Sunday, May 23, 2010

another glass bead necklace

remember when i said i liked my friend's necklace i made for her birthday so much i almost kept it? remember that i said i had an obscene amount of glass beads? let me remind you.

alright, memory all refreshed? great! but of course i couldn't just make a duplicate because that'd be kinda stupid, in my opinion. so i made this instead:

again with the three strings of beads, but this time no pendant. also, i made each strand a different length because i thought it'd look cool (which i think it does) and one of the strands features star-shaped glass beads i got a while ago because they were rad-looking, but didn't have a use for until now. the smaller beads are different shades of green and gold.

because the strands are all different lengths, braiding them would have obviously been kinda dumb on my part; and since i was using my noggin when i made this, i took the smart-people route.

i don't know if i like this more or less than my friend's, but it's good enough for me to want to keep it, so yay.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

a birthday present

i recently procured an obscene amount of glass beads and, acting out of my poorness, decided to utilize those new beads (along with one of a set of rad teardrop-shaped shell beads i already had) to make a necklace for my friend's birthday.

i strung bead on three pieces of string then strung all three strands through the shell bead. before adding the clasp, i braided the three strings on either side of the 'pendant'.

i don't know how cool this necklace seems to anyone else, but i almost kept it for myself. maybe i'll keep the next one i make.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

bibs for baby v

why would i go out and spend roughly $10 on a three pack of bibs when i have a sewing machine and i can make way more bibs with roughly $10's worth of fabric? i wouldn't. especially after finding a pattern on chickpea sewing studio that was just begging for me to make it better.

to personalize the bibs (and make them way cuter) i half-ass used the method for making a simple appliqué that i found on sew, mama, sew! what i ended up doing was cutting out my pattern, using fray check around the edges, and stitch witchery-ing the appliqué in place before using the smallest zig-zag stitch on my machine around the edges. while my method (i believe) is decidedly different from sew, mama, sew!, i feel the need to link back because it was that info that lead to the way i actually did it.

so here's my first attempt which i feel was a success:

notice i used velcro instead of snaps? that's because velcro is way more practical on a bib and way easier to attach.

close up of how the appliqué turned out.

i used the same fabric for the back of the bib as for the appliqué because i'm a virgo and i like things to match.

it didn't take but that first attempt to feel like a pro and i ended up churning out a couple more pretty quickly:
i think this is cuter than the first, not only because there is a cupcake involved, but also because me thinks the yellow is a loverly contrast on the lavender.

unfortunately you can't tell from this picture, but the fabric is actually glittery. i cut this cupcake out from the fabric i used on the backside.

again with me and my matchy-matchy-ness.

the third bib is my favorite. i think it's cos i like green and owls very much. plus the color contrasts are really pleasing to my eyes.


i started getting ambitious at this point and used two appliqués.

the beauty of having such pretty backs is that the bibs are essentially reversible.

i'm just throwing this out there: i used terrycloth that i bought by the yard at joann, not towels as it may look; although i see no reason why you couldn't just use a towel you have lying around, if that's more convenient. it would be cheaper than going out and buying some, i'd imagine, if the towel is otherwise disposable to you for some reason or another.