Pictures are coming . . . . . I promise

I know I still don't have any pictures of my projects. I blame it on summer school. I took a screen printing class and it was detrimental to any and/or all of my blogging abilities. But I have finally received the pictures to some of my projects so the promise of pictures is not a lie.

Garage a Storage of Mess

So I've been trying to clean and get the garage organized as my primary work area for a few years now. I always end up thwarted by projects, school work, or mother nature. Here are some pictures of my cleaning attempts in January during winter break.

Some of the junk sitting in front of my garage.

What it looks like inside.

So much stuff so little space!!!

It's still a total mess. But at least I'm moving in the right direction. I lost momentum due to the heavy rains we were getting in January. It was really frustrating.

My mom's second hand sewing machine from who knows when.
I think it's older than me!!

Here is this golden lion that stares at me as I sew.
It's sort of ugly but it's been there as long as I can remember so I guess it's gonna stay staring at me.

Since then I've had my dad build me a 4' x 8' cutting table. But it's even messier than before, since I've been working on projects in there, regardless of the mess. It's a tight squeeze but at least everything is in one place and I don't have to run between the house and the garage to cut, press, and then sew.

I found a solder. Dad says he'll teach me how to use it.
But how hard can it be. <-- famous last words

Now I only need to truly clean and organize to get it to be the perfect sewing studio. Well except for the cold . . .

Fashion Incubator

I had a presentation due for my finals in addition to all that sewing we did throughout the semester. I wasn't thrilled to do it but school is school. In the midst of all my research I stumble upon this site:

http://www.fashion-incubator.com/

Some of my classmates said they already knew about it but Thursday was the first time I've ever seen it. It's run by a pattern-maker who gives industry tips on sewing, pattern drafting, and standard industry procedure. It's fascinating. It was so distracting, I almost didn't finish my project. Some of the things I've already learned in class but it's nice to hear it really is used in industry. I've already read through several of her tutorials. She's also written a book The Entrepreneur's Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing by Kathleen Fasanella which I want to get now.

If any of you already know about this site, I'm sad that you didn't share with me earlier!!!

I'm still alive . . . sort of

Finals were yesterday and I finally turned in my last project. I'm too tired to even do a dance of joy. I think this school year has been a little hellish for me. With my job hours (graveyard) mixed with school, I was a lacking in every department. I'm usually a better student, but this year has been tough. I keep questioning if that good student in me still existed. I was unmotivated and didn't want to sew most of the time.

Hopefully, over the summer I will have time to get myself straightened out and ready to go for the Fall semester.

Now the question is what have I been up to all semester.

I took two classes this semester, the Advanced Sewing class and Flat Pattern Drafting class.

In the Advanced Sewing class we had to sew a cocktail dress and a soft tailored women's jacket. Where are the pictures you ask? I don't have any yet, but I promise to post them when I do get them

For the cocktail dress we were given creative freedom to do what we liked as long as it fit into the category "cocktail dress". I made mine into Grip N Flip's Prom dress. I even did her hair. It's a surprised even me that it turned out so beautifully. Her make-up . . was another story. Someone better versed in arts of womenhood had to help her with that. I don't mean her mom either, she's also a hopeless case.

As for the women's jacket I turned it in yesterday and won't get it back till the middle of summer or next semester. Right at this moment I never want to see or hear about welt pockets, bound button holes, fully lined, soft tailored jackets again!! If you don't know any of these terms I will explain them in my jacket post when I do get it back.

Flat Pattern Drafting Class, for those of you who don't know what that is, there are two ways to create patterns for clothing; draping and flat drafting. Draping on a form, which I took last semester, is where you place cloth on a dressform and manipulate the fabric to the style you want to create. Flat pattern drafting is where you take measurements of the form and convert it to lines on paper and hopefully a correct pattern. I'm not sure if I can explain it any more simply than that. I only had to sew up one dress for Flat Pattern Drafting. It was my final and it was a disaster. This I can get pictures of but I'm so despondent with it right now I don't want to look. Your thinking how bad can it be . . . . think of the worse case scenario and multiply by 20. But I promise to post it sometime this summer. Just for the sake of showing my fashion progression.

I hope you all enjoyed just a wordy update with no pictures.

Pushing Daisies Dandelion

Pushing Daisies is an awesome show. Though I didn't always have time to watch it, I've been a huge Brian Fuller fan since Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls. I'm not going to go off babbling about the shows, but I could.

Fork, who hasn't made an appearance on my blog for a while now, made a request from on of the episodes. Let's see if any of you recognize this picture.


Give up? This is the "Dummy" episode where they introduce a car that runs on dandelions. I was to recreate one of the dandelions she's holding.


