Running With Scissors

Etsy

It feels like it's been a long time since I've added any projects. I've actually been sewing a lot lately. Etsy stuff and finished a project for this blog contest I'm entering.

Next Monday, my project will be auditioning on So You Think Your Crafty. It's a blog craft contest. There will be 30 "auditions" and the 10 projects that get the most votes moves on to the competition and each week the crafters are assigned a theme. Each week one of the top 10 get kicked off if their project recieves the fewest votes.

I've followed the first 2 seasons, and it's quite a fun little thing each Monday morning to see the latest projects and get to vote for them. So we'll see if I even get through the auditions.
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But this post is about this top I just finished. I was really excited in the beginning, then hit a wall in the middle, hated it toward the end, but had to finish it to get it off my mind.

Here's the idea behind it.

The bodice is layered in rows, then I basted them down into the side seam. I think each layer was 5" tall and folded in half.

The top of the front was a cross funnel-type neck.
I did the same layering thing as the bodice, but on the angle of the neckline.

The back piece was just a plain back, like a normal t-shirt, with a high neck. I made a finished neck edge with a strip of the knit from one side, up behind the neck, and around the other side.

I sewed the basic shirt together, and as I had suspected, the layers across the chest kind of folded up.

On the left I pinned it down, and on the left you can see what the fabric does naturally.

So I hand tacked all the chest layers down, re-sewed the seam under the bust.

Then the sleeves. I thought they needed a little more detail than a regular cap sleeve, so I used the petal idea, where the sleeve folds on itself around the top of your arm. That is a bad explanation. Anyway, I was out of fabric, so I lined the sleeves with lining. And they don't lay right. The sleeve curl forward, and the layers across the chest pull funny, I think due to the tacking in the center to limit cleavage. Maybe if I unpicked the center tacking at the cross of the two top pieces, the chest layering would lay nicer.

And I could take off the sleeves and just do a simple cap sleeve.

But the shirt ended up being a little small all around anyway, so all the work to fix it seems like a total waste of time to me at this point, so it may just end up at my mother in laws in the dress up box.

Once again, I think it was a good idea, but along the way turned in a bad direction and I'm too lazy to go back and fix it.

Good thing the fabric was only $2.00.

But it was a really nice knit and a steal, and it's too bad it was wasted on a failure project.

Maybe someone thinner out there with a smaller bust that won't stretch the layers would look good in it. I could always tack the sleeves down so the cream lining doesn't roll forward.

Freezer Paper

Kids Freezer Paint Shirts

9:30 AM

Pajama Pants

2:18 PM

Backpack Winner!

10:19 AM

make overs

Reading Nook {Part 3}

2:21 PM

art & craft

Owl Cage

1:57 PM

make overs

Reading Nook {Part 2}

7:10 PM

This ongoing project to make a little furniture set for the playroom, if I should ever get one, to designate a corner as the reading nook continues on. Part 2. I've started moving on with different phases. I stripped my craigslist kids table, and painted it a flat white. I'm still sanding and reinforcing my rotten Kirksville stools, and I haven't even bought the wood for the Knock of Wood chairs I plan to build. But I'm really excited to share the theme of this whole thing...

are you ready?

My favorite children's author who just happens to also work with my favorite children's illustrator on almost every book.

The theme of this reading nook is:

Together they created such stories as:

The Witches

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory

James & the Giant Peach

Matilda

The BFG

The Twits

and more. As a kid I remember always going straight to the "D" shelf of the Sandy, UT library in the kids section. Roald Dahl. They only had a few of his books, so I'd check them out and re-read them. My favorite was Matilda. I don't know if reading it made me feel smarter like Matilda or something, but I loved it so much, I tried to get my little sister to read it. Lynette was not interested. So I sat on her so she couldn't run away and would read aloud with her screaming for our mom, but I had planned to sit on her in the basement so we could both delight in afternoon's of Matilda.

Interestingly, even after her childhood torture, Lynette also did love and enjoy Roald Dahl's books...although I don't think Matilda is a favorite.

So my first painting in the series was a leg of the table. Each leg will feature a different book, so far Esio Trot, James & the Giant Peach, and today's. I'm still thinking of what book I want on the 4th leg.

So the first leg of the table was from the book The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me. It's about this magical team, (Me = monkey) and their adventures as they wash windows.

It's great to immitate Quentin Blake's illustrations because they are kind of sloppy sketches with little detail. I really like his style.

Most of his published illustrations are pen/ ink, so I wanted that to be there on these little paintings, but I didn't want to use a detail brush to paint in all the pen. So instead I used a Sharpie.

The process was quite fun:

As I was looking through my book, the last page has the whole group together, and so I used this as the plan for the table leg. It worked out well with the giraffe being tall and skinny for the weird space I am painting on. I planned all the books for each leg, and then when I looked at the table closely realized the legs were much thinner than in my mind, so more wrapping of the images around.

I'm really glad I decided to draw with a Sharpie the ink details. The hexagonal shape of the table leg made smooth lines difficult around the corners, so it's all kind of sloppy and turned out quite well I think. I'm excited to finish the rest of the table legs, and then move onto the stools and chairs.