New Blog!

 Yes!
And not a new blog like a replacement for this one, ohhh no! A new blog as in a SECOND BLOG!

 See that? That's Trash Ballerina.

Trash Ballerina is a blog I started about 4 hours ago to talk about my love of costumes! Basically each post is about a certain costume from a movie, or a film clip, or anything really ((and I'm open to suggestions))! I pull the costume apart and talk about how I'd go about recreating it. In the future I'd like to do some actual recreations, but for now it's just me talking.

So far I have two posts, one about Kerli, one about Tank Girl. Upcoming posts will feature more Kerli, more Tank Girl, Shilo Wallace from Repo! The Genetic Opera, and a few outfits from Amy from Evanescence. PLEASE give me more ideas. I have a tonne in my head I want to do but my brain won't pin them down yet!


Please head over there and hit the follow button so I know you love me!!

Tutorial:: Fitted Cot-Sheet

Look I know there are probably about seven hundred cot sheet tutes out there, but here's the Max California way ;)

So today, as well as babysitting a 5-month little baby all day, I managed to clean the house ((most of it)) rearrange Vince's room and write a tutorial on sewing fitted cotsheets! SUPERHERO! ((Duh, I'm Batman))

Instead of saying, use this measurement use that measurement, I'm going to try and explain how to do it yourself, because I know all cot mattresses are not alike!

This tutorial is super-duper easy! For novice seamstrixes ((Lol Stacey))!

Get your cott mattress, or measure it. The standard cot mattress size here in Australia ((I think ours is the largest of the standard sizes)) is 130cm length x 70cm width x 13cm depth. You're going to need roughly a little under 2m of fabric for this. The fabric I had wasn't quite long enough so I stitched some contrast red to the top and bottom ((You don't end up seeing it anyway as it turns out!)).

 To get the size of the sheet instead of measuring it, I just laid the fabric on the ground with with the mattress on top of it.

Fold up the sides a little bit. It should cover the depth of the mattress, plus fold over a bit. This much is probably too much ((unless you'll be hemming - then it's probably just right))

Now cut out the corners. You'll be cutting out squares. Don't forget to add seam-allowance on these squares - So the instead of the cuts being level with the mattress edges, it will be one cm extra on both sections. ((Do you need a diagram? Here))

Do this for all the corners.

Get a corner

 Fold the corner in half, right sides together, so that the edges you cut are matching up. It's ok if the edges of the sheet don't match up yet, just make sure the point evens out.

Pin and stitch ((and serge/overlock)) along this.

When you turn it back out it should look like this

And on the mattress. 

Do this for all of the corners, and overlock around the entire bottom of the sheet. If you're going to hem it, hem it now. I didn't because it gets tucked under the mattress anyway.

Now you'll need some elastic. My little assistants brought it over for me, despite the Jedi Youngling in the background trying to stop him. Mm, the Force is strong in this one.

You can do this two ways. You can stitch elastic all the way around the hem, but I savour my notions like they are gold, so I only use elastic on the corners. Still works exactly the same believe it or not! Stretch and pin the elastic about 15cm eaither side of each corner seam.

 Stitch, stretching the elastic as you go.

It should look like this

Now put it on the mattress

To make a fitted top sheet, pretty much do one of these, cut it in half width-ways. Then you have two and all you have to do is hem the tops!

Stitchinpalooza!

So here we go! I finally charged the camera battery, and took some photos today!

I'm just going to get straight into it, got your scrolling-mouse fingers ready?
((The Little Monster is on my lap, and he likes to help me type, so sorry if some of my words come out weird!))

At the end of September, it was fill a bag for $5 at the Salvation Army. Well we went in the afternoon so there wasn't much stuff left, but I did manage to fill a bag. I got some skinny adult-sized belts in there, and a few days ago I just cut the ends off to make them shorter for the Monster!

Dammit I just realised I only got a photo of one of the belts. Oh well, another belt for another post! This was just a men's business belt I think, it was a bit shabby at the end but no biggie because I was cutting it off anyway! I just repierced new holes with a sharp knife, but I remember my dad doing it with a corckscrew! I tried taking a photo of one of them on the Monster, but he was NOT co-operative. I should probably take some unmodelled photos of them.

I had all these shirts cut out weeks and weeks ago, but never got around to sewing them up. I scored big time one op-shop trip and came back with armfuls of XL sized men's tees!

I have a mountain in my laundry of clothes to wash. It just keeps piling up because:

1. It's been raining for weeks
2. I'm lazy

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that's where most of the shirts I resized are ((when Tim 'cleans' our floordrobe he grabs handfuls of clothes and just throws them in the laundry, whether they are clean or not)). Nevertheless I got a few shots of the four I could find!

