#but if I make them flat fabric and sew them in place it's fine

[tj-crochets]

Fun fact I made these five years ago and I've had the "leave" heart hanging on my purse ever since! Editing this to add: these are super easy to make. Find any crochet heart pattern, make two of them, but when you finish the last round of each heart instead of fastening off sc around in the back loops of the last round (to get that right angle), then fasten off. Embroider one of the hearts, then sew the two halves of your un-valentine heart together. Add a keychain if you want to, hang it on your purse (or don't), and surprise whoever reads the keychain for (so far) five years lol

More un-valentine hearts to fill the void left by the absence of the real conversation candy hearts this year

[vampire-meta-knight]

Goth DIY: Altered Clothing part 1

Since some of you crafty goths were interested in seeing the clothing I've altered, I decided to compile it all in one place! I hope I can inspire your creations,give you ideas, and teach you new techniques. This will be a long post, since I've been making alterations to my clothing since high school, which also means some of these projects aren't as polished as others, since they were made when I was newer to DIY and have mistakes I've since learned from, but that's okay! Goth doesn't have to be polished and perfect, and don't let the fear of mistakes stop you from creating!

I've already done posts about the shorts and pants I've gothified, so part 1 will focus on t-shirts, camisoles, and button-up shirts. Part 2 will have sweaters, skirts, and dresses. Some alterations are as easy as adding safety pins or lace trim, and others involve more sewing. Lots of these are very beginner-friendly projects and take less than an hour. All of these items were completely plain when I got them--anything metal, lace, embroidered, or painted that you see was added by me. I'll add more about each garment in the image descriptions. As always, feel free to message me if you want better or more thorough instructions or DIY advice. I'm here to be a resource to my fellow crafters! <3

(Also, please pardon the cat hair and my hair on the clothes--I don't take perfect pictures. A couple pics are also old since those shirts are in storage so I could make room for my winter wardrobe, so you'll notice a change in backdrop and a dirty mirror.)

Let's start with t-shirts and camisoles! Use an old shirt, a thrifted shirt, a shirt from Walmart, etc.! I like to get plain unisex t-shirts from Walmart and paint on them using freezer paper stencils, bleach them, shred them, and/or add safety pins to them. The camis also came from Walmart, and I changed the necklines and added lace trim to make them cuter.

To make a sweetheart neckline on a cami, you can cut it, or you can just pinch the middle and sew it into place (I did that for all of them except the black and white one--that one ended up a little lower-cut than I meant it to, so I decided to stick with the pinching method). The lace trim I used on the black camis isn't stretchy, but still works just fine, as long as you pin it into place while you're wearing the shirt and stretch the shirt a bit as you sew to maintain stretch in those areas. Stretchy lace, like I used on the pink and red camis, works a bit better, but is harder to find. I still like pinning the lace while I'm wearing the shirt to get the placement down, but if you wear a bra, make sure you're wearing the one you plan on wearing with the shirt while placing the lace. I found it doesn't sit right with bras that fit a little differently than the one I based the placement on.

The long-sleeved Emily the Strange shirt has a neat detail, albeit a wonky one because my placement is a bit off sometimes. You'll notice two little striped triangles at the bottom. I cut slits in the shirt and added triangles of striped stretchy fabric, then sewed zippers over top of them to hide the seams and add extra detail. I also sewed the zippers on with red thread for contrast.

My button-ups are a bit more involved. I treat them like how I treat shorts--patches, lace, embroidery, pins, grommet tape, D-rings, charms, chains, oh my! The pink one is my most recent, and I'm so proud of it. All of the patches came from ToothxNail on Etsy, except the Rat King patch, which came from Katiewhittleart on Etsy. The flowers on the collar were buttons that I glued onto flat-back pins from a craft store (I used E6000 glue). Made super quick collar pins that I can remove when washing the shirt or put on something else when I want.

The orange button-up was by far the simplest. I just added lace trim to the cuffs and cropped it (it had been high-low, but I wanted to wear it tucked into a skirt and the long back was annoying me). I also added collar clips with a chain that I got at a craft fair, but that's more like styling an accessory with it than altering it, since I can just un-clip them.

The leather jacket is old and doesn't fit well, so I don't wear it anymore, but I kept it because it was my first leather jacket. Adding the sew-on studs and faux-fur trim on the neck took the longest. You'll also notice that a mouse chewed a hole in the outer shell on the pocket.

Part 2

[silverfoxstole]

New Dark Eyes jacket progress report #2!

I’m happy to say that the back went together without a problem (wish I could say the same about the sleeves, but more on that later). When I made my first version last year i had no idea what the back actually looked like so I opted to take out the princess seams on the pattern and forgo the belt as I thought it would be too much of a faff to do in pleather. This time, having finally seen a couple of pics that (sort of) show the back I decided to be more accurate, which involved making a belt with a buckle. Fortunately I had some practise with buckles and eyelets when I made the belt and gaiters for my NotD cosplay so I knew what I was doing. On the gaiters I made the mistake of punching holes which ended up being slightly too big so I had to secure the eyelets with fabric glue; this time I just made small slits with a seam ripper and pushed them them through so that they fitted snugly. The belt came together quickly, and I was very surprised that with the help of a handy knitting needle I could actually turn two tubes of this fairly thick fabric the right way out!

When I cut out the pieces I was intending to place the belt at the existing point on the pattern, between the back side panels. Looking closer, however, I realised that on the original coat the back is just two pieces and the belt actually starts at the side seams so I just measured the extra distance and extended the belt pieces accordingly.

I made a few small adjustments to the fit when I stitched front and back together, taking the sides in and curving up towards the underarm seam to give it a bit more shape as I don’t like garments to be too boxy; I’m on the small side so I tend to get drowned in fabric otherwise.

Back and front together I attached the collar…

…and took it off again. This pattern has a collar and stand, which I junked and drafted a soft collar when I made my first version last year. Looking back at photos afterwards, however, I realised I’d made it too long and narrow so, wanting to rectify this, I - you guessed it! - shortened and widened the collar piece. After I’d tacked it on I still wasn’t happy as it was a bit too pointed so off it came and I ran up another one having taken some off the end. Left is the first attempt, right the second:

I’m happier with it now!

