Pink Cable Knit

 

I've been doing a lot of projects with time restraints and projects for people, and I decided to take a break from that and make something for fun!I made knit this hat from a pink yarn so bright it looks like it's glowing. It was super difficult to photograph and I apologize for the grainy photos. I made up the pattern as I went along, and although it isn't perfect, I can type up a version of the pattern if anyone wants to make this hat. Let me know if you're interested!Make sure to check out my facebook page if you haven't already! 

Cosplay at Bournemouth Film and Comic Convention

I wore two cosplays for Bournemouth Film and Comic Convention (BFCC), and wore the same dress for both characters.The first day of BFCC (Saturday) my friend Ruth cosplayed Panty from Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt, and I cosplayed Stocking.

I wore those platform shoes both days of BFCC, and both days the shoes broke. The sole of the shoe tore off of the main shoe part, and I had to glue it back on. I did find out that using liquid super glue would permanently hold the shoes together after trying shoe glue and a different super glue that was more of a gel. I think the glue I used will hold up much better than the original glue on the shoes, and I'll be wearing the same shoes to MCM in May.On Sunday, I wore my 'Kylolita' cosplay, a lolita version of Kylo Ren. I'm not sure who took the above photo, Kris is dressed as Marsolo (Marceline/Han Solo) and Nicole is dressed as Bubbleia (Princess Bubblegum/Princess Leia).I had minor issues with the mask and hood - my neck kept showing and it was difficult for other people to hear me through the mask. I think I can fix the first problem by making a stretchy black tube to put around my neck, but the other problem can really only be fixed by taking off the mask or yelling. You might recognize the hood I'm wearing as the scoodie I made back in March.I made the dress using a plain black cotton. It was super simple to make and only took about two days to hand sew the entire thing. The reason the dress was so easy to make is because the entire thing is rectangles and elastic. It took about 11 rectangles in total: two for the skirt, four for the ruffles, one for each sleeve, two for the bodice, and one for the bow on the back of the dress. I sewed elastic in the neckline, the hem of the sleeve, and the waist of the dress.I used herringbone stitch for the hem, but did not hem the ruffle, and instead cut it with pinking shears to keep them from fraying. The edges of the neckline and the sleeves are just folded around the elastic and stitched down. I was having some issues with the raw edge of the fabric flipping to the outside of the dress, but I discovered that the edge can just be tucked under the elastic and it will stay in place.Be sure to like my Facebook page to keep up to date on what I'm making!

All Grown Up Slouched Hat

I made this hat using the All Grown Up Striped Slouched Hat pattern. The pattern calls for the hat to be made using an aran yarn, but I used a double knit (a double knit is thinner than an aran). In order to be able to make the hat to fit my head, I only needed to change the length off the hat. I used a 5.5 mm (I) crochet hook and made the small adult size. I crocheted about 6 more rows in the stripe pattern than the pattern asked for.

The pattern was fairly easy to make, and I learned a new stitch as well as the best method (in my opinion) of making a brim. The pattern calls for the brim to be simultaneously made and attached to the hat, thus eliminating the hassle of sizing the brim to the hat and attaching it. I will definitely be using this brim method for all of my future crochet hats!

Devil or Angle?

Why yes, that is a Kylo Ren mask! I made this combination hood and scarf using this scoodie pattern. From my calculations, I thought the scoodie would take about two balls of yarn to make, but it ended up taking six.

Hats for Trade

Since my visa doesn't allow me to do freelance work and I've been making hats like it's what's keeping me alive, I've been trading hats with my friends for different things. I believe I've mentioned this before, when I talked about my Ugly Hat Trade with my friend Katie.

This hat was traded with my friend Luc for food. It was made using the Hella Gay Hat pattern, which I lengthened to make a beanie. I made the larger size, and it ended up being too big. I tried a new technique on this hat, double knitting, which causes the design to be knit on both sides of the piece at the same time, just in opposite colors. It was a little difficult to start out, but easy to pick up. This method takes a lot longer than just creating 'floats' in the back of the work, but the tension is much better. Since there is essentially two layers of work, this makes the hat warmer and squisher, which is nice, but since I only double knit a small portion of the hat, it ends up looking a bit odd when placed on the head.I am very happy with the pom pom.

Christmas Presents for Relatives

All of these scarves were made over the summer before I moved for some of my relatives.

This crocheted cowl has Abstract Crochet Cats and pom-poms! What's not to like? This design was fairly easy to make, and my mom convinced me to add the pom-poms as a fun addition. I discovered that to make the cats look more like cats, the stitches done 'in between the ears' should be done AROUND the stitch instead of through it. 

Hats!

That's right, it's an R2D2 hat! I made this to celebrate the new Star Wars movie, and used the Star Wars Droid Beanies pattern. I modified the hat a little bit by adding two extra rows, one where the hat is solid grey, and one at the bottom.Yes! Another Star Wars hat! This one is BB-8, a character from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I used a BB-8 Droid Hat Pattern, and modified the circles to be smaller, and looking at the robot in order to judge where to put them.

A New School Year

Sorry, it's been quite a while since I've last posted. Since then, I have moved to England and started my first year studying costume design and construction at a university level. I've been working very hard in class, and so kept forgetting to post. (oops!)During winter break, I went to Austria with my friend Ruth and stayed with her family. While in Austria, Ruth and I visited her photographer friend, Bildersanatorium, who was kind enough to take photographs of the many pieces I have made since September.This hat was the second thing I made after moving to England. It's a very simple earflap hat made from double crochet and single crochet, with braided tassels and a pom-pom.         This dress is made from a very nice stretch velvet I picked up from BSP Haberdashery. I felt it, and I just had to take it home with me. I made up the dress pattern as I went along, copying one of my tank tops for the bodice, and gathering two rectangles for the skirt. The dress is so simple that I was able to hand sew the entire dress in one night.        This is my friend Ruth in cosplay as Mavis from Hotel Transylvania. She is modeling a knit hat and a crocheted scarf. The hat is a super simple pattern, I just altered knit and purl stitches until it reached the length I wanted, and then decreased. The scarf is made from the basic tunisian crochet stitch, which ended up making the fabric very thick and warm, but also caused a strange drape. I started making the scarf in red, but switched to black when I ran out of red.          I made this hat for Ruth's dad for Christmas. It's a plain knit hat with a ribbed cuff.         This hat is made for Ruth's mom using the Kitkat Hat Pattern. The pattern was super easy to make, and I love the result!          This is my favorite hat. It was my first time working with cables in a pattern and I love it so much! I used the Traveling Cable Hat Pattern and I found the instructions very easy to follow, although I did get confused while I was making the ribbing and messed up a bit. If you want to see in progress pictures of my hat, please click this link.          This dress is actually a project from spring of last year. It's made from the same pattern as the French Fry Dress out of a soft woven plaid fabric. I did not match the plaid because it is a very small print, and I lined the bodice with the same fabric used in the rest of the dress.I am planning on posting more often this year, and hopefully I'll stick to that promise! 

Rainbows and Scarves and Hats (Oh my!)

I've made a lot of stuff in the past few months, so I'm going to try and separate it all into manageable posts.In February, I was comissioned to make a rainbow scarf for my friend Marzena.I accidentally crocheted the scarf a few feet longer than I had meant to, mostly due to the chain stitch stretching.It's pretty simple, made only with double crochet, each color being three rows wide. This was probably one of the biggest projects I've crocheted.Then, one of my other friends asked me to make a rainbow cowl.The first one I made in February, (pictured above) but it was too small, so I made another one that was longer in March.I forgot to take pictures of the second one, however. My apologies!More recently, (last week!), my friend Claire, who also knits, asked me to knit a hat!Claire outlined a pattern for me verbally, saying I should start the hat with 54 stitches, and then decrease by six once it was the desired length.I forgot Claire's instructions, and instead started the hat with 64 stitches, on needles that were two sizes too big.Luckily, I knit extremely tightly, so the hat fit just fine!That just about sums up all the rainbow stuff I've made since February. Look out for more posts containing more recent makes!

February and March

FebruaryThis dc slouchy hat is worked in three colors of yarn, the majority in grey and black held together, with yellow as the brim. The waves on the edge were made using sc, hdc, and dc.This is another simple dc slouchy hat, but this time it has a detail in sc around the edge, as well as a pom pom at the top.This hat is made from one of my own patterns which is available for free on Ravelry.MarchSadly, this is the only picture I have of this slouchy hat. It is very simple, worked only in double crochet with four colors of acrylic yarn.This octopus was something I worked up quickly during class at school using this pattern. I believe I  gave him away to one of my friends in Japanese class. I have made a lot more things since then (as well as a few more during those two months), so look out for some more posts in the near future!

Uchi-Con

Hello!Sorry for the lack of posts, I've had a lot to work on! I just finished my portfolio for costume design, which can be viewed right here or by clicking on the link labeled 'portfolio' at the top of the page. Some of the garments are unblogged, but I hope I can put some information about them up eventually.In addition to creating this portfolio, I have been preparing for Uchi-Con, which I went to yesterday. According to ravelry, I have spent about two weeks furiously crocheting hats for this convention.I shared a table with the Mangaka club from our school. They took up most of the table and sold buttons, prints, and commissions. I sold the hats that I had made over the past couple weeks, and I worked on crocheting more items while sitting behind the table.I completed a total of five hats before the convention, and then I completed another hat at the beginning of the convention, making for a total of six hats up for sale. All of the hats were patterns that I free-handed, meaning I didn't use a pattern and just made to fit my head. Three hats were pokéballs, one had cat ears, one had earflaps and bear ears, and the last one had a brim and a pom-pom at the top.Our table was pretty busy, and we often had big groups of people around our table. Many people stopped by to complement my work and to buy buttons.

