My Two Worlds Collide: EPBOT WRECKS

If you follow along with my Stories then you know I had a Big Bad panic attack last Sunday - the kind I mercifully only get once or twice a year - and ever since I've been laid out by my first Multi-Day Migraine.

Lemme first say to all of you who deal with these monsters on a regular basis:

Godspeed. How do you do this.

As rough as the last few weeks have been, though - zigzagging through hormone swings and depression and now into panic and pain - it's OK. I'm actually OK. I see brighter skies ahead. I've been resting up and being extra lazy/gentle with myself, trying to be patient as my body works out all the random adrenaline shakes and tears and need for more sleep, all while binging Critical Role, reading actual books, and avoiding looking at screens as much as possible.

The light sensitivity seems the most cruel, of course, since I live my life looking at screens. So the other night as I was propped up in bed with an ice pack on my eyes,  John started describing some absolutely hysterical photos he'd just found on Facebook. Soon we were both cackling, and even though I hadn't actually SEEN any of them yet, I asked him to get permission to share them here with you guys.

So without further ado, allow me to present one of the FOE Scavenger Hunt Challenges. (As narrated by John, because I'm already exceeding my screen time for today, ow.)

Uhh, hi. This is john (thoJ) here. I've never written anything on Epbot before. I'm scared.

Maybe we should just start. The FOE Scavenger Hunt is another fan-run Facebook group, and there are a lot of these photos, so I'll try to give you a good variety.

 First one of my favorites, the Icing Bracelet:

I think even her ring is icing, so funny.

Several people used Jen's Flip Flop Tutorial.

Some members put their team logo in the picture collage.

Ya know.

If you're wondering why there's a Mr. T with a beak.

:)

I love that Dominique even managed to make her "wreck" lovely:

I was happy to see a few Melted Crayon Art entries:

Let's hope that's crayon, anyway.

I was laughing so hard trying to explain this to Jen:

How I Made My First Chair Slipcovers - With No Pattern!

Here's an old party project I forgot to share last December: chair slipcovers! In fact this was one of my first party projects, from those early days when I had the luxury of time and endless optimism convincing me I could, in fact, DO ALL THE THINGS.

I decided to cover these teal chairs in a gold tapestry fabric (harvested from a thrift store duvet), to better match the 'Puff Common Room aesthetic:

 Much as it pained me to cover them, since these lovelies are my favorite place to sit in the whole house. Remember how plain they were before we added the nail heads & gold feet?

You may recall I am NOT a sewist - as evidenced by the fact that I kept saying I wasn't a "sewer"  until someone took mercy on me in the comments, ha. Still, I'd watched a ton of tutorials on foam armor making over on Youtube, and figured the principles were basically the same. 

And get this, it actually worked! So let me walk you through the process.

First cover your chair in craft/butcher paper, taping all the seams with masking tape:

I used large-headed pins to help hold the paper in place while I added the tape. Don't tape the paper TO the chair, though, or you won't be able to slide it off later.

We have a big 3 foot roll of that paper in the garage, btw, and it is endlessly useful for pattern making, tracing projections, and to cover large work surfaces (like tables) while you're painting. Highly recommended.We found ours at a specialty paint store, but Amazon has the same stuff for $30.

Use the tape to bend the paper to fit the chair like a glove.

This top curve was tricky, to say the least.

When you're done, use a marker to draw on the paper where you want your seams to go. Ideally the seams will be at right angles, or wherever the flat planes of the chair change direction, if that makes sense. I wasn't great at this part, and worse, I forgot to take a picture. So try to do better than I did.

Next slide the whole paper cover off, and cut it apart on your drawn-on seam lines. Make sure all of your new pattern pieces lay flat. If they don't, divide them into smaller pieces that will lay flat - or cut in small darts.

You can see my top curve there was kind of a mess. Since the top of my chairs are fat and rounded, I cut an extra top piece off that curve in the pattern paper, which became an extra strip of fabric for the chair's top edge. You'll see what I mean soon.

Transfer your paper pattern to the fabric, making sure the fabric pattern is all facing the same direction, then add a seam allowance before cutting. Don't forget the seam allowance. And don't make the seam allowance too big like I did, or you'll get a sloppy slipcover.

Next I used a $3 thrifted sheet to test out the pattern, but this is optional:

Here it is all pinned, complete with what appears to be TWO cats underneath. ::waves:: Hi, girls.

Now, I'll be honest: since I still don't know how to adjust patterns to make them fit better (my brain refuses to work in 3D) this step didn't help me at all. I felt like I did twice the work for no reason, and wish I'd just skipped ahead to using the real fabric. I suppose the test fabric does show if the pattern fits... but if you did what I did with the paper template & then added a seam allowance, there's no way it WON'T fit, right?

Anyhoo, while we all ponder my dubious credibility as a sewing instructor, here's the real deal going on: