Shameless Begging Time: Vote for my Cooking Video

Warning: this post has nothing to do with sewing

This is the post where I ask all of the wonderful people who stumble across my blog to take (literally) one minute to do me a favor and go to a Web site to vote for a video we made for a cooking video contest.  We had so much fun making the video and I wanted to beg and plead for your vote.

You don't have to sign up for anything or like anything, give your information or give anyone access to your friends list.  You just go to the site Mark's Daily Apple and vote for our video Primal Panang.

Voting is open less than 24 hours.  Today is Tuesday night September 25 and voting is open only open until Wednesday, September 26 at 4 PM PST.  Vote for Primal Panang.   (it is a spicy coconut ginger garlic curry and this one is made with tilapia)

If our video wins, we get a lot of yummy food, some gift certificates to some online food stores and a nifty pair of Vibram shoes. And glory. And pride. And YOU will get my undying gratitude and frankly, a really yummy recipe if you choose to watch.

Featured in the video is a dress from this blog, so there is the little bit about sewing.  A link to the video is also below.

Thank you!!!
 Cherie

Mark's Daily Apple - vote for Primal Panang

Halloween Crafts: Building a Death Star-Part One

Where I work, the office takes Halloween seriously.  There are departmental contests for who puts on the best Halloween - who decorates best and best costumes.  Past years have been absurdly crazy with the decorations.  They go all out.  There is almost no actual work done that day because there is pride on the line.  There is a committee called "The Fun Committee" that I suspect was formed largely to win Halloween.  I am on that committee and this year our theme is Star Wars.  I am in charge of the Death Star area... which means that I am turning my part of cube-land into the deck of an  Imperial warship and the view out the window will be.... the Death Star.



I was a little mystified about how to create this thing, until I saw this woman's photo.

That is totally awesome. Her name is Jennifer and she built that outfit.  She made the skirt out of paper mache and sewed the corset.  She even has a tie-fighter in her hair.  She makes death and evil look so adorable! She calls the outfit Miss Death Star. You can see more pictures of her here (along with a nice interview about the costume) and here is her blog, where she has other amazing costumes.

Thanks to Jennifer, I have a clear plan.  I am going to follow her basic steps for making the skirt and add a few of my own, since I would like mine to have lights and be totally round.  And I don't need to wear it.

1. Get a giant beach ball (four feet in diameter)
2. Paper mache the beach ball with multiple layers, so it is sturdy.
3. Paint it grey.
4. Cut out a hole and put a bowl in the hole - as in Jennifer's skirt above
5. Put foam pieces on the ball, but where she has yellow painted on the foam, punch holes in mine with a hole punch.  
6. Put foam on ball in square-ish sections as above, then punch holes in the beach ball with an awl.
7. Put Christmas lights inside the beach ball and make sure the cord comes out the top from a small hole.
8. Tie a rope off inside the ball, so I can hang the entire thing.

 So far, I am in the middle of step 2 - paper mache the ever-loving daylights out of it.

Here is the beach ball in process of getting covered.

Here my own Death Star after one layer of paper mache. It cracked a little because I decided that I wanted it more inflated AFTER I put on the paper mache.  Note to self: add step 1.5 - make sure the ball is inflated to the level you want before starting to cover it.

I am not too worried.  The next layer will cover that up.  I probably have at least 4 layers after that one, as well.  Stay tuned for part two!

A Border Print Obsession Begins

I have been quietly building up an obsession for border print fabric.  I mean LOOK at these dresses and skirts made from border prints.

It started when I found this skirt on Pinterest.

And this from Pinup Girl Clothing:


After I saw this on a Pinterest Board, I actually started to consider taking up screen printing just to get anything like this fabric:


All of these looks are so gorgeous and I find myself coveting the fabric more and more each day. I have been searching relentlessly online for any fabric resembling anything like these... and zilch.  I go into the fabric stores around here and it remains elusive.

Where are you getting your border print?  Is it all special ordered and made special just for you never to be available to the general public?  I am starting to feel a little hopeless about getting my hands on some.  Please comment if you can point me in the right direction.

