Someone gave me a bunch of used Tshirts a few years ago, and then I’ve of course added to that pile with our own old Tshirts, but I had no idea what I was planning to do with them. I’ve slowly found uses for the fronts, and thrown away the fronts that were too worn out to be reused.

From the parts that were left, I cut out a bunch of squares - bigger squares (11×11) for a quilt and smaller squares to replenish our family wipe stash.

But while I was cutting the quilt squares, I lost count and ended up with more squares than I needed for the twin-size quilt I was making. So I made this smaller throw first. I’m actually quite pleased with how it turned out, and it wasn’t hard. This is my first quilt. Yay me!

I have the top done for the twin size, too, and I’ll be backing that with a vintage cotton, but that’s still in my WIP pile.

Take the Handmade Pledge this holiday season. I just did, and this will be going on about five years we’ll be giving only handmade gifts for Christmas.

Here’s a blurb from the Buy Handmade website:

Buying handmade is better for people, better for the environment, and better for giving truly special and well-crafted gifts. The ascendancy of chain store culture and global manufacturing has left us all dressing, furnishing, and decorating alike. The connection between producer and consumer has been lost. Buying handmade helps them reconnect.

We encourage all consumers to be aware of the social and environmental implications of their purchases.

First, this is an outfit to be worn to a dance, and to be made cheaply and with materials I could get ahold of easily. As Randy kept telling me as I was creating it, “you know, I’m not a real Jedi, right?” Yes, yes. And so I let go of my urges to be 100% accurate, and went for “accurate enough.” (Plus, actual Jedi don’t have quite the girth that my Jedi does.)

Actual Jedi:

My Jedi:

Modifications I made:

• The actual Jedi inner tunic seems to have more form-fitted sleeves. As I was using cotton that was nonstretchy, but I needed a lot of ease of movement, I went with wider sleeves.
• Actual Jedi pants seem to be more form-fitting, as well, but we went with baggy for a few reasons. 1) dancing. 2) my husband’s, uh, girth..
• The actual Jedi robe doesn’t have as many seams as mine does. Because I was about a yard short on fabric, I had to have shoulder seams and also a seam down the middle of the hood.

I used weaver’s cloth in a cream color for the inner tunic and pants, starting with a Karate uniform pattern and making a few modifications. I used weaver’s cloth in a tan color for the outer tunic, starting with Simplicity 5840 and making a few modifications (including a tuck at the shoulder). The tabbards and obi I made just from strips of fabric, about 7 inches wide. The robe took the longest, which is strange since it’s the simplest of all the pieces. I spent at least 4 hours staring at the fabric and trying to work out how to cut it. The robe is made from a really nice 100% wool suiting from Jo-Ann. It’s really nice and heavy.

I will be continuing to improve this costume as I have time. I actually plan to wait until DH has lost some weight, to help the whole thing hang better. Then I will re-do the inner tunic, to make it from some sort of T-shirt material, to allow the sleeves to bunch up and be more form-fitting at the wrist. I will be making a better belt, and devising some sort of way for the belt, obi, and tabbards to stay in place better.
These websites were very useful to me while working on this costume:

http://www.rmff.net/costumes/tut/jedi/index.html

http://www.thejediassembly.com/tutorials.php?id=sh5

http://www.rebellegion.com/jedigarb/robe.html

http://www.jedi-academy.com/ep1_kenobi_tips.html

http://www.padawansguide.com/basic.shtml

http://kincharbamin.com/Look-Like-A-Jedi.html

More pictures of my Jedi Here, here, and here.

Hey, has everyone seen Colour Lovers? It’s this awesome website where people post their color schemes for various projects. I’ve found it to be an excellent resource for knitting, scrapbooking, and other projects when I have one or two colors in mind but can’t think of other colors to put with them.

We just received word today that Boulevard Designs will be one of the exhibitors at the December Craft Saturday. I’m so excited!

Oh, now I’m off to hurry up and finish those Halloween costumes so I can get to work on items for my booth!

Craft Saturday : Handmade Holiday
Saturday, December 8
Fourth Street Theatre, 216 4th St | Vaudeville Mews, 212 4th St, Des Moines
Show time: Noon - 5 pm

The new theme at Sew Retro is “no more buts.”

I know we all have a vintage pattern (or vintage style pattern) that we look at longingly from time to time

…but it needs redrafting as the waist/bust/hips/whole thing are too big/small

…but you don’t have just the right bit of fabric to make it

…but it’s a little bit harder than you’re used to making so it’s a bit scary

…but it’s a really old pattern and you’re scared of ripping it or messing it up somehow

…but you’re not sure how often or where you’d wear it

…but

…but

I shall have to think about this one. My biggest “but” is “…but I can’t nurse in it.” Even taking this challenge into consideration, I cannot justify making for myself something that I cannot nurse in. I wore a non-nurs-able dress to Jive Junction last week (it was made from a vintage pattern) and ended up nursing in the bathroom with the side zipper unzipped and the whole dress pulled around so that we could nurse through that size zip opening. Ugh.

That was enough to make me swear off dresses until I no longer have a nursing babe.