Hey, is that Easter up there?

If by up there you mean up there in the future then yes, it is.

Hubby and I are in the rather exciting position of starting family traditions this year, as we now have a little family to tradish with. Granted, Wildeman has no idea what Easter is, or what bunnies are and no way in hell is he eating chocolate this Easter but he'll appreciate all this in a couple years and by then we'll have it down pat.

So, good weather allowing we will be Easter brunching in the park with our lovely family (with brownies baked inside eggshells)  and if I recall someone started some kind of holiday challenge...what was that again? Oh, that's right:

Wildeman Holiday Challenge 2013 #4: Easter

and here is the adorable little bunny now in

 

The Shabby Bunny

My Other Pants are a Kilt - Part 3

It's the beginning of the end!
(but in a good way)


 If you have no idea what I'm talking about and you have never seen this picture before you want to be over here, not here.

If you are in the right place then: It's the beginning of the end! Congratulations to making it this far in the project and/or clicking on some links and reading some stuff!

By now I'm sure you're very familiar with this cutie.

My Other Pants are a Kilt Part 3

The Jacket and Sporran

This is part 3 of the tutorial for the Wildeman Holiday Challenge 2013: St. Patrick's day as well as my Sew-vivor audition this season.This formal Irish suit is made up of 6 different pieces. A button-down onesie, vest, jacket, bow tie, kilt and sporran.

No idea what challenge I'm talking about?
No idea what Sew-vivor is?
Haven't seen Part 1?

Caught up now? Good, on we go...

Part 1 -
Kilt and Vest

Part 2 -
Button down onesie

Part 3-
Jacket and sporran (You are here!)

I made the bow tie using this tutorial.

Baby Boy Formal Irish Jacket Tutorial

Wildeman Holiday Challenge: ***Valentine's Day Polo***

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to the first edition of the Wildeman Holiday Refashion Challenge 2013

First holiday refashion challenge and I'm 2 days late...Please forgive me. I will do my best not to have it happen again. Without further ado I give you...

The Jack of Hearts

 

 

Mixologist - Boys' Week

Let's get down to business -

I just discovered Project Run and Play this week and I can't believe the level of awesome I have been missing out on. I immediately jumped on the chance to feed to birds with one seed (I'm not into killing birds, regardless of how many stones are employed in the process). Hubby, Wildeman and I were recently invited to Uncle Jukeboxs 20`s themed birthday party and everyone must be in costume. Everyone. So, without further ado I bring you Wildeman as...

The Mixologist

Women's Button Down to Baby's Button Down

Hello everyone,

It's time for some baby refashions! I have made a ton of clothes for Wildeman and I intend to share them all for you. There really aren't enough cool, commercially available baby clothes in the world. My kid is already cute, covering him in bunnies and teddy bears seems like overkill. It's a damn good thing I can sew or he would be naked all the time!

On with the tutorial:

Crocheting for my baby boy!

Hello foxy crafters!

The world seems rife with boring overly cutesy baby clothes and I'm just not cool with it. Luckily I have some craftiness up my sleeve. Here's what I've made so far. Click the pics to be taken to the patterns:

Pants! Pants! Pants!

Hello crafters!

Not long ago I posted about a pair of silver pants I made myself. Those pants have lead to a bit of a pants making addiction. Today I would like to share my little obsession...

All made from Kwik Sew #3807 (with my own alteration for fit)

Cloth Necklace

Hello crafty people
{crafty like a fox}

No refashioning today. Just an oldschool DIY. I made this cloth necklace with some fabric I bought at a thrift store (took me forever to figure out what to do with it but I loved it so much!) but this DIY in particular is usually done with an old t-shirt. Probably works best with jersey, I did it with a shiny, non-stretchy fabric. No freakin' idea what it might be made of (I'm not quite that good).

This is a simple project. I just whipped it up in about 45 minutes. You just cut the fabric into strips to make your braid (I doubled them for a bulkier braid), sew off the ends and attatch a whole bunch of strips for the rest of the necklace. Super easy and super cute! Perfect for summer. Enjoy! (+ my amateur artsy photos :P )

See you soon!

Nerdy Crochet!

Hey everyone!

I know it's been for-frakin'-ever since I've posted and I apologize. I've been busy being pregnant and allowed that to get in the way of my blogging (FOR SHAME) but certainly have not allowed it to get in the way of my crafting (WOOT!)

This is by far one of my favourite things I've ever hooked:

Who says crocheting can't be awesome?

The how-to is easy enough but I didn't have a pattern (naturally). I made my own and it`s acutally super easy to make your own crochet-by-numbers style pattern.

Step One:

Draw the outline (to scale) of your project on graphing paper.

Step Two:

Make your pattern by colouring in squares. You can use as many colours or as complicated a pattern as you want it just means you`ll be switching yarns more often.

