Codex Costume Done!... (last October)

Though I have not had much time at all to blog, I have made some progress on a few projects while I was working on my first year in the PhD program. Oh, and I'm officially a 2nd year student! Huzzah!

I'm most excited about getting the Codex costume done, especially since it is my first 'true' corset project. I want to do a tutorial-esque post, so I'll go over each of the parts and how I made them.

The Cuffs:

The cuffs were the first and easiest parts to make. To make these, I just made a template out of paper by wrapping it around my forearm and cutting the paper into the desired shape. I then used the template to make the cuffs out of craft foam, added a layer of sheer white fabric, and trimmed in gold bias tape. I then added the grommets, which was greatly helped by using the handy-dandy tool below:

I found this tool at Walmart -- the only place I found that sold bronze grommets instead of brassy-gold ones. (I am not a habitual shopper of Walmart, only when there are no other options.) This was the first part of the costume that I completed, and I love them!

The Skirt: 

The skirt was the second-easiest part to make, if you know what you are doing. The first time I tried, I obviously did not have a clue! My first attempt at the skirt involved trying to make a tube for a draw string using a circle skirt pattern. Um, yeah -- that didn't work out so well. I managed sew the tube onto the skirt with the wrong side facing out, and then had issues figuring out how to make the drawstring work -- it was a mess!

Anyways, I finally broke down and followed this tutorial. I used a solid white satin fabric with a sheer white overlay. 

Once the fabric was cut, all that needed to be done is to make an appropriate-sized elastic waistband, and sew the skirt layers to the waistband. Finishing was a little harder since I had to learn to use a hemmer foot, but I think it ended up looking pretty good for my first time. 

The Necklace: 

The necklace was completely made of craft foam and flat-backed rhinestones. I painted the craft foam using gold model spray paint I bought from Michael's (like, the kind for painting plastic models). The best tutorial to explain how to paint craft foam can be found here. Essentially, I had to add a layer of watered-down glue to the craft foam pieces before spraying them with the model spray paint. Once they were dry, I just glued them together with superglue and added the rhinestones. Though this worked for the Halloween, I will probably add some kind of tie in the back since the necklace came off when I was taking my friend's daughter out to go trick-or-treating. 

The Headband: 

I really got lucky and found some awesome headbands that would work perfect for this outfit at Walmart (yes, again, I know, but they were the only place that carried them! I swear!). Essentially, I only had to spray the plastic headband with the same gold spray paint as the necklace and add flat-backed rhinestones to finish the headpiece. This is definitely my favorite part of this costume.. I wonder if I could wear this to school and not look completely insane?

The Knee Pads: 

The knee pads ended up being much less work than I thought they would be. The first time I tried making them, I made them much smaller than I should have. Knowing this, the second time around ended up much better. For the front part, I used red corduroy and some metallic fabric from Joann's, sewing the gold part on the bottom, and then making a duplicate shaped fabric piece for the back using some scrap fabric. Then I made some red corduroy elastic casings at about twice then length of the elastic pieces. Then I just sandwiched the right side of the front and the right side of the back together, and placed the elastic pieces and casing in between these two layers such that the seam on the casing would be against the right side of the back fabric. I just sewed a half-circle around, and had planned to finish the top by slip-stitching the fabric together, but I ran out of time by that point. Just another thing to work on before next year, I suppose!

The Top: 

Oh, the top was sort of a nightmare, but ended up looking pretty good. I took an old white tank top for the base of the shirt, cut some of the satin fabric I used for the skirt to cover the chest, and overlaid that with the sheer white fabric from the skirt like so: 

I sewed around that, placed it so gingerly on the tank top, and cut out the parts that were not needed from the tank top. For the shoulder pads, I used craft foam cut into triangles and sewed onto the tank top:

After these pieces were sewn on to the tank top, I trimmed the whole thing (very, very poorly) in gold trim, and added red jewels for finishing. Voila: 

Not terrible, but much improvement is needed; Such as properly sewing on the gold bias tape as demonstrated here. But, all in all, I got to be codex for Halloween, so I'm happy: 

Kayla

So lately I have mostly been working on really simple, easy projects (aka. lots of stockinette stitch). I initially started going for simple projects because, at the time, I was working two jobs, and did not want my down time to be too complicated (interesting) since I needed to concentrate on my jobs. Well, now I'm essentially jobless until I can start my PhD program, so I'm trying (between fixing up stuff in the house) to get a few things done. I did manage to get another Sunflowers Cami done, though I need to block it and get some pics up. I also did get this lovely baby set done for my good friend, Heidi, who had her little baby girl, Kayla, earlier this week!

Also, last night, I was able to get another little gift done for Kayla. I started out the evening with only about half of the dress done, but I was determined to finish it since today I will be visiting them, and since my PhD program starts on Monday, God only knows when I'll be able to visit again soon. Also, I made it for a newborn, so time was of the essence. I started out the evening with this much done:

And finished it up this morning!:

How freakin' cute is this? And it only took one skein to make!

