Super capes

Let's get bohemian

Join us at the Bohemian Music & Poetry Festival Saturday night 8pm-midnight in Waco, Texas!

http://www.facebook.com/events/449802288372203

Star Wars

Lots of new stuff for Bohemian Music & Poetry Festival

Waco, Temple, Killeen folks -- don't miss the Bohemian Music & Poetry Festival on July 21. Starts at 8:00 pm.

Caille and I have been busy making some new things you'll see there at the XBOHICA table.

Here's the event info on Facebook. http://on.fb.me/MfSbNs It's free! Please bring a canned food item for the food banks when you come.

Doggy incontinence

The poor old Captain is approaching 13. (He was born 9-9-99, an easy date to remember.) his back end doesn't always work. The vet says he has a cancer of his liver. He has a tumor on his eye that we had removed in a very expensive operation. It grew back three months later.

He's an old guy. He's had better days.

He lost control of bodily functions over a year ago. That's when I started experimenting with making doggy diapers. The last thing I want is to be freaking out about him peeing on the floors when he is so old he doesn't know what I'm freaking out about. No reason for the stress.

I designed several different kinds of diapers. He has figured out how to scrape them off, move them down, get them off, any way he can.

The one I made today might be the best one yet. I don't think he's getting out of this one.

On the inside, I stick a large woman's feminine napkin. I change that out when he wets it.

Monkey see, monkey do

I made this for a friend's new baby. I STARTED with Simplicity 2428, but the design puts a zipper from baby's neck to crotch in the front of the romper. Are you kidding? I would not want any baby *I* care about to have a zipper there. They'll get pinched during zip-up and irritated by zipper teeth if they lay on the tummy. No way was I going to put a zipper there. This required a complete redesign of the front, with a placket and snaps (snap tape). Ah, now I feel much better about it. Too bad it took me about 5 hours of sewing, ripping, sewing, ripping, recutting the pieces, sewing, ripping, sewing, for it to work out.

(The light tan color fabric is synthetic suede. It looks and feels like suede, but it's washable.)

The blanket design for Simplicity 2428 called for just a binding tape around the outside edge. I couldn't bring myself to do that. I know from experience that babies/kids like a silky binding, so I used satin blanket binding instead.

The monkey appliques required some precision cutting and sewing, as well as some hand embroidery. They were fun. I like the fact that the ears are left unattached and flap out from the romper and blanket.

Have a happy life, Zach. And may your mommy and daddy sleep again one day!

Neglect

No excuses. I've been neglectful, dear blog. Must do better.

Tweet tweet birdie case for an iPad

Tutorial: How to make a craft show banner

I needed a banner for my booth at craft shows. I designed it to be flexible (sometimes you don't know what the venue will be like and how you'll be able to attach a banner) and easy to pack up without getting all wrinkled up and ugly next time you pull it out.

1. I used 4 sheets of dark brown felt (rectangles 9"x12"). I ironed some pretty sturdy fusible interfacing to the back.

2. I cut the 4 sheets into half-size, yielding 8 letter panels. I only needed 7 of these, one for each letter in my company name: xbohica.

3. I ironed fusible double-sided web to one side of bright pink felt. (Leave the paper on the fusible web for now!)

4. On my computer, using MS Word, I found a font that I liked and printed out each letter (really big!) of xbohica on paper. Then I cut out each of those letters from the paper. This gave me my templates for cutting letters.

4. I traced the letters (from #4 above) on the pink felt. Then I cut out the letters from the pink felt.

5. I removed the paper from the backs of the letters and ironed them onto the 7 brown panels, one letter per panel.

6. I sewed a lime green buttonhole stitch around the edges of each letter.

7. I applied lime green (single fold) bias tape around the edges (sides and bottom) of each of the brown panels.

8. I sewed all of the letter panels onto a long length of (extra wide) lime green bias tape. Make sure you attach the letters in the right order :-)

9. Ta-da. I'm ready to really "represent" at the next craft fair!

A new life for a feed bag

Well, I guess it's technically a "feedbag bag." I had just enough left from the two feedbags to make Carol a tote that matches the horse groomer's smock.

Horse groomer smock made from horse feed bags

My colleague at work (you know, that university job that pays the bills) asked me to give this a try. Just as I have a real calling to be a geeky crafter, she has a real calling for horses. Carol and her husband own Andalusians of Texas, in Salado.

I think this is a brilliant idea, but be warned: the plastic is hard and stiff. It's very difficult to work with. Here's a photo gallery of the step-by-step process. I'll report back later after Carol does the beta testing.

TUTORIAL: More tips for assembly-line sewing

Before Christmas my mom and I made five Hawaiian shirts, each one a different size. Eventually,we were cursing under our breath, realizing we were accidentally trying to fit a size 5 collar on a size 7 shirt or a size 7 sleeve in a size 5 shirt. That many pieces, all in the same fabric, in five different sizes... well, it's easy to get mixed up.

I've already blogged a tutorial on assembly-line sewing, but it only discussed the techniques to use when all items are exactly the same size, regardless of how many different fabrics you may use. But what about when you are making several things, all the same pattern, all the same fabric, but in many different sizes? It can get confusing very quickly.

Here's what I do. Go to the nearest discount store and buy a package of garage sale pricing stickers (any little sticker dots will do). The ones I have, left over from a garage sale a long time ago, are in neon shades.

Today, I'm sewing three little girls' aprons, all in the same fabric. As I separate each piece from the tissue pattern, I stick a dot on the fabric identifying its size. For instance, I'm making sizes 4, 6 and 8. I used pink dots for size 4, orange dots for size 6 and green dots for size 8. This way, you can process each step of construction for all three aprons at once without getting pieces mixed up and without spending any time figuring out which size pieces you have in your hand.

For example, I start this apron by binding the edges of the pockets. Each pocket is marked clearly with a label, so I don't worry about getting them confused (and trying to put a size 8 pocket on a size 6 apron skirt) and am free to bind all six pockets in a chain (saving lots of time and thread!) before moving on to the next step of construction.

By the way, I've tried other marking methods. Post-it notes fall off. Chalk marks come off. Tiny stickers seems to work best for me so far.

Do you have another way you solve this problem? Share your tip in comments!