The Lady Beekeeper

So the mannequin head that I decorated in purple patchwork got several down votes from friends and family.  I am still using it at the faire because I like it.  But I also made several mannequin heads with a “wood look” affect.  These were actually much easier than the patchwork.  I have instructions for them below if you’re interested.

Finished mannequin head.

Speaking of the faire, our first weekend was lots of fun!  We met lots of fun and interesting people and made many people smile playing dress up with our hats.  Today the faire is closed due to the horrible weather and wind caused by Tropical Storm Hermine.  This means we get an unexpected day off!  I’m catching up on life and household chores since the last month has been so busy. Hope you all have an enjoyable Labor Day as well!

Oh and you may have noticed I neglected to put up the August Give Away!  Oops.  This one will be awarded at the end of the faire (just in time for my Medieval Feast party).  One winner will receive a hat of their choosing of any style left at the end of faire (see this post for all the options).  To enter post a comment below describing your favorite historical person from the renaissance and why they are your favorite.  Whatever makes me laugh the hardest wins.  You have until October 1 to enter.

DIY Faux Wood Mannequin Head

Materials

• Foam mannequin head
• foam brush
• 2-3 sheets of brown tissue paper
• mod podge
  

  Cut strips of tissue paper and mix mod podge with water.

1. Cut strips of tissue paper approximately 1.5 inches wide.
2. Mix mod podge with water in a 2:1 ratio.  You want the mod podge to be easy to paint on, but still sticky.
3. Using the foam brush, paint a stripe of the mod podge mixture from the base of the neck under the chin, over the crown of the head then down to the back of the neck.
4. Gently apply a piece of tissue to the stripe of glue.  You’ll want to gently press the tissue paper down to the mannequin with your fingers.
5. Using the foam brush gently wash over the tissue paper with more mod podge mixture.
   

   Overlap strips in front then cross over strip on top of head.

6. Start another stripe slightly to the right of the first one. At the crown of the head cross over the other stripe and continue down the other side overlapping the first stripe.
   

   Top portion of head finished.

7. Repeat steps 4, 5 and 6 until the entire face of the mannequin is covered.
8. For the neck of the mannequin, follow a similar procedure as above, adding strips from the chin down to the base of the mannequin head, slightly overlapping each.
9. Let dry.
   

   Finished mannequin head.

Alright, so today’s the post where I tell everyone what I’ve been doing for the last 6 months straight.  So you remember the post about mannequin heads?  Well I have literally become the mad hatter.  Well I’ve become a hatter, I was always mad.  Here’s the story.

After you have been at my company for 7 years they give you an 8 week paid vacation called sabbatical.  This vacation is on top of your regular vacation and must be taken all at once.  Since I started working I’ve been joking that I was going to take my sabbatical and work at King Richard’s Faire (the local renaissance festival).  Well it was still a joke until I came up on my sabbatical this year.  I’m not an actor, but I always said I could make hats and sell them.  So I emailed the faire asking if they had room for more artisans.  They had one booth left, so for kicks I put together some prototype patterns, made some hats and sent pictures in.  Then they juried me in as a new artisan for the season under my newly established name Whimsical Brims.

From there I have been scrambling to learn business and tax laws and make hats.  Oh and then retrofit the booth they gave me (did I mention it is 16’x8′ wide??)  Luckily I have such supportive and amazing friends and family.  My best pal Amy made me an amazing sign out of pallet wood, made all my hat stands, two chandeliers and also collected a bunch of furniture for me to put in the booth.  My mom has scoured thrift stores and yard sales to find me items for my stop, including furniture and rugs, and has taking on the laborious task of cutting out my hats.  I could not have gotten here without either of them.

Last Friday Will & I took the day off of work from our “normal” jobs to set the shop up.  Here’s the transformation.

Before

Now

And here are all the hats I will be selling (by the way almost everyone I polled about the mannequin head transformation hated it, so I have to redo those).

The Marian

The Gwenevere

The Muffin

The Jester

The Henry

The Boleyn

The Robin

The Shakespeare

Next weekend is the first weekend of the faire and my aim was to have completed 200 hats by the start.  I finally hit that goal last night!  As for sabbatical… well that didn’t exactly work out.  My plan was to work at the faire on weekends and spend the week replenishing my supply while on sabbatical, but they pushed my sabbatical out 3 weeks.  So the beginning of the faire I’m going to focus on not selling out…  And now that my sabbatical is almost here, I keep getting questions about what I’m doing.  Most people take long vacations to somewhere exotic.  When I tell people I’m selling hats at King Richard’s Faire most people stare at me blankly or say “oh”.  I guess I should start trying to hide the fact that I really have gone mad.

