Fashioning My Cyber Microcosm: Inside Franken-tailor's Creative Laboratory v3.0

Oh my ghoulish readers, it would appear I am once again packing my creative laboratory after this weeks news; we're moving once more! Except this time is a little different. We're not moving because the mister got a new job at a new park, we're moving because although I much enjoyed having the master bedroom as my lab of creation, the rest of the house was leaving us feeling a little like sardines in a can.
Our new place is definitely an upgrade from our current living situation. More room, newer fixtures, and more importantly-- more sunlight. The only room that received any sunlight in the current home was the master bedroom, and that was the main reason I had my setup there.

The configuration of my lab was my absolute favorite thus far, and it occurred to me that I haven't given a little tour of this version in its peak glory!-- thankfully I took pictures before taking everything down.

When you first walk in, you would have been greeted by the kittles sunbathing and bird-watching/taunting on the ironing station.

My sewing box is a custom paint job
by my friend and artist who runs Myrcury's Toybox

The cutting table is not typically this clean, but it is a bounty of Halloween themed delight in itself! With jack o'lantern note pads, and coffins holding wonderclips, to skeleton hand bowls full of pins-- I love it spooky and cute!

Most of my NBC gear was gifted to me by beloved friends in New Mexico

Turning to the left, we see my book/form corner-- a shelf that is devoted to my sewing and craft related reading material.
On the wall, you see some storage bins where I have placed the overflow of patterns that no longer fit where they're supposed to.
In the middle is a shelf that is meant simply for keeping some of my more decorative items, which works nicely as a prop when taking shots of garments on my form.

Skull painting by yours truly

To the right, skipping over the ironing table (which you can see well enough here-- along with the room as it began coming together), we have plastic bin units which hold the various weights of fusible and non-fusible interfacings on the top 3 tiers. The bottom 3 tiers hold ribbons, and some of the miscellaneous craft tools; those not really sewing related, but don't have a dedicated craft to go into a box, that went into the closet.

The small shelf served to hold my bins of patterns, but since a sudden growth spurt occurred in the subsequent time after this photo, it was roughly half books and half patterns before being packed away.

Heading to the right, again we see another view that's a touch dated, as the pale tv tray is/was no longer there and in its place was a filing cabinet where the bulk of my patterns called home.

I found that large and rather cumbersome wall mounted shelf/cabinet at the thrift store for $3, its former life was to hold mugs and teacups. I found it quite suitable to hold my scissors up and away from traffic and curious paws.
I have plans to hire another artist to custom paint it for me-- I could do it myself, sure, but I consider it a duty to show my love and support to other artists knowing how much I struggled and failed trying to do my own thing.

Finally, we come to the machine corner. Yes, I have a ton of thread as you may have noticed! Clear vinyl covers are in the works to protect them from dust while still maintaining their colorful appeal on display.
The wall shelf isn't holding as much as the first one-- the first tier holds mostly decorative things like my custom MH doll done by Myrcury, my odd sized knitting needles, and a caddy of misc. feet and cams for my singer directly below.
The second tier is more decorations along with two vintage wicker sewing boxes filled with needles and refills for chalks and whatnot.
The very top tier holds my bath and beauty making equipment-- I recently started buying myself the equipment needed to start making soap! I can't wait to do that.

You can also see that I framed the printout made sometime ago. I placed it into a glass frame so that I can write with dry erase markers-- makes it easy to change my ever-changing numbers. One of these days I'll augment the frame to include hooks to hang various things like my measuring tape, and perhaps my sewing queue pattern basket.

A sewing room tour isn't complete without a closeup of the belle of the ball! I am still so crazy proud of this machine-- she's not as pretty as some of her other Singer sisters, but by gods, she's still amazing. She has a cute little pincushion companion that sits so well on her, and never falls off-- it helps that I put a magnet in its bottom after re-stuffing it with sawdust in the process of re-purposing it for a pincushion. Directly next to her is a little coffin caddy I painted myself ; it holds a threader, some snips and the feet I most commonly use, you know, the usual. The little drawer caddy is my own creation, but I hired the talented people over at Geek Goddess Creations to custom paint it. It holds a lot of the little gadgets I have such as bodkins, tracing wheels, and metal templates.

