12.8.13 Scott Pilgrim WIP

So, I'm really bad at updating. 

In my defense, I've been busy writing about three very successful college soccer and volleyball programs over at Anonymous Eagle. That's caused me to not have a lot of time to work on my Scott Pilgrim cross stitch project. 

But, with the volleyball season ending yesterday, I have some time to work on it while watching episodes of Ring Of Honor. I see that there's been enough progress since the last update to make this worthwhile, so let's show you what's going on.

In my last update, I hadn't finished the Demon Hipster Chick's head. Now, I'm down to her skirt, and all I have left to finish up is her left leg. There's actually not that much of it visible, as Matthew Patel is right below her. With a little bit of luck, I might be able to finish her up today and move to the left for another DHC.

10.3.13 Scott Pilgrim WIP

Oh, right, this. 

So, it's been a couple of months, huh? Bad news: I haven't gotten much accomplished relative to how long it's been since the last update. Good news: I have some progress to show you!

Last time, you could only see some DHC hair. Now she's got a face and some arms! Fun, huh?

Well, time to go make this obsolete by getting back to work!

I Threw My Pie For You

Like most Netflix watchers, I obsessively ran through Orange is the New Black in a glorious binge watch over a 24-hour period. I also ordered the book the series is based on around episode 3 of my binge watch. (Spoilers: the series is way more dramatic and entertaining, but the book did spur me on to investigate what I can do for prison reform.) Needless to say, this series has permeated the day-to-day conversations of most of my friends. A largely inappropriate Twitter conversation involving @VanitySized , her Crazy Eyes like love for @Miss_Anthrope, and @DavidPLew's subsequent anguish over being assigned the role of Jason Biggs/Larry in their forbidden Sapphic love triangle resulted in this free handed embroidery.

Tiny Printable Blank Books

I needed a very, very small TARDIS-looking journal for a project I'm working on, and thought I would share how I made it, and how you can make other tiny blank books, with you.

These books are fairly to scale for a Barbie-sized doll. You can use them as doll accessories, or as gifts for a book-obsessed friend (I have many of these), or just leave them for people to find in odd places, whatever.  :)


Supplies needed:

White cardstock
Printer paper
Printer
Glue tape or glue
Marker that matches the color of the book you want to make
Ruler or straight edge
Small pointy object (I used a push-pin)
Scissors or exacto knife (a paper-cutter is handy as well, if you have one)
Print-out of book covers
Print-out of book pages


Step 1: Download the book covers and pages using the links above. Print the book covers out on cardstock, and the pages out on regular printer paper.

Step 2: Cut out your book cover along the printed edges. Cut your book pages into long, thin strips (this is where a paper-cutter is helpful to get a nice straight cut). There are two sizes of book, large and small. Choose a strip that matches the size of your book!

Step 3: Flip your book cover over and, using your small sharp object such as a pin and a ruler, score along the fold lines. You can fold without scoring, but this gives you a much cleaner edge. Fold the top and bottom tabs over first, then the side tabs. You may need to trim the sides of the tabs a bit so that they sit flat and the white doesn't show when looking at the front of the book. Once you have that folded to your satisfaction, you can put a bit of glue on the side flaps to hold them in place.

Look carefully to see the score marks on the back of the book cover.

Step 4: You should be able to see where the spine should go by looking at the flaps inside of the book.Use your straight edge to score the two lines of the spine , and fold upward. The cover of your book is almost done!

Score and fold along imaginary red lines.

Step 5: All this folding may be causing a bit of white to show through at your creases. You can color the edges and creases with a sharpie that matches your book color to disguise this. Or, leave it as-is for a weathered appearance.

Yum, marker smell!

Step 6:  Fold one of your page strips, accordion-style, to create the interior of your book. For super-straight folds, I again recommend scoring lightly before folding. Check to make sure your pages fit inside your book. If you haven't folded them PERFECTLY even, that's ok... just trim off the top and bottom of the folded pages. 

Step 7:  Run a strip of glue along the interior spine of your book cover, and the outside flaps of your pages. Carefully line up the pages inside the book cover and press in place. And there you have your teensy tiny book!

Book covers included in this tutorial:

TARDIS journal
The Neverending Story
A City With No People
The Big Peruvian Book of Small Peruvian Snakes
A diary
Mr. Bunnsy Has An Adventure
Handbook for the Recently Deceased
Pretty blank book

I most likely will make some more when I have the time. Let me know if the comments if there is anything particular you want me to do!

