Sew Cute

I sewed this weekend. I had some fabric, a couple of cute pinterest patterns burning a hole in my pocket, and a three day weekend to boot! What better time to tackle some quick projects. Both turned out pretty well, so I thought I’d throw a picture or two up on the blog.

A gift for my dear friend K’s birthday! What girl doesn’t need a cute little zipper pouch. I tried this pattern out for Christmas for my sister too, and liked the results, so I thought i’d throw one together as a birthday gift as well. Hopefully she’ll like it.

Pattern can be found here.

Bow Pouch with the necessities! Happy Birthday pencil and swirly straw!

Next up came a pair of City Gym Shorts. Seriously, such a cute easy pattern! I think next time i’ll invest in some nicer fabric and add pockets, but I am looking forward to wearing these come warmer weather.

City Gym Shorts!

Look Mom, I sewed something for me!

Yay Bathroom Selfies!

That’s all for now folks. Happy Tuesday!

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Long Time

Hello! Long time no blog. What can I say, there are periods of life that are just too busy, not meant for blogging. 2015 was a blur of growing, grieving, aerial training, pole dancing, and curling up on the couch watching Doctor Who with my love. And yes, I said pole dancing. It is both incredibly difficult, and incredibly therapeutic. I am convinced that my aerial/pole training was responsible for the maintenance of my sanity the past year.

So why start blogging again you ask? Well there is this little project I want to document the process of. My dear friends wedding dress. Now I have always said I would never, never ever, never ever ever, make a friends wedding dress. But when Y called me up last fall and said “hey girl, i’m engaged, I would love if you could do this for me?”, something clicked. Perhaps it was her unwavering confidence in my skill and creativity, perhaps it was the opportunity to really throw myself into a design project again, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. There really is no set explanation, just the answer of yes, I would love to do this for you. Documenting it will allow me to look back so that should the situation ever arise again, I can look back and either say “sure, that was fun. I could do it again.”, or “ha! never again!”.

Either way, here we go. Sketches have been sketched, muslin has been bought, colors have been selected (yes, color). Stick around for the ride.

With that, I leave you with three pictures from the past year. Happy 2016!!

Big Buddah in Hong Kong

I call this photo, Holding my breath this hurts so bad…. wait look how strong my abs look.

Queen of Hearts and Kung Fury

I Did It!

And by it, I mean I made a baby gift that wasn’t a crocheted afghan. A blanket yes, but not an afghan. Nope, this time I tried my hand at a quilt. A quick cozy little blanket for a soon to be little boy. It has a few kinks (it was my first quilt after all), but I am pretty ok with how it turned out. If I ever make another quilt, there are definitely a few tools I will invest in (rotary mat), but this time it went ok with the basics I already owned.

  

Hopefully it provides many a night of good snuggles!

Happy Tuesday!

Baby Afghan…. again

I made another baby afghan. Shocking I know. This one was started about 4 months ago, and I finished it just in time! My boss and her husband have been going through the adoption process, and they finally got their sweet little miss about a week ago. I finished the afghan only a few days before they found out. Good timing indeed!

Being as we are both textile designers, I selected this particular crochet pattern because it resembles a woven basketweave exactly. I didn’t use an exact pattern, as I did with other baby blankets, but used a youtube video instead. Find the video here. I used this video to understand the basics of the stitch, and then came up with the dimensions I wanted the blanket to meet. Once I finished the body of the blanket, I completed it by doing a bobble stitch around the edge.

I was pretty pleased with the end result, considering it was my first time not using a pattern. Take a gander!

 

I used the Bernat softie yarn, in a light variegated blue. Yes, I used blue for a girl. I cannot stand gender stereotyping colors, so I just picked a nice snuggly yarn. I hope she likes it. Happy Tuesday!

Baby Gifts for a Baby Shower

I helped throw a baby shower for a dear friend this last Saturday. This particular friend has been the recipient of many a homemade gift from me. I made her bridal shower gift, her wedding gift, and now a gift for her first baby. I guess she’s just lucky ;)…. to get all my experiments. This time I used another pattern from my Terry Kimbrough book and Bernat Softee Yarn again. I must admit, all the patterns in this book are simply lovely, and I’ve already picked out the next one I want to make for some lucky recipient.

You can see the first blanket I made from this book here:

https://justplainshenanigans.wordpress.com/2013/07/21/baby-blanket-makin/

Take a gander. Thoughts?

This patterns was definitely trickier than the first I tackled, but I liked the lacy edging effect that it had.

All wrapped up and ready to go! I never have bows or ribbon, so I use extra yarn to make pom pom bows.

Dear A and I with the gifty. She looks great, and only has a few weeks left to go. I can’t wait to meet her little!

Happy Tuesday Y’all!

Works in Progress

I’m in the middle of a lot of projects….. None are close to complete. Hopefully i’ll finish all of these soon. It is more likely that i’ll finish one or two soon, and the others will get pushed aside when I get annoyed with them, only to be un-earthed in a year or two to finally be completed.  That seems to be my process.

Thought I’d share a few in the works photos.

I started cutting out a new dress pattern. Finally making something for myself, and hopefully it will be ready for springs warmer and sunnier weather.

