So over the last year or so I’ve done a lot of projects that didn’t seem worth an entire post here. Little things around the house or clothing remakes or whatever which just sit in my “To Post” folder for month after month after month as I fail to think of a way to incorporate them here.
Surprisingly enough I didn’t think of a way to do it so today I thought I’d just make a project dump post… lazy for the win!
Here’s a really really really old photo of Lottie to distract you though!
I made almost all of the cushions for our couch myself. I used old clothes for most of them. Here is a really poor fitting bolero:
And here’s the pillow it turned into:
I saved the collar to wear with other outfits:
This dress had some parts which were broken…
So it got snipped up…
And became two pillows…
One of James’ old shirts…
Became a girly shirt…
With a cute button down back.
This double layer skirt…
Got arm holes and ended up as a dress with a mini cape.
This terrible night gown…
Ended up as a little cardigan…
With some plaited details.
This container…
Got a hole cut in the bottom to hold my hairdryer.
This old basket…
Got a few coats of paint…
And now holds my make up.
I stacked some gift boxes to make a jewellery holder.
This old shirt? Jacket? I don’t even really know what this was…
Became a retro tied off shirt.
Lastly, this nightgown…
Became a cute layered skirt!
Hope you enjoyed seeing some of my random projects. Here’s to more random projects to come 😀 What have you guys been making lately?
So a few months ago James and I started drinking coffee. I hate the taste of coffee. I like being awake and getting stuff done though. I drink my coffee with a billion sugars and milk and also melted chocolate. Trust me it’s awesome. I used up all our old Lindt bunnies from easter by adding them to my coffee. Now that they have a vanilla version I am adding slightly less of the other things because it tastes more like chocolate anyway! Clearly even though I live in Melbourne, one of the coffee drinking capitals of the world, I am not a coffee snob.
It started as a way to keep awake during long hours and early morning meetings and soon developed into a bit of a habit and going to the 7/11 for $1 drinks was getting pricey so we decided to buy one of those pod machines because a Nespresso was out of our price range. We named it Map but it started leaking water after 2 days so back it went to the store. Luckily we found a cashback offer and managed to buy a Nespresso even cheaper than Map was originally AND it matched my kitchen colours!
I couldn’t think of a name for it though >_< I’ve been really bad at naming my things lately, I just can’t come up with anything. Bleh. Maybe Lorelei… because I’m always shouting COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE when I use it? I miss Gilmore Girls.
Anyway that long rambling story ends with us having nowhere to put the stupid pods and not being able to find a cute holder that didn’t take up heaps of space. Bench space is at a premium in our kitchen so after some googling I decided to just make my own for the time being and then work it out later. Suck it FutureViolet, it’s your problem now!
So I found a metal design that I liked (but wouldn’t ship to Aus) and made my own out of left over plastic from our bedhead and silver paper. It’s not perfect but it will do for now.
You need:
Pods for measuring
Plastic/cardboard
Wrapping paper
Stanley knife/box cutter
Chopsticks or something to create a gap in the back
Tape
I only had two small pieces of plastic left over so I taped them together.
If I was doing this again I would use cardboard or something easier to cut because this was an absolute bitch to do anything with.
So the idea of these things is that the pods slot into it and then you pull one out of the bottom when you want to use it. Because it’s up on a wall it doesn’t take much bench space and when you colour code them the pods look quite pretty.
So I drew out the rough design using a chopstick as a ruler because I’m classy like that.
Then it was a matter of cutting it out without severing an artery. Knives are sharp.
Taadaa!
Next I covered it in silver paper. If I was doing this again, I would pick better paper. This one was too thick and reflective so the creases and mistakes showed up a lot.
Lastly I taped some chopsticks to the back so there was a gap between the wall and the plastic for the pods to slot in between.
Done!
I drew some windows on the top so it looked a bit more building-y but to be honest, when I finished I realised that the cold hard city look really doesn’t work for our kitchen design. It looks great in other people’s homes but just doesn’t work with mine. We need something curvy and girly and much more adorable. So back to the drawing board I go 😀
I have another idea for this, I just need to think about the logistics some more and decide if it’s a good idea to encourage having a coffee habit haha! If you guys have that kind of style then I would definitely suggest making something like this, it’s much cheaper buying some thick cardboard than it is for the store ones!
Bokeh is the fancy photography term for specular highlights (pretty orbs of light) that show up in photos when using a wide apeture and a long focal length (higher mm number on your lens/more zoomed in) or it’s another word for dust ghosts if you are one of the hosts from that hilarious Ghost Hunter show on the Discovery Channel XD
Whatever it is, it’s extremely pretty and can be used in really interesting effects in photos! You can even make your own custom shaped bokeh mask in any shape you want… or just buy a kit… but yay making things!
