Jam-uary

It's a new year! Yay!

Now usually January is a slow month. After the holiday parties and year end snafus, January is typically cold and dull, just the perfect time to sit back and chill after the craziness. 

Unless you're planning a wedding.... and you realize that it's approaching in almost 100 days. -cries- The Fiancé and I have been very due diligent. Ordering invites, finalizing catering and DJs, booking photographers and officiants, etc. But there are a couple remaining to-dos that I've been procrastinating. 

This past summer, along with some friendlies, I endeavoured to handmake all my wedding favours. My chosen craft: Jam. (Of course my favours are food! Duh.) Guest list all counted out, I had to make at least 100 jars, if I intended on making them place card holders as well. Turned out the summer had been much more productive on the favours front than any other point in the idea's life. I made strawberry basil, strawberry rhubarb, sweet cherry, pear, orange marmalade, nectarine, and blue plum. And also peach jam. But that wasn't for favours... I wanted some jam too! ;) 

My favourites would have to be the marmalade and the nectarine jams on toast. But the best, by far, and by the spoonful, has to be the sweet cherry jam. When I first had a taste of it I had to sit on the ground, my knees were so weak. No jokes.   

That being said, for those who will be attending the wedding, there will be no choosing of favourites! The Fiancé is making a jam allocation protocol so there is no sore feelings about who's getting what jam. All the jams are excellent. I just like those three best personally. XP

Jam and allocation done. I wanted to have a double use for these favours as place cards. 

We used vista print for our invites. They have so many add ons using the design theme, from mouse pads to printed tees. Unfortunately, they didn't have jam labels. Come on internet! Why you fail me now? =(

So I gritted my teeth and opened up Word. Easy peasy to add shapes to measure and fill in the background with a design from our cute invites: an A+M heart carve into a tree. <3 And I only had to fight with "Compatibility mode" for a little bit. XD Success! All ready to receive the names of the RSVPed!

Now to set up the registries and send out the invites! Look out February! There will be lots of jams in your future! 

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

The Veils

My lovely lady Jessica got married in the Beautiful Rockies of Alberta this past August. It was a simply Breathtaking ceremony, right on a cliff opening up to the Amazing view. Spectacular. I have known Jess since we were 5 years old, and I blatantly stalked her in kindergarten until she became my friend. (True friendships = someone is Always the creeper.) She is one of the most important people in my life and I'm so glad I got to share in her and Jon's day. <3 

I also got to make her veil for her too! 

Wedding veils are one of the many wedding items that are Stupid expensive. Especially when the actual cost of the mesh and comb and various trimmings is typically no where close to the sale cost of the veil. While shopping for a wedding dress with Jess, we tried on veils that were over $300. Most of which didn't even have any embellishments; straight up mesh on a comb. So I offered to make her a veil instead. 

Of course, making a veil in itself has it's issues, not helped by the fact that I moved 3100kms across the country.... But we did it! And here's my story on how. 

First thing, what kind of veil did she want? There are many different kinds (which I found out). From variations in length to how many layers to how the mesh falls either down the back or over the shoulders, there are a lot of factors.

Jess decided on a two tiered veil with a ribbon trim, similar to one she liked from a bridal shop. I started the recreation.

I bought the mesh from a store on Dufferin St called Finer Fabrics Ltd. The place has basically no internet presence. I actually stumbled upon it walking after I went to a very disappointing Fabricland. It was a good thing because Finer Fabrics is Amazing. The guy who owns and runs it is of the old school of tailoring and sewing. Quite a rarity in this day and age. His fabric is of the highest quality. I haven't seen quality like this since the old Sig Plach in Edmonton closed down. I bought his finest Italian ivory mesh and went on my way.

Next was to make a pattern. I have made a veil before but I went a researched patterns anyway, specifically draping. It's about at this point where I started to realize the reason veils are so flipping expensive is because they're annoying to make. Only insane people like dealing with tulle. 

Oh wait. (Hah.)

Almost Done!

Almost Done!

I found the comb at a bridal store that begrudgingly charged me $5 for it. In retrospect, I could have ordered 30 combs from China for that price, but retrospect is always so well informed. 

After I made my pattern to length, via skyped butt measurements, I cut out my mesh and basted the top pieces for gathering. Once gathered to fit onto the comb's length, I basted the two tiers together. Ready for comb attachment! I decided to make fasten the veil right to the comb. I know many designs have detachable mesh/comb, but I didn't want this sucker to go anywhere. 

