Faking Feathers

At the beginning of December I went to the Urban Craft Uprising here in Seattle--a craft show for indie, city-types. There were a lot of cool, handmade things, like these purses from Crystalyn Kae:

(I got one for Christmas!)

And I bought a cute embroidery pattern from This Tiny Existence:

Source

But, as the old adage goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and a lot of things were--well, let's just say that they were not my taste.  There was quite the variety of knitted items, recycled pieces, and crazy jewelry. I did find a pair of earrings that I loved, but one look at the price tag, coupled with the fact that I knew it was something I would be able to make myself, meant I walked away.

They were like these feather earrings, but made with floaty, teal chiffon instead.

Source

A few weeks ago, I finally gave them a try.  I didn't have teal chiffon, but I did have white chiffon (from a previous wedding hair flower experiment) and all the other supplies on hand.  Here's what I ended up with:

They need a little bit of perfecting (to stop the chiffon from fraying, you have to burn the edges, then the shape gets a bit messed up), but I think I'm on to something here. 

What do you think?

Zippered Earrings

A few weeks ago I shared some zippy tutorials with you, one of which was a bracelet using the zipper from an old pair of denim jeans.  It just so happened that Mr. Goodlaff was tossing a well-loved pair of jeans, which presented the perfect opportunity to try out the tutorial. It took me a long time and cost me one seam ripper (damn thing snapped right in half--it never had a chance), but I eventually liberated a perfectly good zipper from the jeans.  Unfortunately, as I wrapped it around my wrist, I realized there was no way that zipper would become my bracelet.  My wrists are just too fat!

C'est la vie.  Mr. Goodlaff's zipper was not meant to be a bracelet, so I decided to turn it into a pair of earrings instead. Initially I was inspired by these:

Source

But, as I bent and twisted the zipper halves into different shapes, decided to go my own way.  Here's what I ended up with:

 

 

I'm actually pretty happy with how they turned out--they add a bit of a funky edge to an outfit without being too outrageously indie. The best thing?  I had all the supplies on hand--they didn't cost me anything (well, except for the seam ripper).

I trimmed the zipper material so the earrings would have a lower profile than my inspiration earrings.  The material frayed a bit, but one pass over an open flame sealed the material back up again. Because I cut off most of the excess material around the zipper, I ended up sewing the zipper together right near the teeth, which meant it was a little hard to sew through at times.  Still, on the whole, these earrings were incredibly easy to make.

Maybe next time I'll do a swirly pattern? Use a different colored zipper?  The possibilities are endless...