Lord Baron Von Partyfoul and The League of Evil

I survived my weekend of villainy, only to be struck down by an unknown malady. Curses! Now that I seem to have made a recovery, I shall continue this tale.

Armed with my concepts I set about formulating the plan of attack. I typically break the down process down into three main categories:

What do I already own?

What can I make myself?

What do I have to buy?

After gleaning what I could from my rather considerable stash (who would have guessed it would be so useful for villainy?), I proceeded to the fabric store to for further resource acquisition. This is always the most dangerous part for me, both for my budget and the space in my apartment. With practice I have gotten better at navigating its pitfalls and emerging mostly unscathed. I try to keep these things in mind and usually end up alright:

•  Start at the remnant bin. Best way to get small pieces of expensive fabrics.
• (Almost) Always go for the cheaper option.  You are making costumes, not high fashion.
• Stay out of the “special occasion” fabrics. Again, costumes, not ball gowns. Unless you are some sort of diabolical debutante…
• Am I going to want to set my machine on fire attempting to sew this? Pleather and slinky knits can do wonderful things, but are tricky to sew. Just keep that in mind.

And as I learned this time, beware the trim aisle! This is where I got in trouble. That big fancy chain on Lord Baron? Twenty bucks a yard. Fortunately I only got one yard, and had a half-price coupon to mitigate the damage.

He knocks the cups out of the hands of society!

Materials acquired, I set to work. I made all the  lovely armour first. I have become quite adept at cereal box armour. It’s amazing what you can do with some beer boxes and some spray paint.

 Next I did all the sewing. Most of it was pretty simple and went smoothly. There were only minor altercations with the sewing machine. A plumbing leak and subsequent emergency rearrangement left my good sewing machine trapped behind my bed, so I had to make do with my mediocre machine. We had a few disagreements. It realllllly wanted to eat the fantastic silver fabric I bought for traffic safety. I realllllly wanted it not to do that. We somehow muddled through it without mutual destruction.

 All told I ended up making:

• 1 helmet
• 2 sets of shoulder armour
• 3 capes
• 2 pairs silver under/over pants
• 1 pair pleather spats
• 1 pair fancy arm guards
• 1 set epaulets
• 4 hench hoods
• 4 traffic safety sashes
• 1 faux fur wrap

And assorted costume assistance for my villainous compatriots. Inevitably I change my designs as I go along, and some elements get left by the wayside. I didn’t do a fancy collar, and I didn’t make boot thingies for my henchmen. I was also too cheap to shell out for red gloves for them. I spraypainted kitchen gloves instead (with mixed results). I did however make a nice fur wrap for myself to keep off the spring chill. I may be a cold-hearted villainess, but I hate being cold.

 The lovely Lady MacDeath and I

 The only things we ended up buying pre-made were some black leggings, a black shirt, rubber dish gloves, and the ridiculously awesome henchmen goggles.

The Lead Hench also got fancy epaulets…and a balloon.

 I ended up spending about $70 on fabric (without coupons it was over a hundred bucks). Goggles and extras probably brought the total for supplies up to around $100. That seems like a lot (and I did splurge a bit and ignore my own advice on a couple of items), but that was enough to make costumes for me, Mister, and four henchmen. Pretty good for budget villainry! I bet would could have afforded some more henchmen. Because you can never have too many henchmen.

I’m pretty sure they’re conspiring to get health benefits.

 (And many thanks to Henchman Frank, Miss Demeanor, and Lady MacDeath for some of the excellent pictures.)

Okay, I’m back! I spent last week down visiting the storied Grandma, down in North Carolina. I thought I’d be able to wrangle out a post while I was there, but as is often the case, my ambition and reality didn’t align. C’est la vie.

While I didn’t get any writing done, I did do a lot of plotting…nefarious plotting.The Mister and I have decided to turn to a part-time life of villainy (this may or may not coincide with a pubcrawl next week). As most of our dastardly plans revolve around making a public spectacle of ourselves (such is the wont of supervillains) we find ourselves in need of some dramatic costumes. Otherwise people might mistake us for regular villains. Or drunken louts. One of the two. Maybe both.

Designing a villainous costume is certainly fun, but it is also more challenging than one might think. You have to strike a careful balance between menace, flair, and utility. There are many important practical considerations that are often overlooked. I tried to address these questions while designing our outfits:

• Will I freeze my a$$ off in this outfit? (or alternatively, overheat?)
• Am I going to lose any parts of my outfit?
• Can I make most of this out of bargain fabrics and cereal boxes?