I had a couple chances to walk around Uchi-Con during the day, and since this convention was kind of small, I was able to stop by every booth (there were about fifteen). I ended up buying a super cute cake charm from Dreaming Wings and a soft pastel barrette from Colour My World Creations. It was really hard to chose!Overall, Uchi-Con was really fun and I loved seeing all of the cosplays and the work that the tables had on display. I would definitely suggest going next year!

Perry the Platypus Dress

The dress is another pattern from Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing. It's the Sweetheart Sundress, although I modified it to better fit the idea that I had in my head. I changed the front of the dress so that it is no longer just two pieces (one on each side), but is now five (two on top, three on bottom), changed the back piece by separating the piece along the darts into three separate pieces, and changed the side zipper in order to make a more fitted dress.The skirt is a simple gathered skirt with a wide lace trim to add a bit of interest to the dress. The first time I applied the lace to the dress, I accidentally melted a segment of the lace with the iron and had to tear out the whole trim and replace it with new lace.This is the inside of the dress. Only the top is lined, and I hand sewed in bra cups for support. The zipper is on the left side, and I did not encase it in fabric on both sides because I was trying to avoid hand sewing as much as possible.I found this fabric at Joann's while looking for a fabric I could use to make a comic book print dress. I think that the fabric fits the criteria I set, because it includes animated characters in a comic book print design. It's a cotton blend printed with the Phineas and Ferb characters with a focus on Perry the Platypus.

The Zig-Zag Dress

I made the zig-zag dress a little over a year ago, sometime in the year 2013. It was part of my "Greyscale" Collection, which, as the name suggests, is a collection made from fabrics in shades of grey, black and white. The collection was inspired by the outfits in old black and white movies.The pattern is Vogue V8808 cut out in option B. I really like this dress style, especially the collar, shape, and length combination. I made the zig-zag dress before I had been told it is a much better idea to trace the pattern pieces, so all of the pieces are actually cut out of the original pattern paper.I'm really proud of the pattern matching on the princess seams (zig-zags AND curves? What was I thinking?!), but not of the pattern matching on the side seams. The reason for this is probably because I sewed and serged the side seams of the lining and the outside fabric at the same time.Because the zig-zag fabric was very lightweight and see-through, I did not make a full lining, and instead ended it above the knee with a terribly uneven hem. Luckily, it's not obvious that the lining hem is uneven from the outside, and instead looks like it transitions smoothly from lined to unlined.Despite its flaws, I still really like the zig-zag dress - I mean look at those princess seams!

French Fry Dress!

This is the dress that I briefly mentioned in this post. I finally got outside and took some pictures of the dress! (Seven months after I made it-Oops!)The pattern I used for this dress is the Seersuker Sundress from Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing and I used two yards of French Fry fabric. Since both the book and the fabric were Christmas gifts, I found myself with two yards of fabric and a pattern that called for three. Luckily, when I went to lay out my pattern pieces, there was easily enough space for all of them.Pictured above is the muslin I made for the dress. I only made one muslin, and I only needed to adjust the front and back by taking them in by about 5/8 of an inch. I fully lined the dress with the muslin.I put in an invisible zipper instead of a lapped zipper, and this is the best invisible zipper I have ever done. The secret is to hand sew the whole zipper. I also took my time on the gathered skirt in order to make sure the gathers were perfectly even. Instead of gathering by sewing over a thread and pulling it, I pinned every gather out individually.In fact, this garment is probably the best I have ever made. My only regret is that I didn't take more time with the four darts in the front of the bodice - I could have adjusted them to fit better. Despite this, the French Fry Dress has been worn a few times already, (It was too cold to wear when I made it) and will definitely be worn over and over again in the future.

The Three Year Scarf

By my calculations, I started knitting this scarf in 2011. I'd wanted a really wide, long scarf that would keep me warm all winter, and I wanted it to be easy to make.When the scarf reached about four feet, I ran out of yarn, and I looped it around into a cowl. I wasn't completely happy with this and would check every yarn store for another ball of the yarn.I'm not sure where I finally found the correct yarn. I think my Grandma might have given it to me, but I'm not sure. I immediately tore out the line of stitches keeping the cowl in place, and began knitting the rest of the scarf as fast as i could. The official completion date was June 8, 2014.Overall, I am really happy with this scarf. It's all made with the same stitch, so it'd be really easy to make again (although it did take a long time to make).It turned out exactly the size I wanted it to be: about 6 feet long and 10.5 inches wide. Although there's about half an inch of difference between the widths on each end, it is my favorite scarf, and I will definitely get a lot of wear out of it as soon as it starts getting cold again. 

