Aargh!

It is so frustrating! I want to make new stuff. I have some that I can make new stuff with, but not enough stuff. I need more stuff! Gimme stuff! I want stuff!

Where's the stuff!?!

In more positive news, late late last night I found a place that sells some of the stuff I need for less than the other place I usually get the stuff.

Do you think I might have used 'stuff' enough? Maybe I should say it again: stuff.

Hehehe sorry y'all. think I'm starting to get a touch of the ol' cabin fever, maybe.

I do, actually, have some good news. The Frog Princess reached its destination! According to Kaelyn's mom via a Facebook post:

"We got mail! Kaelyn is gonna freak out! I think I am going to get the whole outfit together before I show her though :) love it love it love it. I'm jealous, lol"

So now we have first invoice, first sale, first shipment, and now first testimonial! Kaelyn's mom will send me photos as soon as she has some to send.

I am reaching milestones now so quickly! I mean, I haven't even launched the store yet, and already one sale and glowing review...I hope I can keep it up.

Speak to me, O Muses!

If I have a Muse, she whispered in my ear sometime this morning. After making those beaded medallions, and then pleating that green ribbon and sewing it to them, I laid the medallions on either end of a belt I'd been given and thought to myself, "Now WHAT?" Well, I think I know! I have some green satin that I could pleat and attach to the belt, framing it on one side, and then add some camel-colored chainette fringe (the belt is camel-colored) and voila! I may have a sell-able piece! <sigh> if I can part with it. I really do like those medallions...

Well, come on, May! I think you're going to be THE month. I hope to maybe at least schedule that photo shoot for the store this month, if not actually have it - I just need to coordinate with work, the model, and the photographer for that to happen. I have 6 pieces at the moment that are priced and ready for adding to the store - I just want them to look great when I post them!

I was given some beautiful fabric today for making HipScraps with, and after a tiny bit of research I learned that the fabric actually are head wraps sold by The American Cancer Society of America at their site, tlcdirect.org. They are far too big for use singly as HipScraps, but I think I can make each one into two or more (depending on size) HipScraps. They were given to me by my very good friend, Elena, whose mother recently passed away from cancer. The head wraps were hers - Dana's. Per Elena's request, one of the head wraps is reserved for a Gypsy costume she is building, and another she has asked I name the resulting HipScraps after her mother. The fabric for what will be come the 'Dana' is a lovely camel color, with a line drawing of twigs and leaves on it in black. I happen to know where to order some great beaded tassel trim in a matching camel color, or in black, so I think I'll be able to do Dana justice when I create the 'Dana' HipScrap(s).

Each of these head wraps sells at the American Cancer Society site for $18.00, and the price of the resulting HipScraps will reflect that. I have thought about it, and think it would only be right to make a donation to that organization, or one that Dana preferred, from the proceeds of any sales from HipScraps made from these six head wraps. Here's a photo of them all together:

I'd write more, but honestly, I want to get to work on that medallion belt idea - it's kinda burning my brain right now! More later, I'm sure.

Shipped!

Wow, I feel like an official business now! My first sale is complete! I went to the post office about an hour ago and shipped the Frog Princess. Miss Kaelyn will get it on Thursday, most likely, and I am sure she will love it. She's big into princesses, I hear. I really hope I get photos of her wearing it at Scarborough Faire - she and her mom live in Texas, home to many awesome renafaires, and Scarborough Faire is my most favorite. Then again, it was also my first renfaire, so I may be a touch biased. :P

An Apology

Everyone, I apologize. There's nothing less professional than venting about one's personal life on one's business blog. I hope you will forgive me.

So I received payment for my very first sale today, and tomorrow when my guy gets home from work (yes, work, he got called back in,) I shall hie myself off to the post office to send it off. I'm so excited! I really hope miss Kaelyn likes it! Ooh! That reminds me! I had planned to embroider her name on the inside of the band, next to the month and year that I already put there.

Now where's that pink embroidery floss?

Take a Deep Breath...

...and just breathe. Things will get better, we will be OK.

I need to 'ohm', I think. In the land of HipScraps, everything is chugging along nicely, things look good. I've made a sale, I have 'spec' inventory that I simply need to get photos done of to post to the store to launch it, there seems to be a modicum of genuine interest in the product...I'm positive, I'm optimistic.