And perhaps most relevant in this case:

• Can I comfortably drink in this outfit?

After a week of plotting, I think I’ve hit most of the important elements. Of course a super villain is nothing without minions, so I didn’t forget about properly attiring my underlings either. The state of dress of a henchman says a lot about you as an overlord.

So I’ve got my concepts down. What now? Stay tuned for next week when I realize my drawings!

]]> https://jefita.com/2014/03/26/fashion-tips-for-supervillains-part-1/feed/ 1 https://jefita.com/2014/02/02/hiragana-and-beyond/ Sun, 02 Feb 2014 17:23:33 +0000 http://jefita.com/blog/?p=779

ne is for neko

I am going to apologize in advance. As I have mentioned, the Mister and I will be moving off to Japan for a year. I’m not going to lie, I think this is super freaking exciting. I’ve always wanted to live abroad for a while. There is probably going to be an abundance of OMG I’M MOVING TO JAPAN!!!! posts transitioning somewhere into OMG I’M IN JAPAN!!! (with a brief interlude when I’m too crazy and stressed because I’m actually moving.) So this is probably the first, but not last, Japanese themed posts. You’ve been warned.

In the four months or so left until the move, I’ve decided to start learning a bit of Japanese.

Having made this decision, I immediately floundered at where to start this quest. While I have no illusions about becoming anything close to fluent, I thought it would be nice to be armed with at least some basic speaking and reading skills. Herein lies the difficulty. The Japanese writing system is complex to say the least. It primarily uses a combination of two syllabaries, hiragana and katakana, both containing 48 characters, and thousands of adapted Chinese characters called kanji. Katakana would probably be the most useful as a gaijin because it is primarily used for foreign words such as chi-zuba-ga- and piza, but most sources suggest starting with hiragana. I’m not even going to think about touching kanji. Bleh….

Fortunately my dilemma was conveniently solved by a birthday gift from one of my friends. She got me a nice beginner Japanese book called Japanese From Zero. It teaches you hiragana and introduces the very basics of Japanese grammar. I just finished up the book so I am now able to write in hiragana and construct some rudimentary sentences. This is pretty exciting. My first time learning a non-latin script wasn’t nearly as difficult as I imagined. I loved penmanship in school so learning to write entirely new characters was pretty fun. I also pretended I was learning to decipher and use a secret code. It’s dorky, but I always feel that way when learning new languages.

So my thoughts on the book…overall it was pretty good. I felt like this book rather gently and non-threateningly introduces you to Japanese, which is nice because Japanese sentence structure diverges significantly from English. I really liked the progressive approach that phased out the rōmaji (romanized Japanese) for the hiragana as you learned them. The lessons are reasonably sized and include plenty of examples and exercises. It was pretty quick too. I spread it out over three to four weeks, but if you did a lesson a day it would only take two weeks. You come out of it knowing how to read and write hiragana, some basic vocabulary, a bit of grammar, and a few cultural tidbits.

Before my friend got me the book, I’d dug around on the internet to see what sort of options were out there and if any of them were free. I would have loved to have found something like Duolingo (which I think is awesome for casual language learning), but there aren’t really any great free options. You can find plenty of good free resources, but in general there isn’t much structure and they require much more effort and dedication on the part of the would-be learner. While it is certainly possible to learn Japanese on your own this way, I think it is nice (and quicker) to have somewhere structured to start like a book or program and Japanese From Zero is a fairly inexpensive option.

That being said I had a few issues with the book. One of the drawbacks of studying language from any printed book is the lack of audio. While most of the sounds in Japanese are pretty straight-forward, I had to go and look up some of the trickier pronunciations. Fortunately, YouTube is a pretty good supplementary resource for this. I discovered later that Japanese From Zero’s accompanying website (YesJapan.com), has the same lessons with audio. There is a subscription cost for more advanced material, but it is my understanding that all the material covered in the first book is available for free. And there are some cute little practice games.

My next problem with the book was one of quality control. Despite the fact that I’m not the most skillful writer, poor editing is one of my pet-peeves and I felt this book could have used a thorough going over. There were a handful of typos, a couple of missing explanations, and not all of the words used in the lessons appeared in the glossary. While these flaws weren’t serious enough to deter the learning process, I found them irritating all the same.

