Gather Banner for J

This summer I was lucky enough to spend more time with one of my favorite people in the world: the wonderful and lovely J (check out her work here). I got to meet some of her amazing friends and hang out with her, which involved crafting and doughnuts and a trip to the fabric store and movies about dogs. I mean, what more could a girl want? 

She has the most beautiful home, with a dining room area that has a big wooden table that we all gather and craft around. I wanted to make her something for her new-ish home, something that would express how much we all love to go to J's house. 

I made her this banner to hang in her dining room. What I love about it is that all the materials are from other projects: jean aprons, quilts, t-shirts and headbands. Each part of it has its own story. 

All of the ribbon is hand-stitched to the jean triangle. 

I left a little tab at the top of each triangle so I could fold it over to sew onto the ribbon.

I can't wait to give it to J! Hope she loves it :)

-Taft W-K

Blue and White Striped Tee

I had this awesome North Face tee that I loved so much and wore to rags (Literally. Mom deemed it "too ratty," stole it out of the laundry and cut it up into rags.) Luckily, I was able to save it before she cut it and instead cut it myself (there's a difference). I traced it and patterned it, so now I can make as many tees of the same style as I want!

I've never done this before, so I kind of made it up as I went along and it didn't turn out half bad, if I do say so myself. 

I cut the shirt along the seams, making sure to be really exact on one half, but just hacking it off on the other side. I ended up with one intact sleeve and half the front and half the back cut out perfectly. I traced the three pieces (front and back are cut on the fold), cut them out of paper and voila! I had a t-shirt pattern!

I tested it first on this navy and white striped fabric that I've had in my stash for at least a year. I picked it up at one of Fabric Outlet's 40% off sales (looooove them so much!) and figured it was about time it was turned into something.

I love the way it turned out! I've made a lot of tees, but I think this is the most professional one I've made so far. 

The neckline is finished with a strip of fabric which I serged on the inside, then topstitched down. 

The fabric is a teensy-bit see through (why does this keep happening to me!?) so I do have to be careful when I wear it, but other than that it's perfect! I love the stripes and keep wearing it again the second it's out of the laundry. 

Keep on crafting, y'alls!

-Taft W-K

P.S. School started this week. I know, I'm sad too :(. Unfortunately, since I'm a junior and junior year is a serious kick in the bahooty, I'm going to change from updating every Wednesday to updating every other. HOWEVER, I promise to update every week when I'm on vacation. Okay? Okay. (And if you just got that Fault in Our Stars reference, I'm sorry for making you cry.)

Tardis Dress: Part 2

Alright, I've kept you waiting long enough. Here's Part 2 of Cams' epic TARDIS costume:

(Missed Part 1? Don't worry, babe, I gotchu. It's right here.)

I've already told you the bodice was a basic princess-seamed top. I linked to the generator I used in the last post, which I then altered to fit her perfectly. Here it is, pre-attachment to the skirt:

I finished the top with a facing cut from the same cotton I used for the ruffles and all the inside seams are finished with the serger. (Thank the goddess for my mother's 20-year-old serger! That thing has saved our booties on more than one occasion.)

I cut straps from the white cotton and then some bias strips from the blue to trim it:

For this dress, I took every opportunity to topstitch in a contrast thread or add a contrast trim. I think it helped make certain areas pop and make it look more like a cartoon/costume.

Here's the finished straps:

Then there was the sash for the waist with the text from the TARDIS. It's black cotton and silver paint marker (My brother saved me in the eleventh hour with his massive stash of markers). 

Aaaaaaaand ladies and gentlemen! The final reveal! (drumroll please....)

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Ta-da! *Trumpets play in the background*

The overskirt was trimmed with a plain strip of the blue cotton (wouldv'e used the white, but I ran out...)

Here's the ruffles on the underskirt. They're all hemmed with contrast thread, which made them pop really nicely. 

Some more pics without the sash...

The back has an invisible zipper in the seam. It was an okay zipper, not my best, but not every single thing you make can be the best, right? (This is how I'm making myself feel better.)

I love how cute the bow is in the back! 

And here's our lovely Cam in her custom-made TARDIS costume:

I'm in love with the hat and arm warmers she made! 

So, fellow crafters....what nerdy projects have YOU been up to lately?

-Taft W-K

Blue Jersey Circle Skirt

I know I said I was going to post about the rest of Cam's dress this week, but I'm having trouble digging process photos out of the mess that is my Dropbox account. But never fear! I swear I will have it up before school starts! (*crosses fingers behind back*)

Remember this dress I made for my friend to wear to an anime convention? Well, it's actually a group of my friends who went, and Pauline also needed some costume help.

She was dressing up as this character from Homestuck (it's a webcomic, I think):

Yeeeaaaaahhh. Lots of creative license taken with this one.

Pauline also found some fan art, which helped a lot:

We decided to make a circle skirt with a wide waist band and elastic out of this really really soft jersey fabric. It was so soft...and drapey...and soft...

And ta-da!

I self patterned the skirt to fit Pauline exactly. Circle skirts are definitely my favorite: cute, easy to pattern, easy to fit and work at just about every length and in every fabric.

Seams were sewn with a zig-zag stitch so it could still stretch and be comfortable. The hem was done with a straight stitch to leave the outside nice and polished.

And I love her costume! She did such a good job of interpreting the character from the comic.

So awesome! Can't wait to see what she does for next year's Fanime! You go Pauline!

-Taft W-K

The TARDIS Dress: Part 1

I know, I know. Sewing projects really don't get much geekier than this, but that's okay, because it was probably the funnest project I've ever sewn.

My friend, Cam, went to an anime convention and commissioned me to make a TARDIS cosplay dress for her.

For those of you who don't know, this is the TARDIS:

It's from the British TV show Doctor Who and is the main character's time and space traveling vehicle (TARDIS stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space). I know it looks really small for a time traveling vehicle, but that's because it's bigger on the inside. Just trust me on that. 

Cam and I are on the exact same wavelength, so I came up with this design and she approved it in no time flat:

It's a princess-seamed bodice and a circle skirt with an overskirt and underskirt covered in ruffles. It was originally designed to be worn with a corset and have a halter top, but once Cam realized that would mean wearing a strapless bra all day, she quickly changed her mind. Very quickly. 

Because this was going to be a very complicated project, we mocked it up first to make sure the patterns fit and Cam liked the silhouette. 

Here's the muslin of the skirt and overskirt:

(Sorry for poor picture quality, it was taken late at night. Had to burn a lot of midnight oil to get this project done.)

Then came the ruffles. What I did was draw an 8.5 radius circle with a 2.5 radius circle in the middle and cut them out and sewed the 2.5 radius side to the skirt. It had a similar effect to a circle skirt, where the top is not gathered but the bottom is still very full, giving it a smooth appearance. 

Wish I had taken better photos of the process. Next time I make ruffles like this, I'll be sure to do so. 

The bodice was a basic princess-seamed bodice made using this generator. It worked pretty well, just needed some adjustment at the waist and bust. I'd definitely use it the next time I make a bodice like this. 

Here's the final underskirt: 

Next week, I'll post about the rest of the dress. Be on the lookout! 

-Taft W-K

Rally Sign

You might have heard about the recent Supreme Court decisions concerning Hobby Lobby and abortion clinic buffer zones and if you're anything like me, you're outraged. You might also be attending rallies and shouting "Two, four, six, eight! The church and state don't ovulate!" in crowded public areas.

SFNOW and the wonderful CodePink ladies (along with other organizations in the Bay Area) organized a rally a few weeks ago on Powell Street. If any of you have ever been to San Francisco's Powell Street and trolley turn-around, you know how crowded it is.

Rachael and I wanted some really epic signage to bring with us to the rally (along with our t-shirts, remember from last week?), so we brainstormed some slogans and finally decided on "Get Your Religion Out of My Uterus" because it's extremely relevant to the Hobby Lobby case.

Using some butcher paper and the font I used on mom's quilt last year, Rachael, my brother and I cut out letters from neon paper and drafted some larger, uppercase letters too.

We made "Out" big and bold to make it pop, make it more forceful. You know? Get it OUT!

Gluing down letters

Ta-da! There it is!

I found some black PVC pipes in my basement which we used to support the sign. The ends were folded over the pipes a couple times and attached with 49-ers duct tape (gotta gave some team spirit, right?). 

The finished product!

The height of the sign was perfect, but we forgot to cut wind slits! We had a couple scares and thought our sign was gonna rip right off the poles. 

We also picked up some stickers that went on our sign, too. You can't read them in the picture, but they say "Abortion Providers are Heroes" and "Abortion on Demand and Without Apology." I also got a "Imagine Create a World Without Rape" sticker that now lives in my binder. Best part of these rallies are definitely the stickers :)

The sign worked so well at the rally! Rachael (holding the other end of our sign) borrowed one of my family's many radical/slightly inappropriate t-shirts and Cam (the girl with the blue hair to the left of me) also came with some signs she made. Her slogans were fantastic: "After all, your medical decisions should be between you, your doctor, your boss and the Supreme Court" and "Not having sex deprives a child of life. By Anti-Choice logic, abstinence is child murder." She's so sassy :)

Next up, maybe a fabric one? With sewn on letters? And wind slits. Definitely wind slits.

-Taft W-K

What's on your Radical Agenda?

My friend gave me this awesome, amazing, super thoughtful and very me shirt for Christmas last year:

It's really so perfect. 

Unfortunately, it was this really strange racerback tank that did not cover the chest area very well. 

And at the same time, I realized that my softest and best black tee shirt was stretching in the chest area to the point where it was see through. Yeah. It's a problem. 

See? Thank the goddess my mom noticed at breakfast, else I might've walked around like that all day. 

The two shirts were too good to give away, so I went "Hmmmm....what if we could solve two boobage problems...at the same time?" 

And immediately got to work. (Also, it was pride weekend here in SF and I needed something to wear in addition to my rainbow socks.)

At five minutes in we were here: 

Graphic cut and ready. 

Eight minutes in we were here: 

Nine minutes in, my brother asked what was on my radical feminist agenda, which I answered with "Paid maternity leave."

Ten minutes in, he was trying to argue it with me. 

14 minutes in, he walked out of the room, as he couldn't argue very well why we shouldn't have paid maternity leave. (Score one for gender equality!)

Now that I had the dining room to myself, I started hand stitching the graphic onto the black tee. 

Like so. I found some awesome pink thread that went with the font fabulously. 

And here's the final product at the Pride Parade! (It gets a little overshadowed by the feather boa, but eh. A feather boa that awesome deserves the attention.)

(That's my friend, Cam. Check back in a couple weeks, I made an epic costume for her that I'll be posting about!)

I went to another event later in the week, which prompted more radical paraphenalia....here's a little sneak peak ;)

So I'm wondering readers...what's on your radical agenda?

-Taft W-K