May 03, 2008
projects
I think I'm about to pick up something I stopped knitting five years ago... Can you do that?
Posted by kelseyfrost at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)
October 07, 2007
Weekend spent making stuff
It's a three day weekend and Dave was away in Florida, so I decided to stay in and make things all weekend. Well, and read. But there was much more making than reading, definitely. Did I mention I'm kind of lazy? Did I mention I've decided not to get my Ph.D?*
My most productive and fun project was making notepads out of old medical record dividers that Dave found in the basement this summer. Thanks to the talented Ali Osborn, whose skills include knowing what type of adhesive to order for sticking paper to other paper in special ways, I ended up with a nice stack that I think I want to bring in to d.i.t.u. and maybe pair up with some recycled crayons for the kiddies.
I also cut a number of little soda bottles for a votive holder/candle collaboration with ReWax Candles. The little bottles are super thick glass and so are a total pain to sand down. I hope I get these done in a timely fashion! A preview of the ReWax project-- but the candle would be inside the glass.
*After three years of sitting in classes thinking "I don't belong here. I don't belong here," I finally thought, "Hey, maybe this isn't what I want to do after all..." So I'm going to finish my MA this year and be done with it and get a job teaching Spanish somewhere and have time to do what I enjoy and hang out with my husband and friends. I'm excited. Of course, I need to keep it together enough to read the 35 medieval Spanish texts I need to know before I take the comprehensive exam in the Spring...
Posted by kelseyfrost at 09:28 PM | Comments (0)
August 30, 2007
sleep masks and glasses
I like these three fabrics for the sleep masks:
I'll be at d.i.t.u. today from 2-4, so I'll bring these in!
I also have a couple of bottles that I'm hanging onto for now, until the first ones get sold.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 12:10 PM | Comments (0)
August 29, 2007
dandie crafties
Dandie in the Underworld was kind enough to post some pictures of the beer-bottle-glasses I made for them, along with some other cool crafts they have in the shop. And just when I was feeling like I should put some up myself. Stay tuned for some new sleep masks! And don't miss the d.i.t.u. rock show this weekend!
Posted by kelseyfrost at 06:38 PM | Comments (0)
July 23, 2007
If you're going to drink the beer anyways, supplies are cheap.
It's been a crafty summer, if not a particularly studious one. Maybe if I give my advisor a sleep mask or a bag of some sort he won't be as disappointed in my lack of progress on the thesis. I am trying to either get over my lack of interest in the topic or get up the courage to email him and talk about the idea that is really interesting to me-- of course, he's getting married in Spain and preparing a honeymoon to China... so that makes him slightly less available.
This post is actually supposed to be about craftiness, so let's get on with it! Apparently my sleep masks have been pretty well received at Dandie, so I'm working on making some more. Starting teaching has made me a little less motivated about doing any sewing, but I have three masks ready to bring over, and could maybe make a few more by the end of the week.
I brought them one coffee cozy like the one I made myself a few months ago, but I want to make a couple more of those-- some better ones --to see if people are into the idea.
My latest thing is trying to come up with crafts that some of the local menfolk might be interested in buying. Recently I've settled on the idea of cutting beer bottles into drinking glasses. I'd seen similar glasses around, but I always imagined it might be kind of tricky to actually do. Well, it is and it isn't.
In principle, it's an easy process, and a quick Google of "bottle cutting" gave me some straight forward suggestions. I picked up a bottle cutter at Michael's (complete with an instruction booklet that will put you right off the idea, with its ugly creations) and got cutting. My first bottle broke almost perfectly, but the sanding of the edges was challenging. I was encouraged, and I kept going...
At which point every bottle either wouldn't break, wouldn't break evenly, or cracked ever so slightly along the way. These Boylan's bottles came out pretty well, but the edges are a little uneven (not sharp, though) so I am not quite happy enough with them to sell them:
So far, I've figured out that soda bottles like these are thicker than beer bottles, and so are tough to break along a straight edge. Red Stripe bottles (*hiccup*) are nice and thin, but two of the three I attempted this afternoon cracked a little bit and so aren't going to live up to my expectations. (The third didn't score quite straight to begin with, so I didn't bother continuing the process.)
