Jess Smith, Author at Jessica Smith Creates • Page 22 of 27

September 27, 2013August 19, 2018

Mint and Navy

I definitely told you about the fabric I’ve been buying. Like this:

I’ve been challenging myself to work on projects bit by bit on nights without much homework, which recently has been quite a few. Might as well take advantage while it still happens.

So I took out my Singer Tiny Tailor, a $15 score from Ebay, and grabbed my fabric pile and made up a small cardigan pattern.

It’s cold here already. It fluctuated for a while, but I’m ready for heavy sweaters and such. That’s why I’m knitting up the Cardilero, which I’ll post progress of soon. But in the meantime, I’ll stick to long sleeved close fit sweaters, which can be quite warm.

Here’s what I ended up with after the first set of sewing!

It’s a little rough, and honestly a bit tight. Not impossible, just odd. The mint lace knit fabric is lovely. Not lovely to work with, mind you. It unravels and pulls like crazy. Soon I’m going to have to overlock it and also finish both the bottom back and and top back, as well as the sleeves.

The sleeve and armscye are also a little funky, but I kinda like it. No uncomfortable enormous underarm seam.

It’s warm and comfy. Exactly what I wanted! I’d call this one a success!

September 25, 2013

Mesmerizing and Cardigans

So I’ve got lots of yarn, and I’m going to continue working on projects with it. I’ve still got my crochet sweater to finish, but that really doesn’t stop me from starting new projects. And now I’m gonna tell you about them, because now I can!

I got this lovely cornflower blue yarn for Christmas last year, and I knew that I wanted to make something special out of it. It’s soft and silky, but even though I have quite a few skeins it doesn’t add up to a lot of yarn.

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This sweater caught my eye the first time I got out the book Crochet Me, by Kim Werker, from the library. It’s called the Mesmerize Sweater, for good reasons. It’s so visually pretty, and could be versatile in my wardrobe. I’m thinking it would look lovely over a black dress or something.

These lovely yarns are both a deep purple, and are very different from each other in texture. The one on the right is super soft and fuzzy, and even though it looks blue, it’s really a deep deep purple. The one on the left is more reddish purple, and is a bit scratchier, like it has some wool to it.

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I’m planning to make a Cardilero with these, from the book Warm Knits, Cool Gifts by Sally Merville and Cady Merville. It’s basically a long rectangle with armholes, which I’m going to make with the reddish purple yarn. I’m also thinking of modifying the pattern a bit, so it’ll be a bit warmer. The other yarn will be for sleeves, for as long as one skein per arm will get me. I’m hoping for at least getting sleeves to the elbows.

September 23, 2013August 19, 2018

We are not the B-Team fool, we are the second A-Team.

So. I have finally finished the vest for my Claudia costume. And today I’m subtle cosplaying her.

I know I told you I was done before, but I found that wonderfully neon fabric I told you about, so I did create a lining.

There’s nothing like handsewing a lining into a garment that makes you miss your sewing machine.

After an additional eight or so hours of sewing, my vest is absolutely complete!

And now I’m off to class!

September 15, 2013August 19, 2018

Trial and Error Part 2

I love my culottes.

I love my culottes dearly.

However my culottes didn’t fit… quite right. Even right after I made them. I just wasn’t able to admit it.

You may remember that I thought my fashion fabric was knit.

Haha.

I can hear some of you laughing at me right now.

It was not my brightest moment.

I had added a zipper into the left side seam, so I could actually get in and out of them, which certainly helped. I just couldn’t add anything to my stomach while wearing them.

But I do like to eat at some point in the day.

So my fixes:

First I added a double layer of hem facing into the side seams, since it would be better than cutting out and attempting to sew more of the fashion fabric in. That would require some ironing, which I was not in the mood for, having already ironed the whole pair of culottes. There’s an awful lot of fabric in those things. These inserts make the skirt hang a little differently, but not drastically.

After this I tried them on, and saw that the inseam hung out from below the hem. It’s important to have a full length mirror when you’re sewing. Or at least one that you can move around without having to stand on a chair to see into it.

So… second I got to work unpicking the seams, and hemmed it up a bit higher.

And now I’m much happier!

