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What are you crafting?
Is anyone else finding time for crafting these days? I'd love to see/hear about what you're working on!
I have spent the last month very slowly drafting a pattern for a skirt. After much time spent feeling apprehensive about cutting fabric (it's only an old bed sheet, but still) to test my first effort, last week I finally put scissors to cloth and sewed it together. I made several mistakes, but was so happy to have finally gotten that far, I didn't even feel bad about them.
I have a new basic block pattern drafted, and have even added a kick pleat so I can practice making that part. The new pattern has been cut and is ready to sew. 🤞 Here's hoping I did a better job this time!
I've been learning how to embroider and am about half way done with my first project. I'm liking the process but am unsure what to do with it when I am done. My goal is to get good enough to feel confident enough to embroider designs on some of my clothing. I tend to wear a lot of blacks and gray, and I think adding some pops of color to the clothing would make them more interesting.
I've also, once again, dragged out a patchwork quilt that I started almost 30 years ago. The problem with the darn thing was that it started as a tweaker project, and I had never sewn before. I cut out a ton of squares from old jeans and hand sewed some into strips, and then somehow I got a sewing machine which I sewed some more strips with. It's just a mess. Many of my squares aren't actually square, I didn't understand how denim unravels where cut, the seams are a mess, and none of the strips actually line up. But I've been lugging it all around for so long, I feel like I should just get it over with. I'm very intimidated by the sewing machine which I've set up on the dining room table. It seems to loom menacingly over the room, daring me to get on with it. I'm slowing sewing more strips. It will be triumph if I can finish this thing!
Oh my goodness I know that feeling. I agonize over cutting wood. Any wood project I work on, I think I spend more time afraid to cut then I do any other part of the project. I end up sticking to projects where it wouldn't matter too much. The funny thing is, I've hardly ever miss-cut it.
Quilting seems so intimidating! I have an L-square and I still have trouble making my corners meet when drafting the box for my skirt pattern. Do you have pinking shears? I'm not sure how well they would work for quilting, but they're good for preventing fraying. And they're very satisfying to use. I like the way they feel versus regular scissors.
My cutting apprehensions aren't always misplaced. I get so into what I'm doing sometimes I forget to stop and think things through, so I've started leaving myself really obvious notes, like a sticky next to my sewing machine that reads, "RST!" and this hard to miss reminder.
I would be interested in seeing how your embroidery project turns out if you feel confident sharing it! Are you doing it by hand? I recently learned my sewing machine can be used for embroidery (things you learn reading the manual!).
I find quilting intimidating too, and I will never make another one :)
I am doing the embroider by hand.
Now that you know your machine can embroider, are you going to use it?
When I'm done, I will absolutely share the embroidery with, especially if you share your skirt!
Edit:
Pinking shears I do not have, I never knew what they were for. Maybe I should get some.
Definitely get some pinking shears!
I don't think I'll be getting into embroidery, but I'll be happy to share my skirt once it's finally done. I plan to make at least one more test before I move on to the real fabric, and I have to re-draft my pattern (again and for the last time I think!).
Ha, I am having a serious issue with making stuff at the moment. I was going to make a nightlight. I bought a nice low power LED bulb, cabling and switches and so on, I came up with a design using some oak I had lying around and some bits of steel. But the steel needed forging and when I opened my forge I noticed the lining was damaged. That's a bad thing, the sub-lining is a ceramic wool which is a bit carcinogenic if inhaled so it needs to be sealed.
OK, fine. I ordered some refractory cement and started relining the forge. Except halfway through that I realised I needed to build a jig to do it properly. So I spent a day doing that. Carried on. The refractory has to dry slowly otherwise you can get steam explosion issues at high temperature. That took almost a month (the cold and humid days of UK winter are the worst possible conditions for drying anything)
THEN, then I realised how dangerous running my forge in my thin-wood-walled workshop was going to be, because the relining had changed a bit about how the forge exhaust works (it runs slightly better but it's a bit more flame-y). So I started work on a frankly ridiculous plan where I'd rebuild my workshop walls in concrete blocks but without taking the old walls down until the new ones could support the roof. For several reasons I can't take the roof down for more than a few hours maximum.
So I ordered 250 concrete blocks and a literal ton of building sand, cement and so on. I'm learning how to lay bricks on a job which is operating in very limited space, with tolerances in single millimetres (if the wall doesn't mate up nicely with the roof joists I'm in a bit of a situation) and my workshop is currently missing an entire wall of cladding - although the support beams and studwork are still in place. All my tools and workcarts are in there and I'm working around them. Once I've built the rest of the wall I need to take everything out of there, screed the floor, render the blockwork then re-run all the electrical stuff (lights and sockets), install shelves and tool racks and put everything back.
