Leather courage

About 2 years ago I decided to buy some leather at the ren faire in order to make a bodice. I see the leather ones they have selling for at least $175! Each piece of leather costs about $20 so I figure for about $40 I can make myself one right?





Then again once I cut the leather there is no going back. So there it sat for about 2 years before I got up the courage to pick up the scissors and just do it. I realized that the size of the piece I had could easily use the one piece for the bodice and just cut it to fit. 

I have the excess strips draped across since I've been thinking about adding the straps to really make it a bodice. To the left is a picture of the back. I have since made slits in the back and on the sides so that the leather will lay over my hips. I'm hoping to make it small enough so there is no need for extra support.

I just punched holes to have it line up although I still may need to make it a bit smaller in the middle. I want to be able to pull it together and not quite have it close. I initially was looking for about a half inch gap between the two sides meeting in the front. 

Crocheting madness!

I've finished the strips of the checkered baby blanket and have sewn them together(pics to come). The next step is to put a border on it, but first I plan to wash it and try to let it dry in a reasonable shape. Not sure if this is the best idea but I'm hoping it would make it more even.

Since that's almost done and I'm no good at finishing one project before starting another one I got more yarn to start the spiral blanket again. This time in purple (caron simply soft grape 9610) and blue(caron simply soft blue mint 9608). 

I think I'm getting it right this time because it hasn't started curling up.  My next step is to find baby yarn that isn't baby colored. I have many more pictures on my camera however they are trapped since I managed to misplace my cable to pull the pictures out.


I haven't done much sewing lately, darn end of the semester got into the way and crocheting is much more portable.

I need to start  working on my outfit for the ren faire which is coming up the end of January beginning of February. I also would like to make a doublet and pants to force my wonderful boyfriend into. Dress-up is so much more fun when you have more 'dolls' to dress :)

Baby blankets

I finished the spiral baby blanket. After I finished with the final skein of yarn I realized why it folds over so much. I misread the pattern and instead of adding 26 extra stitches to each row I was adding 52! So instead of having the frilly border the pattern called for I just decided that I was doing a simple border and leaving it at that. I figure I'll try again but next time increasing much slower...

However I did decide I wanted to start this other checkered pattern. I used Caron's Simply soft  yarn in Orchid(9717) and Off White. It calls for 2 skeins of the main color and 1 of the 'white', however since I'm using a slightly larger hook I think I will most likely go through 3-4 6oz skeins of the main color(Orchid) and at most just over 1 of the off white.
This blanket has gone very fast. I started it just over a week ago I think. Although I did quite a bit over the holiday break.

The left picture has a pencil in the middle for size comparison. These are three of the 5 strips needed to make the blanket. They are all the same. Starting with 10 rows of checkerboard pattern

The next two rows will alternate with these and start with 10 solid rows. 6 oz of the orchid got me through almost 2 of these rows but since the next 2 rows will include more solid blocks then checkered so I expect to use more yarn. I currently have about 3-4 oz of orchid left and I most likely will use at least 3 per row.

Since it's close to the end of the semester I expect work on this to slow down (Or at least I hope so since I have so much work to do!) But even still this is an addictive pattern so I expect it to be done in the next 2-3 weeks :)

Quatro Queso Dos Fritos

So after watching an episode of psych I decided that I have to try and make these wonderful sounding fries.  So here goes my recipe









Ingredients:
Bite size potatoes(at least 12)
5-8 oz shredded 4 cheese mixture(I used mexican cheese mixture)
black pepper
salt
1/3t cayenne pepper
1/2 t garlic powder
2 T olive oil
oil for frying
1/2 cup milk
2t butter
1/2t old bay
4T corn starch
~1/2 cup flour
sour cream
hot chili oil
chives(dried or fresh)

useful utensils:
chopstick
coreing peeling thingy
slotted spoon


boil as many potatos as fries you want (my batch was about 12) Since they're small they don't take long to boil.
As it boils take a small about of the butter and melt it in the microwave in a small bowl. once the butter cools a bit mix in about 1/8-1/4 cup of the shredded cheese then let sit
Let cool till you can handle them.



Use a sharp knife to slice off the very top of each potato, just enough that it can stand flat
use a chopstick or small corer to scoop out the middle of each potato saving the middles.

Take your shredded cheese and mix it with the black pepper. Then stuff it using the chopstick into the hole of each potato being careful to not puncture the skin. After stuffing cup the potato and use the fat end of your chopstick to compact it and add more cheese if necessary.




Take the butter and cheese mixture which should now be the consistency of putty and place it in the top of each potato so that the hole is filled and you have a convex shape back.

