Skirt

I feel like I talk about what I want to make, but then forget to post photos of the finished project. Part of the problem is taking good pictures, but I hope to improve at that with practice. This weekend I bought a little gorillapod tripod, and it’s great, especially since my boyfriend is not around to take photos of me wearing my creations.

I sewed up this little skirt last week from a pattern I’ve made before (I’ll add the pattern number when I’m home to look at it). It’s such a simple, easy pattern, and I wear the other skirt all the time, so I figured I was due for another. I’m also hoping that, since it has a box pleat, I’ll be able to wear it on my scooter. I discovered this weekend that pencil skirts and scooters, sadly, do not mix.

The fabric is vintage, but reminds me of a newer fabric I’ve seen around lately.

I’ve been tipped off to the fact that next time I take pictures without a flash, I need to change the camera location so that I’m not backlit.

Close-up (with flash):

I haven’t worn it out yet, but I’m happy with out it turned out–other than the fact that the lovely invisible zipper I’d installed got stuck at the top (while I was trying it on!) and I had to tear it out and replace it with a regular zipper because that was all I had. And I didn’t do that great of a job putting it in. But no one except me would notice that. Hopefully.

Haramaki!

Aren’t these bellywarmers the cutest? Pingmag, which looks like an interesting site, brought these to my attention via an article touting the function and fashion of haramaki. A while ago a friend of mine mentioned that back in the early 1990s she was fond of wearing her sister’s “unit,” which I had never heard of. She explained that it was a leftover from the fashion of the 1980s, and that it was really good for layering for warmth without the bulk of extra sleeves. Whatever you call them, now I want to make one!

It looks pretty simple, but here’s a tutorial that seems easy to follow.

Changes

My boyfriend of seven years (eight in August!) is leaving me on Friday for a video game level design job in Texas. It’s a great opportunity for him, but it means that I’ll be without my best friend for the next eight months or so. School will definitely be busy in the next several months, what with fellowship applications and the terrifying prospect of my qualifying exam this summer, but I’m afraid that I’ll turn into a lonely cat lady while he’s gone. Actually, I’m not really afraid of that–I’ve made some good friends in San Francisco who I know will help maintain my social life. But I imagine that I won’t go out as much, and so in trying to look at the bright side of the situation I’ve realized that I’ll have more time to make things. I’ve got a couple of dress patterns lined up, and I’m gestating ideas for other projects.

One of my goals this year is to craft more, and to blog the results. The problem is that my motivation comes and goes in waves–I’ll be super productive and crafty for a while, and then I won’t feel like making anything. I think that regardless of my creative motivation, I need to give myself a weekly posting quota, to help it become a habit. I’m considering a Friday or Saturday post of my inspirations for the week. I definitely bookmark and save a lot of images and ideas for future projects, so it would seem fairly easy to post them here.

Another goal for this year is to get rid of some of the extra stuff I’ve accumulated, and slow down the influx of new things. That includes craft supplies! I need to get organized, and purging will be an important part of that process.

Peacock picture and framing solutions

I bought this great vintage needlepoint piece when I was in Florida over the holidays (thrifted, of course). The only problem was that the frame it was in was damaged, so I took it, along with a couple of other things I wanted to frame, to Cheap Pete’s frame factory outlet. Were it not for Yelp, I would never have known about such a great framing shop. But I digress.

Since the piece was a non-standard size, one of the guys at the shop recommended that I buy a slightly larger frame and glue the needlepoint to a fabric-covered backing (just cardboard that came with the frame), which is exactly what I did. I happened to have blue corduroy that matched perfectly–having a large fabric stash does pay off sometimes. It was an inexpensive, fairly easy solution to an awkward framing situation, and I think it turned out quite cool.