This was a huge XXL Guitar Hero Metallica shirt, brand new I'd say! I resized it down to fit my little rockstar!

I know the uncovered mattress right?
I think it makes it look more rockstar?
Well that's what I was going for anyway!

Raising the Roof.
The new dance move I taught him

I didn't do anything fancy with these tees, just cut out tees to fit him around the main logos. I used the existing sleeves of the shirts to make into his sleeves, so I didn't have to hem them. They're a bit longer than I thought they'd be, but he looks real cute in 3/4 sleeves! ahah. I just zig-zag hemmed the bottom and neckline, couldn't be bothered fiddling around with fold over bands or anything :)

This one was a women's Felix the Cat shirt. It had long sleeves attached to the regular tee sleeves to make it look like it was layered. I just hacked them off and resized it.

Did not get a clear shot of the Monster in the third tee, and he was not a happy kid when I tried to put him in the fourth one, so here's a group shot of the gang...

There was a men's white + black plaid tee I resized down, and a women's small WWE shirt I resized too. The WWE is TOO FUNNY. Oh man.

Here's a close-up of the fabric...

And close-ups of the other fabrics...

 

And I also made some things for myself!


This little mini I made following my fold-over band mini method, with a bit of a twist. The entire front is a pocket! I'll do a mini tute for this variation soon! ((Don't forget, if you would like me to write a tutorial about anything at all, post your requests here, or email me!))

Do you love it?

I've sketched out a few nautical-inspired skirts to sew. Hopefully I can use up all my navy and red fabric stash up with them!

And FINALLY, I did my Rock n Roll Sew-A-Long II garment! The Rock n Roll Ruffle skirt. I made it from a pair of pj pants my mummy bought me when I was in hospital having the Monster. Anyway, since I put on ALOT of weight, my booty kept splitting the butt in them. I kept mending it, even Tim mended it, but it kept ripping. So I decided to turn them into THIS...

Oh. I think I forgot to tell you guys I DYED MY HAIR AGAIN?

ahahha. yes. I have decided to do a bit of a hair timeline, since I change it up so much and when I tell my friends about, oh and when my hair was THIS colour it takes me FOREVER to find the photo... I have a small timeline on my LJ bio here ((I totally need to change some of that stuff on there))

REQUEST-A-TUTE!

Request a Tutorial, Right here!

This post will be the one place for me to be able to find what you want me to show you how to make, so send me links to things you'd like to know how to make, or photos, or just anything really!

DO IT!

Sliced + DIYced Roundup #1

 Before i get into this post, I just want to say I am well aware that Christmas is practically here. I don't even celebrate Christmas, and yes, I've researched it thoroughly and I think it's completely stupid. I don't care if you do or don't celebrate it, alls I'm saying is the Max California blog will be a Christmas-free-zone! Come here if you're sick of seeing holiday wreaths, gaudy baubles or anything made with burlap :P

Well over at Sliced + DIYced we have 82 members at the time of writing this post! That's pretty damn cool! Although most of that number are LURKERS! I love lurkers, but I think, if you're a lurker, you should not be shy and come forward with something you have made!

So here's some goodies that have been shown off at Slice and DIYce since we began!

Trisha wrote us a tutorial for her eyeball a-line skirt!

Thera wrote a tutorial for a NO SEW BOW TEE

Stacey sewed up a whole treasure trove of t-shirt surgery goodness!

Lullula made some REALLY cute skirts!
Oh man!

Make a Zombie Plushie with Trisha's tute!

Thera turned a petticoat into a cute top!

Miss Cleary cut up a tee to make this cute v-backed number!

Thera stitched ALOT of little zippered purses with bows on them!

Stacey is insane!
She APPLIQUED every single one of these monsters to this t-shirt dress.
Looks GREAT!

Sam turned a pair of jeans into a black denim mini! LOVE

Amanda turned a flannelette shirt into a skirt!
MUST DO THIS!

This houndstooth mini was made by Thera
using my fold-over band mini tute!

And who should turn up but my bestie from fashion school!
Gwynn showed off her ace screen-printing skills on this circle skirt!

Stacey is the Queen of free/promo shirts

As you can see there are some talented kids over at Sliced + DIYced! Why are you staring at me for? Get your butt over there and share some stuff ((and love))!


★Also, Lullula also made feeds for mine + Thera's blogs so if you are on LJ, follow the feeds mentioned at the bottom of this post and we'll turn up! THANKS LULLULA! You're amazing!