I made a heart one and here are some of my results:
The heart cut out shapes the little round lights in the background into hearts or whatever other shape you can imagine.
More of my playing around later, let’s actually make one!
You need:
Black paper
Knife or scissors
Rubber band
Camera
Pen
I actually started making/experimenting with these so long ago that the photos are with my old phone and have black edges XD
Trace around your lens on a piece of black paper.
Cut a circle out of the paper which is around 3-4cm larger than the circle you just drew.
Make little cuts from the outside to the drawn circle all the way around.
Decide on your shape and cut it out of the center. If you’re going to use a knife please be very careful, a perfectly shaped heart isn’t worth losing a finger over!!!
Fold all of the tabs around the outside up so it makes kind of a cylinder.
Once you’ve done it all the way around you should slot it on the end of your lens.
Use rubber band to hold it place and that’s it!
These work best at night time in photos that have lots of lights in the background. The hearts here are cars:
Here are some of the photos I took when we went out 😀
This is the same photo with more and less blur so you can see smaller and bigger hearts.
I love the way the Melbourne lights reflect on the water.
Keep in mind that whether this works will depend on whether your camera has a large enough aperture and long enough focal length to create a good bokeh in the first place.
A good lens to use would have an aperture larger than f/2.8 and is longer than 50mm.
And here’s how it looks without the hearts, little round circles.
Go have fun with yours, you can make any shape at all!
It’s been a crazy long time since I wrote a Sew Fun post but they are coming back and with a vengeance! There will be more of the ones I promised coming in the next few weeks but before we did some big projects again I wanted to show you my start to finish process of making a dress.
The dress in question was a gift for a friend who picked out her favorite fabrics laces and I made it for her based off a pattern that I drafted which I use for a lot of my own dresses. She was a bit camera shy so I ended up modeling it in the photos which is why the fit isn’t 100% on me.
You can tell how old the photos are by the fact that they still have black borders XD
So this is the finished dress, it’s a very basic princess seamed dress which is made of 5 pieces plus the straps and lace etc. There is no lining and it cuts a lot of corners. If cutting corners bothers you then look away now!
I like this shape of dress a lot because it can be perfectly fitted to the person’s shape and can accentuate/hide a lot when you get it right. I use it a lot for hime gyaru dresses and it can be easily adapted to classic Lolita styles by adding a much fuller skirt. It’s not really a beginners dress but it is one of my favorites.
The fabric I used was a thin satin with a really good drape to it. It was a remnant so there was only 1.5m. This pattern is good because you can add or take away fabric from the skirt to fit it into really tight spaces if you only have a little fabric left. I’ve gotten a dress out of 1m of fabric before but I prefer to work with minimum 1.5m depending on the person’s size. If there are patterns which need to be lined up or you are very particular on the grain of fabric you will need a lot more.
I don’t have a table to cut on so I have to lay it out on the floor. There’s still not much room so I usually fold in half to make things easier.
So this pattern is one I made around 8 years ago and have adapted over and over again. I don’t keep paper patterns partially because I hate working with them (paper obviously doesn’t drape like fabric) and partially because I don’t have room. Sometimes I’ll keep calico versions of patterns but most of the time I’m honestly too lazy to do versions in calico etc first. I lose interest with projects quickly so making the same dress twice has never really appealed to me. I totally understand it’s importance in the scheme of learning though and I think it’s a really great skill to learn when you’re starting out so you can find your best workflow. My attention span is something I’m trying to work on more so perhaps there will more more tutorials in the future dealing with that!
Anyway, I tend to just find a dress I know fits me with the same cut and lay it flat so I can cut around each piece. I don’t make for people other than my self often but if I am, I do the maths first to work out how much I need to add to bust/waist/hips then make the adjustments on the fly. Always cut larger than you think you need because it’s a pain to try and add more fabric later!
So time to cut the pieces. First the front:
Two sides:
Two back pieces. On the back pieces here I make sure to leave a lot extra for the zip and also for fitting it perfectly when it’s pinned.
So this dress is made of 5 pieces but two are mirror images. So from left to right is the back, side and front. The other side has a mirror of the side and back. The skirt for this one is not particularly full because of the lack of fabric I was working with.
At this point I would pin it all together and try it on to make sure it actually fit. It’s a good idea to do that after every seam to make sure you’re going in the right direction.
So let’s get to sewing and overlocking.
First I sew one side to the front.
The the other side to the front. You can see the skirt getting fuller and the shape coming into the bust now.
Next, the two back pieces go on either side.
