Snuggie

I decided I wanted to make myself a snuggie… when I’m sitting at the computer at night, I get really cold… my gaming PC is next to a full length window, so it gets quite cold in winter (and hot in summer).  I have a fleece blanket I use, but I have the problem of either just wearing it around me and leaving my arms free (since I need to use the keyboard and mouse) – which get cold… Or putting it over my arms, but getting drafty sides where the blanket lets the cold air in.

So… solution – a blanket with sleeves – a “snuggie”, “slanket” – whatever you call them.  I also wanted a dressing gown, so I thought I could make one and just wear it backwards.

As it turns out, the online instructions to make a snuggie call for just a rectangle of fleece, with holes cut in, and tube sleeves sewn in.  Very basic.  I was going to do a more dressing gown thing, but then I decided to go for the quicker, seam-free version they do.  it can kinda be work backwards as a dressing gown.

Steampunk Lightsaber … part 3

So…. I started doing the clay “guard”.  It turned out to be more of a PITA than I thought.  The clay didn’t stick once it dried, but I had to form it around the blade while it was wet, without gluing it on… So I had to do some, wait for it to dry and fall off, then put glue on the clay piece and try to stick it back on where it went – without letting the glue touch where it shouldn’t (it melts the plastic)… which is hard to do when you’re trying to position a curved piece of clay onto a round stick…. it’s not the neatest job, some glue bits marked the plastic…but I’m hoping it will look ok – in the dark you won’t see it.

It’s about half done…they clay-work will go right to the end.  I’ll be painting the clay a coppery colour when it’s done.

Also… I did something to my original lightsaber… finally 😀  I went back to bunnings and got a second brass fitting, so I can glue the blade from one of the cheap sabers to it… which will allow me to switch between bladeless (which I’m planning to have a crystal in the tip), and with blade.

So that’s the bladeless hilt, and the removable blade.  It’s just glued on at the moment, but I’ll be covering that crappy glued bit with something…. when I work out what 😉

Steampunk Lightsaber … part 2

Ok, so I had wild plans of making a steampunk lightsaber – just because I can, and also because I want some cool weapon/gadget for my costume…

I looked a a bunch of pics, and decided on buying a length of copper pipe and some attachments – Shown here. Nothing more happened for quite some time… since I found it hard to get cool looking brass bits and pieces to use.  And the ever present issue of blade or no blade…. and what to use as a blade should I decide I want one (given the online places I’ve found charge a fortune)

As my May deadline approaches, I’ve begun to stress, so when I saw some cheap lightsabers in a “$2 shop” (for $6), I wondered if I could take them apart and use the blade and lights in my lightsaber…  Or if worst came to worst, I could paint it and have something that would do.

So they had 6 left, and I bought them all 😀  They are kinda cool – they do 3 colours (red, blue, purple) with appropriate ignition sounds and swooshing sounds – if you wave them violently or touch something with them, they change colour.

We took one apart, just to see what the innards were like,….  The chip that does the lighting/sounds is too big to fit inside my copper pipe unfortunately… I’m not sure if I could take the LEDs and the battery housing bit and cobble something to just give lights (as I’m not that fussed about the sounds)- I’m a bit scared of fiddling with electrical things. I bought a slim torch but it’s *just* too small to fit inside…. buggerit.  I plan to use the blade part for my copper pipe saber. If I can get the right screw on attachment, I will be able to glue/fasten the blade to that attachment, and have the option then for the hilt to be plain or bladed, depending on what I want.

So I set about painting one of the cheap plastic ones last night.  I bought model paint, as the art store lady said that would be the best thing to use. It still needs a couple more coats to get full coverage over the plastic, but I think it’s looking quite awesome!  I’ll put varnish over the top to help make it more durable too.

Half painted

The original plain black plastic & my painted one

(still needs more coats)

Now – I still have the problem of the blade – I still don’t want to have the blade showing as being obviously a plastic tube when it’s not lit… and I can’t walk around with a lit lightsaber hanging from my belt or I’d be chopping my legs off as I walk… So my plan is to take some air-dry clay and make a sort of filigree/vine-like  “guard” – so it’s wrapped around the blade, disguising it, and my hope it I can pretend that it’s a safety guard so that I could walk around with a lit saber and not cut my legs off.

I’m hoping it works… I’m a bit worried about ruining my nicely painted lightsaber, but the clay should wash off if I make a mistake and should remove easily… and if not, I have 4 other sabers I can use 😀

Just Feck Off!

So.. I’m a cranky old(ish) woman and I got sick of having people come to the door selling stuff – there was a time when we were getting one a day (sometimes even more than one in a day), and I cracked it, and made a sign.  It works brilliantly!

