Hungry Like the Wolf.....Hat.

I know I haven't posted for ages, and I have to keep the fan happy, but this project took me months to do (worth it...) which is why I haven't really made anything else in the meantime.

But I got the idea for this wolf hat from an episode of Workaholics where Blake wears a "Bear Coat". Keeping in mind faux fur is pretty expensive, I decided a hat would suffice. Cause wolves > bears. Plus, in the warm Australian climate, a coat isn't necessary. (BUT YES, a wolf hat is!)

It is definitely practical because when you wear it, you can freak out dogs, who are really stupid and think it's real. Also, I reckon it could scare little kids too, which is always fun... making kids cry. LOL. 

I also researched a lot about Fursuits, or "furries" to get tips on working with fur, and a lot of what I read can't be unread... Google furries if you don't know what they are. 

Annnnnyways, materials you need:

White fur
Grey fur

Teddy bear eyes
Black Leather
Brown Felt
Vampire costume teeth

Paint
Foam
Scissors
Glue
Pen

Nose

Bandaids

So, you start off with a block of upholstery foam (about $5 from Century Foam). This is what you will carve the schnooout and part of the skull from. Can you believe this block will soon be the coolest thing in your wardrobe? 

Draw your vision to make sure you get the profile right. Keep in mind, you can make any animal you want if you don't like wolves, but come on WTF, wolves are so badass. (Don't need to draw on the ears, cause those will come later).

Now transfer it on to your piece of foam. 

 Grab a pair of scissors and just start hacking away at the foam, carving it to get the shape. Warning: you WILL get really sore fingers, but it will look like maybe you got into some kind of fight, so you will look tough.

 Form the snout like a dogs, keeping in mind you will be adding fur, so make it a little smaller than you would like. 

 Keep on carrrrvin'. 

 Make some holes where you will later place your eyeballs, and you will have your basic head/skull shape.

You will end up chopping the back of the head of behind the eyeballs to make the "face". 

FUCK YEAH finished carving..... 

But it wasn't without injury.. I definitely got these wounds by punchin' someone though... with my knuckles... which it the ideal place to land a punch with......

Now to start creating the beast aka: your new coolest accessory...  

Glue two pieces of felt to the inside of the mouth.

 

I actually used costume vampire teeth and painted them to create the wolf's teeth and they worked out to be a pretty good size. I just had to cut them apart, then I glued two pieces of black leather on the mouth to form gums. Ever noticed how dogs have those weird black gums? Gingivitis! 

Now you can start gluing on the fur, which is the fun part. I totally estimated this part, then trimmed the fur around the moosh to give it texture. 

Then, with the top of the snout, you really have the trim the fur to get definition down the nose etc. Aaaaand also, stick on a nose... 

 Eyeball time.
Just get large teddy bear eyes and glue thin strips of leather around them to form eyelids. I've shown how to make eyelids before, so you should know this, cause I'm assuming you've read every blog post I've ever done... 

Now we make the hat part, which will be filled with your head, which will create the shape of the wolf's head! Just measure it to fit, I have an extremely large head. (To fit all dem brains in.)

Just think of like a beanie, but with flaps. 

Here is a look at the finished "face" that I am going to sew on to the hat. I glued on the grey fur and glued in his eyes into the sockets I had previously carved. Notice I have trimmed some white fur for "eyebrows" to make the fur a little more textured. He hasn't got and ears yet which makes him look a little weird.

Carve two little ears of the upholstery foam and use a piece of leather for the inside bit, and some grey fur for the outside bit. Fold over and glue.

We're almost finished! 

Sew the "face" onto the hat which you have just sewed and turned the right way out.

Neaten it by finishing off the underside of the mouth.

And now you have a rad wolf hat!!!!! 

Cue wolf hat montage. 

Wolfie selfies.....

You will get so many wolf whistles strolling the streets wearing this. It's also suitable for parties, Thursdays, weddings, first dates (You'll definitely get a second!), and job interviews. 

I even found a hat for Manny of his favourite animal, a Panda, halfway through making mine, which was handy, cause I could sus out a bit of the pattern for the actual "hat" part. Mine's cooler though... 

I know people say this all the time, but it really does look way better in real life, pics don't really do it justice. I'm super happy with it, and it's probably one of my favorite creations to date.

It worked out kiiiiinda exxy to make and took a really long time, so I don't think I will be making another one, so I guess you could say it's a priceless one-of-a-kind item............

xoxo Tricky

Cashew's Photo Quilt

Background: So my best friends Matty and Cassie are having a baby. With all the rage of celebrity monikers, I decided to combine their names and call them Cashew as a couple (Cassie + Matthew), cause they are both nuts! Boom tish. Now the awesome name has been passed down to their unborn babe. Or as Manuel calls it 'our baby'... Meaning his and Matts baby... Cause they've 'been together' for more than 10 years now............ 