Next I overlock all of the raw edges to seal them in. Now it’s time to deal with the back. Usually I’d be putting in a zip at this point but this dress will have a lace up back so I’ll take care of that in a bit.
First I fold the dress in half with the bad side out and work out where the bottom of the zip will be. Then I sew the bottom of the two sides of the skirt together below where the zip/laces will go.
Like so (or should that be “like sew”? ;D )…
In place of a zip I’m using some lace to put the threads through. So I turn the edges under and sew the lace up the back opening.
Like this:
It kind of looks almost like a dress now 😀
Now it’s just about the extra details. I turned the edges under on the top and stitched on a row of lace around it.
Top lace around the bodice:
Ribbon threaded to lace it at the back:
Next some ribbon for straps.
I find it’s best to put the dress on when measuring for straps and get someone to pin them in place so it has the support you want.
Then some nylon lace at the bottom. I don’t usually sew with nylon lace but cotton lace really didn’t match this fabric and was much too structured to keep the drape. Soft tulle and netting is great for bottom of the skirt details.
And that’s pretty much done!
Font:
Back:
Bottom:
Huzzah, finished! I’ve done this pattern so many times that when I’m making one for myself and actually pay attention I can get them done in a few hours. New dress in a few hours? Winner!
So that’s it from start to finish. I know it wasn’t an actual tutorial but hopefully this will be a decent introduction for those of you who have never made a dress before so you will know what to expect in the full tutorials later. Everyone has their preferred methods for sewing so hopefully some of you like mine!
As always, let me know if you if you have any questions and thanks for reading!
I’m still feeling really low energy from being so sick at the moment so it’s a quick craft today.
I’m really into big, bright, chunky jewellery at the moment but I think most of the stuff I see in store is ridiculously priced so I figured I would just make some myself. My mum found a cheap metal necklace at a store which was closing down but it was very plain and not me.
This is what a few coats of nail polish did to it:
The original necklace:
The polish I used:
It took several coats to get a nice even finish and make the colours really pop. It was very messy trying to get the polish on while they were all still attached. I ended up giving up being neat and using remover to get rid of the messy parts afterwards.
And there it is, bright and pretty! It took a few days because I had to wait for it to dry between each coat.
Now I’m on the hunt for other cheap jewellery I can jazz up. Maybe I’ll check the thrift store and see what pops up there. I just realised that with the sunglasses and jewellery and all the other stuff I’ve been painting more stuff than nails with my nail polish lately XD
So remember almost 9 months ago when I posted the finished Home Sweet Home project? Yeah, me either >_>
Anyway there were many, many, many requests on how to make my white rug, the one from the lounge room:
Well I have written this post like 3 times now but the original photos were lost and bla bla bla other excuses that no one cares about. Anyway I made Lottie a matching mini rug so I could retake the photos and here we are!
You need yarn and a large crochet hook. I’m using some fuzzy chenille yarn and a 5.5mm afgan hook.
Start with a foundation chain which is as long as you want the rug to be.
Chain 2 more.
The basis of this entire rug is a single crochet stitch with an extra long loop hanging out the back. When you have so many loops they form a thick shag pile.
So poke the hook through the 3rd chain.
Wrap the yarn around your left index finger to form a big loop.
Use your hook to pull the tail end of that loop through the chain.
Now you have one large loop at the back of the chain and two regular loops on your needle!
Now wrap the yarn around the hook.
Use the hook to pull the last loop through the other two. Now you have one big loop at the back and one on the hook. Done and ready for next stitch.
So basically you’re just doing a single crochet stitch over and over again but at the beginning you’re wrapping the yarn around your finger so there’s a huge loop hanging out the back. I’m thinking it might be easier to explain this in a video!
Repeat this stitch until you reach the end of the row. It will feel awkward at first but it gets much easier. When you reach the end of the row chain two, turn and go back the other way. This time the loops will be on the wrong side so after each stitch move the big loop to the front and begin the next stitch.
If you want a less thick pile you could always just do a regular single crochet every second row but I love how plush this version is:
After a few rows you’ll get something like this with a flat back and a bobbly front:
And eventually something like this…
Then this…
And like 6 billion years later something like this:
Once you get to this length you’re half way there! This is why we called this the 365 Day Rug!
And that’s really it, I ended up doing mine in two sections because I wasn’t sure how much yarn I would have but it worked out well because even at this size it was completely unruly to work on and a real pain in the butt. I probably wouldn’t make one of these again unless I was going to do it in lots of small sections. It gets far too heavy to work on something this big!
Anyway I’m glad this tutorial is out of the way finally, let me know if you try it out or have any questions!
Illustrator. Strong tea, knitting, watercolours, and making a video game called Moonlight in Garland. Living with her adorable husband Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
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