Waiting for her ship to come in

I was working right up until the deadline on my mermaid for the Doll Street contest.

I already showed a peek on here and explained the tale of her being tattooed in my last post.
Judging has been done and I can now share pictures of my finished mermaid.
She did not place in the contest, but you can see the winners on Doll Street.
The whole lot of 39 entries is here 

When the conest was anounced I set out to find some inpsiration. I could have just made another of my pregnant mermaid dolls that I designed when I had my first child, but I love coming up with something new.
I started a Pinterest board and quickly fell in love with Twin/Double/Split tailed mermaids.
These mermaids have been around since the Middle ages, and it is likely you see one very frequently as the Starbucks logo

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Von_dem_Meerfr%C3%B6uwlin.jpg

So I now thought about how to pose my girl's tails. I decided to go with an upright position, and since I had fallen in love with George Barbier's mermaid illustration for Les Liaisons Dangereuses I thought it would be fun to go all out with an 18th century pannier and corset., the skirt pulled back so that you could see she had tails rather than legs under those skirt. Sort of like these two inspirations, but that wasn't going to be, like many dolls she had her own idea.

I drew up my pattern by hand, for some reason I still like making my doll patterns with pencil and paper. I didn't even bother making a test, and the body worked out just great the first time. I bent a wire hanger into an armature for her.

Yes she is quite hippy! One of the things I like about her tails is that they do not stick straight out to the sides, but slightly towards the back, this was accomplished with the pattern pieces, not the armature. I am pleased with my pattern drafting skills in that regard. Her breasts turned out perfect, her backside was a bit flat, but that should be easy enough to change for the second doll. (yes I am already planing a second one!)

I stuffed up the body and got to work on sewing the lace to make her scales.
That took FOREVER! I spent much of my "free" time (being a mother to young children out of school, there wasn't much) sewing yards and yards of lace on to her tails. I carted her around to swim lessons in a bin, and as the deadline grew closer, got up early and went to bed late. I don't know how many yards of lace I used, it was gathered, but I pulled that off and regathered it. I used three different laces to cover the tail, all of which were gifted to me, in fact This entire doll was made from stash materials!

I used one lace for the tail fins and around her waist (carefully shaping around the motifs.) another for the majority of the scales, and a third for the upper thighs, mixed in with the main lace. It got to be very difficult sewing the lace up between the tails. but I got it all evenly covered, and hopefully with only a few weird looks from the fellow parents at the pool (she is putting that needle where?)

After I had all the lace on, I only had about 3 days to make the head and arms. I had not patterned them when I patterned the body, so back to the drawing board I went, first batch didn't work. I had forgotten how to properly turn fingers as I hadn't made a doll like this in years.

I eventually got a good set of hands, upper arms, head and ears.

I pined the head and arms on and played with positioning them. I had wanted to create more movement with her upper body, so I used a two-piece arm pattern. This was my first time doing arms this way, I normally make a shaped single pattern or a jointed two piece pattern.

I stitched lines in the palm of her raised right hand to sculpt it, but not the left, which is on her hip. I am pleased with how her arms turned out and will have to use this technique again in future!

 I also sculpted around some beads to give her elbows. Just like I had done so around smaller beads to give her nipples.

The face was done with paint, markers and pencils. Her ears are sculpted. I do so love adding ears, it is a nice little treat behind the hair. I learned how to make ears from a Soft Dolls & Animals article "Cloth Dollmaking Techniques: Let's Hear it for Ears" by Gloria J. "Mimi" Winer in the APR/MAY 2002: Volume 6, Issue #3

She has a pompom in her nose and her features are needle sculpted.I have misplaced some of my pens for doing faces, and will need to replace them. Ah the perils of moving, I am still looking for things, and half my stash is in storage still.

I debated giving her jewelry, she could wear earrings and rings after all, but decided to keep things simple. Maybe later she will find something she likes.

Of course by now I knew I wasn't going to get to make a corset and panier for her, so when it came time to give her some hair, I pulled out all the choices. I ended up going with Wavy Locks by All Cooped Up Designs in Light Brown. I gave her a side part by using clear thread, the rest of her hair is needle felted down.

