Crafty Projects Around the House

lampshade completed!

This fall, after a visit to my brother in Cape Cod, we took a leisurely drive home through the back roads, stopping at antique and junk stores and scenic overlooks.  At one antique/junk stop, my husband found an old lamp, made from a cracked pitcher and wash basin, pictured below.  The lampshade, unfortunately, was stained and decaying. But he figured he could replace the shade, and that it would fit in beautifully with the many vintage pieces in our Adirondack camp.

He went online looking at lampshades, and it didn't take long to discover that to buy a new bell-shaped vintage-looking lampshade, it would easily cost triple what he had paid for the lamp.  Being that the pitcher has a crack, and that he would have to replace the wiring, it began to seem sort of ridiculous to have to invest big bucks in the shade.  So, silly me, I said "I'll make a new shade for you".  And I proceeded to strip the stained and brittle fabric off the lampshade frame.

Someone should have told me how challenging this would be.  I mean, I'd gladly  make another lampshade, but NOT one with a bell shape and scalloped bottom edge.  I went online, solicited advice, and found a tutorial I liked.  I dragged my husband to the fabric store (since it is HIS lamp, I wanted his approval).   He cleaned up the rust and spray-primed the bare lampshade frame.  And many, many, many hours later, after much measuring, pinning, wrapping, sewing by both machine and hand, and gluing  trim, the lampshade is complete, and I couldn't be prouder.

 For the trim, I really wanted to put a fringe on the bottom, but I couldn't find what I wanted locally, and was concerned that the color wouldn't match appropriately if I purchased it online.  So I dragged hubby back to the fabric store a second time, and he picked out this pretty beaded trim.  I'm not sure it was the best choice, putting a scalloped trim on a scalloped edge, but we are satisfied.

And here it is, all newly rewired, and assembled.  Isn't it cute? 

 Not all projects have to be so challenging!  This next project was a solution to a storage problem. We had gotten a new TV, and a Roku player, and found ourselves with a multitude of remotes.  I would leave them on the coffee table, and my neat-freak husband would shove them in a little drawer in the coffee table, where they inevitably got stuck.  So I found a little cardboard box, and raided my box of remnant fabrics and trims.  And with a little cutting and gluing, I made this:

 Isn't it cute?

 By the way, a little shout out for wonderful Sobo Fabric Glue that made both putting the trim on the lampshade and decorating the box so easy. 

 I even covered the bottom, to protect the coffee table!

 And look how perfectly all the remotes fit in the box!

 And one more project...  A while back (last year?), when I got my iPad Air, I got a new cover for it, too, and promptly began to decorate it with metallic and black Sharpies, and a white Sharpie paint marker.  And I stopped about halfway and never finished it.

Until a couple of days ago, when I was on hold on the telephone.  I got out the Sharpies, and finished it up!  Here's how it looks now, below. 

What little crafty projects have you been up to this winter?

My crazy DIY dress project!

 

It's done! It all started with a pile of conference T-shirts, plus a couple of others.  Each year, I get a voucher at my annual conference to spend at the 'conference store'.  The voucher is a perk of teaching workshops at the conference, and I use them to pick up a conference T-shirt.  But here's the problem.  I don't EVER wear these T-shirts.  They don't fit well.  My hips are too large for a small, but a medium is huge on my shoulders.  And I despise the necklines.  So I cut out the necks and made them into scoop or V-neck shirts figuring I'd wear the ill-fitting shirts to the gym or tromping in the woods.  But  I discovered that, even though they looked a little better without the hideous necks, the cheap T-shirt fabric is hot and scratchy, definitely not gym-wear.  So they sat in a drawer, until I decided to do something with them.

After much deliberation and experimentation,  I made this dress/tunic, using quotes I found on the shirts.  I hope that Cassie Stevens is proud of me for this sewing project! 

 This piece on the back is from a T-shirt that I got, I swear, probably 20 years ago, when I renewed a subscription to School Arts magazine.  It was softer than the conference shirts, and I wore it until it was getting yellowed and threadbare.  This was a good way to rescue it.  Here's a close up of "How to be an Art Teacher".

 Got Art?, anyone?

 My sleeves!

 For the first time, I was actually able to use my duct tape dressmaker's dummy, Violetta, to help fit the garment, and it worked like a charm.  I was able to narrow the shoulders and shorten the torso, while getting the loose-fitting shape that I wanted in the body.  In case you don't remember, here's Violetta:

My original plan was to cut the shirts in to rectangles and piece them together like a puzzle, but that just wasn't a workable idea.  Instead, I selected a comfy very deep violet knit fabric, and cut out the various parts of the tunic.  Then, I used WonderUnder to adhere the random odd shaped quotes onto the dress pieces, and I zigzagged around them to give them a more finished look.  Once that was done, I was able to sew together the whole shebang!

On the front of my tunic:

 A close-up of the front:

 Look carefully on the table next to me, in front of the clock.  If you really  LOOK, you will see a little stuffed Adirondack black bear.  His name is Nelson (he was named after Nelson Mandela), and he has traveled to South Africa and back to live in my home.  You can read the story of how he came to live in my house, and the saga of his travels in this post I wrote in March 2011!

Meet Violetta, my new twin

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you probably know I'm a Project Runway fan.  And you probably also know that I sew.  While I have sewn all sorts of things, my favorite (and most frequent) sewing projects are clothes.  But when I sew a clothing item, I'm forever having to get undressed, try the item on for fit, get dressed, repeat.  It's time consuming and a pain in the neck, and I'm not particularly patient.  I currently  have a sewing project in the beginning stages that I am struggling to figure out because I am not working with a pattern, and just can't figure out how to fit it to my body.

Violetta, dressed in pearls

So, after watching Project Runway last week, I decided that I needed a dressmaker's dummy.  I went online and started shopping and immediately recognized a bigt problem: my size.  I discovered that I could find adjustable-size mannequins in small, medium, large, extra-large, and petite.  As I am under 5' tall, with a short torso and short legs, I consider myself petite.  But, there were no options for sizing in petite dummies; they were just 'petite', and their adjustable measurements were decidedly small.  Mine are not.  So my choice was: get a petite dummy that did not expand to my dimensions, or get a medium dummy whose torso would not be short like mine.  Neither choice was acceptable, since clothing I built on them would not fit me accurately.  Darn.

That's when I started discovering all the online tutorials for Duct Tape dressmaker's mannequins!!  Eureka!!   I enlisted my husband (I'm doing a sewing project for him, making seat covers for his vintage car, so I figured he owed me a couple of hours of time) and I went to the store for supplies.  I reviewed dozens of tutorials, and explained to hubby what he was about to do.  And being a man, he listened to... some of it.  And of course, he was sure he had a better way.  We took lots of process photos but they all kept inserting sideways, so I'll only share those that are aiming the right way.

Right here, I'd better say, this is NOT a tutorial.  As a matter of fact, I don't even recommend you try to follow the tutorials you might find.  Because, you see, they might indicate that it is EASY to build a duct tape mannequin, and I'm here to tell you, they are LYING.  It is a serious challenge and you might not be too thrilled with the results.

Instructions say to start with a tight firm wrap around the waist (over a slim fit garment; I was wearing a thin knit), which my husband did, but then he began to deviate from my direction.  As a result, it was not as snug as it should be, as you  can see below.

 

 And honestly, while I greatly appreciate my husband's willingness to do this silly project with me, and while he was a great sport about it, I'd strongly recommend, if you do try to make a duct tape dummy, to enlist another female to do the taping rather than your spouse.  My husband just didn't understand the bra shape construction, and was more concerned about getting the tape smooth, so, well, let's just say my dummy's boobage is not exactly shaped properly.  (Lift and separate, please, honey?)

 Anyhow, here I am, all taped up with a layer of silver Duck tape.  The red collar was cut off of an old turtleneck to protect my neck from the tape.  By they way, if you have long hair and a low hairline like mine, think about how to keep it out of the tape.  I had mine tied up, but I wish I had put on a shower cap or had it tucked in to a hat.  My husband repeatedly caught my hair in the tape, and then pulled it off, breaking much of  the hair at my hairline on the back of my neck.  It was painful, and now I have a bunch of hair in the back that won't stay in my pony tail. 

 Isis was very curious abou the crazy ongoings in our living room.  

 I had some red tape that we were using to mark the center and the shoulders.  If it looks off-center to you, you'd be correct.  I have some spine curvature, which results in me having a slightly crooked body - one hip and shoulder a little highter than the other, and a sloped back. 

 In the photo below you can see that my left shoulder is lower than the right .

 When it was all done, my husband cut it up through the back so I could remove it.  It came off very easily.  You can see that he didn't exactly complete the arms.  By that point, he had had enough of my trying to tell him what do do, I think!

Then, the next job was to tape it back together.  This might have been the most challenging part of the whole project, but not one of the tutorials mentioned that!  At that point, I sat the dummy in a chair and found something else to do.  I was tired of Duck tape.

