Category Archives: sewing

Fabulous Fanciful Fairies

It’s Bigger On The Inside

Free TARDIS paper pieced pattern, designed by me
and tested (as shown) by the ever awesome Shae.

Oh, fandom quilting, how do I love thee?

Bigger on the inside, that’s how!

In a fit of I Am A Fan, I made this a highly detailed TARDIS. I designed this pattern to be a 6″ block, but I would recommend enlarging it even bigger to work on, just for sanity’s sake. Shae made her’s 6″ and it worked out beautifully.

TARDIS Pattern

Why is the pattern purple? No idea. I drafted it back in May of 2009 and then it got lost amongst my files. When I unearthed it a couple of weeks ago, I realized it just needed numbering and separating. My guess is I had some really good wine and thought the purple was blue…

Need more Doctor Who?

How about a Dalek quilt block?

Sample pieced by Stephanie T

Or a fandom tee?

More hardcore fan, you say?

Tardis Door Mural

Need even more DW? Check out crafty_tardis on Livejournal and the Doctor Who crafts flickr group.

Happy crafting!

Add your Sewhooked-related photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post.

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Electric Amish

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Electric Amish, 55″ x 73″

Some days are better than others. The day I finish a big project is always a good day!

I pieced this top in early 2006. Then, in a moment of complete insanity, I decided to hand quilt it.

I’d only been quilting a couple of years and I thought, for reasons I can’t even explain myself, that I needed to hand quilt a project in order to be considered a “real quilter.” Do I believe that now? Absolutely not.

Had I ever hand quilted anything? No, no I had not. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, what kind of thread to use, needles, anything. I just jumped in with both feet and started stitching.

I picked up and packed away this project more times than I care to mention. Dozens of other projects (mostly paper pieced!) were completed while this one waited patiently in its big red bag. To put it in perspective, I lost a pair of glasses for a whole year because I accidentally put them away with this quilt. It’s been on vacation to New Mexico to visit my BFF, sat with me through many movies, lots of sci-fi and true crime shows. It collected cat hair sitting on the arm of my chair.

The pattern came from an old magazine that I still have floating around somewhere. It’s a Storm At Sea pattern, set on point. I had never made a quilt this complicated at the time and had no idea what “on point” really meant. Part of that experience was chopping off half the blocks all the way around. If I remember correctly, I almost had a panic attack when I made the first cut.

I kept all those cut blocks. Earlier this year, I turned them into a small quilt for The Linus Connection, which I dubbed Baby Storm. Finishing that quilt gave me the impetus I needed to get this project out again and get it finished! If you’ve been following for a while, you might remember this was on my UFO Round Up for 2010.

One of the most special things about this quilt for me is what it represents. All bright and batik fabrics were gifts to me from my Bee friends. I pieced this top on my very first quilt retreat with those same ladies. It’s my first hand quilting project and my first big project that made for myself start to finish. 4+ years (really, almost 5!) and it’s done. I could not be happier.

Electric Amish was named by my friend Linda when I first started piecing it. Linda, do you remember?!

Tackett, helping me quilt (obviously!)

The quilting isn’t anywhere near perfect, but as time passed, my stitching did improve.

I take a fabulous close up of one of the blaring errors! Still, I think it’s pretty.

Baby Storm, donated to The Linus Connection, August 2010

Happy crafting!

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Way Back Craft: Snape Dammit Doll

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If you’re not familiar with Dammit Dolls, the idea is this: a basic soft doll with long legs to hold on to, usually accompanied by a poem that goes something like this:

When you want to kick the desk or throw the phone and shout,
Here’s a little dammit doll you cannot do without,
Just grasp it firmly by the legs, and find a place to slam it,
And as you whack it’s stuffing out, yell,
dammit, dammit, dammit!

What? Sometimes a girl has to vent her frustration! Of course, I can’t do that in an ordinary way, it has to have a fandom twist to it.

Print the Free Pattern Here

My original post on Craftster, January 27, 2007:

I’ve been feeling a bit… erm, craftipated, and decided on a simple & fun project that might help me get back on the crafty track.

I’ve seen Snape as a dammit doll before and decided to do one of my own. I’ve left him with a, shall we say “blank” expression? (Read: I suck at faces.)

One of my friends has suggested Voldie, Umbridge & the Malfoys as possible future candidates to be dammit dolled.

Now I need a Snaperific poem to go along with him.

For the pattern, I drew out the shape I wanted then cut the hands, feet & head away from the body, cut those out of muslin and the body out of black adding seam allowance to all the pieces. I then attached hands, feet & head, then sewed front to back. I stuffed it & stitched up the hole I’d left for stuffing. For the hair… I wrapped black yarn around a 6″ ruler, then stitched it down the middle, hand-stitched it to his head then gave it a trim so to achieve those “greasy black curtains” of hair.

I had some issues with the corners (under the arms, neck, etc). I think it was more the fabric than the pattern. The black fabric was a little too loosely woven, so the stitching was pulling out. I think if I used a tighter fabric, I wouldn’t have the same problems.

I’m may make some shoes and a cloak for him, but I haven’t decided yet. I kind of like him just the way he is.