A whole library, right in your hand!

8.5.13 Scott Pilgrim WIP

Last week was a full project shot, so this week, we're back to a focused picture.

I finished the Demon Hipster Chick I was working on in that one, so this is the start of a new one. You can see her right hand above her head. The more I look at it, I think that the arm I stitched is actually Stacey's arm stretching down to her pocket and not the DHC's arm.

There's a lot more of this DHC visible than the first one, so the next update will probably still be on this DHC. 

Shirt Alteration Roundup

My sewing machine and I have been getting along very well lately, so I thought I'd post some recent projects all in one place.

First of all, a lot of the shirts I've altered in the past I got the instructions for in this book:

Available here, or from your local library!

 From reading this book, I've gotten a lot of great ideas, and have started applying some of them to other projects. I'm not a seamstress by any stretch, but I'm getting decent at altering clothes. I recently purchased a dress that fit perfectly except for the straps, and was able to fix those properly instead of doing the old safety-pin trick. I was able to take in two tank tops that were too big for me this summer super-easily. And last weekend I was able to fix a shirt with gaping armholes so that the whole world doesn't have to see my bra when I wear it. I totally give this book credit for starting me on the sewing path, and giving me the confidence to try these things.

The day is saved! For cheap!

 I found this PPG shirt at Kmart for less than $7. I liked it, but it was a bit snug and I wanted to make it a tank, anyway. So I cut off the sleeves and used the material from them to make side panels. I really liked the way it turned out.

 

Please to ignore filthy bathroom.

I wanted to see if I could make a halter-top out of a t shirt, and I had a Rita's shirt that I'd gotten at a thrift shop for a buck that I thought would be great to practice on. There are a few construction issues that I need to fix, but it's wearable. I want to get a little plastic cherry button to sew right at the gather for a little extra something. I bet it will end up costing more than the shirt, though. 

I just got the vintage necklace and loved how it looked with the shirt.

Lastly, this project is the brainchild of my friend Cathy, who makes literally award-winning costumes and also beautiful jewelry which you can learn about here. She told me how these $60 Princess Leia hoodies were on clearance at Hot Topic for, I think, about $8.

Now, when these came out, everyone agreed that they were adorable and clever, but apparently fewer people actually wanted to wear a hoodie with stuffed cinnamon rolls on it, hence the clearancing at HT.  Cathy's BRILLIANT idea was to detach the hood from the jacket, leaving her with a cute, totally wearable item. Like so.

Pink shoelace here because I didn't have any other color at the time.

I was also able to make the hood part into a little hat, so that the pieces can be worn together or separately.

A sewing machine makes projects like the above go much faster, but they all could have been hand-stitched if necessary. It's easy enough to tweak items that aren't quite what you want them to be. It just takes a know-how, and a  little imagination!

7.28.13 Scott Pilgrim Full Project Update

Ok, so it's been five months since I did one of these. I blame basketball.

Anyway. 

Back in February, I was still working on. Envy. Since then, I've finished her off, added Stacey Pilgrim and Lynette Guycott, a pig and a duck, and started on one of Matthew Patel's Demon Hipster Chicks. I figured once I got her neckline on her tank top done, it would be a good spot to stop for an update. 

7.19.13 Scott Pilgrim WIP

Well.

Over a month between updates. Terribly sorry about that, but once Stacey was finished, it took a while to get anything worth looking at on one of Matthew Patel's Demon Hipster Chicks. 

Now you can see most of her hair and most of her eyes as well, so you can actually tell what you're looking at. This particular DHC is cut off from view at mid-torso, so it shouldn't take very long to finish her. 

6.18.13 Scott Pilgrim WIP

Two weeks ago: Stacey didn't even have a nose. 

Today: she has most of her shirt. 

Over there, just to the right of her neck, you can see where the hand of a Demon Hipster Chick will go. 

Off I go to make this picture obsolete....

"Hairy Hero" Gag Gift

The new Superman movie seems to be a bit polarizing. Before it even came out, a twitter friend (Scott Ziolko, whose tumblr is here & you should go look at it) came out strongly against it, due to the chest hair so gauchely sticking out at the top of Supes' outfit...

OH THE HUMANITY.

 Or, as Scott called it, "chest spiders".

And then this happened...

So I decided to make this.

Note the mullet on the left side, I was quite proud of that.

