Thoughts on New Year's Eve

Im sure as everyone else, the thought of "New Year's resolutions" is weighing on your mind.

There may be reasons you do, or do not make them. I always feel mixed emotions regarding setting resolutions. Im a firm believer in the philosophy of "if you don't like something, change it" I don't always see why people wait until the new year to start something, or make changes.

That is not to say, that I don't set goals for myself for the new year  at this time. I do, just I like to work towards smaller goals. Mini milestones on the way to the bigger and better things life has to offer.

First one- is to successfully sew vests and belts for my troupe mates for our two performances coming in March.

Second one- is to perform my second solo at the Gettysburg Steampunk convention, along with the costuming for that.

I know that those are fairly large goals, but they will be completed by March so I consider them minis.

Also- I am preparing for my first ever 5K race on April 7th. I will be starting to jog using Zombies Run! app on my iPhone, as well as running wtih Chaos our new German Shepherd. 

Those are the things Im starting with. And while I do have more goals, I will set them once these are completed.

Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,
and never thought upon;
The flames of Love extinguished,
and fully past and gone:
Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,
that loving Breast of thine;
That thou canst never once reflect
On Old long syne.

On Old long syne my Jo,
On Old long syne,
That thou canst never once reflect,
On Old long syne.

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The Final Chapter of the Stocking

As I reflect back upon this past weekend, I realize that it was much more productive that I had originally thought it would be!

It started out by arriving home to Mr Pirate and all of our housemates putting up the Christmas decorations.
So I helped out doing that (or rather, I did a WONDERFUL job of "Supervising" ahem....) until a dear friend stopped by and joined Mr Pirate and I for a lovely dinner of Indian Food at Cafe Spice just across the road.
I love going there! The amazing Indian couple who owns the restaurant alway greet us with big smiles and hugs and happy chatter. I want to squish them up and take them home in my pocket. But for now, living across the street is as good as it gets!

Saturday morning, I got up, and ran to the fabric store for some polar fleece to use as the back fabric for the three new-sew blankets that Mr Pirate and I are going to make to go with the pajama pants that I made for some friends as Christmas gifts. Once I made it out of there without spending an arm and a leg, I stopped at the liquor store for Brandy and a present for a white elephant exchange, and the grocery store for some ingredients for a quinoa salad I was making for later that  night.

Once I got home- I promptly got to making the Victorian Egg Nog, which took just over three-quarters of the bottle of brandy that I had purchased, and lots of rum (I can't account for how much rum, because I keep the large size bottle of kraken on hand at all times). This stuff will knock your socks off! No doubt.

And then I made the quinoa salad. I was inspired by a dish that someone brought to work, and made up my own variation on the fly. Quinoa, cucumber, cranberries, cilantro, edamame, juice of one whole lime, white truffle oil, merlot infused sea salt, and cracked black pepper.

Once those were all completed, I couldn't very well justify sitting on my laurels and ruining the track record of the day. So I got to making Mr Pirate the pajama pants from the fabric we found while on vacation.

After that was completed it was time to get myself dressed properly and pick up my fellow dancer, and head out to our Fancy Party. LOL it was a wonderful evening, the eggnog and quinoa salad were a hit. 
For the first time in my life, I was a stealer while we played the White Elephant exchange game! And Im happy to report that I got to keep my present. No one stole it away from me! Two lovely flavors of tea, a lovely little tea cup, and a box of blueberry tea biscotti (which I will give to my friend here at work since it has gluten in it).

Sunday, I made sure to put Mr Pirate to bed in the bedroom after he got home from work so I could get to working on the stocking.
I spent the afternoon working away on it while watching Christmas movies. It was all very nice and happy.
I stopped for a break when he woke up and was getting ready to go back into work, and picked right back up where I left off when he left.

So without further ado- I am very pleased and proud to say, that it is FINISHED. DONE. FIN.
I really enjoyed doing it once I got the hang of it. And give you the final pics of it.
Now to get little bits-and-baubs to fill it with and try and hold out one more week to hang it on..well...I'll hang it someplace on Christmas Eve.

