Monday Morning Photo Dump #4

All photos edited in Instagram

Not American

I'm getting so frustrated lately. It seems that every contest I want to enter is 'for US residents only'. Not just crafty giveaways, I'm talking even places I would like to buy cute gear from - they don't ship to Australia.

Seriously COME ON! What is this? I buy stuff on eBay all the time, I've bought giant boxes of things from the States and I am prepared to pay the shipping. If it's all about the cost of shipping can't you at least give us that option? Why just alienate your readers and shoppers that don't happen to be American?

It's getting to me you guys. Really getting to me.  I got so excited when I saw this tee. Yes it just looks like a regular tee with Star Wars across the chest, but the Star Wars logo is see-through, so I could wear different singlets underneath and have different colours coming through.

Also there is a Star Wars hoodie I had my heart set on, as well as the Boba Fett-ish underwear set. But guess what? They don't ship to Australia.

At least I got a response when I emailed them. They said they'll ship to Australia 'soon'. Thank you I appreciate it but wow. It's 2011, not 1811.

Whatever. Way to encourage me to DIY even harder.

/end rant

Monday Morning Photo Dump #3

All photos edited in Instagram

34 Tutorials!

I organised all my tutorials the other day! Did you know I have written 34? That's crazy! I didn't think I had that many but I sorted through all my posts and found them. Check out the Tutorial page! It's got a neat new layout, way easier to navigate [I hope]!

Let me know what you think!

Death Star Singlet

Not sure if I blogged about this shirt or not? I'm currently going through all the photos on my old computer and finding loads of things I don't think I had ever put up here!

If I have well, uh, let's reminisce together shall we?

I stenciled this singlet on May 5, I remember this because we were celebrating the afterparty of May the Fourth [be with you] as Revenge of the Fifth

 It was a plain white singlet I had made last year, but I had nothing to wear that night. We were actually going to go see Thor and I thought this would be appropriate? hahah. Anyway!

It was a mad dash to make myself another Star Wars shirt, I didn't have ANYTHING to stencil with so I used one of those plastic shipping bags I had gotten a parcel in. It made the stencil easy to make and cut out but I had to tape it down everywhere so it was not appropriate for stencilling something even as simple as the Death Star!

Overall I love the way it turned out, even if one of my friends teased me and asked why I had a half-eaten orange stenciled on my shirt.

Beach Shorts

At Spotlight the other day, I spied this cute blue + white striped terry towelling fabric. All I could think of was my boy's delicious chunky legs sticking out of a pair of shorts at the beach.

And that's exactly what I made it into when I got home. I was over-enthusiastic and got 1.5m. And these shorts took up like... 25cm. Soooo I need to think of some cool towelling fabric projects!

Hilariously enough I went into my studio to hunt for some cord [didn't find any] and found green and white striped terry cloth...

I used Dana's Kids Pants pattern and adjusted it to make it into short shorts. I seriously love this pattern. It's a  perfect for for my Little Monster! He's tall and skinny and although the length is a little too long I know I can give them wide hems and give him room to grow! When he's out of nappies they should still fit around his little slender hips too.

I like big butts and I cannot lie

[I linked this project up to some Linky Parties!]

Dress with a Peplum + Tutorial

See this dress?

  I made it out of a Star Wars single bed quilt cover. I drafted the pattern myself from my old fashion school blocks.

I am so ready for Anakin to take me to prom!

It was pretty fun to make, even if the Star Wars print on it was apparently old curtain material. It was rubber backed! It was thick to sew on my poor old machine [I made this before I got my new machines] and it was kinda sticky. The turquoise part was the back of the quilt cover and is just a very thin cotton poplin. 

I bought the quilt cover on eBay for about $10 which was awesome and when I recieved it I realised that it had been homemade by someone else. There were no tags and I suppose that is why they used the curtain fabric? Either way it was too awesome. 

I still have about half of the Star Wars fabric left. I have no idea what to make out of it but it's definitely heading to my sacred fabrics pile. You know the rare stuff you get in small quantities you are too scared to use in case you don't do it justice? Yeh the remnants are destined for that place.

Do you want to make one too? You can download the pdf of the tutorial here {mediafire} or here {google docs} In it I'll show you how to draft the pattern yourself [this means a perfect fit!] and how to sew it all up!

[Seriously having a terrible photo-taking day so yes, you get three pics almost identical as a preview. Also I linked this project up to some Linky Parties!]

Monday Morning Photo Dump #2

All photos edited in Instagram

Super Hero

One of my friends asked me to make a little superhero outfit for her son for a party. I haven't met her son yet, even though he's almost 1 and a half, but him and I are facebook friends so it's totally okay.

Heh heh.

I knew I'd be making something similar to what we did for the Little Monster and the Little Genius when we all went to Movieworld. Leggings and a tee with a cape. She didn't have a specific hero in mind, so I kinda just made it up as I went along.

I just used whatever I had lying around, black and red stretchknit, a scrap of white and loads of Vliesofix. I made the leggings first, stitching a small lightning bolt on the back of one leg and running a large bolt down the outside of the other.

He was mad at me because HE wanted to take the photos

Then I made the tee. I made a diamond shape and stitched it to the front piece before adding another lightning bolt. The sleeves are raglan sleeves I decided to do last minute and in a contrast colour of red. The cape is detachable and is attached at the backs of the shoulders with small press-studs.

What would you name this super hero? Or is he a super villain? What are his powers?