Happy Friday!!

And the thing that I've seen on the internet that made me the most happy this week was....

This Kindle case is for sale for $22 at nokomomo. Go get it!

or if you're me, ponder how many other things could a mushroom motif, and smile your way through the weekend.

<3<3 <3 G

The Only Alien In School - Free Embroidery Pattern

SO I made this for Ralph in a recent Craftster Swap

It's a patch inspired by the Robert Rodriguez move The Faculty.
Here it is on the hoop:

I used applique for the alien, satin stitch for the spots and the letters and backstitch for the outlining. I used 3 stands of floss for the satin stitch in the letters but I wish I'd only used 2. I think I used 2 everywhere else...

And here's the pattern:

The Alien is adapted from this image:

so obviously... that belongs to them...

As always, use my pattern as much as you like, just don't use it to make money, don't sell it in your etsy shop, don't pretend it's yours. and PLEASE let me know if you use it.. I wanna see!!!

I even BUY things that look handmade

 

Isn't it sweet? ... yes I COULD have made it myself... but the point is Kate Garey thought of this idea first and buying *is* quicker than making :-)

Thankyou Dollydagger

"Well Loved" Bear

 

I can let you in on this Christmas secret because it's for my mother in law, and the likelihood of her getting on the Internet and checking my blog is VERY remote! She doesn't do the interwebs!

To really get the full picture you need a bit of background story.

My mother in law is crazy about bears... they cover her house... REALLY... to the extent where we can't just 'pop' round, they need a couple of hours notice to tidy the bears off the couch :-)

I mean it's worse than this:

worse than this:

and worse than this:

infact put the three of those together, that's her front room, FACT!

How does she acquire these bears? well, like me she has a deep appreciation for charity shops, which means that the majority of bears she brings home look something like this:

 

So, I decided that the only nice thing to do was to give her a piece of embroidered art this Christmas to commemorate her love affair with all things stuffed and tattered. 

It's applique and embroidery, using blanket stitch, a smidge of satin stitch and chain stitch (I <3 Chain stitch) at some points using 3 stands and at others 2 strands of embroidery floss. The buttons came off one of Alex's old shirts that I cannibalised in payment for making some cloaks for his star wars action figures, the frame was 50p from a charity shop! All of the fabric I used I actually got for free form my beautiful sister in law XD

not very geeky, but definitely sweet :-)

x G

Supergirl Costume (pt3, 'S' Applique and muslin making)

Muslin making.... well... there's a first time for everything.
I never usually bother, but since I'm making this from scratch I feel it may be beneficial...

LUCKILY (sorta) I bought some fabric online for the supergirl outfit and it turned out to be completely the wrong colour! BOO! But it was stretchy, making it the perfect muslin fabric for the top (YEYY). I had to make the 'S' as part of the muslin because I wasn't confident about the effect the applique would have on the overall fit of the top.

Lets start with the Applique. .. . because I did the Applique before I constructed the garment.... it feels sensible.
INTERFACING ON EVERYHTING! I'm applique-ing a stretchy fabric onto a stretchy fabric here.. DANGER! So essentially I've got 3 pieces to start with I've got the front bodice, the backround the the 'S' (in this case some shiny black fabric) which is the diamond shape of the 's trimmed about hal an inch all round to make sure it doesn't show on the edges, and the 'S'(+diamond border) itself.. I need to interface the wrong side of the front of the T'shirt, interface the black diamond and interface the red diamond... I interfaced BEFORE I cut out the shapes. I cut out the shapes with the dressmaking shears rather than the stanley knife... it was fiddly... it was worth it

I basted the pieces together because the red - although it was interfaced- was insisting on stretching and shifting under the pins.

zigzag stitch, buttonhole length and A LOT OF PATIENCE later...

some stitches are neater than others, but, WHO CARES?! it's a MUSLIN! yeyyyeyyy!!! it'll be less noticable on the real thing because I'll be stitching red on red :-) it's all good!

So! I stitched that to my interfaced bodice:

 and then constucted the bodice, ((1)shoulder seams, (2)sleeve/shoulder seam, (3) sew all the way from cuff of sleeve to hem of bodice, all in one)
and this is what I got:

there we go, not right, but not insanely wrong... I need to do something about the armpit area, the sleeves are too tight and too short (I goddam hate sleeves) I need to do something about the sagging near the neckline... for more an armpit dysfunction see here:

anyhow, thats a lot of work foor one day, I'm just going to make slight fitting alterations, redraft the sleeves and get back to you tomorrow!

G x

Supergirl Costume

2 blog posts in one day?! I'm trying to be good... keeping a record of what I'm doing, as I'm doing it... anyhow... one day who knows?! somebody might actually read this shizzle.

Right... My sister-in-law is having a party beginning of september... a fancy dress party... 'heroes and villans' the Geeky Seamstress in me cried a little cry of happiness!

So this is what I'm going for:

This is what I've got so far:

and this is the fabric I've got:

I'm a little dissapointed... I dont think I'm going to use the shiny gold fabric (it's called 'lame'... that confused me.... shiny lame fabric?) because it's not on Helen Slater's costume and has only started to be applied to newer interpretations of the outfit ... I thought about making it into binding strip and hemming the skirt, cuffs and cape with it, but it's not stretchy and if I hem the cuffs with it I won't be able to put my hands through... and if I don't it wont look 'together' all the gold'll be on the bottom and nowhere else...

anyhow... thats what I'm thinking so far :-)

G x