I bought the ribbon from a place called Mokuba on Queen West downtown Toronto. It was ribbon heaven. I had to leave before I got tangled in the lushious ribbon walls. At home, I contoured the veil edges in the ribbon with my handy dandy sewing machine. I used a light zigzag stitch as the mesh is stretchy and I wanted it to lay flat. Success!! 

Once finished I shipped it across the country with the BF (he was off to bachelor party on a houseboat in the shuswaps). Unfortunately it got mega smooshed. Sadly it did not retain it's ribboned wooshies over the flight. Also, the dress had been finished, and in the final fitting, decisions were made. The final decision was the viel wasn't what she wanted. No worries though. $38 down isn't bad at all. 

And I had a new example to go off of! 

Instead of a two tiered veil, the new veil would be a single veil, with bling! Super easy pattern to make: Similar tear drop form as the previous veil but with less width. The tip to gathering edge is the length from the nap of the neck to the top of the butt. About 2/3rds of the way down the centre line is where the veils width is the widest, to create the loopies that whoosh into the tip. (This is All technical jargon. My apologies. -winky face-) 

Since the hairstyle was also solidified now I knew the comb piece would be visible. I wrapped it up in the ribbon I had left over from the first veil. Waste not, want not. 

Now for the part I'd never done before: gem stones on mesh. I went to The Place I'm Not Allowed To Go (AKA Michaels) to see what they had in iron on gems. Turns out they have a lovely selection! So I bought some 'made in china' crystals and some Swarovski crystals too. It Is going to be a fancy wedding after all. (For the record, Swarovski crystals are made in china too.) 

I even researched how to bedazzle. (Haha.) Hilariously enough, there are Many Many youtube videos that have different ways of doing this. I found the best way for me was to use a plastic adhesive sheet to stick and move my laid out pattern of gems onto the pinned down veil edge, where I could iron on the gems. This worked rather well after I got the temperature right, and figured out that if I put parchment under the veil the gems would stop adhering to my ironing board.... Pictures of my process are above!

Also, because of sheer paranoia, I went over the backs of each gem with a glue and silver leaf mixture. That's right. I'm official a crazy veil making lady now.

But it did turn out beautiful.

It was an exciting adventure and I'm so glad I got to do it. <3 Love you Jess! 

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

The Harry Potter Wedding

So if you missed it, this past summer I helped a friend of mine achieve the most amazing themed wedding: The Harry Potter Wedding. I made the bride and groom Hogwarts school robes and various other HP themed items that I'll enumerate below. But really, who am I kidding, the pictures speak for themselves. It was an insanely amazing time!

The first thing I made were, of course, the Hogwarts robes for the bride and groom. No Harry Potter themed wedding would be complete without tailored robes! (I did a full post on how I made them here.)

I also had a hand in making the guest book. The Monster Guest Book of Monsters that is. 

Monster Guest Book of Monsters

Materials:
Guest book binder (prefeably a cheap one with it's own inserts)
Brown faux fur (enough to cover the outside of your binder and over lap by at least 3 inches)
4 fake eyes, yellow
One set of fake vampire teeth (2 pieces)
A hot glue gun
Packing tape
Scissors
Sewing machine (optional, but it makes it go faster)

  1. Lay your binder flat on top of your faux fur. Centre your binder on your faux fur (wrong side - nonfuzzy side) so that it has an equal over lap on all sides.
  2. Make four cuts, two on each side, in line with the binder's spine. 
  3. Make approx. 4 cuts on each of the horizontal sides. 
  4. Make approx. 4 cuts on each of the vertical sides. 
  5. Cut strips diagonally from each of the four corners. 
  6. With the sewing machine, sew right sides together, with a ~0.5 cm seam, of all strips except those that line up with the binder spine. This will make the tendrils that come off the cover. For the 4 corners tendrils, sew right sides together and then turn the tendrils right side out. (You may need a pencil or chopstick to help turn them right side out.)
  7. Hot glue gun the vampire teeth to the centre edges of the vertical sides (aka the mouth opening). You may need to also use packing tape to keep the teeth secure.
  8. Hot glue gun the spine flaps to the inside of the binder spine. 
  9. Flip over the now fuzzied binder. To place the eyes, draw a semi-circle on the wrong side (nonfuzzy side) in the centre of the 'top' cover of your monster. Evenly disperse the eyes along the semi-cirlce and mark where you'd like the eyes to go. Then go ahead and attach the eyes, making sure the pupil ends up peeping out of the fur on the right side. Attaching the eyes will depend on the type of fake eyes you get. Usually they comes with instructions. I cut a small hole for each of my eyes and pierced through the slits with the eye posts. Then I fastened the eye posts with a plastic washer.
  10. Gluein' time! Hot glue gun the cover fabric to the binder covers. Make sure that your eyes are pointing forwards, towards the monster mouth. Also arrange your tendrils in a way that makes them looks 'natural'.
  11. You're done! Now do up some HP themed pages to put besides your furry fiend and let the crowd sign away!