The Wooly Willy toys were on clearance at Micheal's for 49 cents each. I bought a few of those (in case of craft catastrophe), some stuff that cleans stickers off stuff, and some glue, and I was all set.

The artwork that I used and then horribly defaced on the smaller pictures is from this tumblr and you should probably go ahead and follow him if you aren't already. Most of the card I created from scratch in Photoshop, although I did cut and paste the two smaller images near the bottom.

I carefully pulled off the plastic part, collected the little metal shavings, and then removed all the paper residue from the plastic bit. I printed out my new art on card stock, and cut it out and glued it to the existing card. Then I just had to glue the plastic part back down. I used superglue, and that reacted VERY POORLY to the ink on my new artwork, so if I ever do this sort of project again, I will keep that in mind. I glued the bottom down first, then one side, and let that dry a bit. Then I dumped the metal bits back in, and glued down the other two sides. I did get some shavings caught in the glue, but most of the mess is actually printer ink.  Bleh.

Anyway, I'm still pretty pleased with how it turned out...

I am a PHOTOSHOP GENIUS... er... ADEQUATE USER.

 I hope Scott enjoys his new toy!

And let this be a lesson to you that if you say "somebody should make _____" within my hearing/reading, I will probably try to make it.  ;p

6.2.13 Scott Pilgrim WIP

BEHOLD!

It's Stacey Pilgrim's eyes!

I'd have more done below her eyes, but I ran out of the 437 thread. So instead, I went back up top & worked on her hair. 

Stacey's pretty small, so the next update might be of Matthew Patel's Demon Hipster Chicks. 

5.22.13 Scott Pilgrim WIP

Almost done with Lynette!

All that remains is finishing her left boot. The gap in her right boot is from the horn of one of Matthew Patel's Demon Hipster Chicks. 

I think up next will be Stacey Pilgrim. That will allow me to work on three of the DHC back to back instead of stitching two and then moving to Stacey. 

5.9.13 Scott Pilgrim WIP

Ok, so nearly two weeks between updates, huh?

Last update was of the small animals at Todd's feet, so I wanted to get a decent amount done on the next character before the next update. 

The next character is Lynette Guycott, the drummer for The Clash At Demonhead. What you can see is her head (duh), most of her right arm, and most of her right hand. Her left arm might end up going faster, since that's her bionic arm, at least in the drawing that this project is replicating. 

4.27.13 Scott Pilgrim WIP

Todd Ingram is done.

You can see his left foot in part behind Envy's boots. As was the case with Envy's boots, there's a gap in Todd's foot for Roxy's sword.

Why is there a small bird & pig by Todd's feet? The world may never know.

Next up: Lynette Guycott.

4.14.13 Scott Pilgrim WIP

Most of Todd is done.

His left foot is in shadow behind Envy, but there's not much of it, so this will be the last update focused on Todd.

Next up, you ask? Either the bird & pig at Todd's feet or Lynette Guycott. Lynette will be the next human I work on either way.

4.5.13 Scott Pilgrim WIP

Todd's arm did not take as long to sew as I expected.

I've already finished with his arm, and his hand and wrist is almost done. From there, it's just a matter of getting through the accents & shading on his clothes.

Todd's surrounded by a lot of other characters, so you're going to get to see more and more of them as I progress further.

3.25 Scott Pilgrim WIP

February 10th was the last one, huh?

Had a stretch of not getting much accomplished, but I did get Envy's leg done, so I'm all done with her. Since you can't really tell much about Todd Ingram till I get his whole head in, I figured I'd wait until I got that far.

Got a little bit into his neck, and honestly, that's mostly done now. Todd's body should go pretty quickly since it's mostly white. His arm might take a while, though.

Anyway, Todd's head:

Vanellope Von Schweetz Costume - UPDATED!

About halfway through watching Wreck-It Ralph in the theater a few months ago, I became slightly obsessed with the character of Vanellope Von Schweetz. She is adorable and sassy and I thought it would be a great costume to make, and one I wouldn't be self-conscious in. So the rest of the movie I was about three-quarters watching, and about a quarter brainstorming how to do this.

First, I looked everywhere for a teal sweatshirt and teal leggings, to no avail. I also couldn't find an appropriate brown double-ruffled skirt. So I purchased this stuff instead.

Ignore the small gray cat with lazer eyes, please.