Scarflette

I refer to this project as my collar or scarflette; my partner insists that it’s a mantle. Whatever you call it, I love how it turned out. It was a long time coming, though. I bought the yarn months and months ago after I fell in love with it online. It’s from www.studioloo.com, and cost far more than I usually spend on yarn, but I decided that I had to have it. The problem was, once it arrived I didn’t know what to do with it, other than admire its handspun/hand-dyed goodness. Plus, I was just afraid of screwing up such a loveliness, since with the flowers it didn’t seem like it would rip out well.

I don’t know what changed, but last week I just plunged in, grabbed some needles and started knitting without a pattern. I made it up as I went along, in fact.

Excuse the corny bathroom picture. At least I have an excuse for the camwhore angle–I was aiming for my neck!

Close-up:

I knew from the beginning that I would need to line it, as wool on my neck drives me crazy with itchiness. So I handsewed on a liner made from fabric from one of my favorite resources, SCRAP.

If only more of my projects turned out so well. To those that don’t, I say the following:

Pillowry

Good grief. I spend way too much time just looking at the internet-offerings and not nearly enough time contributing. Because, as we all know, the internet is starting to lack in content, and my posts could make all the difference. But seriously, I have been meaning to post for forever, it’s just a matter of taking pictures of my projects, uploading them, and writing some frothy blather (what a disgusting and delightful phrase).

I’ve finished several things, including my Duro-esque dress, a reconstructed shirt, a refinished coffee table, and some throw pillows. Right now, however, I’m only prepared to show off the pillows. They were made to complement the lovely new couch that we bought recently, our very first non-thrifted, non-Ikea piece of furniture. Don’t worry thriftstores, I won’t be forsaking you anytime soon.

We bought the nubby blue silk at a local fabric warehouse, and originally intended to use a different contrasting fabric for the back, but halfway through I changed my mind and dug out this vintage upholstery fabric I’ve literally had for years. I really love how they turned out, and I’m inordinately impressed with my pillow-making skills. It was my very first time making my own bias tape and I never could’ve done it without this continuous bias tape tutorial. My Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Sewing also came in extremely handy for both cording instructions and general pillow-making tips. Oh, and also, when he wasn’t busy sleeping and making sandwiches, Steven’s help was essential for measuring and pinning.

With no further ado, my pillows!

(Psst–I also made the one in the middle, from a Thai silk panel someone once gave me. It needs some fixin’, though, as the panel wasn’t meant to hold up to anything more than ornamental use.)

Yeah, that’s a zipper-pull, but I bet you can’t see the zipper to which it is attached. Why? BECAUSE IT IS INVISIBLE, duh.

Project Progress

From the looks of this blog, you wouldn’t think that I’ve been doing much craft-wise, but I really have. The projects, which I’ll try to photograph soon:

1. Last night I finally cut out the pieces for the Duro dress I mentioned in my very first post. When I’m using one-of-a-kind vintage fabric, cutting is kind of a traumatic step for me because it’s the point of no return. I put it off until the urge to create is overwhelming, and then just dive in.

When I was cutting last night though, the foremost concern in my mind was how to stop my pesky cats from crawling all over the fabric and under the pattern. They LOVE the crinkly sound of the pattern paper and insist on playing with it, so while cutting I had to work around Delicious (smaller pest) and Adventurous (I’ve never met a ruder pest). Their only redeeming quality is their collective cuteness. And sometimes I’ll end up with a funny picture of them. (I promise that this won’t degenerate into one of those “cute pictures of my cats” blogs, though I will admit to a large weakness for cute overload)

2. I combined a thrifted red and black men’s flannel with a long-sleeved black tee to create a cute fall top. I haven’t taken pictures of it yet, though.

3. Steven and I re-finished our coffee table. A leftover from our old roommate, it was a large beat-up wooden desk from which the legs had been removed. We took off the old finish, put on a new one (white), added short silver legs, and replaced the handles on the drawers with industrial silver ones. It turned out pretty good for our first furniture project, although there are some flaws that kind of bother me. It’s a great improvement, however, and I think that it’ll look cool with the new couch and chair we purchased last weekend (our first non-Ikea or thriftstore furniture!). Stay tuned for pictures.

