Links from the video:
If you make a Sew Awesome Craft or any pattern, craft or recipe from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.
If you make a Sew Awesome Craft or any pattern, craft or recipe from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.
Mirror of Erised Mural
edited to maintain my daughter’s privacy
This could really be called a Way Back Craft, but I’ve done so much updating, I’m going to stick with DIY.
Six years ago, when my daughter was turning 8 years old, she wanted a Harry Potter room. All those years ago, we created the most magical room we could manage for her, and she’s loved it ever since.
On the back of her door, I created a Mirror of Erised just for her using a basic 4′ wall mirror. It’s been one of the highlights of her the HP theme, and what girl doesn’t need a mirror in her room?
Way back then, I never imagined she’d someday be taller than me. As she grew, it was clear that the Mirror of Erised mural I created for her was going to have to be adjusted for her lengthening height. Just last week, I did what I needed to do to so she could see herself in her mirror.
The original tutorial has been on every variation of my website for six years now. It’s posted on The Leaky Cauldron’s Crafts section and was mentioned, uncredited, in Entertainment Weekly in reference to Leaky Crafts. That original tutorial is below, with edits for the updated version of the mirror.
What You’ll Need
Instructions
Measure the mirror. Save the dimensions for later.
The Mirror
for frame-less mirror, skip to the mural instructions
Lightly sand the frame of the mirror. Wipe clean with a soft cloth. Cover mirror with newspaper, taping carefully around the edges of the mirror without covering the frame.
In a well-ventilated area, use spray primer to prime the frame. Follow manufacturer’s instructions.
Follow up with 2 coats of gold spray paint.
The Mural
While the mirror is drying, determine where it will hang.
Using the dimensions taken earlier, mark a space 1” smaller than the mirror dimensions on each side.
Use masking tape to tape the area where the frame will be.
Use pencil or chalk to draw the outside edge of the mirror.
This can be done freehand, or using the mirror from the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone movie as a reference. Add clawed feet to the legs. The mirror shown was drawn freehand, as were the updates.
Paint with gold craft paint.
After the mirror is completely dry, remove newspaper and masking tape. Mount to painted mural frame.
Using a paint pen or metallic Sharpie, write Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi across the top
of the mirror.
Using a paint pen or metallic Sharpie, ad details like swirls and stars.
Touch up if needed.
the original mirror, before enlarging
For more Harry Potter DIY, check out the HP Bookcase Mural, the Fat Lady Mural (pdf), and the Hogwarts House Canopies!
If you make a Sew Awesome Craft or any pattern, craft or recipe from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.
Check out some of my fun flickr craft-related groups!
If you make a Sew Awesome Craft or any pattern, craft or recipe from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.
Meet Crookshanks.
Yesterday, the Harry Potter knit & crochet community starknuts posted a new challenge for June. I loved the idea so much, I, ehem, am done.
What?! I had a spare hour and just the right yarn so…
Crook is made with Nimoe’s Miuku The Cat pattern and Yarn Bee Cameo yarn and has a DMC scarf.
He’s a clever kitteh, but is also a very brave Gryffindor.
I added a join, ch 1 at the end of each round, which I found easiest to work with because of the fuzz factor.
Add it to your ravelry queue 
His scarf has stripes (and gave me a cramp in my right hand…)
Bottlebrush tail and slightly cocky ears. Love him!
Meeting some of the family…
Crookshanks with Merlin, who kept knocking the poor wee thing over.
Crookshanks, being embraced by Button, diva from birth and always a fabulous cat.
A HUGE thanks to my lovely daughter, for her creative input.
If you make a Sew Awesome Craft or any pattern, craft or recipe from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.
If you make a Sew Awesome Craft or any pattern, craft or recipe from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.
I’m proud to announce the Beedle The Bard Paper Piecing Design Challenge that will be taking place from today, May 20 until June 23, 2009 on my Livejournal Community, hp_paperpiecing.
Go read all about it and see the FANTASTIC prizes!
I hope to see you there!
Come talk to me!
I just heard of the First Annual Blogger’s Quilt Festival yesterday and my first thought was “why didn’t I think of that?!” What a great idea, bringing quilting bloggers together by sharing photos of our quilts.
The idea is to post photos of your favorite quilt that you’ve made and tell it’s story. Excellent idea, huh!
My Magical Lens, designed, pieced and quilted by Jennifer Ofenstein
My all time favorite quilt that I have made, absolutely hands-down, is my Harry Potter quilt. I embarked on this project in early 2006. My family had long been fans (we started reading Harry in 1999) and I’d been quilting for a few years. After discovering what so many HP crafters now know, that licensed fabric is out of print and nigh on impossible to find (and expensive if you do!), I decided to try to design my own.
The very first HP block I designed was Hedwig, though not the one that ended up in the quilt (you can see it in the photo below…bleargh!). It was pretty dreadful, too complicated and just bad, bad, bad. I’d only ever designed simple blocks before, so I changed gears and started with a broom and a lightning bolt. The stack of blocks began to grow. All through the process, I was sharing on the Harry Potter Crafts Yahoo! Group. Members started asking if I’d share my patterns, and before long, my little craft site, then called Jen’s Crochet & Crafts, grew into sewhooked, full of all kinds of crafts, crochet, and now paper pieced patterns.
I went to Lumos in Las Vegas in 2006 and took my HP blocks with me to share with my online craft friends. By this time I was a Moderator at Harry Potter Crafts. Sharing my designs and other projects I’d made with them for myself and friends, on top of the fact that I knew HTML, led to a year and a half as a Crafty Witch at The Leaky Cauldron where I made truly amazing friends. The quilt that wasn’t a quilt yet was already helping me to connect with people.
In the fall of 2006, I decided to attend Phoenix Rising in New Orleans which, like Lumos, was a Harry Potter fandom conference, and was scheduled to take place in May 2007. Even though my quilt wasn’t even close to done, nor was I close to having enough blocks designed for a whole quilt, I entered a mock-up for consideration in the Phoenix Rising art gallery, and was, to my surprise, accepted. With a deadline looming, I started churning out patterns and blocks, finishing up the quilt in March of 2007, just two months before it was to be shown in New Orleans.
This quilt is more just a million bits of fabric stitched together. It represents all the years I’ve loved Harry Potter and some of my favorite things about the series. It has brought me friends, and fans, and brought more quilters that I can count into the wonderful world of paper piecing. In the fall of 2007, I started hp_paperpiecing on Livejournal as way to share more with other Harry Potter quilters than just patterns. I’ve posted over 100 unique HP themed blocks there and have in the process met a lot of awesome quilters and designers, many brand new to paper piecing.
The mock-up submitted for submission into the Phoenix Rising art gallery (complete with horrible Hedwig).
I don’t design as many HP blocks as I used to, though I’m still very involved with hp_paperpiecing.
Harry Potter patterns at sewhooked, free for personal and non-profit use.
See loads more photos of the making of My Magical Lens over at flickr.
If you make any pattern or craft from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the Friends of sewhooked flickr group.
Happy crafting
Wow, can it really be so long since I last posted? I’m somewhat ashamed to realize how long it’s been since a new craft or pattern has graced the sewhooked blog.
I have been having a lot of Real Life lately, which I will be talking about here fairly soon.
In the meantime, I’d like to pimp two craft challenges, both for LiveJournal groups that I moderate or help moderate.
There are new tutorials and a new paper pieced pattern in the works. Until then, I remain yours craftily,
Sewhooked 