Life Lately: Costumes and snow

My friends are not the kind of people that only dress up on Halloween. Ohhhhh noooo. Just about every party has a theme and needs a costume, and I freakin love it. Already I've been to three costume parties this year, with a hair metal birthday and a fancy English tea coming up next month.

In early January there was an Alice in Wonderland themed birthday party, for which I made a "Painting the Roses Red" fascinator. I made the roses out of felt using this excellent tutorial, McGuivered together the base out of a cereal box and more felt, and hot glued on some hair clips.

At first, nobody got it, and then after I explained, several people were impressed that I made it, having assumed I bought it on Etsy. I'll put that in the win column. The tunic I'm wearing was actually my wearable muslin of the Lisette Traveler Dress (never blogged).

Then there was a 90's birthday party, which I sadly fell down on the job. I tried to throw something together at the last minute, but my husband gently told me I looked more like a crazy person than a recognizable Gwen Stefani. I still had the greatest time, and really enjoyed hearing my friend's amazing 90s cover band, Tomagotchi.

Last night was a midcentury tiki party - meaning Mad Men meets Hawaiian. I had no idea, but apparently Tiki culture was huge in the 1960s, and it was fun to be a little fancy and drink fruity cocktails. I found the perfect dress at a thrift store, but it was a little big. No problem, I thought, I'll just take it it in. Famous last words. I spent waaaay too much time futzing with the fit, but at least I learned some new alterations skills. It's also a really good illustration of how a good fit makes a huge difference.

And, on a completely different note, it SNOWED last week. The entire city shut down for 2 1/2 days, and several of my friends were stuck in traffic for hours on end. I was very, very fortunate to get home before things got bad. I had never seen so much snow in my life, and I was giddy with excitement.

I can't remember the last time life felt so magical.

Hope you have a magical weekend too!

Hats and Scarves

Hello again! The past couple of weekends have been very full (in a good way!) so I haven't started any major projects. I did finish a couple of small ones though, just in time for the end of winter.

First up, the Indian Summer Hat. I got this pattern in a 2012 page-a-day calendar two Christmases ago and just now got around to making it.

Indian Summer Hat by Kalurah

It's supposed to be a slouchy beret, but unfortunately mine didn't turn out slouchy at all, even after I added an extra inch to the eyelets before decreasing to lengthen it. I hate to admit this, but I think I need to come to terms with something: I have a big head. There, I said it. I like to think I have a dainty head, but let's face it, I got my dad's big noggin.

I used double-stranded Knit Picks Shadow. It was my first time using lace, and it was so delicate I could just break the strands with my fingers if I was feeling too lazy to dig out my scissors. Funnily enough the hardest part of this project was picking out the button. Nothing seemed quite right, but is what I ended up with:

Even thought it didn't come out slouchy, the hat is big enough to cover my ears, and loose enough that it won't give me hat hair. I'm putting it in the win column! More project notes are here on Ravelry if you're curious.

The other project is an infinity scarf made from a 25 cent remnant from my trip to Fabric World. It was maybe 1/3 of a yard at best, so I cut it into two long strips, and joined them to make one very long skinny scarf.

I looped it around three times. It goes almost down to my feet without looping, and was about 10 ft long before I joined the ends. This should give you an indication of scale:

The fabric was slightly sheer, so I decided to give french seams a try. Very easy to do, but pretty boring to sew two 10 ft seams! The french seams blend right in: 

I wore this outfit to brunch yesterday with a friend and as we were settling in at our table she looked at me and said "Did you make that scarf? That seems like the kind of fabric you would pick out." Busted! I like to think my me-made items blend in well with my ready-to-wear items, but maybe not. That's okay though. I'm okay with being a little eccentric.

Hope you all are having a lovely President's Day. I have the day off (one of the perks of working for the government!) and am hitting up the Joann's sale this afternoon.

The $1.50 Tote Bag

The past couple of weekends I have been working on making a tote bag using some of the fabric remnants I bought for 50 cents at Fabric World. After I caught the $1 pattern sale at Joann's, I decide to challenge myself, Project Runway-style, to make the bag using only what I had in my stash. Here's the final product:

This whole idea came from the new Lisette tote bag pattern, which is adorable and summery, but my plans were dashed when I realized both views call for about double the amount of fabric I had. I settled for Simplicity 2685, determined to make this work. I wasn't sure which view I wanted to make initially, but view D (top right hand corner below) was the only that wasn't way too wide for my remnant. Happily this was the one I liked best.

Even with view D, I had to quite literally cut corners and dip into the seam allowance because I didn't have quite enough fabric.

I also had to shorten the straps by about 3/4 an inch. I am a glutton for punishment, aren't I? Sheesh.

The lining and interfacing were both leftovers from other projects, the button was an extra that came with a jacket, and I happened to have a zipper in the right length. Neither the lining or the zipper were anywhere close to the ideal color, but I was on a "make it work" mission!

My one complaint about this pattern is that the opening for the zipper was much wider than it needed to be, and as a result it looks a little sloppy. Well, at least mine does. I'm sure the fact that I was hungry and in a rush to finish putting it in before dinner was ready has absolutely nothing to do with how it looks. Nothing at all.

I'm about to take my new tote bag out for an afternoon of thrifting and checking out the Batmobile. Happy Saturday!