January sewing

 So this year I signed up for the 52 week sewing challenge on Facebook. I've made it to week 4 ok, I'm not sure I'll be able to do all the challenges as I find myself thinking of new things I could do to meet the challenge instead of making things from my to-do list!

Week 1

Week 1 was "organise your sewing space", as I'm currently using the kitchen table for sewing, I organised my storage space instead and I went through and catalogued my fabric into albums on my phone so I can plan things without pulling everything out constantly. It was also annoying me that all my cotton thread was stored upstairs in my sewing box, so I found a tin to keep it in instead so I could bring it all up and down instead.

Week 2

Week 2 was "complete a work in progress/unfinished project". I had started making myself a tshirt and got really annoyed with the neckband after I had done it wrong twice, so I sat down and finished that off. It's still not perfect (the neckband should be ribbing really and I don't have any, so I used jersey which isn't really stretchy enough) but I will wear it anyway because I like the main fabric. And maybe one day I'll re-do the neck. (Pattern is Slim Fit Raglan from Patterns for Pirates, fabric is from Fabricasa but looks like they've sold out of that design)

Week 3

Week 3 was "make up a pattern you own that you've never made". Now I have several that fit that description, but in the end I decided to make up Hallå Patterns Twirly Skirt. It's a simple circle skirt so doesn't really need a pattern, but hey it's a free pattern and I don't have an easy way to draw a circle that big. Also it has pockets! Love pockets. I made it from some modal fabric that I'd acquired - mainly because I seem to buy 1m lengths of most things so I didn't have many pieces big enough - the modal feels nice to wear but it was very stretchy so a little difficult to work with especially on the hem.

Week 4

Week 4 was "make something for your head or feet" well I had promised a while ago to make a birthday crown for my friend's little girl so I did that. It's the same as the Christmas crowns I made, Crowning Glory from Made by Jack's Mum.

I also seem to be doing a "make all the cuddly toys" challenge with my toddler. I got a lovely panel from Bugweed's Fabrics and Crafts with easy cut and sew cuddly toys, and we've been making some of those up. She also requested an orange dinosaur, which we drafted from a picture in her dinosaur book, and soon it will be her friend's birthday so we made a pink bear using the free Plushie Pals pattern from Patterns for Pirates. (free patterns may be a theme - I do buy patterns but the free ones seem to be easier!)

Past Crafts: Vampire Cosplay

One of my other hobbies is playing the trading card game Magic: the Gathering (not that I play very much these days but before my daughter was born I was more active). They release a new set of cards about four times a year, and in 2016 they released this card:
Heir of Falkenrath Gatherer Link

My first thought was “what a cool dress! I’d love a dress like that” and since I was going to a large tournament in Manchester while that card was current, I decided to make a cosplay.

So, where to start? Firstly I took a look at a larger sized image of the card art (the artist is Jason Rainville, by the way). In a way I’m lucky that this card has two images to work from as the two angles give me more of an idea of how the dress would be constructed.
Obviously it’s strapless, and looking at the second image you can see that the sleeves are actually completely separate, not like some dresses you would get that have the sleeves connect to the bodice without having fabric on the shoulders. So I decided that the easiest way to create that for an amateur like myself would be to buy a corset and decorate that, making the accessories.

Bodice decoration
Most corsets are not just laced up the back, but also have a fastening up the front formed from a pair of metal strips that hook together (a  busk). This means that you can get the corset on and off easily without having to completely unlace the back or pull it over your head. Obviously the character’s dress has embroidery all the way across the front so I would need to hide the busk but also make it easy to get on and off so I made a false front decorated with a piece of bridal lace, which I attached to the corset with Velcro. My thought at the time was that I would be able to wear the corset at other times as well, but so far I’ve only worn it as part of the costume.

I had to make a couple of test pieces out of scrap fabric as well as a paper pattern so that I could make it fit the curves of the corset properly. In the end I didn’t manage to centre the lace perfectly which does annoy me a bit but not enough to re-do it.

Sleeves
As I said earlier, the red sleeves are actually totally separate from the bodice. I wanted them to be nice and puffy so I gathered them at each end and added ribbon at the top to help them stay up and lace at the wrists for decoration. One of them does fall down more than the other but I think they are pretty effective.

Cloak
While the first image seems to show the cloak being attached across the vampire’s stomach with a jewelled chain, the second image has no sign of the chain and the cloak seems to be attached around the arms. I decided for reasons of practicality that I would attach the cloak around my sleeves with velcroed ribbon so that my arms would be fairly free to move about and so that I could put on and take off the costume unaided. I found a few tutorials online for making a child’s bat-wing cloak, and I adapted a pattern. It’s basically a rectangle with some arcs cut out for the batwing shape, and I gathered the top edge slightly to shape it a little. As it was going across the back of my shoulder blades rather than over my shoulders, I could get away with a simple shape. I also attached two rings so that I could hook it to the back of the corset so that it didn’t droop at the back.

Choker
One of the key things about this character’s outfit that you might not notice at first, is that the ‘negative space’ between her choker, her neckline and her sleeves makes the shape of a bat.

The choker was therefore essential to get the batwing in my cosplay.
The main piece is just black cotton, stitched together and turned inside out so that there were no hems visible, joined at the back with hooks and eyes. I used lace and rhinestones to do the detailing, and crocheted some ‘chains’ for the big red beads that form the bat’s eyes. It may not be as perfect as the art, but if you look you can see the bat.

So that was the outfit - I managed to find a suitable skirt and some makeup (I opted to go for the civilized version rather than run around all day with fake blood all over my face)

Having spent quite a bit of time on the costume, I didn’t do very well in the tournament but I had a blast. Heres a link to the bigger versions of the card art if you’d like to admire them a bit more. Heir of Falkenrath Heir to the Night And big thanks to the artist Jason Rainville as well as all the other Magic cosplayers who inspired me to give it a go.

Marzipan learns crochet

I have a friend who teaches children to crochet in schools, and one day I was at her house chatting about wool whith her and another friend (as you do) when I said I wanted to learn crochet. She gave us a quick lesson, but I didn't quite get the hang of it, and then she went away for summer holidays...

A few weeks later she came around to my house & taught me how to make chain (it's like finger knitting but with a hook) and slipstitches (to tie the bits of chain together). I made a ring, and a flower:

Ring and flower made of chain & slipstitches

Then I got a bit carried away, and I tried to make a lacy mat-type thing with different colours of wool that I had:

Based on a flower, with chains around the edge

Except it looks a bit more like a hat than a mat.

I got quite into making chain while I was on the bus to work but I got a bit carried away:

This chain is longer than I am when it's stretched out.

 Then I was in the crafty-shop one lunchtime, and I found some pretty wool to save me having to change colour all the time, and made a flower with it.

Pretty firework wool!

The trouble with that wool is that it's hard to see the stitches because it's so dark.

I got a bit bored of making chain after a while, but yesterday my friend taught me to make proper crochet (double crochet) in rows so now I have something else to do on the bus:

A very tiny scarf?

It's only about an inch wide as it's about eight stitches in a row. Any ideas for what to make with it? Or should I just try to make something more sensible & call this a practice piece?