Showing posts with label Fabric. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fabric. Show all posts

Friday, September 13, 2013

Toddler Gleeman Cloak

You guys, I'm insane. 

No, really. Okay, maybe not really... but I do have this habit of getting in over my head with project ideas. 

So let me tell you about the latest accomplished insane project, but first some backstory: 
I married a geek. And as part of my geeky-wife duties, I read (and by read I mean listened to on Audible- ain't nobody got time to read all that!) the ENTIRE Wheel of Time series. If you haven't read this series, what I have made probably will make no sense to you, but I will try to describe it well enough you can appreciate it! So in the books there is a Gleeman who is, basically, a storyteller. But not just like 'go to your local library' storyteller. He's like an all-out entertainer, with music and vocal talent and all that jazz. And you know someone is a Gleeman by a special cloak they wear. The way I understood the description first time through is it is a cloak that looks like it has patches sewn in all over and when the wind ruffles the cloak, all the colors show. And if you turn it inside-out, it just looks like a regular cloak. 

So with that in mind, I decided I should make a Gleeman's cloak for my little girl, so here you have it!


This is where the insanity comes in. I didn't even look at a pattern for this (which I really should have, you find out later) So basically, to make it all cutesy, I bought three matching colors for underneath, and then a cutesy black for the regular outside look, and a matching spiral design for the inside. 
Okay now think about that. How are you supposed to sew this so that it shows all the colors without any raw edges showing? It was tricky. I basically just made a quilt with flaps! 

Unfortunately that is where a pattern would have been nice! Turns out a cloak is not just a rectangle tied around your neck, and I didn't realize this until I was on my very last layer! Bummer... But I kind of tweaked it so it ended up working without looking too odd... 


Anyway, so here it is! Finished product! It is kind of odd, and bulky, and weird to fold, but it's pretty cute on Kaitlyn! 

Oh, and I just opted on easy for the hood and did patchwork inside and seamless black on the outside. 


There she is! Not too bad, huh?!  


She never stands still! But I think these pictures give a good idea of what it looks like. 

I should also mention I made this large on purpose so that she can wear it for a few years. No point in all that hard work if she's only going to be able to wear it for six months! 


Well there you have it! I hope you enjoy it! 


Cost: $50 (yeah, fabric is not cheap!)
Time: well I started it a year ago.... I probably put at least 30 hours into it! 

If you were to follow a pattern, the cost would go up, but time would probably go WAY down! 

Upcycled Bakeware

A month or so ago, my aunt took dinner to my mom. One of the items she brought was in this old, blackened, caked-on burn crud type pan, and she told my mom to just throw it away when they were done with it because it could not get clean. And the crafter inside me shouted "NOOOOOOO!!' So I snatched it and brought it home! I'm not 100% sure where I got this idea, but I know it's all my own. 


Anyway, so I brought it home and got out my fabric scraps and glue gun and went to work! IT was actually kind of tricky, not as tricky as I thought, yet a little trickier than it first appears. But still not too bad, and I love how it turned out! So I took all of my fabric and matched colors, and measured to make sure I had enough to cover all of it. It turned out I used 5 different types total. The purple to cover the inside sides, the dark green on the outside, then I got a canvas type of material for the bottom (and I just folded it under itself and stuck some hot glue underneath) and the ribbon from my wedding dress corset (we didn't end up using it for the dress, don't worry, I'm not cutting up such a beauty for a craft) to border the bottom to make the edge look nicer. Finally I used some tulle and just wrapped it around the handles. An there you go! I also thought about adding the beading around the outside rim edge, but I only had bits and pieces, so I didn't finish that. I may go buy some and finish it later. 



The final product is a tray I keep on my table. It looks so classy! I love it so much! If you want to try something like this, I think any thrift shop would have junky old bakeware you could use on the cheap! 

Cost: Completely FREE!
Time: 1-2 hours between thumbing through fabric and all that jazz.