Katie Does

[Presser Feet] Wide Gathering Foot #16

2013-03-25T10:16:00.000-05:00

Ruffles! I love ruffles! So I have the ruffler and the gathering foot. But this is about the gathering foot. As usual, here's the Bernina video:

This one actually gives you pretty close to everything you need to know. But you have to watch for it, it doesn't just tell you.

So, if you want to gather the layer of fabric and do nothing else, put it UNDER the presser foot just like normal. It will for all intents and purposes randomly pull the fabric closer together as you sew. The longer the stitch, the deeper the ruffle.

If you want to attach it in the one operation that they discuss, take note of the little slot it has. That's where the non-ruffled piece goes. Right sides together.

Watch out for the gathered piece to move a bit. But that's really the only tricky thing. It's pretty easy to use.

[Presser Feet] Blind Hem Foot #5

2013-03-25T09:50:00.000-05:00

If I can find good enough videos, I feel no need to make my own. So for now, have some videos from Bernina and other places I can find!

Here's the Bernina video for the Blind Hemstitch Foot (#5)

But that video doesn't show you what to do afterward or before to get the fabric laid out like that. If you look closely though, you can see how it jumps to catch the fabric.

This shows you how to fold the fabric at the beginning. But she says to pin it (which is probably what I would do) BUT, most people would tell you to press it. FYI. And then she shows you to iron it. That's pretty much the gist of how to use a Blind Hem Foot.

BUT, I rarely do a blind hem by machine because it has been ingrained in me to hate those little marks.

My To Do List

2012-08-20T10:28:00.000-05:00

On Tax Free weekend, I picked up a dry erase board for my sewing room. Sadly, it has yet to make it up there. Also, sadly, it's already full.

Slowly but surely, I've been checking things off. Katherine is completely checked off. Thanks Interwebs! There I found a tutorial for how to fix that wig. Detangling spray + sponge rollers = better curls than it started with.

As of this moment, I'm about halfway down with the Hawkeye and Apple Jack sections. And I'm not sure if I need to fix my cummerbund honestly. It was slouchy at Alabama Phoenix Fest, but when I tried it back on, not so much. I guess that's a benefit of gaining weight. *sigh*

Between that list and trying to get various medications in check, I haven't had much time to sew or craft anything else. And my house is in a perpetual mess. But as always, this should result in amazing pictures.

[Sewing] Kindle Cover

2012-08-13T10:45:00.000-05:00

I have no idea why this project took so long. But over a recent weekend, I got tired of pinning my kindle cover closed with a straight pin, walked upstairs and finished it in about 5 minutes. It took longer to find the cording than it did to sew it.

Tada. One Kindle Cover, 0 dollars.

[Cameo] Getting to Know My Cameo

2012-08-06T10:36:00.000-05:00

I cut a few more things the other day, just to see how it would go. I had heard it was better at intricate designs.

I thought the lace pennant I download seemed like a good place to start for detail. This is actually the back side, because it shows more detail. The pennant came with 2 images actually, but it was super easy to delete the one I didn't want (ungroup, select the one you don't want, and then delete).

This DEFINITELY cut better than the Cricut. Granted, it was a brand new blade and a brand new mat, so I'm not sure if it's an entirely fair fight. But in my experience, this was better.

[Cameo] Milk Carton

2012-08-01T10:20:00.000-05:00

I keep seeing cute milk cartons pop up on crafty blogs I follow. So far as I know, none of my cricut cartridges can do it. And I only have a Big Shot, so I can't work with the Sizzix die for it.

So naturally, when my Silhouette Cameo arrived the FIRST thing I did was get the milk carton cut file and make it.

Rainbow Dash Surprise Birthday Party

2012-07-23T15:17:00.000-05:00

The problem with a surprise party that you intend to be crafty at is that you can't post any of the crafty things you're doing when the surprisee reads your blog!

On the 15th we had a surprise party for a friend's birthday. It was apparently a well kept secret. Over several months, we had been asking her questions that didn't make sense out of context, but now they do. MWAHAHAHA.

I invited her to come over and sew as a ruse. When she arrived, this is what she saw:

It was Rainbow Dash themed.

I was totally inspired by the party that Angry Dog Studios threw for Corsair's Boutique's birthday! Her favorite is Pinkie Pie, so they threw her a Pinkie Pie themed birthday.
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[Costumes] Mockingbird Progress

2012-07-16T14:59:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned the fact that I'm a huge Marvel fangirl yet? Probably. It's on the internet somewhere. So naturally, I've seen the Avengers...multiple times. It's time to bust out another Marvel costume and as such, I've been working on a Mockingbird costume.

Mockingbird, ex-wife of Hawkeye

My first attempt at Fondant

2012-06-11T12:45:00.000-05:00

I blame my friends and their compulsion for pigs in a blanket getting me on a baking kick recently. At least I'm smart enough to do it sunday night so I can just take it to work on Monday and not have to eat it all!

Anyway, I got the urge to make fondant. I didn't really have an urge to bake, just to ice. So, away I went with multiple blenders!

All in it's crumbcoated goodness.

The cake is a pink lemonade (pillsbury?) mix. I made buttercream for the crumb coat. Then I started in on the fondant.

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Making Soap

2012-06-04T12:35:00.001-05:00

I think this was one of those crafts I've stared at in Michael's since I was in high school. It always seemed neat. So after watching a TON of tutorials at soap queen tv, I set out to make some. Bonus, mom thinks goat's milk soap will help my skin and this way I can make a good supply of it.

The kit I bought.

The Post in which Katie and Lauren Fail at Cake Pops

2012-05-11T09:11:00.000-05:00

So I had a fairly brilliant idea the other night: let's bust out that cake pop maker from Black Friday and make some cake pops. And let's ice them like My Little Ponies. Brilliant right? I know. I'm awesome. Well, with the ideas anyway.

Oh look, Wilton meant for this to happen, because they sell the melts for the mane 6!

I have sort of weird aspect to my domestic life: if it's supposed to be hard....I can do it. And well. If it's supposed to be easy, I'm going to fail. Case in point: never ask me to BAKE chocolate not from a box cake mix or slice and bake cookies (although I'm okay with chocolate chips). I burn it every time. No idea why.

I can make any flavor of cheesecake you like. People tend to like the Bailey's Irish Coffee flavor the best (I like the lemon). I can make meringue until the cows come home. But I can't make royal icing.
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May the Fourth Be with You

2012-05-04T11:21:00.000-05:00

I thought, with it being May the 4th, otherwise known as Star Wars day, that I'd link to some Star Wars themed crafts. Pinterest is great for this and I made a whole board of it. Unfortunately, the server I'm currently on has pinterest blocked. BOO.

So I just started digging around the Internet to see what I could see.


Leia Baby Hat

[Costumes] Viola Progress Part 2: The Skirt!

2012-04-30T10:00:00.003-05:00

Viola's skirt was pretty simple, although I seem to have issues measuring my own waist and it ALWAYS ends up too big. Additionally, I made it way longer than I wanted, but that was a much easier fix.

In progress Skirt

[Costumes] Viola Progress Part 1: The Top

2012-04-23T10:00:00.001-05:00

Part 1 shall be the corset and the main part of the bodice:

I used a simplicity pattern to make the corset, serged the edges (because I can!), then put in the boning channels and spiral steel bones.

Partially serged

Feather Earrings

2012-04-16T10:00:00.001-05:00

Alright, my house is FINALLY clean post multiple weekends of travel in a row. I still have one yet-to-be-unpacked bag, but it's small. As such, I've updated quite a few websites this weekend as well. Time for this blog:

First up in my list of backlogged posts: feather earrings!

The post that I forgot to title!

2012-04-04T09:56:00.001-05:00

Well, I guess I can use the excuse of not being able to log in for the prolonged absense. I went to log in this morning on Firefox and it spit back and error about cookies, so I'm updating it. No idea how long that's gone on.

But just because I haven't been writing about my crafty exploits over here does not mean I haven't had them. My dining room table is covered in projects. Much spray painting has been had (realitively unsuccessfully). And I took on an ambitious project that is finally mostly done. So can being "busy" also be an excuse? Or how about going out of town and having others come into town?

Aforementioned HUGE project. Yay for Soul Calibur always having an easy way to get reference images

I have about 4-5 posts worth of pictures on my camera, but I haven't even had time to load them yet!

At least I can show you some progress pictures I took on my phone. Ignore the probable lack of makeup in most if not all of them. Going through the pictures, I probably have 2-3 posts of progress pictures on the big project in and of itself. Mom got kind of mad at me when I said I might not enter it into a contest.

[costumes] Pictures from Connooga - Part 2

2012-03-05T12:00:00.000-06:00

The most exciting costume for me at ConNooga was an updated version of Ilithyia from Spartacus. I didn't get to watch the latest episode until I got home, but that was okay. I had fun being all "don't you know that I'm married to a praeter" or "but I am the wife of the legatus". And I did get recognized a few times, which was awesome!!!!