Supplies:

• paint
• glue
• fishing line
• dowels
• skew
• fake leaves
• styrofoam ball
  

You paint your styrofoam ball and skews. Now comes the hard part. You wind the fishing line 50xs around a cardboard to your desired length and then glue onto the skews. You cut the other end, stab it into the styrofoam ball. Rinse and repeat until you have the dandelion of your dreams.

Work the bald spot!!!

At this point your hands are cramping and stinging from pain, so you think, a partially bald dandelion isn't so bad looking. It's pretty cool. But try and convince that Slave Driver Fork of that concept. SLAVE DRIVER!!! But I was older, so he was forced to help me with production. It was a lot easier with two people.

Tah-dah

It looks a little fuller in real life. The fishing line and flash just don't go well together.

I was told later that his girlfriend really loved it!!!

African Fabrics

Here are some fabrics that I picked up from Togo, West Africa a few years ago (around 2007 . . I think).

I love all the vibrant colors. The hard part was remembering that my skin tone CAN NOT pull off neon green and yellow in an African print.

The red fabric I had to lay open so you can see the whole print a little better. And my FAVORITES are the blue and brown fabric of women pounding fufu (bottom right). OMG makes me want to eat some fufu right now!!! I bought it because of that image.

These are traditional fabrics that are used only in special occasions and obviously a little more expensive. My friend had bought me one of the blue ones. I ended up buying another blue one and a green one. They're sooooooo pretty.

I think my only problem is figuring out what I'm going to do with all these fabrics. I'm open for ideas!!!!

Welcome to the Darkness!!

I'm glad you were all able to still find me over at my new name.

For all of you who don't know my blog name used to be Krazy Krafter and I used to reside at Random Kraft Korner. But I've come to realize that these names did not represent me, nor reflect my personality in anyway. After much consideration and deliberation, I decided to change both my name, which was done a few months ago, and my blog name.

Thank you for anyone that's been reading or even lurking at my blog.

Crafty Gamers???????

I took up needle point when I was in the 6th grade. I love it, but I'm really bad about finishing anything. I think I've only completed 3 projects my whole life.

On the other end of the spectrum I've been a back seat gamer since our family bought the original Nintendo. Other then Gyromite in which I controlled the doors. I didn't play at all. I loved to watch my brother play as I excitedly (and probably annoyingly) screamed instructions on how to play. I never had any interest to actually play the games since I was too impatient with myself to gain any skills.

So you ask what do these two things have to do with one another. Well I found this whole forum (Sprite Stitch) of gamers that do craft!!! Somehow I just didn't picture it before this. But after going trough some pictures and their projects, it makes complete sense. It's like the 8-bit world and cross-stitching were always meant to be together.

Here are the projects that I found that blew me away.

If you don't recognize this, it's Zelda: A Link to the Past Map completely cross stitched by Servotron from the Sprite Stitch Board.
This happens to be one of my favorite video games.

Here's a Mario Brothers 3 Map made by Cross-stitched ninja
This totally makes me jealous. I'm so pumped to play video games and cross-stitch right now. Also makes me want to go get a DS Lite. O.o

LEO Blankets

Here's a blanket for Spoon's LEO gift exchange. I was quick and sort of easy. I think I'm getting better at that LEO face. This is suppose to match the mittens and white scarf.

LEO Toliet Paper Pal

Here's something I've been dying to make for a while now. It's this toilet paper dispenser/stuffed animal is something my aunt bought for my cousin in China. I thought it would be fun to make a LEO version of it.












You take out the middle cardboard, stuff to toilet paper from behind, and pull it out from the opening.

I apologize for the fuzzy pictures. I was in a hurry and took pictures with my phone.

I'm hoping to make a sheep and wolf version of this too. Hopefully my stuff animal faces will get better by then.

LEO Scraf & Mittens

It's that time of year again for Spoon's gift exchanges. Here are some mitten and scarves with LEO themes.
I found a pattern of mittens online with a google search. link
There were quite a few to choose from but I think this one fit my purposes the best.


The scarves were really simple and took no time to do. I think the little LEO paw prints are adorable. I'm thinking Spoon needs to have a LEO scarf too!!

Taffeta Gown

Here's a gown I draped for my final. We had to choose a celebrity and then drape a gown for a red carpet event befitting the celebrity and her style. I was at a quandary on whom I should choose. Finally the form of Busty McBusterson gave me the inspiration of Catherine Zeta Jones. Who else could do justice for Busty McBusterson?? I decided on a simple boustie style top and flared gown using a dark purple taffeta. I'm not sure how well these pictures reflect the color but it was a blackish purple depending on the light. It was to be embellished with this wired piece using aluminum armature wire.


