Birthday Knits!

I've been all about knitting lately -- I think because it's been obnoxiously cold here for so long that I'm drawn to things I can do while I'm on the couch wrapped up in a blanket.  Heh.  There are a few February birthdays in my family, and everyone received something that I knit.  (Knitted?  Apparently they're both correct, but they also both sound wrong to me.)

In reverse chronological order, here's E's birthday sweater.  Since her birthday's today -- Valentine's Day -- it seems appropriate to start with her.

This was a top-down seamless raglan that I changed from a different cable to use this cute heart cable, making it sort of Valentine-y without going over the top.  I started it on Saturday and finished it in time for her to wear it to school yesterday, since she doesn't go on Fridays.  I would not recommend this short of a time frame.  I think my hands are still recovering.  It's a little roomier than I necessarily wanted, but I don't think she looks like she's swimming in it, and it'll give her some growing room.

She's been showing a preference for purple lately and was all smiles when I showed it to her and put it on, so I think she approves!

For my sister, I made another pair of boot toppers.  I used the same pattern as last time, but made a few changes. 

 

Ray had requested some slippers for around the house, which I was pretty excited about.  He rarely asks me to make him anything.  I decided to make felted slippers, which is always fun, and also less likely to be traumatic if they accidentally get mixed in with the laundry. They looked impossibly huge before I threw them in the washer!

They felted to the perfect size, though, which always seems rather miraculous to me.

Happy Valentine's Day!  I'm off to finish E's birthday cake and finish a few other last minute birthday details while the girl naps.  :)

Handmade Holidays 2013

I ended up not doing a whole lot of Christmas sewing this year (I had big plans, but didn't get to most of them), but there was a fair amount of knitting.  I just mailed out the last thing this week *sigh*, so I'm finally blogging about the gifts as well.

I made O's teacher some boot toppers and also gave her some coffee and coconut oil exfoliating scrub that apparently never got photographed.  It was brown and in cute jar, so just imagine that.  I was quite pleased with the boot toppers.  (Ravelry notes)  Someday I'd like to make myself a pair.  I looked on Ravelry a couple of days ago, and the last time I knitted myself anything was 2009!  I still wear that hat too.

E's teacher and para also got the scrub, along with some slippers.  I made her teacher Bea's Slippers (Ravelry notes) and loooooved how they turned out.  They took a lot longer to knit than I was expecting, though, so I had to find a quicker option for her para.

I ended up knitting double-stranded slippers for hers, and they were super quick and quite squishy.  (Ravelry notes)  She told me after the break that her kids kept swiping them from her.  Haha.

I also wanted to give a little some thing to the secretary at E's school, since I end up bugging her to sign in and out nearly every day at drop-off and pick-up time.  She had a bio up in the entrance at the beginning of the year that said she sewed, so I had that in the back of my head and decided to make her a jar pincushion and fill it with a few chocolates.  Honestly, she had one of the best reactions to a gift that I've given in a long time.  It made my day to see how happy she was that I had read her bio and remembered that she sews.

Here's my only actual sewn project!  Ray asked for a phone cozy for when he runs in the cold.  I took this tutorial and simplified it, since I knew he couldn't care less about the piecing.

O wanted to make E a blanket and decided a tie blanket would be the way to go.  He was right, she loves the fringe. He chose the fabric, I did the cutting and Ray and I both helped him tie it, but he did a significant part of it.

It looks like E's staring down that raccoon.

Back to knitting (I have no rhyme or reason to this post, I guess), my SIL requested an earflap hat for her younger son, so I made him this one.  (Ravelry notes)  This was my most shamefully late gift of this holiday season.  Winter doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon, though, so he will have plenty of opportunity to wear it still.  Hopefully it fits!

And last, but not least, the kids' annual Christmas ornaments.  (You can see 2011's here and 2012's here.)  O has been very into watching the Peanuts holiday specials, so I was inspired by this ornament on Etsy and made him Charlie Brown.  I wanted to use a glass ball like the original, but couldn't find any when I finally went shopping (I think Hobby Lobby has them, but it was a Sunday, so they were closed).  I settled for a paper mache one instead, so Charlie Brown is a little bumpier than I would have liked, but O didn't seem to care.

