#the style is kinda wonky but i’ve done this very quickly

[juxlijan]

White space

[harrenhollaback]

fic graphics i made this year! ✨

orphan’s club | for my very first fic ever in my whole entire life! i think i wrote like 2? pieces of fiction before this point and one took place in a 7-11 and the other was about baked alaskas. okay i’m JUST connecting that to me doing diner fic for my first go. okay werk... i’m also really sad i lost the illustrator file to this bc i wanted to go back and color in my cookies. oi and i remember i originally wanted to doodle a different piece for each SECTION of the fic lmao the hubris!! but. looking at this, it really does have the most special place in my heart (’: 

valyrian steel play | i’m obsessed with the catspaw dagger design so it makes up the two horns here! this one was quick work bc i already had the dagger done for a suuuper cursed illustration that i will never try showing anyone ever again (but i love it for ME). i really wanted these b&w headers to be a thing across my fics but for the life of me to this day, TO THIS DAY, i can NOT get my images on AO3 to center!! even if i use work skins!! america, explain???

blame it on the goose | oh what a sweet 2am it was putting this together realizing that geese are white like horses are white. listen. i fell so hard in love with this stoopit goose without ever playing its game. couldn’t even bear adding blood splatter to it. when the goose pic was missing a foot and part of its wing, i patched it out of love. it also has its own shadow on the rubble and i’m v proud of it even though it’s the easiest button to press on photoshop lmao

bonus in-game style! this is a collage! to-do list screencapped from here. arya and gendry are LUCKILY from a stock image!! otherwise i really was going to spend time vectorizing these little fucks even though i’ve only ever vectored objects. all i did was remove eyes, blacken gendry’s hair, and add head wound to arya. goose had me tooo committed to the visual. ps this sack of birb literally just goes around terrorizing towns and collecting golden bells from towers and you cannot tell me that that’s not king’s landing!! the one thrones crossover that's just meant to be.

storm uncles | oh gosh look away. this is the only place i’m going to share this one lol. truthfully making this gave me nothing but pure joy!! i used to stare at the image of the bg waves as i wrote and it would soothe me (’: this is still my first attempt at a multichap and i’m kinda back to believing i will finish it? i write dropped hard after the second chap and realized the orphan button is really good ux for inner saboteurs. but! i’m patient with the work it takes to unlearn self-doubt, embrace buckwilidism, and find solace in it’s not that serious. + i got two three?! really kind comments recently that multiplied the hope cells in my body. shoutsouts laura, anniephl, and risscat on ao3. ( : fun fact: after i finished writing renly for the first time, i read olenna’s first appearance in asos and a ton of her verbiage was down in my renly. the validation doth flowed even if they are not the same person but. the tyrellian adjacent extravagance and the baratheon petty is why i love my boy.

the muscle | this one came together pretty quickly and seamlessly and it’s now my favorite thing! the bg, band pic, wolf, and polaroid frame are all from stock. everything else is from like an online store’s product page lmao. watermark lines are still on the tickets but idgaf!! i also love owning a tablet just so i can use it for “lettering” that looks like this lol

cute lil ticket closeup! cassette bg is stock and the yellowy layer is actually a postcard texture that i accidentally pasted and ended up liking bc it kinda looks like there’s a dirty glass case! i wish i took out the border on the left but it’s too late lmao

looking at this “progression” truly makes me so happy. i am an otter floating on its back hugging my five little shells like ah, yes, i will have the contentment and the buoyancy too. i love that fandom can be a space to just do what the fuck ever. it’s so freeing and jush-inducing to make things for fun again. next year i wanna experiment more with collages, maybe even doodle my first human body, and hopefully make things for others. just wanna get a little wonky, a little abstract, and a lot lot silly

to more creative nonsense in 2020! 🎉

[mysticsparklewings]

Figures in Good Style

It's about time I got this one finished and uploaded! This piece was inspired by this adorable vintage Valentine: Vintage Valentines - Worth Your While graciously posted by Yesterdays-Paper   Believe it or not, I actually started on the sketch back in January not long after the original Valentine was posted. (From pretty much the moment I saw it I wanted to draw something inspired by it so I've had it open in another tab so I wouldn't forget this entire time! ) I got about halfway through and started to run into...not really problems so much as frustration. Some of the details were just not working out the way I wanted, the proportions looked wonky, etc. So I gave up and worked on some other things for a little while; some things that were on my to-do list, others that came up as I went along, stuff like that. The longer I went, the more it was looking like the sketch was going to be abandoned, especially as it drew closer to Valentine's Day (because originally I wanted to post it before then for hopefully obvious reasons). But all the while there was this voice in the back of my mind more or less egging me on to go back to it. One night when I was feeling artsy but had finished my other projects, I decided to go back to it. This was one of those times where there must've been something artful in the air because even though it was still trying my patience a little, I didn't get discouraged like I did before and powered through to finish the sketch. (Well, what I was calling finished, anyway.) And somewhere in the mix, I had decided to see it through to completion, after Valentine's Day or not.   Compared to the original, I did alter some details and age the two characters up a bit to better suit my own style. The eyes, in particular, I couldn't make out the color on the original that well, so I gave the girl blue eyes to tie in with the boy's shirt and he got green eyes to go with her dress. I think it connects them a bit more since otherwise, their looks don't really go together. I sat on the sketch for a day or two to figure out what I wanted to do exactly beyond just coloring it. I ended up doing the line art on this Parchment Paper by Strathmore that I got on clearance sometime last year, And I really should use that stuff more often. It's got five tinted colors to pick from (I went with the darker of two creamy/tannish options here) and the pages have a sort of subtle marbled look to them. It's also pretty smooth, so markers work pretty nicely on it, but not so smooth that colored pencils won't stick. It's only the 200 series, 60 lb. so it's kinda thin, but I haven't had any issues with that. (Beyond the very obvious I am never taking water to this paper because I am very sure it wouldn't hold up to it very well). I thought the creamy and marbled look would fit with the vintage theme, and the tints of the paper are light enough that they don't affect the color too much. Because I was feeling a little lazy I went with doing a base layer in alcohol markers--good, even coverage pretty quickly without having to build up layers--do a little minor shading, and then deepen up the shadows with pencils. This worked quite well, and again this is something I should do more often. I like colored pencils, but they do tend to take a little longer. I also like markers, but sometimes it's intimidating to me to try and get enough depth/shading/etc. with them alone. (Only thing is I can't use the markers on my tan and gray papers, which is a shame) Originally I wasn't going to include the little pattern on the girl's skirt, but once I started working with the pencils I said, "eh, I can do a little quick sketch-in with a darker green" and then later I accented it with a Pentel Sparkle Pop, so IRL when you move the picture it sparkles. This led me to add the ribbon on the boy's hat so he would have some glitter too. (I did do a couple of gold buttons on him, but it didn't feel like enough). The gold on the fan also sparkles; leaving it plain white in that spot didn't feel right. Then obviously I took my white gelly roll to them, And IRL the shine on their eyes somehow now looks almost like it's glowing because it is so nice and bright . Now, I had figured out while I was doing all this that I didn't want to just leave it on the paper and that be that. Once I was done with the coloring and everything, I let the drawing sit for another day or two and thought about what else I could/wanted to do with it. From my Elizabeth Tower piece, I have this stack/block of paper printed with maps/test/ledgers/etc. On a whim, I started flipping through it, possibly to cut and mount the drawing on a piece. I went through a few different ideas, but I ultimately came back to this piece left over from the Tower; I'd cut a butterfly out of one corner. I hated to waste a whole new piece to cover up most of it, so I was thinking about how I could use this piece that had already been marred. I still had the butterflies I used; So I pulled one out and cut one out of the other corner  To fill it out, I pulled out on the ledger pages and mounted it on that, then cut out the drawing and mounted it on that. Though I hadn't planned on it, I ended up mounting my little paper sandwich on a piece of my metallic cardstock just to give it some more stability. (The cardstock I got pretty cheap and don't use it that much, so I don't mind using it for stuff like that.) Some details and proportions still came out a little bit funny, but ultimately I'm happy with it. It's cute, and the different papers make it feel a bit fancier. This was also the piece that put a nicer paper cutter than the one my mom got from the dollar store many years ago on my art shopping list because that one was still cutting crooked and giving me trouble.  (I have since purchased a pretty nice one by Fiskars that works wonderfully from Wal-Mart). I went with "Figures in Good Style" for the title as it comes from the text on the original and seemed like a good fit. Next up...hmm...I've got a new resource to share, a colored pencil test, and another test, but I also have one other thing that's not quite finished I plan on wedging in there somewhere. ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

[forcedapotheosis-blog]

My first Bloodborne run!

