Author Archives: essieofwho

May 2017 Sunset Photos

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After talking about knitting for the past few weeks, I wanted to give everyone (Including myself) a break from posting about sewing and knitting.

When I bought my new camera few months ago, I wanted to see how well my camera took photos of sunsets. I thought I’d have at least a few chances to take photos of sunsets, but, unfortunately, the weather conditions were not perfect for a pretty sunset or I missed the chance for a variety of reasons. On May 29, 2017 I was able to get outside and take photos of a beautiful sunset.

I’m very pleased with the way the camera took photos of the sunset. My old camera took sunset photos clearly, but the photograph colors began to look off in the last two or so years. Even if I edited the colors in Photoshop, the colors were off. This time, once I adjusted the contrast in Photoshop, the colors looked the same or very similar to the way they did in real life. I think the colors my old Sony couldn’t take photos of was hot pink and orange, but my new Cannon took photos of the clouds with hot pink and orange. This makes me so happy because it improves my ability to take good photos of sunsets with more true to life colors.

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!

 

Easy Knitted Baby Blanket

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In last week’s post, I talked about knitting a blanket for my dog using a knitting pattern I used to make two baby blankets with. At first I didn’t think I should talk about them in a post, but I ended up changing my mind. I also rewrote most of the post because I originally wrote it last year and, well, nine months is a long time to let a post go unfinished. :P

When I made these blankets, I didn’t know anyone who was pregnant, but I still wanted to improve my knitting skills so I can make a baby blanket quickly in case I was invited to a baby shower. I made two blankets, one using pink and white ombre yarn and one with blue and white ombre yarn.

When I took photos of the blankets for this post, I couldn’t find the pink blanket, so the only photo I can post is of the blue one.

The pattern I used to make the blankets is from this video on Youtube from About.com, the same one I used for my dog’s blanket. I Since I knit differently than the way the video says to, I modified the pattern some so I could knit my way. It took me about three weeks to finish knitting both blankets, which is the fastest I ever knitted something. Or in this case, two somethings.

I’m very pleased with the way the blankets turned out and I hope that I will have the ability (And time) to knit someone a blanket for their baby shower!

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!

Brownie’s Knitted Blanket

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This post is a long time coming, but for whatever reason I never got around to making it. Ugh.

Near the end of last year, my dog Brownie became very upset with me. She was angry that I was spending all my time knitting instead of petting her. Back then, my family member just passed away and she was feeling very down a lonely, as was I. In order to cheer her up and let her know that I didn’t forget about her, I decided to knit her a blanket.

I made it using this pattern for a baby blanket on youtube. I finished it last year and it is made out of purple, machine washable yarn. I forgot the name of the yarn I used, but I know I bought it at Walmart. It isn’t very large, but that’s ok. I don’t need to it be very big for Brownie. And it was a fairly easy pattern to knit so it was perfect for a knitter to build up their confidence.

I finished it last year, but I didn’t give it to her until a few weeks ago. (I was lazy and didn’t finish it enough so it won’t fall apart after dog use) It’s now summertime in Arizona so Brownie isn’t very happy to have a warm blanket, but I think she’ll like it when the weather starts to cool off.

Although I made this blanket for my dog, I made two other blankets using the same pattern from the same video. I don’t know if I’ll end up writing a post about it, but since they came before Brownie’s blanket, I think the wording in that post will be weird. Still, I’m considering it.

That’s all for now and thank you for reading!

Elizabethan Whovian- The Underskirt

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Hi everyone! I’m sorry I didn’t make a blog post last week. I had plans for the past weekend that took away from blog writing time. So, I decided not to make a blog post last week. Unfortunately, my planed ended up not working out so now I’m kicking myself for not posting anything at all. In order to get myself back into blogging, I’m going to talk about something simple: the underskirt for the Elizabethan Whovian costume.

