A Cushion, A Needlebook, A T-shirt and a Dress All Walk Into a Bar...

OK I actually have some Finished Projects for once!

Two days ago I got impatient and gave my friends their Christmas presents. Partly because I couldn't contain my excitement about the Pingu cushion, and partly because I was excited to get mine as well, since I knew what at least one of them was going to be.

So first: 

 

Noot noot, motherfucker!

And for his girlfriend, the Twilight-lover:

and

 

 

The Pingu pillow was made by reversing a picture I had found on the net AGES ago and printing it into transfer paper, which I then ironed onto some white fabric. A cushion is damn easy to make, so I won't bother going into it here unless requested, but the hard part was finding some good fabric. It's for a guy so I didn't want flowers or anything, and it was pretty much impossible to find some cool printed fabric that didn't have flowers or baby stuff all over it. I settled on khaki sharks because, I mean, khaki sharks, yo.

Then I discovered that I had made the cover a bit big for the pillow form I had (I always make things too big, out of fear it'll be too small if I follow my measurements) so I whacked a Coraline button on the back and made a button loop out of embroidery thread. It looks pretty wicked.

The top is a plain grey tee I bought at Kmart. I whacked a Quileute High Protectors badge on some transfer paper (reversed, of course) and ironed it into it. I also put a qr code on the back left as a tag:

 

I don't know if she's noticed it yet but it's going to be cool when she does, especially if she recognises it and checks it out without asking me :D

I also finally managed to finish the dress I've been making in sewing class, which finished last week by the way. It felt like it took forever, but that was because a) it takes an era to cut material, and b) I made a calico version first, to make sure it fit. Which it didn't. But I made it anyway. 

The lining made up for some of the bigness, but I ended up having to take the dress in anyway, by about 4 inches. I didn't bother cutting the excess away though, because my weight goes up and down like Oprah's and it's possible I'll need some more of that fabric in a few months time.

In any case it looks totally adorable, but since I finished it yesterday when no one was at home, I couldn't take a photo of it, so I'm going to wear it to a party today and get Mum to take a photo of me that I'll then post next time. I've given up asking The Man to take photos - he removes heads and limbs and has people off-centre and then insists that there's nothing wrong with the photo. Hmph. Men.

Anyway I still have plenty of stuff to make, including a car organiser for my best friend, a gardening apron for my Mum, a jacket for my brother and a wine-carrier for The Man's folks. So I'll be posting a bit more later on this week.

Ta-ra!

Plans, Plans, and Lack of Effort

Lack of Effort really does seem to feature a lot in my blogging, doesn't it? I'm such a lazy bitch, but I guess that's just me.

In an effort to make an effort, I've found a new sewing blog with a Dresden Pillow plan that I would like to attempt. I love quilting, but I'm not the type to use quilts or blankets with that scrappy-sort-of design on them (the doona cover does me fine) so a floor pillow sounds like a good idea, and it looks simple enough for me to do.

I've also signed myself up (slightly late) for my first craft swap on Cut Out And Keep, a sewing/craft website that I've been a member of for ages. The plan is to swap an office-envelope of small things with someone from another country. I like the idea of getting in contact with someone from the other side of the world (maybe get another penpal and exchange REAL letters instead of just emails and facebook) and maybe if I get something crafty and small that I haven't seen already it'll inspire a new work from me. Fingers crossed I get to join in because I was a day or so too late for the sign-ups but there's always someone who pulls out or turns up late like me so I'll hopefully get partnered up with someone anyway.

In the meantime, I've been avoiding my latest essay by finally working on the chest of drawers I found halfway up Mount Keira during Council Clean-up Week. When I found it it was all shitty with glossy-cream paint all over it and looked like it'd had a hard life. Nice though, and real wood too instead of that chipboard crap. I've stripped most of the gloss from it, back to the original matte white (with some bare patches in places) and then, once I get a chance, I'll paint it with the light-blue paint I got for $4 from Bunnings, wipe a lot of that off so it's all faded, then a few more coats of matte white over the top which I'll then sand back so it's distressed looking.

w00t. I can haz planz. Still no money though.