Tutorial: Art Portfolio Case

I have a pattern drafting class at the local community college and they would like us to carry a foam board and poster board to class with us.  Those things are fairly awkward to lug across campus, so I needed something to carry them in.  I don't need much of an excuse to go buy fabric and I thought it would be a fun project to try and make an art portfolio case.

Here is the concept - essentially make two pillow cases, insert cardboard into them and then sew them together.  Put two zippers and handles on.


Items needed:

• 3 yards fabric for portfolio case and lining
• 1 yard contrasting fabric 
• Two zippers 30 inches long (I custom cut mine from much longer zippers)
• Cardboard 
• Spray adhesive

The items I wanted to carry were 24 X 30 inches, so this case is specifically for that, but you could easily vary yours.  I could have chosen a different fabric for the inside, but I wanted the inside to look as nice as the outside, since it is made to open flat.

• Cut 4 of main fabric.  26 x 32 inches square.
• Cut 4 contrast on bias (case sides) 2.5 x 30 inches
• Cut 2 of contrast (case bottom) 3.5 x 32 inches
• Cut 2 of contrast (case handles) 6 x 18 inches
• Cut 2 cardboard pieces 25 x 31 inches

•  Prepare handle by folding the edges toward the center, then ironing.  Fold in half, then iron again.

• Sew together.  I put another stitching line on the other side to match the seam line. 

•  Sew handles to main fabric.  I marked the fabric with pins at 14 inches from each side and six inches down from the top.  Do this for two of the main fabric pieces.  These will be the outsides of the portfolio case.

• On the last bottom 1.5 inches, I sewed a square with an x through it to secure it.  
• Stop sewing the sides of the handles .5 inches from the top.  That part will be tucked under in a seam allowance. 

 

•  With right sides together, sew two main fabric pieces together on three sides, leaving top open.  One on the pieces has a handle, one without.  Use .5 inch seam allowances.  
• Repeat for the other two pieces and turn both of them right side out and iron seams flat.

 

• You will now have two pillow case-like pieces with one handle on each pillow-case.

• Sew right sides of case bottom contrast together, then turn right side out and iron flat with seams at sides.
• Sew bottom contrast piece to inside of bags, stopping three inches before each corner.
• The piece should be sewn to the inside of the case, sewing it to the side opposite the handles. Match edges.

• When each side of the case bottom is sewn to the insides of the case, it will look like this.  Both edges are sewn to the insides of the case.

• With right sides together, sew one piece of contrast side pieces together lengthwise with a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Repeat for remaining three pieces. This will make 4 long tubes.
• Turn right side out and iron flat.
• Sew strips of side contrast to zipper, sewing one piece of contrast to each side of zipper.  the zipper

 

• The width of the two side pieces (with zipper attached) should be the same as the bottom of the case.

• Sew sides with zipper attached to case bottom piece, two inches from edge.  This will allow the case to open flat.

• Hand-sew the zipper assembly to the case with a pick stitch.  Here is a tutorial for a pick stitch.  I originally did this step by machine, but found that the tension was too hard to control and the zipper went in wavy, so I had better results with hand-sewing.
• Leave top of zipper unfinished for now.
• Fold top of case over 1/2 inch and press into place 

 

• Insert cardboard into case sides through the top.  

 

• Spray a thin layer of spray adhesive on the cardboard, then smoothed out the fabric over it, after positioning the cardboard in place.  This is done so that the fabric doesn't sag or bunch.

 

• Hand sew top of case with a slip stitch.  Here is a tutorial on a slip stitch.  I imagine you could try to machine-sew it, but with the cardboard in it, I found this method easier.

• Finish bottom of case contrast.  I folded the bottom over and hand-stitched it into place, hiding some of the zipper bottom.

 

• Finish top of zipper.  I folded the zipper over and hand-stitched, making the top just lower than the top of the finished case. 
• I am not thrilled about the seeing the back side of the pick stitches here... but I had to make a color choice with thread since I couldn't find a green zipper. Next time, I may choose to hide the zipper completely in the side contrast fabric instead of making tubes out of them.  For this time, I may color the green thread with a permanent black marker just to make the green thread a little less obvious.

• This is the inside of the case.  I opens flat, but I found that really, really hard to photograph, so here it is open at a 90 degree angle.