Custom Hoodies: Knight and Toothless!!!

I've been wanting to post about these for a while now but I'm terrible at remembering to document the whole creative process.

I have been inspired for a long time by the Canada Cosplay 'Toothless' hoodie (or 'Cute Dragon' as they like to call it to avoid copyright issues) and by various Assassins creed/Suit of Armour hoodies. So I went for it.

The Toothless Hoodie:

I am immensely proud of this and it's come out so well that actually I could adapt the pattern and use different coloured fleece and paint to make 'custom dragon' hoodies because the 'ears' could easily be replaced by 'horns'.

Having found THIS simplicity pattern all I needed to do was to add the various 'accents'. I designed my own wings, gloves and tail for the Toothless hoodie with a little help on the tail flukes from multiple DeviantArt 'make your own Toothless plushie' patterns - I think in the end I used them for reference when drawing out the flukes and scaling them:

Here's the pieces cut out - I eventually cut another two tail pieces because the tail was too small:

I also cut out 'ear' pieces and 'horn' pieces:

The Hoodie is made of Fleece with a thin T-shirt jersey full lining. I used Pebeo Setacolor Shimmer paint in Jet Black and a 'Giraffe Print' stencil for the 'scales' applied with make up sponges. The 'fingers' were large 'cone' shapes made of the Lining Fabric that was attached to Iron on interfacing for structure, folded in half right sides together, stitched at the edge, then sewn down the centre and turned inside out to make a cone where all the seams are on the inside. The ears, wings, horns etc have all got quilt batting sewn into them and the wings and flukes are all boned using plastiboning (the same stuff they use in prom dresses). The tail is stuffed with polyester soft toy filling. I'm still not sure I'm 100% happy with the way the tail hangs so if I come across a better solution I will reattach it.

The Suit of Armour Hoodie:

This was always intended for my Fiancée as he has always wanted one. It went through several iterations with different shaped 'plates'. The arm plates have cotton string threaded around the edge seam to give them 'body'. I broke several sewing machine needles. As with the Toothless hoodie all the pieces are interfaced for stability. The face plate has a plastic liner made out of a cheap place mat - it works brilliantly. The main 'chest' plate is held onto the shoulder with poppers so it can be removed. The face plate is also held on with poppers so the hoodie can be 'scaled back' to be worn 'everyday'. If there is sufficient demand I'll write a proper guide and publish my pattern pieces:

Updates in crafting

Has it really been this long since my previous post? Eep I'm as bad at blogging as I am at procrastinating over my crafting projects.

The problem I find is that I lose motivation so all the projects I PLAN to do fall by the wayside in preference to other things (like playing World of Warcraft).

However sometimes other projects pop up and lately we've been focusing on rennovating our back bedroom and were given some slightly tired IKEA bedroom furniture. Long story short, we sanded off the tops of the bedside tables, got a colour match pot to match the wallpaper, painted them then I traced a design onto them and used acrylic paint to paint it. We then used car body lacquer to 'Varnish' them. They look AMAZING and when I can get around to uploading the pictures I will post about it.

The next project is a Game-of-Thrones inspired cosplay gown in a sumptuous Olive green taffeta. It is going very well and is my first properly solo dressmaking experience. I have learned a lot from lurking on other blogs though so suddenly the sewing instructions and phases like 'selvage edge' and 'with nap' mean a whole lot more to me and my mock-up went really really well. I hope to have something to post about that too.

Sari Maxi Skirts

Hi all,

Well, I promised the Sari Maxi skirts and here they are.

Having been inspired by THIS PIN, which led me to THIS blog post, and owning 8m of beautiful Sari fabric that I never got around to using, naturally I thought this might be an excellent use for it - it is the perfect length after all and the colour and embroidery on it were amazing...

Crafting Update

Hi All,

If any of you are crafters you'll know that what you PLAN to do and what you END UP doing are two different things.

Following on from my previous post in which I laid out my 'To Do' list, I've only actually completed half of 2 of the original items.

I have cut and pinned the T-shirt re-fashion, but some minor issues with the sewing machine have led to it being 'rested' for the time being.

I have also measured and made a pattern for my chair covers and bought the fabric, but again, issues with the sewing machine have sapped my enthusiasm.

I have, however, completed a couple of lovely little crafts I plan to blog just as soon as I can find the time to sit down for an hour. Things have been a bit crazy in our house recently - we had a toilet-plumbing-related emergency that meant that I had to move out for several days and with all the DIY projects we've had going on, crafting has had to take a back seat.

I have completed the Button Tree and I'm THRILLED with how it's turned out - I can't wait to share it! :-D

I also made a cute little Kilt-pin scarf/pashmina/cardigan pin decorated with charms and buttons. I'll be posting that too.

I still need to blog the Sari-skirts - they turned out beautifully (mostly - I underestimated the friability of the fabric so the pink one is fraying terribly but some 'fray-block' should sort that out).

As it's getting on towards the end of the year, look out for my felt christmas decorations - I started this project last year and have a lovely collection but I plan to make some more as gifts this year. I also need to finish my 3D applique felt christmas bunting for the fireplace so look out for that :-)

As money is a touch light this year (the DIY and plumbing-related emergencies have cost us more than we would have liked) I shall be putting together baskets of home-made confectionery and possibly chutneys (The weird weather has led to a bumper Tomato crop from the Veg patch this year), so I might have a few disasters/successes to share :-)

I realise that my posts are sporadic, but hopefully there should be a boost in content in the not-too-distant future.

