Larp "Armor" Panels

I mentioned recently that I had started LARPing, and one of the really fun things about that for me has been not only been the game itself, but also the different sort of crafting it has encouraged me to do.

Based on the concept I had in my head, I broke out some geometry and did some basic drafting and layout.

I did my first ever attempt at satin stitch, which I am satisfied enough with, despite it being my first time trying. This actually made a great handwork project at an outdoor event I attended that had plenty of downtime chatting.

I didn't break out the sewing machine for this project, but instead I just handstitched some coordinated double-sided bias tape.

Ta-da! "Mystic armor" panels to be attached to the rest of my costume! (Apologies for crumpled look, as these needed a quick press with an iron before use.)

Visible Mending Jeans

I have been really excited about visible mending these days, and this well loved pair of jeans has given me lots of opportunities.

What a fun way to use of some different fabric scraps and a sustainable way to extend the life of a garment!

Pennsic Planning

Recently during my radio silence, Salvbard helped me get started with some sewing for Pennsic. I really wanted to make a viking apron dress and kirtle, but some parts are much easier with help. So he helped me retake my measurements and sat with me while I figured out the math.

Once that was done we could draw the pieces on graph paper. (We use this site for the graph paper as you can customize it and then print at home.) The nice thing about doing that fir is that you can try different layouts for cutting the fabric, since it is really important not to be cutting on the bias. This also really helps my brain figure out how all the pieces work together.

I used this pattern (pdf) for the kirtle. And after looking at many different apron dress patterns, I finally decided on the one found on page 13 of this pdf. And the construction of the straps I took from discussion on this webpage about what the period treatment of this likely was.

The fabric is finishing going through the wash now, but hopefully I will be able to get started cutting out pieces soon.

Green for Irene

I love New Englanders. Saturday we did a few common sense things to make sure our yard stuff didn't wander away in the wind from Tropical Storm Irene, and then I went off to get a massage and mani pedi.


Seriously, this ended up being one of my favorite methods of storm preparation. And look my nails are green to match my latest project.

My friend Ms. Rubbyducky and I made duct tape dress forms mostly using these instructions. Then we used iv stands for dress stands, as they are inexpensive, adjustable in height (though next time I would use loctite on the threads of the adjustment mechanism) and provide an easy rolling base.

So without further a do, blog, I would like you to meet Pansy. Pansy, this is the blog. Hopefully you will be seeing more of each other in the future.

Her name is Pansy after Pansy Parkinson, as she is green on the outside but silver duct underneath. Many thanks to Cintyber who helped with the naming. Now I just need to plan some more sewing projects!

Chiquita's Arisia Costume

Chiquita has really gotten into costuming in the last few years. This year she had a really specific vision of what she wanted in her head, but I let her know that she would have to do most of the sewing if she wanted it to happen. She is up for the challenge though.

There were a lot of firsts for her. This year we learned about staystitch, ease-stitch, and fusible interfacing. (And was fairly distressed by the smell when ironed.) She installed zippers too!

Pattern: Simplicity 4246 (A & C)
Size: Child 14

Modifications:
We already had a couple yards of green stretch crushed velvet that she wanted to use, so we used that rather than a woven fabric. Also Chiquita decided that she would rather have a zipper in the back of the bodice than putting in buttons and button holes. This meant that she had to adapt the pattern slightly. And since she couldn't find a zipper the right length, she learned how to shorten a zipper and use whip stitch as a zipper stay at the bottom.

This was also Chiquita's first experience working with chiffon. After only a few minutes she announced "I hate chiffon!"Don't we all, little one, don't we all. Besides the chiffon, the stretch crushed velvet also proved quite challenging. So I am so proud of her work!

Pirate Skirt

This year I really wanted to make something to wear to Arisia. I had been thinking about different designs, but after some shopping around realized I wanted something with a handkerchief hemline. Fortunately a friend sent me a link to the instructions for a handkerchief skirt she had followed for a dance costume she made. Perfect!

So next came fabric selection. The corset I wanted to wear with this skirt has black satin panels, so in an effort to match materials I knew I waned a satin of some type, though I was worried that it would have too much drape and would just lie flat against my body. After poking around at JoAnn Fabrics though, we came across some satin taffeta.

I had never worked with it before, but it was exactly what I was looking for. It had the silky shiny-ness of satin, but with a little more body and stiffness. Perhaps even a bit too much stiffness once the turned hems were put in, but throwing the finished skirt in the washer and dryer fixed that. Plus it came in very wide bolts (58"/147cm!), which allowed for a longer skirt.

