All Steam Ahead 2021 – Mad Hatter Preparations Part 2

 All Steam Ahead 2021 – Mad Hatter Preparations Part 2

Since there was a great deal of Preparation I am going to try and get it in some sort of order. Ideally one blog on Preparation and the next one on what I did with it.

Chalk Circles

 

I started with my usual find something Round and Chalk a Circle around it.

Cut out Circles

 

I Drew and Cut out 4 Circles to begin with. This is because I needed to work out what I needed to do.

Half Moon

 

First of all I decided to Fold the Circle into a Half Moon Shape.

Cheese Triangle

 

I then Folded the Half Moon into what I thought looked rather like the Cheese Triangles you buy in shops. I Snipped off the Corners either side of the Pin at an Angle.

Double Snip

I unfolded the Cheese Triangle and got the Shape above. It was a start.

Middle Snip

 

I Refolded into the Triangle Shape. This time I Snipped out a Triangle in the Middle. I then opened it up and Refolded along the opposite Fold. Then I Snipped another Triangle out.

(Please note that the pictures may show slightly different stages due to some photographs not coming out properly.)

Original Cog

 

I had now done all the Snipping out. However I wasn’t entirely happy with it. I decided to try another tack.

Square Cut

 

This time instead of Snipping at an Angle I made a Square Cut.

Square Snip

 

I then went on to the next part and Snipped a Square-ish Shape out of the Middle.

Cog Corrections

 

This time I got what I wanted. A lovely crisp Cog Shape. Looking at the above photograph you can see all the different attempts that it took me to get it Perfect.

A Tale of Two Masks 2020

A Tale of Two Masks 2020 

This time I am trying something a little more complicated. I am going to try and make One Mask into Two

Lucky Circles

 

I was sorting through my bags for some Black material when lo and behold I found Two Circles already Cut out. That’s a Lucky start.

Match Hem

 

I Hemmed One Circle and proceeded to start the other. Now I do generally like to try and get things roughly equal but in this case I need to be more precise. Therefore I Pinned the Circles together so I could Match up the Hems correctly.

Orange

 

Next I needed to make an Orange Circle. For once I didn’t have any material handy so I have had to nip to the market to pick up some Orange Felt. I tried drawing a Circle in Chalk but it wouldn’t show up. Therefore I have used a Biro instead. 

Orange Snip

 

Once I had my Orange Circle I Folded in Half and Pinned it. I Snipped a Triangle out of the Centre. This is going to be a Nose. 

Eye Opener

 

I am having real trouble trying to get things equal. The Felt is a little thick and the Cutting isn’t getting through evenly. I had to do a lot of reshaping on the Mouth.

The Eyes are awkward to do because of not being central. I decided to Fold over the Top of the Circle so I could Snip there.

Yellow Backing

 

Sometimes I can be too frugal with my material. I wanted a Yellow Backing but every time I sewed I found that it was either too small or the Stitching showed through.

Yellow Circle

 

After several attempts I gave up and Cut out and Sewed a Large Yellow Circle.

Perfect Pumpkin

This is much better. The Yellow shows through correctly after I have placed the Orange on top. A pretty Perfect Pumpkin.