Evil Dead Replica Chainsaw. It's a Faux-saw!

For the last month or so, I have had to share my hubby with his shed. He comes home from work, spends a few minutes with Little O and myself and then he's off to the shed again. Same deal on weekends too. Boy am I glad his latest project is done with! I have my husband back - whoohoo!

Well this is what Mr O has been working on ... a faux chainsaw (or Fauxsaw). Mr O turns the big 3-0 in February (yes, next year!) and he has his big B'day bash already planned right down to his costume which is what the Fauxsaw is for. Can you keep a secret? Shhh . . . . he's going as Ash from Evil Dead so he needed a chainsaw that he could "attach" to his arm. After searching for an old chainsaw in the classifieds in the hopes he could just gut it and maybe mod it a bit, he gave up due to the fact that even second-hand those things are damn expensive! So he decided to make one from scratch. He used mostly recycled items and bits and bobs from his shed. (his shed is a treasure trove for man-craftiness).

Okey Dokes, well I suppose I ought to tell you about the Fauxsaw . Mr O used some mdf to make the base and he fibreglassed the entire outer to achieve a smooth effect. The blade is also mdf and the actual chain itself is a bike chain so it will be safe to carry around on the night and is thankfully not sharp at all. The caps and details are lids from bottles and coffee tins etc. Mr O is quite resourceful indeed. He even used a sink drain cover for the vent at the side. So once it was all put together and fibreglassed, it was spray painted and the details were painted on to make it look a little roughed-up. Now all that's left to do is add some blood splatter and Voila! Fauxsaw complete! I am super proud of Mr O for the awesome job he did on this, he's such a smarty bum. :)

Action shots to come after the party (so still a few months to go!)

Thanks for reading!

Happy Crafting, kiddo's!

P.S. If anyone would like a more detailed description of what, how, whatever, drop me a line and I'll get Mr O to give you the info in his more technical speak! lol

Kurt Cobain for the Battle of the bands Challenge on Plush You!

Thanks for bearing with me while I make all these changes to CottonSpool. I am trying to pretty the place up around here and so far, it's looking like an absolute mess. I promise it won't be like this forever, I just have to try and figure out this html junk. Gosh, it's really driving me nuts! lol

Anyways, I have been a busy girl lately. There has been weddings and birthdays and all sorts of things going on around here. I have still been crafting like crazy only I keep forgetting to take pictures so I will have to go on a picture-taking binge to catch you all up.

So I just finished my Kurt Cobain plush for the Plush You Battle of the bands Challenge! You could choose any artist/band dead or alive so I chose my childhood crush Kurt Cobain. He was one awesome dude until ... well, you know. Anyways, I could never do him justice but I did my best to capture his expression and look from the famous MTV Unplugged show which is rumored to have been designed to look like a funeral, some even say it was a message from Kurt regarding the tragedy which was to follow.

On to the details! I designed the pattern completely and specifically for this challenge. He is made in a "waldorf style" and I use the term verrry loosely. He has a molded face including a nose (which is not so prominent and you probably can't hardly see on the photo). I used a cotton jersey type material for his skin and felt for his facial hair, eyebrows and guitar. The jersey was wonderful to use and it allowed just enough stretch to make it easy to work with and not too much stretch that I was going to end up with bumps and elongated limbs etc. lol. His hair is tea-stained acrylic-mix wool which I hand dyed specifically for Kurt's hair. I used a tutorial to make a sort of wig which then gets sewn on to the doll to keep it all in place but unfortunately I can't find the site again so I will have to do some intensive "googling" so I can give credit to the wonderful person with the tutorial.
I made all of the clothes as well, The jeans are made from an old pair of my own jeans and I distressed them with my quick-unpick and some rough sandpaper because as we all know, Kurt liked his jeans well worn in (Oh I love the grunge look). I was a little disappointed that after many a trip to my local thrift stores, I couldn't find any khaki green/brown knit sweaters to cut up for Kurt's infamous cardigan so I ended up having to use some cotton that I had in my stash but at least the colour is pretty close. The mini Con's (Converse All Star) are made from felt by me and I think they turned out super cute! I may just have to make some for my daughter too.

Well that's it, that's how I did it! If you have any questions or any comments -  I would absolutely love to hear from you.  Check out the other entries when they are posted on the Plush You blog very soon. I am sure there are going to be some truly awesome designs.

Thanks for reading and Happy Crafting, kiddo's! :)

Please excuse the mess!

I'm having a major overhaul of my blog and it's a 
friggin disaster. I'll have it all fixed up tomorrow 
but for now, the stupid new design tool is making 
me want to throw my laptop out the window so 
probably best if I go and have some time away 
from the darn thing. 


Like Arnie said ... "I'll be back..."

