Caring Gloves

Ever since Grip N' Flip started university, she's been too busy too visit or chat. But being an awesome cousin I decided to have a fun care package sent to her. I found some old sleeves and converted them into gloves for her. Even in our high tech, fast paced lives it's always fun to get snail mail.
I had one more pair but somehow I must have forgotten to take pictures.

Tako Shirt

Even in the midst of all my draping I still have time for some fun projects. Here is a quick project that wasn't planned at all. I've been trying to convince Grip N Flip about the greatness of screen printing with freezer paper.

It was hard to find freezer paper in my area but finally the Wal-Mart (I know it's evil but I have my reasons for shopping there) closest to my house stocked it.

Up until recently Grip N Flip and I were screen printing with nylons & glue. Which is also a good method, but for a quick and dirty screen print method for a more impetuous crafting moments this is great.

I found this picture on deviantART by Vieje of a cute Tako (that's japanese for octopus). It had the clean lines and cute features I was looking for.



I had an old t-shirt that I wasn't using anymore. After screen printing the shirt we decided to cut it up to make it more Tako worthy.



Here's Grip N Flip wearing the Tako Shirt. And the black/white glove was something I made her randomly months ago. I think this was a great break from my draping projects. It's nice to not have to sit and think so hard on a project once in a while. Fun and random!!

Bill Skirt Finale . . Finally

So most of you might have already forgotten about the Bill Skirt. And so did I, until I found this picture of Grip N Flip in the Bill outfit in it's entirety.


There is the skirt you've seen several times already, I also made the long gloves. They came from an old shirt that my stepmom didn't want (recycle reduce reuse!!!). The short gloves came from Hot Topic. And the piece de resistance is the shirt she screen printed herself of Bill's Face. I have some links of the tutorials we used on the right.

Strangely enough since she made this shirt Bill's band Tokio Hotel has gotten air play on MTV. I was very surreal to see them there when months before most people, me included, had never even heard of this German Band.

Apparently the main vocalist Bill and lead guitarist Tom are twins. At first I thought fraternal twins . . but no IDENTICAL. But Bill is so pretty how can they be identical twins you ask?? After careful consideration and observation the answer to that question is: dreadlocks are disgusting and dirty.

Lace Gloves

Here is something I thought I would NEVER do. Well, never say never.

Grip N Flip ask for long fingered lace gloves. FINGERED LACE GLOVES. This project wouldn't have been that difficult if I had purchased stretch lace. But because I'm thrifty and found non-stretch lace for $1/yard I would obviously choose pricing over ease. Well maybe that wasn't the best decision. After several tries I was able to finish the gloves. There are slight fit issues.

I didn't have a plan and basically traced her arm & hands, then sewed the outline. The gloves were actually sewed against the grain, if lace even has grain, because the selvage had this beautiful scalloping that I used at the top of the gloves. I'm sure there was a better way to do the gloves then how I did them, but I'm still just in awe that I made gloves out of lace!!



She wore these gloves with a pleather outfit that her friends gave to her as a collective X-mas gift. A few weeks later one of Grip N Flips' friend borrowed these gloves for prom.

J-Rock Revolution 2007

In May of 2007, I had sewn Grip N Flip an outfit for the J-Rock Revolution Concert. For those of you that don't know J-Rock stands for Japanese Rock. This outfit was neither planned nor executed well. I guess a part of the reason, though not a valid excuse, was because the sewing class I was taking at the time was so frustrating. We were excused from taking a Pattern Making by Draping class due to the timing. The teacher told us that she would guide us along and it wouldn't be an issue. But it was an issue and I felt like I was drowning. So when this project came along I just wanted to sew and not "think". Which obviously isn't the smartest thing anyone can do, especially someone with my limited experience. But I guess that I always like to learn things the hard way or they don't stick.

The shirt and fishnet stocking came out of my closet, from a thinner time in my life. The gloves came for an old tacky scarf I found in the garage with large decorative sequences - "waste not want not." The goal of the skirt was to have volume and slightly cascading in the back. It's not my best sewing venture. And maybe "cut first, figure out later" wasn't the best approach but it worked out in the end. Finally the half-sleeve, I don't know what else to call it, was inspired by old princess-like dresses. I only have one sleeve because I wanted to use this piece to balance out the asymmetry of the shirt.

Unfortunately J-Rock Revolution was on the weekend before finals and I couldn't go. Grip N Flip had a blast at the concert and we had tons of fun talking about it afterward. She showed me lots of pictures and other peoples outfits. All I have to say is that I need to work on embellishments, trimmings, and accessories. I'm looking forward to see what we might do next time since J-Rock is so over the top with so many different categories and sub categories. Maybe I'll do something with buckles. . . . . . .