I gave her a second tattoo to go with  sailing ship. She may recieve more later, it is her skin after all. I felt like my mermaid is waiting for her Sailor love, which is why I kept with the nautical theme for her ink. She doesn't have a name yet.

I added a bit of color to her scales at the fins and waist with pen, at my husband's suggestion. the color of her skin was chosen to be close to the color of the lace I used for scales.

 She is actually balancing on her own in these pictures due to the background I gave her, but in reality she needs a stand made for her. as she does not stand on her own.
I hope these last photos give you a sense of just how her tails are positioned, I am really happy with how well she photographs from different angles, each is an interesting perspective in it's own.

So I spent a lot of time working on my doll, and right after I had submitted my form that evening I was redirected to another webpage (which I can't get to any other way off the main website) that informed me that my entry was half an hour late! There was no time due on the original rules page. Now I am used to other international online communities hosting competitions with times due in a set time zone, YWU and FR do this, and I had double checked the rules that morning to check that info.

I was greatly upset and I hastily sent of an e-mail to admin with all my entry information and the fact that I was disappointed the time was not on the original webpage. I received an e-mail back from the admin stating that my entry would be accepted. I hope that the next contest has the time issue sorted out and posted in a more obvious way.

By the tail

Ah summer, Hot weather leaves us longing to cool down, so we go in search of water, the ocean, lakes, rivers and swimming pools.

Many creatures love water, even fantastical creatures, take the mermaid for instance.
 
I am currently working on my entry to Doll Street's Mermaid challenge.

Here is a sneak peek at what I have been working on.

Her torso has shaped nipples, which I lightly colored with pencil. When I had set it down to do other things, my 3 year old decided that she should color on the doll as well. I tried hard to erase the blue pencil, and was left with a faint smudge that resembled a bruise on her abdomen. I drew the sailing ship in micron over the smudge, thus my maiden has been tattooed. I think she will need at least one more on her arm to go with it.

For her tail, I wanted to giver her some texture, so I have been gathering up lace, in a scallop to create scales. this has been quite a lot of hand sewing, which is not comfortable to do in high heat when you hands are sweating. I hope that it reads as scales in the end.

This photo shows it not even halfway done, yet several hours of work, each row is 1/4" above the row behind it. I am using two needles, one to gather the lace, in a scallop shaped, which when pulled taught creates scales, the other to stitch down the lace using a back stitch.

Between two camps

As an artistic person, I adore Individuality and Uniqueness.
We seem to walk between too camps. one being the copycat, following what the "cool" people do, the other blazing our own way, perhaps alone.

You ever see someone do something really cool, and you think to yourself "all the good ideas are gone"?

We want to stand out in a crowd, but not like a sore thumb. We want to fit in just enough to not disrupt the overall harmony.

An example that the costumers can relate to is the 18th century Curtain-Along as instigated by Jen Thompson of Festive Attyre when she saw the Waverly curtains at her local hardware store.

The print came in three colorways and many costumers have picked them up to make costumes from. They run the gamut from 18th century panniers to Regency, and I have even seen a Victorian ensemble made from them.

Many of these costumers thought long and hard about what to do with their curtains, not wanting to make the same thing as someone else, sometimes even changing their plans.

I cant tell you how often I have worked on something in secret, just so that I didn't get copied, only to find out later, someone else had already thought of the same thing and I didn't want to be thought of as copying THEM.

It is a delicate balance that we must walk.

Swim Suit Season

Making a Girl’s Tankini from McCalls 6729
It is summer and that means Swimming!
Which of course means having a swimming suit. I have a young daughter and I couldn’t find anything in local stores that I liked.

• I wanted a 2 piece so that she could go to the toilet facilities easier. She hasn’t been potty trained that long, I thought a 2 piece would be easier, and I have always hated having to peel off a 1 piece, and worse yet, putting the wet suit BACK ON!
• I DIDN”T want something that would be considered overtly sexy on my body, she is a little girl, and is going to stay that way for some years to come.
• I didn’t want characters or obnoxious prints. 

So I settled on making one for her. She picked out the fabric, which really was the only good choice to be had and I picked up McCalls 6729 since that was close to what I wanted and McCalls were on sale.