Lastly, if you are looking for a very technical approach, this book probably isn’t really for you. If you are looking for an inexpensive, friendly introduction to Japanese, I think it’s suitable. Now that I’ve finished it up I am still debating whether to purchase the next book (continuing on into katakana) or to learn katakana on my own and perhaps purchase a more advanced text book. Decisions, decisions. It will probably come down to a battle of ambition versus convenience.

As I ready myself to continue on in my quest, here are a couple of my personal suggestions for anyone tackling hiragana on their own:

• Hand-writing the characters is a simple way to facilitate memorization. For me it helped really stick them in my brain better than only using flashcards or reading them. There are lots of free, printable worksheets out there and Youtube has plenty of videos demonstrating how to write them. Try searching for things like “learn hiragana” or “writing hiragana”.
• Practice makes perfect! There are lots of free ways to practice hiragana available on the internet so find one that suits you. I opted for the digital method and used the super basic RealKana to practice, but you can also go old school and make flashcards. I’ve also heard good things about Anki which is a sort of spaced repetition flashcard program that tailors practice sessions based on your feedback.
• Set aside time every day (or as often as possible) to work on it. Even if it’s  just something silly like practicing writing characters while in the shower. (I totally did this)

And although cuddly, kitties are perhaps best left out of the learning process.

Every year, these grey doldrums spur me to wage my own personal campaign against winter indoors. Primarily, I have a collection of house plants that I nurse through the cold months and periodically add to their ranks. Green things are good company in the dull winter months. They don’t smell funny, make as much noise as the kitties or Mr. Boy, or judge my singing (that I know of).

A few Christmases ago I received a neat little book entitled Grow It Don’t Throw It, and it was a cute guide to growing all kinds of plants from kitchen scraps. Many of the plants the book covers are annual or very short lived houseplants, but I tend to favor perennials. So I decided to grow a lemon tree. Now this wasn’t my first attempt at growing a citrus plant. There have been multiple attempts, but either the seeds never sprouted or my frail little sprouts met the fate of many a houseplant around here. (I forget to water things regularly. Only the strong survive!) With the help of the book I was much more successful this time around. The seeds actually came up, and a few years later I still haven’t managed to kill them. Not that I haven’t given it a good go. I am a fan of houseplants that can survive a bit of neglect, i.e. forgetting to water, and these little trees are pretty hardy if you get them past the seedling stage. Several times I have thought I killed them, only to have them miraculously revive after a good watering. They are also slow growing so you don’t have to worry about having a big tree in your house.

I love my plants, I’m not sure they love me…

 So, without further ado,

How I Grew A Lemon Tree

(Also works for oranges, grapefruit, any other citrus fruit of choice)

1. First I selected several of the biggest seeds from a lemon.
2. I planted my seeds in individual (clean) jello/applesauce containers filled about halfway with well moistened soil. Then, I sealed all the little cups up in ziploc bags to keep them from drying out. The book said I should use peat pellets, but meh, my way was fine.
3. After that I tucked my seed/cup/baggies somewhere out of the way near my baseboard heaters. I figured since they were warm weather fruits, a little heat couldn’t hurt. On top of the fridge would’ve probably been a good option too.
4. The book said germination time was 2-3 weeks so I made a note to myself about when to start checking and then promptly forgot about them. A couple of weeks later I had of course lost my note, but I miraculously remembered to check them anyways. I was rewarded with adorable little green sprouts. Success!

When the sprouts got a little bigger I transplanted them into real pots. Per directions in the book, I added a bit of crushed eggshell in the bottom of the pot. My little trees have been living happily ever after (mostly). They like all the sunshine they can get. I put them outside in the summer, and in the winter they keep me company indoors. Since I’ve left them in small pots they haven’t gotten too big, which is fine with me.

Isn’t it a cute little guy? 

This is about the time of year I would also start plotting out a proper garden and starting veggie seedlings. I love the anticipation of all those little green shoots emerging, even though I often manage to subsequently kill off a lot of them. However with my transcontinental move coming up in a few months, it seems a little pointless this year. I am saddened by the prospect of leaving behind all my veteran botanical companions. They’ve survived years of my dubious care and now I have to abandon them? Will they find a good new home? *tear, sniffle* I suppose I will have to see what sort of things I can grow in Japan.

Last year I started making these particular little lined drawstring bags. They aren’t anything new or amazing concept-wise, but they are pretty cute, easy to make, and don’t require much fabric. Perfect for using up those remnants and fat quarters.