Outside of the HipScraps world, things aren't so good.

I have a full time job, as a contractor, working for a very large, well known company, for their client, also a very large, well known company. I was hired originally last year on a one year gig with the expectation that I may be hired on full-time after a year or so. I'm not being hired on full-time - yet - and my contract ended on, of all days, my birthday. My boss tried to extend my contract, but there have been...issues...and I have not worked for two weeks now. I get paid weekly, so I have now not been paid once, and even if I get to go back to work this week, I won't get paid this coming payday, either.

Compounding this is that my fiancée also works with me, and is also a contractor, and also has been out of work for two weeks while they sort out the whole deal.

This means that as of today we have less than 25 dollars between us, and his bank will be charging him two overdraft fees by the end of the day today.

<sigh> Things will get  better, we will be OK.

I try very hard to be positive, but sometimes I just want to scream and curl up in a ball in a corner. We filed for unemployment, but waited a week before we did, thinking we were only going to miss a day or two.

I am trying to keep myself busy, work on making more product, trying new things, but soon enough I will run out of supplies altogether and then I will likely freak out.

Sorry for dumping all this here, but I needed an outlet today.

In lighter news, I made a thing last night. Not sure what it is...sort of a flower/tassel thingie made of beads and fabric circles...I was just fiddling around. Here's what it looks like:

If I were to use this idea for tassels, it could possibly work. I could also see it as a hair thing, I dunno.

Well, that's all I've got for now, y'all. Laters.

Happy Easter, Eostre, Beltane, Whatever...

...or Zombie Jesus Day, even. I don't care. It's raining, so I can't give the kids their egg hunt like I want to. We're heading over to a family shindig...an Easter/Cousin Holly's Birthday Party - Party. So probably no HipScrapping for me today, just kid-wrangling and face-stuffing. Whee!

Have a good day today, everyone. Bite the ears off a chocolate bunny for me. Make sure it's a dark chocolate one, though. I hate milk chocolate.

Major Mental Malfunction

So I just realized that I apparently have a major mental malfunction. Instead of rambling on and on as I did in my post yesterday, I should have been gushing and squee-ing my little heart out because...

I MADE MY FIRST SALE!

I knew I'd made it already, but it wasn't truly a real sale until I sent a PayPal invoice out. Wow! I did it! I guess it really really won't be true until I get the money and ship it off, but I'm still so excited! Oddly enough, it wasn't an Adult Standard HipScrap - it was a semi-custom Teen/Child sized one that was initially going to made on spec., but an old friend from many many years ago in Texas saw it, and thought her dancing toddler daughter would love it, and so we chatted a bit and she agreed to the price it set! (Bless her!)

This is what it looks like:

Three chevrons of pink beaded trim laid under three rows of pink, sage, and butter tassel trim, with silver sequins on a pink cotton base with sage cotton edging and grosgrain ribbon. I managed to squeeze a teeny bit more of both trims into the very top, too! 

I embroidered the month and year in to the wrong side of the sage edging at the top, where a label might be, just to make it special. I think I ought to start doing that on all of them.

So that's what all the delayed excitement is about.

Last night I found myself at odds. i don't have a lot of supplies, and having been out of work for two weeks while my temp agency and the company I work for sort out contract stuff, I cannot afford to go get more stuff...it's very frustrating. So after trying to distract myself from lack of work and lack of supplies by playing some Little Big Planet 2, I was looking at Facebook on my phone and saw some work that Benne Gezeritt DesignsCo was doing and thought that I ought to try it out, just to have something to do. I have a bunch of beads and stuff just sitting around from when I would make jewelry all the time, and  I had a couple of interesting buttons that I'd bought because I couldn't not buy them when I saw them, so I did this:

I didn't sew them to the belt - I'm just playing around with what to DO with the darned things, now I've made them.

So yeah. Made a couple of beaded medallions, but dunno what to attach them to. I've seen things like this used in several different ways in the belly dance world; headpieces, belts, and bra centers. I'm nowhere near making bras, so that idea is out of the question, but a belt seems more up my alley. Benne Gezeritt does lovely headpieces, and I couldn't even think of coming close to doing what they do, so a belt it is! ( I'll have to put links to everyone in a sidebar, as I expect everyone I have linked so far will get multiple mentions as we go on)

Today, I started working on another HipScrap - a Toddler sized one. Here it is so far:

I can't go any further without a certain blue beaded tassel trim that I don't have, so here it sits, pinned and ready for more embellishment. I really liked the way the gold metallic velvet worked out on another piece, so I'm considering getting silver or blue metallic velvet for this one, instead of sequins.

All, in all, it's been a rather productive 24 hours in the world of HipScraps, so yay! It started out with going to belly dance class, which is always a good thing, and ended with me at least getting something done. Oh! And and and, my dance buddy and fellow crafter of belly dance accessories (and other stuff, too!) was at class today and she's been a busy bee, as well. You will be able to check out her stuff on Etsy soon, but for now you can see her here.

Time to eat something, as I've not had supper yet. Taraa!

Six!

Right. So...I was very industrious the day before yesterday, and finished two hipscarves that I'd left to languish. One only needed its sparkle and tassels, the other had only been pinned, and needed basically everything. They were going to be nearly identical, but On the second I decided to make it better - a single step up from the first.
The first is what i think I will refer to as a 'Standard' Hipscrap. It's the basic triangle scarf, with ribbon, edging, and trim around the three sides, with tassels and a bit of sparkle. Very basic. It looks like this:

If it appears to be more elaborate that some others I've done, it's only because it has pom trim instead of tassel trim - it has more volume and moves differently.

The second one is a step up because, although it has everything nearly the same (it has a brown base with blue edging), I gave it an extra chevron of trim and sparkle. It looks like this:

Here it is flat before I added the tassels...

A shot of me wearing it - I couldn't help myself!

My middle child, Rhys, is a ham and had to get in the shot.

 I tried the second one on, because when I held it up and shook it, it really moved, and I just HAD to se how it shimmied - oh boy, does it ever shimmy!  I'd previously said I wouldn't use pom trim again after using this stuff up, because it's a hassle to cut and keep in one piece while you sew it - this trim has beaded drops in between each pom, so no matter where you cut, you either lose a pom OR a beaded drop. I made a necklace for Rhys (pictured above) out of some of the lost bits and a clasp and some embroidery floss:

 I am now tempted to make matching necklaces and earrings for some of the hipscarves, and pop them into the store when I launch it, just to see if they sell. My stuff is turning out to be rather expensive, and maybe I'll scrape by if I can sell some little things, too.

Anyway, what I was tryng to illustrate before I went off on that tangent was this: there is a difference between a Standard HipScrap, and a two-chevron hipscrap, or a three- or four- or five- chevron hipscrap. Here's the two I was talking about, side by side:

Basically, depending on the width of the trim, I can fit as many as five chevrons of trim on one hipscarf. The yardage of trim needed for each additional chevron  will raise the price, so I'm going to set my pricing  up accordingly.

There are four sizes: Plus, Adult, Teen/Child, and Toddler.
There are two 'base' types: Cotton, or Custom
There are two edging types: Cotton, or Satin.
There are six possible chevron types: Standard (three sides only), Plus 1, Plus2, Plus 3, Plus 4, and Custom.
There are four possible tassel levels: 3 tassels, 5 tassels, 7 tassels, or Custom.
There are (currently)  three types of 'sparkle': Sequins, Metallic Velvet, or Beading.

So people who have custom requests will have tons of choices as far as configuration, etc.! I'm really looking forward to finding out what people want. So far, I've been working in color combinations that I like, but I am a bit subdued, and consider using gold trim outside the box (for me - I HATE gold! Ugh!) I;m working on a few designs now that are a bit brighter and more along the lines of something a traditional Tribal Style Dancer might want - I have a yellow based one that is getting horizontal rows of a trim called 'Grandmother's Shawl' in the works, but need to order in some cowrie shells and other extras to make it work. Here's a sort of preview pic:

It will have either black, burgundy, or perhaps even bright green trim on the edges, in basic cotton, and in the gaps I'm thinking about using cowrie shells and brightly-colored beads to make cowrie blossoms. Might even make a couple of big 'blossoms' for the points, to accentuate the hips. We shall see.

Anyway, I believe that's enough of my babble for now. Toodles, folks!