I'm still quite sure I'll get the hang of it. The problem is, you run out of bottles and so have to empty more, at which point you probably shouldn't be fooling around with broken glass... so it's a bit of a wait between each session. I guess I need volunteers to keep me supplied with lovely bottles on which to practice. Any takers?
Posted by kelseyfrost at 05:34 PM | Comments (0)
June 27, 2007
Dandie in the Underworld!
Dandie in the Underworld opens* this Saturday, June 30, at noon. I'm so excited to go by and see all the great crafts they have; the last time I stopped in, it was looking really incredible. And check out this article by Kelsey Flynn!
*Apparently it's not the "Grand Opening," but rather just the opening opening. The "Grand Opening" will be fancier, and later.
(With these girls in charge, you just know it's going to be good.)
Posted by kelseyfrost at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)
June 08, 2007
Summer craft projects: 3, Thesis: 0
I finally got it together enough to bring some crafty items to Dandie in the Underworld last night. They're still getting things set up- the space will eventually hold a studio as well as the retail shop -but it's already starting to come together, and they have some great work by local crafters. I can't wait for them to really open!
So, I totally got into the idea of making some sleep masks since watching "Breakfast at Tiffany's" last weekend. I picked up some cute little fabric squares at Valley Fabrics and figured out a pattern that worked. Here they are:
I have a hard time with straight seams on the sewing machine, so maintaining that shape was impossible for me. I ended up sewing them by hand and actually leaving the paper pattern pinned on as a guide. I used two layers of the cotton attached to one layer of a satiny fabric for the back side. I had thought about just using the cotton, to make them more washable, but it just wasn't opaque enough, so the satin helped in that regard. It was also really hard to pin the elastic on straight, between the layers of fabric, and have it stay in place while sewing. There were a few duds with really crooked elastics at the end!
Posted by kelseyfrost at 01:31 PM | Comments (0)
May 29, 2007
New summer skirt!
Today I payed a visit to the very dangerous Valley Fabrics and was instantly overwhelmed by all their beautiful stuff. I went with a couple of projects in mind: a skirt and a little something I'm hoping to make for Dandie in the Underworld when Rosa and Marisa get it up and running.
I made the skirt this afternoon, using the pattern in Sew U. I was reading the section on skirts and there is a suggestion for how to adapt the pattern to use an elastic or drawstring waist instead of a zipper. I decided to go for the elastic, since I'm a little sick of sewing in zippers. But there was one little problem...
The book says that, to make the elastic waist, all you need to do is not sew up the darts, to make it a little wider. I got the skirt all sewn together and realized that there was clearly going to be trouble. There was no way the skirt's skinny waist was going on over my hips as required. So, I chopped it off at a more reasonable width. It made the skirt much shorter, maybe shorter than I was going to make it originally, but I think it ended up being a cute, summer skirt.
Next time, I'll definitely adjust the width at the waistline before cutting, since I plan to make this pattern again, and continue to avoid zippers sometimes.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 09:00 PM | Comments (0)
May 25, 2007
finished denim skirt: first summer project
This morning I decided to finish summer project #1 and sew up my new skirt made from some old jeans. While I was still writing my paper a few days ago, I took a break to rip out the seams of the pants, cut them, and pin everything together. It only took an hour or so, so I didn't need to feel too guilty about procrastinating.
My initial pinning was pretty good, but I had to adjust when I tried it on to check it out. The panel in the front stuck out funny, so I had to re-pin that part while wearing it. Tricky! This might be a project better done with someone else to help. Here is the end result:
Not bad, eh?
I had originally put another panel in the back there, but it was *way more complicated* to re-pin that part, so I went with what you see. I think it works.
