Galaxy Canvas Shoes

"MY fault?"

Have you ever seen Bunny, AKA Grav3yardgirl on Youtube?  She's delightfully strange, a real-life  Addams Family cousin and one of the most unique beauty/lifestyle vloggers I've seen.  I love her series "Does this Thing Really Work?" where she gets As Seen on TV products and tests them out.  Lately, she's been doing that with Pinterest, and one of her more recent ones has been tie dye sharpie shoes.  I was struck by the way that the sharpie bled in a similar manner to watercolors, and An Idea was born.

I decided to do a galaxy  print because it would be a more forgiving pattern if things crashed and burned.  I'm probably going to try some other sorts of drawings to see how I can manipulate this further because I think I can do some other really cool things with this very simple technique.

Supplies

• Permanent Markers:  black, dark blue, light blue, dark purple, light purple, pink, yellow, and silver     
• 91% Isopropyl Alcohol 
• paintbrushes: I'm using a flat brush for spreading color and a fine point to work on details with
• White canvas shoes
• White acrylic paint

Corset Inspired belt

"I swear, I'm sotally tober, Ocisfer."

I've always wanted to make my own clothes. I have Project Runway fantasies and a reality that looks like a PSA against drinking and sewing. Just ONCE I'd like to be able to cut a straight line. Maybe it's because I use scissors right-handed and I'm a leftie. Maybe it's the astigmatism. Maybe it's none of this and people who can cut straight lines are robots.

I took an apparel class in high school and did a dress as a class project. I hated mine by the end of the only day I wore it. I made one skirt on my own and it was equally terrible.  Both pieces ended up in the back of my closet to fester and die. I wish my instructor would have taken the time to have us all get the proper size based on our measurements. Instead, we went with the clothing size we thought (or wished) we were and I don't think anyone in the class came up with an attractive dress. If you've never sewn from a pattern, your off-the-rack size and pattern size aren't the same, as if vanity sizing wasn't confusing enough. I wear a 16-22 depending on the clothing manufacturer and I'm around a 24W in sewing pattern sizes. It's a blow to the ego at first, but fit is more important than a number on a tag.

Ben bought me a Brother sewing machine for Christmas in 2013 after he'd asked for some alteration to his clothes and I'd give him the same response: "Sure, if I had a sewing machine."  Ben took this to heart and got this amazing gift for me and I was so excited! I could finally do the tailoring to my clothes that I always wanted but could never seem to part with the money. Now for the fun part: learning how to use the dag-blasted machine which I have just named Mano. Why Mano? Because it's Spanish for "hand" and slang for "brother" and I'm a dorky Texan.

Steampunk Mini Top Hat Tutorial

I love the steampunk aesthetic of layered leather, lace, and metal. I am also developing an unhealthy obsession with mini hats and fascinators, even though I rarely wear them because I don't often have an excuse to get that dolled up.  I think they're all amazing works of art.  Crafty bonus: they're pretty easy!. I learned how to make them from Bev Hale over at Otherwhen Oddities at Octopodicon in 2013. Bev's class used an 8 oz plastic cup and felt to make the hats, but here I'm using craft foam because it's what I happen to have at hand. If you don't happen to have all of these materials, get creative with what you have around. All of the dimensions for this project are directly proportional to the craft foam size I had, which was 5.5"x8". You can scale up or down as you need to.

　
You'll notice that I did not glue a single gear on it. Gears are totally steampunk, but steampunk is not always gears.
　


Difficulty: Beginner. This project will take 1-4 hours depending on drying times and how much stuff you put on the hat.