Note:



For this project each square on graphing paper is acutally represented by 6 stitches done over two rows. On the bottom you have sc-dc-sc and on the top you have dc-sc-dc. It`s a technique I borrowed from groundhogpeggy on Youtube. She has a whole technique for crocheting images that look right from both sides. I`m not a fan of the overall technique as the contrasting yarns show through but the way she creates patterns on graph paper is really simple and easy to do.

Stay crafty!
M <3

DIY Maternity Style: Second Trimester

Wow, it's been a long time! There are a few reasons for this. The first being a kindey infection, ew and ugh. I spent a few hours in the hospital before begging to come home as long as I promised to rest a lot.

And also, we found out we're having a BOY!!!

And...on with the fashion...

I'm finding that the bigger I get the more I care about how I look when I leave the house! Here are a bunch of my Maternity DIYs in actions:

Shirt: Refashioned from thrifted XL Women's shirt
Ring: Made from scratch
Shorts: Refashioned from womens Tee and Lace

Haha! World's lack of cool maternity pants, you have met your match!

No DIYs here. Second trimester outfit:

Hat: Thrifted
Dress: Zellers (non-maternity)

Lace Shorts!

New tutorial for today!

I know that lace shorts have been a thing for a while now but I didn't know about them until I saw a woman wearing them at the doctors office and I was in love! But is there any chance that a maternity option is available for these beauties? Not a shot in hell. But that's okay because I have a sewing machine and a giant box of lace my aunt wanted to get rid of. Score!

You can use this tutorial to make non-maternity shorts really easily as when I make maternity bottoms I just keep the waist below the belly so that I can still wear my creations after the baby is born.

The Shorts

Rocket Skirt/Top

Happy almost the end of June!

How is everyone liking my new blog?

I have another maternity tutorial for you today! At the thrift store a while back I found a wicked extra-large, extra-tall men's t-shirt that was covered in rocket ships. My non-pregnant self could have worn the thing as a dress it was so huge but prego me fills out the front a little to much. So, I made a new thing! It's a shirt/skirt for pregnant a ladies!

The finished product:

The tutorial:

Originally I wanted to make a dress using the rocket fabric a the skirt and and old black t-shirt as the top. These were my starting materials, I think the shirt was around 7$:

Slippers!

Not too long ago I got these weird red bumps on my toes. They kinda freaked me out so I went to see a dermatologist about them. Apparently my toes are very sensitive to cold. A few pairs of warm socks and I would be all fixed up. Well, thanks doc, and that was all well and good until I attempted to wear those fleecy mountain man socks for more than an hour. And you know what? OW! So I asked the dermatologist about it but he turned out to be one of those asshats who don't believe FMS is a thing. I calmly informed him that it can be viewed on catscans and walked out.

Crocheting time!

These things are shockingly easy to make. I didn't follow a pattern so this tutorial will work for any yarn weight or hook size. Enjoy!

Ch enough to be as wide as three toes.
Crochet in the round (and stitch, I did dc), inc as you need to fit over your toes.
Measure against your foot as you go so they fit you perfectly.
Once you've reached the wide spot at the base of your toes stop increasing and crochet in roud as high as you want to go.
Then start crochet in rows so that you are creating the sole of the slipper and moving back toward the heel.
When you reach the heel decrease 3-5 with each stitch so that you create little half circle.
Tie off the heel and create two chains long enough to tie around your ankle. Single crochet them to the top of the heel in the cenre.

And VOILA! Slippers!

Men's XL to Women's Maternity

Hello!

I told you I would get a tutorial up here sometime soon and I meant it! I guess I'm over the first trimester fatige (at 4 freakin' months!). I whipped this little beauty up yesterday afternoon and now it's my favourite maternity shirt!!! Read on for the tutorial:

After

Before

Wrap around earrings

Hey,

This is a super simple project and unfortunatley I forgot to take pictures (again) so you're going to have to image the majority of the tutorial but I'm sure you'll have no problem.

Here's the finished Wrap Around Earrings

Materials:

Hoop earrings

Yarn

Crochet hook

Hair spray

Step One

Crochet all round the outside of your hoop (actually took this picture).

Step Two

Wrap. Wrap horizontally until the yarn is as dense as you want it then wrap vertically. When you wrap vertically make sure you pull the yarn through the top of the hoop so you get that dip look (and a spot for you ear lobe to go). Then tie the yarn off and weave it in.

Step Three

Spray. The yarn's not super stable yet. I just hair-sprayed the earrings, pressed a tissue over them to get rid of the bubbles and let them dry. They're pretty firm now!

Have fun!



Origami Heart Necklace

Hey everyone,

It origami time!

