Recently I made one of the best things I ever sewed in my life and I just wanted to share it with all of you. I would not consider myself a pro sewer. I am just a novice because I just "wing it" when it comes to sewing anything (except when I made a quilt for my just recently born nephew I had lots of assistance with that one.) The sewing machine is my friend ^^ while my hand stitching is the bad.
This is probably considered the best thing I ever made, but what this post is about I think is better. ^^ (because I did it by myself.)
Here are some other stuff I sewed over the years.
This was the first thing I ever sewed. It's was Takuto hat for Halloween back in high school. I do recall I killed the old sewing machine... result in having sewing the rest by hand.
This was my first big sewing project, a whale made out of terry cloth (like towels.) It was so hard, but it came out okay in the end.
A cover I made for a planner.
The slime form Futurama.
This was made just before the baneling I made. I bought the pattern from DIY Fluffies.
I wanted to make a whale plushie for my nephew and I sooo had to do it when I found the pattern. TT Kinda like a warm up, plus it's pattern body kinda contributed to the baneling. :D
Usually when I sew, I have to figure out my own pattern, unless I can find one on the internet for free. This baneling I made I had to figure everything out myself. I wasted a lot of paper (don't worry I recycle my paper!) trying to figure out my own pattern. I will show you the process I went through to get my finish product.
First I started to sketch banelings. In order for me to make anything, I have to visualize and sketch it down. It's the best way for me to plan it all out. It will take me a good few sketches or more to figure out what I want something to look like. Front, side, top, bottom, 3/4ths views. I mainly made side views with very little top and bottom views since it looked pretty weird and not cute at all.
So I went along trying to figure out my pattern to form it. After many papers and attempts I was able to come up with this with some material I had left over. As time went by I progressively got to the point where I was happy with what direction it was going.
Then I was making a mess on my desk... This usually happens when I do crafty projects.
Then after that the real stuff started to happen I had to cut fabric with the patterns I gave myself. (I re-drew the patterns a bit cleaner.) Then I started to construct my baneling. Everything I had to do from this point on I had to be as clean when I sewed it all together. I am usually pretty sloppy.
At this point I was ready with all the pieces to make it all come together. Everything before this it was mostly the pieces I sewed pinned together just in case I didn't do anything wrong. Even with precautions I had to cut back thread on the armor plates to place in the horns. Then when I sewed on the horn the wrong way one of them... Then I had to cut back thread under the body to place in the legs, which I totally forgot about, right after I made the legs. Luckily that was all the mistakes I made... But they were all a pain in the butt.
It doesn't look so bad without all the plate armor!
All finished! I was quite surprised how cute it was in the end. I wanted to keep it.
The butt of a baneling is the star of the show. <3 I love it when a baneling wiggles and rolls...
Then I gave it a small green santa hat.
Also with the baneling I wanted to make an egg case for it. The first idea was making the usual paper mache off of a balloon and then layer it till it's a little thick enough to place my own colors on it. However I followed a recipe online for making your own paper mache adhesive with flour, water, and salt. The stuff was not drying well and by the the 2nd day it started to smell... So I dumped the thing (so much for recycling that one.) Then I went search online for other alternatives. I did find this egg template, but you have to be a member and it's paid. I proceded to figure it out on illustrator creating the shapes. I did make the egg, but the problem if it was gonna fit in the box I was gonna ship the baneling off in. It was not going to at a full scale. Then I went back to searching the internet for something else. Then I finally found this egg pouch which I was thinking in the first place, but I didn't know how to go on about it. I took a large paper bag and made egg shapes and cut the top and bottom in a bit and over lapped the ends a bit to make the eggs protrude a little out. Then this time I mixed tacky glue I had on hand and mixed it with water to apply a layer of white paper on the front and back of the egg sides. Then after that I applied color using purple and green tissue paper. I also applied one layer of thicker watery glue on top to keep the tissue paper from coming off. This was way more lighter and better than the first paper mache idea.
The website said to sew it, but I couldn't really imagine sewing it by hand hurting my finger with having to put a lot of force to puncture the now thick paper layers. Then I remembered there was a hole puncher somewhere and I searched it out and found it. It was a slightly smaller circle than your average hole puncher. Then I proceded to hold punch around the edges. It was hard to hole punch, but totally way easier than trying to put a needle through it. After doing both sides I sealed it up by stringing a thick brown yarn I had left over and tied up the ends together and done!
I was pretty happy with the finish product. I was pretty proud of making the baneling by myself, though not sure if I would do it again. I can defiantly make another one in the future since I saved my patterns and I know what and what not to do to improve things. I enjoy making things weather it is cooking, baking, paper crafty stuff, sewing, designing packaging for gifts, I love it all. :D
All packed up to go shipping. ^^
Sorry for my bad grammar, I am not much of a writer. @@