Angel Wing T-shirt

I said the T-shirts weren't done yet, I have different little ideas for each one that will make them unique and add some much needed color. I started with the angel winged t-shirt which I thought it would be cool to add lace panels into the sides. I pulled out my box of fabric and went looking through the scrap bag, I wasn't going to need very much. I found this red lace fabric that had a finished ruffle edge along on side. I thought it would be perfect for putting in 4in or so panel along each side and then I could use the ruffled edge to go around each sleeve cuff. I cut equal strips of the lace and measured them against the shirt laying on the ground. I also cut out an equal section of the shirt. If this shirt had big too big or too small I could have used this panel insertion to adjust it's size but the shirt fit just fine so I made sure the sections were equal minus like half an inch for seem allowance. I pinned the lace inserts to the t-shirt being careful to not stretch the jersey fabric.

I also pinned the cuffs in after measuring them against the shirt and sewing the ends together. I then pulled out my serger and sewed along the edges. Now I don't know if you can tell in my blurry photo here but the lace panels are actually on the wrong side of the fabric and I ended up sewing them with the seems on the outside and had to rip all my serger stitches...do not recommend. Now for anyone wondering I did not run pins through my serger I carefully removed them as I went along. I do run pins through my regular sewing machine with out a care in the world. I had originally intended to add something to the front to jazz it up but Dave says it looks good as is and that less is more, so I'm calling this one done. Here are the results.

T-Shirt Upscale

So I've found many Pintrest ideas on cutting designs into plaint t-shirts to give them a cooler look. I have 6 white shirts I bought for culinary school but wont wear anywhere else since they're so boring and plain. I decided on 4 designs which I had seen around many times in Pintrest, a butterfly, a dragonfly, angel wings, and a skull. I searched the internet for some reference images to create my templates from.

Then, since I don't have a printer, I traced the images off of my computer onto some scrap paper.

Then I cut out each little bubble. I started with scissors but I found an exact-o blade was much quicker and easier.

Then I took chalk and traced the bubbles onto the shirts. I found it much easier when I had something solid behind the shirt but this wasn't an easy process and the shirts slip around a lot. These are the results.

The last step was slowly cutting all the little bubbles out. I used my good fabric scissors but it took a long while and my fingers definitely hurt by the end.

These shirts are by no means done. Most if not all of them can't be worn without something underneath (which was sort of true before) and they will have to be washed to get the chalk off but it was a fun easy project and I have ideas to finish off each shirt a little differently. Till next week.

Out of Ideas Yet?

This week I got fired...I've never been fired before and to be fired in a town far from home, from a bakery I was just finally making headway in, and to be fired for just not cutting it. It's been a rough and busy week and I didn't spend any of it on my projects. So the things I did this week were unpacking boxes left over from the move and hanging stuff on the wall.

I also designed a hedge maze I plan to enter in the Stanley Hotel maze contest (http://www.stanleyhotel.com/themaze)

Most of the projects I had from here on out had been bigger with more supplies but due to loosing my job I knew my projects would have to be scaled down. I have so much stuff here already I figure I can find projects that used mostly (if not all) materials I already have. This limits my choices but I have a lot of fabric and a lot of clothes I don't wear. So I've been building ideas for clothing mods and starting next week I'm gonna start updating my wardrobe hopefully into clothes I will actually wear. This week though I'm focusing on finding myself, my confidence, and a new job. 

Neo Pirate Coat?

Sewing is one of my oldest crafts but it's one I don't think I'm very good at. It takes a lot of skill to make a piece of clothing that fits well, looks good, feels nice, and can stand up to some wearing and washing. I really wanted to do a sewing project this week so I got out my box of fabric and went digging for inspiration. What I ended up finding was an unfinished project, I don't even remember what it was for but I had the pieces cut out for a medium sized, black, Neo (Matrix) coat.

It was just some light, probably cotton, fabric but I found enough red fabric (left over from my Dr. Horrible costume) that I could cut out a lining and make a black and red Neo coat with big red pirate cuffs (also in the pattern for a Morpheus style coat). So I set to work, first reading the given instructions even though they don't account for a lining which I was going to have to improvise a little.

Then I laid out my red fabric and put my pieces on it. I realized that I was only going to have enough red fabric if I made the coat shorter. I held the coat up to me (for the first time :p) and it went past my feet by a foot on the floor. I decided to cut my pieces to as long as the fabric would allow and decide on a final hem length later.