I also think this is a good way to practice hand sewing, if you’re into that sort of thing. Despite the fact that I own three sewing machines, sometimes I just want a good hand sewing project. I find it pleasant and calming. And sometimes I get struck by unbearable envy of little Japanese women who hand sew everything, and it’s all disgustingly cute.

Anyway…

If you don’t like hand sewing you can whip these little bags up lickety-split with a sewing machine (less than half an hour if you are on good terms with your machine). Either way I think this is a good beginner sewing project.  They are cute, easy, fun, and also make nice little reusable gift bags.

Itty Pretty Drawstring Bags!

or

Justifying a Burgeoning Fabric Collection

Almost any sort of fabric will work for these little bags as long as it’s not super stiff or heavy (like thick denim). I usually use quilting cotton or other lightweight woven fabrics and that is probably the easiest to work with. The finished bags end up with a 3” (7.62 cm) square base, and uncinched stand about 4 ¼” (10.8 cm) tall.

Materials and Tools

• 2 pieces of at least 7” x 14” (approx 18 x 36 cm) fabric (a fat quarter or a remnant wider than 7” should be fine)
• Sewing thread (matching or contrasting)
• Hand sewing needle or a sewing machine
• 30″ (~76 cm) or so of cord (for the drawstrings, so not super thick)
• Scissors (and/or a rotary cutter)
• Pins
• Safety pin

Optional

• Embroidery floss or decorative thread (if you want to decorate the bag)
• Beads (to put on the drawstrings)
• Beeswax or a thread conditioner (Like Thread Heaven) if hand sewing

A couple of notes on hand sewing: I use a plain running stitch to make these bags, but if you wanted something a bit stronger you could also use a back stitch. Remember that the smaller you make your stitches, the less visible they will be. If you’re just starting out with hand sewing, don’t sweat it if your stitches aren’t very small or even. This will come with practice and probably nobody but you will ever notice they aren’t perfect.

The Making

1. Print out the pattern (Click to download pattern) or draft it out on paper or directly on the fabric. Here are the dimensions to draft it yourself (seam allowances included):

   
   Important: All seam allowances ¼” (.6 cm) 

2. Fold your fabric in half and then layout and cut your lining and shell pieces according to the diagram. Trace the pattern on the fabric first or pin it on and cut around it. If you need guidelines for your stitching, you can lightly mark the seam lines too. Pencil usually works fine if the fabric isn’t too dark.

   Note: It’s not super important for this project, but it’s good practice to pay attention to the grain of the fabric when laying out and cutting patterns. In this case the grain should line up with one of the straight edges of the pattern.

3. Take the shell fabric, still folded along the bottom edge with the right sides together, and straight stitch down the sides. Repeat with the lining piece, starting 1 ¼” (~3 cm) down from the top edge (where the stars are on the printed pattern). If you are using a machine, be sure to back tack at the beginnings and ends, especially on the lining.

    

   Optional: Press open the side seams after sewing. Be sure to fold the seam allowances in at the top bit of the lining too (where you didn’t sew). Even just finger pressing will make a difference.

4. Pull open one corner of the shell and flatten, matching the side seam with the center bottom (the fold line). Sew straight across the corner. (if you want to get technical, you are creating a gusset here) Repeat with the remaining corner of the shell, and one of the corners of the lining (leave the other side open). Press allowances towards the bottom, if desired. You should now have two square bottomed cylinder things (except for the lining which will have an opening at the bottom/side).

    

   That corner magically becomes a straight side!

5. Nest the shell fabric inside the lining so that right sides are touching. Match up the top edges and the side seams (pins are helpful here) and then sew all the way around the top edge.

    

6. Turn the bag right-side out now, through the opening that you left in the lining. After everything is right-side out, fold in the seam allowances of the opening in the lining and top-stitch very close to the edge to close. (Or you could be fancy and use a blind-stitch to close it.)

   

7. Flip the lining so that it nests neatly inside the shell fabric. There should be about a ½” fold of lining fabric that sticks up above the edge of the shell. Try to make sure that all the seam allowances of the top edge are turned down towards the bottom (It helps to use a knitting needle or other slender stick for this). Sew all the way around the top along the seam, just above the shell. This will make the tube or casing for the drawstrings.

    

   To keep the allowances tucked in at the tube openings, you can add a few stitches to tack them down.

   Optional: I like using contrasting or decorative thread for this part sometimes. If you don’t want it to show, choose a thread that matches the lining and “stitch-in-the-ditch” trying to sew as close in the seam line as you can.

