Belated Birthday To Me

Last month I took part in a "January Birthday Swap" on Craftster. I made a present for someone else born in January, and then someone else made a present for me.

I made my person this book-inspired pillow:



The pillow is inspired by this beautiful work by Patchwork Pottery. The book exterior is quilter's cotton, and the "pages" are corduroy.



I admit my literary ignorance, that I did not know there was a writer named "A. Trollope" but I did giggle a little bit as I embroidered this.

I got an awesome blue scarf from Craftster user Yelutci:



Again, sorry it has been SO LONG since I have last posted. Expect more of the same, unfortunately, as I will be working heavy overtime until May, and barely have time to wash my underwear, let alone craft. Sadness :(

Quickie Capelet

I noticed my swap partner had a cape how-to in her W(ishl)ist, and I also noticed that it was very similar to my quick and dirty half circle skirt pattern, except with a simple rectangular hood, so I thought I'd throw this in as an extra. I think it came out very cute for a few moments of sewing.

I used the remnants from the skirt waistband, a difficult jersey fabric that I really had no other use for. It's finished with gray bias tape; the tape is stiffer than the jersey, giving it a curious lettuce edge.



I wanted to put a little leaf button on it, to make it sort of Fellowship of the Ring inspired (and therefore, geeky). And I had a little leaf button. And I tore apart my apartment looking for this little leaf button. But no. It would not present itself to me. So here is it, with a regular button. Arg.

Shrinky Dink Charm Bracelet

One more swap item. My swap partner is a fan of Ctrl Alt Del, so I made this charm bracelet with the characters out of Rough n Ready Shrinky Dinks. The charms have lobster claws on them, so they can come off and be used as stitch markers, or something.



Shrinky dinks worked as expected, mostly. A few are a little warped, but not too bad. The backside remained rough and unfinished looking even after Mod Podge-ing, is there a fix for that?

LOLCross-Stitch Pouch

This was also for my Great Geek Swap partner.



I have been embroidering (or trying to) for a while now, but this is my first cross stitch. I learned the basics from this page. I thought it really had to be cross stitch for the subversive factor, and I had some evenweave fabric from the Black Mage project (his hat)(and is it possible to link to that project too many times?{answer: No!})



Initially, I wanted it to be a wall hanging, but I made a mistake in my measurements and it no longer fit into the frame I had in mind. So I made it into an impromptu bag, using the microsuede and cording from my chair recon and the fringe from my BSG (not nipple) pillows.

I wish I had seen this awesome zippered pouch tutorial before I started, because it explains how to do it all by machine. I hand sewed the lining in because I wasn't sure how to work it with the machine, and well... it would have been better this way. I'm not the prettiest hand sewer. So, next time! It's still cute on the outside, right?

Tardis Tissue Box Cozy

UPDATE: This blog post has gone around some, which is awesome, but I know these instructions are a little fly-by-night. If you want any help please feel free to comment and I will respond.

Allons-y! -Jessica

---

It had to be done. It's so obvious that it's even been done before. This is my interpretation, made for the Great Geek Swap. My swapper partner likes Dr. Who.



The BBC has actually copyrighted the TARDIS design, which is one of those interesting copyright oddities since clearly this "design" was just borrowed from actual police boxes designed for the London PD. Whatever, I'm not selling this.

Supplies:
20x20" Fusible interfacing
1/4 yd Dark denim
1/4 yd lining
Silver Satin (scraps)
Embroidery floss (white and navy)
Print n Press transfer paper (dark fabric)
Sewing Machine, denim needle & navy thread
Bead for top light
1 5.5x5.5" cardboard square

I wanted to do a more detailed HOWTO, but my process got changed and convoluted somewhere along the way so this is the best I can muster. Here's the basic template for the sides:


This should be about the size of the larger side of your tissue box. All the blue is one piece, and the dark blue sections form the top pieces. A base piece the size of the light blue area is also needed.

And here's the sign I used (with Print n Press transfer paper). Print this out for use on one of the denim base (door) pieces.



First step: cut interfacing into shapes based on template, then iron onto the denim. Notice one of the sides has to be split in half, for the door.