The instructions at the link above were pretty good, although after following them exactly the first time, I found I had to have both layers face up and with the top layer on the bottom rather than how it suggests. I also just used 0.75"/2cm wide elastic, mostly because I already had some in the house.

I did not use the table of circle radius to hip circumference measurements, instead opting to do my own math, but it seems to be correct. It does not account for the fact that your circle will gain about another inch/2.5 cm to the radius (and thus correspondingly more to the circumference) after making the waist band. So if you are on the fence between two measurements, you can fairly safely go down to the slightly smaller one and it should still fit over your hips.

I would remind anyone making this skirt however, that you probably want to sew the elastic into a loop so that it sits high enough. I found that I preferred to sew the elastic to a circumference just smaller than my natural waist, otherwise the elastic would stretch slightly during wear and sit just on the top of my hips.

Over all verdict, fairly simple but really cute. I think I will end up making other variations of this skirt in different materials and lengths.

Owl Wallet

I admit that I am not an amazing seamstress, but it is something that I like to pull out and play with occasionally. So recently when I found this pattern, I got super excited about making it for a friend's birthday. It has owls! See?


(Can I just say how happy finding the perfect button makes me?) And then it opens up to reveal a set of pockets to store tea bags or business cards without letting them get crushed at the bottom of your purse. I am not the only one with that problem right?

Pattern: Christy's Creation's Tea Wallet Tutorial
Fabric: that same great owl fabric I have used before

Believe it or not I have never used interfacing before (fusible or otherwise), although I had some in the house. But the instructions are very clear, and it was not that hard once we figured out what tension my machine needed. (Thank you Salvbard! What would I do without you?)

Cimorene

Can I just say how much it thrills me that my child is a Reader? Note the capital letter. Most people can read, but that only makes them readers. Being a Reader is all about loving books and reading for it's own sake. I love the fact that reading is voluntary, and that books are well-loved in our home.

So this year, when I asked what we might use for a costume idea, I should have expected that inspiration would come from a book. Last year I introduced Chiquita to one of my favorite series when I was younger: The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Particia Wrede. We made a costume of Cimorene, the main character of the first book in the series. A bit of sewing later, Princess Cimorene arrived.

Any other book recommendations for fantasy-loving little girls out there? Besides this series, we have also loved the Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke, the Avalon series by Rachel Roberts, and the Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce.

Pattern: McCall's M5499
Size: Girls' 7-8
Farbic: 7 yards of stash cotton, 10 yards of metallic trim

Modifications: We skipped the keyhole neckline and the laced back in favor of a simplier gown. (Chiquita points out that this makes for a more practical gown, which Cimorene would prefer.) I also made a small, but fortuitous error in cutting the curve of the armhole. The good news is that this change allowed us to make a gown that could be pulled over the head. The original arm hole would have been too small, since it was designed to be laced closed.

This is the biggest sewing project that I have ever worked on other than my house robes. It was also a first for my daughter who did all the pattern piece cutting and helped with the tracing. We used this as a chance to work on a sewing Girl Scout badge, which called for the scout to learn to read a sewing pattern. Now we will be more ready than ever to work on a costume for next year.

Owl Bag

Holy crow! I have actually been using my sewing machine. I have been seeing several of these great reversible drawstring bags around the blog-o-sphere. But since I have been out of ribbon for the drawstring, I put the idea on the back-burner for a while.

Pattern: drawstring bag tutorial
Fabric Supplier: Fabric Corner

It is a hard call to select my favorite fabric in these bags. The owl fabric was a great find, but the celestial fabric detail is great too at the bottom of the blue side.

This was such a great pattern, and I really like the result a lot. I see more of these in my future.

Fleece Play Pants

I am not sure why, but I have been really intrigued by sewing recently. I have pulled my sewing machine back out, and my small fabric stash with it. From there I pulled out this adorable fleece print, which I had a smidgen more than I would need for a pair of fleece pants for a toddler.

Not only was the pattern I used easy, but they also had good instructions on putting elastic in a waistband casing. The results were surprisingly neat, even with my relative inexperience. The legs look a little long, though that is in part because I need to hem them after I have my neice try them on.

Pattern: Play pants
Pattern Source: Learn to Make Children's Clothes by Sue Locke

This pattern is the first one where I had to draft my own pattern pieces from a scaled down version on a page. I had a few concerns about working with the grid, but it wasn't too bad at least with these relatively small pieces for baby clothing. I think it might have been a little harder to get a smooth line with a larger finished item.