Little heart vest

Just a quick little vest I made for the little one before the weather got really cold. It's made from polar fleece and it was my first try at reverse applique. I made the neck waaaay too wide so I ended up putting a couple of little pleats in the front which turned out pretty good. In "real life" it looks like it's supposed to be like that so that's good. I made the best out of a mess up! I'm getting good at that, considering I mess up so damn often! lol

In case you're wondering what the heck she is doing in the photo, she is raking the lawn for me. She likes helping Mummy around the house, now if only I could get her to do the washing, the mopping, the scrubbing, the gardening .... lol. One day I guess, when she starts asking for pocket money, I'll be ready with my list! haha

By the way, don't look too hard at the background, our lawn was not looking so great at the time, hubby might have gone a little crazy with the lawn mowing and kinda scalped it. Ooops!

I'm a bad, bad blogger... tsk tsk tsk

So, I've been super busy with rellies over and participating in my first Craftster swap (or any swap for that matter). As soon as I get some batteries for my camera (which seems to chew through them like they're going out of style!) I'll take some more pic's from my sewing binge and post. Truly, I will. Cross my heart and all that crap...

Happy Crafting!

:)

Sewing Binge

So, I've been on a total sewing binge lately. It's coming up to Winter here in the land of Oz and Madam Muck (my daughter) doesn't have any Winter clothes yet, being that she outgrow's everything so fast at this age, so off to the fabric store I went. I got some great remnants which are perfect for her size. I also headed to the thrift store where I got about 3 metres of fleecey tracksuiting material (the jumper in the picture is made out of it) for $1! Score! Who could argue with that, hey!? I L-O-V-E a bargain. :)

So she's got a lot of light blue Winter clothes but at least they are all different. Anyways, this is the first. I made her the pants and the jumper (sweater) using pretty much no pattern at all because I totally suck at patterns. I seem to have this subconscious thing where I just can't do what I'm told and always have to go and do it my own way which probably explains the amount of screw up's I've made! lol

Oh yeah and Pssst..... I'm working on a pattern for a toddler trench type jacket which I will post a free pattern for when I work out all the kinks (and the whole pattern to PDF thing).

Happy Crafting!

:)

Meet Neville...

This is Neville. He's a Yowie, which is basically Australia's version of Bigfoot. He's my entry in to the Schmancy Olympic Challenge. Neville is a funny character. He pulls funny faces and tries to re-enact King Kong with the Olympic Torch but he's a really great Snowball thrower which is exactly why he was representing Australia in the Opening Ceremony.

He was so much fun to make! I must have sketched about 100 different creatures(ok, so I exaggerate a bit. 20 then!) before deciding that Neville was the one. Unfortunately though, he just didn't turn out the same as the sketch because here in West Oz, we have literally 1 main fabric store (which I can't stand because the people are rude and completely unhelpful) and I couldn't get the fur I wanted to use or get the colour either so I was kind of bummed about that. But he does look a lot like the original sketch just with shorter hair.

I made his little outfit myself too, including the shoes. Those shoes nearly had me in a hissy fit. I just about didn't enter the challenge because I just couldn't get them right. I eventually had a brainwave and decided to try and use my daughter's little Ugg boots to get the basic pattern from which seems to have worked out pretty well. I'm happy with the boots now, thank goodness!

I'm happy that I entered the challenge and it really pushed me to use my brain and create something completely my own which I'm pretty proud of, especially seeing as I haven't got a whole lot of experience in making toys like that. He may not be the best in the challenge or even in the category but I'm happy with him and most importantly, my daughter loves him! She loves him so much that she's already pulled one of the Olympic rings off his vest! lol

I hope you enjoyed meeting Neville and I can't wait to see everyone else's creations!

Happy Crafting!

Little Red

I have this fascination with Little Red Riding Hood lately and I decided that I wanted to make something for my daughter's room with "Little Red" on it so I decided to try freestyle embroidery. The design is completely my own. I started off with a quick sketch of "Little Red" on a scrap bit of paper. That's what I based the whole embroidery on and then I just made the rest up as I went along. I know my stitches are a bit messy and it's not perfect because my embroidery skills are a little limited but I'm happy with it. I love this crayon tinting thing with new embroidery. I think it looks super effective.

This was great fun to make. It's such a great craft to do while I'm watching my daughter play, see she's at the age that she wants to be Miss Independant and do everything on her own!So, I'm hooked on embroidery at the moment. I've even been to the library already to pick up a how-to on stitches so I can do another project. I'm not sure what it will be yet but I'll no doubt post it here when it's done.

Happy Crafting! :)

Chocolate Bark - mmm

The packaging with my little snowman dude:

Just out of the fridge and ready to be broken up:

I know, I know, it's Feb already! Well you can consider this either a "slightly" late Christmas post or a really, really early one!

Well for extra little gifts, Hubby and I like to make something for the family so this year as usual, Hubby made the booze (homemade Advocaat - yummm!) and I made Chocolate Bark goodness!

So, so easy and really tasty too! All it is, is a layer of melted dark chocolate, a layer of melted milk chocolate and a layer of melted white chocolate. I added some crushed nuts in with the milk choc and some crushed Candy-canes sprinkled on top. When it was set, I broke it up in to big triangular bits and wrapped in clear cello. I made the little snowman from some polystyrene balls, seed beads, felt and my trusty glue gun (Oh, how I love you, Glue gun!) I attached some ribbon to his head and tied him on to seal up the cello bags. I think they turned out really cute, it's just a damn shame I'm still soooo bad at taking photo's. Is that even possible? How can I still be so bad at it!? lol. The pictures don't really do it justice but you get the idea, anyway.

I also made some choc-dipped, brandy soaked cherries which I wrapped up similarly and they were absolutely delish! I should have made some for myself too, damn! Oh well, there's always next Christmas.

Happy Crafting!

Schmancy Olympic Challenge

Hi All,

I'm super excited about the Schmancy Olympic Challenge on Plush You!

What the friggin heck am I going to do though? Time to get the pencil and paper out I think. I got the "Opening Ceremony" category which is the one I wanted the least as I have no idea about Winter or Winter Olympics but even less about the opening ceremonies at these things. Us West Aussies don't get snow or freezing temperatures over here.

I have a couple of ideas, but I like to be a bit different so I want something that's going to shout out to me but I haven't had that brainwave yet. It'll come... maybe.

Well, Good Luck to anyone who entered and I hope you have fun creating and making!

Happy Crafting! :)

Here comes the bride....

Let me introduce you to the happy couple, Mr and Mrs Octo.

These two lovebirds met at the local pub one warm summer's day and it was love at first sight! Mr Octo is a little bit quiet, reserved and shy however Mrs Octo speaks her mind and is not-so-quiet, so needless to say, it was Mrs Octo who approached Mr Octo and asked him out on a date and the rest is history. These two are a match made in heaven and they love the pants off each other! (Well, they would - if they had pants on)

Hope you like them as much as I do.

Happy Crafting!

P.S. These guys and their rellies will be available at my etsy store soon(ish) so be sure to keep an eye out for them. Cottonspool

Check this out

Just popping back to give you the link to this fantastic blog called GardensofUtopia . You should check it out for sure, she works with polymer clay and her work is nothing short of amazing.

Just quietly, hubby - if you're reading this - I would loooove a sculpture of Cass. hint, hint, nudge, nudge. My B'day's not too far away! lol

Another day, another doll.

This one is waaaay better. I'm much happier with this geeky little girl. I think she's cute and I much prefer the stitched face than the fabric marker although the latter is much easier. You reap what you sow I guess. Anyways, I think I've got it right this time, but hubby seems to think her arms should be by her sides so a slight adjustment is all. I'm thinking of all the different variations of her I could do, different faces and different hair. I'd better write it all down and sketch it out I think before my sieve-like memory loses it!

I'm really wanting to make some stuffed toys too but do you think I can get a decent fleece selection anywhere at this time of year? Oh well, I managed to find some green fleece in a really great fabric store that I'd never been to before (it's so HUGE with so many different things, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven!) but seeing as it's green, I have to think of things that can be green and cute at the same time. hmmm.

Also, kinda off-topic, my hubby is totally my hero. I seem to have this knack for stuffing up my sewing machine but after a little internet research, hubby fixed it! He took it all apart, adjusted the timing and voila! Take that, Sewing-shop! I get to keep my $85 and have my machine working beautifully. $85 - seriously?! I wonder if that's a career I may pursue - it seems like easy money to me. That's nearly as bad as the $240 the dentist charged me last week to take out my last wisdom tooth which took him all of 15 minutes. Geez.

Well that's enough of my ranting for now, I hope you like the new doll.

Happy Crafting!

Stuffed Elephant

So, here's another one of the toys I've been working on. This is only the second time I've tried to make my own proper animal pattern so I don't think she is too bad, considering. She didn't turn out quite how I would like but she's still kinda cute in a flawed sort of way. There is some seriously questionable stitching on her nose but by the time I noticed it, it was too late to fix so I'll just pretend she got in a fight with one of her Elephant-friends. She is made from a velour type material which is slippery like anything so it's moves about a lot while sewing so it's a pain in the butt to sew but it is lovely and soft to the touch.

I think I might make some more of these little guys. I also think she definately needs some ballet slippers and a tutu. How cute would that be?! Well I'm off to find myself some tulle...

Happy Crafting, kiddo's.

:)

Long time, no see.

I know, I disappeared again! So, so busy over Christmas and New Years. Boy, am I glad that's over for another year!

Well anyways, I've been busy stitching up some stuffed toys as I've decided to try my hand at a market stall and I thought I'd make rag doll's to sell. After about 5 prototypes (and counting) the best one so far is this little girl. I'm still trying to decide whether to stitch the faces on or not and whether or not to make her body thinner so she can have removable clothes or leave her with her inbuilt dress? Any thoughts? I may end up going with both and making some of each anyway, it's good to have options.

Anyway, there she is, I hope you like her. (Her arm isn't wonky by the way, it's just the way she is sitting or at least that's my story anyway. haha)