Although the underskirt of the costume isn’t as interesting as the gown’s construction, I still had problems with it. I used the same pattern for the underskirt for the gown, Simplicity’s 3782. The fabric I used for the front of the skirt is The Doctor’s Favorite Things by Kdowning on Spoonflower printed on cotton poplin while the rest is made out of white broadcloth.

Here’s what the underskirt looks like on my dress form with a hoop skirt under it…

When I was cutting the front panel, I realized I had the fabric printed 42 inch wide fabric, and it wasn’t wide enough to cut the skirt front. Also, it wasn’t wide enough for me to cut the fabric so the design is not symmetrical. So, the skirt front doesn’t look the way I wanted to. I want to eventually get different fabric (non Doctor Who design) and make a new underskirt with a front panel the way I want it to look, but this one is functional and is in keeping with the Doctor Who theme, so I’m just going to use it as is.

I also changed the amount of white panels in the skirt. I ended up running out of fabric before I could make the eight panels the pattern called for, so I used seven. It looks good anyway and I think eight might be too full for my liking.

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!

Making an 18th Century Bum Pad

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After weeks of working on the Elizabethan Whovian costume, I began to have a sewing idea block. In order to keep myself sewing, I began to work on something I knew I’d need and is easy to sew. Since I needed to make a bum pad for a future 18th century costume, I decided to make that my next sewing project.

The pattern I used to make the bum roll is Simplicity’s pattern number 8162.

Continue reading →

New Camera and Desert Test Photos

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After five and a half years of loyal service, I realized my main camera, a Sony Cybershot, was dying. I knew it was having problems in 2013, but I was still able to make it work and do what I want until last year. While at the Renaissance Festival, I realized it was really having problems and was draining the battery even though the camera was off. I tried new batteries, but nothing worked. I also had problems with it focusing and zooming in when I wanted it to. So, it was time to get a new camera.

After a lot of debate, I decided to get a Cannon Powershot. After getting it, I began playing with my new camera and took photos of a cactus blossom, a tree blossom, and fruit on a barrel cactus.

After taking these photos and editing them, I was very pleased with the way they turned out. Since I didn’t take many photos the first time, I took more photos around the desert to see how far I can push the camera before it starts to have trouble taking photos.

After I took this set, I discovered my camera’s image stabilization stops working after zooming 60x. My camera has a standard 40x zoom, but it can go up to 160x. I think the stabilization of the camera will be fine if I use a tripod, but it’s something of note when I’m carrying the camera around and need it to zoom that far. Also, it has problems focusing on the plants in the foreground when taking a close up of them. My Sony had the same problems when I take close up flower photos, so it’s something I’m used to. Still, it’s something annoying I need to remember if I want to take close up flower photos.

Over all, I’m very pleased with my new camera and find it a good replacement for my old Sony. I still need to test the Cannon to see if it will take photos of stars at night, but, since it behaves like my Sony, I believe the Cannon will be able to take photos at night just fine.

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!

Elizabethan Whovian- The Sleeves

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It’s been a while since I talked about my Elizabethan Whovian so I thought I’d talk about part of the costume I finished, the sleeves!

I was waiting until I posted the photos I took on Time Traveler’s Weekend at the Renaissance festival to talk about the costume. My original plan was to make the costume and wear it to the festival. I was also planning on participating in the Time Traveler Costume Contest that Sunday. In order to keep myself on track, I created a schedule to help me work on the costume. (Finish the sleeves three weeks before the festival, work on the hat and draft the gown’s bodice pattern for three days, ect.) Unfortunately, the stomach flu I had in February threw my schedule off so badly I couldn’t get back on track. So, the costume was unfinished on Time Traveler’s Weekend.

Even though I was upset about not finishing the costume, I went to the festival anyway and was soon thankful I wasn’t wearing a whole entire Elizabethan costume. It was unseasonably hot that weekend and I’m sure I would not have made it more than a few hours fully dressed in my Elizabethan costume. (I was having a very bad time with my seasonal allergies so I was not feeling very great.)

