28 Days Until Halloween: SPIDER FASHION

This is dorky and girly, but I can't help myself. I need to go shopping for new clothes in the worst of ways, so I'm going to devote at least one post per 'creature' this month on using scary to inspire the wardrobe.

For 'spiders,' I was thinking that lots of draped cobwebs and black-widow colors would fit the bill. Lots of crochet and lace.

Spiderwebbed by phantompoe

And of course, a cobwebby wrap:

Spider Shawl with How-to From Martha Stewart

• Spider Web Skirt*
• Webby Shirt*

I also found a lot of cobweb inspiration for fashion dating back to the Victorian era; but 'spooky' prints seem to have hit a fad even in the 50's. I have to re-find some of my research and bully it into a proper post sometime.

Happy Hauntings, y'all!

(Also: deep breaths -- we'll be out of the spider phase of my blog very soon!)

Skeleton Brooch

This is a fun idea for a brooch; and the studded skeleton hand comes complete with a tutorial!

Isn't that thoughtful? I want to make one now.

READY FOR HALLOWEEN DAY 28: I Vant to Show You My Neck

I saw a vampire bite necklace on boing boing earlier this year. It was crochet, and oh-so-easy-to-make looking.

So I finally made one -- found the pattern in a simply adorable little book called Witch Craft by Alicia Kachmar. If you have little girls who can't decide if they want to be a vampire or a princess, btw... please get them this book. It will help lead them down the path to darkness by sugar-coating it.

Anyhoo. I didn't follow the pattern, 'cause that's how I roll. But making up my own version (which includes a row of single crochet stitches after making the little closure loop, as opposed to just a foundation chain for the necklace part) took me all of a lunch hour at work while chatting with my friends.

In fact, I think even a beginning crocheter could master this in just a try or two. The hardest part was finding thread in the two shades of red I was looking for!

Obviously, this still needs some finishing touches--like being ironed flat since I kept the pieces in a little ball in my pocket after the crochet work was done--but I'm excited to wear it with my everyday-wear this Halloweekend!

READY FOR HALLOWEEN DAY 8: buy me this?

Okay, this is not a project. It is not something I can teach you how to do, nor can I link to someone who teaches you how to do it. Because this is a link to something you can buy.

A Vampire Bite Necklace.

I needed to share it because it is delicate and pretty and vaguely morbid.

I'm so glad that something good is coming out of the current phase of vampire-mania... cool purchasables.

Lovely Ruffle Collars

This is such a lovely idea for a Halloween Bride: ruffly, lacey collars. From Mme. Chaos.

A pattern/.pdf is included; is that not the most generous thing you've heard all day?

This would be lovely in black or white, and simply stunning for a bride with an otherwise bare neck. So delightful!

Spider and Blooddrip Necklaces

These necklaces are brilliant in their simplicity; a little bit of the right kind of craft paint, and you have yourself a horribly wonderful bit of bling.

Can I say bling if it doesn't sparkle?

Tatted Hairpiece

I have achieve a major victory in the arena of wedding costume: the hairpiece is COMPLETE!

Sundays have become yarn-circle days (I met two very nice ladies who crochet at a Starbucks and - really - what better place for tatting wickedness than the evil corporate coffee?

I was able to complete the three-layer tatted flower pretty much in one sitting. Since my wedding dress is "shell" colored (i.e. shiny pink-white), I did a multi-colored flower. The feather is white, but slightly off-white. The flower is ecru, white, then ecru again with a little pink pearl bead in the middle (that matches the dress almost perfectly).

Everything was mounted to a clear plastic comb with hot glue. the tatted flower was sewn together, and the bead was fastened with that same thread.


I can happily and honestly say I just made it up as I went along, but if you want a little introduction to tatting and you like the flower idea, here is an instructable for you!

Please ignore the blurry picture of this on my head -- I was in a rush to get something to my mom before heading out to husband-to-be's birthday dinner!

Tatted Earrings

Okay, you are allowed to think these are ho-hum. I had a vision of three hoops with pearls in them, large at the top and gradually decreasing in size -- and well, the finished products are cool but funkier than I was originally trying for (i.e. I had hoped to come up with something more old-fashioned looking).

That's what we get for working with the beads at hand when we couldn't find them in the sizes we wanted. *sigh*
At any rate, these are what I'm giving my bridesmaids, along with tatted necklaces in black and (hopefully, if I can finish two more in the 48 days I have left) tatted masks from TotusMel's instructable.


I think they are cool, but will girly friends loathe them? I just can't tell. Dangle-earrings are not for everyone.

Tatting projects are getting finished all over the place!

I tatted a chain for one of my little shrinky charms during lunch day before yesterday. It went so fast.

Sitting outside on lunch break munching potato chips and sipping an Odwalla smoothie wasn't too bad, either. Getting away from my desk for lunch is something that needs to happen more regularly.

Ignore the fact that I was using my leg as a display - it was comfortable and I didn't want to move. :) I'm really happy with the result, although I wish I hadn't been so smitten with the skull button I used for the clasp - it's has heavy as the charm so it pull the whole necklace backward. Must pay more attention to these things in the future, yes?

