Happy Spring Equinox!

Happy Equinox! We had a taste of spring this week, and it inspired some warmer weather sewing. Plus, I joined a gym! So I need some workout clothes to wear. There will likely be a few workout/loungewear patterns up here in the next month or so (I hope). I had to wait until Patrick was home to get halfway decent pictures of myself, and then it snowed, so they are not so awesome sewing space pictures. I refuse to go sleeveless in the snow!

I started my first SUAT Spoxxy Top last week, using fabric that has been sitting in my stash for an embarrassingly long time. The main fabric is a cotton jersey I got from Nature's Fabrics awhile back, and the bindings are interlock from JoAnn's. I made an XL by my bust measurement, but it turned out rather big. I took it in about an inch in the shoulder before doing the bindings, so it's wearable, as a tunic like top, but I think I'll size down for the next one. I had hoped to make this a workout tank, but it's really too loose for that.

I used the scraps from my top to whip up a quick skirt for Ellie. I cut an a-line shape from the flowers, then was pleased to find that the scrap length from my binding strips was just right for a waistband and hem band. Yay for no hemming! And no extra pieces to cut for the bands, which is a pleasant coincidence. It made this come together so fast - maybe 10 minutes. This skirt should fit at least through the fall, and the knit lets it stretch and move with her. Love a quick project, and the "finished in no time" patternless skirts seem to end up her favorites. Go figure!

This skirt was really a bit of an afterthought, and she resisted my every effort to style her outfit once it was finished. Oh well, gotta love 3 year old style. Pink and green work together, right? And as a parting thought... Here are some spring flowers to share!

Two Angry Suns

February went and turned into a stream of sickness and snowstorms, massively hindering my ability to create. Honestly, I'm impressed I got my last post up at all, and I had so many plans for last month! It might not be February anymore, but I was determined to get these done anyway. The February Crafting Con theme was Mario, and while I confess I barely played any of them until I was in college, my husband is much more knowledgeable. So I consulted him and he actually came up with the design of these father and son raglans.

I'll let him tell you about what the Angry Sun actually is...

Super Mario Bros. 3, released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988, is one of the best Mario games ever made but it also had some weird stuff in it. Some of it just seemed weird to American audiences, such as the references to the tanuki, an animal that has been depicted as supernatural in Japanese folklore. Of course, you could also steal giant green shoes from goombas that are trying to squish you and hop around in them yourself and, in one of the strangest fights in the history of the series, the sun itself will try to kill you. I don't think any culture considers that normal.

The Angry Sun, as it came to be known, only appears in two Super Mario 3 levels (once in World 2, Desert Land, and once in a desert section of World 8) but it the impact it made on thousands of gamers who cried out in unison, "why is the sun trying to kill me!" was indelible. It was later clarified that this enemy is not, in fact, the sun itself and World 6 (Ice Land) is not the Mushroom Kingdom plunged into an eternal winter due to the fact that you killed the sun. Since its debut in Super Mario 3, the Angry Sun has enjoyed only the occasional cameo appearance, including two episodes of the Super Mario 3 tie-in cartoon, and the "Desert Hills" racetrack which appeared Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart Wii. Inside sources report that the Angry Sun has a history of engaging in heated contract disputes with Nintendo executives over pay, especially over possible appearances in Super Mario Galaxy, which many fans believe the Angry Sun would have been perfect for.

... Um, right. I think that's enough. (You'll have to forgive him. He writes a gaming blog). Back to the actual sewing: I made a Grand Slam (yup, another one) for Cyrus, and a Greenstyle Hudson Tee for Patrick. I shortened the sleeves on the Hudson, to make a more year round friendly shirt, and skipped the hood. The Angry Sun is shades of orange and yellow, so it's not a big leap to the orange and yellow raglan. I hoped to have a third shade for sleeve and neck bindings, in a slightly vintage ringer style. I ended up without a good coordinating shade, so I went with the yellow from the sleeves instead.

