Filigree bat witch hat

Wearing my new bat embroidered witchy hat

I was at Michael’s during the pre-Halloween period and saw a piece of home decor with a filigree-style bat on it. The home accessory itself was nothing I wanted to buy, (For the most part I’m only buying things that have some kind of “use” beyond just being cool.) but I really liked the bat design, so decided to reference it to create my own filigree style bat.

I took a photo of the item from Michael’s (Unfortunately no longer on their website to credit) and went into Adobe Illustrator to try to come up with my own design referencing it. Mine is obviously not the same… but I still really like the final result.

Horse & Rider machine embroidery

Horse & Rider machine embroidery

I started working on this design pre-pandemic but even after getting it into the Maker space when I started going back there this fall, it still wasn’t ready to bring to the embroidery machine. There was just so much work to do still, and of course, I don’t have the right software on my computer at home anymore!  (I need to move it over, but have just been procrastinating…)

In truth, even after stitching it up there are still a few things I need to adjust in the file, but that’s ok.

The image was inspired by a drawing by “Design_Fiskrart“ from their Instagram. I didn’t copy it exactly, but took inspiration for my own version to do as a vector drawing. I’ve been inspired by them a number of times for different projects – they have great ideas and a beautiful style. While I don’t want to copy anything exactly, it’s still wonderful to have an artist willing to share their work that way to inspire others.  (Clicking the #fiskrart tag on Instagram shows how many people have been inspired to use their art as tattoos!)

After doing the original drawing in Illustrator, and colouring it, I brought it into the PE Design software in the Maker space to digitize it ready for embroidery on the Brother embroidery machine.

3D Printed skulls on fabric

Side view of the 3D printed skulls on mesh fabric.

3D printing videos often pop up on my suggested videos on Instagram Reels – probably because I’ve been posting so much maker space stuff lately!

A while ago I saw someone who had printed scales on fabric – actually printing directly onto the fabric, creating a floating series of scales on the fabric to create a flexible 3D print so to speak. Although I’m not always keen on every “just for fun” idea I see coming off of 3D printers, I thought about this for a while before thinking of a way to use this idea, because I really wanted to try it!

Brown wool circle skirt

Brown wool circle skirt

Yes… I made yet another circle skirt!

I grabbed this brown wool out of my stash. I originally bought this at the grandmother’s sale for about a dollar per meter.

This is one of those fabrics that I didn’t really have allocated for any other project, so in my goal of making up some skirts, it was easy to grab instead of one of the other fabrics I might have really wanted to use for a specific project.

Dachshund embroidered doll shirt

Finished doll t-shirt beside the embroidered yardage

I’ve made a number of doll sized items over the years, for a friend who collects dolls.

One of the things I made ages ago was a sweater and sweater-dress (and matching stockings!) for her dolls from socks. I bought a multi-pack of super cute socks, but they came in two lengths… regular above-the-ankle ones (I think they’re called crew?) and then those little footie ones that don’t even come up to the ankle. I hate those little ones… they always slip down. So… I turned those tiny ones (unworn) into little doll clothes.