Yesterday I spent wrestling with the sleeves. Setting in sleeves is not my favourite job and in this sort of fabric it’s especially tricky. There’s no way to do it without using pins so I just have to accept holes around the sleeve. I’m not expecting anyone to get close enough to see them!

As you can’t press faux leather because it’s essentially plastic, the only way to flatten seams is to topstitch them. This is fine as long as you can get the seam under the sewing machine, but on a sleeve it’s impossible to do both because once you’ve sewn the second seam you have a tube. So, I topstitched the outer seam and tacked the seam allowances of the under seam to the sleeve. It’s not as flat as the topstitched seam, as you can see here, but it’s not as bouncy as it would be otherwise:

It was something of a fight to get the sleeves into the armholes but I managed it eventually with just one very small tuck! For all the other seams I pinned inside the seam allowances as I hate working with quilting clips, but here that went out of the window as when you’re easing in sleeves you need a lot of pins! Fortunately as I needed to take an extra centimetre at the top they didn’t make much of a mark. I did though make the mistake of deciding to topstitch the seams and had to unpick when I realised I needed the seam allowances to attach the sleeve heads. This means I’m left with holes all the way round but as I said above, I’m hoping no one will get close enough to notice! I can live with it; I’d rather have a properly-fitting coat with needle holes than one that looks wrong with none.

Et voila: one inserted sleeve:

Once the sleeves were in it was time for shoulder pads. The first coat and jacket I made had no tailoring in them (I grew up in the 80s and connected shoulder pads with power suits and Joan Collins so left that part out) and it showed. I don’t go for full-on pad stitching and hair canvas but you do need both shoulder pads and sleeve heads to make the sleeves hang properly and I as I’m hollow-chested I always add a shield made from wadding as well so that the front doesn’t collapse:

And that’s the shell completed!

Now I have to do half of it all over again to construct the lining!

[borninwinter81]

Velvet ribbon necklaces and chokers

This is one of my favourite ways to make a necklace - extremely quick and simple but I think it looks beautiful. I use velvet ribbon but it would also work with satin ribbon and possibly lace, though that might not be sturdy enough. I personally don't like to use leather or faux leather because it can get very sweaty and uncomfortable, but you can absolutely use that too if you want! Craft shops also sell patterned or embroidered ribbon.

I've even done variants on this which were made from just a long strip of fabric which I hemmed along the edges.

In addition to the ribbon you will need rivets or eyelets, d-rings or o-rings, and heavy snap studs to fasten them.

The pendants in these photos came from various places: the flower cameo was thrifted, the wolfs cross was bought from some alternative shop I don't remember the name of decades ago, the leaf and the large ocean jasper came from an Etsy shop called Enchanted Creations (link here) and the ivy is Alchemy Gothic.

For whatever reason I decided I didn't like the necklaces they came on so I remade them. The pendant parts and chains were attached using jewellery pliers and either jump rings or links of the chain if it was large enough.

Then all you need to do is loop your ribbon through the d-rings and poke a hole through both layers (I have a leather punch I tend to use but you can also use scissors) then secure it with either a rivet or an eyelet. You can buy these online or in craft shops, they're usually very cheap, come in various colours of metal and have instructions for how to put them together. They're fairly self-explanatory - one half on each side of the fabric and hit them with a hammer a few times. If using rivets make sure you put the pieces on the correct sides.

You could also use screw on spikes. Anything that will keep the ends together will work - obviously you could sew them too, but this looks neater (than my hand sewing anyway!) and gives a bit of extra visual interest.

To get the right length of ribbon I just put it around my neck making sure to overlap the ends then add a couple of centimetres extra for the folds. If the ribbon is synthetic (most of the the time they will be) use a lighter to singe the ends slightly. This will cause it to melt a little and prevent fraying. Please be careful when doing this! You don't need to put the ribbon *in* the flame, just close enough to heat it.

For fastenings I always use heavy snap studs. These make the fastening very secure and neat looking - it will lay completely flat to the back of your neck.

These studs come in 4 parts.

Again, double over the ends of the ribbon, poke a hole through both layers, put the correct pieces of the fastening on each side and hit them with a hammer a few times. These can likewise be bought online and come with a tool and instructions for use. The most important thing with these is to make sure all parts are facing the right direction so you can close them properly.

Here are some brief instructions I found online for how to use them.

Again, you don't have to fasten them the way I do, whatever way suits you is fine. Even a safety pin would work!

This basic method can be used to make collars too, I did a cyber collar a while back (full post here)

As I said above you can use any kind of ribbon you like, patterned or plain, or even a long strip of fabric, that's what I did for this collar.

You could cover it with safety pins, buttons, embroidery, fabric paint, whatever you like!

[reindeer-spotting]

SCOTTERMITE. QUICK. TEACH ME HOW TO MAKE PATCHES !!!!!!!! (i have been wanting to for a while and i think im gonna try tonight if i make it out alive. i have an idea of how to make them but i have seen the ones you make and i want mine to look as good as yours so uh hi)

hellomy sweet summer child. i don't think i want to get up to find pictures of anything but here's the gist:

you will need: - paint (i use white house paint, acrylics usually need multiple coats) - pen/marker (for use on lighter fabrics to draw a design rather than paint it) - fabric (i prefer black denim, you want minimal fluff & flat/even texture for cleaner lines) - sponge & stencil (optional- this is if you don't want to freehand paint the design. you can make your own stencils by printing out a design and cutting it out or tracing a design off a screen and cutting that out) (also good to have tape to secure your stencils to the fabric) - sewing needle & thread

pick a design - the more small and finnicky the design is, the harder it will be to paint, and the harder it will be to make a stencil/control the stencil when applying paint. if you're freehanding a design, you can paint it first or cut the fabric to size first. if you're using a stencil, you want to tape the stencil down so having enough fabric to do that is key regardless of how big the patch will be. with a stencil, gently dab vertically to minimize the paint that gets under the stencil. stencils will probably need multiple coats of paint.

cut it to size. denim frays a lot, and so do most fabrics, so if you want to go the extra mile when it comes to patches i would recommend hemming them. i tend to use some kind of bastardized version of a blanket stitch for this (google/youtube will help you with sewing).

when you want to apply it to something, you should pin it into place with two adjacent pins (ie one at the top and one at the bottom, or one on the left and one on the right) to lessen the amount of warping that might occur if you don't sew your patches on completely straight (which is fine-like half of mine have at least a little warping). for the actual stitch, i recommend going to youtube and looking for punk or metal patch sewing videos - i learned the technique i use from a metalhead's tutorial.

