Repainting a relief

 As I was cleaning my parents' house for sale a few years back, my aunt gave me this relief as she was going through her own belongings that were there. She said the lips were painted later and this was originally all black.

I decided to repaint this all black. The first step was to clean it. As I was going to paint it, I used acetone, so I could remove as much of the paint from the lips as possible. Acetone is harsh, but it also cleans the surface efficiently before painting.

Then I used matte acrylic paint and applied several coats of it. The result looked quite nice, but I knew it wouldn't stay that way, so I used sealer to make the surface easier to clean. The picture below shows the surface after painting, before the sealer.

I put the original choker back, but made new earrings, which I secured in place using hot glue.

Extending the waist band of cargo pants

I have a pair of cargo pants that didn't fit me anymore. The legs were fine, but hips and waist required extension. I've never done anything like this, but decided to try anyway as the pants were of no use to me as they were. So I opened the side seams down to the upper edges of the pockets that are on the sides just a little over the knees.

Then I cut wedge shaped pieces out of black 100% cotton. I bought the fabric specifically for this purpose. For some reason, the instructions that came with the fabric said it should be washed in 40 degrees (C). 100% cotton should be able to take 60 (the pants certainly can), so I washed the fabric first to make sure of that.

I pinned the wedges in place and tried the pants on to make sure everything was fine. I made the waist slightly too loose to take into account possible future weight gain. There are straps on the sides to make the waist tighter, so I'm using them now to get the waist to the correct size.

At this point my sewing machine stopped working, so I had to take it to be serviced, which took 10 days. I had to stop all of my current projects for that time as they all require the sewing machine. 

Sewing the seams was one of the most difficult projects I've done so far, but at least the sewing machine was freshly serviced and wasn't causing any trouble.

After sewing the wedges in place, I had to fix the inside of the waist band. When I opened the side seams, I had to cut the band that was going around the inside at the waist, and now it required extensions as well.

Here is an extension sewn in place. I have no idea how these things are supposed to be made, so I've just done everything in this project as I have seen fit. There are probably some unnecessary seams in places, but black thread on black fabric isn't too noticeable, so it doesn't matter.

As I had already seen so much trouble with these, I decided to also shorten the legs, which had always been a bit too long. It hadn't bothered me as I mostly used these in the forest and put the pants legs inside the rubber boots. Now I'll be using these during the winter in the city, so it's nicer to have them at proper length.

In the picture above, I'm wearing the pants with the side straps set as shown in the following picture. I can get the waist just the right size, but also adjust it in case of temporary bloating or some more permanent weight gain.

The final thing was sewing a button in place as there was one button missing. This kind of pants are great because there's no zipper to be replaced, but on the other hand, buttons have a tendency to fall more often than a zipper breaks.

More cases using card-woven bands

The older mobile phone case differs slightly from the other cases I have made using card-woven bands. I didn't use a zipper and left one end of the bands uncovered. The picture below shows the case front closed & front open, and the back of the case. I made the bands from leftover yarn, so I had to combine several different colors. It works great when you divide them into dark and light colors and then make the band the same way as you'd make a two-colored one.

The mobile phone case is made of 100% cotton yarn. I have also experimented with combining that and a wool/polyester blend (the dark read yarn in the picture below). That experiment ended up to be a case for PlayStation Vita. It's similar to the Kindle case, except there's a little less padding in this one.

Follow me on Twitter

If you want to get a notification when I update the blog, follow me on Twitter. I will post updates on new blog posts, some other stuff about my projects, and occasionally some Nintendo Switch screenshots.

Apron (because pockets!)

 I've been using skirts more than usual as I'm home all the time, except for grocery shopping. The biggest problem with skirts is no pockets. I'm making a dress/housecoat with big pockets, so I decided to use the same pocket pattern for making an apron with huge pockets.

It's just a rectangular piece of fabric with gathered upper edge and a waistband and pockets made of different fabric. 

I'm also starting again to post in the Fashion Doll Shoes blog, starting with some projects done between 2015 and now. I have posted some of these to Instagram, but it's nice to have one post per project, collecting all stages together.

Mobile phone case

I made a mobile phone case out of card-woven bands for my previous phone, but my current phone is bigger, so I needed a new one. This is a variation of the Kindle case I made earlier.

I sewed two lengths of band together and pressed the piece flat (see the earlier post). Then I added pieces of fabric to the ends to make them neat. First you sew the fabric and band to each other right sides together. Then you cut off any extra fabric and turn the fabric around the edges and sew it in place. In total there will be two seams in each end.

In this case, I added loops to the back as this is meant for hanging from a belt. I used sewing machine for sewing all the fabrics in place as it's easier and faster. The only hand sewn seams are the middle seam and edges.

Before sewing the edges together (see the earlier post), I sewed the button in place and made a loop for closing the case. It's easier to do that first and only sew the side seams when everything else is done.

This was much faster to make than the Kindle case as I left out all the padding. The case is made of just the bands and the green fabric. I intend to put the phone in with the screen towards me, so there isn't much risk of it breaking inside the case. The previous case worked for that phone fine this way, so I'm expecting this to be fine as well.

Some alterations

 I don't buy clothes often, so what I have I tend to use until they're ready to be thrown away. This has led to accumulation of some items I haven't been using for a long time and didn't think I would be using as they are. So, it was time for some alterations.

The first one was a fleece sweater I got for free from my last employer (I've been self-employed for 16 years now). The company's name and logo changed, and all the promotional stuff was given to employees, so I got this good quality sweater I used quite a lot for the first few years, but haven't used for some time now. It has always been too big for me (it was the smallest size available, so of course I took it as it was free), so I decided to make it a vest and take the seams in so it would fit better.

I have another project for which I'm using some old flannel shirts, so I took some of that fabric for the hem and arm hole edges. I also decided to use a patch to cover the logo. I doubt many people would even know whose logo it is as it's been so long since that name change (the company has changed its name several times after that due to mergers). I took in quite a lot from the side seams and cut the front open to sew a zipper in place.

The second piece was a maxi dress that had never felt quite right. It looked fine, but the fabric is too stiff for the length shown in the picture below.

I thought knee length would be better. It took a lot to start cutting the fabric after measuring everything twice. This is a good quality dress that wasn't cheap, and I was terrified I'd mess something up. However, everything turned out just fine as you can see in the next picture.

I have a some more projects of this type in progress at the moment. One of them is fixing cargo pants that need the hips and waist extended as they don't fit me anymore. As I was in the middle of this project, my sewing machine stopped working properly, so I had to take it in to be repaired and that took 10 days. That stopped me from finishing the project, but now I should be able to do that.