Romanian point lace rick rack cord

 I am using size 15 thread sissy and a size 12 hook
color and dye lots for my reference for latter
art (4
farbe 325
partie 01

I am also using a white thread for the tutorial but I and using the dark navy for a project


this cord only unravels in one direction so you have to make the exact amount you need for each spot

1. chain 3
2. in 2nd ch make sc, in next ch make 2 sc, ch 1 turn work
3. * 1 sc in first sc, 3 sc in 2nd sc, ch 1 turn work**... repeat to desired length

step 1

step 2

turn

step3

repeat to desired length

etc.etc. etc.

if you want more Romanian point lace cord patterns free look on the left side bar under rpl cord that will take you to them and tutorials on sewing cords together and unraveling them not just making them

Chinese New year / Homecoming

The theme for homecoming this year was Chinese New Year.  My middle daughter had out grown the only Asian dress she had so had the youngest.  So Saturday morning I set to work on making a dress for the middle daughter to wear to the dance that night took 7 hours to make not bad really.

The dress I made is in the one in the photo above on the right with the red frog closures on my middle daughter (17 years).  The other is a shirt on the left I owned that I gave to my youngest ( 15 years)   but tallest daughter ( 5 foot 9 inches) for the dance to wear.  Afterward I just let her keep it because she liked it so much and had outgrown her Asian dress.

I already owned the blue silk fabric. I wish it had been red as it would have more appropriate for the holiday.  It had been waiting since 2009 for me to find a good project for it the other fabrics in that post have log since been used.    But I am sure the fabric is older than that as it had been in the other person's stash for a while before I got it. I still have a lot of the thread and the small hide shown in the other post.   The photo to the right is pretty true to color some of the other photos are not so well matched to the color.

While I was working on the dress for her to wear, my middle daughter, while laying in bed was working on making some hair pieces for her and her younger sister to wear at the dance.  The youngest daughter also in bed did most of the stringing of the beads onto the wire.  While the middle one did all the wire manipulation to create the beautiful hair ornaments below.  Here are some up close detailed photos of the hair pieces.

My daughters actually went stag to the dance as originally they  had not planned on going because of being sick.  The middle daughter wanted a new dress and to see some of her old friends as she no longer goes to that school.  I usually either make a dress or buy a thrift shop dress that I embellish.  So she knew she would get a dress if she went.  Usually I have more than 24 hours notice.  One of her best friends also went stag so they hung out together was nice that they both had someone to be with  Especially since neither really wanted to be at the dance because of not feeling well .  You can see the beaded hair ornament on the back of her head in this photo to the left.

I am currently residing in my sister in laws home where I live in the basement as some remodeling work is done on my home.  Water and mold damage.  So I don't have a lot of space to do projects but there is this nice long hallway that leads to my room.  I laid the fabric out there so I could cut it.  The pattern I used was Simplicity 8244 a reproduction of a 1950's pattern (2016) view A.  Although I am not found of how they assembled the pattern next time I will put the zipper under the right arm not the left as it will line up with button flap.  Also will not sew the button flap shut as the pattern tells you too at the bottom of it makes it hard to put on.  It would be much easier to put on with these two modifications as the opening for the neck waist area would be twice as big.  I have no idea what someone was thinking when they made this pattern that way.  I also would change the way the side slits are made.  Get rid of the slit modesty panel and make the slip about 4 inches taller as it binds a little to much at the knees not good for ballroom dancing which my daughter loves.

The below over exposed photo is when I had the dress half made

This above photo was the finished dress after 7 hours of cutting and sewing.  I might go back and make the modifications to the bodice that I don't like in the pattern now that the dance is over.  The frog closures or knots where hand made by my middle daughter specifically for this dress.  The only embellishments on this dress are the frog closure's and the black piping trim I put around the collar and the neck opening flap and sleeve openings.  Hard to tell in the photo but there is small hints of red in the fabric and my daughter wanted more red since it was being made for Chinese New Year and I couldn't find red pipping in my stash so this is how we worked that out. Since there was also black details in the fabric I added both colors.

