A lazy sort of day.

There's not a lot of productivity going on around here today. I've been working late shifts the last couple of days, which means getting home at 3am, and I'm on a night tonight, so today is all about the loafing.

Happily, our new furniture arrived to perfectly facilitate the art of not doing very much.

Izzy and Tiny Bear find a sunny spot to compare travelling tales. 

Tea and surfing in the lab

This little set was a lucky find on evilBay. It's a bit grubby in places, so I'm thinking it could use a lick of white paint and some floral patchwork cushions... or is that a bit too twee?

Yay, good post day!

Today in the post there was a...

Pretty dress.

Stripy jumper.

Selection of customising things.

Yay for nice post days!

Merry Makiemas!

We made it to Christmas Day!

What with all the Dr-Whoing and cooking and eating and falling asleep on the sofa, we managed to have a lovely, quiet and restful day. The girls' new glasses got painted up in time, and have been declared 'perfect'.

Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all Makies!

Unfortunately today, Plink and Melchie decided to get out their presents to each other...

To the DEATH, Melchie Vader!

... I can see a veto fast approaching...

Haaar, Plink Skywalker! You shall not better me!

Oh help. Anyone know how to switch a light sword off?

New Specs

Freshly arrived from MakieLab today and waiting for a paint job. We shall look GLAMOROUS this Christmas!

Okay!

Yes yes yes. I know. I said some Makie love was needed...

...but then these wellies arrived in the post and... eeerm...

Splashy wellies and bright red brolly, yaay!

Doesn't she look fab though?

Movember!

If you're walking down the street in the next month and happen to see a gentleman with dodgy-looking facial fungus, panic not, for it is the month of Movember!

Rakish angle?

This charity endeavour encourages gents to be sponsored to grow and groom a moustache for a month, whilst conducting themselves as absolute gentleman. It's very popular amongst doctors, so I'll be alternately giggling at my colleague's efforts and reaching into my pockets for donations until the first of December when (hopefully) they'll be getting rid of them.

The Makies had to get in on the act, of course, and badgered me for Mo-onna-stick. 

A Mo for every occasion!

Not sure the Blythes are impressed.

More photos on the Flickr

Mo onna stick?!

Plans are afoot, watcheth ye this space!

Woooooo!

Huzzah! Our spooky order has arrived from Makie Lab!

Aspen needs some clothing of her own... 

There were a few more things in the bag... watch this spooky space!

Steamplink and Madame Von Melchie

Ahahahaaa!

Finally, I can let you into the sekrit of the costumes we've been working on for the last month!

Just put some gears on it and call it steeeeeeeeempunk!

Steampunk is fantastic, as far as I'm concerned. I've got a whole Pinterest board devoted to the collecting of steampunky ideas, and I've been dying to make a Makie-sized steampunk costume for ages. Happily, the Makie Meet gave me the perfect excuse to make two!

Here's the Steamplink. Obviously involved in the science side of things, she's probably an airship engineer or the like.

Okay, yes. The gears have no purpose. So hit me with sticks. 

Her boots and belt are from Collectible Kitbash and are seriously high quality. The boots have even got hobnails on them!

Up, up and awaaaaaaay!

Madame Von Melchie is more of a lace-and-arsenic sort.

Shall we dance? Or shall I poison you? Either way is good...

Her hat is essentially felt, fabric, glue and more glue. The skirt has wire in the hem to help it hold its shape. There's a 3-layer bustle on the back, which is happily not held together with glue. That's a chicken feather in the hat, by the way.

No, she wouldn't take off the fluffy bunny slippers.

I'm delighted with the costumes, especially Plink's wings and goggles. Many huge hugs to the Jo for sending me the watch faces!

Paper Hat: The Tutorialinginginging...

Goodness. We're going to end the run of hat-based tutorials and postings soon, I promise. It's probably something to do with the change in the weather! As the evenings draw in and the wind gets... erm... windier... there's nothing better than curling up and making some outerwear!

Anyway. As promised, here's a guide to making your very own paper hat, Makies for the wearing of. This is adapted from a classic paper hat fold you can do with a £5 note, either for leaving as a pretty tip or for annoying bus drivers. Hahaha.

Smart, eh?

You will need:

• Fabric measuring 12.5cm by 20.5cm (roughly 5" by 8 1/4")
• Iron and ironing board
• Needle and thread
• Fray check
• Scissors

Depending on the wibblyness of your fabric (technical term), you might need to interface it for added stiffness (fnaar). I would advise that you fold up a test hat and see what your fabric is going to do; although feeling flimsy when flat, the quilting cotton I used is surprisingly sturdy once folded and interfacing is really not needed.

Okay! Let's get folding. First thing, a warning:

You will be using a iron to crease all of your folds. Although you could use the heat only, you will most likely need steam to set the creases. The steam shoots out in all directions. 

You are very, very likely to get burnt fingers if you're not paying attention to what you are doing! 

Do not attempt to make these hats with small children, pets or wayward Makies distracting you! 

Crystal? Right. Read through all the steps, then have a go. If you're not clear on how the folding works, try it with a piece of paper before you move on to the fabric.

