Microphone Poi

I wanted to have LED poi. Or some kind of glow poi.
Father gave me these shining microphones that blink when on. I broke out the sound button at first:-)

I cut out two pieces - one for the body and the mesh for the bulb.
I made a cylinder from the rectangle and gathered the circle on one side of it.

I didn't make a usual grommet eyelet. I folded the cylinder several times and sewed in one single point. I hooked the loop around it so that the lower part was hidden inside.

The longer side of the rectangle is not fully sewn, there's a gap to insert the microphone. I put it in and fastened the body at several places with a rubber cord.

Let's go spinning :-)

And see how lovely the light circles are!

Cranach Dress - Sleeve Tubes

I measured the girth at several places of sister's arm and cut out these horizontal parts of the sleeve.

The vertical stripes are made as tubes.
Here you can see how I found out how to sew the unpleasant velvet with satisfying results.
You put it on the table right sides together. You move the finger on the surface like a sewing machine foot. You just watch the way it reacts.

Here the upper layer moved three milimeters to the left. When sewing you just shift it three milimeters to the right:-) This way you may not end up mad from this ever sliding fabric..

I got quite a lot of tubes. I sorted them out according to the desired lenghts of each part of the sleeve.

I turned the tubes over and pressed flat.

I cut them with my patchwork rotary cutter.

How lovely! <3

I joined each vertical part of the sleeve with the overlock stitch.

That's the only way to handle all this tubes reasonably:-) And to be sure not to have a tube upside down (the velvet changes its colour when not laid the same direction).

Yellow Rasta Poi

The last pair of poi doesn't differ so much from the others, so there are just a few pics.

At the stripes I tried to use as much of the leftovers of the previous poi as possible.
Made the poi the usual way.

My client wanted me to make the grommets more tough. I cut out washers from the leather and glued them on with a quality glue. The glue made the eyehole more stiff. It should endure very fast spinning now:)

The last rasta pair with its sack.

Cranach Dress - Skirt's Panels

Today I'm just adding a few pics about the progress.

When I had all the double panels sewn, I took each two of them and put them together to get four joined panels.
These sewn together by two gave me eight panel pieces - fourths of the skirt.

And so on. This is half the skirt. I'm pleased that the golden bands look like continuous rings.
Unfortunately, sister didn't buy all the velvet at once. She bought a half and next time the rest so she accidentaly didn't buy exactly the same hue. Each half of the skirt will be of a slightly different colour.

Basting the hem. Quite a long one:-)

Cranach Dress - Skirt's Getting Together

I'm getting the skirt together today.
The velvet's tricky and the brocade bands must fit perfectly to look like three continuous rings.
I pinned each two panels at the top, bottom and at the bands.
I added more pins and basted the seam.
When you lay two layers of velvet right sides in and press with a finger, you can see a layer moved in one direction. When basting, I just moved it two milimeters in the opposite direction.

This way I got quite a satisfactory result. I started to join each two panels together.

Cranach Dress - Skirt's Panels

Sister's order for a Cranach dress. She overestimates me :-) She could have chosen another dress than the most difficult one of the period...
I made a pattern according to Mrs. Kybalová's book.

I measured the height from the waistline to the ground. I added a few centimeters as a technological supplement, as the skirt won't hang exactly vertically (the sticked lower part:-D).

I cut the skirt panels all in one direction. I marked the lower and upper egde and the posititon of the decorations.
The decorative bands were cut in a row. Their long edges ironed down to the wrong side.

I meant to edit the pattern so that I could sew on straight bands. However, I found out I could quite easily arrange them in an arc.
First I pinned the sides of the band to the marked place. Then I stretched the center downwards and pinned it. I added two more pins and could start to sew on. Repeat ninety-five times. (According to the book, the skirt consists from thirty-two panels.)

The golden brocade was quite tough and made the velvet wrinkle. Most of this could be undone with the help of the iron.

I serged the long sides.
Thirty-two prepared panels:-)

By the way, don't get mistaken by the date, the whole process took several days..

Kiwido - The Final Touch

My kiwido poi are completed now.
I sewed ten spangles to each quarter, each with just two stitches.
I'm sending them today and wishing them joyful and long life:-)

Kiwido - Orange Finished

I had my orange kiwidos almost done.
I zig-zagged the tails and cut the threads away.

I prepared loops from a rubber cord.

I inserted them into the butts, the knot must be behind the bottleneck.
I took a double thread and gathered the bottleneck.

I wound the thread several times around the tail and made a few stitches through the rubber. Then I cut a small piece of a satin ribbon and hid this thread.

I made a pocket for each poi. I don't say pair, cause these poi will be used as single.
I cut the pattern (double layer) and marked the upper side of fastening.
I sewed there a twill ribbon with its sides folded inside. This makes a tunnel for the cord.
I sewed the two parts together and serged.

The last to do was the upper hem - I pressed it down and machine-embroidered over it.

So this is it - six fishie kiwidos.

And the pockets. I let the tails out - the kiwidos don't wrinkle this way and what's more - they look like buds in the pockets:-)

I used to dislike kiwidos (as a hard-core firelover), but today I changed my point of view.
Sometimes I just envy my clients:-DDD

Kiwido - Orange

I altered the pattern so that the bottleneck would be wider. At the yellow poi I wasn't able to turn them over and I had to rip some seams.
I did it and as a result I got a pattern that fits itself well when cut in pairs.

I cut the glittering fabric and decorated the satin.

I cut the fish, completed them in four, then put two and two together and pinned at always the same side.

I sewed all the fish at one side. You can see that I marked the middle at the beak so that I could start the seam exactly at the right point.

I ironed the vlieselin, basted the loop and inserted to the upper parts. The pin at the fish's mouth is good for the exact position of the seam.

I cut the seam allowance at the curved places, knotted the loops and serged the tails as at the yellow kiwidos.

Kiwido - Yellow Carry On

Three yellow kiwidos. Should be done eventually today.
I knotted a rubber cord into a loop, inserted to the tail of a kiwido filled with sand and foam.
I gathered the fabric in the bottleneck, sewed the loop to it safely and hid under a satin ribbon.

I gathered the tail loosely with a rubber thread so that the loop wouldn't be visible.

I also made fingerloops for all six poi.This time I used as simple method as possible.

I cut a synthetic band, thawed the ends, folded to create a fingerloop and sewed by machine. I used a wide and heavy zig zag stitch (satin stitch).

And why all the rubbers?
When attaching the ribbons, they even don't need a knot, they adhere very well.

(OMG, three more poi to make, if just the nasty satin wasn't so difficult to process...)