Midnight Eyes Fairy Wings

Another pair of fairy wings? Yup.

For those of you looking for more detailed instructions on how to make wings like these, I wrote a tutorial a while back, and I also have a couple other pairs on the blog: mini wings, and dreamcatcher wings...I got a lotta wings.    

As usual my wings begin with wire hangers, and two pairs of the cheapest knee high nylon stockings you can find. I like the ones that come in the little plastic capsules, I can usually find them for around $0.99 at the drugstore.  

Usually, I prefer to work on white stockings because its much easier to get colors to show up vividly on a lighter colored canvas vs. a darker one, but recently its been rather hard to find white stockings at my local store. I opted for black because it seemed better then other options: brown or band-aid tan. 

I was originally inspired by the patterns on butterfly wings that mimic owls eyes in order to scare off potential predators. My design turned out a bit more literal, but who doesn't love a giant pair of unnerving blue eyes? (I am reminded of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg) 

However, before committing to the design with paint, I decided to cut out some paper templates and test a few sizes to see what looked proportional. 

The next challenge was trying to figure out how to tie in the eyes with the rest of the design. Swoopy lines...admittedly, I didn't really have much of a plan to begin with for these wings. A fact which became painfully clear when I tried (and failed) to get this design perfectly symmetrical on both wings.  

Getting cheap white paint to appear opaque on what is essentially super stretchy black netting (because stockings are so sheer) is a bit of a nightmare. Trying to get clean flowing lines...impossible. Regardless of the futility, I kept painting in thin layers until they looked decent from a distance/I wanted to burn the damned things.

Frustration aside, it was necessary to paint the design in white first if I wanted the colors I painted next to actually show up, but I don't think I'll be using dark stocking for wings again any time soon.

Unfortunately, all of the lovely pastel colors I mixed up and painted on the wings refuse to show up nicely on camera...well darn.  

At this point things were getting a bit tedious, and I really wasn't satisfied for how the wings were shaping up. (Should I mention I paint both sides of my wings? So that the design is visible from the front and back...I went through all this nonsense twice) 

And here you can see how rough the edges of my lines were, despite my best efforts. 

I thought some gems might liven things up. I was wrong.

Perhaps a hint of gold glitter will add a little dazzle? Meh.

They're pretty...I guess, but for how much time and fussing these wings took, the finished product is just a little lack-luster to me. They were tedious to make, don't look nearly as nice in photographs as they do in person, and there's just something lacking that I can't quite put my finger on.

Penguins for Sonja

For as long as I can remember my grandmother has always loved penguins, she had penguins on her checkbook, calendar, and a painting of them hanging in her hallway. Last Mother's Day when she saw the earrings I made for my mother, she requested I make her a pair as well. Naturally, I thought penguins would be the right design for her.

Instead of repeating the same design on both earrings, I decided to doodle a whole family of penguins. I'm so used to working with a lot of colors (I can't help it, I like rainbows) it was interesting working with a more limited color pallet. Overall, I like them, even if they don't perfectly match, they look like they belong together.

Hopefully, my grandmother likes them too.

Mother's Day Earrings

My mother is an exceptionally difficult woman to find gifts for, then again I was an exceptionally difficult child to raise (still am). So I suppose stressing over what to buy or make her every time the occasion arises is fair payback (at least for the times I turned my nose up at roast beets and asparagus...ick) Well, its a start.

I decided to make a pair of earrings, and since shrink plastic is quite light I thought it would make an ideal material. I started with purple, one of her favorite colors, and quickly realized I had made a mistake. Instead of tracing my little birdies so that they were mirrored, one tweeting to the left one tweeting to the right...I had just turned the design 180 degrees.

I decided to forge ahead, regardless of my mistake and color the birds in. I tried to keep the color scheme very cool-toned and purple-centric overall, with a pop of yellow here and there for contrast.  

Here is how I would have liked my birds to turn out. I love symmetry! However, because shrink plastic has a rough side and a shiny side I couldn't just flip the design over. Well, I suppose I could, but the discrepancy in texture would have bugged the heck outta me.

