About Me

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Vashon Island, Washington, United States
Please check out my Etsy shop at www.etsy.com/people/EmeraldApotcalypse. I will be posting what I'm working on, tutorials I have used and ones I have created. Also expect to see the finished products and how to get them. Thanks for stopping by.

Monday, October 24, 2011

snap/shot

Iina, 19, Hel-looks.com


Woven Top Tutorial


Feeling weird since I have not actually sat down to make something in a couple of weeks, been busy trying to get my parents house into ok shape before me and E move out in January.  Still want to keep gathering ideas to keep me thinking.  As i go through the piles and piles of materials I have...hoarded for a couple years there are so many great patterns of fabrics I have that are too small to do much with.  I think if I found a solid color top like the one they used and mix the crazy pattern strips I have it would look noice brah.
 Blah blah blah here is the tutorial.


*find yourself an worn-in top.

*lay the top flat on your workspace. begin cutting from the base of the shirt to the top in 1 & 1/2 to 2 inch strips, leaving the waist band in tact. cut only to the shoulder seam and to the base of the neck. some of your strips with curve towards the shoulder seam. i worked from the side seam in, measuring towards the center in order to get semi-even strips. do not cut the side seam: that it where you’re going to attach your fabric.

*use a contrasting fabric of similar weight/stretch. i used a knit mesh in cream. you don’t need much: i used about a quarter of a yard. (you could even cut up another used/worn shirt if you’re looking to down-size your wardrobe: make 1 shirt from 2.)

*with right sides together, cut 1 & 1/2 inch strips. i cut 10 strips. depending on the size of the shirt and how tight you want it woven, you can add more or less. the fewer the strips and/or longer the strips, the more you can see through the weave.

*begin weaving the contrasting fabric strips through the top, altering every other row to create a basket weave effect. the easiest way to do this is to pin one end of the contrasting strip to the side seam of the top. weave the strip through and pin on the opposite side, cutting away any excess material.

*in order to keep strips even, pin along the shoulder seam, but keep your strips straight. (turning them will cause awkward bumps and bulges. you can turn the shirt inside out if you’re having trouble keeping things lined up and pinned.)

*once everything is pinned, sew along your side and shoulder seams. i used grey thread to match my top, so you can see where i’ve added stitches. turn your top inside out and cut off any excess material that may create bulk.
*you’re done:
note!: i wore my top once and a lot of the weave sort of collapsed down so you couldn’t see the details of it. my guess is that this happened because the knit fabric i used was very different in weight from the sweatshirt. to fix this, i hand stitched tiny X’s at various points across the weave in order to keep things in place. you could probably avoid having to hand-stitch anything if you use similar weight fabric and attach the woven material at the side seams a bit tighter than i originally did."


{Found this at Made By Rachel today}

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Gathering: Washer Necklace Tutorial

Found this great tutorial that I would love to try out with a necklace or maybe even bracelets...

The following is a post from The Small Object blog originally hosted over on Blogger that has since been deleted. This post was originally published in May 2005. 
“Last time I was in NYC I went to see the Josef + Anni Albers exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and it was awesome. But the item I remember being most excited about was Anni Albers’ necklace made with washers and grosgrain ribbon. This was one time I was desperately hoping the museum store would come through for me. Nope. This necklace was not available. So for months I’ve been trying to see how she weaved the washers together. The problem is my memory of it was very different than the actual construction. Alas, I finally found a picture online and see it was not nearly as complicated as I thought it was.
Thankfully, I finally figured it out.
First off, Anni Albers’ beautiful necklace:

(I also saw it with red ribbon which was is my favorite.)
Personally, I love it, so perhaps you want to make one, too. Here’s a quick tutorial.
- 35 to 50 3/8″ washers (10 washers makes 4.5″ of necklace)
- Grosgrain ribbon 1/2″ wide (3/4 yard or so)
Step one: Thread ribbon up from behind washer #1. You should leave about 6″ inches of ribbon on the end.

Step Two: Thread ribbon up along the side of washer #2 and back down through the middle. The end should be threaded back through the middle of washer #1. (Still with me…)

Step Three: Pull ribbon tight so washer #2 lies flat against washer #1.

Step Four: Thread ribbon back up through washer #2 so it weaves underneath washer #1.

Step Five: Repeat process. Thread ribbon up alongside edge and back down through the middle of washer #3.

Step Six: Thread end of ribbon back through the middle of washer #2.

Step Seven: Pull ribbon tight to the right so you have all three washers laying flat. Repeat above steps.

Then you’re done!!”



Thanks to: http://thesmallobject.com/stenopad/wordpress/?p=976

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Now available at Good Merchandise on Vashon Island!

Last week I finally took 6 pieces of jewelry into Good merchandise on Vashon Island.  So excited to have something I've made somewhere that people can browse and look through. 

Here is a cute picture of the shop:
 you can also check out the blogger :)
http://good-merchandise.blogspot.com/


Sunday, October 9, 2011

gathering ideas for the winter

Trying to find some low cost projects to work on since everything has been over $25.  The goal is to get some $10 and under  pieces into Good Merchandise & up on Etsy.

Here is what I've found so far:

This is a super simple project. 
All you need is a hair comb and embroidery floss. 
I had a pack of hair combs that I got at Walgreens a long time ago
 (Like 10 or 12 combs for $4- they still have them). 
Vintage embroidery floss from forever ago.
 This project is from http://lemonjitters.blogspot.com/