Next up, my vest lining!

September 12, 2013August 25, 2022

Well, lookee here!

So this is my 50th post, which I’m quite proud to have made.

Not that this post in particular is a terribly important post.

I’m not good at keeping up with things like blogs, or journal writing, or reading scientific papers. Those things they say will get easier the more you do them. People may not say that about scientific papers though…

But I’ve made 50 posts! In six months!

And there are many more to come.

I thought I’d use this post to tell you about some stuff I normally wouldn’t write about. Like self promotion. I tend to forget to self-promote, so I made this post!

For one, I’ve had 1892 views in total so far. That’s exciting!

The most used search words seem to be revolving around Warehouse 13’s Claudia and Altoids tin projects.

I’ve completed a Farnsworth, a watchband, culottes, a vest, and tons and tons of planning.

There’s a Tumblr associated with the blog now, for when I get bored or sad and need a tumblr pick me up. I mostly reblog things I find absolutely wonderful, though it is mostly fangirly stuff. You can find me here!

I have a Spoonflower account, for all you sewers! I can’t quite afford the fabric at the moment, being a starveling college student, but one of these days you may see one of my fabric designs in one of my projects! If you’re interested in my fabric head on over here.

And I’ve mentioned my beaded jewelry shop BeadsAndQuotes here, but here’s the link again! I also sell handmade illustrated quotes there. My Christopher Robin one is popular.

My final bit of self promotion: I have a shop of t-shirt designs on a site called Redbubble. I’ve got it stocked full of wonderful geeky t-shirt options and pretty greeting cards. They also sell stickers of designs and ipod/ipad cases. You can see my shop here!

And that’s all, folks!

Here’s to another 50 great posts!

September 11, 2013

Cleaning and Planning

Cleaning is a double edged sword for me.

Being a generally lazy person, cleaning is just so much work. I’ve been on a cleaning kick though.

It would stop if I was assigned homework.

However, while I was cleaning out my fabric stash, I found some of my projects that I thought I had left at home. Squishable ones.

Like my Claudia vest.

And my culottes.

And this fabric that will interface my TARDIS shrug.

And this shirt that I’ll be altering for my TARDIS. It’ll be smoothed out, like the bottom. I bought it crinkly, but I like the color more than the crinkly texture.

Did I ever tell you that my culottes were a bit too tight? I’m going to be making a fix for that shortly, and showing the super finished product. I’m starting with this so I can wear them before it gets too cold.

Then I’m going to finish my Claudia vest, which will pretty much finish my Claudia costume. Just need a necklace then…

Soon there will be petticoats and my TARDIS shrug and some necklaces and a Belle muslin and a properly fitted underbust corset and a bum roll and my TARDIS skirt and a sweater and…

September 10, 2013

Doo Dwee Doooooo Dah Do Dwooo

Ah, the Doctor Who theme song. It would be easier to title posts if it had words to it.

Well, after working on it off and on for the past six months or so… (mostly off, I should mention to clear up any confusion. I am capable of attaching more than an average of one bead per day. I’m just too lazy to.) … I have finally finished my time rotor necklace!

As a reminder for those of you who are just tuning in, I’m working on costumes for SDCC 2014, and one of them is a anthropomorphic version of the Eleventh Doctor’s first TARDIS.

Yes.

And for this costume, I still wanted to pay homage to many of the mechanical aspects of this TARDIS that can’t be easily incorporated into a human being costume… Like the awesome TV screen, and the gorgeous time rotor.

This is the time rotor in question.

And here is my finished necklace!

I created this necklace by covering round and oval beads with the clear ones visible. I used brick stitch, which is slowly becoming my favorite stitch to design with. It’s so convenient and visual both in its flat and 3D form.

The beads in question were two fake gold pearls, a hematite oval, and a large goldstone round bead, which was slightly larger than the gold pearls, but not really once it had been covered up.

Because this difference was negligible in the end, as I showed in the last post, I re-brick stitched over the second bauble.

It looks so much better now, and I’m happy with it. Yayayayayayayayay! One project done, five million left to work on!

September 8, 2013

Happily Beading Away!

So… It’s time for an update.