The chain is essentially the one in the tutorial below; when I saw it I knew it would be a quick and pretty way to string up my charm:


Needle Tatting A Necklace - More DIY How To Projects

First Needle Tatting Project: Done

Sure, I've done shuttle tatting for a brief while - but needle tatting was new to me. Turns out, it's easier and faster. Shuttle tatting is fun - I won't be giving it up - but I expect you'll find me with a needle and thread in my hands more frequently from here on in. :)

Lazy? Maybe.

Anyway, I was inspired to pick up the needle by TotusMel's glorious masks, and I have finished one!

I completely attached the center part wrong, so I have go make a simple adjustment to the pattern to rectify my mistake, but how cool, huh? I'm very excited. If you are into tatting, you can find the instructable here:

Tatted Mask - More DIY How To Projects

If you've never tatted before, she was kind enough to share this; the project below would be a bit easier for you as well:


Needle Tatting A Necklace - More DIY How To Projects

75 Days to Go - shrinky charms

75 Days until THE DAY. Halloween. My wedding. The excitement. The Fear. The closer it gets, the less focused I become.


I've been making shrinky dink jewelery again.

Really, I'm just playing with potential charms should I made necklaces for my friends and bridesmaids. Carrie Mae=slightly stressed out about the overwhelmingly, stupidly small decisions that come along with getting married. Like what to tell your friends to wear, down to what hangs around their necks.

Yes, you do see a heart (though I didn't draw it this time - I was lazily using deviantart anatomy brushes), brain, and ribcage in the picture. The dark splotch on the ribcage that didn't photograph well is a little heart shape I added in. It's dark red.

The raven and bats are vector shapes I was creating in photoshop anyway. The bat with it's wings pointed it up is... well, the design is stolen, frankly. I changed it a little bit but I saw this really pretty bat design that I liked somewhere on the internet -- I tweaked the parts I didn't like, but the extension of the wings is definitely lifted from someone else's idea. :(

Sheesh. I don't even know how/if to use these. I really need to be working on centerpieces and the guestbook.

Wedding Necklace insipration

Holy Batty Bride, Batman!

TotusMel is pretty amazing. Her tatting patterns are inspired and her jewelery always looks so hip yet elegant. While looking through her shop yesterday, pondering if it was worthwhile to make or buy masks for my bridesmaids for use during the wedding reception, I found the necklace in the picture.

Doesn't it remind you more than just a little of a ring of bats around the neck? My expertise in tatting is limited, but after seeing her neckalce I'm convinced I can draft a simple bat pattern using a little picoted circle as the base/head that will look like a ring of lace bats around the neck all joined at the wings. That would be great for my Hallowedding ... either for me, or the bridal party.

Not a lot of 'bat' tatting patterns out there for me to reference. If anyone reading this has some ideas (talented tatters out there? Anyone? Bueller?) ... you can always send them my way. :)

Whatever I do, if the pattern I draft turns out well I'll post it here for you guys.

Sugar Skull Shrinkies

Mmm... sugar skulls. Tasty.

I got inspired via Martha, again. I decided to make my own little something.

Remember the shrinkidink post? It just keeps popping back up to haunt you, I know. I made the cute little "love skull" as a template for my own jewelry project.

If you click on the skull picture to the right, a larger version will open. Feel free to print that; it should print at 3.25" or so.

If you are printing directly only printable shrink-plastic I would suggest you do a test print first (since a browser window is not printer friendly, and I haven't done enough testing to justify a .pdf yet). If you are tracing, place this little guy under your shrink plastic and trace away.

The red dots are intended to be cut out, or use a hole punch -- they will allow you to attach this to a chain so it can be worn. The black areas you can cut out or leave as-is. If you are tracing, consider tracing in bright colors (reds, oranges, blues) to really make it feel like a sugar skull.

Once the plastic shrinks, it will be about 1/3 of it's original size. My finished plastic piece was 1.20" high or so. I decided to cut out the eyes, the nose, and the letters in the word "love." It was not easy and took great care.

I used a flat-finish modgepodge to seal the ink after shrinking my skull. I think my next step is to make a smaller template so I can incorporate these into earrings.

Bat Necklace

vanessamoore has some great stuff on her etsy shop; it's small but exciting. Like a bat necklace.

There is even more creepy hip available for us to goggle at on her flickr account.

Halloween bridesmaids need jewelry like that.

Heart on a Chain (Follow-up)

Ages and ages ago (okay, maybe like a month or two back) I posted a heart necklace how to.

Then I promised someone a printable, but I knew I would have to redraw it or do some photoshop work to make that happen. And I was slow and lazy and didn't feel like sketching.

So, I didn't redraw it but I did use a photoshop brush that looks remarkably a lot like my illustration to call up a COLORED PRINT OUT. With all that red, it might make a very dense heart when it shrinks. I'm worried that it won't look good, but I can't try it myself for another week or two. SO PRINT AT YOUR OWN RISK.

As you'll see in the previous post, you can buy printable shrinky-dink paper and print this directly to it. Or you could print it to normal paper and trace it yourself onto the shrinky-dink plastic.

This printable should make a slightly-smaller-than-heart-sized heart.