That completes this tour, my ghoulish folks... 

I hope you enjoyed it, as v3.5 is coming soon!

Mortem's Tricks or Treats: Perl Not Purl.

We're at the peak of our season here when it's hot... and it's humid... and I'm feeling miserable in this combination-- too much of a desert dweller.

I have been so intolerably moody, that I can't seem to enjoy any of my favorite passed times, and normally when I get this way I just turn to something monotonously crafty, like knitting... except knitting in this weather is the worst and I haven't yet cracked the code on being able to motivate myself to knit during the warm season.

So June 24th was my 28th birthday, and my dear mister brought something to quell the restless dragon with tidings of craft supply. A very smart lad.

He bought me something I have been mentioning I've wanted to try; perler beads! They're simple, they're cheap and offer just the right distraction I needed on such humid and hot days-- just like knitting is for winter and fall days (a very VERY smart lad he is-- snuggles were in order).

He started me off on a variety pack and a set of pegboards. I took to Pinterest for a bit of pinspiration (words, woman, words!), and it became clear that I should be using my knitting and cross stitch patterns, because they are all the same format anyway.

I began simply with a cute little pumpkin that I was going to cross stitch (which was ironically taken off a fusible bead pattern site), but my imagination and creativity started taking flight almost immediately, and it was no longer the same pumpkin that should have been.

Well so much for following patterns...

It's easy and addictive to play with a pattern and let it get away from you when working with perlers, unlike most other times-- probably the reason so many are encouraged to use perlers, young and old.

I saw another project on Pinterest that is old news to others, but to me it was just the cherry to my steadily layering cake: earbud holders.
It opened up worlds to me; so much can be done with Perlers in the hands of a properly motivated mind.

It goes nicely with my wrapped earbuds,
which the bears have since been torn off (intentionally)

It only took two projects for me to realize that I needed something a little more elaborate and challenging.

I remember really wanting a ghost sweater by ASOS, and not being able to find it or a pattern for it, so I sniffed out a free pattern making program site and made my own pattern for a ghosty sweater to knit... that still hasn't been made.... but whatever, this is beside the point.

This wasn't the site I originally found, but it turned out to be just about as good: Pixel-Stitch. 

The patterns still need a bit of re-tweaking on a photo editing program (my favorite free one is Pixlr), but by jove! Now a way for me to construct the challenge I need.

And of course, I chose the almighty Boris Karloff as our very favorite monster:

Frankenstein's Monster:

Click image for printable.

I have (hopefully) made this public, so that anyone can nab it for any purpose they so choose to use it for; everyone needs a little Karloff in their lives, I'm sure.
My project was coming together, except if I was to embark on a perler portrait project I was going to need more hues and a larger board, and so I fed the beast (usually a bad idea, unless you can afford it) by buying additional supplies during the 4th of July sales at the craft stores (also a bad idea if you treasure your wallets contents)... but like usual, it just wasn't enough! Giving me a reason to go back among the plethora of torturous temptations. I guess it's my own fault though, for deviating from the planned color scheme. I guess for now I'll be playing defense against the kittles, since I have to wait around for more liquid cash to come my way to restock the greens I used up.

Can't even follow my own pattern, as it turns out.

I wondered about the longevity of the pegboards over extended heat exposure-- plastic does have a tendency to, you know, melt. That's what brought me to discover the "masking tape method". I tried it on the earbud holder project, and aside from a little stickiness leftover from the masking tape (which was easily removed with a wet/soapy cloth) it turned out to be just the solution to maintaining an unwarped/melted board.