Whaddup fellas! Last weekend was really special for me and I just have to share it. Besides spending some quality time with my girl, I was finally able to play Bloodborne (.. since I’m not going to buy a PS4 for just two games, Nioh being the other) and it was a great experience. Well, since I’m a writer, I’ll write about that experience, focussing on the bosses (I went for every boss within the main course of the story, gotta go for the Chalice bosses the next time I get the opportunity). The way I’m gonna do it is that I’ll give you what I roughly remember my SL was when going for the boss, the approximate amount of deaths and general thoughts about the design. Also, I can’t really remember the order I did the bosses, so if you think something is fishy about that, you might be right.

Note 1: For the first time in my SoulsBorne-history, I didn’t go with a 40/40 quality build but went with a Bloodtinge-Chikage-spec, since I freaking love the style of this weapon and consider ‘Bloodtinge’ the most interesting stat, lore-wise, to date. Also, I might have overleveled a bit since my aim was to create a 120 pvp spec, too.

Note 2: I have hundreds, if not thousands of hours put into Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls 1, 2 and 3, but my focus was mostly PvP’ing with the occasional NG+ Run. Just a fair warning, don’t expect the opinion of a Souls-virgin. 

Note 3: Since the game has been out for a really long time, I knew a lot about it. Mostly from watching PvP streamers and speedruns.

Note 4: All of the bosses have been faced solo (well, I accidentally summoned an NPC hunter before Paarl, but died anyway. So let’s not count that.).

Note 5: Started with the Threaded Cane, switched to the Riflespear somewhere in the middle and used the Chikage after Cainhurst for the rest of the game.

Let’s get to it, then!

1. Cleric Beast (SL 10ish, ~5-10 deaths.)

Yeah, the amount of deaths is a little embarassing to admit (just wait a little longer, the boss I’m going to embarass myself the most with will be coming soon), since the Cleric Beast really isn’t a hard boss. Maybe it was because I tried to gunparry it most of the time (and couldn’t get the timing down) and forgot the old technique of burying my face in its arse? I honestly don’t know, but I’m sure that the camera wasn’t helping me out too much. Not much else to say, but starting my NG+ run, I did it first try! Yay.. 

2. Father Gascoigne (SL 15ish, maybe? 3-5 deaths.)

Okay, first things first. In my personal opinion, Gascoigne is an amazing fight (since I always liked the duel bossfights in Souls) and I didn’t cheese him with the toy. The setting is amazing and knowing the lore behind the character makes it even better. He got me a few times, either because I was becoming too greedy or because he was spamming his blunderbuss, but all in all it’s very fair and pushes the player to adapt to the more aggressive style of combat in Bloodborne (which I absolutely, positively love).

3. Blood Starved Beast (Ol’ Flappyskin! SL 20-30ish, I think. First try.)

My feelings about Flappyskin are a mixed bag, to be honest. Just before I fought him I remembered that a streamer (might have been Peeve) had some massive problems facing it and I feared that I might run into the same issues. Of course I knew that I could use the cocktails to cheese it but didn’t do it. Also, as with every other enemy that’s not human, I wasn’t able to learn the timing to parry the attacks, but that didn’t matter in the long run. Actually, I was kinda disappointed since it looked way more difficult and aggressive when I first saw it. Still, the design is pretty dope.

4. Witch(es) of Hemwick (I’m gonna give up on writing down my SL, can’t remember it for the life of me. First try.)

While I absolutely love the creepy design of the Witch, the bossfight itself was more of a pushover, also I knew about the second, invisible witch. If the trashmobs they spawn would be a bit more aggressive though, this fight could be pretty difficult. Other than that, it dragged on for about five minutes of me kiting and playing hide-and-seek with them. Not much to write home about.