WIP

I have so many things I'm working on right now, and so many pieces of fabric/yarn that I have plans for!This dress is made out of a whole bunch of fat quarters as well as some suiting fabric for the skirt. It's one of my pieces that is closest to being complete - all that needs to be done is the hems and all of the hand sewing. My plan for this dress had been to finish it in time for a school dance, but I ended up with only three days to make the entire dress, two of those being school days!I found these projects in a bag in my closet. I don't think these will ever be finished, and will probably be frogged soon. The cowl is knit, and the doll is crochet, and resembles the fairies from Humanity Has Declined (creepy!).These are pieces of fabric that I have plans for/don't know what to do with. The fabulous Phineas and Ferb fabric will be made into a dress inspired by a comic book dress I saw online.The two fabric swatches on the right are from the website Spoonflower. I received both of those swatches during two separate free swatch promotions hosted by Spoonflower. The swatch on the far right is a silky faille swatch of the fabric Chibi Great Ones. I'm not a big fan of how the fabric feels, but I love the adorable Lovecraft based design! I might have to buy more! The fabric swatch right next to it is my own design, Polka Dot Cats! My swatch is printed on Organic Cotton Knit, and I'm really happy with how it came out. I made some small adjustments, and now it's up for sale as fabric and gift wrap in my Spoonflower Shop!I'm not sure what to make out of these two swatches, but I think that they would make cute pockets on a skirt or a sweatshirt. However, I do want to buy more of my design and make either a pleated skirt or a dress.These aren't all of my works in progress, but these are the ones I don't think I'll be finishing very soon. I have a few finished objects that I hope I can get pictures of soon, but there aren't many good places to take pictures in my house (note the above pictures being taken in front of a door) and there's so

Winter Gifts! (Part Two)

I apologize for this post being so late, I did not have all the pictures until recently.For Christmas,  my friend Hilary gave me some beautiful red alpaca yarn, which I quickly made into fingerless mittens from this pattern. The pattern was quick and easy to make, and looks beautiful!In return, I made Hilary a knitted reversible cowl, called the Boomslang, in dark pink and white yarn (modeled by my sister). This cowl worked up fairly quickly for a cowl but still took quite a bit of time. I'd intended to give her the cowl before winter break, but I ran out of time and instead had to give it to her after break.For my cousin’s birthday on January 13th, I made her a hat! I based it off off of this pattern. I had to heavily modify the pink cupcake shape in order for it to curve properly, and then I ran out of yarn and was unable to make the icing ruffles around the edge, but I'm still pretty happy with how the hat turned out. 

Bows, Bows, and More Bows!

All the way back in December, during winter break, I made five hair bows! I made them out of various fabrics that I had in my stash, and gave two of them to my friend Megan for Christmas. I received two yards of french fry fabric for Christmas from my dad, and will hopefully be able to take photos of to post soon.

Winter Gifts! (Part One)

I made this hat out of a very nice wool blend yarn for my friend Georgia. I modified my "Spark" Slouchy Hat pattern by adding a band and stopping the dome of the hat early so that it would be a closer fit.I'm allergic to wool, but I did not have any difficulties working with the yarn, and the hat worked up fairly quickly. However, when I went to try the hat on, I discovered I was too allergic to wear it. Georgia had no problems with the yarn and was very excited to receive her gift.This hat I made for my friend Kate, who lives far enough away that I had to mail it to her. I originally wanted this hat to be an earflap hat, but I miscalculated how much grey yarn I had, and ran out very early on. I was able to fix the problem, and made a green brim for the hat instead of earflaps, adding the Hogwarts house name "Slytherin" to the brim in the remaining silver yarn.Over the next few days/weeks I will be uploading pictures of the remaining gifts I have given to my friends, as well as one I received. I will also be taking pictures of older garments that I may not have mentioned before, and posting those.

Halloween Costumes!

I realize it's already November, but I'd still like to share the Halloween costumes that I helped some of my friends with!Here you can see a picture of Genny dressed as Dirk Strider. As you probably remember, I made the skirt that she's wearing out of a stretch knit, although the applique isn't visible in this picture. I'm dressed as Jake English, another character from the webcomic Homestuck.This is my friend Noah, who also dressed as Jake English this Halloween. I screenprinted both of our shirts in two colors, copying the design directly from the character's t-shirt.My friend Laurel wanted to be a Pokemon trainer from x and y, so she asked me to make her this hat. I made the hat based off of a pattern by Pinar Vardar on Ravelry. I had to change the entire base of the hat because I used a very different weight of yarn.Thank you for reading!