[dragonflavoredcake]

How to Tailor Boxers

I’m making this because I recently looked for a guide for this and found absolutely nothing. Hearken to me, ye who have too much space in the front of your boxers, for instructions on how to make your men’s boxers actually fit—aka how to remove the huge flap in front.

1. Wash your boxers. Always wash fabric before working with it, and always wash clothes before wearing them.

2. Make sure they fit in the waist and leg. Elastic is quite forgiving, but they have to be comfortable. If there’s a sizing guide on the boxer packaging, go by your lower waist measurement. (Look at WikiHow or a tailoring guide to get that.)

3. Take a seam ripper or a pair of embroidery scissors and very carefully rip out the front center seam. Pull out all of the loose thread. Congratulations! You have reached the point of no return. You will now have two distinct flaps in the front of your boxers. This is fine.

4. Each of these flaps will have two layers of fabric, because men’s underwear is cool like that. Fold the edge of the fabric inward, iron it flat, and sew the layers together if you want it to look professional. You can also just sew them together without folding, but it might not look as good. (I went with the second option. It looks fine.)

5. Get yourself some pins, preferably long ones. Put on the boxers. Do not wear anything underneath. Say a prayer, fold the fabric flaps in, one over the other, and VERY CAREFULLY pin the edge of the exterior flap in place. Do NOT stretch the fabric. Using longer pins means that you can secure more fabric with fewer pins, reducing your chance of stabbing yourself in the vulva. This is sadly necessary, because if you wear anything underneath your boxers during this step, you’re almost certainly going to end up pinning it to the boxers.

6. Slip the boxers off, being careful not to dislodge the pins. Pin down the inner flap. Nurse any tiny stab wounds from the pins.

7. At this point you need to decide whether you want to sew by hand or use a machine. Pick whichever you’re comfortable with. I used a machine for everything, but I kind of wish I’d sewn the two layers together (step 4) by hand.

8. Sew along the pins, removing them as you go. If you’re sewing by machine, don’t forget to backstitch 2-3 stitches at the start and end. If you’re sewing by hand, don’t forget to double knot your thread, start the stitch somewhere where the knot won’t be uncomfortable or easily visible, and backstitch 2-3 stitches at the start and end. Pay special attention to the lower crotch area, where the stitch will meet a bunch of other seams. I secured my flaps with a straight stitch and reinforced them with a zigzag stitch similar to what was used in the original construction of the boxers.

9. Remove the pins. Put on the boxers for the moment of truth. If they don’t fit right, either modify from there or tear out the stitch and go back to step 5 to try again. If they fit, congratulations! You now have a well-fitting pair of boxers that does not have a ton of extra fabric at the front.

WARNING: once you’ve started tailoring your garments you cannot stop. Also you will get an extra little hit of dopamine every time you wear something you did any modifications on. Thank you and goodnight

[rhymeswithdoctor]

Follow along while I make a messenger bag (and dissociate wildly for the next week and change)!

Apparently I didn’t get a picture of the side seams but that’s fine. I shoved the pocket bits out of the way and sewed up both side edges, then did some fiddly fake-felling where I have to kind of sew inside the pocket itself and get as close to the corner as I can given the limits of working with a domestic machine’s geometry. Then I box the corners (having marked them previously). I was cunning this time and shaped the raw edge of the pocket base to have 45 degree angles at each corner, which means that when I pulled the corner flat, the edges of the pockets just kind of snapped into place without a lot of unnecessary drama. This is a huge process improvement for relatively little effort.

Once the box corners has been stitched, it both catches the base of the pocket and forms the bottom corner of the bag. Again having been clever about using my angles when sewing up the pocket assemblage, everything kind of tucks in nicely and we get a nice tight tidy corner despite having some hella complicated fabric geometry going on.

Repeat on the other side and the exterior is damn near done - just needs the flap and straps sewn on. This fabric is pretty floppy but I’m using heavy canvas as the lining, so that should help stiffen up the structure.

[theforesteldritch]

Okay so: here is a post for how to patch jeans because it’s awesome and cheaper and more sustainable than buying new jeans because it makes your jeans last way longer. And when you have an awesome pair of jeans that fit just right you really want to keep your jeans for longer. Also it looks cool. And it’s a pretty easy repair to do. Anyways.

Disclaimer I am not a sewing expert and this is just what works for me. This method only really works for the legs (usually knees because that’s what wears out the fastest usually), I don’t know how to patch the butt without making it look and feel weird.

A sewing machine works best for this but hand sewing should work too, it’ll just take longer and you’ll need to make sure you have good, small even stitches.

Cut a piece of fabric a couple centimetres wider than the hole you want to patch. A big rectangle is usually best even for a circle hole because it’s easier. The exact measurements don’t really matter it just has to be bigger than the hole and have room for hemming. It can be anything, but if you want to make the repair not too conspicuous take some denim of the same colour. You can cut fabric from old clothes that are no longer fixable or you can buy a bit from a fabric store.

Take a little bit of the fabric at the edge of your patch, fold it over and sew around the patch like that. This is called hemming and will prevent the patch from fraying and eventually even falling out of the stitches if the fraying gets bad enough.

Turn your pants inside out, flatten the leg you’re working on on a flat surface and place the patch, making sure to keep it as flat and even with the pants as possible. Pin the patch down, turn your pants back the right way to make sure it looks okay, adjust if needed, then turn them back inside out. If it’s the knee of the pants it’s usually fine to give a bit of extra room because it will bend with your knee.

