Buttons

Felt is still happening, but instructions have slowed down a bit. 

Why? 

Because I found my grandfather's old button maker. 

That, combined with my grandmother's old vintage 1960s magazines, has produced a new craft!

Behold. Buttons.

The challenge to myself is to use the vintage phrases/words from the magazines along with the pictures. It'd be easier--though not as fun--to create my own sayings to match the vintage imagery. 

Considering that my desire to do these far outstrips the space I have on any given piece of clothing/purse/whatever to display them, I think I'll put these in my etsy shop, eventually. 

Here is a sampling of some other buttons...under the cut. 

Sally Yates: "I said no."

Timeliness can be problematic. After Sally Yates eviscerated Ted Cruz and John Cornyn I had a friend pipe up: Hey, you should do a Sally Yates thing!

Which...yeah. I totally should. And fast. Because I doing these current event felt objects means that time is of the essence. 

So I designed and made a Sally Yates ornament:

With mistakes. 

First off, Sally doesn't really have many pithy (short) quotes to use. 

Secondly, it's really hard to accurately capture that head-looking-up regal pose without someone looking just plain crooked. So much of that chin definition in that pose relies on the natural shadows and 3D-ness of the human body. It's very difficult to subtly render anything in felt, and it requires subtlety. 

Because of this, the lettering looks crooked. Which bugs me a TON. 

I also got the layering on the pink shirt wrong. I guess I haven't done one of these in a while (I've been working on a Firefly Busy Book and some stitching samplers) and I'm out of practice. 

Oh well, you can't get them all right the first time. I might still use this example in a pattern, though, because I rarely love making the same thing twice. 

Monty Python Holy Grail Busy Book

All my felt crafting started with a busy book. It was a Star Trek TNG busy book, to be exact. I bought a pattern off Etsy, and made my first project. 

But, you see, I'm kind of a Star Trek superfan. I kept thinking of scenes and characters that I wanted to add to the book. So I designed my own pages and added to it. Eventually I had to split the busy books into TNG and TOS. But I digress. 

I also love other geeky things. So I designed and made a Monty Python Flying Circus busy book. Behold!

The cover page is pretty basic, so dive in after the jump!

Adding Motion: Latrice Royale

I love RuPaul's Drag Race. Unabashedly. Unashamedly. Hence me making a RuPaul ornament. I wanted to memorialize more Drag Queens in felt (because who wouldn't want to do this?), and Latrice Royale was my next choice.

I loved this picture:

But the hand was kind of problematic in felt. It would look strange to just have it there, static. It would have been easy to eliminate that hand (by making it straight down at the side), but then I thought...why not have Latrice blowing kisses?

I have done a lot of motion stuff in my busy books (which I still have not posted...and will get around to eventually), so I had an idea to sew a button to make the arm moveable.

And thus, I added motion to ornaments.

Static pictures:

And video (if it works!):


Now I'm curious about what *else* I can add motion too. Could Julia Child actually tenderize a chicken? SHE COULD. If I can dream it, I can make it.

Techniques: Stitch Lettering

I brought my base patterns (without any instructions) down to a craft weekend with friends. I had intended to supervise and teach a bit, but becoming absorbed in my own projects made me less attentive than I should have been. I ended up saying things (after they had already started) like: "Oh, it's much easier if you do X first...sorry, I should have been paying attention."

One thing that might be particularly tricky if you don't have instructions: Stitched lettering. I have an order of operations that makes it go much more smoothly than it can otherwise go.

First:
I didn't take pictures of the very start of the process. I cut out the paper pattern and tape it to an approximate-sized piece of felt around the edges.
Note: I do not cover any stitch areas with tape. It makes it hard to tear later.
Note 2: I do not cut out the felt ornament at this time.

Tape down! Don't cut!

And here's a cut because more pics....

Off the Shop: So you've had a vasectomy!

A friend's husband had a vasectomy.

This occasion needed to be celebrated by something that I will likely never sell.

I realize it's not biologically accurate, but it does capture the spirit of things. :)

Off the Shop: A dubious commission.

I've detailed here how I decide who and what to make, and one of those criterion is that it has to fit with my personal philosophies in some way. I wouldn't ever make a Hitler ornament, for instance, because f*ck no.

So when a friend asked me if I was making a Donald Trump ornament, my response was an enthusiastic "absolutely not". When he asked me if I could make one for him, it was a similar response.

But he begged and begged with the absolute caveat that I could make it look like anything I wanted; it didn't have to be reverent (he was not a Trump supporter).

We looked through pictures together and settled on a design that he and I could both tolerate.

I still delayed. I created projects that were placed into the line before this one--every time I would think about doing it I would exclaim an audible "ugh".

But once I say I'll do a thing, I do it.

And here it is.

It's interesting. Because my heart wasn't into it, I didn't really do as quality a job as I would have wanted to . . . and I don't care. I would have re-done the eyes, for sure. And the mouth. (Stitched instead of felt.) Alas, I'm not spending another moment on it.

This is also not my original design. If I had intended to sell this or do anything more than quietly give it to my friend, I wouldn't have blatantly ripped off this street design and I would have put more effort into many elements.

The original "Dump Trump" on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Courtesy of Hanksy. Via Business Insider.