E's ornament was again based on her Halloween costume (as well as her on-going love of our cat).  It ended up being a huge pain to knit and then sew up this fun fur yarn, but I do like how it turned out.  (Ravelry notes)  I used scrapbooking stickers to put her name (blurred out, obviously) and the year on the ornament the cat is holding.  Stickers are the way to go.  Much less stressful than trying to paint the name and year with a shaky hand like I did on O's!

 

And that's it!  I felt really busy, but I guess I didn't really accomplish much.  Now I'm on to working on birthday gifts, since we have several in our family in February.  Winter KCW was this week, but I didn't even make an attempt this round.  I have been enjoying looking at what other people have been making, though! Have you been sewing along?

Super Totes!

I feel like there should be some sort of superhero theme music playing... SUPER TOTES!

Anyway.  E's teacher (this is E's third and final *sob* year in the same early childhood classroom) went on a trip last month and told me how well the Noodlehead Super Tote I'd made her worked as a carry-on bag.  The para then said that she uses hers as her everyday bag, and then I realized that I never blogged about the bags, which were their end-of-school gifts from us.  Weird, because I LOVED them.  So, so much.  Even though I started them much too late and ended up practically pulling an all-nighter.  So I was happy to hear that they're holding up well.  Late night sewing can be suspect.

The pattern is pretty awesome. I had no problems with it, despite my lack of sleep.  It does require quite a few pieces and a lot of interfacing, which added to my time crunch.  Well, and my usual procrastination.  One thing I will mention is that the recommended interfacing was super expensive compared to my usual stuff.  I'd never used anything like it before; it reminded me of a fusible muslin.  It was nice, but considering E's owl bag was made with considerably cheaper interfacing and is holding up great on its third year of daily use, I probably wouldn't spring for this stuff again.

The main prints are both home dec fabrics.  The red and brown are linen blends, and the linings are quilting cottons.  There was much agonizing over fabric selection.

I didn't make many changes.  Instead of piping on the outer pocket, I just used a strip of contrasting fabric.  I'm pretty sure I swiped that idea from one of the bag testers, but now I can't find where I saw it (one of the perils of blogging about something months later).

Love magnetic snap closures!  You can also see the non-piping trim.

 I only put the elastic pockets on one side of the inside, purely for time-saving reasons.

The recessed zipper top might be my favorite feature.  It was easy too, so I'm sure I'll add it to other totes that don't have a zip-top.  I seem to manage to tip over my bags regularly, so secure closures are much appreciated!

I  actually cut other another one for O's teacher, but he wanted to give her a gift card to his favorite frozen custard place instead.  The pieces taunt me regularly, so I'll have to sew it up soon.  I think I've finally recovered from the panicky night sewing to attempt another one.  Ha.  He actually has the same teacher again too (his school combines 2nd & 3rd grades, as well as 4th & 5th), so maybe I'll see what he thinks about it for a Christmas gift.

Rockin' Baby Gowns IV & V: Wisconsin Sports Edition

The Rockin' Baby Gown has definitely become my go-to baby gift.  One of my college roommates is a serious sports fan (they had the most awesome baseball-themed wedding), so as soon as I received an invitation to her baby shower, I knew exactly which shirts I needed to find to refashion into gowns.

Both tees were adult smalls, which weren't big enough to cut the sleeves from, so I dug in my stash for coordinating colors.  The Brewer blue is a closer match to the printing in person than it looks in the photos.

I'm not quite as crazy about the yellow sleeves, but anything's cute on a baby, right?  This was the first time that I just hemmed the neckline with a zigzag rather than finishing it with ribbing.  Generous use of spray starch made it go smoothly -- much better than I'd anticipated.

The Brewer gown was pretty much the same as the ones I'd made previously.  I really like the look of the sleeves and neckline in this color combo.

My friend's husband is a Yankee fan, but he'll just have to deal.  ;) 

Mother/Daughter Emmeline Aprons

I'm currently avoiding cutting out more Halloween costume stuff, so am posting the final aprons as a semi-productive form of procrastination. 

I made my sister an Emmeline for her birthday back in the spring.  Well, technically her birthday is in the winter, but I didn't give her the apron until spring.  Not my proudest sisterly act.  It's a good thing she loves me anyway.

Tardiness aside,  I really, really loved how it turned out.

Side A

Side B

The one good thing about waiting so long to deliver the gift was that I got to give it to her in person.  This was especially advantageous because my niece LOVED it, and she had a birthday coming up, so her gift was a no-brainer.  She turned 11, so I made hers a bit smaller, but not a lot.  I think I cut the pieces 2" narrower and the skirt part of the apron 2" shorter.

Side A

Side B

You can't tell in the full-length photo, but the black and pink print has glitter in it -- perfect for a bling-loving tween.  The close-up also shows that despite declaring after the first time I made one of these that I would hand sew the final bits next time, I didn't.  I did discover that generous use of a fabric glue stick kept things lined up well enough for respectable machine-stitching.  Yay!

Okay, back to the costumes. I had hoped to get them pretty much finished this weekend, but am not even close.  After looking at all the things on our calendar this week, I don't think I'll get nearly as much done for KCW as I'd originally planned, either, but I'd like to get a couple of things made after the costumes are done. 

Butterick 4945 Apron II

Not the cleverest of titles for this post, huh?  At least it's descriptive. 

I made another Butterick 4945 view D this summer for our friends' mom's 60th birthday.  She's pretty awesome and threw herself a big party, because she knew her husband and sons wouldn't think of it.  Ha!  We've spend a lot of time at their house, especially before we had kids, and we adore her, so I was happy for a reason to make her something.  She's a fantastic hostess and great cook, so an apron seemed like a perfect fit.  Through a chain of texts (Ray -->  older son --> his dad, who we suspect just asked her), I found out her favorite colors and picked out this cute paisley print.

Oh, summer and sundresses, how I miss you both!

I made the same minor modifications as last time, mostly just adding a ton of topstitching.  I was quite happy with how this one turned out, especially since I sewed it up the morning of the party, as usual.  The flounce at the bottom is my favorite part.

Two more aprons still on the to-blog list!  I also need to finish up (er, start) Halloween costumes and get ready for the fall Kids Clothes Week next week.  Are you sewing along for this round of KCW?

"Fun" with Cuddle Fleece

I have such a love/hate relationship with cuddle fleece.  It's so awesomely soft and everyone loves it, but it's also such a pain to work with it.  It stretches like crazy and sheds ridiculously.  I can't even tell you how many times in the last couple of months that I've run out to pick a kid up from school only to realize I was still covered in fuzz!

I gave my oldest nephew an IOU for his main Christmas present, suggesting a t-shirt quilt or convertible mitts in his school colors as possibilities, but he immediately asked for a blanket made out of cuddle fleece like his brother's.  I had learned my lesson about the mitered corner version and just did a simple turned and topstiched finish this time.  It was tricky keeping it lined up --and the green was somehow 4" wider from selvage to selvage?! -- and it seemed to stretch out of shape badly when I sewed it, but after washing and drying, I think it popped back for the most part.

When I was at Joann's picking up the green and navy fabrics, I also spotted some in a cute popcorn print.  I had pretty much sworn off cuddle fleece by this point, but O's class fundraiser basket was going to be a movie night theme, which his teacher told me was inspired by our holiday gift. I emailed her a pic and asked what she thought about a throw blanket.  She loved the idea, so back I went.  I decided to try rounding the corners and binding the single layer with double-fold fleece binding this time.

I don't think this ended up any easier or cheaper, but I do like how it looks.  Well, except for the one corner that got stretched out and won't lay flat even after a trip through the washer.  Hopefully whoever wins the basket won't look at it too closely.  It's still nice and snuggly, and his teacher thought it was really cool.

Hopefully it will inspire some extra bids!

Swim Bag, Take Three

I think I'm going to keep gifting these until every kid I know has one.  It's a practical gift, but still kinda fun.  This bag was for a five-year-old who likes pink.  I made hers the same as my niece's, although I must have marked the drawstring openings wrong, because they were off a bit.  Still functional, fortunately, since I didn't realize it until it would have required serious tear-inducing seam ripping.