My first idea was to use the iron on transfer sheet for the sun face. Somehow I ended up messing around with the idea of appliqueing the pixels, but the more time went by, the more daunting that plan became. So iron on it is! And I'm glad I did, because it came out just like I envisioned it should. Patrick actually created the image, and I printed it on this opaque inkjet transfer paper from Dharma Trading. I'm really pleased with how these turned out, and so are the boys! Ellie is, unfortunately, less happy because she didn't get one. Oops. So we'll be adding to the Angry Sun family! I guess that means I have an excuse to buy more fabric!

And just because apparently these needed to happen. I, well... It's his shirt.

Boys Can Wear Pink Blog Tour: Pink Robots

When Kelly at Handmade Boy announced she was planning a blog tour about boys wearing pink... I admit, I hesitated. My husband is, to put it mildly, not a fan of pink, and Cyrus has voiced more than once that pink is for Ellie. It is, after all, HER favorite color. So I wasn't entirely convinced that I could come up with something pink that would make everyone happy. Initially, I declined, but then the spirit of "what the heck?" showed up and I signed on. I'm so glad I did!

Colors shouldn't have a gender distinction. I'm confident that society's gender bias of pink being "for girls" can change. After all, for much of history no such distinction was made. I never dressed Cyrus in pink. Every other color was in his wardrobe, I think, but we aren't crazy pink fans, and it isn't exactly readily available in boy's clothes. We believe in gender neutral parenting, as a rule, but didn't go out of our way to break that particular "rule". Until now!

Maybe he wasn't quite ready for this close up. ;)

Once I got Cyrus on board, which took much less coaxing than expected (and no bribery!) his design was colorblocked shades of pink. He gets pretty enthusiastic, but I wanted to tone it down and make something that might actually get worn again. I found this Little Robot fabric at Mabel Madison, which had some pink and purple within the robot print. To pull out the pinks, I used a pink Kaufman Laguna knit that I've had sitting in my stash for the last year. I made a tried and true Grand Slam Tee from Peek-a-boo Pattern Shop.

Boy and his dog.

Talking to his hand. Apparently the rest of us are just not as interesting.

Check out the pink finger puppet eyes!

Cyrus loves this shirt. I'm pretty happy, even if he only ever wears it to bed. He looks good in bright pink! Now, if only I'd had nice, sunlit weather, but for some reason he refused to go out in a snowstorm to have his photos taken. Can't imagine why! Instead, there were plenty of stir crazy indoor antics, and wearing pink didn't hinder him at all.

Literally trying to climb the walls. This is what happens when we can't go outside.

No pups were harmed in this photo.

And now, you can enter to win prizes from our awesome sponsors! You can also get 15% your purchase from Mabel Madison using the code PINKBOYS through 2/28.

The prize package includes:
One yard of Stenzo Pit Stop Poplin in pink from Mabel Madison
$25 gift certificate, plus a surprise fat quarter from Phat Quarter Shop
One yard of solid cotton/lycra & one yard of coordinating fabric from Purple Seamstress
One pattern of choice from Paisley Roots
$20 store credit from Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop
One pattern of choice from Patterns for Pirates
One pattern of choice from Mouse House Creations
Bottoms Up Pants Pattern from If Only They Would Nap
One Pattern of choice from Titchy Threads

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Doctor Who Crafting Con - The Making of the Whoodies

Today I'm a competitor over at CraftingCon for this month's theme of Doctor Who, so go check it out here! (And then go read the other competitors' posts, if you haven't already.) If you've been reading, you already know I'm a Whovian, so I jumped at the chance to sign up. Truthfully, though, I had plenty of nerves. Even though I've been sewing forever, I've never done a competition before, so I was worried about coming up with a competition worthy idea. There were a lot of ideas - I had designed outfits for Ellie based on Clara, Little Amelia, Jenny Flint, and the TARDIS, both the phone box and her incarnation as Idris. I had some trouble with most of those becoming too much cosplay, so when the idea for a weeping angel inspired hoodie hit me, I just had to run with it!

