The crochet feather tutorial.

A few weeks ago I showed this little box of memories on Face Book. Several people asked me about how to make the feather. I said I would do a tutorial and here it is.

The feather is made in a crochet technique that I found in and old book. I do not think this is a realistic feather but it would look pretty cool on a hat to look like a sort of marabou feather.
Actually the technique I used was sometimes used to make feathers for real ladies hats using a ruler, a big crochet hook an thick thread. But I am going for the 12 th scale version here.

This is what the feather looks like  when the crochet is finished.

What you will need to make a crochet feather :

Thin yarn :  something like mohair or an other type of fluffy yarn will work fine.

A knitting needle. The thicker your needle , the bigger the loops on your feather will be . I used a European size 5.  That is a US H/8 or a UK size 6.

Crochet hook : a 1 mm crochet will work perfectly.

Fine  wire :  Now for the photo I used green wire like the kind you use for flower arranging. I used it because it was easier to see in the photo.  For your first feather it will probably be easier to use this wire too, But for a proper feather a thin wire like  you use for beading would be  much neater. But it is a bit harder to work with.

Tacky glue

A steaming kettle.

Make the slip stitch as you always do for crochet and start working double crochet (dc) around the knitting needle. This means wrap the yarn around the needle and then work 1 dc in the usual way.

You will have to make a strip of dc which will be twice the length of your finished feather, because the crochet will be folded in half when you are making up the feather.

At the end of your strip of dc , work 1 single crochet (sc) and turn so you can work on top of the crochet stitches.  But now comes the fiddling :  you have to put a piece of wire on top of the strip of dc and you will crochet another strip of dc on top of the first strip but this time  the yarn is wrapped around the wire not the knitting needle. 

When you give this picture a good look you will see the  beading wire I used for the real feather as well as the row of dc op top of the first row.

Now you can finish off and cut the thread but leave a tail !

Carefully slip the loops off the knitting needle. The wire has to stay in place inside the  crochet !!!

Try not to stretch the crochet too much or your feather will start to  look less neat. 

Fold in half ad twist the wires around each other to keep the feather in place. Use the tail of thread to wrap around the wires  a few times to  add a nice finish. Cut thread and wire and add a little tacky blue to bind off neatly.

To make your feather extra fluffy you can hold it over a steaming kettle . That will really be a great finishing touch.

If you feel like buying some ready made feathers please contact me about a commission.

Guess what is hiding in the closet ?

Once upon a time there was a sweet looking closet. It was painted a pretty pink and it looked like there would only be very pretty things inside it.

There was a pretty hat box on top and a little lace dress was hanging from the door.

  

The dress was to be worn to a party. It was made out of vintage lace with a crochet bodice and decorated with silk bows and flowers.  It had it's very own padded hanger as well.

But then at night the doors opened and the contends of the closet became visible


Pretty boxes, lace items and a  very pretty straw hat...............

But look again and tell me . does not that look like there is a skeleton hiding in the closet or even more than one ?

I think there actually is .. 

Not everything seems to be as pretty as it looks...............could this closet belong to a witch perhaps ? Telling by the posters on the inside of the door this might very well be the case.

Is not this a brilliant Halloween project ?

Getting ready for Halloween

Where I live ( The Netherlands) Halloween is not a real Holiday  and it took me a few years to get inspired by it. 

But now I  know that it is  actually a lot of fun if you like things like magic, witches , spooky things and perhaps a bit of Harry Potter.

Making potion bottles and other magical stuff is a lot of fun.

Get out your stash of things you have kept to use some day and start having fun. Anything that looks weird or magical can be useful.

If you can find glass bottles they are great to use.  I used a few that came from the dollar store holding glitters for nail art. I also used beads a lot and  plastic tubing with a metal disk for top and bottom works brilliantly too.

Plastic grapes make awesome green, blue and pinkish bottles that look pretty magical.

Stoppers can be corks, beads, bits of wood, disks and sequins.

Clear bottles and jars can be filled with tons of interesting things.  I used mouth wash and  liquid soap for interesting colors. Add Halloween shaped sequins or things like a chopped off doll head.

 If you happen to have a cat at your house ask him or her to catch you  some flies, mosquitoes or spiders. They look awesome in a bottle filled with clear all purpose glue and will last forever.

The most fun of all is thinking about the names to put on the labels. I really loved printing things like : Dragon Droppings, Man Repellent, Eau de ma Tante,  Pickled husband brains  and Ogre Snot to name a few.

Chopped of doll head in glue,  tree bark, seeds in clear glue, bug ( thanks Taeggi cat) in glue.

Ghost sequin in mouth water, bottle with blue glass paint, plastic cord and blue paint .

 Fairy dishwashing liquid with glitter mixed in, liquid soap with glitter and sequins.

