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So, does anyone remember when I made this tote?
I made it out of a t-shirt and some canvas fabric like, two years ago, and listed it on my Artfire shop. Well, it sold yesterday! I didn’t even know Artfire listings stayed up that long, but apparently they do. Whoo! I take any excuse to make cute cards, so I’m including this in the package:
In other news, I did some sewing the other day. I needed another project bag because while I am mostly project monogamous, sometimes I have a couple, so I needed something to store the one I’m not currently knitting.
The outside is part of a dinosaur sheet I bought at the thrift store, and the lining is part of a pillow sham. I’m a big fan.
It’s currently holding the beginning of a sleeve (of the grey/pink striped pullover). I’m not done with the body yet (I just finished the waist decreases and will start the bust increases shortly), but the long rounds were a little boring, so I started the sleeve:
The sweater will probably take another couple of weeks (possibly less), especially since I have swap stuff too. : )
I recently participated in a swap on Craftster themed around bookmarks. It was a group type swap–you’re put in a group of five, and you craft four bookmarks to send to your groupmates and receive four different ones in return. It took me a while to decide what I wanted to make, but in the end, I decided on embroidered corner bookmarks:
(If you recognize the book, I’ll love you to death. It’s my favorite.)
I really like how they came out. I used a dollar store flour sack towel for the base, and the embroidery took next to no time at all. The sewing up was also very simple. Cute. I like ’em.
I also really like the bookmarks I received in return:
The one with the key is currently marking the correct week in my planner. The beaded one was residing in the novel I was reading (And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer), but I finished it and started re-reading HP & the Deathly Hallows, and that’s a big book, so I’m going to replace it with the green corner bookmark. The other ones will probably take up residence in my various school textbooks–one will probably mark the current reading in my Norton Anthology for my British Literature class, at least.
So I recently participated in a swap on Craftster wherein I swapped kits to make a craft with other people. It was sort of round-robin style. The kit I made (a drop spindling kit) went to sugaree. I included a how to spindle pamphlet, a little sample of my early handspun, a drop spindle, some fiber, and a drawstring bag to hold it all:
The bag:
and the fiber:
I included about 30g of alpaca fiber and about 125g of domestic wool top (from the pound I ordered when I started spinning) that I dyed. I call the colorway “Ocean Madness (It’s No Excuse for Ocean Rudeness)”.
The kit I received in return was from ChrisSews and it was for making jewelry. She sent so much cool stuff!
Here’s everything:
Tons of findings:
Tons of beads:
as well as instructions and materials to make these earrings, based off some on my wists:
I can’t wait to make the second earring so I can wear them, but I don’t think I’ll really be able to until I go back to school. There’s a lot of little parts and I don’t want to lose anything, so I’ll wait until I’m settled in my apartment at school and have a work space that belongs to me.
So I don’t remember if I ever told you guys this, but I’m totally obsessed with the tv show Battlestar Galactica. The boyfriend and I watched all four seasons over a couple of months over the past year, and I got HOOKED. It’s a very gripping show.
Anyway, I joined a swap on Craftster that was Battlestar themed! I had such fun making the items for my partner AggiegirlKatelyn:
First, I dyed up some wool I harvested from a thrift store sweater:
Now it’s my Eye of Jupiter yarn! I dyed up two skeins: one for her and one for me to keep. : ) Not sure how it will knit up, but I do like the dye job. The blue part is a little purple cause my blue dye was a little light and I wanted to darken it up (which happened to debatable success). I like it thought. : )
Next, I embroidered a panel and turned it into a tote bag:
Guys, I totally love this thing. I have a ton of tote bags, but I desperately wanted to keep this one for myself. I didn’t though, and sent it off to my partner, who specifically requested something with “Frak off” on it. This is probably the closest to quilting I’ll ever get (I had to center the panel in four bars of the grey fabric) cause I totally lack the patience and precision, but I LOVE how this bag came out. It looks great and totally professional. Even my line of top stitching around the top is even and wonderful.
I also made her this kickin’ card:
I cut out all the yellow pieces then glued them on, did the detail work in black pen and applied a layer of mod podge. YES. It’s bitchin’. I know.
So I tried to sew a blouse.
It’s really hard to find cute blouses that A, fit me and B, don’t cost a billion dollars. These things are difficult cause I have a really long torso plus am a huge cheapskate when it comes to clothes so… Yeah. So I bought some white cotton fabric and downloaded the JJ pattern from BurdaStyle. I prewashed the fabric. I measured. I even pressed all my seams. And yet, it still came out looking like this:
Yeah. Don’t be fooled by the innocuous floor shot–it’s bad. It doesn’t have buttons or button holes (cause why take all the time for a shirt I’m sure I’ll never wear on its own?). It’s way too big, there’s no shaping to speak of, and the directions are unclear and impossible to understand. Yeah. Not a good experience. It looks okay under a vest though I guess:
On the whole, I don’t like sewing from patterns. I don’t especially care for sewing clothes in general, mostly because I’m not very precise so things don’t hang or fit well. I can sew a pretty bitchin’ totebag cause there’s a lot of wiggle room so I don’t actually have to measure. It’s unfortunate because I love sewing. Just not clothes. I wish I did, but the problem with sewing clothes from patterns is that I am almost always smaller than the smallest size listed and once I cut everything out and sew it all together, it’s not like I can just take it out and redo it, like I can with knitting.
