The Star Wars Collection

Star Wars has always been a large part of my life. It was a big part of my middle school years and and some of the high school ones. I still remember the exact moment (I was about 10) when I was introduced to Star Wars (long story and maybe I'll share it another time). ANYWAY, before I leave you down the looney road of my brain, the point of the story. Back in my late elementary years and middle school years, Beadies (those critters made from pony beads) became famous. Everyone had them and kids like me were obcessed.

However, I couldn't find ANY Star Wars patterns anywhere. And I looked. Believe me, I LOOKED. So while sitting in Mr. V's English class in 8th grade (bored silly) I grabbed some notebook paper and started sketching out my very own Star Wars patterns.

Since I'm looking to launch my own craft pattern website/business (it will include both free items and items for purchase) I went looking for some of my old cross-stitch patterns and art work and stumbled upon these beadie patterns filed away along with my sketches. So I promptly converted them to the computer (to be shared soon) and went out and purchased about $12 worth of pony beads.

Here's the end result:

First up is Prince Xizor. The main villian of the Star Wars Novel Shadows of the Empire one of my favorite novels of the Expanded Universe. Hmmm... maybe I should go pick that up.


Four lightsabers: red, purple, green, blue


Mara Jade. Another character from the Expanded Universe. This was made before my anti-Mara era (about the time the NJO books were being published) and was based on a model photograph.


Jedi Luke from Return of the Jedi. I just love the little black glove. :)


Princess Leia's most famous look from A New Hope.


Princes Leia at the end of A New Hope in her ceremony outfit.


Princess Leia in her Ewok dress. I've always wanted one of these for myself. How sad is that?


A Jawa. Yes he is a little square, but they always - for some strange reason - bring a smile to my face.


Han Solo. My first love. :)


Darth Maul's double ended lightsaber. Simple but effective pattern.



This second Star Wars collection is entitled the Itty Bitty collection. These are minature versions of the ones above.

This is one of the very FEW prequel critters I completed. Remember these were designed just after the release of The Phantom Menance. Emperor Palpatine. I think he's so darn cute even if he is evil.


Itty Bitty Luke Skywalker in his farmer's outfit. I'll probably design a bigger farmer boy Luke at some point.


Itty Bitty Princess Leia. She's one of my favorites. Sssh... Don't tell.


Itty Bitty Han Solo


I will have photos coming within the next few days of Itty Bitty Jabba the Hutt, Itty Bitty Darth Maul, Itty Bitty Jawa, and Leia in her Hoth outfit and Endor command outfit.

What's Cookin?

I've been working on quite a few different projects over the last few weeks, but haven't had time to either finish them or post them. My family was out visiting two weeks ago and then I was in Boston last week... I just returned on Tuesday.

So here's what I have for you: two new purses. The first one I did following a New Look pattern and the second I did without a pattern.

This is the first one, which I consider to be more of a tote bag than a purse.

The Pattern: (New Look 6391)

This was actually the first pattern I purchased because I wanted to try something easy. This was much harder than I thought it would be, BUT that was due mostly in part to the fact that I didn't know what interfacing was, or how to dart, or how to machine baste, etc. I spent a lot of time looking up sewing videos on the internet and calling my mom (who lives 2,000 miles away...)

The Purse:

I found both fabrics at Hobby Lobby in their fabric scraps bin. I love them but didn't know what to do with them at the time I purchased them.

A Close up of the fabric:


I just love it!

This second one was inspired by some purses I saw for sell at those booths in the mall. They had them in all different shapes and sizes (as well as matching wallets and cell phone holders) that ran for $50-$80. I saw them and thought "hey! I bet I could make those".

This beast, which I've been calling the "moster purse" has taken me the better part of two days. However, to my credit, I've never attached handles OR a zipper before.

Well... here it is in all of its glory:


The zipper. I messed it up a little on each end but considering that this was the first time I've ever sewen a zipper, I'm plenty darn pleased with myself.


And a few action shots...




I took pictures and made notes of the whole process for my reference, so at some point I will probably write up a tutorial for it.

Goombas rule my world

I'm walking through Hobby Lobby and find their latch key materials on sale. Hmmm... haven't worked with that in a while. So then and there, in the middle of the store, I decide to make a Goomba pillow from latch key materials. I purchase my items, check out, and promptly return home to turn my cross-stitch/seed bead/perler bead pattern into a larger latchkey pattern. It turned out VERY small, but I very much love it.

I used my sewing machine to sew blue fabric onto the back (sorry I have no pictures of that) and stuff it. It took me MULTIPLE trys and reaping out seams to get it right (I kept catching the yarn between the two fabrics and sewing over them).

I am pleased, although it is small, with the end result.

And the photos:





Yes... it is VERY small

The 10,897 bead scarf!

Here's the story: I love scarves. However I live somewhere where is about 100 degrees all year long. Not a good place to wear a scarf. Not at all. So I came up with this "bright" idea to make a scarf completely out of sead beeds. What a beast. It took me weeks (working on it here and there) to complete it.

It took 10,897 seed beads (about $6.00 worth of beads) and completed it is 4 feet and 11 inches long.

I told my boyfriend when I finished I was never doing another one. That was until I finished it:

An up close shot at the design:


Action shot:


Action shot of the length:


I think next I'm going to do a green and black belt. I've already go the method picked out as well as the design. Now I just need the materials...

Blue & Green Panels

These four panels were painted to decorate my very, very blah and white walls in the bedroom in my apartment. First I painted each panel blue. After they dried I pushed all four panels together and dropped a bit of paint in the upper left corner and used my brush to brush it out in every direction. I repeated this for the next three corners.

Intially I wanted more circles and thinner lines but the end result reminds me of seaweed and for some strange reason... I LIKE IT!

Buttons = Love

I love Law & Order. Always have, always will. I've always wanted an L&O T-shirt but never felt like spending $20 on one. My first thought was to iron on the logo, but then the other day I was playing with my button collection and had a thought. So I took a good long look at the logo on my computer and assigned each letter/symbol a color. Then I laid on the buttons on the back of a notebook first.

I then transferred the design over to the tank top. I put tacky glue on the back of each button and placed it on tank top. After this was done, I went back and hand-sewed each button into place and washed off the tacky glue.

The result:



And as always... an action shot

Button Choker

Simple red, button chocker made with red buttons and red cross-stitch floss. Wore it work and my 6th grade students just loved it.


A close up shot


An action shot

I've got more work to share but am behind on taking pictures, so expect to see some more up in the next few days.