First, lay your fabric face down on the ironing board. Fold over 0.5cm ish at each end. This gives you a nice finish on the bottom opening of the hat.

Flat, flat, flat. Fold ends and iron.

Fold the fabric in half, pattern out. Iron the fold. Lay folded fabric on your ironing board, opening towards you.

Opening at the bottom, or you'll not get into your hat. 

Fold in the corners and iron flat.

Find the middle first!

Bring the open edges of the fabric up over the triangle. Iron. It's easier to do one side, then flip the hat over and do the other.

Opening still towards you, yes! 

Fold the nice finished edge down to make the outside bottom of the hat. Iron. This is where you're most likely to burn yourself.

Basically fold the flat bit in half, so's there's a nice finish. Flatten with the iron. 

Congratulate yourself on having some fingers left. Switch off the iron, breathe a sigh of relief.
To finish the hat, you need to do a few little sewing stitches at the red dots. I just overcast a couple of times and make sure it's secure. For a smart finish, trim the edges marked by the arrows and apply a little fray check to stop... well. Fraying.

Stitch through all layers at the dots to hold the hat together. Trim and fray-check at the arrows.

Hats don't have to be just one size! As long as you keep the proportions, you can make any size you like. The tiny hats started off about 7cm wide and have got a hairgrip stitched into the bottom to keep them in place. They could do with a little wire in the brim to hold them open... time to experiment!

"Little haaaaaaaaatses!" "Hey! Plink! Play nice!"

Hat stack!

Yup, it's been a weekend of non-stop crochet action. We're just unbearably cool like that.

These aren't all just for us, you know... *mysterious face*

Paper Hat MKII

By Jove, I think we've got it.

*some sort of joke involving poop decks*

I am so good to them...

Following Melchett's admiration of the paper hat, I had to track down some newspaper print fabric to make her her own version. 

Excuse the blurry photo, it's a bit late for such shenannygoats!

I'll be posting a tutorial for this once I've figured out the ideal starting size rectangle of fabric. This one is too tall in the crown.

If you want your own newspaper print fabric, there's a variety available here. I purchased a fat quarter, which is more than enough for a few hats... guess I might have something to swap at the Makie Meet after all! 

Melchie vs Etsy

Hullo! Melchett here.

Since getting the new laptop (thanks, human's unattended credit card!) Plink and I have been having a good look on the internet for other things that we could possibly purchase. Today we hit up Etsy and had a rummage for some top Makie desirables.

Got coffee. Got doughnut. Got a BEAR HAT. Locked and loaded!

First up, we reckon this pattern book would make a great present for our human! Loads of trousers, shirts and coats. Apparently, if they fit the big-headed dolly with the weird eyes, they'll probably fit us.

From MeMeCraft on Etsy

Next, this cute little dress. I'm not so keen, Plink think's it's awesome.

One of many gorgeous designs by LoveBlytheDoll

A fancy jug like this would make our drinking evenings far more fun, obviously. This is hand blown glass, would you believe?! The colours! The pattents! The SIZE!

Completely astounding work by Kivaford

Oh, and we'll have this for the lab too.

Finally, here's one to break the bank...

You've got to click through to this listing to see all the superb details.
Fantastic work by MyDeliciousBliss

No, it's not a daft dolly in a silly hat, it's a completely gorgeous, fully-furnished des-res of Makie proportions, with sofa, fireplace, cosy chair and curtains! Personally if I could have one bit, it would be the hat. But hey, I think I'll just press for the whole darned lot.

Right! Off to the B+Q website to buy the human some woodworking tools for her birthday. Yeah!

Good grief...

Hullo and welcome to the lab!

(She won't take the bear hat off you know. I've tried.)

... huh... what's that? There's something on my feet?

(Bears, elephants and bunnies on one Makie? Surely some sort of record.)

Oh... these are just my EXTREMELY AWESOME FLUFFY BUNNY SLIPPERS.

(I'm a medical professional and everything. I'm getting too old for this. *sniffle*)

Oh yeah!

Fuzzy Grey Combo

We're going all Autumnal here at the Welsh Institute for Makie Sciences today. Whilst I'm indulging in a bit of nesting (soup, home made bread, gentle housework pootling, cups of tea and making up fresh beds), Plink decided it's time to show off her fuzzy grey combo set.

Light's not bad at this time of year. 

Melchett's not a bad photographer, I have to say.

O hai!

Oh, now that's just cheesy.

Don't fall off, Plink!

Tutorial: Making the Fuzzy Grey Hat

Well, I've published one crochet pattern on the blog, so I might as well cement my descent into middle-age-ness by publishing this one too...

A dodgy photo requiring changing to B+W? NEVAH! 

To make your very own Fuzzy Grey Hat, you will need:

• 4.0mm crochet hook
• Fuzzy Grey Yarn! I used a skein of Debbie Bliss Alpaca that Bagpuss the cat had decided to have a party with some time ago. He's not yet been forgiven. It took well under 1/2 a skein to make this hat. 
• Scissors.
• To know how to do a magic loop cast-on, single and double crochet.

Once again, I'm not going to be teaching you how to crochet. There are some excellent books out there on the subject (see Bear Hat post for details) or loads of videos on You Tube for you to peruse. I find crochet much easier to knitting and it was really, really fast to pick up. 

Here we go then... arm yourselves. Have a read through all of the instructions before you start... 

Create 6 single crochet stitches into a magic loop. Pull the loop tight. 

Increase [Inc] all six stitches using single crochet; this means you work two single stitches into every stitch, giving you a total of 12 stitches.
Single crochet 1 into the first stitch, then Increase 1 into the next stitch around the 12 stitches [Sc1, Inc 1]  

For the next round, you're first going to chain 3 stitches. Then work in double crochet in the increasing pattern of  [Dc 2, Inc 1]. Your first double crochet stitch will be into the 4th loop from the hook (i.e don't work into the chain you've just created). For the increases, simply work two double crochet stitches into the same loop of the stitch on the row below.

Next round, back to single crochet: [Sc 3, Inc 1]

Next round we're doubling! Remember to chain 3 to start, then [Dc 4, Inc 1] 

Next round! Singles again. [Sc 5, Inc 1]
Increasing done, phew! Chain 3 stitches and work a round of all double crochet, then a row of all singles to finish. Tie off and weave in ends.

You may find you want less height on the hat than this; if you do, leave out the last doubles and just work another single round.
For a more snug fit, you can take a decrease at a couple of points in the last two rounds. I did this in the double row at 2 opposite points.

Now have fun embellishing your hat. I think a cluster of beads would look great... or how about covering the whole darned lot in sequins? Rock and roll! 

Fuzzy Grey Hat

It was clear that I wasn't going to get away with failing to provide the Plink a hat, given Melchett was posessed of a leet mad bear one.

The verdict was that something 'snuggly but classy' was required, and the fuzzy grey hat was born.

Plink practices her Boden catalogue pose

Plink's elected to wear it for the moment with her crystal hair pins (originally designed to stick in floral buttonholes and scavenged from a wedding earlier this year) clustered for decoration, but she's eyeing up my bead collection. I don't think it'll be long before interchangeable embellishments are demanded!

I'm working on a matching scarf at the moment. Hopefully a snuggly ensemble perfect for A/W2012 will be complete by the weekend.

Tutorial: Making the Bear Hat

No sooner was the Bear Hat posted on the Makie Forum than a pattern was demanded!

Rawr!

I'm not going to go into how you crochet here; bigger brains than mine have produced some really good books on the subject. The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller is how I taught myself, and Creepy Cute Crochet is a really good introduction to simple amigurumi techniques, which is how the Bear Hat was created.

You will need:

• 4.0mm crochet hook
• Aran weight yarn (I used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, which is all fuzzy)
• Scissors
• Felt Scraps, co-ordinating thread to stitch them on with. 
• Teddy bear eyes, these are 8mm ones
•  Patience and the ability not to crochet yourself to your work. 

Pattern as follows: 

To make the hat:

Create 6 single crochet stitches into a magic loop. Pull the loop tight. 

Increase [Inc] all six stitches; this means you work two single stitches into every stitch = 12 st. 

Single crochet 1 into the first stitch, then Increase 1 into the next stitch around the 12 stitches [Sc1, Inc 1] 

For the next round [Sc 2, Inc 1] 

Next round [Sc 3, Inc 1]

Next round [Sc 4, Inc 1] 

Next round! [Sc 5, Inc 1]

Work around the brim 3 or so times until your hat is the depth you want.  Tie off and weave in ends. 

For the ears:

Decide where you want the ears to be placed, then working in the holes between the stitches of the hat, pick up 4 single crochet stitches for the base of each ear.

Work backwards and forwards as follows:

First row: Chain 1 [Sc 1, Inc 1, Inc 1, Sc 1] = 6 stitches

Next row: Chain 1, Sc all stitches. 

Next row: Chain 1 [decrease 1, Sc 2, decrease 1] = 4 stitches, tie off and weave in ends.

If you're not happy picking up stitches, then you could always work the ears separately off of a chain of 4 stitches, then sew 'em on afterwards. 

I can bear-ly believe it!

Once the ears are on, all you need to do is cut your nose shape and stitch it on, then push the eyes through the holes between the stitches. Have fun adding whiskers, changing ear shapes and experimenting with different colours!

It would be pretty easy to make ear flaps for these hats! You just pick up stitches along the brim, work back and forth for a few rows, then decrease at the edges to a point. Finish off by adding a doubled strand of contrasting colour wool and braid to a pretty pleat. 

Wet Sunday

Take one thoroughly soggy Sunday afternoon, mix in a cup of tea, a flapjack, some wool scraps, a crochet hook and about 6 episodes of Spaced on Netflix...

The knitting needles are misleading. We didn't use them, precious.

And get yourself a thoroughly funky two-tone infinity scarf...

Snuggly jumpers are going to be the way forwards, I can tell. 

And a highly sophisticated BEAR HAT.

Oh yes. Rawr. 

Wet Sundays are my favourite.