Christmas presents!
Jan. 4th, 2007 12:26 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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craftgrrlEveryone I've sent gifts to has received them, so now I can post all this crap!
First: My girlfriend mentioned a few times that she wanted some lines from "Knights of Cydonia" by Muse on a t-shirt. I entertained the idea for Christmas, but I decided not to go in that direction, because there are lots of stupid people on the planet who like to read your shirt to you and it's very awkward. So... I put them on a purse instead!
I made the purse as well. It's a straightforward freezer paper stencil using the front "cracked johnny," I think. I used one of my purses (one she bought for me, in fact) as the inspiration for the pattern and attached the strap with rectangle rings.
The other side! I stuffed the bag unevenly to take the pictures, which is why it looks so tragically lopsided. I used Jacquard textile paints for the stencil; one layer of white and then silver metallic over that. I love both colors--the white is nice and thick and the silver spreads faster than Paris Hilton after an eightball--but every paint of theirs that I use has a different texture.
Obviously the lining had to be moons and stars. It's Muse. Check out my gorgeously sewn zipper! I'm very proud of it.
So, there's that! I entertained the idea of putting more on the outside, but I decided to leave it bare so she can embellish it herself with whatever catches her fancy. Better too sparse than too busy.
DID YOU KNOW: For a short time, Conway Twitty (the country music star) had a fast food chain? They served Twitty burgers, which, in explicably, had pineapple on them--thus, the chain went bankrupt.![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fridge_buzz_now and I found this positively hysterical when we found out at four in the morning (come on, guys--Twitty burgers!), so for Christmas, she got the opportunity to advertise the defunct restaurants wherever she goes:
This one clearly didn't turn out as well as the Muse one did; I was having the WORST time getting the freezer paper to stick to the fabric--the iron just wouldn't get hot enough. It's brand new, too! They don't make 'em like they used to. My xacto wouldn't stay sharp, either.
So yeah, anyway, the lettering came out fantastic, but Twitty (who is down there thinkin' about burgers) looks like some brain-eating phantasm. Which is okay, I suppose. The border looks wavy because of the way the fabric is sitting--it's straight in reality. My posts certainly end up with a lot of disclaimers like that.
My first ever interior pocket! THE CAMERA'S PLAYING TRICKS AGAIN. The seams aren't as obvious in person. I swear. =) Oh, the bag's about large enough to carry some notebooks and a textbook or two, and the strap is long enough to sling over your shoulder.
And the last sewing project (I typed "problem" at first, which works, too, I suppose): my girlfriend's mentioned on various occasions that she wants one of those silly-ass hats with the earflaps. Deerhunter hats, are they? But she's never bought one on her own, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I used a tutorial from Craftster and leftover fleece and fur from last year's zipper banana. The enormous octopus I won playing darts is modelling it, because when I took the pictures, I wasn't in the mood to put my face all over the internet in a silly hat.
I like it best with the brim turned up like that, but it takes some coaxing to get it to stay that way--I cut the lining too short, I think. It's lined with white satin, by the way, because I figured more fur would be far too warm.
Less lumpy on an actual head, rather than an octopus.
And two stencilled band shirts:
Placebo wings! I made one of these for me when my sister and I saw them live in October--in pink on black--and she fell in love with it, so I made her one for Christmas. I took the wing tattoo from the cover of, uh... This Picture, edited it so they were symmetrical, printed it out, and then cut it out of plastic so I can use it again and again, because it's a damn good stencil.
On a whim, for a friend who's mentioned once or twice that she wants another Radiohead shirt. This one was way, way harder than it looks--for some reason, I was having the worst time figuring out how to center the stencil. Lines are nice and clean, though, because I finally figured out how to adhere the freezer paper.
It ended up not fitting her right anyway. Alas. But she can sleep in it or something and be very rock 'n' roll.
Hooray! Once I finish reconstructing some enormous band shirts and replace the zipper on this bag I made (that's the last time I repurpose zippers from low-quality Hot Topic gear), I'll post those. Thanks for looking!
