Hey, do you know how to...

This is a very dangerous thing to say in a sarcastic tone to any adventurous crafter, especially if you are not a fan of surprises or gifts.  Often, if you ask a crafter if they can do this, or that, or some other thing they may feel the need to prove it to you or otherwise show you.  Remember that some crafters only get small amounts of recognition so this may be taken for interest, especially if it is their passion.

So if you are an average person, please be aware of these dangerous phrases to ask or say to crafters.

1. Hey, can you make/do that?
2. How long did that take?
3. Wow, that looks easy!
4. Can you just explain that to me?
5. So, how much did it cost to make?
6. Aren't you afraid to put someones eye out with that thing? (when the person is knitting)
7. Really? It tangles up that easily?

The answers you receive may be as follows. Please note that the phrases inside the parentheses will be an internal monologue and most likely sarcastic.

1. Yes, I can. (Well I know what I'm making them for Christmas.)
2. Oh not that long, just a few days. (As long as you don't include the time to drive to the store and back, the time spent charting it out, the time between the times it was worked on, and only if those days were 14 hour work days.)
3. Yeah, it is! (I would like to see you try this.)
4. Sure. (Boy this person really doesn't get that you have to sit down and try it for the words to make any sense...)
5. Not that much. (Not including gas money, minimum wage rates, and the point that this is all from the discount bin - in proportion to everything else in that over priced craft haven.)
6. Not at all. (Thank you random person. I was totally aware that this could be used as a weapon.  Why do you think I carry my knitting with me?)
7. Yes, it's because its thinner. (Did they really just have to ask that? THEY should try working with it.)

So please remember to be kind to craft-people and refrain from these phrases, especially if you are only a passer by.  To fellow crafters reading, I hope you can relate.

To my friend who inspired this entire blog entry, remember that the line "Hey can you make that?" will get you a number of very odd items.  So that is why you have a custom sweater hanging in your closet.

May your stitches be straight, and may your thread never tangle.

A Project from the Past

Alright. So remember how I said I would update?  Here it is.  This is a series of pictures and description of a doll dress I made as a gift ... I would guess about a year and a half ago.

First of all I should list all of the materials.

• A fashion doll from the dollar store.
• Crinoline netting in a light green with a gentle sparkle to it.
• An iridescent fabric, I think it was a poly-blend, meant to feel a bit stiff.
• A patterned cotton with gold threads in the pattern.
• Gold cloth (which never gets used).
• Beads. Many, many, many beads.

The pattern I made myself, testing it with a light weight paper and adjusting as necessary, and even fudging it just a smidgen in the end.  My inspiration comes from watching Hello Dolly! one too many times and enjoying other "period accurate" musicals.  It's close to the late 1800's, without conforming to just one decade, and has a plain front panel to showcase the Victorian love of bead work.
I have this habit of giving all of my dolls undergarments.  It just bugs me when they don't.  So, the underpants are made from that purple fabric and the rest of it is cut out, even the gold cloth.  The reason why it was never used is because the rest of the costume never came together the way I was hoping it would, so I had to switch things up for the waist band and do a little bit of improvising.  I wasn't too worried about wasting the fabric, because it came from a very old scrap anyways, so it wasn't really wasting in the first place.  The green crinoline that you see in the top of the picture wasn't used in the final piece, being that it was too stiff to be worked with properly, but thin shreds of it were used to tie on the heals and decorate the hat, which is not seen cut out here.


This is the crinoline underskirt I did end up using.  It's a much looser weave and is older, so it's more worn and easier to move around and work with.  I have found that to use older materials is sometimes the best thing to do, especially if the object wont face much - if any - wear and tear.  And so the best thing to do if you need inexpensive, but worn older materials, is to go by your nearest thrift store and pick some things up.  You need to look for the color, quality, and size of the materials.  Say you're trying to make a prairie gown for a 14 inch doll. A large floral print that would look proportional on us as humans would not be well suited for the project.  So sometimes you'll need to pick up an old dress shirt, a skirt, and even a dish towel.  Think of them as raw materials, not as the items they are currently.  This does take some time to get used to, takes practice.  But I digress.  Maybe I'll do an entry comprised of nothing but such tips and tricks.


Here, to the right, is the top of the dress, almost completely put together.  It is here that I realized that the gold fabric just wasn't going to work, no matter how I tried.  So I simply went without and ended up making the belt out of a wide ribbon scrap I happened to have.  Lucky for me, because it was just the right shade of red.  Although it is hard to see, there is very small top stitching along all of the color changes and along the front where I swear there are buttons!


