Cassie Stephens: diy

Showing posts with label diy. Show all posts

Thursday, December 31, 2015

DIY: A Color Wheel Circle Skirt, Blouse of Many Colors and the Crayola Experience!

Well, Happy New Year, all y'all! I hope this here blog post finds you bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and tackling that short list of resolutions...and not nursing a hang-over pondering the poor life choices you made last night (Not judgin'. Just sayin'.) Myself, I finally managed to finish off this here ROY G. BIV(and M...for Magenta) skirt complete with a blouse o' many colors and ginormous headband. It's only been on my sewing table for something like a month so hurray for finally finishing something!

I got the idea for this circle skirt way back in November when I took my second sewing class at Craft South. Y'all might remember the music-themed skirt I made with fab-o instructor Devon Iott, aka Miss Make. The skirt was created from an Anna Maria Horner pattern and it comes with a coupla of different stitching options. One of them being a circle skirt that is made up of eight sections. I thought it would be fun to connect each section with a colorful satin stitch and have a corresponding quilted colored pencil at the base of the stitch.

And while I was mid-stitch on el skirt-o (like, seriously, mid-stitch. I have this habit of getting an idea, dropping WHATEVES it is I'm doing and starting on Thing 2. It's really the worst habit ever and I don't recommend it), I got the notion of making a top AND headband to match. I decided to use the Scout Tee pattern from Grainline Studios because, y'all. That is one easy pattern to follow and one simple top to slap together in, like, 60 minutes or more.

Hey! Speaking of stopping whatever you are doing mid-stream and totes doing something dif, I hereby interrupt this sewing talk with a chat about my trip to Orlando's Crayola Experience! (That was a segue, kids. A really crappy segue).

So way the funk back in September, the hubs and I made a trip down to Orlando for Universal Studio's Halloween Horror Nights. While we were there, we drove past the Florida Mall and I spotted that hallmark yellow and green. I was all, "Hey! That's a Crayola WONDERLAND! Like Chuck E. Cheese for art teachers. Can we go? Please?!" It was then that Mitch reminded me he'd told me all about this place before we left and I'd been all "meh, whateves". Silly me. I was so happy to find that teacher's get in free! Sadly, el hubbo did have to shell out something like $35 for his ticket. I told him he could stay in the car but that only got me the side-eye.

If you cats and kittens ever get the chance to go to this place, y'all best do it. It's simply fascinating -- like a history lesson on Crayola and a science lesson on the making of crayons. Not to mention a look at their vintage ads which were just so fun to see.

And tons o' other fun stuff. One of my faves was this station where you could name your own crayons and have them made. We made a handful of our own personalized crayons called such things as "Mrs. Stephens' Lipstick" for a red crayon and "Martian Blood" for a green one.

Another fave of mine was this encaustic station where you could paint with melted crayon juice. Is there anything better smelling than a melted crayon? By the way, I've installed Scratch -n- Sniff technology in this blog post so feel free to scratch that photo above, stick your nose to the screen and breathe deep. Don't mind the stares, other folks just be jealous. Oh, it didn't work? Keep trying. You can stop when the men in the white coats come to get you.

My ultimate fave was this melted crayon spin art machine. You get to pick your color combos and while the melted crayon is dripping down onto your paper circle, you can control the speed of the spinning. This results in some seriously cool and trippy masterpieces.

Like, far out, dude.

But, if I'm gonna be all fur realz-ies with y'all, I've gotta admit that the real Experience was to be had in the gift shop. I mean, just take a look-see at that sock assortment. Need I say more?

Even the check out counter was neat mosquito -- it's made up entirely of upright crayons!

And now, I interrupt that interruption to bring you back to what I was originally chatting about. Before I interrupted my own dang self. Ahem. The skirt! Which was heavily influenced by all things Crayola Experience-y. And BOOM. I just segue'd my segue.

So the first thing I had to do was figure out the colored pencil (do y'all say "color pencil" or "colored pencil"? Because I've always said the latter but now I'm not so sure). Anyway, I sketched it out on paper first and used that as my template once I was happy with el sketch-o.

After cutting the pieces, I started stitching with right sides togetherness.

Like-a dis.

And like-a dat.

Press with an iron and...

Viola! Eight colored pencils, one for each section of the skirt.

Once I had cut out the eight panels of the skirt in black and stitched them together, I started the process of appliquéing the pencils to the skirt. I measured 12" down from the bottom of the waistband and held the pencils in place with some Stitch Witchery. Then I set my machine to a wide satin stitch (it's the one that looks like a zigzag) and sewed the pencils in place.

Once all the pencils were in place, I simply followed the pattern to complete the skirt. That pattern is cake, by the way. The only thing that is a total drag is hemming that beast. I mean, the circumference is about three miles long so it takes forever to get through.

Miraculously, I persevered (but not without mucho whining...to myself. The cat and the hubs don't seem to heed my complainingness).

And I'm super happy I did because I do kinda dig this thing.

It's great for sitting on the floor and doing a Wicked Witch of the West "I'm melting!" impersonation...

And for twirling away. I do hope you kids have a wonderful New Years and we'll chatty chat soon enough!

DIY: (One Last) Tree Skirt to Lady Skirt, Y'all!

Merry Christmas, all y'all! This Christmas, I'm thankful for Sudafed, tissues with lotion added to them (can we please give the inventor of that monumental awesomeness a metal or something? Those Puffs with Vick's are my JAM) and your kind words and well wishes after my sickly last post. I'm feeling so much better! The hubs and I just returned from a pre-Christmas trip to the Smoky Mountains (I've shared oodles of photos here) where we hiked with buddies, dined on gloriously delicious carbs that only the folks in the South know how to prepare and shopped. I'll be sure to share all that with y'all in an upcoming post. But, until then, Merry Christmas and One Last Tree-Skirt-to-Lady-Skirt Hurrah!

This would be my second tree-skirt transformation for this year (I've lost count of how many of these bad boys I've made over the years but you can see 'em here) and I gotta tell ya, this one almost didn't happen. I seemed to run outta gas that last week of school so this sat on my cutting table for a while. Which was just plain silly as making one of these takes no more that 45 minutes. Seriously.

All ya gotta do is start with a tree skirt. I found this one (it was actually a table covering) at an estate sale this year for a whopping $2. The ones my teacher buddies and I made for tacky sweater day were scored from Big Lots for a mere $7. Wait for those after-Christmas sales and start stockin' up, kids.

Of course, my personal rule of thumb is the kitsch-y-er, the better. Make sure the length is decent. This is the shortest one I've made and it is 19" in length.

I like to work from a pattern so I used a circle skirt pattern from Anna Maria Horner because I feel comfortable with it.

I will say I did cut some corners out of sheer laziness. It saved on time and anguish. Rule #1 of Tree-Skirt-to-Lady-Skirt Club: There Shall Be NO Anguish.

Following the pattern, I simply folded my skirt twice, pinned the pattern and place and commenced cutting.

By the way, always check your sizing. I'm not an XS in the shops at the mall (especially For-never21) but according to this pattern, I am. Which is why Anna Maria Horner is my personal hero and I've built an XS shrine to her. Bless you, Anna Maria!

From there, I cut an opening along the edge of the fabric.

Using the pattern, I cut out a waistband, added some interfacing and stitched it with a 5/8" seam with right sides together. The pattern actually calls for you to install the zipper first then do the waistband. If you go this route, the zip stops at the waistband and a hook and eye is stitched in to keep the waistband closed. I decided to have my zipper go all the way to the very top of my skirt. For that reason, I put the waist band in and then added the zipper.

Stitch the skirt back together with a regular stitch from the bottom all the way to where the zipper install will begin (I used a 9" zipper so I measured 9" down from the waistband). Then switch your stitch setting to a basting stitch as those stitches will be ripped out once the zipper is in place. You can see my terribly easy and horribly tacky way of installing a zipper with Scotch Tape here.

Here's a peek at the final zipper-y product.

Let's just hope I don't eat too much more pie so that I don't have a zipper that decides to slide itself down.

Obligatory skirt twirl. One must do this in a circle skirt. It's, like, the law, y'all.