I have always been fascinated by paper folding but had little to do with a bunch of folded paper. Add to that my near-convulsive reaction to wasting things and I, unsurprisingly, never really got into folding paper for fun. Fortunately, I am into fabric and it turns out the two go together beautifully.

Without further ado The Origami Heart Necklace

ps, that's a baby not a beer belly :D

Step One:
You'll need three squares of paper (about an 1.5") for the small hearts and one big one for the big heart. I used paper but it does mean the necklace can't get wet. There are other fabric stiffening materials that are probably ideal. I didn't think about that till later as I'm a bit of a spaz.

Step Two:

Choose your fabric, cut a square with a little bit of a seam allowance (just enough for the stitching) and pin.

Step Three:

Sew the fabric square to the paper square. I chose cotton from an old tshirt as it won't fray too badly (this fabric is actually left over from my Dinosaur T-shirt refashion).

Front

And back.

Step Four:
Fold those suckers into four origami hearts.
Here's a great tutorial.

Step Five:

Sew your first heart to your choice of necklace. I used a braided thin, white yarn. Metal would look great but it irritates my skin.

 Step Six:

Get everyone else one there and...

Voila!

Origami Heart Necklace

Oversized Envelope Clutch

Hello!

It has been a while since I've posted something new up here. I was having brain-melting computer troubles but my brain has been unmelted, my computer replaced and my harddrive restored so...I'm back!

While all of that nonsense was happening was, of course, busy making cool things to share with you. So, without further ado the

Oversized Envelope Clutch Tutorial

I started out with this very cute Juniors dress (yep, that's a dress) that I found at a thrift store for about 11$. It was a size 3 so there was no way I could wear it but I couldn't pass up that gorgeous print!

I tried pinning it in billion different ways (8) and while there were all fine none of them were really . doing anything for me. I think it was the quality of the fabric. That sheen was keeping it from being the funky, casual top I had envisioned. So, I changed the plan.

As I often do, apparently, I forgot to take pictures of the first part so put get ready to use that imagination. First thing to do is decide how big you want your clutch to be. You need something to stiffen the fabric. I used cereal boxes, without thinking that that means I can't take it out in the rain (in Vancouver)...yep...

You'll need two rectangles, one a little thinner than the other and a triangle for the top flap. Then wrap your fabric around your base.

It also needs a liner so that you can't see that base evertime you open the thing.

Now sew it all together (make sure you left yourself a seam allowance).

Need a strap as well (I also added a button just at the point of the flap).

And VOILA!

Pretty cool eh?

Thanks for stopping by!

Hell yes! Silver Pants!

I'm kind of excited about my super cool, super comfy, perfectly fitting new silver pants. I've been wanting crazy pants for a while not but have been having a hard time finding ones that won't hurt (FMS) and will fit my body right (curvy + petite = trouble). So, no problem. I just made them! I found this stretchy silverness at Fabricana in Richmond for about 20$ for two yards. The pattern I used was the Kwik Sew Misses 3807. I'll be honest though, I was not happy with the pattern. The waist was too high, the sizing WAY too big and generally weird. It took a bunch of alterations to get them to fit right, I acutally almost gave up. But, it all came together in the end.

Silver Stretchy Pants:

Materials:
"Metallica" Pewter fabric 1.5 yards (for med-small)
Kwik Sew 3807

Step One:
Cut out your pattern. (Use regular scissors for this part)



Step Two:
That thing's been folded up for a while so you'll want to iron it flat so that the shape is perfect.




Step Three:
Fold your fabric in half, right sides in and pin the pattern piece over top. Make sure the fabric is flat and smooth so that the shape isn't warped.




Be warned! Don't ignore pin or needle self pokings. They can lead to inadvertant bleeding and fabric-ruining!



Step Four:
Use FABRIC SHEARS to cut out the fabric. For this pattern the seam allowance is included so cut flush to the paper.

Step Five...

Okay, there are no more pictures. At this point I kinda lost it with this pattern. I followed the pinning directions (which were a little weird) and included turning the pants inside out again and sewing them inside each other. At one point I sewed the ridiculousy high waist shut and had to seam rip it out. Then out of mere curiosity I tried the pants on.

Holy Crap! They were awful. Too big and tent looking (even though my measurements had matched perfectly) Erkel-high and generally terrible. I threw them in a box and gave up for about ten minutes, at which point I was reminded how much I loved that fabric by all the scraps laying around. So, I decided to save the day!

I took the waist down, added a drawstring (I don't love elastic) and took the seams in about an inch and a half. I also doubled, and in some places tripled the seams, just in case. I shortened them for my 25 in inseam (yep) and finally, without daring to hope, tried them on again. And...

Step Six: Flaunting the awesome



Holy Crap!!!
I'm pretty sure I own the coolest pants in the world.