And it's over...

As of 10 hours from now (8 hours of which will be spent sleeping) my holidays are over. Sad times, though, admittedly, considering it was only 5 days off, short times too.

I've spent most of the last 5 days sewing costumes for Halloween, from a whole heap of ears:

To a truly bitchin' Red Riding Hood cloak, that I don't even get to wear because I agreed to do it for Chantelle.

And a cow print onsie that's given me a lot of trouble because it's for someone who's a completely different size to me. And that doesn't matter with animal ears or badass crepe georgette (why did I pick that fabric? It was horrible to work with) cloaks. But on me, the crotch is almost down to my knees, and the legs are waaay too long, which stopped me from putting feet on it like she wanted. I've put some buttonholes at the ends of the legs though, so I can make her some button on feet later.

And a half dozen boring black capes that I'll probably insist management wear, since I like the idea that they can be the villains of the piece. I'm still going with being a cool cat. Brittni (who we often call Britta) is going to be one too, so I think that means that halfway through the shift I need to get myself some white wings and a halo and be the cool cat that had too many drugs.

Hopefully I'll meet some more Community fans in the process. The world needs more cool cats.

Me ow.

The distinct advantage that quilting has over dressmaking is that the photographs, and therefore the bloggage, are a whole lot easier. But, as ever, I'm busy being too obsessed with my wardrobe to quilt. And too crap at taking selfies to logically explain the last few days worth of sewing. Also, I just realised it's 5am, which would explain why I can't words.

...Anyway. I'm still very into Community, and Britta, with my spirit wardrobe, was wearing a denim jacket with grey fleece sleeves and a hood. I still had a denim jacket in my cupboard that had survived every round of salvo-ing purely for the reason that I felt it was important that I still owned at least one, even though I haven't worn it in at least two years, due to a strong fear of coming off too double-denim-y. And I'd rather die than come off double-denim-y. But last weekend I dyed a pair of my skinny jeans black, and that means I can wear a light blue denim at the top without looking at all matchy-matchy. So I chopped out the sleeves and drafted myself a hood design and the only grey heavyweight fleece they had at Spotlight was kinda weird fluffy on one side, slightly silky on the other and it was $13p/m but hey, I wanted a denim jacket with grey fitted sleeves and a hood and I wanted it by the next day. And I did it, and I had it, and it's bitchin, and it's nice to know that after two years of just chilling in the cupboard, it's going to go back into rotation.

As well as this, it's Halloween on Wednesday. Now, for the most part, I'm very opposed to having Halloween in Australia. Good on the Americans, it seems like a lot of fun, but when it's done in Australia it comes off as a Valentines-Day-esque grab for the consumer dollar. On the other hand, we don't get to do enough fancy dress, and Wednesdays are (sadly) not really drinking days (though admittedly, I drank this Wednesday) so the initial plan for a fancy dress drinking party got canned. But there was vague mention of Woolies going fancy dress for the day and I'm pushing for it. I want this. I want costumes at work day, to the point that I have drafted a onesie pattern to make for one of the girls at work in cow print. I want this to the point that I bought 5 metres of black cotton lawn from the $1 clearance rack at spotlight to bulk churn out some capes. I want this to the point that I've offered to make some animal ear headbands, because animal-ears are a traditional lazy-person's costume.

Hey look, teddy-bear ears. And my newly altered jacket. Twofer selfie! I'm actually still wearing these, four hours later. I think when I get up tomorrow I might put them on and pretend like they're not even there, just to see people's reactions. I think they are adorbs, and plan on mauling the faces off anyone who disagrees, just like a real bear in a badass re-purposed jacket would.

But, keeping with the theme of wanting more of Britta's wardrobe, my personal animal ears option is the "cool cats" from season 2.

My sunnies are a bit different and my leather jacket is out in the car, and also on this first version they're a bit too big, but I'm sure I can pop them on someone's head. I need another cool cat to be cool with me.

The handy thing about making these is that I'm sewing the ears onto the headbands by hand, and you can still watch TV while you're handsewing.

DVD commentaries, come at me.

It was time for a new TV obsession...

So I'm obsessed with Community, in love with Jeff, and Britta is not only my new spirit animal*, but she also has what I think of as my spirit wardrobe. Lots and lots of fitted check shirts, leather jackets and dark skinny jeans.

Anyway, since I have a whole lot of telly to watch now and Lincraft coincidentally has a lot of their yarns half price, I did some crocheting.

I may switch back to knitting. I prefer the smooth finish of stocking stitch, and I like the edge finish better too.

*I have a lot of spirit animals. Caitlin Moran, Lou Brealey, Taylor Swift My Car (as opposed to the actual Taylor Swift) and EmmStaff, who is my real life spirit animal and the person who told me I should move Community up to the top of my to-watch list. There are others too, I just can't remember them right this second. Spirit animals are a Tumblr thing, it's kinda like saying "when I grow up I wanna be..." but more concise.

Arty Artness.

Ah, long weekends. The perfect opportunity to get seriously stuck into working on some of your long-neglected WIPs.

Unless of course you're like me, in which case you work all three days as well as drinking on two of them.

And I was kinda happy, because this weekend was intended to be our last hurrah until the show, which is 4 weeks away, meaning that we would have some time to recover. Then I remembered that I agreed to go to Adelaide with Casey and Jeffy for reasons I'm not entirely sure of. Probably mainly to do with Chinese food, which I've just realised I get to eat in 4 days time. Now I'm keen.

As for stuff that I've been making, well, I did some Sherlock Texts From Last Night for the Tumblrverse. Does that count? I used mspaint...

P.S. Lets not talk about the footy. I'm still too full of feels.

... continued

As predicted, today was no-voice Monday. But getting up at 12 for a 1.30 start and finding the house empty meant I couldn't get anyone to call in sick for me and I couldn't do it myself either (obviously) so I just had to go on in. Since I went home sick on Friday the first thing everyone asked was if I was feeling better, to which my response was, (again, obviously) "..."

Actually, I said, "Yes, I do, thanks, but, um, well..." but what came out was "..." with some lip movement. Unfortunately they were a bit understaffed so I ended up hanging about till 5.30 anyway, mainly doing self serve (I can mouth "thanks a lot, see you later" with such conviction that people's brains insert the words) or smokeshop (people usually know how much their smokes are going to cost them) or supervising (though someone put on their help light and I went to help but they were still talking to their customer and I was trying and trying to get her ask her what was wrong and she was ignoring me and eventually another supervisor came up and helped her and I sulked away unnoticed) but we all agreed that I couldn't really supervise tonight because I couldn't talk to customers or answer the phone or make calls over the PA system, so really all I'd be doing is bumming about as all my employees amused themselves by saying "what?" at me over and over again. So instead, I came home, so my family could do exactly the same thing to me.

And I watched the first episode of Big Brother (and probably the only one, since I work nights and don't get to watch real* telly) and the new episode of True Blood (bye Molly and Hoyt... sad face) and spent a whole lot of time on etsy looking for the perfect fabric to make this top and being saddened by the fact that they've already got pretty much the perfect fabric. Gods of perfect plaids, why have you forsaken me?

Oh, and gods of voice, you too? At least the gods of finding a good car space still like me.

*Admittedly, Big Brother isn't reall telly anyway, but I mean stuff that our antenna picks up in real time, as opposed to stuff I download and watch

Nah Uh.

The great thing about quilting (the sewing through three layers thing) is that it's something you can just do. If you're designing and piecing, you need to get out the iron, and clear off your cutting mat, and find a rotary cutter and all that stuff. If you've got some quilting to be done, you baste and you get going.

Unfortunately, what you do need is batting. And I appear to be all out. It's been a while since I've done any actual quilting (as evidenced by all the un-quilted tops hanging from my curtains) and I had forgotten that I was pretty much out. And Spotlight is persisting in not having it on super amazing special.

So clearly, it's totally not my fault I just watched 7 DVD commentaries instead.

The good, the bad and the shiny...

The good: New episodes of True Blood drop on Mondays in Australia (since we're a day ahead of America) and drunk Sookie was brilliant but, even more importantly, this is the week when I get a new episode of White Collar! The only way this could get better is if someone could put Magic Mike on the internets for me.


The bad: Tonight, in the car, on the way home, The Dance* by Garth Brooks came on. And though those who know about all the ex-boyfriend weirdness that's been going on might think that my having a little cry to myself was to do with that, it wasn't. You only get one Garth song, and he got Friends in Low Places*. The Dance was how I felt about Honeycat, and tonight I found myself missing her. I guess the fact that I spend more time hanging out with the yabby than the dog means I need a pet of my own.

