The Fabric Alchemist

I am always ready to blog about a gift as soon as I have completed it, but then I run the risk of ruining the surprise for the recipients. So consider this my wrap-up of some of the gifts, or gift-like projects, I made at the end of 2013.

I am very proud of all of these projects in terms of both their quality and their geeky twist.  I am also happy to say that these were relatively quick projects to complete, so I kept my self-induced stress to a minimum.

Doctor Who Coasters

2013 was a year for weddings, and initially I wanted to hand-make gifts for all five of the happy couples. In the end, such lofty goals were not meant to be. The only gift idea that saw the light of day was a set of Doctor Who coasters. It helped that in addition to being a wedding gift, I had the opportunity to give a set of coasters away at our annual Green Elephant Holiday Gift Exchange. By making multiple copies of these coasters, the project actually became easier to complete.

All of the shapes were applied with a zig-zap stitch around the edges. I learned that the backing material should be relatively stiff. The thin silver and gold fabric that I used for the Cyberman and Dalek puckered when I used the zig-zag stitch. Upholstery or bottom weight fabrics—like those used for the Fez, 3D glasses, TARDIS, and bow tie—were perfect.

Beholder Kitty Toys

At our 2012 Green Elephant Gift Exchange, I gave away a voucher good for one custom handmade project that required either 1 yard or less of fabric or 1 skein of yarn. This voucher was redeemed for three crocheted cat toys. The owners of the three cats are good friends and fellow Dungeons & Dragons players. I wanted these cat toys to reflect that common interest, so I did some research into iconic D&D monsters.

Needless to say, the Beholder was the only real option that would 1) be relatively easy to make multiples of and 2) unlike the Purple Worm or Gelatinous Cube, wouldn’t get mistook for a generic shape. Moreover, because geeks are awesome and often crafty, there was already a beholder crochet pattern in existence.

I have a stash of half-used skeins, so I chose to do a little yarn stashbusting. I am proud to announce that the remainder of my black yarn and the multi-colored white & brown yarn are gone. The eyes are fabric, hand sewn into place.

I am quite proud of the beholders, and based on Twitter photos, it seems the cats enjoy them as well.

Dino Gloves (and hat!)

For the 2nd Annual DammitLiz Holiday Show I made this matching hat & gloves set as a raffle item.  I bought the dinosaur glove pattern by Nona Davenport through Ravelry. Then I used the instructions she gave for the dino spines to add to a basic hat pattern. I used the “Adult” size of the pattern because I had no idea who would be the recipient. If I were have made the gloves for myself, I think I would have chosen the “teen” pattern. My gauge may have been a bit off, because the adult gloves were even a little big on Greg.

The dinosaur theme tied into a well-loved stage decoration that has come to be known as Christmasaurus Rex during the 2012 Dammit Liz Holiday Show.