8. Cut two pieces of cord at least 15″ (38 cm) long for the drawstrings. It’s better to go long here and then trim the length after. Attach a cord to the safety pin and use it to thread the drawstring through the tube at the top, starting at one of the side seam openings and going all the way around (not out the opposite side seam). Repeat with the second drawstring, but starting from the opposite seam opening.

    

9. Knot the cord ends together on each side and trim the ends to about ½”. If you want thread a big bead on each side before tying them off.

   

   If you cord frays a lot, either melt the ends (if it is synthetic) or put a bit of Fray Check or glue on them.

Bonus round: Do some decorative stitching around the bag (through both layers or just one) with some embroidery floss or other pretty thread. If you are ambitious you could use a plain fabric for the shell, and decorate it with lots of pretty embroidery before sewing the whole thing together. Little beads, buttons, or sequins could be pretty cute too. Go nuts.

Thanks to my sister for the lovely photos!

Tada! You are the proud owner of a cute little bag. Now go show it off and find some treasures to put in it.

If anything needs clarified in the instructions, please let me know!

Last week I agreed to update my poor neglected blog if my little sister updated her neglected photography. Much to my dismay, she had updated within five minutes of said agreement. So here I am, completing my half of the bargain. Recently I have designated Sundays my “experiment” day of the week. A couple of weeks ago, confronted with the remnants of an ill advised lemon purchase and a bunch of leftover ginger for stir-fry, I decided to attempt making ginger beer. It combines three of my favorite things: efficient use of resources (a.k.a. getting rid of leftovers), new projects, and SCIENCE!

Ginger beer is really just ginger ale with some attitude, but it does involve one of mankind’s oldest and most cherished forms of mad science–brewing. To get the soda carbonated, you have to do some fermenting. Just a little bit.  Not enough to make it legitimately alcoholic.

By the way kids, I don’t know if you know this, but yeast is really cool. It’s a domesticated microbe. You should check it out sometime.

*Ahem* Moving on. So this project isn’t exactly “instant” gratification, but it is super easy and very gratifying…if you like cool, refreshing, zingy beverages.

Ginger Beer

Now I’m not going to give you a complete how-to.  The internet is rife with ginger beer how-tos.  I will however tell you what you need, and my notes on the process.

The Recipe

There are lots of recipes for ginger beer/ale out there and most of them are pretty similar.  I chose to use one from Alton Brown:  Ginger Ale

It is labeled “ginger ale” but I consider it ginger beer.  It has a healthy peppery bite compared to the mild mannered stuff you buy in a can.

Equipment

• A clean 2 liter soda bottle, or two 1 liter glass bail top bottles (mine came from IKEA, you can also find them at home brew supply stores)
• A fine grater (Microplane, FTW!)
• Strainer
• A pot

Ingredients

• Fresh ginger (3-4 in)
• A lemon
• Sugar (I went all fancy and used turbinado sugar)
• Yeast, bread or champagne (champagne yeast can also be found at a home brew supply store, and is pretty cheap)
• Water

Notes

I have made two rounds of this already, so I’ve had a chance to screw up and work a few things out:

• 1.5 oz = 3 Tbsp of ground ginger–I guesstimated the first time and didn’t put nearly enough in.  It was weak sauce.
• 6 oz ~ 3/4 cup sugar–This brew is not super sweet like regular soda.  In fact the yeast consumes a portion of that sugar to provide the carbonation.
• Champagne yeast provides much better carbonation and taste.  I tried bread yeast the first time and was disappointed with the results.
• Don’t add lemon zest.  I tried this out due to some comments, but it only seemed to lend a bitter “lemon cleaner” vibe.
• The gunky stuff at the bottom won’t hurt you.  That being said, I tend to avoid drinking it, but I’m too lazy to filter it out.
• And finally, let it sit in the fridge for at least a day after fermenting before consuming.  It will taste better.

So faithful readers I urge you to go forth and experiment!  If you are feeling particularly adventurous, you can try making it with wild yeast.

Or if you need something a bit more adult, might I suggest the Dark ‘n Stormy?

Now, must scurry off to make a third batch!

It seems like everybody is getting sick lately. Despite my efforts to avoid it, Mr. Boy managed to give me his head cold, icky crud. It’s that lame kind of in-between sick where you feel like crap, but not bad enough to stop you from feeling guilty about taking a day off. I feel like I should be working, but my brain feels all blurry and my face is full of mucus. I finally decided I probably shouldn’t work, because I don’t really want to make germ filled plushies. I just imagined my innocent little creatures going out into the world like so many tiny small pox blankets.