Almost completed

Close up

 

Close up

The Final Finished Product

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Santa Stocking update for today!

The Pirate Santa stocking is looking so awesome! Im really really proud of how far its come!
His head and face are completed, and I *think* I just have his right arm, the scroll and the cardinal bird to put on his torso.

Today at lunch I completed the pirate ship! So cute!!!

Looks like Im working on the snow that goes under the treasure chest next. Im on step 85 or 100+ (just over 100 i think) UPDATE: I just checked- there are 105 pieces to be applied. Then the stocking assembly, name tag, and then all the beads and baubbles on the treasure chest. So, yes indeed, Im getting closer and closer!!!!!

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Tutorial: Recontructing and decorating a Holiday Stocking

As I promised, this will be a tutorial about how to take a premade stocking and reshape it into something you like much more.
The shapes are endless that you can, do- this is just one of many ideas!

Background: At work, we were give one standard red and white felt stocking from the dollar store and told to decorate it for a contest with in our department.
This is the journey of my stocking:

 

Supplies Needed (for this particular stocking):

 -Stocking (stocking used was your standard red and white stocking from the Dollar Store)

-Fabric Pencil, chalk (tailors or chalkboard chalk will work too)

-Scissors

-Sewing Machine or Thread and needle

-E-6000 or hot glue

-Grey Felt

-Spool of Pearl Trim

- 1/2 yard of lace trim

-letters (I used stick on letters from the scrapbooking section)

-Christmas babbules (one white branch of snowflakes, one green ball and holly leaf clip on)

-buttons

So, now that you have all your trims and supplies and got them laid out in front of you, the first thing you are going to do is to take your stocking and your pencil/chalk/etc and lightly mark out the shape you want on your stocking. You can clearly see that I wanted a booted ice-skate for my final look, so I drew in the shape of a women's boot that I liked.

once you are satisfied with the shape of your new stocking, you are going to need to sew around that line. I did mine with a sewing machine, and it went VERY quickly. You can do it by hand also if you do not have a sewing machine. 

The picture above is of the stocking after coming off the sewing machine.  Once you are fully sure that you like your shape, you can cut away the excess fabric. Don't be afraid of this! Just go slowly, and use very sharp scissors. You want to stay close to the stitchline, but not cut into it. Take your time.

Once you have the excess fabric trimmed off, you should have a stocking that will hold your holiday goodies and they won't fall out through any holes. (Make sure you didn't cut your stitchline!)

Guess what?? The hardest part is over! YAY!
Now the really fun part begins-gather your trims up and get ready to decorate!

The first step in trimming my stocking that I did, was to take the grey felt, lay the edge of my boot on top of it, and use that pencil/chalk/etc from step 1, and mark out the shape of my skate blade.

Then cut out the blade of the skate! Be sure to leave yourself enough of an underlap on the grey felt so that you can glue down the boot toe and heel on top of it in the next step!
This is the cut out blade

Go ahead and glue down your boot ontop of your blade using the E-6000, or your hot glue gun. I prefer E-6000 to hot glue as it tends to hold better.
After I glued down the blade, I started on the edging with the pearl trim. I used a spool of pre-strung pearls and glued them down over top of the stittchline using it as a guide. I also added some rhinestone trim to the bottom of the blade that I had left over from another project

Next thing, was to take the lace trim and I added that to both the bottom edge and top edge of the cuff

I took the little branch of snowflakes and cut the snowflakes off from it, and glued them around the blade, toe of the boot, and onto the cuff as was appealing to me. Then I took those letters and glued them onto the cuff. Even though they are sticky already, it won't permanently hold to the felt, so I added an extra dab of glue to make sure it stayed put.

Next,  thing , was to remove the clip from the green balls and leaf decoration (save that clip for another project down the road!) and glued that to the cuff. I added glue to the leaves, and one of the balls to really make sure that it stuck.


My final step was to glue down my buttons and the just wait for it to dry!
Voila'! You now have a wonderful unique stocking that's all your own!

Be sure and post photos of your stocking that you made! I'd love to see what you come up with!

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A little closer each day!

