Hats Off!

The Adventure Zone liveshow I'm going to is about two and a half months away. Time to get to work. And what better place to start than at the very top?

One of the few pieces of visual information that we get about Taako is that he definitely has a hat. Presumably, it's a witch/wizard hat, given his class: the pointy, wide-brimmed type. There are a million tutorials for sewing these kinds of hats, so I won't bore you with the details. I went with black felt fabric for a classic look. 

I also went with a very wide brim, just because it was so dramatic that way. This caused a problem: the brim wasn't stiff enough to support its own weight! I went to the store for some very stiff interfacing, but there wasn't anything in stock that was quite stiff enough.

...Cardboard is stiff enough...

Remind me not to get this hat wet.

Anyway, I cut out a piece of cardboard in my brim pattern, trimmed just a bit off the edges, and sandwiched it between two felt brim pieces. Then I whipstitched everything together. The result was a passable witch/wizard hat!

Sorry in advance for the photo quality. It's hard to photograph something made entirely of black fabric!

After trying the hat on, I discovered that I had inadvertently made it a bit too big, even taking into account the fact that I'd have a wig on. I cut a few scrap strips of felt to pad the inside of the brim, which worked pretty well to shrink the inner circumference of the hat. 

After the construction of the hat was more or less complete, it was time for the detail work. The first order of business was to deal with the scruffy stitched edges. My whipstitched brim left the raw edges of the felt showing, and while raw edges don't fray on felt, they're not the most attractive thing, either. Fortunately, there's an easy fix to unsightly hems and edges!

Yes, bias tape! You can buy this in a pack like I did, or make your own if you have woven fabric that you'd like to use. The "bias" part of bias tape is very important, because fabric cut on the bias has much more stretch to it than fabric cut on the straight grain. That means that it can stretch around curves without puckering. Perfect for a circular hat brim!

As you can see, the process of adding a bias tape edging is simple. Place, pin, and stitch with your hem stitch of choice. I used the blind hem stitch because I wanted the finish to be as clean as possible. Hand stitching may take longer than machine stitching, but the result is so nice and clean when done well!

And here's the finished hat! It's really big in person, both in height and breadth. Perfect for an elven wizard who wants to be the center of attention!

Or, well, not quite perfect. Black felt might be classic, but it is a little boring, don't you think? Taako certainly isn't boring, so we're going to have to fix that. Maybe some lace design around the inside of the brim would be nice (and it would give me a chance to break out the ol' tatting shuttles). And some beaded fringe? A nice bright hat band? The possibilities are endless, and who says we have to pick just one? It'll take a little time to make all that lace, though, so this is it for now. Stay tuned if you want to see this hat properly spiced up. Until then, though, stay crafty!

To Bead or Not To Bead

Last week, my mother came to me with a plastic bag full of loose and partially strung beads. I recognized it immediately: it was a necklace I had made for her a few years ago, broken in multiple places and hemorrhaging seed beads into the bottom of the bag. The damage was bad enough that I had to remove and restring the entire necklace in order to repair it. While I’m confident that the repair job will last, I’m certain that Mom will come to me with another bag of beads not long from now, and another, and another. It’s not because she’s careless with jewelry, far from it. It’s because I was careless with how I strung the necklaces in the first place.

  

The material you use to string your beaded jewelry is incredibly important, though it may not always be evident while you’re making the piece. Some advantages and drawbacks can only be seen years down the line, once the piece has been subjected to considerable wear and tear. I’ve made a lot of choices in this department, both good and bad, so allow me to give you a rundown of the common stringing materials for beads and how they are best used.

Sewing Thread

If you’re completely new to beading, this is likely the material you had on hand for your first project. Sewing thread comes in a million different colors and comes in a range of materials and thicknesses as well. However, it’s not usually the best thing to make a necklace with. Sewing thread is fairly delicate, and it breaks easily under the strain of heavy beads and frequent usage. Quilting thread fares a bit better, as it is sturdier, but similar problems apply.

I would only ever recommend using sewing thread for a project if you need to pass a great number of threads through a single bead. Bead weaving and bead netting are examples. Having multiple threads and anchor points somewhat mitigates the weakness of the thread. Use quilting thread if you can, and never use quilting/sewing thread with medium or heavy weight beads, or with single-stranded beadwork. It will break, and you will be unhappy.

Uncoated Wire

Another material that may have other uses around the house, thin uncoated wire can also be used to string beads. Usually made of steel, these wires are composed of a single strand of metal that has been drawn out to a fine gauge. They can be shaped and twisted, but they easily sag under the weight of heavier beads. Wire like this is good for bead weaving if you want the resulting piece to be firm and not very flexible. Thread is better for pieces that need to drape.

While uncoated wire can be very strong, it has some weaknesses that make it unsuitable for many types of beadwork. If you’re not very careful while working with it, wire will kink, and this kink will remain as a point of weakness in the wire even after you straighten it out. Long, unanchored strands of beaded wire can also kink as a part of daily wear, and that results in breakages. Additionally, depending on the type of metal that has been used, wire may rust or develop a patina that can discolor the insides of transparent beads. I saw this on the necklace I just repaired: the light blue seed beads that had been in contact with the wire had a dark grayish residue on the inside of the hole.