My guilt being assuaged, I decided to fill the gaps between napping sessions by continuing to fill my moleskine sketchbook. Since my attention span is a bit short right now, I’m filling a page with tiny little 2.25″ square drawings. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it yet, but I am still quite in love with my new markers. It doesn’t take much encouragement for me to break them out and doodle. Even if I don’t feel like doing anything else.

Anyways, Mr. Boy said something about a “chibi Hellboy” and somehow I ended up with Hellboy chumming it up with an octopus. I’ll pretend it’s because I’m sick. Then I tried a self-portrait. I didn’t mean for it to look like I was disgusted at the mushy cephalopod friendship above. It turns out it’s somewhat difficult to draw yourself disapproving of your own hair cut. (I got pissed off at my bangs the other day and because I’m a cheapskate, I trimmed them myself. I have sort of “seventies, Farrah Fawcett” bangs as my friends kindly informed me. I suppose it could have turned out worse. I could have ended up with a Flock of Seagulls do.)

Now I have four more little squares to fill up. Instead of coming up with the rest of them on my own, I’m offering up some little mini commissions.  Judging by the duration of Mr. Boy’s illness, I’m going to be at this for a couple of more days at least.  So for the low, low price of only $5 you can tell me what to draw in my little book for the rest of the week. If you are interested you know where to find me.

I think it’s about time I go back to sleep on the cat. And I swear the next post won’t have anything to do with markers. For reals.

Where’s Waldo?

Of course to attend such an event me and my accomplice, Mr. Boy, decided it only fitting we have our own awesome costumes.  I didn’t end up having a lot of time to work on his costume, so it had to be fairly simple.  With this in mind Boy decided to be a “modern” Zulu War British soldier.  This seemed rather appropriate for our adventure.   Fortunately he already had a pith helmet, and a red t-shirt was used instead of the traditional red jacket.  Then I made him a giant plush mustache out of felt.  The mustache was very simple and fun to make and I think I might steal it from him.  Next I took care of the sash which was just two long strips attached at the waist.  I lucked out and found some white “pleather” in the remnant bin in the home decor department at my local fabric store so it was super cheap.  Unfortunately, I was in a rush so I used hook and eyes as the waist band closure.  They didn’t stay put very well and I am going to have to replace them with Velcro at some point.  Last of all I made the epaulets.  Once again the home decor department was very handy and I found the perfect fringe material.  This actually turned out to be the most expensive part of the whole thing.  Since the epaulets were going to be worn on top of a t-shirt I made made them sort of soft and used safety pins to attach them.  Even though this was a simple costume, I felt it was very successful and his mustache was greatly admired.  Seriously, who doesn’t respect a fantastic mustache?  I was very pleased since it was pretty easy to put this costume together.

Indubitably!

At this point, it became tragically apparent that the merciless beast of poor time management had finally got the better of me.  There was no way I was going to finish my own get-up.  I had been working on it piecemeal in between commissions, but as usual it was on the back burner.  Fortunately, because it is very satisfying to make costumes for Mr. Boy I didn’t feel too down about my own humdrum appearance.  Okay, maybe I wasn’t that humdrum.  I still had pink hair and my big furry purple monster bag.

Anyways, thus prepared for our adventure, we set off to enjoy the spectacle and all in all it was pretty fun.  I was far from disappointed by all the costumed goodness.  I really do love costumes and seeing the creative ways people bring their favorite characters to life.  Since most of the costumes are handmade, it was fascinating to see the different skill levels and ingenuity that was employed.  Of course there was the vast sea of anime and manga cosplays (of which I could identify embarrassingly few), but there was also everything from sci-fi to video games,  Disney to (disturbingly accurate) Rockso the Rock and Roll Clown.

Alas poor Totoro, I barely knew ye.

One of my surprising favorites were the people dressed up as various player classes from the video game Team Fortress 2.  All of the “characters” in the game are supposed to be male, but there were several female cosplayers who fit their costumes to their own gender.  I liked that out of all the costumes this group best seemed to take the roles beyond the literal interpretation, but remained true to character.  While I appreciate the effort and artistry of a very accurate cosplay, I think it is important to remember that you don’t have to be completely literal with your costumes to do a good job and have a good time.

The Red Team

I apologize sparseness of photos.   Mr. Boy was not as handy with a camera as I thought he was.  I’m headed to a huge con up in Toronto next week though and hopefully will return with all sorts of wonderful pictures.

