I made this bag as a learning experience to make my swap partner a less sloppy bag, and I love it!

The outside:



Zippy pocket:



Other pockets:



I made it using this tutorial. The little bird embroidery pattern is from Andrea Zuill's blog.

Constructive criticism is much appreciated! This was my first time ever sewing from a pattern.

Last night I got the itch to carve something, and rummaged through my video game collection looking for a nice image to use. The first thing that jumped out at me was the Okami box! Okami's a great RPG/Puzzle/Adventure game (kinda like the Zelda series) and has the most gorgeous artwork in any game I've seen. It's entirely done in Japanese brushstroke style!

Here's the stamp I made:



I think the brushstroke style of the original art worked well for stamp carving!

I'm an avid gamer and absolutely adore the warcraft series, or any blizzard game really (warcraft 2 and diablo 2 were two of the first games I ever played seriously), so what better image to learn to carve stamps with than the horde crest?



It's a little messy (it's only my second stamp ever), but I think it came out pretty good! Though I definitely don't recommend the material. I carved my first stamp out of mastercarve and it was a dream to work with. For this stamp I used super cheap Soft Kut from Dick Blick. I definitely got what I paid for, it was way to rubbery and wouldn't cut properly! For tools I used a Speedball #1 gouge, an xacto knife, and a speedball U gouge.

I hope y'all enjoy it!

My renaissance faire costume (and the first dress I sewed myself!)

Showing dress/kirtle


Wheee, swooshy skirt!


In action at the faire


I did a loooot of research for this dress (I'm into that whole nerdy historical accuracy thing). The dress is loosely based on various Italian working women portraits as shown in Vincenzo Campi paintings. Now if only my execution was better >.>

If anyone else is interested in Elizabethan clothing, the Elizabethan Costuming Page is an incredible resource! Without it I would have never been able to make this dress

I made this a little while ago (it was my first sewing project!) from a pair of old, falling apart jeans and some spare flannel.

The front of the bag:


Front pocket:


Inside of the bag: