1.12.14 Scott Pilgrim WIP

Well, hello 2014!

This is taking longer than expected, I suppose. 

In any case, I finished the Demon Hipster Chick I was working on last time, and have moved on to yet another one. I will have my revenge on Matthew Patel for this. 

It's always top down, so you can see just the start of the new DHC's hair to the left of the finished DHC. 

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!