Hmm, maybe I should get back to work now.

Anyways, picking up from where I left off last week, this is the exciting conclusion of my companion cube tutorial.  At this point I have the six sides of my cube finished and it’s time to transform it into a 3-D shape.

Materials Roundup

• 6 complete sides from Part I
• polyester fiber fill or other fluffy filling of choice (fabric scraps can be used too)
• gray thread
• plastic pellets or rice (optional)
• nylon hosiery (foot part) or sock (optional)

The Making (continued)

1. At this point I decided to trim back behind the light gray corners pieces.  In theory this helps the shape when I stuff it, but I’m not sure it’s really that noticeable in the end product.
   

   This is how it looks from the back. Be careful not to clip your stitches.

2. Now it is time to start joining all the pieces together.  First I attach them all together in a flat pattern.  The order or pattern isn’t really significant, but this is how I chose to do it.
   

   Just line up the edges and sew them together

   

   This is how I joined the all together. The letters correspond to the order that I put the sides together in the next step.

3. After the pieces are all joined I start connecting the sides to form a 3-D box.  I sewed together everything but the top flap so it resembles a jack in the box.
   

   Ready for stuffing!

4. Surprise extra lesson time!  Before I go any further I have a few things to say about the art of stuffing.  It is a bit trickier than it seems and can be frustrating when you are just starting out.  I suppose it should also be noted I’m crazy nuts about certain details and may have spent an unhealthy amount of time considering this topic.  This project is fairly easy but I will be super detailed because I can!  Here are a few tips:
   • Don’t over fill. It’s really easy to get carried away and keep stuffing until your plushie is a poor bloated mutant.  Overstuffing can also permanently distort or stretch your fabric.  On the flip side, if you don’t stuff enough, it will lose it’s shape.  Ideally there is just enough stuffing to hold the shape but not be bloated.  Don’t be afraid to take stuffing out and try again.
   • Don’t wad. Be careful not to wad or ball the stuffing too much or your plushie will end up lumpy.  If it gets balled up, tease it loose again.
   • Not all stuffing is created equal. The regular (sometimes labeled  “premium”)  stuffing is good general purpose, fluffy but coarse, and inexpensive, but I think it is better suited to larger projects.  “Ultra Plush” is very soft and is really nice for stuffing smaller pieces as it is easier to shape.  However it tends to compact a lot  so it takes more and is more expensive.  Fabric scraps are probably the cheapest option and will behave completely differently than a fiber filler.  Fabric scraps are very dense when packed and will have less squishiness, especially depending on what sort of scraps you use.  I would recommend cutting the scraps into smaller mostly uniform pieces because they will create a more even filling.

Optional step: I want my Weighted Companion Cube to actually be weighted, so before stuffing I filled a little sack made from some cut up nylons with about 1/2 cup of the little plastic beanbag pellets.  In my original cube I used rice, but have since become more internet shopping savvy and discovered that the little plastic pellets are very inexpensive and I don’t have to worry about bugs or moisture making them icky.  I imagine the toe end of a sock or some other little pouch can be used to contain them just as effectively as the nylons.

I think I used about half a cup of pellets, but it’s mostly a matter of preference and what will fit.

1. Let the plushing commence!  First I take four small pieces of stuffing and push one into each of the the four bottom corners to make sure the corners get filled in.  Next I make a layer for my “bean bag” to rest on.  After that I continue to add more stuffing around the bag until I reach the top of the cube, but I don’t cover the top yet.  If you don’t put any weight in, you can skip the “nesting” part and just put a big clump in.  Just remember that the more stuffing you add, the rounder your cube will be.
   

   It’s important to get the corners first.

   

   The layer on the bottom is fairly shallow. Just enough to keep the bean bag/weight padded.

   

   Put the weight in on top of that bottom layer before adding more stuffing.

   

   Essentially I’m building a little cozy nest around my bean bag.

2. Taking my needle and thread back up, I begin to sew the top closed leaving one last side open.  Before I close it I carefully push small pieces of stuffing into the top corners same as I did for the bottom.  Then I fill in the rest of the empty space at the top and finish sewing up the final side
   

   Now you can add the rest of the stuffing.

   

   The end is in sight!

Optional step 2: Break for tea and pickles.  We’re in the home stretch now and must gather ourselves for the final push.  Mmm…Earl Grey and bread-and-butter pickles.  I would recommend having the pickles while you put the tea kettle on.  If it’s after five o’clock, a beer is also a good choice for those of age.

