Something for the Warm Season

As it is a few days after midsummer, and the real summer is just beginning, it's time to up-date the shirts and dresses. I went through my closet for materials and found this hilarious old tee. I must have picked it from a yard sale or something.  It says: " Original Work Wear" and below: "To be worn or not to be worn". I have no idea why there's a skeleton but it's going to be useful in the most awesome shirt of this summer!

Basically I just cut the print-part out of the tee since it's printed on the back, and I want it in front. I had a stretchy lace shirt, the sleeves of which I had already cut and used for something else. It was a few sizes too big (One of the old maternity clothes I still have) so there was enough material and no need to calculate too carefully, as is usually the case when up-cycling. The front piece with buttons was turned into the back piece and vice versa.

After ironing I sewed the picture onto the front piece with a straight stitch.  For sewing remember to use a suitable needle, a jersey needle in this case! You could also apply buckram to prevent undesired moving during sewing, but I didn't happen to have any just now. Luckily the T-shirts cotton fabric was sturdy enough and the lace not too stretchy.

At this point I had this genius idea: Why not show some additional lace by sewing along the lines of the picture and then cutting away the insides? It would hold the picture more firmly in place. When the shirt is washed, the cut edges will roll nicely, giving it a uniquely worn-out look.

After the finishing touches to the print- picture I completed the shirt, using the cotton fabric to prevent stretching in the shoulder seam (Is it called that? It is in Finnish...). I finished all rims with a zig zag- stitch. 

So here it is! The awesome shirt for +25 degrees. And now it's raining outside.

Here's me with the shirt on. It just barely hides my flat chest, but I think with the right bra and the right weather it's appropriate enough. I don't mean to say that I worry about such trivial things, but there is the fine line between daring and ridiculous.

Catchy Headline Here

My friend came to visit and said: "We're going to make dream catchers, I brought supplies!"

So I made one from thick aluminum thread, black yarn, fishing line and various kinds of beads. The feathers were attached with thin metal wire. I think it came out nicely. Don't know about the dreams, though...

I bought this nice chandelier from a thrift store. My daughter wanted it for herself, so we decorated it according to her wishes. I used a few pairs of old ear rings and other broken jewelry to make it unique. However, its still missing a lamp.

New Chair Upholstering

I found this beauty of a chair left beside the dumpster a while back. After checking thoroughly for any bug problems I took it in and gave it a new home. It moved with me to my new apartment and since I'm making a new home just for myself, I decided to give the chair a new look as well.

The seat comes off nicely from it's frame. It was simply covered with fabric and nailed with furniture nails. I took the nails off and noticed the chair had been re-upholstered several times, and the seat was full of nail holes. So nails were out of the question.

The Chair without it's coverings

The out-driven nails and the foam I used for padding

Next I cut the foam padding in shape and glued it on the sides of the seat so as to keep it in place. I placed the fabric underneath and cut it in form as well. Then it was time to tighten the fabric  onto the seat with strings.

Like this.

Last I just gently pushed the seat back into the frame. All finished! The orange fabric is leftover from an old linen table cloth which I dyed and used to make a jacket for my grandma. Re-purpose everything!

Knitted Fingerless

It's spring, I know. The time of mittens and warm gloves is over. It's time to enjoy the sun, the breeze, the rain, and especially the fragrances of blooming trees. But it's still quite cool in the evening, and that's why these fingerless gloves might come in handy. Also, if you smoke. That, I never do!

I used 70 % wool 30 % polyacryl yarn originally meant for socks. The polyacryl makes the yarn more durable, and of course cheaper. These yarns were leftovers from the socks and mittens I knitted as Christmas presents for my friends and family members. The knitting needles were size 3 1/2.

These were made just like mittens, except for decreasing the stiches in the end. Also, instead of knitting thumbs I just bound off the increased stitches for the thumb (totalling 10 or 12 according to size), created four new stitches and decreased them gradually towards the end.  That's how there's enough room for the hand.