When I first started thinking about this project as an alternative to buying a new skirt, these instructions from not martha were very helpful and stuck with me.
Yay! What's next, I wonder...?
Posted by kelseyfrost at 04:18 PM | Comments (0)
May 24, 2007
the craftiness is starting
My last paper of the semester has been written.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 12:28 AM | Comments (0)
May 05, 2007
Oh, I've got plans.
I have all sorts of crafty undertakings planned for after the semester ends. Of course, I feel like I'm actually doing very little to get myself to that point... (That's not entirely true... I'm home working on a paper instead of out at the Eagles Club. Can't you see I'm working?)
For one thing, I've stocked up on a few Built by You patterns from Built by Wendy. As you have heard, but not seen, I made a pair of pants based on the pattern in her "Sew U" book and they are very cute.
I just bought this other pattern for different pants:
As well as this dress pattern:
Not to mention all the skirts I plan on making from "Sew U" and a nascent thought about turning some old jeans into a skirt, but trying not to do it in a hippie way. I'd like to successfully make a denim pencil skirt or a-line skirt out of some dark denim Gap jeans I don't wear too much anymore.
See how many things I will have to help me avoid writing my thesis?
Posted by kelseyfrost at 12:38 AM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2007
Spanish craftiness
I love this. (via craftzine.com)
Posted by kelseyfrost at 11:08 PM | Comments (0)
February 09, 2007
Felted crafties.
The woman at Sticky Wicket Crafts sent me an email that said needle felting was addictive. Well, yes it is. I had to hide the supplies in a closet down the hall from our apartment in order to be able to carry on with my studies. But here's a bit about the fun and dangerous, stabby process:
This is early on in the stabbing process and the wool is starting to stick to itself and flatten out. That tool is scary and hurts if you accidentally stab your fingers.
It's a little more convincing now, isn't it? It looks like felt.
It was hard to figure out any way to decorate the felt other than dots. But with time, I think more things could be made. The wispy wool roving in the lower left corner is how it all started out.
I did manage to felt a heart onto the front of this wallet-type thing, which is good for my dorky self.
Don't start felting! You won't be able to stop and you'll be sorry...
Posted by kelseyfrost at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)
January 29, 2007
Craftiness happened.
I need to take some photos before I do a real post about all the crafty things I made over my break/non-break. Pants were sewn and I learned how to crochet! Here's a preview of things to (hopefully, sometime soon) come:
In the meantime, however, classes start today and I've already dreamt (on two separate nights) that I missed them all during the first week.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 07:34 AM | Comments (0)
December 28, 2006
crafty week
After knitting Dave a pair of mittens and myself a cute little hat-thingy from Knitty, I found my long-lost embroidery patterns from Sublime Stitching and went a little nuts.
My first project was a camera case for a cutie new camera I bought with some Christmas money. This was followed closely by an iPod case. The iPod case came out pretty nicely, but I was a little lazy when I made the camera case and it looks kind of crappy. Well, what can you do? It's a barrel of monkeys, by the way:
Then I used some leftover felt to make a case for my cell phone (which I didn't photograph) and a little coffee cup holder (so as to be careful about wasting paper, while still protecting my wimpy fingers from hot cups!):
Posted by kelseyfrost at 06:59 PM | Comments (1)
March 22, 2006
Cookies!
My Kitchen Aid mixer has been used twice in the past week. Twice! Today I followed this recipe for home-made thin mints, Dave's favorite girl scout cookie. Pictures after the jump.
Just out of the oven, now cooling. At this point, Eliza called me and said we were going to Moshi, so I had to leave the cookies unattended with the monster cats. It worked out.
Heart-shaped, for extra dorkiness.
Now, dipped in the mint-chocolate coating, they just have to set in the refrigerator.
I hope they'll be good! They were rather labor intensive.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 02:45 PM | Comments (1)
February 27, 2006
Knit post!
Yep, I made something. Actually, two nearly identical somethings- one for myself and one for my sister. I also posted a photo from my new cell phone for the first time, which is sort of exciting. It's kind of an oddly-lit photo, but it shows of the knitting pretty well.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 03:45 PM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2006
And you thought I had given up on being crafty!
Posted by kelseyfrost at 08:54 AM | Comments (0)
November 21, 2005
Shrine update
See that iPod shrine at the top? That's mine. I feel very honored. And crafty. And that's Lauren Piotrowski's painting in the background. Of course, I haven't won anything, but I think my shrine looks pretty.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 12:49 PM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2005
Crafty, crafty.
This was something I made for Christmas a couple of years ago. I think I might do it again...
The feminist literary critics are driving me bonkers. They like to talk like Derrida. Also, the cats. The cats are driving me bonkers. (As I was writing that last sentence, they knocked a pot of chick peas, that had been soaking in water on the stove for a couple of hours, to the kitchen floor. It was really fun to clean up.)
Posted by kelseyfrost at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)
November 08, 2005
There is no feasible way I'll actually get knitting done this winter, so I don't know why I bother.
I was hoping to take the opportunity to pick up some long forgotten knitting projects tomorrow morning, while my classes are taking their test. (I have discovered that I am incapable of focusing on my own work while they have tests. I don't know why.) I thought I'd start with the nearly finished mittens, or maybe even the striped socks, or possibly start a new hat for Dave, who has lost all his favorites. But when I went to look for the two books I need for the things I want to do, I found them missing. Did I lend them to anyone? Or were they (as I fear) misplaced in the move this summer?
Hey! I just noticed that on the Amazon page for the "Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns" they let you look inside the book- at the section on mittens! Okay, now we're getting somewhere. I love internet. Of course, I'd have to be looking at the web page the whole time, or write the pattern down... but it's a start...
Posted by kelseyfrost at 06:29 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 18, 2005
As Rafa Gomez would have said, "Scary in the.... sewing pattern?"
Okay, back to Marx.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 06:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 19, 2005
With the help of my bedroom furniture, I managed to take some early morning, headless photos of me in the new skirt.
So, finally, an update on the finished red pencil skirt from the Betsy Ross pattern. Ta-da!
I like it pretty well, despite the slight bunching in the front. My helpful sewing consultant at Valley Fabrics says I can probably adjust the darts to fix that. Maybe I'll give it a shot this weekend. Or maybe I'll just try to do a better job with the black one. Hmmm.. tough choice. At any rate, I hope to have this skirt pattern perfected by the time I attempt to make one with the nice brown wool I got at VF.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 08:58 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 18, 2005
Look at this: I'm already planning my next craft project and I haven't even started my second pencil skirt. I'm getting ahead of myself, here.
I think I need to get some fabric from Repro Depot. I've been admiring their inventory for a few years (at a distance, you know) and only just recently discovered that they run their shop out of Eastworks. The have lots of cute prints that would be perfect for making all sorts of things. I think this one might have to be first on my list. What should I make?
Posted by kelseyfrost at 03:43 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 11, 2005
I've been scouring the internet for sewing tips today.
I found someone else's play-by-play commentary on the Betsy Ross pencil skirt. Cinnamon Cooper of Poise.cc is a way better seamstress than I am (I was going to say "sewer." It sounds okay in your head, but it's very different when you write it down, isn't it?). I mean, it sounds like she successfully got rid of the front-of-skirt-puffiness I mentioned. Me? I don't want to un-sew and re-cut and re-sew. This is partly because I haven't had a seam-ripper in three years and partly because I just don't want to. Well, since I'm already planning to make this skirt in black, too, maybe I'll be a little more discerning on the second one.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 02:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The skirt is now hanging on the dressform with a trash bag over it so the cats won't use it as a scratching post. Not like plastic can stop them...
