Wow, lots of pictures--skirts, halter, brooch, and HP geekness

[heatherlayne-n.livejournal.com]

Sorry, dial-up users. :(



I got a sheet at the Salvation Army for I think 75 cents, out of which I made a skirt. I still have about half of it left and it might become an apron. Or maybe a top, but obviously I won't wear the skirt and top together. That'd be scary.



I just totally dig this fabric! It makes me so happy. I wore the skirt about four days in a row after I made it because I love it so much.



One of the girls I work with is pregnant, this is a blanket for her new baby girl (who is due in another four or so months, but my last day at that job was yesterday, so I had to give it to her now). Just two yards of flannel, one printed and one solid pink, sewn together, turned right-side-out, and then topstitched around the edges. You can sort of see the "tag" I made with a ribbon and a Sharpie that says "handmade by heather." I need to get a real fabric pen/marker, Sharpie isn't going to cut it.



And the second attempt at this pattern. The first one ripped like mad along the seams when I stuffed it, which is probably because the fabric is from Wal-Mart and was $1 a yard, so it kept unraveling along the seams. Anyway, if you don't look too closely, it's kind of cute.

I stayed up ridiculously late last night because I knew I could sleep in today, and I made a skirt, a halter top, and a flower pin.



I honestly couldn't tell you how I made this, really. Two squares with holes in the middle, and then.... some sewing.... um.... Anyway, it came together pretty nicely, I think! Since this was another $1 a yard fabric (cotton gauze) from Wally World, I wasn't going to be too upset if I screwed it up. Apparently the seat-of-my-pants approach to sewing worked in my favour!





A reversible (I love reversible things!) halter top I whipped up later that same night. The fabric is leftover from this skirt I made a while back. The other side, which you can see a little in the back shot, is the teeny print at the top of the skirt. When I showed the top to my husband this morning (I had it on), he said "That's not a shirt! HALT! Where is the rest of your TOP?" Har har. I probably wouldn't wear it out, but it's HOT here lately, and our upstairs apartment is rather warm and stuffy during the day, despite the A/C. I'll probably be making a couple more; would anyone be interested in a tutorial if I do? Let me know. If there's enough interest, I might throw one together.





Out of scraps from the blue gauze skirt and the halter, with some tulle and a button for good measure. It's a bit big to actually be worn on a shirt or jacket--about four inches across--but I might stick it on a bag or something.



I wanted to wear this to the polka-dot party I had a month ago, but I didn't have it done in time! :( Instead, I wore it to a wedding a couple weeks ago. Very fun!



And very twirly! I love it, it makes me feel very retro.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my plea for Ravenclaw tie ideas! I ended up using masking tape to make stripes,



and then painting it with bronze acrylic + fabric medium. THREE COATS. I am not a patient person when it comes to painting, ugh! But I endured, and the results are... well, heh, they're interesting.


R for Ravenclaw!

The paint bled a little bit, but I'm going for a sort of punk/goth Ravenclaw look anyway, so it just looks... DIY and, um, indie. Yeah. Or something. I might stick my "Mudblood" pin on top of the worst smudge at the bottom. Or maybe find a patch.



I also made a wand!



It's from the tutorial someone here on craftgrrl posted just this morning. I saw it and LOVED it and NEEDED to do it IMMEDIATELY. So first I threw in some laundry, so I could feel like I did something useful today, and THEN I made a wand. I could not be happier with it, really. It turned out so so so fantastically. Thanks to DadCanDo.com for coming up with this, and sorccy for linking to the tutorial!



A couple of tips in case anyone else wants to make one: I didn't use the double-stick tape because I didn't have any! It might've made it a bit easier to wrangle around with the Elmer's glue, but oh well, it worked for me. Actually, the glue made the paper a bit damp and caused some wrinkles. I was upset for about two seconds, but then I realized it added a more wood-like texture to the thing, so huzzah! Also, I drizzled hot glue down from the bottom, then shoved a little wadded-up tissue paper in and poked it down with a chopstick. Glue, tissue paper, glue, tissue paper, until it was as full as I could get it. The tissue paper helped compact the glue further down inside the wand, making it sturdier. My husband actually recommended fiberglass resin, but I don't know if I want to mess with that for another one. (I'll probably make another one for a friend for the book release.) It does seem like a good idea! Just stop up one end with hot glue, pour in the resin, and stop up the other end. Any reason that wouldn't work? Would it damage the printer paper?

One last thing: I stuffed a feather inside, heh. My husband brought me a small black and orange feather he found a while back because he knows I like odd little things like that ♥ but it just sat around for weeks because I didn't know what to do with it. Well, this was perfect! No one will see it, of course, but I know it's in there. I'm looking through Fantastic Beasts to decide what it's a feather from. So far I'm liking the Fwooper. ^.^

So it's been a productive weekend! Yay!