Have I mentioned how much I love shrinking stuff?  :)

I had to find the perfect hardware for my mother’s earrings because she can be remarkably picky: they can't be too heavy, they have to stay in during all manner of activities from skiing to windsurfing, and they cannot under any circumstances be studs. After a bit of searching I found some lightweight silver earring fastenings that latched in the back.      

Finished! Fingers crossed she actually likes them.

Experiments: Dreamcatcher Wings

I've written a bit about my annual attempt at learning how to knit (yes, I know loom knitting doesn't really count, but at least I'm making an effort) anyhoo, as a symptom of this unfortunate habit I've developed a bit of a yarn problem. I'd hardly say its out of control, but I do have far more cheap acrylic "practice" yarn than any one person needs. So, in a long standing tradition of using materials as they were never intended I thought I'd play around with my yarn stash and try something new. My original idea was pretty simple: dreamcatcher fairy wings. The only problem, I've never actually made a dreamcatcher before...     

I began with two wire hangers.

I kept the wing shape very simple, because I wasn't sure how the dreamcatcher pattern would translate on an irregular frame shape, and I was worried the wobbly edges of a more natural wing shape might distort the dreamcatcher pattern.

I wrapped the frame with yarn.

To prevent the yarn from unraveling I brushed a few inches of the frame with glue then wrapped the yarn. A binder clip came in handy to hold the end in place if I needed to set the project down for a moment.

I felt like the frame needed a little something extra so I wrapped the top edge of the wings again, this time adding a glow in the dark bead every inch or so.  

Dream catchers are usually circular which means there is an equal distribution of tension along the perimeter, because my wings were more marquise shaped I was worried the uneven tension might warp the flexible wire frame out of shape...which it did, a little bit. I think if I were to remake these wings in a larger size I'd need to use a much stronger wire for the frame.   

Weaving the web of the dream catcher was the most time consuming part of the wings. I blame the yarn that I was using (and my complete lack of experience), because it was so stretchy I needed to keep it under constant tension or my weaving pattern would go all loopy and not look as nice. The wrapping and weaving process was also a lot more repetitive than painting some of my other wings, so the whole process seemed to take much longer.

Overall, I think this little experiment was a success, if I were to make them again I think I’d use something like embroidery floss for the weaving, and some stiffer wire for the frame. These wings feel a bit more fragile than other pairs I’ve made using stockings, but I really like the delicate shadows these wings cast when I wear them. 

T-Shirt Nightgown

My mother asked me to modify a T-shirt to make it a bit longer so she could wear it as a nightgown. I asked if I could take a little bit of creative liberty, and she said sure. I think the finished nightgown is relatively cute, and I was able to throw it together in a snap. (Well, a snap compared to some other projects).      
I didn't take many pictures while was working, because the dreary winter lighting was wreaking havoc on my phone's camera, and I wasn't sure if this little project was exciting enough to document, so I'll try and keep it short. 

This is the shirt I started with.

I dug through my scrap fabric and was able to find an old paint shirt in a complementary shade. It was in pretty bad shape, with lot of wear and tear around the back and shoulders and more than a few paint stains, but there was enough usable fabric to make the accents I wanted.      

I sketched out my basic plan.  

I kept the body of the dress very simple, because it’s meant to be loosefitting and I wanted to preserve the cute manatee design.

I sewed together the strips I cut from the other shirt to form a long strip.

I did a lettuce hem on the long strip and the sleeve pieces I cut out to give the material some extra flounce.

Then gathered the top edge of the strip with a running stitch. 

I laid out all of the pieces, to see how it was coming together, and decided to use the hem I cut off of the original shirt inside out to create a tie for the back of the dress.    

I sewed on the neckline and sleeves first, centering the sleeves at the shoulder seam. Then I sewed from the end of the sleeve to the bottom of the dress securing the waist ties in the seam as I went. Lastly, I pinned and sewed the bottom ruffle to finish off the dress.      

Before and After

I had a little trouble with my serger on the neckline the first go-'round, so I had to redo it. I'm not entirely satisfied with the way the dress turned out, but overall I think it turned out pretty close to my original sketch, and my mom seemed happy enough with it.