Patches, patches, and more patches...

Lately all I feel like I've been doing is stenciling and sewing up patches. I've made them before for sure, but this whole bout of creativity started with an urge to channel all of my Portal 2 love into something. I started with a turret and an outline of Chell for myself, but my friends took an interest in them and I ended up making more:

Turret, two versions of Wheatley, two Companion Cubes, Chell, and GlaD0S!

After that, I figured it only made sense to try to get some patches into my shop, and what better way than by sketching up some monsters and stenciling them?

Currently available =)

But as great as keeping things simple and black and white is, there would have to be some color, too...

Yay, bright colors!

After that, some friends started making some special requests since they liked my Portal patches so much:

Pokemon badges, a Pokeball, and the Assassin's Creed symbol

And ALL THAT left me with a big pile of patches and designs on my desk...so I decided to make a listing in my shop for anyone who liked the things I had already made and wanted one, or who had their own idea in mind and wanted a custom patch. Now you can click here to check that out =)

So many patches...

 Oh, but even that wasn't the end...because then Joshua asked me if I would help make his dream of a patched up blazer come true. Needless to say, I obliged, and I am now little more than a band-logo-patch-making machine:

Not even all of them...

Please don't let my fabric markers run dry too soon.

<3

A Halloween Review...

Hello everyone!

So, I spent most of October agonizing over not knowing what to be, then at the very last minute deciding to make a Charizard costume. Basically, the last week of the month was full of sewing, sewing, and more sewing. I didn't even stop to shower I was so determined to finish...haha. Still didn't, but I got a decent amount done and it came out far better that I had dared to hope.

The hood! It's a little bit tight, but it came out much nicer than expected

The shirts are from the thrift store and the pants used to be Joshua's...haha

Side view...

Wings!

I still need to finish up some things - I want to cover the elastic straps for the wings and then properly attach them, maybe work on making the center piece a bit sturdier, make gloves/legwarmers, finish the tail and find a better way to attach it than safety pinning it to the bottom of my shirt (haha), possibly come up with a better overall outfit...I'm telling myself that this is really just an early start to a Comic-Con outfit for next year.

It's all made out of different colors of fleece, some pipe cleaners in the wings, and lots of polyfil. I did much more handsewing than I originally anticipated and that's probably what slowed me down, but oh well. I don't feel like I have the same amount of control with my machine just yet, but I'm sure that will come with more experience. I didn't have a pattern for any of this - just kind of winged it. I referenced the pattern I used to make this dog a little to help with getting some of the three-dimensional aspects right and traced the basic shape of my monster hood, but otherwise, I just drew out pattern pieces on junk mail based on pictures I found of Charizard and traced them onto fabric.

Examples of my pattern pieces...JUNK MAIL IS GOOD FOR SOMETHING AFTER ALL!

My signature inside of the hood...you can also see the ridges I sewed into the top of the mouth.

Besides that, there's not a lot going on in my part of the world...I did make a new bat named Tim that one of my friends has claimed (you can still see him up on Etsy, though):

Tim the blue and green bat! With eyes from 6060.etsy.com

I figured since it was Halloween, I was due to make another bat...haha. Still haven't made a regular old black one though...that might be next on the agenda.

It's also worth noting that I've started using my Artfire account again, meaning there is some jewelry up in my shop there! I thought I'd give some things a second chance on there and expand my web presence. Go check it out here: http://www.artfire.com/users/EmoSeal

Oh! And before I forget, enter The Dainty Squid's latest giveaway!

In the meantime, let me know how your Halloween was! I'll be updating again when I get something new made =)