Summer Camp Henna

Alright, blog posts are really backed up from the summer, so I've still got more summer crafting for you! And it comes straight from summer camp!

I went to Yosemite for a week with my family to Camp Mather, a family camp run by SF Parks and Rec. To most people, this is "Yay! A week in nature to swim and eat sugary food and get tan and have fun!" but for me it was "Aw $h!t. A whole week without sewing."

I would have brought some hand sewing projects buuuuut...it's camp. It would have come back dirty and unrecognizable. Two days in, I was officially in sewing withdrawal. Whenever I sat down, my hands would twitch towards my bag to pull out something to sew. And then I would remember there was nothing to sew. And then I wanted to cry.

Luckily, my friend brought henna! She is my saving grace. The only thing that got me through the sewing withdrawal was drawing on myself with weird herb gunk (seriously, what exactly is in henna?).

My legs were covered, so was my left arm (cause I'm right-handed! Fun fact!). 

Here's a mandala/flower-esque thingy I did on my leg. None of the henna I did was ever planned, it just kind of...happened. I added onto designs when I was bored and made new ones 5 minutes later. This specific one was added onto for a couple days as people gave suggestions and I took inspiration from a shirt with a similar design I was wearing.

A wavy thingy on my foot. My friend had something similar, so I took the idea and did something a little different.

I also kind of had an arrow-theme going on (there's another one coming up). The one on my forearm prompted lots of Katniss jokes. It's half-dried, that's why it's all cracked and messed up looking. 

Another, more decorated arrow (it's midway through drying and flaking off, so it looks a little splotchy). There's also that little vine on my foot, which stayed on forever. It was kind of weird what stayed and what didn't; some things just disappeared after two days, but there were some designs that lasted more than two weeks. 

I also had a vine wrapping around the entirety of my left leg, but that was done early in the week and faded quickly.

So what did all of your summer crafting projects look like? And how was camp?

-Taft WK

Blue Tunic for Mom

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me...I'm sixteen, y'alls! I can drive now! Isn't that exciting? Except for the part where I can't actually drive cause I haven't learned yet. Meh, all in good time.

Anywho, we're gonna celebrate my birthday by a) posting an extra blog post! and b) talking about my mom and the things I make for her! Because I wouldn't be able to make things if it weren't for her. Cue the "awwww, that's do sweet!". Lets cut the sappy and get to the crafty, okay?

My mom has this tunic that she loves so much and wore until it was so old and ratty, it was too embarassing to wear (it kind of runs in the family, huh?). She asked me to pattern it so we could make some cool, funky tunics in different colors and patterns. 

Same as with the North Face tee, I cut apart the garment and traced the different pieces. Mom picked out this awesome blue fabric at the store, but I'm not really sure what it is. It's a little bit stretchy, but the wrong-side doesn't look like a knit...I don't know. But it still worked for the tunic and she loves it!

There's still a few adjustments to take care of. She wants it a little longer so she can wear leggings with it and wants a couple different neckline variations so not all her tunics look the same. I'm also not totally in love with the fit around the armhole, shoulder and bust. I'm going to mess around with that a little bit until it fits perfectly.

(You can really see from the back how the shoulder area is a bit weird.)

The neckline was finished with a facing and next is my favorite part...

Eeeeeek! I just love the finishing on the back of the tunic! Mom and I both love a pop of color (especially linings and finishings) so I thought she would love this hot pink ribbon on the inside. And it serves a purpose! I just love things that look good and work well. 

All in all, not bad for a first try, huh? Mom already took me back to the store to get more fabric for these tunics, so be on the look out for more!

-Taft W-K

Condom Dress

A couple years ago, my mom made a dress out of condoms for the Planned Parenthood of Corpus Christi, Texas condom fashion show. They took a one year hiatus, but the show came back this year...with me in it! Well, not me in person, but a dress I designed walked down a runway for the first time! We're just passing milestones left and right here, people!

From watching my mom make the dress, I knew that the less dress we were covering with condoms the better, so short and low-cut it was. I entered the Psychedelic 70's category, so I designed this dress:

I ended up eschewing the sleeves because I ran out of condoms. They mailed me 500 purple, turquoise and yellow condoms, but they only covered the dress (and we were really nervous about running out at the end). They didn't have pink too, so the color scheme was also switched up a bit.  

I went to the thrift store and found this knit Anne Taylor dress to use as the base.

I chopped a whole bunch of fabric off the bottom, then added elastic to give it a bubble-shape. 

I also washed aaaaaaall the condoms. I did some research online (which couldn't be done on school wifi, because a lot of those websites were blocked...) which led me to a dish soap + water bath and overnight-drying session. 

I left the majority of them rolled for the bullseye pattern, but unrolled a few for the fringe. 

From the beginning until the end of this project I felt like I was covered in lube. I mean, yikes, that stuff gets everywhere and will make your hands and your phone and your table and your scissors and your glue bottle and your safety pins eternally greasy...

After some trial-and-error I concluded that the best way to attach the condoms was with tacky glue, so I started by trimming the neckline in turquoise and beginning the bullseye pattern. It all had to be done in stages as it had to dry perfectly flat or the condoms wouldn't adhere. 

The fringe was glued onto the elastic from the inside. 

At some point, I lost the cap to my glue so I used a condom to keep it from drying out. Who knew these things had so many uses, huh?

If you can believe it, I actually did this whole project during Memorial Day weekend. Burned tons of midnight oil finishing this and "studying" for finals, but c'mon. Who can study when there's so much awesome crafting to do?

And here's the final product! Luck was on our side and my model in Texas was the exact same size as me, so I got to try everything on! Yay!

Here's my amazing model! She found the perfect go-go boots for the dress and got her hair styled in a 70's-esque up-do. Check out the video of the fashion show here. (I tried to imbed it in the post, but couldn't figure out how...any ideas?)

Overall, I had tons of fun with this project. It was especially funny when I mentioned something about "500 condoms on my dining room table" and someone overheard and took it completely out of context...hehehe....

Anyone have any other good uses for condoms? So far on our list: keeping glue from drying out and dress decoration. 

-Taft W-K