Next, cut them apart, cut open the "windows" and baste the window seams under. Topstitch the window pieces on top of strips of satin, and the base pieces. Then sew the sections together, with the "doors" on either end. After this I topstitched four corner pieces over the seams.



Embroidered "Police Public Call Box" labels. The window grids are also (very simply) embroidered.



I cut out a square piece of denim big with sides the length of one of the panels. As tissue boxes are not square, this did not fit exactly, but the cloth was forgiving. I sewed this to the top of my panels.

I added a lining to hide the embroidery mess on the inside. This was done by sewing together a lining in the same shape as the denim exterior, then sewing it to the denim, right sides together, and flipping it inside out.


It would have been more awesome if I had found a lining fabric that had a big polka dot pattern like the inside of the actual TARDIS... but I already had this, and I like money. Both of these fabrics are leftover from a certain other cozy project.

Almost done - just some last minute tailoring. I hand sewed the embroidered signs on at this stage.



The top is just five pieces of fabric sewn together and then hand stitched to the top. It is tightly stuffed so it could be used as a pin cushion if you are so inclined to have a pin cushion on top of your tissue box. The "light" is a clear bead tied on with embroidery floss.



The base is made by sewing denim around a piece of reclaimed cardboard, and then hand sewn to the cozy. I made the base in the actual dimensions of the tissue box (rather than square) and then just pushed the fabric around until it fit properly.



Some final product detail shots.





There really is a tissue box in there.





I love the otherworldly glow in this shot:



I also made a Dr. Who card, which I colored with a highlighter and a green marker. David Tennant, incidentally, looks like an older Scottish version of my brother. Who in turn looks like an older, American version of Daniel Radcliffe.

Swap o Rama... rama

Went to the Venice Swap o Rama Rama with my friend Charlotte and had a blast.

There were two station where people were making bags, I should have taken pictures of this, but they were made out of shirts at one station, and pants at the other, using the hardware already on the clothing. You could make a really complicated looking bag out of a shirt with a zipper in about ten minutes (given the right shirt!).

I found some swell sailor jeans. They are a bit too short, so I'm going to hem them to capri length when I get some more denim needles.



I stenciled on a Greek key design, a pattern I'm fond of, in yellow.

I found a plain ivory Merona knit top and I added some fun appliques.





I have always pronounced "applique" wrong ... even though I think I have been corrected before. A-plee-kay, not a-pleek. Must remember.

I also met Lincoln, the fellow who makes this needle felted Yeti wonder. He's the one who corrected me on my French there. Needle felting is not the craft I had imagined. Apparently you're basically sculpting shapes out of wool with a needle, and it can be quite hazardous. Rar!

Flowers Swapped

I sent off my first Craftster swap a few days ago, for the Flowers swap, and it arrived today. One medium and two smalls. I had a lot of fun doing this and when I have more time I've got to do another!




Oh my gosh. Is that... is that a toilet paper cozy? Jessica, do you have a problem? Do we need to send you to TP Cozies Anonymous?

I made this out of Dr. Girlfriend and the Monarch scraps, and for some reason I'm really proud of that. The pink is from her dress, and the orange is from his wings. The ribbon I bought for the dragon pillows before I decided to embroider them, and the button is something I bought for my wedding dress but did not use. So no, I don't have a problem; I spent $0 on this (and I also got to practice my button holes).

I'm going to post a HOWTO about making the flower, since I really like how it came out.



Pretty pretty recycling. This vase used to be an awesome bottle of vinegar. It's my first experiment with glass paint, and I wish I had used a natural brush as recommended so it wouldn't be so thick and streaky. But I still like it. The flower in there is now quite dead, and I didn't make any flowers to put in it, but I recommend a few buds of Gerbera daiseys, like so.



Note cards from a painting I made of the flower above. I really love watercolor, it prints up so nicely. These were also a stash buster, made from the leftover paper from my wedding invitations.

I sorta considered sending her my leftover wedding invitations themselves, but that would be such a cheat, right? Yes. Now I have to decide what to do with the actual painting. I wonder if my mother would like it for Mother's Day - she could put it on the fridge, like old times.