So I don’t think I’ve posted anything about dyeing recently, other than my post on my first screen printing attempt.   Well I picked up some green Tulip “Fabric Dye” in the Walmart clearance section the other day for 50 cents.  I can hardly resist anything that costs 50 cents, and it seemed like fun (these little packets of dye normally cost 3 or 4 dollars each – crazy mark up)!

Well I glanced quickly at the back before purchasing it and saw it says it works best on cotton, rayon and silk which are all natural fibers.  I guessed it must be fiber reactive, one of my favorite dyes to use since it means I can use it for shibori (the Japanese art of knotting, folding and binding fabric before dyeing to produce beautiful results).  Further research suggested I was right that it is a form of fiber reactive dye.

I received this awesome pattern from burdastyle for free a couple months ago and have been waiting to try it.  You all know how much I am into hippie chic lately.  I decided to whip up the pattern in some bleached linen (a natural fiber made from flax) I had purchased months ago from fabric-store.com on clearance, then dye it in shibori style.  (For the record, tie dye is a form of shibori, so this whole project is just a thinly veiled crunchy clothing tutorial.)

Shibori Tunic

Materials:

• 2.25 yards of linen or natural material (like cotton)
• 100% cotton thread
• Tulip Permanent Fabric Dye
• Rubber Elastics
• 1/4 C salt
• A plastic bucket
• A stirring implement
• Rubber Gloves

1.  Prepare the tunic – (sew front darts, side seams, shoulder seams, sleeves and set in sleeves). Also prepare the collar and front, but do not attach to the body of the tunic.  I also basted along the neck seam since the dye bath washes out the water soluble marker I use.
   

   Plain linen tunic without finished collar, sleeves or bottom.

2. I decided to dye the collar and sleeve hems solid green, but shibori the rest of the dress.  I chose to try a folding shibori pattern, which I’ve actually never tried before. To do this, accordion fold the fabric the long ways.
   

   Fold shirt accordion style.

3. I also used an iron to press the fabric.
4. Then accordion fold the length into triangles.
   

   Fold into triangles accordion style and secure with rubber bands.

5. When you reach the end, secure the fabric with rubber bands.
6. Next prepare your dye.  This Tulip Fabric dye required me to boil a gallon of water and mix with salt.
   

   Add salt to steaming water.

7. Add the dye in and stir.  Make sure your area is completely covered since fiber reactive dye will permanently dye any natural surface (such as wood floors…)
   

   Add dye to bath.

8. Once combined add your fabric to the dye and stir continuously for 15 minutes.
9. After that, stir periodically for another 45 minutes.
10. Wash in cold water until the water runs clear.
    

    Rinse in cold water.

11. I then hung my pieces to dry.
    

    Hang to dry. (Ignore all the projects in my messy basement)

12. Once dry, I finished my tunic neckline, sleeves, and bottom seam following the pattern instructions.
    

    Finish tunic neckline, sleeves and bottom hem.

13. When complete I threw it in the washing machine on warm with synthrapol to remove any additional dye that had not adhered to the fabric.

Voila! DIY Shibori tunic! I think folding may be my new favorite shibori technique!

So the other day I noticed I had a pack of 10 badge holders in my Amazon shopping cart.  Weird.  I didn’t remember putting them there.  I thought I must have had them in there from DanyCon since I was toying around with the idea of making everyone lanyards and badges, but knew I had purchased things since then.  I promptly deleted them because clearly I was going crazy.

The next day Will was complaining about how often he has to replace the little plastic thing holding his work badge.  Ah.  Will was the culprit.  He said those were the “sturdiest” holders he could find (though they really didn’t look particularly sturdy).  That made me think back to when I was at college.  In school I carried my student ID around everywhere with me on a lanyard.  That ID holder was made of leather and was super durable.  I never had to replace it once in 4 years.  That got my thinking, “I could make that”…

Yesterday at the summer house an inner tube popped so I asked my dad for part of the plastic as he was tossing it in the trash.  He probably thought I was crazy because he said something like “you can have the whole thing if you really want it…”  The plastic is perfect for the see-through window on the badge holder, and was thick enough to sew through without ripping!  Plus I saved a few inches of plastic from the landfill… and was able to use up some scrap fabric and interfacing!  Here’s how to make your own!