The bridal party was also dressed up in Hogwarts themed colours. For the ladies who wished them, I helped make crested sashes for their dresses. The original project head had purchased a great old sewing machine that unfortunately had a timing problem. So the project came to me, haha. I think they turned out pretty good!

I also made some quidditch themed decorations: a bludger and it's bat, and the Quaffle.

Bludger

Materials:
6 inch foam sphere
Parchment\pattern paper
Pencil/pen
Brown or black leather
Leather needles (both for the machine and hand)
Upholstery tacks

  1. Create a pattern AKA Math Time!!
    Think of the problem in 2D first. To cover the sphere we will need to cover the circumference of the 6 in diameter (3 in radius). So, using some handy math skills: 

    Circumference = 2πr = 2*π*3 in = 18.85 in

    So we have a circumference of almost 19 inches to cover. If we divide this in half we can find out the diameter of our pattern circle needed to cover the ball. 

  2. Using pattern paper, draw a 10 in diameter circle (this includes a seam allowance). Easiest way is to use a compass but if you don't have one then use a ruler. Draw a 10 in line, marking the centre at 5 in. Then, matching centres, draw another 10 in line perpendicular to the first. Now draw more 10 in lines, matching centres at 5 in, until you can comfortably sketch out the circle. Tada! Cut out your pattern!

  3. Cut two circles from your black or brown leather. It may be easiest to draw out the circles on the back of the leather and cut them out following that. Every time you pin leather the pin holes will remain afterwards. So careful!

  4. Right sides together, using a leather needle, heavy duty thread and the leather stitch setting on your machine (if you're using one), sew half way around the leather circles. Make sure you back stitch at the beginning and end of each stitch. 

  5. Turn the covering right side out and stuff the foam sphere snuggly inside it. I used a piece of cotton to wrap the ball first so it slid into the leather easier. 

  6. Now for some hand stitching. I bought a faux leather, truth be told, so it was very thin and I didn't need to pre-peirce the leather. I used a slip stitch along the seam line to close up the opening and encase the ball, making sure to pull the leather tight as I went. 

  7. Because the ball looked a little lumpy I decided to add the embellishments: the strap with decorative leather stitching and the upholstery tacks. The strap was an 11 inch strip that I sewed together so that it fit tightly over the centre of the ball. Then, using my fingers, I punched the upholstery tacks around the circumference of the ball into the centre of the strap. TaDa! Bludger! 

Bat

Materials:

1 aluminium softball bat (children's sized if possible)
A metal saw
... or 1 Dad who has a garage full of tools
Fine grit sandpaper
Brown spray paint
Brown acrylic paint
White linen cut into a metre long strip
Black or brown Marker
Paper and a pencil

  1. First, go and buy a cheap metal softball bat. Preferably a child's sized one because the beater's bats are smaller than regular bats. 
  2. After you've bought your bat it's time to cut it down to size. Now, using a metal saw and a vice, I made two cuts into the bat handle (pictures). The first cut removed the handle base (which will be reattached later). The second cut shortened the handle. Then I inserted a piece of copper pipe that fit snuggly into the hollow bat. I replaced the handle base by putting it onto the remaining sticking out copper pipe. Then I taped everything together. The copper pipe inside makes the connection strong.
  3. Now it's sanding time. With the sandpaper, I sanded the glossy surface of the metal down. This will help the paint adhere. 
  4. Outside, I evenly coated the bat in brown spray paint. I did this in two parts, letting the paint dry in between each part. 1) Hold the handle and spray the bat; 2) Hold the now dry bat and spray the handle. (I rigged up a stand so that the bat could dry hands free!)
  5. I recommend that you paint the wood-like design onto the bat at this point. (I wrapped the handle next, but it's much better to get the painting out of the way first.) I used brown acrylic paint and brushed some wood-like knots and grain lines onto the bat. No need to be too elaborate! Just enough to get the point across. Let it dry.
  6. Next, I took a meter long strip of linen, leaving a 3 inch end tail, and tightly wrapped the linen up and then back down the handle. I tied a knot with the initial tail and the remaining strip. 
  7. Now it's time to draw on the tell-tale bat markings. Using a pencil, I sketched out lines. When you're happy with them, using a marker, fill in the lines. (Wait to fill in the dots until after the leather strips are finished.)
  8. For the larger leather strip at the top of the bat, I measured the circumference of the bat and made a band, exactly like the one for the bludger, that will fit snuggly. Once done, I slipped it onto the bat and slide it down. It should be very snug. For the small leather strip, I took the piece of paper and wrapped it around the bat at the handle. I then drew two straight lines on the paper around the bat where I want the band to be. When you uncurl the paper you see the pattern you need to use to make a straight band that fits snuggly on the bat. (Also, don't forget to add some seam allowances before you cut out your leather! Or, like me, you'll have to redo it.) The I slipped it over the end of the handle and up until it fits snuggly just above the linen. 
  9. Marker in the dots and voila! Fini!

