Mini Deerstalker
In honor of 221B Con which I am sadly unable to attend, I’m posting directions on making your own mini deerstalker over the next couple of days.
First choice is the fabric. I found a number of small scale herringbone fabrics online. But a houndstooth weave is also seen in many incarnations of the infamous Sherlock hat.
Either way, make sure it is fine enough for something like a tiny hat. Fine enough as in not a coat weight fabric. Look for keywords like skirt weight or drapey.
You will see a houndstooth weave in the photos.
You picked a nice soft fabric, now I want it to be stiffer. Thin and stiff… nope, I’m not going to make an off-color joke.
Here I used an iron-on interface
The advantage is that now I can mark right on the back of the fabric and don’t have to worry about unraveling.
The Pattern
The free pattern was downloaded years ago from a site that has since deleted it.
I printed it out and used the copy machine at work to shrink it down to the size I wanted.
I’m linking to the original printout leaving all the original proprietary info intact.
If you don’t have access to a copy machine, you can just paste the .jpg into a MSWord type program and shrink it down before printing. Make sure to keep the aspect ratio intact.
I wanted my hats small but not too tiny. I shrank it until each (pie) section was 3 inches wide.
The mistake I made the first time was not redrawing the seam allowance. It shrank along with the rest of the hat.
I ended up with a ¼ in seam which made it trickier than it needed to be.
Cut 6 of the pie shapes.
Cut 4 ‘flap’ shapes.
Cut 4 ‘ brim’ shapes.
More tomorrow
I love sewing! (and Sherlock)
2014 Con Season for RWS
Jan 2014- SwampCon UF student run convention – (Panelist)
March 2014- Lakeland Sewing Expo (excellent shopping)
June 7-8, 2014 – KnightroKon Anime focus at the UCF student union (possible Panelist)
July 11-13, 2014 – MetroCon – Tampa Anime Con (sadly I can’t attend this year because I’m going to …)
July 12-13, 2014 – Goo-Con – Props and Make-up, Atlanta GA
July 18-20 2014 – Southern Media Convention – Fandom party with discussion of all aspects of fandom related to television, movies, and the Web (Panelist)
Aug 29 –Sept 1, 2014 – DragonCon
Oct 3-5, 2014 – NecronomiCon – Tampa’s Fan Run General Sci-Fi and Horror Con –Guest of Honor- Eric Flint (possible Panelist)
Any great ones in Florida I’m missing? Going to join me at any of these events?
Foam Fabrication
I should be blogging about the amazing time I had at DragonCon or even all I learned at GooCon but I’m swamped at work and it will be another week or so before all these new students are settled in .
But I couldn’t ignore this video; it is the best straight forward foam tutorial I’ve seen.
It is from Will Morgan of WM Armory
I would try anything once…
Well, almost anything.
This last weekend I worked on two freebie projects.
First, a quilt I promised as a first anniversary present for a good friend and co-worker. It is made up of extra fabric from her bridesmaids dresses. I’m pretty happy with it for a first quilt. This is it spread out on my drafting table. I’m just at the piecing stage. The hard part is over, right? Right?
Second project is for a totally different co-worker. I love The University of Tampa, it is a big friendly wonderful place.
I turned a favorite Facebook icon she was using into a tote gift bag. Hopefully I will get another picture of it once other co-workers fill it with goodies for her upcoming chemo sessions. I wish her all the luck in world.
I love sewing!
Closet Costumes
I want to collect some ideas for easy costumes that either come out of your closet or can go into your closet when you are done.
First off, a classic, Isaiah Mustafa ( Old Spice Guy ) the man you wish your man would smell like. You just need a towel, some Old Spice, and hopefully some nice abs. The preppy sweater and ability to ride a horse backward are optional.
Got a towel but not the abs?
How about Arthur Dent?
You will need a towel, a bathrobe, jammies and a book that says DON’T PANIC. I think an iPad would be even better. I consider the description of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (the book within the story) to be the first description of a pad I had ever read.
I love costumes!