Frustrated and Non-Productive

Arrgghh! It's so frustrating when life gets in the way of what I enjoy!

The most creative thing I've done lately has been painting my fingernails LOL And for the record I used OPI Light My Sapphire (the exact color of grape kool-aid!) topped with OPI My Private Jet (a sparkly dark).

Too many things have happened lately to keep me from crafting and sewing. The biggest has been prepping the house for the BeeGuy. BeeGuy is coming to tear open a hole in an exterior wall and remove... you guessed it - BEES! I have honeybees making a comfy home in the hollow walls of my home. Yippee. Have I mentioned that I'm allergic to bees? and slightly phobic? LOL I've been sleeping with ear plugs so I can't hear them buzzing LOL

I decided to use the opportunity to re-paint my bedroom. When I moved in eight years ago all I did was put up textured wall paper. Now I'm ready for something else. So when I replace the drywall on Saturday, after the BeeGuy works his magic, I'll start ripping down the rest of the wall paper & border. I'll have to kilz and prime before I paint but thats not a big deal. I'm thinking a curry or paprika color, still darkish but not as dark as before.

I picked up a copy of Somerset Home this weekend and have found a few inspirational pieces. I'll wait until I've chosen a wall color before I start crafting new room accessories. One piece really jumped out at me: Butterfly Reminder, a beautiful reminder to "Create Daily". Mine will probably be a dragonfly or fairy muse, and most likely deeper jewel-tone colors but the message will certainly be as dear :)

Necklace pics :)

This first one is of some elements for the Fall Choker. The big piece needs to have the long leads snipped off still. I'll probably make about 6 or 8 of the small twisted element, each will be separated by tiny orange bead, larger orange/white/green bead, and another tiny orange bead.


I'm 99% finished with this one. I still need to attach a lovely silver clasp that I bought specifically for this piece but... my hands are aching and I'm tired LOL so for Saturday night it will just get knotted securely.

WIPs

I've been on a jewelry/beading binge lately. I have two more pieces in progress :)

First is a red & black asian themed choker. I'm mixing some black, carved, hexagonal beads with dark red, round, glass beads. The focal bead looks like a black mahjong tile. I worked on the actual bead layout last night. Need to pickup some sort of cap beads for the cording to finish off and attached toggle to.

The second is an fall choker of orange twisted wire and sparkly glass beads. I've never worked with wire but took advantage of the recent JoAnn's sale to pick up a 'Coiling Gizmo' and a 'WigJig'. Last night I twisted the center wire element from 16g wire. I need to find my big tool wire cutters cause my little jewelry cutters are not... well... cutting it LOL

I'd like to get both finished tonight but not sure that is feasible since I need to pack for my Tampa trip. Pics soon!

My friends have graciously allowed me to post pictures of their El-Wire costumes! I am so happy and proud of the way they turned out :) These were existing garments that I added El-Wire and its corresponding power sources. The are two challenge with El-Wire: One is that the power source is large & bulky, and has to sewn into the garment so it doesn't affect fit nor weight down the garment. Two the wire can not be bent at all, but coaxed into curves and shapes, and must be couched onto fabric. Time consuming but so totally worth it :)

Without further ado - Pictures!!!

New Necklace

In the course of cleaning up, and out, my craftroom I came across some beautiful dichroic glass pendants I bought several years ago. Feeling particularly energized and creative I decided to do something with them. A "necessary" trip to JoAnn's produced a chain necklace kit and some coordinating beads.


Below are two pics of the finished product.

Fall SWAP Plan

Ok, so I'm back from Burning Man and I'm rearing to sew! Inspired by the FallSwap thread on Artisans Square/Stitcher's Guild I'm going to Sew With A Plan :) Not sure on the specifics yet but I do know it will include Simplicity 3804 wrap style dress, mostly likely view B with shorter sleeves (remember I'm in Florida LOL). Blouse styles will be the flattering seams of McCall's M5145 (I love menswear fabrics and similar styled blouses from Lane Bryant but need to tweek the fit) and easy comfy tshirts from Simplicity 4076 (several nice variations for a cleavage girl like me LOL). I have a Tried-N-True skirt pattern, and a pants pattern that I want to tweek the fit on so it will be a TNT. I'm going to try and stay focused on work clothing. Right now I wear shorts, jeans, tshirts & blouses. Comfortable but I'd like to pull myself a bit more together without being totally 'career dressing' which is not quite appropriate in this particular instance.

