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June 22, 2004
Ultrasuede flower
Yes, I know these are horribly trendy now, but I need something to spruce up the outfit I'm wearing to a wedding this weekend. It matches the flowers on my skirt. In fact, I traced the flowers to make a pattern and then modified it a little bit. It's three layers of ultrasuede sewed together with a safety pin on the back. The bits in the center are French knots in brown embroidery thread.
Posted under Sewing/Fabric Crafts at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2004
Smacky - now with photo
I should note that my cat does play with one toy I made him. My sister gave me this funny little purple bunny for Christmas. I used a seamripper to open up a seam running down his back, pulled out a bunch of his stuffing, and filled him with catnip. I sewed him up again and tossed him to the cat. The cat loves him, and we've named him Smacky after Bucky's little bear in Get Fuzzy. He's very cute playing with Smacky. Even though he's really trying to eviscerate him to get to the catnip, it looks like he's hugging him. Here's an action shot:
Posted under Toys (cat and kid) at 12:01 AM | Comments (1)
June 17, 2004
Cozies
Ironic cozies seem to be all the rage in the crafting world lately. Cell phone cozies, iPod cozies, etc. etc. Cozy of the Week is going to document the trend. Their first one is a tree cozy. Found via Dioramarama.Posted under Crafty Links at 10:51 PM | Comments (1)
June 12, 2004
felt ball
Eventually I will advance to Supermaggie-esque flowers and scarves, but tonight I just tried out a plain wet-felted ball. My cat's acting really weird, so I thought maybe he'd play with it or something. My cat's very picky about toys (see previous wonton failure), but the glowing recommendation on Rosemary Brock's instructions page convinced me to try it. I used a handful of pink fiber from my Earthsong Fibers Plant Dyed Fleece-N-Felt kit. Basically, I wadded it all up and then dunked it in soapy water, alternating hot and cold, for a while, squeezing it and rolling it around. It started hardening up after maybe 5 minutes or so. Once it seemed like it wasn't shrinking any more, I rinsed it in cold water and stuck it in the drier for 15 minutes. It made an OK ball, which my cat is studiously ignoring. I learned that the plant dyes are not colorfast. It's more like a pale pink now instead of the bright pink it started out as. Also, the wool wasn't evenly carded. A few strands of it were all matted together, and those bits didn't felt so well. I don't think I'll try felting this wool again.Posted under Felting at 11:56 PM | Comments (0)
sewing tip number 1
Note to self: the reason your thread keeps getting all tangled in the guts of the machine is that you forget to raise the uptake thingy all the way before stopping.Posted under Sewing/Fabric Crafts at 10:38 PM | Comments (0)
June 06, 2004
Ikea fabric
We've been going to the Ikea in Elizabeth, so for a change of pace we tried the Conshohocken one. It has fabric, which makes it my new favorite. We were looking for curtains, but couldn't bring ourselves to buy $90 worth for one room. Turns out they sell the exact same fabric for $5.50 a yard, 60 inches wide. The yardage was half the price of the curtains, so I'm going to try to make some. They hopefully won't be too hard. I think I just need to cut and hem. I'm going to stick with a sleeve for the curtain rod instead of something more complicated. I'll post the results.Posted under Wants at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)
June 04, 2004
Treelets
I just got the Treelets book from Blissen by the amazing Jill Bliss and Shinpei Tanaka. I love all of her designs, and since the poppies poster was sold out, I went for the Treelets book. It's pretty cute. Neat illustrations, and it came autographed and with a little note! I want to go see her show in Brooklyn while I'm in NYC for the Jenny Hart exhibit.Posted under Crafty Book/TV Review at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2004
Exploring Cross-Stitch
My favorite cross stitch book ever is Exploring Cross-Stitch by Audrey Ormrod. It's out of print, but I've been lucky that the last two libraries I've lived near have had it. It's got a lot of really neat ways to use cross stitch outside of the standard evenweave, everything squared method. She has some particularly neat landscapes I'd like to try. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like she's ever published again.
Posted under Crafty Book/TV Review at 06:41 PM | Comments (3)