First: My girlfriend mentioned a few times that she wanted some lines from "Knights of Cydonia" by Muse on a t-shirt. I entertained the idea for Christmas, but I decided not to go in that direction, because there are lots of stupid people on the planet who like to read your shirt to you and it's very awkward. So... I put them on a purse instead!
I made the purse as well. It's a straightforward freezer paper stencil using the front "cracked johnny," I think. I used one of my purses (one she bought for me, in fact) as the inspiration for the pattern and attached the strap with rectangle rings.
The other side! I stuffed the bag unevenly to take the pictures, which is why it looks so tragically lopsided. I used Jacquard textile paints for the stencil; one layer of white and then silver metallic over that. I love both colors--the white is nice and thick and the silver spreads faster than Paris Hilton after an eightball--but every paint of theirs that I use has a different texture.
Obviously the lining had to be moons and stars. It's Muse. Check out my gorgeously sewn zipper! I'm very proud of it.
So, there's that! I entertained the idea of putting more on the outside, but I decided to leave it bare so she can embellish it herself with whatever catches her fancy. Better too sparse than too busy.
DID YOU KNOW: For a short time, Conway Twitty (the country music star) had a fast food chain? They served Twitty burgers, which, in explicably, had pineapple on them--thus, the chain went bankrupt.
fridge_buzz_now and I found this positively hysterical when we found out at four in the morning (come on, guys--Twitty burgers!), so for Christmas, she got the opportunity to advertise the defunct restaurants wherever she goes:This one clearly didn't turn out as well as the Muse one did; I was having the WORST time getting the freezer paper to stick to the fabric--the iron just wouldn't get hot enough. It's brand new, too! They don't make 'em like they used to. My xacto wouldn't stay sharp, either.
So yeah, anyway, the lettering came out fantastic, but Twitty (who is down there thinkin' about burgers) looks like some brain-eating phantasm. Which is okay, I suppose. The border looks wavy because of the way the fabric is sitting--it's straight in reality. My posts certainly end up with a lot of disclaimers like that.
My first ever interior pocket! THE CAMERA'S PLAYING TRICKS AGAIN. The seams aren't as obvious in person. I swear. =) Oh, the bag's about large enough to carry some notebooks and a textbook or two, and the strap is long enough to sling over your shoulder.
And the last sewing project (I typed "problem" at first, which works, too, I suppose): my girlfriend's mentioned on various occasions that she wants one of those silly-ass hats with the earflaps. Deerhunter hats, are they? But she's never bought one on her own, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I used a tutorial from Craftster and leftover fleece and fur from last year's zipper banana. The enormous octopus I won playing darts is modelling it, because when I took the pictures, I wasn't in the mood to put my face all over the internet in a silly hat.
I like it best with the brim turned up like that, but it takes some coaxing to get it to stay that way--I cut the lining too short, I think. It's lined with white satin, by the way, because I figured more fur would be far too warm.
Less lumpy on an actual head, rather than an octopus.
And two stencilled band shirts:
Placebo wings! I made one of these for me when my sister and I saw them live in October--in pink on black--and she fell in love with it, so I made her one for Christmas. I took the wing tattoo from the cover of, uh... This Picture, edited it so they were symmetrical, printed it out, and then cut it out of plastic so I can use it again and again, because it's a damn good stencil.
On a whim, for a friend who's mentioned once or twice that she wants another Radiohead shirt. This one was way, way harder than it looks--for some reason, I was having the worst time figuring out how to center the stencil. Lines are nice and clean, though, because I finally figured out how to adhere the freezer paper.
It ended up not fitting her right anyway. Alas. But she can sleep in it or something and be very rock 'n' roll.
Hooray! Once I finish reconstructing some enormous band shirts and replace the zipper on this bag I made (that's the last time I repurpose zippers from low-quality Hot Topic gear), I'll post those. Thanks for looking!
