Thursday, September 22, 2011

Back in the Saddle Again

Life is crazy right now....crazy good, crazy busy, and just plain regular crazy.

Tomorrow I leave to attend the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival (OFFF) and I am super excited! I have a friend riding down with me, and two riding home so the mini road trip should be entertaining. We are meeting several of our friends down there and it will be a great time.

I haven't been doing very well on my one craft project a week quest lately, and I have really had the bug to sew something....so I am going to recommit myself to this pledge. So, that being said I have a few different things I need to work on. I didn't completely finish my costume for the Costume College gala - so I still have the corset cover, the gauntlets and the hair piece that wraps around her braid to do.

I had finished the bustle underneath the skirt, but it got stepped on and ripped so I need to repair it and better secure it....and find a handler to be sure no one steps on me. =)

Also there are a few things about the neck-piece I would like to change, but given that it is such a huge piece and requires so much work, I am not sure I am ready to rip it out and do it again. I just realized I hadn't posted a picture of the finished project.
I am pretty happy with the way it came out in general, but as a perfectionist...it could be better...a closer match. Until I have the will to rip it out though, it will do :)
So those are a few pictures of the basic costume...I wore a purchased corset and had mostly finished gauntlets, but wasn't happy with the way they fit, so ended up taking them off when I sat down to dinner. It was fine though, my costume was recognizable, which is always fun!

Much of Costume College was made up of historical costumers, but there was a very nice selection of Steam Punk costumes thanks to the fact that last year's bonus track was Steam Punk. It is apparently "tradition" that people take what they learned that year at CoCo and work on their costumes in that style when they get home and then wear them for the following year's Ice Cream Social.

This year's theme was medieval and although I didn't get to take many of the classes about medieval dress, it really inspired me to make a Lord of the Rings costume. I am thinking that Arwen would be best for me. So that will be coming some time in the future.

In the in-between time I need some smaller projects to complete each week. There are a few things I have on that list. First...I don't own a pin cushion...I don't know how this happened, but it did...and frankly I am appalled. Well...not really, I have just always used them out of my box of pins...but no longer - one of my little projects is to make myself a wrist pin cushion. I know that this is not a difficult project, but its a fun and practical one.

One project that has been on my to-do list for a long time was to decorate a wrist support I have that I wear while knitting. So last week I decided to complete this task. I had purchased hot-fix crystals that I bought at Shipwreck Beads some time ago. I already had a hot-fix wand from when I made my veil for my wedding.

Unfortunately I wrote the letters too close together so the rhinestones don't fall on the guides and you can see them a bit. These gloves tend to get a little grubby, so I will likely need a new one in not too long, so I will know better how to layout the sparkles =)
I think that does it for tonight. I am going to do my favorite thing in the world...and make a list of the projects I want to work on. =)

Monday, September 5, 2011

Promises Broken

I told you I would have a post up by Friday...and it is now Monday...and I am just getting to this...sigh... better late than never?!

Ok...I left off with leaving for Costume College - I got to the airport with much crafting in my carry-on hoping that I could complete a large portion before arriving in sunny SoCal.
As you can see, the progress on my neck piece had come along quite nicely thus far, but still had a ways to go. I continued to work through the flight. I admit I did stop to knit a bit for a while as my index finger was tired of trying to force the needle through the cardboard backing.

I arrived at my hotel in advance of my roommate (whom I had never met before, but was paired with by the Costume College folks) so I went to get some lunch downstairs and met a very nice fellow costumer who was a veteran to CoCo and I hit it off with immediately! She was lovely and promptly invited me to an annual martini party that evening. I went back to my room and continued working on my neck piece until my roommate arrived.


My roommate Caren was very sweet and her and I got along famously. I would recommend to anyone who is going to an event in a distant city without anyone they already know....sign up for whatever roommate matching service might be available. It makes it so much easier to meet new people and to get the lay of the land when venturing into a new event. Caren provided much insight as to dress code and what to expect in the day to day of the event.

That evening was registration and I met a LOT of great people in the lobby area awaiting registration and excitedly going through their registration packets. One of the first people I met was a gal named Holly and her and I were instantly friends. As you know I am primarily...or I guess at this point...singularly a Star Wars costumer...and CoCo is largely a gathering of historical costumers....Holly is a Sci-fi/Fantasy costumer, so her and I were pals throughout the weekend and we took most of our classes together.

