Bleach stenciling: it actually works!

Sorry I have not posted for a few weeks. But today/tonight I have a special post!

Recently I discovered the joy of bleach stenciling and have finally figured out my own technique!

My brother is, as all unique individuals, extremely difficult when it comes to making him a present for Christmas. However! He has an obsession with Kurt Vonnegut. So I bring your attention toooooo:
And that's just the close up of the image! When I took the stencil off of the shirt and checked out the bleach, I was amazed. Simply amazed. The mustache, the glasses frames...it came out perfect!

My brother had mentioned yesterday during dinner that he really wanted a Kurt Vonnegut shirt. My fiance nudged me repeatedly under the table. He wore the shirt today. I am pleased. And want to make more stencils now.

Han Solo Belt: research & materials

I finally borrowed someone's camera, and so it's here! The first Han Solo Belt entry, as promised!

As I think I mentioned before, Alex is helping me with this project. More than just a little, it's pretty much a joint project at this point.

The first step in the process was research. I stared at photos of Han Solo Belts for hours before I even called Alex up. He sat with me while I fast-forwarded through A New Hope, trying to get screenshots of Han facing away, so we could see the back of the belt. Yeah, it was pretty intense.

I finally found a few informative source photos that I decided to go with.

This is one of my favorites.

The strength of this photo is that you get to see the whole layout of the main belt section, and it's continuous. It's a replica, but I'm finding more and more that the replicas out there are very trustworthy. As it turns out, most crafters are as obsessed with accuracy as I am!

I also have some photos of the actual prop from the films:



I found these at the amazing Original Prop Blog, which is a phenomenal resource that I've barely begun to use yet. There's so much material to read, and I have so little time!

Okay so down to the materials. Alex had me drive way out to the leather-working shop where he gets all his supplies. It's called Russell Farms (it would appear they don't have a website). The hilarious thing about this place is that they're a farm. They process people's deer meat. They sell leather and leather-working supplies, but their usual clientele is hunters. Alex loves this place. But he is not their usual clientele. Observe:

You would be forgiven for thinking he only dresses this way SOME of the time. But you would also be wrong.

So, with the help of the very friendly lady who works there, we were able to buy the leather we need for the belt.

A strap for the main belt, a large piece of scrap leather for the holster, and some medium-brown leather dye.

Here is the scrap leather, with my foot for size reference.

There was some controversy as to whether the holster is one piece or two. If it's one continuous piece, this scrap leather - despite being the largest piece they had - wouldn't be big enough. But, Val brought a few photos of various replicas to my attention. Here's a good one:

(projecthro.com)

See the rivets across the top of the part where the blaster sits? It's a separate piece of leather. It's still large, though, so it's going to be a squeeze. I think we need to go back and get another piece of scrap for the pockets on the main belt, so that this large piece can be used entirely for the holster.

So, there you have it! Of course, all of my crafting is on hold over the holiday. I don't anticipate having anything new for you next week. I'll be far too busy this weekend catching up with family, and spending every spare moment getting my January applications together and ready to submit.

Everyone have a lovely holiday, and we'll be back late next week!

British Scarves

Ok, so my thinly veiled hint earlier turned out to be a boldfaced lie. I need to find a decent camera and/or a person to take photos before I can do my Shman Shmolo Shmelt entry. Luckily, I have some other crafting news to hold you over until then!

I have two projects coming up that have 2 things in common: they're both scarves, and they're both about series' that were started in England. I guess the British just know what they're doing when it comes to sci fi/fantasy knitting projects.

I'm speaking, of course, about Harry Potter and Doctor Who.

Really my Harry Potter announcement is more of a quick note. I'm going to get the ol' crimson-and-yellow yarn out again and try to fill the shop with the ever popular Harry Potter scarves. What I would like to know from you is, what do you want to see? Which house colors do you prefer? Are there other knitted items you'd like to have in the house colors? Perhaps some Slytherin Socks?

I have to say, I absolutely love Gini's hats. I love that the colors are quieter than my scarves. It's like her hats are for the more reserved HP fan, whereas my scarves are more the shout-it-from-rooftops variety.


So, leave a comment on this entry and tell us what HP gear you'd like us to make for you!

In other iconic-scarves-inspired-by-British-fiction news, I recently happened upon a couple of wonderful websites dedicated to the accurate recreation of the Doctor Who scarf, worn by Tom Baker.

As it turns out, there are a few different versions of the scarf (essentially one for each season of the show when Tom Baker was on), and various patterns floating around the internet for each one. The lovely ladies at the websites I found have done some phenomenal research and provide resources for making your own Doctor Who scarf, including color matching for selecting good yarns, several patterns, and tutorials to help with the knitting techniques used in the patterns.

I'm going to keep digging, familiarize myself with the patterns, and then go on the epic search for yarn. I hope to make myself a Doctor Who scarf, so I can wear it to conventions and post it as a commissionable item in the Etsy shop. This is no small project, it should take some time. But It's exciting because knitting is a craft I'm already familiar with, so I feel I can tackle something of this scale with confidence.

Guys, this scarf is enormous. This is going to be awesome. I'll definitely keep you updated on the progress of this project.

In the meantime, check out those websites, and as long as I've got you commenting on this entry, vote on your favorite scarf. Which season do you like best? I haven't picked which one I'm going to knit yet.

In The Meantime

Hi guys! I've got a few great entries lined up for you, but first I just wanted to call your attention to an amazing giveaway on one of my favorite blogs, Daddy Likey.

