Past sewing projects

left: knit shirt I made out of TRANSFORMERS fabric!!






lower Right: jumper i made... in my haste i forgot to preshrink the fabric.... (>_<) wore it once...





cool beige jersey shirt... soft as silk




Trapeze dress I made .... too bad I look like a pregnant mrs.roeper in it








bottom left: dress I made in a yummy heavy satin for a wedding


Right: the matching bolero jacket I made in embroidered linen

Huge Over the Door Shoe Thing

So between my bf and I, we have our fair share of shoes... The shoe-rack on the floor had degenerated into a massive pile of shoes that never even saw the rack. So I took action! By taking advantage of the super long doors that come with these super high ceilings we have I created a massive shoe hanger. Way cooler than the cheap sterile plastic ones you get at the store and extra roomy pockets so I can put a pair together in one pocket. (Big sneakers don't fit in one though)







Materials:

• 2 wreath hangers
  
• 1 ft by 1 ft blocks of fabric, 1 for each pocket you want to make. I had four pockets on each row, so I needed like 20 squares.
  
• Thick sturdy fabric backing. Mine was really big because I made mine five rows tall. If you have a normal sized door you'd most likely want a four-rowed one. I don't know... play around with it.
  
• Sewing machine, nice strong thread.
  

How I Made It:

• First wash your fabric to make sure none of it will bleed when rubbing against a white door or white shoes!
  
• Next I sewed four of the blocks together at the side seams and finished the edges to prevent unraveling. I sewed a nice 1" hem along the top of the whole row. I did this to all rows. Then I pressed under about 3/4" on the sides of the rows.
• I placed the rows of pockets on the backing where I wanted them. I added pleats to the bottom so that the finished bottome length of each square of fabric was about 7". This gathering gives the pockets the fullness I wanted.
  
• Then I arranged the row of pockets against the backing so that it was right sides together, with the top hemmed edge on the bottom and the bottome edge where I wanted it. Kinda upside down-like. Then I sewed, and then reinforce sewed the bottom edge. When I was done I folded the fabric back up so the stitching for the bottom was on the inside of the pockets.
• I pinned the rows to the backing along the seam lines between pockets and added whatever pleats i needed to make it the height that i wanted. My pockets were pretty deep, if you'd prefer to see more of your shoe then start out with smaller squares of fabric. I then straight stitched along either side of the seam lines about 1/4" away from the seam. I finished the edges in the same way.
• I made two loops and attached them to the top and reinforce stiched the heck out of them. they haven't ripped out yet!!







• loop onto the wreath hangers (make sure you get the strongest you can) and fill with shoes!!!
  

Sleeps with Butterflies

Tori Amos T-shirt Project

A couple years late, but I thought the cover art for her last CD was really pretty in that ren-fest dark fairy type of mysterious way so one past Sunday while everyone else was sleeping I woke up with a vision! A t-shirt vision!! I printed out the picture I wanted to reproduce/ be inspired by, gathered all my materials and revved my engines!





















Materials:

• blank t-shirt (preferably white)
• fabric paint, fabric markers
  
• shirt-sized cardboard to insert in shirt to provide stable backing and prevent bleed-through
• pencil and any pic you want to paint
• music
  

Steps to Make:

1. I cheated and taped the picture underneath the shirt and lightly trace-sketched the major lines with a pencil to save time and get the proportions right. Even if I had wanted, tracing details would be almost impossible. I free handed her face and everything else in the background.
2. I experimented with the fabric markers, and I really didn't like the result and tried to cover them up the whole rest of the project.
3. Next I did my big blocks of color and all the color washes I wanted.
4. After it was dry I came back and added some detailed color.
5. Then after THAT was dry I came back and added the black detailing.
6. Then I set the paint per directions on tubes.
   

Conclusion:

I think anyone could paint up a really nice shirt using a template like I did. If you don't feel confident free-handing it then just pick a pic that has simple lines that would be easy to trace and experiment with color washes, etc. BTW, the fabric paint I used was bought in Japan, but there's all kinds available in the states as well.

Jewelry Wall Rack

So, in the ongoing effort to streamline my environment to my needs (ie, clean up my clutter) I decided that hanging my jewelry up where I could see it would make me much more likely to remember it's existence with the added bonus of the pretty graphic *Oomph* it gives my wall.










The materials I used:

• a craft stick i got for $0.70 at Lowes. It's about 3/4" thick, 2 " tall and maybe 2 feet long
• a package of small hooks I also got at Lowes, about $2
• sandpaper
• Acrylic paint
• decorative yarn

My Steps:

The first thing I had to do was sand the wood since it was splinter-ific, but alas... no sandpaper to be had!!! I really didn't feel like going to the store in the middle of the night to get some so I improvised and used one of those big foam nail files!! Everyone laughed that saw me doing it, but it worked awesome! It only took like one minute to sand the whole thing! Be careful while filing your nails girls- those things don't mess around!

Next I primed the wood and decided on my background and got to painting. The funnest thing out of it all. My work area:

















When it was dry I got down and dirty with the hooks. Basically just pushing them into the wood and screwing them in by hand. Ugh, were my fingers were sore the next day! (but it was worth it!) Still, if you have a man-slave handy I would suggest putting on your sweetest voice and cajoling him into doing it. It'll play right into his sub-conscious machoness and spare you your fingers.

I finished off with three loop hooks up top and then cut out and glued a felt backing to the wood so the tips of the hooks that had poked through to the other side wouldn't scratch the wall or...well, me.

I looped the yarn through the hooks a bunch of times to make sure it could support the weight, then hung it from the wall and put my pretty jewelry on it!!

My Inaugural Post

Inaugural post! How exciting!!! This is the space where I will be sharing all my creative projects with THE WORLD (or whichever friends of mine decide to mark this blog.... same difference really).

Expect to find.....

• clothes I've sewn from either a pattern or my own designs
• Pretty pictures I made
• any other random stuff i made
• fun ideas of stuff to make !_!
• etc.
  

"Lets Enjoy Blogging"