A New Bear

Ever since I watched Cardcaptors as a kid, I've always liked the idea of making a teddy bear for someone; that someone hasn't come along yet but the urge to make a bear hasn't left me. My sister even brought back a kit from Korea as a souvenir for me, knowing I would love it because of our mutual love of Cardcaptors and Sakura made her first bear from a kit too. The kit I'm working from comes from iMinky.

The instructions of the kit were written in Korean so I pretty much made educated guesses throughout the project. The fabric easily frayed so I attached some fusible interfacing to the fabric which helped a little bit. The kit comes with enough fabric for the project and some extra in case you need to remake a limb or something. There was also an excess of stuffing. I can probably make one or two more bears of the same size with the left overs. I did run out of thread fairly quickly but I have enough white thread lying around so no harm, no foul.

I would have liked to be able to try to make some crown joints for this bear but I couldn't find one at my local Lowe's store. So I gave him as much pose-ability as I could by sewing some thread through both legs and body at one time(I did the same for the arms). The buttons I sewed on after and just to the outer side of the limb. I think if I keep from twisting his legs too much he'll be fine.

Because of the size I thought hand sewing might be easier than using my machine. It was fun but hand-sewing isn't really my specialty but if you look at the seams closely you can definitely see the improvement, though I'm afraid my stitching wouldn't be considered very womanlike. The bear itself is small, measuring only about 6" when standing. Smaller than my traveling bear, he might even be more convenient to travel with than Teddy because he comes with a keychain attachment. But Teddy is mine and I'm his.

I've decided to name him Eriol in honor of the Cardcaptors series. I tied a ribbon around his neck today, so... Happy Birthday, little guy!

Color Me Mine

My friend and I have started meeting every Tuesday just to talk and catch each other up on our lives. This time, however, we planned to to to Color Me Mine (my first time) just to do something creative but it ended up being a celebration for me because the day before I had been offered a job. So I splurged and made a mask to go with my collection on my wall. I was originally going to make  a tea cup and coaster (or something else useful) but they didn't have any teacups and I didn't really like any of the cups and mugs they did have. Although, I almost made one of those teapot and cup for one. The only problem was I just wanted a plain one that I could customize; the only one they had already had a design.

I think it came out alright, not great but not disappointing either. I tried to give him an aged look but I don't think it worked out as well as I would have liked. Anyway, I look forward to going to Color Me Mine again sometime.

The 2012 Renaissance Pleasure Faire

Usually when I go the faire, I just go to see the shows (like Moonie and Broon), enjoy the atmosphere, and shop around but when I travel I like to get functional objects or at least learn something as my souvenir. So the Queen's College seemed like the logical place to try this year. The first few times I've attended the faire I thought the college activities were for kids but I decided to go anyway and I was pleasantly surprised to see that although there were kids the majority of students were probably teenagers and older. 

Here are the things I made at the Queen's College this year:

Leather Barrette

Leather Barrette (4/29/12): When I was making it and even when it was done, I wasn't sure if I would really like the end results. In the end, though, I really like it and can't wait to make another one next year. Next time, though, I want to use more of the stamps instead of the stencils. I enjoyed working leather more than I thought I would and have been toying with the idea of buying some leather working tools. For now though I'm happy with just visiting year after year. I just wish I had gone a little easier on the brown.

Easy Peasant Doll

Peasant Doll  (4/29/12): This came out cuter than I thought it would. I have named her Amelia. My only problem is that she needs a friend so I'm planning on making another one on my next visit. I'm also not a big fan of the raw edges on the fabric. I might take her apart and hem the edges before she starts fraying too badly.

Blackwork Bookmark

Blackwork Bookmark (5/20/12): I've fallen in love with blackwork for the sheer fact that it is identical on both sides of the fabric. It's beautiful and simple and I can't wait to use it on more functional items. It also has the added bonus that I have all the materials I need, so there is no start-up cost for me. It also reminds me of those dotted brain teasers. I see a sampler in my future. 

Next year:

• I want to make a Swedish belt for both Ren Faire use and if it fits, my archery quiver. 
• Play with the leather some more (maybe make a reversible gauntlet to use as my archery arm guard)
• and another doll because I think Amelia is a little lonely. Although, she is really easy to make, maybe once I have more scraps of fabric lying around I can make her some friends. I could also take the Fancy Peasant doll so I can learn how they make the hair and other accessories I saw them have.

A Peasant Costume for the Renaissance Faire

Simplicity pattern 3809 has the honor of being my first sewing project with a machine. I have also never worked with a pattern so it was learning time pretty much the whole time. I started this project in early March and hoped to finish it before the Ren Faire in April. The skirt is from costume A while the bodice and top are from costume B. 

