Road trip and bicycles

Hello!

So to kick off this summer, we are going on a road trip to Minnesota. Then, we are going to France (that's not a road trip) for the rest of the summer.

Now forgive me while I have a miniature rant. It will be worth it in the end.

I hate sleeping in cars and planes. Most of the time, I can't fall asleep at all and kind of settle into a zombie-like state. When I do fall asleep, it's massively uncomfortable and slightly painful. And my neck always hurts afterwards. The pillows that they hand out on planes are gross too.

So I decided to make my own. It's not too big and not too small (I'm not trying to quote Goldilocks here but it really is just right) and squishy enough that I can cram it into my luggage.

 

The front is bicycles. I'd had my eye on this fabric for a long time. I had no idea what I wanted to do with it, but when I went back to the fabric store it was in the cheap leftovers pile and so I had to get it.

Finding a back that worked nicely with the front was a bit of a challenge, but this one was very cute and the blue echoed the blue bicycles of the front.

I added a Liberty tag, but being me, I added it to the bottom of the pillow. Ten points for logic.

Anyway, that is all I will be posting for this week. I'll be back for a few days next week, so I'll put stuff up then. In the meantime, stay cool. (Get it? Because it's summer, so it's hot but cool also means awesome ... I'll stop now.)

My summer gift to you

Hello!

I usually like to do more "sophisticated" craft projects, but sometimes I just want to do a simple, fun summer camp type of project. So I found an idea for a shirt somewhere on the Internet (I cannot remember where it was and it's really bugging me) and decided to make it for my friend's birthday.

I just found a white shirt and painted on the names of her favorite characters from various books and TV shows.

Here is how I did it (this is my first how-to post, so we'll see how it goes).

First, gather your materials:

- a shirt

- fabric paint

- a sponge

- tape (optional)

- an exacto knife

- a cutting mat

- newspaper

- a piece of cardboard

- a piece of paper with the words you want to print onto the shirt (this will serve as your template)

 

not everything I used is pictured here

Next, tape your template to the cutting mat (you don't have to but it's really helpful). Using the exacto knife, start cutting out the letters.

Sorry for the bad quality picture, the lighting in my living room is weird

Next, spread your newspaper on your work area so that the paint doesn't get all over the place. (I did this part outside so in my case the newspaper was there to keep the shirt clean from all the dust on the table.)
Then, stick the piece of cardboard into the shirt where you want to print the words. If you don't, the paint will leak through to the back of the shirt and you will be frustrated.

Then, put your template onto the shirt and sponge on the paint.

As soon as the paint is all there, take the template off. Don't let it dry first! I was really dubious about this, but it's the right way to do it apparently. And it works, so there you go.

Let it dry according to the paint packaging instructions and voilà! It is complete.

Yay! If my instructions aren't clear, leave me a comment and I'll do my best to help you.

Dinosaurs

Hello!

For some unknown reason, I really love funny/cute dinosaur pictures.

Let me show you.

 

Okay, so you kind of see where I'm coming from with my cute dinosaurs idea?

Well, Mom and I were on a mission to find cupcake-themed fabric . Here we are, wandering the shelves of a cute little fabric store when I find, oh joy, pre-cut pillowcase kits with instructions (I have no idea how to make a pillowcase). I decided to get one. Now came the hard part. Puppies or dinosaurs?

 Well, um...

Oh come on, it's adorable. 

So we get home, I read (not really) the instructions, start cutting the fabric. Heart sinks to my shoes. I cut where I wasn't supposed to. In. The. Middle. Of. The. Fabric. Superhero Mom comes to the rescue, points me in the roads towards a finished pillowcase and flies out again, her cape swishing in the wind. 

I finished it in under an hour. And it turned out better than I expected considering the whole faulty cutting incident.

 

I screwed up on the yellow part, but that time it wasn't because I didn't read the instructions, it's because I didn't understand them. Huge difference.

That said, I love my pillowcase. It doesn't match anything in my room, but it's so cute, so I don't really care. It makes me smile every time I see it.

 

Kind of vintage

Hello!

Now that I'm on vacation (insert happy dance here) I've been sewing a lot. I'm talking one-project-a-day kind of a lot. So here is yesterday's project, a little bear named Rosie.

I named the post "kind of vintage" because the fabric in her ears is oldish and in my eyes the overall effect is a little bit vintage. However I know that there are people who will completely disagree with me about this. Oh well.