★Some questions  about the stash games, I think you should get +8 for every t-shirt you reconstruct, treating it as if it were a yard/metre of fabric!

Superheroes!

I have had this post typed up in parts for ages, it was just a pain trying to resize all the photos. but here you go! Superhero Takeover!

First I want to share with you this photo of my son's friend with the Justice League. Yep. That's Batman. They went a day earlier than us, then came again with us on Saturday.

Unfortunately I didn't get anywhere close to Batman that day. Sob Sob. It's alright, I still saw him fight some crime, and The Flash and Green Lantern were plenty superhero for me. Um... YUM!

On the way we got ice-creams, and my Little Monster went mental if I didn't give him some. As you can see, he thoroughly enjoyed it! Then passed out.

Movieworld!

Waiting in the queue. We were so excited, but frustrated because we had no idea, out of the twenty queues there was, which one we should be in. Turns out we didn't even need to queue, because we had passes. LOL

Baby Batman ((the Monster)) and The Green Lantern ((Tim))

Betty in her Huntress costume

Here's what I worked with for her costume...

Obviously I had to make it a whole lot less skimpy, but I think i got it! She added a black belt over the top, because she has a teensy waist, and it looks good when she cinches things!

We got in, and posed out the front ((click to embiggen, it's so worth it!))

And the JUMP

Since finding my crazy colourful amazing Stephiee online years ago, everytime we go to a theme park we all do jumping photos, because that's what she does at Disneyland. And she is infinitely times better at it that we are!

We went to go on the Lethal Weapon ride, but it was closed in the morning, and we didn't get a chance to see if it was open later in the day. We weren't too fussed because we have VIP passes, and knew we'd be back like 200 times. So instead we took a few photos of my sister Betty with a car.

Damn she cute!

Basically with her dress I cut out a long t-shirt dress. On the front I stitched on the white band as sort of like an applique, but I didn't use Vliesofix, just pinned it on and stitched it. The purple belt is two purple tubes I pinned at the side seams in an x shape with black circle of fabric stitched over where they cross over.

This week I might work on doing a tute for these, but I'll draw the steps instead of sewing them because none of us need more costumes!

Her cape is just a big rectangle of purple stretchknit with white binding the edges. I stitched it the dress because making it detachable would just add to the bulk, and it sat nicer being joined. At the points where the cape meets at the front I stitched two little yellow crescent moon shapes. The weight of the cape made the dress gape a bit at the back neckline, so I stitche dsome elastic on the inside and it cinched it in.

She wore her dress over black shorts and paired them with her knee high cons.

Tim wanted to be Green Lantern, his new favourite.

Making the Monster be Karate Kid

I actually took photos for a tutorial of this shirt, so hopefully I can get it together and post it this week. Basically I made a baseball/raglan-sleeved shirt, the body of it in this beautiful soft green, the sleeves in black. I used white felt and traced around a dinner plate for the lantern background, then sat and sketched for a while until I had the perfect lantern shape. Then I cut that out of green felt and stitched it on too.

Easy!

omg i love this photo.

The Flash. Swoon!

Because my original Batman dress didn't fit me properly, I had to make a new one. I made another black t-shirt dress for myself, adding a yellow belt attached to it and a felt batman symbol to the chest. I'd run out of black stretchknit by this point, so I made my cape out of black drill and it tied around my neck. Yeh. All day people were asking me if my Batman tatts were real. Yes they are and No I didn't get to see Bats :(

best photo ever.

superhero day!

If you ever go to Movieworld, queue straight away for the Superman ride. It always takes the longest in the queue, we spend about an hour in the queue with the gang. Not so fun but the ride is worth it!!

Then we usually grab something to eat about then, then cruise around going on various rides. We always go on the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster about 7 times in a row if the queue is short. It's THE BEST RIDE! It's like a party on a rollercoaster. So much fun!

Then we queue up for the Stunt Show, which is fun. I hadn't seen it since I was a kid, but they revamped it and made it awesome! It used to be the Police Academy stunt show, but. Lol. They still have the massive fireball at the end!

I think if you didn't have the VIP pass  you'd have a hard time fitting all the rides and queue times in, so get one, it's well worth it and you can go as many times as you want. We took my cousin to Movieworld one day, then Wet n Wild the next ((both included in the VIP pass)) then after Wet n Wild ((a water park)) we decided to pop into Movieworld and go on the Spooky Coaster a few times. Hahha. So much fun being able to do that!

For more photos, check out the set on Flickr