 But it started to get squished in the rocking chair, so I inserted a hanger inside the shoulders and hung it from a light fixture until I'd have time to finish it.  My bum looks a little squished, no?

My husband, wonderful man that he is (no kidding) cut a 2x2 piece of wood that I had bought, and build a support for the body that you will see in the photos below.  I cut cardboard for the ends of the arms and neck, inserted them and sealed them with Duck tape.  I also cut a piece for inside the waist, and for the bottom of the body. 

The tutorials mostly said to stuff the dummy with pillow stuffing (though a few used wads of newspaper and a couple actually used spray foam).  I bought a big 10 pound box so that I could stuff it tightly.  Big mistake.  Stuffing it tightly makes it stretch, and stretching in places caused wrinkling in others.  It was bad.  I know I'm not skinny, but it started to bulge uncomfortably.  In the end, I took most of the stuffing out, leaving in the barest minimum to hold the shape.  And honestly, I think it turned out somewhat OK, though not quite what I anticipated.  I'd still like a real dressmaker's mannequin, if I can ever find one that  has my proportions.  Anyhow, Violetta (my mannequin) now is in my art studio room, where I also sew, and she has been trying on some of  my clothes, such as this former sewing project:

She's been trying on scarves, jewelry, and sweaters, and seems to fit in my clothes fairly well, all things considered.

Sideways, I know, but here I am with my new twin! 

DIY Disasters, & a new Art Apron

On the left is my new art apron, that I made this week. I wanted to make a new smock for the art room, since my old ones are getting pretty...uh...nasty. Just plain nasty. (Check out the turquoise one in the middle above. And this is AFTER it's been washed.) So I thought I'd make the cool apron I found on Pinterest, shown above on the right. It's made from a pair of jeans - the legs are the skirt part, and the seat is the bib. You'll notice MY apron doesn't look anything like that one, even though I started out following the instructions, using a pair of black jeans. Here's why:

First of all, my "tush" (my bottom) must be substantially wider than my top, because when I made the bib as instructed it was WAY too wide. So I took it in, and the pockets got cut in 1/2. This would have maybe been OK, but the seat of my pants had a bit of a curve to it (I guess to fit in my bottom) and wouldn't lie flat as the bib. So finally I gave up the bulging bib and bought a piece of fabric to replace it. I had to make other alterations as well, but in the end I think it's kind of cute, though not at all what I intended. The pockets came from an old barn jacket, and they are actually double pockets - there's the pocket I created by sewing them on, and there's a Velcro flap pocket on top of it, that had been on the jacket.

So then I decided to make some of the other DIY projects I've been saving on Pinterest, like the scarf and necklace below, made from strips cut from old t-shirts that are stretched to form rings. Aren't they cute? They seemed easy...

I can't show you mine. They are in the trash. I started cutting my t-shirts and stretching them to create rings, and let me tell you, not all t-shirt fabric will roll into the rings. And if you use a t-shirt that has side seams, the seams will come apart and you will not have rings. Anyhow, after cutting more than 1/2 dozen t-shirts and finding only 3 that worked OK, I started to make both items. The scarf was actually easy, but when done, it looked like....(drum roll please) SHREDDED T-SHIRT RAGS KNOTTED TOGETHER. Ugh. Hideous.

The necklace might have looked OK, but I gave up before I had an anxiety attack. All those narrow rings kept getting tangled together and no matter what I did, every time I picked it back up it was in a tangle again. BAD. It wasn't meant to happen.

There's another Pinterest project using T-shirt rings, making a round woven rug by warping the rings on a hula hoop. I was excited about this one, and I have a hula hoop, but after cutting up too many t-shirts already with zero success, I think I'll pass on this project for now.

Then there's this bowl, made from Perler beads:
I made one of these, and it actually came out really nice, though I don't think I have a photo of it. It wasn't hard, but it isn't something I can do with kids in school because it requires an oven, and anyhow could get pretty pricey getting enough beads for everyone. Anyhow, to make it, you need to coat the bowl you are using as a mold with veggie oil. It all worked great, but as many times as I've washed my bowl, every time I pick it up it still feels oily. Ick. And, what do I use this bowl FOR?

I still have a bunch of stuff to try out. I've already tested marbling with shaving cream (it actually works great so I'm hitting up the dollar store for more shaving cream) and I also tried a braided bead necklace that worked as well. So I'm not giving up on my Pinterest DIY projects, but I'm also going to be realistic and know when it is time to give up!