July 2012: Steampunk Earrings & Other Things

It's been awhile since I posted. I've been having allergic reactions for a month straight and spent 3 weeks on steroids, and I'm on a special allergy elimination diet right now- none of which is fun- but I'm starting to balance out and that means I can focus on other things- like being creative. One of my recent projects has been playing with gears for steampunk earrings and I think they're pretty darn cute!

This pair is my favorite

This was my first pair. I'm not sure how I feel about the jump rings

This pair is really fun and I loved the addition of color, but they're a little long for my own tastes- will probably end up on etsy.

I also helped my sister with a bunch of green-tone organza flowers for her wedding. They're really easy, you just cut out circles, melt the edges with a lighter or candle and pile them together.

I made this white/ivory one just so I could put a picture on the blog. The green ones are cuter.

 I also made my first romper. Rompers aren't necessarily the best silhouette for my body type, but they're so comfy and convenient in the summer. I bought this orange fabric ages ago and it came out really cute.

I also got an early birthday present that I am SO PSYCHED about- a dress form! I already had a dress form, but it's adjustable which makes it really difficult to pin and even at its smallest settings, it doesn't get down to my size or proportions. My new dress form IS my size and proportion and I'm pretty excited about that. I think I'm going to name it Penelope.

Multiwear Dress

For my sister's wedding, she made all of her bridesmaids champagne multiwear dresses as their dress. With summer here, and them being so easy to make, i popped out a few. I made a pink, a red, and a green.




Basically, you cut a hole in the middle of a square or circle of knit fabric and sew two 8-10" wide "straps" (~45-60" long rectangular panels) to it, adding a facing (a 2" wide rectangular tube the size of your waist) if you don't want the raw edge to show in the back. A small 1"-2" overlap of the panels in the center (where your boobs will be) is convenient.

Tips & Tricks

-This dress works better with lightweight super stretchy knits that have lots of give.

-Fabric comes folded in half lengthwise on the bolt. To find a square, fold it in half crosswise and then fold it at a diagonal. If the raw edges all line up with each other, it's a square. To make it a circle, measure the straight folded side (it usually comes out to be ~24") and mark the circle at intervals of 24" from the point with pins and cut. Leave it folded and cut the waist hole. For my 26" waist, the radius of the waist hole is ~2.5". Knits stretch so it doesn't have to be horribly accurate.

-Knits stretch. To keep the waist snugly fit, i stitched a piece of elastic to the length of the facing.

Spring!

Blogger temporarily made the blog incompatible with internet explorer so i haven't posted in awhile.

My little sister got married!!! I made her a dress, which ended up not being quite what she wanted, (too many ruffles), but thought I'd share on here anyway to show some of what I've been doing with my time:

I also recovered my couch cushions, as after 3 years, the vinyl was cracking. It was really difficult to do since the back cushions are actually all sewn into a panel and mounted into the frame so i kind of had to take the couch apart. I'm really happy with the fabric choice/pattern.

Also, about a month ago, I finally figured out the look for our bedroom:

The support beams in the middle of our room can't come out, so figuring out how to incorporate them took some thought. I filled them with vases of twigs and lights which is soooooo much cuter than the curtains i had up before.

In other news...I've been doing a lot of gardening, and I made my first crepe cake this week. yum!

A Windchime

So I spent an hour cutting out copper buttterflies one night. I spent time stringing them together and making a windchime. I'm so proud of it!

Fairy Wings Tutorial

Supplies:
-12g-14g wire. preferrably galvanized steel, but some aluminum ones will work too



Assuming you read this blog on a regular basis, you'll remember that i had a problem on my first pair of wings with the aluminum wire being too soft. I made the second pair of wings out of a different brand of aluminum wire (pictured) which is harder and holds its shape better than the other brand i had.

 -Fabric (for the purpose of this tutorial, i use sheer woven synthetics)
-Tacky Glue
-A Lighter (preferrably the kind you use for candles, not the kind that burn your fingers if you hold them too long)
-Glitter paint

How to:

Step 1- Choose your design. It helps to make a paper or cardboard pattern

This is a pattern for some kid's wings

Step 2- Form your wire frames for each wing segment

Step 3-coat both sides of the wire frames in tacky glue

Step 4- Lay the glue covered frame on fabric, and fold it over so it's sandwiched and sticking

Step 5- Cut out the wing segments

Step 6- Use a lighter to melt the extra fabric around the frame

Step 7-Paint glittery patterns and melt any holes you'd like to add.

My holes aren't great on the purple set because i used a high-powered grill lighter and it wasn't cooperating. You may want to use a match for the internal holes. It helps to cut them out, stick the lighter up through and then carefully melt.

Step 8-Attach tops to bottoms and then the two halves. I like clear electrical tape for this


In this picture, I had the bottom halves upside down. Whoops!

Step 9- Add a sturdy u-shape loop of wire to the center joint and wrap sharp edges with electrical tape(like the white wings at the top of the page). This will keep the wings from flopping if you want straps, and add something to shove down the back of a corset if you don't want straps.

Step 10- Wrap the center joint with ribbon, or conceal by gluing flowers. Position wings. Add ribbon straps if desired.

Cascarones (confetti eggs) Tutorial

In the clearance section after Halloween 2010 I found cartons of halloween painted eggs filled with confetti for throwing and I loved them. There is no better way to egg a house (My guests and I egged my own house at my Halloween party). I've never seen the eggs for sale before, but they're so much fun that I've made them several times for fun (I crunched one over a friend's head at his going away party). Each egg holds 1-2 tablespoons of confetti and is great for exploding on awnings, headsmashing, or crunching down the collar of a shirt.

You need:

•  eggs
• glue (i like mod podge for this)
•  tissue paper
• confetti (i like the cheap foil kind they sell at party city)
• A sharp knife (i like a pointy little paring knife)
• A paint brush





Step 1: Dye your eggs





Step 2: Stab into the bottom of your egg and make a quarter sized hole in the shell



Step 3: Dump out the inside of the egg (yum breakfast) and rinse the inside. Leave the eggs hole-side-down to dry overnight



Step 4: Fill with confetti (This process is messy)

 

Step 5: Paint glue around the edges of the hole. At a square of tissue paper and paint the edge down with glue to seal the confetti inside

 Step 6: Have an egg fight!!!

Logos and re-design

The look for my logo keeps changing and evolving, and while I love the steampunk flair you see in the banner, it doesn't translate as well to logos and labeling, so I changed it up a bit!

I'm really quite proud of it and bought stickers to label stuff with, use it as my avatar on webpages, and used it to customize some magnets (which fyi I've been throwing in as a freebie with every order) What do you think? Is it me?