4. Until we get our new furniture in about six weeks, almost everything in our living room is either thrifted or left by our former roommates. This includes a large, very comfy, but atrociously ugly denim sofa (old roommates’) and a thrifted office chair. Extremely unfashionable, but then so is our budget. The only reason the office chair is still in our apartment is that it used to be Steven’s desk chair, but he replaced it for something more comfortable and upon moving it to the main room discovered that our cats love to scratch and climb all over it. We figured that this was a much better outlet for their destructive tendencies than other furniture, so we kept it, but its days are now numbered. Knowing that removing a scratching device without replacing it with an enjoyable alternative was a bad idea, we built the cats a scratching post this weekend.

We scrounged wood of the perfect dimensions from the apartment’s parking garage (free), bought some nails and 200 feet of sisal rope (~$10), and built a structure that the cats couldn’t even wait until we were finished with to begin using. It’s always nice to get such enthusiastic and unequivocal reviews.

Muffins!

Muffins are an amazing breakfast food that have been unfairly maligned. These convenient little capsules of goodness can contain the perfect fuel to start your day, but they’re usually more like cupcakes without the frosting. Bran muffins, on the other hand, are the boring, nutritious member of the muffin family that everyone knows are good for you, but most people don’t look forward to eating. This is the problem that I set out to solve with my muffin experimentation, and solve it I did, as far as I’m concerned.

I started with this recipe for “Classic Bran Muffins”, from allrecipes.com, and modified it to be both healthier and more delicious by halving the sugar and oil and adding apple and spices. I usually make a double batch of these and freeze the excess to thaw in the microwave as I want them.

Granny Smith apples are an excellent choice for these, and Trader Joe’s High Fiber Cereal is the only bran cereal I’ve used, but I suspect substitutions for other of these ingredients would be fine. I’ve also very successfully used Ener-G Egg Replacer when I didn’t have eggs, and next time I make them I may try substituting soy milk for the buttermilk to see how a vegan version would taste. Sometimes I add nutmeg, but they’re excellent without it, too.

They definitely taste better than they look!

Spicy Apple Ginger Bran Muffins

2 cups bran cereal

1 apple, grated

1 inch fresh ginger, grated (approximate)

1 cup lowfat buttermilk

2.5 tbsp vegetable oil

1 egg

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tbsp cinnamon

1/2 tbsp ground ginger

1/2 tbsp nutmeg (optional)

1-2 tbsp flax seed meal (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease muffin cups if using muffin tins, skip this step if you have silicon cups.
2. Mix together bran and buttermilk; let stand while mixing other ingredients.
3. Grate or finely chop apple and peeled ginger (a food processor works well) and stir in with the bran and buttermilk.
4. Beat together oil, egg, sugar and vanilla and add to buttermilk/bran/apple mixture. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, dry spices, flax seed meal, and salt. Stir flour mixture into buttermilk mixture, until just blended, and generously spoon batter into prepared muffin tins.
5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Do not overbake!
   

I won this pattern on ebay last week and got it yesterday. Isn’t it fabulous?

Short-sleeved view B, with that cute little peter pan collar, is calling my name, but the other two are great, as well–guess I’ll have to make them all. First to find the right fabric. I’m not sure what I want, fabric-wise. Maybe vertical stripes, like in A, or a nice matte gray silk. I’d like to use something from my stash, but I’ll have to look to see if I have anything suitable. I may have enough yardage of a lightweight navy cotton with black polkadots, but I’m not sure if that’s the look I want for this dress. Hmmmm, any suggestions? This project may require a trip to the Discount Fabrics Warehouse. Of course, I still need to make the Duro dress from my previous post, so this one will have to wait.

