Project 7: Embellished Skirt, de- and re-embellished

I picked up this skirt at the Super Cheapo Thrift the other half-off-everything sale, despite that it was covered in sequins. Some of which were actually melted, it seemed? But the print underneath was nice.

So I de-sequinned it, and added on some slightly nicer baubles.

It looks a lot nicer now, since the silvery sequins weren't really doing anything for it.  It's high-waisted, too, so that's nice and a little more versatile than drawstrings and elastic and such.

Project 2: Painter's Smock

Art classes make me explicably happy. Even better, arguably, is making what you take to art class. Metacraft, the construction of your own supplies for the creation of another work, etc. Well, a painter's smock isn't quite a tool in that sense but it does fit a painting class requirement. The clothes-are-not-paint-rags requirement.

The Super Cheapo Thrift had a half-off, Buy One Get One Free sale the other day, which, contrary to all expectations, is not a redundancy. Everything is 50% off, and then you get half of it for free.

Thus, I got to turn this stunningly atrocious overalls dress into a functional apron.

Probably in the near future I'll put a front pocket on it, the art room has surprisingly little supply space. It would also limit the bunchiness of something being pulled over jeans and their pockets/button/zipper fly.

Its construction was super easy, all I had to do was rip out the side seams, hem them, sew the shoulder straps together into a halter, and cut one part of the back into ties. I'll use the other part of the excess fabric to make the pocket. I also sewed the upper sides to be more sloping and a little less obviously armhole seams. I left the side pocket on and it works quite nicely for cell, tissue and cough drop holding. I'm super pleased with how it turned out, as long as I don't try to paint with the other hand on my hip, like I'm Artemisia or something, and get paint on all the hip areas that aren't covered by aprons. Haven't yet, but we'll see.

Le Cahier Français

Capital letters necessary.  Not only did I start this project a whole week ago, but it used up some of my supplies in ways I was not especially excited about:

Oh yes, this notebook broke three needles. With the central one, the tip just snapped right off. Bonus: I now have a quilling tool.

And that's because this spine is the thickest, sturdiest construction I've ever seen, courtesy of Japanese stab binding.  The interior is notebook pages, which means the spine will last longer than the pages it's holding.

It will probably also last longer than the front cover, which has been fighting against the very necessary bend in the spine this whole time. The black spine on the front cover was necessitated by misaligned holes the first time through, requiring a new layer.  Unfortunately, the thicker paper and the edge it created close to the fold are pretty unwieldy.

The holes I created in the textblock took forever, despite using a very sturdy Denim sewing machine needle. So, inevitably, I didn't widen the holes out enough to make it easy to push the thread through.  Especially since this binding requires each hole to be passed through three times with a needle loaded with embroidery floss. Is it any wonder I lost three needles to this process?

I also had to tie on another length of thread near the end, but it's not noticeable because I knotted it on the inside of the back cover, and poked the ends in to the spine. However unwieldy the process, it certainly created a lovely spine. Pity about the buckling cover papers.

Currently, I am letting the glue come unfixed because A. I need to figure out a better solution for these stress points, and B. I'm sick of re-gluing it.

The binding thread's ends pull through to this knot, and then I pulled the thread through to the spine, snipped it, and poked the ends back in.  I'd show you a picture, but they are purposefully invisible.

As a vocabulary/grammar notebook, hopefully it will do well.  I suspect it will only suffice, but that has as much to do with my language-learning habits as the wonky cover/spine combination.

Project materials: Cereal box paperboard, magazine page, black medium-weight paper, unused pages from an old notebook, embroidery floss, sewing needles, sewing machine needles, binder clips, needle nose pliers. Total cost = $0

I also did some other, more chore-ly things, like mending these rag towels so they'd stop fraying themselves into oblivion.  Oh, my beautiful Husqvarna, I promise we'll get to do more fun things soon.