Well, after being thrown a curve ball my Mr Pirate's schedule this weekend, I got myself settled yesterday to working on the stocking again. He was hone Friday night, and Saturday evening as well.
Originally, I had planned to make the cupcakes for the competition during the day yesterday, and then work on the stocking while he was doing clinicals in the evening. Well, as it turned out, he was on a day shift clinical, not an evening one.

So I regrouped, got the cupcakes in the oven and baking and started working on the stocking again.
I got the cupcakes baked, and the first season of Downton Abbey completed.

This is where I am with the stocking as of today. I will work on it again at lunch time today, and then won't be able to pick it up again until tomorrow evening when he goes to work.

And this is as of my completion of lunch

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More Stocking Progress- and the beginnings of a tutorial

Just a quick post on where Im at so far with the stocking for Mr. Pirate. Im truly enjoying the process of creating it, and may consider making another one next year if I can find a patter that I like as much as this one.

Remember that Secret Santa stocking contest I mentioned for work? well, I can't post the photos of it yet as my co-workers are smart folks, and I can't leak out my ideas and information on what Im doing.
But, I will say this, my stocking is going to be killer. I started it last night and took photos along the way, so once this contest is complete on Tuesday, I will get to work on posting the tutorial for what I did.
muwahahahahahahaha.... ahem
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Stocking- Half way there!!!! (well, almost)

As of about 30 minutes ago- I am officially half way through all the pieces of the stocking. That is not to say that I've got half of it completed, as there are several details that get put on last that are done with beads and sequins instead of appliqued pieces.

Now that I have the swing of things going,  Im finding the craft quiet enjoyable. Last night, I was home alone and able to work on it, so I turned on hulu and cued up Downton Abby and delved into that whilst my dinner was in the oven.

Diner last night was roast pork shoulder with sauerkraut and carrots, in case you were wondering.

I watched the first two episodes and feat that I may have a new era of history to start looking into for the costumes. The fabrics are rich and luxurious, and starting to move into some really lovely colors. I did enjoy the show, and this will be my new home-alone-crafting show.

But, back to the main point. The stocking.

So without further ado- I give you two more photos of it, the first is as of last evening, and the second (full photo) is as of lunch today.

This weekend, I will take a short break from this stocking, to decorate my own little stocking for our secret santa exchange at work. I have my idea planned out, as well as my shopping list for Joann Fabric.
I will also be making a post regarding my Eggnog cupcakes with Butter Rum frosting that I am submitting for a cook off at work... (yes, that was your teaser!)

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Stocking Update

I did not get as much done over the weekend as I had hoped for.  Reason being- the directions had me stumped again and I decided to wait until Monday morning at the office to ask a fellow crafter for help.

She was very happy to help me and give me some guidance and said she would have been confused if she were in my place! That made me feel better and like I wasn't so far off.

I have the treasure chest almost completed now, and the first candy cane on. Unfortunately, having hot little hands that sometimes get sweaty, means that I made the printed outline on the white snow bleed and my candy cane now looks dirty. Lesson learned, when I work on the white area, I shall wear a rubber glove.

Here is the closeup of the treasure chest thus far

and here's the overall look

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Stocking progress update

Just a couple of photos to update what I accomplished yesterday and today on the stocking.

Yesterday at lunch I was able to embroider all the leaves. Along the way, I learned that I was doing one stitch incorrectly, so I adjusted and moved on.

Last night while watching a show with my housemate I got said leaves attached to the cuff.

Today, at lunch I was able to embroider and bead and sequin the "snow" and get it attached to the  background.

Im hoping to get a good amount accomplished tomorrow evening while Mr Pirate is working.
*Keeps Fingers Crossed*

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Yo-Ho-Ho-Ho! A Pirate Chsitmas for us!

Just when I think I can't do something, I proudly remember that I am the daughter of a Marine, and do what any good Marine would do:

Adapt

Improvise

Overcome


and that's exactly how I'm tackling this  Christmas project. It's a <a href="http://www.plaidonline.com/bucilla-seasonal-felt-stocking-kits-pirate-santa/86183/item.htm">Bucilla Felt Applique Stocking depicting Santa as a Pirate</a>. (Its a REALLY good thing that I have this one and am not attempting the fireman version as that appears to have many more parts to it. But, Im getting ahead of myself...)

