Shirts for My Summer Wardrobe: Legal Pad T

Being a librarian means that I have a lot of semi-dressy, casual yet professional clothes. (That I am completely sick of by the time we hit the end of May!) But then what's a teacher to wear all summer?

Since 100+ degrees each day seems the norm lately, it would seem some t-shirts were in order. I have a stack of various "I ran this 5K" or "I visited here" shirts that would do, but I wanted something fun and with a little of my personality in them.

So I've been researching fun shirt ideas (and trying to avoid being sucked into the time warp vortex that is Pinterest) and experimented with a few and thought you might be interested in the results.

One of the best sites I've discovered on my quest for cute shirts is Ucreate. For my first t-shirt, I followed the directions for a Lined Paper Tee Tutorial by Maybe Matilda. Hers is done on a white shirt, and looks like a piece of lined notebook paper. So cute! On my recent trip to Joann's I had stocked up on their $2 junior fit t-shirts, and I had a yellow one that I wasn't sure what to do with. So I present my version, a legal pad tee!

I followed her directions for marking off the lines with masking tape, but then I airbrushed my lines with Createx paint instead of painting them by hand. I had a few problems with overspray so I tried to wash those out, and in the process my lines got wet. Guess what? They look exactly like a piece of paper does when it gets wet and the lines run. So I guess it's authentic. =)

Stay tuned for tomorrow's t-shirt--my first attempt at recycling an old shirt into something new!

Library Holidays: Hunger Games Week

So, I'm not quite sure why this photo is coming in sideways, but I kind of like it! So click on it if you'd like to see it in more detail, and in the meantime I'll see if I can figure out how to get Blogger to rotate it. =)

I like to have theme weeks in my school library to celebrate book releases, movies made from books--basically any excuse I can find to wear a costume. So when the Hunger Games movie came out, I knew it had to be an event!

I wore a different costume each day--here are three of my favorites: Effie Trinket, the Mockingjay Pin, and my interpretation of Katniss's "girl on fire" outfit. (I was Katniss in her blue dress and hunting outfit the other two days.)

During the week we had our own Hunger Games to choose the two library "tributes." The students all picked a name, and we made them pins with their district number. (We also had a few teachers participate!) We had lunch time challenges they could earn points for: costume design, shelter building, archery, trivia...

It was a fun week--can't wait for Catching Fire so we can do it all again!

Dreamy Marbled Pastel Veils!

So I just posted a new veil for sale, and thought it might be a good time to share a little tie-dye tip I discovered on accident!

I was making a large batch of veils a few months ago when I had a veil that I had tossed into a large plastic container. As I finished each color, I'd put some water into the squirt bottle, swish it around, then squirt it over this veil. I kept adding color upon color and it probably sat there for over an hour as I worked on other veils. Imagine my delight when the dye, having "puddled" on the bottom of this container, gave it kind of a marbled appearance.

So next time you are working on a large batch of tie dye, throw one into a big container and use it to collect your leftover dye at the end of each veil. These "casserole" veils as I like to call them are sometimes my favorites! Here's another example of one from my shop, which sold a few months ago:

Lovin' The Lavender Blues and Feelin' Lucky Treasuries

One of my veils is featured in these fun treasuries by the lovely ALJDesigns and annayakavenka!

Kaylee from Firefly Costume

So, instead of sadly moping around my house, lamenting the fact that I was not at ComicCon last week, I decided to post some how-tos I discovered when making my Halloween costume from this past year--Kaylee's coverall outfit. Yes, I'm a bit behind schedule, but given the Firefly reunion panel (sniff!) I thought it would be timely.

A good starting place is always Maggie's Costume Site--she does an amazing job of documenting costumes and gathering pictures into one place, and I used many of her tips in making my own outfit. Look at her Kaylee Costume page first!

Coveralls
I lucked out with my eBay purchase, an olive green pair of coveralls that, while a bit oversized, were tall enough. (I'm not very tall, but have a 36" inseam--you get the picture.) Their surplus shop sells a variety of coveralls, if you want to check them out--they also offer free shipping. It will take some persistence to find the right color/style depending on which version of her coveralls you're doing. Some good keywords to try are mechanic, coveralls, flight suits, army, military...you get the idea. Or, shop local and see if a military surplus outlet near you has them. The added bonus of buying them used is they already have that worn-in look.

First order of business was to hack off the sleeves and re-hem those armholes. I then took a few box pleats in the back to make them a bit more fitted, but you could also experiment with an elastic and casing to cinch in the back.

The cute teddy bear patch is easily found--I bought mine from Wash-o-saurus and was very happy with it. I had terrible luck finding a heart and flower patch, so I actually ended up making my own patches. If there's any interest, I'll make up some more and post them for sale in my Etsy store (leave me a comment below, or convo me). I tried to make the flower look homespun--I designed the stitches to be a bit "off" because I wanted it to look like it was hand-worked to cover a bullet hole!

The shirt is just one I had on hand, and I had a pair of Sketchers combat-style boots that worked well. You can't see the Chinese characters on my coveralls because I did them in pencil--I was a bit short on time, and being kind of a perfectionist, I didn't want them to be permanently messed up. And speaking of messed up, my coveralls should be much more grungy, but I had a hard time wanting to ruin them after spending all of that time on making them cute! =) I'll add a wig next time I wear it, unless by some miracle I actually let my hair grow out for once!

Parasol
Unluckily for me, I was in a bit of a time crunch so I couldn't order a white parasol in time. But if you have an Asian market nearby, try there. A trip to Hobby Lobby uncovered all sorts of colored parasols--no white, but they did have a lovely shade of pink. So my parasol was done rather backwards--I taped off the pink swirl, spray painted the rest of the parasol white, then painted in the yellow and green swirls. I don't recommend it because the paint tends to flake as you open and close it, but in a pinch it worked.

Necklace
Kaylee's actual necklace is different, but I wanted something with a little more obvious Firefly tie-in. The necklace I'm wearing in the photo is a shrinky-dink pendant with the Chinese serenity symbol. Since then I've made a fancier version in a laser-etched acrylic that I really love. I'll be posting those for sale in my Etsy shop as well.

So there you have it--the tips and tricks I discovered in putting together Kaylee's outfit from Firefly. Stay shiny!

A Lovely Ocean Spray Treasury!

I am so grateful to people who feature my veils in their treasuries! The water wave pattern seems to be a favorite lately.

Etsy Belly Dance Veil Sellers, Together!

I love the idea of this treasury, Dance of the Many Veils... I love seeing the diverse group of dye fans on Etsy and how differently we all use the same materials!