I also met a wonderful woman, who after hearing that I had unfinished gauntlets and her sewing class had been cancelled volunteered to let me borrow it. :) It was an incredibly generous thing of her to do and I was supremely grateful. I spend a good amount of the rest of the night putting the generosity of her gesture to good use and sewing the gauntlets up.
I got the majority of the gauntlets sewn that night, the only thing left was to attach the buttons to close them. As they are pleather they require an opening and an elastic band at the top. I got the main stitching done and then got a call inviting me to the martini party...I was looking forward to the new friends I would meet there and was definitely not disappointed.

If I haven't mentioned the flamingo here before...I should have. When CampKIP (see previous posts) was originally organized there was someone who was ordering these flamingos...initially to be used in the pool to hold a ball of yarn so we could knit in the pool...when the location changed venues and the pool wasn't going to be open at the time we were there...we decided to put them to "better" use...to hold our beverages. Since then, those of us who were fortunate enough to get a flamingo at CampKIP have brought them with us where we travel and taken pictures of them with various concoctions within. This is my flamingo with a chocolate martini at CoCo...it was a big hit! =)

I will write more in-depth about the classes at CoCo later...it was such a great experience that I don't want to see any portion short.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

I Promise I Didn't Fall Off the Face of the Earth

Wow...I can't believe it has been about 6 weeks since I posted here, and the last post was only a sort of post... OK, back to it! So much has happened since I last posted that I will try to get as much detail in without making this the length of the combined works of Shakespeare. :)

The first major thing... COSTUME COLLEGE!!!! It was fantastic! I had so much fun and learned so much that it's hard to do it justice when you cannot see how animated my face is or me waving my arms around with enthusiasm...but as I am not going to post a YouTube video of myself singing the praises of the Costumer's Guild West...I will have to do my best to convey to you how great it truly was.

So the blow by blow on my costume... It was the first time I had done a waistband facing and on the original pattern I used it was a single layer of fabric rather than a lining and a lace overlay like I was doing. So there were some slight modifications and I was a little nervous about it and about putting in the invisible zipper with the bulky lace layer.
Turns out my invisible zipper was just that...invisible. :) Victory!

After I got this done, I started to concentrate on the beading of the neck piece...which was a huge amount of work. I had already done the long beaded strands, but I still had the whole medallion and the straps to bead. My primary problem was figuring out how to construct the neck piece so it would have enough rigidity to hold the weight of the strands but still go around my neck.


I had a mildly unexpected work trip the week before CoCo to Dana Point, CA - don't get me wrong, this place is beautiful and it was a really enjoyable trip, but personally, it was terrible timing for me! I had so much to do for CoCo that having this trip really put a wrench in my progress. That being said, I had a wonderful time, met a lot of great people in the industry I work in and professionally it was a beneficial venture and I am glad I went.

Some dolphins we saw while out on the Regatta. :)

So when I got back I had a weekend and a few days to try and get everything together. I had resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to get the corset cover done. I wasn't sure I would get the gauntlets done either, but I was going to try. So I continued to try to get the neck piece done as that was the brunt of the work that needed to be done.

I ended up using a cardboard backing for a legal note pad for the center, and matte board for the strips. In hind sight, the medallion circle was too big for my neck, but it didn't really matter...in hind sight, I would have beaded all the velvet and then glued it to the sturdy backing instead of trying to poke a needle through velvet and cardboard...it meant I used a thimble the whole time, which slowed me down...and often times I needed pliers to get the needle through the backer...not my smartest moment ever, but you live and learn...and now that I have done this, you don't need to make the same mistake....I do what I can to help my peeps! :)


When I left for CoCo I had the skirt for my costume mostly done, but I still wanted to add some layers of tulle under the skirt to give it the fullness the original costume had. I got up super early on the day of my flight (we are talking about 3am) and started cutting and sewing the gathering stitches into the strips of tulle to be sewed in later if I had the time. 
As this post is getting rather long...I am going to cut it off here for tonight...by Friday (I promise it will be up) I will post how things went once I got to CoCo. I have a lot of info about the classes I attended and all of the things I learned.



Thursday, July 14, 2011

Quick update

Hello Peeps!

I have been working hard at work and at school and haven't had much time for anything else. I promise there is a post coming soon...I have been working on lots of things - primarily on my 15 min breaks at work, but still making progress.

