Lost: Linky Leader and Bloggy Friend. If found, please call...

Has anyone heard from Shay lately? I was all set to write tonight about how much I love a bitch session, but I just looked for something to link up to and there wasn't anything there.

I did read something the other day about a lady from Adelaide finally claiming a $900,000 jackpot that she apparently got as a christmas present but never got around to checking, so maybe that was Shay, and she's bumped up her Hawaii trip without telling anyone.

It's a shame, that would make a fantastic favourite things friday post.

Anyway, yeah, I love a bitch session. I know it's a bit mean at times, and it amuses he how some bitch sessions are about how bitchy certain other people are, but on the other hand, it's a handy way of reminding ourselves that the human experience is pretty much universal, and we really are all in it together, even when we're not. So yay for having a whinge to an agreeable ear.

We got the custom batch of monsters finished tonight, and yay for that too, and also a resolute "If I say I'm going to do monsters in the next 6 months, slap me."

And the fantastically named "Angst Bag" (thanks Thea) is coming along nicely: the outside's all done, the inside's nearly done and then it just needs a zipper to join it all together.

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.

I did some stuff!

Today was not good. I haven't been that hungover since the night that I can't remember any of. I need to stop trying to drink as much as Casey drinks. She can drink more than I can, I need to accept that, and not try to keep pace. Lesson learned, until next time.

So anyway, I could barely stand, let alone sew, for most of the day. I know, theoretically, that it's better for you to eat something as soon as you get up, and get outside and moving, but I just don't want to. I just want to nap a bit more, maintain horizontality, and maybe be sick a little bit. The alternative makes you feel better sooner (I know that from BnS balls) but when you're feeling shit, you may as well wallow in it.

I didn't get started sewing till 9, but I've managed to do all the faces on the custom monsters, and I've sewn and turned the arms too. Five of the eight new monsters have horns. Horns are popular, it seems. Hard to turn those little points, but I found a bobby pin.

It's been a bit weird to be making pairs, but it's not the first time - I made a matching set years ago for one of my friends from work's sons.

FTW!

All the custom monsters (fortunately there were only 8) have been cut out.

Achievement!

Good. Nice. Likin it.

My favourite thing this 5am Saturday is the fact that the latest batch of monsters are all finished. But I'm also a big fan of fabric markers, and HSTs, and insisting that my 48 year old machine is as good as most of the machines in the $400 range of the market today (and I wonder how many of them will still be going in 48 years?)

Tomato sauce is pretty good too, as are facebook groups and spontaneous sewing gatherings.

Lipsmackers which are comically oversized amuse me, as do magnets, when you try to stick them together the wrong way. I am easily amused.

And realising that you made your test bag all wrong is a bit annoying, but then when, 5 minutes later, your brain points out that you know exactly how to do it, since you did it this way all the time about 3 years ago, well, it's a nice feeling to know that it will all be better next time.

And again with the monsters...

Tonight I laid out all the blue and grey HST units so I could pin them together and start sewing them. Naturally, I had a sudden dislike of my positioning, and spent an hour sitting on the floor moving sqaures till I was happy. Well, happier.

It's a lot easier to do a shuffle when the HSTs are still HALF square TRIANGLES. Once they're a whole square, it's a lot harder, since you've got to be happy with the position of both fabrics. And when I look at old quilts, it's never the slightly off points that get me, rather it's the positioning of the various fabrics, especially if they're randomly placed. But there has to come a point where you go, "Suck it up Sara, and just start sewing the goddamn thing already."

And since it's pretty much all new fabrics, if it all turns to shit I will simply sacrifice another $30 of my moneys and buy all the fabrics again and start over.

And:

Tie-Dyed Flannel

The little yellow guy looked like a Bee Gee before He got the massive arms. Now he doesn't.

Spotlight now has cartoon-style safety eyes. Only used on one monster, and I'm still not sure about them.

The little guy with the purple horns is purple on the back too, but the back of his horns is green.

The fabric of the big guy was horrible to use because it was so lightweight and shifted like crazy when I was trying to sew it.

The centre lady is the only monster so-far to get a name - Rosa (der)

Possibly father and son?

The problem with double sided batiks and nearly-but-not-quite-symetrical body shapes is that sometimes you get them half pinned before you realise it's back-to-front.

The one on the top had a spontaneously occuring hole just next to his right underarm, so I had to handsew him a wider seam allowance to contain it, and then I had to do the same to the other side so he was symetrical. That's why his arms are so close to his sides.

These two are toats my favourites.

Monsters!

Only a couple of them have been handsewn though.

Bocket o' Monsters

It is 5am, but, but for the handsewing of the turning holes, all 27 monsters of batch #4 are complete.

Some of these guys have amazing teeth. I'm jealous. But most of them have no depth perception (having only one eye) so I guess, you win some you lose some.

Pinteresting?

After a morning filled with being awake, an lunchtime filled with existential angst, an afternoon spent napping and an evening at work, I came home and got to pinning monsters for the night. It's good that it's a very much "in front of the TV" kinda task, because it's quite frustrating.

Because you sew and turn out and stuff the arms first, and because monsters are under no obligations to conform to the ratios we find pleasing in a person, often their arms are longer than the boddies they have to be pinned inside of.

My tip, for anyone who wants to make monsters of their own, would be to sew them once, over the edges that have arms or horns in them, and then shove the arms well out of the way and sew the groin area. If you try to do it all in one hit, the position of the arms can get distorted, and they'll be pointing in all sorts of weird directions.

Also, the movie RED is very enjoyable, and good for watching while pinning monster bodies.

Pathetic. (Me. I'm pathetic. Not the monsters.)

So, with the new sharper pointier scissors that I bought yesterday, I started cutting more eyeholes in monsters this afternoon.

Well, I say started. I pushed the tip through the fabric and straight into my fingertip.

See that tiny, tiny spot on my fingertip? Look closely, it's tiny. It's been 14 hours and it hurts like hell. I'm a little bit of a sook, in case you haven't noticed. But I appear to own the world's sharpest, pointiest scissors, and they only cost me $7, which seems pretty good value...

Anyway, tonight after work I got the rest of the eyes done, I got all the little arms and horns sewed (all 62 of them) and I snipped all the inside curves and turned them all inside out and I've stuffed 30 of them, but I've run out of episodes of Long Way Down to watch and also, it's 3am.

Just to amuse myself, I've strung my little rope of arms across my fabric shelves - if you're going to mass produce 62 tiny arms, leave them in a chain together, because it makes them much easier to turn right way out and stuff. And you can hang them on your wall.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, here's Casey's poem:

The number of this Aristocrat,

Is the answer that you seek,

Don't get hooked on the Enchanted Forest,

We've a wedding this time next week.

Two to go, and about an hour tomorrow to do them in.

Naww...

They look even cuter with pupils.

Unfortunately, it seems that my sharp pointy scissors don't really have sharp enough points so I've given up after half a dozen cause it's too hard. Looks like I need new scissors too.

Monster Mash

On a completely unrealated note, it was photo day at Grant High School today too.

They at least (hopefully, though you never know with east-enders) had their eyeballs. I'm not sure where my collection of safety eyes is, so I'll have to go and buy some more tomorrow.

Those monstrous eyes...

Before I do monsters again, I think I need to get myself a BabyGo or a Cricut - my poor thumb has been rubbed raw from cutting all the little circles for eyes. The main problem is how thick it is - I fuse together some white quilting cotton with white wool felt and then another layer of webbing to fuse them both to the face. And since if you draw on the fabric or the webbing it bleeds through when you iron it, there's the layer of paper too. A single layer of cotton isn't enough to cover the print and the wool tends to pill, which shits me, so this is pretty much the only way to get the finish I want.

Still, fusing down the faces is the least production-line-y bit of the process, and therefore one of the bits I like better. What were just shapes now have personalities, even though they don't have eyeballs. One of them appears to be a reincarnated BeeGee, and one of them is shrugging without having shoulders. That's quite a talent.

I also seem to have mainly single-eyed monsters - possibly because I went with bigger eyes this time (easier to sew down) and less eyes also means less cutting. Still, I like one-eyed, since it gives the impression of monstery-ness even though most of them are four-limbed creatures same as us.

Monsterising

When I was little, Helen used to call me Sara Scissor Hands.

Tonight, I used scissors for about 3 straight hours, and HATED it.

I missed my rotary cutter. I tried mixing up the scissors, so they weren't constantly rubbing on the same places on the same fingers. I tried big scissors and little scissors and scissors somewhere in between.

I now have a flat pack* of 26 monsters ready to be faced. I think it gets a lot more interesting once you start giving them faces - that's when the personalities come out.


*These are fantastic for keeping all the little bits together and flat - they're an A4 case about 1.5cm thick that are meant for keeping paperwork in - usually found in the stationary aisle.

I'm sorry, tummy.

Turns out that if you eat 2 kilos of strawberries in as many days you end up with a belly that could be confused for one containing a 4 month old foetus, as well as the related tendencies to lean back slightly into your weight, say "oof" a lot and rub the underside of your belly. I was told today by a co-worker that were it not for the fact that I hadn't shut up about strawberries all day, she'd think I was pregnant.

I'd love to see that in the maternity ward. The doctor'd be all like "congratulations... it's a... strawberry!" and we'd all make excited noises and start whipping ourselves up some cream.

Anyway, tonight I finished downloading the entire series of Scrubs so I've been watching that and since it was too hard to concentrate on actual sewing and new TV, I decided to make a start on the next batch of monsters.

Only five cut out, but an achievement is an achievement, and anyway, I could only find crappy scissors.

Rainbow Pants Monsters.

