10 years later...

First thing I did after getting my tax refund was buy a sewing machine from JoAnn Fabrics. For the past month its been sitting in the corner of my guest bedroom as my fears overtook my desires. Fear of the machine... fear of screwing up a project... but mostly fear of breaking the most expensive equipment I own (seriously! I paid less for my laptop than my sewing machine).

Then the amount of sewing patterns in my hobby cube starting to grow and overtake the box they were in - thanks 100% to JoAnn's Daffodil Dash where the Simplicity and McCall's patterns were only 99 cents - marked down from about $15.00!!! - and I was left with no choice, and my desires overcame my fears.

I had already begun purchasing the fabric, cords, and interfacing for some purses I wanted to make, but before I making the purse I knew I needed to practice my skills. So I picked up some buckle ends and ribbon. I put the two wrong ends of the ribbon together and sewed them - becuase I wanted to see the stitches.

Honestly... the stitching was really messy, but more importantly I survived the experience! Now all I want to do is run out to the store and buy more materials (even though I have plenty!) I will certainly need to buy more bobbins though... and something to store them all in.

Without further ado, the photos of my major accomplishment for the day. Forgive me. I am proud. Its been 10 years since I've used a sewing machine.

A shot of the whole belt:


Up close:


Forgive me for the closeup shot of my butt:


Tommorrow I plan to swallow my fear again and make my coffee/purse tote.

Starbuck's Destiny

The second thing I made after getting my perler bead bucket from Michael's (after my turtle) was Starbuck's Mandala. At first I thought about turning it into a pendant but I thought a ring would be fun. I'll probably make a matching pendant and earrings to go with it.

I ran wire through two of the blue perler beads and strung blue seed beads underneath it to create the ring portion of it.





Sorry about the poor quality of photographs, my cameara is great for action shots, not for close ups.

So many uses...

I saw this fantastic yarn at Hobby Lobby by Yarn Bee (I don't remember what it was called) and was marked down from 8.99 to 1.99 so I scooped up a ball of yarn... I wish I had purchased more. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to make a belt out of it. But the belt can also be used at a scarf. I did four pegs on a knitting loom

Using it as a scarf:




Now as a belt:




And I had some leftover yarn and decided to make a necklace from it based on a necklace by Ralph from Crafster. You can see the Firefly inspired jewlery here.

Harry Potter Scarf Earings

I saw this pattern for house scarf earrings at Leaky Cauldron and fell in love with them. My knitting skills however leave something to be desired, so I figured I'd make them from seed beads. They are five beads by 29 rows. I made them on my beading loom.





Here's the patterns I used in making these. Click on the picture for a large image. If I had somewhere to upload a PDF file, I would do so. For each house I used a different pattern - just playing with colors.



Just a side note: My favorite pattern is the one I used for the Slytherin scarf and the one I used for the Ravenclaw scarf.

Patches

So I was walking through Hobby Lobby the other day and came across a Wall-E patch. I knew I had to have it. What would I do with it? I'm not sure. Then I remember a plain black hat I purchased from Wal-Mart to make a mushroom hat and BINGO... I decided to sew him on a black baseball cap.



It was about a 10 minute project but I love the end result. Wall-E is one of my favorite movies of all time.

Product Review

Today while making my (almost) daily trip to JoAnn Fabrics I finally broke down and spent $4.99 + tax to buy the Boyle Loopy Scarf Tool.

It took me a while to get into the swing of it, but once I started it went fairly quickly. I used two strands of yarn, each of a different color. Both were Red Heart Super Saver Yarn. One strand of Petal Pink and another of Shocking Pink. I won't make that mistake again. My resulting scarf was THICK. Now, that would be all well and good if I didn't live in desert where its only cold enough to wear a thick scarf about 2 1/2 months out of the year... at the most.

Next time I'll use thin yarn for a thinner scarf.

The hardest part is securing the loops so that they don't unravel. I did both the binding technique and fabric glue that was suggested. No go. I dropped it and tried to pick it up and had a loop come undone. I'll have to figure out another way to secure the loops.

The directions given were kind of foggy and I'd prefer better techniques on how to bid off the loops so that they did not unravel. Overall though I would recommend this product to anyone who loves scarves. The final product is fun enough... both to make (though not finish) and to wear.


The scarf laid out


Me wearing it. Sorry about the poor photograph, but I was home alone and impatient to share.


A close up shot to show just how thick it is. Excuse my facial expression but this was about my 4th time trying to take this shot. I hate doing self-photographs.

Organization is Key

This past weekend my boyfriend and I did some spring cleaning. My major goal was to organize my craft materials, which have gotten out of control. Especially all of my knitting looms. This is a simple, easy method, but its FANTASTIC for me because we're not tripping over my looms that are not curretly being used.



Nails, extra space in the guest bedroom closet, and there you go! Nice organized looms.

Loomed Hat

This is much older but I still wanted to share because I remember just how proud I was when I was finished.

Mushroom Cuff

Using black fabric, cross-stitch floss, and tear away cross-stitch fabric I made this mushroom cuff:





The cutting of the fabric was a little messy but you can't really see it unless you're looking at the underside of my wrist.

I plan to make a few more. This was the first time I've used the tear away fabric and it was harder than I thought it would be. My stitches are slightly uneven but I'll get better with practice.

Goomba Jewlery Cuff

I love Mario Brothers. After seeing all these mario brothers crafts online I decided to make this loomed cuff. Using images from Retro Game Zone I sketched out a pattern for the goomba. The background is made from clear seed beads.

Perler Tetris Earrings

I love perler beads. I just recently started using them again after a... 15 year hiatus or so. The color is toothpaste.

Tetris Magnets

I saw Tetris Magnets Tutorial at Geek Crafts and I just knew I had to have a set. Someone commented on the post about trying these with legos and I stole the idea. I already had glue sticks (for my hot glue gun), magnet backs, and legos so I got straight to work.





I love the way these turned out.

American Flag Earrings

These earrings were made from wire and seed beads. The pattern is from Beadie Critters

Jewelry

Necklace and Earring Set



I made this the other day from a kit I bought a Micahel's a zillion years ago.

Button Jewelry

I've been seeing button jewelry on blogs and message boards and here's my own attempt:

The whole set


A close up of the necklace


A close up of the ring


An action shot of the earrings


Sadly, I don't have a close up or action shot of the bracelet. I was having a heck of a time getting it on at the time.

Teacher Charms

I saw these buttons at Michael's and used them to create a teacher charm bracelet.

Loom Knitted Socks

Using Yarn Gear's Sock Tutorial I made a few pairs of socks.

This was my first attempt using just some scraps of yarn:


An action shot:


Yes I know "Holy crap they're bright!"

This pair is my favorite. I doubled up on the yarn to make them thicker and this is also my first attempt at changing colors:






The cuffs are a little loose but they don't slip down or off ever so that's good. Next time I'll try the rib stitch to tighten up the heel since I have such small ankles.

On this pair the cuff is made from fun fur.

I'm planning on making another pair in green.

First Flower Loom Creation

Using provo crafts flower loom I created this from some stray ribbon and hot glued it to a pin back.



I think it'll look cute on one of my many pain black work shirts/t-necks.

Earrings

Just a few action shots...

Loom Knitted Jewelry

I used Isela's Tutorial to make this bracelet. Its a little messy but I like it all the same. Not bad for a first attempt.