I'm quite pleased with the fit of this gown, which fits like a glove on the dressform. We had a vote on 4 categories in class: best design, best fabric, best construction, and best fit. I actually won best fit in class. I'm very satisfied with the gown outcome

Here's a close up of the wired piece. I took a long time trying to find the right materials to use since I didn't want something too dainty and would hold it's form while being easy to mould. I was also a little worried that it would turn out too much like something out of Xena: Warrior Princess. The front was loosely based off of a Turkish bookmark with Turkish calligraphy and the back was free handed based on feeling. There are places that could use a more polished moulding. I guess that's the best that could be done with just my hands a pair of pliers. For a first attempt at an abstract concept and new material I think it turned out pretty close to what I wanted.

Draped Skirt

Here's a skirt we draped in class. It has gathers at the front princess seams. I wasn't very imaginative since this was the project right before our final pr0ject, meaning I didn't want to waste too much energy. It turned out quite well. I wonder who will fit this??

Radiant Dress

THIS DRESS WAS A TRUE DISASTER. I think not really having any enthusiasm for the project didn't help the situation. Some criticisms my professor gave me were:

1. The pattern is too busy for the design.
2. It wasn't draped with enough pleats to give a correct radiant effect.
3. The dress/skirt detracts from the radiant effect.


I don't disagree with her at all. I think this is my worst project to date. My overall issue was that I couldn't envision this dress while draping it. I didn't know which direction I was headed and had draped it several times. I think the outcome really reflects my inner turmoil with this project. You can't tell how bad this dress is because the pattern is that distracting. I'm too embarrassed to even point them out. Maybe I subconsciously choose this pattern for this reason.

Boustie

I was really excited to do this project. Bousties are like a precursor to the corset. This project wouldn't have been as difficult if my dressform in class wasn't so well endowed. I have started to call her Busty McBusterson for that reason.















This is actually my dressform at home so you can't really see the ample cleavage inherent in my boustie. I had this vision of black lace and red satiny fabric. The satiny fabric became a challenge. And I didn't realize that the top seam needed to be stay stitched since it's on bias (diagonal) and started to stretch without my consent!!!! The lace didn't stay close to the body of the boustie either. It had the audacity to fall away. I learned later I should have stitched it in place. There is also the back where I was suppose to flip the piece inside out but didn't figure this closure correctly. It's hard to explain but I did a bad job. But on the bright side I think the grommets turned out correctly for my first attempt.

Faults of this boustie are: loose/over sized bust/top seam, loose lace, and bad construction at the back. Even with all these faults I still think it turned out decently. And overall it was a good learning experience. My next boustie will be AWESOME!! Whenever I get around to doing another one, that is.

I WANT ONE

I was searching for something else when I found this picture. I don't remember where I found it or who designed it. I vaguely remember a reference to some Northern European Designer. It's so crazy awesome. I love the zipper sleeve hem and the hood. I WANT ONE!!!!!!

Empire Dress

This was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be to drape. I found this fabric for $1/yard. I really like the pattern on the fabric. I'm hoping to be able to use this pattern for the dress I'm sewing for my couture class. I used a dart at the bust to control the excess fabric. It turns that making a dart in that angle in that proximity creates something of a Madonna pointed bra look. Which was something I wasn't trying to achieve. You can see it if you look really closely. When I have more time I'll convert the dart to gathers to soften the point.














This is Cheeky Monkey modeling the dress for me. I was surprised it fit her. But the fabric has a slight stretch to it, so it was only hard to zip at the band. Now who should I give it too. I guess gonna come down to whoever looks best in it, the only way to really decide.

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!!

Gathered Neck Shirt

Our second project in Draping class is the gathered neck shirt. Or in my professors words' "how to control excess fabric." Since I had such a hard time with the slippery fabric of the cowl neck, I stuck with a simple cotton this time. I was semi inspired with this random picture my professor had passed around for inspiration. It didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned.

I think the problem lies with the material and design. My inspiration picture was made from a knit (t-shirt type material) and my cotton is obviously a completely different material. It's a little too puffy at the bottom. I'm going to release the banding on the bottom and leave it free flowing before I give it away, the either Grip N Flip or Cheeky Monkey (aka Sailor Venus). Depends who looks better in it. Overall I really liked how this shirt turned out. I also really like the design on the fabric, you can't beat $1/yard.

Cowl Neck Shirt

My first official project for my Draping Class. Our challenge the cowl neck. This was sort of a disaster. I don't work well with slippery fabric. But I was lazy and happen to have some around the house. I didn't think it would be that hard. I guess I'll chalk it up to experience and try harder next time.


If you look closely I didn't even sew up the side seams.