, Mr. Gas Mask, was wearing his ex's poor imitation of a Jayne Hat. Unacceptable.  So this weekend I set off to make him a proper Jayne hat in style.  About 5 rows in I ran out of yellow yarn and decided to make that one a bootleg hat for later and then to make Mr. Gas Mask a real Jayne hat out of different yarn. The results were fun and I ended up loving making Pom poms!

Jayne Hat: Carron yellow and claret red with orange from my stash, 3in pompom

Skimpy Jayne Hat: Lion Brand soft in three colors, 2in pompom

Broken Star Quilt

When I first got into quilting, I pointed at a pattern and said, "this will be my very first bed-sized quilt!"  And then I proceeded to make 4 other quilts, none of which remotely resembled that first pattern. Well the times are a changin' because I've started working on my first broken star quilt!  I got some really nice batiks in my favorite colors and spent the weekend cutting, sewing, and avoiding ironing.  Because of the color combinations I could make it an untraditional broken star:

Or very traditional:

I'm leaning toward the untraditional version with the bursting wheel in the traditional format.  I really love how the dark blue emphasizes the multi-pink/purple in the center of the star and sends it shooting to the far reaches of the quilt.  Still a lot more work to be done here and I definitely need to get a better cream color for the background. But that comes after I finish piecing the diamonds on the bias!

Baby Quilt

Moving to a new city and joining an informal quilt guild has really upped my sewing game!  One of my coworkers is going on maternity leave and the sewers in the office are putting together a baby quilt!  It's going to be sooo cute for the lil' babe!  The parameters of the quilt 1) Gender neutral-it's a mystery baby! 2) Lots of color 3) Usable and machine washable.  These are all things I can handle!  So I'm going to put you out of your misery and do finished pictures first:

Now the backstory... I've been delegated the second phase of the project: sew the blocks together, make the backing, quilt it together and put on the binding.  And I've been given the blocks, which ranged from 5.5" to 8 inches once I squared them up.  Not exactly ideal since I needed 7" blocks...

So I picked out some "matching" fabric from my stash and expanded the blocks, making replacement blocks for the unsavable ones.  This star is made up of Lincoln log blocks and the triangles are made by the "stack and whack" method.  A couple of borders later the top was pieced and you couldn't tell the replacement fabrics from 3 feet away, acceptable.

The backing was fun and simple, more fabrics from my stash: one playful and one a nice batik.

I really enjoyed (and stressed) over how to quilt this little blanket. I've never even quilted a pot holder together!  And I'm no good at free motion quilting on my little Bernina.  So I stitched in the ditch with hopefully unnoticeable colors.  One binding later and it was time to wrap up my first baby blanket!

Scottish Vandalism

While sightseeing in Edinburgh, Scotland I noticed some street art: strange black and white dots.  Weird.  Step back and BOOM stormtrooper.  Thank you Scottish vandalism for making my day!  I snapped a picture and turned it into vinyl wall art for the hallway at home.  Might look strange to the nonbelievers but to those who see it, wonderful.

Steampunk Wedding

So I was lucky enough to have a friend throwing a steampunk themed wedding, costumes required.  Well *cracks knuckles* I think I can handle this challenge!  1. black corset 2. blue and black lacy dress 3. mini top hat 4. navy blue tights layered with black fishnets 5. golden key shoes 6. bustle 7. bracelet, 8. test tube garter, 9. purse, 10. Party!

Lets start off with a doll's top hat, a metal clock scrapbook addition, a tulle veil, bit of ribbon and a giant peacock feather.  All found at your local craft store and hot glued together to a standard black headband while watching too much Life.



Next up the purse, 'cause let's be honest, my corset and dress won't have pockets.  Also it's rare to find to find any woman's clothing item with any reasonable sized pockets, we do have needs clothing designers!!  One cheap fake leather black purse, another metal clock from the scrapbooking section, bronze chain from jewelry, and a bit of metallic thread...BOOM.



Now for a little bit of sass.  Some leftover tulle, ribbon, and steampunk-ish lock decorations and I have a clever way to hide my digital watch.  It's all about appearances and I would feel naked without my watch so, concessions had to be made.



Speaking of black tulle, I probably shouldn't be proud that I just happened to have 10 yards just sitting in my house for a rainy day.  Today is that day!!  I needed a little bustle for my tussle, and with a little help from the folks on tumblr I slapped some tulle, ribbon, and fabric together over the weekend.


No pictures of this one but my shoes, let me tell you about my amazing shoes.  There is a thing called rub 'n buff which is a wax based product and they sell it in a bunch of metallic colors, perfect for steam punk. I used antic gold rub 'n buff on an old pair of black flats and then sewed a couple of dangling keys onto the back of the heels, perfection.  Add on a test tube garter (test tubes hot glued to a thin black belt and some navy ribbon) and I was set to go!