Next came assembly, reading the instructions carefully I pinned and sewed a black outer shell and a red inner liner for the front, side front, and back pieces.

Next I pinned the outer shell to the lining and sewed along the outer edge and in the slit in the back.
Turning it inside out I spent the next few hours and used my entire box of pins to pin the seems of the two layers together. Carefully stitching in the dip created by the seem, or as close as I can get, I attached the inside to the outside.

Next was the collar which I sewed together along the entire top and sides, flipped it inside out and pinned the black sides together and sewed. I rolled the red edge of the collar and pinned it to the red lining and sewed very close to the edge. Now the sleeves which I made the decision not to line for simplicity sake, with just one layer I just pinned and sewed the long edges together. Then pinned and sewed the red cuffs and sewed them onto the sleeves.

At this point I really wanted to use the serger I got for Christmas. It was gonna need some set up and I'd been putting it off but I got it out of the box and watched to instructional DVD which showed me how to thread it and I found the process fairly simple. I tested my serger on some scrap fabric before using it to sew the raw edges of my sleeves and their cuffs. Then I pinned and used my regular sewing machine to sew the sleeves in place, pulled the pins, and sewed the seem with the serger.

 The last bit to this jacket was going to be the buttons. I put the jacket on to find my top button hole placement then took it off and marked button holes every 2 inches down the front stopping when I felt it was good. My sewing machine has an automatic button hole feature which I highly recommend, though I think it comes on most modern machines. I put my button into the button foot and sewed button holes one at a time, when they were all done a cut open the button holes. Then I put on my coat and used chalk to mark the under part of the coat through each button hole. I hand sewed a button over each mark. Here is the finished coat!

Kitty Kastle

So I have this cabinet...

Dave and I found it next to a dumpster at one of our apartments. We've used it for many purposes around the house but now it's to become the cabinet that holds all our cat stuff and a place for the cats to sit and relax in the sun. My cat's full name is Sir Basil T. Crumblebottom Lord of the Dragons, so I felt it fitting to give him his own dragon castle to lord over. Thus this week's project is turning this white cabinet into a proper castle. I've never painted a piece of furniture so I started this project by researching how to paint furniture. Most of what I read said sanding, primer paint, then any top coat paint I want. So I started by giving the cabinet a good washing. Then I took some very rough sand paper to it, just by hand to rough up the surface.Then I took some primer paint, just whatever I found at the store that said all surfaces, and covered all five sides in a fairly thick coat and gave the back side, which was a dark brown, a second coating. I also gave the inside a coat even though I didn't sand it and I probably should have.

The paint can says it dries in an hour so I left it for two before drawing the front of my castle. After spending probably 2 hours drawing all the little cobblestones just on the front I decided to draw just outlines for the other walls.

I let it sit over night before starting with the colors. At the store I found little selection in tiny paint cans but I found a black and a white latex paint that said it was good for wood. It was quite difficult to work with though, it was nice that it dried so quickly I never worried about dragging my sleeve through it but it dried so quickly I felt I lot a lot of paint from it drying on my palate (which was just a plate). It had good coverage though and only needed one coating. This is what it looked like after 8 hours of work.

The grey is just the black and white latex paint mixed together till I liked the shade. The blue is just some acrylic craft paint mixed with the primer. I would have mixed it with the latex paint but my little 8oz can was running pretty low and I still had all the dark grey of the grout. It took another 16 hours to finish the cobblestone pattern on the outside and the inside.

The brown of the doors and the middle shelf is just 'teddy bear brown' acrylic paint which had started to solidify so I added some of the primer into the bottle and shook real hard. It still didn't quite mix together which added some streaky-ness which I liked and felt it gave it the appearance of real wood. My yellow and red craft paints that I had originally planned to use didn't have nearly the coverage I needed and would have taken many coats and lots of time for drying so I headed back to the store for some more latex paint. What I found was enamel paint but it also has excellent coverage and I found out dries slower then latex which for this occasion wasn't a plus since I had to let it sit over night before I could give my coins and rug their golden accents.

Last step was little details and it was my favorite part. Spent hours deciding on a design and plotting it out as best as I could. Spent some time trying to figure out how to make the gold look like coins. Here are the results: