Small Things

I love making things for babies!  There's something about knowing that you're working on something that's going to be snuggled on a brand new little person that's extra special.


A close friend had a baby boy last week, so I knitted him a soaker sack -- which is the best. thing. ever. on a cloth diapered newborn overnight!  I can still picture E's scrawny little chicken legs all curled up in hers -- a hat from my own pattern, and sewed a matching shirt from the New Conceptions Baby Essentials pattern. 

I've been holding onto this yarn, beautiful hand-dyed BFL from Selah, for a couple of years, and I think this was the perfect project for it.


Then my friend posted on Facebook that she was looking for a newborn-sized Santa hat.  I had *just* been whining to her about how my projects were piling up because I had bronchitis and hadn't been up to doing much (Yes, I was complaining to the mom of a brand-new baby who also has a first-grader and a toddler.  I'm classy like that.), so I don't think she wanted to ask me to knit one, but I jumped at the chance, especially after seeing this inspiration pic.  Is that not the most adorable thing you have ever seen?


I think my version turned out pretty cute too, and she says it fits!

Tees for the Kids

O. and E. need more winter shirts, so I turned to my favorite pattern, the Patrick Curved Raglan, changing the sleeve to a solid long sleeve.

I didn't make any other changes to the boy's.  For my skinny girl, I used Bonnie's suggestion of tracing the 2T (a size smaller than her usual) in width and 3T in length.  The cherry print is a super-stretchy rib knit that was a pain to sew, and my lettuce hems leave something to be desired.  I should have either gotten some red Wooly Nylon to put in the loopers or just used white.  I think it's pretty cute on her, though!

A less than enthusiastic model

O. now has three PCRs in his current wardrobe, so I think I'd better choose a new pattern for his next shirt.  I'm thinking about the Charlie as a hoodie.  He has requested that the next shirt be plain, but I think I can get away with a lined hood....

Sarah Jane Knits Too

This poor scarf has been on my needles since November 18, 2009!  (Thanks to the awesomeness that is Ravelry, I know such specifics.)  I meant it to be a Christmas present last year, but I think I got a bit burnt out after knitting the family hats over Thanksgiving weekend.  I finally picked it up again a couple of weeks ago and finished it in a few evenings and a bit in the car this Thanksgiving. It's a feather and fan pattern, the Misty Garden from Scarf Style.  It was easy to memorize and a relatively quick knit, if I had, you know, actually worked on it ever!  The pattern would show better on a less textured yarn, but I really like how cozy the TLC Amore is, and I think the recipient will like the color. 

 

It has occurred to me that I should wait until after the holidays to post this, but I'm just so relieved to finally have it done!  Ha.

Quick Hair Bow

Not much sewing going on here lately, although there has been pattern tracing, so hopefully I'll have some new stuff to show in a few days!


Last weekend we had family pictures taken, and I realized that morning that E. didn't have a matching hair bow. The horror, right? A little Googling and hot-gluing later, and she was perfectly color-coordinated. And I couldn't believe I'd never made them for her before! Easy and fun. I used the "Boutique Hair Bow" tutorial here.

 Photo by KS Photography

Ruffled Cowl Tutorial

Last spring, I found this cute red plaid coat for a killer deal.  It wasn't until it was cold enough to wear it last week that I realized there wasn't a button under the collar.  Brrrr! My original plan was to knit a cowl, but I have a bunch of other projects lined up, so it'd be too long before I got to it.  Yesterday, while E. was playing, I grabbed some black fleece and came up with this:

Yes, those are Halloween decorations still up!

Want to make one too?  Here's how.


You'll need:
1/3 yard fleece
matching thread
elastic thread


Cut your fleece into a 12"x32" rectangle, with the greater stretch going lengthwise.  I wanted mine to fit fairly close to the neck, but if you want a more dramatic cowl, cut it several inches longer.


Wind your elastic thread by hand onto the bobbin,  if you don't have some on one already.  Ideally, if you're making a dark cowl, you'd want to use black elastic.  I, however, was going for instant gratification and didn't want to wait until I went to the store.  Use the matching thread for your top thread.

With your fabric right side up, sew a line of stitching lengthwise, 3" from the edge.  Preciseness isn't necessary for this project, so I eyeballed it, but you could also mark the distance on your machine with a piece of masking tape to use as a guide.  Make sure you backstitch at the beginning and end or tie the threads together.

 
Do the same thing 3" from the opposite edge.  It'll look like this:

Fold the piece in half, right sides together, and pin along the short edge.

Change your bobbin to regular thread.  Stitch.

Turn right side out, put it on, and keep your neck warm!

See how I stick my tongue in between my teeth when I smile?  My daughter does that too.  On her it's endearing.  On me, rather dorky. 


If you try the cowl, I'd love to hear how it works out for you!

Halloween Projects

     Whew!  Halloween sewing finally wrapped up at 3:30 pm today!  Okay, there are a few things that I said I'd finish up for subsequent years, but the essentials got done.

     O. asked to have a Halloween party with some of his kindergarten buddies this year, so there was some sewing involved, of course.  First up was this bunting.  I have a thing for buntings.  ;)  Isn't that painted-over outlet above the mantel a nice touch too?  We used to have it covered by a picture, but it fell off the wall at 12:30 am one night!  Lovely to be woken up to the sound of glass shattering...

     O. and I made this little ghostie.  No sewing involved, but lots and lots of coats of various types of starch and stiffening agents.  I think he took us two weeks on and off.  We rigged up a form like this to shape him.  We downloaded the cupcake toppers from here, and O. helped by cutting out half of them, then we hot-glued them to toothpicks.

     I also made goodie bags for the party guests. (We kept it small, and I'm so glad.  Four boys doesn't sound like many, but it one small house, it was quite chaotic!)  O. chose the fabrics and wrote out the tags, which I found here. 

 

     On to the costumes....  E. is still small enough that we get to pick for her.  Yay!  Her favorite toy by far is a bee, so it was the obvious choice.  I used the same Nasta Pinafore pattern from Otto 4/08 that I used when she was a ladybug her first Halloween, modified to just pull on instead of buttoning at the shoulders.  The stripes are satin ribbon, which I probably wouldn't use again.  I made a cone out of fleece for her stinger, and stuffed it lightly, in case she ended up sitting on it.  Had I thought ahead, I would've flared out the jumper some more, since she can't stand.  It rode up quite a bit when she sat on the floor.  I was originally going to make wire wings, but thought it would be too uncomfortable when she was in the stroller or rolling around on the floor, so I used fusible web and two layers of felt, then tacked them onto the jumper.  They're a little droopy, but get the idea across.  Her hat is from the OOP Butterick 4305, the same as I used when O. was Mike Wazowski, with pipe cleaners that have pompoms hot-glued on.

Her bee slippers are from one of my standby patterns, the Darling Diaper Minimocs, which is a freebie.  I think the pattern runs a bit narrow, even with E's narrow feet, so I played with it a bit to get a good fit.  My first pair was too long (I always forget that her feet are small for her age!) and I also didn't like the narrow satin ribbon I'd appliqued for stripes.  I shortened the foot of the second pair and cut a curved piece of fleece for the stripe.  Much better!  I think I may put them on her for everyday slippers too.

O. wanted to be a clone trooper, which I was not too psyched about.  I figured I could modify the pattern for the armor from his knight costume from last year, but when I was looking for a helmet on eBay, I found a great deal for the entire costume, so I bought it.  O. requested that the husband also be someone from Star Wars, so he picked Obi-Wan Kenobi.  I should have started this much, much sooner, but didn't, so many of the details are still missing.  I used Simplicity 5840, and had pretty good luck with it for a Big 4 pattern.  I made the cloak first.  Wrestling with nearly eight yards of a cheap cotton/poly bottomweight fabric was interesting, to say the least!  I didn't stray much from the pattern, other than that the binding of the neck seam didn't work for me as written.  I had to trip the seam allowance a lot, and the topstitched it down from the right side, since I didn't have the time or patience to slip-stitch it all.  The tunic and belt were made from a much nicer linen/rayon blend.  The only change I made to the tunic was to skip the hand-sewing again.  You were supposed to slip-stitch the neckband facing, but I serged the facing and just stitched in the ditch instead.  The pattern belt ties, but we wanted to be more authentic, so I made a rectangular belt with hook & loop in the back, then he wore his own belt on top.

Happy Halloween!

Monster Wreath

As soon as I saw Leigh's awesome monster wreath, I knew my five-year-old and I had to make one.  We spent a lot of time looking through this thread on Craftster, and O. wanted to to make one with "ALL the details" shown on the various wreaths.  Since I didn't want to spend our *entire* weekend on it, I managed to talk him down to eyes, horns and teeth, with the promise that we may add glasses sometime this week.  We bought some ping pong balls and Sharpies, dug some furry fabric from the stash, warmed up the hot glue gun and got to work.  I think he turned out pretty cute -- er, scary!

If we were to make another one -- and O. claims we shall be making a new one every Halloween -- I'd probably just sew it rather than hot glue it.  The edges look lumpy and it took longer than sewing anyway.  Furrier fabric would probably hide that too.  Or I could just pretend it's on purpose...