Here are two Youtube videos that I have not yet put on here. The top one is recent and the bottom one is from several months ago. For photos of the art, go to the Art Gallery page.
0 Comments
I've managed to fit in a lot of sewing projects this summer! Not only did I sew several new outfits, I also learned to make my own Sculpey clay mini buttons and made some little hats out of carboard. Here are a few of my creations.
Row 1 of Pictures: I wanted to make a hat (or two) for my dolls. I could have tried making one with jute string and glue, which would have looked like a straw hat, but finally opted to make one from carboard. I cut out the pieces, hot glued them together, painted it and hot glued the trimmings onto it (also used some Tacky glue). The feathers are chicken feathers. :) I made another for myself and one for my sister as well. I also created a hat box and a little magazine. Row 2: I decided my sister needed a fancy dress for her special doll (and we were making yellow dresses for a yellow-themed doll wedding), so I made this one. I used part of a cloth napkin and a small scrap of cream fabric. To get the pattern for the bodice, I placed masking tape on the doll's body, then traced the pattern pieces off of it. I pretty much made it up as I went along (I usually do) and I'm pleased with how it turned out. It doesn't open in the front, that is just for decoration. It actually has a closure in the back. I enjoyed the challenge of making the dress from scraps (even though I had more of the yellow fabric, I stuck with the piece I had). Row 3: I found this idea on a website. Why buy tiny buttons when you can make your own, with stuff you already have? I wanted them for a particular dress I was making, but I made plenty of extras in different colors. It was fairly easy, but getting them to be the same size was difficult. I punched the holes with an embroidery needle and I can actually sew them on with a regular needle (that was a relief). Picture farthest to the right is the dress I needed the buttons for. I meant the dress to be for my sister's Stacey doll, which is smaller, but the dress ended up too large. Thankfully, it fits another doll, so it wasn't a loss! (And the puffed sleeved shirt under the dress is another summer sewing project) Row 4: These pictures are of a doll which my Grandma wanted me to make clothes for. (Ah, perfect!) She already had stockings and a petticoat, which I did not bother taking off. The doll has rubber legs, which means if I took the stockings off, I would have a LOT of trouble getting them back on. Also, that straw hat is attached to her head. (She is the Sound of Music Barbie, by the way......) I made a green vest (with buttons!), patterned with the tape and trace method, a cream shirt with puffed sleeves (modified patterns), a blue skirt, and a lavender long-sleeved shirt (modified patterns). I find that having basic patterns is very helpful. I have an idea and then modify the basic patterns to fit my idea. That way I'm not starting totally from scratch. And those are some (not all, haha) of my summer sewing projects.
Construction:CHEMISE: The first thing I made was the chemise. It was very simple, I cut out a rectangle of fabric that had been folded in half (for the shoulders, so I didn't have to sew any shoulder seams), sewed up the sides, hemmed the sleeves, neck (I did the neck in blue thread because it looks pretty and makes it more interesting) and the bottom and attached some decoration. Then the chemise was done. Very easy.
