Bead Dragon (Tail)

I found a nice tutorials' section at Beading Daily. I'd like to try the peyote stitch which in fact's not a new one to me and a herringbone stitch.
I started from the tail up. The peyote will be used for flat parts.

Three beads in a circle make two first rows. The first row of one bead, the second of two and the third created so that I took one bead, tucked one of the second row, added one more, tucked the other from the second row and added one more.

The same for the other rows. This is after the fourth one. The last two rows allways look like one, don't let yourself puzzle, just tuck every odd bead and the pattern will appear.

If you want to, you can thread the whole line at once:)

This way you either increase or dicrease the row's length - you can add a bead at the end or go one bead back.

And this is a herringbone. It has an even structure, you can see pairs of beads when working.

The stitch itself's very comfortable. You thread two beads, then tuck the next bead in the base row downwards and the next one back upwards. The beads are so handy angled that you may do it in a single move.

When finishing the circle you repeat this but in the end you thread through two beads upwards insted of one. Then the same cycle again: add two beads, go one bead down and one bead up and iterate iterate iterate.

This should be just a model to see if it would work, the real one should be threaded with a thin wire.

Sunny Updo

This is my today's idea. I made a knot (here).

I took a ribbon and folded the tail backwards to form this nice sun:-) The ribbon's been placed between the bun and the head. Only for courageous. However, in my opinion this wouldn't be a bad hairdo for a ball. If dressed properly..

Wallet

As I have one more day of holidays, I continued to play:-)
I was observing my wallet and tried if I could make something similar.
The pattern was interesting - many little rectangles.

I worked with a twill band for the first time in my life and I must admit that it's easy and nice.
I folded the band in the middle and thus bordered three rectangles of the four of the same width (A). And then one more of a bigger width (B).

I put one rectangle taller than B under it and put the twill on both sides to join them together. I did the same with the other four pieces but only on the left.
These two groups were put onto a big rectangle (same height) and put the band on the upper edge. I sewed through the very left white strip so that it joined the lower fabric.

I took a piece of a transparent fabric and worked in a fastener. I put a piece at the same size as this group under it and joined them with twill on the right.
I took two big pieces and bordered one of them at the top. I layed the biggest piece, then the one I've just finished on it, then the group containing A and B and finally the group with a fastener. Sewing was done at the fastener's strip of twill.

This is the outside. Orange piece can serve as a place for a logo.

I tried to join these two pieces with twill again. However the band was quite thin and the wallet thick. I didn't succeed. The band didn't catch all the fabric. I wanted to sew them in hand but eventually I gave it up.

I made a larger strip from the black canvas and covered the white. Better;-)

There should be a Velcro fastener, one on the transparent side and one on the black outer side. I didn't have one. Nevertheless, it quite looks like a wallet :-)

Valentine

It took me a bit of time to think out something as a Valentine present. And let's take a look what came out of it.
Easy pattern, two circles of about 40 cm and a long strip of fabric. Sewn together with a hole left on a side.

A lid, smaller circle and a chunk of soft fabric. The circle has been basted as marked and the rest put inside.

This way I got two buttons. I fastened the thread, tucked the leftovers inside and fastened againg. The thread didn't come out from the center, I took one end and drew it symetrically to the other side.

The buttons have been sewn to the pillow and the threads inside tied together. I put old fabric trimmings inside and sewn the side in hand with an invisible stitching.

The buttons were too thick and quite uncomfortable, anyway, this is a Valentine thing, so I took a red velvet ...

There are two red pieces and two yellow as a stuffing. Machine zigg-zagg embroidery. Then the heart was cut and bordered with a satin stitch (which in fact is just very neat zigg-zagg). The heart's basted to the upper button so it can be easily removed;-)

Happy Valentine's Day to you folks! :-D

Sister's Petticoat

This is sister's one. Easy cut, I made this in one day. Maybe she'll make the main dress herself..
It's just a rectangle, double of the distance between shoulders and floor, with a hole for the head whose center's moved a bit to the front rectangle. Sleeves are the easiest ones, just a straight line. First I sewed them to the center panel, then finished them and at last sewed the petty down to the hips.

Then there's cutting the center of each panel up to the level of hips and inserting four gores. I don't enjoy putting them to the front and back which are without seam in the center, I still didn't invent a reasonable solution for these.
The neckline and the length will be done later.

That's my boyfriend making me laugh on purpose every time he takes a picture of me. Naughty boy!!!
(I put this photo here to please him, it's prooof that I'm a witch, don't you see the cat on my shoulder?)

A Few Flowers

I added some flowers to my alt flute case. They look a bit like shamrock, don't they? :-)
That's just two chain stitches and three simple ones.

This era after the university exams is a bit frantic and chaotic as far as my creations. In addition to the princess pattern and wood engraving that you could have seen here, there was a try of kumihimo, macramé and I did a bit of the gryffin pocket.
Disorganisation comes with much free time :-)

Wood Engraving

Today I found something I had been searching for a long long time. A gouge (I hope it's the right expression, the dictionary is not very concrete as far as technical vocab..).
Anyway I finally bought it for an incredibly low price, I didn't expect that as I'd seen a U-shaped one which was quite expensive. But in the near future I'll buy that one as well, as a reward for university exams from parents :-)

It requires patience but if you don't want to have the result too soon you'll be surprised how easy it is, compared to knife.
Working with wood's just pure pleasure.
Everytime I find out something like this , I fall in love again :-)

My First Princess Pattern Ever

This is something I've always wanted to make. A princess pattern. I thought it's a mastership to create it. I wanted a kind of course of pattern drawing but there's nothing like that in our area. So once I just got all of my courage and, drew a pattern on a paper and sewed this.

I know it's not perfect, I just needed to be able to sew a fitting dress without someone's help, it can serve as a draft, I usually have no problems fitting clothes, just have to have something to start with.
When I drew my first pattern, I hope now it will be easier. I've understood already what it's about, I'll show an explanation soon, as I'll probably be making a dress for my sister.
It reminds me of the moment I've first woven a french braid on myself. It seems the hardest thing until you try to do it.
Very happy today!

Red Flags

First blue meter (of fabric:-D ) is finished, now I got down to the red chunk.
The pattern has been drawn from majority by my boyfriend, great, cause I hate that :-P

I folded them all at once, on one hand it might be faster, on the other hand it's too late for a machine noise..