Eyeball Bags

I've been watching you

 
I've been lacking in motivation lately, but after receiving a parcel in the post from my craft wife and pulling out this AMAZING fabric ((I still need to take photos of the other goodies I received!)) I really needed to get my butt back into gear.

So the fabric sat on my computer desk for about a week. Enticing me. Do you ever get amazing fabric and not want to cut it up because you know you probably won't be able to buy it again? That's what I was like with this Eyeball fabric. I was originally going to make a skirt, but I thought it'd be a shame to use it all up on one item! So I decided to make a cute little hobo bag. And I decided my little sister Betty would like one too! ((We have this thing for Eyeballs. I'm sure you've seen my bedspread)).

I used this tutorial years and years ago. Gosh it must be AT LEAST 7 years ago. And made a really cute bag with it. I gave it to my sister eventually. I hope she brings it with her this weekend so I can take photos of it to show you!

I wanted to save as much fabric as I could, so only used enough of the eyeballs to make it look super rad! These bags have eyeball fabric fronts, then just plain black drill backgrounds and backs. I appliqued some eyeballs onto the straps too. Let me tell you. I'm never appliqueing circles again. BITCHES!

The tutorial ispretty straightforward and easy, although some pictrues are missing of the important pieces you need to cut out! Luckily I remembered what they looked like and didn't have a problem. Maybe I should do a copycat tute?

Open up the bags and LEOPARD PRINT COLOUR VOMIT! Yey!  I cut up this hilarious leopard-print lady's two piece outfit. It was mainly orange and black spots, but had a massive diagonal on the front and back of this crazy coloured spew. I loved it!

I also used this tutorial for creating the zippered pocket in the interior. It's a SURPRISE Batman pocket. The fabric is from a pair of boy's flanno pjs I found at the op-shop ((Seriously. My new favourite op-shop is the Lifeline at Drayton. Sooo many awesome things there! I ALWAYS find Batman stuff there too!))

 This lack of motivation has not only affected me, but I've seen my gorgeous craft wife also in this slump. And I just read on Stacey's blog that she's in an unmotivational mood too! So I had an idea, and I'll share it with you either tomorrow or tonight.

We're planning a party/event/game to last the entire month of October. It's ok, to play you don't need to buy anything, in fact the whole premise of the game will be to use stuff you already have :) Stay tuned!

Music To Sew to

A little while ago, someone asked me if I'd share my favourite kinds of bands with you. Well I have been compiling a "Music To Sew To" playlist on youtube. It's never ending I swear. I add new songs every day

Have a listen!

It's got everythign from Joan Jett to the AquaBats to Social Distortion and everything in between :)

BRB

I've been absent for a good while now! I'm sorry! 

 I'll be back soon!

 This is the Monster at Tim's great-uncle's wake a week and a bit ago. 

He looks so grown up. He was wearing a tuxedo jacket I thrifted for $5!

Tutorial:: Fold-Over-Band Mini

Hey guys! Long time no bloggee I know! I'm sorry. I've just been a bit unmotivated to do anything remotely crafty! Let alone blog about it. Yesterday we threw another party for the Monster, this time it was a Monster Mash! I'll try and get photos up tonight for you! In the meantime, I thought I should post the tutorial I wrote up and guest-blogged over at The Crafty Pirate's!

I thought I'd  do a quick tutorial on how to do a simple little technique. I use this technique to finish off hems on sleeves, tees, skirts. Instead of doing a traditional hem, this one is just as easy, and looks great!

Thera Joyce + Max California Walk Into A Bar...

 Actually, we didn't, because we live on opposite sides of the world. We thought there is a reason why we are so far away from each other, we decided it was because the world would either explode from so much awesome, or we would get nothing done if we lived closer...

So instead of going to a bar, we did the next best thing. I'm sure you guys must have seen this coming. The two self-confessed rock and rolling DIY addicts combining forces to bring you one amazing place??

BEHOLD!

Click Here

"What the hell is a Sliced & DIYced and why has Max's arm been ripped from her body?" I hear you ask.