Next take the excess potato and mix it with the 1/2T milk, old bay and 1 1/2 T corn starch.
divide the potato mixture into as many balls as potatoes.
cover each stuffed potato with the mixture making sure to cover the open end with the cheese even if the whole potato doesn't get covered.





Place the now potato covered potatoes on a sheet so they are not touching and put into the freezer for at least half and hour.
Heat up oil so a drop of water sizzles right away but doesn't pop.(most likely about 375)
fry the potatoes about 3 at a time for 30-50 seconds (potato should be a light golden brown) scoop them onto a paper towel.

Next mix some flour, milk, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper. Then mix in corn starch. Alternately add flour and oil till you get a thick batter and enough of it to coat the potatoes.

Re-heat the oil to about 350

Once the oil is heated dunk each potato in the batter covering it completely and then lowering it into the hot oil again only frying 3 at a time. Fry for about 45 sec-1 min. Then place on paper towel. 

Mix together sour cream and some hot chili oil and top with chives.









Serve while still hot and enjoy :)

I had some extra potato left over the first time I made it so I decided to make these tiny ones the next day:

Final Product!

 I will cover the production steps I'm skipping in later posts but for now I would like to show the final product!

Ignore the background apparently crafting last minute creates the same mess as a tornado....

 The corset came out great! I'm glad it stayed on. It took 3 people to get me into it. One holding it shut at the top one pulling the laces and one tightening as they went down!

At the party! Granted I only stayed a little while since I was so tired from the day but at least I got some pictures!

deadlines

So somehow real life got in the way of my crafting. So alas this is my first post without pictures!

Quick status update:

• Corset
• needs holes for ties
• needs the bottom hand sewn
• Skirt
• needs to be cut
• needs to be sewn
• needs to be dyed(again)
• Scarf
• needs coins sewn onto it
• Still not quite sure where these coins are coming from
• Hair
• needs to be cut
• needs to be slightly curled
• Underskirt
• again needs to be cut
• needs to sew on the bottom white section
• I'm thinking just a ruffle for now
• Accessories
• Need to get the fabric for the headband
• need to fuse together anklet somehow

Also need to track the hair for the remainder of my friend's wig.
All before Halloween with a midterm and research to do!
Since it is Tue I'm still optimistic :)

got to enjoy playing with caulk

I promised a friend of mine that I would help her with her halloween costume. She is going as Turanga Leela from futurama.

So she got her wig this past week and today we tried to put it up in a high ponytail using these lovely directions.

We started with a long wig and chopped it off

We started with a small pony tail in the middle then gradually built it up.

The stub in the middle is a bit thick but I don't think it matters. She has a blackish gray hair tie that should hide a good portion of the caulk base.

You can see the bangs are clipped out of the way and the two on the side are the front parts that will eventually go back.
There is quite a bit of caulk and hairspray in that wig.




It took quite a while to get the last layer up because I was working piece by piece with the caulk, hair spray and hair dryer to get things to point in the proper direction.

So the entire back is up but waiting for the caulk to dry a bit before trying to put up the last front section, then I can make tracks for the actual ponytail that we'll attach to that stub. I want to shave off the stub a bit but no clue how to go about doing that.

A bit of a cinch

Instead of dying the fabric for my corset I decided to just buy duck cloth that I found at a Joann Farbic store about 45 min away from me. Since I had already bought the white duck cloth I decided to use it as stiffening instead of buying interfacing and spending more money.
I cut out 4 of each pattern piece from the pattern I had altered and made out of muslin.

I cut the white close to the size of the pattern and cut the blue slightly larger.

To put it together I used double fold extra wide bias tape in canary.

I decided to sew each piece together by sewing it to the bias tape then afterward I sewed the fabric together making a case of yellow at each join in the pattern

As you can see in this picture I managed to sew the last two pattern pieces upsidedown.
I realized this before sewing the front to the back so I had to take out all the stitching for the once casing and switching it around. Next time I must make sure I label my pattern pieces better.

You can see that the yellow looks like a part of the corset!

I sewed the front to the back. I thought it would be a great idea to use my serger to do this since I used it to make the casings with the yellow, however I now realize it won't sew through 6 layers of duck cloth on top of 2 layers of fabric.. I found this out when my needle broke. Tomorrow I look to see if I have extra needles.

After sewing across the top sides and the bottom of the first section and turned it inside out, Then I took the boning and sewed a bit across the top of the white boning case and slid it all the way into the yellow case. I cut each with about 1/2in for the hem.


Next I must add either snaps or some other way to close it and hand sew the bottom .