#Yarn Addict

Its all in the title - Im officially addicted to yarn and crochet. After my trials with basic chains and stuff, completing one handbag and not making progress for a year, Im back to it :D 

Over the last two weeks I learned how to make like three types of flowers, granny squares, and I found this pattern - I saw it on Ravelry many times before but never thought I could do it ...

THIS is it - sample below 

I will be making crochet skull shawl from the grey wool and huuuge bunch of granny squares for pillows from the colored ones. Black is  super thin and I want to try and crochet a lace collar from it ... 

Quick fixes

Today I want to share two little hacks, I cant even call them DIYs :D 

First is a t-shirt hack, I've seen it somewhere on the internet, but who knows where... This is the back of my tee, i cut little straight lines over the back and it looks great. Excuse the chalk marks, I was excited to take pictures :) This was planned for a couple weeks now, but I just didnt have time... Well it took maybe 20 minutes... :P I cut the sleeves into thin strips which now fall nicely from my shoulders, and I added black triangular studs to the last row of holes....

Todays second hack is this patch jacket turned into a vest. You may remember my post about this jacket from last year (too lazy to look it up :P) I was planning to have many more patches on it by this time, but I didn't find any Id like to add :) I cut off the sleeves as close to the seams as I could and as I collected a bunch of new band pins I added them to it (not pictured)...

Do these count as DIYs ? :) I dont know, I dont care, I like it :) 

Dance machine

I made this vest as a part of my friend's dance costume for the dance group she is in -  The Lady's cruel dance machine :D :D :D I sewed the vest and the lining which almost caused my sewing machine to die :( also all the studding and epaulettes. I really love them and I plan to buy some cheap leather jacket for spring and add crazy epaulettes (how awesome is that word :D :D :D ) ...

DIY: Spiderweb cardigan

This was my inspiration, because I noticed my cardi looks almost the same, the buttons and everything... I made only two rows of webs, but made them all around (the hell bunny one is only in the front)... now I'm thining about adding more rows of the webbing (done in white embroidery thread). I also made a little web on sleeve, I will definitely make that one larger, and maybe also on the other sleeve ... Call me a copycat, but I love it and don't have so much money to spare... :) 

Jewellery making

In the last couple of days I made some new jewellery. I wanted to make something for my secondary school ball in March, so I picked up some black faceted beads and other stuff I didn't use for some time. I got kinda carried away, and instead of making something to go with my LBD I made these...

I call this necklace The Black Dahlia. It's made with two metal cutouts glued together to form the ornament, dahlia cabochon, teardrop beads and two types of chain. I need to get some blouse to wear it with :) it's for sale if anyone is interested :)

I was recently looking at a lot of gothic inspired jewellery and kinda wanted to make my own choker. I had this lacy ribbon at home and all I needed to buy were those clasps to put the ends in. I'm thinking about adding dainty silver chain to hang the same way as it does on the necklace above.

I really like this necklace, although it was a bitch to put together, opening all those jump rings, eye pins, closing it all :) I love the color of these red faceted glass beads. If I get my hands on some nice red clutch, this may be the one I'll wear to the ball.

These components were originally meant to be earrings, but as I had them spread on the table I thought a bracelet could look nice. I have some more of these so I can make them into earrings and have a set :) 

I absolutely love this necklace. Those flowers are metal cutouts. They have a tiny hole in the middle, perfect to screw in a spike (leftovers from my spiky clutches) I'm really thinking to wear this one to the Ball, because it's edgy and spiky, but still quite simple, so it would go great with LBD. 

All of these are available for sale, I still have material for all :) 

DIY: Bloodsucker :)

My sister had this idea for a t-shirt she wanted to make for her boyfriend (who I hear is a big vampire fan :D ) and she asked me to help her with it :) it's inspired by some picture she found on the internet :D  (haha so much for credits :D :D :D - source google :D ) Last time we worked on something like this together was back in high school where we made a creepy crime scene outline figure :P 

She picked a fancy font in which to do the writing, but then she wanted to add the blood-like red stains so I talked her into using simple and classic Times :D we wrote it in OpenOffice, then printed out and traced lightly onto the shirt... no rocket science there... 