Pick your thread colour. If you want it to blend in with the denim, pick a light gray for light blue jeans, a medium ish blue for regular blue jeans and a dark gray or black for black jeans.

Sew the edges of your patch to the pants. It’s really important to try to not sew the two sides of your pants together, so try to avoid it, but if it does happen you can just pick the stitches out and try again. Do this all around the patch.

Turn your pants back right side out. The edges of the patch are now attached to the pants, but the hole in the middle is still a fraying hole. Sew the edges just outside of where it frays to the patch.

If you want to be super extra certain of the strength, repeat the stitches in steps 5 and 6 two or more times.

If you want to, cut the frayed fabric away from the former hole in the pants.

And boom you now have patched your jeans!

[helvetica12point]

Doll Trashion Tutorial

So I've mentioned the doll obsession I've had lately and the oh so lovely Gretchen Stripes here arrived recently:

She's a raccoon themed Nanana Surprise teen doll, and they went all in on the trash panda theme. Trash bag shirt, shopping bag shirt, even her printed on jewelry is made of trash.

Anywho, I was chatting with @nanana-dolls about how cool she was and they mentioned the idea of making Gretchen clothes out of candy wrappers and I was immediately inspired because that leans into the trash panda theme even harder and is conceptually hilarious!

So last night I ate some candy and this afternoon I got crafty and it's been ages since I did a tutorial so let's get into it!

I've assumed a pretty basic level of skill, so depending on your own sewing skills some of this may be irrelevant or I may have skipped something you needed. Feel free to skip parts or ask questions as needed for your skill level

Step 1

Gather your candy wrappers! I strongly recommend using waxed paper wrappers-think starburst, now and laters, tootsie rolls, dumdum pops, that sort of thing. Could you do it with with more plasticity wrappers? Maybe, but they tend to tear so easily and it's going to be a lot harder. If you are really determined to use something like a 3 musketeers wrapper, I would honestly use tulle and make see through pockets to put the wrapper in.

I went with Frooties wrappers because we had some in the house and they're bright and colorful.

Step 2

No pics for this one either, but it's easy enough. Get your wrappers as flat as possible. Use a press cloth or bit of scrap fabric on either side of each wrapper and press them flat. Use a lower setting on your iron just in case your wrappers are plasticized instead of waxed. Once you've verified they won't melt, you can crank the heat a bit. I think I used the setting for polyester on mine. You may feel a bit of stickiness when you're done-that just means you got it hot enough for the wax to melt a little. (This is why you've got it sandwiched between fabric, so you don't get wax on your iron).

Step 3

Arrange your wrappers in a pleasing manner. Frooties wrappers have a really nice length, so I just put them in a row and overlapped them. I used 10 to get 7 inches worth of "fabric", but wound up adding a couple more.

Step 4

Normally I would never say this, but we're not using fine fabrics, so go ahead and use a bit of a tape to hold them together along one edge and sew those bad boys together! A 1/4” seam is about the biggest you want for doll clothes to avoid bulk.

If you don't have a sewing machine, definitely use extra tape to hold them together because they're going to suck to hand sew. You can also do whatever size seam you want if you're doing it by hand, it's not crucial at this point.

Under no circumstances pin anything together as, it will leave permanent holes in your wrappers!

Step 5

I added a tulle underskirt so the wrappers wouldn't directly be touching her, and to give the skirt a bit more stability and support. For this I cut a piece of tulle about twice as long as my wrappers, ran out through the machine real quick with a long stitch and gathered it to fit. Then I stitched it to the back of the wrappers. Watch the direction you place your wrappers! The way they're oriented here is correct--if you have them the other way they may get mangled feeding through the machine.

If you've not got a machine this can all be done by hand, and shouldn't be too awful.

Trim any excessive length on the tulle to your desired length. I trimmed mine pretty close to the length of the wrappers but just a hair longer.

Step 6

Do a test fit and just wrap your strip around Gretchen's waist. Make sure the two ends can fully overlap and cover her undies. If they don't, add a a couple more wrappers and a bit more tulle. I used some of the excess I trimmed off.

Steps 7 & 8

This is where it gets hard. Now you've got to figure out a way to fasten it around her. I opted for an elastic waist, but you could do Velcro or whatever you like.

I folded the top edge of the wrappers where everything is sewn over and used that to make a channel. This seam needs to be over 1/4" away from the edge to allow room for the elastic (I used 1/4"elastic). Don't make it crooked like I did; you want a nice wide channel the entire length of the waist.

Get your narrow elastic threading tool of choice and slowly insert the elastic from the bottom most wrapper (the free end in the above pic). Following the overlap will prevent you from poking out between wrappers.

Step 9

Once you've got the elastic in, trim it a little long and overlap it at a point that's appropriate for Gretchen's waist. Stitch it together (I did this by hand cause it's fiddly), trim off the ends and gently move the wrappers over the joint. Gently do a fit test.

Step 10

Make any adjustments needed for a better fit. Hand sewing will probably be your best route here I wound up folding one end over a bit more and stitching it into place just to get it to lay better in the back and cover her bum a bit better. This is also a good point to mend any tears and reinforce any weak spots.

The zig zag is where I overlapped after elastic insertion. You can see a tear along the channel seam where that end was on the narrow side. I'll mend that later.

Step 11

Gently slip the finished skirt up over Gretchen's hips and enjoy!

I think it looks better with her shopping bag shirt than her original skirt, tbh

Various notes:

Wrappers can be stitched together in more places for reinforcement. Paper sews like fabric, except you don't have that give between fibers so any holes made by the needle are permanent.

Theoretically, you might also be able to strengthen and reinforce the wrappers by adding more wax to the paper.