Back to now: Cashew had his/her first grand party - a baby shower - over the weekend, and although still in utero, he/she partied like it was soon to be his/her birthday... probably.... I mean, there's no way of knowing for sure.

So I wanted to made the present to end all presents - A photo quilt featuring pictures of Cashew's family. Babies fucking LOVE quilts......! Right??

Here's what you need:

1m canvas material (to print pictures on at the screen printer - I used 8 photos).

1.5m x 2m material for back - I used gingham cause it's totes my fav for quilts.
1m x 1.5m wadding.
Lots of different quilting fabrics.
Sewing machine, scissors, cottons etc.

Because we don't know the sex of Cashew, I couldn't do it blue or pink themed, so I decided to make a vintage style quilt so Cashew can feel like a hipster baby - everyone will want to Instagram the shit out of him/her.

I scored all these awesome vintage quilting fabrics from a fabric store. Cut the pieces of material into squares about 12cm x 12cm (or however big or small you want them).

I started by mapping out where I wanted each square to make sure the patterns were evenly distributed, leaving space for where I would put each screen printed photo.  It just makes it easier to power through the sewing part.

Start by joining each square together in their horizontal rows making sure the seams are on the right side.

 Double stitch everything and zig zag stitch the edges as well so it doesn't fray or come apart. And ironing all the rows helps. I used Manuel's new $90 pink iron that is super masculine... and it worked a treat.

Once you've sewn each row, sew the rows together one by one until you have a quilt! Sew the quilt on to the wadding leaving a border. The backing material is then folded over and sewn as a border around the finished quilt panel. Like so.

I got the photos screen printed at a place in Carindale but it wasn't the size I wanted so I had to stitch the fabric photos onto quilt squares to incorporate it, but it still looks cool. Feel free to use photos of your own family though as it would just be cray-cray if you used these pictures.... Here are just some of the pics.

 Mum and dad!

 Baby Matty!

 Baby Cas! On the toliet with floaties so she doesn't fall in. Rofl-copter.

 Aunty Kate and Uncle Manny

Matty testing out and clearly loving Cashew's quilt. Feat: finger from Manuel....

Beautiful Mumma Cass (minus a ham sandwhich) beaming with sheer delight at her new family heirloom guaranteed to be passed down to future Howland generations. You can always stitch on more photos for the years to come!

Can't wait to meet Casheeeew.

Tricky xoxo

Mustachio the Mexican guitar

My friend Matty recently got a job as a primary school music teacher and requested I make him a puppet to entertain the kids. So he created Mustachio (c) and as per his detailed description "He's a guitar whose strings all broke and couldn't be played anymore. So the kids teach him to sing instead and he lives happily ever after," accompanied with this picture of his vision to go by:

 

 

So I set out to create this generation's greatest children's entertainer which has since been described as "freakish, like he's too happy and on the verge of craziness - he will scare children," so all in all, mission accomplished! 

Here's how he turned out!

Materials:

2 metres of brown felt
30cm dark brown felt
Black, pink, brown felt
Brown fur for his mustache and brows

2 teddy bear eyes
White, blue and black paint, paintbrush.


First of all, draw out a guitar pattern on folded felt like so. That oven mit was just to gauge how far up you would need to stick your arm... He's basically the same size as a full-sized guitar.

You will also need to long strips of darker brown to join the two guitar panels together, flip the right way round and fill with stuffing like so. Add a black felt circle which will become Mustachio's mouth.

Dont forget to  leave an opening so you get elbow deep inside him. Line it with some more brown felt and hand sew shut. And yes, I am aware this looks slightly suspect. Cue giggles.

Add some beautiful ocean blue eyes - I've shown in previous posts how to make these. Make the eyelids with a bit of brown felt, otherwise he looks faaaar too starey.

Now add a mustache using trimmed fur fabric, and mould it with some hairspray into a curled handlebar style for that extra Mexican-y feel. Put a little pink felt tongue on his mouth hole as if he is singing "La la la laaaaaaaaaaaa Amigos".

Don't forget his eyebrows. I experiemented with their placement and found the height gave him a happier look and didn't make him look so evil. It did kind of give him an Italian vibe though....

You can add a nose too if you want. Or you can leave that nose behind...

Matty was stoked with him. And I hope this will catapult me to best friend status so I win the stupid competition vying for the place of best friend. Manuel has only known him for more than a decade, but I made him a puppet dammit!

WHOSE YOUR BEST FRIEND NOW MATTY?!?!?!?!!?

Tricky xoxo