crafters hard at work

a certain bandit and a certain ninnerson have been busy crafting wintry gifts in the fine city of baltimore. among their latest handicrafts are an elegantly upcycled pair of mittens:

and a multi-purpose pillow:

among its other uses are: heel rest, frisbee, yoga aid, etc.

more crafted x-mas gifts

another laptop bag to replace the ugly one:

and a crocheted scarf/hood:

belated halloween post

ahoy pirates! hope you all had a nice halloween. I've been meaning to post some photos of the costumes I made for my nephews. my sister-in-law came up with the idea of dressing them as sushi - ingenius, right? I googled "baby sushi costume" for some ideas, and apparently this is something people do a lot, because there were about a million hits. 

anyway, I sewed these stuffed salmon and shrimp pieces:

and here's the final product - salmon noah:

and shrimp aaron:

sweaterific laptop bags!

After seeing Lan's iPad case and making my own laptop sleeve, I decided to make netbook cases for my brother and sister-in-law for christmas. I used some cool material from thrift store sweaters, and added a zipper pocket on the outside of the cases (I followed this tutorial). Also, my own laptop case ended up really floppy, which makes it hard to get my computer in and out. So for these bags I lined the fabric with interfacing to make it stiffer.

The first one didn't come out as well as I had hoped. I really liked this striped sweater as the lining, but it was a bit tricky to work with. I ended up with bits of teal fluff coming out everywhere, and because of the way I attached the zipper, the edge of the sweater kindof gets in the way of zipping. I might try to do something to fix that. 

(since I don't actually have a netbook to demonstrate with, I used a regular book for effect)

I'm much happier with the second one. Having learned from my zipper mistake, I attached this one so that there is no raw edge facing the zipper, meaning it zips niiice and smoothly. The lining came from a thrift store dress.

Lan is back, and crocheting lots!

After a hiatus from our beloved Craft Pirates, I'm back! In an effort to participate more I've made it my goal to post at least once a month. Luckily this blogger app on my phone makes this easy. So, no excuses this time :)

For now I'll leave you with this lovely new crochet stitch that I learned called the crocodile. Cute, huh? I'm making a scarf, but due to my impatience, we'll see how far I get.

In the mean time, happy crafting and pirating <3

person sweater --> dog sweater

Greetings pirates,

Like I mentioned in a previous post, my sister-in-law is visiting with my little nephews, and also with her adorable dog, Sakura. Sakura is one of those cute little chihuahuas that their owners (including my sister-in-law) like to dress up in cute outfits. Kindof ridiculous, you may be thinking, but she really is cute. So I was inspired to make her a little sweater for the upcoming cold weather! I took a sweater I bought at my fave thrift store, deconstructed it and put it back together into this:

 pretty cute, huh? 

I used the trim from the sweater to line the leg openings, button placket, collar and bottom trim. She looks all set to attend a preppy New England college, right?

 

Let me tell you, it's tough to get a dog to hold still for a fitting. Fortunately she only weighs six pounds, so I could pick her up with one hand and wrangle the sweater on with the other. The photo shoot was a little easier, since I could hold up treats to get her attention. 

Now even Sakura will be included in my diy-christmas-present plan! Just don't tell my sister-in-law, it's a surprise :)

Laptop Cover

She's at it again (crafting, that is). I had been wanting a laptop sleeve for a while so when I take my computer places, it will be protected from sharp objects, leaky water bottles, or other hazards that may be lurking in my tote bag.

Sooo, inspired by Lan's iPad case, I crafted this lil beauty:

It took me a few tries to get all the seams sewed the right way. At one point I thought I had everything all set, then I tried to right-side out it and I couldn't even locate the outside of the bag because somehow I had sewed it shut inside-out... but it all worked out. My wonderfully crafty mother even showed me how to make buttonholes for the buttons.

The lining matches my seat cushion from a couple of weeks ago, you may have noticed :)

I gave it a couple of pockets inside for the power cord, etc.

I went to my favorite local thrift shop today, which has a special sale on Tuesdays - if you bring a cleaning supply, you get half off your whole purchase! Unbelievable! So I went overboard buying craft supplies, fabric and junky clothes to remake into other things. In other words, expect to see more craftiness in the next couple of weeks!

over and out, pirates.