Recent projects

My friend Chris keeps frogs, so I knit him this for his birthday. The pattern is Ribbit (Ravelry page here), which is lovely and straightforward and takes no time at all. I used DK yarn rather than aran (James C. Brett Soft and Gentle Baby DK, lovely for acrycic), which meant using smaller needles (2.75mm), which meant I couldn't fit a tennis ball inside, though I think that's an awfully cute touch. I also left out the toes for reasons I have forgotten, but I think they had to do with me being lazy.

I stuffed him using leftover yarn scraps which I've been collecting for exactly this sort of situation. It's a nice solution to my guilt over throwing out anything, ever, rather than recycling it. Jen and the rainforests, BFFs.

The weather has been hit and miss for the last... six months or so, but since today was sunny and not even blustery, I finally got around to taking up a dress I bought in the January sales, and taking webcam-quality photos.

Apparently I tilt. I was not aware of this.

This was an exciting occasion mainly because it marks my first use of the overlocking feature on my sewing machine. I think I used it incorrectly, and I also think I sewed the hem lop-sided, but you have to start somewhere.

I was glad this dress was some sort of jersey fabric, as I liked the pattern a lot, but don't like maxi dresses (I guess you get to feel like a princess, which is fine for swanning around, but what if you need to run away from wolves in that dress, and I always preferred to identify with the dashing rogue in those stories anyway), and given that I am kind of choosy about clothes (plain, but the right kind of plain) it opens my options if I can look at something and think "I wouldn't wear that, but I would wear something very similar to it."

I'm currently going through a phase of being frustrated by how much yarn I have lying around, and trying to knit it it up - to sell, for the Henry Bear Blanketeers - as quickly as I can. There are a lot of downsides here in that it's not fun knitting, and it means that although I have something on the needles all the time, I'll have a few weeks of not having anything interesting to show for it. I'm having a bit of project angst, so if I do some sewing on the side of frustration-knitting it should abate.

That said, I'm not buying any more yarn until a bag of a particular size if empty, and I was already in a state of not buying books until I've worked through the To Read pile. I'm not even sure this can be called living.

Costumery: Steampunk something!

I went to a Steampunk night in The Sugar Club on Friday! It was lots of fun, and I got to dress up, and if you ever get a chance to see anything with Foxy P. Cox in it you really should.

I didn't leave myself a whole lot of time between deciding to go and the event, I think my costume was a decent effort.

I photograph awkwardly. This was the best one.

I made the blouse + collar from this Threadbanger tutorial. It sits a bit funny because I used a men's shirt, and men's shirts for some reason don't accommodate hips, WHAT IS UP WITH THAT. The sleeves hit my arm at a funny length, but that was the longest I could cut it due to the length of the slit for the cuff to roll up. The collar was loose enough to scoot itself around my neck, too. Perhaps I should have bought a blouse, designed for people with child-bearing hips and stubby little fore-arms. I also could probably have used a few more tea-bags to stain it a slightly darker brown. Overall I'm happy though, I'm going to hang onto it for use in future costumes.

The rest of the costume doesn't have much backstory. I bought the corset in Camden Market two years ago, and borrowed the boots from my sister.

For make-up, I used the Steampunk Airship Pirate tutorial by Hollywood Noir, but chickened out of doing such a dramatic style, and didn't have the right colours for a lot of it, and ended up looking like a non-descript goth. But I think that's acceptable for the circles who'd go to a steampunk night anyway.

Not very good photos because I was running late. I am a walking planning fallacy.

I think it's a good baseline costume, I might try to build on it for Hallowe'en. Threadbanger have a tutorial for making goggles, and it's above my current ability but my goodness, this working robot arm. If nothing else, I now have a just-in-case costume other than "pirate, I guess".

"Are you intoxicated? You're being all affectionate."

I went to Electric Picnic at weekend!  Last year I got to go for free as I went with work, this year I got to go for free by volunteering.  By chance, I was working in the boutique campsite, so my wristband let me into the campsite where my work-friends were staying.  I took advantage of this after the first night, when my brother's friend crawled into our tent in wet clothes and fell asleep on my legs.  (I did manage to fall asleep, but woke up a while later because he was shivering violently, and couldn't convince him to put on dry clothes.)

I made this bag out of two t-shirts the night before I left, as my conveniently-sized one got snatched in Lima.

Confession: The 'handmade' one isn't an old, re-used one, I just saw it on sale.  But how could I not buy it to make it into a something?

