My Adventures in Crafting! Pt. 1

For those of you that don't know anything about my family, we have quite the gifted heritage when it comes to all things crafty. My grossmutter (great grandmother) could pretty much make anything under the sun, and better than any professional and continued to do so until maybe a few weeks before she passed at 101. We have knitters and crocheters and quilters and painters and photographers and sewers and everything you can imagine. I've always thought my artistic ability came from my sense of style - I like to think I'm fairly different in how I look (hair color, piercings, clothing, shoes, mixing and matching whatever just because I want to). But lately I'm trying to see if I have any legit craftiness in me. So here are the beginnings of my craftiness attempts.

First was really simple. I had a black bracelet which I liked, but didn't think was anything different. I didn't know what to do with it, so I added some ribbon on and sewed a button where the ribbon knotted. Still not sure if I want to make it into a bow or not. I probably could have entwined different ribbons through the bracelet instead also. But this was a nice, simple idea.

I have always love love loved the swallow/sparrow tattoo symbolism and I had purchased a necklace a few years back with a swallow on it. Unfortunately, now that necklace is a very hipster thing to have and I'm way to embarrassed to wear it. So I decided to remove the pendent and attach it to something else. First, I painted it using some metallic purple nail polish (warning - this took a long time to dry!). Then I decided on embellishing a plain green coat of mine, so I used the attachment holes and some other corners the sew the little birdie on. Voila! Excellent combination. However, I did find out later that this swallow was even cheaper than I thought and really couldn't stand the wear and tear of a coat; it broke in a few places. It's hard to see from a distance so I'm keeping it on and will try to fix, but it was a good lesson.

I also love H&M. They have a style of dress shirts that fits me wonderfully. So when I found that shirt in a shirt-dress style at Buffalo Exchange a few months back, I was stoked and bought it! The dress was definitely cute as is, but I wanted to see if I could spice it up a bit (and I still may add more even). So I decided that one simple thing to do would be to just add some lace at the bottom. I went to my local Joann Fabrics and purchased some lace and other goodies and used a machine washable material glue to secure the lace to the inside of the dress. I haven't figured out how to end the lace yet at the cuts, but I'm told there's a product called "No Fray" that I should invest in. Until then, it's basically done. Maybe a broach or patch on the chest area.

And finally, the coup de grace - my SantaCon costume. Every year we go on a pub crawl where everyone dresses as something holiday related - doesn't have to be Santa, just holiday related. My friends were reindeer, helpers, a pile of presents, an Xmas tree and things like that. I didn't want to go as the Leg Lamp, but instead as the box it was delivered in. So I went to Joann's, found a fabric that looked like particle board, some trim and a brown material marker. I originally was going to be boxy but when I put it up to my body, I decided it would just look so much better as a mini dress. So I grabbed one from my closet and tried to use it as a pattern. When, using a sewing machine for the first time since 6th grade, I sewed the two pieces together, I realized there was no way I was going to fit into it. So then I had to finagle some sort of side panel and sew that in. I had to hand stitch the last seam after several failed machine attempts and added buttons so I could get in and out. Then I used the brown marker to draw on the boards and a red sharpie to draw on FRAGILE.  Finally, I used that same fabric glue to add a silver lining at the bottom for sparkle. I knew I would be cold, so I made a really simple shrug out of the leftovers. I just took a long piece of material, folded it in half inside out, and sewed up sleeves from the ends leaving the middle open to cover my back. Then I wrote "This End Up" on the shrug. Things fit pretty well but I used buttons that were kinda too small and I wanted to safety pin to my bra just in case. Overall, I think I did damn good! Compliments all night! Can't wait to try again!!!!