9 posts tagged “crafts”

Wow, haven't posted in a long time!  Everything was so busy with the holidays and everything.  I took some pictures of a couple of gifts that I made this year!  And I had at least one present for everyone that I wasn't able to finish.  Oh well.  Since we had an early Christmas this year when my sister came to visit, I can post these without worry.

A key holder for my mom.   Bought the wood at Micheal's and the hooks at Lowe's.  I'm actually quite proud of this, I haven't painted in years and I'm so happy the rabbit turned out well!  The shading was such a pain.  But I love it.  My mom loves rabbits, btw, and she had a metal key holder with rabbits on it but the hooks are so small that everything just slides off.  So I made her a new one :)

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Yea, I'm so not ashamed that my sister and I 'get' Shakespeare jokes :P  I thought it was so clever.  "Exit pursued by bear" from A Winter's Tale.  :D  Pretty funny right??!  I came up with the exit sign idea all on my own :)  Just rounded the edges of a scrap piece of wood I had in the basement and started painting!

Anywho, those are all I have pictures of right now!  At the moment I'm working on a dress that I'm going to wear to see Wicked this weekend.  I know, cutting it close. I'm going to be SO overdressed, but I'm still so excited about it.  I love making fancy dresses, I just never have anywhere to wear them.  My own design and everything.  I'll post it when I'm done!

~Nikki

Thought people over here on Vox would really appreciate this!

My sister and her boyfriend (here on out, I'll say Brother-in-law to make it easier) have started a new enterprise (you may remember her little crochet dudes over at Geek Central Station, those have been relegated to doing commissions).
Anyway, this one is called 'Portrait of a Penguin'.  It is the story of the fantastical Kingdom of Byrd.  My sister, tremedously creative, is writing out a very intricate storyline and my BIL is drawing/painting pictures of the characters.  You can see the 'portraits' and some of the stories to go with them at their store HERE.  But even MORE interesting, imo, is Drake Cook's 'journal'.   A Penguin explorer, written in the style of his personal diary with 'academic drawings'.  It is wonderful :)
Drake Cook's log

On another note, I have things to post, but things have gotten really busy in the past week.  My family and I are moving by the end of March.  Expected and sudden at the same time.  But there is a lot to be done!  I'll try and post a few things.  I've taken some pictures of a couple of skirts I've made recently.  The pictures didn't really turn out, but I'll post them all the same!

Hope everyone is doing well, sorry I have been MIA!

~Nikki

Happy New Year everyone!  Hope everyone had a good time.  I was bored.   Way to start the new year, right?  New Year's resolution #1: GET A JOB THIS YEAR. 

Here are a few aprons I made.  The black one was for me, just for fun, the bright one was a gift for my mom.  She gave me the fabric like, a year ago to make her an apron with and I never did it.  So I did it for Christmas!  Neither was made with a pattern.  I like the design of the bright one the best.  Plus, I wanted to make one for my mom that wasn't specifically for Christmas/winter so that she may actually use it.
And the black one looks better on the dress dummy because of the crinoline/petticoat underneath it.  Gives it a better shape.  But still cute :)

So, here is a post with some things that I made for people.  First, two giant grocery bags.  One for my sister (who has been asking for one for AGES) and one for my mom.  My mom now has more of my bags than I do!

Futurama bag, Designs mostly made out of felt, the white on the 'Planet Express' is a different type of material and the words are fabric marker.  The rest is embroidered. 
I made this bag a little differently, instead of making a front, a back, and a bottom/side piece, I just used one giant piece of fabric and boxed the two corners.  SO much easier.  I may just do this from now on.  I'll have to ask my sister how it works out, like, if it is as sturdy with groceries as the other one.

This one was for my mother, old school style.  Matches the other two bags I made for her (here and here apparently I don't have a single picture of the other one.  Guess I never posted it....I'll take some pictures in a bit and post them at the end of this post...it isn't like it's deviating from the content of the post!).  The design was just really winged on this one, I had no idea what to do.  I had the bag already cut out for something else I was going to make and just tried to come up with the design for it.  Supposed to look kinda home made (anthropologie inspired).  She likes that look

I have to say, it really was a HUGE pain in the ass to iron all those bags together, but I'm almost out of Target bags which means A)no more bags or B) I have to use other ugly bags.  Making the bag fabric for my sister was especially tough because it is just one really massive piece of 'fabric'.  Much harder than the smaller pieces.  I was happy with the way they turned out.

Oh, and here (on the left)are the pictures of that old bag I made for my mom ages ago, since I haven't posted it before.  And on the right is the bag that I linked earlier.  Just for ease of viewing.

I loved the stuff that I got!!  I was lucky and got an artist, so everything was beautiful
 

Reoccurring theme?  I chalk it up to getting burned out after nearly a semester of school and work, but I know that is just an excuse.  Anyway, the reoccurring theme being that I have books to read, homework to do, research to find, and 3 papers to write (I won't go into it again) and what do I do?

That's right.  I made a grocery/tote bag.  Did I mention what a pain in the ass these things are to make?  Ironing plastic bags together as lining just takes FOREVER.  Why do I make so many you ask?  They are just so handy.  Well, this is a Christmas present for my mom (who likes bunnies, obviously) so I kept away from writing anything terribly political/controversial on it (unlike my 'I'm mmmmelting' sad world/globe).  And I took Lady Jane's suggestion to just put the back of the bunny on it.  All cut felt, machine appliquéd, blah blah.  I added some pink to the back side of the ears after I took the closeup, but you get the idea.  One present down, a gazillion more to go.  Just one a cute little apron 'how to' from the 40's on ebay.  Sweet :)  *recites mantra: Itisagift.Itisagift.Cannotkeep.Cannotkeep.*
You'll be happy to hear I did get that jacket done that I was working on last (a while ago).  I really need to take pictures of some of the projects that I've finished, I have tons of them that I never posted.
I did other things, started some other projects, went shopping to buy more patterns and fabric for things I won't get around to, you know, the usual.  Friday-Monday I swear I'm locking myself in Starbucks and writing essays.

Happy Thanksgiving USians.

~Nikki

Well, FIRST, I got my dress form in today!!!  SO EXCITING!  Took me ages to fit it and the bloody cover was near

And!  I also finished two pieces for my waitress craft swap, the apron and the little tip book thing.  I like them.  And I have tons of fabric left over!  I may make myself an apron next ;)
I've been damn productive these past few days.

It is about shorts length (mid-thigh?) and reversible, so when one side gets dirty, you can just flip it over!  Pockets on both sides, lined with bandana/ Americana-esque fabric (which my English partner said she liked)

And the book/holder, lined with some awesome fabric (a little brighter than the photo) in colours she said she liked (great find!)
The bottom stitches look a little messy, but I had to do that part by hand :P

All that is left is the customer voodoo doll, lol.  I might make myself one of those too.



And all during this I watched the cast commentaries on Fellowship.  Really brought me back :)


~Nikki

[Edit]
And here is a pic of my stupid cat who just got herself stuck in the dress form box

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Emphasis on the above 's'.  I generally work on one thing until I finish, but due to extenuating circumstances, I find myself with a couple of projects all at once.  I'll give you all a little update :)

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Making this pattern (bottom right picture on the cover) with this crazy awesome fabric that I've been trying to figure out what to do with (bloody one-way designs).  It was turning out really well (emphasize WAS) and all the pieces are sewn together in the top, and in the skirt.  And I'm about to sew them together and figure out that the top and the bottom don't line up the way they are supposed to!  The top is bigger than the bottom, which is strange since I even made the bottom and size BIGGER.  So.  I decided to put that one aside until I get my dress form and can figure out what is wrong.

I'm also working on this bookcase that I put up last week.  It's really plain, so I'm adding some embellishments, as you can see below.  I was inspired by this thing I have hanging

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  in my room (see left).
Sewing all those things together is a pain in the ass.  Especially because pieces of each have to be hand sewn.



I'm also adding some molding to the bookcase.  I'm going to paint it some bright colours to make it look more Tibetan.  I have high hopes for this book case.  But, I'm needing some backing fabric for it, so I'm stalling on this one also.

FINALLY got the internet working!!  I'm so happy to have it back I haven't left my computer.  I was supposed to have it on Tuesday, but wouldn't you know, they installed the damn thing wrong.  Well, I have been totally bored to tears the past few days/weeks (as you can imagine) but I'm honestly not sure what I have been doing with my time.
Some crafts

Smile for the camera next time, Nik.  Sorry for the shit pictures.  Ok, so, I have to say that sewing this skirt was NOT fun, lol.  The fabric is stretchy and crinkled and impossible to work with.  But, I enjoy the finished project (and even got a chance to use that ribbon I have!).  Would you believe, that damn little skirt has nearly 5 yards of fabric in it?  MAN, took me AGES.  I still can't bring myself to hem it.  You would understand if you could see exactly how much that would entail.  But it didn't stop me from wearing it out :

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And, as you can see, I had some of the fabric left over.  Perfect fabric for the hair things I love :)  I bought a few while in China, but this is the first one I've actually made :)

I bought this awesome fabric, so I had to make something out of it.  I'm not terribly happy with this dress and may go back to try and tailor it some more.  If you would believe, I enjoyed the hassles of making that first complicated retro dress more than this easy mod dress.  Problems?  Yea.  I was using a vintage pattern, which wasn't the problem, but the problem was that I had to alter the pattern, which was about 10 sizes to big for me (not exaggerating).  I guess I just really don't know enough about patterns and sewing yet to do that terribly successfully.  And add to that, 60's-70's clothing just isn't terribly flattering on anyone.  It didn't turn out horribly per say, but I don't know if I'll wear it out.  Other than being a little ill-fitting in the front, it turned out how it was supposed to.  But...eh.  I like the 'new look' (50's) styles better.

Oh oh, and remember that bag I made a while back?  I added some designs to it :)

Give 'peas' a chance.  Heh.  With help from my sister.
I helped my sis with some crafts too.  A cute little knitted HP phoenix plush, super adorable, named Montague (Fahrenheit 451) for a craft swap she is doing.  Made some felt books for it to be protecting, a Monster book of Monsters, Book of the Dead, and a Phoenix history book.  All super cute if I may say so myself.  I'll put up some pictures when I get a chance.  I really can't explain the ridiculous cuteness of the plush.  I want one.

Anyway, I have things to do and time to waste on my day off (two in a row!  W00T!)  and a lot of catching up online since I've been without for the past few weeks.  So, I'll talk to you kids later!

~Nikki