Red-black ones I made for myself

The red-black ones rolled from the rim, because I just bound off straight after knitting knit-wise for a while. The blue-black ones I finished with knitting one knitwise, one purlwise, like in the beginning, and then binding off.

Blue-black ones are for my daughter

The end of old things and maybe the celebration of new things to come

I completed my Thesis today. It still might need some revisions and corrections, but the main work is done. I wanted to celebrate, but now I just don't feel like it. I'm too tired to care much about anything. It might be because this process has been such a wearisome one. There are other things, the fact that I live alone now, a week at a time, and my daughter with me the next week. I haven't shared anything about my private life until now, but might as well do so, since there doesn't seem to be a single soul reading this blog anyway...

But if you do happen to stumble across this blog, and happen to be interested in creating things, it might be of some interest to you, what I have been creating these past months.

My main subject is classical singing. I'm also very interested in composing, but haven't studied it except for a few courses. For my final project I was asked to compose "a little piece" of music. What I did was a full six-part cantata for three singers, two violins, two cellos and organ positive.
This combination of instruments was usual in the 17th century music, except the two cellos of course. This was due to the fact that there were no viola players in our school at the time, but plenty of cellists, so I decided to play it safely, and write the piece to players that were available.

My cantata, named "The Voice of Martyrs" centered around the theme of persecution of the Christians. You might think of it as a thing of the past, but it is in fact something that is happening today. Although I'm not currently identifying myself as a Christian, the faith has had a huge influence on me through out my life, and has partly made me the person I am today, so it felt natural to compose a piece of spiritual music.

The piece was first presented in November 2014 in my final concert, and it was a success. But this was only the first part of the thesis. The next part was to write. I kind of hate non-fictional writing.  I decided to link the written part to the composition process, and chose to write about the voice in the context of orchestration. Now, this is a HUGE subject, and I came to realize it in due course. I stripped and stripped the text, until the main part focused on the physiological aspects of the singing voice, and how they affect the way one should compose for it. Then I reflected on how I succeeded in following these self-imposed rules in my own composition process.

And now it is finished. I have some hope of graduating this spring.

Miscellaneous Projects

Here are some of the many big and small projects that have been going on these years.

First I'd like to introduce this lamp, made of a large pickle jar and the metal parts of a broken plafond lamp. The lamp system itself (socket, wire with switch) came from an old ceramic night stand lamp which broke, of course. But I'm almost incapable of throwing anything useful away, otherwise I wouldn't have these things lying around.

I drilled a hole in the center of the lid, then assembled the lamp parts on either side. I had to open the switch-part and take the wire out, then re-assemble, to be able to do it. The lamp worked and I didn't get electrocuted, so must've done something right. Unfortunately there are no pictures of the process, but here's the finished lamp:

Another small project was this hair accessory, which I bought from a little store at a train station. It was originally plain purple velvet. I simply hand-sowed some more material to it: a few black ribbons, originally used to hang clothes, some fishnet or tull- something, that used to be a mosquito net, and some beads.

Then there's this huge project, that has been going on for years. A giant quilt-work, that I started for my own entertainment, and because I really liked the model. Since this work is so huge, (there are over 400 of these umbrella-patterns) the process has been kind of on and off. I later changed it to a gift for my parents, partly to motivate me to finish it, and now it's nearing completion! But it's still missing the rim. The materials are new and used cotton fabrics, suitable for quilting. Good-quality men's shirts, sriped or with a checkerd pattern proved especially useful. I looked for them at thrift stores, as usual. The lining is a ready-made fabrick for quilting from a fabrick store.

Quilting might not seem like a very goth hobby, but of course you can choose colours and patterns according to your own style. For me it's also colour therapy. I love colours, deep and bright, even yellows,  and printed patterns, especially the oriental paisley- pattern. I just don't want to wear anything too bright. It would just be too annoying and uncomfortable, seeing yourself the whole time. Anyway, for my next quilting project I have more deep colours and luxurious materials in mind.