I don't think I've ever been so famous on the internet as that Batman top made me. I even stumbled upon myself, twice! Thank you all. The amount feedback and attention my Batman shirt has brought me is beyond gratifying; the sheer love, astounding. I can't describe just how encouraging it is to know the "You done good, girl" isn't just in my head; how inspiring it is to feel the support of my peers. If I've garnered any new readers off that one, say hi! And I apologize, because while this post is a nice and functional part of my wardrobe, I don't think it's quite as eyecatching as the previous. After all, Batman is a hard act to follow.

Contrary to how I sound in the previous paragraph, I really do like it. After all, my heart is as much pirate as it is geek (the tendencies to geekery and piratedom overlap neatly). It began with a large, long-sleeved t-shirt and a pile of black-and-grey knit. It became this:

For once I used a pattern- the first time I've thought to use one in a reconstruction. It's McCalls (I'll add the number when I can find it- it's out of print), which provides a bunch of basic shapes for knit shirts with variations on neckline and sleeve length.


Arr

It has a very nice shape and comfortable fit, and I'm quite happy with it... even if it isn't Batman.

Arr!

Materials

I made something AWESOME, and I started with these three thrift store shirts (which cost me fifty cents, fifty cents and a buck fifty, respectively). It took me two days of nearly straight labor (I even forgot to eat lunch on day one, I was having so much fun), and the finished product has left me as excited as a little kid on Christmas.

So what did I make? I made final and definite proof that I am an astoundingly HUGE capitol-G Geek. Here, have a hint:



Oh yeah. I made myself a Batman shirt... but not just any batman shirt. Behold! The process.


Look Ma, Handstitching!


Is this awesome enough? NO!

A hand-stitched appliqué makes for a pretty awesome shirt, but is it finished? Oh no. I can get WAY geekier than that.


Mmm, detail work.

With much pinning and sewing (by machine and by hand) and measuring and cutting and vast, sad amounts of seam ripping and re-pinning/measuring/cutting/sewing, detail was added. Lots of detail. Like, for example, a utility belt with four functional pockets:


Complete with utility belt...

Or a hood with bat ears, which I stuffed so they'd stand up:


...and bat-eared hood...

Or even black forearms with requisite trio of arm spikes.


...and arm spikes!

Oh yes. Behold, the sum of many hours of work compressed into not-many frantic days, my favorite t-shirt reconstruction thus far, new life breathed into a pile of sad and abandoned thrift store shirts, the crowning glory of my crafty geekery: my Batman shirt.


Da na na na na na na na BATMAN!!

But what's an awesome Batman shirt without some equally awesome action shots? Nothing, I tell you!


Action shot: Batgirl runs to the rescue.


Looking all Heroical.

Just another day as an awesome superhero: running, striking heroic poses...


Batgirl vs Disturbing Playground Ornament, round 1!

...fighting deeply disturbing playground statuary.


Bam! Pow!


Oh no!

Oh no, caught! What will our hero do now?


More looking all Heroical. It's a difficult job, but...

Run away! Then look heroical again, of course.



w00t!

Andrea Zuill over on the BadBird blog has reviewed Transfer Eze, a new product for transferring patterns to fabric for embroidery (and other purposes) which looks like it'd be fantastic for the patterns I regularly post. If anyone else gives it a try (or has other embroidery transfer methods I haven't hit on yet) let me know- I always like to keep up with ways to get my pictures from page to fabric.

When one is giving crafty heart-themed patterns as Valentine's presents, it makes sense to give said presents BEFORE the day, so that they might actually get used this season. Ergo, Happy Valentine's Day, fantastic and much-loved blog audience! With great love, I present two more embroidery patterns for my ever-growing collection of the macabre, nerdy and weird.

Love is a Squishy Thing

If you like this pattern, I'd like to remind you of the cuttlefish love pattern (which I'm currently embroidering onto a shirt- yes, I do actual embroidery, not just doodle patterns!).


Heart

I don't think there's an embroidery company out there which makes non-traditional patterns that doesn't have some sort of heart, so I feel a little bad offering up this one for free, even if the style is very much mine. Then again, they all have multiple versions of skulls too- anatomy is anatomy, and it's pretty universally cool. The theme is one I visit often, and anatomical hearts are something I tend to draw on any surface (or person) who stands still, so it was rather inevitable one would find its way here.

