My little hat.

I talked awhile ago about my fail hat because I didn't swatch first. here

Well here is the hat all sewn up.. IT barely fits on my head and the punch lace was too tight to have the effect that I was after :)

At least it is something to add a laugh to your day! :)

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Ideas that don't work (or need tweaking)

I haven't posted in so long I thought I better post something.

One idea I had was for a double thickness beanie. It was to be one layer of lacy material with the second layer of just regular stocking stitch in a contrasting colour.
That way, it would be reversible, but also the contrasting colour would show through the lace fabric and creating a different effect.

Well, it's my fault! I have to start swatching.
here are the failed pictures:

This is why you need to swatch!

Trying cut and sew to trim excess.

Ready for sewing up

I did make the hat, though it would be better for a child than my head. You can also see the problem I had with the ribber (which didn't matter as I was only writing the pattern), I was going to cover it up with a flower or butterfly adornment.

I haven't given up, just haven't had the time to get back at it and have something else I want to do now.

I really need to make myself a roster so I can find the time to do all these things I want to do.

So here is me sharing a failure :)

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Polyester Cotton - on my do not buy list or how do I stop fleece shedding everywhere?

Look at this floor!! Horrible isn't it?
This is NOT how my floor usually looks, this is the result of buying cheap $10 track pants.
I knew I shouldn't skimp out, but hey, they are only worn around the house and if they keep me warm does it matter how much they cost? OH hell yeah, apparently it does!
The top picture was just from taking one leg out of the pink pair I bought, and the bottom picture was just from shaking one leg of the black pair.
They both have been washed 3 times ( I gave them the benefit of the doubt and let them have a few washes), so they should NOT do this.
They are both different manufacturers, but they both have the same fabric, " Polyester cotton". They are both going to the charity shops.
The black pair are those cheap $10 ones they have in the big bins in the walkways in Big W and the Pink pair were purchased from a stall at a market.

I searched the Internet for a way to fix this and couldn't find any, most were just about fixing piling.. nothing to do with this,so How do I stop them shedding everywhere?... I can't! And no-one else on the Internet seems to know either, so unless I can think of something else... OH wait.. maybe hand puppets? I mean the fabric is still new, only been washed 3 times and tried on (not worn because of the mess it leaves around my house).. herrrm
Anyway, lesson learnt! No more Polyester Cotton for me! :)

Acrylic wool does not iron... for me anyway

So.. another fail! or for lazyiness.. hey at least I am making mistakes so others don't have to :p haha
The rolling scarf or snake scarf as my hubby calls it, had another fail.
I tried to iron it out flat as I did with a loom knitted wool one, (which worked) and the iron not only stuck and made holes in the ironing helper thing I use, but also left a hard spiky burnt feeling to the scarf.. luckily you can't see it that much but you can feel it.

I am a little confused also though, because it doesn't usually burn my ironing thing, which it did without the scarf ( I checked), maybe the iron was wrong? /shrug.

The scarf is now in the washing pile to be washed and dried flat to see if that helps... oh boy.. the saga!

Here are some pics to look and laugh at :)

I have some cleaning scrubbing to do!

Maybe I should make a new label "things NOT to do", but then, that would take up the whole blog haha!

knitting machine maintenance- my first time on a Brother KH881

Just 3 videos, well 2 really, as the 3rd one is just me getting frustrated trying to put the bits back on, an "LOL FAIL" video hehe
This is my first time so I just followed the manual.

Wonky knitted dishcloth -- still trying...

..

..
More Dishcloth try outs.
This one was knitted rather than crocheted. I used the pattern here: Grandmother's favourite dishcloth
I think I prefer knitting, you don't need to count as much as crochet, you don't get that sore little spot on your finger because all the pressure is concentrated on the one area with the crochet hook and well it just looks nicer... the knit.
The only crappy thing is, it takes forever.. it seems.

I started with the same cotton I used with the first two, but as you can see I ran out, so I used the only other cotton I had in my stash. LOL different gauge much?

The orange cotton is a textured Italian yarn that I picked up for .50c a ball on sale last year. It was harder to knit because of the texture, but I think came out way cooler.

I haven't used this as a dishcloth yet, but I like it already!

What next to get my knitting skills up? Might try and tackle a scarf? hrrmmm

Dishcloths another LOL fail

.I tried my hand at crochet again, however this time, as you can see, I didn't count every row. The first is a single crochet and the 2nd is worked as a double.
I know what I did with the double.. I was working in the very first stitch on each new row, rather than missing it ( I researched what went wrong after the fact).

