New set of Pistachio Hair Falls

Finally posting a new pair of super long pistachio hair falls. From loop to the tip of the tassels they're at 30" long. The shells on these were an experiment in transitions with the Kool-aid and food coloring dye used in my previous falls.



I soaked the shells half immersed in the dye. The red color separated and bled up the shell giving a three-toned transition from purple to red to natural. I strung them so that the shells also transition from heavily purple to natural with green shells at the top to resemble leaves. It created a lovely flower-like effect. I also strung small clusters of green and purple above to look like buds and a small green and natural bud at the tassels on the bottom.



I sealed these shells with satin acrylic spray paint, so they have a little shine to the shells. I used some scrap yarns to fill in the tassels. Though not pictured, I also created some green feather dangles that can be clipped into the tassels.



Because they were part of an experiment, I absolutely have nothing in my wardrobe that goes with these falls. So, I'll either need to start a new outfit around them (woohoo!) or I'm pondering offering these on Etsy.com if anyone is interested in owning them. After the Holidays I hoped to get started making a few pair in a sorta snaky scaly pattern.

Not sure if I'll be posting any more projects before Christmas. Though, we do have a hat in the works that I'd like to show the WIP on. Until next time, have a Crafty Holiday!

A Little Self Promotion of a Different Kind

The little time I have these days for costuming, I've been squeezing in time for what I hope are improvements to my Steampunk outfits. June seemed to be all about hats. This month is awards, medals and other adornments. I'm thinking I'll promote myself to something like "inspector" or "detective lieutenant". After all, someone has to keep all these sky pirates and time bandits in check. :)

For my uniform, I made an epaulette on just one shoulder and an aiguillette-ish type thing, or braided rope on my right shoulder, with some gold cord I had picked up in a clearance bin at our hobby store. I used my macrame skills and tied a chain of square knots.



I also made three medals, so far. More accurately I should say that I reassembled these medals. All the parts were found secondhand. These are so easy to make out of all the junk jewelry parts I hoard. The metal parts were pendants and other found things. I'm even using old hat bands and ribbon scraps and some slightly used pin backs I found a bag of at a thrift store that someone evidently saved. (I love lucking out on little things like that!) I've got a few more medals just about finished. But, I think I've run out of room on my jacket. :)

The two upper ribbon/pin portions of the two on the right were found pretty much intact. The blue one in the middle was a high school band medal from Florida. I replaced the medal and attached a Boy Scout pin that reads, "Be Prepared", on the top. The far right medal was missing the lower metal pendant part. The ribbon colors of this particular one are similar to, but a reverse of, a Navy and Marine Corps Medal awarded for:

"Distinguishing oneself by heroism not involving actual conflict with an enemy. For acts of lifesaving, or attempted lifesaving, it is required that the action be performed at the risk of one's own life"

Yes, I was curious and looked up military awards for inspiration. I still haven't decided on the stories for how each medal I now have was earned. :)

If they look familiar, the "pips", or stars on my collar, are pins from Girl Scouts. I was a Brownie/Girl Scout for a short time when I was young. I lost my sashes and badges, but some how found these two stars in some old jewelry parts.



I also put together the above badge. It's pretty large being 3 and a half inches wide and slightly heavy. You can see me wearing it on the middle of my shirt in the pics below.



Still reworking the overskirt that matches this jacket. For now, I'm wearing this tan skirt instead. I'll post more about the jacket/skirt when I'm happier with the skirt.



We had a wonderful evening this past weekend at Marquis of Vaudeville's Musical Menagerie in Deep Ellum. Got to dress up in our fineries and listen to some great live music.



Until next post, have a crafty time!

Turtles! - Personal Craft Swap with rottenlittleboys

Made a new pair of falls for a personal craft swap. My partner is in tribal bellydancing and requested some of our pistachio hair falls. She likes turtles and fish so that is the theme I went for.



From the top loop to the end of the tassels, these falls are about 28" long. I added a black hair elastic to the loop to put around a pony tail.

I have to say I'm not fond of photographing these long falls. It's difficult to get the whole length in the pics. So, let me chop them up for you. :)



I had planned to decorate the falls with some fish charms, wooden beads and silver bells. But, while I was stringing the shells on the top section of the falls I got this great idea to also make some little turtles out of the pistachio shells. I used some shells that I dyed with Berry Blue Kool-aid for the turtle backs. The Kool-aid made a nice bright turquoise blue (and smell great). Then, I went back over it with a dark turquoise and black fine Sharpie marker to draw some shell pattern and covered them with clear gloss spray paint to make them shiny. The turquoise color contrasts nicely with the burgundy beads.