Even though I didn’t finish the costume when I wanted to wear it, I still decided to finish it. The progress on it has slowed because I was also making clothes for normal wear. And when it comes to making normal clothes or a costume, normal clothes take top priority. Still, I wanted to work on the costume and the easier parts of the costume I wanted to work on was the sleeves.

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Spoonflower and Art Print Shops Update- May 2017

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Hi everyone! I know it’s been a few weeks since I posted on my blog, but I had a lot of things I had to do offline. While I was gone, I was able to update and work on my Spoonflower and my art print shops.

On Spoonflower, I was able to edit and release for sale new fabric designs I didn’t have the time to work on. These designs are based off a tiara doodle I did for Inktober 2016. I’m very pleased with the way they turned out.

The designs have different colored jewels in the tiara, but I decided to only feature one for now. You can see the rest in the Crown Designs collection on my Spoonflower here. (I’ll eventually add more crown themed designs in the future, but right now the tiaras are the only ones available for sale.)

In other Spoonflower news, last year I received an email from Spoonflower saying that they edited my description for a few of my fabric designs so it wouldn’t interfere with copyright infringement phrases. The designs are the ones for my Doctor Who inspired fabrics and the phrase that was removed was “Doctor Who”. When I realized this, I decided to remove all my Doctor Who inspired designs, no matter if they were meant for cosplay/costumes or not, from public view.

Although removing the designs from public view seemed like an overreaction, I was taking care of an ill family member at that time and I didn’t have the time to sit down and actually think about anything besides my family member. After my family member passed away, I began to work on what I wanted to say in the descriptions of the designs. Since I wrote the descriptions of the Doctor Who costume fabrics, Spoonflower discontinued fabrics I favored for costume making and added new fabrics I liked much better than my old favorite fabrics. It took a while to change the descriptions, but I was able to do it. I also created a new collection for all my Doctor Who inspired designs along with any other fabrics I created for future costumes. This collection is now called Geek and Cosplay/Costume Inspired and can be seen here.

As of this post, the only designs available in the collection are Doctor Who inspired ones, but I hope to add a few non Doctor Who designs in the future.

And finally, I created a new Society6 shop! I didn’t like the URL address for my first Society6 shop, so I made a new one. The new one is located here. I hope to eventually add more of my art to this new account, but right now I’m too busy working on other things so I must keep it a little sparse for now.

So, that’s all I have to talk about for now! I hope to keep everyone updated about any changes to my Spoonflower and Society6 shops.

Thank you for reading!

Arizona Renaissance Festival- March 11, 2017

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The 2017 Arizona Renaissance Festival is over for the year and I have some more photos I took while there to post and talk about.

The weekend of March 11th and 12th was Time Traveler’s Weekend. It is my favorite of the themed weekends at the festival because there is a Tardis from Doctor Who in front of the front gate and there are Star Wars characters from the 501st Legion in the festival. It’s always amusing to see the storm troopers serve as body guards of the royal court or Darth Vader watch the joust.

Like the last time I went to the festival, I mostly took photos of the joust. I was intending on taking photos of other acts, but I ran into problems with my camera’s batteries so I couldn’t take photos of anything or anyone else. In addition to this, I didn’t stay the whole day. It was unseasonably hot (Over 90 degrees Fahrenheit) and I didn’t want to over exhaust myself. As usual, I had a great time and I’m glad I went on this weekend!

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!

January 2017 Sunset Photos

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Sorry about not posting in a few weeks. I’m still playing catch up with my side projects due to the stomach flu I had a few weeks ago. Since I’m not done working on them yet, this week’s post is about some photos I took of a sunset in January!

I took these photos after a winter storm on January 24, 2017. I’m happy with the way the photos I took that day turned out. In addition to these photos, I also took some other photos that will be used for future fabric designs. Right now they are not available for sale or public viewing, but once they are I’ll make a post about them!

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!