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

Adorable Tardis Cross Stitch

Crossposted at Geekcrafts.com 

I like the bit when someone says it's bigger on the inside! I always look forward to that.

This is the creation of Crafty TARDIS/livejournal member Xcarex. I love it.
If you're not plugged into Crafty TARDIS you should be! I love the charming honesty of this cross stitch, the way the TARDIS seems to be shining with all those dotted lines, and the care and attention taken over the different shades of blue.

• Crafty TARDIS
• Xcarex on Livejournal
  
• Cross stitch on Geek Crafts
• The TARDIS on GeekCrafts
  

Dr Who Knitting Needle Roll (Dr Who Swap Round 4)

this is the Dr Who knitting needle holder I made for the Craftster Dr Who Swap (round 4) here's the other side:

all wrapped up:

and a close up of the embroidery detail on the hoop:

It was really simple, I kinda looked at this tutorial by lupinbunny, decided I wanted to use some tardis coloured binding strip instead of hemming everything and  I just sort of filled in the gaps.

Have some in-progress shots:

 

these are my materials, I ended up having to use 2 skeins of embroidery floss because it was such a big design (if I recall correctly I used 3 strands) - and that's HOMEMADE binding strip :-) hell yea!

The measurements here are 18" wide for everything, all those numbers are the height's in inches, the last 4 inch one is what I used for the little pouch in the first picture.

This is the pieces put together, as you can see I intended to use the 4" tall length as a final pocket but I decided it was redundant partway through the project.

 This is me transferring the embroidery design onto the black fabric using white carbon paper

 and there's the transferred design, ready for stitching! I did the whole thing in backstitch, using a 12" embroidery hoop mounted on the embroidery stand I was so lucky to find in the charity shop.

This is where I did a lot of the work :-)

I also sent my lovely partner this very tiny embroidery hoop:

(I just noticed the big 'ole CHINA mark on the bottom of the hoop... hmmm... should have put that to the back... *rollseyes* )

Anyhow, hopefully you've managed to follow what I did there... hope you like it!

x G

Dr Who Pattern Book (AKA why it's good that Alex is a hoarder)

So one thing you probably don't know is that Alex (the boy) is a huge hoarder, he comes from a long line of hoarders and to be honest, he is taking ownership of his affliction and taking steps to curb his hoarding tendancies.

One fruit of his hoarding nature is this little gem:

Published in 1984, as you can see this was probably bought from a charity shop for 95p, which makes it double awesome as to buy today on amazon it would set you back about £25!!

For any international visitors Dr Who is a massive Sci-fi series from the BBC. 'Who' has been going just about as long as TV in the UK, it's so influential that when I was studying Media, Culture, and Society as part of my degree, Dr Who was often mentioned in lectures (groovy!)

And what did kid want to sew in 1984? ... well.. Dr Who costumes for their action men apparently...

And what did their Smexy dads look like?
the book actually includes the sewing pattern for this and a child's jumper... as well as a section called 'how to knit' for the absolute beginner... I shan't be knitting the Boy one of these....

But I may be making the boy one of these:
I think this is pretty cool, I also think it would go very well in the Boy's Star Wars room (don't ask... ) and he'd be able to use it to store paints, brushes, droid parts etc... I bought some fabric that's the right color, but it's polycotton and it's too flimsy. Although obviously I'd all the 'police call box bit at the top, its a bit dumb that Ms Gammon chose to omit this very important detail!

Cybermats are cute!
well... they are now.. I never thought of them as cute before this moment.
and d'you know what else is cute?
a knitted K-9! oh wow.. . I can imagine you've got to be quite skilled in the knitting stakes to get reasonable 'angles' on this... otherwise it'd just look quite unconvincing.

And if you don't knit, dont fear! You can sew K9 too!
I'm going to do this for a friend (and one for myself) but I'm going to mix the pattern in this book with the plushie pattern from crafty tardis (ohmyword craftytardis is awesome, I must add my creations there too...)

The book also includes the sewing pattern for that sailor top (apparently Romana's) ... what do you reckon the odd are of that little girl being beaten up by some angry chavs affronted by her mums hand made togs?

I like this shot - it's like the whole troupe saying goodbye at the end of the book.. very BBC

This book is awesome, you should keep tuned for various creations inspired by the patterns here.

Truely Geeky :-)
x G

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?!!??