Meanwhile, it's Christmas day...and there seems to be plenty of this happening at Casa de Cassie.

The hubs did good this year with this present. I can't wait to try it out. Although that 12 needles thing sounds like it could end in a bloody mess, I ain't gonna lie.

I hope Santa treated you right, this year! Happy Holidays, y'all!
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DIY: Vintage Putz Houses, A Light Up Village!

It's the Most Wonderful Time...for Christmas Craft Night, y'all! I seriously look for any ole reason to have a bunch of boozy and crafty buddies over to blow off some steam and make stuff. And, let's be honest, nothing beats Christmas Crafts especially if they are as kitsch-mas-y as Putz Houses!

At last year's holiday craft night, my art teacherin' buddy Sara mentioned wanted to learn to make Putz houses. My moms-in-law gave me a glorious box of these made in Japan beauties several years ago and they have a place on my pink tree every year. Here's a wee peak:

They are easily my favorite ornaments as I love the magical notion of wee people celebrating the holidays in their happy village.

You can occasionally find these bad boys in antique stores for heavily inflated prices. I've also seen them priced all over the place on ebay-land. But, let's face it, it's way more fun to create your own with a buncha buds, don't you think?

If you've never hosted a craft night, here's how I usually get the ball rolling: message a group of artsy friends and throw a coupla dates at them. Once one is settled, create a Facebook event so folks can keep up with what you'll be creating and what they might need to bring. I also love to have dinner with a theme of some sort. This time I let everyone know that we'd be having Breakfast Dinner! Folks were encouraged to bring scissors and an adult bevvie of their choice.

Our craft night was on a Friday, shortly after school. It's good to have drinks ready and snacks on hand because that's what peeps really be wanting. I had planned for the menu to have an egg scramble of some sort and pancakes. Of course, it's no fun to do all that cooking alone (especially when cooking is not your forte!) so I had the batter ready and put one buddy on pancake patrol (thank you, Tamara!) and another on egg-cellent egg-making (thank you, Virginia!). Another buddy served out the Bloody Marys (thank you, Ali!) while another mixed up mimosas. It was a delicious group effort that kicked off the night.

Once the food had filled our stomachs, we cleared the dining room table and set to work. I knew that the first coupla stages of this house making would be a lil labor intensive but once it was done, the real fun of decorating could begin.

Since I'd announced and shown a coupla photos in the Facebook event what we'd be creating, some folks brought miniature items to accompany there house like small deer and bottle brush trees.

And just look at our happy village!

I got so many sweet photos after the night of houses hanging happily on trees that it made my weekend! If you are interested in making your own Putz house, rustle up the following:

I happened to have a stash of gift boxes from my belt-making days for us to use. However, tag or poster board would work just fine.

If you do use a gift box, simply cut it open.

And cut off the tab. This tab will become the base of your house. I curve-cut the base just for interest but you could leave it square or cut it with decorative scissors.

From there, I cut off one of the box sections for the roof.

Everyone created a variety of roof shapes and they each turned out so cute! I created mine with a scalloped edge.

I then cut the rest of the box apart and used two for the front, back and side of the house.

After about five minutes of playing, I came up with this template.

You'll need to cut two of these out and fold 1/4" from the side.

Fold along the front and back of the house.

Clip at the bottom of the side fold and bend up. Then clip at the crease where the front of the house meets the side and fold both bottom edges upward.

Before gluing the house together, start to think about a door and windows. You could use an Exacto to cut these...but I don't trust a bunch of drunks with sharp blades so we just cut them with scissors.

For the stained glass, you could use cellophane...or you could go the poor art teacherin' route and simply fold a piece of tape back on itself...

Tape that in the window from the inside...

Color it ever-so scribble-scrabbily...

And boom! Stained glass!

Of course the over-achievers went and did all this. People like these don't get asked back to craft night (just kidding, Ginny!).

Now you can start to bring in the corner of the house and start gluing into place. My fave glue is Aleene's Tacky Glue because that stuff sets up fast. Aleene is Tacky and she knows it. My kind of gal.