This project MUST be completed in two weeks. It’s another baby afghan from a Terry Kimbrough pattern book, and it’s a gift for a baby shower I’m hosting in two weeks. I gotta get my fingers in gear and get hookin (ha)!

This is an older project that I just pulled out of the woodworks. I forgot how much I love working with gouache paint. I was thinking this print might be fun to turn into a pattern for fabric. Thoughts?

That’s all for now. Everything else is in various states of beginnings. If only I could stay home and craft all day. Wishful thinking. Happy Tuesday!

Soft Blue Beret

This winter, I have been in dire need of a new cozy hat. Not wanting to buy one in store (all the ones I liked were way to expensive), I started scouring the internet for patterns that looked appealing. I came across this little beauty, and decided to give it a whirl.

It turned out pretty well with just a few minor adjustments. You never know with internet finds, as I have had some real doozy’s of end results on projects. This one however wasn’t a catastrophe, so I thought I’d share it with you!

I used the Lion Brand Alpine Wool yarn, and though a little scratchy, the color and ease of use make up for it.

Gauge: 8dc*10rows = 10*10cm
I used 8.00 mm hook
At the end of each round join with a sl st in 3rd ch of beg. ch 3.

Beret:
Ch 3, join with sl st to form ring.

Rnd 1: ch 3 (count as dc), make 11 dc in ring.(12 dc)

Rnd 2: ch 3, 2 dc in each dc.(24 dc)

Rnd 3: ch 3, 2 dc in the same joining dc,*ch 2, skip 1 ch, 3 dc in next dc*, repeat from * around, ending with ch 2 and joining to first dc group.(12 dc group)

Rnd 4: ch 3, turn, 2 dc in next ch 2 space,*ch 2, 3 dc in next ch 2 space*, repeat from * around, ending with ch 2 and joining to first dc group.(12 dc group)

Rnd 5: repeat Rnd 4.

Rnd 6: ch 3, 1 dc in each next 2 dc,*1 dc in next ch 2 space, 3 dc in next 3 dc*, repeat from * around ending with 1 dc in last ch 2 space and joining to first dc.

Rnd 7: ch 3, 3 dc, dc2tog.,*4 dc, dc2tog.*, repeat from * around, joining to beg. ch3.

Rnd 8: ch 3, 2 dc, dc2tog.,*3 dc, dc2tog.*, repeat from * around, joining to beg. ch3

Rnd 9: sc around, join with sl st to last sc

Rnd 10: sc around, join with a sl st to last sc

Rnd 11: sl st around edge to last sc

Fasten off and weave in all ends

Here she is, all fancy on Millie!

And on me, all ready to brave the not so cold Seattle.

In retrospect, I think I would make it a little bigger. I have thick thick hair and a large head, and the hat didn’t quite have the slouchy affect I wanted in the back. Alas, I still like it, and I’ll still wear it.

Can you tell I like black?

I took my hat out for a jaunt around Point Defiance Zoo, for the last night of Zoo Lights. It’s a fun little walk around, and perfect for a chilly winter night with a cup of coco in hand.

I hope your all staying warm in this chilly start to the new year!

Baby Blanket Makin’

One of my dearest friends from childhood had a lovely little girl a few months ago. A bit delayed, as I don’t think I started the project until about two weeks before her due date, but I finally completed the baby gift and sent it off. Now that they have the afghan, I thought I would post a few photos of the completed project.

I used a pattern #2 Snuggle Time, from Terry Kimbrough’s Baby Afghan book. It was my first time using a baby yarn, and I love, love, loved, the Bernat Softee baby yarn in lilac.

http://www.bernat.com/product.php?LGC=softeebaby

I think it turned out quite nice and i’m thrilled to have another afghan under my belt.

Any other afghan books you would suggest?

Sassy Aprons

Who doesn’t need a saucy little apron hanging in their kitchen? I whipped this one up for a friend to take as a gift to a bachelorette party. Thought I’d share a few pictures of Eloise all dressed up to bake.

Flower Power Pillows

I LOVE making gifts for people! Always have, always will. It’s always been a matter of if people want a homemade gift though, so I usually resort to buying them. Needless to say, I was delighted when I asked my friend what she wanted for her birthday, and she asked me to make her a nice throw pillow. After discussing a few pattern ideas and looking at some inspiration pictures, we settled on a really beautiful flower concept.

Wanting to make sure the gift still had an element of surprise, I chose the fabric and color scheme by myself. I chose a heavier weight cotton poplin and started by doing an hombre in orange RIT dye. (Please forgive the poor picture quality, as all of these were taken in the evening with my iphone.)

After cutting out pieces for the front and back of the pillow, I made a small template of what I wanted the petals to look like in varying sizes. These I then used to cut out my petal pieces, with the big pattern pieces in the darker sections, and the smallest in the lightest fabric sections.

I cut out a plethora of petals, stitched two pieces of each together, and left the flat end open to turn. Next I used my serger with a safety stitch, but i’m sure that a standard sewing machine would work just fine! After stitching, turning and pressing each petal, I serged the openings closed, and worked on my layout.

After finalizing my layout, I stitched each petal down, and attached the front of the pillow sham to the back. I had to hand stitch the center rossette.

Voila!!

I also made a small accompanying pillow.

I think they turned out pretty cute for my first go around with throw pillows. Now I just need to make a few for my own apartment.