Luckily I got to the wedding site a day early so I could do last minute costuming for a couple of my friends... 3 emergency mini hats, 2 necklaces, and a set of earrings later we were all ready for the wedding!

Avengers Assembled

Hey All,
I've finally finished the afghan of a lifetime!  My Avengers Afghan is based on the post-it note patterns, which were just dying to be a crochet patterns.  I had to improv a couple of the character squares (Hey Coulson!) and all of the logos but I'm happy with how they turned out.  I used all Caron one pound yarns, alternating single crochet, double crochet, and a spike stitch for the borders.

Halloween Pies!

My favorite time of year is Halloween, when else can you go to parties in your favorite homemade costumes?!  Also being a "crafter" means that you're always on call for other people's Halloween costumes, which is extra fun and challenging.  We'll you can rest assured that costumes did in fact happen but so did jack o'lantern pumpkin pie!  The secret is to bake a basic pumpkin for a little over half the time and then adding on the pie crust face.  Just make sure that the pumpkin pie has solidified enough so that the face doesn't sink into the pumpkin and it will turn out just fine.

Scrap Quilting

Calling it a "scrap quilt" might be a little misleading because after my first hand dyed quilt, I had enough fabric left over to make 4 more queen+ quilts.  This quilt pattern is another one out of my imagination.  It was inspired by a layout on my digital scrapbook website and progressed from there. Being a night owl, I don't think I ever worked on this before 10pm, which means there were a number of long nights but now its finished!  I'll post again with a close up on the quilting, which transformed this quilt from good to freaking fantastic.

Birch Tree Wall Art

So this is one that I ended up buying on etsy because WOW it is beautiful and I just don't have the equipment to vinyl cut a 12 ft birch tree art project.  And I quickly discovered all of my friends aka drafted assistants are afraid of heights, so guess who was the one to climb to the top step of the 10ft ladder? This Girl! Don't try that at home kids!

Before:


After:


But it was a lot of fun putting up all of the individual leaves and the big tree trunks!
 

Paper Roses

I'm still not 100% sure why I NEEDED to make a bouquet of paper roses, but no regrets here!  I followed these instructions, and sacrificed some discarded/weeded library books for the cause.  The ruler is for scale because they ended up to be a crazy huge bunch in comparison to their thin wire stems. For a couple of them I put fake pearls in the center of the rose to add a little something special.

Spaceships Attack!

I've been in a decorating mood lately and I have decided that I need something to spice up the walls in my bedroom.  Luckily for me, I live in the same town as three makerspaces, so I stopped by and made myself some custom spaceship vinyl cutouts!  I take no credit for drawing these or any such thing, I turned pictures from the internet into black and white images and traced the edges in the vinyl cutter program... so these guys are definitely not for sale.  But they are pretty and the perfect space battle!  Now I just need to make a couple of tentacles for my bathroom  :D



On a side note the best thing about vinyl is that its non damaging to the walls, perfect for renting.  These weren't meant to be reused BUT from experience they'll last one move if you transport them on freezer paper and are really careful when pealing them off the walls.

Doctor Who Cookie Cutters

I pulled out my TARDIS door covering and repurposed it for my new apartment door... why did it have to open from the opposite side as my last apartment?!?  Anyway it was a great way to start an all day Doctor Who Marathon party and cookie baking session.


But that's old news, the new addition to my crafty Doctor Who world are 3D printed cookie cutters!


Not too shabby!  Cybermen, adipose, Tardis, David Tennant, K9, Matt Smith, and (not featured because they were too delicious) daleks.  I tried out this pattern on thingiverse, the go to place for crowdsourcing 3D printed files.  It worked nicely but it didn't quite have the dalek angle that I wanted (more eyestalk!) and the second part of the cutter that made the impressions, well it wasn't impressive at all.  So I ended up making a lot of custom files using cookie caster and pics from the internet.  It took me a couple of tries to get the right thickness of cookie cutter.  On the thinest setting the makerbot I was using often translated the single line into two thin lines with space in-between. Queue hours of cleaning out cookie dough with a toothpick--no good.  The thickest setting was, well too thick and could probably be used for ink printing... but not cookies.  Somewhere along the way there is a happy medium for a solid reusable (handwash) cookie cutter.   I used PLA plastic and a Makerbot Replicator 2 and 2x.  Since the cookie cutters have such little surface area I had to put a raft on it so that it would stick to the print bed and not pop off mid print :(  which happened a fair amount especially on the Replicator 2x's heated print bed.  But hey cookie party achieved!

