Little Mermaid Seashell Bra Top

My Ariel seashell bra has juuuust about given up the ghost.  It gave me years of (mostly) loyal service, but elastic and sequins only last so long, and it was time for a new one.

I started with a very comfy purple bra from Victoria's Secret.  Hopefully it'll have lots and lots and lots of wear!

For the shells, I got "serving dish" shells from World Market and got some porcelain paint from Michael's.  I did a purple to white gradient and then baked the shells with the paint on, and this created a sort of porcelain-style glaze.  It made the shells both shiny and dimensional, and also added a lot to their durability (important, when you're wearing these to loads of kids' parties).

I drilled a few holes in the shells so I could sew them onto the bra, in addition to sticking them on with industrial strength velcro.  (In rev.1 of this style of seashell bra, I just relied on the industrial velcro alone.  This works fine for walk-around Mermaid shows, but as soon as I started using it for swimming mermaid gigs, it became a bit of a problem: the water in the pool just LOVED to scoop in over the top of the shells and pull them right off, where they floated daintily to the bottom.  "Okay kids!," I'd call, with my hands covering the empty spots on the bra, "Who can dive all the way down there and get Ariel's sea shells?")

I wanted extra-fancyness so I added some blue jeweled trim to the neckline and dangled two different sizes of pearl trim to the bottom.  Then I did the labor-intensive sequin application.  The sequins are GORGEOUS - they're little bitty iridescent seashells and they sparkle and shine and I just love the way it turned out.

I finished up with a sea-anenome-looking flower with a jewel replacing the center, right in the middle.  There's velcro all along the inside too, so I can easily attach a flesh colored bodysuit to wear underneath (so I'm less "naked" for the kids' shows).  It's super comfy and it looks absolutely amazing.. I'm SO proud of it!

Today I'm doing a swimming mermaid party (thank heavens for this gorgeous weather!) and so I'll have the opportunity to give it a really good water-test.  Here's hoping it all holds together okay.  :)

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Thoughts on Creativity and Projects

I'm making another Forest Fairy Coat this morning.  It's a big job.. it probably takes me 8-10 hours of work to make one, though it does get a little faster each time I do it.  Less thinking.  More sewing.  Also, it goes much faster when I have all the components "in stock" and close at hand.

It gets me thinking about big projects.  How many ideas do I get that never see the light of day because the size of the project is intimidating?  Even hoodies, which I've made dozens of, sometimes sit in the sketchbook for months because I just can't find a way to dive into the project.. the whole thing is so big and unwieldy from the outside that I just can't get a handle on it.

My solution:  Write down a set of instructions for myself.  Nothing fancy.  I grab a piece of paper or a white board pen and write a number 1 and then circle it.  Then I write down the very first step.  When problems arise, I simply write them down in the order in which I'll need to deal with them.  It's not about SOLVING the problems at this stage, it's simply about identifying them.  It might look something like:

1) Find a workspace
2) Get some more gromets
3) Trace pattern A onto some paper
4) Modify pattern A to become pattern B
5) Cut the pattern out
6) Design and do the embroidery
7) Assemble the sleeves

etc etc etc.

This takes all of 5 minutes and absolutely gives me a firm handle on the project.  Suddenly it's all laid out before me in easy-to-follow steps, and if I get sidetracked or lost at any point, I can just look at my list and breathe a sigh of relief.  Also, the further-down-the-line problems don't distract me since I can see that I don't have to figure out how to put that seam together until step number 12.

Without this list, I will simply not start the project at all because I don't know what the finishing embroidery pattern is going to be yet.  This is some powerful stuff, yo.

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Making Sock Puppets

Last night's crafting night was making sock puppets!

We used the directions I found here and then just went crazy... socks, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, foam, feathers, beads, glitter glue, and lots and lots of hot glue.  Hot glue is the coolest thing EVER.

We laughed and laughed at how silly they all were.  I did one puppet with a black sock and one with a black and white striped toe-sock.  Stacey made one from a regular sock and one from a glove, which turned out so expressive somehow even though the mouth didn't move.  Lanie used a fuzzy sock and a bright blue sock and both had feather boa hair, which turned out just marvelous!

This post is no good without pictures.  So, without further ado:

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