The single.. who knows? lol I know it was too tight and hard to get the stupid hook in, tension is always a crapper for me with crochet.


. My little man inspecting (and laughing) that is why is face is hidden.. lol , well , not really ;)

..I thought I would just throw this picture in of our beautiful man-cat that has been here just about every day this week.
I have been feeding him every night for over a year now, he always looked so skinny and hungry.
He would come and eat the food of a night and disappear.
This week has been really humid and rainy, I don't know if that's why, but he has been sleeping here all day long, every day this week.
I gave him some vitamin paste in case he is feeling a little sick, and will get a worm tablet when shopping next also.. just in case.

LOL FAIL Flower brooch

Back from June 2008
I was trying for a shabby look I saw on a website I visited at the time, but it came across as neither. I can only imagine what gramma thought when she got it hehe
It also had a secret little pocket behind the flower for stashing cash etc :)



Last night after watching Fido, which is totally watchable but not something that I would recommend as a must see.
Anyway, back to subject... I coerced my hubby into a crafty night with me.
His gram sent me a birthday card with some money so I wanted to send a thank you card (so she knows I received hers) and also something homemade.


This is the flower I made, my first ever, there are a few things that I am going to do different on the next one but I like the look, the shabby. The colors are a really hot pink and deep purple, I guess I need a little more practice with the new camera huh? :P



I found a little plastic folder in which to send the card below in, it is an old pillowcase packaging which should be great because she can hang it if she wants to when she receives it.


I got my hubby to work on a card, with paints no less!! My hubby can draw amazingly as I am sure if he had some practice he should be able to paint also, so I set him on the task of the card.
I think it turned out beautiful, even though he says he stuffed the flower etc. and the ribbon touch is just gorge.

My First Embroidery LOL FAIL

I love peacocks! I love all animals but peacocks you can portray with lots of pretty colors and as you can probably tell by now I love colors!


I saw this in a magazine and thought what better way to start than to start learning with something pretty!
This is what it should have looked like.









This is how it turned out.
The tailors chalk and tailors pencil didn't work on the towel I chose, so I had to use texta.

And I don't know if maybe I rushed it or what but I have no idea how you see peoples all together nice and neat like out of a sewing machine, I guess that comes with practice too, not to mention that if I had read how to actually do stitches that probably would have helped also.
Oh well nothing like starting out ;)

Hope it gives some of you your giggle for the day! Oh yes I can see the coffee spilling down your chin because you couldn't hold your giggles in when you saw how bad it is ;)


This is back from July 2008.. ever so slowly I am transferring all the stuff from my old blog :)

LOL FAIL - Vampin' up a cossie

This is an old cross post. I started to play with stencils. It could have worked if I had not been so excited and prepped more.
This is from July 2008


Just sharing more of my Re-vamping, this is actually kind of fun, having something that no-one wanted and re-doing it into something else.
Anyway a few stencils, an airbrush and some fabric paint and wallah a cossi with a new lease of life.
I was going to add some rhinestones to it but I wasn't sure how well they would hold on stretchy material.


Before front
Before back
After Front
After front closeup- There are a few colors on the stencil, mainly because I was trying to do it in the gold paint, I thought it would be more opaque as it said it was, but it didn't turn out so I had to re-do it with a darker color. Also, I decided to add the water effect because I am a ninny and got caught up in the excitement of doing it that I forgot to mask off the rest of it for pain over spray, so I had to incorporate it into the "scene"

After back


*hint* you can giggle now ;)

Glass painting

I am a little bit embarrassed to post this but meh... got points for trying right?! I should just call this a lol craft fail blog!

I like to recycle everything, not mainly for cost but for enviro choices... you know less waste etc..
Anyway I have like a ton of glass jars and stuff that I use that were just so boring, so I thought I would et some glass paints and give brightening them up a go.

The pattern I was going to try and mimic (free hand no doubt) silly idea!...

The jars drawn on with black texta.

Our neighbourhood kitty I feed, Mr Tocks , AKA Ghost kitty, isn't he gorgeous! If this house we owned he would be living here!
He was out here helping me :)

The finished product ... LOL right?

My little work bench.. I had to do it outside because I have kitties and the fumes were .. woah!...