Beading Thread

Now we’re getting into materials that are made specifically with beading in mind. Beading threads are often made of nylon or polyester, and are much stronger than sewing thread. Depending on the brand, they can come in a wide variety of colors. It is usually thin enough to thread on a needle and pass through a seed bead multiple times, making it suitable for bead weaving .

Beading thread is really a great all-purpose choice for making beaded jewelry. It is strong enough to hold up to heavier beads (though unevenly distributed weight may cause the necklace to hang oddly), but drapes nicely even when used with delicate seed beads. My only gripe about this stuff is the price: it can get pretty expensive to bead with specialty thread, especially if you’re working on a project that requires a lot of yardage.

Nylon Filament

Much like wire, nylon filament is one continuously drawn piece of material. Only instead of metal, it’s... nylon. I sure hope you didn’t expect it to be made of something else! These filaments have multiple uses, from fishing line to ukulele strings, but they can also be used for beading!

Nylon is incredibly strong, so it can safely be used for stringing even very heavy beads. It tends to have a bit of stiffness to it, so delicate beaded pieces may not drape as nicely as with something like thread. Nylon is usually only available in while, clear, or a small range of other colors, so it may not be suitable for projects where the threading material will be very visible. It is also difficult to knot or tie, so supplemental materials such as crimp beads are a necessity for a lasting piece of jewelry.

Coated Beading Wire

A distant cousin of the uncoated wire, coated beading wire should be saved for your heavy-duty projects. It’s composed of a multi-stranded twisted or braided wire, covered in a polymer coating. Unlike a single stranded wire, this beading wire doesn’t kink and won’t discolor your beads. It’s incredibly strong and difficult to break: it will hold up to even the heaviest of beads. However, this strength comes at a price. I’ve only ever seen beading wire in one color (steel), so you don’t have many options there. It’s also very stiff, more so than nylon. If you don’t have any heavy beads to weight it down, it’s not going to hang correctly on a necklace. And because beading wire is so thick, you won’t be able to do bead weaving or any delicate beadwork that requires multiple passes through a single bead.

You can use virtually any string-like material to make beaded jewelry, but these materials are the ones I’ve used the most. If you’re looking to start beading, I hope this guide will help you pick the best thread for your project!

Swift Sweeping

Another week, another craft! And this time, it's home-centric. You see, I'll be moving into a new apartment at the end of the summer. It's going to be my first time with a place entirely to myself: no family, no roommates, nothing. To be honest, I'm a little nervous for the change, but also pretty excited!

Having a place to yourself also means having the chores all to yourself, though, which I'm... shall we say, less enthused about. I don't hate chores, I just don't love them. I also don't love throwing out lots of disposable cleaning wipes and Swiffer mop pads and whatnot every time I clean: it just feels wasteful.

Well. A few minutes of searching on Ravelry and I found a solution to at least one of those problems: reusable swiffer pads! These are super easy to make, they teach you a couple of fun weird stitches, and they're useful to boot!

Here's the finished duster pad. I personally think it looks like a mossy forest floor!

And the mop pad, which is a bit reminiscent of hard candy!

I had three skeins of worsted weight cotton yarn, and that was enough to make two of each kind of pad, with just a tiny bit of yarn left over.

Because they're made of cotton, these pads can just be tossed into the washing machine when they're dirty. I love projects that are easy to maintain too!

Expect more projects for around the home in the coming months. Like I said, this is my first time with an apartment entirely to myself, which means I need to fill it with stuff. From practical projects like this one, to decoration, to things that are a bit of both, I've got my work cut out for me. Stay tuned if you want ideas for your own projects, and as always, stay crafty!

Puppy Present

Puppies are a lot of work! I don't know if you all know that. I didn't, because the last time I was in a house with puppies, I was about 6 years old and not super involved in the whole process. Honestly, I don't know how my parents managed to deal with me, my younger brother, and a puppy at the same time.

That being said, puppies are cute. Very very cute.

I wanted to make something for the new puppies, to show them some love. Even though I'm sure they don't understand the significance of a handmade gift, it's something I like to do for others! The trick was just finding a puppy-appropriate gift to make.

These puppies like tearing into things and chewing up fluff, so anything stuffed was right out. Nobody needs a trip to the vet because a pup ate a bunch of polyester filling. I settled instead on this frisbee by Gracie Castillo. It's a simple disc with a curved edge, perfect for playing fetch and tug of war! I had some plain cotton yarn lying around as well, which I figured would be the most durable for puppy-teeth (and least dangerous should they manage to swallow some fibers). It was quick and simple to whip up, too!

I don't have any photos of the frisbee in action, so you'll have to trust me when I say it flies well. A slightly larger version would probably work well for some indoor frisbee games between humans! As for this one, the pups seem to enjoy it well enough.

Maybe it'll keep them busy enough for me to sneak some time for a new project. Until that happens, stay crafty!