ETA: No cloak or shoes, or anything else for that matter, but Dammit Snape still lives in my sewing room. He still makes me smile, even without a Snapetastic Dammit Doll poem.

Happy crafting!

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Fabric Friday – Ninjas!

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This fabric Friday comes with a bit of a story. During my Hot Dog Pillowcase kick earlier this year, my darling hubby jokingly commented that’d he’d love a set of ninja pillowcases. Not long after that, Honey Bee got the Ninja Kanji fabric in from Alexander Henry. Fate intercedes? Oh, yes, I do think so!

So, darling hubby gets his set of ninja pillowcases and he loves them. Adores them, is more like… He hasn’t had them a week when he comments how awesome the fabric would be for his favorite kimono. I started making kimonos for The Big Guy way back in 1996. He’s just shy of six and a half feet tall and finding a robe that fit him comfortably was impossible. I had a kimono jacket pattern that I liked and ended up using that basic idea and tailoring it to his height. I’ve probably made one of these every three or four years since.

Soooo….the next time I was at work, I bought the rest of the bolt. It took about 6 1/2 yards of fabric.

Don’t let the serious look on his face fool you. He loves the kimono, he just doesn’t love the idea of being on my blog! And, ignore the mess. I’ve been cleaning out closets and dressers and have a pile donation stuff going in the only (formerly!) clear spot in our bedroom. Can you spot Sunbonnet Sue in the picture? (Hint: she’s not with the junk!)

I did document the kimono making process and I *might* make a tutorial. If you twist my arm and/or bribe me with chocolate. Maybe!

Happy Crafting!

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Tire for Hire

Way Back Craft: Potter Puppet Pals

TTMT #72 – Pants!!

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The She-Shirt Tutorial

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Way Back Craft: Recycled Binder

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In thinking about Back to School season, and the accordian file that I upcycled last week, I thought about a project I did for my daughter a couple of years ago. Then I realized, while I posted a photo of it in a collection of other upcycled/recycled projects, I’d never really talked about it here on my blog.

Here is the story the way I told in August of 2008, on craftster:

This craft starts with a story. My 13 year old daughter’s middle school is huge. The kids have less than 5 minutes to get from class to class and they don’t always have time to go to their lockers. Many of them carry large binders so they can have multiple classes worth of work with them all the time.

Last year, we bought this binder for her, in an attempt to give her a place to keep all her things. Within a few months, the rings in the binder blew out. The handle is on the back of the rings, so the weight of the contents pulls down on them, causing them to fail.

So, time for a redesign. How about a binder cover/bag that has the weight in the opposite direction and that can have the 3-ring binder changed when needed, without losing the rest?

I think this may be one of the coolest things I’ve made and I’m ridiculously pleased with the way it turned out! It holds a 3″ 3-ring binder, which cost about $6 at the office supply store. Everything else was recycled or I had on hand.

Outside back – the binding was hand stitched on the outside. There was just too much stuff going on inside to do it the opposite way. Cool sparkly fabric was a gift from hardhatcat.

The other side, standing up – the strap is recycled from the old binder. The strap clicks onto a large split ring. The bits of ribbon were from a sheet of samples someone gave me. The denim was cut on the bias so it has give. Oh, and the denim was leftover from a project that a friend of mine did. She gave me her leftovers!

inside – the accordion files, back mesh pocket & zipper are all recycled

The accordion file, recycled from the old binder. It was a bit hard to stitch around, but I managed by moving my needle over to the far left.

All that’s left of the original. I used a razor blade to take it apart. Razors are the friend of anyone that recons heavy duty materials, but they take a sure hand.

More photos of the binder cover/tote here.

My daughter loves it, especially the “bag” aspect, freeing up her hands and making it’ll be easier to carry her stuff.

Happy Crafting!

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Way Back Craft: An Edward Just For You

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I’ve been walking down memory lane and plundering my old forum posts. I don’t post much to crafty forums anymore, mostly because I like the “not having rules” part that comes with posting to my own blog. 😉

This Way Back Craft has had some of the greatest comments of both love and hate, including the dubious honor of having once been featured on Craftastrophe. Poor Edward was referred to there as a toilet paper cover. Fortunately for me, I have pretty thick skin and a sense of humor, so I took it with a grain of salt, which is exactly the vein in which Edward Puppet Pal was made.

What I didn’t say in the following forum post is that I also included a list of Edward’s catch phrases, so he would always have the right thing to say at just the right time! See, sense of humor. 😉

You can see my original crafter post here. Edward Puppet Pal was part of the same swap as the Team Edward t-shirt that was immortalized in my first freezer paper stenciling video. You don’t know comments until you post a video on YouTube with the word “Twilight” anywhere in the tags, title or description. Viva la haters!

I made this for silverfisch for the Twilight Swap Round 2 (gallery). It’s Edward Cullen, from Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight, inspired by The Potter Puppet Pals.

He’s made out of felt, with fabric paint details on his face. I really just eyeballed the whole pattern, figuring it out as I went along. I hope you like him!

I made the button on my buttonmaker, with a little help from some poly glitter!