I'm aiming to have the lamp finished by June at the earliest.
I used to think this scene was somewhat over the top but I've changed my mind
Wow! What should have been a straightforward, short-term project really ballooned into something massive! And you're doing this all by yourself?! I'm impressed! By the time your original project is complete, you'll have the world's most costly and labo(u)r-intensive nightlight!
By myself, on the 3 days a week my kid is in nursery, and I have ongoing back/neck problems which fairly drastically limits my physical capacity. On a really good day I might be able to move and lay, 20 blocks (which is two courses). A good brickie could do the blockwork in a single day. If all goes well it's going to take me two weeks, minimum.
I can at least split the front and rear halves of the job, because the two walls don't actually meet - there's a door in the middle which is roof high, so no blocks will be above that. So if I do the back wall I can take a break before starting on the front.
Oh, and I need to keep my workshop operational in case someone wants me to make them something for money.
It's all got a bit out of hand to be honest, but it's something to do, eh?
I've experienced that Hal scene more often than I would like.
It happens to me all the time. This is the worst case I've had for quite a while.
I've been working on developing a prototype dice stand for my board game store. Eventually I want a model I can make multiple of to sell.
The goal is to make something extremely high end that breaks your brain when you look at it. So that it looks like your dice are just floating in a void. At the moment I'm using black 3.0 to form the core of the illusion. It works great, but only under certain lighting conditions. I've discovered a few tricks that I can use with LEDs that I hope will make the illusion work under all lighting conditions though. But they require a much more sophisticated design.
I've been ordering a lot of parts from Adafruit and have another shipment coming in next week. This should allow me to finish my next stage of my prototype and get me that much closer to a final design.
I had to look this up! Is it difficult to work with?
You just have to make sure your surface is prepped, and be patient, but beyond that, no it's not particularly difficult to work with.
Well, good luck with the rest of the figuring out!
Omg thank you for this thread! It is a heavy craft time for me right now, all self imposed. I'm crocheting 4 amigurumi elephants. I have the bodies of 3 done and various bits and pieces as well, like 1 tail, 5 of the ears, and only one elephant has all of its legs lol. It's a super duper easy pattern and a free one.
I am also knitting a checkboard lacey scarf for a friend, though I'm not super far with it. I'm trying to do it in longer sessions so my tension isn't all over the place (definitely something I'm working on).
For sewing, I attempted to make clothes for my teeny ball jointed doll but I was having a hard time with the sleeves and bodice of the dress, partially because I'm not well versed in how clothes are constructed and I'm not good at envisioning how it's supposed to be put together. I need to use my more beginner friendly pattern aha. On the plus side (maybe) I got a much larger ball jointed doll and am looking for patterns that will fit her. I've found a couple I'm going to try, maybe, but I'll also be looking to see if anyone has free tutorials or anything. I'm terrible at sewing tbh.
The elephant pattern is so cute!!!! I'm tempted to learn to crochet just to be able to make one! The Baymax pattern linked on the page is super squee worthy, as well <3 I'd love to see yours when they come together :)
Sewing tiny doll clothes sounds like it would be really hard. And finding good, free patterns is nearly impossible. Even then, I find I'm consulting at least three extra sources per project to make sure I understand the steps, since people are better at explaining/demonstrating different things. Would it work to find patterns for humans and scale them down a whole bunch to make them fit the doll?
Do iiiiit! I 100% learned to crochet just so I could make cute stuff like this aha. The teeny doll clothes aren't terribly hard to make, it's definitely easier than I thought it would be to a degree.
I'll have to go your route then and see if I can find more information and references. I'm not nearly versed enough in sewing to just go for it haha. As for scaling, I'm not 100% sure how it would work, I know it's not like a 1 to 1 kind of thing, but it may be useful to look into it and see if anyone has tips on how to calculate it. It also depends on the size. My small one is 15cm and can fit in your hand whereas the larger one is I think 42cm? It'll be easier to scale down clothes for the larger one, I suspect.
That elephant is so freaking cute. Like 118point3ml, I'm also tempted to learn how to crochet just to make one.
I totally recommend it lol! I learned to crochet so I could make amigurumi. I love making lil cute stuff like this!