How to transform old T-shirts into a nightgown

Not the most attractive, or flattering nightgown, but still technically a wearable article of clothing. That said, it seems like deliberately ugly clothing is kind of a trend (in certain very specific circles) So if you’re into that, this might be the right video for you.

For those of you who might be curious about how my wilted lettuce nightgown was received, she doesn’t seem to totally hate it...not sure if that’s just a front to spare my feelings though. 

Seasonally Appropriate Dead Bird Earrings

I made some dead birds for my mom's birthday, moms love dead birds...right?

Blue Fairy Photoshoot

Me: You can't upload 25 pictures of yourself in a homemade fairy costume.

Also me: Why not?

Me: Because people don't just do that! It's WEIRD and it comes off in a bad way!

Also me: but I wanna

Me: Don't y-

Also me: I AM A MAJESTIC FAIRY QUEEN AND YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO

Well, the id has spoken. Here are a bunch of photos in semi-alphabetic order by photographer. Thank you so much to everyone involved in this shoot, it was a nerve wracking experience but I'm so glad I didn't chicken out. Please enjoy the pictures, and if you're interested in making any of the pieces from this costume. I have tutorials on how to make the butterfly hair clips, spiked headdress, criss cross body chain, and wings. I also have a video documenting the rather tumultuous process of making the dress, not exactly an informative tutorial, but educational in other ways.     

Costume Design/Makeup/Model: Me

Hair: Hailee Simonsen

Shoot Organizer: Tawny Horton

Photographers as follows:

Joann Vivian Mclsaac Meyers

 Did I nearly step on my own hair while trying to stand up from this pose? Yes, yes I did.

 Mike Christopher

I really went out on a limb for this shot! Dumb puns aside, I was literally standing on a branch bridging a very cold very muddy river. If my foot looks a little tense its because I really didn't want to fall in and get the costume filthy. Muddy perils aside, I think rather tall in this photo, definitely taller than 5'2" so I'm pleased.   

 Rebecca Dahl

I shot with Rebecca and Steve at the same time and I have to commend them for showing a saintly level of patience with me. From tiptoeing barefoot over pine needles and rocks, to trying to figure out what the heck to do with my arms. They were ceaselessly encouraging, and never made me feel bad for not having a clue what I was doing. Speaking from my limited experience: modeling is hard, and I need all the encouragement I can get.

 Robert Fletcher

~fairy flailing~

Steve Berlin

One of the only photos that captured the blue-ness of my highlighter! Fun fact: I totally used this photoshoot as an excuse to go out and get blue duochrome highlighter. Looks blue in person, not so much in most photos and video, still wear it though.  

This shot breaks my heart a little. I love so many of the elements, the river in the background, the way the tree's roots overlap and intertwine, the composition and palette, I think my left leg looks pretty good, BUT THOSE GOSH DARN BUTTERFLIES ARE UPSIDE DOWN!!! It drives me a little crazy. The darn things just would not stay in my hair, and because we were shooting in the woods I didn't really have a big mirror to check if I was clipping them back in the right way up. Its one of those things where theres no way of knowing how noticeable it is the another person looking at the photo, but its SUPER noticeable to me.

Val Judy

 I love the rich saturated colors in contrast with deep inky shadows in Val's shots, they remind me of a renaissance painting.  

 Valerie Jones Christiansen

 Zhon Johansen

I borrowed a pair of my mothers shoes because I had nothing that matched the rest of the costume, and I wore them for about 17 minutes before throwing them off to go climb on a tree limb. In the end they only ended up in a couple of the shots and I spent the rest of the time running around barefoot in the woods.

Criss Cross Body Chain

Okay, a little rant about trying to get the final "model-y" type shots of this project. 

I decided I wanted to try leaving my house (for once...I don't get out a lot) to try and get a slightly more interesting backdrop. There's a parking lot relatively near with all kinds of neat textures, crumbling concrete, plants, fences, etc. Just to try something new, you know? Anywho, I put on my makeup, my outfit, grab my camera, tripod, and head off into the big wide world. 

I'm setting up to shoot in a parking lot so I'm extra EXTRA aware of my surroundings, being sure to stay out of the way of any potential incoming or outgoing traffic. I hear a car's engine start, so I move myself and my camera to a place where I know there is no way I could be in the way. So I'm focusing on setting up a new shot, framing things, fiddling with my camera, all that nonsense. I no longer hear the car so I assume whoever was in it is long gone, doing whatever they set out to do. Turns out I was wrong. The guy driving the car apparently started his car, pulled out, saw me, then parked again, and was now walking in my direction...Super, I just love it when random strangers approach me while I'm in the middle of trying to do something.    

I notice him, and say "Can I help you?" the most Canadian way of saying "What the hell do you want from me? Please go away." I'm polite, but I make no effort at being friendly or conversational. Apparently this is too subtle. He starts talking at me (not to me, that would imply I'm a willing participant in this conversation), and I do my upmost to make it clear that I'm in the middle of something and even if I did want converse with a complete stranger, now is NOT A GREAT TIME. Again, I guess I was too subtle. 

I'm no expert photographer, videographer...whatever, but I do know that good lighting is absolutely key to getting a decent image, and this guy was wasting good daylight. 

I get that I'm in a public space. I understand that I'm wearing somewhat over the top makeup and fashion. I'm a random girl with a camera, doing something slightly out of the ordinary. I get why someone might want to come over and investigate the situation. I have nothing against curiosity, but that didn't seem to be this person's driving force. The only curiosity he seemed to have was for my phone number, and seeing as he hadn't made the finest first impression (wasting time & good light) I wasn't super inclined to give it to him. In the end, he wouldn't leave till he gave me his business card. 

