I spent most of the day fighting the devil bag, a bias pleated bag I'm trying to weave out of martial arts belts. If I can subdue it tonight or tomorrow morning, I'll include a photo in tomorrow's post.
Have a good evening!
Showing posts with label crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crafts. Show all posts
Thursday, June 4, 2020
Sunday, December 12, 2010
A is for Anniversary; B is for Bras
It is December 12, one month since my last post to this blog and two months since my father died, a subject I will write about here once I feel ready. So much for the Anniversary side of this post. As for Bras, they can be made into great purses, as I have blogged before, here. The purse shown in that post went to my stepmother. I made another one for the woman with whom I partnered when I earned my black belt in Myo Sim kendo; unfortunately, I forgot to photograph that one before I presented it. I have since made three more, and after being asked on Facebook about photos, decided to post photos and the story behind them here.
Several years, ago my dad and stepmom relocated to DeLand, Florida. As the years went by, a social group evolved of my dad, my stepmom, and three of her friends, all widows. They dined out together most Friday nights, saying that it was "Jerry and his harem." During the last week of Dad's life, when he was in the hospice, two of these friends saved me from having to make early (as in 4:00 a.m.) trips to the airport shuttle, first with my brother and sister-in-law and later with my aunt. They were at the house the day after Dad died, with dinner, wine, and empathy when all were needed most. They had previously admired the bra purse I'd sent my stepmom, so I thought bra purses would be one way to thank them for their love and attention, then to both of us and now, to my stepmom.
As it happened, I already had three bras in my stash of fun things, in ivory, purple, and black. The purple and black ones might better be termed "luggage" than "purses" being 46 C or D, a size I have never known not even when pregnant or nursing. I wanted each purse to be different, but I also wanted them to share something. For this, I chose one set of three embellishments--purple and green flowers with black stems--that actually reminded me very much of tattoos. I put one of these on each purse. Not looking ahead, I took no photos as I made the purses, but I did photograph them in their finished state, hanging from a hook on my porch. As I said, I wanted each one to be unique. The ivory one actually got nipples
thanks to a pair of thrift-shop earrings I knew I could use for something somewhere sometime. The embellishment shared between the three purses provided really the only color against the ivory. 
While the ivory purse had nipples, the black purse had fringe. 
The shared embellishment can be seen at the top. Finally, I ended up putting, quite unknowingly, a face on one side of the purple purse. 
The "mouth" is the shared embellishment.
One fun thing about making purses out of bras is trying to use different parts of the bras in the construction of the purses or, to put it another way, limiting the non-bra used. Although it can't be seen in the photo, for example, the hooks and eyes that hold the purse closed are actually the pieces that would ordinarily hold the back of the bra closed. The bow on the side, which was put there to hide where the two halves did not meet exactly, was crafted from the side panels of the bra. The bow at the top of the ivory bra was made from the back straps of the bra.
Did the recipients like their gifts? Well, it certainly looked that way to me in the e-mail and photos they sent.
Several years, ago my dad and stepmom relocated to DeLand, Florida. As the years went by, a social group evolved of my dad, my stepmom, and three of her friends, all widows. They dined out together most Friday nights, saying that it was "Jerry and his harem." During the last week of Dad's life, when he was in the hospice, two of these friends saved me from having to make early (as in 4:00 a.m.) trips to the airport shuttle, first with my brother and sister-in-law and later with my aunt. They were at the house the day after Dad died, with dinner, wine, and empathy when all were needed most. They had previously admired the bra purse I'd sent my stepmom, so I thought bra purses would be one way to thank them for their love and attention, then to both of us and now, to my stepmom.