Now I just have to refrain from buying fabric until I've gotten a workable plan together AND gone thru my stash at home LOL I have two fabrics I'm soooo jonsing for at GorgeousThings.com but trying to be good until I'm better prepared :)

Wish me luck!

Woot! Some Finished Pieces!

I actually finished a couple of pieces this weekend! I'm so thrilled with myself! They are a bit slapdash but these are pieces that are headed out to BurningMan so details are not a concern :)

The two pieces completed are the wrap dress and wrap-around pants. Seaming and finishing on both are simply serged - no hems, no topstiching, no facings, no bindings.

I had to add about 1 inch to the wrap dress skirt to get the fit I wanted. That was a simple split down the pattern center. I'm glad I traced it out onto tracing paper! I can now go back and retrace with the adjustment. The wrap dress is rather sheer but its geared for bare coverage and minimum added heat LOL

The wrap-around pants were easy-peasy! I added about an inch all around the edges but once made up it wasn't necessary, the fit & coverage would have been fine without it. Maybe 2 hours cut out & construction time. Again, I merely serged the seams and all around the raw edges. This pair I made up in some light brown crinkle gauze. I plan on knocking out a second pair but these will be a bit more labor intensive. The second pair will be from black crochet-like lace fabric. The front wrap is just lace while the back fabric is similar lace but has small sequins scattered thru out. I thought it would be a cool subtle but sparkly item for night wear on the playa :)

I'm 99.9% finished with Cherie's costume too :) I am having issues with where to tuck the power pack for the el-wire around the neckline. This is a design flaw I didn't take into consideration :( However, its fixable with an extention wire so I can drop the power cord down along side the zipper (on the inside of course) and make a "power pocket" to hold battery & pack on the skirt where it flairs out. I'm holding off ordering until I get further along with Chris' costume in case I've made the same error in design. I hope to have both done by the end of the week so I can ship it out to them. They are finally in one place for a few days LOL

Pictures to come later today :)

Ethnic Patterns

I just ordered some patterns from EthicPatterns.com. I finally resolved in my mind to simply finish Cherie & Chris' el-wire pieces, and to make up at least one each of these new patterns. This, with my existing tribal pieces should get me thru BurningMan.

All three can be found here: http://www.ethnicpatterns.com/tropical.html
I purchased the Moroccan (Magic) Sun Dress, the short Wrap Dress, and funky wrap Island Pants.

My mom used to make a version of these pants back in the late 60's-early 70's in beautiful luxury fabrics as "hostess" or "lounging" pants. The Wrap Dress will be made up from some existing fabric in my stash, probably a batik or faux tye dye. The Pants and Moroccan Dress might be made up from some cool sari materials I have. The saris are light, airy, with good drape. I think I have at least one paper silk in the stash. Hmmm I might make up all three patterns from my saris. I've been holding onto the fabrics for over a year, this might be their time to shine :)

Latest Skirt

I've been totally inspired by Diaryofasewingfanatic to start sewing some cool summer skirts for work. I found these cute fabric during my last Joann's raid:


I'm using New Look 6496: I made up the striped fabric into D (mid-length with gores). In retrospect, since this was the heavier of the two fabrics, almost a lightweight denim, it might have been better as the shorter non-flared version.

Since I'm quite curvy, I had to add some to the hip and remove some from the waist. The directions called for simply turning the waist down and stitching but I varied from that. I still felt like the upper edge was too loose after my fitting. I remembered an article years ago in Threads Magazine about Chanel suits. Evidently she added elastic to the waistband to even fitted skirts, it was just enough to give that custom fit. Taking that as my inspiration, I sewed down some thin lingerie to the top edge before I turned it down & stitched. It doesn't really gather it but just makes it fit a tad better.

Pictures soon as I give it a good ironing LOL

Tonight I'm cutting out the blue print. I'm hoping I have something I can use as the lining LOL I think I have some beige lingerie knit that I might use. Plus some el-wire came in yesterday - woot! Can't wait to start putting it on the wedding dress and mardi-gras costume. The costumes are for a couple of friends for BurningMan this year.

First Blogger Post

OOoooo testing out the new blog for my creative stuff - beads, bbw sewing, costumes, papercrafts, etc.