That's a white men's sweatshirt, a brown maxi-skirt, and white leggings, all purchased online from Target. I got some teal Rit dye and colored the sweatshirt and tights. If I were to do it over, I would have added just a little bit of kelly green dye to get a more accurate color, but it worked well enough.  I purchased two sets of hot pink shoelaces to replace the hood tie and to create the stitching on the pocket. I cut the skirt to the length I wanted, and then used the fabric left over to create the two ruffles with. To make the stripes on the leggings, I hand-sewed white and purple ribbon on them. This was by far the hardest part of the costume, and the part I'm least happy with how it turned out.

Not an internal organ.

 Next, I made some hair do-hickeys. To create the licorice hair tie, I sewed pipe-cleaners diagonally into a rectangle of red cotton fabric. I think it looks a bit like a weird internal organ or something, but it works in context well enough.

The "gummi bears" were especially fun to make.

Then I made a bunch of polymer clay "candy" for her hair. I don't think I am 100% movie accurate here, but I did my best without absolutely losing my mind. (Okay, I know I lost my mind ages ago, hush.) These all got glued to either snaps or bobby pins to actually attach to my hair.

Trying as hard as possible to look animated.

And here is everything all put together. I think I will actually add a wig to this to make it a little more authentic, but otherwise, this is the end product!

UPDATE:  WIG!

 

FURTHER UPDATE:  I'm now selling sets of hair candy over on my etsy shop:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/130673309/vanellope-von-schweetz-style-hair-candy?ref=af_shop_favitem

2.10.13 Scott Pilgrim WIP

Ok, full project shot!

Last time I did one of these back in November, I was almost done with Gideon's hair.

You can see a gap in Envy's right boot because that's where Roxy's sword is. It's probably going to be like that for a while as I keep going to the left.

Next up: Envy's other leg and her right arm as well.

1.31.13 Scott Pilgrim WIP

It's been 11 days since an update, and I've finally made enough progress to share it with you.

Envy's dress is completely done, so now I have to choose between proceeding to her legs and boots or taking care of her right arm first. I'm leaning towards her legs first since I'll move on to Todd and his vegan powers after I finish with Envy, and Todd's right by Envy's arm.

This is the ninth straight regular update, so next time will be a full project shot, so get excited for that!

1.20.13 Scott Pilgrim WIP

Envy's hair is done!

I elected to stitch her face and move from left to right to make everything as simple as possible for me. From here, I move on to her dress. It's got a bit of a wild pattern to it, but there's a lot of white in it, too, so it might end up going pretty quickly.

What time is it?

Ornament time! 

I love the character designs for the Cartoon Network show Adventure Time, and some of them lend themselves well to crafts!

He's quite fancy! 

So, I made my own Peppermint Butler!


He lives in the Candy Kingdom and  "butles" for Princess Bubblegum.


I had lots of reference material to work from, most of them being black and white, but it was mostly used for the details - counting how many stripes, where his bowtie fell... 

Started with a few coats of white...

I took over the table! Made sure not to mix up my coffee and the brush water!

 Then it was onto the red and blue! 

Stripes and his little suit jacket!

Bowtie!

Adding the black outlines really made it stand out!

There's his cute little face! 

He had a home on our tree for a little while, but I didn't have the heart to pack him away. He's hanging on a hook in the bedroom right now. :) 

I have a few other characters in mind to do this with, but we'll see when I actually get around to them . :P 

1.11.13 Scott Pilgrim WIP

I used to do these things every week, didn't I?

Well, I've gotten a lot accomplished in the last week, so here's an update just seven days since the last one!

The light pink that makes up the majority of Envy's hair is finished, and I'm almost done with the right side of her hair (the left as you're looking at it). You can see where I'm not quite done with it at the bottom. You may have also noticed the white gap just left of center. That's going to be her eyebrow, and since there's some more black stitching nearby, I wanted to fill in the space in between the two parts first.

I'm trying to decide if I want to do all of her hair before I start working on her face. Part of me says work left to right, the other part says I'll hate that I put all the red shades away for such a short amount of time just to bring them back out again. We'll see what happens.

1.4.13 Scott Pilgrim WIP

The tiny orange bird next to Gideon's head is done, so I've skipped past that and moved on to Envy's hair. I waited until I finished the main section of her hair before posting an update.

From here, there's lots of accent colors and shading work going on to finish off Envy's hair. I've left more around Envy in the picture than I normally would so you can see where in the project she is.