Quaffle

Materials:
10 inch foam sphere
Parchment\pattern paper
Pencil and ruler
Protractor
Leather needles (both for the machine and hand)
Red leather

  1. It's pattern time again! Now the quaffle is a minor math nightmare. We use the same concepts as the bludger but the quaffle has a pattern to it. It has 4 small round insets and in-between pieces that surround them. Lucky for us the ball has a repeating pattern! So we just need to make two pattern pieces: the round inset and the in-between piece.
    So:

        Circumference = 2πr = 2*π*5 in = 37.7 in

    So we have a circumference of almost 38 inches. Drawing out the pattern, we can see that if we take the centre of an inset circle, on opposite side of the sphere is the edge of an in-between piece. So, if we divide the circumference in half we can find out the distance between these two points which is approximately 19 inches. 
    These 19 in must include half the diameter of the circle (the circle radius) and diameter of the in-between piece. So, if we make the circle radius 3 inches (our circle pattern will be 6 in diameter plus seam allowance extra), that leaves 16 inches left for the diameter of the in-between piece. Draw out these circles either using a compass or the technique we used for the bludger pattern. 
    The in-between piece pattern is not yet done. This is the part where you do need a protractor. Elementary school all over again. Mark the centre of your circle. Then draw three lines, 120' from each other, radiating from the centre of the in-between piece. Where the line hits the edge of the pattern piece, match up the centre of the circle pattern piece you made to the line and the edge of the in-between piece. Trace a semi-circle onto the in-between piece. Cut out the semi-circle and then repeat this for the other two lines. Your pattern piece should now look like the one drawn above. Yay!
  2. Now that the dreadful pattern is complete, draw out the pattern on the back of your leather and cut out 4 circles and 4 in-between pieces. 
  3. Now comes the logistical sewing nightmare part: Stitching together the circle and the in-between pieces. I started stitching the in-between pieces together at their seams. Then, after, I sewed in the circle pieces. Make sure you leave two in-between sides and the respective circle open so you can slip the styrofoam ball inside. (See my quaffle head picture above.)
  4. Slip in the styrofoam ball. Since it's large you may have to use some force to get it all the way in. 
  5. It's closing time! Using the same slip stitch as the bludger, sew up the remaining seams on the quaffle by hand. And there you have it! At this point you can smash in the circle insets. The styrofoam underneath will break down with a couple good whacks. =) (It's a nice way to vent frustration after sewing leather too. Haha.)

Congratulations again to Amanda and Aaron! Love you guys! Thank you for letting me be part of your day. <3

-Andrea 

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

 

Magical Mumptions. Also, Vows!

One of my good friends is getting married. Not just getting married though. She's getting married Harry Potter style. For real. (My friends are cooler than yours.) Anyway! For a semi-wedding/real life gift, I'm making the happy couple Hogwarts Robes to wear while they greet their guests at the reception. (The Hogwarts away for Hogwarts reception. Complete with Harry Potter themed bar and four long house tables under a ceiling of candles. Again. Cooler than yours.)

One would think making a HP robe is an easy task. I searched for patterns to buy to make a tailored robe for the bride-to-be and her wizard fiancee but there were no such official patterns to be had. Enter my journey through the blog-o-shpere to find out how others of 'my kind' were getting on without patterns to purchase. 

One real good blog was this one. Now, while I definitely took little of their advice, it gave me my base courage to enter a Fabricland and find a 'close enough' pattern that I could alter to be the magnificent robe fit for a first dance as husband and wife. 

I have to admit, it took me for freaking ever to get started. First thing I had to do was make a draft version of the robe using the "close enough" pattern I'd purchased. I used Simplicity 5840, pattern B. From the draft robe I could make alterations and then transfer those alterations to the pattern. And then actually make the final robe and tailor it to Madame Bride. 