I finished the waistband on my skirt last night and started pinning the hem. When I tried it on, it fit pretty well. It was a little puffy in the front (I just think I suck at sewing darts), so I tried to fix that. I think I succeeded... but my efforts may have had no effect at all; I might have just decided not to care as much about the puffiness. Not sure if I'll have time to work on it tonight, even though the hem won't take long, so I'm not actually positive I'll be able to wear my new skirt to Joel's wedding. I'll have to come up with a contingency outfit...
Posted by kelseyfrost at 09:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 10, 2005
Oh, there could be so much craftiness!
I just discovered the Gocco love fest over at Flickr. Every few months, something reminds me about the Printo Gocco and I instantly start looking for a cheap one on eBay. I always end up deciding I need to save my money, however, and remain (sadly) Gocco-less. There are a few prospects on eBay right now. If any of them stay in the $5 price range (ha ha), maybe I'll finally get one. For now, I'll just look at the Flickr photos and daydream.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 10:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Because of Betsy Ross, I spent four hours shut in the dining room by myself. The cats were not pleased.
I got off to a very good start on the Betsy Ross skirt last night. It's nearly finished; just the waistband and the hem are left. I had to make myself stop sewing last night because I knew I was getting too tired and would start rushing through things. I am impatient! Here are some photos of the progress:
(The pattern pieces, just cut.)
(Muslin trial run on the dress form. No, I haven't finished the bikini yet.)
(Cutting out the red twill. I had to close the doors to the living room and dining room after Rosa tried to "help.")
(It's almost done!)
(I just have to finish the waistband, and then sew the hem. So close!)
Zippers suck. Seriously: I hate sewing in zippers. I think it will turn out okay, but it was looking rough for a while there. I also decided to use some interfacing on the hem, rather than fold it over twice, like the pattern suggested. I just seemed like it was going to be too bulky and frustrating, but I think this will work okay. My only other concern is if the skirt will actually fit. I think it will but, even after making the muslin one, I'm still nervous about figuring out pattern sizing. We shall see... this may in fact be finished by Friday.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 09:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 09, 2005
The hard part is always keeping the cats off the fabric while I'm trying to cut it.
I went to the fabric store last night and bought cotton twill in red and black, so I can get started on making some skirts. I'm going to try something I haven't done before and make the skirt in muslin before I start the actual skirt. This way, I guess, I can figure out whether or not it will fit and make any necessary alterations to the pattern. Fancy! I'm usually too lazy for this kind of tweaking, so we'll see how well I do. Know what would be exciting? If I finished one of these skirts in time to wear it to my stepbrother's wedding this Friday. Think I can do it?
Posted by kelseyfrost at 12:37 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 08, 2005
The return of homemade lip balm
A couple of years ago, I was inspired by not martha's adventures in making lip balm and made orange flavored lip balm for everyone I knew. With her thorough instructions and a slightly different recipe, it was a great success. I had been meaning to make up another batch of it ever since, but had never been able to find eye droppers that would work for filling up the containers. Yesterday, Dave and I stopped in at Aurora Borealis and there were the perfect eye droppers for 99 cents! I bought two (just in case) and some peppermint essential oil and made up a mini batch of lip balm, once again with not martha's help. Again, I had to tweak her recipe slightly. I'm lazy and don't want to buy ingredients, so this is the recipe I came up with to fill up about six of these little plastic jars:
1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of coconut oil (mine was melted and spilled all over the floor for extra mopping!)
1 1/2 teaspoons of beeswax (give or take)
1 teaspoon of olive oil
10 drops of essential oil
The last batch I made was very gloss-like rather than balm like, so I went for more beeswax this time. I'm very glad my experiment worked out so well. The lip balm came out just the way I wanted it to.
I followed not martha's perfect instructions for melting the ingredients and then droppered them little by little into the containers. I had a little problem at first because the dropper was much colder than the liquid and so the lip balm started to harden in the dropper tube. I switched to the second dropper and held it a few seconds in the hot (but not anywhere near boiling) water I had used to help melt the ingredients. This worked much better; only a little bit of lip balm hardened in the tube and each dropper-full was really pretty full.
What's nice about this homemade lip balm is that, while it smells quite minty, it doesn't really taste minty after you first apply it. I don't like lip balms that taste sweet or taste like anything really, so it's nice to have the flavor go away quickly. And the lip balm feels quite nice, too.
I hope this will be the start of a crafty week. My Betsy Ross pattern arrived this weekend, so I'd like to try and work on the skirt. I bought some nice wool at Valley Fabric, but would really like to get some cotton or something so I can wear my skirt a little sooner. A trip to Jo Ann's is definitely in my near future.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 12:17 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 12, 2005
Crafty projects = new presents
A couple weeks ago I made myself a new bag. I had been frustrated by the bags I have, even though I have some nice ones. They were either too big or too small for using every day to take the bus to work. I really liked this bag at elsewares, but decided that I didn't want to spend the money on it, especially since I don't have that much of a connection to New York. Don't ask me about the money thing. Who knows why I can justify some purchases and not others. It probably had something to do with the very idea of paying for shipping. I don't know.
So anyway, I finally got around to making my version of this very cute tote. I picked up a $3 blank tote bag at Jo Ann's and a pack of iron-on transfer paper for $10 (give or take). I selected this picture from Paris as the image for my bag:
It took me a little while to figure out how to print the image out in reverse from iPhoto, but I eventually got it. The ironing was actually pretty tricky. The instructions tell you to iron a certain way, let the whole thing cool down, and then start to peel up the edges of the backing. It took me like three or four tries ironing before the image stayed in place when I peeled off the paper. And each time I had to unplug the iron, let it cool, go back and check. Plus, with cats, the whole operation was shut in our tiny bathroom. In the end, I was very happy with the results:
I also sewed a pocket on the inside of the bag, for easy access to keys, wallet, and iPod on the early morning bus ride.
The pocket is fine; it does it's job. It might have been better if I had a sturdier fabric and if I'd made it just a little bigger. But, there comes a point in each project when I become very impatient with whatever I'm working on and just want to finish. So I use the fabric I have on hand and sew crooked, crappy seams, because it's hard to use a sewing machine on the inside of a tote bag. Anyway, crooked seams and all, I love my new bag. And it was $20 less than the one I would have bought on line. Not bad, if I do say so myself.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 03:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 06, 2005
Fix it
I'm pretty handy, if I do say so myself. Although Dave is perfectly capable of doing the fix-it type things around the house and is obviously much stronger than I am, I always end up assembling furniture, setting up the computer (until it makes me cry), fixing things that break...
Not too long ago, Dave and I bought new speakers. We had some pretty good ones, but the cats decided that fancy speakers were the perfect scratching post and consequently wrecked one of the tweeters. It would have been way too expensive to have the tweeter replaced, being relatively high-end but used, so we got new ones. But part of me wanted to replace the tweeter in the old B&Ws myself. I thought it would be super cool to be able to fix speakers, and it might come in handy if the cats don't get over their need to scratch expensive things.
We also had a third pair of older, more wrecked Mission speakers that we wanted to turn into shelves ala Ready Made, which I took apart before we moved. This gave me a pretty good idea of all the components of the speaker (you know, more or less). I was going to buy myself the Cold Heat soldering tool (less scary than regular soldering) so I'd be ready for action. The only problem was that it was still going cost like $200 or something stupid like that just to get the new tweeter! So, I had to abandon my dreams of becoming a speaker repairer. The B&Ws went to our next door neighbors and the Missions went (I think) in the trash (though the speakers looked nice, they made ugly shelves). Now I just have to think of another excuse to get the soldering tool.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)
March 30, 2005
Ms. L.P.
My friend Lauren is an evil, crafty genious. You may have to scroll to see her knitted monsters, if there are new posts, but it's worth it.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 01:00 PM | Comments (0)