Disney princess pencil topper in bottle with clear glue, The hairy chest in the bottle is a piece of leather that has fur on the other side.  White bottle is a bead with paper decoupaged on it. Labels were made on my computer.  The glass jars with the shining tops are pieces of tubing with metal disks for lid and bottom



More Halloween tips coming up so Watch this space.

Kitchen scene inside a lantern.

I had some lovely items for a kitchen  and a lantern  that I never used...............I did combine the two and I am happy with  the result .

My dear friend  Reva, painted the lovely hutch for me .

I made all the food . It is all no clay, no Fimo food that I made over the years.

The flower shaped potholder is my 12 th scale version of the ones my grandma made for me .

 The cat is interested in the treats on the table but she wants to be a good example to the kittenms for now .............

Nail stickers are so much fun

Nail stickers  are tiny tiny stickers that you can use to decorate your fingernails with.

You will often find them at a dollar or pound store or a similar kind of shop.

I bought two sheets of them and a tiny bottle of nail polish to play with. Usually they are sold as a set with the nail polish included.

I am not too crazy about them on my finger nails but I could tell those tiny pics must have some mini use.

And indeed they have : they are totally awesome   for decorating things with .

I started with a some plastic plates and cups by Chrysnbon.

Here are the nail stickers I used  for this and one of the blue plates.
Try to find nail stickers that have the same motive in different sizes on the same sheet. So you will have bigger ones for the plates and tiny ones for things like cups and saucers.

I found it almost impossible to get them off the plastic sheet with my fingers . But with a pin I did a lot better. Some of them did not work at all but because they are so cheap it is not a big thing.

You will have to practice sticking them down a bit as well. They tend to roll up or do other things that they are not supposed to do.

But once they are finally stuck in place they will look really nice.

You can add a coat of nail polish or Mod Podge to make them stick to the background even  better . This will also make the picture look more smooth.

The tinier the motives you use the more delicate and realistic the result will look.

I love the set with the tiny roses on them . 

I did have some tiny Halloween nail stickers too.  A present from Canada last year. They also work very well I think . 

You can have your own unique mini table ware for every time of the year like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, something pretty for a wedding and so on. 

You can also decorate bigger plates of course as well as bottles canisters and boxes.

Have fun with this cheap tip !

Altered dress form ( part 3)

The black and white altered dress form.

This version of the altered dress form may look complicated but it is way easier than you think

Once again I used a basic dress form and some easy to find materials to create the dress.

You will need some tissue paper. I used a plain black and a  black and white print.

Other materials I used are :
Mod Podge
Tacky glue
Tiny scrap of black netting (tulle)
A black pipe cleaner
Some black beads.

To create a bodice for the dress, cover the dress form with the printed paper using  Mod Podge. It is easiest to use strips of paper for this will help to prevent creases. Cover with a coat of Mod Podge to make is as nice and smooth as you can. Leave to dry.

For the skirt you will need two strips of tissue paper. The width will depend on how long you want the skirt.  The strips will be used folded in half. Make sure they are long enough to go round the hips of the dress form easily and with a bit to spare.

The way fold the first strip.  One half is slightly  wider than the other one.

Glue and drape one strip to the hips of the dress form.

The second strip is folded in half  and then again in half. This one is draped and glued over the top of the first one to create the top of the skirt. There will be a bit left over that you can use to make a loop and a strip for the bow at the back.

Two smaller loops  and an extra slip made out of the black and white printed paper are added to the bow.

Neck and shoulder area gets a layer of black net glued on with Mod Podge.

Neck and arm holes get finished with little circles made out of black pipe cleaner.

You can decorate the skirt with black beads if you like.

Altered dress form ( part 2)

I did make another altered dress form.

They are so much fun make and to show off.

 I had  a kit for making a plastic  dress form but there were some parts missing . I felt a bit sad but . when I gave it a good look again I thought :   what  if I  I used  the two plastic body parts as molds.  and make a few extra dress forms using air hardening clay ?  I can play now and  the good thing is I can still use the plastic bits later when I find the missing pieces of the kit.

I am terrible when it comes to working with clay. But I manged to make  a decent front body and  a  not too bad  back body. I glued the two halves together with Tacky glue and left them to dry overnight.


I used the finest sandpaper I could find and sanded till the dress form looked and felt nice and smooth.

I did not have a stand for it but I think this banister pole is doing quite a good job . The thingy at the neck of the dressform got replaced with a brass doorknob.  Must say I  am pleased by the way it looks.

The finished dress form got dressed in scraps of vintage lace that a friend gave me . It is an awesome lace with embroidery and sequins on it. I just needed a few tiny scraps that I draped around the dress  till I was happy with the look. The whole thing is one piece except for the two hanging bits at the front. The paper rose got treated with a bit of gold eye shadow to tone it down a bit.

Now all I need is a shop to show it of in.