Lex.

Amazing Honeycomb/Cinder Toffee

Having purchased THIS BOOK from the Book People, I was dying to try something. I settled on the Cinder Toffee recipe. Mostly because I didn't need to shop for extra ingredients.

I bought myself a Tala Confectionary Thermometer and set to work.

The recipe was fairly straight forward but there was a lot of faffing with warm water and the suchlike and you all know how much I LOVE the faffing...

My syrup reached 'Hard crack' I ice bathed it and stirred in my dissolved Bicarb. Floof. Excellent I thought. Until it cooled. It was powdery and soft. Not at all crunchy in that Crunchie-bar way I was hoping for. The flavour was spot-on but it was all powdery and nasty :-(

Fail!Toffee

What did I do wrong? The temp was right, the quantities were correct. I turned to the internet to find out what went wrong and stumbled across THIS blog post. When I saw that it was a Nigella Recipe I was immediately hooked. Nigella stuff ALWAYS goes well in our kitchen and my Nigella chocolate fudge is a huge hit. So I tried it.

I made a minor modification in that instead of 'guessing' the temperature, I used my Confectionary Thermometer to heat the syrup to 'Hard crack' as per the first recipe.

Perfection. It floofed like a dream and there was barely any faff at all! Verdict? Nigella wins again.

Lovely and crisp and delicious!

I'm off to coat it in dark chocolate now!

Ready for Coating... Mmm

Lex.

Upcoming Projects

Just thought I'd post a little update on up and coming posts and projects.

I finally got around to doing the Sari Maxi Skirts but we've just got an 8 week old Kitten who is a bit crazy in that cute kitten-y way and he's taking up a lot of time and likes to sit on the keyboard so typing a blog post is a touch challenging. LOL

But I will get around to it. I've learned a few lessons about the fabric and about my lack of knowledge re: sewing machines too so it should be funny if nothing else...

I've also had the chance to put together a list of projects I will be working on in the next few months:

1) Refashionism part 1 - HUGELY inspired by Jillian - the Refashionista - I have a HUGE collection of old, damaged, ugly clothes and I am starting to see the useful items they COULD be. First project is something pretty simple - turn two too-short T-shirts from Primark into one much longer and therefore wearable shirt. I also have some ideas for exercise tanks from Simon's old T-shirts.

2) Slipcovers for our Dining chairs - the aforementioned Kitten is wrecking our cheapo fake leather dining chairs. We didn't buy them, we acquired them with the house but until we can afford to replace the pain-in-the-arse glass table (they are an ARSE to keep clean aren't they?) and the matching chairs we'd like to keep them serviceable. Hence, slipcovers that little Enzo can wreck with his teeny weeny claws

3) A 'Thneed'. That's the best way to describe it. It's a long scarf with sleeves to wrap around you. A Thneed

4) Terracotta pot planter and bird table Although once the aforementioned teeny weeny isn't quite so little I might just have to make it an interesting planter instead...

Successful Bread Machine Baking

Hey all,

Still struggling with this horrible throat infection so I thought I'd share some pearls of wisdom I've accrued re: bread machines.

My first attempt at baking bread in my bread machine were disastrous. Simon bought me a breadmaker as a christmas present a couple of years ago because I'd been going on about wanting one and I was so excited to give it a try. So I bought some bread mixes from the supermarket. Failure after failure ensued until I gave up and packed it away. I didn't want to admit to Simon that either it was broken or I couldn't use it.

Long story short, my Uncle interceded and rescued my poor abandoned bread machine with some simple advice:

1) Use the recipes included in the instruction booklet - they are made and tested with the machine.
2) Put the ingredients in in the order in which they are written in the booklet. From this I then discovered that the secret is to put liquids in first.
3) Add Vitamin C powder (about 1/4 of a tsp) to the mix.

This was then added to by a work colleague: Add extra yeast - whatever the recipe says add an extra gram or 2

Following these simple steps gave me instant success. Having been successful I was then free to experiment slightly.

The first problem I found was that whilst letting the machine bake the bread is faster and easier, it ends up with a massive hole in the middle from the kneading blade. But like all good bread machines, my machine has a dough setting - this is brilliant. Put all the ingredients in, let it do the hard work of mixing and kneading and proving, then pop the dough out of the machine and into the oven - you can shape it however you like that way - rolls, loaves, plaits, sticks. Whatever you like. I use this setting more often than anything else.

I tend to follow the oven settings in the recipe book, but if you're not sure, bread tends to be baked high - around 230°C

Having discovered that putting the liquids in first makes for successful baking, and having decided to only use the dough setting, I realised that the possibilities were endless - almost all bread recipes in any cook book can be made in my bread machine if I follow these simple rules:

- Put the liquids in first - if a recipe calls for butter, melt it in the microwave and include it with the liquids. As oil and butter should be added first.
- Add additional yeast - 2 or 3 grams
- Add Vitamin C powder to the mix

I have found that some recipes tend not to mix well unless you poke a hole through the flour into the liquids and force them to mix. This need only be done briefly at the start of the mixing process.

I have also found that using the timer to set the machine to start mixing while I'm out at work means I'll get home to a puffy ready-to-bake dough as the machine keeps the dough warm.

This post might seem obvious, but I didn't know any of these things and had nothing but failures. 3 simple rules later and every single recipe I try comes out successfully!

I thought that was worth sharing.

Lex.