1. There is only one thing left to do and it’s attaching all those little light gray tabs that go in between the corners where the sides come together.  Once again I layered a piece of fleece underneath the felt for extra thickness.  This step is rather tedious and straight pins are rather handy.  I didn’t think this through all the way when I did it so I pinned them all on at once and had pins sticking out everywhere which made it difficult to hold and sew.  It was a bit prickly.  (Cringe at my puniness!)
   

   Layers upon layers….

2. Finis!  I now have a beautimus beloved Cube.  I shall go forth and taunt my geeky friends.  Hopefully this tutorial has been clear enough that you can figure out how to make your own.  If you have any questions, please let me know!
   

   Victory for cuteness!

And away I go!

The First Cube

Now it has recently been announced there will be a Portal 2!!  My inner fangirl went squee and decided I must make a new and improved homage to the beloved cube.  And so we are brought to the present.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, let Wikipedia enlighten you or better yet, go play the game.  In short, Portal is a delightful first person puzzle game and the Cube is part of it.  It’s hard to understand what the fuss is about unless you have played the game, but the wiki will give you some idea what I’m making.

Now back to what I was doing…

If you would like to follow along with this project listed below are the things you will need.  Just a warning, this isn’t a particularly expensive or difficult project, but it is a bit time consuming.  There are a lot of little pieces to put together and it is all handsewn.  It is not a quick afternoon project.  Unless you are some kind of sewing wizard.  I’m not quite at that level yet, but I’m working on it.

Materials

• 1 9×12″ sheet light gray felt
• 1 9×12″ sheet dark gray felt
• 1 9×12″ sheet light pink felt
• light pink thread
• light pink embroidery floss or pearl cotton
• gray thread
• polyester fiber fill (or other stuffing of choice)

Optional

• rice or plastic pellets for weight
• extra felt, fleece or quilt batting for padding

A few notes on materials: The first time I had trouble finding both colors of gray felt in the handy 9×12″ sheets so I used white and gray instead.  I eventually realized the felt can also be found on bolts in the regular fabric section.  A quarter of a yard is plenty for this project.  If you check the remnant bins at the fabric store (usually near the cutting tables) sometimes you get lucky and find the colors you want and it’s super cheap.  Another option is to buy all of it online where there is usually a greater selection all in one place.

A pattern might also be handy at this point, and luckily I happened to have made one.  This pattern, left unsized, makes a cube that is 3″ big.

PRINTABLE CUBE PATTERN

TERMS OF USE: This pattern is for personal use only!  You may not sell this pattern or cubes made from this pattern.  Please do not distribute copies of this pattern to others.  Instead please refer back to my blog so others can download it for themselves.  Make sense?

On to the nitty gritty!

The Making

1. First off I cut all the pieces out.  My pattern has the corresponding color and number of each piece conveniently marked, so I end up with 6 dark gray squares, 24 light gray corner pieces, 12 light grey tabs, 6 light grey circles, and 6 pink hearts.  I also wanted to add a bit more dimenstion to my cube so I cut out extra pieces to go underneath the circles and the tabs.  I have lots of fleece scraps so that’s what I used, but felt or quilt batting would work too.
   

   So many pieces!

   

   Make sure to trim these pieces slightly smaller than the pieces they will go under.

2. Starting with the bottom layer details, I used pink embroidery floss and the backstitch to add the lines that cross the center of the cube.   The stitching doesn’t go all the way to the center or the edges since other pieces will cover those areas.
   

   It helps to trace some guidelines first to keep the lines straight

3. Next the little hearts were sewn onto the gray circles using whip stitch.  From here on whip stitch is what I use to sew everything together unless I state otherwise.
   

   Aww…

4. Taking the padding and the just finished small circles, I carefully center and then sew them on top of the dark gray squares.
   

   The extra layer will make the center pop out more

   

   Now it is starting to look familiar

5. Now comes probably the most tedious part of this whole venture:  attaching all 32 corner pieces to the squares.  The corners are lined up on top of the squares with the edges sticking out and sewn together where they overlap.  It makes more sense if you look at the pictures.
   

   Some straight pins are handy at this point

   

   This is how the corners should line up

6. And that’s all for part one!  Now there are six finished sides and all that’s left is putting them together and stuffing.  Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion sometime next week.
   

   Progress is beautiful

And remember:

There’s no sense crying over every mistake
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake