Fabulous Fanime Fiona Finish!

Perhaps some of my readers recall around this time last year when I made a costume for Teen Wonder to wear at FanimeCon - a Comicon spin off conference that is held each year in San Jose. Virtually EVERYONE who attends wears Cosplay - comic book, anime, sci-fi, or otherwise similarly geeky fictional characters.  I drove Teen Wonder and a friend down to SJ, and actually left them for the weekend. They are with a large group of friends who are all going off to college in a few months, so this is practice. Plus I did "chaperone" last year - basically the whole downtown is crawling with nerdy teens and young adults, and I didn't know where our teens were the vast majority of the time.  We will be checking in regularly with texts this year to monitor how things are going.

Last year, Teen Wonder was "Vocaloid Rin" for cosplay and I made a relatively elaborate costume for her. It was fun, and I like making costumes, and especially for my kids.

And this may be the last one I make for Teen Wonder, as she's graduating and going off to college in the fall.
(do I feel sad? sort of, but mostly excited for her)

This year?  Fiona from the Gender-bender episode of "Adventure Time". Adventure time is our favorite show to watch as a family - it's on cartoon network on Monday evenings (the new episodes, but it's on other times as well).  I've featured Adventure Time once before when I endeavored to make a Finn hat for Wild Thing for Christmas. The regular version features Jake the Dog and Finn the Human. The gender bender version (just one episode) features Cake the Cat and Fiona the Human.

How is this a Friday Finish?

I made a hat with longer ears that stick up (the challenge)
I made a backpack
I made a blue denim miniskirt.
I made a Cake.
I found the longest striped socks I could.

The full effect! She just needs a large pink jewel that transforms into a sword. I know, I know. But I ran out of time!

Fighting stance

Close up of the backpack - completely improvised using felt and flannel and a big button and a functional zipper so it can actually be used to carry stuff around in.

Since I didn't know of any friends dressing as Cake, I made one to go with the Cosplay. (However, I notice that Cake didn't get packed. Maybe Teen Wonder is planning to meet some cute Cake in San Jose? (not cuter than mine though).

Yeah, she's bad-ass (Fiona), but also adorable!

It's been 3 weeks since my last  confession post.  I do have an almost finish to share - my Fat Geese Quilt top is now a quilt. I'm hand stitching the binding, but it's proving to be a longer task than I planned. Firstly because it is pretty large (72in x 72in), and secondly I used a pre-washed flannel for the backing and maybe I need to go dig out a sharper needle!  Just a couple of preview pix:

I can't wait to finish this one - it's been quite awhile since I finished the top - and it's already a hit around here even though you risk getting stuck with a needle in the thigh if you throw it over you at the moment.

Linking up at these great Friday parties - go check them out!!

Sarah's Whoop Whoop! Friday

TGIFF is hosted at Dreaming in Patchwork this week! 

Show-Off Friday at pieceful life!

Sew and Tell Friday with AmyLouWho

A Finish for Friday!

How many of you have broken a walking foot? 

Okay, how many of you have broken TWO walking feet in the space of a year (or maybe 2)?

I basted my Fat Geese quilt from oh so long ago, and was quilting along a few days ago when things just stopped moving. And I noticed that the plastic (!) shank was broken off on one side.  dammit!

It was totally my fault that the first one got broken - the Janome foot that came with the machine.  This one was a Kenmore and looked totally different.  Mr. Wonderful picked it up at the local shop for me and the guy told him (repeatedly) that "they are the same" and "it will work fine".  Well, it did work for awhile, but I'm just too abusive for a plastic shank I think. Especially since I'm trying a bigger quilt and I haven't worked out how to manage it with my standard machine.

I may need to dust off the ancient Singer that's sitting around and use it to work on the quilt this weekend. I know I have a walking foot for it, but I don't know what kind of condition it's in. (sigh)

Anyway, this meant that I had time to finish my Lanesplitter skirt. I'm wearing it right now! To the office and everything!  And I'm about to go home and have a date night with Mr. Wonderful and I'm going to wear it!
I really love how it turned out with one exception - I used the wrong type of yarn for the waistband - too bulky. It adds to my waist which is not flattering for anyone.  But under a jacket you can't notice.

Lanesplitter is a knitty.com pattern in case any of you want to try it. I'll be loading pix up on Ravelry later - you can find the pattern there too I'm sure.  I used Silk Garden by Noro - you knit alternating two balls with out of synch color striping to get this effect (knit, purl, knit knit the rows over and over switching yarn every two rows).  It's knit on the bias - just a big rectangle that you stitch up and then knit on a waistband (use a smaller cotton blend would be my advice - I just used Mission Falls cotton because I had a complementary color).



Pretty cool!  Happy Friday too!  I'm going to link up to some parties before I sign off!

Whoop Whoop! with Sarah 

TGIFF with Laura at Quokka Quilts

and
Sew and Tell Friday with Amylouwhosews 
(who has a cute button that I can't seem to paste in here at the moment!)