This is the video tutorial my daughter followed to learn how to make the frog closure.  I did not make the video but it had embedding available  so I put it here for easy reference but all rights are still owned by the creator.

Both of my daughters being  silly with their friend after the dance was over.  Because of running errands half of the  day and both girls being ill my girls only made it to half of the dance.  It started at 8 and ended at 11 but they only went from 9:30 to 11 since being ill. I don't think they could have handled the entire dance.  But I think they both had fun which is a nice change of things.

This is the other beaded hair piece my daughters made together one stringing and one manipulating the wire. The above hair piece was warn by the daughter to the left long with two hair sticks you see in the photo.  You can't see the beads in the photo as she let her hair down half way through the dance.  She put it back up at the end of the dance without putting the beads back in her hair. It had been on the side of her bun.

Wheat Stitched Cord Bolero vest revisited

A few years back (about 6 years) I was working on bolero vest and it got set a side I worked on it some a recently while on my trip in Mexico and this is the progress I made on it.  It is using the Wheat stitch cord I posted a few days ago about but this cord was made about 7 years ago.  I hope to get this done at some point in my life sometimes I just have no deadlines on things I make just for fun so they happen when they happen. I hope it will fit me then if it doesn't well I have 3 daughters who are always happy to claim anything I have made as their own to wear.  So it will not go to waist when ever it is finished.  this is Antique thread I am using here both for the cord and the filling stitches.  Which is a lot heavier than I usually use  so this vest has a more textured feel to it which I like.

  If you notice the macramé bracelets in the photo some I made for my brother in law over 17 years ago that he just gave back to me he kept them all these years so cool, some my children made for me and some my children bought for me.  But all represent special people in my life and has a little story to go with them.

I have several projects I am working on for other people at the moment  4 different afghan repairs and one cross stitch sampler for a baby.  i will show some of those in the near future at the moment the 3 of the afghans I am cleaning so it will be a while before I can work on them as they are pretty bad and I have to have a clean them before I can match threads and start the repair process.

Give away: "My Friendship Bracelet Maker"

I and my daughters where asked if we would test out the new "My friendship bracelet maker"

http://www.myfbm.com/

All three of my daughters and myself have made bracelets on it.  Here are the results from youngest to oldest.

Just so you know the company is giving one of these away to one lucky reader of this blog.  Just leave your comment at the end of this post.  Leave me a way to get a hold of you so I can contact you at the end of the give away.  If I can't get a hold of the winner the prize will be given to another person in the list of comments.

You will not win the one we tested the girls get to keep that one.  You will get a new one sent straight from the manufacture to you.

For those who read this in other feeds such as facebook and bloglines and such you have to leave the comment on my blog for it to be eligible to win.  My oldest daughter will draw the name at the end of this so I will have no say in who the winner is.  The winner will be drawn on Wednesday of next week May 26, 2010.

Here are some basic statistics on this item
cost : $19.99
size :14 x 8 x 3
sliding drawer to store threads, instructions
comes with: instructions
comes with: 56 threads that are 60 inches long

My 8 year old 

who made her first bracelet on this

Pro's

1. You don't have to hold all the strings in your hands.
2. You don't have to pin it to your clothes and make holes in your clothes.
3. It helps to keep things straight.

Con's

1. Did not like that it (the thread) could pop out of the butterfly clip (10 times).

Youngest daughter has never made a friendship bracelets before.  She tends to pull harder than she has to thus her con probably isn't a con with a little practice as she won't pull so hard once she gets better at it.  She pulled real hard to hard in fact and broke a few of her threads.  So I don't think it was the tools fault.  I watched her to see how she would do as it was her first time.

My 10 year old 

who has made a few bracelets before

Pro's

1. Kept all the threads nice and neat on top.
2. I also liked that you could pull on it as hard as you wanted and the threads would not pop out of the butterfly clip.
3. These are the fastest bracelets I have ever made because I didn't have to stop and untangle.
4. I also like how it stores the threads nice and neat and the finished bracelet too inside in the drawer.

Con's
She said there was nothing she didn't like about it.

My 12 year old daughter 

who has made tons of bracelets before

Pro's

1.  It kept everything nice and neat.
2. I could tell which thread I had to pick up next with out having to try and find it.
3. The backs of my bracelets are now much neater.
4. It kept everything nice and flat and it didn't curl up on it self.

Con's

1.  It could use rubber pads on the bottom so it doesn't slid around as easy

Me 

I have made bracelets or about 25 years 

in lots of different styles

Pro's.

1. It makes a nice travel item for in the car as the supplies are all ready to go
2.  Comes with 56 already cut threads so depending on how many threads you use from 2 to 6 you can make from a minimum 10 to a maximum of 28 bracelets with out having to cut new thread. 
3. It can do up to 1-6 strands folded over so 2-12 threads in the bracelet area that is a nice range to work from( there is a mistake in the instructions that leads you to believe that it can only do up to 10 threads because there are 10 slots but once you get past the first row of knots you can have a thread hang off of each side and not get tangles because all the rest are kept secure.
4. It has an adjustment to move the butterfly away from you as the bracelet gets longer (which is nice as I use to pin theses to jeans and wear holes in my jeans or safety pin them to an ankle friendship bracelet which meant sitting funny to get it farther away from me)
5. Can store unfinished bracelet inside in the compartments
6. Has nice clear instruction on how to form the number 4 knot (forward knot as it is known to most people that make bracelets) that even little children can understand
7. Explains how to make your first bracelet (great beginner instructions)
8. Nice to be able to sit at a table instead of on the floor which is what you sort of have to do if it is tied to your ankle bracelet
9. Fits easily in a backpack to do during recess at school
10. Cutter than using a clip board I have seen some people use especially for  little girls
11. Don't have to carry scissors when you first get it as the threads are all ready cut.  But you will have to cut the thread when done.  So there is a compartment in the box big enough for a small pair of scissors.
12. You can go to their website for more patterns by joining their email list
13. Explains one other type of knot on their website

Con's

1. Only explains a "(number 4 knot) forward knot" and doesn't call it a forward knot there are also "backwards knot"s and "forward backwards knot" and a"backwards forward knot" which are needed for advanced  bracelets
2. Only explains how to do one type of bracelet with the inclosed instructions
3. It could use some rubber pads on the bottom so it doesn't slide so easy on a table  they are easy to find and buy and fix that any hardware store 
4. Should come in a boy version as I have seen boys make these too.  Very girlie. ( I have been told it will come in a boy version in the future so this con will go away soon)

In all, all four of us liked it very much and would buy it to give to friends as birthday gifts and things of that sort.


Don't forget to leave a comment , and a way for me to get back with you if you are the winner, for a chance to win one.

Friendship Bracelet

In high-school many years ago I learned how to make friendship bracelets no big deal. My friend Noelle was sitting across from me in art class making a simple one just stripes. We had both finished our art assignments so I just watched her for the last 5 mins. of class. That night I went home and tried to do what I had seen her do. Only I was on the opposite side of the table when watching her so it was all upside down and backwards. But because of that I figured out how the knot worked both forward and backwards. So I played with it for a few hours that night. By the time I went to bed I had figured out how to write words into the bands. After that I was making bracelets all the time for my Sk8ing buddies I probably made several hundred name ones by the time I left high school and probably over a thousand normal ones . I have made some since high-school but not many mainly for my children and such. Yesterday I found out one of those old buddies has a new baby so it seamed fitting to make this for John. From one old skater to another for his kids. I wonder how many of those old bracelets are still kicking around in my friends houses. Probably not to many. I have used cotton crochet thread for this one but I have used embroidery thread, sewing thread, flower thread and yarn for others in the past.