As it happened, I already had three bras in my stash of fun things, in ivory, purple, and black. The purple and black ones might better be termed "luggage" than "purses" being 46 C or D, a size I have never known not even when pregnant or nursing. I wanted each purse to be different, but I also wanted them to share something. For this, I chose one set of three embellishments--purple and green flowers with black stems--that actually reminded me very much of tattoos. I put one of these on each purse. Not looking ahead, I took no photos as I made the purses, but I did photograph them in their finished state, hanging from a hook on my porch. As I said, I wanted each one to be unique. The ivory one actually got nipples
thanks to a pair of thrift-shop earrings I knew I could use for something somewhere sometime. The embellishment shared between the three purses provided really the only color against the ivory. 
While the ivory purse had nipples, the black purse had fringe. 
The shared embellishment can be seen at the top. Finally, I ended up putting, quite unknowingly, a face on one side of the purple purse. 
The "mouth" is the shared embellishment.One fun thing about making purses out of bras is trying to use different parts of the bras in the construction of the purses or, to put it another way, limiting the non-bra used. Although it can't be seen in the photo, for example, the hooks and eyes that hold the purse closed are actually the pieces that would ordinarily hold the back of the bra closed. The bow on the side, which was put there to hide where the two halves did not meet exactly, was crafted from the side panels of the bra. The bow at the top of the ivory bra was made from the back straps of the bra.
Did the recipients like their gifts? Well, it certainly looked that way to me in the e-mail and photos they sent.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Adventures in Amigurumi
Last spring I played around a bit with amigurumi, which Wikipedia defines as"the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. Amigurumi are typically cute animals (such as bears, rabbits, cats, dogs, etc.), but can include inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features. Amigurumi can be either knitted or crocheted. In recent years crocheted amigurumi are more popular and more commonly seen." I started with squid, one for a fellow kendo student and one for older son Don, and then moved on to corgis, one for older son and one for younger son and his girlfriend. While I was making the corgis, younger son put in his request for an amigurumi hybrid with the head of a corgi, the body of a prawn, and the tentacles and whips of a squid. Younger son being younger son, he also asked that the squid tentacles and whips be detachable. I did the parts for the corgi head then, back in the spring, but only now got around to making the other components and assembling the creature. Is it too cute for words, an abomination, or just "possibly one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen" (I think this was how younger son said his girlfriend described it)? You be the judge.
Corgi Head:
Prawn Body:
Squid Tentacles and Whips:
CorgiPrawnSquid:
Corgi Head:
Prawn Body:
Squid Tentacles and Whips:
CorgiPrawnSquid:
Monday, March 24, 2008
What I Did on Easter Afternoon
I decided to spend Easter afternoon or about four hours of it being creative. Having a deadline really helps me suppress my anal-retentive (yes, it does have a hyphen) tendencies to make every corner match and try to do everything perfectly. I decreed that this project, one I've been wanting to do for quite a while, would be done in the afternoon. As it turned out, I had to do one last circuit of zigzag stitch after dinner, but that was only because my mom, who lives with us, sort of expects dinner at a certain time, and I was pushing up against it. Unfortunately, it occurred to me as I was working away that I hadn't done any "before" pictures, which made it easy to talk myself out of taking any "during" ones. I did take some "after" ones, though, so on with the story.
The project was based on one that ran in one of my favorite magazines, Quilting Arts, a while back. The idea was to do a drawing of your face, applique it in pieces onto a piece of fabric, and make a small quilt. I didn't want to put it on a quilt, though; I wanted to put it on the back of one of several denim jackets I bought at Goodwill for $3.50 each. I'd had the jackets for almost a year, as well as a khaki miniskirt I bought at the same time planning to use it for the face. I did the drawing of myself last summer, at which point I hadn't started to grow my hair out. I didn't bother to change the drawing, though, since the idea was to do my face as more of a caricature than an accurate representation.
The first step was to ask my husband, who was going into his office, to make several copies of the drawing, so that I could cut them apart in different ways. While he was doing that, I assembled the materials and decided which jacket to use. (I put one of the jackets aside to do a discharge design on the back, which may well warrant a future post.) The second step was to think ahead about ordering the whole thing. I planned to use fusible web to adhere each piece to the one underneath it and then use my sewing machine to zigzag around the outside to accent the edges and keep them from fraying. For example, the blues of my eyes would have to go onto the whites of my eyes which then had to go onto my face.
Once I got the copies of the face back, I cut them up into various puzzle pieces. Fortunately, it occurred to me that since I'd be zigzagging around all the shapes on the face (nose, eyes, lips) I shouldn't put the fusible web on the back of the face to start with since sewing through it might gum up my not-cheap sewing machine. I thought about doing the face and neck as separate pieces so that the face would appear to sit out from the neck a bit, but decided that the quick and dirty way was okay. In other words, the chin line was just going to be stitched on in zigzag stitch. I did decide, though, that the nose should be a real piece of the same fabric as the face, appliqued on and stitched around to give it some real definition. It was fun to try to come up with colors for the blue of my eyes, the pink of my lips, and the blond of my hair. The hair, especially, is a bit of a caricature; my hair, while naturally blond, has never been the shade of gold I used. And although the drawing shows me in the glasses I wear all the time, I decided that adding them to the fabric me would be too difficult. I might try to add them, though, if I repeat the project on another jacket or in a quilt.
So, here's the finished result on the jacket as well as a bit closer up since you can't really see the nose on the jacket image. If you're curious about any of the how-to that I didn't elaborate on above, just ask! I'd be glad to share. It was a fun way to spend an Easter afternoon, and the type of project I could see myself doing again.
The project was based on one that ran in one of my favorite magazines, Quilting Arts, a while back. The idea was to do a drawing of your face, applique it in pieces onto a piece of fabric, and make a small quilt. I didn't want to put it on a quilt, though; I wanted to put it on the back of one of several denim jackets I bought at Goodwill for $3.50 each. I'd had the jackets for almost a year, as well as a khaki miniskirt I bought at the same time planning to use it for the face. I did the drawing of myself last summer, at which point I hadn't started to grow my hair out. I didn't bother to change the drawing, though, since the idea was to do my face as more of a caricature than an accurate representation.
The first step was to ask my husband, who was going into his office, to make several copies of the drawing, so that I could cut them apart in different ways. While he was doing that, I assembled the materials and decided which jacket to use. (I put one of the jackets aside to do a discharge design on the back, which may well warrant a future post.) The second step was to think ahead about ordering the whole thing. I planned to use fusible web to adhere each piece to the one underneath it and then use my sewing machine to zigzag around the outside to accent the edges and keep them from fraying. For example, the blues of my eyes would have to go onto the whites of my eyes which then had to go onto my face.
Once I got the copies of the face back, I cut them up into various puzzle pieces. Fortunately, it occurred to me that since I'd be zigzagging around all the shapes on the face (nose, eyes, lips) I shouldn't put the fusible web on the back of the face to start with since sewing through it might gum up my not-cheap sewing machine. I thought about doing the face and neck as separate pieces so that the face would appear to sit out from the neck a bit, but decided that the quick and dirty way was okay. In other words, the chin line was just going to be stitched on in zigzag stitch. I did decide, though, that the nose should be a real piece of the same fabric as the face, appliqued on and stitched around to give it some real definition. It was fun to try to come up with colors for the blue of my eyes, the pink of my lips, and the blond of my hair. The hair, especially, is a bit of a caricature; my hair, while naturally blond, has never been the shade of gold I used. And although the drawing shows me in the glasses I wear all the time, I decided that adding them to the fabric me would be too difficult. I might try to add them, though, if I repeat the project on another jacket or in a quilt.
So, here's the finished result on the jacket as well as a bit closer up since you can't really see the nose on the jacket image. If you're curious about any of the how-to that I didn't elaborate on above, just ask! I'd be glad to share. It was a fun way to spend an Easter afternoon, and the type of project I could see myself doing again.
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