New Crafting/Art/Music Room

So, I recently moved to a new place of residence. One of the best parts about the new place, other than cheaper rent, is that I have a permanent craft room! Well, as permanent as you can get when you're renting. So, semi-permanently permanent? At my former house, I had a craft room some of the time--in the "spare" room upstairs in between roommates living there. Most of the time, I just had to use the kitchen table. This house (actually, it's a duplex) is great because it's a three bedroom that's affordable for just two of us.

Anyway, on to the photos.

Shot upon entering the room. The underwater scene is actually a shower curtain. I love how colorful it makes the room.

 The sewing table all folded up. Formerly my grandmother's. I need to find somewhere to put my ukulele. I also need to put more decorations around/above my Zen Cat calendar. Like I said, my move was recent. This is still a work in progress.

 The sewing table, opened. The machine is under the white cover thingy. The top of the table also flips open. I recently acquired the machine from my grandmother as well. I'll have to take more photos of it another time. It's been hardly used, and I don't really know how to work all its fancy features yet. It's also a few decades newer than my previous machine. Movin' UP.

The computer desk I am sitting at this very moment. Above it, Tom Encounters a Tesseract.

 Once again, the pseudo-mural shower curtain.

 My record player and Table for Miscellaneous Creations (TMC). My landlord left the TMC at the house for me with my crafting in mind. Aww. I put my painted Bean shirt on the half mannequin... it adds a nice touch. Also because I'm a crazy cat lady. A crazy cat lady who is posting pictures of her craft room. Yep.

In the pink bin under the turntable are some music supplies. I have a USB microphone, headphones, and a random assortment of sheet music. I've want to get back into writing/covering music and doing crappy home recordings like this one I did several months ago. I don't care if I'm not the best, doing it makes me happy. My drum kit is at my friend's house where we have band practice, but perhaps I'll have to take my microphone over there and record some beats on the next song I do.

 Dia de los Muertos-inspired painting in the corner.

 My easel! Did I mention that Tom Lewis is the best? He built it for me. I put down a heavy duty tarp so I don't have to worry so much about getting paint on the floor (it tends to happen with me... a lot).

 Party Hat Party Cat watercolor on the closet door. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with the mirror next to it. It also needs a home.

Closet where I can store finished projects, mailing supplies, old art, and all of my vintage clothing I sell/hoard.

 

Happy to start crafting/arting/musicing again! It's such a relief to have everything mostly in place. I've had a mass of creative urges lately that I've had to suppress thanks to finding somewhere to live/packing/moving/unpacking the last few weeks. Today I finished unpacking the rest of the house, so that's even more of a relief. 

Stay tuned for the next blog episode; I will have to post pictures of the rest of the house!

Inspiration

Photo credit

Love this house.

More photos

These leggings are so beautiful! They run at $70, though I'm sure they're worth it. I'm wondering if I can find some Spandex outer space fabric anywhere so I could try making my own. I'll have to be on the lookout.

As seen in this Craftster post.

Universe undies! Those are seriously hand painted... amazing. I thought it was commercial made fabric at first glance. It's too bad they would be concealed under pants/skirts a lot of the time, though. I think if I wanted to do something similar, it would be on a skirt or shirt. Or maybe an entire dress! That would take forever, but would be amazing.

Easy T-Shirt to Reusable Grocery Bag Tutorial

Do you have a bunch of old or ill-fitting t-shirts lying around? If so, here's a good craft for upcycling them. I know there are other tutorials out there for similar bags, like this one, but here's my own version.

T-shirt material is great for reusable grocery bags because it's stretchy yet sturdy, doesn't fray, and it's washable! Of course these bags don't have to just be used for groceries--they're also good for toting books, crafting materials, kittens, etc. etc.

What you'll need:
-t-shirt(s)
-scissors
-pins
-thread
-sewing machine (optional)



1) Find a t-shirt you want to use, whatever style/size you desire. Obviously, you can make larger bags with larger t-shirts, and vice versa. I used an awesome, size large, Edgar Allan Poe t-shirt.




2) Lay t-shirt flat, and cut around the neckline. If you're more of a perfectionist, you can trace around a plate to make it more even. I just winged it.

3) Cut around approximated lines (as shown above) if you want to reduce the size of your bag. If you're starting with a smaller t-shirt--or you want to make a really big bag--you don't have to trim off the sides and bottom. You can just cut off the neckline and sleeves. Keep in mind though that t-shirt material is really stretchy, so once you start filling your bag up, it will get significantly bigger. Of course, this could be good or bad depending on how big you prefer your bag to be.


At this point, it may be tempting to wear your t-shirt as a badass muscle tank. If you can pull it off, by all means, go for it. There are plenty of other t-shirts in the world one can make into bags.


4) Turn t-shirt inside out, and pin along sides and bottom. If you didn't trim the sides, just pin the bottom.



5) Sew along pinned edges. You can either hand sew them or use a machine. If you're using a machine, I would recommend stitching over your seams a second time for extra durability.

6) Turn inside out, and you've got your bag!

This is another bag I made, without trimming the sides. I cut out a deeper, more ovular shape from the neckline, because I wanted longer handles. Try messing around with different styles. The t-shirt is your playground.