Overall I found the pattern to be adequate, with the exception of the elastic guides. The elastic guides are of course graded over the 4 sizes given, the instructions say “Lap ends matching Center Backs” but the center back markings are NOT graded. It would have been easier if they had said lap ends a certain amount. So I had to guess.

I did not use fold over elastic, but instead cut strips 1 1/2" wide the length of the guide, this was a bit bulkier but has a harmonious look.
I decided to not cross the straps in back and so far that has worked well. The suit has stayed in place and she can get it on and off by herself.
I need to work on sewing knits, I am not that good at it and my machine skipping stitches does not help! I sewed this on my regular machine using a stretch stich and zig zag for the bindings and elastic.

I thought I would share the skirt pattern piece I created for sizes 3-6, you will still need the original pattern.

So here is the additional pattern piece to making a Tankini from McCalls 6729!

 Tankini Adaption for McCalls 6729

The Tractor Dress

I have been making dresses for my daughter, the last one was just some tulle added to a Batman shirt. Upon seeing it, my middle boy asked if he could have a dress. I ignored him, thinking he was just feeling jealous about not having something new, but he asked me again a few days later.

So I took him to the fabric store and he picked out some pre-shirred John Deer fabric, in green, his favorite color. I  added some pink to make pockets and straps with. We found some Tractor buttons to complete the look.

I finished it up this morning before he was awake, and he is wearing it now.

I had to add pockets to a dress for my boy, he is VERY BOY, so I was surprised that he wanted a dress.

I decided to do button straps since we had the lovely tractor buttons.

For the back I went with strap placement that reminded me of overalls.

And of course the pockets. As my mother always says "gotta have pockets" I went with more pink as pink is his second favorite color and the print made lovely pockets, don't you agree.

Thank you John Deer for having fabric that appeals to BOTH genders. I know that when my son out grows or no longer wants to wear this dress, his younger sister will.

A gift for a book lover

Last week I was invited to an Acquaintance's Birthday Party, of course I decided to make something for her. I don't know her that well, but what I do know is that she sews and loves books. I took a quick look through my pinterest boards for crafty gift ideas and found some inspiration.

First idea was this project that I have been wanting to do for a while.

Mini Bookshelf Quilt Tutorial by Don't' Call Me Betsy

Second the idea of a needle-book

Last was the idea that the finished gifts should LOOK like books when finished.

I ended up making TWO gifts, and my husband also contributed his skills to the gift, so it is from both of us!

The first gift is a Bag.

The second is a sewing supply case/needlebook

I wanted the bag to fold up into itself and when zipped close resemble a book. That last part is why I had to sit down and write an equation, which I already bloged about.

 Once I had all my math done, it was time to work on the book shelf design. I went through all my stash and cut off the useful selvages.

I want to warn you, if you ever intend to do a project using selvages, do not go to the fabric store with selvage on your mind. I needed a zipper, but found myself looking at fabric, JUST to see if it had a cute selvage name! I was good and didn't buy any fabric for the sole purpose of selvage.

I hand appliqued the entire design, using scraps and stash, in fact the only thing I bought for the bag, was the brown book cover and the zipper.

Appliqueing the books took the most time of the whole project, but I enjoy hand sewing and I wanted a nice finish, also those selvages are narrow...

 Some of the "Titles" are not what I would expect on the recipient's bookcase, but I didn't have many options.
The V&A one is my favorite, I decided that it HAD to be a big thick book.

Only one of the titles went back on it's fabric, and one other has an author from a different selvage

I must admit I went and looked at my bookshelves to double check the direction the titles should go. I am please to have a few that were narrow enough to go horizontally!

Once the applique was done I moved on to the "book case"
This was what the math was all about, two layers of coton with a layer of batting inbetween, since it was going to be stitched to the bag, I cut one side to turn it right side out.
Then I applied the zipper 1/4" in from the edges.
Here is what it looked like before I attached it to the bag.

 Then I made up the bag, and it would have been finished as is, except that I wanted it to go into the case.

 This what the book side looks like, before I added the title

 It folds up into the case quite nicely!

And then zips closed

Yes I admit my title is a bit lame, what can I say, I was tired at that point!