I was happy enough with it for a speedy job - though the strap was a bit stretchy, which I solved by tying a knot a few inches down it - until Saturday night, when the bottom ripped and my wallet fell out.  So now it's at the back of the drawer while I sulk about that.  That will teach me to be lazy and speedy in my sewing, especially hand-sewing (though I expect my clothes to take much less strain than bags, so first time mistake etc.)  I have a pretty low opinion of whipstitch, too.

The wallet thing was also annoying as I'd planned to go to a few Greencrafts workshops on my last morning.

Happy concert things: PJ Harvey, Republic of Loose, Jazzberries (the guy playing the keyboard lives up the road from me, and he and my brother have been friends since they were teeny, but I've never heard them play before), running into people I haven't seen since the start or the Summer, the spicy veggie burgers from the big orange stand.

A incident I'm not sure how to feel about is that when I went to buy a shirt, I asked for a men's small (babydolls sit funny on me, and men's shirts are easier to made into different things, plus the material tends to be lighter) and was given a women's small.  I asked the person who gave it to me, and he said that was all they had, and sure that'd fit me better anyway. (1. Wonky proportions, no it won't, and 2. Men's Small and Women's Small aren't equivalent size-wise.)  I ended up getting it because it was the design I liked the best, but giving a guy a Women's shirt because it was the only kind left would be seen as a weird thing to do.  It's nice to have the option to buy things from either section of the shop, which isn't really available to guys, but assuming without checking that I'll take something from the section I didn't choose this time sits a little strange with me.

Reconstructed Beatles t-shirt

T-shirt is now a different t-shirt!  I'm happy with it - I like scoop-necks a lot (best neck), and the cinching at the side makes it a bit more than a plain t-shirt.  I should maybe have bought a size smaller for aesthetics (it's a men's medium), as it makes me look a bit blocky, but it is very very comfy.  The style also might be better suited to a shirt with something other than a big central logo.  Things to keep in mind next time, but I still like this one!

Related: I never understood why people say "Oh, I can't draw a straight line" when disparaging their artistic abilities.  Straight lines are hard.

Please don't judge me.

This t-shirt is It's A Cinch from

I don't like throwing things out, so it's a good book for me!

I spent today sitting in the (glorious) sunshine, knitting and reading sewing books.  It just isn't Summer until I have strangely geometric sunburn on one side of my body.  (My back was to the fence how did it even get sunburned I do not understand.)

T-shirt reconstruction

I have a box of t-shirts that don't really do their job anymore, but are made of pretty fabric that I don't want to waste. I finally got around to doing something with two last Saturday.

Original was shaped like this - I forgot to take a photo before I started.

Now it looks like this! (The colour is shown better in the other photos.)

Jaysus, the thumbnails did not show the mirror was that dirty. Bonus crafty thing: I painted those fish on when I was ten.

I don't know how to take photos over my shoulder. I like how the back looks though.

I found this tutorial ages ago and have been meaning to use it since. It is simple (to follow and to do) and cheery and has puns and is a very good starter tutorial if you're scared of the sewing machine! I was a bit careless in following it exactly - it said to cut fourteen inches up the front, and since i used a rather long top, that didn't leave much fabric at the top of the front. Happily, it said to cut sixteen inches up the back, so I used that as the front and shortened the sleeves by a few inches. Modesty prevailed, boobs lost the day. I also had to use a black t-shirt to make the panels at the side, given that I overestimated how much width the stripy top could lose and still be wearable.

First top I've made: it's a bit loose and still a teeny bit low-cut for my tastes, but I showed the sewing machine who was boss and it'll be a nice summery top.

My first skirt!

I made this skirt last summer, with help from my aunt (mostly instructions on how to use my grandmother's sewing machine). I bought the material the Christmas before because it was pretty and on sale, but it took me a while to find a pattern I liked. I used a Burda pattern (which my aunt tells me was a bit ambitious for a first project, and I don't think they'd be my first port of call again until I get a bit better), though I can't find the envelope with the number just now.

It's a bit fancy so I haven't had too many occasions to wear it, but I still like it very much!

(Pasty white legs and wifebeater. Ravishing.)

Passport Cover

I made a passport cover for my dad's birthday. Kind of. I finished it at three in the morning the day before his birthday, then realised it was too small. So my options were to stay up all night or give him that part of the present late. I opted for the latter, and then took nearly a month to get around to making it... I'm a terrible daughter. More of this was handsewn than I had intended, as it took me a while to work out the tension settings on the new sewing machine, but I got it in the end!

The outer cover is a fairly light cotton, but it's lined with curtain lining (left over from a bag I made for a friend), so that makes it a bit sturdier. The clouds and airplane are felt.

Fun fact: it is hard to make a cute cartoon airplane not look like a shark.