Wings Part Two

Okay, this isn't really part two. I've lost all the photos that showed my wings being made. I didn't even go with any of my first deigns. I instead decided I wanted crescent moon wings for my moon faerie. Unfortunatly, I don't even have a photo of them put together. To store them from one faire season to the next I took them back apart and hung them on my wall. Here's a shot of them hanging on my wall.

I'll just have to make a new pair of wings in the future and show my process then.

The outer ring is several strands of the heavier wire wrapped together and then tapped over with a purple electric tape. The inner curve is a bit lighter of a wire and is in a purple color already. Then the spokes of the moons are beads on purple jewelry wire. Each bead is wrapped in the wire to keep it from sliding around. The purples are three different colors, but they all work well together anyway.

Bag Made From Placemat

My mother bought this place mat for me back when I was still going to the university. At the time my room mate insisted we bunk our beds and I had to have the top so Mom was going to make a bed caddy and use the place mat to make a pocket for me to keep my things in that would otherwise need to go on a nightstand.

I changed room mates shortly after and needed a new purpose, so I thought I might try to make the place mat into a large bag for faire. Everything I used was scraps I had laying around.

I started by making the pocket to go inside the bag. I knew I'd need this either for my wallet or for my phone. I had some scrap velvet from my captain's coat project so I cut a piece to have a decent shape.

The shape changed a bit when I decided I needed to reinforce my pocket seams bias tape before sewing it onto the bag. I used the bias tape to make a little hem around the pocket's edges to help it from unraveling and also because I couldn't do such a small hem in velvet without the aide of bias tape. I sewed my stitch close to each edge of the tape so that nothing in the pocket would get caught on inside seams. This actually gave the pocket a nice little look about it, not that it matters so much as it'll end up on the inside of the bag.

I then sewed the pocket to the side of the bag I decided was the back. Each side is exactly alike so looked over them for any flaws and picked the most flawed side for my back. I then tested the pocket to make sure my phone would fit nicely. It does.

The bag is now mostly done. If you'd wanted to put a handle on it, or a cord for wearing it over your shoulder, you probably would want to do that before you sew the sides of the bag together so you can stitch your cording all the way up the sides, then catch it again when you sew the sides up. That will make sure it'll hold better.

I decided I was making mine to go on a belt, but I'm a little embarrassed to try and show my belt loops because I'm not sure how well they'll hold. And they didn't end up pretty. Belt loops by the way would also have to be sewn on before you sew up the sides of the bag.

With the pocket and belt loops on it was time to sew the seams of my bag. I folded the place mat in half and just sewed straight up each side. My place mat was edged in a black and so I used that black as my guide and sewed up the inside of that line. I stitched each side twice to make sure it'd hold.

Captain's Chest

It's been awhile since I've posted anything and that is mostly due to being lazy. I have plenty of pictures of projects I was working on, I just haven't posted them yet. I'll try to remedy that in the near future.

In the meantime here are a couple of shot of an old captain's chest I am repainting to store my renaissance accessories in. The inside is not finished at all. I still have to sand off what is left of the old paper lining and then paint it. Also the tray is missing so I'll be needing to make a new.

The purple on the woods looks a whole lot darker when not in the light of a flash, in fact it's so dark is almost looks black.

Faerie Garb: Part One

I first started to design the dress to go with a wizard garb. I'm not sure when I drew the original design, maybe have even been before faire last year. It was intended to be worn over a hoop skirt.


It could work for faerie too, so when we started talking about going in our faerie persona, I didn't at first design a new dress. In time I realized I didn't want to make a hoop skirt, not yet, despite having the pattern for one. I instead went through all my patterns and designed a new dress based on what patterns I already have.



The dress is Simplicity 4140, the corset was supposed to be Simplicity 2547 (with added boning which I'm sure it doesn't have,) but it looks more like it might end up being from Simplicity 2502, which is similar except the second doesn't have straps. It wasn't a planned change, just how I drew it in the new design, but I liked how it looked. The over skirt is Butterick 5007. I may still do a version of the top most over skirt from the original design, but I'd have to make that pattern myself.

I do not yet have any of the fabric for the dress, not the main part, the little lacy neck part, or the sleeve lining. I do have fabric for the over skirt and corset though. Most the corset will be black with the middle part in the front being a space pattern. I don't normally do prints, but feel they can work on wizards and faeries. The over skirt is a shear lavender that has gold and silver metallic stripes. I don't have any of the trim for any of it yet.

Wings: Part One

I'm going faerie for the first time in my faire history, so I need a pair of wings. I want to make my own so they'll be perfect, because it's hard for me to find products made by others that seem perfect for my persona. Of course my first pair probably won't really be perfect, but by next year I'll have wing making down.

As with any project I first started by doing a bit of research. I looked through the threads on the ren fest forums. I looked through google images and even watched a video on you tube. But I didn't want the normal wings of panty hose material on wire frame. Everyone has those so mine wouldn't stand out very well. I got the idea of just using the wire and not covering, but instead maybe spray painting it. That might not work, but I won't know until I try.

The next step in any project is design. Here are mine.


As with any good artist, I named my designs. The top left are Flutter Inot, the top right are Flower Garden, the bottom left are Webfly, and the bottom right are Shooting Inot.

I fully intended to wear the Flower Garden myself, but when I started playing with my wire I tried for the Fluttering Inot design because it looked easier to make. Now I've got something halfway between each. Still probably closer to the Flower Garden.

This is no where near finished. I might add more swirls for example. I will add colored craft or flower wire in swirl type designs as well as beads and charms. I may or may not hang ribbon from the wings and I've yet to paint them. I'm not sure the paint will go as planned, but the wings are easier to make then they look so if I screw them up I can just try again.

Hair Falls: Part Two

I've been working on my falls a lot more and now I'm out of yarn until Thursday. My mother thinks my dreads are too big, but I wanted them that way. There's not really a right or a wrong to something like hair falls, it all depends on what you want.

I went with a single hair fall and will probably wrap my hair in a bun on top of my head then put the hair fall around that. I'm still not finished and want to add several more purple strands and keep room for one strand of Mei Mei's and one strand of Toni's. My faerie lore (which is what these are for) includes exchanging strands with trusted and beloved friends.

I haven't added any of the bling, beads, or other shiny stuff yet. I want to get the base done first and then see where that other stuff needs to go.

Hair Falls: Part One

This was something I'd wanted for Toni's goth party, but at that time I just wasn't dedicated to them enough to look up how to do them. A recent conversation on the RF forums got me turned back onto them though, and I know Toni's always wanted some so I looked up some tutorials. They're not hard to find, just go to You Tube and do a search for hair falls.

The first one I watched was just very basic hair falls out of yarn. And I made some of those supper easy and super simple ones. I don't have a photo to show you, because I've taken them apart again since then.

Blue gave me some advice to go all out and do dreads. Her hair falls always look awesome, so of course I took her advice and looked up more tutorials on how to make dreads out of yarn.

Here is what I have so far, but I'm not even half way done yet. I hope they look awesome by the time I'm done.