I purchased this kit last year with the brilliant idea that I would get it, make it and have it under the tree for Mr. Pirate on Christmas morning. I excitedly ordered the kit, and had it rushed to me as quick as possible since I knew the holiday would come up quickly.

When the package arrived, I tore into that box and took a good long hard look at the kit. Didn't even open the kit at this point, and cocked an eyebrow at it. Already, I was not sure that it was going to be as "easy" as the site stated it would be.

I gingerly opened the package and started reading the instructions. I was immediately overwhelmed by the information and the wording and the stitches and threads and beads and sequins and felt...... whew. You see how it is.

I attempted to do the very first command and knew then I was in over my head. I did what any normal crafter would do... I packed it up and put it in the project bin of doom and walked away from it.

I didn't even purchase a premade stocking. There were no stockings to be had under our tree last year.

But, with renewed vigor I have reclaimed this project as mine and am determined to not let it win.

So I strapped on my boots, pulled up my big girl panties and re-read the instructions. Got myself organized and recruited the knowledge of a couple of friends who have indeed tackled these very kits.

Now, it is not as hard as I thought it would be. It is in fact very simple to do. HOWEVER, there are a LOT of steps and a LOT of pieces, so it is slow going.
This is what I have accomplished in three lunches at work.

there is much more to go, but I will NOT let this stocking win. I will overcome and I will be the victor!

*rides off in the back of the jeep with cigar in hand*

(20 points for you if you get the reference above)

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First Video From the Showcase

This is the first little snippet of video that has come forward from the Dance Showcase we did last week! What an incredible evening!! All the dancers were fantastic and nice, and the show as a whole, was just phenomenal! Pin It Now!

The making of a bustle skirt for Agatha Stabbenslash- Dirigible Seamstress

Several months ago- a friend came to me and asked me about possibly double dating to a fundraiser style ball being held in October.
After looking into the Team Wench Goblins and Gears Ball that supports MS research, I quickly agreed and then had a moment of panic.

 I realized that it would be ME who would be putting together 4 full costumes for 4 adults to go to this ball.
So while helping my friends and my other half develop their characters so we knew how to dress them properly, I started on my own costume. If you have followed any of my previous posts, you will have seen my second version of the 1872 Basque.  I am in love with this jacket and am continually trimming it.

Now that my friend Lauren had a chance to do some character development with some help from yours truly, we got to work planning fabrics and ideas. What exactly would the seamstress upon a dirigible wear?!

Well this is what we've come up with:
First up- was the patch work apron. Again, see my previous posts on making that. It was fun and cute. Even gave me an excuse to get a gathering foot for my sewing machine.

Now came the big piece for her costume. The skit. Of course she wanted the bustle skirt. What Lady does not dream of covering herself in yards of fabric!

So on we went. Since this is a steampunk event, and not a historical event, I decided that I was just going to draft up what was in my head instead of turning to a pattern.
There are three plain panels- on center front, and one on each side. And then a fourth back panel that created the bustle.
I kept the sewing fairly simple, and put together the three plain panels, and then marked out the back panel where I wanted the gathers, put in the gathers, and then sewed that to the other three.

I also decided I wanted a waistband for some added support and detailing.

So I made up a waistband and added chocolate brown velvet ribbons to the back of it to tie it together. I think they look just lovely hanging down the back over the bustle.

Once the waistband was on, I put some tenative marks in for the bustle and then fit it to my friend. We decided then that they needed some adjustment.
Well, after getting it back home, and properly attaching the waistband now that the garment had been fit, I realized i HATED the way the bustle looked in the back. It was aweful.
So, onto a dress from we have at work, and I spent 45 minutes one evening after work adjusting it.
I am very pleased with how that turned out, and while its not perfect, it is quite nice for my first bustle skirt and no pattern.

So, I give you the pics from my process as well as the finished skirt with the affore mentioned apron over it.

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