An Impromptu Christmas

Living in an apartment and traveling for the holidays, it didn't make sense to get a real tree so I decided to make one.  Weekend Challenge: no supplies runs, no prep work, using the materials currently in my house make a 3 dimensional Christmas Tree.  No problem!  1) Easel, 2) green fabric-ish stuff, 3) Construction Paper, 4) Penn State themed ribbon, 5) Buttons!    Done.

Tentacle Toothbrush Holder: 3D Printing

I'm so excited to test out the 3D printer in my local makerspace!  I'm using a Makerbot Replicator 2 with PLA and a Makerbot Replicator 2x with ABS plastic.  I've been browsing thingiverse to find the perfect projects.  I have discovered, I desperately want a Cthulhu toothbrush holder, but since that has yet to become a "thing" and I don't have the talent ie patience to design one... I guess I'll settle for tentacles!


On unrelated news I've also tested out 3D printing a spork (it was very sharp)


and this LionFish!  I actually made two because they printed out so beautifully!  But beware they tended to pop off the print bed if the temperature on the machine was a little off or the painters tape was old.

Daleks in School

The covert invasion has begun!  Beware of Daleks sneaking into your classrooms, your bars imitating lost college freshman with their eyestalk in a map.

Made from grey, black, and pale blue Caron Soft.  Pattern from Lucy Ravenscar on Ravelry

Wall Hangings Done Easy!

I finally finished setting up my new apartment this week which means I can finally start decorating! Wallhangings done cheap and easy are my specialty this week.  So I stopped by the dollar store and got comic book themed washcloths!  Stretched and stapled to foam board, they look great!

As for supplies, all you need is fun fabric or washcloths, foam board (single ply works), an x-acto knife, ruler, stapler, adhesive hanging eyes, and little wire command strip hooks.

These will look great on my wall!

The Captain's Chair

Problem: I have a blue Ikea chair with the most unfortunate 21" circular stain.  I've washed and cleaned it so many times but the stain won't come out.

Solution: I could spend a lot of time and fabric making a chair cover OR I could paint over the circular stain with a circular logo... Captain America's Shield!  Avengers Unite!

Stage one was to use white fabric paint as my primer and paint over the entire circle, don't forget to put cardboard behind it first to stop bleed through.  Trace out the design with pencil, pen, or sharpie... it doesn't matter!  Then with lovely metallic acrylic paint, make that design beautiful.  Got icky edges?  A thin border of black puffy paint will make it pop!  Feeling extra artsy?  Cover and tape off the non painted parts of the chair and give it a quick spray coat of crystal clear.

Progress Pic:

One weekend later, presto!  Your very own Captain's Chair!

Tank (Slippers) are Rolling In

EDIT: Because of copyright and respect for the creator of the pattern, I will not be sharing the pattern.  Please find the pattern on Etsy by Miligurumis (sometimes Mily takes a break from Etsy and this link goes dead but they usually reactivate in a couple of months so check back later)

It's has been over 6 months of work and procrastination to finish these master pieces.  Each Panzer Tank is made of about 30 different parts and they even have puffy paint traction on the soles for protection!  These are a gift for a friend using a pattern by Miligurumis, which can be found on etsy.  Made with a j hook and crocheted simultaneously with a black Caron Soft and Caron One Pound gave these slippers the bulk to be men's size 13.  Most of the tank was done with a combination of grey Red Heart and Caron Soft.

And just to put this in perspective, here are almost all the parts of ONE tank slipper, and some of them are already sewn together!

The Lion Inside

The last thing I had to do before graduating from college wasn't writing a paper, taking a test, or eating a ridiculously large celebratory dinner.  No, this was the time for crafting, and let me tell you I really wanted to bring my knitting to convocation, two hours of sitting is way too long to be without crafting supplies!  #addicted  Anyway, my last project as an undergraduate was for my boss's, boss's coworker--it's complicated.

He asked me to make him something crafty.  I suggested a crochet burger and fries that looks like a lot of fun.  He countered with something lion themed, African lions only.  This is what he gets for being so wonderfully vague--his very own lion themed scarf.  Now he can look like Hercules and wear the skin of a lion!

I really enjoyed making this guy with some yellow Caron one pound yarn, orange sparkly funfur, and touches of cream and brown from a really old brand that was bought out by Red Heart.

Totodile Keychain

Apparently I'm getting back in the game! More posts, more projects, and more sales! This cutie was made on request with azure Caron One Pound, a touch of red and yellow Red Heart, and scraps of white and black felt. Top it off with red and black sharpie eyes and a chain mail keychain, things are looking good for this little Pokemon!