Pinafore

I know that I don't have a lot of sewing experience, but that never seems to stop me from jumping in with both feet. I found this great dragonfly fabric (image click larger), and I knew that it was perfect for a pinafore pattern I had picked up previously for Ms. L.

This pattern is super simple and really straightforward. I am glad I made a much bigger size though, because I think it won't be too long before it fits my 1 year old niece.

Pattern: S8948 Toddler Pinafore
Size: 3

Modifications: I changed the shape of the pockets from ducks, and then promptly ignored the instructions on how to attach them. They are firmly attached with nice turned edges, though, which would have been harder with their original shape.

Also I started doing button holes at the tops of the straps as instructed and was really unhappy with the second one, even after repeated attempts. So instead I used snaps. This had the extra advantage of making the whole thing more reversible, though there are only pockets on one side.


After finishing the pinafore I still had enough left over from the 0.75 yard of the dragonfly material to make a good sized, coordinating drawstring bag that could fit the pinafore, the Swing high cardigan, and the Stripey BSJ.

FO: House Robes

This is scheduled to auto-post while I am on my way to Chicago for Terminus.

Do you remember when I was working on the lining for my house robes? Well I did indeed finish the outer layer and put everything together. And here is the finished project:
And from the back:
And open:

Pattern: Simplicity 5840 pattern adapted as described here.
Fabric: a black Poplin broadcloth and a random green "special occasion" fabric
Notions: b1ack button, a few inches of black elastic, Slytherin crest patch

Note: The pattern adaption site is down, but you can get some information from the wayback machine capture of that page.

After substantial redrafting this ended up taking about 5.5 yards of the black and 1.5 yards of the green. If I was to make another set of robes for myself though, I think I would have removed some of the fullness. It isn't so bad open, but closed these seem huge!

My only major change from the instructions were to add top stitching to the edges, which I think gives more shape them. Also since my shoulders are a lot narrower than as designed for the pattern I redrafted the yoke to be significantly smaller. And of course being short, I shortened the robes a lot in order to get them to mid-calf. (The originally length was 60"!)

Like in the adapted pattern instructions above I absentmindedly tried seaming the sleeves with their linings by machine. Apparently topology is not my strong suit, because it rather resembled a klein bottle. Not a big deal though, I just took it back apart and then put it back together. I probably should have hand basted the pieces, but I was getting tired at this point. So I pin basted and them hemmed them by machine together. Not perfect, but it is good enough.

House Robes

As I mentioned previously, I have been planning some house robes. Beginning with the Simplicity 5840 pattern I am following the adaption for a Prisoner of Azkaban style robe, as described here.

First I am starting with the lining as practice before moving on to the outer layer.
Um, please ignore the pajama pants.
It still seems a little long, but I can take up the extra length when I sew the outing robe and lining together.

Making Magic

My Ravenclaw swap pal, Olive Bladvak aka Rebecca, for the HSKS5 Exchange is back from Australia, so I can finally share photos of the fun projects that I included in her package.

There was definitely more playing with fabric this time round. I made another Charlie bag, this time adding a lining and skipping the pouch, and I really like the results. (Salvbard was a little sad that we weren't keeping this one, so I may need to make some for us.) It is reversible, with one side having magic wands and the other suns and moons.

I also made a needle case, since she had specifically requested one. I found a great free tutorial I really like the shorter pockets at the bottom for chunkier DPNs or just odds and ends.
And I even broke out some beads to make some stitch markers.
There were so many fun blue textures and prints I found to work with. I had such a great time picking out fabric and beads.

Long Weekend

Where did the time go? Chiquita and I headed to the shore again this weekend. We didn't spend the whole long weekend there, but we did stay long enough to prepare for the summer temperatures back home.

Monday we spent in, working on some neglected sewing projects. You will get to see the results next week though, so you can see the whole project to best effect. Curious on what we were working on? Think colonial.

Community Art Show

Warning: photo-heavy post ahead. Recently Chiquita's school held their annual community art show. Every year I am completely blown away by the talent of all the kids, parents, and staff at this school. This year was no exception.

There was a surprising amount of work in clay, which I thought was really cool. I loved that there was so many pieces at all different levels of experience. This little dragon in particular I thought was super spunky.