Sliced + DIYced ((hahah see what we did there?)) is a brand-spanking new Livejournal Community for you all to join and post to your little hearts content! We're encouraging tutorials, Look What I Made posts, anything crafty. You can link back to your blog too, but you MUST have a fair bit of a write up on your post, otherwise we're going to have to give you a stern talking to! This is NOT a place to advertise your wares or just link to blog. You need to put a little bit of effort in. Think of it as a combined blog of all of us!

YEY!


So go have a little look, do a little post, have a little fun!

What I'm Working On Today

Hello World!

Today I thought I'd give you a little good-morning post and let you know what I'm going to try to make today!

Yesterday I got a pair of green jeans from the op-shop (($8 wth?)) which I'll be turning into a mini skirt for the Sew-A-Long. I MAY change my mind though and find some other pants to do that too, because those green jeans have this look about them that could be waisted short shorts... We'll see hey!?

I'm also attempting to turn this old lady shirt

 into a button up derby dress

In case you haven't figured it out yet, my derby team's colours are black + green! Toowoomba City Rollers Represent!

Also, my sister got the internet but she refuses to start a blog. Leave a comment here if you think my little sister,

Betty, centre, made her outfit. Yes. She's that cool.
Photo © Fever Photography

 should start her own blog. She DIYs a bit, but she's also a hilarious kid. And she's pretty!

anyway, in my sister's words...

Betty The-Human 

Get cracking then! The suspense is keeling me!
Will she come out triumphant or will she choke and bite the dust on live facebook!

Sewing School Practise

I want to start a local sewing school, because I know ALOT of girls who want to learn how to sew rad gear. I know how to sew rad gear, so it seems like a good idea. Eventually I'll go down to Brisbane once a week and do one there too ((assisted by my lovely sister)), and then eventually a little online one with webcam videos and support etc :)

So to start off, I needed a guinea pig. And that guinea pig came in the shape of the gorgeous Elle Bug ((who is a real girl, not a guinea pig OR a bug)).

Her first sewing lesson was last week, we made a pincushion and some pj pants. The pincushion was for practice sewing, to figure out what a machine feels like and how to sew in straight lines! Plus she needs one for future lessons!

Fairy Floss Time! Wooo.
Kidding, she's stuffing her lil((giant)) pin cushion

Aww a pillow!

It's a pincushion! See it has a pin in it!

 The PJ pants we decided on because she bought the cutest SATIN fabric that was just adorable! And pants are pretty easy to master!

Teaching Elle to pin

 I taught Elle the basics on how to figure out what size pattern you need, how to read a pattern piece ((and ignore most of it! heehee))

Hey I said I'd be teaching people how to sew. The Rock n Roll way, not the perfect way! Like you cut out every triangle to match up sideseams eh? EH? Do you mark out the grainline so it's level with the edge of your fabric or do you just eyeball it? Yehhh didn't think so!

Cutting out!

Sewing! Ooooh, purdy nails Elle!

Elle is an amazing student!! I did take for granted that sewing in a straight line is not omething that you can get straight away. And trying to drive an overlocker/serger is downright frightening ((especially with mine, which was bought in 1995))! But she did. Her seams may have a been a wonky, but that's all on the inside!

I still need to get her to take a pic of herself in them! They looked so COMFY and SO CUTE!

Satin is NOT the greatest fabric to use for a beginner. It's slippery and frays and is just a P.I.T.A.! She did well with it though!

Today she made a pair of bloomers! They turned out amazing, I hardly had to guide her at all, and she drove the overlocker all by herself! She did an amazing job + I'm a bit proud!

Yes. I am totes standing on tippytoes to be as tall as her!

MISS MUFFET!
She's so amazing isn't she? Deadly Curves

We did little bows using fat white satin ribbon and thin hot pink satin ribbon tied into a bow at the same time. Turned out ADORABLE.

Hey while you're at it,check out the Rock n Roll Sew-A-Long Flickr Pool! It's growing like crazy and it's amazing!

Also, I should apologise for the lack of posts! Sunday night I got slaughtered at Fresh Meat at derby, and Monday I was dead from it, but was out and about all day, and today I also went for a beautiful long walk with my bestie. Also, we've started an Exercise gang on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday + Friday nights. We go for a massive walk then either end up at a park or come back home and Tim gets us to do little workout and things he used to do when trainging for Karate and Soccer. Tonight we did Karate! YARR!

A Garden!