New home updates!

So, it has been a few weeks since we moved in. The first thing I did was to transform my office from child's room to grey retreat: (this process took much longer than the pictures would imply)

 

 

New name, new home...

So, I've decided to re-name my blog to be somewhat more accurate, and much less pretentious. Welcome, now, to Homemade Zen, my blog about knitting, crocheting, organizing, and getting things done. My goal all along has been to cut back on my crafting clutter, and finish up old projects to make way for new ones, which has only been well, marginally successful so far. I definitely have more projects in the works, but getting the old ones done, well, not so much...

Lately, I've been spending a lot of time organizing in an attempt to get ready for our impending move to Athens. I was (miraculously) accepted to the PhD program at UGA in Anthropology, so David and I are packing up and moving down there in the next couple months. We are actually buying a house (a first for us), which is exciting and stressful, all at the same time. I have managed to clean out my makeup bag (and then buy new makeup!), and will be working on getting my nail polishes cleaned up, packing up stuff for storage, and e-baying stuff that just needs to go before we move out.. lots to do!

I will probably be cutting back some more after messing around with some of the makeup, a lot was old and just didn't work for me anymore. It's just the beginning of my organizing streak!

2012 Wrap-Up

I can't believe it's February already! I have not had a lot of time for blogging (or much else) since August last year because I managed to land a teaching gig at GSU! So, between two jobs, needless to say there isn't much time for anything else. I was able to finish up a few more projects before the end of the year.

 Hattie and Tigerlillies were the last two big projects I was able to get done before the end of the year: Both are designs by Heather Dixon, and I really like both of the finished pieces. I'm even thinking of wearing Hattie to on my birthday, depending on the weather:

After these were done, I was able to finish up two (very easy) baby blankets, my yoga mat bag, one hat (which I forgot to take a picture of), and two sets of fingerless mittens. So, in total, I was able to finish:

1 dress
1 shrug
1 camisole
2 shawls
2 stockings
2 pillows
2 scarves
3 sweaters
3 blankets
4 mittens
13 hats

There was one project I didn't list on here yet, mostly because it isn't really finished until I can get it properly decorated -- probably with some shisha embroidery. This would be the belly dance costumes that I made for myself and my belly dance partner, Stephanie. They are black and pink, and really cute, just not completely done yet.

I'm really happy with what I finished last year, though I'm thinking this year I will not have as much time to dedicate to crafting -- We'll see though!

Wash's Sweater

Though I had planned to finish this sweater before our second anniversary, I was at least able to finish it, well, about a month late. Either way, my hubby seemed to like it -- though he'll probably like it a lot more when it's not 95 degrees outside!

I used Lion Brand Fisherman's wool in Oak Tweed - actually a color that David had picked out several years ago for something or another. I had taught him to crochet, though he's lost interest in it the past few years. If you know anything about David (and his family), you would know that they really, really enjoy their entertainment - TV shows, movies, etc. He's always been a fan of Firefly, so, when I came across the Wash's Sweater pattern by Don Yarman on Ravelry, I knew exactly what to do with that ball of yarn!

And here is a picture of the finished product, being modeled in the nice warm weather, outside, by my lovely husband. I love how it turned out, and I'm sure that come winter time, David's brother Alan - also a huge fan of the show - will be quite jealous!

Hats, hats, hats...

So, I have gotten a little busy the past few months. Apparently knitting much more than I am blogging! Anyways, I have a lot more FO's to show off now. I've finished a lot of hats over the past few months -- hats are a lot of fun to do! They can be as complicated or a simple as you like, they generally knit up pretty quickly, and since they take so little yarn, they are easy projects to carry around with you! Needless to say, I love knitting hats. Here are a few pictures of the past few I've managed to finish:

I made this hat for my friend, Lee, using Lion Brand Wool-ease in Forest Green Heather. The pattern is Irish Hiking by Jo Blackhorse. In retrospect, I should have done one more repeat of the cables -- Lee is a rather tall guy, and even makes David look kinda small in comparison, so the hat is probably just a little too small. Though he would not admit it when I gave it to him!

I made this for Katherine in her favorite color - orange! She really liked it, and I enjoyed the pattern - Hermione's Cable and Eyelet Hat by Jackie Lauseng. The yarn on the other hand, not so much. I used Caron Vicki Howell Sheep(ish) in Pumpkin(ish) and it was very splitty. I usually do not mind splitty yarns, but this one was really hard to work with.

I finally got around to making a hat I had promised Heidi - a simple ribbed beanie for the fall. I still have some leftover yarn from this project that will probably turn into some fingerless gloves for her!

This one I made just to use up some of the old Lion Brand Thick and Quick still lingering in my stash. The pattern is Chunky Slouch Cap by Melissa Hills, and it was fun to make. I alternated two colors after the ribbing - Grey and Cream -- which I think makes a pretty interesting effect. It came out a little small, and will probably be gifted during Christmas to someone - We'll see!