This is a simplified version of the drawings I used to make, from memory, to study for Human Gross Anatomy when I couldn't be in the lab holding actual human hearts in my blue-gloved hands. I've not labeled this one (though I could label just about every feature up there from memory- take that, post-final instant brain dump!), and I decided not to include the major veins (which largely follow the major arteries, if you'd like to add them in yourselves), but otherwise it's as correct as I could get off hours and hours of Cadaver Lab. The first day I held one of these things (and the first day we held the brains) was an awesome and personal experience in a way the other organs -muscles, nerves, arteries and veins- were not. I'm not sure why. Likely it's due to the nigh mythological emphasis our culture puts on the heart; an emphasis that is arguably undeserved. Nonetheless, maybe I can share a little of that feeling of cultural awe and appreciation with this here embroidery pattern.

Maybe.

As always, allow me to present the Fine Print (dun dun DUNNNNNN!).


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

You are encouraged to do whatever you want with the piece(s) (use, reuse, abuse, remix, share), just follow these two simple rules:

1) Give me credit (a link back would be preferred)
2) Don't make a profit off any use or modification of my work.

To be fair, should you really want to use them in a profit-making venture, talk to me and maybe we can work something out. Should you want to say thanks, leave a comment (it's the little blue pencil button on the top right) and/or tell a friend or six. I love links. If you do make something, I'd love to see it- really!

To get the full-resolution image, click on your desired picture once, then click on it again. Save it to your computer, then resize, crop, print and use as you see fit. You can find a reminder/introduction to embroidery, including basic stitches and the all-important "how to transfer your pattern to your fabric" links in this post!

Finally: if you've got suggestions for embroidery patterns you'd like to see, I would love to hear them (no promises, though), and if you would like to see all of my growing collection of free embroidery patterns, look at the embroidery patterns tag.)

And now for buttons!

Button <3!

I made (and completely used- buttons are good for that) three different canes for this batch; the aforementioned skull cane, a purple rose cane (like the blue one I've done before) and a simple heart cane. I also had a new set of heart-shaped cutters that, with Valentine's approaching, I may have gone a little overboard with.


I <3 <3s.

I'm actually not too happy with these buttons, which means it's a good thing I only made three. I meant to mix white with a bit of translucent for the background, but looking at them now I suspect that I mixed translucent with a bit of translucent. Oops. In my defense, I was working in the dark.


Purple Roses

I can't decide if these or the skulls are my favorite buttons to date. I've not drilled holes in the smaller ones yet- only the largest of the hearts. Said hearts are big bold focal pieces, more likely to be used as accent than functional part (unless you want a pretty large button hole). See:


Size - Large Hearts

Big!

Finally, the ones that make me giggle all crazy-like, the skull buttons:


Moar skulls

There's just something fantastic about a large heart-shaped button that's covered in skulls, no?


BEST EVER

Accomplishments in button making aside, I'm having a rather hard time today. I've been job hunting every day for almost half a year now, and feel, if anything, less accomplished than when I started- what savings I had have dwindled, and I'm almost totally dependent on the kindness of my boyfriend. I'm not ungrateful, not at all; I'm just exhausted. I've always highly valued my independence, my ability to take care of my self in most any fashion or situation, and this just wears on me a little more each day.

My first instinct, when something is bothering me, is to sit down and think through how I can work to fix the problem. It's something I'm rather proud of, and I tend to be relatively happy, productive and drama-free as a result. Unfortunately, this time the thing that's driving me mad is how I don't have enough control of my life to change anything. Even that I can deal with if I've got an end in sight, but I don't know when, how or even if things will change any time soon. The entire nation's in an economic hole; I have no reason to suspect I'll get any luckier than anyone else. How do you fix a problem when the problem is that all your attempts at a fix, for six months, have failed?

Another problem is that a galling amount of my usual methods of keeping busy and happy are out of budget. Even going hiking -a favorite escape- costs gas money (and often park fees). Treating myself to a dinner out, going to the movies, new books? Out. (Which is not to say James, in his fantastic-ness, doesn't take me out or treat me now and again, but the fact that I can't yet return the favor, that I'm dependent on him even to get out of the house every once in a while, exacerbates the root problem of my frustration with my lack of independence).

I think it's time to take a day off and bury myself in something distracting, like a book or the internet, if only to keep my brain from beating up on me for a while. I bet some good food and good rest and maybe a hard workout will get be back to my old determined, hard-working and hopeful self. Meanwhile, mind if I ask some advice from the collective wisdom of internet friends? What do you do when you're feeling discouraged? How do you distract your brain and keep it busy when it keeps trying to go on a binge of negativity? How do you deal with problems that you can't actually fix, and thus must simply put up with?