Now I'm wondering how on earth I'm going to manage taping up Mr. Karloff as big as this piece is turning out, so that he can be ironed... looks can be quite deceiving-- my hands are not as dexterous as they once were.
I envision quite a lot of ranting curses.

Anyway! Because tricks are better accompanied with even more treats, here is a pattern of that simple little pumpkin with that Mortem twist for your beading or needle-craft pleasure (although I am positive you all could have devised it on your own, you crafty ghouls!), but sorry there's no color code on this one-- it was just modified on paint from the original:

Click image for printable.

Spook ya later!

Tales of Trial and Terror: A Brief Jaunt Into Watercolor.

Back when I made my Batfit goals for 2016, I included some lofty crafty and creative goals, since that seems to be where my happiness resides-- trying and learning new things!

And now I have a bit of a confession... most of them were written on a lark. Except for a couple of those, I didn't really think I'd do many of them... but it felt right good at the time writing them! Reading them over now, it's quite obvious that not a lot of thought went into that list, hehe; I tried making my goals obtainable... but I guess that only works in cheating myself from the mental growth that should occur.

When I think on it some more, this whole experience was comprised of simple little arbitrary decisions made during the moments they arrived, where I reached the next step as it came rather than a planned route, and suddenly I'm about to attend the first class of Watercolor Painting at the Southwest School of Art.

It started in February all the way into the end of March.
When I began the class, I had silly ideas that watercolor was the easiest of painting mediums... boy, did my bubble burst with a vociferous bang in this class. Granted, I was told our instructor used the most difficult methodology, that being wet on wet application; it was, as he said, the only way to get the charm most of us desire of watercolor. 

It technically wasn't my very first exposure to watercolor; I did "play" a bit with wet on dry not long before taking this class... but other than that I haven't touched it in any meaningful way, and certainly not to the extent to paint a full image.
Now after having completed this class, I found his statements were true-- it did make me too comfortable to learn anything of substance.

The reason he chose to teach this to beginners, he said, was to instill proper technique into people that have no basis for comparison and are therefore not "tainted" by "comfortable bad habits". He claims that wet on dry does not allow the water to play the role it needs to, and consequently forces the artist to be afraid of the water and pigment.

He had interesting ideas about watercolor that I have come to understand and agree with, like how so many of us spent so much time fussing over minutiae. He called that being seduced by the details; likely not an original thought, but it was awful poetic and apt. The cure for this was planning, devising, strategizing our next "move".

For all our preparations, nothing could ease the natural stages of creative work-- I guess it never matters what stage of experience you're at, you're never immune to this. This class was as much a fascinating look into the artistic world as it was equally a ride into the psyche of all who dare beckon the call of creative work.

It really is painful, torture... and all of it coming from these little voices in your head throughout the entire process. Sometimes these voices came out audibly during class-- outside, I bet you'd hear all manner of cursing or slamming down of a paint brush, and wonder why the hell are we subjecting ourselves to this mental anguish?!
Then again, it was an art school...

Our instructor was a bounty of information, and we took in what we could, but the information was so much and we had so little time to absorb it and put it into practice; my only regret was that it went by far too quickly. It was just enough to show me a world where I have long been afraid of taking part in, uncovered a knack I didn't think I possibly had, but so swiftly now over that I crave and yearn to develop this thing!

And I think I may do just that, fall classes are just around the corner now...

Thanks for joining in on my tale of trial and terror!

Fashioning My Cyber Microcosm: A Thread In The Weave.

I get the impression from people that I am known only for my sewing, and I get it-- the dominating topic of my personal blog (not a sewing blog) is sewing (ironically). It's not a hard leap to make.

As much as I tout being an avid gamer and lover of things fantasy and sci-fi related, I don't discuss them at length do I? Aside from a little glib on the side bar not much can be seen of my supposed love for anything other than sewing. I have found that my love of sewing underplays my love of gaming, and that my love of gaming underplays my love of sewing.
I think a large part of that is due to expectation and assumption. 
The expectation and assumption that a nerd who sews inevitably cosplays.
It's a logical train of thought, and I won't deny it. 

Khan named for Khan Noonien Singh

I do love these things, I just don't show it in the way many of my ilk do... I know it's a bit queer for someone who spends equal amounts of dollars and hours gaming and upgrading their PC as their craft room to not partake in cosplay... but I get the feeling I let down a lot of people's expectations... frequently, but for the most part inadvertently.

Not that I disapprove of cosplay, mind you. 

I have tried it once or twice to be sure, but truth is my desire to be a certain character is limited to digital format-- to be connected but be assured of the divide between my actual reality, and the reality I've built for myself in the cyber world.
As it is, I spend countless hours simply refining builds, synergizing abilities and subsequently spending even more hours playing, collecting, fussing... is it a wonder then that it can be tough to garner the desire to spend more money and even more time being a character from these games outside the gaming room? Hahah.
Not to mention that it would leave little time for my other avocations, each individually motivated through different themes and different allocations of which I have many of; other expensive pass times, all needing real estate in my brain, all vying for existence in the finite span of my free time and physical constraints! I have difficulty enough quelling this blog of one singular topic! And to be completely frank, I don't want my sewing to be seen as exclusive to my costume making abilities. I want each achievement to shine individually without needing to validate its success and pleasure with something else I do!

....So no... I don't cosplay... but I will gladly sit and play a game or sew with you, whichever you prefer.

Mortem's Tricks or Treats: Butterick 5566

My visit back home to Canada has come and gone, and now I sit here wide awake nearing yet another conscious visit of the witching hour of the night, picking at tiny but bothersome skin tag on my neck.

I can scarcely believe that just a couple days ago I was having a nice visit with my momma, and celebrating my SIL's graduation with the whole lot of in laws and beyond. While it was great spending time with direct and extended family, I regret that my time was quite limited for old friends-- I didn't get to see most of them, and I didn't get to much the last visit either. It's rather overdue if I wish to keep these friendships.

Before I let myself get too real for a mere pattern review, let us focus shall we?
I found out and was intent on entering a project to the Skirt Contest on patternreview.com; it was days before my departure up North, and there wasn't a lot of time to work with. It's a little funny knowing the fact I scrambled then and now that I should realize that the previous skirt I finished still fell within the qualifying dates haha! I rushed for nothing...

Anyway, my choice was Butterick 5566, after some arduous deliberation.
Unfortunately it was a very recent pattern purchase... maybe a couple weeks old at most from the date I made it.
I landed on view D-E, and cut out a size 18.

Not wishing to further breach my commitment to using up old stash, I grabbed some flocked denim I purchased while living in New Mexico (but funny enough purchased during a trip to El Paso) and the remaining yardage of the suede-ish material from my last project (which I have since finished and worn... though no real time shots of that particular one yet).

In a nutshell, this skirt is exceedingly simple, even with the materials I have chosen which can be quite daunting to work with; I say this with what I consider to be the experience of an advanced beginner, maybe intermediate skill level. So really, there is nothing to be that afraid of when making this pattern view.

I'd say the scariest part of this skirt is the ease, which there is plenty of... and in my humble opinion, way too much at points. Especially on the upper hip. I was worried about this and continued with using my main material anyways without making a mock up... but I did hand baste the ever-loving-crap out of every seam to make sure everything matched up.

I did find that discrepancy that I was worried about-- the upper hip did gape. Thankfully the silhouette is simple enough that I simply grabbed ahold of my hip curve ruler and chopped off what needed removing and blended it out with my serger. Not the most professional way of getting things done, but it did the job.

I was particularly impressed with the drafting of the waist facing, I must say. I haven't come across many waist facings I didn't have to majorly tweak to fit; the only tweaking I did was the weight of the interfacing and adjustment of the upper hip being chopped. Though I didn't mess with the curvature, I just simply took off what I needed off the ends; it seemed to do the trick quite well.
I used a medium weight interfacing instead of a lightweight, even under a woven pant weight like the kind I used.
I like a lot of stability in that area, as my stomach protrudes quite awkwardly if there isn't anything bearing down on it like a belt or some such integrated cinching feature, heh.

