Blogiversary announcement

Today is my second blogiversary and I have a big change at ReveDreams.com to announce. Before that, however, I would like to introduce your guest host. Together at last!

stumpy monsters together

This monster was supposed to have been completed for Halloween… of 2011. However, I made a monster and when I brushed her, she got all stretched and floppy, her toes like the flippers of a walrus. That version was a dark orange. This version was of yarn much more similar to Stumpy (Stumpy is Full O’ Sheep [Stitch Nation for Red Heart]; this is Sheep(ish) by Vickie Howell [Stitch.Rock.Love. for Caron]) and brushed up nicely. Like the Hug Monster did, she will spend some time anonymous, until her name is revealed to me.

stumpy blue monster

Anonymous Light Blue Monster would like to announce the opening of the ReveDreams.com store! Several patterns you’ve seen the results of are there. We’ll survey them in tomorrow’s regular post. I aim to add more patterns steadily through the year, as well as continuing to tweak the look of the store pages.

Repurposed denim

The Sew-Op got involved with a local art gallery, AVA, as part of their 40th anniversary year. They are located in a former denim overall factory, and wanted denim to be part of their activities for the year. They were very interested in straddling that blurry line between art and craft, using denim for purely decorative endeavors, useful items that are attractive but not decorative per se, and everything in between. We discussed the limitations of the medium (we have no industrial sewing machines, so there is a bound on how many layers of denim can be sewn in the Sew-Op) and some possibilities. As part of this meeting a few Sew-Operators, myself included, volunteered to make some sample denim items for the kick-off repurposing session. That was this past Saturday. Let me show you what I did!

denim bag front denim bag back

This simple bag was actually whipped up for the organizational meeting. It’s two pieces of leg trimmed to equal size and sewn flat against each other, left open at the top and a little way down each side, after a strap had been sewn to one of them and the part of each that would be left open had been stitched across. I made a straight stitch about a half inch in from the edge so it could fray, and the strap has two slightly offset lines of zigzag stitch down the center. It’s all done in the thread color I refer to as “jeans gold.” After washing it I trimmed the sides, combed the bottom and gave it a little haircut as well.

sunburst front sunburst backlit

This wall hanging was primarily to demonstrate the hanging method, dowel with string wrapped around it and hot-glued in place. I stitched around with a narrow zigzag about 5/8″ in from the edge, cut the fabric with a utility knife, washed it, and colored the slits with Crayola fabric markers. After stitching the button on I cut dowels to size and sanded their ends, and ran hot glue along the dowel against the fabric. If I had a higher temperature glue gun I may have been able to run the glue on the fabric and stick the dowel on afterward, but with low-temp the beginning of the line had solidified by the time I got to the end.

sunburst back dowel and string

painted monster

This guy was whipped up quickly with acrylic paint and those cheap plastic-bristled kids’ paint brushes. I used brown, copper, black, pearl, and glow in the dark. I couldn’t get a good picture, but the eyes, teeth, and claws glow.

jeans bag front jeans bag back

The most admired item, however, was this bag made from the top of a pair of jeans. I cut off the legs, undid the inseam, and sewed a seam across. Since the back of jeans is wider than the front, I added a pleat just inside each back pocket to accommodate that. I had originally placed the side seams to minimize the width difference (the outseam is the topstitched one, so you have to fold on one or the other side), but the jeans had additional pockets below the right back pocket so I changed that to try to minimize the number of layers I was stitching through. To line it, I cut a rectangle of fabric a bit wider than the base of the bag, folded it in half and sewed the seams adjacent to the fold. Then I folded down the top so the pocket was as deep as the base of the bag to the bottom of the waistband (as measured by eye from the outside), pressed it, and hand-stitched it to the bottom edge of the wastband inside. I also stitched the inside of the waistband shut, but you can actually access the space between the bag and lining through the fly. All the pockets still work, as well.

jeans bag open five-part braid

The strap was the most time-consuming of the whole operation, because I braided it out of five lengths of ribbon (using these braiding instructions). I very much like it, though, and it seems to want to stay smooth and flat. After threading it through the belt loops I tied the like-color ribbon ends together in interleaved square knots (tie half of each, then the second half of each, so some of them are entangled), trimmed them, and glued them with Fray-Chek.

I also brought along my denim coaster from the craft countdown. I had one more idea for a bag but not enough time to complete it… perhaps in the future.

Patterns and puppets

I got a new toy this week! Ursa Software puts out a cross-stitch pattern making program, with versions not only for Windows but also for Mac (unusual!). I’ve only just begun using it but it is fun so far. There is a bit of a learning curve, though. I would like to read through the manual and see if I can reset some things – like making only the corners of each square available for French knots and the ends of backstitches, instead of a grid of nine points on each square. The image uploader/converter is quite good, as far as I can tell from playing with it, and there are a few built-in alphabets and motifs. I got the Premium version (only $5 more than Standard, and I definitely didn’t just want Lite, which can’t do French knots or make pdfs), which is the only version that allows you to preview the work matted and framed.

I made one little pattern that I’ve started stitching and tweaking, so more on that later, but with one of the included alphabets I made the following:

ReveDreams on the marquee

Click the picture for the pattern in pdf. There is no overlap between the pieces of the pattern, which unfortunately is not indicated.

While you’re waiting for my full review, enjoy this little guy I whipped up last night:

kodama-inspired