The shiny: On Thursday I went to Target to get a couple of things, and while I was there I saw a little boy, maybe 5 years old, and his RM Williams belt buckle was bigger and shinier than my RM Williams belt buckle (admittedly, mine is also a kids one) and when I was a bit tipsy on Thursday night I was thinking to myself "well, that just will not do". So I went on the internets and found this one. And it is big and very very shiny. Admittedly, I need to find a belt to go with it, but that shouldn't be too hard. Probably quite expensive, but not actually difficult.

*...for a moment all the world was right, how could I have known, that you'd ever say goodbye? And now, I'm glad I didn't know, the way it all would end, the way it all would go... Our lives are better left to chance; I could have missed the pain, but I'd have had to miss the dance...


**...well, I guess I was wrong, I just don't belong, but then, I've been there before; Everything's all right, I'll just say goodnight and I'll show myself to the door... Hey, I didn't mean, to cause a big scene, just give me an hour and then, well I'll be as high as that ivory tower, that you're livin' in...

A sad, sad day.

Is it possible that there is some kind of peak physical quilting condition? That we are like athletes in training, only without commentators, or sponsors, but that we end up with something prettier than a medal at the end?

I only ask because tonight I did about 2 hours quilting, and was going to do more, but I was starting to ache. The ironing, the cutting, the chain piecing, it was all just making me sore, so I stopped half-done. It would appear that lounging around for the last week watching True Blood has left me badly out of quilting-shape.

Granted, it's one of the most complicated designs I've ever done, in terms of having quiltmaths even I struggle to understand and some very odd points, but I have to admit it. I got lazy. I lost my edge.

Either that, or I'm right about the new fridge being evil and sending out gamma rays to weaken my super-quilting-powers.

I don't trust that fridge. It's too white.

R.I.P. old fridge. I miss you.

Good.

One would assume, seeing as how I've watched THIRTY HOURS of True Blood since Sunday night, that I'd make that my favourite for this week. Or at the very least, that I would make last night's strawberry cider, breadsticks and True Blood night my favourite thing this week. But I'm not going to.

Nor am I going to go with my fantastic friends at work, or trashy romance novels, or Wrigleys Strongmint chewwies, or even the very pretty yarn I got with the $10 voucher that Lincraft sent me.

Even though I find the tingly sensation that I get in my legs when I sit down in my skinny jeans to be weirdly enjoyable, that's not it either. Nor is it the entertainment I get from trying to push repelling magnets together.

Nope, today, my favourite thing is the tiny tick of my watch. It's so quiet that I can only hear it in the really quiet moments, and I don't get them too often. So I like the fact that the tiny tick of my watch is there to remind me when they're happening, so that I know to enjoy them.

Oh, okay, all the other stuff can be a favourite too :)

Wine, Cheese and True Blood night

It's 5am, I'm in the pleasant place between tipsy and drunk, and I just wanna tell you all how much I love breadsticks, and that the choice between them and Ritz crackers and cheese is easy, (not that I don't love Ritz crackers and cheese) whereas the choice between Bill, Sam and Eric is hard. I know that 3 days ago I was in love with Bill, but a couple of hours ago I was in love with Sam, and then about a half an hour ago it was Godric (he's dead now) and now it's Eric, who, weirdly, looks a lot like Keith Urban sometimes.

As you can probably tell, Wine, Cheese and True Blood night is going well. Except for the bit where I've concluded I really need to stop trying to drink rosé, cause it tastes horrible, and switched to cider instead.

Whoop, in love with Sam again. I love being fickle for fictional fellas. And that's practically a tongue twister :)

I am not counting down...

So I'm watching True Blood, since it's still TWENTY FOUR whole days till White Collar starts, and I need a new addiction to help while them away.

I'm loving it. All the sex, and the boobies, and the fantastic Louisiana accents, and shirtless (and pantless) Ryan Kwanten. Yay for all of it. I'm only up to episode eight, but it's all brilliant. The soundtrack too. There was even Cowboy Troy! And the quilts! If you need a cover story, because you're worried about someone judging your enjoyment of the kinds of gratuitous sex scenes and swearing present only on a show from HBO, just gush about the quilts. There's one on her bed which has that fantastic is-it-vintage-or-is-it-modern aesthetic, and I just saw a stunning hexie quilt, with one block in bright colours and the others in pastel...