The skirt is made from cotton and was fairly easy to make and took about a week to make. The first thing I did was hack off about 5 inches from the bottom of the pattern. After that it was fairly smooth sailing. I had the most trouble with the hemming; when I'm wearing it it's slightly shorter in the back than the front even though laid out flat it's even. I really wanted to learn to hem with my machine but I couldn't get the fabric to sit right under the foot and kept messing up. I have a feeling a hemming foot would be really useful. I ended up ripping the hemming back twice before going back to hemming by hand. Maybe next year I'll make an over-skirt to this costume (I'm thinking blue).

Some things I would change about the skirt:

• Make it fuller 
• Make it more historically accurate (the pattern uses a zipper). Maybe turn it into a drawstring skirt
• Make the skirt bottom straight to make hemming easier.
• Hem skirt more (I kept tripping on it on my first outing)

I decided to go with the shorter sleeve blouse from costume B and made it out of cotton muslin because I have yet to go to the fair when it wasn't hot. It took me a little time to understand the blouse but in the end I figured it out. I also decided to make my own 0.5 inch bias tape because I wanted the edges to match the blouse. I'm pretty sure I'm doing it wrong and the sleeves don't look pretty but it will be at the gathered edge so I'm hoping that it will cover the mistakes up. The top of the blouse went a lot better when I switched to 1 inch bias tape instead. I think my main problem was the size of the bias tape, other than that making the blouse was fairly straight forward and only took me a week to make, less if you just count the days I actually worked on it.

Some things I would change about the blouse:

• Make the blouse body longer 
• Shorten the neck elastic (it's just a little to big when resting on the shoulders)
• I might try longer sleeves next time
• Maybe make them less poofy

Finally, the bodice is made from suede with interfacing and a cotton lining. I would have liked to make the bodice with spring steel boning but Jo-Ann's doesn't carry it, so I had to use the plastic boning instead. I made a muslin prototype with the original pattern first but it came out too small despite the measurements stated on the back (I used the biggest size). Although, it shouldn't have been surprising that the bodice wouldn't fit the way I wanted to after looking at the picture on the envelope. The bodice sides are at least 2 inches apart.

Instead, I used the information on this Ren Faire site* to help me construct a new pattern. While I like the construction of the simplicity pattern better, I didn't really know how to adapt all the pieces to the size I needed so I went with that site's instructions. I made a muslin prototype of the new pattern as well and because it fit well I used that as my actual pattern on the suede, interfacing, and lining. I used two layers of interfacing of medium weight Heat and Bond fusible interfacing on the muslin lining and then sewed the boning onto that. Next I sewed the right sides of the lining and the suede together, leaving the bottom open so that I could turn it right side out. I closed the bottom with suede bias tape. Last I put in the grommets for the sides and the shoulders. All in all it took about month to finish because I kept messing up and ripping back.

Some things I would change about the bodice:

• Add peplums
• Use spring steel boning instead of the plastic ones (the plastic ones conforms to the shape of the body)
• Cut longer ribbons for the shoulder strap (I only used about 1 ft./arm) 

 

And to top it all off, a snood. For a more detailed look, see my ravelry project page. I adapted it from the Snood Deux, a pattern I found through Ravelry. I originally made it just to go with this costume but I liked it so much that I think I'll be wearing for other days too. I also made the purse a couple of months ago for my costume but I think I might go with a basket next year.

Next year, I'd like to make a gypsy costume using the simplicity pattern 5359 but I have also been commissioned by my family to make some clothing and costumes for them.










* Also has a lot of good info for the other pieces of the costume. Next time, I might just modify 3809 with the patterns on this site.

My very own Jewelry

I thought it would be nice to log a couple of my jewelry creations for myself. I've been customizing and changing my jewelry for a while now but only recently started making my own jewelry. Mainly because of my lack of beads; I have some but not nearly enough for me to make the pieces I would like. To date, I have made two pairs of earrings and a necklace, all of which are pretty simple. Here are some pictures in order of most recently made:

Bunches of Grapes (made 3/24/12)

I made these with leftover beads from a previous beading project. I want to make a couple more of these but I need to get the  beads.

The next two pieces I put together from the lonely pieces in the clearance aisle of Michaels.

Phoenix Necklace (2/12)

Bauble Earrings (end of 2011)

I'm looking forward to make many more creations but for now I'm happy slowly collecting the supplies and tools I need. I'll post more pictures as I make more. Until then...