You could also embroider the wrappers, or add a second layer of tulle over them for a more subtle/fancy look

[dailyshowchica]

Loki Cosplay part 5

Previously, on Loki Cosplay: https://www.tumblr.com/dailyshowchica/759378596990271488/loki-cosplay-part-4

All right, there aren't as many pictures in this update. Mostly, what I was doing was laying out the fabric and cutting out pattern pieces. I cut out all the pieces I needed for the coat, the chaps, the boot covers, and the tunic. This was a bit confusing, but I needed to be as efficient as I could with the black vinyl/fake leather. I had 2 reasons for that.

I bought all of the vinyl as remnants/on clearance, and I refuse to pay full price for it ($20/yard or more!)

It's plastic, and anything I waste is gonna end up in a landfill. I wish that wasn't the case, and I'd recycle if if I knew how. But, such is the current late-capitalist hellscape in which we live.

I ended up doing a bit of piecing on the chaps, but it's at the waistband, which will be covered by the tunic.

So, pieces cut out, I started with the most complicated piece: the coat. I cut it out twice, once in the black vinyl, and once in the green flannel lining.

I had the lapel/collar pieces laid out the wrong way, and ended up needing to recut them. Luckily, the larger, left lapel was large enough for me to recut it for the right side. So I only had to recut one lapel. Sewing things that are going to be 3D is tricky, so the bodice itself was the only thing I got done that day. I also had to iron it, to get the lapels flat. They're still pinned open, and I may end up tacking them in place.

Once I got the bodice done, it was time for the skirt. That's two wide panels on the left and right, and four, narrower panels in the back.

The panels themselves were easier, in that i just had to sew them up on 3 sides, then turn them right-side out. But then, I had to sew them to the bodice, and that was way harder than I expected. Four layers of rather thick fabric, at least, plus trying to make sure all the raw edges were folded inside. It took several tries, adjusting my sewing machine three times, and finally, basting with my sewing machine and doing the finishing by hand.

I could pin the skirt panels in, but sewing them in was obnoxious, I'm so glad it's fully assembled!

The detail work still needs to be done, but I plan to sew the chaps and boot covers next, to get most of the vinyl work out of the way first. But I'm gonna take a break for a day or two first!

PS- I didn’t want to make any more holes in the vinyl this I had to, so I traced the pattern pieces. There’s something called tailor’s chalk just for that purpose.

Do I have any? Nope! I used sidewalk chalk. It mostly worked fine.

[bookbindin7b]

Materials and Tools!

These are the materials and needed to create your own books, or just the ones I use. I will include alternatives that have worked for me as well.

Paper. This one is self-explanatory because you need paper to make a book. However, if you are not printing your own books, you could use other materials for an artsy touch. Generally, I use regular 11" x 8.25" copier paper because I simply got used to it.

A ruler. Crucial to measure and mark out places to make holes, and really, you need one for most things bookbinding.

Pencils. You absolutely need pencils. Marking out places to make holes and generally, you should just have a pencil on you.

A bone folder. These are just tools that provide a clean folded edge. Now, it does not necessarily have to be a bone folder. Truthfully, I have used the edge of a die, a butterknife, or just my fingernails before I got my own, and they worked as well as I needed them to. If you are making a book with signatures (a section of paper folded to make a unit), something to fold paper crisply is extremely useful.

A printer or access to a printer. Not really a material, but worth mentioning. This only applies if you are making a book with printed words or images in it.

Glue. PVA glue is what some bookbinders use, but Elmer's school glue works perfectly fine.

A large metal needle. This is for sewing the signatures together. I use a regular sewing needle that I bent so it is easier to maneuver, but preferably you should use one with a larger eye and a stronger build. Sewing needles can prove to be too flimsy and annoying.

Waxed thread. I use a roll of Japanese waxed thread that I happen to have in my home. However, a thick sewing thread or any strong enough thread can work. You can buy it pre-waxed, or wax it yourself, but I prefer the former.

An awl. Or, something similar to poke holes through 12-24 sheets of paper. For a while, I used a thumbtack and I found it worked really well.

A corkboard. Not strictly necessary, but especially useful as a surface to poke holes through paper into without damaging what is underneath.

Scissors. You have to cut a lot of string and occasionally paper throughout this ordeal.

A boxcutter. Not necessary, but helpful if you need to straighten out paper edges.

A paper trimmer, or access to one. I know my school has one and I used it often to trim some of the edges of my paper. It works more efficiently than a boxcutter for this matter, but having perfectly aligned edges of pages is difficult and often unnecessary, to be perfectly frank.

Cutting mat. A need especially if you're using the boxcutter as a tool.

Paintbrushes. I like having them in multiple sizes for convenience. They are mainly used for brushing glue onto the spine of your freshly made textblock, or used as intended to paint handmade hardcovers. (I used my finger to apply glue on the spine actually. A lot. It does work if you need it to.)

Fabric. You can use this to cover your book's cover. You might want to use a different texture, style, or color for the spine of the book.

Chipboard. I use this to make the two covers of the book, and also the spine. Basically, it's sturdy, compressed wood pulp. I use a 2mm or 80pt thickness.

Cardstock or construction paper. This is used for the inner part of the cover, covering the edges of the outside fabric. Can also be used as the backing material for the spine.

A bookpress. Again, not strictly a "material" but a tool. A real bookpress is two strong pieces of wood, connected on four corners by screws that you turn down to press the texblock of a book to lay flatter. Honestly, I do not have one of these. There are multiple tutorials on how to make them (Here and Here), but I use a bunch of very heavy books to lay flat on top of my pages.

If you have any other suggestions or recommendations, feel free to share in the comments or reblogs!

[acnelli]

Moonlight

I wrote a little something for @sliebman10 in the @hp-rarepairs exchange. Thanks to the mods for their hard work. It’s so appreciated.

How I picture Lavender is very much influenced by this beautiful art work by @constancezin.

pairing: Lavender/Parvati | rating: GA | <1k+

Summary: It was a random morning after a nightshift, but the moonlight revealed something beautiful to Parvati.

*** *** ***

It was six in the morning when Parvati was finally ready to end her shift at St. Mungo’s. The change-of-shift had been a quick affair, thanks to a rather uneventful and quiet night. Still, Parvati looked forward to simply falling into her bed, curling up against her girlfriend, and sleeping until the mouthwatering scent of a home- cooked meal would wake her up.

With a quick wave to Martha and Ron, Parvati stepped into the fireplace, hating the feeling of the short floo travel. She preferred Apparating but was far too tired and lazy to walk to the nearest apparation point.

As she stepped out into the dark living room, she noticed the distant sound of music coming from the end of the hall. Parvati didn’t turn on the lights but waited until her eyes adjusted to the dark, the full moon illuminating their flat enough that she could navigate her way to Lavender’s work room.

It wasn’t unusual that Lavender chose the early morning hours to work. She always did so when she worked on a particularly difficult piece that required all of her concentration, making sure that the expensive fabric wouldn’t get ruined by a sewing mishap.

As Parvati pushed open the door, she saw her girlfriend sitting at the desk where she designed her creations, scribbled down measurements, and organized her customer’s orders. Her blonde curls sat on top of her head, held together by a pink hair clip, some strands already escaping and falling into Lavender’s face.

The room was dark except for the lamp on Lavender’s desk and the bright moonlight shining through the large window leading out to their small balcony. With a small twist of her heart, Parvati remembered a time when the curtains had been shut tight against the silver light. Where mirrors had been removed or at least hidden away.

Parvati stepped into the room, alerting Lavender of her presence. Lavender looked up from her work, smiling up at Parvati who gave her a quick peck on the lips.

"How was work?" Lavender asked as she stood up and stretched her limbs. "You look exhausted."

"It was fine." Parvati fished out a thin folder from her bag. "Ron loved them by the way."

Lavender laughed, taking the folder and placing it back onto her desk. "Of course, he does. I think he would love anything I design for him as long as it doesn’t have lace and ruffles."

„He sure suffers from frilly trauma." Parvati smiled. "But really, he was very excited about it. You aren’t the most sought-after designer in Wizarding Britain for nothing, after all."

The song changed to something a little slower, something muggle and romantic, and suddenly Parvati wasn’t too keen anymore to sleep. She stepped around Lavender, switching off the lamp on her desk. "Dance with me?" she asked, offering Lavender a hand.

Lavender smiled and took Parvati‘s hand, who pulled her close. They swayed to the music, arms around each other and Parvati breathed in the scent of Lavender’s shampoo, her floral perfume and something both soothing and delicious that was entirely Lavender Brown.

Parvati kissed the exposed skin at Lavender’s neck, her kisses wandering from right under her ear, down her neck before her lips finally found Lavender’s. She enjoyed the way Lavender’s soft lips let her in, the way she tasted, and how the curve of her hips felt moving under Parvati‘s hands.

As Parvati broke the kiss she looked at her girlfriend and placed a soft peck over one of the scars that covered Lavender’s left side of her face, neck and even part of her chest. Years ago Parvati wouldn’t have dared to tell Lavender how beautiful she looked like this, bathed in moonlight. Now though, she could easily tell her, and Lavender would smile at the compliment.

It was impossible for Parvati to explain why right at this moment she thought about marriage for the very first time. But as they were surrounded by countless dress robes and wedding gowns for friends and other customers, Parvati imagined how she and Lavender would do each other’s nails and make-up, braid and style their hair. How beautiful their wedding dress robes would be, designed and made by Lavender. How Padma and her mother would do her wedding hennas.

Parvati thought about all of this and how their reception would be another legendary Gryffindor wedding. She didn’t know when she would ask Lavender to marry her, but she knew that she wanted to be with her beautiful best friend.

Forever dancing in the moonlight.

*** *** ***

You can also read this on AO3

[lemontartca]

Somehow I went from working on Entrapta to nearly completed on Perfuma in like two weeks.

Okay, I know how. I prepped their bodies at the same time and had Perfuma jump the queue for body repaints because I wasn't sure how to handle Entrapta's hair and wanted to experiment with rerooting on Perfuma since her hairstyle is more low stakes, and after I had rerooted her it felt like I was so far in I might as well finish... Plus I really wanted to be sure it was fine to reuse/mix the paint and that was a good call because I was repainting scuffed patches even today. I refuse to seal with varnish because all the ones I have come out way too shiny for skin, and I don't want to try to buy more, so I just spray with my adhesion improver to seal, plus all the layers of MSC I need throughout the faceup. It's not ideal, but I'm not planning to do more repaints after this series and they're just for display with clothing covering most of their joints.

For some reason, the pencil I used on her brows would always look good when I was working on them, and then when I came back the next day would almost have faded away, so I ended up painting them in after these photos but you'll have to wait for the final photos (hopefully tomorrow!) to see them. Putting the eyebrows on this custom also made me realize why I often don't click with Frankie dolls in person even if I love their concept: it's the forehead. The forehead is just too big and square. And it makes sense for a frankenstein, don't get my wrong! I just personally don't click with it, and it's not great for a human custom. If I had realized before I was doing the faceup, I probably would have tried to bring the hairline down a little, but you also can't start plugging in the middle of the forehead slope... I don't know. At least I understand what throws me off about the doll now.

The dress was super quick to throw together, I actually tried to make it look "nicer" by having it be two separate pieces like Mermista's and not just fabric marker like Glimmer's, but the fabric I used wasn't stretchy and the gapping from it actually looked worse than the marker. And again: not buying more supplies right now (although this time it's because the fabric store is over an hour away), so marker it is! At least making the dress was super fast compared to my hours spent patterning everything else I've tried to make.

Starting with Mermista and especially switching over to this doll, I changed my philosophy with what I was trying to accomplish. Researching Mermista I realized the official dolls for these characters (mostly Mermista and Catra) are actually very inaccurate to what they look like in the show, but the spirit was right so it never really occurred to me. As a result, I'm trying to do the best I can on doll scale with limited supplies, but I'm not worrying about things like adding the little keyhole to her neckline or cutouts in her straps. Her shoes are also going to be very, very different, but they're in the spirit of the original design, so I think they work well. I'm modifying Lagonna's shoes from the snack shack playset (it was on a very good sale!) by just adding the flower on the cross-strap from the original design and then filling up the heel with flowers. The original design is in flats, but since I'm modifying existing shoes for all these dolls, all of them are getting a boost up and I think she needs to keep that height to not look out of place. Also I don't want to try to cut the bottom of the shoe in half. Spirit of the original, remember!