Anyway... I'm toats in love with Bill, even though I think if I met them both at the pub I'd pick Sam. He's got prettier eyes, and nice boots and a very shiny belt buckle. But it's kinda the whole Buffy/Angel thing all over again, but with less clothing witty one-liners.

And while I've been watching it, I've been crocheting.

One ball of three down, but then, I'm only 2/3rds of the way through season 1...

A random blog post about random things, randomly.

Yesterday, I ate an entire block of Cadbury Peppermint chocolate, except for two squares, which I put next to my computer screen, because that meant that I hadn't eaten a whole block.

I used to subscribe to Fat Quarterly, but after about a half dozen issues I decided it was a bit to cliquey* for my liking, especially since instead of being popular and planning the yearbook and the graduation ceremonies, I was off getting drunk in the arts buildings with the teachers. That's why I'm a big fan of GenQ now - because I suspect they would have been too. I put some money into their Kickstarter so my first issue is on the way, but in the meantime they have a challenge up - a few squiggly lines they want people to turn into a block - it's like Mr Squiggle but with fabric! And instead of Blackboard going "Oh hu-rry up..." we've got my mum going (at 4am) "God, haven't you gone to bed yet?"

Admittedly, they just wanted a block design, but that didn't take long, and I can't stand a hypothetical** so I did the maths and made it. I don't even know if it's actually submittable yet (I put pink both sides of one of the lines they had drawn, but there is still a seam there, which I think counts) so I'm not gunna post a whole picture: instead...

Trimmings are one of the prettiest things I throw into the bin.

I took a photo of this seam because it looks brilliant, and you'd never guess that the other 3 are horrible.

That's my two pinks next to one another. I could have made one of them orange, but I didn't want to. A well matched pink, yellow green and blue is all that it needs.

McDonald's have fish at the moment, to celebrate the Olympics. Just say no.

My leg has gone to sleep, before the rest of me has even gotten undressed for bed. Stupid leg.
 

*The Wikipedia article on cliques is fascinating, and I don't care that it says I am misusing the word.

**There was a TV show way back when on the ABC called Hypotheticals. I really liked that show, but that's the exception.

Something.

I was going to get straight into sewing, but it was the final episode of Castle tonight (only for the season, thankfully) and it was so good I had to watch it twice.

But I got a bit of sewing done, making a start on another quiltlet, or possibly just a large, technically incorrect, orphaned block.

I rotated that bottom four patch again because I didn't like the fabric with the dots connecting with itself on the bottom edge - it's the more prominent fabric in the real world, though on my computer screen it looks to be the floral. I guess what I'm wondering though, is is it still a mistake if you thought about and did it on purpose? It's not technically correct, as I said before, but that's only the case if it's meant to be a repeating block. It was, initially, and the fact that the HSTs repeat themselves gives the impression of it being a mistake, but I liked it better this way, and I'm sticking with it.

But I'd kinda like to do a whole quilt with it repeating properly, in solids, cause I think it'd look pretty damn cool. Even two colours.

Another late night.

I could say that I'm showing solidarity with Shay by also getting bored with the April finishathon we were going for and starting an entirely new quilt, but that's not actually the reason. I had planned on giving someone the pink pavement quilt, but now I'm starting to think it's a bit too pink for them. So there's a new quilt top, 75% done, all pinned and folded neatly on my sewing table ready to finish and blog tomorrow. It's all from stash too, which I'm quite proud of. But I'd finished doing that by 3.30, so it's not what's kept me up. Instead, it was this week's favourite thing - Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.

I'm only two episodes in, but I'm gunna be good and not watch the other six so far... I'll try to ration them out so I don't get all impatient waiting for new episodes.

Actual sewing!

There is a problem in watching a new show (or even a quite old show) while doing the fiddly bits on monsters that are hella boring to do without some kind of distraction, and that problem is this: a movie goes for about 2 hours. A TV show goes for about 20, even if it was only moderately successful.

Anyway, I'm watching Life again, because I have no idea how it ended. Actually, that's a lie. Despite not containing the words "Spoiler Alert" anywhere in the page, the Wikipedia article on the show gives it all away. But I'm cool with that.

So yeah, monsters are all pinned ready to sew tomorrow, at which point I can turn them right way out, stuff them and they can start making their way to their new homes.

Before I got started though I made a bag. Not a very good bag, since it was really only a mock up version of the bag that I spent a goodly portion of last night working out as I lay awake in bed, unable to sleep, but still.

