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.
Herringbone
Herringbone
Houndstooth
Houndstooth
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
One week until DragonCon
One week until DragonCon and this is my life…
Well, safety pins and hot glue
Wednesday’s Rant
Meme link goes to brilliant response to this jackass – Make A&F the No. 1 brand of homeless apparel. From the article “A campaign that clothes the needy and gets revenge on a boorish clothing company — what’s not to like?”
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?
le sigh. 
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!