Post the Fifth

So the vest I started yesterday got finished today - except for closures, I don't have any and will have to find some really cool ones. I already know one thing I would change if I made another like it for myself, and that is that I would shorten in by half an inch or so. right now it's an awkward length. Here's the latest pics of it:

not quite finished here

done, with safety pins where closures will be when it's REALLY finished

I also finished cleaning up my mudroom and a large portion of my kitchen today, making much room for myself in my little space:

So as you can see my workspace is nothing but a round table in a space generated when my landlord converted the once-garage of my house into a bedroom: my mudroom. The open door in the first of the two above pics is my bedroom door. The double doors lead to my currently cluttered backyard, and another not pictured door leads to the front yard. The kitchen is open to the mudroom and is a level higher. The hard part about this space is that he back doors open inward, meaning that my attention is divided if the kids are outside, because I become the default kid watcher, what with how close to the door I am. My kid's are the age where they can't be either inside or out - they must have both, frequently. My sewing gets fragmented when they are playing outside.

I often lament that I need a 6 bedroom home; one bedroom for us parentals, a room for my oldest daughter, a room for my  younger daughter, a room for my son, the youngest, a bedroom for my dad to use, since his job has him here at least a week out of every month, and a studio/workshop for me. I'd need three bathrooms; a master, a guest , and a kid's bathroom. I'd need a kithcen open to a greatroom-style livingroom, and big kitchen doors that lead to a covered outdoor kitchen. And a quiet library/den, for homework or studying or just reading in, away fromthe rest fo the house and its noise. 

Of course, pigs will fly before something like that becomes reality for me! But a gal can dream, right?

Well, one last pic before I go: 

I'm trying out a sequin-alternative: its a ribbon with a sort of fuzzy glitter vibe happening. Even when the light isn't hitting it properly, it still gives off a dull golden glow, and it really sets off the colors in this hipscarf. Not that you can see it in this crappy photo...Anyways, off to finish sewing the ribbon on before I go to bed.

The Fourth Post

Gee, I am *so* imaginative. I have got to come up with some decent post titles!

Anyway - I wasn't lying, my background matches the fabric I bought to make a vest. See?

I decided to go ahead and try to make a vest today, so I traced my pattern onto this awesome cloth/paper meant for tracing patterns onto - its great stuff, doesn't tear, stretches the teeniest bit, and is just transparent enough to trace patterns with. So glad Folkwear sends those little samples in the mail with their patterns!

So I cut the fabric and started sewing, and then realized I needed to get a post done and head to bed, because it is very late and I have to give a friend a ride to the oral surgeon's office in the morning. So here's how far I got:

I still have to put the bias tape on all of the other edges, and decide what method I wish to use for closure, but that shouldn't take too long to do tomorrow. I can probably pin it while waiting for my friend.

So, goodnight, folks.

The Third Post

So I was just gazing raptly at my new blog, here, thinking to myself how snazzy it looks, when it dawned on me: The red on red background is in the exact same pattern as some black on white fabric I bought! I'm hoping to make an under-bust vest out of the stuff to wear with my eventual black 25 yard skirt and my Skully1 and...well, I don't have an awesome bra yet. I need to find a basic bra that I can embellish. I'm thinking more of the tame beaded trim, tassel trim, and some more of the skully's eyeball beads, and silver beads...I used up all of the skully fabric on Skully1 and Skully2, so I figure I'll have to copy the shape in beads and hope people 'get it'.

Well, this just does it - I'm off to try to decipher the instructions for the under-bust vest. I bought two amazing pattern collections from Folkwear: Turkish Dancer and Tribal Style Belly Dancer. I've been putting it off because the fabric is so awesome that I'd hate to ruin it by making some mistake in my cutting.

Looking at the Tribal Style Belly Dancer Pattern, you might  think that this is where I got my hipscarf idea from, but actually I started making them before I got the pattern. It was nice, though, to see my ideas confirmed in their pattern booklet!

The Second Post

So to continue with the story of HipScraps, and how they came to be...I mentioned in The First Post that I'd made a second hipscarf for a dancer-friend of mine...here's a photo of it, after having its edges done and before I embellished it:

It's a much more manageable size, although a bit wonky. it's not nearly as symmetrical as I'd like it to have been.

As I was working on finishing the embellishments on Skully1, and while I was sewing up the edges of Skully2, I had been into a store and found inspiration for four more hipscarves.

Oh, the possibilities!

The red one got attention almost immediately, and I had to go buy stuff for it. It got a gorgeous beaded tassel trim, and gold sequins, and gold beads.

I usually hate gold, but I wanted to show versatility. Plus dancers usually like gold.

The beaded tassel trim in place, some of it sewn on, some of it pinned...

I sewed on little flat circles to the edging, then added the tassels, which I'd strung beads on before attaching them.

So I labored on that for a bit, as I was finishing the beading on Skully2. I completely forgot to take a photo of  Skully2 before I gave it to Specter, so I've no pretty pics of it. I'll have to get one next time I see her in it. When Red, Black, and Gold was finished, it looked like this:

This is my desk at work, covered in my sewing mess. i'm lucky my boss is cool with us bringing things to do up to work!

While working on Red, Black and Gold, I started to work on another one called The Oriental, and another I named Domino, and a couple of others. I even bought more supplies to make even more...

Pretty soon, my desk at work was completely covered in hipscarves:

 ...and my fiancée was getting worried. Skully1 alone had cost around $125.00 just to make, and I'd just given away one that cost nearly as much! I had the supplies to make a few more, so I promised him I'd try selling some. If they didn't sell, I'd stop, and only buy stuff for making hipscarves when I personally wanted a new one. 

So I created an Etsy store and started faithfully documenting my progress with the hipscarves on my Facebook wall, which, thank goodness, generated interest. I now have several people rather excited to see the store launch (I haven't put anything into the store yet) and already have one commission! 

Things are looking up. The lovely Specter has agreed to be the model for the hipscarves at an upcoming photo shoot, which will be done by Shannon of Shannon Hall Photography , as soon as I book the shoot. I have figured out four sizes: Plus, Adult, Teen/Child, and Toddler. (Toddler came about when my 3 year old daughter, Rhys, begged for a HipScrap of her own. She now has a mini-Oriental. 

Speaking of children..mine demand food, and looking at the time, it's no wonder! Chicken Alfredo to the rescue! (As soon as I make it, that is...)

The First Post

So welcome to the HipScraps blog.

Yeah...I really don't know what on earth I should say. Like it says in the sidebar to the left, I'm just a gal who, when trying to find a tassel belt online to purchase, couldn't find what she was looking for. I wanted a tassel belt, but I either didn't like what I found online or simply couldn't afford the ones I found that I liked ( and I didn't find much that I liked!)

So one day after another day of feeling seriously under dressed in belly dance class, I was digging around in my chest of drawers, looking for something, anything to wrap around my hips. I came across a bandanna I'd bought years earlier with the intention of making a cushion cover of it. It was not quite big enough to wrap around my hips (which are, sadly, far too wide at the moment,) but it did look pretty nifty when folded in half diagonally. I was struck with inspiration.

Why not make my own tassel belt, and use this bandanna as a base? So I hit up the fabric stores, and spent way too much money on tassel fringe, and upholstery tassels, and beaded trim, and sequins, and iridescent faceted beads, and embroidery floss, and plastic silver beads, and canvas and bias tape and grosgrain ribbon.

Quite some time later, after some almost ruinous mistakes when cutting the fabric, and two days of hand-beading I ended up with an encrusted, tasseled hip scarf.

Everyone: Skully1, Skully1: Everyone.

Those silver beads around every other skull took two days to complete. Each beaded skull has bead eyes and a silver sequin bindi on its forehead.

Did I mention it was covered in skulls? And because of my post-baby slobbery, it's a plus-sized hip scarf.
It fits, and I am super happy with it. I immediately went to work on another one, for a dancer-friend of mine, and in far less time I'd produced a second, normal sized hipscarf out of the other half of the original bandanna.
She loves it. In fact, we finally managed to attend class at the same time this morning, and I got to see her dance in it, and I was just tickled pink to see it shimmy! Specter did it - and me- proud.

Since making the two originals, I have made myself busy making more, and will be launching a store to sell them in on Etsy in the very near future.

So in my little world, the kids are finally sleeping, and I have just sat here and posted this ridiculously long post instead of re-dying my hair or doing the dishes or any of the mountain of laundry I need to be doing. So I think I will go to bed, and procrastinate all of that off until tomorrow.