Below is a bit about how I got into what I call Hobby Travel - this is when I travel to whatever location to either knit, spin, costume, sew or any other hobby that tickles my fancy. It started with hobby travel - and has turned out to be an adventure in community. There are a multitude of communities out there for whatever your hobby is, that will allow you to explore and expand your horizons with a group of individuals who share your interests.

I hope that through this blogpost you will be inspired to find your community, whatever it might be, and join in. I need to say that this post will be somewhat incomplete, this is a post that I wrote a while ago but didn't get it out.... this is what I have written thus far on this post so here we go....

I need to tell you a bit about Black Sheep Gathering (BSG). I know I haven't mentioned BSG here before...primarily because I have been too busy talking about all the other things I am excited about, but don't be mistaken, I am thoroughly excited about BSG!

Black Sheep Gathering is a weekend long fiber festival in Eugene, OR. There are tons of knitting and spinning classes and all sorts of different types of fiber craft events. I hope you don't mind but I would like to tell you a little bit about how I got into the world of not only knitting but what I like to call Hobby Travel :)

When I was younger I used to do what we called finger-knitting - the knitting on the Knifty Knitter is kinda the same type of knitting. The knitting seems to be less secure and unravel easier...I don't know if that’s actually true, but it seemed to be to me.

I had been knitting on the Knifty Knitter for quite some time...off and on...and I had knitted a scarf for a co-worker of mine. One morning I went into my walk-in closet and found the scarf I had knitted for her unraveled. My dog had apparently decided to "play" with my newest creation and it had easily come undone.

I decided that it didn't make any sense to put all the time and love into making a scarf if the stitching wasn't going to hold up. I thought that if I learned how to "real knit" my work would be better quality and last longer. My mom had given me a copy of the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework, so I looked at the section on knitting and picked up some needles and yarn I had lying around and began to re-knit the scarf for my friend. It took a little while to get the hang of it, but eventually I was knitting scarves garter stitch like a pro.

There was a gal at work who knitted on all her breaks...I had talked to her about knitting several times and I wanted to do more than knit scarves. She was knitting socks at the time and I starting talking to her more about how I wanted to knit something new. She told me about her knitting group that met every week and I decided to join.

I wanted to make socks...so she told me that I should start with a hat. I whipped through a hat as fast as I could and then cast on my socks. Rachel and I became fast friends and she had told me about this knitting camp she was going to in April called CampKIP. It had long been sold out so I couldn’t join her, but there was a fiber festival happening near us in February called Madrona and that wasn’t really a limited attendance thing so I went to that.

Madrona was great fun, I met a lot of really wonderful people and started some friendships that I am sure will last a lifetime. CampKIP was fast approaching and Rachel was so excited she could hardly stand it. It was a week away when she IM’d me at work saying that there was a last minute cancellation and a spot was open if I could make it.

Needless to say I made it happen ...I cannot express in one post how much fun CampKIP was and how much it changed the way I see things...and community in general.

I will post again soon about how many things have happened since then.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

So Much Time, So Little To Do....Strike That, Reverse It

A whole lot has happened, and many things have prevented me from getting this post up earlier...most of which I will not go into here, because really...let's face it...nobody likes listening to excuses. So we will just jump into all the fun things I have been doing and working on since I posted last.

I have made some progress on my costume for the Time Traveler's Gala at Costume College. I cut out and sewed the lace overlay for the skirt. I ran into some problems there because I cut it flat and basted it, but the fabric has a lot of drape to it and therefore when actually held up it stretches to be a much larger size.



I have yet to go back and re-sew the seams to take the skirt in, but it definitely needs to be done. Maybe I will work on that over this long holiday weekend. I may have one too many BBQ's to attend to get it completed, but I could definitely make some progress.

The other major project I have been working on is the neck piece. I realized that I had left it off my list of things to complete for the costume in my last post, and its a relatively labor intensive piece as the whole thing is beaded.

I am fortunate enough to live about 5 minutes away from Shipwreck Beads which boasts the largest selection of beads in the world. I knew that if I couldn't find it there, I probably wasn't going to find it. So it took me probably a little over an hour to find everything I needed...or almost everything and I headed back home to start beading. (I can't figure out why Blogger keeps rotating this picture so it is upside down...but you can still see the beads, so I am just going to go with it)


My husband had just had surgery so the activity level at the house was pretty low, and I wanted to keep him company but still be productive. This lead me to setting up a beading station in the living room so we could watch a marathon of Legend of the Seeker on Netflix.