I got it done in time, and I had hoped to shoot it and the previous skirt during my visit North as the landscape is much better than I have immediately available down here. Though, since I lacked the foresight to know that my time up there would not be mine... nothing was shot. During a visit to Dollarama with my brother however, I was pleasantly surprised to find some nice shooting equipment, and since the exchange rate was in my favor, for mere pocket change I was able to obtain a selfie stick, a bluetooth remote, a few cases, and a selection of mini tripods. Seriously, the dollar stores in Canada rock.

So now I'm able to do my photos all by myself again and without racing the timer! No more relying heavily on the whim of the hubbubs, and no more guilt trips for having the desire to take and share photos of myself from him either.

And of course, I cannot show and tell without a couple of the McCall's skirt.

I usually allot a couple hours for shooting because 1.) it takes a lot of convincing my hubbubs, almost precisely an hour and 2.) retaking and retaking photos because he won't take it seriously enough. This time I was able to shoot not one but two outfits and I got several very good shots! I was very pleased indeed. The quality overall of each shot is definitely up.
If you have any tips of your own for better shots, please, you're more than welcome to share them!

Till next time my lovely ghouls, spook ya later!

Mortem's Tricks or Treats: Practically "Done" Simplicity 1371

In the vague words of Lisa in Stir of Echoes, this top is practically done, which is to say that practically means not really...

I gave you all a sneak peek of this top, and so now I present you:

Simplicity 1371

The top is done, sans a closure to the straps-- hence the practically bit.
This is going to be a long one, so get comfortable.

*inhales*

For this project I used semi old stash, I acquired this faux leather/suede material during my time working for Jill's Fabric & Design in Carlsbad, New Mexico, which at this point makes it a year and a half old stash. Good enough, eh?

I can't actually recall when this pattern was purchased... I now have several Cynthia Rowley by Simplicity patterns, and most of them were purchased in large hauls when I was after another pattern in particular. It's funny because the pattern images and samples of these patterns are all super hideous. Just ugh, why? I know that I bought this pattern for the pants and shorts because up until very recently the thought of wearing crop tops would make me physically ill-- I have that little confidence in my belly's appearance.

I cut out a size 12 in view A. It's worth it to note that this material is not on the suggested fabrics for this pattern, but it worked well because of the nature of the drape; it's not too stiff and not too soft.

In the sample I gave you all, it would appear to be hella short, and have slightly different design features... but I was mucking about at that point; I didn't know what I wanted to do.

I began playing with the myriad of trims I buy and for whatever reason never use, hahah...
The trims and spikes for this top were purchased at Hobby Lobby when they have their bogo trim spools sales or 50% off; they're already super cheap, so the sale makes it a crazy good deal. The rivets and appliques were bought from Joann's.

I must confess something at this point... this was my first time using rivets...
It scared the hell out of me. Luckily I had several sizes that I had purchased earlier since I was hoping to use them in a purse I was planning on making, because this could have made me swear off of them.

If the post is too long, then it might come loose, if it's too short it might pop off-- scary stuff! I gave them a dot of fray check to act as reinforcement, just to be sure heh! They turned out alright!

What didn't turn out as planned is the back closure; this material is too stiff for hook and eye, I wanted, no, needed to use spring snaps. Anything else would look poopy. After eight pair trials, I could not keep from bending the post off to the side. It leads me to believe that either A) I am just terribad at applying snaps, or B) the snaps I currently have are too large for this material, I did buy them for handbag making after all.

The pattern calls for an invisible zipper, which just wouldn't work with this material; the amount of pressure of the material, it would be an inevitability it would break. Besides, this was a great opportunity to make it a design feature as well. As a side note, this is a recycled zipper from the pocket of a pair of pants I bought at the thrift store to gut for notions. Woohoo!