5. Shadows of Yharnam (First try.)

I was actually surprised how easy they were. A little spacing, usage of line of sight and being able to reliably parry the melee-only-dude made my life relatively easy. To be honest, the Shadows/Ringwraiths/Goths are the boss that I’d consider the least memorable out of Bloodborne, though their transformations in the later phases of the fight were pretty cool (and those giant snakes coming from the ground, dude!). All in all, Forbidden Woods was annoying as all hell and quickly became a skip fest for me, thus I was pretty happy to be done with them first try.

6. Vicar Amelia (Hahahahaha, probably 15-20 deaths. And I promise you that’s not the most embarassing fight yet.)

Yeah, Vicar Amelia. Damn. I didn’t go into this fight with a whole lot of knowledge about her, her moveset nor did I really care about her when I watched videos about BB. And it showed, she mercilessly smacked me again and again and again until I was finally able to put her to rest. In retrospective, I think that she’s a damn good boss, both gameplay- and design-wise. And getting slapped by her made me appreciate the work put into this boss a lot more.

7. Darkbeast Paarl (2 deaths.)

I honestly don’t know what to say about Paarl. His design is great and with that face of his it’s damn scary, too. That said, having to look at him for an extended period of time really did put a strain on my eyes (due to the electricity-effect) and the camera put up one hell of a struggle to stop me from whooping his ass (well, it’s a Souls tradition, isn’t it?), but I don’t think that he’s too difficult. Maybe I was already overleveled when I faced him? Dunno.

8. Rom, the Vacuous Spider (1 death.)

Isn’t she cute? Yeah, you’re a good girl, trying to keep the Bloodmoon away from us humans. Let’s be honest about it, the fight with Rom isn’t exactly challenging if you don’t get greedy and take your time with dodging her arcane attacks and picking her spiderbros one by one. Still, the setting is beautifully done, ‘falling’ into the lake is just perfect and mercykilling ol’ Willem because I’m a jerk was a must, too. I think I died to her because I wasn’t ready to dodge her arcane whatever missiles or was it the AoE?

9. Martyr Logarius (2 deaths, I think, and I did him before Rom but am too lazy to change it, now)

Never really liked the bosses design and the lore behind him and the Executioners, to be honest. All I knew and cared about was that he was standing between me and the Chikage. Then he got slapped. Ah, during his second (or third?) face, when he slams his sword into the ground that unleashes a neverending barrage of magic, I really got pressured. Then I remembered, with like 3 vials left, that you could destroy the sword for good. After that, he was a cakewalk since his melee attacks are really, really easy to parry. I absolutely love Cainhurst Castle though, I actually was expecting to run into Bela Lugosi the whole time.

10. One Reborn (I think. 2-3 deaths, as far as I remember.)

Let’s start with the positive things: His entrance is freaking dope and you know it! The design of this boss is alright, I’d say, but I’m getting a little tired of skeletons (unless you’re Nito, First of the Dead, then you can be my skeleton all the time). Regarding the arena .. yeah, well, I played DeS and Tower Knight was a pushover, so I won’t give any nostalgia points. I really have nothing else to say about him, the few times he got me it was basically because I got greedy and his AoE burned through my health like acid (that said, the AoE looks freaking amazing. I mean, interdimensional or whatever clouds he can rip open to let it rain blood, limbs and gore? C’mon, that’s some dope ass Clive Barker shit right here!)

11. Amygdala (Maybe? Around 4-5 deaths.)

Well, where to start? My visit to the Nightmare Frontier was pretty short and Winter Lanterns are freaking annoying as fuck. Amygdala itself was .. I don’t know, a somewhat average fight. Don’t get me wrong, as with many other bosses in the game, I think the design is done amazingly and it’s creepy as shit, but other than that I didn’t have too much of a problem to dodge the attacks. The things that were difficult were the camera (again D:) and the fact that I couldn’t bury my face in its ass since the legs took very little damage and I felt that the hitboxes for the arms were a little wonky, but that might’ve been my own fault. What I’ll admit is that ripping out your own arms to defeat an enemy is probably only a good idea if you have a lot of them to spare, anyway.

12. Micolash, Host of the Nightmare ( .. shit, you can now laugh at me. Really. Like .. I don’t know, 25-30 deaths? Might’ve been even more, I stopped counting.)

“Aaah, Kos, or some say Kosm, do you hear our prayers?”

“Oooooh, majestic! A hunter is a hunter, even in a dream ..”