As I mentioned before, I had to substitute the belt so the skirt got attached directly to the top of the dress.  The skirt was in three sections: the front panel and then the side/back two.  After the parts were all assembled, things became difficult.  I don't often use that word, since I'm convinced that it has a poor effect on the mind and one's determination to get something done.  But I'll admit, things became difficult.  So there was the plain dress, no beads, lace, or ribbon; yet it still gave me problems.

1. The skirt did not want to fall properly over the bustle.
2. The skirt's overall length was too long.
3. Even though the darts on the bodice front were perfect, the back would not close fully.
4. The shoulders had been cut too small, despite measuring twice.
5. Same thing with the collar.
6. Same with the underarms for the puffed sleeve.
7. The sleeves were too long.

And so how did I manage to fix all of this and still make an amazing Victorian inspired doll? I became the craft-MacGyver.

First, I did a number of pin tucks on the skirt so it would form properly over the bustle. Next I hemmed the skirt.  Since she needed to be fancy, I even used metallic thread (bane of all crafters existence).  Then after I had made the belt, but before i stitched it to her waistline, I took the remnant of the remnant of the ribbon and made a nice little peek-a-boo back covering that luckily enough ended right at the top of the patterned fabric.  Somehow it looked intentional.  So far this has solved all but the sleeve length.  To fix this final problem I gently gathered the last half inch of the sleeve and stitched pearl-beads to imitate cuff buttons.

Somewhere in between all of these little fix-it's I also completed all of the smaller bead work, such as the two lines of clear iridescent on either side of the front panel and the work along the collar transition.  Then after stitching the doll into the dress, it was time for the finishing touches.  Which means even more bead work.  All of the draping beads on the train and on the front panel were done after she was completed.  Then there is the hat.  I ended up tie-ing up her hair, stitching it to her head, and actually using some hair gel to get it to stay in one spot long enough for me to stitch the hat to her hair.  Since this was a rather cheap doll, it was the best I could do to get close to the Gibson Girl look.  The hat is made from all of the scrap material, some spare beads, and lots and lots of gathering.  Save the small circle in the center, that is all gathered ruffles.

May your stitches be true, and your thread never knotted.

Yet another update, and this one's a doozie.

It's been some months since my last update, and by now I'm certain that no-one is reading, save the occasional person who I happen to know and share things with.  So what to do with a not-too-productive blog?  Not much I'm afraid.

The half of the time I'm crafting, just going along my marry way, and I don't even think to slow down, take pictures and blog.  But with a tablet and Google drive... Perhaps I'll find a way?  I pray so.

And so, without any more stalling, I shall do... Another Update!

Compared to the last entry I have since completed:
1. Maybe two dress out of my stack of pre-cut fabrics...
2. That last item on the list, the quilt.  Well... One of the quilts.  The one I was finishing by hand that is super old?  That one.  Pictures should be up as soon as I pull it out of the linen cupboard.
3. A pair of socks that actually fit the person they were meant for! (I have this small issue with the damn things normally being just a touch too big. But not these!)
4. Maybe some other, smaller patch jobs that needed to be done, but I just don't remember.  These sorts of things come and go.

Projects I am still working on:
1.  The stack of pre-cut dresses.
2. The scrap quilt.
3. The pre-cut quilt.  I'm honestly thinking of cheating and just using the sewing machine.**
4. A Christmas project from this last season...

I know I know! How could I leave someone without their Christmas gift? I am such a horrible person.  But you know what?  I live with it.  Also they told me not to rush, since they didn't want me to mess up.  And lets face it, those of us who craft know that taking your time pays off in the end.  Also, beading projects can take a long time to set up and work on, and then take down.  For some reason I thought it would be easy to do a sheet of bead-work in the design of the exploding Tardis in the Van Gogh style. I was sorely mistaken.

So let me restate my point here: I am taking my time since it is very carefully graphed out, one small square per bead.  I face the fear that it will never be done.

About that scrap quilt... No there are no pictures yet, mainly because I haven't touched it in a few months.  I've been balancing my class schedule because some genius (referring to myself, sarcastically) thought it would be an excellent idea to take 17 units that have a laundry list of requirements per class. Please insert hysterical laughing that morphs into equally hysterical sobs here.  But frabjuous day! Tis near the end of the semester!

Projects that I have recently started (this section really shouldn't exist, but it does):
1. Spinning yarn to then weave into a scarf for my friend before she moves off to Japan.
2. A pair of baby socks for an expecting family friend.

These is nothing much else to report, except that the reports assigned to me by classes are the only things keeping me busy recently.  Not much time, if any, really, to sit and craft the way I would like to be able to.  But this summer shall be glorious.  I promise to post many more updates.

May your stitches be straight and your threads never tangled.