And this snake was really neat too. I'm sorry that this photo doesn't show the texture better, because it was such an interesting combination of smoothness with minor dimpling mimicking the scales.


There were wonderful paintings in acrylic, like this incredibly peaceful one:

And more in watercolor, like this quirky iguana:

There were several paper sculptures made from origami, like this beach scene:

They didn't stop on the small scale though. This model of the titanic, made mostly of paper with some plastic and wood, was over 4" long.

There was even some collage work, like these two images of tulips made entirely from greeting cards. What a great idea of how to use these!

I saw more fabric work than last year, perhaps because of the popularity of Laura's Sewing School. I saw a few mini quilts in addition to Chiquita's blueberry skirt that we submitted to the show.

I think my project next year will be knit or crocheted though. There were not many pieces of these types. The major exception was this whimsical crocheted trout by the local artist, Mara Bradford that I absolutely love. Free-form crochet is so amazing.

Every year I walk away from this event feeling super inspired, and it so cool for the kids to see art valued this way. I am full of ideas I want to try and things I want to make now.

Charlie Bag

I am a huge fan of reusable grocery bags. I use them all the time, and my Chico bag is always on my carabiner. How cool then to find a great sewing pattern to make something similar for free, no less!

open Charlie bag

Pattern: Charlie bag (download here with instructions here)
Fabric: random remnant upholstery fabric, navy stripes on white
Fabric Supplier: Fabric Corner

folded up Charlie bag

Modifications: I added an extra seam at the bottom of the bag for additional strength and hemmed the curved edges for the handles.

I really liked the look of this pattern. If I were to make this pattern again (which I probably will) I would make all of the curved edges with a turned hem from the start, which would give a neater appearance or do a full lining as mentioned in the last step of the instructions. (Note: obviously you would need more fabric.)

Also if I were to use a heavy weight fabric like this again, which I really like for strength, I would make the pouch a little longer, with (more importantly) a longer flap.

Blueberry Skirt

I am going to start of with the fact that although my sister is an amazing quilter and seamstress, sewing has never been my forte. I have played with it off and on, and I have done several projects with guidance. So this project was a major first for me.

At the Fabric Corner the other day, my favorite nearby source for buttons, I saw this lovely fabric by the cutting counter/register. It has blueberries of varying degrees of ripeness, leaves and bell-like blueberry flowers. Cute, but I don't do enough sewing to get more fabric.

Chiquita, who was with me, happened to look at it too and asked, "Mom, could you make me a long skirt out of that?" Well let's see. I have never made a garment ever. I hadn't used my new sewing machine at all, even to test tension. So sure!

Pattern: McCall's 2129
Fabric: Robert Kaufman "Fruit Basket" Blueberries on Ivory
Fabric Supplier: the Fabric Corner

Modifications:
You knew there had to be some right? I made the size 4, which gave me 3 inches in the hem. As I hope to let this skirt out as she grows this was important. (Note for later curiosity: length = 27") I completely changed the shape/size of the darts as Chiquita does not yet have a need for the same hourglass shaping to account for hips. Also I plan on adding a hook and eye at the top of the zipper.

Fishy Fleece Blanket

I started this blanket many, many months ago. An embarrassingly long time ago in fact. It was way back in April, when it would have been perfect for the pink, yellow and green Project Spectrum theme. But by finishing it now, it will be just in time for my niece's Christening next weekend, and it matches her cotton candy sweater perfectly.


I love this fabric. I picked it up at the Fabric Corner; I always have good luck there.


The instructions are simple. Buy half a yard of fleece. Round of the corners. Throw a blanket stitch edging on it by hand, and you are done. (I used the DMC Pearl Cotton in color 334 because it is plied and is nicer to work with for something like this than embroidery floss.)

Chiquita's FOs

My daughter has been working on lots of great creative stuff recently, so I thought I would write an entry on some of it.

The first thing was actually her project from last week's sewing class. It is a double sided elasticized headband that is super cute. She wears it all the time and has been getting tons of compliments.

Also, with some of the leftover egg-dye, she dyed some yarn that she says that she wants to knit. It was originally some white Knit Picks Palette, which makes me nervous that it will be to splity for her though. I guess we will see!

And here it is wound into a center pull ball. I love it even more after seeing the colors all mixed up.
And her other big project at sewing class has been a baby blanket for her soon-to-be cousin. This blanky is so snuggly and warm.
And at 36" square it will make a good crib blanket, floor cover or lap blanket. She is so excited about the coming of the new baby.