I see people come to the door (they have to walk past a window to get there), and 99% of the time, I see them just walk away again, without knocking. 😀

I’ve been asked a few times for copies of the sign because others like it… so I thought I’d upload it (don’t worry, it’s perfectly polite and non-sweary)

Download “JustFeck-Off-Doorsign” – .doc

Easter Swap

I did an Easter themed swap, and I was quite pleased with what I made for my swapper, so I’m showing it off here (now that it’s been received, so I won’t spoil the surprise) 😀

Firstly (after much contemplation) I decided to make a fabric box… I actually spent about an hour in the fabric store trying to find something “easter” themed…. and preferably green (my swappers fave colour)… All the chicken or bunny fabrics were really babyish….the best I found was something with birds on it, that sort of looked “spring” like to me…  unfortunately it’s more purple than green, and the green in it is a yellowy green… but I found a spotted fabric to match, and that was done.

Then I decided to decorate some of our blue aracuana eggs.  I wasn’t sure what to use, so I tested out some permanent texta and I think it worked well.  I happened to have black and purple, so I tested it out with those, and then forgot that I’d planned to go buy a green sharpie to do them… so they all ended up purple, not green… but I think they are pretty 😀

 

Fabric “box”

I saw some really cool box things in a gift shop.  They are a square with ribbon ties to tie it up into a box.  Of course I thought “hey, I could make that!”  – so I did 😀

Theirs were stiffened with wood I think, so were very sturdy, but I figured I’d stiffen mine with wadding.  You can use interfacing instead of wadding if you like… but I like the padded look.

Very quick and easy, and cute!

Start off by cutting 2 squares of your fabric.  They will be reversible when you’ve finished.  Something contrasting might look nice.  I made mine 25cm (10 inches) square.

Mark a point 8cm/3 inches from the edge on each side…Then pin a length of ribbon (I used pieces 10cm/8 inches long) on those spots.  These will be the corner ties that hold the box together. If you want the sides to be higher or shallower, or if you’re doing a different size, you’ll have to judge where the ribbon ties go (just try to fold the fabric as the box would go, and pin it together where you think the ribbon ties would go, and adjust as needed)

Make sure the ends of the ribbon are pointing into the centre, or you may catch them when you sew around the edge (and that’s a pain!).

Place the top piece onto the bottom piece, so both “good” sides are facing, then sew all around (leave an opening to turn it), and turn it out the right way… you now have a square spider (or you do if your ribbon has kinks in it from being wound around a card) 🙂

Cut out some pieces of wadding.  For the size I made here, if you cut 2 pieces the same length as the sewn square, and then cut those in half.  But if making a different size, you need the wadding to fit between the ribbon ties, but not going into the corners.  I’ve shown where the wadding pieces sit – but obviously they go inside 🙂  like this:

So you poke the wadding pieces in through the hole you left to turn it through.  This shows the wadding pieces where they go.  Pin them in place (you won’t need as many pins as I used, I just used lots to show you where the wadding is)

When the wadding is in place, put a line of pins along the bottom edge.  Then use this pin line as a guide of where to sew.  This keeps the wadding in place and forms a fold line to make the sides fold up more easily.

Run a top stitch around to close the hole, tie up the sides and you’re done!

I cleaned my desk

…See…. this is momentous if you’ve seen the “before” (though taken a while ago…  it’s an accurate portrayal of how messy my desk gets)….

*ahem*

yes… it’s disgraceful… but I make no secret – I’m a slob.

…it’s like someone has vomited papers and mess, all over my desk…

So… since I’ve been getting SHOCKING hayfever of late, I decided some dusting might be in order (yes, start the mum-esque lectures about dust)…  so… I also took the opportunity to clean off some of the crap from my desk, and pretty things up a bit…

This is the result…

😀

I decided to stand my purple lightsaber up, so it wasn’t blocking everything behind it, then I decided to collect all my Star Wars things in the one spot (except the 11 Star Wars games I have, one book that’s in the car and another I realised I forgot to relocate from the bookshelf).. ohh and I’ve “misplaced” the C-3PO that MiniObsi made me that goes with the toilet roll&peg R2 that she made (which is behind Leia, and you probably can’t see it, since I had to take the photo on an angle to get my LEGO minifigs in shot)

(the bottle of stuff isn’t Star Warsy… it’s some weird looking basil seed drink from an Asian grocery store that looked too freaky, I had to buy it… but it looks alien enough it’s allowed to stay on the shelf… I’ll say it’s a bacta tank sediment storage unit or something :D)

update

and here’s MrObsi and I having a quick duel for a photo with the Ultrasabers lightsabers (it’s Xmas morning, and I also got him a top hat, so excuse the weirdness)

PURPLE Spring Rolls!

I saw purple carrots in Coles the other day, and bought some.  just because they were purple of course.  They don’t really taste any different, but are very cool…

So tonight, I planned to make spring rolls for dinner…  the only carrots we had were the purple ones.  no matter, they were getting a bit soft now, so this would use them up.

I put them in the food processor to chop them up, and giggled at the purpleness… I added them to the frypan of mince, and processed the cabbage, then chucked that in…. and mixed it…

… PURPLE….

I added the noodles and *squee*

… PURPLE! ….

They looked weird rolling them up

… and the funny thing, they look bizarre,

but taste exactly the same as they normally do!