Wardrobe Refashion - First Refashion of Sept/Oct

So I have signed up for another 2 month stint at Wardrobe Refashion. When this is done, I'll have been a member for 6 months. Why don't I just sign up for life? Well, because I'm going to Japan next year to teach English as a second language (gotta pay off my student loans somehow). Now, you can't expect me to live in Japan and not spend money. That's like leaving a kid in a candy shoppe. It'll probably be mostly fabrics and folk art stuff, but hey, I still want the option of opting out of WR without having to rescind a lifetime commitment.

Anyways, my first refashion of this stint was made from a shirt Mumsie got at Value Village for her brother, Wally:

Too bad for Uncle Wally that it didn't fit :( So Mum gave it to me, saying that she knew I could "do something with it." Hehe, she was right!

Toddalicious now has RAWR undies :D There was just barely enough fabric (Todd has a 34 inch waist, 36 inch low waist, and the shirt is "asian" XL, meaning it runs small). I've since adjusted the pattern I made from his old undies, as the original is a little snug. These are actually undies #2. I made the first ones out of that gorgeous blue patterned stretch satin in my Fall Fashion post. He is actually very happy with them, even though they are slightly snug. He IS disappointed that he has no air vent in the front, though. I guess I need to learn button plackets for undies...

Camping Swap is Good to Go! Plus Iraqi Bundles of Love (IBOL)

YAYYYYYYY!
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I sent my package to my partner and 6 of the other 8 camping cards. Somehow, 2 of my camping cards lost pieces in transit, so I'll fix them and send them off tomorrow. I can't WAIT to post what I sent my partner!!!! I'm really proud of one of the things I sent her, so much so that I wish I could have kept it :P We never do these awesome things for ourselves, though, do we? Hehe!
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If you want to check out the swap gallery, where we'll be posting our goodies as they're recieved, go HERE. The link in the first post is to our discussion thread. *EDIT* I am most proud of this:
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In other news, check out Iraqi Bundles of Love. I thought it was a scam until I read his blog. I wish I could participate, but I won't make the September 7th send-out date due to lack of funds. I just spent 20 bucks on sending envelopes and a bubble mailer :P

Fall Fashion to Look Forward To! And Why I'm Excited :D

Well, guess what? I took the last year off from school because I was burned out and actually managed to fail a few classes (including my thesis because I totally lost interest in doing research). The goal was to get my life in order by pondering my priorities, motivations and goals. I did alot of that. I also did alot of nothing :P Ok, well, not NOTHING, but not much.

So here I sit, less than 2 weeks away from my fifth year of university! Click the logo above if you want to check out my school's website. I'll be re-taking the math class I failed, and instead of doing a thesis or other full-year research project, I'm taking a half-year research project and a course called Applied Anthropology. Those three things are all I need to get my Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology (Honours Program, which is 4 years instead of 3). I'm rounding out my course-load with 5 Native Studies classes, which I've already taken... 4 of? Maybe 5. Or 6. I'd have to check my transcript. I'm wondering if it's enough credits to count as a minor. I have to take all 8 courses to qualify for yet another student loan. I'm already up to my eyeballs, but it's either that or give up on an education.

Naturally, going back to school necessitates a discussion of fashion!

"Etsy Treasure Chest" Giveaway! Courtesy of "Geek Details"

Amanda of Geek Details is offering up a print out of her shop to 3 lucky people! I, however, ADORE her buttons! My faves?
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It's okay, Pluto. I'm not a planet either.
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I'm not afraid of the dark. I'm afraid of the ninjas that hide in the dark.
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If you can read this, you're in my AGGRO RANGE.
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If you want in on this giveaway, go to Etsy Treasure Chest's post about it.
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Not so FAIL! How I saved some stuff, and things that turned out :D

Let me introduce you to "Mo" the mohawked teddy bear:
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I saved his little nubby mohawk by picking it apart with a darning needle, then stitched on dark blue sparkle buttons for his little eyes, embroidered his little nose, and cut a piece off the felting-disaster of the mohawk hat for his cute little tail. My brother was in absolute awe to recieve his un-birthday gift! He was especially fond of the little Xs in his eyes and laughed at his little nub of a tail, and promptly dubbed him Mo. Mikey will be getting the new-and-improved mohawk hat for Christmas so he can match Mo.

EPIC FAIL!

This post is gonna be all about my fails :P
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First up, faux-hawk hat! DISASTER! I put it in the wash and it is felted into a little nub that extends the whole of 3/4 inch from the hat :( The little matching teddy bear that I gave a mohawk was likewise a felting-fail. I got some more blue wool, so I'm going to cut off both mohawks and try again without the picking-apart of the yarns. I'm going to "follow the instructions" this time :P
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That waves dress from months ago? FAIL! Using my modified 60s dress pattern, it was not how I wanted it at all. So I decided I would modify it into a halter-type dress, like a pillowcase dress. It ended up too small :( I can get it on, but it's reeeeeally tight. It would look better on someone with no boobs or perhaps a young teen. I've been occasionally wracking my brain as to how I might salvage the fabric, at least. I'm kinda clueless.
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How bout the Lakeport Honey Lager tee-into-blouse? Sorta-FAIL! LOL :P I put it away because I was getting way too effing frustrated. The pattern itself was too large, so I kept having to undo stuff and take it in. This is not easy with knits. The neckline facing turned out pretty shitty, so I redid that, and now it looks only slightly shitty. I did some embroidery on the print, though. The girl's hair is chain-stitched with three colours and it looks FAB, and the bee's butt is satin stitched. I'll finish it eventually :P For the pattern itself, I'm really not impressed. I need to figure out how to make the back of the neck not all gape-y. I think it's cuz my shoulders are very square and broad. My stance is more erect than average, so I guess I need to move the armholes back like I had to for a jacket that's half-done in my supplies box.
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OMG, the jacket... Vogue 8301 (view B) is a PAIN IN THE ASS! It's labelled as easy, which is UTTER POPPYCOCK! If I didn't have to make so many bloody alterations to the damn thing, sure, maybe it would have been easy. I had to move the shoulder line rearward, broaden the back AND move the armhole rearward to compensate, shorten the waist, lengthen the peplum, draft an inside shoulder yoke and front facing, draft the lining... Ok, I think was it. The reason it's not done? Figuring out how to put piping and a zipper into the front at the same time. I think I know how to, now, but I was awfully fed up! And because I had to shorten the waist, the front panel thingies are shorter than the buttonhole guide, so I think I'll just sew the buttons right onto it, no undo-age! Screw that! Want to know when I started it? LAST AUGUST! Ya. It's been sitting in my bin for 11 months.
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So there ya have it. My great big sewing FAILs.
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Yarny Plannings and Other Plannings

I've been doing alot of crochet. I learned how to increase and decrease! I really wanted to make a faux-hawk hat for my little brother. I started crocheting with black acrylic yarn, but I either did something terribly wrong, or the pattern has something wrong with it. More likely it's just me :P It ended up eight-sided instead of six-sided, somehow. That made it parabolic-ish, and it was tres tres wonky. So I undid it all and went on the hunt around the interwebs. I found some hats with flappy bits like I wanted, but I didn't know how to double-crochet (still don't, really; only tried a swatch, and it was ok, but haven't actually made something with dc yet), and most of those patterns wanted dc, tbc, hdc and other wierd stitches. I finally found a simple beanie pattern in single crochet, though. I used the technique suggested by the first tute to make the earflaps.
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After that, I snagged a bunch of gray-blue, light gray and dark gray wool felting yarn from Todd's mum and started the LOOOOOONG process of cutting and weaving little strips into a mohawk. If I ever make this hat again, I'll hold it to 3 or 5 rows, but this one for Mikey has 7 rows. Then I decided I wanted it to felt PERFECTLY. So I picked apart each and every single piece of mohawk yarn. Then I combed every row. It's now a wonderfully fuzzy multicoloured mohawk. I just have to toss it in the wash in a pillow case and c'est fini!
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Project deux is a surprisingly large amigurumi teddy bear (now that I know how to increase and decrease!). A woman on Craftster wanted a few people to test her pattern and I decided to jump on the chance to try something new. I think I shoulda snagged a 3 mm or 3.5 mm from Todd's mum, because the 4 mm must be too big. The teddy is sposed to end up 14 cm tall, but if his head is this huge, he's gonne be ENORMOUS. I'm making him out of black felting yarn, though, so I think I'll just felt him :D Then he'll shrink, and if I comb him, he'll be slightly furry-ish.
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I'm also taking part in a swap! YAY! It's the Camper's Swap on Craftster. This is only my second swap. My first was the March Birthday Swap. Thankfully, I've been partnered wih a fellow Canadian, so no shipping internationally, YAY! It's only a 4 point swap, but it's gonna be pretty intensive anyway because we are making little travel cards featuring a camping location that we like (not telling what location I picked, in case a fellow swapper mosies on over here). I've already got the layout for mine on the computer, though I may change it up. Once I have the layout all decided, I'm printing out seven of them (cuz there's 8 in the swap including me), then papercrafting my little heart out :D I got supplies from the dollar store and some goodies from Canadian Tire to include.
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I also had an AHA moment while at Dollarama. I'm not gonna say what I'm making, but I'm hoping that my swap partner likes it! It's something I've never done before, and I'm pretty excited. I still need to MacGyver a couple things, cuz I'm not going to buy more supplies if I can help it. It's probably more art than craft, because it's something meant for display, rather than use, but it IS camping related.
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