The only thing I have left to do is sew together her shawl (I kind of forgot it existed until yesterday) and to finish styling her hair (it's drying right now and then I need to add the flowers), and then I'll be done for now! At some point I would like to make her a tiara like the rest, but I have no idea how to make a physical item that looks anything like what she wears in the show considering none of the pieces are connected to anything, much less on that scale, so it's shelved for now. She had multiple looks not wearing it and I can't decide if it would help or make the forehead situation worse, so it's shelved for now but on my running list of "would be nice one day"s.

Hopefully I'll have time to sew that robe and finish her hair tomorrow, and then I know I'm going to instantly want to take photos, so if that's not tomorrow then it's certainly coming some time this week!

[purplecalluna]

Simplicity

for spring 2017 and now

I sat “criss cross apple sauce” on the industrial carpeted floor in the basement of the national parks federal building west of Denver, Colorado, fingering alphabetically through and pulling out one each of every map they have available while the staff continued to go about their work day around me. Each piece of the national park system has a visitor guide you receive at the gate or the front desk. Instead of picking them up one at a time, I was grabbing the set all at once. Occasionally a ranger at a distant park would be surprised that I had the “old” version, or the “wow where can WE get that?”

Grouped by region and then by state, those visitor guides are the backbone of my planning. The USDA plant hardiness zone maps of last and first frost help me figure out timing so we aren’t ever too surprised by weather, and the National park system map helps me figure out the loops. I make several rough draft loops, fine tuning the distances and what to see and how to get there using a paper road atlas and the KOA map. I NEVER rely solely on the computer or internet or gps or cell phone service. When you are halfway between nowhere and nowhere, you need paper maps in a physical binder.

The Binder becomes the daily planner- filled with one photo sleeve per day of the trip, it has the map on the right with the plan for the day written out on the backside of the receipt for the location we are staying that night. Turn the page each morning and go. It is a metric ton of planning ahead of time but then it is done for me by the time I get there and I can just enjoy the day. It turns out that my past self is the adult I hold a nervous hand and travel with every day through the magic of The Binder.

I try to get the monuments in between the parks- why not- we will be driving right past. Plus- the monuments are the icing on the cake- they are less visited and therefore we get the place and many times the rangers to ourselves to ask all the questions we can come up with.

I holler when I first see each entry sign- “Martin sees a Monument!” and we get out and take a photo of the kids with the laminated flat cartoon scribble colored Martin Luther paper doll and the entry sign. FlatMartin gets his own photo posted to twitter sans kids to let our city family know we made it ok to each place.

Once at the front desk, we stamp their National Park passport book that is brimming full with extra pages, stamp the “M is for Majestic” picture book, and I have the kids get a Junior Ranger booklet from the rangers right away and start in on it immediately. They will earn that shinny pin before we leave and I buy the fabric patch to sew on later. Believe me, after a dozen or so, the shiny pins on the Junior Ranger vests begin to make the kids look like a disco ball. (We were able to use a pin to flash signal the South Rim from the North Rim.) The pins get lost, are used as car weapons, caught on things and are, in large numbers, overwhelming, so they left at home before the next major trip, pinned politely on a 3 by 4 foot piece of canvass fabric map of the USA nailed on their bedroom wall. The Junior Ranger books are hole punched and put in a 3 inch binder back in the car to keep the car from being a paper disaster zone. The binders line a shelf in each bedroom like photo albums. I laugh that the passport book will be thunked down on a therapist’s desk someday- “See? THIS is what she did to us!”

Other than the trinket fabric patch, I agree to buy a tshirt for each kid from each national park. If they want to spend their own money on anything else, they are welcome to it. Usually, the shirt and the patch they choose is sufficient to satisfy their desire to have mom buy something for them. It also helps the trinket collector we each seem to have built into us. I never let them take even a pebble with them as collecting is not ok within the NPS system. I try my very best to make sure we are following all of the Leave No Trace principles. I also learn as we go and have had to apologize a few times to a Ranger when I didn’t do it right. (I am sorry- I won’t catch lizards anymore- it makes the lizard less wild and more tame and more likely to get hurt- don’t touch the wildlife even if you think you are teaching your kids to not be afraid of lizards.)

Their Junior Ranger vests are full, the super hero cape that is NPS tan with a new olive border has 97 patches on each one so far with room for 33 more before I have to get even more creative. We are quite the sight running excitedly up to the Ranger’s front desk in long sleeve sun shirts, sear sucker and linen pants, floppy brimmed hats, massive dark sunglasses, and the national park vests and capes catching the wind. Many times a park has sister parks nearby and occasionally the afternoon monument will laugh and say “Sister Park called us and told us you would come.” And then hand to the kids the Junior Ranger booklets they had stashed for us. The Rangers love looking at the capes and asking the kids about their adventures, many jealous that the kids have seen more parks than the Ranger have.

As for me? I have one patch that says “National Park Geek” sewn to my hiking bag. Simplicity sometimes is the better way to go.

[greentrickster]

@angelface273 If you don’t mind me asking, do you know how he got in that condition? I’m fascinated how someone managed to mess up the order of shirt then tie in the first place, much less everything else

Not at all! I got him on eBay, so I don't know the full story (though the state of wear of his beak fur has me thinking 'got played with very thoroughly by a child' (which, I mean, fair)), but I think I can explain it, since I had to reverse-engineer the problems to fix them!

First off, his coat is, in its 'original' state, held shut by stitching at two points in the front, low-key mimicking buttons. Someone cut those stitches, allowing the coat to pop open, probably thinking it would just be Gary with his lab coat open. However, the coat's a tiny bit tight, so that when it's closed properly it gives the impression of a neatly-fitting lab coat, but once loosed, it's not the right shape or fabric to just hang there or stay in place - instead, it's more inclined to ride up his body, around his neck. So that's why it's all rucked up. I actually got another 'before' picture with everything pulled straight:

The tie's made of a nice lightweight but shiny material that does do a very good job of looking like a proper tie - in fact, the shirt, tie, and coat are all made of different weights and textures of fabric, which really help make it look like he's wearing a proper outfit when it's all in the correct place - nice touch!

Anyway, as the picture shows, the tie's sewn to the shirt in such a way that, when folded down and held in place by the lab coat, it hides its own seam, a clever sewing trick! Unfortunately, the tie's material is much heavier and thicker than the shirt, so without any outside pressure or extra stitching to hold it in place, it naturally wants to flip into Gary's face. I personally snuck a couple stitches under the tie's 'knot' to make it lie on the shirt better, then sewed the jacket shut at two points in the front.

The lab coat collar also, initially, had two points of stitching on the lapels to make them lie flat, one side of which had been removed. As is sometimes the case for toys like this, the side that was still stitched actually had its stitches slightly off-mark, preventing the collar from lying flat instead, so I undid those stitches and discovered, to my pleasure, that the collar actually lies neatly just fine on its own once the coat was stitched shut.

Which leads to the final, most subtle fix - his glasses! Part of the reason they're lying a little oddly in the first picture is that, when someone was stitching them on, they got the positioning off, meaning the 'arm' on Gary's left bulged forward, forcing the glasses to sit crookedly on his face. The previous owner had actually twisted the glasses all the way around to make them fit more tightly to try and correct this problem. Personally, I untwisted the glasses, removed the stitches on the left side, adjusted the angle, and stitched them on again so they sit properly.

And boom, that's what went wrong, and also how I fixed him! Isn't it always so amazing how much of a difference a few stitches here and there can make to a project? I always think so, at least. Anyway, Repairatron3000 signing out! ;)

I ordered a Gary the Gadget Guy plush a few days ago and he showed up today! And-

...oh.

Oh no. One of his inventions must have malfunctioned and exploded during the journey! Quickly, activate the Repairatron3000!!!

There we go, all better! Pleased to have you on the team, Gary!

In all seriousness, I knew what condition he was in when I ordered him... and also that it would be really easy to get him fixed up. >u> Though, in a slightly unfortunate twist of fate, I did literally prick my finger with a needle by mistake while fixing his coat, hard enough that my first discovery of this was the little speck of red on Gary's lab coat. Up side: I got it out just fine (fun fact: spitting on it then giving it a few rinses with water is a really effective way to get blood out of cloth, or at least get it to only being a very pale, hard-to-notice stain). Down side, I think this may count as some sort of a blood pact between me and Club Penguin. Which could be awkward, because I never played it, I just got really attached to some of the characters because of fan content and a few youtube videos, so if I have to go to the island, I won't know what I'm doing. o_oU

[mysewingadventures]

Making an early 1900s corset cover

Hey everyone, I’ve been absent for so long and that has many reasons, my studies are definitely taking up so much more time than I had anticipated. I feel like I should mention that I am not studying dress history, so like I always say - costuming is a hobby of mine but please be aware that I might not always be 100% correct about things. But I am minoring in art history where we do occasionally talk about costumes so... it’s something? Anyways, a while ago I made a corset cover that I forgot to take pictures of when it was finished, so now I’m doing that. But first, this is what I was roughly going off of:

Having made some more complex things before I thought hey, this can’t be that hard? It’s basically just a bodice shaped piece of fabric with ruffles on. And surprisingly, I wasn’t that far off from the truth. I still severely underestimated the time that it took to sew all of those six pieces of ruffles on. That being said, here’s where I started:

Please excuse the fact that it’s not ironed, I was making it kind of in a rush.

I did make a mockup first that I tried on and made sure everything fits, but didn’t take a picture. Here you can see the mock up parts cut out of fashion fabric. I got out my french curve for the first time and was totally expecting to fail but it worked out really well! I used it to draw in all the curved lines. The reason only the back is curved and not the front is because I wanted the back to sit flat while the front would be gathered with a string and tied in the front, to help create that pigeon breast silhouette without having the back be puffy as well. As you can see, for that to work I’ve had to adjust the length of the side edges in the front so they had the same length as the curved ones.

So then I sewed all the edges together and cleaned them up right after so I wouldn’t have to do that later when it’s done.

I then cut out some rectangular strips for the ruffles and folded over and stitched all edges but one - the one that would be ruffled. Instead, I did a running stich that I could pull on to gather it, and then machine stitch it to the rest. Here’s where I began to struggle: I didn’t really know how to attach the ruffle so it would look nice. I didn’t necessarily want the stitches to be on top, so I initially stitched it upside down to the fold it over but that didn’t work at all, so I had to take it all out again and just stitch it down normally.

I kind of just eyeballed where I wanted the ruffles to go, used a ruler to rougly make sure the ruffled pieces are the same length and tried putting them all about three centimeters apart. I do like how the ruffles curve up on the sides, I thought the finished piece looks so much better like this.

Like I said, I wasn’t super happy with the top stitching, and since I had some white ribbon left I used that to cover it up.

Then it was time to insert the string, aka that same white ribbon. I originally wanted to add a separate channel for that but I thought maybe I can just use the cleaned up edge for it. I used a bobby pin to get that ribbon through this makeshift channel but it worked.

So then I added the buttons and made little “buttonholes” out of thread and sewed five buttons in place.

Here’s the finished piece. And you know what the ironic part is? It doesn’t fit me over a corset. And I have nothing but my own stupidity to blame. Thing is, I made this in order to wear under a dress that I’m going to make at some point, and I’m not really planning on wearing a corset with it (I want to modernize it a little), so I wanted something to help with the silhouette. So I never took my measurments in a corset, and I thought if I leave a little wiggle room it’ll be fine. No, learn from my mistakes and take your measurments! It’s not that big of a deal though because I did make it specifically with that dress in mind and having it fit over a corset would’ve just been a nice plus. And if I really try I can make it fit, it’s just a tiny bit small.

So, long story short, corset covers are great and not hard to make if you don’t make these obvious mistakes.