The birthday girl really likes pink, so my original plan was to have a pink zipper and drawstring, but Joann's didn't have any appropriate pink cord.  The PUL lining is very, very pink, though! Hopefully that pinked it up enough for her liking.

I love this print.  After making a play sling and a dress from it, I'm down to just a few scraps.  It's so girly and spring-like.  And I'm so very done with winter.  It appears that winter is not done with me, however.

In completely unrelated, but nonetheless awesome news, check out the envelope art on this pattern I won from What Nancy Drew Wore.  Pretty much the coolest ever.  I think I'm going to frame it to hang in my sewing room.

Handmade Holidays: All the Rest

So I had big plans for blogging the holiday crafting in a timely manner with nicely categorized posts. It started off well, but then I started reading the A Song of Ice and Fire series and more or less stopped being productive entirely.  A friend sent me the first four books a couple of months ago, and I smartly decided not to start them until after I'd finished my gift-making, but I probably should've held out until I'd both blogged everything and cleaned up my ginormous mess in the sewing room.  I haven't picked up the final book from the library yet, so I'm taking this opportunity to catch up in one big blog post.  I've made a good dent in the cleaning department today too, as I mentioned on Facebook.  Tomorrow, back to reading!

E's most time-consuming gift was a stroller blanket bag thing.  Technical term for sure.  We've been using a Papooska (which seems to be defunct now, unfortunately) on our walks to school and back, but it was getting too short for her.  I basically just enlarged the Papooska, adding about 4" to the width and a foot or so to the length, so it should work for several years.

Snug as a bug

The original had a nylon outer, but I used some lightweight Windpro (I think) stash fabric along with fleece lining like the Papooska.  It's heavier and seems warmer, but the one drawback is that it's considerably bulkier.

 

Like the original, I used reflective tape -- although I wish I'd either have moved it down a few inches or added another stripe -- and used buttonhole elastic to cinch it up.  The buttonhole elastic goes down along the sides below the buckles and through a channel on the top of the back part.

 

There's also some elastic that gathers the bottom and loosely gathers the upper between the buckles.  In hindsight, I'm not sure either of those is necessary.

Other than fabric selection and enlarging it, the only other change I made was to use adjustable buckles rather than snaps.

That's her owl bag peeking out from the bottom of her stroller.

It took waaaaay longer than I thought it would, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.  Since we walk to school pretty much every day -- unless it's below 0F with the windchill like today -- it will get a lot of use.

I made a couple of other blankets also.  For one of my nephews, this one is made from cuddle fleece with a Lego-esque applique, minus the yellow.  The font is Legothick.

I tried to make it the same way as the kindergarten quilts, but since that method requires precision, ironing, and a lot of marking, and cuddle fleece doesn't really allow for any of those things, it didn't go well.  One of the corners is extremely wonky.  Fortunately, my nephew loved how soft is is and wasn't bothered by its issues.

I made O a fleece blanket also.  His was Star Wars fleece on one side and blue cuddle fleece on the other, turned and topstitched, which worked much better with the super-stretchy cuddle fleece.

Christmas morning action shot

Also sneaking into the above picture was the Camp Half-Blood shirt (from the Percy Jackson books) I made for him with a freezer paper stencil.  I'll be sharing more about this one next month as part of Heron's Crafts Storybook Craft Project Series.

For my younger niece, a quick headband from Heather Bailey's Hooray for Headbands (opens a PDF).  This was a fun little pattern.  I think there will be more of these in my sewing future!

Ray participated in a Secret Santa exchange at work.  One of the days, he gave her this ribbon bookmark.  He chose the ribbon, beads and charms; I just  had to put it together.

I also made Ray some Green Pepper Glove-itts like O's in some blindingly bright lime fleece, thinking he might wear them running on really cold days.  He's been wearing them to work, though, instead.  Even better!

I also made the Green Pepper Tuck-Away Balaclava hat, without the balaclava part. I'm not sure if I miscalculated or the sizing is off, but it's way too big, so I still need to decide how I want to fix that one.

And that is finally it for Christmas sewing (okay, there's one more thing I still have to make for my oldest nephew, but that's it for the completed gifts).  I have a few things that need to be sewn up soon, but I probably won't blog again until I've finished A Dance with Dragons.  ;)