Lasso The Moon

Happy Halloween!

11 am
Finished the blue part of Emma's costume.  Here's the dry run... I think she'll like it, but you never know.  We watched the movie together, and she loved it.  A girl after my own heart.

12 pm
Working on my ears.  I wanted to sew them to the frames, but I don't have the time.  So I'm hot gluing everything.

1 pm
Ears Done!  I cut some slits in the hat and hot-glued (again) the ears onto it. 

I should have smiled.  Oops.

1:30pm
Emma was looking a little like Holly Hobby, so I added some detail to the apron.  Much better.

5:30 pm

Final results!

We were a hit, and we are so tired!  The kids went to bed without even a whine.  Good night!  Happy Halloween!

Halloween Costume Progress Log

I'm going to do a step-by-step log of how the progress on the costumes is going.  I'm running low on time, since Halloween is TOMORROW!  So, it should be fun to see how things pan out.

12 am
Gathered supplies to make some top hats.  Donnie, Ethan, and I each need one as the members of the Mad Hatter's Teas Party.  I'm going as the March Hare, Donnie is the Hatter, and Ethan is the Door Mouse. 
1 am
Finished building the hat forms out of the cardboard, and covered them with felt.  Everything was hot-glued together.  I wish I had more time to work in these, because I know they would look better if things were stitched together.
I'm going to add to them in the morning.  It's bedtime for me!

2 pm
Just got around to trimming the hats.  I like the way the ribbon looks, but the hot glue is so messy!  I'm definitely more of a needle-and-thread kinda girl.  I just love the little one!  Can't wait to see how it looks on the baby.

7 pm

One costume finished! This is a little costume trick that I love.  Babies like to be comfortable, so I like to just sew ears and a tail to a hooded sweat suit.  This one has a tiny top hat on top, too.

 

The ears are layers of felt that I sewed together.  Everything was hand-sewn to the outfit, so it will be easy to take apart and use the suit again.

9pm

Didn't get much more interesting stuff done.  Nothing really photo-worthy.  I did cut out the fabric for Emma's dress and apron.  And I bent the wires for my ears.

How Bazaar...

Back from the bazaar I went to this weekend.  Still recovering a little, as well as working on the costumes for Wednesday!  The show was fun and we made a little money.  But there are lots of things left to add to the shop.  I'll probably do that in the next couple days. 

These are some needle felted ornaments that I managed to squeeze out before the show.  They are made from wool fiber (with a styrofoam core)  and decorated with some of my handspun yarn.  Needle felting is new to me and I think I'll be doing a lot more in the future.

I love wool!

Eight More Days

The bazaar is getting close, so I am really keeping my nose to the grindstone.  Here is a set of journals that I just finished.

The corduroy on the binding was pretty tricky, because there was a little stretch in the fabric, but the zigzag stitch did the trick, with minimum worry. 

I stitched a little bookplate to the front of each, but it wasn't very secure, so I added the tiniest bit of glue around the edges.  The label is removable.

Each journal has a ribbon bookmark.  I used composition notebooks for these, because I want them to be easily replaceable.  That way you don't have to worry about messing it up.  That's my big problem with pretty journals.  They are being added to my etsy shop tonight.

Nine Days to Go

I love linen, and have been slowly accumulating a small stash of linen garments to re-purpose into other things.  Today, it was little zip pouches, made from a pair of linen pants.

It has been quite some time since I sat down with an embroidery hoop.  It is one of my favorite things about sewing.  When I was in high-school I apprenticed with a fashion designer in Dallas.   She asked me what was my favorite part of sewing, and I told her handwork.  She told me I was crazy, and then set me to work sewing 18 satin buttons on each of 7 bridesmaids dresses she was making.  Thanks.

Even that didn't turn me away, though.  There is just so much control over such a slow-moving craft.

I was able to make 5 pouches, lined with fabric from a vintage pillowcase.  And I only used half of one leg!  I didn't want to use ribbon for the "key loop" so I used little pieces of the drawstring from the pants.  It worked perfectly.

I put them in the shop for safe keeping until the bazaar.

Screen Print-Back to the drawing board

Darn.  Overexposing the screen was more damaging than I realized.  I applied the emulsion remover twice to get out the stencil, but the center would not come out.  So I'm going to have to buy a whole new screen to keep trying.  ($20!)  But, once again, I decided to print what I had.  This time, I taped off the parts that washed out, and the center of the screen was successful.
I am going to try this again, but I have other things to deal with right now.  I have just signed up for a craft fair on the 27th, and I have to get crafting so I have something to sell.  Really excited about this.  And also really nervous.   I've already lost 2 nights' sleep to planning, so it would be helpful to be able to cross a few products of the list.  I'll post them as I make them.

Screen Print-uh oh.

After you expose the screen, the next step is to wash out the stencil.  What I didn't realize is that the emulsion can harden even with heat, and no light.  Apparently my lamp was either too close to the screen, or I left it for too long, because the screen got over-exposed, and certain areas would not wash out.  But, just for fun I decided to try printing with what I had.

I guess the center was where most of the light went, so it go extra hot there.  But how cool is it to print something that you just drew up on a whim, and see it on fabric the next day?  This has made me want to go forward and try again.  I'm going to reclaim my screen with the emulsion remover that came with the kit, and try again--maybe with a different method.

Screen Print-test

Around my birthday last year, I decided to invest in a small screen printing kit that I saw at Hobby Lobby.  It's made by speedball, and I had seen somewhere that it would probably be possible to practice on such a kit with a relatively small dollar amount.  Sounds good, right?  Well, right after I bought the kit, I saw somewhere else that it was way too hard, and decided to put the kit away for a while until I got the courage to move forward.  Hmm.  Well, the courage came last week, when I stumbled upon this flickr pool of screen printers, several of which do the printing and the burning right in their own homes, using a similar setup as me.

So, I have decided to embark on this little experiment, and I'm going to document the results here on my blog.  Here goes nothin!

This is the screen, prepared with the photo emulsion, and now it is developing the stencil.  The basic idea is that the light makes the photo emulsion really hard, except where the light can't get to it--the drawing (which I had printed onto a transparency.)  I love this drawing.  Fun little scrolly flowers and weeds.  I really hope this works out.  I've already been dreaming of making tea towels for gifts...  Daydreams are so pivotal to the crafter's drive.  Sometimes they keep me up all night.

Jungle Boy

I have been a little out-of-pocket lately, because I was working on a custom outfit for a friend for her son's 3rd birthday.  It was a little harder than usual, because I just couldn't wrap my brain around the jungle theme.  But I really like what I finally came up with, and I think she does, too. 
I wish the pictures were a little better, but it's been a little rainy around here.  (Not complaining, though--we needed it!)

She is also pregnant, and due next week, so I made up some little shirts for the babe and his big brother.  Shirts from Old Navy.

I'm only making kids' clothing on a custom basis right now, and I'm loving that.  It's cutting down on the stress factor a lot.  Now I have time to make things I want to make. But more on that tomorrow...