First she had me paint the red bloody stains because she thought she would mess it up (that was the point I guess, but well :D, I did it...)  and then we did the black :) 

 

In the end she wanted me to add some red splashes around... this in my opinion makes it almost a zombie walk t-shirt, but she has what she asked for :D I like it, and if there ever is a zombiewalk event again, I think we'll have so much fun making our costumes :D 

I hope to have a picture of her bf wearing this very soon, so I can add the picture here :D 

DIY: T-shirt hack

One day last week i was cleaning my closet. During the process I found some stray socks :D and also some stuff I put aside to alter or do something else with. One of those things was this tee. I used to love it some time back, I basically lived in it. But as my style and preference changed, I didn't like how boxy it so I put it away. I intended to ask my friend who owns a serger to alter it for me or let me use it for a while, but then forgot about it completely. And as she moved away, this was no longer an option. 

I remember some time ago I saw this tutorial on some craft site, so this is not an original idea, but I don't remember which site it was :)

I started with cutting off the sleeves and neckline as usual. Then I cut through the shoulder seams and got what you see below.

Next thing to do is twist the upper part of the backside and sew the shoulder seams back together. Easy as that! 

Very pretty and ready for summer... if it ever comes this year :/ 

Sew tiny!

As you may know, I got kind of obsessed with my new Monster High doll :D (not childish at all, after some research I found there are many adults obsessed with customizing and creating their own dolls, even naming them, photoshooting with them ... :P )

Well, while I was organizing my sewing supplies and going through my patterns, I stumbled upon some leftover lace (from spring when I was obsessed with sewing it on socks :D ) and my basket of fabric leftovers, so I decided to sew for my super cool Operetta the Monster :) And as my five year old sister also got her Monster high - Draculaura, I decided I could sew a dress for her too :) 

This dress you see here is actually meant for Draculaura, as her color theme is pink and black. This pink fabric is cotton I used to line my sister's spiky clutch and when I saw it in the basket I knew I had to use it :D 

To make the dress I first measured some parts of the doll's body such as waist (1 cm diameter - envy!), body length and some more. I started with a circle just as if I was making a circle skirt for myself.Then I cut it out into hexagon to make it all spiderweb shaped.  I was going to embroider the spiderweb on, but I need to get rid of my black fabric paint so it doesn't dry out, so I ended up painting it on. It turned out quite cool i think ;) Next I sew lace all around the diameter. I cut a slightly bigger circle of stiff tulle for an underskirt and basted them together. 

Next I made a bodice, I only measured the length and eyeballed the rest (these dolls are really monstrous in proportion, they have super tiny waist and boobs the same width as hips...). The bodice looked a bit plain so I added a strip of lace on top as well. 

The worst part was attaching a velcro to the back! pain in the ass, but unfortunately it's necessary for the dresses to be wearable :( It's a bit weird, I'm ashamed to say I had no idea how to sew it in, so the result is the back part of the dress sticks out a bit. Thank god for Draculaura's long hair to cover it :D 

As I was in the making already, I decided to make a little matching hairbow for my sweet sister to wear. I hope she likes it as much as I do :D 

Stay tuned for what I have planned for my Operetta :D (and don't worry, this is not turning into a doll blog....maybe :D :D :D ) 

Top 5 DIY projects of 2013

As this blog is mostly DIY and craft oriented, I decided to share my best favorite projects from last year. I chose by my own preference, not by the number of hits at each post :)

5. This pillow was my favorite evening project this spring. It was back when we didn't have internet connection, and while my darling was spending time outside with his friends, I was sitting on the floor of our tiny bedroom, cutting squares, sewing them together and finally quilting... It was made from an old bedsheet, and at first I was really happy when my squares were aligned in the corners :) the quilting itself was a bit worse, as you can see :D I need to work on that this year...