Overall the interaction was uncomfortable, it left me anxious and annoyed. In the end, I decided to give up on shooting outside, and retreated back home. That negativity stuck with my for a while, and I really wasn't happy with any of the shots I got. 

I'm an anxious person. I'm wary of strangers. That said, I don't want to let this interaction reinforce my anxieties, or villainies this random stranger. I simply wish that this stranger had been a bit more observant, aware of the situation, or the signals I was clearly (in my opinion) giving off: I'm busy, you're making me uncomfortable, please just move along. Maybe it's on me, maybe I should be more direct, more assertive, but that doesn't come easily, and honestly, there's a part of me that's scared that any perceived rudeness might will be met with violence. 

I just wish things had gone differently. 

End of rant, sorry about that. 

Blue Fairy Wings

I made another set of wings, and attempted to film the process. 

How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Duvet Cover and Make an Impractical Dress

This project wasn't quite as straight forward as I hoped it would be. After the first failed bodice I wasn't terribly diligent about filming the process of making it. So this is less of an instructional video, and more of a "join me on a stupid sewing misadventure" type video, but I still think it has some educational value...maybe...sort of ~shrugs~ 
Despite the fit being a bit off, the dye job a bit shoddy, and the fabric less than ideal, I do think I did a rather neat job on some of the finishing: hemming, binding, etc. So not a total loss. 

Sidney Eileen's drafting tutorial

On another note: I tried talking to the camera. It was very awkward, hopefully I can learn to be slightly less awkward in the future. No promises. 

Spiked Crown

I was very inspired by the headdresses made by @hysteriamachine on instagram, and Angela Clayton's Spiked Halo Tutorial. I'm not 100% happy with the way mine turned out, the glass made it a little heavy, and the shape didn't turn out quite the way I hoped, but it was a fairly straight forward project. If you like the look, I highly recommend giving it a try, the most expensive part was the spray paint at $3.99, everything else was either free, or something I already had. 

The yarn didn't take the paint quite as well as I hoped, but I kind of expected that, luckily my hair covers most of it. I am kind of disappointed in the way that the crown looks with the butterflies, it just seems to be one of those cases where something looks much better in my head then it does on my head.

Giant Butterfly Clips

I've made fairy wings before, using four wire hangers for large sets or two for small sets, and I was curious to see what I could make with just one hanger. 

The finished butterfly is a bit too small to wear as wings, but it's still cute and I think this experiment turned out alright. 

Fairy Wings Collection

Making an Ugly Christmas Hat

...or tacky? or maybe you think it's cute, I think what's ugly is just as subjective as what's considered pretty.

It seems like there's been a ongoing trend of Ugly Christmas Sweaters for the past few years, and I thought this year (ahem...last year, this post is coming out a little late) I'd participate in the festivities. I thought maybe if I make my hat festive enough it'd make it harder to see how much the holiday season kills me inside. Unfortunately, I have neither the skill nor the patience (not to mention the yarn) to make a full sweater, so I decided to make a hat instead.

I've made hats on looms before, because fun fact I still don't know how to knit. In past projects I've used two strands of worsted weight yarn as a substitute for bulky weight yarn, the kind recommended for a large gauge loom.
This time I tried something a little different, I used a single strand and did three rows of wrapping instead of two. I got the idea from this video.    

After three rows of wrapping, I used my hook to pull my lowest loops over the top two.

I did 30 rows of knitting like this to create the brim of my hat.

After finishing my brim I switched colors and did 15 rows of burgundy, I alternated colors every 15 rows to create stripes.

After the completing the brim and two stripes, or 60 rows of knitting, I switched from knitting in the round to knitting a flat panel.  

Every 3 rows I reduced the number of pegs I used by 2, one on each side. In hindsight I think I should have reduced every 5 rows instead for a longer more gradually tapered shape of the hat, but in my defense I really had no clue what I was doing.

And here's what winging it looks like! Laying flat it's kind of an odd shape, especially from the side, but once I stitched the back closed it started looking a little bit more like what I was going for...aside from a weird lump in the back.  

You could stop here. Maybe add a pom-pom, and have a pretty cute hat, but I didn't set out to make a "cute" hat. I'm making an Ugly Christmas Sweater...-hat, so I need decorations, and lots of 'em!      

I started with some mossy green yarn I had left over from another project and Boye spool loom (mini review of the Boye looms at the end of the post) I didn't exactly measure how much cording I made, I basically just knit till I ran out of the green yarn I had, but if I had to guess I'd say it was around a yard and a half...ish?  

Next, I made a few flowers following this incredibly helpful video tutorial.

I made three sizes. From the bottom to top: flower loom-10 rows per petal, large cord-7 rows per petal,  small cord 4 rows per petal.

Lastly, I just sewed on my decorations. There wasn't a lot of rhyme or reason to my placement I just knew I kind of wanted my "vine" to spiral up the hat kind of like a tinsel garland on a tree, and the flowers to hang off it like ornaments. My "vine" ended up being a little long so I added in a couple loop de loops to use up the extra length. 

One important tip: be careful not to sew the cord around the hat too tight, or you might loose some of the stretch in your hat. 

My thoughts on the Boye Looms:

I really can't recommend these looms to anyone. The peg design is awful, it's got this hook element that's meant to prevent your yarn from accidentally slipping off, but it's such a pain trying to get your loops off that if you're impatient with it, you can end up shredding your yarn. The pegs are also kind of flexy and flimsy feeling. The Boye looms are just really poorly designed, very frustrating to work with, don't waste your time or your money on them.  

Overall I think the hat turned out okay, very cozy. On another note, I got glasses! I never realized how poor my vision was until I could actually see. Now that I can, part of me prefers the way I saw things before. Ignorance can be bliss sometimes.