Weeping Angels move fast!

I had been wasting time browsing Pinterest, and this ladies' tee with an angel wing cut out pattern popped up. I went "hey, that's cool!" and decided it would make a perfect Weeping Angel. Only for a kid, I really didn't want to just leave it open, especially since it's January, and somewhere around freezing here. Instead, I sketched an angel wing and went with reverse applique, which I have never attempted before. I cut out the pieces for a Greenstyle Lacy n Lane, and basted a full lining piece onto the back for the applique details. After I figured out that I couldn't do the stitching on my regular machine without adding a lot of stabilizer and taking the time for a ton of practice, I sewed the wing outline by hand. That still took some trial and error. The first try I used too thick of a template piece, and a running stitch. When I tested pulling the pattern off, it pulled all of my stitches out, so I switched to using my pattern tracing paper and an embroidery backstitch. My back ached, my shoulder popped a lot on the days after I spent time on it, and my stitches weren't as straight or uniform as I would have liked thanks to all the shifting of layers, but overall I'm really pleased with the end result. And so is she! In comparison, it took me all of maybe 5 minutes to write the lettering on the cuffs with a fabric marker.

When in doubt, use the sonic to help with tricky sewing maneuvers.

Cyrus loves Doctor Who, too, so I couldn't leave him out. I ran down a list of ideas for him, too, including the 5th, 9th, 11th, and 12th Doctors, and Rory's outfit from "The Angels Take Manhattan". In fact the idea I used started as 9, but I wound up back at my favorite Doctor, 10. With some help from my husband, we tried to think of something that would be 9th doctor-ish. Some time later, we wound up at bananas, and decided that the best quote about bananas was 10 in "The Girl in the Fireplace", and it stuck. Brown and blue are sort of 10's colors, so I made a Peek-a-boo Hangout Hoodie since it has the hood trim and placket for a contrast color. The pinstripe button was in my stash, and when I came across it I thought it was a perfect way to give a nod to his pinstripe suits. For the banana applique, I actually grabbed a banana from the kitchen and used it to trace the banana shape, then sewed it on by hand. It was ridiculously faster than outlining the wings, but I don't think I've done this much hand sewing in ages. Initially I wanted to stencil the lettering on the back, but it wasn't working out right, so I used chalk to be sure of the placement, then freehand painted it on instead. This happened at the last minute, so we had to speed the drying along to get to the photo shoot!

Child labor! He actually had way more fun than I was having, and I had time to look for buttons.

 These were a whole lot of fun to design and put together, and they make my nerdy little heart sing. Clearly my kids need more clothing like this. I love making it, and they have fun wearing it, so everyone wins!

We aren't totally sure what's happening here, but the Doctor appears to be meditating with the Angel.
He's not a phantom. He's not a trickster. He's a monk.

Eye of Sauron

We love the Lord of the Rings here. It ranks high on my list of favorite books and movies, and has been a priority to share with the kids. So I was super excited when December's theme for Crafting Con was The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Patrick and I brainstormed a bit, since he's also a fan, and we came up with a few ideas to let Cyrus choose from. (Ellie hasn't actually seen the movies yet.) And, drumroll... This is the end result.

Truthfully, I don't think Cyrus remembers any of what he's seen. Patrick and I showed him the Fellowship a couple of years ago when he was the ring bearer in our friends' wedding, and was dressed as Frodo.

Gratuitous throwback photo. He was a month shy of 5 here. Where did that baby face go?

This time around though, he decided he wanted a hoodie with the Eye of Sauron. What's up with little boys and villains? I made a Greenstyle Creations Lacy N Lane, and he got his eye of Sauron. This piece actually ended up about a hundred miles from my original plan. I wanted to try Lumi Inkodye, and we came up with this design to print on the film.

Sketchy, firey eye, encircled by the ring inscription. Tell me that would not have been awesome.

I slathered dye all over the required area of the shirt, pinned the negative in place, and put it in the dying sun coming through the dining room window. Nothing. It really does require good sunlight, so I tried again the next day, using the brightest part of the afternoon on my back steps. After about three times the suggested developing time, the result was, well... Uninspiring, and very hard to see. I was incredibly disappointed. Not all of it showed up, and the words that did were all blurred together. So my other tip if you plan to try Inkodye? Don't use a finely detailed image. It will likely lead to disappointment.

It was still wet from washing out the excess dye.

In the end, I salvaged it with good old fabric paint. I was a little concerned, as I've never considered myself to be great with things like paint. It's not my greatest artistic area. However, seeing as the shirt I had put so much time into already was ruined, it couldn't end up worse. I'm so glad I did. I used Setacolor paints (I used the transparent line, which has been discontinued) and just went to town. The black center of the eye was actually first, then I layered yellow, orange, and red out from the corners to make the eye shape, finishing with a couple of smudges of black. And the end result is pretty good. The one last remaining gripe I have about the whole thing is that when I started out way back with the Inkodye, I placed the design too low, so it's across his belly instead of up toward his chest, but that's a small thing.

 

He loves it, which is really the most important thing. Though I think his favorite part of the whole thing ended up being the thumbhole cuffs, which I could have totally managed without the trials of making a fiery eye. I guess that's what you get for messing with the Dark Lord of Mordor and his eye!

Happy new year!

Happy new year! I have been out of town visiting family for the holidays, but am now home and ready to settle back into our usual routine. 2014 had ups and downs in productivity, both of crafting and blogging, but I'm relatively satisfied.

While I don't specifically make resolutions, (It's the one resolution I've ever kept!) I do have some goals for this year. Also included are some very honest pictures of what my crafting stuff looks like.

My big goal is to sew mostly from my stash this year. I'm hopeful to keep both my fabric and pattern buying to a minimum.

And that's not even all of it. I might have a problem.

It would probably be helpful to try to organize that stash so I know what I have and where it is, but I've always been terrible at that sort of thing. That should probably be a goal too!

I already have a list of projects to sew, and a few for other mediums. Since my sewing time is sometimes (often) more scarce than I'd like, I will be working on finding ways to get things done. It would be great to find some new things to do that could serve as a creative outlet, but may be easier to fit into my life as it is right now. On the list of possibilities is re-learning to knit (I may have a slight yarn stash, too.), and trying charcoal drawing.

My mom makes pretty quilts - much more impressive than the bag of yarn guarded by Batman.

As far as blogging goals, I am going to try to post more regularly, and more frequently. I'm thinking once a week is a reasonable aim, even if I don't always have a finished project to share. This will be a real challenge for me, so please bear with me as I try to find a way to stay organized and work out a posting schedule!

Loki Backpack and Scarf

It's not quite the 11th hour for holiday sewing, but we are getting close to it! Things have been so beyond crazy this month that I haven't gotten half of my to do list accomplished, but these were a must do! My vet's daughter loved the Doctor Who/Sherlock bag I made for her this summer that she commissioned more geek inspired sewing for Christmas! This time, it's Tom Hiddleston's Loki as the inspiration for a backpack. Initially I brought her a couple of sketches with ideas, one of which was based on the Stuttgart scarf, but in the end we ended up with an actual scarf, plus a drawstring backpack.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out. I found a Loki print for the backpack pocket, and a pre-printed fabric for the scarf on Spoonflower. The backpack is a black batik, lined with green Kona cotton, with gold cording for the drawstring and straps. I added fringe to the scarf fabric, and top stitched the ends closed.

Later, she also asked me to make something small for a friend of her daughter who loves Doctor Who, so I whipped up a key fob from a left over bit of the fabric from the Doctor Who pocket on the Wholock bag.

Now that these lovelies are done, I need to finish up some last minute gifts, and make some stockings for my own family. Talk about leaving things the last minute!