CORSET: Next I made the corset. This was by far the hardest piece. After watching several videos, I had some sort of plan. I made a pattern by placing masking tape directly on my doll in the shape of the corset (I only had to tape one side, since I would flip the pattern over to create the other side). Then I used some leftover bits of pattern paper I had saved to trace the pattern onto paper. Using this pattern, which was highly accurate since I had traced it directly off the doll, I cut sixteen pieces of fabric out. The corset would have two layers of fabric and for each full layer I had to cut eight pieces. When I cut the pieces, I made sure to give seam allowance. I used a sturdier fabric for the inside and a pale pink fabric for the outside. After a few mishaps, I found a way to put everything together that worked. I would sew the corresponding pieces right sides together at the sides. Then I would inside them out so the seams were hidden. I connected all of the pieces together by stitching them with blue thread, sewing on the outside. Real corsets have "boning" which used to be whale bone. The boning is what gives it its support and rigid shape. Of course I had no whale bone or even the synthetic, modern replacement for whale bone (I think steel boning is also used). So I had to get creative. Using leftover pieces of headpins (a very thin piece of metal to place beads on) from my jewelry making box, I slid these metal scraps into the pieces of the corset and kept them in place with the seams. There are two metal pieces at every seam, as well as a couple pieces in the front. (See, this is why you never throw anything away!) Once everything had been put together, I made some holes in the back, finished them sort of like button holes so they wouldn't fray and laced it up with button thread (it's thicker than regular). I also finished the top and bottom edges with some ribbon, which is now starting to come off since it wasn't quite big enough to cover the edge and my stitches are coming away from the fabric. The corset of course looks a little funny and didn't quite fit perfectly, but it did turn out pretty well, considering that it was my first try and I made no mock ups to test the pattern. DRAWERS: After that difficult, yet fun experience, I moved onto the drawers. These were done quickly and were quite easy. Using a pants pattern I already had, I simply made them a little shorter and added lace to the edges. I closed the back with Velcro. (I said it wasn't 100% historically accurate!) The sewing machine made this project go a lot faster (I had hand sewn everything so far in this project) PETTICOAT: This was simple as well. I cut a rectangle, gathered it to a waistband and used Velcro for the closure. I also used the machine for most of this project. DRESS: This was more complicated than most of the other garments, but not AS complicated as the corset. I rummaged through the fabric stash(es) to find some fabric. I had some I wanted to use, but I wasn't sure how this project would go and didn't want to waste it. I chose this green print and actually I consider it somewhat historically accurate as some of the 1860s dresses I saw in YouTube videos had some pretty crazy prints. After choosing my fabric, I used a pattern I already had to make the bodice. It is a simple, square sort of bodice. I did not make any darts. I did make it shorter than the original pattern and put a row of stitches down the front to create the illusion that it is a front closure bodice. I also cut the front section larger than called for, because I was worried about getting it to fit over all the undergarments, but ended up cutting off the extra. For the skirt, I cut a large rectangle. After deciding I wanted the skirt to be even fuller (the skirts of this time period were HUGE), I added another piece and sewed it to the larger piece. I gathered it (hand-sewing for this part, I used the machine for all the big seams and most hems) and after some pinning and re-pinning, got it attached to the bodice with hand stitches. The sleeves were made with a already existing pattern, however I made them a little larger at the top and gathered them, then attached them to the bodice. I had to hem the bottom of the skirt again as it was too long ( I always over estimate my skirt length, but better too long than too short!). After sewing up the back seam on the skirt, I sewed on a snap button and some Velcro for the closure. So, basically it was done. However, to make it go from a plain old dress to one of my favorites, I had to add some little gold beads to resemble buttons on the bodice and create a collar and for a final touch, add a little red bow. Now I rate it as one of my top favorite projects. (It's all in the details!) For this video I decided to draw (and paint!?) food. So I jumped right in and the first thing I drew looked not so great. I drew a few more things (like bacon and eggs) which looked ok, then I drew a really awful looking ice cream cone. As you'll see in the video, I later tried to paint it over, which did not go well.
But, it's ok that a few things didn't work out....because I drew it in my sketchbook! And in my mind it doesn't matter because sketchbooks are for experimenting. Overall, this video was fun to make and I really enjoyed painting as it is something different than what I usually do. And I did get kind of hungry.... Video editing in general went fairly smoothly, I didn't kill the computer this time. However, I need to find a better method for my videos, since the files are very large and take a lot of time to download and take up a lot of space. For some reason, comments got turned off on the YouTube video. I think it may be because of the title, maybe YouTube thought it was a dangerous video! 😂 This video was a lot of work. First, I had a lot of drawing to do and then a lot of video footage to download and put together. Then I decided to do some voice over, which took probably an hour. Because of computer issues, I had to record using my laptop and then email the recordings to myself and access them through my account on the family computer. I put together the sound for the video, but when I tried to export (download) the finished product, the computer failed. And continued to repeatedly fail whenever I tried again.
Finally, my dad downloaded a version of the video onto his work computer that didn't have any sound and I edited it on there and exported it without any issues and finally posted it on YouTube. I like the end result, however, the sound is rather quiet. But otherwise it is pretty close to the original goal I had in mind. I wanted to draw a really pale pink sunrise and decided that chalk pastels would be perfect for this project. I used gray toned paper, which helped it look soft and grey (I really liked toned paper). I also used pastel pencils to help get the details. All in all, I'm very pleased with how this turned out. There was about twenty minutes where I thought it was going to look terrible, but I managed to turn it around. I usually get frustrated with pastels and they are not my favorite medium, but this drawing is making me rethink that. Also, this set of pastels is high quality and I think that makes a big difference with how they look and draw on the paper. And there are way more colors in this set. The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Psalm 19:1 NIV I decided it was time to design a profile image for my YouTube channel. But I didn't have any ideas, other than there was probably going to be a fluffy little kitty somewhere in the picture.
Then my cousin suggested a really cute idea where the cat is hanging off a pencil. And that was the idea I liked best. I sketched out some designs, tried a few different things and then when I was happy with it, I moved onto the full illustration. It turned out pretty near perfect and I really like it. Then I went on to editing the video. That went perfectly until I had it posted on YouTube and then I realized that I was missing the section of film where I draw the pencil in the final drawing. So I had to fix it in the editor, export the whole video again and post it again on YouTube and delete the old one. But when I got that done, I realized that the video was now longer because of the added video, making it so that the music didn't quite cover the whole thing. Fortunately, I was able to go into YouTube editor and add more music without having to post yet another video. At last, I got it right and here's the finished product. Another problem I ran into was fitting the whole drawing of the cat into the profile image template. At first, the photos I had taken were too close and I couldn't fit the entire image into the little circle. I had to take some more photos, this time farther away to get it to work. But, I didn't use a very big piece of paper for the drawing and in the profile photo you can see the edges. Oh well. It looks really cute and I'm happy with it, for now. Another drawing video, this time posted on my own YouTube channel!
In this video, I compare alcohol-based markers and water-based markers. I am continuing to come up with new video ideas and making content more frequently. Currently, I'm seeing if it is feasible to produce one video a week. Unfortunately, I've run into technical difficulties with the camera; its batteries are running out very quickly. I need to research and come up with a solution. Also, I think the camera is more photography based than video based, as in the video features are minimal and it has more photography features. But video should work. I'm wondering if the batteries are malfunctioning (like batteries love to do). Another thing to fix is the lighting. I need to purchase a lamp that gives white light, since yellow doesn't look all that great in the video. Aside from the problems, I enjoyed making this video and especially drawing with the alcohol markers! I decided it was time to make another video. This time, I was (slightly) more experienced and had better equipment (such as a high quality camera).
My cousin had given me a little canvas and I decided it would be a easy project for this video. I recorded the video on Saturday. It took awhile to get everything set up, especially the tripod. I finally got an overhead angle, but the way I set it up meant that everything was filmed upside down. I flipped all the videos later in the video editor on the computer and also tested this before filming to ensure I could do it. I completed the project and put the video together. I wanted to try recording a voice over, so I did several test recordings with my brother's headset and with my dad's headset. In the end, I chose not to use a voiceover because I was frustrated with it. It wasn't sounding all that great (I'm not that good of a narrator) and I was having trouble getting enough quiet time to record. But, I am glad that I tried it and got the practice and experience from it, even if I didn't use voiceover in the end. Maybe I'll try some other time. Overall, I'm pleased with how the whole project turned out, both the video and the painting. I haven't used acrylic paint much, watercolor is my favorite. This is my first real painting using acrylics.
I chose a photo from my calendar and tried to recreate it to the best of my abilities. Obviously, there are some parts that didn't go very well, but I'm pleased with the overall result. |
Anne's
|