That’s by far my most embarassing boss fight to date. When I’ve seen him on streams, he always seemed like a pushover (that said, I always thought that his voice actor really freaking nailed the monologue, providing memes and one of my favorite quotes in the game) and I thought that I’d probably first try him. And then he started oneshotting me with A Call Beyond and twoshotting me with Augur of Ebrietas. When I finally had a somewhat good fight against him, his bros staggered me into an Augur. It was living hell. This guy, who I thought was probably the easiest boss in the whole game, absolutely fucking humiliated me. 

13. Celestial Emissary (First try, I think. One death at most.)

What can I say? The design is pretty cool and out of the orderly, but the Celestial Emissary is a pushover. When he gets bigger, he just provides a bigger target. The positive thing I have to say is that the orphanage in Upper Cathedral Ward was scary as fuck and I had flashbacks to Tower of Latria (and Resident Evil :D) when the .. dudes, whatever they are, sucked out my insight. Other than that, not a memorable boss at all.

14. Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos (3-4 deaths.)

I love the design, it reminds me a lot of Cthulhu’s Star Spawn, other than that she has interesting lore behind her and I honestly felt a little bad to slaughter her. Poor girl was just standing around and trying to resurrect what looked like Rom, I even took a sweet selfie with her. For the fight itself, I honestly feel like I cheesed her. I gave myself a good sip of Arianna’s blood, transformed the Chikage, buried my face between her buttocks and R1-spammed away. She wasn’t even trying to annihilate me with A Call Beyond. If I wouldn’t have done that, there would probably have been more deaths.

15. Mergo’s Wet Nurse (1-2 deaths.)

As expected, the ‘final’ boss of the game was a huge let-down. I don’t think she’s that interesting from a design point of view and fighting her is way too easy. I mean, yeah, she’s got some attacks that can potentially combo you into oblivion, but if you manage to side-dash them, you can hack away at her exposed back. Also, she didn’t try to clone herself when fighting me. Don’t know what more to say.

16. Gehrman, The First Hunter (First try.)

“Tonight, Gehrman joins the hunt ..”

Oh fuck yes! How long I’ve been waiting to hear that line from you .. what can I say, I basically love everything about the fight with Gehrman. His pre-asskicking-one-liner, the design of his badass Burial Blade, the beautiful and somewhat tranquil scenery, his anime flashstepping all over the place. It’s just perfect. The speed and aggressiveness .. hell yeah. That cool old dude will hold a special place in my heart next to Artorias, Ornstein&Smough, Sir Alonne (yeah, he was kinda easy, but a pretty cool fight anyway), Gwyn, False King Allant and Nameless King. Really nothing more to say, the fight is just a piece of art. Used Bold Hunter’s Mark right after the fight to avoid NG+ for the time being.

17. Ludwig, The Holy Blade (3 deaths.)

Well, what a way to begin the DLC. Design-wise, he’s not really compelling for me, probably because he reminds me too much of that wannabe rapist horse demon from Berserk. And I honestly don’t have a soft spot for horses in general. Also, I never did care about the Moonlight Greatsword since I usually run 40/40 quality and can’t use it anyway. The fight itself is brutal, aggressive and freaking dope, at least until he hits his second phase. It might just be me having problems to read the movements of the beasts in this game, but his second phase was just so much easier to read and react to than the first and as soon as I was able to get him below 50%, I smacked him to the ground. Yeah, the deaths only occured during his first phase. Still, the first phase is amazing and balls to the wall, one more reason to like old Horseface (I told him that his church hunters fucked up big time, though, because I’m a jerk). But I offed him afterwards, anyways. Because of that annoying laughter. Because he was worthy to receive the gift of mercy.

18. Living Failures (2 deaths, I think?)

Let’s be real here, these guys were pushovers, I knew it, got greedy and they smacked me to the ground. Twice. I really don’t have anything else to say about them, they just look like the Celestial Emissary with the heads of .. those people who have been experimented on. The only redeeming quality about them is that they made the next fight stand out even more ..

19. Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower (First try.)

“A corpse .. should be left well alone.”

