The NorthWesternBelle

This post has been a long time coming, considering this project was accepted in November and finished in December 2017. Better late than never, right? Right. (Edit 3/16/18: I did make a couple of videos about this project! Check them out here: Part 1 & Part 2 .) Spoiler! They're awesome. So, pretty much as soon as I lost my job at the end of October, my mother in law commissioned 30 mugs - 10 cat themed and 20 dog themed - to be Christmas gifts for her pet sitting clients. I'd never taken on such a large project, but I had the time to do it, so I was excited! And also seriously nervous about getting that many mugs through the entire process with enough time to ship them to NM before Christmas. To-be cat mugs. Dog mugs. The dog mugs were thrown to be 4" tall and 4" wide. The handles were all hand-pulled. Right about midway through production of all the cups, the studio hired me as a part-time office assistant. I went from spending two and a ...

So, round about the 10th of last month I started writing a post that never got completed. That's NOT going to happen this time! At least, you know, I hope not. It's the busy season at my full-time gig, so down time available for blogging is hard to come by. You will be happy to hear that we've only been neglecting the blog so far in 2015. We've been keeping plenty busy with custom cape orders and a couple of custom afghans. I've also resumed my weekly appointment to play in the mud thanks to my amazing hubby. More on that later! First, custom order recap. Early in January I received a message through Facebook asking about making custom capelets for some professional cosplayers. We had black fabric on hand, so the construction was inexpensive and quick! They ordered three elbow length black capelets with oversized hoods, and the always-amazing Taiza P. was actually able to create two extra! They need to be photographed and listed for sale...I'll get around to...

In January 2015 I received an inquiry on Etsy about producing a custom burlap cape. The question came in through the listing for our gold-threaded burlap cape , and the client wanted one done in black. The amazing Taiza P was able to recreate the pattern of the gold cape pretty closely, but opted to add some length. When she was done, she all but gushed about how it is the best cape she's ever made! And boy, did it turn out spectacularly. The pictures, not so much, but I assure you: the cape is awesome. Are you looking for a cape to complete your costume? Message us with the specifics of what you want. We can create a cape in any color/fabric combination imaginable, and aim to do so for the lowest possible cost! Thanks for looking! Always Yours, The NWB

In early February I started seeing this picture on Facebook (their algorithms are obviously on point). Pretty quickly after I saw it (like, literally the next day), my mom's best friend posted it to my wall and asked if I could do it. She wanted two for a pair of sisters. After some research and back and forth, she settled on Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable yarn in three color combinations, which is seriously gorgeous. It was like Christmas all over again when it showed up! Dragonfly, Stained Glass and Tidal. I most likely overbought, but hey, that's perfectly okay because I really want to make myself something out of it. I bought the pattern from  Felted Button  on Etsy. Turns out the blanket is built from individual motifs that are joined as you go.  Building the blanket each scale at a time was actually not as time consuming as I thought it would be, though it still took me most of February to do it.  The color combination is really beau...

So, the day (literally) that our cape inventory came online, my good friend Missy messaged me on Facebook about a custom Ruby Red from Once Upon a Time cape. Now, OUAT has been on my Netflix watchlist forever, but I haven't actually started watching it (boo, I know. I'm fired). So, I googled it found the following: This cape is serious business! Of course, the costume designers and some bloggers have the resources to get their hands on this $27/yard brocade fabric. We, decidedly, did not! Though Missy was willing to pay the hefty price, actually replicating this cloak would be a LOT of work. Ms. Confessions of a Seamstress even says it: she had to surge all of the edges to keep this stuff from fraying. Not my idea of a great time, and the serger we have access to is actually about an hour away. So, not practical or economical. With labor it would have been about $400. That's a LOT for a Halloween costume. So, we went in search of the perfect imitation fabric--the...