Embroidering on Stretch Jersey with Solvy

So 6 months in I'm finally doing what's expected of me and embroidering baby vests.... it's much harder than it looks.

I've got something called Solvy (water soluble stabiliser)  which is like a thin plastic that you can draw your design on, hoop up with your fabric and sew through. Then once you're done you dunk the thing in water and the Solvy dissolves! cool eh?

yea it's still not easy.... but this is what I'm going for.

once again, pinterest is my inspiration

TG: 33 Weeks!!

We're into countdown mode now, 33 weeks, 7 weeks left to go!

This is a top I made myself out of a men's shirt. It was intended to just give me something to wear to a pirate theme party I went to last weekend, but it's turned out to be the most comfortable top EVER.

I'm on maternity leave from work now and I'd been squeezing myself into an array of maternity and non-maternity wear since I was determined not to buy anything new for the last couple of weeks. Being able to dress casually full time now (and even just in my PJs if I like) is SUCH a relief!

Anyhow... I took lots of pictures, so a tutorial for making a top like this will be coming up this week. It took no time at all!! and I've even gone out and bought a couple more shirts (from charity shops - of course!) so I can make some more and perhaps make a dress modification (did I mention it's the most comfortable thing ever?)

EDIT: Tutorial is UP!! - HERE

My baby related thoughts are:
I'm thinking about...  going for a water birth, the hospital I'm going to is well equipped for water births (I believe) and I'll talk to my midwife about it when I see her next.
The Husb0t has begun... clearing out 'his' StarWars room so it can start receiving baby related furniture.
I have... a gym ball! so I can sit on it to encourage my Squiggle to get in the correct position for birth - if the Husb0t will ever get off the damn thing!
I'm frustrated... that there doesn't seem to be anything going on in the NCT Branch where I live. I'm going to invite some of my antenatal class ladies round to sew some breastfeeding pillows and stuff... if they want.. I'll be doing it anyway so it's a good way of them getting something for nothing (and a good way for me to reduce my stash!)

GC: Braincakes!!

Kayla's Braincakes!

Check out my post on Geekcrafts.com

GC: Tutorial Tuesday - Reverse Stencilled Tote Bag!

Crossposted at Geekcrafts.com

Here's a neat idea! lets think 'outside the stencil'.

That's exactly what jennieingram did when she had to quickly step into the Dr Who Swap on Craftster. Round 5 of the Dr Who swap that is... these swaps are hugely popular, they're going to go on forever! Round 6 is crafting away as I type!

Jennie has shared a tutorial on how to achieve this effective technique on her blog, and also on Craftster.

But wait, there's more! Turns out Jennie is quite an avid Geek-Crafter and tutorial writer. Check out her Doctor's Companion Charm Bracelet and her tutorial on how to make Laminated Paper Bookmarks including a sonic screwdriver and a golden snitch.

• Jennie's reverse stencilling tutorial
• Jennie's Blog
• Jennie's Etsy
• Dr Who on Geekcrafts
• TARDIS on Geekcrafts
• Tutorials on Geekcrafts

GC: Tutorial Tuesday: Jesse/Team Rocket Cosplay!

Crossposted at geekcrafts.com

I need this woman to be my wife, and I'm a heterosexual, pregnant, married woman. You boys have got no chance!

Ryoko-demon is a prolific cosplay artist. Here she is, utterly transformed into Jessie from Team Rocket. Her photos are amazing. And to top it all off she's shared a tutorial on how she constructed that MINDBLOWING wig... She EVEN made HER OWN Meowth!! ... I'm just... lost.... for words... need to find more synonyms for awesome...

Via Geekologie

• Ryoko-demon's DeviantArt
• Jesse Wig Tutorial
• Meowth Work in Progress pics
• Pokemon on Geekcrafts
• Tutorials on Geekcrafts

Friday Feminist Geek Giggles

The internet doesn't seem to know this is a parody, but lets face it, as they said on The F Word today: "it isn’t so far off from the reality of how tech has been marketed to women…" ... amen Sister... also as the commentators on youtube have mentioned, this parody is so close to 'there's an app for that' it's unreal... and this comedy programme was PIP (Pre-IPad)... Mr Jobs... I think I've found your inspiration.

British TV Comedy Swap - What I Recieved!

My partner in this swap was Baloo. It's always a game of Russian roulette when you swap with a 'new swapper' in retrospect I think I was a pretty crap first time swapper myself. I sent my Dr Who Knitting Needle Roll... which... you know... did include a 12 inch embroidered design... which was pretty awesome... but I didn't really send anything else much... anyhow... I'm now a seasoned veteran (lol) I'm even ORGANISING a swap at the moment (I KNOW!! who died and made ME a responsible adult...)

Anyhoo, enough with this random meandering! check out the awesome stuff I received from this first time swapper on the British TV Comedy Swap!

I particularly love the baby-grows/Onesies. They completely appeal to my sense of humour an irreverence over the whole baby situation, and I DOUBLE love that I'm going to have a mam and baby matching T-shirt set!! hahaha!! AWESOME!. I wear a lot of t-shirt/jeans combos so those shirts will be well loved and the tote bag will completely be adored by all of my IT helpdesk friends (of which I have many). And the cute starbug!! that'll go in the baby's room too... when err... the baby gets a room

My Ass Rocks! (Pt 2 making a patch)

Really REALLY easy  REALLY Didn't need another post... but I don't post enough so deal with it!

so you're at this point:

(1) measure your design.
(2) cut the design (make a pattern out of paper to keep the angles right)
(3) cut the same size backing fabric x1 and interfacing x2
(4) interface the design and the backing fabric
(5) pin and sew all together along the edges with zigzag stitch

 Bob's your uncle

Fanny's your aunt.

bish bash bosh - job DONE!

x G

My Ass Rocks! (Pt 1 embroidery)

Check it out!!

  ICK! I don't like it that close up it's a bit unforgiving!

There we go:

It started out life here:

 Guys, it's the 21st century! we don't have to spend loads of money on embroidery patterns! google images has a feature now where can specify exactly what kind of picture you want:

and there you go - line drawing = embroidery pattern, job done. Save it, pop it in word, add a text box, add some cheeky text, Bob's your uncle and Fanny's your aunt!

On the Internet there's loads of different ways to transfer embroidery patterns. I chose to use carbon paper because I happened to have some lying around after I failed to use it to transfer sewing patterns in the early days. (Just goes to show NEVER THROW ANYTHING AWAY!!)

As you can see, nice and light, but sharp enough to see what you're doing, awesome!
In case you care I'm just using muslin as a base and when I'm stitching I'll be using backstitch because I don't know ANYTHING about embroidery at all!

Ok so that's the hard part, it took me about 3 nights (3 school nights) to sew this, it's about 3.5x6 inches... something like that.... not big....

In the next installment: how to make you kickass embroidery into a patch for your jeans or jacket... but you still wont be as cool as this guy:

 see you soon!!

x G

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

The list that surprised me....

So, at work today I had a couple of minutes spare (NEVER EVER HAPPENS!!) while some y9s were watching "Blood Sweat and Luxuries" in the guise of a lesson about fairtrade. . . . I digress...

with nothing to amuse myself but some post it notes and a pencil I decided to make a list of all the projects I've started or considered recently.. it was slightly longer than I expected... here it is.

1. Glee dress (black A-line dress with a big bow) - in progress to do: zip, hem, bow

2. DIO refashioned T-shirt - from an xxl dio T shirt I picked up when I saw him a couple of years ago, I don't wear it becasue it's so big and his recent death ( :.( ) makes me need to do something fabulous with it (not started)




















3. Vegeta T shirt refashion - a mens dragonballZ t-shirt that I got from a charityshop with cool japanese writing on it :-)















4. Rifat's skirt - my coleague spilt bleach on her skirt and has asked me to try to salvage it

5. Red and white gingham 50's style shirt dress (I've got the fabric, but I havn't found the pattern or started yet)

6. Sailor dress - more japanese inspiration - I've got some fabric but I don't think I'll use it, patterns are hard to come by.



















7. bow dress from pattern magic - not started yet

8. I also need to rehem a skirt I wear to work that was badly stitched when I bought it

9. I need to convert a mens T-shirt my mam gave me into a dress. It's got an awesome print of an anime girly on it. I aim to pair it with some white/red fabric with a print of cheeries to make a summer dress.

10. Tama the Turtle plushie (If you're ever seen love hina you'll understand)

11. Liddo-kun plushie (see 10.)









12. I want to applique some nice fabric flowers to patch up some black shoes because the stitching has come undone and they're falling apart.

13. Anime style pleat skirt (not started)

14. Kilt style pleat skirt (not started)

15. a skirt/dungarees lovechild (not started)

16. Kawaii Kimono Dress (I've done a sketch and there are a bizillion kinono patterns on the interwebz but otherwise not started)

17. Obi belt (to go with 16.)

18.Trousers. Just to experiment because I've never made them before and if I am going to offer my services to members of the public I'd better be confident with all garments :-)

19. hakama - like japanese wrap around trousers (not started)

20. TARDIS blanket for babies that keep being born around me (not started)

21. VeryPurplePerson's reversible bag - I've got some faux leather PVC and some strawberry print oilcloth - pattern pieces cut out of fabric but project stalled when I bought the He-man Duvet cover of legend


21 things?! what type of monster have I created?!!??

Master of the Charity Shop

I found this gem in a charity shop in Aylesbury town centre, (£1.50!!) I'm going to make something truely geeky with it, but what? it needs ot be 80's and summery!.. lets go!