It has a very pretty embroidered top which I like a lot a lot.

Which is made by winding half a skein of variegated cross stitch cotton onto the bobbin and sewing it from the underneath. I felt that it would work in theory, but I really wanted to try it out. You've only got 4m of sewing distance though before you have to put in a new bobbin.

Unfortunately, I made the flap too short anyway. But it's nice to know that it all works in theory, and that most of my maths was right (though I cut it a lining twice and got it wrong both times, so I gave up on lining it, zigzagged over the inside seams and used the fabric to set the zip instead)

But I realise that my problem with the lining was the confusion inherent in using a 30cm long see-through ruler and measuring 17.5cm as 13.5cm. Usually, my ability to read backward, upside down or mirrored words quite easily is a handy talent, not so in this case.

Still, the most important thing is that it should scale up nicely to make the bag I was angsting about the other night. I guess that's why I couldn't start it then; a better design was waiting to be thought up.

Have any of you seen the latest episode of Castle? I was wondering if it was possible for 42minutes of televison to erase the pain of the week of Tuesdays. Actually, I was thinking that maybe the new episode of White Collar could do it, since Sara's back, and you gotta love a character that shares your name. But the 40's noir flashbacks, narrations and funny accents, coupled with my ability to work out what was about to happen (on average, just early enough to say out loud, to myself, "oh, oh...") made for an episode I was very nearly about to wake siblings up to watch at 2am.

And a quick catch up on the progress of the week of tuesdays: Dad made me help him rake up tree-bark and leaves and my throat's doing that horrible "pre-sick" thing, two days before I go on annual leave.

Actual quilting!*

I'm a bit behind on my TV viewing. Now that my laptop is home downloading has resumed, but there's still 2 weeks of watching to do, and not much time between work and sleeping and going to the gym and doing stuff for christmas.

Tonight when I got home I decided I'd make a start on the christmas quilt. And I decided I'd watch some Castle while I did it. I must say, the episodes were both brilliant. Beckett working through her issues with the sniper in the first one, all deep and emotional, with crying and stuff, and then the odd comedy/thriller of the next episode, where they're trapped in a room and don't know how they got there, and then there's a tiger. And they're trapped in a room with a tiger. And it's oddly hilarious, while absolutely gripping. It held me up quite a bit. The morals of this story are a) don't quilt and watch new episodes of Castle at the same time, and b) a tiger can knock over an on-it's-end chest freezer, making it an unsafe place to stand atop of. If there's a tiger.

Still, although progress was slow, I did get all my triangles cut. 80 of them, though I only needed 72, but since I placed them randomly it was good to have some spares to get a good balance.

It's a shame I didn't have another darker red triangle. to put at the right hand end of the second row down, but all my leftover triangles were of the mid-shade.

I'll see how I'm feeling about it once my pairs have been sewn - I've got more than I need of the binding fabric to cut another one to put in, but I don't remember it looking that noticeable in the real world. Taking photos of quilts does funny things to them.

*That title's a lie since no actual quilting was done, but cutting up fabrics is what quilting's all about, even if my sewing machine didn't get plugged in.

Blah

I told myself tonight that I wasn't gunna do any sewing, I was gunna bum about and take it easy, maybe have an early night. Instead I got in a fight with some watch pins (and lost) and then in a fight with some video codecs (and won) and then I accidentally watched five episodes of Buffy. But at least I stuck by my decision to not do any sewing.

That's something, right?

Quilting again.

I don't normally stop halfway through a quilt, but it's late, and I'm tired, so I'll make an exception.

It's way pinker than it looks - this is just a terrible photo taken at 3am in my kitchen with my phone.

I'm really liking how it's turning out though. It took me ages to get started, what with a trip into town, some time spent playing with our new vacuum sealer that arrived in the mail and much, much food consumption, and then when I did get started on the cutting, Casey came and demanded the kitchen. And if it took me a while to get going the first time... well, I'll put it this way - I watched the Graham Norton show and then a bit of Conan O'Brien and then a bit of Letterman too and then I watched Question Time for a bit, because the TV guide on the screen said QI was going to be on after it, but not at what time, and eventually I got sick of it and turned it off and started quilting.

It's coming together fairly quickly, mainly I think thanks to those nice big 43cm squares there. The 6cm cornerstones are a bit of a bitch though, and I cut eight too few white strips. It's okay, I had plenty more white, so they're cut ready for tomorrow.

Blabbing, TV and Stubby holders.

I may be experiencing what feels to be the end of Thursday, but it's been Friday here in South Australia for four and a half whole hours now and I just ate a bowl of nutri-grain and that's a breakfast thing so I think I may as well do my fave things Friday now.

First up, some random good things.

Parents are on holiday, so to save on dirty dishes it's time to start drinking milk out of the carton. This makes me way happier than it should.



Improvisational scrap piecing. Probably not gunna be able to do it again anytime soon, since I'm not big on the scraps. Actually, this was pretty much all I could find.

30cm square, leftover bits from making the back of the Autumn Nutmeg quilt

Today, Spike got killed on Hawaii Five-0. That's not good, because they needed him to tell them about the Asian guy that the Aussie guy's dad may or may not have been having bad-guy collaborations with, but the point is I quite enjoy referring to characters on shows by the name of the character I most know them as. I'm sure James Marsters' character has a different name on this show, but I can't be bothered learning it. Also, I really just like James Marsters in general.

A long time ago, long before Team Edward and Team Jacob, us Buffy nerds were all in love with either Spike or Angel. I was only 15 at the time, so it was the dramatic, never-can-be love of Angel that I was sappy over, but now that I'm older, I must admit, I would like to have a house fall down around us while I did the dirty with Spike. It makes me sad that I've only just started re-watching season 2, and I have 4 more seasons to watch before I get to that storyline. Nonetheless, the fact that that storyline exists makes me happy. Aww hell, the whole show makes me happy. Except, you know, when someone dies. Then I bawl like a small child.

Anyway, back to good stuff. Strawberry and Lime cider. But it's a bit expensive. I also like the Smirnoff goon sacks, and they're much more alcohol-bang for your buck. But the nozzle looks like it may be a difficult one do inflate after I've gotten around to drinking it all.

Being massively bogan. And a massive geeky fangirl. All at the same time.

Having the coolest stubby holders around. And a tutorial to share too!

Stubby Holders: You will need (measurements are in cm, a rough conversion should work fine)

10cmx 24cm rectangle of insul-bright (the stuff that goes in quilted oven mitts)

9cm long piece of soft and flexible velcro (you can use the regular stuff, but this is way better)

30cmx12cm piece of pieced fabric (or whatever print you want on the outside) and 30cmx12cm of inside fabric, sewn together to make one long piece. Or a 60cmx12cm strip of fabric.

Lay the insulbrite on the wrong side of the inside fabric, with a centimetre or so overlapping onto the outside fabric.

If your insulbrite has one side that looks plusher than the other, put the plush side up.

Flip it over, holding the insulbrite in place, and sew the scratchy side of the velcro over the seam, about 5mm from the edge of the insulbrite.

The stitches can't be seen very well, but there's about half a centimetre on the three edge sides

Trim the overhanging end edge to 3cm.

Fold the outside down over the insulbrite, get the inside fabric out of the way and trim the outside fabric to 1cm beyond the end of the insulbrite.

Flip the outside fabric back over the insulbrite, leaving a couple of millimetres of overhang in your fold, so the insulbrite doesn't bunch at the end when you turn it right way out.

At the other end, fold your outside fabric back at about a centimetre from the end of the insulbrite.

Fold the inside fabric over the top of that, with the fold extending a few millimetres past the end of the insulbrite as before.

Sew down the sides. It doesn't matter if any insulbrite gets caught, it will just mean a slightly bulkier bit. Make sure to backtrack at either end or else it will come loose.

Turn right way out. The opening should end in a little pillowtuck type end.

Sew the soft side of the velcro over this to close it.

Quilt however you like. Vertical stripes make it curve easier. Sew a box roughly around where the velcro is at the other end. I also did random lines and an edge stitch.

This is designed to fit 375ml cans and standard stubbies. If you drink from different sized bottles, cut your insulbrite to the circumfrence of the bottle +3cm for overlapping velcro.

If you want your drinks to remain extra insulated, use two layers of insulbrite. Cut each to 23 cm and skew them to make a 25cm piece - it needs the extra length because it's thicker. If you can get hold of wetsuit material, that's really good too.

These really aren't that different to the coffee insulators that I've seen about a bit, only straight. And with the velcro helping you cheat your way out of tricky turning gaps needing sewing up.