I had a look through my scrap bag tonight because I figure I should start thinking about the next batch of monsters rather than cramming them into a frantic 3 days come early February. Also, I was at the salvos the other day and found some fantastic handmade (the sewer had problems with the tension on their overlocker. They're not the only ones) rainbow batik pants for $3, and I think they'll chop up into some really lovely monsters.

Back to my scraps, and I was pleasantly surprised. I'd had a rummage when I was doing the last lot of monsters, but there was still a fair bit of decent stuff in there. Lots of narrower bits too, I noticed, about 10cm wide, so I drew up some more skinny monsters to use that stuff up. And while I was drawing, I sketched out a couple of four legged shapes, because most of them are a wee bit humanoid. Mainly because it's the easiest to make, but I should stretch myself, and four legs is only a little bit harder than two, whereas four arms is a surprisingly large amount more work.

I think the thing I learned most doing the last batch (other than "don't decide 5 days before christmas to make a dozen monsters really really quickly for the facebook crowd") was that I really like long arms. There's going to be a lot of long armed monsters in the next few batches.

Feelings

It's been a day of interesting feelings today. There was the time spent in the perfume section of Priceline, feeling ignorant and alienated (because I'm anosmic. Google it). There was the time tonight when I realised that I'd made a goddamn stupid mistake* on Casey's bag and had to spend 20 minutes unpicking the zipper, feeling stupid and angry at myself. But on the other hand, I got a small child happily into bed, and that felt quite good, since it's not something I would have previously considered myself capable of. And selling all the monsters tonight at Helen's, in the space of one slightly frenetic hour, actually felt kinda great. It's a lovely feeling to have my stuff be very much wanted, and, even though I'm certainly in no rush, to leave them already wanting more.

Now though, having pretty much finished Casey's bag (I've just got to neaten up and overlock the inside seams) I'm pretty much just feeling tired.

*I cut the vliesofix and had it as my pattern interfaced to the lining to give me the size I needed. But because it was the start of a new piece from spotlight, the edge was wonky and though I remembered to draw a nice straight line to square it off, I didn't actually cut that line, meaning one zipper edge was, at one end of the zip, over a centimetre wider than it should have been. And yeah, I didn't realise it till I had sewn, threaded and cut down the zipper.

Yay!

5am, we meet again....

Yeah, I'm not good at this whole "going to bed" thing. Buuuuuut.....

Faced, sewn, stuffed and ready to hand-sew closed tomorrow. My favourite is the pale blue one at the right. He has really long arms, so you can fold (knot) them and he looks really gangsta.

I think I'm doing it wrong....

I'm not particularly good at this "Christmas decorating" thing.

Though some of those little arms do look kinda like stockings.

All this batch of monsters are fully faced now and all their little arms have been sewn, but not stuffed, cause I didn't get out of bed early enough to make it to Spotlight and Casey got there at 5.25 and didn't think to name-drop her way in. Silly Girl. Stuffing is another of those things I have *somewhere*

I'm feeling extremely grateful that I have the day after tomorrow off, since I still have a lotta lotta stuff to do. My goal is to get these guys sewn and stuffed tomorrow night/friday morning and drop them into Helen, and hopefully she'll be nice enough to sew them closed for me, since I hate that job.

Here we go again...

Because I am a sucker.

I couldn't even find my old patterns, let along the half dozen half-faced monsters I know are somewhere. Lucky I posted all the patterns on here a while ago - look under the tutorial label if you're wanting it.

Spotlight didn't have any opaque white fabric paint, so I've had to sew on a layer of felt with a layer of white quilting cotton fused over the top - that's the only combo that properly covers the prints underneath, and doesn't pill like the felt does on it's own. Fortunately, without actually practicing or doing it all that often, I suddenly got quite good at raw edge machine applique. Yay me.

But my vision's starting to go blurry from staring intently at a turning circle of white and my bobbin ran out. And if an empty bobbin isn't a sign to stop for the night, I don't know what is. Maybe the fact that it's a quarter to five. That works too.

Lying.

Have you ever made someone something and then been all bummed that you don't get to keep it?

Any of you that said no, I'd like to remind you that Santa is watching, and you've only got yourself to blame if you don't get anything on Sunday. If I know you're lying, then Santa does too.

I've been working hard* on Casey's bag tonight, and I want it. Want want want. Sulk. Maybe I will steal it later. It's not yet finished yet, and I have some distractions, maybe I can pretend that it can't be finished, and then sneaky finish it and keep it for myself.

The distractions I mentioned are a sudden call for lots and lots of monsters, in the next 4 days. Helen put them on facebook, and people went and bought them all, and wanted more. And they're not having Alex (he remains my monster) so I'll have to see what I can do.

*Just because I spent long periods of time getting distracted by making myself a new headband, cooking some rice, playing with some zippers, painstakingly cutting some fabric on the grain, and wrapping a couple of presents, doesn't mean I wasn't working hard, y'know, in between all that stuff.