One of my favorite aspects of this top is the fact that I was able to make the inside look just as clean on the outside as in; considering all the seams and hand stitching I needed to do on this. I did however overlook a zipper flap, I might go back in and add one but I have tried it on and didn't notice the zipper in the slightest. Must be the location and size of it.
I'm getting quite obsessive about having my work as clean inside, just as out... weird. That's something they don't tell you, as you get further into your sewing progression, completionism becomes overwhelmingly strong; it happens in gaming too...

So that's it! When I get some proper fitting snaps in there, I shall wear it in a completed outfit hehe.

Till next time! Spooky ya later.

Mortem's Tricks or Treats: She's ALIVE!! ... and Sewing.

My, my my...

It has been a while, hasn't it. 4 months said out loud does not sound like long at all, but quite a lot has happened in that very insignificant blip in the cosmos...

Well this insignificant blip has certainly taught me a lot about myself; too much to get into for now, so let's appreciate this "rest stop" on a journey of self discovery I have inadvertently taken.

Ah, such is the mortal coil-- growing pains never stop, no matter what your parents say (they should really know better than to spread such a fallacy, tsk tsk).

Thankfully, I am a person with a decidedly cathartic outlet; a hobby... or more specifically, I have my ability to sew to ease the ennui.

I am progressing nicely in my goal to change the fabric I work with from spooky cute to spooky decadence; it's a much harder transition then once anticipated since Halloween prints pluck beautiful notes on my heart strings. However, I haven't done good by my to do list of patterns to sew, I seem to have found myself yet again at a deviated point...

I stitched up yet another skirt, because they're quick and I am very much lacking skirts with the right length for the weather here in Texas which has been irritatingly humid and hot... or just wet. No in between.

Unfortunately I didn't use any stashed supplies or patterns; these are all recent purchases made in the last month or so. This is McCall's 6706, and I used a black brocade satin.

I used View C which is the hi-low hem option, and cut out a size 18.

It turned out alright. Other than the side seams and zipper, this one is fairly easy to put together.

While the side seams and zipper were of no issue to myself, I can foresee them being an issue for someone else-- unless one is not particularly finicky about a clean finish.

In the above perspective you can take a gander at the side zipper and hook eye opening of the waistband; I was particularly happy with how it turned out because they came out exactly as intended-- almost seamless. The zipper is lapped, and originally I thought I could somehow get away with making it an invisible zip since I hate doing lapped zippers lol, but it just didn't work.

The way the box pleats are drafted into this one is designed so the side seams and consequently the zipper lie on the inside of them, thus becoming hidden. My initial experiment with the invisible zipper revealed one little flaw in the instructions, wherein they say to stitch up to the dot-- the dot being the point where you will insert the zipper. If you're not careful at the insertion of the zipper which comes before creating the pleats, that seam can create a very wonky look to the entire pleat. It has to be as close to perfect to avoid looking poorly made.

My solution to this was simple, make sure you haven't lost track of the dot, and stitch it all the way up back stitching at the dot. and continuing. Insert the zipper onto the seam allowance, as you would with any lapped zipper technique, and once inserted, very carefully pluck the seam open up to your back stitch. Voila, seamless and pretty darn near to perfect.

The skirt has fantastic body with this material-- there isn't a petticoat under there, it's awesome naturally. I also didn't go loco on the embellishments, as I was rather hoping to use this as a staple skirt; I could potentially whip up a bustle belt for this, or pair it with a very frilly blouse. To keep it in this way opens up a lot of outfit possibilities. Plus it really lets the pattern of the material to really blossom on its own.

And so my curse resides, heroes...

Hopefully I'll get around to posting about this sooner then later, but in case I don't, here's a sneak peek at what is currently brewing in my creative laboratory.

Till then, my lovely ghouls.