The next day I realized I didn't have enough of one particular bead and that I needed one other type of bead in order to make it as close as possible to the movie version. As you can see, I have my iPad set up with the detailed pictures of the pieces from the Padawan's Guide site. I found it incredibly helpful to have a detailed pictures to help as I was working on the piece.

In that weekend I managed to get all of the strung beads completed and sewed the velvet "straps" that go around the neck...although after reading about it...it turns out the original piece was boned to hold up the weight of the beads. I was thinking that I could maybe use a flexible cardboard inside of the pieces to give it the required rigidity. If anyone has any better ideas let me know :)
I am STILL waiting to get the velvet tubing I ordered from a large wholesale site that I will not mention here because I do not want to send them any business. I have been very dissatisfied with the service and it will be a month since I ordered it when it finally shows up on Tuesday this week. So once I have that I can mock up the neck piece a bit better.

I found an unexpected gem while at Shipwreck. I walked past an end display and noticed the exact blank metal headbands I had been scouring Claires and Icing to find. Apparently the costuming gods were smiling down on me that day because they even came 2 headbands in a pack! Perfect!


I used needle nose pliers to snap the bent ends off of each of the headbands, and then bent them out to lay flatter against my forehead - I just need to glue gun them together and add some type of loop or way to attach them into my hair :)


Well that's all the costuming craftyness I have to report for right now, but I have lots more to tell you. I will post all of my fun adventures in hobby travel soon. =)

Wishing you a crafty afternoon.

MandaD

Monday, June 13, 2011

Something's Gotta Give

So...this post is later than I would like it to be...as a matter of fact, I would love to post here almost every other day, but alas I have too many things competing for my time. That being said, I decided that something had to give in order for me to actually get a post up....this week it was my weekly knitting group.

I am taking a mid-term this week, and my husband is having surgery on Wednesday so things are a little busy. Enough about the stresses of this week, lets talk about the joys of last week :)

I did not start & complete an entire craft project last week. Rather I completed one relatively major one and started a really major new one.

So for the successes - I completed knitting my first pair of socks...finally. I had started these in January and had set them aside while knitting my first sweater & my first shawl. Once I completed those projects I picked my sock back up and got it done.


The other thing I have been working on is my costume for Costume College. I told you a tiny bit...really just that I was exited about it...earlier...but I haven't mentioned anything in detail about it.

So Costume College is a week-end long conference that teaches several classes related to the art of costuming. There are basic sewing classes, fitting classes, organizing classes as well as armor making and costuming theory & fabrics. I stumbled upon the class list and it was amazing. I was enrolling late so I couldn't get access to any of the limited classes, but there were so many interesting classes that I found that I would have more than a full day each of the 3 days and I am slightly grateful that my choice wasn't that much harder.

On the Saturday night of Costume College there is an event called the Time Traveler's Gala where costumer's go to show off their hard work. I really want to attend this event...so I need to have a costume. I don't have anything pre-prepared for an event like this, so I was going to have to come up with something new.

Right now at least...I am a Star Wars costumer...it may be, and it likely will be, that I will branch out in the future, however for now I am sticking to costumes from the Star Wars movies. That being said...I looked at the costumes available from Star Wars and evaluated the time I had to complete one before Costume College...and decided on "the Corset Costume" I have to give super credit to the website The Padawan's Guide. There is SO much information on that site. The picture below is a reference photo from that site.

I already have a corset and I thought this would be easiest to construct. I should mention that I have a tendency to be obsessive compulsive about making things movie accurate. Which this first draft of this costume will not be perfect, but it will be pretty close.

I primarily felt that getting the shape of the costume was the most important. So being sure the skirt was structured appropriately was top on the list. I got a pattern from Etsy.com for a Gothic costume and modified the skirt. The skirt in the pattern is lovely, but has a lot of ease and is not nearly as fitted as the costume skirt.

I cut a muslin of the skirt exactly as the pattern said, and sewed the darts and main seams, and then tried it on. It was rather large as I expected, so I attempted to pin the back of the skirt closer...and then stitched the seam...tried it on...stitched it closer.. until I got it relatively right.

I took the muslin and used it to alter the pattern pieces for the lining of the skirt, which I was using basic Costume Satin for. Currently I have the darts sewn on the satin and the two back pieces sewn together and the seam pressed. I am planning to sew together the pieces and repeat the process with the lace overlay.



