Roann's Buttons

Recently, I got to do some collab work with Sak's Hawaii buddy Roann.  And by collaboration I mean I made buttons from his artwork! (Any excuse to use the 'ol girl..) I did it in exchange for Hawaii snackage. Hehe.

I love making buttons..and it's even better since I discovered that Kinko's has self-serve printers, all I have to do is put my file on a USB and plug it right in! Sooo much less awkward than asking the staff to print random stuff.

Anyway, his buttons are super awesome! Check them out!

Soo fun! I picked the penguin and Sak picked the floppy disk to keep.  Which is your favorite?

Check out Roann's blog, he's got a lot of cool artwork, including Boba Fett drinking a boba tea, haha! I think he also does commissions, if you need some custom graphics!

Anyway, just some cheery buttons for your Friday from an awesome artist! We'll be at Maker Faire this weekend, so Bay Areans, hope to see you there! ^_^

DIY Bedsheet to Skirt Conversion

So, some may think this is gross, but I bought used sheets from the thrift store.  In my defense - it is a Power Ranger sheet. From the 90's.

I washed it, don't worry :P

How perfect is this considering the Power Ranger shirts we made for the convention just a few weeks away? (Psst - hope you bought your tickets to Fanime! So excited!)

Let's make a skirt out of it, eh?  Though maybe a skirt different than the half-failure from last time.  Since I suck at sewing gathers properly - I'll keep it simple by sewing straight to stretched elastic.  Much easier.

First, I measured around my stummy. I didn't want it as low as my hips, nor as high as my natural waist, so the belly-button was a good mid-point.  And no, my new year's resolution of getting back into shape hasn't happened. It's just not as easy when you don't have pre-wedding nerves I guess.

Anyway, cut the elastic about the same size as the waist measurement.  I used the thickest black elastic the craftstore had, 3 inches wide!

Make your skirt fabric a whole lot longer than your waistband.  The longer it is, the more bunchy it will be.  I just used the entire width of the bedsheet. Cut it as long as you want the skirt to be. Mine was about 1 3/4 yard long and 17 inches tall.

Since I didn't want to waste any of my bedsheet fabric with a rolled hem, I used bias tape to create a hem on the bottom of the skirt.  I'm pretty sure I'm not using it properly, but whatever.  Sew down one side of the tape...

Then roll it over and sew down the other side, encasing the loose fabric edge in the bias tape!

Sew your long skirt fabric into a loop.

Then sew your elastic together into a loop.  I threw in a zig-zag stitch for extra sturdiness.

Now the complicated part - pin the waistband to the skirt fabric.  I found the easiest way to to do this was to start where the waistband and skirt shared a seam.  Then pin the side directly opposite, and then 90 degree angles from those pins..and then 45 degree angles, etc. etc.  Constantly putting new pins at the mid-points between the old pins until you have a nice, evenly bunched attachment.

When you sew it down (I just used a straight stitch, though zig-zag may be stronger?), stretch the elastic as you sew so that there are no visible gathers, and once you're done it will just naturally snap back into a springy, evenly spaced gathered bunch.

I love it when things work out!

Since I used the sheet edge that was already finished, I didn't have to worry about hemming any loose edges on the waistband side of the skirt.  That, my friends, was all there was to it! Instant Power Ranger skirt!

Fun! Though I guess it's a little derpy that the sheet top ended without pink or red ranger's heads attached. Haha!

I like the bias tape hem a lot, the yellow is pretty crisp! (And will match my yellow ranger tee once Friend E finishes making it.)  The nice thick waistband is pretty comfy too.

And this simple method will work on any twin bedsheet, if Power Rangers aren't your thing, haha!

Oh! And while we're talking Mighty Morphin - I made some silly power coin buttons to go with our shirts!

I think I'll make a hair bow to attach mine to!

Did you have character bed sheets as a kid? Maybe you still do? :)

DIY iPad Sleeve

My grandmother recently got her own iPad, she's so hip. Hipper than me! Penga-Mom thought I should make her a case for it for Mother's Day, so I dug out some pretty dragon fabric to use.

That's the awesome part about small sewing projects - I can use pretty fabric that I don't buy much of due to cost! Haha!

I used this tutorial, though changed things up a bit by not quilting anything, and using fusible fleece instead of seperate interfacing and batting.

Unfortunately, I am a moron and cut the length a half inch too short.  So yes, my grandmother's iPad sticks out a bit on the top. I would have re-made it had I not been doing everything last minute (yet again).

Anyway, when you iron fusible fabrics to delicate silky stuff, make sure you put another piece of cotton or something on top to protect it.  Luckily I did not burn any fabric this time around!

Sew together both liner and outer layer, keeping the liner wrong-side-out and the outer layer right-side-out. Don't sew up the bottom of the liner layer though - just the sides.

Sandwiching the two, I added a cut-in-half hair tie to make a loop clasp.

Sew up, and pull the liner layer out.

Sew the bottom of the open liner, and push it back inside the outer layer.

Top stitch!

My favorite part is the button - I found it at Joanne's and it's so pretty!  Originally I wanted to use a frog clasp (like the kind you see on cheongsams), but the mainstream fabric store didn't have any. :P

Anyway, other than the fact that it kinda isn't long enough, I'm pretty happy with the bag! The fabric and button is pretty fancy! I should have used a gold hair-tie too. Ah well.  Maybe I'll remake it for her birthday! Haha!