So that was the first gift, the second was also in a zippered book, slightly smaller, inside are sewing tools.

My husband turned this seam ripper, it is so nice to hold, we hope she likes it.

 I love that the there is no cap to lose, you just pull it out and flip it around, and rip away!

I purchased scissors, needles, and safety pin, as well as the supplies to make the seam ripper for this part of the project.

 The print you see there is dictionary terms for sewing words and is actually a small zipper pouch, could be used to hold thread, buttons, etc...

 There are 2 pages of wool felt for needle and pin storage.

 Last "page" is stitched into the book, covering the slit where it was turned, again wool felt, this time I embroidered "Needles" on ti it.

So that was my weekend craft project, unfortunately I was working on it until the party was to start, and transit time would have made it prohibitive to go for such a short visit, not to mention my children needing a regular dinner and bedtime.

Algebra for sewing?

This weekend I made a gift, and will show it off once it has been received.

THIS post is about Math.

In elementary school I did not like math, I was more interested in Art. (though I do remember getting a bad grade on an art project because I didn't follow the directions, it was too abstract for me, I wanted a more realistic finished project.)

Some of my friends will read that and wonder how this girl who is rather good at basic math and CAD could have disliked math at a young age?

Well this weekend I had to use Algebra, I don't remember much of high-school algebra and never took geometry. I have very basic math skills and can only remember Pi to 2 decimal places.

My problem was thus: I wanted to make a rectangle, where the shorter sides were 80% of the longer sides.

Then I had a known perimeter for three of those sides (2 short, 1 long.)

This is how I solved that problem

First I wrote it:
2(0.8X) + X = 14
But I found that to be too difficult for me with limited understanding of Algebra to solve

So I decided to switch the percentages instead of X being 80% of Y, Y was now 125% of X
(To prove my math is correct, simply divide 1 by 0.8 and you get 1.25.) So my new equation is:
2(1.25X) + X = 14

Multiply
2.5X + X = 14

Add
3.5X = 14

Divide both sides by 3.5

X = 4

Now put Sub 4 for X in the original equation to check work

2(1.25 * 4) + 4 = 14

Multiply inside parenthisies
2(5) + 4 = 14

Multiply
10 + 4 = 14

Add
14 = 14

And that was the start of my project, making the pattern with Algebra!

Yet more proof that you will use math in your life, despite what you may have told your school teachers.

Trim Swap at The Sewing Loft

Earlier in April The Sewing Loft announced a Trim Swap.
I decided to join in since I have a large stash of lace that I have no clue what to do with.
My partners said they liked surprises, so I just dug through the boxes until I found a few pieces that looked good together
Original pictures of the trims selected

It looked boring, so I decided to do something more interesting before I shipped them off.
I started with this Antique Corset Advertisement image found on Besottment
I altered the image to turn it into a jointed doll. Her left arm works better than the right arm, but you can now put the right arm over a skirt!

 I printed this out and colored it with pencils, one in Blue and one in Pink. To joint the arms I used shanked buttons with the little plastic clips that hold shank buttons to cards. Hey, buttons are trim, but Brads may not be considered trim by some. (Also the only color of brads I had on hand, clashed with the lace!)
After assembling the figure, I drew around the waist and hip section onto some cardboard and drew a rough skirt shape and length, sorry no pattern image for this.

Then I took a single hole punch and punched holes along the sides of the skirt for the gathered lace to grab into as I wrapped it around the skirt shape. I tested out how to wrap the lace so that it looked nice, made a few notes and then glued the waist of the skirt to the print out. Let it glue while I worked on the other doll.

After the glue is dry, wrap the lace around the skirt so it is horizontal in front and at an angle in the back, make sure to catch the tail when you start wrapping at the bottom. Secure at the top with a pin, paper clip, or what ever these things are called that come on some men's new dress shirts. (yup I save a lot of stupid stuff, you never know when it comes in handy!)

The finished product is a very lovely way to display some of the lace I sent out, each piece was at least a yard long, hopefully my swap partners liked theirs, and I won't be offended if they couldn't bear to take the lace off the doll. I probably couldn't!

I have timed this post so that my swap partners are likely to have already received their package, as they wanted a surprise, but had likely already seen the first photos.