Since the last one, I’ve finished moving into school, gone to a wedding, and went through my first week of classes. Which is why it’s been a while.

But the show must go on!

I’ve been working on my necklace projects at the moment, as I work on getting my serger up and running.

Remember how I was working on my Belle necklace, getting the swoosh bits finished? The ones that look like question marks, without the dot?

Well I’ve got one of the two mostly done! Some strings to handle, of course, but its pretty much finished! Only one more to go, which I’ll likely be working on over the next week.

After finishing these swooshes, I’ll be then designing and creating the smaller versions, which will then allow for the real creation of the necklace!

Then I decided to work on the TARDIS time rotor. I finished making all the baubles, and made the loop to thread it onto a chain.

There’s still something missing from it, and I’m pretty sure that I have figured it out.

The second bauble from the bottom is a bit too small. On the time rotor in the show, one of the spheres is significantly bigger than the rest. I tried to emulate that by encapsulating a slightly bigger round bead, but it doesn’t show nearly enough. I’m going to put another layer of the clear beads on top, which should increase the outward appearance of the bauble, making it more like the actual time rotor.

Should be done shortly, so look out for a final post for the necklace this week!

Also, I finally got a picture of this nice leather purse I purchased before I got home from abroad.

Nice and sweet little cross body bag. If I don’t make another purse option for my Susan costume, this will be the purse for it.

It’s small enough to not detract from the awesomeness of what the costume will be, but large enough that I’ll be able to keep some money and small souvenirs or papers and stuff. It’s even something I’ve been using in real life, because it’s cute, and just enough space to for wallets and such.

I’ll see you soon when I finish the time rotor!

August 29, 2013

Who has too much fabric?

Trick question…

There is no such thing as too much fabric.

This week I moved back into college for my final year as an undergraduate, so the stash I brought up is rather small.

I just got a bit more though! Some is for my costuming, and some is for other purposes.

Last weekend I was out thrifting and found this lovely stretch lace gold shirt. I’m not interested in wearing the shirt, but the lace will be perfect for my Belle outfit!

This was going to be the fabric for my Susan costume, but unfortunately the fabric is a bit too bright. I found it on Fabric.com, here, and the fabric is named Turquoise Slipper Satin. Next time there’s a good sale on the fabric, I’m going to get it in Baby Blue, if I don’t find other appropriate fabric first.

This trim will be a part of one of my costumes, most likely my Susan one, and it’s still awesome even if I can’t include it.

This brown lightweight knit is going to be for another wearable muslin for my Belle dress. The previous muslin was made out of a thick knit, but I want to try it with a slightly thinner one to test out how it would hang. I might also make myself a skirt or something with the extra.

In other fabric news, I’ve gotten quite a bit of yummy fabric for my own personal clothing usage!

I’m planning on making a nice short sleeved shirt out of this soft navy blue fabric.

When I was on this fabric shopping “trip” online, this mint lacy fabric was one of my first finds, which I want to make into a cardigan, or something cardigan like.

I thought this brown knit would also make a nice cardigan/shawl like garment. Most of my wardrobe consists of these, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have more, right?

And finally , I got this really neat bias binding, which I may use to bind seams on dresses and jackets and such.

So that’s my new additions to my stash, and now there must be some project working to use this and everything up!

August 18, 2013

It’s back!

After nearly eight and a half months of hiatus, my Etsy shop is back up and running, featuring my handcrafted jewelry, and my hand-illustrated quotes!

I actually set it up a few days ago, but I was slowly adjusting listings and re-listing items, but I finally have fifty or so of my items back up for sale, which allows me to take a step back and breathe a bit.

My shop and this blog won’t have a ton in common, as I made this blog to highlight all of my craft hobbies, and the shop only makes up a bit, but when I have big news that I can’t believe happen with my shop, I’m probably going to share!

Like the day after I reopened my shop when I got an order! Thanks to Steph in New Zealand!

She bought my hand-illustrated Christopher Robin quote.

My excitement was hardly contained, until I realized that I had already packed all my supplies. That was no problem though… Just a little sifting time.

I got the quote off the next day, allowing me to work on finishing the re-listing of the shop!

It’s ready to show off, so I’m going to link to it again here!