This is the first time I've made a bear using this pattern, so she turned out a little lopsided and her nose is off center and the eyes are uneven but you know what? She doesn't let that bother her, because she knows that she's adorable. Besides, I can't get everything right on the first try.

Have a nice day! And here is my advice for you this summer. Have fun. Sew. Cook. Read. Do nothing. A day is not wasted if you did what you wanted to do.

Photo Shoot (or the story of how I make myself laugh)

Hello!

I made a skirt.

In school. Which is why I haven't put it up yet.

Don't worry about my strange big toe, it's just that the nail polish is chipped

It's shorter in the front than in the back. But you won't be able to see that because I can't make a straight face when I take pictures of myself. So you'll just have to trust me.

 

The fact that I can't take myself seriously enough to take a good picture is the reason why my photo shoot ended up with me sitting on the porch taking ridiculous pictures of myself weird pictures of just my lower half while leaning all the way back and trying to get the focus right.

Here is a sort of artsy picture.

I think I provided the neighbors with some entertainment while I was at it, because I had to set the timer, run to the front of the camera and always ended up making silly faces. 

It's a very nice skirt. Also, the first item of clothing that I've sewn that isn't pajama pants. We're making progress!

Have a lovely, lovely week-end!

 

Story Time and Pajamas

Hello all!

This project, as it usually happens, has a little story behind it. Picture this: no school, gonna go buy some fabric with my dad, then I would sew and be a very happy blue cat. Well, that's not exactly what happened.

We were going to go buy fabric in the afternoon, then a really rough storm was announced, so we thought, eh, better not. Then, the rain let up and we decided to go in the morning before the storm hit.

It looks like camo but it's actually electric guitars

So off we went, happy as could be, la la la, we arrive at the fabric store. I buy a whole lot of things (the store is far away so I always stock up on things when we go there), including a pajama pants pattern and fabric. We didn't know what size pants I needed to make him, so we asked the people at the fabric-cutting place what size I should make. They cut the fabric, we thank them, leave, go eat lunch, drive another hour back home.

I roll out the fabric, lay out the pattern. That's funny. I'm missing a good yard. We check the receit and the pattern: for some reason, they had cut half of the total length of fabric we needed. Hm. We call, then drive another hour back to the store, ninja in, get the fabric, ninja out, drive another hour.

I pin and cut the fabric, all is well. I've decided to actually follow the pattern this time (yeah, you heard me) and I was getting more and more confused. After ending up with one giant leg instead of two good ones, I rip everything out and sew it MY way, which works much better and I'm done in ten minutes. Then came the elastic, because not only did my dad want some around the waist, but around the ankles as well. So I did that.

I finished it today when I got back from school and I must say, this is the best pair of pajama pants that I have accomplished thus far. Which would explain why you've never seen any others here. Because one isn't properly hemmed and the other is strange.

So there you go! My sewing adventures. Feel free to laugh at me.

Interrupting kitty, what are you doing? Silly kitty.

The very best of friends

Hello!

So the other day, there I was, just minding my own business when suddenly, a lot of cute just exploded.

These two decided to pay me a visit. Aren't they adorable? I think they're adorable.
The one on the left is a bunny, similar to the bunny featured here.

 

Except that this one is a girl! You can tell by the pretty flowers in her ears. 

Then next to her we have a panda, quite resembling this one here (although this one is a little better I think). 

Say hello pretty panda! She has flowery ears, too. 

 They're the very best of friends! Soon, they will be going off and hopefully making two little girls very happy!

Have a nice day!

Lazy Summer Sunday

Hello!

I had decided that today I would get up early, sew a bit, start to clear my computer's hard drive, do many intelligent and productive things. Then I woke up two hours later than I usually do.

So I slept in, had a good breakfast, browsed though this lovely piece of the Internet and went outside for a tiny little bit to do some archery. I came back in, kept reading through various blogs, and you know what?

Sometimes, that's all I need for a happy Sunday.

 I took a few colorful pictures instead of cleaning my room. I am almost as happy as my cat is right now.

Have a good week-end!

Of course I forgot

Hello!

I knew I wanted to tell you all something and now that there is one more hour left of today, I just remembered.

Today is Knit In Public Day. Was. Today was Knit In Public Day.

I didn't knit in public, because I didn't have time, although I do need to knit the second half of my pair of gloves. Yes, now that it's June, I'm making myself a pair of fingerless mitts. What is this logic you speak of? It seems I have none.

Happy Knit In Public Day! Gosh, I'm horrible at remembering this kind of thing, aren't I?

Well, see you next time in an episode of Blue Cat-forgets-stuff!