Fig 1

Easier said than done though. The pattern I used was waaaaay to big. Like many other bloggy-inclined, I was referencing a couple screen shots from various HP movies to get an idea of the fit. Fig 1 is one of the best to get an idea of how fitted it is buttoned up. So the first alteration was to take in the side seams about 12 cm. Straight from the armpit down to the hem. 

The second alteration was to the sleeves. I had to shorten the part that met the body of the robe by 6 cm a side (thank gad for easy drop shoulders). Also, the sleeves in the movie have a long and straight cuff on them, so I had to alter the flare of the original pattern as well. Plum 1 (below) has the best example of the fit and drape of the sleeve on Miss Parkinson. Fitted along the top of the arm and then a dramatic flare at the elbow.

Plum 1

After the sleeves were altered, cut and sewed in, I still had a rather large expanse of fabric at the back. So tailored darts, yay! Now, I don't have any high definition views of the back of the robes so I'm going to pretend that some fancy Hogwarts students have darts in their robes. I did two darts, each centered over a shoulder blade. They run from near the nap (about 5 cm lower) to the top butt region. 

Next, the hood. To get that telltale Hogwarts hood drape on the chest was a bit difficult to do with this pattern. The original pattern had a droopy hood, meant to look elegant in velvet, but that wasn't going to work for an as-close-as-possible HP robe. 

I see your back! Haha!

I see your back! Haha!

The length and shear pointedness of the hood was hard to figure too. I knew that the hoods from the third movie on were rather pointier than their predecessors, but the only clip I could really find that had good views of the hood, front and back, was in the third movie at the first Care of Magical Creatures class scene. From this I figured: 1) the hood has to be long enough that when it's up the tip still falls around the neck/upper back area; 2) the tip is indeed pointy; 3) the hood needs to be wide enough at the neck that when it's down the lining can be seen on the chest; 4) Again, when the hood is up, there should be no sagging of extra fabric at the connection between the hood and the robe front. Lots the think about. 

I extended the hood point (a little too much in the draft - I shortened it more in the final robe), and I pressed and taped together the patterns hood darts so my hood would be smooth at the seams (no sagging!). Luckily the hood was wide enough as it was so I didn't have to alter the neck seam, yay!

Ooooooooooo!

Ooooooooooo!

Hood = Achieved! After that success there was one more obstacle to tackle. The Lining. 

From the third movie on, each robe is lined with the house colour of its student. My friend is a proud Hufflepuff, so, verily suiting, a Hufflepuff robe she will have. Looking back at Fig and Plum 1, we can see that the cuffs are lined, the front of the robes are lined and the hoods are lined too. However, there are No Visible Seams at the chest. Gross. This meant that some fancy planning work would be required. 

Lining Design

Now, many of the blogs I've visited that have detailed how they've made their own robes have only lined the first foot of the robe front. This is a very clever way to work it. Instead of lining the whole of the robe, making it rather difficult to sew and also much heavier than strictly necessary, they've cut out one, long, piece of lining to go from the base hem on one side, up along the robe front, into the hood, down the other side of the chest, back to the hem. Essentially, they've figured out how to make it so that there are no seams at the hood and chest connections. Brilliant. 

But because apparently I enjoy making more work for myself than necessary, I decided to line the whole of the robe. Then the inside seams would be covered too. Easy enough... Or so I thought. Basically I had to make a copy of the robe I had just made with lining, with one very important difference: The robe front had to be one piece up into the hood. I drew it all out (above) and then set to work. 

After the lining robe was sewed together - I basted the sleeve lining to the robe lining at the armhole because I'd need to be able take them apart to turn the robe right side out after I'd done the cuff seams -  I positioned and stitched the crest to the front left robe breast. Then, after the lining was sewed to the robe front seam (hem to hood to hem), I made up the buttons. I bought plastic buttons to cover in fabric so they look just like the original robe buttons (see gallery beside). I had sewn a piece of looped black cord in the centre of the breast in the robe front seam to use as my clasp. So it was a case of button positioning and a happily ever after. These little details done, I finished the cuffs, detached the sleeve lining at the armhole, turned them right side out and sewed the sleeve lining to robe lining again. I tacked the lining at the hood point, shoulder seams and under arm seams so the lining wouldn't shift around too much and then started on the hem. Doing the hem last, I was able to fully incase all the seams. How professional!

All in all, this project was amazingly fun to put together. I got to spend a lot of 'research time' rewatching all the movies and rereading all the books. And Lesley and I got to spend hours together being giant sewing nerds. It was all so worth it. 

Image.png

I'll post pictures of the actual wedding after it happens in July. But until then, just be happy with a glimpse at the AMAZING invite.

Eeeeee! So Excited!!!

Cheers!

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist