December Sketchbook and Goodbye 2013

Is it really time to say goodbye to 2013?
Really? I just got used to writing 2013 as part of the date...

Ah well, such is life. On to bigger and better things, right?

For my last post of this year, I thought I'd share some of the highlights of what has amassed in my sketchbook since the last time that I shared my artwork. Nothing too fancy, but I wanted to put it out there anyway [and maybe turn this into a regular monthly update thing].

I love sketching wings.

And cat facial expressions. THEY'RE SO PRECIOUS. Especially since the one on top is basically a self-portrait...

And who doesn't love red pandas? But for real though-- does anyone know what kind of sound they make? Because I imagine it being like a muffled hrrfrrfrrrr or something.

I also managed to ACTUALLY do some colored sketches too. This one was inspired my compass roses.

And sexy magicians. Nuff said.

Oh yeah, and welcome my newest OC-- Micah. He's another precious babe :] Because I have an obsession of making a disproportionate amount of male OCs... I regret NOTHING.

I mean come on, look at that little faaaaace! [and the amount of washing out that my scanner did!]


But anyway, I hope to be able to draw more in 2013. The last semester really limited my amount of free time, but hopefully I'll be able to accomplish more in 2014--


[maybe] Linkin' up:
x x x

Blogger Spotlight: Forever Last in Line

Hey kids- I have something exciting to share today :'D

I want y'all to meet my dear friend Carolyn:

Carolyn is the owner of the Last in Line Shop, as well as the author of Forever Last in Line.

Not only that, but she is a supa-rad, dope-as-hell, very dear friend of mine. Carolyn and I met back in our freshman year of college, and it's been madness ever since. We've been on some crazy adventures, from walkabouts through random parts of the city to climbing rooftops to getting kidnapped from the library to playing with parachutes and taking over lounges. This girl people, this girl.

She is also a fiber goddess, and can crochet and knit literally ANYTHING. I def encourage y'all to check out her blog and shop to experience her skills firsthand. I mean come on:

Unicorn hats?

Cozy hipster beanies?

And straight-up gorgeous knits? What isn't to love?!
Carolyn is actually the one who first introduced me to crocheting, and she is seriously the best teacher I could have asked for. She is also a recent newbie to the gluten-free/thug life, so she has tons of great reviews of gluten free delectables on her blog!


But for real though, dawgs, I love this girl. She is super fun, super crafty, and has such an awesome sense of humor. I'd love it if y'all checked her out!

Cowboy Boot Refashion

Well howdy :]

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! And aren't too emotionally damaged over Matt Smith's departure from Doctor Who BECAUSE YOU KNOW I AM.


But beyond that I have one more refashion of sorts to share before 2013 leaves us for good. Or not for good if you have a Tardis and I said I was emotionally compromised OKAY.

Over the summer, my roommate and I went to this hella-big flea market and found a few treasures; one of which included these beauties:

However, they did not exactly look this when I found them. Actually... they were a little more like this:

Ooh girl.

Dang.

You nasty.

But when I stumbled across them, I knew I could not just leave these poor defenseless booties to suffer on their own. They had such potential. And for seven dollars? One does not simply pass up seven dollar cowboy boots-- I don't care who you are. So with a few materials and a little bit of insanity experimentation, I decided to refinish these puppies and give them the facelift they deserved.

What I used:
-Fine grit sandpaper (at least 220)
-Acetone
-Paper towels
-Painter's tape
-Acrylic paint
-Paintbrushes

First, I taped off the edges of my boots that I wanted to be protected i.e. the fake snakeskin on the bottom portion of the boots. Because we all know that fake snakeskin is super dope. Then with my fine grain sandpaper, I started to take off the old finish of the boots. As you can see, the leather was already majorly coming off, so the sanding just edged it along.

It really makes you wonder where these boots have been though, right? I like to believe that they once belonged to a shirtless cowboy.

Eventually, I sanded them down to a point so that they were pretty uniformly worn. I used about medium pressure to try and take the leather off, but I made sure to avoid sanding over the stitching, lest I ruin the integrity of the boots.