.. well, what do you expect? I loved every second of this fight. I love Lady Maria’s character design, her Rakuyo, her lore, her grace, her flash stepping. The scenery is great, too, but I prefer Gehrman’s. Really not much else to say. She’s bae and can smack me down for a rematch anytime she wants. The fight with her is just a dance and since I used the Old Hunter’s Bone, we both used the anime flash stepping and its coolness just got quadrupled.

20. Laurence, The First Vicar (2 deaths. Or 3, at most.)

“I must take my leave.”

Look who it is, Cleric Beast is back with a reskin and rebalanced for the endgame! Sucks to be you, because in the meantime, I got gud! Other than that, I don’t have a lot to say about Laurence. The design is alright (probably even better if you think about it, fire and beasts and stuff .. but yeah, you think about that yourself with all the lore implications and whatnot), he’s by no means a pushover and his third phase troubled me a bit. The lore behind Laurence also is pretty cool if you want to understand the big picture of Bloodborne.

21. Orphan of Kos (Deaths .. hell, I stopped counting. Surely way above 20.)

“The Sky and the Cosmos are one. You’ve got to thank: Yourself.” - Me, after beating that SoB.

What can you say? He’s the most difficult boss I fought in Bloodborne and one of the most difficult, at least for me, in the whole series. But, and that’s amazing, for all the right reasons. His aggressiveness really put me on the edge and I tried a whole lot of things against him, switching the terrain to fight, parry-fish .. whatever, nothing worked. Couldn’t get his parry windows down and got smacked and slapped and stomped again and again, for over 1 1/2 hours. Funnily enough, when I finally succeeded I switched back to my old modus operandi, relying on pure reflexes alone and answering his aggressive combat with even more aggression in mine, immediately rushing in for a punish when the smallest opportunity arose. That freaking worked. You could say that I channeled my inner Guts and offing him left me hella satisfied. On a sidenode, I always get goosebumps when the game tells me “Nightmare Slain”. Even if it wasn’t him. Finally, the scenery is really, really good. Everything just looks so tranquil until the chaos starts. Amazing build up. Thanks From, thanks Miyazaki.

22. Moon Presence (1 death.)

Let’s be real, after amazing fights like Maria, Gehrman, Orphan and maybe even Horseface, the only thing to do for Moon Presence was to let me down. And .. yeah, that’s kinda what happened. The only time he killed me was due to me being too dumb to dodge his 1HP-AoE with the Chikage killing what was left of me and other than that, if you manage to dodge it you can happily hack away at it. That being said, I like the design of the Moon Presence since it heavily reminds me of Nyarlathotep, the lore behind it is very interesting and essential if you want to understand the big picture and .. yeah, I think that’s it.

Honourable mentions:

1. These fuckers / Winter Lanterns ( ~10 deaths?)

Frenzy sucks. Their design is awesome though!

2. These other fuckers / Shark Giant Duo (because I really, really needed the Rakuyo for my Maria-shrine. Also around 10-12 deaths.)

More enemies I wasn’t able to parry for the life of me. Had to kill ‘em both balls to the wall. Glorious nippon steel cuts through Shark Giant, too. Eventually. Bonus points for the great depiction of Innsmouth.

3. The archenemy / Gravity ( .. I don’t know, probably 20-30 deaths.)

Yeah. I died. A lot.

That’s it, fellas! Thanks for reading through this and thanks to From for making this amazing game. See you in NG+!

[aprilsimpsonhunt-blog]

*some affiliate links are included in this post. By using these links, you are giving me credit for being the one to refer you. I receive a very small compensation/percentage from any order placed, usually in the form of reward points or discounts. I love sewing and sharing, but it gets expensive! These links are one of the few things I can do to help support my maker lifestyle. If you would like more info, please read my privacy policy! Thank you sew much for your support!

Hi everyone! I hope this post finds you well. I’m so honored to be able to share this latest project with you!

If you haven’t been by before, I’m April Simpson-Hunt. I’m a wife and mama to 4 crazy kids. I love to sew, create, bargain hunt, and share my makes/finds. It’s lovely to meet you! Today’s post is a special one, as it’s part of a blog tour. The tour is all about Love Notions & the Origami Tunic pattern. It’s an incredible pattern that’s perfect for all the seasons, but especially fall and winter. There are quite a few talented seamstresses on the tour and everyone really brought their A game. I’m so excited about all the hacks and modifications everyone has made, including me! So let’s get to it!