DIY Badge/ID Holder

What you need:

• 1 square foot of fabric
• a small rectangle of thick malleable plastic (less than 6×4″)
• a small rectangle of Peltex Pellon 70 ultra firm stabilizer (less than 6×4″)
• a small rectangle of medium weight fusible interfacing (less than 6×4″)
• a 1/2″ diameter plastic ring (like the ones used for roman shades)
• 1 snap

1. Cut a 4″ x 2 5/16″ rectangle of pellon 70 and a 6 1/2 x 5″ rectangle of fabric.
   

   Cut peltex and fabric

2. Fold the width-wise edges of the fabric up the sides of the interfacing.  My trick with interfacing is that instead of using pins, which are difficult to use with such thick interfacing, I use tiny binder clips.  They save so much time!
   

   Hold interfacing and fabric with binder clips for easy sewing.

3. Press.
   

   Press

4. Fold the fabric up around the interfacing & clip
   

   Fold fabric up

5. Press.
   

   Press

6. Fold the ugly (side you’ll put on the inside) edge of the fabric up over the top of the interfacing.
   

   Wrap “bad” side of fabric around interfacing.

7. Fold in the edges like you would an envelope so the fabric will not show.
   

   Fold in edges so they will not show.

8. Press.
   

   Press

9. Fold the good side of the fabric over onto the bad side of the badge (this will be hidden when we attach the front).
   

   Fold “good” side of fabric over “bad” side of fabric.

10. Stitch all around the outside, close to the edge.  This is the back of your badge holder.
    

    Stitch 1/8″ from the edge.

11. Take the back of your badge holder and trace around this on a piece of fusible interfacing.  Cut out the interfacing a mm or so larger than the traced rectangle.
    

    Trace badge holder back onto interfacing, cut slightly larger than this.

12. Cut out a square of fabric 1/2″ larger than the rectangle in every direction.
13. Measure 1/2″ up from the interfacing on each side and draw lines forming a frame.
    

    Draw a 1/2″ frame on interfacing.

14. Cut a “v” in the interfacing from one corner of the inside rectangle to the adjacent corner.
    

    Cut “v”s up to the frame on both sides.

15. Following manufacturer’s instructions, fuse interfacing to fabric.
    

    Fuse interfacing to fabric

16. Cut your “v” shapes from step 14 into the fabric taking care not to cut further than the interfacing.
    

    Cut “v”s into fabric

17. Fold and press the sides, forming mitered edges (see instructions in this post).  Trim the fabric so it comes just to the edge of the “frame” you drew in step 13.
    

    Fold and press up sides, forming mitered corners

18. Fold the inner pieces outwards, press, trim to slightly smaller than the outside of the rectangle and binder clip.
    

    Fold inner pieces out, forming a frame.

19. Repeat for all 4 sides.
    

    Trim and clip then repeat for all 4 sides.

20. Sew 1/8″ from the center of the frame, all around the face of the badge holder.
    

    Stitch 1/8″ from the inside of the frame.

21. Cut a piece of plastic slightly smaller than the width of the “frame”.
    

    Cut a piece of plastic smaller than the frame.

22. Center the plastic on the back of the frame, place a piece of waxed paper over it (this will prevent the plastic from sticking to your presser foot) and binder clip.
    

    Add waxed paper over the plastic to prevent it from sticking.

23. Stitch 1/8″ from the outside of the “frame” all around.
    

    Stitch 1/8″ from the outside edge of the frame.

24. Remove the waxed paper by tearing.
    

    Tear off waxed paper.

25. Add a plastic ring to the back piece by stitching back and forth over the ring.
    

    Attach ring

26. Place the frame of your badge holder over the wrong side of your badge holder back.
27. Stitch on top of the outer stitching, taking care to leave the top side opened (so you can put your badge in).
28. Add a snap at the top of the badge holder between the top edge of the “frame” and the back.
    

    Add snap

29. Enjoy!
    

    Looks especially great on a mannequin wearing a long black cloak as shown here.

So I accidentally ate KFC today.  Well not accidentally, it was pre-meditated.  I did walk in and purchase it before I ate it.  I even had a rousing conversation with the guy at the counter about my favorite types of Mountain Dew.  Anyway, never again.  (That’s what I say every time.)

I was going some where with this… oh yeah!  So its not all that bad because I did yoga today at lunch, and that might counteract some of the terribleness of eating that delicious chicken deep fried in lard.  Maybe.