Tutorial Re-Run

I posted this tutorial for converting a t-shirt to a long-sleeved hooded shirt over a year ago on Craftster.org and in a livejournal community or two, but I decided to re-post it here in the hopes that someone who hasn’t seen it before might find it useful. It’s the first (and only) tutorial that I’ve made, so let me know if you have questions or suggestions.
The original inspiration for this project came from a boys Cub Scout t-shirt and some thriftstore fabric that I’d had laying around for awhile. The fact that the colors and themes perfectly coordinate (the fabric says “hold that tiger”) meant that I had to put the two together somehow, and this is what I came up with.

1. Start with a well-fitting t-shirt (or start with one that is too big and re-size it, but that’s been covered in many other tutorials), a couple of yards of t-shirt/knit fabric, and a separating zipper long enough for the front of your shirt. Alternatively, you could use a long-sleeved t-shirt for the extra fabric. If you have one, it also helps to have a pre-made hoodie on hand to use to make your patterns for the sleeves and hood.

2. Using a seam ripper, carefully remove the sleeves from your t-shirt.

3. Lay your already-existing sleeves flat on a piece of newspaper or pattern paper and trace around them to make your sleeve patterns. Make sure that the sleeve opening size of your pattern is the same as the sleeve opening size of the t-shirt from which you just removed the sleeves. Don’t forget to add 5/8″ on each side for the seam allowances!
*Note: I got all fancy and added ribbed cuffs to the bottom of my sleeves, so I made the sleeves shorter than I otherwise would’ve and didn’t hem the ends. If you’re not adding ribbed cuffs be sure to make your sleeves long enough and hem the ends before you sew them into a tube. If you do want to add ribbed cuffs, this link is very helpful*

4. Lay your sleeve pattern flat on a folded piece of fabric and cut out your sleeves. Mine ended up looking like this:

5. Fold each sleeve in half lengthwise and sew up the arm seam, creating a tube. Then pin your sleeve tubes to the t-shirt’s sleeve openings, right sides together, and sew.

You could stop here and have a long-sleeved tee, but continue on to add a zipper and a hood.

6. Take a ruler and measuring tape and chalk and mark halfway down the middle of your shirt, then cut up that line on the front side only.

7. Put in your zipper. I am not going to give instructions on this because I proved myself completely incompetent at installing a separating zipper, even though I’ve put in many zippers before.

8. My hood is lined so that you can’t see the wrong side of the fabric at all, because I think it looks nicer this way. To make a lined/reversible hood, take your already-existing hoodie and lay it flat and trace around it to create a pattern, or just enlarge and use mine:

9. You’re going to need to cut out 4 pieces of fabric from the pattern you just created above. On your folded fabric, cut this piece out twice.

10. Sew along the top and back edge of each pair of hood pieces, creating two hoods.
Wrong side:

Right side:

11. This may be a bit confusing, but I’m trying to make it as clear as possible, so bear with me. Right sides together, place one hood inside the other and sew along the front edge, like so:

It should look like this after you turn it rightside out:

12. If you want to have a drawstring in your hood, add buttonholes or grommets on the sides of the top hood fabric layer before you continue with this next step, and when you stitch the next seam, start about an inch from the front to leave room for channel for the drawstring. Add an additional seam around the front of the hood to create the drawstring channel, and thread your string through the holes.

Now take the hood, and from the outside, topstitch in the top seam from front to back, as represented by the black line. This is just to hold the two layers together.

13. Finally, take your hood and sew it to the collar of your shirt. You may want to remove the shirt’s already-existing ribbed collar, if it has one, before you attach the hood, but I didn’t.
Yes, I accidentally sewed over the tag so it was all askew, but I took out the stitches and fixed it before proceeding.

*To finish, I ironed the preceeding seam towards the bottom of the shirt, and then from the right side, I stitched in the ditch of the ribbed collar-to-shirt seam to hold down the seam I’d just made.*

14. Admire your creation, and try it on in order to show it off for the admiration of your friends, family, acquaintances, cats, random strangers, etc.