After I have completed that I will finish the waist band and the zipper and then get started on the other aspects of the costume.

My main pieces are:
skirt
corset cover
fingerless opera gloves
hair
headband/crown

not too bad....but enough to keep me busy. :)

Here is a shot of my fabrics - Starting top-left (and continuing clockwise) is the velvet for the collar, pleather for the corset cover and opera gloves, the costume satin for lining and the lace for the skirt overlay.



Ok...I think I have to go to bed for now...there is so much ahead of me... I hope you have a fabulous crafty week. I will try to post more frequently to be sure I am keeping up.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Just Like New

Well the first week of my new ambition (one craft project a week) is coming to a close and I actually accomplished several things this week. For the purposes of this blog and my craft project goal I am going to use a Monday - Sunday week...that way I can utilize the full weekend to complete my project.

I had intended to start small - completing a small project bag that I could carry my knitting in - but this weekend was one of the first really nice weekends here in Western Washington so I decided I should take advantage of the beautiful weather and complete a project that has been on my list for some time.

I have this little dresser that has been in my room since I was in highschool and I have painted it several times to match my room as it has changed. I have not however ever changed out the ugly brass handles. The last time I painted it, I painted it matte black. I would not recommend ever painting furniture in a matte finish...it just doesn't wear well or look that nice.

It had been about 12 years since I painted it last and I now wanted to use it in my front entryway, but it was really beat up as you can see.


My house and furnishings are mostly earthtones so even if it was in better condition, black would have looked really out of place in my house. I had picked up the spraypaint I wanted to use a few weeks ago  - I find that spray paint can give you really even and smooth coverage once you get the hang of it. The trick I have found is short, fast sweeps will give you the best most even coverage.

You could use regular paint and a small foam roller too if that is more convenient or less intimidating. The big thing to remember is to watch out for drips if you use spray paint. You can wipe them off quickly with a wet rag and respray once it has dried.

So I drug the dresser out into my yard and laid down a plastic painting tarp so I didn't spraypaint the grass as well. It's important to wipe down whatever you are painting to get any oils or dirt off the surface so you don't just paint over the dirt. If I was being super thorough, I would have sanded down the previous paint job, but for this particular piece I didn't feel that it was entirely necessary for this project.

I did a good solid coat of paint and then waited about 20-30 minutes before going back out to give it another good coat. I then let it dry for a couple of hours before bringing it inside and then let it sit for 24 hours before replacing the hardware with new drawer pulls.

It is painted a nice espresso brown in a satin finish with brushed nickel drawer pulls and I think it looks quite nice now. I am very happy with the results and when I had it all put together, my husband declared "It looks just like new!"



I have so many more projects to tell you about, but I will cut it off here for today.

Here's wishing you some Crafternoon Delight :)

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Welcome!

Hello & Welcome to the Crafternoon Delight blog. My name is Amanda and I will be your guide through this crafty journey. It is my intention to take this into a podcast as well, but at the minute that will have to wait.

My deal: I love to craft in almost all areas. I sew, knit and love Do-It-Yourself projects. When I pick up a craft I typically tend to set my ambitions really high...so there is usually a really big learning curve with my projects. But that means that new ideas are always emerging..it is my hope for this blog that I will be able to share with all of you my research as well as the very well established sites out there.

I have also...in a very declarative action...have "decided that I will finish one craft project a week" ....did I mention that I am working full time and going to graduate school... I will finish one craft project a week....

Other crafts I do: I have tried drop spindle spinning, but I haven't really had my full three bites (ep 153) of this one yet, so I am looking forward to trying more!


I also really love to work on costumes...I particularly enjoy sci-fi films and their costumes, but I am working to be educated in all types of costuming and am hungry to learn more.

These are the first costumes I have made. I did a lot of research on these and am looking forward to linking everything in the blog so you can find the fantastic blogs/resources that are out there...and avoid clicking on a million dead links.


The thing I am most excited about right at this minute is Costume College in LA. I stumbled upon this over the long Memorial Day weekend...and the minute I saw the class list ...it was over...I NEEDED to go...but I already went to CampKIP this year...totally last minute, and felt bad that I had asked for 2 personal holidays without the hubbs! We worked out a deal and I have purchased my flight to Costume College!

Well that isn't for a few weeks...so we will stop this here for now and I will tell you more about my costuming plans...My new and recent knitting...and any DIY projects on the horizon...