4. 2013 was clearly my year for making bags :) I have always loved tote bags, they are a great blank canvas for customization, and as my local craft store started selling them I made a lot of them :D (Darth Vader, Indian chief...) but these two got the most wear and as they are both my favorite it was a tie, so I included both :) The owl is hand embroidered and really sturdy, great for library trips, and the cross one was my go-to all spring and granted me a huge amount of indignant stares :D 

3. My crocheted beanie is the most useful thing I made this year. Although the winter has been mild so far, I like to keep my head warm and my hair away from my face :) I have many berets and beanies, but  I have mostly been wearing this one so far :) 

2. These spiky clutches were made for my sister and her friend :) It was my second time sewing with fake leather, and I believe it was quite successful. My crazy sister broke a zipper on hers the day I finished them when we went to a club wearing them, so I have that one to pick apart and redo really looking forward to it :P thanks sis :/ ... but well, I think these clutches turned out well, I had great fun making them and recieving compliments on them :D 

1. My handmade handbag is my most favorite project of this past year. I made it in October, and haven't worn any other ever since! It goes great with all my clothes and shoes and the fact I made it myself is just a cherry on top. Of course there are a couple things I could have done differently, But I will wear this bag until the day it breaks apart, and the very same day I will make a new one :D Is it bad to love something you made so much ? Whatever I don't even care :D 

4th Advent: Winter crafting

I wanted to share some stuff I made in the last few days :) I finally caught enough daylight today to take pictures :D I already have that hat brooch on my coat :D and I'm wearing different pair of christmas earrings every day. :)

trees and jigle bells were a lucky find in our local bead shop :) I'm all about kitsch for Christmas :D 

new christmas display :) 

DIY: Symbolism Tee

I wanted to paint myself a pentagram t-shirt for a while. Two things that pushed me to do it were watching a great Czech movie and browsing through Killstar website :) 

 First I just painted it on with fabric paint and the tiniest brush I could find ... I let it dry and then cut of the sleeves, neckband and bottom hem. I like to do this because it makes the tee loosen up and feel more comfy :) 

The painting was already finished and dried and I was ready to wear the tee, but when I was cleaning up, I found this lace. I originally bought it last year, because I wanted to trim a cardigan with it. It wasn't looking too good so I never did that and the lace was just lying in my stash. So I decided to use it for pentagram. 

It was all pinned together as one continuous piece of lace and sewn on by hand, because my machine is  not a friend of lace! I love the outcome so much... And the best thing - super cheap transformation - the t-shirt cost me 25 CZK and that lace was about 3 CZK per metre, so maybe 35 CZK alltogether :) 

Spikes

I used the leftover spikes from my spiked clutches to make a headband for myself. I made it with a strip of fake leather, hair tie and those spikes. easy peasy, if you want to toughen up your outfit, feel like a statue of Liberty or as a quick gift :) I made this (to match my party outfit) with gold spikes, now I'm torn whether to make another one in silver or to keep those silver studs for something else :) Definitely need more of them!!!

Screwed!

This beauty is my newest creation. I made two of these clutches for my sister and her friend :) I was really looking forward to making it for more than a month, I was just waiting for those spikes to arrive as I ordered them from China on ebay... I also took pictures of the studding process ... The sewing I suppose you can figure out on your own ;)

First I cut out the leatherette piece for the body of the bag, than I drew a frame on it with seam allowances and a smaller frame with marked stud positions just to make it perfectly centered. Also it worked out quite nicely, as the frame was split exactly into 1,5 cm pieces - stud positions means i didn't have to do any math to even them out :) 

I made all holes with this hole punch thingy :) and you can see the first screw in there...

I always pushed more screws through, because if I was working one by one, all the flipping would probably make me flip :D also, because I added glue on every screw to make sure they stay on, as the spikes would be enclosed in the lining and if any of them falls off I'd have to take it all apart...

 One is with silver and one with gold spikes, as they wished. The lining they wanted black, but when I saw this hot pink cotton I couldn't resist and my sister said she loves it so I'm happy I went with my feeling. There is also a small pink pocket for ID and money :) 

I'm just sad I didn't order more of those spikes because I really need to stud everything I own :) too bad I have to wait for another month ...

DIY: Lace trim skirt

I'm really busy the last few weeks, I have no time to craft, draw or to do anything worth sharing :( Over the last week I managed to sneak a little DIY into my schedule. It was really simple, and if my sewing machine was working, it would also be really quick :)

I had this lace at home, I was planning to use it as a trim on a cardigan, but it didn't look so good when I pinned it  ... so it was just lying there, and I found it while cleaning. I decided to use it on this NEXT skirt, because it's a bit short, so just for the feeling of added length ;) I pinned it and started sewing on the machine, but it was tangling my thread into big messy bulks. I tried to change tension and everything, different speed, new needle, but nothing worked, I guess I will never be able to sew lace on my machine (unfortunate, as I wanted to sew a new evening dress ...) so I ended up sewing it by hand. This denim is a bitch, especially those big bulky seams where the panels meet. I was going to give up, but finally I finished :D 

I'm going to a concert and record release party tonight, so I might wear it :) 

Happy halloween

The bagmaker

So, I dedicated all of today to create the bag I was talking about. I was really looking forward to it, because I didn't sew anything for a looong time, and also I wanted to try something new :) Also I took the time to take pictures of all the steps to maybe inspire some of you to try as well :) nothing difficult about it....

First I cut out all my base pieces, 1x from leatherette, 1x from lining fabric. 

 Next I used fusible lining to keep the lining fabric in shape

Next I had to figure out how to change needles in my machine :) not really difficult. Maybe I wouldn't even need a denim needle, I just wanted to make sure it goes through all the layers without breaking... 

 Time to start sewing! I bought extra thick thread used in shoemaking to make sure it doesn't break while sewing. I sewed the lining first and the outer shell next, always doing the base (circle) first, and then sewing the side seam. I'm not sure that's how it's supposed to be done, but well :) it worked ;)

 Next I wanted to add the silver things (what the hell are they called in English? :D ) so I had to find the  hammer and make the holes first. I was looking for a hole punch in store, but turns out it can only be ordered online and that takes too long :) so I bought a little device that helps you make the hole by punching it with hammer :D ... Some of the holes weren't punched through so I had to cut them by hand. The next step was to attach those silver thingies, again with hammer and that little magic device :) 

The first one was simple :) by the time I did the 9th one (there are 10 alltogether) my hands were hurting terribly and I realized one of my silver pieces were missing... I was happy for that little break and set to find it, when I couldn't I had to go to shop to source some more :) I did found them, so luckily I could finish :) but they were in bag of 1é, so now I have 9 more left and think about making another bag already :D 

I tried to capture the detail of my shoulder strap, it's zigzag  stitched on both sides, nice how it worked out that the stitching looks like chevron,and the middle part looks quilted :) I like that.... 

I made little loops with snap hooks that are sewn between the lining and shell. This wasn't really necessary, but I wanted to make a second strap with some chain, so the snap hooks will allow me to change it :) The strap itself is finished with D-rings to make it look really clean and a bit less homemade :)

The drawstring is made the same way as the strap, just thinner. I wanted to make the ends tasseled, but then I wasn't sure about it and decided to just knot them. And the slider is also made by me, I have copied that from a bag I saw in H&M on Monday :D 

This post is unusually long, but I hope at least I made it a bit clear for you to see how I worked, and maybe some will be inspired to try the same :D If so, send me a link... 

It's really the most rewarding feeling to try and do something new or something you may think may be over your skill level and it turns out so great that you really love it and feel proud. Didn't happen to me a long time and now I'm really satisfied with myself, grinning like a freak and I'm ready to wear my pwetty bag until it falls apart! Although there are some crooked stitches and little mistakes, I love it !!!!