The falls are strung with brown and black acrylic yarns. The wooden beads were taken from some secondhand cranberry Christmas garlands. They're a realty pretty burgundy color. The feathers were leftovers from a bunch I tore apart for the little felt pirate hat I posted about a while back. I put the feathers and the fish charms on clasps so that they are removable. That way she can wear them in other ways.

I really like how these turned out. Might just be my fave pair, yet. I've been making all kinds of colors of shells, but I seem to prefer the look of stringing the natural ones and using the dyed shells as accents. I've got a few more pairs partially finished. But, I'm going to be taking a break from them to paint some witch boots. If all goes as planned I should have some boots posted by the end of the month.

And, now on to what I receive in return:



My swap partner, littlerottenboys, sent me a really nice 12" locker hooked turtle rug that mom and I plan to enlarge to use in our yurt for camping. You can check out the personal/private swap gallery for more info and to see larger images of the rug.

Pistachio Nut Shell Hair Falls for Daughter

The daughter and I made another pair of hair falls using our dyed pistachio shells. This pair is for her, but they ended up longer than mine. oops! :)



Here's a close up of some of our dyed shells in red, yellow and blue to look like flower petals and green for leaves. If I'd have planned better, I would have turned the last row of each group over. I think it would have made a better transition.



We knotted a simpler variation of what I did on mine (sans beads) at the top section. The lighting was playing tricks on me. The white yarn matched the shells until I got out into natural lighting.



After daughter was complaining about the difficulty she was having stringing the shells, I devised a makeshift needle threader that is just a piece of fishing line taped together at the ends. Instead of poking the yarn though the shells hole, we are now poking the threader into the hole after running the yarn through the loop. We're now able to string more than one shell on the yarn at a time and just slide the extras down to the end of the yarn to hang while we braid and tie the knots. Wish I'd have thought of this on the first pair. :)



These are so fun to make together while sitting around and such a great use for all the shells and scrap yarn I've accumulated, though I'm running out of dyed shells. I have mostly purple left. I experimented on some of the shells by dipping only a portion of the shells into purple dye. The red color bled up the shell making an interesting effect. I plan to use these for yet another pair of hair falls in the future. I'm sure you will see a few more pairs of these among other things before we are finished

Pistachio Nut Shell Hair Falls

If you'll recall last post when I mentioned making something with my dyed pistachio shells, I finally have some pics of what we did with some of them.



I made a pair of hair falls for my tribal bellydance outfits. Granted this pair doesn't really contain many colorful ones, I do plan to make some with more of them. I just wanted to experiment first. Daughter is still planning a bracelet, but we haven't got to it, yet.



The general construction for these falls was inspired by a great tutorial by bellygoddess. The same tute is also available here. The main body of the fall with all the shells is "macrame'd" in square knots while the top and inbetween portions are braided in a 4-strand round plait. I used some beads and scraps of yarn I've kept.



In a close-ups you can better see the orange-ish dyed shells I sewed on as an after thought. I wrapped the transitions with a rose colored embroidery floss.



The tassels are just extra yarn bits. Yes, I keep all the tiny bits of yarn even. They come in handy for this stuff. :) And, those tassel caps are from an old jacket's pull strings. :)



I also managed to finish a pop tab fall I'd started probably last year. It's kind of a sampler to see how I should weave the tabs in. You can see more about this one and future tabistry hair falls on my other blog devoted solely to tabs at tabistry.blogspot.com.

Braided Hair Falls with Instructions

I've been wanting to make myself some of these hair falls ever since last years Harry Potter swap when I made syntheytic dreads for my swap partner. Finally managed to make enough to wear with my outfit! I was still braiding them in the car on the way there!



I made these hair falls out of acrylic yarn using mostly regular braiding and twist braiding made with black Lion Brand's Homespun and a little Parfait colored Boucle. I think the hair falls were fun and really make the outfit. They did get a LOT of attention. Since they were only safety pinned on, I also gave a few away as... well... favors, I guess. :)

Now, if you want to try some of these braids, yourself, you'll need LOTS of yarn (and time) and a pair of scissors. I found a wonderful indepth tutorial here for making acrylic dreads. This is what I based mine on, but I didn't spend the extra time unraveling, combing, and boiling the yarn for these. However, even though the initial construction is the same, her dreads will probably hold up longer, especially if you take the extra time to glue soak them. Besides, braided falls tend to be a great deal heavier than the matted dreads.

• I cut two pieces of yarn about 2 and a half times the length you want the finished fall to be.
• Then, cut a third piece about a hands length (finger tip to wrist) longer. This longer piece is used to tie the strand together and form the loop on top to hang it from.
• I start by folding the three strands in half over my hand and pulling the longest one even with the other strands on one end so that the tail hangs down on just one side. Find the middle and align them just an inch and a half to two inches off with the tail end being longer.
• Separate the long tail strand from the rest up to the middle point. Start tying knots with just the long tail over the other strands. I made about 10 alternated pairs of half knots to prevent the twisting effect.
• Once the knots are finished, I tied the two ends of the long strand together in a square (double) knot to form the loop.
• Then, using a small safety pin attach this to something sturdy to start braiding. You'll want to start out very loose and get tighter with the braiding toward the tip. You really need to braid loosely. I tighten up the braiding for the last few inches just to give it a more tapering look.

To add the color, before braiding cut one or two lengths of your contrasting yarn depending on it's thickness and poke it through the top loop you created matching up the ends. Now you can divide up the strands and braid it as normal.

I wrapped my ends with another thinner string. Embroidery floss or that thin crochet yarn would work. You'll need anywhere from 1 to 2 yards. You can fold the ends of the braid over for a clean blunt tip or leave them hanging for a pom pom or tassel like end.

• I fold the string beside the braid forming a loop near the tip end of the braid. Starting back to toward the middle, wrap over the string and braid tightly toward the end leaving a tail of a few inches exposed.
• Once the wrap is the length you want, poke the wrapping end of string through the string loop and pull the other end you wrapped over. This should pull the loop into the wrap hiding it. Don't pull too hard. You don't want the end to come out the other side. If it does, just pull it back the other way using the other end.
• Next, I give both ends of the string a good pull at the same time to tighten any slack.
• Finally, just trim the ends off and you're done.

You can also add all kinds of doodads to your braids using jump rings or clasps. Or, just sew beads and things right on to them with thread.

If your braids start to look fuzzy from wearing, you can try boiling them to shrink the fuzz back into the braid. Just note that the braid will get shorter and tighter, as well. The tute link above suggests soaking them in a glue/water mixture to prevent them from getting fuzzy.

I'll try to get some pics up to illustrate the process if anyone is interested. I'm planning to make some piratey dreads for my mom's pirate outfit.

BTW, I'm pictured with Kristen whom I met at the McLotofus camp. She sewed her own garb including that beautiful bodice! Isn't it lovely! My pics always throw off the colors, its actually a bit greener than the blouse making it look perfect with her peacock earrings and necklace.

Mini Macrame Owls

For a personal swap I finished for my sister, my mom and I made some tiny macrame "hedwig" owls. One is a keychain holding a broom. The other is an adjustable necklace holding a letter.







When we were young my mom once made some similar owls into pins that we gave out to relatives and teachers. She was inspired by the large owl wall hangings popular in the 70's. At that time she used toothpicks and cotton kite string. I can still remember how cute thet turned out.

Acrylic Dread Falls

This is the last item I included in my Harry Potter swap. I was least impressed with this one. My partner had wisted some wool dread falls that were really nice looking, but having no wool available, I found a tutorial on making acrylic dreads. Lets just say, it really takes a lot of time to make these. And, I'm not really sure if my partner will actually even wear them. :)

These dread falls are made from acrylic yarn that has been brushed and mamed into dreads. You have to boil the dreads to get them to hold together. I experimented with many different things while making them. There aren't enough of the ones I made to really create the look. So, she will have to finish making more, herself. Hehe.



I might eventually make my daughter some or make some for a future costume.

Tablet (Card) Weaving

I tried my hand at some basic card weaving after seeing some samples online and finding a tutorial I could actually understand. Here is a link to the tute: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/shelagh.lewins/shelagh/viking_textiles/TW01/TW01.htm

It was really quite cheap to put together and easy once you get it setup, which is the confusing part. I used a synthetic string I got oodles of at a flea market. Not the best material for this project, but I'm learning. 6 huge spools that are over a foot wide by a foot tall of different colors for $1 each. Couldn't pass that up. I would have bought more, but I couldn't fit it in the trunk.










Just changing the orientation of each card creates all kinds of patterns. Mine turned out to be about 1/2" wide. And, this was only with 8 tablets. Imagine 20 or more! I should have pulled the weft string tighter to the band, but I wanted to see how well it would hold up loose so I could add danglies on the sides.

12 plait Green Poly Whip

I created this for Jeudi's costume after seeing a how to video on Youtube.com on whip making. Very fun but time consuming project. But, I learned how to create 12 plait diamondback pattern and the anatomy/history of whips. :)



I used lime green poly rope (sorta like trash bag plastic) for the thong/fall/cracker, duct tape for the belly, and a pencil for a handle. As recommended (and to practice), I made two layers of braiding. The amazing part is that it actually cracks! How cool is that!