Yesterday I had an epiphany about yoga.  If you’ve read my other blog posts, you’ll notice that I attempted to start meditating to relieve the horrible tension headaches I was getting during my last project at work.  The problem with meditation is that you have to just sit there and do nothing.  I mean, I know that’s the whole point, don’t get me wrong.  If you’ve met me, you’ll know I can’t just sit in once place and do nothing.  Frankly I will go one step further and say it kills me to not multitask.  Well yoga fixes that!  I am focusing on my breath while mindfully moving (doing exercise)!  It is the perfect combination of relaxation+exercise multitasking that a type A person like myself would enjoy.  And did I mention I can touch my toes now?!  I’m all in.

Yoga has lots of “stuff” that you can buy to go along with it, but aside from some pants that you won’t moon anyone in a mat is really all you need.  I now own two mats, one for home and one that I keep at work.  Recently my best buddy has been lamenting her yoga mat bag’s functionality because the mat sticks to the sides when she tries to insert it.  That got me to thinking.  Below is a “bag” pattern to hold your yoga mat!

The circumference of my mat at home is 15″.  The mat is 5mm thick, so this is pretty large.  You can change the size slightly to accommodate your mat, though using long strips of velcro allows you to adjust the size considerably.

Yoga Mat Carrier

What you’ll need:

• ~1/2 yard of scrap fabric (I used some leftover from the curtains in our lounge)
• 2.5 yards of 1″ thick nylon heavy webbing
• 1 foot of velcro
• thread to match

1. Cut a 22×16″ rectangle of your fabric.
2. Press the sides under 1/2″ then under 1/2″ again.
   

   Fold edges under and press

3. Fold out the corners.  Snip the corner off at the first intersection of your folds.
   

   Snip off corner at first intersection

4. Fold the rest of the corner over at the inner most intersection of your folds. Then fold the edges under 1/2″ and under 1/2″ again following the original folds.
   

   Mitered corners

5. Repeat for all 4 corners.  Pin & stitch
   

   Pin and stitch edges

6. Cut a 10×5.5″ rectangle of fabric for your pocket.  Press the top under 1/4″ and then under 1/4″ again.  Stitch.
   

   Fold under one side of the pocket.

7. Fold the sides in 1 1/4″.  Press & stitch 1/4″ from the unfinished edge.
   

   Fold sides in. (Check out my adorable ruler slap bracelet!)

8. Fold large rectangle for the bag in half to find the center.  Pin the unfinished edge of the pocket slightly above this line. Stitch.
   

   This picture is slightly wrong… You should have stitched the folded in sides so they shouldn’t be flopping around.

9. Pin the sides of the pocket and stitch (you may have to turn the pocket inside out to do this).
   

   Pin sides of pocket to bag.

10. Attach a 1″ piece of velcro to the pocket.
    

    Attach velcro to inside of pocket.

11. Attach a 3.5″ piece of velcro vertically to the edge of each side of the top of the “bag” on the the right side of the fabric.
12. Attach the other half of the 3.5″ piece of velcro on the edge of each side of the bottom of the “bag” on the wrong side of the fabric.
13. Take your nylon webbing and cut it in two equal length pieces.  Toast the edges slightly with a lighter to prevent fraying.
    

    Burn edges to prevent fraying

14. Once again fold fabric in half and pin one end of the webbing to one side at the fold.  Take the other end of the webbing and overlap the pinned end by an inch.  Replace your pin.  Make sure your strap is not twisted.  Repeat with other side.
    

    Attach handles to bag.  Note that I marked where to stop sewing with the perpendicular pins.

15. Stitch both straps on the edge from 2 inches below the velcro to 2 inches below the velcro on the other side.

Enjoy!

Go yoga.

To roll up your yoga mat lay the rectangle flat and put the yoga bag through the straps.  pull side with pocket up first around mat snuggly, then wrap the other side around securing to the velcro.  You can put your yoga strap in the front pocket!

Insert mat through straps

Roll rectangular section around mat, securing with velcro.

Now for the part you have been waiting for!  Thank you for the June contest entries… I will be contacting you in the coming week.  Our July give away is going to be centered around Pokemon… I’ll be giving away several hats similar to the one I made here (though they will be solid black with a pokeball).  If you’d like to enter, post a comment (by August 15th) with an answer to the following question – Is Lexi pulling off that red lipstick above? Just kidding, tell me your favorite Pokemon and why!  Bonus points if you can guess my favorite pokemon. :D  Bonus bonus points if you can guess my favorite flavor of Mountain Dew (Will you are disqualified from answering both of the bonus questions).