I was supposed to post this yesterday, but I babysat a gorgeous little man instead of blogging, so here is yesterday's, and you'll get a bonus post tonight :) 

Griffith St Demolitions

This morning we headed out to the Lifeline at the local rubbish tip ((I'm not going to call it a dump, because when I did, Thera Lol'd)) We were going there because I was adamant about building my garden bed out of existing materials, old bits of wood etc, rather than buying a garden kit at Bunnings.

Yesterday, I went to Bunnings in the morning, and my mother-in-law bought me a whole heap of plants! I got punnets of peas, beans, a black chilli ((I got that one specifically for Tim, because he likes kooky plants like that)), a punnet of assorted herbs ((parsley, chives and two others)), cucumber, tomatoes, capsicum, cos lettuce, strawberries, a geranium, and carrot seeds! We also bought heaps of beautiful organic soil and some potting mix.

Contemplated using a washing machine drum as a planter

We went to the tip shop, and there was ALOT of cool stuff. We picked up a playmat for Vince for $10, the kind with roads and buildings on it so he can play cars over it. We also got two bathtubs for $45 each, a green one and a pink one. There was also a yellow one, but Tim didn't think we'd need three. Turns out I really should have pushed for it, because we have space for three, and the corn has nowhere to live at the moment! Hopefully it'll be there when we go back next week!

Perfectly good plastic hoses

Tiles

Garden Tools!

Lots of Bikes!

 We also headed out to Griffith St Demolitions, this poky place with stuff EVERYWHERE. You could honestly build a house with all of the things that were there. There was a beautiful pink pedestal sink I want to go back and get for the garden. So pretty!

Griffith St Demolitions

So much stuff!

Glass Louvres anyone?

We brought the bathtubs back in the trailer. The pink one was pretty light, but the green one was SO HEAVY!. Dad + Tim built little wooden cradles for the bathtubs, so they wouldn't rock. They made one cradle lower than the other one, so the bathtub would be at a bit of an angle so the water would be able to drain away - through the plughole!

Then we filled the bottom of the bathtubs with gravel, then added soil + potting mix on top. Then I got to do the fun part! PLANTING! I still haven't planted the corn, because there was no room. I definitely need that 3rd bathtub! The plants that wouldn't fit in the tubs went into little pots around the bottom. They'll be moved onto the patio concrete, we just had them on the grass because it started to rain.

The Little Monster helped :)

No darlin', it's not bath-time yet!

Peas, beans, Black Chilli + a herb

Strawberries, Cucumbers + more herbs.
That green leafy one second from the right is Feverfew - you can make tea from it

 I didn't want to throw the sacks that had the soil and gravel in it, so I started to put them away, when I realised I could roll down the tops and use them instead of pots! So I put gravel in the bottom of them, then soil, and then planted my little capsicum plants in them!

That pretty kitty is our boy Jackasaurus Rex
((also known as Jack Sprat the Licketty Legged Cat))

 With the tomato plant, I decided I wanted it to be an upside down tomato plant. So it's current sitting in soil in an upturned hanging pot just waiting for it's roots to spread into the soil before I turn it upside down! So excited about that one!

Because I was doing lots of outdoor work, and getting right filthy, I didn't want to muddy up anything I had made lovingly! ahah. Instead I wore my jeans, turquoise connies and my I Heart Zombies tee I made years ago.

I'll take + add more pics to this post of the tee. The hood is lined with half black, half leopard-print. It's pretty cute! Those blue paint splatters are from me wearing this shirt for some other odd job I did, obviously involving blue paint!

I made my sister a matching one, and we wore them when we went to Perth about 4 years ago!

Self-Stitched September Day 3

 
I had a very busy day today! Lucky I sewed this up yesterday, because the only sewing I did today was altering a friends shirt!

Then my friend Emily and her gorgeous little bubba came over and we went for a bit of an op-shop. I scored BIG TIME in the shirt and shoe department. I took photos, but I'll post them later.

Today I wore a little summer dress I made from a cotsheet I found at Wilsonton Lifeline a couple of weeks ago. It has Pebbles on it!

I made fabric-covered buttons to put down the front, but I haven't gotten around to it yet :)

fabric close-up

the buttons I made.
this pic I took to show a friend fabric-covered button kits