Ok that is one craft giggle! :)

LOL Fail - Telephone directory

I was once of the opinion that shiny pretty things could make anything look good... Look back I was WAY wrong! hahah

This is a post from my old blog back from July last year ... you can start laughing now :P hehe

Vamp it up

I am constantly getting rid of things via Ebay and Oztion and sometimes things just don't sell, so rather than throw it out or make it down stupidly low so I don't get any money back from the cost of posting I have been trying to Re-Vamp things... These are a little dory but still an improvement on what they were :)

The original!








I just used some glitter, rhinestones, sequins and plain old clag glue.












Here is the finished product with the varnish cover.

Free Blogger background _ Creepy girl Xmas

IT's a fail also.. if you like it you can go here :)

ILLY
S BACKGROUND PLAYGROUND

Mobile phone cover - FAIL

It is from my old blog also, because I am trying to post just about every day, I'll just bring some oldies across.
Here is a mega BIG ..LOL FAIL.
It is sooo ugly I am even embarrassed to show it.. but I will.. because a laugh is good! :)

Ok I wasn't going to post this one as it failed, (and I was just too lazy at the time), but I figured that it may show someone else what NOT to do ;)


This is the finished product, I didn't put near enough rhinestones on it... what you get for being lazy and tired ;(

edit:I also used that 2 part stuff that dries nice and shiny over it all, however you can;t see the shine of the actual crystals through it's plastic like coating. :P

FREE Blogger background - butterflies of FAIL

OH boy just how LOL FAIL is this?!?! My kitty was on my lap and I was just playing around with layers. I was going to delete it and thought "stuff it", it is a funny fail and who knows.. after the things I have seen sell from Regretsy, someone might actually find "it's child like innocence" endearing... hahaha yeah right :P

It can be found here: ILLY'S BACKGROUND PLAYGROUND

FAIL - T-Shirt chair cover

This is actually a re-post from a previous blog that was messy and driving me crazy...
You know I think the idea is great and might have worked if I had used a nicer material, been more careful with the stencilling and actually been a little more patient.. but I didn't.. and this is the result :P

AUGUST 2008
I suppose this is about the easiest way to fix an old chair , well one that my babies have used as an alternative to their scratching post. It was an old one so we let them, but it got so bad that the foam was falling out all over the floor and I hate mess.

So I open my little (and I mean tiny) stash cupboard and find an old T-shirt bottom that I had cropped in a previous life (gah cropped T-shirts, what were we thinking back then?!?!) :P
So, you know me, hate to waste anything, I decided to use that to cover my foam bits.

I didn't even mend the old stuff underneath I just undid the screws either side of the back rest and took it off.
Sewed one side shut (so I only have 1 long opening left), and just adding for people like me that don't think sometimes, make sure that you do it inside out so you don't have ugly seams showing.

I then just slipped it over the back rest, there was lots extra and it didn't fit snuggly, but I didn't want to stuff around, so I just made 4 little holes either side of the back rest so I could screw it back to the chair, which I then did, (this can be a little bit of a pain but you can do it).

I then just got out a good old needle and thread and did long in/out stitches right across the top (which was the old seams from the old t-shirt).
Then when at the end I just pulled the thread, this makes your fabric pucker but if you don't give it a guiding hand it will be all uneven.
Then when sufficiently puckered (and your chair cover will seem to be not so big any more)just tied off the ends.

Oh, and you can add a little stencil or two, as you can see I like cats, but I should have never used one of those stupid puffy fabric paint, I think they are just for writing things in puffy letters not coloring in stencils (I know I know everyone has to learn somewhere :p) hehe

I just have to do something with the seat ( I was going to do like a blue and yellow theme, but I can't bring myself to take away from my babies the fun fabric they play on :(
It's ok it's only my sewing chair anyway ;)



Kitty boy has to be in on the fun!

Hope you got a little giggle from my Fail for today :)

FAIL - Admission

I am not sure about anyone else, but I have an admission....
There are soooo many things I want to do and try and make.. hell, I even have my very own "ideas" book full of ideas I have had that I have not seen before.
BUT.. and a big but... my fear of failure stops me.. I mean everyone has to practice and learn and start some place.. I know that, but I still never start for fear of failure...

WELL! This is my "doing something about it"..
I am going to have a FAIL label.. oh yes, make the most of those horrible things I have done that totally "FAIL" in my eyes... at least I and maybe others can have a laugh at them ;)