*Be sure to stay tuned (or scroll through) all the way to the end, as there is a big SALE and a GIVEAWAY!!!

I’m a big fan of Love Notions patterns. I stumbled upon their Laundry day Tee on Pinterest (searching for free sewing patterns) and ran to grab a copy of the pattern for myself. The “LDT” pattern is one of my all time favorites, and is free if you join the Love Notions Facebook group! Below is one of the first Laundry Day tees (and also one of the first pieces of clothing) that I ever made! There is such a following for the pattern, it has its own page on their blog, full of hacks and tricks. When I first grabbed grabbed a copy, it was a simple shirt/ tunic, but now it’s been updated to include a dress length and 2 different waistline variations (slim or swing style).

My favorite thing about Love Notions patterns is the amount amount of options each pattern comes with. The possibilities are endless! Just like the LDT above, the Origami Tunic & Cardigan is full of tons of great options. I’m a sucker for interesting hemlines, and had yet to conquer a handkerchief hem, so I jumped on the call for the tour quickly. I also adore matching mommy and mommy and me sets, (examples of that fascination here and here) so I grabbed both patterns & quickly ran to get fabric. (you can find the mommy and me bundle Mommy & Me Origami bundle here)

For our first set of cardigans, I knew I wanted to do a bolder print. I am a firm believer that you can never have too many timeless/classic pieces, which sounds great in theory, but it amounts to a wardrobe full of solids more often than not. I had originally envisioned a stripe or boho print, (no, I’m not sick of boho yet. Not florals either, apparently. haha.) but when I stumbled upon this floral in the clearance rack at Hobby Lobby, I knew it was meant to be. At $3/yard, I knew it would come in handy at some point, even if I didn’t end up using it. Can I also share that this was the first time I’ve purchased more than 2 yards of a fabric at once? I bought 5 yards & felt like I had finally joined “the big leagues”. 🙂 What is the maximum yardage you have purchased at one time?

I was so excited to make this set, but thought that it would take forever, considering how big the hem is, but it was surprisingly quick! I prefer to work in batches, so I cut all the pieces for both cardigans out first (only cutting things the wrong direction twice, before realizing that the flowers had a definite TOP), then sewed them up and finished them together. The pattern instructions are clear, concise and incredibly helpful, as with all the other Love Notions patterns I’ve made.

  The only modification I made for this set was to create a cardigan front on the girls’ version, so that it would match mine exactly. The girls’ version is a tunic version, so I simply took the front piece off the fold and before cutting, mapped out a piece of fabric onto the 2 front pieces that was approximately 3″ wide by the length of the front of the cardigan, which was 15″ long for a size 2T. I essentially just copied the front of the women’s cardigan, so I’m confident any of you could have figured it out by yourselves, but wanted to share so that I look like I know what I’m doing here you could see exactly what I had done. 🙂

The knit from Hobby Lobby was pretty thin, so I opted to use small strips of interfacing on the handkerchief hems. I cut and pressed those in as I went along, then top stitched the hem in place for added security. I’m so thankful that there were instructions to use the interfacing, as my hems are gorgeous! Considering how incredibly thin this fabric is, I’m still amazed that they came out as nicely as they did. I didn’t manage to snag any photos up close, so you’ll just have to trust me when I tell you, I’m super proud of them. I knew it would be a challenge and never imagined that they would be remotely pretty, so I’m ecstatic that it turned out so well! This is one of my new favorite things, and we have worn them several times since I made them.

For our next set, I envisioned something for fall/winter. For this set, I wanted to us to coordinate but not be matchy matchy (I may have made another matching set, but my stash had other plans, as the biggest piece I currently have was 2 yards.). I used the tunic style for Aquila and the cardigan (again) for me. I went with a grey color scheme this time around (now I’m back in the solids comfort zone!) I added a bit of length to hers by skipping the height adjustment. (I normally have to shorten everything about 2″) turning it into a long tunic/dress that I felt would transition well from fall to winter. I also created long strips of a white fleece knit around the necks and hems of both, to tie them together and help them coordinate. I’m in love with how they turned out! Feel free to read all the banding tutorial/details below…or skip to the and grab the link for this beautiful pattern….and the giveaway for a Love Notions gift card or free fabric! 🙂

It’s a little harder to see the detail on this set, as we used a point and shoot camera for the photos, but I believe that this set is my favorite of the two! I love the combination on my cardigan of the lightweight sweater knit, 3/4 length sleeve and heavier binding, which pulls the hem down and out (perfect for twirling!). For Aquila’s, the fabric is thick and soft (french terry), and the length is perfect for her. She’s at that stage where she’s constantly flashing her diaper, so I love that I can use this as a church dress, but also throw some leggings underneath it if we are having a rough and tumble day.

I didn’t follow an exact formula for the bands. To be honest, I just kinda winged it, once I figured out what I wanted to do. So for her bands, I followed the pattern pieces for the neck, then just cut strips to the same size as her handkerchief hem. (3″ X Length of bottom of front/bottom of side) I used a reverse v-neck shape to form the rectangle,(think of a shirt with 4 v points of intersection at the collar) then pinned the heck out of it. I sewed it to each point, going slowly and taking my time to ensure I got a perfect V at each and didn’t pull any other pieces into the band. Then I trimmed the points, ironed, topstitched and called it a day. *please note: I did the tutorial pics below…then realized I had the shape wrong. To get the correct rectangular binding, you want them to end in a V shape with the tip of the v at the end of each strip, not the inverted one pictured.

I essentially followed the same method for mine (using 4″ wide by length of the hem pieces), except that mine wasn’t a straight shape. I wanted the banding/binding to go around the entire raw edge, as this sweater knit would have fallen apart at the edges without something holding it together. 🙂 ) For mine, I just cut 4″ wide strips (by the width of the fabric), trimmed them to the exact length of each individual straight line of the hem (I belive there were 6 straightaways. Any time I came to a corner, I stopped and used a new piece) then acted like I was banding it by folding it in half, attaching the edges of that to the right side of the cardigan edges. The corners are a little wonky, as there was a band on band issue there, so I tried to sew them at 45 degree angles and true them up where possible…but again, it was super late and I was winging it. This is my first attempt at a clothing tutorial and I didn’t take very good notes. I’m sorry! Hopefully, that helps!

Those are our cardigans/tunics! This pattern is definitely one for the books! There are so many options that you could create a wardrobe full of them in different fabric choices and it would look incredibly diverse! I’m so glad we could take part in the tour so that I could find the motivation I needed to get some fall pieces made! I already have a new laundry Day Tee cut out and waiting to be sewn up,as well. these patterns are addictive! 🙂

I would like to spend a special thank you to Kelly and Tammy for their amazing designs, as well as their support. I’m so thrilled to be part of this tour! I have had so much fun sewing these and reading about all the other versions the ladies on the tour have made! I love sharing my creations, so feel free to let me know if you have any questions! I hope you found something here that you enjoyed!

You can find

Love Notions patterns here.

The Love Notions Facebook group here.

And the listings for the tunic/cardigans are below!

I’ll leave a little slice of our crazy outtakes below, as that is probably one of my favorite parts of this process. This time, my camera stopped working, so my four year old, Kalel had to be our photographer. It made for quite a few funny shots!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Have a great day! Thanks so much for stopping by.

Until next time,

Sewing and swimming,

**** Sale and Giveaway info here: *****

Tours LOVE to have a sale!

So this week only, grab your copy of the women’s Origami for $8 or the girl’s version for just $6. Sale ends Saturday September 30 at 11:59pm cst.

Be sure to stop by and say hi to all the fantastic bloggers who are a part of the tour!

Monday September 25:

Sew Shelly Sew

Sewing Curves

Ruby RCreations

Tuesday September 26:

All Things Katy!

Kainara Stitches

Pear Berry Lane

Wednesday September 27:

Ma Moose

Back40Life

Thursday September 28:

Sprouting JubeJube

Mermaid Mama Designs

Third Shift Creations

Friday September 29:

Ronda B. Handmade

Stitches by Laura

Tales of a Tester

And while you’re at it…

Enter to win a $50 gift card to Love Notions patterns, $25 gift card to Simply by Ti Fabrics, or a MFRB mystery box full of fabrics from Sly Fox fabrics!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Love Notions Origami Blog Tour *some affiliate links are included in this post. By using these links, you are giving me credit for being the one to refer you.