I mentioned Winona in an entry a while back, and I just want to re-iterate how awesome this woman is. She's hilarious, her blog is fantastically fun, informative and down-to-earth, and of course she's putting on this ridiculously awesome giveaway to promote her new book.

If you're a sneaky, clever reader, you'll realize that one of the ways to get an extra entry into the drawing is to blog about it. So yes, I am totally pimping out NT for a hot minute here. But I promise you, I have wonderful news later today pertaining to an exciting craft that may rhyme with Shman Shmolo Shmelt...

Stay tuned for that. But in the meantime, head over to Daddy Likey to check out the giveaway!

Bento Boxes

I haven't had much time lately for official crafting, but I did take a minute this weekend to treat myself to a hobby I haven't indulged in in a while: making bento boxes.

Brandon was in town for the weekend, and I like to pack him a lunch for Monday at work when he's in town. I decided to throw together some traditional bento recipes, with a bit of a twist.

You may remember my spicy carrot salad recipe from back at my old craft blog (the imported entry is here.) It's one of my favorite bento staples. It's very salty and spicy, so it adds a bit of zing to a mostly-white-rice bento.

I was out of sesame seeds this time, so I didn't add any. But it was still yummy.

Then I tried a couple new things. Firstly, I have some homemade cole slaw in the house, which is new. Brandon showed me how to make it, it's way easier than I thought. In any case, I usually use yogurt as a creamy balance to all the salty soy sauce-based dressings I make. But I found this time that cole slaw works wonderfully!

Lastly, I wanted something with a bit of tang. Brandon doesn't like plain hard boiled eggs, so I knew I had to marinate them in something, so I used red wine vinegar. It gave the egg a lovely pink color, which contrasted beautifully with the yolk once the egg was cracked open. However, I don't think I marinated them long enough. Lessons for next time.

Here is the completed bento!

So, there's green peas for nutrition and color. And that's rice seasoning on the rice for flavor and color. And some chocolate gold coins for Channukah in the corner.

It turned out really well. I loved the balance of colors and flavors. I just need to do it again, fix my mistakes from this time, and make it PRETTY! I'll post a photo when I have a more professional version of this bento.

Back to crafting soon, I promise!

Jayne Cobb Hat

I made this hat that looks like the one Jayne Cobb received from his mother in the show Firefly. It was for Kittie for her birthday last January, but I only just finished it today.

It is knit with Lion Brand Vanna's Choice yarn and size 10.5 needles.

Apologies

Hey guys! I know it's been a while. It's been busy around here with the holidays and preparing for Gini to move in, and honestly I haven't gotten ANY crafting done for a while.

I just wanted to pop in and let you know that we're not dead, we will have new projects for you soon, and also, Happy Channukah!

Bundle up, it's cold out there! We'll be back in a bit with more geeky crafts. ^_^

Harry Potter hats

Hello! I haven't been blogging or crafting for awhile, due to school. But I just made these cool beanies in Harry Potter house colours, and I'm itching to show them off.


Here is William modeling the Slytherin Hat:


And me looking smart in the Ravenclaw hat:


Here are the hats themselves:


Gryffindor and Hufflepuff coming soon!

Second scale skirt!

So after seeing the first skirt I made another friend decided to commission one for herself.
I finished it a while ago, and finally gave it to her last night.

Back view:


A closeup:


A closeup of the choker:



The skirt is made from large aluminum-clad steel scales, with black steel for the trim. There were a few stylist changes, in order to differentiate it from the other skirt; smaller and more frequent petals, no belt, different metals, etc.
There are about 1500 scales total in the skirt. It's all held together with butted rings.
The choker was made from scales I had leftover when I finished the skirt, and was sort of a surprise gift. She had mentioned that she liked the idea of a scale choker, and it seemed appropriate.

Valerie: Zelda Quilt!

Alright, big news (for me) today!

I've been working on this project since our NimbleToad business meeting a few weeks ago, and I learned a ton along the way. One of the things that we focused on was finding something geeky that we're passionate about and creating related merchandise.

So, this is my first geek-inspired project.

The Legend of Zelda was my first video game love, and nothing has ever quite come close. I watched my (much older) brothers play the original game when I was young, and Ocarina of Time was the first game that I ever beat on my own, and one of the only games that I've played through more than once. Since then I've played almost the entire series and it still never gets old.

The wheels started turning, and I looked over my huge bookmarked list of 'I'll try these eventually' projects and came across this one: Modern Organic Fabrics: 3-2-1 Throw. The design was simple enough that I thought it wouldn't be too hard to spice it up with applique.

I'm going to be brave and show you my rough Paint brainstorm:



















I made the basic design and then spent a long time browsing Google and zeldawiki.org for items from the games to use, copying and pasting and changing the background colors. I originally thought that I would use items from Ocarina of Time, but I wanted to open up and use items that appeared in more games. Then I dug through my fabric stash to find out what colors and fabrics I actually had, and things changed just a little bit. I settled on three Triforce pieces, a heart container, a bottle, and the magic sword (from the original game, but it's a good representation of the Master Sword).

I drew the shapes by hand and then taught myself hand-applique to attach them to the blocks. I found hand-applique (using the needleturn method, good tutorial here and here) to be really relaxing, and I loved the near-invisible results.

So ... without further ado the finished result:



The back is a cheery yellow.



And the quilt is perfectly lap sized!



(Excuse the poor picture quality, it was dreary today!)

It took me probably 20 - 30 hours of work, but it should go much faster next time because I thought ahead and made stencils of the appliqued pieces, so I don't have to start from scratch n_n I'm so pleased with how it came out, and there are definitely many more in the future!

Edit: Now up for sale in the Etsy shop!