Then came the acetone, which is basically like a type of paint thinner [you can find it next to the rest of the paint thinners at the hardware store]. Yeah, acetone is an ingredient in nail polish remover, but I would not use that remover itself, mostly because it has dyes and whoknowswhatelse that would affect the leather. So working one section at a time, I poured a little acetone on a paper towel and rubbed the rest of the finish off of the leather...

... until it was all shmooth.

Next came the painting. I mixed up two tubs-- one was just straight paint, the other I watered down to make a wash.

Then I just painted in stages. I painted three layers with the wash on each boot, then went on to paint two or three layers with the unwatered-down paint. The wash was really just to prep the leather for the thicker layers of paint, and I didn't really bother to let those layers dry in between. With the thicker paint, I did let those layers dry before painting on top of them again.

And now I have a pair of brand new old boots! I thought about adding some sort of protective finish on the painted parts, but acrylic is plastic-based and waterproof anyway, so I didn't really bother. If anyone has any suggestions on what to use though, I'm open :]

This makes me excited now though because imagine all the possibilities... and how many other ugly leather Goodwill shoes this technique can be used on.... hmmmmm.

Well, have a happy Friday!

Linkin' up:

x x x

Boxy Dress Refashion

Hey-yo kids :]

Guess who is back with another refashion? This was another one that I did right at the end of the summer, but didn't get around to importing the photos until a short while ago. I know, I'm SO on top of life:

But anyway, I scored this beauty for a dollar at goodwill and thought that it would be a pretty easy update [PS my shins in these pictures are evidence that I'm really good at moving furniture out of apartments. CLEARLY.].

All I did was make a big ol' chop right across the bottom, which I promptly hemmed...

...then pinned and sewed up the sides so that it wasn't so boxy...

... and finally finished the whole thing up by putting a zipper the the back. Because who doesn't love bright yellow zippers, amiright? Right.
Actually, I only put it in because once I took in the sides, I was no longer able to just slip the whole thing over my head. But still, let's just pretend it was for fashion purposes~

And just like that, this dress went from "hey look, I'm pretty much wearing a body pillow" to "hey look, now it's kind of like a little black dress."
Awww yeeeeeah.
I feel like you can always find these big boxy dresses at the thrift store, so I'm excited to try and do this again sometime!


Because I'll be linkin' this one up here and here!

DIY Pleated Skirt

What up, homedogs?

So I recently just rediscovered some pictures I took of a project that I did back in the spring, back when I was first trying my hand at this whole "sewing thing."

Now, as it should be abundantly clear by now, I'm not the best seamstress. I'm more the "oh my gosh let's pretend we're on Project Runway-just start making things up-SEWING MACHINE GO" kind of seamstress. So needless to say, there are plenty of ways to improve on this project. But I thought I would share anyway in case you were interested in what I did :] All you need is 2 yards of cotton fabric and then BOOM. Skirt.

Step One: First things first, I measured my hip/waist region, since I wanted the top of the skirt to sit somewhere in that general vicinity. Depending on where you want your skirt to rest, this would determine the exact measurement you use. I ended up selecting 30 inches as my magic number, then added another inch for seam allowance. But that measurement will come in handy in just a sec-- FIRST first, I should mention that I threw my fabric on the floor like a real sewing champ and cut the whole piece in half lengthwise, which determined the overall length of my skirt.

Step Two: Going back to my magic number of 31 inches, I began pleating my skirt back and forth in one inch pleats... kind of like making little Z's with the fabric, lining the edge of one pleat up with the next. I'm sure y'all already know much more about pleating than me though :]

Step Three: THEN CAME THE NON-OPTIONAL PART. I had Kitty assist me in pleating because cats know hella-lot about that kind of thing.

Step Four: I kept on pleating until I got to my magic number of 31 inches.

Step Five: Then, to keep everything in place, I did a quick basting stitch across the top of the pleats.

Step Six: Next, I cut out a piece of fabric that was 4 inches by 31 inches. After folding the right sides together, I sewed down the bottom long edge, then turned it back right-side out.

Step Seven: Finally, I tacked the waistband to the top of the pleats, then stitched it down for good. In retrospect, I would have done this differently, like instead of just sewing it down, I would have sewn the tops of the pleats inside of the waistband [but I can't words right now so that probably doesn't make sense]. But mostly I would have finished my edges first. FINISH THOSE EDGES, YO. For real. Because that looks like a hot mess right now, I realize.

Then as the final finishing step[which I forgot to photograph], I sewed the the skirt together into a proper skirty-circle and put a zipper in the back.

And just like that, we have skirty-goodness. Because who uses a pattern anyway? Oh yeah, normal people... oops.


Ah well, have a pleasant Thursday!
Linkin' up hurr and hurr.

Mod Podge Purse

Heeeeey....
Heh. Eheh. Ehhhh.....

So one thing that I finished a while back was for a contest that a local boutique back home was holding:

What the contest basically entailed was that you were given a plain black plastic purse, and you had to decorate it any way that you wanted.
And for some reason, my train of thought took me in the direction of birch bark. I don't even sometimes.

All I really did for it was tear up a lot of scrapbook paper, phone books, paper doilies and brown paper bags and then mod podged it all on there haha. And then to finish it off, I painted some simple stylized birch branches and glued it all on top. Simple but fun, yeah?

Yay mod podge, yay.
And on the cool side, I actually ended up winning the contest. That's what sitting in your basement and hoarding craft supplies will get ya, kids. Live the dreeeeam~


And, as ever, I'll be linkin' up here!

Tassel Dress Refashion

Howdy :]

Guess who has to start school on Monday? This kid.
Guess who is completely not ready to start school on Monday? Also this kid.

So instead of going back to my new apartment to unpack and get ready for the new school year, I have a refashion to share!

[Sorry for the blurry image] But this one was a bit of a doozy. I had no idea what to do with it at first since it was so bizarre, but I think I managed to give it a little bit of an update!

That pattern was just too fantastic to pass up; I mean little gold tassels and crazy patterns everywhere? I say AW HECK YEAH. So here was how I did a major overhaul on this one:

First I ripped out the ever-so-lovely shoulder pads. I really need to figure out something to do with all of these shoulder pads I'm amassing haha. I also cut out that weird white undershirt that was sewn into the front of the dress. [You heard me. Sewn in white shirts. I don't even.]

Then I a) cut off the weird shoulder detail things and b) Cut off the entire collar of the dress. Basically, a lot of chopping was in store for this dress...

Then here is where you'll have to bear with me a little bit: I decided to turn the entire dress backwards. I knew that without the white shirt demon-thing, the front of the dress would be entirely too inappropriate, so I cut a new neckline out of the back of the dress instead.

Then it was back to more chopping- the sleeves got a good shortening, as well as the bottom of the dress.

With all the chopping done, I turned the dress inside out, then took the entire top half in a good inch or two so that it fit me a little better. Then once it was all fitted, I hemmed the sleeves, neckline, and bottom of the skirt portion.

Unfortunately, here was where I ran into a little more trouble. I could have worn the dress as-is at this point, with a super open back and everything, but I felt that if I did that, I could run into some dangerous territory. So instead I came up with this crazy idea: using a scrap from the bottom of the dress, I sewed a rectangle that was a little bit long and wide [to conceal a bra backing CLEVER ME], which I proceeded to sew into the bottom-back area of the dress to hold it together a little better.

I then did the same thing with a long skinny rectangle of fabric, this time attaching it to the upper part of the back of the dress.

And then there it was! A funky-printed, cut-out dress! It's a little weird because I have to slip the whole thing over my head to get it on [I only put two buttons on the back near the butt-region], so if I ever do something like this again, I'll probably not sew the back straps down like I did.

But regardless of that fact, I'm still pleased to knock another crazy dress out of my "to be refashioned" pile :]

Have a pleasant Thursday! [AND REMEMBER THAT PROJECT RUNWAY IS ON TONIGHT AW YISS].


Linkin' up Here and Here.

Grey Striped Skirt Refashion

So, my motto as of late has been "Becca. You need to not be lazy."
But then again.... I haven't really been listening to that motto.

But despite my laziness I still have a quick refashion to share:

I love how simply shortening an item of clothing can completely breathe new life into it. Like, it never ceases to amaze me.

SO GREATY GREAT. It's like we just did the time warp and now we're magically back in this decade.

This started off as a wool [ish? I'm not sure] skirt that was just a little too long for my liking. And all I had to do was make a big ol' chop then hem it all up. Simple as that!

BOOM. 'Nother refash in the bag, yo.



Linkin' up Here and Here