Speaking of knitting, my Lakeside swap socks currently look like this:
I’m almost through the calf shaping, which is good cause I am SO READY to turn the heel on the sucker.
PS: Want a pair of pretty earrings? There’s a giveaway! Open until Friday, July 2 at midnight!
(Though I wrote this post before I left, when you all read this, I’ll already have been in DC for a few days. So greetings from DC!)
So I signed up for a swap on Craftster that is Dollar Store themed–that is, participants must spend between five and ten dollars at the dollar store (or the equivalent of such for other countries) and craft at least two items for their partner. Well, my partner was A2JC4life, and here’s what I sent her:
Out of two dishtowels, this bag:
Out of some wedding favors, some ribbon, and scraps from the bag (as well as some stash buttons), these pin cushions:
(The button one also has a fabric bump for pins, it’s just lower in the bucket.)
Out of another of the wedding favors and some more ribbon, a little container for storing small things:
And finally, out of a piece of flour sack cloth, this little patch, which she can sew on whatever she chooses:
Another bit of embroidery! I love it. I was going to sew it into a zipper pouch, but then I realized I would have to use a bunch of non-dollar store stuff, so I just left it as a patch. It’s pretty though. : ) I used a pattern from Jenny Hart’s book “Sublime Stitching”, which I borrowed from the library (I just put the cloth over the pattern and traced it with a disappearing ink pen). I shall have to make myself a zipper pouch with a bit of embroidery.
For more dollar store crafts, the rest of the gallery is here
Happy Wednesday all, and a belated happy Memorial Day to those in the US. I hope it was suitably barbecue-filled (mine wasn’t; we flea bombed the house so I had to be out of the house all day and went to the movies with my sister. But I digress).
Anyway, so I drove all the way out the Jo Ann’s in Virginia Beach on Friday for the Memorial Day sale (and also because I’d never been to that Jo Ann’s before). I did not know that it was one of the smaller ones, but I managed to buy things none the less. Simplicity sewing patterns were 5/$5, so I bought three along with some elastic and some fabric.
Now, why are these going to become daring adventures? Well… I don’t usually sew from patterns. I had no idea how Simplicity patterns will fit. Was I going to make a muslin? Hell no! Brinn sews with abandon!
And, as it turns out, things worked out rather well. I’ve since turned the fabric into the shorts pattern I bought:
They are a bit snug. I cut the pattern for a 5/6, which is a 32″ hip (which is my hip measurement). Apparently Simplicity thinks teens don’t actually have asses (which I do have). I also had to improvise the button because the waistband wasn’t long enough. I fully intend to make these again, but I’ll have to make a larger size. Since I already cut out the pattern pieces, I can’t do it according to pattern, but I should be able to wing it to make them larger.
The fabric I used it some sort of cotton/poly blend. I don’t actually know about fabric, so I can’t really tell you more about it. It works well with the pattern, though I suspect a knit would allow the shorts to actually fit properly.
I received a couple more swap things this week! First, from leighi123:
Two pretty zipper bags and some very pretty cotton fabric that will most likely become a skirt or summery dress. She also sent a sheet of shrink plastic, some pretty sparkly thread, and some chocolate (which I gave to my brother as I’m not a fan of dark chocolate). Yay! The bags are lovely and large and while I’m not really sure what I’ll put in them yet, I’m sure I’ll think of something. The thread will probably be used to ply handspun, maybe.
I also received from bkrenning4
I like it a lot. It fits and it’s pretty and will be perfect for wearing over less-than-presentable pj’s. So win!
Recently in the mail I also got some yarn for some swaps, but more on that later. : )
So I joined a swap on Craftster that was bird themed. Whoo! My partner was PinkChick. Here’s what I sent her:
An amigurumi peacock! The body is actually teal, but for some reason, my camera has a problem picking up that color. **shrug** There’s a pattern for a crochet peacock on Ravelry, but it wasn’t exact enough for me, so I made it up as I went. I like it. It’s cute. My first attempt looked like a blue turkey, but I think this one is distinctly peacock-like.
My first embroidery project! I’ve been meaning to take up cross stitch and embroidery as a means of decorating (simply–I don’t have the patience for all those complicated counted cross stitches), so I thought I’d dive in with this bird. I like how it came out! I traced a vague outline but mostly did it free hand. Here’s a close up of the bird:
My stitching isn’t that even cause I’m new at it, but I suspect it’ll get better with practice. And I do intend to practice.
I also included this card, for which I used a stamp I got in that big batch of supplies from OWS:
I like this too. I like bird stamps. : )
Stay tuned for the gallery link and what I got from my partner!
So… I made another OWS claim recently. I claimed Faux_Valentine for some monster-themed goodies and a wisty surprise. For the monsters, I made another monster chunk:
out of Sugar and Cream and Serendipity Tweed. I also made an iPod cozy:
out of Wool-Ease and some nylon Fun Fur I had around. Cute, right? I like him. I decided at the last minute to make one more plush, so I knit up this:
out of some “Sullivans Crinkle”. I don’t even know. Glitzy/furry stuff from Big Lots. I love his big teeth though. : )
The wisty surprise I made was based on this bracelet from her wist:
And here’s my version:
I used a zipper from the ones that hngoodlett sent me and I bought some lace trim at Hancock Fabrics. There’s also some felt on the back. I didn’t have a jewelry clasp, so I used ribbon. I really like how it came out. : )
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 