Firefly Dragon

I own a bearded dragon named Durango. I also love the TV show Firefly. How do these things relate?

Simple! When you're making your very own Jayne inspired cunning hat, use the leftover yarn to make one for your pet!

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the species, bearded dragons make great pets. They originate from Australia and come in a variety of colors. If you get them from a reputable breeder and handle them when they are young, they are quite sociable and actually enjoy being handled. I take Durango on car rides, where he sits on the front dash and watches other cars zooming by.

In fact, he is so personable, that he lets me dress him up in costumes of his own.

Okay, so this is the part of the handling that he really only just tolerates, but look at that first photo! He's smiling, right?

I am not really a knitter, so both of these hats were made by crochet. I'm sure knitting is easier, and would have resulted in a tighter stitch, but this isn't really too bad for my first go at a hat. Mine took me a few hours to complete (had to backtrack on some stitches and re-look at some tutorials), and Durango's took me about 20 minutes.

On a semi-related soapbox moment, if you own a bearded dragon and let them outside during the summer (mine enjoys basking on driftwood), make sure they don't eat real fireflies, as they are poisonous to beardies!

So, love Firefly, don't eat fireflies :)

Star Trek Halloween Costume

So, back in the days of my living in the dorm, I owned a very sad little sewing machine and a whole lot of crazy ideas. My sophomore year Halloween, I not only was going to make my own costume, I was going to make two costumes for myself (Star Trek Redshirt and the original Silk Spectre from the graphic novel Watchmen), and more costumes for my roommates. Hence the craziness, and perhaps poor workmanship. But at any rate, I was not naked, the costume did not fall off, and everyone knew who I was. Success?!

I started with gorgeous red fabric, amazingly on sale at Joanne's. I was most impressed with the scale pattern, which matched the fabric closely enough for me to the fabric from the original TV series.  

I sewed a rough tunic, and then cut a deep V for the neck piece. Research showed the point of the V being off center, which is why it looks a bit funky in this photo. Also, yay dorm room bathroom!

Next came the cowl. I pretty much just hacked apart an old black cami of mine (broke college student, remember), so it would be soft and stretchy. Look at how long the sleeves are! I guess that's what I get for not following a pattern. 

Completed! I hot-glued ribbon trim on the shortened sleeves, and made the Star Trek patch  by gluing cut pieces of felt on top of each other. The dress was a little short for my comfort, but matched the shortness of the TV series, so I cheated a bit and wore black leggings underneath (not pictured). All in all, it was pretty darn comfy, and a fun Halloween party :)

Pride, Prejudice, & Zombies

Every year around Halloween, the Lansing Schuler's Bookstore puts on a fabulous Zombie Party. This year, I decided to go as the cover from Pride, Prejudice,and Zombies. 

Close up of makeup - not too shabby for a $3 kit at Meijer. I was featured in the State News and won 6th place overall. Photo courtesy of Angeli Wright, State News.

Applying blood to the dress. In hindsight, I would have made my own blood - cheapo costume blood from Joanne's just didn't give the darkness I wanted. 

I made the base dress from a couple of old t-shirts - I cut out a square neckline in one, and sewed together the "body" of a few others to make a skirt. I draped chiffon over these and sewed on some lace. It's actually a two part dress - the skirt portion ties on like a very large apron.

Posing with the cover of the book. Whee dorm room!

Considering I made this in about a day and a half, I'm pretty happy with the results. Hindsight being 20/20, I would have done better makeup, used better blood, and oh, maybe used a pattern to make the dress instead of fudging it, but as you can see, I made a pretty good attempt at the cover. People knew who I was, and that's all that mattered. :)