A lovely new scrap fabric rug!

It's been a few years since I've thought to make a scrap fabric rug but I've been moving to a new apartment recently and I was more than a little surprised at just how much fabric I own. Rather than throw away any useful material, I decided to try my hand at crochet rug making again.

The method I used for my previous rugs, cutting strips of fabric and tying them together, looked somewhat sloppy and the knots were uncomfortable to step or sit on. For this rug I used this tutorial to make the yarn since it had no knots and seemed fairly strong:

http://mypoppet.com.au/2014/04/scrapbusting-handmade-scrap-fabric-twine.html

I didn't use a set pattern for the rug, I started with a chain of six and crochetted in the round, increasing as necessary.

I think in the future ill be more careful about choosing fabrics of roughly the same weight. Thick fabrics didn't twist well with thin fabrics and were bulky to crochet with.

This rug took one garbage bag full of scrap fabric and about 12 hours of work/watching tv to create. Its about 1 1/2 ft in diameter.

Made it myself counter top water filter with Berkley filters

I've been slightly concerned with our water quality lately and with all the studies being done recently that have shown the potential harm of fluoride, I've felt like i should be doing more to ensure that my son has a good and clean source of water.
After a bit of research i decided that the Berkley Water Filtration System was what i wanted since it wasn't hooked up to the house. We're renting our current house so i didn't want anything that i would have to install and then uninstall later. Also, a counter top filter could be used to filter rainwater if I ever get a collection system up and running here.
The only problem was that a filter system that was the size and had all the accessories i wanted would have cost just under $500, which is a lot of money for a sew-at-home mom like myself.
I stumbled upon someone who had made one themselves using Berkley water filters and 5 gallon buckets. It takes a little extra work but it's way more in my price range!
I ordered all my supplies from http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/
The Berkley filters, with fluoride attachments, buckets, lids, spout, and extra washers cost just under $200. Shipping was free and it was processed and shipped in less than a week! Yay!
Initially i had drilled two 1" holes in the bottom of my top bucket but those turned out to be to big and water went all over my kitchen. Yay!

So that bucket is now being used as flower pot and I found and scrubbed out another bucket from our garage.

I drilled 1/2" holes in the second bucket and those worked a lot better. The carbon filters an first washer were put in the top bucket, then came the lid for the second bucket, with 1" holes, then the second set of washers and the flouride filters. The spout was installed in a hole drilled into the bottom bucket. 

All in all, i think this sysyem works great, the water is cleaner and the cost was reasonable. The carbon filters can last up to 6000 gallons but the fluoride filters need to be replaced every 1000 gallons. 

Needle felted Fururama christmas tree skirt

This project took me over a week to finish but I'm very happy with it. I'm a tiny bit burnt out on needle felting now but I've got plenty of sewing projects to get done to take my mind off of it.

Here's the photo Ryan asked me to make into a christmas tree skirt. Initially I thought I would embroider it but that would have taken a year. So even though I'm fairly new to needle felting I decided to make it that way. 

Here's the finished skirt. Maybe I should've used a different table cloth for these pictures. Blue on blue is hard to see. Oh well.

I couldn't find enough wool roving in all the colors I needed for this project so I spent a lot of time untwisting wool yarn and brushing it out with a baby hair brush to get a lot of these colors. Even so, I wish I had more shades of green and grey. 

It was hard to make the eyes even. Maybe thatgets easier with practice? 

Ever been so mad you choked a reindeer? 

I felted Zoidberg's face tentacles separately and then attached them to give it a better texture. So realistic. 

Wish I would have had more grey colors for bender. Oh well, he still came out nice I think. 

Santa's gun was my favorite part of this project. Came out perfect. 

That took way too long but I think it was worth it. Now on to the next item on my mountain of holiday sewing to complete. :-)

-Elizabeth

Needle felted portraits and more!

I love the look of needle felting but I've never really been brave enough to give it a try until recently. So here are my initial practice pieces that I finished up a few weeks ago. I've got a big piece that I'll be posting later this week that I'm sure you'll love so don't forget to follow my blog or like me on facebook, k? Here you go:

Started small. A ball. If I can make a ball then I can make more complicated shapes, right? Like I said, this is practice. 

Next I made a puppy! He's a little cartoon-ish but I still like him. Maybe someday I'll be able to make those hyper-realistic animals I see on the interwebs. 

I like the idea of mixed media felting and sequin art. Shiney and soft! Not liking the sequin eyes though. Super creepy. 

Rainbow sequin afro cat. Groovy. 

This was a request. I tried to do some slightly more complicated color blending and shading. I think it came out nice. 

My boyfriends favorite: tiny mounted elephant head. I stabbed my fingers quite a bit making this one. 

And that's all for now. Check back soon for more updates. Big holiday project in the works. It's exciting haha. 

That one time I reupholstered a couch

There's nothing like the satisfaction of a job well done. Especially when that job is really quite comfortable when it's finished.

This was garage couch. He wasn't very pretty...

So I stripped all of his clothes off to make him some new ones. 

I added a pillow backing made of batting and stuffing to make him more comfortable.

And then dressed him up in his fancy new clothes. 

For the upholstery scraps, I bought a giant bag from the Golden D'or for $10. I still have a ton left over. There are some things I'm not 100% pleased with but for my first attempt at patchwork reupholstery I'm satisfied. It only took me two days to get all the work done and I definitely thought it would take more. I'm quite happy with him and were even contemplating switching him with one of the inside couches haha.

Love love, blah blah blah,

-Elizabeth

Finished a cute fox print dress for myself!

Have I mentioned how much I love the Sisboom Angie dress pattern? The one I've finished tonight is the 4th that I've made for myself! This one is more modified than any I've made before, I drafted the sleeves and the collar myself. The collar is a bit more wide than I had imagined it in my head, but I like it anyway. For the sleeve pattern, I pleated it at the top and put elastic on the bottom.
This was a fun dress to make, and I'm happy it came out so well. Maybe for my next one I'll try and make it with a circle skirt on the bottom. We'll see, haha!

Love etc,
-Elizabeth

Streetlight Manifesto

Streetlight Manifesto just came through Dallas for what they claim will be their final tour together. I discovered streetlight during the dark days after the breakup with my high school sweetheart and ever since the band has held a special place of honor in my heart and I'm my cd collection. We've made it through a shit ton of good times, and of course many more breakups together;  (my  ex-bff even bro-dumped me at a streetlight concert because I wouldn't leave when she wanted me too, but that's a long and boring story you don't wanna hear.)
Point is, streetlight means a lot to me. And so I wanted to do something special for this farewell send off concert. What I finally came up with was this awesome dress. The pattern is the Sisboom Angie dress but I widened the sash to hold a secret pouch because I knew I wouldn't want to be carrying my purse to the pit. The sash is also stitched on in the middle to keep it from shifting. The Streetlight on the back was easy to make, I attached the pieces to heat n bond, ironed them on and then zig-zag stitched the edges.
And that was that! My brother was also wearing a Sisboom pattern  (the Marco) that I whipped up for him. The concert was amazing except it made me realize how completely out of shape I am. Where one this girl could spend an entire evening skanking in the pit, in my old age I lasted a whole three songs. Oh well! I'm gonna go do some cardio  now so I can get into shape before the reunion tour. :-P

I love all of you,
-Elizabeth

P.s. go like my fbook page at facebook.com/cravencrowclothing