We tried very hard to have no trains in the picture, I guess we failed.

Girls' Night In Tasting Party

2012-03-02T12:00:00.055-06:00

I preface all of this by saying that I have no real idea how to put together a menu. Well, at least, not the way you're supposed to where all the flavors complement each other. I just kind of make what I want to make but being sure that there's a meat, something that can be considered a side, probably some "appetizer" and a dessert. So all the things are tasty, but that's where I stop.

That being said, I had a girls night in party. I busted out all the new tasting dishes and made little many portions of everything.

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[costumes] Pictures from Connooga - Part 1

2012-02-27T12:00:00.001-06:00

Connooga was fun. I met new folks, ate a lot of good food and wore several costumes that had previously only been worn once. WOO. I'm at least TRYING to keep my New Year's resolution even if I have bought more fabric and sewn things that may or may not have been on the list.

Parts of the Choo Choo are awesome and gorgeous, so we took the opportunity to take some pictures.

[Cricut] Get Well Card

2012-02-20T12:00:00.003-06:00

I'm on a roll with the card making. This one follows the same template, but I had some trouble with the cricut on it. So I had to get creative with placement of the ribbon.

ORANGE AND BLUE

Stamp from Joy's Life, same spellbinder dye from before for the sentiment. Still grabbing ribbon out of the "I went nuts for ribbon once at Michael's" drawer. Whale from Create a Critter Cricut cartridge.

Getting Ready for an Event

2012-02-16T09:00:00.001-06:00

I have highlighted a lot of the costumes and the way they are stored in my house, but not the process that goes through carting them somewhere. There's a reason I drive an SUV.

I have a convention coming up on Friday so I figured I would document the process a bit so you can understand why I pack a week early.

Reference Pictures

First thing's first, print reference pictures out to take with me. This also provides material for step 2:

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[Cricut] Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T12:00:00.002-06:00

One of my New Year's Resolution was to make more paper stuff with my Cricut. And woo, I have made my first batch of cards!

Confession, this is actually the 2nd, but I didn't like the first. I did some research and got a little more comfortable with it.

Recipe:
Random Ribbon from Michael's
Sentiment from Joy's Life
Sentiment cut with Spellbinder die
Cricut Cuts: Love You Latte.
Stamp Ink: Tim Holtz

I didn't have any brown paper, so I just inked in the brown portion. But I like it, makes it look more fluid.

It's simple, but that works for me. Hope you like it!

[Sewing] Work appropriate skirt and top

2012-02-10T12:00:00.001-06:00

I had originally planned this skirt to be a pencil skirt, but I decided to use a different pattern. I ended up going with Simplicity 5914 for the skirt. Using the pin striped fabric was much easier than the plaid. So long as my grainlines were all going the right direction, I was fine.

I used McCall's 6282 for the shirt. You don't expect it, but even the SHIRT version of the pattern requires a zipper. And it's a little sad how often, inside the pattern, they try to tell you that zippers in the back of a shirt are COOL. Seriously "zippers are in now" and stuff like that. No, McCall's, just because you slap a "THIS IS COOL" sentiment on something does not make it so and does not excuse your laziness to just print out another page with a proper pattern. I say this, because I think with the way the pattern is cut, it does need the zipper. Which is just dumb. (And now I shall save you from the rest of my zipper-in-a-shirt themed rant.)

It's not as flattering on the dress form as I think it was in person. Just keep that in mind.

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Too Hilarious Not to Share

2012-02-08T16:07:00.000-06:00

GO TO THE WEBSITE ALREADY

A friend tweeted a link to Handmade Ryan Gosling. And I had to share it with you all. Here's a selection, SO MANY MORE AT THE WEBSITE!!! GO! NOW!

And not care if I buy one or...4 while we're at it.

I swear, I finished something and took pictures to load! I PROMISE. I even wore the skirt I made to work on Monday!!! I'll load them soon. Maybe for tomorrow or Friday. But right now, this is too hilarious not to share.

There's probably a partial tube of it in every room of my house.

I eagerly await her take on the meme that she's promising.

[Costumes] Costume Organizing

2012-02-02T12:00:00.002-06:00

I didn't stop with the attic (kitchen, I'm coming for you next!). I also cleaned Target out of suit sized garment bags and went to town on the costumes. I've lived in my house for about 3 years now and this is the 4th version of organizing costumes I've been through. It's a complex problem because I'd like to keep everything together but there are so many different pieces!

2009, WAY BEFORE

This is the WAY Before. When I moved in, all the costumes were in garment bags. But I probably only had around 20-25 costumes. Maybe 30.

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