Comic Con can wait

 It was suggested this week that maybe we have some fun in our online team meetings/check-ins at work. So I thought I would get the ball rolling by dressing up as General Leia Organa ( The Force Awakens) for our lunch time check-in today ! I had actually made this for Comic Con months ago (it has been postponed of course!), all I had to do to finish it off was make the belt buckle last night ( craft foam, craft wire & silver paint), and watch a YouTube clip on how to do my hair ( which took about 15 minutes and a whole lot of bobby  pins!).

The boots and belt were op shop finds, as was the jacket - it was the exact shade of purple I was after and had not actually been able to find the right colour and weight of fabric anyway! From memory it was about $4, and I unpicked the sleeves to run it into the vest.

Jacket and pants - because seriously a jumpsuit is just too impractical, not to mention too cold in this weather! - are made from the same pattern as my orange Rebel Pilot outfit, and like that costume the fabric came from Super Cheap. The orange was bought when the Roxburgh Park store was closing down, and this sagey-greenish fabric was bought when the Brunswick store was closing! Pretty sure it was only a couple of dollars a metre each time ( still have heaps of the sage left too). The main differences are the wide collar on this one, no extra pockets ( although I put proper side pockets on the pants, because…pockets! 

Oh and I had my official Leia ring on, Christmas gift from my son a few years ago - so of course I had to eventually make this outfit to match the ring!

budgie business

The new flock of budgies! Sorry the pictures have posted in reverse order - starting with the finished birds and going backwards in the process to the initial painting!

Sewing is tricky with the tiny tail piece - because of the fabric paint the pieces stick slightly, which makes turning the tail right side out quite tricky! I end up using my jewellery pliers, and also sewing with the Teflon foot on the machine, as shown.  

Blue budgie bits painted, cut out ready to sew. I am experimenting with different ways of shaping the tail, seems silly to cut out 2 small pieces when they are going to be sewn into one rectangle anyway!

6 birds ready to sew.

Birdie bits traced, painted and hanging up to dry. The tricky bit is drawing the face on the yellow head - I can’t trace it on the light box so have to draw it freehand.

Hand made Christmas round up

Couldn' t post these photos until I had caught up with the gift recipients!
Macrame plant hanger for my niece, set of necklaces for a dear friend, CWA " scones" tea towel with added cooking note for my FIL ( long running family story about getting scones to rise!)  Found the tea towel at the Melbourne show  & new light box came in handy trace the added note before painting with fabric paint.  Not much sewing/ crafting this term as I was working extra days, looking forward to more sewing time next year!

Heat pack obi belt

I have always wanted to try to make one of these - a fancy belt to hold a heat pack. So when I heard that a dear friend of mine has had some major back issues, I thought it was the perfect time to try and make one. I had an obi belt heat pack pattern in the book " One yard wonders" for inspiration, plus the ladies' belt pattern from " You sew girl" and did a kind of mash up of the two patterns.
Materials included a combination of some of the black drill from Restash; some fat quarters purchased at the craft show a few years ago; bag rings bought from  Nicole Mallalieu, and a bit of black iron on interfacing. I am quite pleased with the result, - and so was my friend Samantha! -might just have to make one for myself now.

Early craft projects - a trip down memory lane #1

We went to Bendigo on the long weekend to catch up with family. We had originally had plans for a road trip, then lots of day trips, but ended up only going to Bendigo and back! I woke up last Friday with no voice (still not 100% back !) & Tigerboy was sneezing, so we basically stayed indoors most of the weekend except for a walk along the creek trail on Sunday.
I was looking for some jewellery in my old room (but couldn' t find it) and came across some old high school craft projects.
The leather case holds a pack of cards, it used to have velcro glued on ( from.memory the school didn't have any press studs I could use with leather). The tiny teddy cross stitch (more cross stich to come at a later date, I did quite a bit of it!) was a Women' s Weekly pattern I think
The rose is a self covered button I made into a brooch to match some old earrings I had which were my Nana's, they were silver with little embroidered roses in tiny stitches on them. Will have to dig out some more crafting treasures!

I should have been sewing...

I should have been sewing the other day, & getting ready for the Sussex St Neighbourhood House Mother"s Day Market (on this Sunday).
But instead,  I made a model of a WW2 Enigma machine!

Tie dye - the not so good result

When I unwrapped the still dripping wet fabric, it all looked fantastic. But then I had to leave it to drip dry - first mistake, the colour ran to the ends of the fabric.
Then the second boo boo - I used the old clothes horse, and the plastic is a bit cracked, so  the dripping wet fabric ended up with rust marks on it.
THEN I followed the instructions, from the packet and double checking online - and washed the fabric in hot water to supposedly set the dye. But instead all the lovely colours washed straight down the drain, leaving only the rust marks - of course! Bugger! The only minor conselation is that I didn' t wash the 2 t shirts, so I will iron them on hot instead to see if that sets the dye. Fingers crossed!

Tie dye time!

I found a tie dye kit for $6 at cheap shop a few weeks ago, and bought a second kit yesterday so I could decant the dye and mix my own colours. The kit comes with only 3 colours - labelled as fushia, yellow and turquoise. I know they should blend together as they soak into the fabric, but I wanted a bit more control over the colous.

I decented the powdered dye into some other containers, then mixed my own shades of green, orange and purple. I only half filled the bottles and am amazed how much dye I still have. The squeezy drip bottles actually work really well, with hardly any mess - unlike the spray dye I used a few months back, which necessitated the use of a cardboard box " spray booth" and did not spray at an even rate ( but I do love the range of colours,and the scarves and necklaces I made with the dyes!)
I had overlocked the edges of some white fabric ready to make some scarves, and also had 2 white t shirts bought on sale at Rivers a while back. All received the colour treatment!
Now I just have to wait - probably until tomorrow- for the dye to soak in. I still have plenty of mixed ( water added & ready to use) and powdered dye left, wondering what else I can colour?

Dye kit made up & powdered dye stored in little pots.

 Trying some " shibouri" style twisting and folding.

Waiting for the dye to soak in, 6-8 hours according to the instructions. Not sure if I can wait that long!

 Rainbow on a stick! Looks almost good enough to eat!

Pottering around...

Our side fence blew down in a big windstorm a few months back, so we finally had a the old fence removed and new one built yesterday. So in preparation, we spent Australia Day moving all the plants & pots & stuff away from the old fence (whilst listening to the Hottest 100 of course!).
When moving the pots and plants a few little pieces of succulents broke off, and we also found some new baby succulents growing.
Remember the succulent garden back around November 2014?



They kept on growing...


-and growing (can't find the most recent photo, but the tall thin cacti at the back on the left is quite tall now!
I found a couple of pots in the garden, plus some new little ones that had been in my craft cupboard for years. I got out my paints (any excuse to use the new copper metallic paint!), and voila!-




These were the brand new pots, and here is the next lot - before painting and after.






And here they are all potted up!





Except I was a bit too keen and potted ip the grey one on the left before finishing it off, so I carefully added a swirly copper line around the outside without dislodging a single pebble!

Hmmm, think I need a trip to Bunnings now to buy some more pots to paint!


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