Zombie mitts!

Hello! How are you? I hope you are super. Today I finally finished part of my "work-appropriate" Halloween costume! Hooray! I made zombie mitts and I am so, so pleased with how they turned out. If you would like to make some too, these are based on the Mummy Mitts by Twinkie Chan; so read her tutorial, then read this post and you will know how!

First I crocheted two rectangles. Getting them the same size was the hardest part for me (sadly). I used this really nice green in acrylic, because wool is a little itchy for me, and also I know I will spill something on these at some stage.

Then I crocheted some blood spatter and some stitches. I made the stitches by chaining to the length I wanted, then single crocheting in each chain to make them nice and thick. 

The blood spatters started off with the first row of a circle (i.e. chain four, slip stitch into a ring, chain three, treble into the ring six times, join) then I did a mixture of trebles and single crochet. I made the sticky out parts by making two trebles, then chaining three and making another treble in between the first two trebles, and then slip stitching back down to the base row (i.e. where the first two trebles were made). Er, I hope that made sense.



I also made a long line of blood spatter by chaining to the right length, and then making the drips using trebles and single crochet in basically the same manner as the round blood spatters. For the parts where I didn't want any sticky out bits, I used single crochet.

Next I sewed on the blood spatter and the stitches with single thickness thread in the appropriate colours (red and black, respectively). I used wool and a tapestry needle to sew the lines across the stitches.

Once the embellishments were on, I sewed up the seams, leaving space for the thumb holes.

I can't wait to wear these on the 31st - I am thinking I will need to paint my nails to match ... maybe all in green? Or maybe white with red splatter? ^_^

Anyway, I hope you like them too - and if you do make some I would love to see them!

See you!

- Lisa x

Castiel embroidered canvas

Hey folks! Where has the time gone? I am highly suspicious that my diary is lying to me about it being mid-October already. But not too suspicious, because today is Rebecca's birthday! Yay!

I made Bec a embroidery/ felt/ canvas ... picture. I am so great at descriptions! But that's ok, because we have photos!

This is a little tribute to Castiel - the Trench Coat-wearing, demon-slaying, awesome quotes-master from the TV show Supernatural.

 

Castiel is embroidered with one and two strands of black DMC - he is quite small due to his massive wings also having to fit into the picture.

The wings are black felt blanket-stitched onto the blue cotton.

 

 

The quote is written in fabric pen, because I am generally terrible at stitching letters.

 

The finished piece on cotton was stretched over a blank canvas (I left the canvas material on because it is much studier than the cotton and thus gives it a bit of extra reinforcement) and sewn into place using this tutorial.

 

This picture is a bit hard to see - but basically I hemmed a piece of black cotton and whip stitched it onto the back of the canvas, to cover up the messy looking threads from attaching the blue cotton to the canvas.

The black cotton back has a flat tube (also of black cotton) sewn to it which can be used for hanging by threading a dowel or ribbon through it.

I am about 95% happy with how it turned out (the third line of the quote is slightly wonky which bothers me) but Bec liked it - and that is the main thing!

 

In other news, I got this AMAZING Imperial typewriter from my parents and grandparents. It's in a little bit of rough condition, but after I cleaned it up it looked 100 times better - I love it!

 

I am *still* making zombies ... but very slowly.

 

I made these trinket dishes for a wedding present, but I'm not really happy with them. They're ok, but you can see the brush strokes (which I could deal with, because it does look kind of rustic and charming) and they are still sticky! Ugh! I think I will try spray painting them, to make them a bit more matt and less brush-strokey. Only two are pictured here (the other one had an accident with some black paint ... oops), but they say "we tied the knot", "we put a ring on it", and "we said I do" with co-ordinating images (string with knot, rings, and heat respectively).

 

- Lisa x

Squid amigurumi

I finished a crochet squid amigurumi today - yay!

I used a pattern from Ravelry, but I changed it a little. Again. I wasn't really a fan of the pattern for the tentacles (really I just am not good at crocheting little tubes) so I brought out my French knitter and used that instead! It worked really well, and it was a lot faster than crocheting all of them would've taken me.

 

I used purple Moda Vera acrylic yarn in 8 ply, a 4mm hook, black buttons (for the eyes), and polyfill. The small tentacles have pipecleaners in them for poseability (is that even a word? Is now!) and the long tentacles are French knitted with crochet spheres sewn onto the ends. Yayness! I'm so happy it's finished.

Have a great evening!

- Lisa x

Felt owls with free pattern!

Hello! Today was a Crafternoon day ^_^

I made these super cute felt owls ...

... which will possibly become a mobile, or maybe just some tiny plushies. 

And I also made this little pattern so that if you want to, you can make some felt owls too! Yay! 

Instructions:
1. Click on the image above to download the pattern from my Google Drive
2. Cut out all the felt pieces, making the body one colour (i.e. pink) and all the body parts except for the beak and eyes another colour (i.e. blue). Make the beak brown, and the eyes black.
3. Sew the eyes onto the eye mask with 6=six strands of black embroidery thread using the image on the pattern as a guide. Whip stitch the beak to the eyemask using two strands of brown embroidery thread. Whip stitch the eyemask to the front body piece using two strands of embroidery thread using the contrasting colour (i.e. pink thread if sewing a blue eyemask).
4. Sew three lines of zig-zag on the tummy patch with two strands of embroidery thread. 5. Whip stitch the tummy patch to the front body piece.
6. Starting at the top of the left wing, running stitch the owl body closed. Ensure the wings and feet are placed so that they will be caught by the closing stitches.
7. Leave a small gap on the left side of the head for stuffing; after stuffing, stitched closed.

- Lisa x

A felt sheep magnet

The IronCraft challenge this week was "Spring", and when I think of spring, I think of sheep.

Growing up in the country, spring meant new lambs and shearing and the agricultural show. Oh, the Show - Highlight of the Harvey Social Calender! ^_^

This sheep is made from felt and is a magnet. She has a pretty blue award ribbon because she has won first prize!

Well done, little sheep! ^_^

Inspiration credit goes to Kate - our sheep don't look much the same, but I looked at her sheep to copy the nose stitching. Thanks Kate!

- Lisa x

Ninja Cake!

 Hi!

Today was Amy's farewell afternoon tea and I made a cake - a cake that *didn't* crumble as soon as I took it out of the tin! Huzzah! This cake is gluten, wheat, and dairy free - I did cheat though ... I used a packet mix. (Naturally Good, Deliciously Free - Moist Chocolate Mud Cake, if you're interested)

I was most pleased with the icing though ...

It's a chocolate fudge icing ninja!

The green icing is peppermint flavoured - and it was all very tasty ^_^

Have you ever had a ninja cake? Do you have good tricks for making non-crumbly cake? Or icing really well? (My icing is still pretty wonky!)

- Lisa x

Harry Potter finger puppets

Hello! Today is a special day - this is my 100th post!

So, Happy 100 Posts-Day! Yay!

And to celebrate, here are some Harry Potter finger puppet patterns - just for you!

 

I've only made Harry so far; but as tomorrow Bec and I start our Harry Potter movie marathan (in preparation for the final film!), I think I know what I'll be crafting during my viewing ^_^

I hope you like them - and thanks for sticking with me this far!

And here's to another 100 posts ^_^

- Lisa x